I just got my hands on one of the HP Mini-Note 2133 ultra-portable notebook (netbook?) computers. A few first impressions are below, a taste of our upcoming HP 2133 vs. Eee PC 900 Battle Royale: HP... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 10:00 pm
Reuters - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that
it would buy Alltel Corp for $28.1 billion, including $22.2
billion in debt, vaulting the combined company to first place
in the U.S. mobile services market ahead of AT&T Inc .
You've Been Left Behind is a company that stores electronic documents for later delivery to your heathen loved ones after you get swept off to heaven during the Rapture. The idea is that there will still be time to save them too. The company claims to provide secure storage, but Bruce Schneier is suspicious.) From You've Been Left Behind:
We have set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the "Rapture" of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.
And another section that seems to have been removed from the site since yesterday but is still in the Google cache:
You will also be able to give them some help in living out their remaining time. In the encrypted portion of your account you can give them access to your banking, brokerage, hidden valuables, and powers of attorneys' (you won't be needing them any more, and the gift will drive home the message of love). There won't be any bodies, so probate court will take 7 years to clear your assets to your next of Kin. 7 years of course is all the time that will be left. So, basically the Government of the AntiChrist gets your stuff, unless you make it available in another way.
stavros-59 writes "An internal BT report on the BT secret trials of Phorm (aka 121Media) Deep Packet Inspection has been revealed on Wikileaks today. The leaked document shows that during the covert trial a possible 18 million page requests were intercepted and injected with JavaScript and about 128 thousand charity ads were substituted with the Phorm Ad Network advertizements purchased by advertisers specifically for the covert trial period. Several ISPs are known to be using, or planning to use, DPI as a means of serving advertising directly through Layer 7 interception at ISP level in the USA and Europe. NebuAd claim they are using DPI to enable their advertising to reach 10% of USA internet users."
Drank is a new "anti-energy drink," designed to, er, "slow your roll." The grape-flavored drink is fortified with melatonin, valerian root, and rose hips. Based on the color and the name of the beverage, I'd venture to say that they're playing off the popular underground libation Purple Drank. This Village Voice quotes the following from a press release:
From design to production, every aspect of this calming drink was inspired by today’s popular hip hop artists who embrace the much sought-after hip hop lifestyle that encourages people to capture a stress-free state of mind.
Verizon agrees to buy Alltel for $5.9 billion, creating the largest cellular carrier in the U.S. With the assumption of Alltel's debt, the total cost is $28.1 billion. The new wireless behemoth would have more than 71 million subscribers; Alltel's 13.2 million subscribers are mainly in rural areas away from the coast.
Integra5, a provider of technology which blends triple and quad play bundles into converged services, has appointed Gene Lew as its new vice president of products and strategy. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:01 pm
By Josh Sims In the States, they're the Ben & Jerry of household products. Now these young entrepreneurs are set to mop up the eco-market over here. Josh Sims reports That Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan should receive a Valentine's Day card is not surprising. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) has decided to standardize on Intergraph(R) SmartPlant(R) Enterprise, including SmartPlant 3D and SmartPlant Foundation, as its engineering design and data management platform for all of its manufacturing affiliates. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
North American Galvanizing and Coatings of Tulsa and LSB Industries of Oklahoma City were among the 50 companies ranked in Business Week's annual list of Hot Growth Companies published in the June 9 issue. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
The U.S. electronic chemicals market witnesses robust growth, especially with decreased chip sizes that necessitate newer and more complex chemicals. Simultaneously, performance and cost challenges remain. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Text of report in English by Macedonian state news agency MIA ["Poisonous Matter at Blace Border Crossing Is Repacked - Spokesman" - MIA headline] Skopje, 5 June: Kosovo authorities have started to repack the chemical substance in the three trucks at the inter-border zone at Blace crossing. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
