Slashdot Mirror

hypnosec tipped us to reports that Demonoid is still down after a suffering a massive DDoS last week, and that the domain is now redirecting to a malware-ridden spam site. Notable for surviving a CRIA mandated shutdown, this may be lights out for the torrent tracker: "To begin, while Demonoid’s admin told us that he would eventually bring the site back online, he clearly has other things on his mind. A really important family event puts a torrent site nowhere near the top of his priorities. ... Demonoid has been experiencing staffing issues this year. As we mentioned in an earlier article, there were rumors that one or maybe more Demonoid staffers had been questioned by authorities about their involvement in the site."

will_die writes "The Commodore 64 came out 30 years ago and to celebrate this the BBC went and got two groups of kids to try out an old system, complete with tape drive. It's sure to bring a few grins to people who had one of these old systems. From the article: 'The Commodore's ability to display 16 colours, smoothly scroll graphics and play back music through its superior SID (sound interface device) chip - even while loading programs off tape - helped win over fans, but it did not become the market leader until the late 1980s.'" Last spring a modern version of the C64 was released.

jfruh writes "On the day of the Facebook IPO, the NASDAQ's trading systems suffered multiple failures and couldn't confirm buy orders for several hours. Big banks buying shares for their funds and customers placed multiple orders as a result, and bought more Facebook stock than they intended to as a result. NASDAQ has agreed to set up a fund to compensate them for their losses, but apparently this isn't enough for Swiss bank UBS, which is threatening legal action."

ananyo writes "Physicists, chemists and mathematicians in the UK are campaigning against their chief public funder (EPSRC) over reforms that they say threaten blue-skies research, kicking off their protest by toting a coffin to the Prime Minister in Downing Street. The reforms are a response to declining budgets and political pressure to focus science on areas that will produce economic benefits for the UK. Last month, over 2000 Canadian scientists marched to Parliament Hill with a coffin to protest against the Harper government's cuts to basic research and scientific facilities, which they believe undermine the quality of scientific evidence in government. With budget cuts to science expected in the U.S., is it time for scientists in U.S. — and perhaps elsewhere — to think about getting their retaliation in first and ready their coffins?"

jrepin writes "KDE announces 4.9 releases of Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improved stability and performance. Some of the highlights include, but are not limited to: more thorough integration of Activities throughout the Workspaces, ability to display metadata (ratings, tags, image and file sizes...) next to file names in Dolphin file manager, Mercurial versioning system support in Dolphin, detachable tabs in Konsole terminal emulator, support for MPRIS2 protocol in various places, ability to store and print PDF annotations from Okular document viewer, Okular can also play videos embedded in PDFs, Lokalize translation tool supports Qt's TS translation files, Kontact PIM suite gains ability to import data from Thunderbird and Evolution, Pairs is a new memory training game added to KDE Education package, and Marble desktop globe includes Open Source Routing Machine and support for bicycle and pedestrian routing. This release is dedicated to the memory of recently deceased KDE contributor Claire Lotion."

Bill Dimm writes "Craigslist now demands an exclusive license to the content you post there. How many people are aware that they are agreeing not to post their job ads, rentals, items for sale, etc. anywhere else when they post to Craigslist?" It's not going out on much a limb to suspect this is to strengthen Craigslist's position against those extension sites they love so much.

SmartAboutThings writes "Raspberry Pi ... might be getting a functional Android port real soon. According to a post on their official blog, they have managed to port almost all the basic functions of Android 4.0 on Raspberry Pi, besides audio support. This comes after the Raspbian OS has been released for Raspberry Pi, and it promises to be 40% faster." For anyone hoping for source to the graphics accelerator, you're still out of luck: everything video related is still implemented using a blob.

bigvibes writes "A couple of weeks ago Dropbox hired some outside experts to investigate why a bunch of users were getting spam at e-mail addresses used only for Dropbox storage accounts. The results of the investigation are in, and it turns out a Dropbox employee's account was hacked, allowing access to user e-mail addresses." This particular employee had a list of user emails stored in their Dropbox. To prevent future incidents, Dropbox is moving toward two-factor authentication.

The name — MidAtlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists — might make you think this is a bunch of nerds who get together to enthuse over long-obsolete computer hardware and ASCII computer games. And that's exactly what it is. There are farmers who gush over antique tractors, drivers who love antique cars, and music lovers who dote on old phonographs. So why not old computers? Many people in the computer industry seem to have asked that question, so there are lots of computer museums around. MARCH was just the group Slashdot ran into at HOPE. Their website has lots of links that will help you connect with fellow antique computer buffs (assuming you are one), wherever you may be. See here a member showing off the MacGyveresque process that is booting BASIC and playing a game on a reproduction Apple I. Update: 08/01 15:20 GMT by U L : Evan Koblentz (the guy in the video) commented with a bit more information on MARCH (including info on the discussion list and computer museum).

SpicyBrownMustard writes "There's no secret to a rising level of 'Silicon Valley fatigue' lately, and the new reality show certainly isn't helping. And with hacker hostels packing in twenty somethings fueling the 'it's okay to fail' incubator culture that now is actually hurting startups, it's no wonder weariness with the culture is setting in. Forbes.com asks the question: Is Phoenix The Next Silicon Valley? The article covers a startup with a couple names you might know, who picked Phoenix due to its much lower cost of living and different quality of life. The startup's CTO, 'explains that having so much more financial freedom lowers the stress associated with working for a startup, as he can enjoy work/live balance.' Their location certainly didn't hurt fundraising, as they managed $2 million in seed capital. Are we indeed moving on from Silicon Valley for tech startups?"

New submitter faraway writes "Microsoft has just unveiled Outlook.com, the planned successor to Hotmail.com. It includes a lot of what you'd expect from email today, including storage (images, data), a calendar, integration with other Microsoft tools, and of course a clean UI. According to ZDNet, 'Outlook.com is integrated with Windows and Office, and can pull in Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and LinkedIn contacts. The new mail client has the Metro look and feel. And it is providing users with more granular control over which ads they see and where they see them.'"

retroworks writes "J.D. Tuccille of the conservative think tank Reason Foundation discusses last week's news about the first working 3D-printed gun. According to the original article, the partly plastic '.22-caliber pistol, formed from a 3D-printed AR-15 (M16) lower receiver, and a normal, commercial upper' fired 200 rounds without any sign of wear and tear. Tuccille takes the discovery in the direction of politically topical gun control. '...the development makes it clear that a wide range of bans, restrictions and prohibitions are becoming increasingly unenforcable.' But in my mind, this example of additive-manufacturing technology raises even more questions about patent law enforcement. Will 3D printing be to the Anti-gray-market-alliance what online porn became to neighborhood blue laws?"

angry tapir writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has backflipped again on the process for evaluating applications for new generic top-level domains such as .bank and .lol. The proposal to evaluate applications in batches of 500 had been subject to criticism from registrars, particularly the 'digital archery' component, which would be used to determine which batch an application would be part of. Last month, ICANN scrapped digital archery altogether, and now ICANN has announced that it will seek simultaneous processing of all applications. The reason people were annoyed at the batching process was it meant that even if an application for a new domain was complete and correct, and even if a domain application was not contested by anyone else, it could end up going live years after other new TLDs did. Given it will cost over a couple of hundred grand to run a new TLD, people were upset. The whole gTLD process has been fraught with delays and security breaches."

angry tapir writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has backflipped again on the process for evaluating applications for new generic top-level domains such as .bank and .lol. The proposal to evaluate applications in batches of 500 had been subject to criticism from registrars, particularly the 'digital archery' component, which would be used to determine which batch an application would be part of. Last month, ICANN scrapped digital archery altogether, and now ICANN has announced that it will seek simultaneous processing of all applications. The reason people were annoyed at the batching process was it meant that even if an application for a new domain was complete and correct, and even if a domain application was not contested by anyone else, it could end up going live years after other new TLDs did. Given it will cost over a couple of hundred grand to run a new TLD, people were upset. The whole gTLD process has been fraught with delays and security breaches."

