Joseph OConnor - Slashdot User

Submission + - Chrome users are best with numbers, IE users worst (calcudoku.org)

Submitted by dr_blurb on Saturday March 03, 2012 @05:49AM

dr_blurb writes: After reading about last year's hoax report "Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage" I realized I was in fact already running a real live experiment measuring number skills: a site were you can solve Calcudoku number puzzles.

I analyzed two years' worth of data, consisting of over 1 million solved puzzles. This included puzzles solved "against the clock", of three different sizes. For each size, Chrome users were the fastest solvers, Firefox users came second, and IE users were the slowest. The number of abandoned puzzles (started but never finished) was also significantly higher for IE users. Analysis shows that the differences are statistically significant: in other words, they did not happen by chance.

I put up more details and some graphs, and also wrote a paper about it.

Submission + - New Weapon Against Copper Thieves 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens writes

on Sunday January 15, 2012 @01:21PM

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Pervasive thefts of copper wire from under the streets of Fresno, California have prompted the city to seal thousands of its manhole covers with concrete and in Picher, Oklahoma, someone felled the town’s utility poles with chain saws, allowing thieves to abscond with 3,000 feet of wire while causing a blackout as the theft of copper cables in costs US companies $60 million a year and the FBI says it considers theft of copper wire to be a threat to the nation’s baseline ability to function. But now PC World reports that a US company has developed develop a new cable design that removes almost all the copper from cables in a bid to deter metal thieves. Unlike conventional cables made from solid copper, the GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel Cable consists of a steel core bonded to a copper outer casing, forming an equally effective but far less valuable cable by exploiting the corrosion-resistance of copper with the conductive properties of steel. "Companies trying to protect their copper infrastructure have been going to extreme measures to deter theft, many of which are neither successful nor cost effective," says CommScope vice president, Doug Wells. "Despite efforts like these, thieves continue to steal copper because of its rising value. The result is costly damage to networks and growing service disruptions." The GroundSmart Copper Clad Steel cable is the latest technical solution to the problem of copper theft which has included alternatives like cable etching to aid tracing of stolen metal and using chemicals that leave stains detectable under ultra-violet light. However the Copper Clad Steel strikes at the root of the problem by making the cable less susceptible to theft by both increasing the resistance to cutting and drastically decreasing the scrap value."

Submission + - Patent Absurdity - The movie (swpat.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy on Tuesday April 20, 2010 @05:55AM

Taco Cowboy writes: Patent Absurdity explores the case of software patents and the history of judicial activism that led to their rise, and the harm being done to software developers and the wider economy.

The movie is based on a series of interviews conducted during the Supreme Court's review of in re Bilski ââ a case that could have profound implications for the patenting of software. The Court's decision is due soon,

You can watch the movie online or download it, or both, @ http://patentabsurdity.com/

You can even make your own comment(s) to the producer of the movie as well, @ http://news.swpat.org/2010/04/patent-absurdity/

Slashdot Top Deals