reusr1 - Slashdot User

Why Time Flies By As You Get Older 252

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @11:03PM from the like-a-banana dept.

Ant notes a piece up on WBUR Boston addressing theories to explain the universal human experience that time seems to pass faster as you get older. Here's the 9-minute audio (MP3). Several explanations are tried out: that brains lay down more information for novel experiences; that the "clock" for nerve impulses in aging brains runs slower; and that each interval of time represents a diminishing fraction of life as we age.

Comment open source all code written with tax payer money (Score 1) 332

by reusr1 on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @07:40PM (#30530934) Attached to: How Can I Contribute To Open Source?

It would be nice if all software produced at government agencies would be available as open source applications for download. Then another agency trying to solve a similar problem or a company trying to write similar software could base their work on these open source apps. After all, that software is written with tax money and should be available to save tax money in other places or to be used by the tax payers if they wish to.

First MySQL 5.5 Beta Released 95

Posted by kdawson on Friday December 18, 2009 @01:29PM from the taking-care-of-business dept.

joabj writes "While MySQL is the subject of much high-profile wrangling between the EU and Oracle (and the MySQL creator himself), the MySQL developers have been quietly moving the widely-used database software forward. The new beta version of MySQL, the first publicly available, features such improvements as near-asynchronous replication and more options for partitioning. A new release model has been enacted as well, bequeathing this version the title of 'MySQL Server 5.5.0-m2.' Downloads here."

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 26, 2009 @12:41PM from the four-out-of-five-ain't-bad dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"

Comment swiss american tax treaty (Score 3, Insightful) 325

by reusr1 on Monday March 16, 2009 @01:06AM (#27206873) Attached to: Swiss Banks Making Concessions On Secrecy

Like it or not, there is a tax treaty between Switzerland and America ( www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/swiss.pdf ). It clearly defines in what cases the USA or Switzerland can get information from each other regarding taxes and it deals with double taxation. The agreement is between the two countries, so if the USA doesn't like it, why did it agree to it in the first place and why are we not discussing renegotiation of the agreement?

Comment not only consume, also create (Score 2, Interesting) 52

by reusr1 on Friday February 06, 2009 @10:00PM (#26760755) Attached to: Help Writing an Open Standards Policy?

I'd really like to see a policy that not only consumes open source projects but at the same time makes sure that all development done for any government is committed as open source (because it belongs to the people that paid for it in the first place, the tax payer). This would in my opinion drastically reduce the cost for local governments because it would allow applications written for one city/state/country to be used and adopted by other entities too. After all, a budgeting software for one county could also be used in the next county... and maybe a state and then some state adds a function that does a sanity check on the budget and maybe we can get them balanced then...

Comment Re:government open source efforts would be nice (Score 1) 249

by reusr1 on Monday November 17, 2008 @01:19AM (#25782575) Attached to: How To Build a Web 2.0 Government?

where can I get the custom accounting application or budgeting application the state had written for them? Would be nice if somebody could provide a link or a how to do this.

Comment Re:government open source efforts would be nice (Score 1) 249

by reusr1 on Monday November 17, 2008 @01:18AM (#25782561) Attached to: How To Build a Web 2.0 Government?

funny - but yes, I would like all states to share their tax software instead of have one developed per state.

Comment government open source efforts would be nice (Score 3, Interesting) 249

by reusr1 on Sunday November 16, 2008 @01:21PM (#25778067) Attached to: How To Build a Web 2.0 Government?

It would be nice if the government would start open sourcing all software projects developed within or for the government. It should be possible to cut development cost (states ultimately share the source code of some of their projects) and the projects payed by the people would be for the people.

Slashdot Top Deals