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Comment Solution: Let's all work less hours (Score 1) 337

Society should reduce working hours and share the workload so there is less unemployment. Work less hours, spend more time with your friends & family, follow creative and philosophical pursuits, and find hobbies you enjoy. After all, isn't technology supposed to make our lives better? http://artificial-intelligence...

Comment Disqualified bots/Alan Turing 100 competition (Score 5, Informative) 68

I'm happy for all the bots that got to compete this year, but I was a little unhappy on the preliminary round of this years competition compared to other years I entered. Only 4 entries can make it to the final round of the competition. There were 12 entries this year but 7 were disqualified due to contest management (Hugh Loebner) not having enough technical knowledge to get the entries working. Some well known bots based on ALICE AIML were disqualified, Cleverbot was disqualified, and my own Ultra Hal was disqualified ( http://www.zabaware.com/webhal ) Internet communication is prohibited so we all have to send the bots as self installing programs that can utilize the contests LPP protocol. My own bot is Linux based, which is a big hurdle for the preliminary round, but I sent it as a virtual box image to simplify it for contest management, but he didn't know how to deal with it.

But luckily there will be another competition this year as part of Alan Turing's 100 year centennial at Bletchley Park on June 23rd and recognized by the Olympics http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR445524.aspx Some of the disqualified bots including my own will be competing there.
Technology

Submission + - Berkeley Student Fills Dorm with Home Automation (electronichouse.com)

ElectronicHouseGrant writes: "Freshman Derek Low rigged up his Berkeley dorm room with something he calls B.R.A.D., which is short for “Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm.” The room includes automated lighting, drapes, music, motion detection, and more. He can control everything through voice recognition, but a wireless remote, his iPhone and his iPad are also in on the control party. Derek started the install on February 4 and finished just a few days ago."
Programming

Submission + - EU Court: Programming Languages Not Copyrightable (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: "The European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright. In its ruling on a a case brought by SAS Institute against World Programming Limited (WPL), the court said that 'the purchaser of a license for a program is entitled, as a rule, to observe, study or test its functioning so as to determine the ideas and principles which underlie that program.'"
IT

Submission + - Building a case for telecommuting (hp.com)

Esther Schindler writes: "Many of us geeks prefer to work at home without distractions, but a lot of bosses still believe that if they don't see you, you must be lolling about, eating bon-bons and playing Angry Birds.

There may be many reasons a manager is distrustful of telecommuting but the phenomenon of what Albiero calls "presentism"—that is, only trusting and rewarding the folks you see at their computer is a major factor.

So it may be of some use to read through the research compiled by Diann Daniel that says Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive Employees (which naturally include fewer distractions and better work-life balance), and an accompanying infographic showing the environmental benefits from reduced commuting.

She follows it up with A Manager’s Guide to Telecommuting, which goes into some detail about how to manage, mentor, and support teleworkers. Some of this is general advice, but some of the tips are more specific:

It may seem like a lot more work—all this up-front addressing of communication issues that happen far more naturally in the office—but the upside is increased efficiency. Albiero sees this especially in the area of meetings. He speaks of one client who has now instituted a meeting format that is structured to allow for the first five minutes of all meetings to be "small-talk minutes." Thus, everyone knows they needn't call in for those minutes unless they want to join. That bonding time may appeal to virtual workers who need the personal connection, but for those who are swamped with other work, and those who simply feel such time is "wasted time," the extra five minutes gives them more productivity. The same client has instituted a policy to end all meetings 10 minutes before the half-hour or hour (depending on the length of the meeting) to allow for employees precious time before what may be their next meeting.

"

Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Has 25 People Dedicated to Handling Gov Info Requests (forbes.com)

nonprofiteer writes: A profile of Facebook's CSO reveals that his 70-person security team includes 25 people dedicated solely to handling information requests from law enforcement. They get thousands of calls and e-mails from authorities each week, though Facebook requires police to get a warrant for anything beyond a subscriber's name, email and IP address. CSO Joe Sullivan says that some gov agency tried to push Facebook to start collecting more information about their users for the benefit of authorities:

"Recently a government agency wanted us to start logging information we don’t log. We told them we wouldn’t start logging that piece of data because we don’t need it to provide a good product. We talked to our general counsel. The law is not black-and-white. That agency thinks they can compel us to. We told them to go to court. They haven’t done that yet.”

Submission + - N. Korea's High-Tech Counterfeits (yahoo.com) 2

ESRB writes: N. Korea is apparently able to produce high-quality counterfeits of US dollars--specifically $100 and $50 bills. It's suspected that they possess similar printing technologies as the US and buy ink from the same Swedish firm. The article also advocates a move to all digital payment/transfers by pointing out both forms are only representations of value and noting it would cripple criminal operations such as drug cartels, human traffickers, and so forth.

Submission + - stealing for science (utwente.nl)

core_tripper writes: Students at the University of Twente have stolen thirty laptops from various members of the university’s staff. They were not prosecuted for this, so they could just get on with their studies. Indeed, these students even received ECTS credits for these thefts. UT researcher Trajce Dimkov asked the students to steal the machines as part of a scientific experiment. Stealing these laptops turned out to be a pretty simple matter.

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