PARIS, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacques Carles, co-founder and Executive Vice President of momagri, recommends the creation of an international task force to set forth the mission of a World Agriculture Organization to resolve the current global food crisis. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Seventh Generation, the country's leading brand of environmentally safe household and personal care products, has launched a special effort to celebrate and educate on World Environment Day 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Bob Walter, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jun. 5--Worth saving: Reader and American River Parkway regular Amy Greer wants you to look down and be careful, at least when traversing the Jedediah Smith trail. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Matt Canham, The Salt Lake Tribune Jun. 5--WASHINGTON -- A law professor from the University of Utah argues for the creation of a specialized court system for suspected terrorists, where they would have fewer legal rights than the average American. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Cathy Locke, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jun. 5--The former Kay's Silver Lake Resort, once a popular vacation spot off Highway 88 in Amador County, will be torn down this summer, but the boat launch is scheduled to operate throughout the season. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Eric A. Taub Lugging around a big-screen MacBook Pro or other large laptop to the local wireless hot spot may give you a great visual experience on the road, but it is so heavy it could also give you a bad back. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By SARAH M EARLE Concord Community Music School faculty member Emily Jaworski will present two repertory concerts this week to raise money for the national semi-finals of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Lenovo today announced it has been recognized as the #1 PC manufacturer in Technology Business Research's (TBR) "1Q2008 Notebook IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study." The results, garnered from more than 600 medium and large business customers in the U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By James Kanter Is Europe too friendly to underdogs? With a key decision expected soon in a European Commission investigation of Intel, the world's largest maker of computer chips, some U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
WASHINGTON, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Bryant Alternative High School in Fairfax County helps more than 60-70 teen mothers work toward their educational goals each day. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
C-COM Satellite Systems has received a follow up order for additional 41 of its iNetVu mobile antennas from Hughes Network Systems, a provider of broadband satellite networks and services. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Home News IN BRIEF *BBC1 is to be broadcast live on the internet, making it the first of the corporation's analogue television channels to be simulcast on the web. For the first time in the channel's 44-year history, viewers will not need a TV to watch BBC1 live. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Jordan to cut Internet sales tax for boosting users AMMAN, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Jordan planed to largely slash the Internet sales tax on household user in a bid to increase the number of Internet user, local daily Jordan Times reported Wednesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
javipas writes "On June 8th, 1978 Intel introduced its first 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086. Intel used then "the dawn of a new era" slogan, and they probably didn't know how certain they were. Thirty years later we've seen the evolution of PC architectures based on the x86 instruction set that has been the core of Intel, AMD or VIA processors. Legendary chips such as Intel 80386, 80486, Pentium and AMD Athlon have a great debt to that original processor, and as recently was pointed out on Slashdot, x86 evolution still leads the revolution. Happy birthday and long live x86."
By Andrew Liszewski There have definitely been some very cool LEGO models to hit the internet over the past few years, but I'm really impressed at the level of detail that's gone into this relatively small... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:48 pm
4roddas writes "Work-related RSI cases are at an all-time high and the cost to businesses is spiraling, new Microsoft research reveals. Repetitive strain injury cases have soared by over 30 percent in the last year, costing businesses over US$600 million in lost working hours — and causing pain and debilitating discomfort to over-worked staff. Microsoft claims the rapidly emerging trend of 'mobile working' — with office-based employees now working on the move for an average of an hour more per day than they did two years ago using laptops and mobile devices — is behind this alarming climb in work-related injury. The company arrived at its conclusions in a poll among over 1,000 office workers, HR managers and office managers. This showed that 68 percent of office workers suffered from aches and pains, with the most common symptoms including back ache, shoulder pain and wrist/hand pain."
