nullgraph - Slashdot User

Study Finds 3D Printers Pay For Themselves In Under a Year 322

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 01, 2013 @03:08AM from the pini-money dept.

Lucas123 writes "Researchers using a RepRap open source 3D printer found that the average household could save as much as $2,000 annually and recoup the cost of the printer in under a year by printing out common household items. The Michigan Technical University (MTU) research group printed just 20 items and used 'conservative' numbers to find that the average homeowner could print common products, such as shower rings or smartphone cases, for far less money than purchasing them online at discount Websites, such as Google Shopper. 'It cost us about $18 to print all [20] items... the lowest retail cost we could find for the same items online was $312 and the highest was $1,943,' said Joshua Pearce, an associate professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at MTU. 'The unavoidable conclusion from this study is that the RepRap [3D printers] is an economically attractive investment for the average U.S. household already.'"

Computer Scientists Develop 'Mathematical Jigsaw Puzzles' To Encrypt Software 245

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 01, 2013 @12:32AM from the looking-for-edges dept.

another random user writes "The claim here is that the encrypted software can be executed, but not reverse-engineered. To quote from the article: 'UCLA computer science professor Amit Sahai and a team of researchers have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it. According to Sahai, previously developed techniques for obfuscation presented only a "speed bump," forcing an attacker to spend some effort, perhaps a few days, trying to reverse-engineer the software. The new system, he said, puts up an "iron wall," making it impossible for an adversary to reverse-engineer the software without solving mathematical problems that take hundreds of years to work out on today's computers — a game-change in the field of cryptography.'"

Ask Slashdot: Is Tech Talent More Important Than Skill? 277

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @10:07PM from the two-sides-of-a-coin dept.

snydeq writes "Taming technology is sometimes more art than science, but the difference can sometimes be hard to discern, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. 'You've probably come across colleagues who were extremely skilled at their jobs — system administrators who can bend a zsh shell to their every whim, or developers who can write lengthy functions that compile without a whimper the first time. You've probably also come across colleagues who were extremely talented — who could instantly visualize a new infrastructure addition and sketch it out to extreme detail on a whiteboard while they assembled it in their head, for example, or who could devise a new, elegant UI without breaking a sweat. The truly gifted among us exhibit both of those traits, but most fall into one category or another. There is a difference between skill and talent. Such is true in many vocations, of course, but IT can present a stark contrast between the two.'"Assuming Venezia is correct, which do you think is more important?

Android Tablet Gives Rare Glimpse At North Korean Tech 125

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @07:44PM from the best-korean-tablet dept.

alphadogg writes "An Android tablet brought back from North Korea by a tourist has provided a glimpse at some of the restrictions placed on IT users in the famously secretive country. The Samjiyon is the third tablet to have gone on sale in North Korea. It was unveiled at a trade show in the capital, Pyongyang, last September and received some coverage on state television, but few westerners have had a chance to see it up close. The tablet was likely manufactured outside of North Korea and the hardware itself is fairly unremarkable, but the software and the usage restrictions placed on the device provide some insights about life in the country."

Baseball Software Can't Score What Jean Segura Did Friday 223

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 20, 2013 @08:02PM from the for-some-values-of-uncommon dept.

JimboFBX writes "Interesting piece of baseball history happened on Friday. Jean Segura of the Milwaukee Brewers stole second, tried to steal third too early, but made it back to second before being tagged. The problem was that teammate Ryan Braun already made it to second on the steal attempt. After tags were applied to both baserunners, Segura started trotting to the dugout before realizing that he wasn't out, Braun was, and his only option was to make it back to first. He then of course proceeded to try to steal second base again. The software for keeping the box score? Doesn't (yet) support someone running backwards on the bases. Looks like that will have to change." Here is video of the sequence.

U.S. Senate's Big Immigration Bill Seeks Centralized Database For H-1B Jobs 251

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday April 16, 2013 @06:41PM from the because-centralized-databases-are-always-a-good-idea dept.

dcblogs writes "The U.S. Senate comprehensive immigration bill, due Tuesday, will allow the H-1B cap to rise from 65,000 to as high as 180,000. The bill, overall, contains some interesting provisions. It will require the U.S. Labor Dept. to create a website of H-1B job openings that employers must post to. The jobs must be posted least 30 calendar days before hiring an H-1B applicant to fill that position. The bill also raises wages for H-1B workers to make them more competitive, although the amount wasn't specified. One provision that will affect India, in particular, limits H-1B visa use to 50% of a firm's U.S. workforce. The provision may prompt India firms to buy U.S. companies to expand their U.S. presence."

