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An anonymous reader writes “Peter Jalowiczor is a gas worker from South Yorkshire, England. He’s also the discoverer of four giant exoplanets, according to the University of California’s Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team. But he’s not an astronomer and he doesn’t even have a telescope. ’…in 2005, astronomers at the university released millions of space measurements collected over several decades and asked enthusiasts to make of them what they would. … From March 2007 Peter, 45, spent entire nights reading the data, working the figures, creating graphs. … He then sent discrepancies he discovered back to the scientists in California where they were further analyzed to see if the quirks were caused by the existence of an exoplanet.’”
Bravo - by martinux (Score: 4, Insightful) Thread
As an amateur astronomer I think the general mindset is that one cannot make a discovery of any significance without owning cutting edge hardware. Telescopes produce such mind-bending quantities of data that there is much opportunity for someone with some patience and an inquiring mind to add to the knowledge-base.
Surely also a brilliant argument of the power of publicly available data.
So… - by robthebloke (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
… there was a telescope, just not one he owned…
Re: - by owlstead (Score: 3) Thread
Yeah, it would be quite hard putting a telescope on the surface of a gas giant…
As for the question, I’d assume by looking for gravitational wobbles of stars (since I’d assume other techniques would not be available without the correct instruments?)
Not “without a telescope”. - by siddesu (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
He’s been using “other people’s telescopes” so to speak.
This is nothing new — in fact, most astronomers work just like him - they use observations made by their colleagues.
The astronomers who actually do observations are fewer than the people who do astronomy, mostly because observing requires a whole lot of skills on top of astronomy knowledge.
Clippy - by OverlordQ (Score: 4, Funny) Thread
Hi, it looks like you’ve been spending a lot of time on a wiki. Might I suggest some Jimbo.
Posted by Soulskill (-3200% noise) View
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An anonymous reader writes “As Google prepares to compete with Apple in the digital newsstand business, both companies seem to be glossing over the fact that consumer demand for digital magazines is dropping. ‘Wired’s collapse from 100,000 iPad copies in June to 23,000 in November was most dramatic, but the story is not much different at Glamour, Vanity Fair, GQ or Men’s Health.’ Meanwhile, issues of subscriber privacy continue to crop up — Google has reportedly told publishers it will supply certain information about subscribers, and it’s not clear whether users will have the ability to opt-out. And according to the Wall Street Journal, ‘Apple is planning to share more data about who downloads a publisher’s app, information publishers can use for marketing purposes.’”
Predicted future news: - by Even on Slashdot FOE (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
People continue to prefer not paying for things. Also, most people like having privacy in their lives.
Truck delivery - by boristdog (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Hey, I’ve seen all those movies where they just throw a big bundle of the latest issues off the back of a truck as they pass by the newsstand.
Even with a protective case that’s gotta be harsh on the iPad.
I’ts not ‘cheapness’ - by gurps_npc (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
I, and many others, are perfectly willing to PAY good money for things that would otherwise be free.
But we don’t want to watch advertisements while we do it.
Expecting people to pay for online content and ALSO see any advertisement (I mean ANYTHING, even simple words), is kind of like saying HBO wants to continue to charge their premium price for premium services but it is now going to show advertisements.
NO. You can’t have it both ways,
You want ads? You can’t charge. Period.
You want to charge? You can’t have ads. Also, NO tracking. No ads means you don’t have to tracks us (You can still track how many people read which article, but not which article any individual reads.)
As long as the greedy morons try to charge HBO prices for TBS content, surprise surprise, no one will pay.
Posted by Soulskill (-2700% noise) View
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Ismellpoop writes “With the new year upon us and resolutions being made to change unwanted behavior, many tools are now available to help people stay in line, such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling and a program that cuts off credit-card spending. Another device monitors your workout and offers real-time voice feedback. Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can’t manage our own desires?”
How is this any different than my alarm clock? - by h4rr4r (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
How is this any different than my alarm clock?
Is it my mother because it wakes me?
The blurb misses something in the proposition. - by Seumas (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can’t manage our own desires?
If you’re the one setting up these utilities for yourself, then you are managing your own desires.
Re:The blurb misses something in the proposition. - by spun (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
I refuse to let anyone tell me what to do, especially past-me. Who does that fucker think he was, making decisions for me? When he told our wife “I’ll pick up groceries on the way home,” did he have any idea how tired I would be after work? No, and he didn’t care, because it’s not him picking up the groceries, he is gone, he is only a shadow of the past, and I am the one who has to pick up the groceries. Well, fuck it. It’s not like I’m hungry now. If future me gets hungry, he can get his own damn food. But knowing him, he’ll blame me for not getting it for him now, the sanctimonious prick.
