British Army Looking For Gamers For Their Smart-Tanks 163

Posted by samzenpus on Friday October 24, 2014 @05:29AM from the point-and-destroy dept.

concertina226 writes The U.K. branch of global defense firm General Dynamics is working on a futuristic state-of-the-art smart-tank to replace the British Army's aging armored vehicle fleet, to be delivered to the Ministry of Defense in 2020. The Scout SV armored vehicle is the first fully-digitized armored fighting vehicle to have been built for the British Army, and is far bigger and more durable than any of its existing tanks, which are now at least 20 years old. The tank comes in six variants that can be customized with a tools for different missions, and has numerous sensors, cameras, and sights to offer real-time intelligence on weather conditions, target acquisition, and reconnaissance — all crucial battlefield data required by commanders to access and direct situations. "With the capability in the Scout SV, we're really looking for the type of people who play Xbox games – tech-savvy people who are able to take in a lot of information and process it in the proper way," says Kevin Connell, the vice president for General Dynamic UK's Land Systems Regiment.

Comment Re:Critics should take positive action (Score 1) 993

by npongratz on Monday October 06, 2014 @07:56PM (#48078745) Attached to: Lennart Poettering: Open Source Community "Quite a Sick Place To Be In"

Would you hire a hitman to kill her, then?

Hire a hitman to kill Debian? I know the Internet has everything, but where would one begin to look? In clonehappy's analogy, the wife is the distribution, not LP.

Besides, I don't know clonehappy, but I'm pretty sure clonehappy would never hire a hitman to kill Debian, LP, or anyone's wife. Strawmen have no place here. (Yeah, I know: "must be new here lol")

One In Three Jobs Will Be Taken By Software Or Robots By 2025, Says Gartner 405

Posted by Soulskill on Monday October 06, 2014 @06:50PM from the they-took-our-jobs! dept.

dcblogs writes: "Gartner predicts one in three jobs will be converted to software, robots and smart machines by 2025," said Peter Sondergaard, Gartner's research director at its big Orlando conference. "New digital businesses require less labor; machines will make sense of data faster than humans can," he said. Smart machines are an emerging "super class" of technologies that perform a wide variety of work, both the physical and the intellectual kind. Machines, for instance, have been grading multiple choice test for years, but now they are grading essays and unstructured text. This cognitive capability in software will extend to other areas, including financial analysis, medical diagnostics and data analytic jobs of all sorts, says Gartner. "Knowledge work will be automated."

Seattle Passes Laws To Keep Residents From Wasting Food 385

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 24, 2014 @02:42PM from the food-police dept.

schwit1 writes The new rules would allow garbage collectors to inspect trash cans and ticket offending parties if food and compostable material makes up 10 percent or more of the trash. The fines will begin at $1 for residents and $50 for businesses and apartment buildings. "SPU doesn’t expect to collect many fines, says Tim Croll, the agency’s solid-waste director. The city outlawed recyclable items from the trash nine years ago, but SPU has collected less than $2,000 in fines since then, Croll says. 'The point isn’t to raise revenue,' he said. 'We care more about reminding people to separate their materials.'"

Study: Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone $230-a-Year 611

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday August 21, 2014 @09:27AM from the monopoly-money dept.

Several readers sent word of research into the cost of internet content without ads. They looked at the amount of money spent on internet advertising last year in the U.K., and compared it to the number of U.K. internet users. On average, each user would have to pay about £140 ($230) to make up for the lost revenue of an ad-free internet. In a survey, 98% of consumers said they wouldn't be willing to pay that much for the ability to browse without advertisements. However, while most consumers regard ads as a necessary trade-off to keep the internet free, they will go to great lengths to avoid advertising they do not wish to see. Of those surveyed, 63 per cent said they skip online video ads 'as quickly as possible' – a figure that rises to 75 per cent for 16-24 year olds. Over a quarter of all respondents said they mute their sound and one in five scroll away from the video. 16 per cent use ad blocking software and 16 per cent open a new browser window or tab.

Study: Seals Infected Early Americans With Tuberculosis 74

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @07:56PM from the seal-of-consumption dept.

mdsolar writes that a study suggests that tuberculosis first appeared in the New World less than 6,000 years ago and it was brought here by seals. After a remarkable analysis of bacterial DNA from 1,000-year-old mummies, scientists have proposed a new hypothesis for how tuberculosis arose and spread around the world. The disease originated less than 6,000 years ago in Africa, they say, and took a surprising route to reach the New World: it was carried across the Atlantic by seals. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, has already provoked strong reactions from other scientists. "This is a landmark paper that challenges our previous ideas about the origins of tuberculosis," said Terry Brown, a professor of biomolecular archaeology at the University of Manchester. "At the moment, I'm still in the astonished stage over this."

Electromagnetic Noise Found To Affect Bird Navigation 71

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 08, 2014 @11:30AM from the or-did-you-mean-magnetic-north? dept.

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "A 7-year German study has come to a troubling conclusion: the EM noise from human activities is interfering with birds' magnetic 'compass' [paywalled paper, but above-average abstract], and potentially disrupting migratory behavior. While science is unclear how the birds' compasses work, it is theorized it employs the quantum phenomenon of electron spin. As the lead researcher, Prof Henrik Mouritsen, is quoted as saying, 'A very small perturbation of these electron spins would actually prevent the birds from using their magnetic compass.' The BBC has a nice summary article, as well."

