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Comment Re:My suggestions for two alternate exhibits (Score 1) 65

by giannaborgnine (#36830000) Attached to: Second Life Mine Simulation Receives an Emmy Nomination
Actually those issues are addressed in the simulation. There is a HUD that has a health, happiness, and power meter. You start my destroying a mountain for the coal, and once you see the effect then power goes up, but health and happiness go down. So then you are prompted to conserve electricity by basically turning off everything in the town. By doing that healthy goes up, power is kinda neutral, and happiness remains down. Obviously, living without power isn't possible so you are prompted to explore and assemble alternate energy sources. Once you have them up and running things balance out. Obviously this is slightly oversimplified, but it gives educators and even individual visitors an opportunity to take a closer look at these issues first hand and hopefully it will facilitate some discussions and possibly even change.
Graphics

Submission + - Nvidia predicts 570x GPU performance boost (changingworldsbuildingdreams.com)

Submitted by
Gianna Borgnine
Gianna Borgnine writes: "Nvidia is predicting that GPU performance is going to increase a whopping 570-fold in the next six years. According to TG Daily, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the prediction at this year's Hot Chips symposium. Huang claimed that while the performance of GPU silicon is heading for a monumental increase in the next six years — making it 570 times faster than the products available today — CPU technology will find itself lagging behind, increasing to a mere 3 times current performance levels. "Huang also discussed a number of 'real-world' GPU applications, including energy exploration, interactive ray tracing and CGI simulations.""
Television

Submission + - How the Web Series 'The Guild' Stays Successful (wsj.com)

Submitted by ChronoDragon
ChronoDragon writes: The Wall Street Journal points out that it is possible to make a successful web series without the backing of a studio. With the release of a music video, Do you Wanna Date My Avatar, and the start of Season of 3, the web series The Guild is ready for even more success. The Guild, created by Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible), is a low budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very accessible to non-gamers.
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook to change privacy policy (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Retardical_Sam
Retardical_Sam writes: Facebook has agreed to make changes to protect users' personal information on the social networking site, including the way data is accessed by third-party developers, Canada's privacy commissioner said Thursday. Canadian officials have been negotiating with Facebook since the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released a report a month ago that argued the social network breaches Canadian privacy law. Facebook agreed to make changes dealing with third-party applications like quizzes and games, deactivation of accounts, the personal identification of non-users and accounts of users who die.
Security

Submission + - Facebook App Exposes Abject Insecurity (facebook.com) 1

Submitted by
ewhac
ewhac writes: "Back in June, the American Civil Liberties Union published an article describing Facebook's complete lack of meaningful security on your and your friends' information. The article went virtually unnoticed. Now, a developer has written a Facebook "Quiz" based on the original article that graphically illustrates all the information a Facebook app can get its grubby little hands on by recursively sweeping through your friends list, pulling all their info and posts, and showing it to you. What's more, apps can get at your information even if you never run the app yourself. Facebook apps run with the access privileges of the user running it, so anything your friend can see, the app they're running can see, too. It is unclear whether the developer of the Facebook app did so "officially" for the ACLU."
Government

Submission + - 3 charges against Terry Childs dropped (sfexaminer.com)

Submitted by phantomfive
phantomfive writes: Terry Childs, who was arrested nearly a year ago for refusing to turn over the passwords to the San Francisco's FiberWAN network has been cleared for three of the four charges against him. The charges that were dropped referred to the attachment of modems to the network. The remaining charge is for refusing to turn over the password. The prosecutor has vowed to appeal, to have the charges reinstated. We have the original story, and the story where Childs tells his side, for those who want a refresher.
Space

Submission + - Are Sunspots Different During This Solar Minimum? (leif.org)

Submitted by
PhreakOfTime
PhreakOfTime writes: "According to Bill Livingston and Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, sunspot magnetic fields are waning. The two respected solar astronomers have been measuring solar magnetism since 1992. Their technique is based on Zeeman splitting of infrared spectral lines emitted by iron atoms in the vicinity of sunspots. Extrapolating their data into the future suggests that sunspots could completely disappear within decades."
Input Devices

Submission + - Brainport lets Blind "See" with Their Tong 3

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Scientific American reports that a new device called "Brainport" aims to partially restore the experience of vision for the blind and visually impaired by relying on the nerves on the tongue's surface to send light signals to the brain. BrainPort collects visual data through a small digital video camera and converts the signal into electrical pulses sent to the tongue via a "lollipop" that sits directly on the tongue where densely packed nerves at the tongue surface receive the incoming electrical signals. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse and the electrodes spatially correlate with the pixels so that if the camera detects light fixtures in the middle of a dark hallway, electrical stimulations will occur along the center of the tongue. Within 15 minutes of using the device, blind people can begin interpreting spatial information. "At first, I was amazed at what the device could do," says research director William Seiple. "One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.""
IBM

Submission + - IBM Post-Doctoral Hires Second-Class Employees?

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "If you're brilliant, work really hard, and earn a world-class doctorate from a U.S. university, IBM has a job for you at one of its U.S. research sites. As a 'complementary worker,' that is. But be prepared to be shipped out to India or China after you've soaked up knowledge for 13 months as a 'long-term supplemental worker.' Not too surprising — Newsweek reports that IBM, HP, Accenture and others are finding it profitable to detach from the United States (even patenting the process), and suggests the U.S. should be appreciative that they still contribute something to the economy."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Loses Case Against Launch Media (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's claim that personalized internet radio stations were 'interactive services' was flatly rejected 'as a matter of law' by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Arista Records v. Launch Media. In affirming the jury's verdict in favor of the defendant, Launch Media — acquired during the lawsuit by Yahoo! — the Court said it did not even need to concern itself with possible errors in the jury instructions, since the trial judge should have directed a verdict for defendant 'as a matter of law' on the question of whether the radio stations were 'interactive services'. At pages 23-42 of its 42-page opinion (PDF), the appeals court carefully analyzed how Launch Media's personalized internet radio stations worked, and noted that the users could neither obtain and play on demand a particular song, nor obtain the transmission of a particular program, thus rendering the RIAA's claim of 'interactivity' meritless."

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