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AnonTechie writes:

Working with a highly reputable corporate leader helps managers get promoted to senior positions in the short term, but such a career boost is balanced in the longer-term as competitive job markets, including professional sports, punish those managers who initially benefited.

The study, published today in the Academy of Management Journal by scientists from UCL, University of Notre Dame, The Pennsylvania State University and University of Texas at Austin, looked at the positive and negative career outcomes for all coaches, from position coaches to head coaches, in the US National Football League (NFL) across a 31 year period from 1980 to 2010.

Some of the junior coaches were fortunate enough to work under football legends such as head coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, whereas others worked under head coaches whose reputations had not yet been established through Super Bowl and play-off wins.

From studying the career paths of 1,298 coaches, the scientists found that junior coaches with connections to highly reputable head coaches are 52% more likely to receive a promotion to another team in any given year compared to those with no connections. This effect is largely restricted to job applicants about whom the labour market knows comparatively little, suggesting the high-reputation connection removes uncertainties hirers may have about the applicant's qualities and skills.

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-having-the-right-connections-only.html

[Preprint]: http://nebula.wsimg.com/7fd2906c04d727bacd84898499667798?AccessKeyId=584CEDE1558438D78E24&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

Does this reflect your experience career wise ?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are among the most common types of phytoplankton.

Scientists working for NASA and for the Universities Space Research Association used satellite data from 1998 to 2012, and a computer model, to assess populations of phytoplankton. They found that the density of diatoms had decreased by 1.22% per year globally, with much of the decline happening in the North Pacific. The researchers attributed the decrease to less mixing in the uppermost water, perhaps caused by a decrease in wind.

The article continues:

"Phytoplankton need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, just like trees," said oceanographer and lead author Cecile Rousseaux, of Universities Space Research Association and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere dissolves in cold ocean water. During a phytoplankton bloom, which can span hundreds of miles and be seen from space, the tiny organisms take up the dissolved CO2 and convert it to organic carbon -- a form that animals can use as food to grow, the essential base of the marine food web. Then when the phytoplankton cell dies, it sinks to the ocean floor, taking with it the carbon in its body.

Because they are larger than other types of phytoplankton, diatoms can sink more quickly than smaller types when they die. A portion will circulate back to the surface because of ocean currents, and, like fertilizer, fuel another phytoplankton bloom. But the rest will settle on the sea floor miles below, where they will accumulate in sediment and be stored for thousands or millions of years. The process is one of the long-term storage options for carbon removed from the atmosphere.

The decline in diatoms is one of several regional shifts observed in four types of phytoplankton in the 15-year study period.

TFA explains some of the implications of these findings, but also states "The diatom decline, while statistically significant, is not severe, said Rousseaux. But it is something to monitor in the future as ocean conditions change, whether due to natural variation or climate change."

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes us with the news that NoobsLab reported:

RemasterSys [...] is a free and open source program for Debian, Ubuntu[...], Linux Mint, [and derivative distros].

[It] can:

• Create a customized Live CD/Live USB (a remaster) of Debian and its derivatives.
• Back up an entire system, including user data, to an installable Live CD/DVD.

The last stable release of RemasterSys was in 2012.

The people of [the] Pinguy OS distribution forked this great project [and are calling] it "PinguyBuilder". [They have] made it available again for Ubuntu and its derivatives.

At his forum, pinguy continues

Notable Changes:

• Single package for Script and GUI.
• Full EFI support including EFI system partition.
• Populate pool folder with grub-efi for offline installing.
• Update grub entry with the name used for the CD label.
• Uses XZ to compress the filesystem.squashfs for smaller ISO size.

Version 3.* works with *buntu systems 14.04 (should also work with 14.10, if not try 4.*)
Version 4.* works with *buntu systems 15.04+ (at the moment 15.10 has a dependency issue xresprobe)

Download PinguyBuilder

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Rethink Robotics, the firm that released a highly-publicized but only mildly successful general-purpose manufacturing/assembly robot called "Baxter", is trying again with an upgraded version called "Sawyer". The robots are designed to be "trained" rather than programmed. Sawyer comes with a single robotic arm rather than Baxter's two. From the BBC:

First announced in March, the robot weighs 19 kilograms (42 pounds) and can measure forces on its joints with great precision which allows it to "feel" the right place to put a part. It will sell for a base price of $29,000 (£19,000).

It has been tested by General Electric over the past month and will be deployed in its North Carolina factory - positioning parts into a light fixture. It will also be used by furniture firm Steelcase, working alongside a welding machine, picking and placing parts in its Michigan factory.

