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======================================================================
Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* Solar Roadways Get DoT Funding
* A New Look At Brain Control
* Is "Good Enough" the Future of Technology?
* Highly-Paid Developers As ScrumMasters?
* Microsoft Holding 'Screw Google' Meetings In DC
* Utah Law Punishes Texters As Much As Drunks In Driving Fatalities
* Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear
* Security Test Prompts Federal Fraud Alert
* ESA Sent Takedown Notices For 45 Million Infringements In Fiscal 2009
* Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Worries Researchers
* James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News"
* Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose
* Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite
* Dell Says Re-Imaging HDs a Burden If Word Banned
* Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Solar Roadways Get DoT Funding |
| from the technology-that-wouldn't-work-in-michigan dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Friday August 28, @21:59 (Power) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/0018256/Solar-Roadways-Get-DoT-Funding |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
mikee805 writes "Solar Roadways, a project to replace over 25,000 square
miles of road in the US with solar panels you can drive on, just
[0]received $100,000 in funding from the Department of Transportation for
the first 12ft-by-12ft prototype panel. Each panel consists of three
layers: a base layer with data and power cables running through it, an
electronics layer with an array of LEDs, solar collectors and capacitors,
and finally the glass road surface. With data and power cables, the solar
roadway has the potential to replace some of our aging infrastructure.
With only 15% efficiency, 25,000 square miles of solar roadways could
[1]produce three times what the US uses annually in energy. The building
costs are estimated to be competitive with traditional roads, and the
solar roads would [2]heat themselves in the winter to keep snow from
accumulating."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/0018256
Links:
0. http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/28/solar-roadways-get-prototype-funding-from-dot/
1. http://www.solarroadways.com/The%20Numbers.htm
2. http://www.solarroadways.com/Introduction.htm
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A New Look At Brain Control |
| from the can-we-do-it-at-a-distance-yet dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @00:02 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/023229/A-New-Look-At-Brain-Control |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
one_neuron_two_neuron writes "Researchers at Harvard have taken a new
look at [0]how electricity can make neurons fire in the brain. The
scientists found some surprising things: if you stick an electrode in the
brain and apply current, you don't just make a small group of neurons
fire ��� many neurons fire a long way away from the electrode. That's
probably because instead of activating the cell bodies of the neurons,
their axons fire. Those axons are the wiring of the brain. Your cerebral
cortex is something like a big pile of unwound yo-yos ��� if you stick an
electrode into the cortex, you're much more likely to hit the strings
(the axons), and the yo-yo connected to the string can be really far
away. So, how will you ever hook up a computer to your brain? This data
shows that we need to rethink how to do that with electrical current. If
you stick an electrode in one place, neurons in a totally different place
will fire. New [1]optogenetic methods (e.g. using viral delivery of
proteins) might work. Or possibly we will figure out how to make the
brain learn to interpret these sparse, widespread electrical patterns.
New optical techniques have made a dramatic impact on neuroscience
recently, and this study uses pulsed-laser-scanning microscopy
(two-photon microscopy) to take pictures of neurons deep inside the
living brain. The [2]academic paper (PDF) is available on the author's
site."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/023229
Links:
0. http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/foundations/articles/neural-response-electrical-currents-isnt-localized-previously-believed
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channelrhodopsin
2. http://web.mit.edu/histed/share/histed_bonin_reid-preprint-Neuron-2009-withsuppdata-MH1.pdf
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Is "Good Enough" the Future of Technology? |
| from the seems-to-work-for-the-movie-industry dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @02:08 (Medicine) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/0449206/Is-Good-Enough-the-Future-of-Technology|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
himitsu writes "In an article titled '[0]The Good Enough Revolution: When
Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine,' Wired claims that the future of
technology, warfare and medicine will be filled with 'good enough'
solutions; situations where feature-rich and expensive products are
replaced with bare-bones infrastructures and solutions. 'We now favor
flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and
dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important
than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're
actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as
"high-quality."'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/0449206
Links:
0. http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough?currentPage=all
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Highly-Paid Developers As ScrumMasters? |
| from the madness-to-our-method dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @05:10 (Programming) |
| https://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/0228215/Highly-Paid-Developers-As-ScrumMasters |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
An anonymous reader writes 'At my company, our mis-implementation of
Agile includes the employment of some of our most highly-paid, principal
engineers as ScrumMasters. This has effectively resulted in a loss of
those engineering functions as these engineers now dedicate their time to
ScrumMastery. Furthermore, the ScrumMasters either cannot or do not
separate their roles as Team Leads with those of ScrumMastery and ��� worse
��� seem to be completely unaware that this poor implementation of Agile
development is harmful to our velocity. To date, I have chalked this up
to poor leadership, a general lack of understanding of Agile, and an
inability to change from traditional roles left over from the waterfall
development mode. In addition, I have contended that, for a given Scrum
Team, the role of ScrumMaster should be filled by someone of lower
impact, such as an intern brought in specifically for that purpose. But I
would like to put the questions to Slashdotters as to whether they have
seen these same transitional difficulties, what the results have been at
their respective companies, or whether they just plain disagree with my
assertion that principal engineers should not be relegated to the roles
of ScrumMasters.'