YokimaSun writes "Fans of classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, will be happy to learn that a new version of ScummVM has been released with support for new games such as 'Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood,' 'Backyard Baseball 2003,' 'Blue Force,' 'Darby the Dragon,' 'Dreamweb,' 'Geisha,' 'Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon,' 'Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story,' and more. ScummVM not only supports Windows, Linux and new platforms such as iPhone and Android but also consoles such as Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 and rarer handhelds such as Openpandora and Dingoo."

YokimaSun writes "Fans of classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, will be happy to learn that a new version of ScummVM has been released with support for new games such as 'Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood,' 'Backyard Baseball 2003,' 'Blue Force,' 'Darby the Dragon,' 'Dreamweb,' 'Geisha,' 'Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon,' 'Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story,' and more. ScummVM not only supports Windows, Linux and new platforms such as iPhone and Android but also consoles such as Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 and rarer handhelds such as Openpandora and Dingoo."

YokimaSun writes "Fans of classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, will be happy to learn that a new version of ScummVM has been released with support for new games such as 'Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood,' 'Backyard Baseball 2003,' 'Blue Force,' 'Darby the Dragon,' 'Dreamweb,' 'Geisha,' 'Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon,' 'Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story,' and more. ScummVM not only supports Windows, Linux and new platforms such as iPhone and Android but also consoles such as Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 and rarer handhelds such as Openpandora and Dingoo."

YokimaSun writes "Fans of classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, will be happy to learn that a new version of ScummVM has been released with support for new games such as 'Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood,' 'Backyard Baseball 2003,' 'Blue Force,' 'Darby the Dragon,' 'Dreamweb,' 'Geisha,' 'Gregory and the Hot Air Balloon,' 'Magic Tales: Liam Finds a Story,' and more. ScummVM not only supports Windows, Linux and new platforms such as iPhone and Android but also consoles such as Dreamcast, Gamecube and Nintendo 64 and rarer handhelds such as Openpandora and Dingoo."

netbuzz writes "Guy Adams, a Los Angeles-based correspondent for The Independent of London, had his Twitter account suspended today, allegedly for having violated a Twitter privacy policy when he tweeted the workplace email address of an NBC Sports executive. The Internet is abuzz with accusations – no make that assumptions – that Twitter muzzled Adams because Adams was tweeting up a storm of protest over NBC's coverage of the Games. However, Twitter says it was because it prohibits the tweeting of 'non-public, personal email addresses.' Whether Adams did that or not appears debatable." Update: 07/31 17:48 GMT by S : Adams's Twitter account has been reinstated.

thatpythonguy writes "Core Python Application Programming is the latest addition to a growing corpus of literature serving a growing number of Python programmers and engineers. This Prentice Hall book of 800+ pages covers some traditional areas and touches upon some new ones. I typically do not spend much time speaking about the author of the books that I review; however, this occasion warrants an exception. And it is not because Wesley Chun used Python over a decade ago to build the address book and spell-checker for Yahoo! Mail nor is it because he holds a minor degree in music from UC Berkeley in classical piano. Rather, it is because he is both an engineer and an instructor. In other words, he was not pulled from his geek duties and asked to become a pseudo-writer; he already does that for his consulting practice, authoring (or co-authoring) several books and articles on Python (including "Python Web Development with Django") as well as starring in his own training video (entitled "Python Fundamentals"). The result of that experience is a writing style that is technically sound, yet accessible." Keep reading for the rest of Ahmed's review. Core Python Applications Programming author Wesley J. Chun pages 888 publisher Prentice Hall rating 8/10 reviewer Ahmed Al-Saadi ISBN 978-0132678209 summary Python application programming for intermediate python engineers The book followed the normal evolutionary path of other books in its class. It started out as the second part of "Core Python Programming" and ended up being split into its own volume in its third edition. The first part became "Core Python Language Fundamentals" which covers the core language. This volume covers the natural successor topics of "now what?" that the first raises: the use of Python in various applications. It is for this reason that the book recommends that the reader be an intermediate Python programmer. I think "intermediate" here refers to anyone who has read an introductory book or followed a tutorial on the core language.

The book covers the two main lines of python development: 2.x and 3.x. Despite the slow adoption of the 3.x line due to its backward incompatibility, there are already popular third-party libraries that have been ported to that line and that occurrence will only increase moving forward. Chun does a very good job balancing the two by providing concurrent examples (i.e., code snippets) in both flavours. He also has numerous references and side notes indicating that certain features/libraries are only available for certain versions of the language.

There are three parts to the book: General Application Topics, Web Development, Supplemental/Experimental. The first includes the usual dosage of general chapters including regular expressions (regex), network programming (including an intro to the Twisted framework), Internet client programming, threading and multi-processing, GUI, and databases (including a taste of NoSQL). It is peculiar that it also includes chapters on Microsoft Office programming and writing Python extensions which are not general in my opinion. It is probably because these two chapters do not fit anywhere else! The second part is probably the core of Chun's own experience as he is a self-described "web guy". He certainly goes into details in that domain covering web clients/servers (yes, he writes a small web server!), general web programming (i.e., CGI and WSGI), the Django framework, cloud computing (mostly Google App Engine; GAE), and web services. Finally, the last part has two chapters on text processing and miscellaneous topics (basically, Jython and Google+). I find the naming of the text processing chapter rather poor given that it is about processing comma-separated values (CSV), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Arguably, "text processing" is more descriptive of regex, transcoding, and Unicode! Two appendices at the end of the book provide some background and a guide to Python 3.x migration.

Chun spends some time delving into a problem domain in addition to providing the Python solution. For example, he describes the regular expression syntax in detail and spends time explaining the client-server architecture using real-life analogies to drive his points home. His code examples are well-structured, object-oriented solutions that range from the demonstrative to the practical. For example, in the Django chapter, he builds a practical Twitter application that uses third-party libraries and some advanced features. However, do not expect a cookbook-style coverage nor production-ready code from a book of this nature. Do expect many exercises with partial solutions at the end of the book.

I find Chun's approach to be pedagogically sound. His ideas flow logically from one to the next, incrementally building a story-like chain of problems and Python solutions. He highlights architectural patterns that are shared by disparate problem domains (e.g., the event-driven nature of SocketServer and Tkinter), leading to a better understanding of both. However, he does leave out many topics from his coverage for applications in compression, cryptography, and date handling (among others). Maybe he considers these to be ancillary or simple enough to be looked up in Python's own standard library documentation. Also, as a Developer Advocate for Google, it is not surprising to see him cover the GAE in depth. Specifically, I think for anyone who is interested in running Django on the GAE, he can be an excellent (and accessible, by his own admission) resource. Google him (no pun intended!) to see his presentation on "porting" Django applications to the GAE.

Finally, the book is aesthetically type-set and is well-structured. I think that it has a wealth of well-written information that cover key areas of Python application development that will be useful to a broad spectrum of readers.

Ahmed Al-Saadi is a software consultant based in Montreal, Canada. He mainly speaks Python, Erlang, and Objective-C these days.

