[Slashdot] Stories for 2010-11-01
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Slashdot Daily Newsletter
In this issue:
* South Korean Cartoonists Cry Foul Over Edgy Simpsons Intro
* Cheap Metal-Insulator-Metal (MiM) Diode Created
* Apple Counter-Sues Motorola Over Touchscreen Patents
* New VP8 Codec SDK Release Improves Performance
* TSA To Make Pat-Downs More Embarrassing To Encourage Scanner Use
* 10th Birthday of ASIMO
* VLC Developer Takes a Stand Against DRM Enforcement
* Predicting Election Results With Google
* How Much Math Do We Really Need?
* UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons
* Texas Supreme Court Cites Mr. Spock
* KDE Developers Discuss Merging Libraries With Qt
* Mr. Pike, Tear Down This ASCII Wall!
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| South Korean Cartoonists Cry Foul Over Edgy Simpsons Intro
| from the boooo-urns dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 30, @20:15 (Television)
| https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/10/30/2224212/South-Korean-Cartoonists-Cry-Foul-Over-Edgy-Simpsons-Intro?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
theodp writes "When asked to animate a dark commentary about labor
practices in Asia's cartoon industry — the [0]edgy title sequence for the
Simpsons' episode 'MoneyBART' — [1]staff from the South Korean production
company Akom raised a rare protest. Even after being toned down, the
sequence created by British graffiti artist Banksy depicted a
dungeon-like complex where droning Asian animators worked in sweatshops,
rats scurried around with human bones, kittens were spliced up into Bart
Simpson dolls, and a gaunt unicorn punched holes into DVDs. The satire,
Akom founder and president Nelson Shin argued, gave the impression that
Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when they actually animate
much of The Simpsons every week in high-tech workshops in downtown Seoul.
Still, South Korean animators make one-third the salaries of their
American counterparts, and Shin declined to comment on the full extent of
the work his company has outsourced to SEK, a state-run animation studio
of North Korea. Some argue that the Banksy sequence's gray and forlorn
atmosphere more accurately depicts the sweatshop-like conditions in North
Korea."
Discuss this story at:
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/30/2224212&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://www.hulu.com/watch/184819/the-simpsons-banksy-opening
1. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2027768,00.html
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| Cheap Metal-Insulator-Metal (MiM) Diode Created
| from the technological-increment dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 30, @23:11 (Science)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/10/30/2348210/Cheap-Metal-Insulator-Metal-MiM-Diode-Created?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Progress on metal-insulator-metal diode
manufacturing was just reported online in the professional journal
Advanced Materials ([0]abstract). For the first time [1]a
high-performance 'metal-insulator-metal' diode was created with cheap
materials. This is a fundamental discovery. It could change the way
manufacturers produce electronic products at high speed, on a huge scale,
and at a very low cost, even less than with conventional methods."
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/30/2348210&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201002678/abstract
1. http://oregonstate.edu/research/partnering/advance-could-change-modern-electronics
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Apple Counter-Sues Motorola Over Touchscreen Patents
| from the round-and-round-we-go dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 31, @02:14 (Patents)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/0159253/Apple-Counter-Sues-Motorola-Over-Touchscreen-Patents?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earlier this month, we discussed news that Motorola had [0]sued Apple,
alleging infringement of 18 patents involving the iPhone, iPad, and other
Apple devices. In response, Apple has now [1]launched a pair of lawsuits
alleging that Motorola is the infringing party, pointing to a number of
patents involving touchscreen displays and multi-touch technology, and
also methods for interacting with settings and data on a device. Apple
wants the court to award them damages and prevent Motorola from
continuing to sell the offending devices, which include the Droid, Droid
2, Droid X, BackFlip, Devour i1, Devour A555, Cliq, and Cliq XT.
