Slashdot Mirror
Domain: scn.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to scn.org.
Stories · 6
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Palm Founders Form AI Company
Mentifex writes "As reported in the New York Times, Kansas City Star and other news media, Jeff Hawkins (co-author of On Intelligence) and Donna Dubinsky, co-founders of Palm Computing and Handspring, along with Dileep George as the principal engineer, are starting an AI company named Numenta as a follow-up to Hawkins' recent work on visual processing." -
Community Networks and Websites?
brendano writes "I've been doing some research into the fascinating world of community networks and websites -- online places that can inform and connect people of a real-life community. They typically provide news, discussion forums, and email for local residents. There are some quite successful ones (such as the nonprofit Seattle Community Network or the Blacksburg Electronic Village), but also also ghost town-like failures that show how hard it is to get a community network/website rolling. In addition, many struggle with questions of how to get funding; whether they can be for-profit while serving the community, or be non-profit with enough money to keep going. Unlike the wireless community networks we hear about so much, these types of community networks go beyond just internet access and try to provide access to the community itself. Some, even, are being done to help build up disenfranchised communities, such as one in a housing project, or the three of HP's Digital Village project (one of whose projects I'm researching for.) I was wondering if members of the Slashdot community know of more examples of community networks, and what people think of these projects. Can real-life communities succeed in the online environment as well? How so?" -
The Well-Connected Park Bench
|proc|meminfo writes: "MSN is bringing internet access to park benches in Bury St. Edmunds, England. The bench (for now) will be in Abbey Gardens, and those with laptops will be able to hook up to recieve free MSN internet access through the bench. MSN says it should be ready for operation in August/September."Interesting to see Microsoft's approach here -- a park bench on the internet is a good idea. The concept of connecting community centers with computers predates the Net and is going on all around, though; you may find these two academic overviews (here's one, and another) intriguing, especially the mentions of the Berkeley-area Community Memory project. And looking beyond parkbenches, various community networking groups like consume.net are working to decentralize Net access, at least for those living where coverage is available.
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Do You Buy Into Management Methodologies In IT?
albert_tam asks: "I don't appprove of 'management methodologies' and I feel that things like ISO, TQC, Kepnor-Tregoe, CMM, 6 Sigma, etc., aren't worth the time it takes to learn them. There are also those self-proclaiming-MBA-bearing IT experts, who spout off about these everyday in our office and earn big paychecks. The result? It's not important. By the time everybody in the office is forced to get started with these management methodologies, those 'so-called' Quality assuring IT consultants are already gone. The thing is, do you buy those management methodologies? How do you draw a line between IT & management concepts without hindering your daily work? Let's hear what you have to say." -
Bring Back Gopher Campaign
A reader pointed us over to the Gopher Manifesto, the document of record of those who want to bring back Gopher as one of the most-used tools on the Internet. It's a pretty crazy idea, but it does have some good points. -
Drivers Wanted
loosenut asks: "I'm the proud owner of an Opcode 64x MIDI patchbay. Unfortunately, Opcode was bought out by Gibson a few months back, and they have basically discontinued driver support. Is there anybody out there that takes requests to create hacked drivers? A friend mentioned that he has seen offers, but can't find the URL." So is there a Driver Coding Guild out there who takes on assignments like this?