You can purchase Core Python Applications Programming, 3rd ed from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

thatpythonguy writes "Core Python Application Programming is the latest addition to a growing corpus of literature serving a growing number of Python programmers and engineers. This Prentice Hall book of 800+ pages covers some traditional areas and touches upon some new ones. I typically do not spend much time speaking about the author of the books that I review; however, this occasion warrants an exception. And it is not because Wesley Chun used Python over a decade ago to build the address book and spell-checker for Yahoo! Mail nor is it because he holds a minor degree in music from UC Berkeley in classical piano. Rather, it is because he is both an engineer and an instructor. In other words, he was not pulled from his geek duties and asked to become a pseudo-writer; he already does that for his consulting practice, authoring (or co-authoring) several books and articles on Python (including "Python Web Development with Django") as well as starring in his own training video (entitled "Python Fundamentals"). The result of that experience is a writing style that is technically sound, yet accessible." Keep reading for the rest of Ahmed's review. Core Python Applications Programming author Wesley J. Chun pages 888 publisher Prentice Hall rating 8/10 reviewer Ahmed Al-Saadi ISBN 978-0132678209 summary Python application programming for intermediate python engineers The book followed the normal evolutionary path of other books in its class. It started out as the second part of "Core Python Programming" and ended up being split into its own volume in its third edition. The first part became "Core Python Language Fundamentals" which covers the core language. This volume covers the natural successor topics of "now what?" that the first raises: the use of Python in various applications. It is for this reason that the book recommends that the reader be an intermediate Python programmer. I think "intermediate" here refers to anyone who has read an introductory book or followed a tutorial on the core language.

The book covers the two main lines of python development: 2.x and 3.x. Despite the slow adoption of the 3.x line due to its backward incompatibility, there are already popular third-party libraries that have been ported to that line and that occurrence will only increase moving forward. Chun does a very good job balancing the two by providing concurrent examples (i.e., code snippets) in both flavours. He also has numerous references and side notes indicating that certain features/libraries are only available for certain versions of the language.

There are three parts to the book: General Application Topics, Web Development, Supplemental/Experimental. The first includes the usual dosage of general chapters including regular expressions (regex), network programming (including an intro to the Twisted framework), Internet client programming, threading and multi-processing, GUI, and databases (including a taste of NoSQL). It is peculiar that it also includes chapters on Microsoft Office programming and writing Python extensions which are not general in my opinion. It is probably because these two chapters do not fit anywhere else! The second part is probably the core of Chun's own experience as he is a self-described "web guy". He certainly goes into details in that domain covering web clients/servers (yes, he writes a small web server!), general web programming (i.e., CGI and WSGI), the Django framework, cloud computing (mostly Google App Engine; GAE), and web services. Finally, the last part has two chapters on text processing and miscellaneous topics (basically, Jython and Google+). I find the naming of the text processing chapter rather poor given that it is about processing comma-separated values (CSV), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Arguably, "text processing" is more descriptive of regex, transcoding, and Unicode! Two appendices at the end of the book provide some background and a guide to Python 3.x migration.

Chun spends some time delving into a problem domain in addition to providing the Python solution. For example, he describes the regular expression syntax in detail and spends time explaining the client-server architecture using real-life analogies to drive his points home. His code examples are well-structured, object-oriented solutions that range from the demonstrative to the practical. For example, in the Django chapter, he builds a practical Twitter application that uses third-party libraries and some advanced features. However, do not expect a cookbook-style coverage nor production-ready code from a book of this nature. Do expect many exercises with partial solutions at the end of the book.

I find Chun's approach to be pedagogically sound. His ideas flow logically from one to the next, incrementally building a story-like chain of problems and Python solutions. He highlights architectural patterns that are shared by disparate problem domains (e.g., the event-driven nature of SocketServer and Tkinter), leading to a better understanding of both. However, he does leave out many topics from his coverage for applications in compression, cryptography, and date handling (among others). Maybe he considers these to be ancillary or simple enough to be looked up in Python's own standard library documentation. Also, as a Developer Advocate for Google, it is not surprising to see him cover the GAE in depth. Specifically, I think for anyone who is interested in running Django on the GAE, he can be an excellent (and accessible, by his own admission) resource. Google him (no pun intended!) to see his presentation on "porting" Django applications to the GAE.

Finally, the book is aesthetically type-set and is well-structured. I think that it has a wealth of well-written information that cover key areas of Python application development that will be useful to a broad spectrum of readers.

Ahmed Al-Saadi is a software consultant based in Montreal, Canada. He mainly speaks Python, Erlang, and Objective-C these days.

You can purchase Core Python Applications Programming, 3rd ed from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Nerval's Lobster writes "For any software developers with an urge to play around with demographic or socio-economic data: the U.S. Census Bureau has launched an API for Web and mobile apps that can slice that statistical information in all sorts of nifty ways. The API draws data from two sets: the 2010 Census (statistics include population, age, sex, and race) and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (offers information on education, income, occupation, commuting, and more). In theory, developers could use those datasets to analyze housing prices for a particular neighborhood, or gain insights into a city's employment cycles. The APIs include no information that could identify an individual."

YokimaSun writes "Following on from Last months Mega auction of rare games that went for a staggering 1.2 Million dollars, comes another auction. This time its of the only Legend of Zelda Nes Prototype cartridge in the world, bundled with it is a sealed copy of the retail version of the game, those of you excited by this news will have to dig deep because the price is set at a mouthwatering US $150,000.00."

ananyo writes "A court decision on 23 July could help to tame the largely unregulated field of adult stem-cell treatments. The US District Court in Washington DC affirmed the right of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate therapies made from a patient's own processed stem cells. The case hinged on whether the court agreed with the FDA that such stem cells are drugs. The judge concurred, upholding an injunction brought by the FDA against Regenerative Sciences, based in Broomfield, Colorado. The FDA had ordered Regenerative Sciences to stop offering 'Regenexx', its stem cell treatment for joint pain, in August 2010. As Slashdot has noted before, they are far from the only company offering unproven stem cell therapies."

Busshy writes "A few months after the rather subdued release of the PSVita comes the release of the Larger screened 3DS XL, improvements are the obvious larger screens and much improved battery life, CVG report that the 3D effect has noticeably improved. As you'd expect with a larger display, the sweet spot in which you have to angle the device to consume your trio of dimensions is far easier to find on the XL. The console is shipping in 3 variations with sites such as Amazon offering different deals depending on where you live in Europe. Those wanting the Transparent version of the 3DS XL are out of luck at this time. Slashdotters in the USA will have to wait till Mid August for the new console."

rms has published his thoughts on Steam coming to GNU/Linux. He notes that the availability of proprietary games may very well help spread GNU/Linux (but the FSF prioritizes spreading software freedom). And, you're better off at least having a Free operating system instead of Windows: "My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community? Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games will teach users that the point is not freedom. Nonfree software in GNU/Linux distros already works against the goal of freedom. Adding these games to a distro would augment that effect." Or: How will the FOSS community affect Valve? Already they've contributed a bit to the graphics stack, hired a few folks from inside the community, etc. But Steam also makes use of DRM and distributes software in ways that are opposed to the ideals of many in the FOSS community (and even the wider Free Culture community). Given Gabe Newell's professed love for openness, might we see their company culture infiltrated?

rms has published his thoughts on Steam coming to GNU/Linux. He notes that the availability of proprietary games may very well help spread GNU/Linux (but the FSF prioritizes spreading software freedom). And, you're better off at least having a Free operating system instead of Windows: "My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community? Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games will teach users that the point is not freedom. Nonfree software in GNU/Linux distros already works against the goal of freedom. Adding these games to a distro would augment that effect." Or: How will the FOSS community affect Valve? Already they've contributed a bit to the graphics stack, hired a few folks from inside the community, etc. But Steam also makes use of DRM and distributes software in ways that are opposed to the ideals of many in the FOSS community (and even the wider Free Culture community). Given Gabe Newell's professed love for openness, might we see their company culture infiltrated?

rms has published his thoughts on Steam coming to GNU/Linux. He notes that the availability of proprietary games may very well help spread GNU/Linux (but the FSF prioritizes spreading software freedom). And, you're better off at least having a Free operating system instead of Windows: "My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community? Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games will teach users that the point is not freedom. Nonfree software in GNU/Linux distros already works against the goal of freedom. Adding these games to a distro would augment that effect." Or: How will the FOSS community affect Valve? Already they've contributed a bit to the graphics stack, hired a few folks from inside the community, etc. But Steam also makes use of DRM and distributes software in ways that are opposed to the ideals of many in the FOSS community (and even the wider Free Culture community). Given Gabe Newell's professed love for openness, might we see their company culture infiltrated?

