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Technology: Windows Breaks Into Supercomputer Top10 2008-11-19 17:02

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @05:02PM
from the adversity-breeds-strength-in-redmond-too dept.

yanx0016 writes "Wow, that's some news this week at SuperComputing 08. Apparently Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008, with a Chinese hardware OEM (Dawning), made #10 on the Top500 list, edging out #11 by only 600 Gflops. Folks were shocked to see Microsoft getting so serious around HPC; I think we are only beginning to see a glimpse of Microsoft in the HPC field."

Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Experienced IT People? 2008-11-19 16:19

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @04:19PM
from the experience-is-not-just-a-euphemism dept.

thricenightly writes "After more than 20 years in IT I've learned that the most valuable people in a team are frequently the old timers. Young pups straight out of college might (think they) know all the latest buzzwords and techniques, but in the real world, where getting working products delivered on time and on budget is of paramount importance, people who have been doing the job for a decade or two tend to be the people I'd rather be working alongside. I've recently been elevated to a position where I get to interview and choose those who get hired in my department. Although I'm very much focused on choosing the right person for the role regardless of age, experience or whatever, it's probably fair to say the more mature applicants will get a more sympathetic hearing from me than they might from most other interviewers for IT roles. The question is, what do I ask older applicants to get them to demonstrate the value of their experience? My current gambit is something like 'IT is seen as a young man's game. My next applicant after you is 23 years old. What do you know that he doesn't?' This gets responses ranging from the vague to the truly enlightened. All next week I'm interviewing for a number of senior software designer and developer roles. What should I be asking of the more experienced applicants, and what responses should I be looking out for?"

Science: Successful Stem Cell Replacement of Windpipe 2008-11-19 15:59

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @03:59PM
from the difficult-to-gasp dept.

thepacketmaster writes "In what is being hailed as a medical milestone, CNN reports a woman suffering from long-term tuberculosis had her lower trachea and bronchial tube replaced by tissue grown from her own stem cells. A team from the universities of Barcelona, Spain; Bristol, England; and Padua and Milan, Italy, decided to go ahead with the surgery instead of having to remove her left lung. The operation, reported Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet, has been hailed as a major leap for medicine that could offer new hope for patients suffering from serious illness."

Entertainment: Monty Python Banks On the Long Tail Via YouTube 2008-11-19 15:31

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @03:31PM
from the finally-a-perfect-use-for-the-foot-icon dept.

JTRipper writes "Monty Python seems to have done the right thing. Instead of issuing take down notices of their videos on YouTube, they are doing it better themselves with their own YouTube channel. They are putting all their clips (including snips from their movies) up in a decent resolution, with the only caveat being a link to buying the movies and TV episodes from Amazon."

Ask Slashdot: Good Deep-Knowledge Analog Design Books? 2008-11-19 15:14

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @03:14PM
from the ice-blocks-the-cave-door dept.

NorthNitro writes "I live in a part of the world where quality technical books are not accessible from local distributors. When I order, from international distributors, I have to keep exchange rate and shipping costs in mind; so I really need to be careful with my choices when purchasing books. I am a graduate engineer (5 years experience) that focuses on analog and digital hardware design. Next year I will be starting a complicated analog design project. This design will include circuits that integrating Pico amp currents, a lot of discrete transistor circuits and high precision op-amp circuits. I don't want a cookbook; I rather want something that can provide me with solid theoretical descriptions/models of circuits. The kind of knowledge that gives you deep understanding of analog circuits design. Can anyone suggest good books and maybe where to order them from?"

Technology: FCC Publishes "White Spaces" Rules 2008-11-19 14:43

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @02:43PM
from the dude-white-spaces-totally-rule dept.

Stellian writes "The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Second Report and Order that establishes rules to allow new, sophisticated wireless devices to operate in broadcast television spectrum on a secondary basis at locations where that spectrum is open. It's the first time we have access to clear specifications for these devices, dubbed TVBDs — 'TV band devices' by the FCC. The published guidelines allow manufactures to create protocols and build compatible devices, which could be available in 18 Months, according to Larry Page. The full PDF text of this Second R&O is published on the FCC site."

Linux: Debian Packages Screenshots Repository Launched 2008-11-19 14:17

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @02:17PM
from the worth-1024-words-a-least dept.