Posted by CmdrTaco (-2600% noise) View
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eldavojohn writes “Remember a few months ago when the feasibility was discussed of a thousand core processor? By using FPGAs, Glasgow University researchers have claimed a proof of concept 1,000 core chip that they demonstrated running an MPEG algorithm at a speed of 5Gbps. From one of the researchers, ‘This is very early proof-of-concept work where we’re trying to demonstrate a convenient way to program FPGAs so that their potential to provide very fast processing power could be used much more widely in future computing and electronics. While many existing technologies currently make use of FPGAs, including plasma and LCD televisions and computer network routers, their use in standard desk-top computers is limited. However, we are already seeing some microchips which combine traditional CPUs with FPGA chips being announced by developers, including Intel and ARM. I believe these kinds of processors will only become more common and help to speed up computers even further over the next few years.’”
Re: - by Lumpy (Score: 3) Thread
given your last comment - I think pre-defined hardware such as AMD/Intel desktop chips will always be faster than FPGA for a pre-specified set of individual operations. It’s only when you get to operation combinations not defined at manufacture time, but used frequently, that FPGA has an advantage.
The current CPU design will stay for most of the work, and an FPGA attachment would handle the specialty work that isn’t needed most of the time, and can be dropped.
This issue is reprogramming time and muti-thread
Took long enough… - by Crudely_Indecent (Score: 3) Thread
This story was already submitted two times before eldavojon managed to get it to the front page in a little over an hour…
http://tech.slashdot.org/submission/1432844/University-of-Glasgow-pioneers-1000-core-processor
http://tech.slashdot.org/submission/1432512/1000-core-processors-
Life Cycle - by glueball (Score: 4, Interesting) Thread
I think this is a great development. I’ve been using FPGAs in medical imaging for about 15 years. The groups that use the GPUs are getting great performance—definitely—but seeing as how MRI and CT machines are placed and need to run for 10, 15 20 years, I don’t see how the GPUs will survive that time. One large OEM was pushing the GPUs for their architecture and I can’t believe it will be successful if success is measured on the longevity scale. I’m sure the service sales guy will clean up.
Why do GPUs fail? I’m not sure of the exact modes of failure but the amount of heat has got to have something to do with it. FPGAs will run much cooler and in the FLOPS/Watt game, will win.
Posted by CmdrTaco (-3000% noise) View
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blarkon writes “Microsoft commentator and Windows Phone 7 Expert Paul Thurrott has reported a serious bug that indicates Windows Phone 7 is uploading up to 50 MB of unidentified data every day. The phone operating system apparently ignores Wi-Fi connections for sending this data, leading some Windows Phone 7 owners hitting their 2 GB plan data limit while doing little more than checking email and social networking sites. Thurrott has written a book on Windows Phone 7 and is unlikely to be making such a claim unless it has some substance. At the moment no one knows what this data contains or where it is going, though Thurrott suspects it may be related to the Windows Phone Marketplace”
Re:Data plan limits are a scam - by FooAtWFU (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
While it’s one thing to charge people more to discourage excessive data use and maintain your network performance and the like, it’s quite another thing to make it part of your business plan to charge unsuspecting users hundreds of dollars when they exceed that cap without realizing it. That’s just exploiting people.
See also: international data roaming.
Re:Data plan limits are a scam - by Jerry (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
Apparently not. I don’t hear any significant mass outcry against this, except from Geeks. I did see a lot of corporate drones spewing corporate propaganda about how the new rules would “keep the Internet neutral”. Joe and Sally Sixpack aren’t knowledgeable, or concerned enough, to care. Besides, you should know by now that the FCC isn’t about protecting the American public from greedy corporations, its about helping those corporations maximize their profits beyond normal returns, after helping those corporations stealing control of what was a tax-payer funded and supported communication facility. The affect of bribing (a.k.a “Campaign Contributions”) politicians in Washington was an “AT&T breakup” in reverse. Since FCC chairman are chosen from among ISP management and return to ISP management when their terms expire how could you expect a different result. The situation is the same in all of the regulatory bureaucracies, which is why our Republic has been replaced by a Cabal and the Constitution has been effectively gutted — all in the name of “Security”, of course.
