Comment Re:Science or Religion? (Score 1) 1136
Spoken like someone who is not a structural engineer.
Comment Gov't systems do not follow 'Good Enough' (Score 1) 350
Look at a large amount of government systems. Everything is to the cheapest bidder. But the cheapest bidder isn't always the best or product, and contains issues. Also known as 'good enough.'
Parent is ignorant of how the government buys. The days of low price are gone. -- That's a how to buy question anyway, not *what to buy* which is discussed in the article.
Today most of the buys are still encumbered by perfection.
Examples? How about the IRS and FAA computer systems. Or the F22 fighter. Or the continuing drive to put humans in space.
Comment Mod Parent Up and Grandparent Down (Score 1) 465
And I thought Engineers trolled Slashdot...
So Copper and Concrete. Fine combo, no worries. But concrete and steel, there is a magical combination! --
- Concrete is weak in tension, steel is strong.
- Concrete is cheap, steel is expensive.
- Concrete is durable against wind and water, steel needs protection.
- And when it counts, they get together -- they expand and contract nearly at the same rate with changing temperature.
Concrete and steel, are a perfect match, just mix the proportions for the job at hand!
Team Aims To Create Pure Evil AI 527
puroresu writes "Scientific American reports on the efforts of Selmer Bringsjord and his team at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who have been attempting to develop an AI possessed of an interesting character trait: pure evil. From the article, 'He and his research team began developing their computer representation of evil by posing a series of questions beginning with the basics: name, age, sex, etc., and progressing to inquiries about this fictional person's beliefs and motivations. This exercise resulted in "E," a computer character first created in 2005 to meet the criteria of Bringsjord's working definition of evil. Whereas the original E was simply a program designed to respond to questions in a manner consistent with Bringsjord's definition, the researchers have since given E a physical identity: It's a relatively young, white man with short black hair and dark stubble on his face.'"
Comment Re:communications problems (Score 1) 829
Mod parent up!
He hit the nail on the head.
Comment Re:How many soldiers die if 187 F-22s aren't enoug (Score 1) 829
The F-22is a relic of the cold war, and has taken a back seat to the Predator. The future of air-superiority and air-to-ground is unmanned aerial vehciles (UAVs) aka drones.
The USAF should begin planning it's reintegration with the Army.
Comment Re:Poor Title (Score 1) 829
The cost is also a little misleading. Additional units cost ~$130M each (which is still expensive as hell), the $339M figure is total program cost plus build cost divided out per aicraft. That number only decreases the more we produce. So if we ordered another singe aircraft, it would not cost $339M.
That's also a little misleading. The majority of any weapon's cost is in operation, maintenance and training. The production is a fraction of the cost.
Amazon Kindle DX Details Revealed 312
theodp writes with news that details for the Kindle DX are now available. "Specs-wise, the big changes are a larger 9.7-inch screen that rotates to landscape display, a PDF reader, and more storage space. The Kindle DX carries a $489 price tag (compared to the $359 Kindle 2)." Engadget has a series of pictures from Jeff Bezos' presentation, and the Amazon product information page has further details and a video. According to the press release, Amazon has worked out a deal with The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post to "offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available."
Comment Re:In a word... (Score 1) 1385
I agree with your point, but reasons the poor American train network are more complex than 'car subsidies killed the train'. -- The large mass transit systems at the turn of the century were created and subsidized by land speculators.
Your essential point is correct though, developed nations subsidize transit. We just have to decide which transit we want to subsidize. That will decide development patterns for generations.
BTW, an enlightening history of Suburbs and 20th century development is 'Crabgrass Frontier' by Kenneth Jackson. Worth a read for anyone interested in urban planning.
Comment Re:The Fleecing of America (Score 1) 222
I can assure you, good people are trying to accurately report. Check out USASpending.gov.
The hard part is really finding what you are after. Each agency spends in different ways for different things and products are generally embedded in larger programs.
There is no transparency panacea. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and a stubby pencil remain our best tools.
Submission + - Obama to reverse Bush limits on stem-cells (cosmosmagazine.com)
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Monday reversing Bush administration restrictions on federal funding for stem-cell research, a senior administration official said.
The official would not divulge the exact wording of the order, but confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that it would be in line with Obama's campaign vow to restore funding to embryonic stem-cell research.
The official would not divulge the exact wording of the order, but confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that it would be in line with Obama's campaign vow to restore funding to embryonic stem-cell research.
Submission + - Volunteer Open Source Tax Credit Bill in NY (state.ny.us)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Assemblymen Jonathan Bing and Micah Kellner, along with a number of co-sponsors, have introduced proposed legislation in New York State which would grant a tax credit to individuals acting as volunteers who develop open source programs. The idea of the credit is to ensure that volunteer developers, who could not otherwise deduct their expenses because they are not part of a 'business', should nevertheless be able to receive a tax benefit for their contribution. The credit would be for 20% of the expenses incurred, up to $200. The preamble to the bill notes that the New York State Assembly itself currently uses 'Open Source programs such as Mozilla for email, Firefox for web browsing, and WebCal for electronic calendars', and that these programs have led to significant cost savings to taxpayers. The preamble also cited a 2006 report authored by John Irons and Carl Malamud from the Center for American Progress detailing how Open Source software enhances a broader dissemination of knowledge and ideas."
My Genome, My Self? 194
theodp writes "After baring his DNA for the world to see, Steven Pinker follows up in the NYT Magazine with his take on the coming era of consumer genetics. Pinker comes away less wide-eyed than Time Magazine about the current predictive ability of $399 genetic tests, but is convinced enough to opt out of learning whether he has a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's and believes that genetic-testing-for-the-masses may hasten the arrival of national health insurance ('piecemeal insurance is not viable in a world in which insurers can cherry-pick the most risk-free customers'). Pinker believes that personal genomics is just too much fun to ban, but for now suggests: 'if you want to know whether you are at risk for high cholesterol, have your cholesterol measured; if you want to know whether you are good at math, take a math test.'"
Abused IT Workers Ready To Quit 685
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that new research is suggesting as many as a quarter of all IT staff in small to medium businesses have suffered some sort of abuse and are looking for careers elsewhere (PDF). "The study also found that over a third have suffered from sleepless nights or headaches as a result of IT problems at work, while 59 percent spend between one and 10 hours a week working on IT systems outside normal hours. ... The biggest cause of stress among IT staff is problems arising from operational day-to-day tasks, the survey found. Another major cause came from loss of critical data, according to Connect."
OpenSUSE 11.1 License Changes Examined 90
nerdyH writes "Novell's recent openSUSE 11.1 release includes a new end-user license agreement modeled after Fedora's EULA, says Community Manager Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier in this detailed interview. Zonker says distributions should apply the 'open source principle' and standardize trademark agreements and EULA, similar to how the OSI sought to reduce open source license proliferation a few years back. But with Fedora and openSUSE being so different, can one size really fit all? And, will open source licenses ever finally get translated into languages besides English? (Zonker says that translation into 7 languages was done for openSUSE 11.1.)"
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