Sawyer was described by MIT Technology Review earlier this year:

[More after the break...]

bradley13 wrote in with a bit of a rant but with a valid question, too:

I don't watch many movies, but once it a while it's a nice thing. This evening, I thought I would hunt down a film from 2012 that I would like to see again.

Being a good little boy, I first visited the film studio's site (Lions Gate, fwiw). They had links to four online shops. No joy - they only seem to sell the film in the US.

So I went to Amazon.de, which is the closest Amazon to my country (and where I shop for lots of other things with no hassle). They have a video service, both rental and purchase. Put the film in the shopping cart, click to check out and...nope. I must have a credit card issued in Germany. I'm sure that makes sense to some bean counter somewhere.

Finally, I search for a place to get the film online in my country. As expected, no luck. I might be able to buy a DVD (more likely I would have to order it), but by now all the shops are closed anyway. Even if they weren't, who wants a DVD, with its copy protection and unskippable previews? I haven't done that to myself for a decade or more.

They certainly can't complain of a lost sale, because I tried. No trouble finding a pirate site - straight download, not even a torrent. So I'll kick back, drink a beer, and write this post. By then, the download will be done, and I'll enjoy the movie.

Once again, it becomes entirely clear why people pirate. What is it about media companies? Why do they still, after all these years, make it so difficult to buy their products?

The submitter asks some valid questions. Though there has been some progress in being able to purchase media on-line over the years, problems still remain. What improvements have you seen? What problems do you still encounter? How do you deal with them?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A Wisconsin man arrested for posting disparaging and profanity laced comments on a local police department's Facebook page has settled a civil rights lawsuit and is being awarded $35,000.

Thomas G. Smith used the Facebook page of a rural Wisconsin village called Arena to, among other things, label local cops as "fucking racists bastards."

He was charged criminally in state court on allegations of disorderly conduct and unlawful use of computerized communications. He was sentenced to a year of probation and 25 hours of community service. A state appeals court overturned his conviction last year.

Smith then sued, (PDF) leading to the $35,000 settlement Tuesday of a lawsuit that also accused the police department of deleting his and other critical comments while allowing favorable comments to remain online.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The actors who provide the voice-overs for video game characters are considering striking over pay and conditions.

The union that represents them wants better protection and pay for roles that cause "voice stress" such as repeated shouting.

It also wants a clearer definition between the roles of voice actors and those who are involved in motion capture.

Members are due to vote next month.

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Afrta) said that, if more 75% of members agree, then all union members working on video games will go on strike.

It wants actors to get stunt pay for vocally stressful recording sessions and for such sessions to be restricted to two hours.

Do they run the risk of giving the publishers greater incentive to eliminate those roles entirely?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A real-life Babel fish that translates any language, exaflop-speed computers, and whisper-quiet drones: They're just some of the dozens of out-there future projects under way thanks to funding from Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). It's not quite Q's secret lab for 007 gadgets, but IARPA is as close as you'll get in the U.S. intelligence world.

Founded in 2006, IARPA was modeled after the hugely successful advanced R&D arm of the Pentagon, DARPA. And like DARPA, IARPA works on the stuff that's too far out or crazy for others to touch. Incoming IARPA director Jason Matheny, who took office in August, pulled back the curtain on his department—somewhat—in an interview with PM, outlining the organization's projects, the quest for intel on the next big threats, and how IARPA recruits new program managers.

[...] Biohacking is a big worry for IARPA, too. Matheny sees genetically engineered organisms as a major problem that bridges the technological and natural worlds. "Synthetic biology offers a number of great societal benefits, but it also does present some risks," he says. "not just from deliberate misuse, but also from accidents." In other words, when the zombie apocalypse hits, there's a good chance IARPA researchers will spot it first.

The full list of projects that IARPA funds is here.

Original Submission

Shares of German auto maker BMW dropped sharply on Thursday after a German newspaper claimed its diesel engines were "significantly" exceeding regulatory limits.

Auto Bild - a publication owned by Axel Springer - said Thursday in an exclusive report that BMW engines were emitting nitrogen oxide levels that were 11 times more than the current limit set by the European Union. However, it later reported that there was no indication of tampering with the vehicles. Citing road tests by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), it said that a model of the BMW X3 was emitting more poisonous gases than the Volkswagen car that is currently at the center of the emissions scandal. "All measured data suggest that this is not a VW-specific issue," Peter Mock, the Europe Managing Director at the ICCT, told the publication.

See: CNBC.

[In trying to track down additional references for this story, I came upon: Kein Indiz für Manipulation bei BMW which, according to my very rusty German, suggests there was no manipulation on the part of BMW. German readers are invited to reply in the comments with translations and/or clarifications. - Ed.]

