Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Programming

Submission + - Project estimation & planning: Art or Science?

Submitted by cyberianpan
cyberianpan writes: I've been working some time now in various roles on "IT projects". Some managers seem to buy into the idea that project plans are totally true & not in fact guestimate forecasts. Some developer team leads will handup their sizing estimations with a level of certainty attached as though they were science.

I notice that Google doesn't require detailed project plans, instead monitoring progress at short intervals. In the business world something between a waterfall (eg Prince) or Agile (eg DSDM) is used. However surveys indicate that more than 50% of all projects are considered failures.

Of course at least a clear high level scope can be agreed as concrete but beyond this I'm not sure what can be achieved. Obviously for cost & release schedule reasons some form of planning needs to be done but how real is it? Art or Science ? What's been your experience ?
Power

Submission + - Peak Coal in 15 years?

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "Richard Heinberg has written an opinion at Energy Bulletin on two European studies which look at available data on proven coal reserves and consumption patterns which conclude the the 155 year figure for coal use is badly over estimated. Apparently, growth of coal use in China implies peak production there in 5 to 15 years while the US is already in decline in terms of energy extraction though not yet in terms of volume extraction owing to substitution of lower quality coal.

Heinberg discusses a number of implications including for climate change, suggesting that sequestration efforts may be seen as too expensive as coal prices begin to rise. Another idea is that

There is no "business-as-usual" option, even ignoring environmental impacts, given the resource constraints. Nations that are currently dependent on coal — China and the US especially — would be wise to begin reducing consumption now, not only in the interests of climate protection, but also to reduce societal vulnerability arising from dependence on a resource that will soon become more scarce and expensive.
Very few replacement technologies are scalable on this kind of time-scale: bio-fuels are already impacting food prices while the nuclear industry faces permiting, construction and training bottlenecks. Even solar faces a two year energy investment cost despite rapid monetary cost reductions, and , together with wind faces intermittancy issues. This news is unsettling and merits further consideration."
Movies

Submission + - Finnish court rules CSS protection "ineffecti

Submitted by TimoP
TimoP writes: http://www.turre.com/blog/?p=102 Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs "ineffective"

In an unanimous decision released today, Helsinki District Court ruled that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is "ineffective". The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law amendments that ban the circumvention of "effective technological measures". The legislation is based on EU Copyright Directive from 2001. According to both Finnish copyright law and the underlying directive, only such protection measure is effective, "which achieves the protection objective." ...
Censorship

Submission + - Thai land bullying Google

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: First Thailand blocked YouTube (and other video sites). They then accused Google of bullying small counties, but caving to chinas will. Next it was to sue Google in America, then criminal charges in Thailand. Well now the unelected government of Thailand has passed legistration that would make useing proxies and other IP hiding system illegal. Oh but wait after that now they are demanding YouTube hand over IP addresses of those who uploaded the clips the unelected government deems inappropriate. http://www.bangkokpost.com/060507_News/06May2007_n ews06.php http://www.bangkokpost.com/100507_News/10May2007_n ews06.php http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.p hp?id=118677
AMD

Submission + - AMD will deliver open graphics drivers

Submitted by
PenisLands
PenisLands writes: "AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers for linux, according to a blog on techtarget.com. From the article:
"AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers, said Henri Richard just a few minutes ago, and the audience at the opening keynote of the Red Hat Summit broke into applause and cheers. Richard, AMD's executive vice president of sales and marketing, promised: "I'm here to commit to you that it's going to get done." He also promised that AMD is "going to be very proactive in changing way we interface with the Linux community."""
Space

Submission + - Canada Has Lower Gravity

Submitted by vparkash
vparkash writes: Its official. Canadians weigh lesser than their American neighbors! The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite system has determined that the Earth's gravitational field over Canada, especially near the Hudson Bay area is lesser than surrounding areas. GRACE is a joint venture between NASA and German Aerospace Center. The system comprises two satellites in LEO, that use a microwave altimeter to detect tiny fluctuations in the earth's gravity with a resolution of around a micron
Education

Submission + - All of Earth's species to be cataloged on Web

Submitted by
Matt
Matt writes: "In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone.