Discuss this story at:
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/0228215
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Microsoft Holding 'Screw Google' Meetings In DC |
| from the or-perhaps-screwgle dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @08:15 (Google) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/030223/Microsoft-Holding-Screw-Google-Meetings-In-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Runaway1956 writes "Microsoft's chief Washington lobbyist has been
convening regular meetings, attended by the company's outside
consultants, that have become [1]known by some beltway insiders as 'screw
Google' meetings, DailyFinance has learned. The meetings are part of an
ongoing campaign by Microsoft, other Google opponents, and hired third
parties to discredit the Web search leader, according to multiple sources
with knowledge of the matter. 'Microsoft is at the center of a group of
companies who see Google as a threat to them in some combination of
business and policy,' said a source who requested anonymity to avoid
retribution. 'The effort is designed to make Google look like the big
high-tech bad guy here.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/030223
Links:
0. mailto:runaway1956@gmail.com
1. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/28/microsofts-secret-screw-google-meetings-in-d-c/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Utah Law Punishes Texters As Much As Drunks In Driving Fatalities |
| from the g2g-ran-ovr-sum-guy dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @09:17 (Communications) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1224250/Utah-Law-Punishes-Texters-As-Much-As-Drunks|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The NY Times reports on legislation in Utah which [0]harshly penalizes
people who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of merely
facing a fine, offenders may now get up to 15 years in jail ��� the same as
drunk drivers. "In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist
is no longer considered an 'accident' like one caused by a driver who,
say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead,
such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless. 'It's a willful
act,' said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter
of the new measure. 'If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to
text and drive, you're assuming the same risk.' The Utah law represents a
concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the
country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking
behind the wheel ��� a topic to be discussed at a national conference about
the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the
Transportation Department for this fall."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1224250
Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/technology/29distracted.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=all
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Apple Kicks HDD Marketing Debate Into High Gear |
| from the foot-pounds-per-league dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @10:20 (Data Storage) |
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1321253/Apple-Kicks-HDD-Marketing-Debate-Into-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
quacking duck writes "With the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,
Apple has [0]updated a support document describing how their new
operating system reports capacities of hard drives and other media. It
has sided with hard drive makers, who for years have advertised
capacities as '1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes' instead of the traditional
computer science definition, and in so doing has kicked the debate
between marketing and computer science into high gear. [1]Binary prefixes
for binary units (e.g. GiB for 'gibibyte') have been promoted by the
International Electrotechnical Commission and endorsed by IEEE and other
standards organizations, but to date there's been limited acceptance
(though manufacturers have wholeheartedly accepted the 'new' definitions
for GB and TB). Is Apple's move the first major step in forcing computer
science to adopt the more awkward binary prefixes, breaking decades of
accepted (if technically inaccurate) usage of SI prefixes?"
