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Scientists Develop Robots That Simulate Human Development - International Business Times - 2 views

www.ibtimes.com/...baby-and-child-robots.htm robots AI science
shared by LeopoldS on 16 Jun 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 16 Jun 10
     
    anyone for a crying baby robot?
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Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | ESA needs to 'tighten the belt' amid budget crisis - 2 views

www.spaceflightnow.com/...08esaspending
shared by Joris _ on 09 Jun 10 - Cached
  • ESA is freezing spending
  • France is planning to boost its funding by 12 percent
  • ESA selected Thales Alenia Space and OHB Technology to build the satellites, but the production contract is still bogged down by Germany's complaints about the distribution of MTG work between France and Germany
  • Joris _ on 09 Jun 10
     
    no much news in regard to the january's talk of Dordain althought just a thought : what if ESA tries to make money - as CNES does - rather than just spending it ?
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Nicholas Lan on 09 Jun 10
     
    to begin with european industry (and probably governments) would complain that ESA was taking business away from industry? or any part that started to make money would be quickly spun-off
  • LeopoldS on 09 Jun 10
     
    really bad interview in my view ... btw: how is CNES making money and how much?
  • Joris _ on 09 Jun 10
     
    CNES is known to be a semi-autonomous agency in the sense that it can auto-finance parts of its activities. Besides the money coming from the state, money comes from the participation of CNES in private companies (e.g. Arianespace) and its own activities (e.g. SPOT among others...). It is about 400M€ per year (almost a class-M mission in Cosmic Vision). For the figures (in French): http://www.cnes.fr/automne_modules_files/standard/public/p4354_c050f7963b54a839a843723401bfddf2budget.pdf
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The World's Most Unusual Outsourcing Destination - PCWorld Business Center - 5 views

www.pcworld.com/...l_outsourcing_destination.html
shared by Francesco Biscani on 15 Jun 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Francesco Biscani on 15 Jun 10
     
    As discussed during lunchtime...
  • andreiaries on 15 Jun 10
     
    "Development work that requires an Internet connection is transferred across the border to China." What are programmers doing 'while the code is compiling'? Play table tennis?
  • LeopoldS on 15 Jun 10
     
    fantastic ... I particularly like: "Kim Jong Il, the de-facto leader of the country, declared people who couldn't use computers to be one of the three fools of the 21st century. (The others, he said, are smokers and those ignorant of music.)"
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Astronauts for hire - 1 views

www.astronauts4hire.org human spaceflight astronauts hire space science
shared by Ma Ru on 22 Jul 10 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 22 Jul 10
     
    Just a bunch of folks disappointed with not being selected to be real astronauts, or did they smell a real business? See also an interview on newscientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727696.200-astronaut-for-hire-space-tourism-will-help-science.html
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Technology Review: Commercial Spaceflight, We Have a Problem - 0 views

www.technologyreview.com/...25868 commercial spaceflight NASA
shared by LeopoldS on 03 Aug 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 03 Aug 10
     
    how much will be left after all the review processes?
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Meet The Man Who Paid A Record $335,000 For Virtual Property - Oliver Chiang - SelectSt... - 7 views

blogs.forbes.com/...rd-335000-for-virtual-property fun INF
shared by LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10
     
    does he also have to pay property tax?
  • ...4 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 30 Nov 10
     
    "He says he made the purchase partly because he wants to be able to spend more time in the virtual world. Before, he was averaging 10 to 20 hours per week. He wants to be able to spend about 40 to 60 hours a week now, basically making running the virtual asteroid a full-time job. (He'll also be cutting back on the time he spends developing software in real life.)"
  • andreiaries on 30 Nov 10
     
    From what I remember when I visited the developer/producer company HQ, he wouldn't have to pay any taxes. If he has a virtual business he might have to pay them a license fee. If you want to start a virtual bank, you would need to buy a banking license. The money thing is quite regulated in this enviroment, so probably that's why property prices can be quite high.
  • Joris _ on 30 Nov 10
  • LeopoldS on 01 Dec 10
     
    Remember the study but have completely zapped that this was with this company ... GSP rules :-)
  • LeopoldS on 01 Dec 10
     
    so how does that state get his money from this type of economy? where is the VAT in there?
  • andreiaries on 01 Dec 10
     