TechCrunch has a story about the recent trend of websites wanting users to use their real names in an attempt to make comments better. The story points out that the practice didn't work in South Korea. From the article: "...In 2007, South Korea temporarily mandated that all websites with over 100,000 viewers require real names, but scrapped it after it was found to be ineffective at cleaning up abusive and malicious comments (the policy reduced unwanted comments by an estimated .09%). We don’t know how this hidden gem of evidence skipped the national debate on real identities, but it’s an important lesson for YouTube, Facebook and Google, who have assumed that fear of judgement will change online behavior for the better."

An anonymous reader writes "Project Glass made a big splash not too long ago at Google's annual developer conference when they showed several users falling on to the Moscone West in San Francisco. Google's pretty bent on showing us the sharing possibilities with Project Glass, but it feels like in time that technology could become a ubiquitous part of our lives. Fortunately for those of us who lack a hyperactive imagination, a short film popped up recently that can help fill in the blanks. The world created in the film was made possible by wearable tech. Games, cooking challenges, information in real-time about the person you are talking to, all made possible by the contact lenses being worn. And of course there's a darkside to the equation, the potential to hack and therefore influence the actions of others. Ultimately, it's a realistic idea of the future we all face."

Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that Apple will buy fingerprint sensor technology developer AuthenTec for about $356 million, striking a deal that could help Apple bring fingerprint technology, already used in mobile phones in Japan for authentication of mobile payments, to markets such as the United States, where mobile-wallet services have been slow to catch on. Some analysts expect the iPhone 5 to include some form of mobile payments technology. 'In the past 5 years, the growth of iPhone and Android smartphones has made mobile data security essential, not just a "nice-to-have" feature,' says Ben Yu, Managing Director of Sierra Ventures, one of the early investors in AuthenTec. 'People have their whole lives on the phones.' AuthenTec's embedded fingerprint scanners and other identity-related software is particularly useful now that Near Field Communications, or NFC-enabled, phones have begun to appear in the market. Analyst Colin Gillis says AuthenTec technology could potentially also help Apple combat problems such as theft of its more portable products such as iPhones. 'If they could have a way where they could tie the phone to a user more tightly, that would make sense for them,' says Gillis. The price tag for AuthenTec is a drop in the bucket of Apple's cash pile of $117.2 billion. 'We'll see if it's a one-off or if Tim Cook will start to level his cash balance and acquire talent,' adds Gillis."

Kurt Eichenwald has written a lengthy article about Microsoft's slow decline over the past 10 years, cataloging their missteps and showing how consistent, poor decision-making from management crippled the tech titan in several important industries. "By the dawn of the millennium, the hallways at Microsoft were no longer home to barefoot programmers in Hawaiian shirts working through nights and weekends toward a common goal of excellence; instead, life behind the thick corporate walls had become staid and brutish. Fiefdoms had taken root, and a mastery of internal politics emerged as key to career success. In those years Microsoft had stepped up its efforts to cripple competitors, but—because of a series of astonishingly foolish management decisions—the competitors being crippled were often co-workers at Microsoft, instead of other companies. Staffers were rewarded not just for doing well but for making sure that their colleagues failed. As a result, the company was consumed by an endless series of internal knife fights. Potential market-busting businesses—such as e-book and smartphone technology—were killed, derailed, or delayed amid bickering and power plays. That is the portrait of Microsoft depicted in interviews with dozens of current and former executives, as well as in thousands of pages of internal documents and legal records." We discussed a teaser for this piece earlier in the month — the full article has all the unpleasant details.

On July 18 we ran Part One of a video conversation (really audio with slides) between Slashdot editor Rob "samzenpus" Rozeboom and Mike Mearls, Senior Manager for the Dungeons and Dragons Design Team. This is the rest of that interview.

On Tuesday, Microsoft signed a patent cross-license agreement with Amdocs Software Systems. They specifically noted in their press release that the agreement covered Amdocs' use of 'Linux-based servers in its data centers,' and noted that Amdocs paid them money for the privilege. In light of the current state of mobile device licensing, with Microsoft getting a cut from most Android device sales, should data centers operators worry about having to pay Microsoft for their use of Linux servers? From the article: "To date, Linux advocates have been hypersensitive to any move Microsoft has made against the open-source OS—which, to be fair, Microsoft has seen as a threat since its inception. It's certainly possible that Amdocs approached Microsoft for a patent cross-license for its own purposes; but if that's the case, Amdocs would likely have disclosed that fact. Amdocs representatives declined to comment on the deal, and the arrangement has been completely ignored on the Amdocs Website. ... The question, though, is whether Microsoft will begin eyeing data-center operators as a similar source of licensing revenue. The company has avoided directly challenging Linux developer/distributors such IBM or Red Hat, instead targeting partners and customers."

On Tuesday, Microsoft signed a patent cross-license agreement with Amdocs Software Systems. They specifically noted in their press release that the agreement covered Amdocs' use of 'Linux-based servers in its data centers,' and noted that Amdocs paid them money for the privilege. In light of the current state of mobile device licensing, with Microsoft getting a cut from most Android device sales, should data centers operators worry about having to pay Microsoft for their use of Linux servers? From the article: "To date, Linux advocates have been hypersensitive to any move Microsoft has made against the open-source OS—which, to be fair, Microsoft has seen as a threat since its inception. It's certainly possible that Amdocs approached Microsoft for a patent cross-license for its own purposes; but if that's the case, Amdocs would likely have disclosed that fact. Amdocs representatives declined to comment on the deal, and the arrangement has been completely ignored on the Amdocs Website. ... The question, though, is whether Microsoft will begin eyeing data-center operators as a similar source of licensing revenue. The company has avoided directly challenging Linux developer/distributors such IBM or Red Hat, instead targeting partners and customers."

Earlier this month, we discussed a Kickstarter project for Ouya, and Android-based gaming console in development by a company of the same name. Their fundraising campaign was wildly successful, and now they've partnered with cloud gaming provider OnLive for the console's launch. (Which is somewhat unexpected, because OnLive already sells its own pseudo-console.) In the same post, the Ouya creators showed their most recent design for the console's controllers.

Diggester tips this quote from NBC News: "Two men unlucky enough to get both HIV and cancer have been seemingly cleared of the virus, raising hope that science may yet find a way to cure the infection that causes AIDS, 30 years into the epidemic. The researchers are cautious in declaring the two men cured, but more than two years after receiving bone marrow transplants, HIV can't be detected anywhere in their bodies. These two new cases are reminiscent of the so-called 'Berlin patient,' the only person known to have been cured of infection from the human immunodeficiency virus."

CowboyNeal writes "Last week, Oracle announced that they were making Oracle Linux available free of charge, and also provided a script that makes switching to Oracle Linux nearly painless for existing CentOS users. What makes Oracle Linux unique, and why would anyone want to use it? Read on to find out, as I delve into what Oracle Linux has to offer."

What is Oracle Linux?

On its face, Oracle Linux feels like just another Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) derivative. It uses anaconda for an installer. It uses yum for handling packages. Configuration is handled just like RHEL, CentOS, or Scientific Linux. To be honest, the reasons why anyone would switch to Oracle Linux aren't immediately apparent after installing. It feels like nearly any other Linux with the Oracle name bolted on. Under the hood, however, are some rather compelling features.

