cyclonite - Slashdot User

"Last Lecture" CMU Professor Randy Pausch Dies 208

Posted by kdawson on Friday July 25, 2008 @11:28AM from the imagineering-on-the-other-side dept.

Many readers are sending in word that Randy Pausch has died at 47. The charismatic young college professor celebrated life despite a death sentence from pancreatic cancer in a remarkable speech widely known as the "Last Lecture." The video went viral and has been downloaded by over 10 million people.

Robocars As the Best Way Geeks Can Save the Planet 394

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 24, 2008 @06:28PM from the at-least-the-parts-we-can-drive-on dept.

Brad Templeton writes "I (whom you may know as EFF Chairman, founder of early dot-com Clari.Net and rec.humor.funny) have just released a new series of futurist essays on the amazing future of robot cars, coming to us thanks to the DARPA Grand Challenges. The computer driver is just the beginning — the essays detail how robocars can enable the cheap electric car, save millions of lives and trillions of dollars, and are the most compelling thing computer geeks can work on to save the planet. Because robocars can refuel, park and deliver themselves, and not simply be chauffeurs, they end up changing not just cars but cities, industries, energy, and — by removing dependence on foreign oil — even wars. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords." (More below.)

Critiquing Claims of an Open Source Jobs Boom 134

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 24, 2008 @04:46PM from the join-us-now-and-free-the-software dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Bill Snyder examines what appears to be an open source job market boom, as evidenced by a recent O'Reilly Report. According to the study, 5 to 15 percent of all IT openings call for open source software skills, and with overall IT job cuts expected for 2009, 'the recession may be pushing budget-strapped IT execs to examine low-cost alternatives to commercial software,' Snyder writes. But are enterprises truly shifting to open source, or are they simply seeking to augment the work of staff already steeped in proprietary software? The study's methodology leaves too much room for interpretation, Savio Rodrigues retorts. 'That's why the 5% to 15% really doesn't sit well with me,' Rodrigues writes. 'I suspect that larger companies are looking for developers with a mix of experience with proprietary and open source products, tools and frameworks,' as opposed to those who would work with open source for 90 percent of the work day."

Scientists Solve Riddle of Toxic Algae Blooms 237

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @12:10PM from the bet-that-lake's-no-longer-pristine dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from the Victoria Times Colonist: "After a remarkable 37-year experiment, University of Alberta scientist David Schindler and his colleagues have finally nailed down the chemical triggers for a problem that plagues thousands of freshwater and coastal ecosystems around the world." Punchline: "Phosphorus."

Global Warming Stopped By Adding Lime To Sea 899

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 21, 2008 @12:00PM from the but-then-nobody-can-have-a-good-gin-and-tonic dept.

Antiglobalism writes "Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, reports Cath O'Driscoll in SCI's Chemistry & Industry magazine published today."

Comment Maybe we should look at how the Europe does this (Score 2, Informative) 239

by cyclonite on Friday December 01, 2006 @08:01AM (#17063676) Attached to: Supreme Court To Rule On "Obvious" Patents

You've just described how the European Patent Office works. In fact, there is even an additional period where, after the examing board finds your patent to be valid, your competitors can file an opposition brief and show up to provide counter-evidence to a board with a scientific/engineering background in the general area. I've done it, and it was night and day compared to dealing with the US examiners I've had to deal with.

We have modified the patent system in the recent past, we finally did away with "first to invent", and went to "first to file" like the Europeans, so maybe there is hope.

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