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Science

'Discovery of the Century': Mysterious Void Discovered In Egypt's Great Pyramid (nationalgeographic.com) 299

New submitter klgds writes: The cavity is the first major inner structure discovered in the pyramid since the 1800s. Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza -- one of the wonders of the ancient world, and a dazzling feat of architectural genius -- contains a hidden void at least a hundred feet long, scientists said. The space's dimensions resemble those of the pyramid's Grand Gallery, the 153-foot-long, 26-foot-tall corridor that leads to the burial chamber of Khufu, the pharaoh for whom the pyramid was built. However, it remains unclear what lies within the space, what purpose it served, or if it's one or multiple spaces. The void is the first large inner structure discovered within the 4,500-year-old pyramid since the 1800s -- a find made possible by recent advances in high-energy particle physics. The results were published in the journal Nature. "This is definitely the discovery of the century," says archaeologist and Egyptologist Yukinori Kawae, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. "There have been many hypotheses about the pyramid, but no one even imagined that such a big void is located above the Grand Gallery."

Comment Re:I'm ok with that (Score 1) 73

Exactly, this condition means you cannot use your printer. Eventually, I found I had about 20 seconds from power-on before the forcible power off. It turns out this is just enough time to get into the configuration menu and initiate a factory reset. After the configuration is clear, the printer behaves once again. >>Do people really need to print to their printer when they are outside their LAN? I didn't need to print outside my LAN, but I did use the feature to allow the kids' chromebooks access to the printer. Not really worth it in the end.
United States

F.C.C., In Net Neutrality Turnaround, Plans To Allow Fast Lane 410

Dega704 (1454673) writes in with news of the latest FCC plan which seems to put another dagger in the heart of net neutrality. "The Federal Communications Commission will propose new rules that allow Internet service providers to offer a faster lane through which to send video and other content to consumers, as long as a content company is willing to pay for it, according to people briefed on the proposals. The proposed rules are a complete turnaround for the F.C.C. on the subject of so-called net neutrality, the principle that Internet users should have equal ability to see any content they choose, and that no content providers should be discriminated against in providing their offerings to consumers."
Apache

Submission + - IBM Bequeaths Symphony Code To Apache (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "Hoping to further sharpen OpenOffice's competitive viability against Microsoft Office, IBM is donating the code of its Symphony open source office suite to the nonprofit Apache Software Foundation. Apache could fold this code into its own open source office suite OpenOffice, on which Symphony was based. In June, Oracle donated the OpenOffice suite to Apache. 'Prior to Apache's entry, there really hasn't been enough innovation in this area over the past 10 years," said Kevin Cavanaugh, an IBM vice president. 'It's been constrained because we haven't had a true open source community with a mature governance model.'"
Technology

Submission + - Sub-centimeter positioning coming to mobile phones (gigaom.com)

Oooskar writes: SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), a technique invented by NASA, defines the concept of building a 3D-map of the environment and simultaneously computing the position within it. Based on SLAM, Swedish startup 13th Lab has implemented real-time sub-centimeter local 3D-positioning by using only the sensors, most importantly the camera, already present in most mobile devices (demo video). The technology will be made available as a software platform for developers (sign up for beta).

A first application demonstrating the technology has just been released for the iPad2. The technology should be available on other devices with similar computational power soon.

Programming

Ask Slashdot: Web Site Editing Software For the Long Haul? 545

MouseR writes "It seems we can't rely on software, in particular Web site editing software, to exist for the long haul. Every time I rely on something, it takes only a couple of years before it gets trashed. I have used GoLive's CyberStudio before it got engulfed as GoLive from Adobe. Both got trashed. I eventually used Apple's .Mac HomePage. It got trashed and replaced with iWeb. I then used iWeb, hosted on MobileMe, and Apple just killed it again, along with the hosting. So, as I'm preparing to move my stuff on various web sites, onto my own hosting server (outsourced), I'm wondering what kind of visual web site editor(s) I could use, for the long haul. I'm rather sick of changing tools every other year and as a software developer, would rather spend my time editing my web site rather than code it. Any suggestions?"
Robotics

How Do People Respond To Being Touched By a Robot? 137

An anonymous reader writes "You know it's coming, and for the forever-alone crowd, not soon enough: robots that physically interact with humans. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found in a study that people generally had a positive response toward being touched by a benevolent robotic nurse, but that their perception of the robot's intent made a significant difference. 'Even though the robot touched people in the same way,' said a team lead, 'if people thought the robot was doing that to clean them, versus doing that to comfort them, it made a significant difference in ... whether they found that contact favorable or not.'"
IT

The A-Team of IT — and How To Assemble One 246

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Dan Tynan offers insights into building a crack special ops team ready to tackle the toughest IT assignments. From Air Support (think: the guy who shares a cigarette break with the CFO), to Infrastructure Sherpas, to Über Hackers (Mohawk optional), each of the seven essential members of your IT A-Team must bring his or her special blend of expertise, connections, and temperament to ensure the success of mission-critical assignments. 'Remember, there is no Plan B.'"
Businesses

Brain Scans May Help Guide Career Choice 133

GisG writes "General aptitude tests and specific mental ability tests are important tools for vocational guidance. Researchers are now asking whether performance on such tests is based on differences in brain structure, and if so, can brain scans be helpful in choosing a career? In a first step, researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Research Notes have investigated how well eight tests used in vocational guidance correlate to gray matter in areas throughout the brain." The researcher's (provisional) paper is available as a PDF.

Comment Pinouts.ru (Score 1) 262

Check out the Videogame Connector Pinouts at Pinouts.ru. Many of them include suggestions for connecting them directly to a PC.

You could also get something like the Ultimarc U-HID or I-PAC. Many MAME users have been using these for years to adapt the controls in their arcade cabinets to work with PCs. You'll have to wire up a connector to let you plug in whatever kind of joystick you want but the flexibility means you can use it with several different controller types.

Comment Re:Free Market (Score 1) 324

I suggest you go reread that booklet. Andersen Consulting completed its spin-off from Arthur Andersen in mid-2000 after a two-year legal battle. The Accenture name became official later that year (I happen to have a copy of both their original Indian Certificate of Incorporation and their "Fresh Certificate of Incorporation Consequent on Change of Name" which is dated December 5th, 2000). The Enron scandal surfaced in October 2001, 3 years after Accenture began its separation from Arthur Andersen.

Comment Re:Let it begin (Score 1) 324

The only point of your post that I take issue with is the first part. H1B resources are SUPPOSED to be paid the same as an American worker would be paid and this is certainly the case for many of them. I'm an American currently working in India and India has a similar rule for granting employment visas.

Since I've been here, however, I've heard many stories about people who have been "hired" by contract firms who sponsor them for an H1B visa. I put "hired" in quotation marks because the employees actually pay the contract firm for the privilege. They are told that it's much easier for them to seek citizenship or, at least, another employer who will take over their H1B visa sponsorship once they're in the US.

Games

How To Judge Legal Risk When Making a Game Clone? 270

An anonymous reader writes "I'm an indie game developer making a clone of a rather obscure old game. Gameplay in my clone is very similar to the old game, and my clone even has a very similar name because I want to attract fans of the original. The original game has no trademark or software patent associated with it, and my clone isn't infringing on the original's copyright in any way (all the programming and artwork is original), but nevertheless I'm still worried about the possibility of running afoul of a look and feel lawsuit or something similar. How do I make sure I'm legally in the clear without hiring an expensive lawyer that my indie developer budget can't afford?"

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