I pay $72/mon for a 12Mb/s guaranteed no-cap connection. That does not include phone or TV. A friend of mine in France pays $30/m for a 40Mb/s connection which includes free calls 24/7/365 to any other phone in France PLUS 200 channels of TV. The difference is greed. I have a fiber optic cable buried in my front yard. It was put there 15 years ago by my city government after it got tired of trying to convince the local cable and telcos to bring highbandwidth to the city. The cable and telcos bribed Congress to outlaw such “unfair competition” and in that Bill Congress gave the cable and telcos $200 Billion to finish what the local governments had started. Unfortunately, the bill did not contain a performance penalty clause, so the cable and telcos pocketed the money and promptly forgot about the fiber optic plans. Now, they are trying to maximize their profits on old Copper wire by trying to “two-tier” packets. The FCC’s new rule allows tiering for wireless but not for Copper. The reason is also obvious — force cable users to wireless, where telcos can squeeze even more profits from users.
In the near future you can expect them to begin charging a monthly fee for each website you visit, along with a monthly data cap. Ten bucks per month for email, for Facebook, per RSS, 25 bucks for YouTube. All with monthly data caps that are so low it guarantees that the users will be pushed into expensive per Mb download charges.
Joe, Sally, by being so stupid you asked for it. Now you are going to get it. Unfortunately, so will the rest of us.
Re:Data plan limits are a scam - by Chibi Merrow (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
Cox sued… BellSouth sued… then several “concerned citizens completely and totally unconnected with Cox or BellSouth, we promise, honest!” sued, as well. I didn’t recall them pointing to any specific law, though, just general angst over the whole thing…
The sad thing is I was working in the local government at the time and I know for a fact that the Fiber-to-Home initiative was only started AFTER the local government went to Cox and BellSouth and tried to work out a deal for either one of them to deliver fiber service. Only after they both laughed the government out of their offices did LUS pursue delivering it by itself.
And yeah, that’s one of the things that makes me kick myself for leaving Lafayette as well. Especially since the neighborhood my apartment was in was picked as the first for fiber rollout about three months AFTER I left…
Posted by CmdrTaco (-3300% noise) View
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netbuzz writes “Thanks to some 630,000 individual contributions that averaged $22 apiece, Wikipedia has reached its fundraising goal of $16 million, founder Jimmy Wales announced over the weekend. Writes Wales, ’… this year is a little more incredible than most because this year we celebrate Wikipedia’s tenth anniversary. It’s so important that we kick the year off just like this: by fully funding the Wikimedia Foundation’s budget to support Wikipedia and all the sister projects as we head into the next decade of our work together.’ The online encyclopedia now boasts of being the Internet’s fifth largest site, which renews questioning by some as to whether it can afford over the long haul to stand by its policy of refusing advertising.”
Re:First Address Targeted Advertising, Then We’ll - by Abstrackt (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
I always thought this was self-destructive behavior on Slashdot’s part.
I can’t speak for others but just the fact that I was given the option to block ads at the site level is enough for me to allow them. I feel that little checkbox is a sign of respect from this site and since I’m too cheap to pay to be a subscriber, I show my respect by leaving the ads in place.
Re:Pay to skip the ads - by Anthony Mouse (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
I think we are increasingly moving toward a model where people will subscribe to sources of information/entertainment if they don’t want to see the ads, or they will get a free version that includes ads (and possibly presents other limitations in format or content).
Wouldn’t surprise me to see Wikipedia go this way.
Honestly, I would expect them to stay just the way they are, if they want to badly enough. Think about it: They’re already the fifth most popular website. They are unlikely to become substantially more popular than that, which means that their operation costs are already close to their peak level. Now consider this:
1) The cost of bandwidth and servers, which has got to be some large fraction of their expenses, go down over time.
2) They made their financing goal for this year, a year in which by (1) their costs are likely to be higher than in future years.
Also, $16M in the scheme of things is not a lot of money. If that’s their yearly budget then all it would take is one billionaire to provide them a $350M or so endowment in a will or something and they would be set forever just on the interest. (That is, once interest rates get back above 0% again.)
Realistically, the biggest threat to Wikipedia is ISPs violating network neutrality. If Wikipedia had to pay whatever tithe each ISP decided they were entitled to in order to reach their subjects, that could explode their costs pretty quickly and require them to seek other sources of funding.
Re:Begging - by jhoegl (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
Ask NPR, it has been their business model for quite some time.