In SF: an App For Auctioning Off Your Public Parking Spot 427

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 08, 2014 @10:48AM from the markets-in-everything dept.

trbdavies (979982) writes 'Only in San Francisco' used to refer to issues like whether public nudity should be restricted to certain hours of the day. Now I hear it most often in connection with the interplay between the city and tech companies. SF Weekly reports on one such development: 'Anyone who's visited San Francisco for 35 minutes knows that easy parking is a rare find. Enter Paolo Dobrowolny, an Italian tech bro who decided San Francisco was the perfect spot to test out his new experiment. Here's how it works: You find a parking spot, revel a little, let Monkey Parking know where you're located, and watch the bidding begin. Finally, give your spot to the wealthiest victim willing to pay the highest price for your spot. Drive away that much richer.'" Update: 05/08 15:52 GMT by T : I suspect that Dobrowolny's a tech pro, rather than bro, or at least that's what I suspect the Weekly meant to say.

Melbourne Uber Drivers Slapped With $1700 Fines; Service Shuts Down 255

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 08, 2014 @09:25AM from the permission-is-mandatory dept.

beaverdownunder (1822050) writes "Victoria Australia's Taxi Directorate has begun a crackdown on Melbourne Uber drivers, fining them $1700 each for operating a taxi service illegally, with total fines apparently equalling over $50000. In response, Uber has shut down its Melbourne service, and has refused to comment on whether its drivers will be compensated, since Uber told them they were providing a legal service. (Fined Uber drivers could take the company to the state's consumer tribunal: stay tuned!) Uber is set to meet with the Directorate next week but it is likely the demands the Directorate will place on Uber drivers, such as mandatory criminal record checks, vehicle inspections and insurance, will make the service in Melbourne unviable. Meanwhile, the New South Wales government is awaiting a report to determine if Uber drivers operating in that state are doing so illegally, warning that drivers could face substantial fines if they are found to have been operating in breach of the law. In South Australia, it doesn't even appear Uber will get off the ground — the state has made it clear that those who operate as an Uber driver will be driving without being covered by the state's mandatory insurance coverage, essentially de-registering their vehicle and making them liable for fines and license suspension."

First Arrest In Japan For 3D-Printed Guns 274

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 08, 2014 @08:45AM from the illegal-objects-around-the-world dept.

PuceBaboon (469044) writes "Earlier today (Thursday), police in Kawasaki, Japan, arrested a man for violation of the firearms control law. He was apparently in possession of five, 3D-printed handguns, two of which were reportedly capable of firing normal rounds (although no actual bullets were found). The suspect was arrested after releasing video of the guns online. Japan has very strict gun control laws and, whether or not the suspect actually appeared in the alleged video, he may just have signed himself up for some serious porridge."

Average American Cable Subscriber Gets 189 Channels and Views 17 340

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @10:06PM from the nothing-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nielsen, the company that studies the viewing habits of television viewers, announced its findings in a blog post Tuesday. Since 2008, the number of cable TV channels offered as a bundle rose from 129 to 189 in 2013, but in that time-frame viewers have consistently only watched an average of 17 channels. The data seems to support the notion that consumers are better off subscribing to channels a la carte, but cable companies are of the opinion that 'the price of cable TV wouldn't change much if channels were served à la carte because content providers won't sell the most popular programs to cable companies unless the provider's other channels are also served up.' Nielsen concluded in its post that 'quality is imperative—for both content creators and advertisers', signaling the possibility that more Americans will cut the cord after realizing that their cable bill has increased in the last few years but their consumption of content hasn't."

Comment Re:As opposed to the shining example of US democra (Score 1) 557

by npongratz on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @11:03AM (#46939921) Attached to: Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked

I made the same assumption as found in the statement "15% of all Crimeans voted".

Further, arbitrarily limiting the voting population doesn't make an election result any more legitimate.

Whether it's 21% or 30%, the result is not materially different. The overwhelming majority did not vote for the "winner", yet each individual in this overwhelming majority is forced into subordination to the winner.

RightsCorp To Bring Its Controversial Copyright Protection Tactics To Europe 196

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @08:46AM from the export-grade-copyright-trolls dept.

judgecorp (778838) writes "RightsCorp, the controversial copyright enforcer, is planning to begin operations in Europe. In the U.S., the company scans torrents for IP addresses on behalf of media companies, shares them with ISPs, forcing them to send lawyers' letters (using the DMCA) demanding money from the supposed copyright infringers. RightsCorp says Europe needs its help in fighting piracy." They recently expanded operations into Canada as well.

Comment As opposed to the shining example of US democracy? (Score 1) 557

by npongratz on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @02:00PM (#46931261) Attached to: Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked

17.8% of the U.S. population voted for George W. Bush in 2000 [0]. 21.0% of the U.S. population voted for Barak Obama in 2012. [1]

Seems to me not very far off from the abstract's note that "15% of all Crimeans voted" to secede. If it's legitimate in the US, why not elsewhere?

[0] Yes, Al Gore did better by winning 18.1%.

[1] Percentages calculated mainly using Wikipedia's numbers, which admittedly are not a primary source, but I'll guess are probably "close enough" to make my point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table (for 2012 population)

Actual Results of Crimean Secession Vote Leaked 557

Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 06, 2014 @12:52PM from the not-quite-as-advertised dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Forbes reported on Monday that The President of Russia's Council on Civil Society and Human Rights very briefly and supposedly by accident posted the actual results of the Crimean secession vote. According to the blog post, which has since been taken down, only 30% of Crimeans participated in the vote instead of the 83% participation officially advertised by Russia, and of that 30% only half voted for secession, which means that 15% of all Crimeans voted for secession rather than the 82% officially reported by Russia. There is no way for this claim to be verified as no foreign observers were allowed during the voting process. The vote is reportedly being conducted again during the 'May 11 referendum on the status of the so-called People's Republic of Donetsk.'" We've had a lot of discussion over the years about election methods and transparency; it would be interesting to hear from Ukranian readers in particular on this topic.