Interesting article over at GigaOM about structured vs. flexible work time. Here’s an excerpt:

Flexible work is something that seems increasingly popular with programmers and other online workers, for reasons that Zach Holman of the software repository GitHub described in a recent post on the GitHub blog, entitled “Hours Are Bull****.” Holman said that for most of the staff who work on the service, there are no defined working hours whatsoever — everyone is on their own schedule and they … Read More → "Do we need defined work hours any more?"

New York based startup MakerBot makes open source desktop scale 3D printers has raised ten million bucks in venture funding. 

“Their latest round of investments brought interest from some major hitters in the tech-world: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (already an angel investor), Foundry Group, True Ventures, and RRE. $10 million is a phenomenal boost for any open source business, but it may serve especially well here as MakerBot is one of only a handful of companies in the world successfully bringing 3D printing out of specialized industrial applications and … Read More → "MakerBot raises $10 million in venture funding"

“If you work someplace where sudden loud noises frequently but intermittently occur, it can get kind of frustrating – you pretty much have to choose between protecting your hearing with ear plugs, or being able to hear what people are saying when it isn’t noisy. Your basic earplugs, unfortunately, don’t let you hear when things are quiet, but then activate when loud noises occur. Non-basic earplugs, however, do that very thing. Etymotic Research’s HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs contain tiny microphones, that instantaneously cause the plugs to block incoming sound waves when they detect … Read More → "HD-15 electronic earplugs only block the loud noises"

Boing Boing’s got an exclusive interview with William Gibson about his most recent novel, Zero History.

Read the interview here.

“Stanford School of Engineering is offering three classes this fall with open enrollment and free admission. The first is Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. It is taught by Peter Norvig, author of Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach, and Sebastian Thrun, Research Professor of Computer Science at Stanford.” via Make

From the course description:

Artificial Intelligence is the science of making computer software that reasons about the world around it. Humanoid robots, Google Goggles, self-driving cars, even software that suggests … Read More → "Stanford offering free School of Engineering courses this Fall"

“This seems lifted from The Onion but it’s not. According to the WSJ, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate uses a ‘Waffle House Index’ to help him determine how destructive a hurricane has been to an area. If a Waffle House is closed, you’re probably screwed.” via Gizmodo and Wall Street Journal
 

Read More → "FEMA determines how bad a hurricane is by checking if the Waffle House is open"

“Researchers at Princeton University have figured out how to use functional MRI scans to tell what’s on your mind. They can’t yet tell exactly what you’re thinking about, but they can get close enough to distinguish whether you’re thinking about (say) an animal as opposed to a vegetable.” via Dvice

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PASADENA, Calif. – On its way to the biggest planet in the solar system — Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft took time to capture its home planet and its natural satellite — the moon. via NASA

Click here to read article and see larger photo</ … Read More → "Jupiter-bound space probe captures Earth and moon"

Altera has available a free online course covering the Basics of Programmable Logic.

“This training will give you a basic introduction to programmable logic devices, focusing on FPGAs. By exploring the history of programmable logic technologies, you’ll learn about the architectural features that make up an FPGA device. You will see the advantages of using FPGAs for digital logic design. Finally, you’ll understand how design software, such as the Altera Quartus® II software v. 10.0, makes it easy to create and implement … Read More → "Free online course covering the basics of programmable logic"

Algorithm has passengers board in a set order, reducing the aisle traffic jam and potentially saving more than $1 billion for the industry. via cnet

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