Page 6 - GCN, May 2017

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DOT maps transportation noise BY MATT LEONARD
Communities asking for noise barriers to muffle sounds from highways or air- ports will soon have data to document their concerns.
The Transportation Department’s National Transportation Noise Map pulls data from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal High- way Administration into a GIS pro- gram to show noise levels from road and aviation traffic nationwide. DOT officials said they expect city planners to find the data useful in making trans- portation decisions.
The data allows people to do their own analysis, said Meghan Ahearn, a physical scientist at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.
“The goal of this tool is to get a sense for trends in noise exposure
over years,” she said. “So if we were to have quieter transportation sources or
other mitigation techniques, you could directly see the effect of that.”
She added that “the public typically only sees these data individually, and now we’ll see how these interdepen- dent datasets will present a more comprehensive picture.”
The National Transportation Noise Map is an addition to the National
A DOT map shows the noise levels due to road and aviation traffic in New York and New Jersey.
Transportation Atlas Database, a set
of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks and associated infrastructure.
The noise map’s layers will be updated annually, and future versions are expected to include additional transportation noise sources, such as rail and maritime. •
security and test engineering, but they are great at disrupting systems or put- ting them to unexpected and hilarious uses, according to the post. “The really good ones can social-engineer people more ruthlessly and effectively than any of the other types,” Raymond wrote.
Other archetypes include the detail- obsessed sharpshooters; the castel- lans, who know their systems inside and out; translators, who straddle the human/machine divide; and tinkerers and jacks-of-all-trades.
Raymond said the list is a work in progress and asked for comments on the archetypes and suggestions for changes and additions. Read the blog post at is.gd/GCN_archetypes. •
Do you know your hacker’s archetype?
BY SUSAN MILLER
We tend to characterize hackers by the color of their hat or their motivation: Hacktivists use their skills to advance a political agenda, phreakers hack tele- com systems to make free calls, script kiddies are attempting to learn by do- ing. Then there are the state-sponsored hackers and cyber terrorists.
Open-source software developer Eric Raymond, however, took a stab
at categorizing hackers by their most essential and universally shared traits, with the help of colleague Susan Sons. He calls his list the hacker archetypes.
Algorithmicists, for example, have mathematical intuition that makes
them good at algorithms and sustained, intricate coding. They have a high tolerance for complexity and gravitate to compiler writing and cryptography. “Often solitary with poor social skills; have a tendency to fail by excessive cleverness,” Raymond wrote on the “Armed and Dangerous” blog. “Never let them manage anyone!”
“It’s not done until it’s elegant” is the mantra of the architect archetype, who is good at blocking out architecture
in complex systems and possesses a strong drive to simplify and partition. Architects with communication skills can make good team leaders, Raymond wrote.
Pranksters gravitate to information
6 GCN MAY 2017 • GCN.COM
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