The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel

I have to start off with saying that I hate the name "Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel." I've seen enough crazy stuff in my time, to know that no software is truly unbreakable. It might be pretty good, but unbreakable is like calling the Titanic unsinkable. Given a poor enough captain, or in this case, an administrator, I don't have any doubts that the kernel could be broken in at least some fashion. However, I suppose that "Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel" sounds a lot better than the "Pretty-dang-tootin'-robust Enterprise Kernel," and with a target like enterprise customers, terms like "Pretty-dang-tootin'" just won't get stuffy execs to authorize using Oracle Linux.

With that off my chest, let's see what the Unbreakable Linux Kernel does have to offer. Oracle has added a number of their own enhancements into a Linux 2.6 kernel. These include networking optimizations, NUMA optimizations, and enhancements for OCFS2, asynchronous I/O, SSD disk access, OLTP, and more. They clearly work pretty well, as back in March, Oracle submitted a TPC-C benchmark for a Sun Fire server that was the fastest x64-based non-clustered system.

Ksplice: Update Your Kernel Without Rebooting

Ksplice was acquired by Oracle roughly a year ago, and as a result is married to Oracle Linux rather nicely. Ksplice is the holy grail for any administrator who is obsessed with uptime. It gives you the ability to update your kernel, with no downtime necessary. This is by far the best reason to use Oracle Linux, but it also comes at a steep price. While support for Ksplice is present in the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, it does nothing without the Ksplice Uptrack service enabled.

How does one get Ksplice Uptrack? It's only included with an Oracle premier support contract. While Oracle is quick to note that it costs less than a similar-tier RHEL support contract, it's also still more than most people would want to pay for just reboot-less kernel updates. Sure, there's also actual support included in the contract, but the lack of an ala carte option for just Ksplice Uptrack doesn't make a premier support contract any easier to swallow.

I should note here, that regular package updates via yum, and regular kernel updates via yum, are still totally free. If you don't mind rebooting, Ksplice isn't a must-have. If Oracle wanted to attract more customers, an ala carte option for Ksplice Uptrack would be a step in the right direction. If they wanted to really build some good will with the Linux community, they'd make Ksplice Uptrack free for everyone. I know it may sound weird to mention Oracle and good will together, but I'd never thought I'd see Oracle and "free" mentioned together either. As it is, it feels like Uptrack is being used as the bait for a support contract, when the support contract should really be able to stand on its own.

DTrace: Debugging and Troubleshooting in Real Time

To be fair, the DTrace modules can be plugged into a lot of Linux kernels already out there, but Oracle Linux has done the leg work for their users. Maybe you're not doing the sort of development that requires DTrace, but it's still something handy to have in the toolbox when something breaks. It's also a handy way to profile already running processes at any moment, with little to no impact on performance when tracing a process. Oracle maintains a long list of DTrace resources on their OpenSolaris site.

Should I give this a look?

If you're already perfectly happy with your RHEL or CentOS Linux install, Oracle Linux is a hard sell, even at the price of free. After toying about with the system, I'd say it's at least worth a hard look. As it is, you get the benefits of CentOS or Scientific Linux, with Oracle's own stuff bolted on, and their enhancements, even minus Ksplice, make a compelling argument to use Oracle Linux. If you are setting up a machine to use Oracle's database software, Oracle Linux is the best choice, since it's been designed to support Oracle DB, and is the same Linux that Oracle uses in-house. While Oracle's premier support contract is cheaper than the RHEL alternative, the actual cost of switching from RHEL to Oracle in a given case may not be. While this release is a good first step for Oracle, more options, like free Ksplice Uptrack, or even a Ksplice Uptrack subscription, would make it an easier sell.

If you'd like to give Oracle Linux a try, without having to jump through a lot of hoops, the Oracle Linux Wiki has a list of download sites.

nk497 writes "Google is in more trouble over the Street View Wi-Fi data slurping incident. Two years ago Google admitted it had collected snippets of personal data while sniffing for Wi-Fi connections. The UK's data watchdog, the ICO, didn't fine Google, but did demand it delete the collected data. Following the FCC's investigation, the ICO double-checked with Google that the data was deleted, receiving confirmation that it had. Except... it hadn't all been deleted, Google has now admitted. That breaches the deal between the ICO and Google, and the watchdog has said it's in talks with other regulators about what to do next."

In a follow-up to a story earlier this week, derekmead writes "Skype has gone under a number of updates and upgrades since it was bought by Microsoft last year, mostly in a bid to improve reliability. But according to a report by the Washington Post, Skype has also changed its system to make chat transcripts, as well as users' addresses and credit card numbers, more easily shared with authorities. As we've already seen with Facebook and Twitter, big Internet firms aren't digging their heels in against government requests, which shouldn't come as a shock; angering the authorities is bad business. The lesson then is that, while the Internet will always retain a vestige of its Wild West days, as companies get bigger and bigger, they're either going to play ball with governments or go the way of Kim Dotcom."

Nerval's Lobster writes "Europe's most powerful supercomputer — and the fourth most powerful in the world — has been officially inaugurated. The SuperMUC, ranked fourth in the June TOP500 supercomputing listing, contains 147,456 cores using Intel Xeon 2.7-GHz, 8-core E5-2680 chips. IBM, which built the supercomputer, stated in a recent press release that the supercomputer actually includes more than 155,000 processor cores. It is located at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) in Garching, Germany, near Munich. According to the TOP500 list, the SuperMUC is the world's most powerful X86-based supercomputer. The Department of Energy's 'Sequoia' supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., the world's [overall] most powerful, relies on 16-core, 1.6-GHz POWER BQC chips."

Kiyyik writes "Google just announced the details behind their inaugural fiber optic service in Kansas City. They're doing a set of packages including $120/month for tv plus internet, $75/month for internet alone, and regular 'conventional' internet for a one time $300 fee. Rollouts are starting in the central areas and will work their way out on a demand basis: at least ten percent of a neighborhood must sign up for the service before Google will come in and start hanging fiber." Update: 07/26 22:04 GMT by T : Nick Kolakowski points out at GeekNet's Slash Cloud that this Google will probably hinge future developments on how well the Kansas City push works.

MrSeb writes "An American gunsmith has become the first person to construct and shoot a pistol partly made out of plastic, 3D-printed parts. The creator, who goes by the name HaveBlue and is an AR-15/M16 enthusiast, has reportedly fired 200 rounds with his part-plastic pistol without any sign of wear and tear. HaveBlue's custom creation is a .22-caliber pistol, formed from a 3D-printed AR-15 (M16) lower receiver, and a normal, commercial upper. In other words, the main body of the gun is plastic, while the chamber — where the bullets are actually struck — is solid metal. ... While this pistol obviously wasn't created from scratch using a 3D printer, the interesting thing is that the lower receiver — in a legal sense at least — is what actually constitutes a firearm. This means that people without gun licenses — or people who have had their licenses revoked — could print their own lower receiver and build a complete, off-the-books gun." Here come the illegal shapes. Note that the legal fiction of receiver-as-firearm is true in the U.S., but may not be in other jurisdictions, and that no gun license is required in most of the U.S. to purchase or possess a semi-automatic weapon.