    Last time I checked the "state" was still loosing money. But their main income is the sale of resources. Mostly new land, but I believe at some point they wanted to sell their initial planet too.
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Galileo space navigation system to be ready in 2014 | Business | Deutsche Welle | 07.01... - 1 views

www.dw-world.de/...0,,5096845,00.html MAD GPS
shared by Joris _ on 07 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joris _ on 07 Jan 10
     
    6 years later ...
  • Nicholas Lan on 08 Jan 10
     
    seems optimistic
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Latest space jobs report still bleak | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY - 1 views

www.floridatoday.com/...+space+jobs+report+still+bleak
shared by Joris _ on 21 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Joris _ on 21 Jan 10
     
    I found these are huge numbers, as if it is the taskforce necessary for building the shuttle from scratch ... but it is supposedly reusable!
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STLport: An Interview with A. Stepanov - 2 views

www.stlport.org/...StepanovUSA.html computer science
shared by Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Generic programming is a programming method that is based in finding the most abstract representations of efficient algorithms.
  • I spent several months programming in Java.
  • for the first time in my life programming in a new language did not bring me new insights
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it has no intellectual value whatsoever
  • Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP).
  • Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10
     
    One of the authors of the STL (C++'s Standard Template Library) explains generic programming and slams Java.
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    "Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP)." Exactly. And for the industry it's the money that matters. Whatever mathematicians think about it.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    It is actually a good thing that it is "MOP" (even though I do not agree with this term): that is what makes it inter-operable, light and easy to learn. There is no point in writing fancy codes, if it does not bring anything to the end-user, but only for geeks to discuss incomprehensible things in forums. Anyway, I am pretty sure we can find a Java guy slamming C++ ;)
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    Personally, I never understood what the point of Java is, given that: 1) I do not know of any developer (maybe Marek?) that uses it for intellectual pleasure/curiosity/fun whatever, given the possibility of choice - this to me speaks loudly on the objective qualities of the language more than any industrial-corporate marketing bullshit (for the record, I argue that Python is more interoperable, lighter and easier to learn than Java - which is why, e.g., Google is using it heavily); 2) I have used a software developed in Java maybe a total of 5 times on any computer/laptop I owned over 15 years. I cannot name of one single Java project that I find necessary or even useful; for my usage of computers, Java could disappear overnight without even noticing. Then of course one can argue as much as one wants about the "industry choosing Java", to which I would counterargue with examples of industry doing stupid things and making absurd choices. But I suppose it would be a kind of pointless discussion, so I'll just stop here :)
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    "At Google, python is one of the 3 "official languages" alongside with C++ and Java". Java runs everywhere (the byte code itself) that is I think the only reason it became famous. Python, I guess, is more heavy if it were to run on your web browser! I think every language has its pros and cons, but I agree Java is not the answer to everything... Java is used in MATLAB, some web applications, mobile phones apps, ... I would be a bit in trouble if it were to disappear today :(
  • Dario Izzo on 24 Mar 10
     
    I personally do not believe in interoperability :)
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    Well, I bet you'd notice an overnight disappearance of java, because half of the internet would vanish... J2EE technologies are just omnipresent there... I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :) Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies. The final remark, because I may be mistakenly taken for an apostle of Java or something... I love the idea of generic programming, C++ is my favourite programming language (and I used to read Stroustroup before sleep), at leisure time I write programs in Python... But if I were to start a software development company, then, apart from some very niche applications like computer games, it most probably would use Java as main technology.
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    "I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :)" Doing in C++ would be awesomely crazy, I agree :) But as I see it there are lots of huge websites that operate on PHP, see for instance Facebook. For the banks and the enterprise market, as a general rule I tend to take with a grain of salt whatever spin comes out from them; in the end behind every corporate IT decision there is a little smurf just trying to survive and have the back covered :) As they used to say in the old times, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". "Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies." Apart from the IDE considerations (on which I cannot comment, since I'm not a IDE user myself), I do not see how Java beats the competition in this regard (again, Python and the huge software ecosystem surrounding it). My impression is that Java's success is mostly due to Sun pushing it like there is no tomorrow and bundling it with their hardware business.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    OK, I think there is a bit of everything, wrong and right, but you have to acknowledge that Python is not always the simplest. For info, Facebook uses Java (if you upload picture for instance), and PHP is very limited. So definitely, in company, engineers like you and me select the language, it is not a marketing or political thing. And in the case of fb, they come up with the conclusion that PHP, and Java don't do everything but complement each other. As you say Python as many things around, but it might be too much for simple applications. Otherwise, I would seriously be interested by a study of how to implement a Python-like system on-board spacecrafts and what are the advantages over mixing C, Ada and Java.
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mentored by the Advanced Concepts Team for Google Summer of Code 2010 - 4 views

