rthomanek - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Studying Abroad, or studying Computer Science? (Score 1) 386

by rthomanek on Monday December 29, 2008 @06:08AM (#26256133) Attached to: Study Abroad For Computer Science Majors?

I'm (hopefully) going to be in a similar situation as you in a year. [...] Nothing in the english/spanish world has the same opportunities in CS as the US, with few exceptions.

So let me summarize:

you haven't actually been anywhere outside the US (assumption, yes, but most likely a valid one), in particular you did not *study* in Europe (for example),
yet you say that the "opportunities in US" are unparalleled.
given this last statement, I can safely say you also did not bother to compare (1) the curricula of some US/ other (English, let's say) universities, (2) career chances after finishing some specific non-US universities.

This is, yes... reasonable. And so non-surprising.

Comment Re:data/voice usage balancing (Score 1) 570

by rthomanek on Monday December 29, 2008 @05:59AM (#26256107) Attached to: What Carriers Don't Want You To Know About Texting

That's the reason for the pricing model. SMS has to be priced high enough to make sure its use doesn't grow faster than voice.

No, that's not true. The sole reason for SMS prices is the economy, i.e. how much the carriers think they can charge the users. Since SMS usage is not falling (it's growing, actually), they see no reason for lowering the prices.

Journal Journal: XML Predictions

Journal by DrEasy on Monday February 26, 2007 @04:36AM

This article outlines interesting new developments regarding XML. Check out in particular the blurbs on XProc, APP, XQuery.

Submission + - Microsoft Commits Auditory Mayhem

Submitted by

Hell Square Residents Association

on Monday February 26, 2007 @03:47AM

Hell Square Residents Association writes: "A Zune branded SUV — promoting Microsoft's Zune media player — rolled through a densely populated (and trendy) residential area in Manhattan. They proceeded to pump music from a competition grade car stereo into the neighborhood, while parked in front of a bar at 3AM. The incident was caught on camera. Residents of the area are outraged and start a website. The residents are organizing and calling for restitution from Microsoft for the massive disturbance of peace. They even suggest playing loud music at Microsoft's HQ during a work day. Thank you for your help in spreading the story."

Submission + - eLibrary - an ebooks collection manager

Submitted by

Allad

on Monday February 26, 2007 @03:23AM

Allad writes: "Hi. I just found this software. It is called eLibrary. It is an application meant to help you organize your ebooks collection. If, like me, you prefer electronic versions of books and you have a bunch of them, then you got to check this out. It does it all : ebooks indexing, table of content retrieval, ebook metadata and cover image downloading... And last but not least it's a freeware. You can get it on this website : http://www.ycsoft.org Enjoy"

Submission + - Dreamhost down nearly 24 hours, thousands affected

Submitted by

dgtlmoon

on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:54AM

dgtlmoon writes: "Following a planned power outage that went for an unplanned amount of time due to some burnt out cables discovered during the maintainence dreamhost.com hosted websites are down, some estimates are between 100,000 and 250,000 domains are affected, further-more when the power came back on they found a bunch of core routers to be dead and are having difficulty resuming normal operations, this is issue is just about to tick over to 24 hours open."

Submission + - What Makes For Good Bank Security?

Submitted by on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:48AM

An anonymous reader writes: West Coast Bank recently enacted a new set of security measures to their login system augment their previous username & password only system. The new enhanced login security system(PDF) uses a scheme of cookies to identify known computers, and additional personality questions such as asking users about their favorite food in order to identify users coming from unknown computers. Upon first glance this seems to be an effectively trivial system that can be defeated by stealing cookies or personality answers, while still making the system harder to use for flaky customers such as myself that don't keep consistent answers to personality questions. However as I don't belong to any other banks I have no idea of how this compares to how other banks handle their security. Compared to other banks, is this system any good or is my bank just giving me the flim-flam on security in lieu of a real security system?

Award-Winning Ad Taken Off Air In Australia 471

Posted by kdawson on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:44AM from the nanny-state dept.

bol_kernal writes "An award-winning advertisement on Australian TV for the new Hyundai 4WD has been pulled from being broadcast after stations received 80 complaints from concerned parents. The ad consists of a small child, age around 2 years, cruising down the road, window down, arm out the window, in his new Hyundai 4WD. He sees a girl of the same age standing on the side of the road, pulls over picks her up, and they go to the beach together. All in all it's cute, funny, and very well done. The ad aired late in the evening (8:30 pm or later), but it was pulled due to concern from parents about the copycat risk. What I want to know is, where has the responsibility of parents gone? Is the world becoming so serious — or so frightened — that fantasy is no longer allowed?"

Feed Which Videos Are Protected? Lawmakers Get a Lesson (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:12AM

Members of Congress are learning the complexities of copyright law in the wide world of blogging and video clips.

Feed Software Tool of Pirates Gets Work in Hollywood (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:12AM

Hollywood studios are going into business with one of their biggest tormentors: the peer-to-peer pioneer BitTorrent.

Feed Design on Diagonal Path in Pursuit of a Faster Chip (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Monday February 26, 2007 @02:12AM

A maker of software tools has made it possible to route lines diagonally for semiconductor chips, which will add to the speed, efficiency and performance of a generation of smaller chips.

Submission + - Energy Firm to Cancel new Coal-Fired Plants

Submitted by evil agent on Monday February 26, 2007 @01:55AM

evil agent writes: From the Washington Post article:

TXU, the largest energy provider in Texas, agreed last night to a $45 billion buyout that would not only be the largest private-equity deal in history but would also feature an unusual twist: The buyers have promised environmental groups they would cancel a slew of coal-fired power plants on the firm's drawing boards.

Submission + - The Online Dictionary is Reborn with Word Source.

Submitted by

Nich

on Monday February 26, 2007 @01:44AM

Nich writes: "Word Source aims to be a panacea (look it up — www.word.sc/panacea) for people who look up words frequently and are tired of the cumbersome, advertisement-laden interfaces on other dictionary websites. The home page is slick, reminiscent of Google, proudly proclaims that "the online dictionary is reborn," and encourages you to "never leave your address bar," by using a URL to look up words. For example, to look up "television," you would simply point your browser at word.sc/television and presto — defined. While you're there, you can explore "the social dictionary" and view/share photos of your favorite words, "rate" them, and "tag" words based on your experience with them, amongst other things."

Submission + - Bram Cohen Interview on new Distribution Network

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26, 2007 @01:42AM

An anonymous reader writes: BitTorrent has announced the release of their new "BitTorrent Entertainment Network." What does Bram Cohen, founder and CEO of BitTorrent, Inc. have to say about all this? In an interview with Slyck.com, Bram discusses DRM, Mark Cuban, and a lot more.

Submission + - Youtube Claims DMCA Covers Public Events

Submitted by

simon

on Monday February 26, 2007 @01:12AM

simon writes: "Does the DMCA prevent you from recording public events? Apparently so, as one West Australian Citizen Journalist find out last week when YouTube removed his public recordings of the Red Bull Air Race at the request of IMG Media. From the article:

...it raises a much larger issue with respect to copyright. Are IMG Media, the people that organize the Red Bull Air Race, suggesting that they own the copyright to all free public displays of the Red Bull Air Race? What type of precedent would that set?

"

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