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Comment NFL database tech (Score 2) 154

by TheCodeFoundry (#35086116) Attached to: Behind-The-Scenes Superbowl Tech

I, for one, would love to see the UI that the techs use to run the queries on obscure NFL statistics during games.

"This is only the second time 3 consecutive 3rd down conversions have occurred between 11-3 rated AFC teams in outdoor stadiums with 2nd string quarterbacks using a QB option play"

And they are able to run these queries quickly...usually within the time of the next play. How do they do that? Is it raw TSQL styled queries or do they have some kind of UI for that?
Education

Fermilab Confirms Evidence of 4th Flavor Neutrino 122

Posted by Soulskill from the i-hope-it's-grape dept.
eldavojohn writes "We've only had evidence for three kinds of neutrinos so far, but a recent test at Fermilab involving an antineutrino beam has reinforced a Michigan researcher's earlier experiment suggesting a fourth flavor. What's really odd about this is that a prior neutrino test (carried out as part of project MiniBooNE) did not result in indications of such strange oscillations. According to the researcher, 'The simplest explanation involves adding new neutrino-like particles, or sterile neutrinos, which do not have the normal weak interactions.' But this could also be an unknown or misunderstood effect. A Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist added that an explanation of this strange anomaly could result in understanding 'matter asymmetry of the universe, or why the universe is primarily composed of matter, rather than antimatter.' The results are published in the Physical Review Letters."

Comment Re:Donation Link needed (Score 1) 146

by TheCodeFoundry (#33974206) Attached to: AP Proposes ASCAP-Like Fees For the News

Seriously, can no one on Slashdot google anymore?

http://www.gordon.edu/ace/pdf/Spr07BRGrinols.pdf

2006 Arthur Brooks analyzed 10 datasets "such as the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (University of Michigan Survey Research Center), the SOcial Capital Community Benchmark Survey (collaborative of American universities with Roper Center for Public Opinion Research), America Gives (Center on Philanthropy of Indiana University) and 7 others"

His 4 main conclusions are in the PDF above.

Comment Eric Raymond's take on this (Score 5, Insightful) 822

by TheCodeFoundry (#30248636) Attached to: Engaging With Climate Skeptics

Interestingly, ESR has gotten in on the discussion and is a little more damning in his condemnation of the entire Climategate ordeal

http://rebootcongress.blogspot.com/2009/11/eric-s-raymond-on-east-anglia-crus.html

There is only one way to cut through all of the conflicting claims and agendas about the CRU's research: open-source it all. Publish the primary data sets, publish the programs used to interpret them and create graphs like the well-known global-temperature "hockey stick", publish everything. Let the code and the data speak for itself; let the facts trump speculation and interpretation.

We know, from experience with software, that secrecy is the enemy of quality -- that software bugs, like cockroaches, shun light and flourish in darkness. So, too. with mistakes in the interpretation of scientific data; neither deliberate fraud nor inadvertent error can long survive the skeptical scrutiny of millions. The same remedy we have found in the open-source community applies - unsurprisingly, since we learned it from science in the first place. Abolish the secrecy, let in the sunlight.

Comment Re:peak oil clarification (Score 2, Insightful) 720

by TheCodeFoundry (#30051022) Attached to: Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil

World population is continually increasing, China and India are rapidly industrializing so demand for oil is going up and up, but the flow rate isn't. This is why we had $147/barrel oil a few years ago, not speculators. It's all supply and demand, but in this case the supply is limited.

If it is simply supply and demand, why are we now down to ~$50/barrel and yet demand hasn't decreased and supply hasn't increased? The price of oil is hardly an indicator of what you are suggesting.

Comment Ultima or Baldur's Gate (Score 1) 1120

by TheCodeFoundry (#28856185) Attached to: Which Game Series Would You Reboot?

I would love to see a really good RPG made again. Not the click-n-twitch Diablo "RPG" or the faux-RPG of Fable II, but a dyed in the wool real RPG. Ultima or even Baldur's Gate. Something that you could get immersed in for hundreds of hours like the originals. True sandbox-style game where you are able to roam the landscape unfettered.
Input Devices

Researchers Debut Barcode Replacement 185

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'm-still-not-used-to-the-square-ones dept.
eldavojohn writes "MIT Researchers have unveiled a new potential replacement for barcodes. Using an LED covered with a tiny mask and a lens, these new bokodes can be processed by a standard mobile phone camera and can encode thousands of times more information than your average barcode. New applications are being dreamed up by the team. Dr. Mohan of MIT said, 'Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books. You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is.'"

Comment Re:Wait (Score 0, Offtopic) 335

by TheCodeFoundry (#28721679) Attached to: Three Arrested For Conspiring To Violate the DMCA

Since when is Gitmo closed? Post-election and post-promises, President Obama has decided that the "hair on fire" issues at Gitmo aren't that bad and has decided to leave it open....exactly what President Bush and Senator McCain were both arguing for. Interesting that Obama supporters aren't up in arms over this, since they were the ones who gnashed their teeth that it was a human rights fiasco down there.
It's funny. Laugh.

Sophos Releases Klingon Language Version 94

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the a-for-effort dept.
Bantu1 writes to mention an attention grab by anti-virus company Sophos, which is now offering a Klingon language version of their popular anti-virus software. Now Qo'nos too can be completely safe from the storm. If only we could see a Sophos logo in the next Paramount endeavor, the cycle would be complete.
Sci-Fi

Deathbed Confession Says Aliens Were at Roswell 1267

Posted by Zonk from the here-comes-the-super-copter-here-comes-the-noise-it-makes dept.
xnuandax writes "The army's explanation of weather balloons in the Roswell, New Mexico incident 60 years ago has been dealt a serious public relations blow. Late Army Lt. Walter Haut had signed a sealed affidavit prior to his death last year asserting that he had witnessed the wreckage of an egg-shaped craft and its extraterrestrial crew while working at the Roswell Army Air Field. An article at News.com.au reviews how Haut had worked as public relations officer for the Roswell base and was involved in the original weather balloon explanation of events at the time. This recent evidence would seem to confirm speculation that egg-shaped saucers are notoriously difficult to fly safely at low altitude."
Windows

Submission + - Best solution for remote software deployment?

Submitted by DownTownMT
DownTownMT writes: Hey Slashdotters. I work as a Windows administrator in a small company with roughly 180 WinXP/2000 and 30 Win98 machines. Our current method for installing Windows patches is WSUS which works great for the non-98 PC's. But for installing software such as Adobe, QuickTime and various other tools our only method is to rely on the end-user to install it themselves or have our staff walk to each machine and install the software there.
I'm looking to get some feedback/recommendations as to what other systems administrators are using whether it be SMS, Track-It Deploy, Zenworks or something else. Thanks in advance.

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