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1321253
Links:
0. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Security Test Prompts Federal Fraud Alert |
| from the in-the-not-so-wild dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @11:21 (Security) |
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1346235/Security-Test-Prompts-Federal-Fraud-Alert |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]itwbennett writes "Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the
SANS Institute, took great interest in a National Credit Union
Administration (NCUA) warning issued earlier this week, thinking,
'Finally this is in the wild, because I've only seen it in pen tests
before.' Unfortunately for Mr. Ullrich, the letter and 2 CDs that caused
the kerfuffle were part of [1]a sanctioned security test of a bank's
computer systems conducted by Ohio-based security company MicroSolved.
'It was a part of some social engineering we were doing in a fully
sanctioned penetration test,' said MicroSolved CEO Brent Huston. For his
part, NCUA spokesman John McKechnie did not have much to say about [2]his
organization's alert, except that 'at this point, it appears that this is
an isolated event.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1346235
Links:
0. http://www.itworld.com/
1. http://www.itworld.com/security/75938/security-test-prompts-federal-fraud-alert
2. http://www.ncua.gov/news/press_releases/2009/MR09-0825a.htm
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ESA Sent Takedown Notices For 45 Million Infringements In Fiscal 2009 |
| from the can't-say-they-aren't-trying dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @12:24 (Announcements) |
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1514203/ESA-Sent-Takedown-Notices-For-45-Million-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
eldavojohn writes "The Entertainment Software Association has [0]released
this year's fiscal report (PDF), putting out their numbers to level the
finger at new targets. Following up on [1]last year's published report,
this one has a whole bunch of new numbers to ponder. The top five P2P
game piracy countries this year are: Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and
Poland. The ESA's anti-piracy program notes, 'Chief among this year's
actions were five separate law enforcement raids against game pirates in
California, resulting in the seizure of several thousand games and dozens
of modded consoles, and the arrests of five individuals.' But don't
worry, they've expanded to other countries. 'The ESA sent takedown
notices to ISPs covering more than 45 million instances of infringement
of member company games in more than 100 countries worldwide.' They also
strive to show they are actually doing things, like endorsing 43 bills
aimed at regulating content or controlling access to video games ��� with
not a single one of them making it into law. They did put some into
effect at the state level; mostly making it a crime to sell mature games
to minors. You can also find their activities localized to you, as this
report has sections arranged by state and country. Conspicuously absent
this year are any global numbers of what piracy cost the entertainment
industry, so unfortunately Ars Technica will have to [2]find someone else
to audit, although [3]Venture Beat has a good breakdown."
Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1514203
Links:
0. http://www.theesa.com/about/ESA_2009_AR.pdf
1. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/31/1730236&tid=84
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/09/1745220&tid=84
3. http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/08/27/game-industrys-lobby-group-crushes-its-opposition-on-anti-game-laws/
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Worries Researchers |
| from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 29, @13:26 (Biotech) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1624215/Pacific-Ocean-Garbage-Patch-Worries-Res|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
NeverVotedBush writes with an update to a story we [0]discussed early
this month about an enormous accumulation of garbage and plastic debris
in the Pacific Ocean, a thousand miles off the coast of California. The
team of scientists has now returned from their expedition to examine the
area and say they "[1]found much more debris than they expected." The
team will start running tests on the samples they retrieved, and they are
preparing to visit another section of ocean they suspect will be full of
trash. "The Scripps team hopes the samples they gathered during the trip
nail down answers to questions of the trash's environmental impact. Does
eating plastic poison plankton? Is the ecosystem in trouble when new sea
creatures hitchhike on the side of a water bottle? Plastics have
entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish, and one paper cited
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000
marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year. The scientists hope
their data gives clues as to the density and extent of marine debris,
especially since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may have company in the
Southern Hemisphere, where scientists say the gyre is four times bigger.