The effort, called the Encyclopedia of Life, will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. Its first pages of information will be shown Wednesday in Washington where the massive effort is being announced by some of the world's leading institutions. The project will take about 10 years to finish."
Robotics

Submission + - Robots that guess what's around the corner

Submitted by space_donkey
space_donkey writes: NewScientistTech has a story about robots that make carefully-measured guesses about what might be around the next corner. The researchers behind the project say this mimics the way humans build 'mental maps' of an area, by making predictions based on what they have already seen. The approach could help robots find their way around large unfamiliar and repetitive indoor spaces.
Google

Submission + - Robert Love Joins Google

Submitted by
No Love for Novell?
No Love for Novell? writes: "Although it doesn't resolve all the speculation about whether Robert Love left Novell due to the Microsoft deal, we now know where he's going. Mr. Love has announced that he will be joining Google's Open Source Program Office, which works on such things as Google's Summer of Code. Thus far, there have been no new reports of flying chairs in Redmond, WA, so I, for one, wish him well in his new venture."
Security

Submission + - 22000 SSN's stolen from Univ. of Missouri Database

Submitted by Anonymous UM Employee
Anonymous UM Employee writes: 22000 records containing Social Security numbers have been stolen from a database at the University of Missouri. The records affected were of employees employed at any UM campus in 2004 and who had attended the University of Missouri — Columbia as students at any time before that. The compromised database was one used by IT services for tracking help desk quality. See the Press Release or the IT Services QA page for more details. This was the letter that I received:
Dear University of Missouri Employee:
A University of Missouri database was breached beginning May 3, compromising more than 22,000 names and social security numbers. Those affected include employees of any campus within the UM system during calendar year 2004 who were also current or former students at the Columbia campus.
Of those employees affected, nearly 9,000 are still employed by the University of Missouri. These employees will receive an individual e-mail outlining the specifics of the incident along with detailed instructions about how to proceed. Emails to affected employees have already been sent. If you did not already receive a separate email, you are not one of the employees affected and no further action is required.
The University of Missouri is committed to protecting the confidentiality of all employee information. A recent project has been in progress to remove social security numbers from university databases in an effort to avoid such breaches of confidentiality. As this extensive process continues, please be advised the university is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of its data.
For more information about the security breach, please access the Computer Security Web page that includes a question-and-answer section regarding the event at http://doit.missouri.edu/computersecurity.
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Percent of Spam Content in Slashdot RSS Firehose

Submitted by
bubblah
bubblah writes: "We signed up for the Slashdot fire hose about a week or so back and it is bringing to mind the vast amount of things submitted to Slashdot that just don't make sense. There is a large amount of spam, fly by night, ooh look at me, religious items that are submitted, and stand little chance of making it into the system. Story located here http://techwag.com/index.php/2007/05/07/rss-feed-o verload-the-slashdot-fire-hose/"
Movies

Submission + - Holllywood Trying to Starve Canadian Pirates

Submitted by
KenAndCorey
KenAndCorey writes: "From an article on the CTV News web site, Warner Brothers has decided it won't be giving Canadians previews of its summer blockbusters.

Citing a failure by the government of Canada to make illegal the recording of movies directly from the screen by camcorder, the studio will not issue advance screenings of such audience pleasers like "Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix" and "Ocean's 13."
This is total crap, as we already know that the Canadian Movie Piracy Claim is Mostly Fiction. But as is the norm in Canada, we try to make it sound like it's not as bad as it may first appear. Douglas Frith of the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association says,

We're not looking at the individuals who go in for fun to camcord a film in a theatre. It's organized crime. People are going in, they get paid between $5,000 to $7,000 for a very good copy of a film."
Well, not yet, anyway."
Nintendo

Submission + - "I Could Make Halo" - Shigeru Miyamoto

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that while he could produce a game similar to Halo, he would much rather focus his efforts creating something that challenges gamers preconceptions. "I could make Halo," Miyamoto said, adding, "It's not that I couldn't design that game. It's just that I choose not to." "One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design," he continued. "I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play.""

Slashdot Top Deals

As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try making it round this time. - Mike Dennison

Close