socghop.appspot.com/...advancedconceptsteam pagmo google summerofcode
shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 19 Mar 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 19 Mar 10
     
    you propably already know,I post it for the twitter account and for your comments
  • ...4 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 20 Mar 10
     
    once again one of these initiatives that came up from a situation and that would never have been possible with a top-down approach .... fantastic! and as Dario said: we are apparently where NASA still has to go with this :-)
  • Joris _ on 20 Mar 10
     
    Actually, NASA Ames did that already within the NASA Open Source Agreement in 2008 for a V&V software!
  • Joris _ on 20 Mar 10
  • LeopoldS on 20 Mar 10
     
    indeed ... you are right .... interesting project btw - they started in 1999, were in 2005 the first NASA project on Sourceforge and won several awards .... then this entry why they did not participate last year: "05/01/09: Skipping this years Google Summer-of-Code - many of you have asked why we are not participating in this years Summer of Code. The answer is that both John and Peter were too busy with other assignments to set this up in time. We will be back in 2010. At least we were able to compensate with a limited number of NASA internships to continue some of last years projects." .... but I could not find them in this years selected list - any clue?
  • LeopoldS on 20 Mar 10
     
    but in any case, according to the apple guru, Java is a dying technology, so their project might as well ...
  • Joris _ on 21 Mar 10
     
    They participate under the name "The Java Pathfinder Team" (http://babelfish.arc.nasa.gov/trac/jpf/wiki/events/soc2010). It is actually a very useful project for both education and industry (Airbus created a consortium on model checking soft, and there is a lot of research on it) As far as I know, TAS had some plans of using Java onboard spacecrafts, 2 years ago. Not sure the industry is really sensible about Jobs' opinions ;) particularly if there is no better alternative!
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Making A Decision? Take Your Time - 3 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...episode.cfm decision
shared by pacome delva on 19 Apr 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Recent research out of MaastrichtUniversity School of Business and Economics shows that indeed delaying a choice, in general, can help us make better decisions. 
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Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years - 2 views

www.google.com/...M5gx1pKJwJuvL2CkaDEJjtKIMLmX0Q BIO science
shared by terencepf on 17 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • terencepf on 17 Jan 11
     
    Paleolithic Park??
  • Francesco Biscani on 17 Jan 11
     
    Wonderful! The next step is to revive the Velociraptor and then pit it against the Mammoth in a deathmatch broadcast over the interwebz. I see business potential here.
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Behavioural Economics? Try Biological Economics - 2 views

ipezone.blogspot.com/...-economics-try-biological.html science fun
shared by Loretta Latronico Poulain on 08 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 08 Mar 11
     
    The "Biological Economics" thing is a hyping (or misunderstanding) of the BBC article. The work it refers to seems to be an application of Complex Networks theory to financial networks. I found what appear to be some of the related publications: Andrew G. Haldane (April 2009) Rethinking the financial network (further references in the footnote to page 10) Erlend Nier, Jing Yang, Tanju Yorulmazer and Amadeo Alentorn (April 2008) Network models and financial stability Funny how these issues have been repeatedly popping up at the ACT in recent weeks. This connects both with the discussions on information spreading in networks, and with roadmaps' robustness.
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prediction markets - 2 views

www.intrade.com/home fun economics
shared by Nicholas Lan on 24 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 24 Feb 11
     
    talking of interesting business models - > futures markets for whether or not despots will still be in power by the end of the year. Markets>Foreign Affiars/International security
  • Ma Ru on 25 Feb 11
     