'We're afraid at what we're going to find in the South Gyre, but we've
got to go there,' said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1624215
Links:
0. http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/05/010238/Expedition-To-Explore-an-Alaska-Sized-Plastic-Island
1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090828/ap_on_sc/us_sci_ocean_junk
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| James Murdoch Criticizes BBC For Providing "Free News" |
| from the you-dont'-trust-the-gov't-to-report-news-fairly? dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @14:30 (Government) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1750259/James-Murdoch-Criticizes-BBC-For-Providing-|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]Hugh Pickens writes "News Corporation's James Murdoch says that a
'dominant' BBC threatens independent journalism in the UK and that
[1]free news on the web provided by the BBC made it 'incredibly
difficult' for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their
news. 'It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism
that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it,' says
Murdoch. 'The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the
plurality and independence of news provision.' In common with the public
broadcasting organizations of many other European countries, the [2]BBC
is funded by a television license fee charged to all households owning a
television capable of receiving broadcasts. [3]Murdoch's News
Corporation, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owns the
Times, the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers and pay TV provider BSkyB in
the UK and the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News TV in the
US." Note that James Murdoch is the son of Rupert Murdoch.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1750259
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8227915.stm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pigeon Protocol Finds a Practical Purpose |
| from the fly-away-little-one dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @15:37 (It's funny. Laugh.) |
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/1934251/Pigeon-Protocol-Finds-a-Practical|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Selanit writes "Since David Waitzman wrote his tongue-in-cheek
[0]Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, there
have been occasional attempts to actually transmit information via
pigeon. One group back in 2001 successfully [1]sent a PING command. But
now there's a practical use for pigeon-based communications:
photographers working for the white-water rafting company Rocky Mountain
Adventures [2]send memory sticks full of digital photos via homing pigeon
so the photos will be ready when the rafters finish up. The company has
[3]details on how the pigeons are trained and equipped. It may not be a
full implementation of the Pigeon Protocol, but it works in narrow
canyons far off the beaten path ��� and just as David Waitzman presciently
predicted, they occasionally suffer [4]packet loss due to hawks and
ospreys."
Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/1934251
Links:
0. http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html
1. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-257064.html
2. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6209735
3. http://www.shoprma.com/pigeon_story.htm
4. http://www.9news.com/life/programming/shows/evenings/article.aspx?storyid=120407&catid=510
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite |
| from the that's-a-shame dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @16:48 (Moon) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/2047237/Communication-Lost-With-Indian-Moon-Sat|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[0]stoolpigeon writes "[1]All communication links with the only Indian
satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says.
Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early
on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization
(ISRO)."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/2047237
Links:
0. mailto:bittercode@gmail
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8228371.stm
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dell Says Re-Imaging HDs a Burden If Word Banned |
| from the what-you're-used-to dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @18:31 (Microsoft) |
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/2159221/Dell-Says-Re-Imaging-HDs-a-Burden-If-Word-B|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
N!NJA writes "In an amicus curiae brief filed on Aug. 24, Dell asked the
judge overseeing the Eastern District Court of Texas to reconsider its
order blocking sales of Word, part of the original ruling in favor of
Canadian software developer i4i. In the worst case, the brief argued, the
injunction should be delayed by 120 days. 'The District Court's
injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft,'
Dell and HP wrote. 'Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing
software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell.' 'If
Microsoft is required to ship a revised version of Word in Dell's
computers, a change would need to be made to Dell's images,' Dell wrote.
'Making such a change [0]would require extensive time- and resource-
consuming testing.' An addendum to the brief notes that it was authored
in Microsoft Word, part of Office 2003."
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/2159221
Links:
0. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352077,00.asp
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ares Manager Steve Cook Resigns From NASA |
| from the but-it's-a-revolving-door-in-space dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday August 29, @19:33 (NASA) |
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/29/2310211/Ares-Manager-Steve-Cook-Resigns-From-NA|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
FleaPlus writes "Steve Cook, project manager for the Ares I-X, Ares I,
and Ares V rockets, [0]announced that he will resign from [1]NASA MSFC
after 19 years at the agency, [2]leaving for an executive position at
Dynetics, Inc. This raises doubts about the future of the Ares program,
which has been plagued with [3]development problems and massive
cost/schedule overruns since its inception. Steve Cook also oversaw the ([4]since
discredited) 2005 ESAS study which scrapped NASA's prior plans to adapt
already-existing commercial rockets for human/beyond-LEO exploration in
favor of internally developing the Ares rockets."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/08/29/2310211
Links:
0. http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1251537316153720.xml&coll=1
1. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html
2. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32169
3. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/07/death-knell-for-nasas-ares-roc.html
4. http://selenianboondocks.com/2009/05/more-thoughts-on-esas-appendix-flaws/
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