lovesinghal - Slashdot User

Study Says US Needs Fewer Science Students 551

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @07:59PM from the too-many-coats-in-the-lab dept.

cremeglace writes "It's an article of faith: the United States needs more native-born students in science and other technical fields. But a new paper by sociologists at the Urban Institute and Rutgers University contradicts the notion of a shrinking supply of native-born talent in the United States. In fact, the supply has actually remained steady over the past 30 years, the researchers conclude, while the highest-performing students in the pipeline are opting out of science and engineering in greater numbers than in the past, suggesting that the threat to American economic competitiveness comes not from inadequate science training in school and college but from a lack of incentives that would make science and technology careers attractive. Cranking out even more science graduates, according to the researchers, does not give corporations any incentive to boost wages for science/tech jobs, which would be one way to retain the highest-performing students."

Wireless Network Modded To See Through Walls 161

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday October 01, 2009 @09:30AM from the still-can't-see-through-pants dept.

KentuckyFC writes "The way radio signals vary in a wireless network can reveal the movement of people behind closed doors, say researchers who have developed a technique called variance-based radio tomographic imaging which processes wireless signals to peer through walls. They've tested the idea with a 34-node wireless network using the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol (the personal area network protocol employed by home automation services such as ZigBee). The researchers say that such a network could be easily distributed by the police or military wanting to determine what's going on inside a building. But such a network, which uses cheap off-the-shelf components, might also be easily deployed by your neighbor or anybody else wanting to monitor movements in your home."

GMail Experiences Serious Outage 408

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @05:22PM from the works-here-never-mind dept.

JacobSteelsmith was one of many readers to note an ongoing problem with Gmail: "As I type this, GMail is experiencing a major outage. The application status page says there is a problem with GMail affecting a majority of its users. It states a resolution is expected within the next 1.2 hours (no, not a typo on my part). However, email can still be accessed via POP or IMAP, but not, it appears, through an Android device such as the G1." It's also affecting corporate users: Reader David Lechnyr writes "We run a hosted Google Apps system and have been receiving 502 Server Error responses for the past hour. The unusual thing about this is that our Google phone support rep (which paid accounts get) indicated that this outage is also affecting Google employees as well, making it difficult to coordinate."

Sophisticated Balloons Could Help Steer Spacecraft 96

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 16, 2009 @11:32AM from the 51%-of-turns-are-right dept.

coondoggie writes "Getting spacecraft traveling at hypersonic speeds to slow down and land or achieve a particular orbit on a dime is no easy feat. But researchers are developing a tool that will let engineers model and ultimately build advanced flight control systems that meld balloon and parachute technologies known as a ballute (BALLoon-parachUTE). Basically a ballute is a large, inflatable device that takes advantage of atmospheric drag to decelerate and capture a spacecraft into orbit around a planet, according to NASA who is funding Global Aerospace to build such a tool."

Iowa Seeks To Remove Electoral College 1088

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday February 12, 2009 @10:27AM from the not-cancelling-their-caucus-i-bet dept.

Zebano writes "Since changing the US constitution is too much work, the Iowa senate is considering a bill that would send all 7 of Iowa's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in a presidential election. This would only go into affect after enough states totaling 270 electoral votes (enough to elect a president) adopted similar resolutions."

Google to Begin Storing Patients' Health Records 214

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 22, 2008 @12:14AM from the meet-doctor-google dept.

mytrip writes with news that Google's health record archive is about to be tested with the assistance of the Cleveland Clinic. Thousands of patients (who must approve the transfer of information) will have access to everything from their medical histories to lab results through what Google considers a "logical extension" of their search engine. We discussed the planning of this system last year. "Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools. The health venture also will provide more fodder for privacy watchdogs who believe Google already knows too much about the interests and habits of its users as its computers log their search requests and store their e-mail discussions. Prodded by the criticism, Google last year introduced a new system that purges people's search records after 18 months. In a show of its privacy commitment, Google also successfully rebuffed the U.S. Justice Department's demand to examine millions of its users' search requests in a court battle two years ago."

Bar Codes Keep Surgical Objects Outside Patients 269

Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 09, 2007 @02:43AM from the that's-just-where-I-like-them dept.

Reservoir Hill writes "Every year about 1,500 people in the US have surgical objects accidentally left inside them after surgery, according to medical studies. To prevent this potentially deadly problem, Loyola University Medical Center is utilizing a new technology that is helping its surgical teams keep track of all sponges used during a surgical procedure. Each sponge has a unique bar code affixed to it that is scanned by a high-tech device to obtain a count. Before a procedure begins, the identification number of the patient and the badge of the surgical team member maintaining the count are scanned into the counter. When a sponge is removed from a patient, it is scanned back into the system. A surgical procedure cannot end until all sponges are accounted for."

Comment He has got it all wrong... (Score 1) 411

by lovesinghal on Sunday September 23, 2007 @02:41PM (#20720931) Attached to: Apple Platform Lock-Ins, A 3rd Party Dev's Opinion

The writer is assuming that Apple wants to tie iPhone to a single carrier and wants a piece in the carrier's profit. Both these assumptions could be completely wrong. First of all, a company like AT&T will never give a share of its revenue to Apple. More so, the subscription plan of iPhone is relatively so cheap (unlimited internet access), that I think, Apple must have bargained for a cheaper subscription plan for iPhone with AT&T. Now about tying up to single carrier, Apple would never have surely liked this option for its iPhone. Apple will surely earn more revenue if iPhone is sold with more number of carriers. This is something AT&T must have bargained hard with Apple in return for providing features like list of voice-messages and Wifi (AT&T could have disabled it on iPhone).

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