Re:Begging - by Rude Turnip (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
I prefer to put my money where my mouth is and support public radio. After not watching any commercial news for probably the last few years and just relying on NPR and BBC for the most part, I happened to visit a relative when the TV news came on. I am not exaggerating when I say the news show had a jittery cartoon-like appearance in its speech and presentation style. And it was mostly commercials. That is the mindless garbage you get when you let someone else pay for your news.
Posted by samzenpus (-3800% noise) View
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tekgoblin writes “An Apple authorized Service Provider called System Graph is suing a customer who complained online about poor service from them. The customer Dimitrios Papadimitriadis took his iMac to them because he was seeing gray spots on his LED panel. The Greek company System Graph recommended a full interior cleaning of the iMac and performed the service for Dimitrios. He then got his iMac back and noticed moisture behind the screen and that it still did not work properly and took it back to the repair center. System Graph then told him that they needed to keep his iMac to replace the LED screen and he would be without it for another week.
Re:PR nightmare - by FatLittleMonkey (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
Apple also needs to lend him some lawyers. (He’s being sued remember.) That act alone would undo all the brand damage this “support” company is causing.
Re:PR nightmare - by XxtraLarGe (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
Sorry, but Apple really doesn’t care. My iMac was in for a warranty fix for over two weeks. The motherboard was replaced and then they had to replace the video card which was a separate unit. You can write them all you want, they don’t even reply. While I like their machines their support does suck. If you have an iMac you have to bring it to an authorized service center which can be a real bear with the larger iMacs.
I have a slightly different experience with their customer service. My 24” iMac stopped working on Dec. 13, 2010. It was freezing on startup. I called Apple on the 14th, and explained to them that I didn’t have a vehicle so I couldn’t take it in to the retail store, so they arranged for an on site repair at my workplace. They overnighted a package on the 15th, since cut-off time for Fed-Ex had already passed. The tech wasn’t in to get the package on the 16th, so he got it on the 17th and called me. We arranged for him to come to my workplace on the 22nd since that was his first available day. He came in and replaced the logic board but that still didn’t fix it. So he called Apple back and they said it must be the RAM, so they overnighted another package to him, and on the 23rd he met me at my house since I started vacation that day. He had to drive about 70 miles one way to get there, vs. 45 miles to get to my workplace. He replaced the RAM, and that didn’t work either, so I had to run it up to the Apple Store, which was about 70 miles away from my home. They couldn’t get it working either, so I had to leave it.
They didn’t call me back to let me know it was fixed until the 30th. While a week was a long time, they did have to order the part on the 24th, they were closed on the 25th, so they didn’t even get the part until the 27th. Still, it was a lot longer than I would have preferred. So I drove back up to the Apple Store and picked it up in the afternoon. When I got home later in the afternoon, I started to restore my computer from my Time Machine backup. It was going to take about 5 hours, so I let it run overnight. Next morning, I got up and the computer was sleeping, so I jiggled the mouse to wake it up. Nothing. I held down the power button to make sure it was off, then I started it up again. I got the chime & a black screen. I tried it again, this time unplugging it first, and also zapping the PRAM on startup, but still, nothing.
I was steamed, so I called the Apple Store & set up another “Genius Bar” appt. When I got up there, they tried booting it and got the same thing. He said he was going to see if they had another video card in stock so they could repair it. I told him everything I had already been through, and explained how I didn’t have access to the computer for my entire vacation which ended on Jan. 3, and I was highly displeased. He said he would talk to their manager, and they ended up offering me a new 27” iMac for my troubles to replace my 2 1/2 year old 24” iMac. Granted, it did take a much longer time than I would have hoped, but I got a better outcome than I expected.
Here I thought we’d end through nuclear war… - by ibsteve2u (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
But no, even worse: We’re destined to entwine the legal system throughout every facet of our lives until we reach stasis between wanting to act and fearing to act and then entropy will take over and we’ll just…stop.
Re:Here I thought we’d end through nuclear war… - by TheGratefulNet (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
fearing to act and then entropy will take over and we’ll just…stop.
so… uhh
Re:Here I thought we’d end through nuclear war… - by WindBourne (Score: 5, Interesting) Thread
Here in America, it is our legal system that is killing us. We have idiots running around blaming Unions, regs, and high labor/power costs. And yet, according to major industrialists who put up plants all over the world EXCEPT in America, they blame it on the fact that so many lawsuits are filed. According to them, our high costs are minor compared to the costs of dealing with GD lawyers. And what do these lawyers become? Politicians.
I had hoped that ppl in America would take note, but we can not get slashdoters with the stories to even take note. I still see idiots here that blame unions, regs, while others blame business ppl. As such, I give little chance for the average citizen to figure things out.
