In a new study, cognitive scientists show that humans can usually track just four mental variables when trying to solve a problem…. Link  [via]{style="FONT-STYLE: italic"} [Boing Boing]

I would definitely suspect that programmers are better than average at tracking variables but I wonder if we have a gift …

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New Scientists reports on the development of a lie detector that works by tracking blood flow through the blood vessels in your face. The system is being developed by (natch) the Us Department of Defense.

\< ![if !vml]>\< ![endif]>As I relax into the chair, the questioning begins. An automated …

According to the Feb 2005 CACM, IT hiring is expected to grow 1st quarter of '05. Hottest talents are networking, information security, and user-support. Firewall admin and wireless network management are particularly hot. On the other hand, IT budgets are a mixed bag, with 50% of corporate budgets increasing expenditures …

In a comment, Scott pointed out that Dr. Dobb's probably has a higher “ad ratio” (advertising space as a percent of total pages printed) than SD Times. I would think so, but it's not necessarily a good measure of magazine success. Pardon the return to days of yore when I …

::: {.Section1} *Mark Frauenfelder: Researchers at Stanford University are planning to create mice with brains made entirely of human brain cells from aborted fetuses. [Via]{style="font-style:italic"}* [Boing Boing]

Was the name of the grant “Investigations in Pissing Off the Christian Right”?

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SD Times gained 2nd place in advertising pages among “Technical/Developer“ publications in 2004, behind only MSDN Magazine. MSDN had 669.5 advertising pages, SD Times had 553.25, while Dr. Dobb's (the perennial frontrunner among independent publications) had but 499.08.  (Info from Competitive Media Reporting, formerly AdScope).

Does …

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Whenever I run into a programming problem that doesn't have an immediately obvious solution, the first thing I do is put the error into google …. This approach rarely works for tablet problems - there just aren't enough developers operating at an advanced level. ….

One thing that can make working with …

::: {.Section1} Well, this’ll kill you: 

From the Webmink blog:

Along with Mary and others my session proposal for JavaOne was declined (see, working for Sun isn't the answer, Ted, maybe it's not a conspiracy against you?).

Never said it was; just means that Sun isn't letting anyone else up …

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Peter Provost has proposed that Microsoft react to the  group of MVPs who are petitioning Microsoft to re-establish development and support of VB6, by releasing the source code. Microsoft doesn’t want VB6, there’s a vocal fanbase of programmers… why not? It would be epic.

As Peter points …

I love Musicmatch Radio combined with OnDemand. I was just listening to “My Station” and what should come up but a band I loved when I was young but haven't heard since... Well, in the case of the Damned, not since my turntable broke in about '94. I now have …