    "Challenge the Intrade Crowd with Your Wisdom"... Yeah...
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Google's 8-Point Plan to Help Managers Improve - 7 views

www.nytimes.com/...13hire.html CMS INF
shared by Dario Izzo on 16 Mar 11 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Dario Izzo on 16 Mar 11
     
    Well, well, Google says it. And all is a result of an algorithm..... Among the interesting fincings the algorithm says that technical competence of the boss is not needed..... against their own beliefs!!
  • ...3 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 16 Mar 11
     
    "Although people are always looking for the next new thing in leadership," he said, "Google's data suggest that not much has changed in terms of what makes for an effective leader."
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 16 Mar 11
     
    "Managers often want to hire people who seem just like them" does the ACT look like the managers or the managers like the ACT ? hmmm
  • Ma Ru on 16 Mar 11
     
    "the topic often feels a bit like golf" What other comparison can one use in an article aimed towards managers? :D
  • LeopoldS on 17 Mar 11
     
    nobody in the ACT plays golf yet as far as I know ...
  • Ma Ru on 17 Mar 11
     
    Which is a pity as you have a golf field not that far away :-D Maybe a good idea for a nice team building event??
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Official Google Blog: A new kind of computer: Chromebook - 3 views

googleblog.blogspot.com/...nd-of-computer-chromebook.html technology INF
shared by LeopoldS on 12 May 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 12 May 11
     
    Francesco you will like this one ...
  • Francesco Biscani on 13 May 11
     
    Nahh... it's cloud com-poo-ting, it's all about taking control from the user into the corporation. To quote Stallman: "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign [...] Somebody is saying this is inevitable - and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."
  • LeopoldS on 15 May 11
     
    but it comes from google! :-)
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Human Brain Project - Goals - 3 views

www.humanbrainproject.eu/goals.html AI bio technology science
shared by LeopoldS on 20 May 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 20 May 11
     
    can we contribute in any way to this - or alternatively benefit from this research already now?
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 20 May 11
     
    Watch out!! I read quite a lot about the contribution by EPFL (apparently coordinator) and their boss, Henry Markram. From what I read, this is not really science, but mainly a PR campaign. The main motor in this project is attracting a lot of money and the main aim to do so is promising a lot of stuff that nobody will be able to deliver. Accordingly, Markram is a very controversial person in the business...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 20 May 11
     
    Oups, sorry! Of course I meant, "the main MEAN to do so...", but the aim justifies the means. Well, that's exactly Markram's motto, I guess.
  • LeopoldS on 21 May 11
     
    interesting info indeed ... I though still think that the overall goal of this project, even if too ambitious for the time being is interesting, no?
  • Luzi Bergamin on 22 May 11
     
    It's not about interesting or not, it's about serious science or not. Also the goal of a fortune-teller is interesting, isn't it? Any description of a good science project is too ambitious, that's normal and not necessarily PR. But personally I think there is a certain limit where a science project becomes a bad SciFi thriller. This one here is a dime novel, I think. But the too ambitious is not the only point I became very doubtful. I have seen quite a number of scientists and engineers from different fields; what I read about the character and attitude of this guy just hints towards the worst case scenario. It's presumptive evidence, I know...
  • LeopoldS on 22 May 11
     
    that bad! wow ....
  • Luzi Bergamin on 22 May 11
     
    You know me, I'm the bullshitter... You remember Kurzweil and his Singularity-nonsense. In a way this was very similar. Though I think Kurzweil and Markram are very different characters (The Singularity essentially is a religion, I can't see anything like that in Markram's claims) they seem to share an important point: they are both complete nerds that apparently never spent a single thought on the limits of science (in its English meaning) in general nor of their particular research field in specific. One may find this excusable, I don't. But even then, they make claims that the nerdest nerd must know that they are completely unrealistic and thus I just have to assume that they claim their nonsense on purpose. The reason in Markram's case clearly seems to be money. But all this does not mean that these nerds cannot produce valuable results.
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Personal DNA Sequencing Machine One Step Closer - International Business Times - 0 views

www.ibtimes.com/...ng-machine-one-step-closer.htm bio technology INF NAN
shared by LeopoldS on 25 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 25 Jul 11
     
    1000$ DNA sequencing costs - what you never wanted to know about your DNA ....
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