John Siracusa at Ars Technica has published a lengthy and detailed review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. (Lengthy enough that the review garnered a review of its own.) Siracusa methodically goes through all of the changes in the new version, covering everything from the minor new features to the overarching goals. Quoting: "Despite the oft-cited prediction that Mac will eventually be subsumed by iOS, that's not what's happening here. Apple is determined to bring the benefits of iOS to the Mac, but it's equally determined to do so in a way that preserves the strengths of the Mac platform. Where we Mac nerds go wrong is in mistaking traditions for strengths. Loss aversion is alive and well in the Mac community; with each 'feature' removed and each decision point eliminated from our favorite OS, our tendency is to focus heavily on what's been lost, sometimes blinding ourselves to the gains. But the larger problem is that losses and gains are context-dependent. A person who never uses a feature will not miss it when it's gone. We all pay lip service to the idea that most users never change the default settings in software, but we rarely follow this through to its logical conclusion. The fact is, we are not the center of the market, and haven't been for a long time. Three decades ago, the personal computer industry was built on the backs of technology enthusiasts. Every product, every ad was created to please us. No longer. Technology must now work for everyone, not just 'computing enthusiasts.'" A somewhat briefer review is available at ComputerWorld, and there's a quick one from John Gruber.

nmpost writes with one interpretation of Netflix's Q2 results (PDF). From the article: "The beginning of the end may be at hand for Netflix. On Tuesday, the movie rental company posted its second quarter results, and they were not promising. While the company returned to profitability following a first quarter loss, Netflix had a 91% drop in net income. The company's troubles began when it attempted to split its DVD-by-mail and streaming services, effectively doubling the price it was charging customers. External forces are now beginning to weigh on the company, and its doom appears to be within sight. The biggest challenges facing Netflix over the coming months are going to be competition and licensing fees. Three huge companies are competing against Netflix in the streaming arena, which has already surpassed its DVD-by-mail business. Amazon, Apple, and Google all offer streaming content as well. As movie and television studios began to demand higher licensing fees, Netflix will not be able to pay, while these tech giants will. Netflix will eventually be priced out of the market." Engadget, on the other hand, shines some positive light on the report: "The results are in from its Q2 2012 earnings report, and it's claiming 27.56 million streaming subscribers worldwide, up from 26 million last quarter. In the US alone that includes 23.94 million customers, after it reported 23.4 million in Q1, while DVD customers dropped by 850k to 9.24 million." So it appears that Netflix is either gaining new streaming customers, or converting those expensive DVD customers into more lucrative streaming-only customers.

ananyo writes "Are the knives coming out for ITER? A Senate Department of Energy spending bill, yet to be voted on, would cut domestic research for fusion and directs the DOE to explore the impact of withdrawing from ITER. The proposed cuts for domestic fusion research are in line with those proposed in the Obama administration's budget request but come after the House ... voted to boost ITER funding and to support the domestic program at almost 2012 levels on 6 June. U.S. fusion researchers do not want a withdrawal from ITER yet but if the 2014 budget looks at all like the 2013 one, that could change. 'They're not trying to kill ITER just yet,' says Stephen Dean, president of advocacy group Fusion Power Associates. 'If this happens again in 2014, I'm not so sure.' The problems for fusion could be small beans though. The 'sequester', a pre-programmed budget cut scheduled to take effect on 2 January, could cut 7.8% or more off science and other federal budgets unless Congress can enact last-minute legislation to reduce the deficit without starving U.S. science-funding agencies."

ananyo writes "Are the knives coming out for ITER? A Senate Department of Energy spending bill, yet to be voted on, would cut domestic research for fusion and directs the DOE to explore the impact of withdrawing from ITER. The proposed cuts for domestic fusion research are in line with those proposed in the Obama administration's budget request but come after the House ... voted to boost ITER funding and to support the domestic program at almost 2012 levels on 6 June. U.S. fusion researchers do not want a withdrawal from ITER yet but if the 2014 budget looks at all like the 2013 one, that could change. 'They're not trying to kill ITER just yet,' says Stephen Dean, president of advocacy group Fusion Power Associates. 'If this happens again in 2014, I'm not so sure.' The problems for fusion could be small beans though. The 'sequester', a pre-programmed budget cut scheduled to take effect on 2 January, could cut 7.8% or more off science and other federal budgets unless Congress can enact last-minute legislation to reduce the deficit without starving U.S. science-funding agencies."

Following news this week of a game developer who turned the Android version of a game free because of piracy concerns, software developer Matt Gemmell has written a lengthy post explaining why he thinks Android apps are laboring under a broken business model. "People have to get paid. There has to be a revenue stream. You can’t reliably have that revenue stream if the platform itself and the damaged philosophy behind it actively sabotages commerce. If you want a platform to be commercially viable for third-party software developers, you have to lock it down. Just like in real life, closing the door and locking it helps make sure that your money remains yours. Bad behaviour has to be more difficult than good behaviour - and good behaviour means paying for your software." He also has some harsh arguments about some of the assumptions and philosophies underpinning the an industry built on an open platform. "Nerds like to say that people care about choice at that level. Nerds are wrong. Nerds care about choice, and nerds are such a tiny minority of people that nobody else much cares what the hell they think. Android is designed with far too much nerd philosophy, and open is gravy to those people because it’s synonymous with customization. ... Open is broken as a money-making platform model, unless you’re making the OS or the handsets. Most of us aren't doing that."

theodp writes "With his Khan Academy: The Hype and the Reality screed in the Washington Post, Mathalicious founder Karim Kai Ani — a former middle school teacher and math coach — throws some cold water on the Summer of Khan Love hippies, starting with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. From the article: 'When asked why so many teachers have such adverse reactions to Khan Academy, Khan suggests it's because they're jealous. "It'd piss me off, too, if I had been teaching for 30 years and suddenly this ex-hedge-fund guy is hailed as the world's teacher." Of course, teachers aren't "pissed off" because Sal Khan is the world's teacher. They're concerned that he's a bad teacher who people think is great; that the guy who's delivered over 170 million lessons to students around the world openly brags about being unprepared and considers the precise explanation of mathematical concepts to be mere "nitpicking." Experienced educators are concerned that when bad teaching happens in the classroom, it's a crisis; but that when it happens on YouTube, it's a "revolution."'"

You asked questions about the LHC (and in particular, the believed discovery of the Higgs Boson) of physicist Giovanni Organtini. Organtini has responded (answers below), and written a brief introduction to explain what the Higgs boson is and how it provides mass to other particles: "The Higgs mechanism was introduced to explain the fact that experimentally particles have mass. In fact, without the Higgs mechanism, the equations of motion for particles can only be written for massless particles. The actual mechanism is rather difficult to understand without a solid Quantum Field Theory background, but can be understood as follows: most of you know that particles gain some energy when they interact with a field. As an example, consider a book on a table. Since the book is subject to the earth's gravitational field, it has some potential energy that transforms into kinetic energy if it is free to fall. The potential energy depends on the mass of the book and on the intensity of the gravitational field. With the introduction of Special Relativity, however, we have to add an extra term to the energy of the book depending on its mass only (the famous E=mc^2). Introducing a special field (the Higgs field), we can turn this term into something similar to the gravitational potential energy, i.e. something that contributes to the energy of the book because it interacts with a field. The mass of a particle, then, is nothing but its potential energy in the Higgs field. The Higgs field is auto-interacting, i.e. it interacts with itself, as the electric and magnetic fields do. As the electromagnetic field can, the Higgs field can also propagate through space, but since it's auto-interacting, it gains some energy from itself, as the book gains energy from the interaction with it, resulting in the appearance of a mass for such a field, that becomes observable as a particle called the Higgs boson. You can find a more formal, yet simple, explanation of the mechanism here." Read on for his answers to reader questions. Why is Higgs so elusive?
by jkauzlar

This may sound really dumb but the answers to the dumbest questions are sometimes the most interesting :) I understand that the Higgs is responsible for giving mass to all the other particles, then it must be *everywhere*. Why is it so difficult to detect? Why does it take such a staggeringly powerful supercollider to find what ought to be as common as the electron or proton?