Windbourne (moderating)
Posted by samzenpus (-2300% noise) View
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dkd903 writes “Though Google’s Nexus S is powered by a single core Hummingbird processor, it looks like the one core would be enough to put LG’s dual-core processor powered Optimus to shame. An XDA Forums user morfic has overclocked the processor on Nexus S up to 1.2GHz in a new kernel based on the Bionix NS1 mod.”
So… - by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
How is the battery life after you install a pump for the coolant and a fan for the radiator?
Hummingbird - by MrEricSir (Score: 5, Funny) Thread
Does the Hummingbird processor require more nectar when it’s overclocked?
Re:Really?? - by teh31337one (Score: 5, Informative) Thread
Quadrant is a pretty flawed test.
That said, based on some other benchmarks and their respective specs, tegra2 has roughly 2.5x more CPU power compared to the hummingbird SOC. (1ghz A9 runs 25% faster than 1ghz A8, and tegra 2 is a dual core A9) Anadtech’s Linpack scores seem to show that too. (Ignore the bloated snapdragon class scores, it has floating point performance optimisations) Article here
GPU performance is where it gets interesting. It seems like the PowerVR 540 GPU on the hummingbird SoC is better than the GPU used in the Tegra 2 SoC. Odd considering nVidia make the tegra2. Instances where Tegra 2 outperforms the hummingbird in GPU benchmarks are as far as i can tell down to the extra CPU power (roughly 250% faster)
Samsung’s upcoming Orion chip also looks promising, and is a closer match to the Tegra 2.
Posted by samzenpus (-3400% noise) View
Ponca City writes “The Epoch Times reports that online travel booking giant Expedia has removed American Airlines from its travel website over disagreements with American’s fee structure in the latest incident in an escalating battle between airlines and online travel agents. Although American gets roughly two-thirds of its revenues from third-party travel agents like Expedia, American has been looking for online agents to cut their fees as one way to lower fares — something that Expedia was not prepared to do. Expedia released a statement that American’s action ‘will result in higher costs and reduced transparency for consumers, making it difficult to compare ticket prices and options with offerings by other airlines,’ while American urged customers to book directly on American’s website for the lowest prices. Meanwhile Google is waiting in the wings with its recent proposal to purchase ITA Software, the developer of the Internet’s leading technology to compare flights fares. ‘Though 49 percent of travelers purchase travel online, it is still time consuming and slow to search for travel options online,’ says a statement from Google, defending the ITA acquisition which is being opposed by Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. ‘We plan to work with ITA to create a new, easier way for users to find better flight information online.’”
Re:Not really - by Low Ranked Craig (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
I’d have to agree, and as it turns out Southwest is one of the few profitable airlines. When I have to fly I try Southwest first, then Jet Blue. If I can get their on either of those I drive or I don’t go. Actually these days with all the shit going on at the airport if it’s too far to drive I don’t go.
Low-cost airlines vs. traditional - by schnell (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
When I have to fly I try Southwest first, then Jet Blue. If I can get their on either of those I drive or I don’t go.
If you are a “casual” traveler - i.e. you typically travel for personal reasons or at your own discretion - you’re dead on. Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin America are inexpensive, comfortable and usually will get you where you need to go on time. These airplanes don’t offer much in the way of perks or status programs (other than getting you a free flight now and then), but as a casual flyer that’s not a big deal.
But if you fly fairly often (say, 50,000 miles a year or more) for work etc., then the traditional carriers start making a lot more sense - mainly because they do have multiple classes, perks programs etc. For example, United is a pretty terrible airline - more expensive, bad customer service in many cases, less nice cabins
So I think which airlines you look at should be based on your travel profile. I can almost analogize it to business class vs. consumer class Internet services - consumer class is cheaper and is good enough most of the time. If you have special needs or are a heavy user, paying more for the business service is the way to go.
Re:Low-cost airlines vs. traditional - by CohibaVancouver (Score: 5, Insightful) Thread
But if you fly fairly often (say, 50,000 miles a year or more) for work etc., then the traditional carriers start making a lot more sense
They also make a lot of sense if you want to fly from Des Moines to Paris or from New Orleans to Rio. You can check in with a “tradional” legacy carrier at those airports and be checked all the way through to your international destination, baggage and all (via a hub). Try doing *that* on Southwest. I realize Americans who have passports and travel overseas regularly are very much in the minority, but for those who do this is a valuable service.
