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Comments: 23 + -   "Mythical Man-Month" Supposedly Busted By MIT Startup on Wednesday March 10, @08:15PM

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 10, @08:15PM
from the many-eyes-and-fingers dept.
programming
An anonymous reader writes "We all know about the Mythical Man-Month, the argument that adding more programmers to a software project just makes it later and later. A Linux startup out of MIT claims to have busted the myth, using an MIT holiday month to hire 20 college student interns to get all their work done and quadrupling its productivity."
Read More... 23 comments story

Comments: 58 + -   Zeus Botnet Dealt a Blow As ISPs Troyak, Group 3 Knocked Out on Wednesday March 10, @06:59PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @06:59PM
from the brief-respite-while-sauron-regroups dept.
botnet
itwbennett writes "Niney of the 249 Zeus command-and-control servers were knocked offline overnight when two ISPs, named Troyak and Group 3, were taken offline. Whoever was behind the takedown 'just decided to knock out a large area of cybercrime, and this was probably one of the easiest ways to do it,' said Kevin Stevens, a researcher with SecureWorks. As with the McColo takedown of just over a year ago, Troyak's upstream providers seem to have knocked it off the Internet, Cisco said in a statement. 'The ISP was "De-peered,"' Cisco said. 'Troyak's upstream network providers effectively pulled the plug on Troyak's router, refusing to transmit its traffic.'"
Read More... 58 comments story

Comments: 100 + -   OnLive Remote Gaming Service Launches In June on Wednesday March 10, @06:08PM

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday March 10, @06:08PM
from the promises-coming-due dept.
adeelarshad82 writes "After eight years of development, remote gaming service OnLive is scheduled to roll out on June 17 for Windows and Mac. The company also announced its service pricing: users will need to pay $14.95 per month, which will allow them access to the service. However, the company did not disclose the price to rent or purchase games. 'It is partnering in this launch with publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The games will also include new releases like Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed II, as well as a bunch of other titles. Perlman anticipates anywhere from a dozen to 25 titles to be available at launch time, and more after that, depending on how negotiations with other publishers proceed.'"
Read More... 100 comments story

Comments: 36 + -   Google Opens Apps Marketplace on Wednesday March 10, @05:27PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @05:27PM
from the software-on-tap dept.
snydeq writes "Google has launched the Google Apps Marketplace, providing a venue for third-party, cloud-based applications to supplement Google's own online applications. The program enables integrations with such applications as Google Gmail, Documents, Sites, and Calendar. All told, the effort begins with 50 vendors participating, including Atlassian, NetSuite, Skytap, and Zoho. Participation in Google Apps Marketplace is open to customers of the Premier, Standard, and Education editions of Google Apps. Applications are linked to the marketplace via REST Web services and APIs including OpenID and OAuth."
Read More... story

Comments: 146 + -   Digitizing and Geocoding Old Maps? on Wednesday March 10, @04:42PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @04:42PM
from the walking-directions-rivendell-to-el-dorado dept.
inputdev
alobar72 writes "I have quite a few old maps (several hundreds; 100+ years old, some are already damaged – so time is not on my side). What I want to do is to digitize them and to apply geo-coordinates to them so I can use them as overlays for openstreetmap data or such. Obviously I cannot put those maps onto my €80 scanner and go. Some of them are really large (1.5m x 1.5m roughly, I believe) and they need to be treated with great care because the paper is partly damaged. So firstly I need a method or service provider that can do the digitizing without damaging them. Secondly I need a hint what the best method is to apply geo coordinates to those maps then. The maps are old and landscape and places have changed, it maybe difficult to identify exact spots. So: are there any experiences or tips I could use?"
Read More... 146 comments story

Comments: 135 + -   Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat on Wednesday March 10, @04:21PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @04:21PM
from the visit-the-chiba-clinic-for-an-upgrade dept.
science
ral writes "The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."
Read More... 135 comments story

Comments: 141 + -   The Lost Film That Accompanied Empire Strikes Back on Wednesday March 10, @04:00PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @04:00PM
from the first-reel dept.
movies
An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."
Read More... 141 comments story

Comments: 48 + -   OpenSSH 5.4 Released on Wednesday March 10, @03:40PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @03:40PM
from the but-it's-secret dept.
encryption
HipToday writes "As posted on the OpenBSD Journal, OpenSSH 5.4 has been released: 'Some highlights of this release are the disabling of protocol 1 by default, certificate authentication, a new "netcat mode," many changes on the sftp front (both client and server) and a collection of assorted bugfixes. The new release can already be found on a large number of mirrors and of course on www.openssh.com.'"
Read More... 48 comments story

Comments: 99 + -   Amazon 1-Click Patent Survives Almost Unscathed on Wednesday March 10, @03:18PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @03:18PM
from the can-this-just-be-a-bad-dream? dept.
Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a 'shopping cart model.' Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.
Read More... 99 comments story

Comments: 123 + -   6 Smartphone Keyboards Compared on Wednesday March 10, @02:35PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @02:35PM
from the none-can-stack-up-to-my-thrift-store-board dept.
inputdev
Barence writes "A debate that crops up time and again is whether it's better to have a dedicated keyboard on your smartphone or whether an on-screen keyboard with text correction is adequate. Some phones with screen-based keyboards have started to provide tactile feedback, either using an ultra-quick spin of their vibration alert or, like the BlackBerry Storm2, using clever piezo-electric technology to simulate the feel of a button press. But which system works best? PC Pro's Paul Ockendon gathered six of the most popular handsets around and put them through a timed typing test to see which proved quickest and most typo-free."
Read More... 123 comments story
 
Japanese Baby Robot Teaches Parenting Skills
Couple Raises Virtual Child and Starves Real One
YouTube Video Leads To Arrest For Speeding
Man Sells Bottled Ghosts In Online Auction
Poll What IT pioneer do you respect the most?
Charles Babbage
Lady Ada Lovelace
Alan Turing
K. Thompson/D. RItchie
Steve Jobs
Bill Gates
Linus Torvalds
Richard Stallman
[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:229 | Votes:7765

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