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Comment Calculus and Trigonometry (Score 1) 1086

by gseidman (#40961453) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Many of You Actually Use Math?

I've used calculus and trigonometry for UI animation with some regularity. Sinusoidal easing makes for very comfortable and natural interaction, for example, and it takes a combination of calculus and trigonometry to code it properly. For that matter, it requires familiarity with both to even think of using the technique. So, yeah, it's worth knowing your math even if your CS work is just polishing user interfaces.
Twitter

Submission + - NY Times Asks Twitter to Shut Down Retweeting Feed (pcmag.com)

Submitted by WesternActor
WesternActor writes: According to PCMag.com, the New York Times has asked Twitter to shut down the FreeNYT Twitter feed that basically retweets all of the Times' articles. Is this really possible? After all, the feed just points to a list of Times Twitter accounts, all of which can also be found on the Times' website. If the Times succeeds in shutting this down, it could have a chilling effect for Twitter and online free speech in general.

Comment Re:Is a subject really necessary? (Score 1) 168

by gseidman (#35423288) Attached to: Adobe Releases Flash To HTML 5 Converter

If the output is naive (i.e. uses the canvas tag to draw individual pixels), you'll have the problems you're worried about. If it makes good use of sprites, SVG, and even WebGL it has a much better chance of performing well. And even if the first version of the HTML5 output is naive, one can hope that Adobe will be responsive to the complaints of their paying customers (i.e. those who actually buy this authoring tool) and improve upon it.
The Military

Submission + - DARPA Open-Sources Military Vehicle Design (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: The army's secretive technology division has been collecting dozens of ideas for the design of its in-the-works rescue vehicle via a social-media contest — relying solely on the power of the crowd to get the next big thing built. Local Motors of Chandler, Ariz., is running the competition, officially known as the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V) Design Challenge, through March 10. It’s not so different from when multiple users edit a page on Wikipedia, Local Motors CEO John Rogers said. “Effectively, we want to co-create all aspects of a vehicle,” Rogers explained. “The Wikipedia method of co-creation is really not far off from the way we talk about it."

Submission + - Biodegradable Sneakers Sprout Flowers When Planted (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: People may joke about their dirty old sneakers turning into science projects or mini ecosystems, but once OAT Shoes' compostable sneakers become commercially available within the next several weeks ... let's just say, those same people may no longer be joking when they make those kind of statements. Made using hemp, cork, bio-cotton, certified biodegradable plastics, chlorine-free bleach and other nontoxic materials, the shoes are designed to completely break down when buried in the ground – the first batch will even come with seeds in their tongues, so that wildflowers will sprout up in commemoration of users' planted, expired kicks.
Security

Submission + - On Stuxnet/Aurora: Get Back to Basics or Get Owned (threatpost.com)

Submitted by
Gunkerty Jeb
Gunkerty Jeb writes: "Attacks such as Stuxnet or Operation Aurora or GhostNet are not what most enterprises and organizations need to be worried about. The plain fact is that most organizations are falling far short in protecting against the same threats that they've faced for the last 10 years. SQL injection, phishing, malicious attachments, social engineering. Old, every one of them. And yet, still incredibly effective at compromising networks in some of the best-known and theoretically best-protected companies."
Music

Submission + - 24-bit: the new way to make you pay more for music (pcpro.co.uk) 3

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Apple and music labels are reportedly in discussions to raise the audio quality of of the songs they sell to 24-bit. The move could see digital downloads that surpass CD quality, which is recorded at 16 bits at a sample rate of 44.1kHz. It would also provide Apple and the music labels with an opportunity to "upgrade" people's music collections, raising extra revenue in the process. The big question is whether anyone would even notice the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit files on a portable player, especially with the low-quality earbuds supplied by Apple and other manufacturers. Labels such as Linn Records already sell "studio master" versions of albums in 24-bit FLAC format, but these are targeted at high-end audio buffs with equipment of a high enough calibre to accentuate the improvement in quality."
Security

Submission + - Subtle Cyber Attacks Could Tilt Global Economies (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A subtle, yet powerfully destructive force of electronic attacks may be working slowly and silently to disrupt elements of the world’s market-based economies.

Recent cyber-attacks on the European Emissions Trading Scheme shut down that exchange’s carbon market just a few weeks ago.

Along with the fear of lights-out DDoS attacks that has traditionally stalked electronic markets, and logically still does, new types of attacks by subtle manipulation could slowly turn electronic markets on their heads by corrupting their very legitimacy.

What’s worse? Attacking someone’s borders, or slowly disrupting and degrading confidence in their entire national economic well-being?

Submission + - Nokia workers walk out in protest (geek.com) 2

Submitted by Mr. McGibby
Mr. McGibby writes: "After the announcement of the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft this morning workers voiced their concern with the deal by walking out of Nokia facilities. It is believed that as many as a thousand workers marched out today (or took the day off using flex time) so that the company would know that they don’t believe the partnership is in their best interest, even after CEO’ Stephen Elop’s startlingly frank “burning platform” memo earlier this week."
Security

Submission + - Using War Games to Make Organizations More Secure (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Along with budget constraints and disconnect between IT and executive management surrounding information security, results of a recent survey show that a major problem is outright lack of understanding of threats.

We all know the best way to get that budget increased, is to get hacked. Unfortunately, that could also result in you losing your job.

Some companies, however, are taking creative approaches to both raise awareness and identify potential vulnerabilities. A manager with a large financial services group, for example, says that his company addresses security vulnerabilities by staging a series of what it calls "war games," in which a user or group of users is tasked with trying to compromise a system, while another user or group of users is tasked with preventing the break-in.

Management needs to understand the security threat and its impact to business, and these "war games" are an innovative and creative way for IT departments to convince executive management on security needs.
Education

Submission + - Universe 250+ Times Bigger Than What Is Observable (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: The universe is only fourteen billion years old so we are unable to observe anything more than fourteen billion light years away. This makes it a bit difficult for us to measure how large the universe actually is. A number of methodologies have been devised to estimate the size of the universe including the universe's curvature, baryonic acoustic oscillations and the luminosity of distant type 1A supernovas. Now a team has combined all known methods into Bayesian model averaging to constrain the universe's size and their research is saying with confidence that the universe is at least 250 times larger than the observable universe.
Space

Submission + - What Exactly is a Galaxy? (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Surprising as it may sound, astronomers don't have an answer to this fundamental question. There's no agreement on when a collection of stars stops being a cluster and starts being something more. Now, in an echo of the recent wrangling over Pluto's status as a planet, a pair of astrophysicists from Australia and Germany want to start a debate on the issue—and they have even set up a Web site for people to cast their votes.
Google

Submission + - The abdication of the HTML standard (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman
GMGruman writes: The end of numbering for HTML versions beyond HTML5 hides two painful realities, argues Neil McAllister. One is that the HTML standards process has failed, becoming a seemingly never-ending bureaucratic maze that has encouraged the proliferation of draft implementations. That's not great, but as all the wireless draft standards have shown, it can be managed. But the bigger problem is that HTML has effectively been abandoned to four companies: Apple, Google, Opera, and Mozilla. They are deciding the actual fate of HTML, not a truly independent standards process.
Security

Submission + - Half of .gov sites fail DNSSEC test (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: U.S. federal government Web sites were mandated to have begun deploying DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) by Dec. 31, 2009, but a recent check shows that 51 percent have still failed to do so. That does represent a marked increase over the 20 percent that had complied as of a year ago. ``But if you think the government should be fully deployed by now, it’s a disappointing number,’’ says Mark Beckett, vice president of marketing and product management for Secure64, which conducted the study for Network World.

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