Hoenikker11 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Computers to mark English essays

Submitted by

digitig

on Friday September 25, 2009 @06:05AM

digitig writes: "According to The Guardian newspaper, computers are to be used in the UK to mark English examination essays. According to the article, "Pearson, the American-based parent company of Edexcel, is to use computers to "read" and assess essays for international English tests in a move that has fuelled speculation that GCSEs and A-levels will be next". Can computers now understand all the subtle nuances of language, or are people going to have to learn an especially bland form of English to pass exams?"

Turn Your iPhone Into a Web Server 158

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday May 15, 2009 @01:52PM from the because-you-can dept.

miller60 writes "A Japanese company called Freebit has released ServersMan, an app that turns the iPhone into a web server. It debuted in Japan in February, has now been launched in the US, and is being touted as a 'Personal Data Center.' Freebit also has a video with additional information on server-enabling your iPhone. 'Once the app is installed, PCs on the internet can access the iPhone to upload or download files through a browser or they can use the webDAV protocol. If the PC and the iPhone are on the same network, the PC can connect directly. If they are on separate networks, then FreeBit's VPN software will engage the connection.'"

Comment Computational Journalism (Score 1) 91

by Hoenikker11 on Monday January 05, 2009 @01:41PM (#26331979) Attached to: Data Mining Rescues Investigative Journalism

Computational Journalism is much broader than just data-mining. At Georgia Tech I taught courses in the area in 2007 and 2008 which covered everything from mobile newsgathering, to information visualization, automatic content analysis, social computing, storytelling and authorship, aggregation, summarization, information mashups, and consumption interfaces. The bigger question is: how can computation help in every aspect of journalism: gathering, sensemaking, authoring, and dissemination, while still maintaining the values and ethics of good journalism. Anyone interested in delving deeper into this should watch the videos from the Symposium on Computation and Journalism that we organized at Georgia Tech in 2008.

Comment Audio Transcription (Score 1) 157

by Hoenikker11 on Tuesday December 09, 2008 @01:23PM (#26048447) Attached to: Audio CAPTCHAs Cracked; ReCAPTCHA Remains Strong

Another effort at getting humans to transcribe snippets of audio (via a game) is Audio Puzzler. It's somewhat similar in spirit to the audio reCAPTCHAs, but actually forms a puzzle game where you have to connect the snippets of transcribed audio to complete the puzzle. This also makes it somewhat easier since you have some context for understanding the spoken words. The problem with the audio reCAPTCHA system now is that words may be truncated and with a lack of context it's difficult to understand partial words or proper nouns. They are HARD to solve (even for humans).

Qutrits Bring Quantum Computers Closer 66

Posted by kdawson on Friday April 04, 2008 @11:46AM from the shortcut-through-higher-dimensions dept.

KentuckyFC writes "To do anything useful with quantum logic gates, you need dozens to hundreds of them, all joined together. And because of various errors and problems that creep in, that's more or less impossible with today's technology. Now an Australian group has built and tested logic gates that convert qubits into qutrits (three-level quantum states) before processing and then convert them back again. That makes them far more powerful. The group says that a quantum computer that might require 50 conventional quantum logic gates can now be built with just 9 of the new gates. What's more, the gates process photons using nothing more than standard linear optical components (abstract on the physics arxiv)."

OpenSSH Releases Version 5.0 41

Posted by kdawson on Friday April 04, 2008 @11:16AM from the latest-bits dept.

os2man lets us know that OpenSSH version 5.0 has been released. The mirrors are linked from the top page. "OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell) is a set of computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the ssh protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security. OpenSSH is available for almost any Operating System."

Neuromarketers Pick the Brains of Consumers 166

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday April 03, 2008 @11:04PM from the ask-me-no-questions-and-i'll-tell-you-no-lies dept.

Pickens points out a story at The Guardian about the development of neuromarketing, the method by which advertisers track signals inside the brain to roughly extrapolate how a consumer reacts to products and advertisements. We've discussed this technique in the past, but now consulting firms are appearing who have begun to use this research to increase the effectiveness of their marketing practices. The author also notes a paper which elaborates on the scientific details (PDF). "At McLean Hospital, a prestigious psychiatric institution run by Harvard University, an advertising agency recently sponsored an experiment in which the brains of half-a-dozen young whiskey drinkers were scanned. The goal, according to a report in Business Week, was 'to gauge the emotional power of various images, including college kids drinking cocktails on spring break, twentysomethings with flasks around a campfire, and older guys at a swanky bar'. The results were used to fine-tune an ad campaign for the maker of Jack Daniels."

New Service Maps Speed Traps By Cell Phone 404

Posted by kdawson on Thursday April 03, 2008 @01:31PM from the i-didn't-do-it-nobody-saw-me-you-can't-prove-anything dept.

esocid writes "In a modern equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn other motorists of police speed traps, you can now warn fellow drivers with a cell phone or personal digital assistant about speed traps, red-light cameras, and other threats to ticket-free driving. And as you approach a known threat, you'll get an audio alert on your mobile device. The developer of Trapster, Pete Tenereillo, said the system, which requires punching in a few keys such as '#1' to submit information to Trapster's database, should comply with laws banning talking on cell phones. The free service can automatically detect location using mobile devices' GPS capabilities or tap their Wi-Fi and get location from a database run by Skyhook Wireless. Police officials that Tenereillo has talked to haven't complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down."

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