SAN ANTONIO, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Citi today announced the launch of the AT&T Universal Business Rewards Card, an innovative... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:06 pm
Nile Guide, a sophisticated travel planning site that launched just over a month ago, has raised $8 million in Series B from Austin Ventures, Lehman Brothers, and existing investors Draper Richards and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
SAN MATEO, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated href=" Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
ANGLETON, Texas, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: BHE), a leading contract manufacturing provider, is pleased to announce a new... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
HARBIN, China, June 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- China Education Alliance, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CEUA) ("China Education Alliance" or "the ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
EAST GRINSTEAD, England, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Diskeeper Corporation Europe reveals that Diskeeper(R) 2008 Enterprise Server improves Exchange servers' performance... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
JIANGSU, China, June 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. ("the Company," "Canadian Solar," or "we") (Nasdaq: CSIQ) announced today... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Bang & Olufsen, the Danish provider of exclusive high quality audio and video products, is pleased to announce its 50... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
TEWKSBURY, Mass., June 5, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has received a $63.4 million U.S. Navy contract for AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NVIDIA today announced that Tricia Helfer, the actress widely known for her portrayal of "Number Six" on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
By Andrew Liszewski It's great news that the Chevy Volt is officially going into production with a late 2010 release, but for some eco-minded commuters, even an electric car is overkill. So if you're looking... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 12:58 pm
Barence noted that Firefox has announced release candidate 2 of their highly popular web browser. You can read the release notes while you download. And since my copy just finished downloading, I guess I'll go install it. I hope I don't have any
Bruce Schneier's latest Guardian column points out the absurdity of harassing photographers "to prevent terrorism":
Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.
Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?
Bruce Schneier's latest Guardian column points out the absurdity of harassing photographers "to prevent terrorism": Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 12:02 pm
InfoWorld - If the buzz among attendees of last week's Google I/O conference in San Francisco revealed a common thread, it was that the search giant's ongoing push for developer mindshare remains intriguing, though rife with questions and concerns. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2008 | 12:00 pm
It should come as no surprise: Incumbents are beginning to act like incumbents. But while the cable companies are the first ones to jump on the tiered broadband bandwagon, they wont be the last. Their... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 11:59 am
TaeKwonDood writes "Automated machines have been around for decades. They have basically been dumb devices that do simple assembly tasks. But RepRap takes that a step further because, instead of assembling pre-fabricated parts, it creates 3-D objects by printing them — squirting molten plastic in layers — and then building them up as the plastic solidifies. It works on coat hooks, door handles and now it can even make working copies ... of itself. The miracle of additive fabrication, coming soon to a robotic overlord near you."
I just finished listening to the Audio Realms audio edition of H Beam Piper's classic science fiction novel Little Fuzzy and fell in love with the book all over again. Little Fuzzy was the first book I ever bought for myself: it was on my first trip to Bakka, the world's oldest surviving science fiction bookstore, at the age of nine or ten. Tanya Huff -- now a bestselling writer in her own right -- was working that day and I asked her for some recommendations. She marched me back to the used section of the store and took down a copy of Little Fuzzy, promising that I'd love it.
I did.
Little Fuzzy is Piper's masterpiece, a tight, neat science fiction story that epitomizes the golden age of sf. It concerns a prospector on a distant world who discovers a potentially sentient aboriginal race (the "Fuzzies), and his ensuing fight -- fists, lawyers and even guns -- to get them recognized as sentient beings. Along the way, Piper explores the nature of colonial economies, the deepest questions of consciousness and intelligence, paternalism and self-determination, and the nature of the rule of law. All in a package that a nine-year-old will find riveting and delightful.
The Audio Realms 5-CD unabridged recording just won Publishers Weekly's annual Fantasy Audiobook of the Year award (why "fantasy" I'm not sure), and it's easy to see why. Brian Holsopple's reading brings the characters -- warm, human, flawed and passionate -- to life. The editing is not exactly perfect (there's a couple of pickup lines that Holsopple recorded that are left in, which is a little distracting), but the story is every bit as wonderful as I remember it, and the reading is a great match.
I just finished listening to the Audio Realms audio edition of H Beam Piper's classic science fiction novel Little Fuzzy and fell in love with the book all over again. Little Fuzzy was the first book... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 11:56 am
Reuters - When 17-year old Yuna Hua bought a new
notebook computer for school, she chose a smaller, lighter and
cheaper one to replace her bulky and expensive laptop.
