SorryTomato - Slashdot User

Submission + - $30B IT Stimulus Will Create Almost 1 Million Jobs (itif.org)

Submitted by

itif

on Wednesday January 07, 2009 @09:29AM

itif writes: "This report takes a look at how many jobs you get if you invest $10 billion each in three different IT infrastructure projects--broadband, health IT and the smart grid. It argues that if you are going to be spending billion on a stimulus package, investing in "digital infrastructure" creates more jobs than physical infrastructure (e.g. roads and bridges) in the short-term, and you get a whole host of other benefits in the long-term."

Sleep Mailing 195

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 15, 2008 @06:14PM from the better-than-drunk-dialing dept.

Doctors have reported the first case of someone using the internet while asleep, when a sleeping woman sent emails to people asking them over for drinks and caviar. The 44-year-old woman found out what she had done after a would be guest phoned her about it the next day. While asleep the woman turned on her computer, logged on by typing her username and password then composed and sent three emails. Each mail was in a random mix of upper and lower cases, unformatted and written in strange language. One read: "Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4.pm,. Bring wine and caviar only." Another said simply, "What the......." If I had known that researchers were interested in unformatted, rambling email I would have let them read my inbox. They could start a whole new school of medicine.

Comment Re:Tech issues and socio-political issues. (Score 1) 526

by SorryTomato on Saturday October 06, 2007 @08:29PM (#20883879) Attached to: Japanese Stealth Fighter Announced as 'Return of the Zero'

stealth technology however, is that it is almost exclusively used for aggression rather than defense if you play your strategy according to tradition.

I would actually argue the other way around. Stealth is inherently a passive defensive technology. It's primary purpose is to protect the aircraft (or ship or tank or grunt in his camo). Now this defensive advantage can easily be used for offense (sneak in and bomb, setup an aerial ambush or make locking on by enemy missiles harder).

Previously the primary protection used to be either superior mobility (hit and run before being hit back) or superior damage resistance (armoring, redundant systems etc). Stealth is just another element of protection - avoid being hit at all.

And stealth isnt something revolutionarily new - low observability has always been a military factor in the form of camoflague, emission control, acoustic damping etc with partial radar transparency being the new hotness now.

Submission + - Mars Global Surveyor died from single bad command

Submitted by

wattsup

on Friday April 13, 2007 @11:56PM

wattsup writes: "The LA Times reports that a single wrong command sent to the wrong computer address caused a cascade of events that led to the loss of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft last November, NASA investigators reported Friday.

A command that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address. The mistake caused a problem with the positioning of the solar power panels, this in turned caused one of the batteries to overheat, shutting down the solar power system and the batteries drained in 12 hours."

Submission + - New Laws of Robotics proposed for US kill-bots

Submitted by jakosc on Friday April 13, 2007 @09:42PM

jakosc writes: The Register has a short commentry about a proposed new set of laws of robotics for war robots by John S Canning of the Naval Surface Warfare Centre. Unlike Azimov's three laws of robotics Canning proposes (pdf) that we should "Let machines target other machines and let men target men." although this sounds OK in principle, "a robot could decide under Mr Canning's rules, to target a weapon system such as an AK47 for destruction on its own initiative, requiring no permission from a human. If the person holding it was thereby killed, that would be collateral damage and the killer droid would be in the clear.."

AMD Admits To Slowing Sales 194

Posted by Zonk on Saturday July 08, 2006 @07:40AM from the bearer-of-bad-news dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Forbes is reporting that AMD has fessed up to investors about slowing chip sales. The price war that Intel has initiated seems to be taking its toll on the manufacturer." From the article: "The current drivers of business in the computer chip industry seem to revolve around Intel and AMD price war, uncertainty about how a slowing economy will impact consumer spending plans, and imminent product introductions from Intel that may be causing some consumers to hold off on purchases. Investors should get a better picture in the next few weeks--AMD will issue its full second-quarter report on July 20, a day after Intel is scheduled to report its results."

Nerds Switching from Apple to Ubuntu? 957

Posted by timothy on Monday July 03, 2006 @05:28PM from the different-bell-curve-entirely dept.

Mindpicnic writes "The recent switch of two lifelong Mac nerds to Ubuntu hasn't escaped Tim O'Reilly's radar. He cites Jason Kottke: 'If I were Apple, I'd be worried about this. Two lifelong Mac fans are switching away from Macs to PCs running Ubuntu Linux: first it was Mark Pilgrim and now Cory Doctorow. Nerds are a small demographic, but they can also be the canary in the coal mine with stuff like this.'"

Another Microsoft Exec Joins Google 243

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday July 02, 2006 @11:49AM from the just-another-boring-sunday dept.

SirClicksalot writes "CNN is reporting that Vic Gundotra, a 15-year veteran general manager at Microsoft, has left the company to join Google. Gundotra worked at Microsoft as general manager for platform evangelism to get software developers to use Microsoft's software and online offerings. The function he will perform at Google is not yet known, but he will need to wait one year before starting his new job because of a non-compete clause in his contract."

IBM Motion to Limit SCO Claims Granted 195

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 28, 2006 @09:13PM from the I-missed-these-guys dept.

Kalak writes "IBM's motion to limit SCO's claims to those that have specific version, file and line numbers has been granted, in part. At the end of last year, SCO made 294 allegations. IBM asked for dismissal of 198 of them due to lack of this information, 1 SCO withdrew, 1 IBM withdrew from the request, and 185 of them have been dismissed from the case. This leaves 107 of the charges are left to be addressed by means other than lack of specificity (such as public domain, BSD code, who owns it, etc.) As usual, Groklaw, has discussion, as well as the Order and an excellent chart of the history of alleged violations has been created as well."

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