Christoph Haas writes "A picture is worth a thousand words. And thanks to screenshots.debian.net this finally comes true for Debian packages. The new website was launched just a week ago and has already collected screenshots for 740 packages shipping with the Linux distribution — with new uploads pouring in every hour. Debian users can finally get an impression of how an application would like look before installing it."

Hardware: NRDC Rates Energy Efficiency of Video Game Consoles 2008-11-19 14:00

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @02:00PM
from the real-costs-for-illusory-worlds dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today, more than 40 percent of all homes in the United States contain at least one video game console. Recognizing that all that gaming could add up to serious demand for electricity, NRDC and Ecos Consulting performed the first ever comprehensive study on the energy use of video game consoles and found that they consumed an estimated 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year — roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego. Through the incorporation of more user-friendly power management features, we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation's electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO2 each year. In this November 2008 issue paper, NRDC provides recommendations for users, video game console manufacturers, component suppliers and the software companies that design games for improving the efficiency of video game consoles already in homes as well as future generations of machines yet to hit the shelves." The full report is freely downloadable as a PDF.

Technology: London's Oystercard Gets New Contract, But Same Suppliers 2008-11-19 13:15

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, @01:15PM
from the captain-amazing-wears-no-glasses dept.

nk497 writes "Over the summer, the London travelcard ticketing system — called Oyster — fell over twice, forcing the transport authority to offer free travel to the six million Londoners using the system. After that, it cut its contract with the supplier of the system, a consortium called TranSys. But now, Transport for London has signed a new contract to replace the TranSys one — with the same two companies that made up the TranSys consortium. Sure, that should fix everything."

Science: Wolfram Research Releases Mathematica 7 2008-11-19 12:23

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 19, @12:23PM
from the just-installing-it-would-make-me-feel-dumber dept.

mblase writes "Wolfram Research has released the seventh version of Mathematica, and it does a lot more than symbolic algebra. New features range from things as simple as cut-and-paste integration with Microsoft Word's Equation Editor to instant 3D models of mathematical objects to the most expensive clone of Photoshop ever. Full suites of genome, chemical, weather, astronomical, financial, and geodesic data (or support for same) is designed to make Mathematica as invaluable for scientific research as it is for mathematics."

Science: Lunar Oxygen and Water Production Tech Tested 2008-11-19 11:50

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 19, @11:50AM
from the bathtub-in-space dept.

savuporo writes "NASA and its industry partners organized a two-week lunar in-situ resource utilization field test in Hawaii. The tested machines included a few different rovers and prototype plants for generating oxygen and water from lunar regolith. Astrotoday has a picture gallery and a video report. This follows on the heels of the recent ESA lunar robotics challenge event held on Tenerife, which tasked student teams to build a lunar robot that would be able to search for water ice in lunar polar craters."

Apple: Microsoft Feared Mac Vs. Vista In '05 2008-11-19 11:08

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 19, @11:08AM
from the not-so-much-any-more dept.

CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer sifted through many threads of e-mails released under the 'Vista Capable' lawsuit to dig up this jewel...More than a year before Windows Vista's release — and long before Apple started poking fun at the OS — Microsoft officials were already worried about comparisons between Mac OS X and Vista. An e-mail thread from October 2005 showed that an article in the Wall Street Journal by Walt Mossberg grabbed the attention of managers at Microsoft. In a column headlined What PC to Buy If You Are Planning On a Vista Upgrade, Mossberg alarmed one Windows manager who forwarded a bit from the column.... 'You won't have to worry about Vista if you buy one of Apple Computer's Macintosh computers, which don't run Windows,' Mossberg had written. 'Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system, called Tiger, is better and more secure than Windows XP, and already contains most of the key features promised for Vista.' Warrier added a comment of his own: 'A premium experience as defined by Walt = Apple. This is why we need to address [the column].'"

Book Reviews: American Nerd 2008-11-19 10:23

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 19, @10:23AM
from the read-all-about-it dept.

Adam Jenkins writes "This book seemed to have potential, particularly since the image of nerds has changed in recent times. Once objects of derision and schoolyard bullying, nerds are now acknowledged as having a place in society. The Lord of the Rings became a multi-million dollar movie trilogy, the internet is now used by an incredible number of people, and computer games are no longer seen as being 'just for kids.' Around the years of the dot-com boom, successful nerds were driving Ferraris and going to cool parties. So it's not so surprising that the definition of a nerd has changed over time, nor that a society which has generally become better at accepting people who are different, has accepted nerds." Read below for the rest of Adam's review.