Sound Unbound is a fantastic new collection of essays on digital culture and the future of music, edited by Paul D. Miller aka
DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid -- I had the honor of writing the foreword, but that's just for starters. The contributor list is extremely good, and their contributions are even better:
David Allenby/Pierre Boulez/Catherine Corman/Chuck D/Erik Davis/Scott De Lahunta/Manuel DeLanda/Cory Doctorow/Eveline Domnitch Frances Dyson/Ron Eglash/Brian Eno/Dmitry Gelfand/Dick Hebdige/Lee Hirsch/Vijay Iyer/Ken Jordan/Douglas Kahn/Daphne Keller/Beryl Korot/Jaron Lanier/Joseph Lanza/Jonathan Lethem/Carlo McCormick/Moby, Naeem Mohaiemen/Alondra Nelson/Keith and Mendi/Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist/Pauline Oliveros/Philippe Parreno/Ibrahim Quraishi/Steve Reich/Simon Reynolds/Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud/Nadine Robinson/Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)/Alex Steinweiss/Bruce Sterling/Lucy Walker/Saul Williams/Jeff E. Winner
Sound Unbound is a fantastic new collection of essays on digital culture and the future of music, edited by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid -- I had the honor of writing the foreword,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 11:37 am
I saw the news that TechCrunch launched a service called Elevator Pitches yesterday. The "elevator pitch" is supposedly a short quick pitch that you could deliver in an elevator. My partner Brad claims... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 11:03 am
AP - As if BlackBerry users needed one more excuse to be glued to their screens, E-Trade Financial Corp. is giving its account holders an application that will let them get real-time stock quotes and trade on their phones.
AP - Turkmenistan has begun allowing private citizens to connect to the Internet, the latest sign that the reclusive Central Asian nation is opening up. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2008 | 10:41 am
So, word on the street now is that Apple will be unveiling Mac OS X 10.5.6 10.6 in a mere five days at WWDC. Based on the fact that Steve Jobs said that they wanted to get back on track to releasing just... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 10:19 am
AP - In the latest effort to placate restless investors, Yahoo Inc. president Sue Decker laid out plans Wednesday for building the company's online advertising operations, and Yahoo announced a slew of new partnerships.
When the world turns to crap and we're wandering the wastelands scrounging for food and fuel while fighting off zombies, what do you want to be driving? We'll be in a Honda CRX.
Afrocoffee's African-inspired coffee and other products are really lovely -- especially this wine-box with a working integrated radio!
Our mission is to communicate the joys of Africa through our Afro Cafes and our Afro branded products. The fact that the African people are so wonderfully not self-conscious at all, their humour and freedom and their style and design. Hopefully we can convey this spirit and enhance the lives of people who consume our product and sip coffee listening to Afro Tunes at our cafes. For South Africa, we try to show just how cool Afro culture actually is and instill a sense of confidence into people to make them realize what they already are. Lofty ideals but we’ll have a go!
An anonymous reader writes "No one seems to have noticed that Sweden is close to passing a far-reaching wiretapping program that would greatly expand the government's spying capabilities by permitting it to monitor all email and telephone traffic coming in and out of the country. If a bill before parliament becomes law, the country's National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) will monitor all internet traffic that passes in or out of the country. As the article notes, there's a good chance email traveling from, say, the UK to Finland would be fair game, since it's likely to traverse through Sweden before reaching its final destination. So far, there's been nary a peep from Swedish media about the plan."
Xeni checks in with the authors of the forthcoming O'Reilly HOWTO book "iPhone Hacks" (David Jurick, Adam and Damien Stolarz) for a demonstration of how to unlock and jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch. The authors promise to teach you how to coax more out of these devices: little-known features, performance tweaks, and tips on great web-based apps to install -- video game emulators, IM and VoIP apps, and media players that can handle a wider range of filetypes.
Facebook, Bebo and MySpace may be booming in popularity, but new research shows that advertisers will spend just £115m on social networking websites in the UK this year. The new report, by research... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 6:33 am
A zoologist in Melbourne has discovered that rubbing estrogen on the tip of a human penis causes the "keratin layer" of skin to thicken, which may prevent the spread of HIV:
Dr Andrew Pask from the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne analysed the tissue samples from 12 foreskins and made the discovery.
“This suggested that oestrogen could induce a thickening of the keratin layer of the foreskin epidermis in the same way as it acts in the vagina,” said Dr Pask.
