Comment Re:News at 11 (Score 1) 172
Indeed. Also: How worrying is is that there are people here who think that an attack that doesn't involve threatening another person with violent assault offers no advantages over one that does?
Proof Mooted For Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle 158
ananyo writes "Encapsulating the strangeness of quantum mechanics is a single mathematical expression. According to every undergraduate physics textbook, the uncertainty principle states that it is impossible to simultaneously know the exact position and momentum of a subatomic particle — the more precisely one knows the particle's position at a given moment, the less precisely one can know the value of its momentum. But the original version of the principle, put forward by physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927, couches quantum indeterminism in a different way — as a fundamental limit to how well a detector can measure quantum properties. Heisenberg offered no direct proof for this version of his principle. Now researchers say they have such a proof. (Pre-print available at the arXiv.) If they're right, it would put the measurement aspect of the uncertainty principle on solid ground — something that researchers had started to question — but it would also suggest that quantum-encrypted messages can be transmitted securely."
Submission + - UK authorities accused of inciting illegal protest (schnews.org.uk)
jarran writes: Questions are being asked about the tactics being employed by UK authorities to monitor and control protest groups. Schnews reports on evidence that government IP addresses are posting messages to sites like Indymedia, attempting to provoke activists into taking illegal direct action. Evidence has emerged recently that the police consider sex to be a legitimate tool for extracting information from targets, and senior police have been accused of lying to parliament about the deployment of undercover agents at protests.
Comment Once a good coder, always a good coder (Score 1) 450
"That's a familiar situation to many out-of-work software engineers, whose skills start depreciating almost as soon as they are laid off, given the dynamism of the industry"
I never understood this. I don't deny it's a common view in the industry, but does it make big difference in reality? Someone who was a good programmer a year or two ago, may be a touch rusty, but they very rapidly come up to speed. Programming talent seems to be a much more valuable attribute that knowledge of frameworks, libraries etc.
My employer generally rubs it's hand with glee when it gets a CV from someone who's just returning from a career break. It's often a sign you can get someone good on the cheap, because other companies will be hesitant to take them.
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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
