Comment Re:Just got a Nook (Score 1) 684
Some of us like to read more recent books occasionally, and have no problem paying for them.
Mimicking Electric Eel Cells 71
An anonymous reader writes "A team of US researchers has asked the following question in the new field of systems biology: 'Do we understand how a cell produces electricity well enough to design one, and to optimize that design?' They believe it should be possible to build artificial cells replicating the electrical behavior of electric eel cells. In fact, such artificial cells could deliver better performance — as much as 40% more energy than real eel cells, a computer model suggests. They could be used to power medical implants and other small devices."
An Open Source Legal Breakthrough 292
jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens writes in Datamation about a major court victory for open source: 'An appeals court has erased most of the doubt around Open Source licensing, permanently, in a decision that was extremely favorable toward projects like GNU, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, and Linux.' The case, Jacobsen v. Katzer, revolved around free software coded by Bob Jacobsen that Katzer used in a proprietary application and then patented. When Katzer started sending invoices to Jacobsen (for what was essentially Jacobsen's own work), Jacobsen took the case to court and scored a victory that — for the first time — lays down a legal foundation for the protection of open source developers. The case hasn't generated as many headlines as it should."
Comment Dijkstra (Score 1) 125
I work for a small development company in the process of tackling this problem. We are building a social network (don't ask my why.. but the client pays..), and need to calculate the shortest path between any two members (IE, friend of a friend of a friend). This, essentially, is the traveling salesmen problem.
Although our solution may change, currently we are attempting to use the Dijkstra Algorithm as a stored SQL procedure. Of course, this approximates the shortest path, but the result is good enough for our needs, and based on the original post, probably good enough for a Google Maps app as well.
Although our solution may change, currently we are attempting to use the Dijkstra Algorithm as a stored SQL procedure. Of course, this approximates the shortest path, but the result is good enough for our needs, and based on the original post, probably good enough for a Google Maps app as well.
NSSO on Space Based Solar Power 198
apsmith writes "About a year ago some of the people at the US National Security Space Office began looking into space-based solar power (SBSP) as a technology in the near-term strategic interests of the United States. At first the participants were skeptical, and the "phase 0 study" went along with no official funding. In a rather innovative move, they organized the study as a series of internet-based (bulletin-board and email) discussions, with the wordpress site open to the public, and a closed experts-only discussion using Google Groups. Initially expecting only a dozen or so interested parties, the discussion grew to include over 170 people with past expertise and interest in the issues. The final report was released Wednesday morning; it provides an excellent broad-brush review of the status of SBSP, showing immense potential, but also a number of challenges that appear only surmountable with a strong government commitment to the project. The big question is where it goes from here — NASA? DARPA? The new ARPA-E? Or something new? I was able to attend the press conference, which included Buzz Aldrin in an announcement of a new alliance to push for implementing the recommendations of the report."
Students vs. Hackers 83
sethfogie wrote to mention Informit.com's coverage of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Students put their skills to the test, trying to lock down systems against intrusion from an invading hacker team. All in the name of learning. From the article: "When the three hour grace period was over, the Red Team slowly worked their way into attack mode. One member started to sort through the information they gleaned from their scans and investigated each possible exploit. Another member fired up a MySQL database client and started to poke around the students databases looking for sensitive data. The two others were adding/changing accounts to routers, firewalls, and systems. However, for the most part, the students were not being pelted with attacks. And this continued for the next several hours."
Journal Journal: Grokster vs. Gun Laws
Does anyone else see the interesting analogy between the Grokster ruling and the recently passed law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits filed by those harmed through the misuse of guns?
In essence, both the gun law and the Grokster ruling deal with the same issue: the misuse of a product that has a legal, legitimate purpose.
In essence, both the gun law and the Grokster ruling deal with the same issue: the misuse of a product that has a legal, legitimate purpose.
Slashdot Top Deals
To stay youthful, stay useful.