“Keratin on our skin acts a barrier to viral infection. We hope to be able to enhance this protection with the use of a naturally occurring, weak oestrogen,” said Professor Roger Short of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences who lead the research.
To confirm its effect, topical oestrogen was applied to the human foreskin for a two week trial. This resulted in a rapid and substantial increase in keratin thickness.
Adam sez, "Ed Felten of Princeton University followed the news coming out of NJ during the recent (non-presidential) primaries. Some of the Sequoia machines couldn't handle a name containing a 'n' with a tilde, but more surprising of all, voting machines were left unattended overnight in schools and churches all around Princeton, NJ. You would think, after all the reports following the California and the Ohio review and of course Ed Felten's own work on voting machines, counties and cities would be more responsible with this sensitive equipment.
Ed Felten took photos of the exposed machines, and our available on his blog. Thankfully, he is one of the good guys, and photos is all he took."
Third, voting machines were left unguarded all over Princeton, as usual. On Sunday and Monday evenings, I visited six polling places in Princeton and found unguarded voting machines in all of them — 18 machines in all. The machines were sitting in school cafeteria/gyms, entry hallways, and even in a loading dock area. In no case were there any locks or barriers stopping people from entering and walking right up to the machines. In no case did I see any other people. (This was in the evening, roughly between 8:00 and 9:00 PM). There were even handy signs posted on the street pointing the way to the polling place, showing which door to enter, and so on.
Here are some photos of unguarded voting machines, taken on Sunday and Monday:
Ricky sez, "A virtual version of Walt Disney World has launched today on Google Earth, featuring 3D buildings of most of the major points on Walt Disney World property, including attractions and resorts.
Not only can you see what different areas of the parks and resorts look like, but you can also click on them to find out more information, watch a video, and book a trip."
Link
(Thanks, Ricky!)
AP - Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.
It would have been illegal to do it in the United States (Probably. We hope, anyway.) So Northeastern University commissioned a study to secretly tracked the movements of 100,000 cell phone users somewhere else. They won't say where it took place or what phone company cooperated in this first-of-its-kind survey.
South Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it will order Intel Corp. to pay $25.4 million for violating fair trade rules. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 5:24 am
AP - Since a computer microprocessor is veined with electric circuitry, it might seem like a bad place to put water. But IBM Corp. researchers believe that sloshing water through hair-thin pipes inside chips will solve a vexing problem facing next-generation computers. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2008 | 4:51 am
CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer digs deeper on a report that said Microsoft was logging calls from customers who requested that the company extend the retail availability of Windows XP to find that some users claimed that they couldn't get through to the support lines. Microsoft denies that it organized any kind of call-in petition and pleaded with users not to dial its technical support numbers to ask for an XP extension. 'As a courtesy to customers in need of technical assistance, we ask callers not to call Microsoft Customer Support Services to request an extension for Windows XP,' a company representative said. Microsoft declined to comment on whether its support lines had experienced a call-volume spike starting last Friday, when the Neowin notice first appeared."
1833: Ada Byron meets Charles Babbage. He designed an early computer, and she would write the first computer program.
Ada's father was the poet Lord Byron, but her parents separated when she was a month old. Her famous -- and poetically wild -- father went to Greece, and she never knew him.
Ada was 15 when she met the Cambridge mathematics professor Babbage 175 years ago today. Babbage had already received funding from Parliament to build a "difference engine" that could do mathematical calculations. While that project was still unfinished, he conceived in 1834 a new and broader idea: an "analytical engine" that "could not only foresee but could act on that foresight."
In 1835, Ada married William King, who inherited the title Earl of Lovelace in 1838, making her Countess of Lovelace. They had three children, but Ada's family and social responsibilities did not keep her from continuing her study of advanced mathematics.
Babbage, meanwhile, gave a seminar on the analytic engine in Turin, Italy, in 1841. Countess Ada translated the article about the presentation and showed it to Babbage. He was apparently better at conceiving things than explaining them (unheard of in a mathematician, eh?) and suggested that Ada expand the article with her own notes.
