shtarker - Slashdot User

Comment Re:The school owns it. (Score 2, Informative) 931

by shtarker on Saturday January 24, 2009 @07:04AM (#26587247) Attached to: A Teacher Asking Students To Destroy Notes?

Unless your in Australia. In which case unless they are specifically employing you for research, anything you come up with is entirely your own property.
I know at least two people who are currently running their own (albeit very small) companies founded on projects they started while doing undergraduate engineering degrees.

Comment Re:Privacy when Google's Around (Score 5, Funny) 388

by shtarker on Monday September 22, 2008 @10:48AM (#25102779) Attached to: I google myself ...

There are a lot of people with my name, and they're a very distinguished bunch. Composers, geologists, mathematicians, cardiologists...it makes me feel like I haven't accomplished enough.

I know that feeling, which is why I try to keep my presence on the net to a minimum. Just to keep up the good standard of the name.

Submission + - How Spam Was Done 70 Years Ago (modernmechanix.com)

Submitted by

bitrex

on Thursday February 14, 2008 @06:06AM

bitrex writes: "Modern Mechanix recently ran a reprint of a 1934 article describing the problem of offshore pirate radio stations broadcasting advertisements and drowning out local, licensed radio programs. 'The primary purpose of the unlicensed broadcast station was to advertise the gambling, liquor, and other dubious pleasure activities of the ship upon which it was built...they found other sundry rackets, such as a fortune telling program...After numerous unsuccessful attempts of a local nature, the floating broadcasting establishment was silenced, but only after the state department at Washington, D. C, had made diplomatic representations which forced a Central American country to cancel the ship's registry.'

The article also has a great artist's conception of what might be called a machine age "data haven" bobbing in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico."

Submission + - The Shadow Space Race

Submitted by vm on Wednesday February 13, 2008 @05:30AM

vm writes: NOVA's recent documentary, "Astrospies," was written and co-produced by journalist and NSA expert, James Bamford. It details the U.S. Air Force's orbiting spy station program begun in the 1960s, the Manned Orbital Laboratory. Designed from a heavily modified Gemini 2 capsule and launched from a Titan III booster rocket, MOL was basically intended to be a Hubble telescope pointed at Earth with the sole intention of collecting photo intelligence on the Soviets using an impressive array of optics and gyro balanced cameras operated onboard by specially trained astronauts. The lab was never launched, however, due to the competing Corona unmanned spy satellite program funded by NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office. Partly spurred by the success of the Apollo missions, the Soviets, meanwhile, sent cosmonauts to its own succesfully launched spy platform, the Almaz. In addition to an onboard film lab and a space-to-ground image relay system, it included an alarming first in manned space exploration; a 23mm aircraft cannon — which is rather ironic in light of Russia and China's recent attempts to ban space weaponry. At a time when we're still unearthing details about the post 9/11 domestic spying debacle, it's a fascinating look at the history of technology used to look over our neighbors' fences. See additional coverage over at space.com.

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