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/0159253&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/10/11/1551227/Motorola-Sues-Apple
1. http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/10/apple-files-lawsuit-against-motorola-to-defend-multi-touch.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| New VP8 Codec SDK Release Improves Performance
| from the frame-job dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 31, @05:12 (Google)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/0431259/New-VP8-Codec-SDK-Release-Improves-Performance?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "Google released a new version of the VP8
codec SDK on Thursday. They note a [0]number of performance improvements
over the launch release including 20-40% (average 28%) improvement in
libvpx decoder speed, an over 7% overall PSNR improvement (6.3% SSIM) in
VP8 'best' quality encoding mode, and up to 60% improvement on very
noisy, still or slow moving source video. In other WebM news, Texas
Instruments has a [1]demo of 1080p WebM video playing on their new TI
OMAP 4 processor, in both Android and Ubuntu."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/0431259&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://blog.webmproject.org/2010/10/vp8-codec-sdk-aylesbury-release.html
1. http://blog.webmproject.org/2010/10/demo-of-webm-running-on-ti-omap-4.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TSA To Make Pat-Downs More Embarrassing To Encourage Scanner Use
| from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 31, @08:15 (Transportation)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/0234232/TSA-To-Make-Pat-Downs-More-Embarrassing-To-Encourage-Scanner-Use?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Goldberg writes for the Atlantic about his recent experiences
with opting out of the back-scatter full-body scanners now being used to
screen airport travelers. Passengers can choose to submit to a pat-down
instead of going through the scanners, but according to one of the TSA
employees Goldberg talked to, the rules for those are soon [0]changing to
make things more uncomfortable for opt-outs, while not doing much for
actual security. He writes, 'The pat-down, while more effective than
previous pat-downs, will not stop dedicated and clever terrorists from
smuggling on board small weapons or explosives. When I served as a
military policeman in an Israeli army prison, many of the prisoners
'bangled' contraband up their a**es. I know this not because I checked,
but because eventually they told me this when I asked. ... the
effectiveness of pat-downs does not matter very much, because the obvious
goal of the TSA is to make the pat-down embarrassing enough for the
average passenger that the vast majority of people will choose high-tech
humiliation over the low-tech ball check."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/0234232&from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 10th Birthday of ASIMO
| from the they-grow-up-so-fast dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @09:43 (Robotics)
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1210221/10th-Birthday-of-ASIMO?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
uyguremre writes "Honda is celebrating the [0]10th anniversary of its
ASIMO, the world's most advanced humanoid robot. To mark this special
occasion, Honda has launched [1]a dedicated website hosting films and
photographs detailing ASIMO's evolution over the past 10 years. ASIMO is
a humanoid robot created by Honda."
Discuss this story at:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1210221&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8096517/Hondas-Asimo-robot-is-10-years-old.html
1. http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| VLC Developer Takes a Stand Against DRM Enforcement
| from the fighting-the-good-fight dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @11:09 (GNU is Not Unix)
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1351243/VLC-Developer-Takes-a-Stand-Against-DRM-Enforcement?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]jamie writes "The GPL gives Apple permission to distribute this
software through the App Store. All they would have to do is follow the
license's conditions to help keep the software free. Instead, Apple has
decided that they prefer to [1]impose Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM) and proprietary legal terms on all programs in the App Store, and
they'd rather kick out GPLed software than change their own rules."
Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1351243&from=newsletter
Links:
0. mailto:jamie@slashdot.org
1. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/vlc-enforcement/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Predicting Election Results With Google
| from the future-search dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @12:38 (Google)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1520249/Predicting-Election-Results-With-Google?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
destinyland writes "Google announced they've [0]searched for clues about
the upcoming US election using their internal tools (as well as its
'Insights for Search' tool, which compares search volume patterns for
different regions and timeframes.) 'Looking at the most popular searches
on Google News in October, the issues that stand out are the economy,'
their official blog reported, adding, 'we continue to see many searches
for terms like unemployment and foreclosures, as well as immigration and
health care.' But one technology reporter also notes [1]almost perfect
correspondence between some candidate's predicted vote totals from
[2]FiveThirtyEight and their current search volume on Google, with only a
small margin of error for other candidates. 'Oddly enough, the race with
a clear link between web interest and expected voting is the unusual
three-way contest [in Florida], where the breakdown between candidates
should if anything be less clear-cut and predictable.' And Google adds
that also they're seeing national interest in one California proposition
— which would legalize marijuana."