Giovanni Organtini: The Higgs boson is unstable: once produced, it suddenly decays into pairs of particles. As a result, it cannot be found in ordinary matter as protons or electrons. It must be produced and observed soon after. In order to produce new massive particles, we are used to smashing other particles together. It happens that the energy E of the collision can "materialize" into particles, provided that E>=mc^2, where m is the sum of all the particles produced in the collision.

The Higgs boson mass is about 125 times the proton mass: it is quite heavy, in fact! The higher the mass of the particle to be produced, the higher must be the energy of the collision. Moreover, it turns out that protons are not elementary particles: they are composed of quarks and gluons, collectively called 'partons'. It is the collision between partons that produces the Higgs bosons. Partons carry only a fraction of the total energy of the proton. Then, we had to build a very high energy collider to produce such a Higgs boson, such that the collision between two partons happens with enough energy to create a Higgs boson.

There are other limitations, too: the production of a Higgs boson, even if the energy of the collision is enough, is a rare process, much rarer than the production of other particles like those we already know. The collider, then, must not be just powerful in terms of energy; it must also be 'luminous' enough, i.e. it must produce billions of collisions, such that the expected number of Higgs bosons produced is large enough to be distinguished from background.

"Also, I can't help but to visualize particles as something like billiard balls while I'm aware they're only mathematical abstractions from our point of view and that experiments like the double-slit experiment refute the billiard-ball model... is there a way to visualize the Higgs to make the answer to my previous question easier to understand?"

Actually, from the mathematical point of view, there is no such a distinction between particles and fields. Both are represented in the same way. In fact, in quantum mechanics, there are neither particles, nor fields, as we imagine them. The 'objects' behave like fields in certain conditions and like particles in different conditions.

This may sound frustrating to some people, but you have to consider that physics relies on experiments. We cannot tell the Universe how it should work: it's just the opposite! Despite the fact that we cannot figure out what a particle that behave like a field is, experiments tell us that, in our Universe, sometimes particles behave like fields. That's all! There is no reason for Nature to work as we would like it. Nature works irrespective of our ability to imagine how it works.

In my opinion the best image you can have of a Higgs boson produced at LHC is just like a billiard ball, in fact.

Energy to mass conversion?
by slashmydots

This is an IT worker question, not a particle physicist question, so hopefully it's an easy one. How does the Higgs boson come into play when photons, which have a tiny amount of mass, are spontaneously created when a substance like metal gets hot. Is it a direct energy to mass conversion?

GO: Photons do not have a tiny amount of mass. They are massless, as they do not interact with the Higgs field. When a metal gets hot, it's because you provide some heat — that is, a form of energy. You can always convert energy into particles (and vice versa) provided the total energy (i.e. including the rest energy mc^2) is conserved. As far as the metal glow, it gets colder, since the energy accumulated during heating is released in form of photons. There is no need for a Higgs boson in this case. Even this is not the case, energy to mass conversion is a common practice in high energy physics and is predicted by Einstein's Special Relativity. Each time we make two particles collide, they often produce new particles as a result of materialization of the energy of the collision.

The question, however, is interesting to discuss another feature. Despite that photons do not couple with the Higgs bosons, the latter were identified because of their decay into two photons. It may happen in quantum mechanics that a pair of particles 'annihilate' into photons. In this case, the Higgs bosons decay into a pair of quarks or vector bosons, that in turn annihilate producing two photons.

Is it higgsy?
by rwven

What success or failure factors can/should/will be used to determine whether or not the new particle is actually the higgs, or something else unexpected?

GO: We currently have just a measurement of the mass of this new particle. We also know, from its decays, that it must have spin-0 or spin-2. In order to be reasonably sure that this new particle is in fact a Higgs boson we must precisely measure its spin and we also have to observe and measure the predicted decays.

To complete this task we need a lot more statistics. It will take years, probably, to obtain enough precision.

That said, assuming that the new particle behaves exactly like a Higgs boson in its decays, there is in principle no guarantee that it is the Higgs boson, in the sense that all these measurements do not prove that the observed particle is the one that gives rise to the existence of mass! However, I cannot believe that we observed a particle that behaves exactly as predicted for a Higgs boson that is, in fact, something very different!

Analogies to magnetic and electric fields?
by FreedomFirstThenPeac

One press report discussed the idea that the Higgs field might have the same transient existence that the aether did in Electro-Magnetic theory. Do you think there is a field that will interact with the Higgs field to produce an energy transmission function similar to that described by Maxwell's equations?

GO: The Higgs field interacts with itself and as such is able to propagate more or less as electromagnetic waves. The only difference with respect to the e.m. field is that the latter is massless and propagates to infinite distances, while the Higgs field gets mass and materializes into a Higgs boson. Due to its finite mass, it cannot propagate too far, in fact. Actually a Higgs boson decays into matter particles in tiny fractions of a second.

Higgs and the Ether?
by Liquidrage

The likely Higgs discovery would seem to validate Quantum field theory. Would this then be best described as an ether, only instead of matter traveling through the ether, matter is a manifestation of the ether (fields) itself? Would this also than mean that the motion of matter is not a physical movement of a "particle" but instead the transfer of the "excitement" of a field from one spot of the field to another?

GO: That is an intriguing question. I am personally convinced that there could be some relationship between the Higgs mechanism, inertia and the fact that the speed of light is finite, mostly because the Higgs field is a scalar field (I do not want to enter into details, here, but this is the first observed spin-0 elementary particle). In my opinion what physicists called Ether could in fact be something related to the Higgs boson. It must be said that there is no coherent formulation of this. It's just a guess I make (and not very popular among other physicists).

As already said, there is no difference between a particle that moves and what you called an excitement of a field from one spot to another, in quantum mechanics. Both are the same thing.

And what, if any, implications does this discovery have for unifying gravity or other areas of physics?

GO: It is hard to say. Despite the Higgs hypothesis was formulated some 50 years ago, no convincing theory emerged yet, unifying gravity and other forces. In fact it is not yet clear why the inertial mass (the one provided by the Higgs boson) is equal to the gravitational mass (the source of gravity).

Inertial mass vs. gravitational mass?
by Omnifarious

The Higgs boson is famously associated with how particles acquire a 'mass.' But mass is, in itself, an interesting property. As I understand it, the Higgs boson is only associated with inertial mass. If this is so, do you expect gravitational mass and inertial mass to be always the same? If so, would you speculate on the mechanism that ensures this is true?

GO: In fact the Higgs boson provides inertial mass to particles. As far as we know inertial mass is something fundamentally different with respect to the gravitational mass: the first is responsible for inertia; the second is the source of the gravitational field. We have no idea about why the two masses are numerically equal. We do not believe in coincidences. There must be a reason for that, but we could not yet figure out it.

If you want me to speculate, I can imagine that gravity comes into play because the Universe tends to remain stable. The Higgs mechanism predicts that an empty Universe is unstable, while a Universe with some amount of the Higgs field is stable, because its energy is lower than an empty Universe. We call this condition the vacuum condition (i.e. vacuum does not correspond to 'empty', but to 'minimum energy'). What I imagine is that there should be some mechanism according to which fluctuations of the vacuum produces Higgs bosons that must interact in such a way that the energy of the Universe is conserved. And this may generate gravity. Though, again, I have not a coherent formulation of such a principle.

Applying the discovery in engineering & tech?
by globaljustin

Dr. Joe Incandela of UC Santa Barbara and CMS director said recently of the CERN Higgs results: "This is so far out on a limb, I have no idea where it will be applied, we're talking about something we have no idea what the implications are and [they] may not be directly applied for centuries." My questions: Do you agree that the direct application of the findings are as nebulous and abstract as he describes?Please discuss the implications of your answer and how they relate to the economic choices of how humans use their scientific resources.