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Bruce Schneier has written an article about Living in a Code Yellow World:

In 1989, handgun expert Jeff Cooper invented something called the Color Code to describe what he called the "combat mind-set." Here is his summary:

In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.

In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.

In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.

In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.

Cooper talked about remaining in Code Yellow over time, but he didn't write about its psychological toll. It's significant. Our brains can't be on that alert level constantly. We need downtime. We need to relax. This is why we have friends around whom we can let our guard down and homes where we can close our doors to outsiders. We only want to visit Yellowland occasionally.

Since 9/11, the US has increasingly become Yellowland, a place where we assume danger is imminent. It's damaging to us individually and as a society.

He continues:

Those of us fortunate enough to live in a Code White society are much better served acting like we do. This is something we need to learn at all levels, from our personal interactions to our national policy. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, many of our counterterrorism policies have helped convince people they're not safe, and that they need to be in a constant state of readiness. We need our leaders to lead us out of Yellowland, not to perpetuate it.

What are my fellow Soylentil's views on Bruce Schneier's assessment?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

I was reading Wikipedia using Firefox for Android and it annoyingly still served the mobile page when "request desktop site" was selected. This is bad because there seems to be no way to look at the talk page from the mobile version of the site, there is often interesting discussion there. In fact, I consider being able to read how the information on the page was arrived at to be a major benefit of Wikipedia. I tried some add-ons (eg Phony), but none seemed to work on Wikipedia.

Are there any browsers or add-ons that let me totally hide the fact I am using a mobile device? Since Phony didn't work, they may be grabbing information beyond the useragent such as the screen size. Besides any privacy aspects, sharing this information is beginning to needlessly cause hassles and becoming a liability. So how do I avoid sharing this information with web developers who incorrectly think they know what is best for me?

Original Submission

Thexalon writes:

The American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN) has made it official: "ARIN is no longer able to fulfill requests for IPv4 address space". There are a couple of exceptions, but for ordinary users the store is empty.

So now what? Do we expect mass transitions to IPv6, attempts at NAT to delay the change even longer, or an ongoing effort to turn this into Somebody Else's Problem?

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

Autodesk open sources Linux-based 3D printer

Autodesk has open sourced the electronics and firmware of its resin- and DLP-based Ember 3D printer, revealing it to run Linux on a BeagleBone Black clone.

In releasing the design of its Ember 3D Printer under open source licensing, Autodesk has revealed a mainboard that runs Linux on a customized spin-off of the BeagleBone Black hacker SBC. In March, the company published the recipe for the printer's "PR48" Standard Clear Prototyping resin, and in May, it followed through by open sourcing its mechanical files. As promised, Autodesk has now opened up the BeagleBone Black based electronics and firmware.

Like the resin details and mechanical design, the electronics were released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The firmware is being shared using a GNU GPL license. Electronics files were provided separately for the printer's four main boards, each of which is now detailed with design files, schematics and PCBs, bill of materials, approved vendor lists, and assembly drawings. An SD card image is available to run on a standard BeagleBone Black for evaluation and prototyping.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Organizations are increasingly offering employees a variety of work-from-home options despite sometimes conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of telecommuting. A comprehensive new report reveals that telecommuting can boost employee job satisfaction and productivity, but only when it's carefully implemented with specific individual and organizational factors in mind.

A key factor in determining the success of a telework plan, for example, is the proportion of time that an employee works remotely versus in the office. The report, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is authored by leading researchers in workplace psychology Tammy D. Allen (University of South Florida), Timothy D. Golden (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and Kristen M. Shockley (City University of New York).

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-telecommuting-moderation-science.html

Also available: abstract and full article (pdf).

Original Submission

eof writes:

The Washington Post has an article asking the question "Which languages will dominate the future?" The answer depends on your interests: making money in growth markets; speaking with as many people as possible; speaking only one language while traveling; or learning about culture. As you might imagine, the article concludes

There is no one single language of the future. Instead, language learners will increasingly have to ask themselves about their goals and own motivations before making a decision.

[...] In a recent U.K.-focused report, the British Council, a think tank, identified more than 20 growth markets and their main languages. The report features languages spoken in the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China — that are usually perceived as the world's biggest emerging economies, as well as more niche growth markets that are included in lists produced by investment bank Goldman Sachs and services firm Ernst & Young.

"Spanish and Arabic score particularly highly on this indicator," the British Council report concluded for the U.K. However, when taking into account demographic trends until 2050 as laid out by the United Nations, the result is very different.

Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Indonesian will dominate much of the business world by 2050, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian. If you want to get the most money out of your language course, studying one of the languages listed above is probably a safe bet.

Original Submission