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1520249&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/searching-your-way-to-ballot-box.html
1. http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2010/10/28/can-google-call-elections/
2. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| How Much Math Do We Really Need?
| from the factor-your-future dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @14:03 (Math)
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1659208/How-Much-Math-Do-We-Really-Need?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[0]Pickens writes "G.V. Ramanathan, a professor emeritus of mathematics,
statistics and computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
writes in the Washington Post that although a lot of effort and money has
been spent to make mathematics seem essential, [1]unlike literature,
history, politics and music, math has little relevance to everybody's
daily life. 'All the mathematics one needs in real life can be learned in
early years without much fuss,' writes Ramanathan. 'Most adults have no
contact with math at work, nor do they curl up with an algebra book for
relaxation.' Ramanathan says that the marketing of math has become
similar to the marketing of creams to whiten teeth, gels to grow hair and
regimens to build a beautiful body, but even with generous government
grants over the past 25 years, countless courses, conferences, and books
written on how to teach teachers to teach, where is the evidence that
these efforts have helped students? A 2008 review by the Education
Department found that the nation is at 'greater risk now' than it was in
1983, and the [2]National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores
for 17-year-olds have remained stagnant since the 1980s (PDF). Meanwhile
those who do love math and science have been doing very well and our
graduate schools are the best in the world. 'As for the rest, there is no
obligation to love math any more than grammar, composition, curfew or
washing up after dinner. Why create a need to make it palatable to all
and spend taxpayers' money on pointless endeavors without demonstrable
results or accountability?'"
Discuss this story at:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1659208&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102205451.html
2. http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/accountable/accountable.pdf
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| UK Police To Get Facebook Lessons
| from the learn-to-farmville-better dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @15:30 (Facebook)
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1753223/UK-Police-To-Get-Facebook-Lessons?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jhernik writes "The police are to receive [0]training on how to use
Facebook and Twitter to catch people committing serious crimes. The
National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will overhaul its training
modules to include sessions on the social networking sites for
detectives. 'This programme is a vital part of the career pathway for
detectives and the new training covers sensitive areas of policing where
limited guidance existed previously,' said deputy chief constable Nick
Gargan, acting head of the NPIA, in a statement to the Press Association.
'These improvements are exactly what detectives need to tackle the
challenges and complexities of modern policing effectively,' he added.
'The changes underline the importance to having a national agency to
provide guidance and train detectives to a single high standard so they
can work on investigations in any part of the country and give their
colleagues and the public the best quality service in fighting crime.'"
Discuss this story at:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1753223&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/police-to-receive-facebook-lessons-10998
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Texas Supreme Court Cites Mr. Spock
| from the logical-ruling dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @16:53 (Sci-Fi)
| https://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/1955240/Texas-Supreme-Court-Cites-Mr-Spock?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "We always knew that Spock was wise and would
probably make a pretty good judge, so perhaps it's a good thing to see
the Texas Supreme Court [0]citing Spock in a recent ruling, noting his
wisdom in stating that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the
few.""
Discuss this story at:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/1955240&from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| KDE Developers Discuss Merging Libraries With Qt
| from the merge-ahead dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @18:24 (KDE)
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/2125201/KDE-Developers-Discuss-Merging-Libraries-With-Qt?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An anonymous reader writes "A proposal has been brought up with KDE
developers by Cornelius Schumacher to [0]merge the KDE libraries with the
upstream Qt project. This could potentially lead to KDE5 coming about
sooner than anticipated, but there's very mixed views on whether merging
kdelibs with Qt would actually be beneficial to the KDE project, which
has already led to two lengthy mailing list talks ([1]the first and
[2]second threads). What do you think?"
Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/2125201&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODczOQ
1. http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=128842761708404&w=2
2. http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=128852485732284&w=2
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mr. Pike, Tear Down This ASCII Wall!
| from the fresh-design dept.
| posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 31, @19:55 (Programming)
| https://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/10/31/2127201/Mr-Pike-Tear-Down-This-ASCII-Wall?from=newsletter
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
theodp writes "To move forward with programming languages, argues
Poul-Henning Kamp, [0]we need to break free from the tyranny of ASCII.
While Kamp admires programming language designers like the Father-of-Go
Rob Pike, he simply can't forgive Pike for 'trying to cram an expressive
syntax into the straitjacket of the [1]95 glyphs of ASCII when Unicode
has been the new black for most of the past decade.' Kamp adds: 'For some
reason computer people are so conservative that we still find it more
uncompromisingly important for our source code to be compatible with a
Teletype ASR-33 terminal and its 1963-vintage ASCII table than it is for
us to be able to express our intentions clearly.' So, should the new
[2]Hello World look more [3]like this?"
Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/31/2127201&from=newsletter
Links:
0. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1871406
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ASCII_Code_Chart.svg
2. http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/helloworld.html
3. http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4089/5130419231_e11f8d9705_m.jpg
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