Science: Astronaut Loses Tools While Performing an EVA 2008-11-19 09:32

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 19, @09:32AM
from the only-human dept.

tpheiska writes "NASA press release states that 'At approx. 3:33 p.m. EST, Piper reported that one of the Braycote lubrication guns had released grease into her toolbag. As she was cleaning the bag and wiping the tools and equipment inside, the bag floated away. Another bag carrying identical equipment is now being shared by Piper and Bowen.' Luckily they had a spare."

Technology: Ray Kurzweil Wonders, Can Machines Ever Have Souls? 2008-11-19 08:52

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday November 19, @08:52AM
from the i'd-settle-for-a-chobit dept.

Celery writes "There's an interview with Ray Kurzweil on silicon.com talking up the prospects of gene therapy as a means to reverse human aging, discussing different approaches to developing artificial intelligence, and giving his take on whether super intelligent machines could ever have souls. From the interview: 'The soul is a synonym for consciousness ... and if we were to consider where consciousness comes from we would have to consider it an emerging property. Brain science is instructive there as we look inside the brain, and we've now looked at it in exquisite detail, you don't see anything that can be identified as a soul — there's just a lot of neurons and they're complicated but there's no consciousness to be seen. Therefore it's an emerging property of a very complex system that can reflect on itself. And if you were to create a system that had similar properties, similar level of complexity it would therefore have the same emerging property.'"

IT: Fewer Than 1% Arrested From TSA's "Behavior Detection" 2008-11-19 08:01

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 19, @08:01AM
from the department-of-funny-walks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fewer than 1% of airline passengers singled out at airports using the much vaunted 'suspicious behavior detection' techniques are arrested, Transportation Security Administration figures show. The TSA program, launched in early 2006, looks for terrorists using a controversial surveillance method based on behavior detection and has led to more than 160,000 people in airports receiving scrutiny, such as a pat-down search or a brief interview. It has resulted in only 1,266 arrests, often on charges of carrying drugs or fake IDs, the TSA said. The TSA has not publicly said whether it has caught a terrorist through the program." In related news, the odds of sanity coming to the TSA plummeted today when Schneier said he's not interested in the top job there.

Your Rights Online: Psystar Antitrust Claim Against Apple Dismissed 2008-11-19 05:40

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 19, @05:40AM
from the oh-give-me-a-clone dept.

CNet has a report that a federal judge has dismissed Psystar's antitrust suit against Apple. Observers had said that the counter-suit embodied the Mac clone-maker's best chance of prevailing and staying in business. We've been following Psystar and the dueling lawsuits since the beginning.

Science: Oldest Nuclear Family Found Murdered In Germany 2008-11-19 03:16

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 19, @03:16AM
from the calling-csi-stone-age dept.

Pickens writes "The oldest genetically identifiable nuclear family met a violent death, according to analysis of remains from 4,600-year-old burials in Germany where the broken bones of these stone age people show they were killed in a struggle. Comparisons of DNA from one grave confirm it contained a mother, father, and their two children. 'We're really sure, based on hard biological facts not just supposing or assuming,' says Dr. Wolfgang Haak, from The Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. The stone-age people are thought to belong to a group known as the Corded Ware Culture, signified by their pots decorated with impressions from twisted cords. The children and adult males had the same type of strontium in their teeth — which was also found locally, but the nearest match to the women's teeth was at least 50km away, suggesting they had moved to the area. 'They were definitely murdered, there are big holes in their heads, fingers and wrists are broken,' says Dr. Alistair Pike from Bristol University. He noted that one victim even had the tip of a stone weapon embedded in a vertebra. 'You feel some kind of sympathy for them, it's a human thing, somebody must have really cared for them. ... We don't know how hard daily life was back there and if there was any space for love,' added Dr. Haak."

Games: The Importance of Procedural Content Generation In Games 2008-11-19 02:09

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday November 19, @02:09AM
from the see-what-grows dept.