DARPA Cyber Chief "Mudge" Zatko Going To Google 30

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday April 14, 2013 @11:06PM from the moving-to-better-quarters-on-campus dept.

chicksdaddy writes "Noted hacker and innovator Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko, a project manager for cyber security research at DARPA for the past three years- will be setting up shop in the Googleplex, according to a post on his Twitter feed on Friday. Zatko, who earned fame as a founding member of the early 1990s Boston-area hacker confab The L0pht and later as a division scientist at government contractor BBN Technologies, announced his departure from DARPA following a three-year stint as a Program Manager in DARPA's Information Innovation Office on Friday. 'Given what we all pulled off within the USG, let's see if it can be done even better from outside. Goodbye DARPA, hello Google!' he Tweeted."

Comment Handcrafted Geek Art (Score 1) 89

by nullgraph on Sunday January 13, 2013 @01:41PM (#42575477) Attached to: The Geek Art Movement

Sprite Stitch

Bletchley Park Codebreaker Honored 57

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 29, 2012 @11:18AM from the after-due-consideration dept.

Rambo Tribble writes "England has awarded Raymond Roberts, one of the nine cryptanalysts responsible for breaking the Nazi Tunny code machine, (also known by the German designation Lorenz cipher machine) the MBE. Roberts is the last surviving member of the team which cracked the German army's cipher machine functionality, much like others at Bletchley broke the better-known Enigma machine."

Comment Re:Calibre, open source ebook manager (Score 2) 361

by nullgraph on Monday March 21, 2011 @02:13PM (#35562320) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Huge Digital Media Libraries

I have tried Calibre and much as I would like to use it as my book management program, I also would like to maintain control over the directory structure, which Calibre refuses to let me. In their own words, from the FAQ:

"Why doesn’t calibre let me store books in my own directory structure?
The whole point of calibre‘s library management features is that they provide a search and sort based interface for locating books that is much more efficient than any possible directory scheme you could come up with for your collection."

Efficient? Maybe, but this basically means that my book collection is tied up with Calibre for the rest of my life.

Herding Firesheep In NYC — Do Users Care? 200

Posted by timothy on Friday October 29, 2010 @07:14PM from the not-so-much dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Following the Firesheep uproar, I spent some time telling people who don't read Slashdot about the vulnerability that open WiFi networks create in what seemed like the most effective way possible: by sidejacking their accounts and sending them messages about how it happened. The results were surprising — would users really rather leave their accounts open to intruders rather than stay off Facebook at Starbucks? The link recounts the experience, and also lists some rough numbers of how many accounts could be compromised at a popular NY Starbucks location."

Comment Re:It's all about entropy (Score 1) 467

by nullgraph on Sunday September 19, 2010 @04:20PM (#33629702) Attached to: Distinguishing Encrypted Data From Random Data?

What about compressing the files? The encrypted ones (high entropy) will not compress well while the other files, hopefully not all random noise, will compress much better.

Cooking For Geeks 312

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 08, 2010 @02:47PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

jsuda writes "You've got to have a lot of confidence and nerve to write and try to sell a nearly 400 page book on cooking to the take-out pizza and cola set. No cookbook is likely to turn many geeks into chefs or take them away from their computer screens. However, even though Cooking for Geeks contains a large number of recipes, it is not a conventional cookbook but a scientific explanation of the how and why of cooking which will certainly appeal to that group, as well as to cooking professionals and intellectually curious others." Read on for the rest of jsuda's review.

Video Appliance For a Large Library On a Network? 516

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 02, 2010 @07:21PM from the wants-it-all-in-one-place dept.

devjj writes "For the past year or so I have been trying (and failing) to figure out a reasonable solution for bringing my large media library to my living room. All of my media lives on an Ubuntu server that sits on my network. It's been very reliable and it's fast enough for streaming purposes. My content is exposed via SMB. It's the living room side where I keep running into problems. I am currently using Windows 7 and XBMC, but the case is too big and noisy, I don't particularly care for Windows, and the whole thing just seems overkill. What I want is a device that can present a decent UI that the non-Slashdot crowd would be able to use, but that is still powerful enough to stream full-fidelity 1080p. I dream of a small box that can transcode video over a network, but that's probably a pipe dream. The new Apple TV would be great if it could connect to network shares. What say you, Slashdot? Is what I'm looking for possible, or should I just give in to the iTunes/Amazon/whatever juggernauts?"

Good Database Design Books? 291

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 08, 2010 @06:39PM from the this-slot-that-tab dept.

OneC0de writes "I am the Director of IT for a small/medium sized marketing company, where I personally write the code that runs our applications. We use a variety of technology at our office, the majority of which rely on MS-SQL and MySQL databases. I am familiar with tables, SQL queries, and have a general understanding of how the SQL databases work. What I'm looking for is a good book, particularly a newer book, to explain general database design techniques, and maybe explain some relational tables. We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables."

Slashdot Top Deals