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Microsoft May Back Off of .NET Languages

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:28 +0000

An anonymous reader writes “Though Microsoft had initially made a commitment to create versions of dynamic languages that are customized for .NET, recent reports make it clear that the company may be stepping back from this plan. Much early speculation on this change in focus comes from Jim Schementi, previously the program manager in charge of Microsoft’s implementation of the Ruby software known as IronRuby. Schementi reports on his blog that the team dedicated to working on IronRuby has decreased to one employee. According to Schementi, his departure from the company came as Microsoft began to display a ’serious lack of commitment’ to any .NETized dynamic languages, including IronRuby.”

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NASA Preparing For Largest Hurricane Study Ever

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:27 +0000

anonymous writes “Does lightning predict the intensity of a tropical storm? What role does dust from the Sahara play? Do hurricanes form from the large-scale environment around a tropical storm or from small-scale formations 100 kilometers from the center? A team from NASA, NOAA, and NSF plan to find out. Starting Saturday, the team will conduct the largest hurricane study every undertaken. Among other things, a better understanding of hurricanes has ramifications for weather prediction, building codes, insurance policies, and disaster planning.” One recent study found that hurricane creation is affected by plankton in the ocean.

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Google Responds To Net Neutrality Reviews

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:27 +0000

I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “Google has written a defense of their joint Net Neutrality proposal with Verizon, responding to criticism like the EFF’s recent review. Google presents its arguments as a list of myths and facts, but too many of them look like this one: ‘MYTH: This proposal would eliminate network neutrality over wireless. FACT: It’s true that Google previously has advocated for certain openness safeguards to be applied in a similar fashion to what would be applied to wireline services. However, in the spirit of compromise, we have agreed to a proposal that allows this market to remain free from regulation for now, while Congress keeps a watchful eye. Why? First, the wireless market is more competitive than the wireline market, given that consumers typically have more than just two providers to choose from. Second, because wireless networks employ airwaves, rather than wires, and share constrained capacity among many users, these carriers need to manage their networks more actively. Third, network and device openness is now beginning to take off as a significant business model in this space.’”

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Rupert Murdoch Claims To Own the ‘Sky’ In ‘Skype’

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:27 +0000

Crudely_Indecent writes “Not content to own just news stories, Rupert Murdoch is now going after individual words! His BSkyB is fighting a legal battle with the Skype, claiming that it owns the ‘Sky’ in ‘Skype.’ From the article: ‘A spokesman for Sky confirmed that the company has been involved in a “five-year dispute with Skype” over trademark applications filed by the telecomms company. These are, the spokesman added: “including, but not limited to, television-related goods and services.”‘”

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Man Takes Up Internal Farming

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:27 +0000

RockDoctor writes “‘A Massachusetts man who was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung.’ Just that summary should tell you enough to work out most of the rest of the details, but it does raise a number of questions unaddressed by the article: How did the pea roots deal with the patient’s immune system? What would have happened if the situation had continued un-treated? I bet the guy has a career awaiting him in PR for a pea-growing company.”

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Oracle Sues Google For Infringing Java Patents

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:26 +0000

Bruce Perens writes “Oracle has brought a lawsuit against Google claiming that Google has infringed patents on the Java platform in Android. Scribd has a copy of the complaint. But there’s a patent grant that should allow Google to use Java royalty-free. Has Google failed to meet the terms of the grant?”

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What Went Wrong At Yahoo

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:26 +0000

kjh1 writes “Paul Graham writes about what he felt went wrong at Yahoo. He has first-hand experience — his company, Viaweb, was bought by Yahoo and he worked there for a while. In a nutshell, he felt that Yahoo was too conflicted about whether they were a technology company or a media company. ‘If anyone at Yahoo considered the idea that they should be a technology company, the next thought would have been that Microsoft would crush them.’ This in part led to hiring bad programmers, or at least not going single-mindedly after the very best ones. They also lacked the ‘hacker’ culture that Google and Facebook still seem to have, and that is found in many startup tech companies. ‘As long as customers were writing big checks for banner ads, it was hard to take search seriously. Google didn’t have that to distract them.’”

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US Students Struggle With Understanding of the ‘Equal’ Sign

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:26 +0000

bickerd— writes with news of research out of Texas A&M which found that roughly 70% of middle grades students in the US don’t fully understand what the ‘equal’ sign means. Quoting: “‘The equal sign is pervasive and fundamentally linked to mathematics from kindergarten through upper-level calculus,’ Robert M. Capraro says. ‘The idea of symbols that convey relative meaning, such as the equal sign and “less than” and “greater than” signs, is complex and they serve as a precursor to ideas of variables, which also require the same level of abstract thinking.’ The problem is students memorize procedures without fully understanding the mathematics, he notes. ‘Students who have learned to memorize symbols and who have a limited understanding of the equal sign will tend to solve problems such as 4+3+2=( )+2 by adding the numbers on the left, and placing it in the parentheses, then add those terms and create another equal sign with the new answer,’ he explains. ‘So the work would look like 4+3+2=(9)+2=11.’”

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Drunk Driver Mugshots Featured On Facebook

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:26 +0000

An anonymous reader writes “Get yourself a DUI and your mugshot may get some exposure on Facebook. That is, if you get caught in New Jersey by Evesham Township’s police, which have begun posting mugshots of arrested people, convicted or not, on its Facebook page. Now, we know that if you get arrested, your privacy is pretty much limited to the brand of your underpants, but the local police department has started a controversy and may find itself in hot water. How much value does a public mugshot on Facebook have to the public? What privacy rights do you have if you get arrested?”

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Aussie National Broadband Network Will Be Gigabit

tp4266 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:35:25 +0000

schmidty-au writes “NBN Co, the Australian Government company established to build Australia’s national fibre-optic broadband network, announced today that, instead of the previously announced 100 Mbps network, it will provide 1 Gbps, within the existing AU$43 billion budget. Meanwhile, the Australian opposition, which has announced that it will scrap the network if it wins the 21 August election, and instead provide incentives to the private sector to improve the existing copper network, and to install wireless broadband (with promised peak speeds of 12 Mbps), does not understand or believe that this would be possible. The man who wants to be Australia’s next Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said today ‘This idea that “hey presto” we are suddenly going to get 10 times the speed from something that isn’t even built yet I find utterly implausible.’”

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