GO: I completely agree with the above statements. Note that most important revolutions in technology and economy came much later with respect to a fundamental scientific discovery: we can use cell phones and WiFi because of Maxwell equations, GPS because of Relativity and all the electronics is an application of quantum mechanics. None of these discoveries were done having in mind any application. Moreover, no major breakthrough in technology or economy was achieved thanks to applied research. That is, in fact, a very good reason to support our activities.

That said, even if we cannot imagine possible direct applications of the Higgs bosons, we can for sure imagine possible applications of the technologies developed in order to detect it: large scale superconduction can save lot of money and energy savings, computing techniques needed to analyze LHC data are driving the birth of cloud computing, the detectors developed for these experiments can be used in different ways in medicine and industry. The past generation of experiments already generated some interesting spin-off: the new detectors for mammography, much more compact and precise with respect to the past, were developed for LEP experiments. Also the research on composite materials received a boost from our needs and are nowadays used to realize helicopters. Last, but not least, the world wide web as we know it today, is a CERN spin-off, developed to keep hundreds of physicists around the world updated about what was going on at CERN.

The future of the Higgs?
by Dartz-IRL

While I know it is rather early to comment, what do you think the future applications of today's research into Higgs Boson will be? Don't be afraid to be a little bit sky-high. I for one am already fantasizing about space ships propelled by manipulation of the Higgs field on a local scale. I'm only asking because, a century ago the electron was discovered and nobody was quite sure what to do with it. And it runs the world.

GO: As I said above, I cannot figure out any direct application of the Higgs boson itself. However I can imagine the birth of new techniques in manufacturing, energy production and transport, medicine and computing inspired by the technologies that we had to develop to discover the Higgs boson.

However, I don't want to escape the question and, being *very* sky-high, I can imagine that if we were able to isolate a region from the Higgs field (much as we use Faraday cages, i.e. metal boxes, to protect circuits from electromagnetic interferences), we can turn all the particles inside the region massless. You can imagine by yourself what this implies, for transportation, storage, etc.

What are the next incremental follow-ons?
by peter303

I heard they may want to check several other decay paths for energy resonances. I also heard there could be a family of Higgs bosons, so we may look for others?

GO: There are plenty of questions to which we need to provide answers, in fact. First of all we have to search for all the predicted decay paths for the observed resonance. There are theories predicting the existence of two or more Higgs bosons, and we need to discriminate between them. Some theory predicts charge Higgses, too. Moreover, even if the resonance is a standard Higgs boson, we are still left with the questions 'why different particles have different mass?' and 'why the masses are those observed?', just to be on the subject.

Needless to say that with the discovery of the Higgs boson we still have the problem to explain the estimated mass and energy of the Universe. With the known particles we can explain less than 10% of the mass of the Universe. There must be other weakly interacting particles (called dark matter) providing the missing energy, that we have not yet discovered.

Significance of Higgs Boson mass?
by SpinyNorman

As I understand it, a Higgs Boson compatible with the standard model could have been found at a range of different masses, and the search for it has involved searching the possible mass range until it was either discovered or not. Assuming that this new discovery is indeed the Higgs Boson as predicted and compatible with the standard model, what is the significance of the particular mass that it has been found to have? Are there any macro-scale predictions that depend on its mass?

It means that with this mass, a Higgs boson can be accommodated in any 'reasonable' theory. In other words, the Higgs boson has the observed mass because it cannot have any other mass. Any other mass would cause the Universe to behave differently at different scales. This is an important fact. If something similar is proven for other fundamental constants, we can get rid (at least partially) of the (in)famous anthropic principle: the world is as we observe it because, whatever the initial conditions, it must necessarily evolve in the current state!

The Best of the Worst Science Reporting?
by eldavojohn

In regards to the Higgs Boson, what's the stupidest thing you've seen in the press? Has anything in particular made you really laugh or groan? Has the reporting been overly irresponsible for this discovery process or just the same old press that you're used to?

GO: Incredibly enough, for this discovery I didn't find something particularly funny in the press. As I am a bit conceited :-) I can attribute the merit to our communication teams, that in fact did a great job this time.

The nickname given to that particle (the 'God' particle) makes me laugh a bit. But in this case the one responsible for this is a physicist: Prof. Leon Lederman, who gave this title to a book of his about the Higgs boson. According to what can be read, in fact it was the publisher that chose that title, but manifestly Prof. Lederman must have agreed. In this case journalists just used that nickname, which obviously sounds appealing.

SSC
by Michael Woodhams

Had the superconducting supercollider (SSC) been completed in the USA in the 1990s, would it have found this particle? Even with a 20 year technology advantage, LHC has taken some time to get there.

GO: The plan for the SSC was to achieve a higher energy with respect to the one planned for LHC. In fact we are still using LHC at half of its maximum energy, for safety reasons. Hence, in principle, SSC would have found it.

However, a discovery like that is not just a matter of energy and luminosity. The possibility to find the Higgs boson is strongly related to the available computing and networking technologies that evolve much faster than detector's technology.

Use of military tech in physics?
by solidraven

How do you feel about the fact that a large portion of the CMS was built by recycling military hardware? Do you see it as a sign that the world is finally moving towards peace and that large scientific projects like the LHC are helping it along that path; Or do you find it disappointing that it was the only option to acquire the necessary materials?

GO: I am happy with the fact that a portion (not so large, in fact) of the CMS was built by recycling material, irrespective of its provenance. I believe that we should learn recycling much more than what we do now, not only in building detectors (on the other hand we build a new detector like CMS every 15-20 years). Then I don't see why I should be disappointed. Recycling should not be seen as a last resort to exploit when money is lacking; its should be regarded as an opportunity for the whole of mankind.

The fact that, to build CMS, weapons were destroyed, well, is exciting! The less weapons on earth, the better the life for humans. I'm glad to be part of an experiment who helped in making weapons disappear.

Open Data?
by eldavojohn

Since you're a fan of free software, why don't we see more open data efforts in particle physics? I see headlines like this and they're kind of a turn-off. Aside from this super-confusing applet I haven't been able to find torrents of the data available on these tests. Why is that? I mean, as a software developer there is a legitimate effort of folks writing open source software and then there's a legitimate effort of people using that software to accomplish many things and everyone deserves credit. So why are particle physicists so keen on being the collectors and (at least initially) the sole keepers of their data? It would seem to make sense to me that people should be rewarded based on their collection of data and how meticulous and well they do that while any group can consume and derive results from said data. I understand the process has gotten more open but why so slowly? Why not torrent your data to whoever wants it immediately after you get it?

GO: Let me first state here that I'm in favor of open data, whatever they come from. Then, I will support any action to make more and more public our data, too.

There is, in fact, some reluctance to make scientific data public, also by scientists that use and promote open source software. I believe that this attitude has sociological bases and with time will vanish, as is happening with software.

That said, not only particle physicists tend to keep their data. As far as I know, in most scientific projects data (at least raw data) can be accessed only by those who collected them. The only exception I know is in astrophysics where, however, there is an initial period in which only the principle investigator's team can look at data collected by telescopes or satellites. This is comprehensible since who had a brilliant idea about how to make some observation, want to keep for himself the right to publish the result that, in few cases, can be straightforward to obtain once you have the data.

It must be said that in particle physics this is not the case. And in particular for LHC. Data are extremely complex and it is not at all easy to extract interesting signals from it. You must also consider that we produce of the order of 1 to 5 PB of data per year and it is impossible for anyone not owning a large computer centre to download even a small portion of them. You should also consider that the physicists working on these experiments already saturate all the available resources (in terms, e.g., of bandwidth, storage and CPU) and, of course, we do not want to reduce our quota of resources just to make data public.

Thanks to Dr. Organtini for these answers. Do you have ideas for leads for more Slashdot interviews? They're welcome at feedback@slashdot.org!