Gamasutra reports on a talk by Far Cry 2 developer Dominic Guay in which he discussed why procedural content generation is becoming more and more important as games get bigger and more complex. He also talks about some of the related difficulties, such as the amount of work required for the tools and the times when it's hard to retain control of the art direction. Quoting: "Initially, the team created a procedural sky rendering approach based on algorithms — which led to a totally unconvincing skybox that was clearly inferior to what a hand-authored skybox would be. 'We considered it to be a total failure,' he said. He explained that a great deal of focus must be put on the tools that surround the algorithms, to allow the systems to be properly harnessed. In the end, the game shipped with a revamped procedural sky system that ended up much more effective than the first attempt."

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Technology: Windows Breaks Into Supercomputer Top10 2008-11-19 17:02

Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Experienced IT People? 2008-11-19 16:19

Science: Successful Stem Cell Replacement of Windpipe 2008-11-19 15:59

Entertainment: Monty Python Banks On the Long Tail Via YouTube 2008-11-19 15:31

Ask Slashdot: Good Deep-Knowledge Analog Design Books? 2008-11-19 15:14

Technology: FCC Publishes "White Spaces" Rules 2008-11-19 14:43

Linux: Debian Packages Screenshots Repository Launched 2008-11-19 14:17

Science: Researchers Discover How To Make the Perfect Phone Call 2008-11-19 14:11

Hardware: NRDC Rates Energy Efficiency of Video Game Consoles 2008-11-19 14:00

Technology: London's Oystercard Gets New Contract, But Same Suppliers 2008-11-19 13:15

Science: Wolfram Research Releases Mathematica 7 2008-11-19 12:23

Science: Lunar Oxygen and Water Production Tech Tested 2008-11-19 11:50

Apple: Microsoft Feared Mac Vs. Vista In '05 2008-11-19 11:08

Book Reviews: American Nerd 2008-11-19 10:23

Science: Astronaut Loses Tools While Performing an EVA 2008-11-19 09:32

Technology: Ray Kurzweil Wonders, Can Machines Ever Have Souls? 2008-11-19 08:52

IT: Fewer Than 1% Arrested From TSA's "Behavior Detection" 2008-11-19 08:01

Your Rights Online: Psystar Antitrust Claim Against Apple Dismissed 2008-11-19 05:40

Science: Oldest Nuclear Family Found Murdered In Germany 2008-11-19 03:16

Games: The Importance of Procedural Content Generation In Games 2008-11-19 02:09

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Technology: Windows Breaks Into Supercomputer Top10 2008-11-19 17:02

Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Experienced IT People? 2008-11-19 16:19

Science: Successful Stem Cell Replacement of Windpipe 2008-11-19 15:59

Entertainment: Monty Python Banks On the Long Tail Via YouTube 2008-11-19 15:31

Ask Slashdot: Good Deep-Knowledge Analog Design Books? 2008-11-19 15:14

Technology: FCC Publishes "White Spaces" Rules 2008-11-19 14:43

Linux: Debian Packages Screenshots Repository Launched 2008-11-19 14:17

Science: Researchers Discover How To Make the Perfect Phone Call 2008-11-19 14:11

Hardware: NRDC Rates Energy Efficiency of Video Game Consoles 2008-11-19 14:00

Technology: London's Oystercard Gets New Contract, But Same Suppliers 2008-11-19 13:15

Science: Wolfram Research Releases Mathematica 7 2008-11-19 12:23

Science: Lunar Oxygen and Water Production Tech Tested 2008-11-19 11:50

Apple: Microsoft Feared Mac Vs. Vista In '05 2008-11-19 11:08

Book Reviews: American Nerd 2008-11-19 10:23

Science: Astronaut Loses Tools While Performing an EVA 2008-11-19 09:32

Technology: Ray Kurzweil Wonders, Can Machines Ever Have Souls? 2008-11-19 08:52

IT: Fewer Than 1% Arrested From TSA's "Behavior Detection" 2008-11-19 08:01

Your Rights Online: Psystar Antitrust Claim Against Apple Dismissed 2008-11-19 05:40

Science: Oldest Nuclear Family Found Murdered In Germany 2008-11-19 03:16

Games: The Importance of Procedural Content Generation In Games 2008-11-19 02:09

Idle Video

Slashdot Poll

Recent Tags

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Freshmeat

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