links for 2009-06-02

"According to a survey conducted by the National Science Foundation and the Census Bureau, six years after finishing college, 57 percent of computer science graduates are working as programmers; at 15 years the figure drops to 34 percent, and at 20 years — when most are still only in their early 40's — it is down to 19 percent. In contrast, the figures for civil engineering are 61 percent, 52 percent and 52 percent."

"Some would prefer that we refrain from fighting these lawsuits, suggesting that they are a distraction from the FSF’s core charter. But opposing them is actually an important part of our mission to support free software. First, these lawsuits represent a concerted attempt to rewrite copyright law in a way that threatens to undermine the ultimate goals of the free software movement. Second, a vocal minority in the entertainment industry uses these lawsuits as warrants to justify DRM technology and other measures to monitor and control the flow of information over the internet. Third, if unopposed, these lawsuits create a culture in which people are afraid to share, presuming sharing to be theft."

"Microsoft has unveiled its new control system for the Xbox 360, at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Project Natal is a fully hands-free control system that will use face recognition and motion sensors to allow users to play games." Could be interesting could be a fluke.

This looks so awesome it's not even funny.

"U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocates. Opponents say the proposed law wouldn't solve the illegal immigration problem and goes against this country's traditions of welcoming immigrants. Deal and his supporters say the 14th Amendment wording was never meant to automatically give citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants." Moronic politician talking.

"South Korean media says North Korea has told its diplomatic missions abroad that Kim Jong-il's youngest son has been named as the next leader." Wow.

"Several of the nation's leading human rights and civil liberties organizations sent a letter to President Obama today urging him to release photos depicting the abuse of detainees by U.S. personnel overseas." Doubt it will do much, but you know.

"On Friday, a Wisconsin trial court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of lesbian state employees and their partners seeking domestic partner health insurance and family leave protections. In a 46 page opinion, the court notes that although it believes it is unconstitutional for the state to continue to deny the employees equal health insurance coverage and family leave protection, it is bound by a prior decision from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals from 1992" Easily the best possible decision from the court for glbtrights .

"Neumann's daughter Madeline died of untreated diabetes March 23, 2008, surrounded by people praying for her. When she suddenly stopped breathing, her parents' business and Bible study partners finally called 911. Prosecutors contend a reasonable parent would have known something was gravely wrong with Madeline, and her mother recklessly killed her by ignoring obvious symptoms of how gravely ill she was. During closing arguments, Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad described Neumann as a religious zealot who let her daughter, known by the nickname Kara, die as a test of faith." That's just awful.

"President Obama indicated on Monday that he would be more willing to criticize Israel than previous administrations have been, and he reiterated his call for a freeze of Israeli settlements." Interesting.

Claiming it will only be against those that take the entire story and add no real value to it beyond it being on their site and not on the AP's sites.

"You better watch out, because the HTML police are about. They scour your code and pick out the most unspeakable crimes against HTML markup. This handy list of ten HTML tag crimes sheds some light on some of the most common coding mistakes and helps provide an alternate solution. Tips include writing valid markup, making semantic choices, avoiding deprecated tags and more!"

"Yes, it seems the software giant, who has made some nice moves in the gaming space, has just as big of an obsession with Twitter as everyone else. You will apparently be able to see tweets and post new tweets from the console starting soon." That could be cool.

"A coalition of voting rights groups and attorneys today praised a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to block the use of flawed and racially discriminatory voter registration practices by Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. In a letter sent this past Friday from Civil Rights Division Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, the DOJ informed the state that it had failed to establish that two new voter verification procedures did not have a discriminatory effect on minority voters."

"Britain's biggest broadband supplier has been accused of limiting download speeds on its cheapest package without giving users a clear warning. A customer who has signed up for an up to 8 megabit per second package can have their speed cut to below 1Mbps." Worst bit of this whole story is that the cheapest package is 8mbs.

"Insolvency has, in fact, been looming over G.M. for several years. In April 2005, for example, while markets were worrying about rating agencies downgrading the carmaker’s debt, G.M.’s onerous unfunded health care and pension liabilities looked to have punched a multibillion-dollar hole in its balance sheet. Even then, some suggested that a filing for Chapter 11 protection might be the only way to get G.M. back on track. That’s not to say G.M.’s executives sat back and did nothing. In the last four years they have halved the union work force in the United States; laid off white-collar employees in droves; renegotiated labor contracts and health care expenses; and sold businesses like Allison Transmission and GMAC, the financial services arm, to raise cash."

"A Sri Lankan journalist is in hospital after being abducted and beaten by unidentified attackers." Not good news for independent media.

"For years, the Food and Drug Administration has withheld information about drugs and medical devices from the public when their makers cite trade secrecy — even in cases where the agency suspects that the products are causing serious illness or death. Now the new leadership at the F.D.A. may change that. The Obama administration plans to announce on Tuesday that it is setting up a task force within the agency to recommend ways to reveal more information about F.D.A. decisions, possibly including the disclosure of now secret data about drugs and devices under study." I'm all for patients having more information.

"The Pakistani military says dozens of students abducted by militants in the northwest of the country have been freed by troops."

"Scientists say they have developed a drug that can treat the most deadly form of skin cancer in its most advanced, incurable stages. Malignant melanoma is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the UK, largely due to sun exposure." Good news.

Just what it says.

Just in case.

"Rupert Murdoch, the media baron who controls the News Corporation, is trying to lure Charles G. Carey, the president and chief executive of DirecTV, to be his top lieutenant, according to a person briefed on the matter." Interesting.

"The Drudge Report highlighted a New York Post article reporting the taxpayer cost of the Obamas' trip to New York City. But neither noted that such use of taxpayer funds for private travel by the first family is typical." Yeah pretty much.

"Examples of pottery found in a cave at Yuchanyan in China's Hunan province may be the oldest known to science. By determining the fraction of a type, or isotope, of carbon in bone fragments and charcoal, the specimens were found to be 17,500 to 18,300 years old. The authors say that the ages are more precise than previous efforts because a series of more than 40 radiocarbon-dated samples support the estimate." Science works.

"Delphi hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by modifying its existing plan of reorganization, which collapsed last year when a group of investors balked at providing $2.55 billion as part of an exit financing package. Under the terms of an amended plan, Platinum would invest $3.6 billion in Delphi in return for taking over most of the supplier."

"While Mr. Obama will most likely come under extraordinary pressure to sell the government’s 60 percent stake in the “new G.M.,” his own auto task force has warned him that the exit strategy could be messy: the faster the government sells its stake to private investors, the less it is likely to recover its investment of more than $50 billion in the company."

Management is the failure.

Who's your copilot?

Gender bending is in folks.

"A 23-year-old man upset about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire from his truck at two soldiers standing outside a military recruiting station here on Monday morning, killing one private and wounding another, the police said." Another awful response to positions that people hold.

"Today, I'm happy to be able to answer their question: we've added .docx and .xlsx to the list of file formats that we accept for uploading documents (which already included .doc, .odt, xls, .ods, .ppt, .csv, .html, .txt, .rtf, and others)." Cool.