When published in 1843, those notes ran three times as long as the original article. Ada predicted that a computing machine could compose music, draw graphics and find application, so to speak, in business and science.
She also wrote a plan for the analytical engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers. It's now considered the first computer program. The countess originated the idea of a loop in a program, which she likened to a "snake biting its tail."
Ada was also a friend to novelist Charles Dickens, scientist Michael Faraday, inventor Charles Wheatstone and David Brewster, creator of the kaleidoscope. She was an opium addict who had numerous affairs and gambled away a lot of her family fortune. She died of cancer in 1852, two weeks shy of her 37th birthday.
The countess of Lovelace has attained recent fame through Betty Toole's 1992 edition of her correspondence, Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers and Lynn Hershman-Leeson's 1997 film Conceiving Ada, starring Tilda Swinton.
The U.S. Department of Defense named a computer language "Ada" in her honor.
South Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it will order Intel Corp. to pay 26 billion won ($25.4 million) for violating fair trade rules. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:24 am
PC Magazine - The second release candidate of Firefox 3 is now available for public download, according to the browser's maker, the Mozilla Development team. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Jun 2008 | 2:08 am
G'Quann writes "A new survey shows that data retention laws indeed do influence the behavior of citizens (at least in Germany). 11% had already abstained from using phone, cell phone or e-mail in certain occasions and 52% would not use phone or e-mail for confidential contacts. This is the perfect argument against the standard 'I have nothing to hide' argumentation. Surveillance is not only bad because someone might discover some embarrassment. It changes people. 11% at least."
LOS ANGELES -- UCLA scientists have developed a process for targeting cancer cells that could eliminate some of the worst side effects of chemotherapy. The new technique deploys nanoscale, light-activated containers filled with cancer-fighting drugs throughout the body. These containers release the drugs only when targeted by a special laser, allowing scientists to confine treatment only to desired areas of the body.
Normally in chemotherapy, the drugs are delivered to the whole body and attack healthy cells as well as the cancerous ones, which can be devastating to cancer patients. In a couple of years, these new nanomachines, called nanoimpellers, could help eliminate cancer in specific areas of a patient while the unused drugs pass through the body without affecting healthy tissue.
Click through the gallery to see the labs behind this process and time-lapse images of the nanoimpellers at work in real cancer cells.
Left: A sample of cancer cells infused with the nanoimpellers fills the bottom of a test tube in Dr. Fuyuhiko Tamanoi's lab in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at UCLA.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
Left: The nanoimpellers are created through a series of chemical reactions, using this lab equipment. No mechanical nanofabrication is required.
The nanoimpellers are contained in nanosize, sand-like particles which are covered with tiny holes. These holes are coated with a substance called azobenzene. When a very specific wavelength of light hits the azobenzene, it flexes and flaps tiny molecular arms. This motion pushes the cancer drugs out of the nanoimpeller and into the surrounding cell. The cancer cell, which unknowingly took the nanoonimpellers in, is then tricked into killing itself. Think of them as light-activated Trojan horses.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
Here, the activating laser sits on an optic bench. If you look closely, you can see a blue light bouncing off a mirror in the center left of the photo. This is a laser with a wavelength of 413 nanometers, the exact wavelength needed to activate the nanoimpellers. Under the laser, the nanoimpellers flex and release the cancer-fighting medication directly inside the target area.
The UCLA researchers claim that the laser would be able to reach most skin cancer without surgery, but deeper tumors would require surgery in order to expose the cancerous tissue. Most cancer cells infused with the nanoimpellers die within a few minutes of exposure to the laser.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
The nanoimpellers are too small to observe directly without an electron microscope (see slides 9 and 10) so this optical microscope is used observe the effects the nanoimpellers have on the cancer cells (see next slide).
: Courtesy Jie Lu, Eunshil Choi, Fuyuhiko Tamanoi and Jeffrey I. Zink/Wiley Small 2008, 4, No. 4
Figure A shows how cancer cells quickly die after absorbing the nanoimpellers and being exposed to the precisely calibrated laser (413 nm). Figure B shows how cells that are exposed to the light without the nanoimpellers, or with nanoimpellers but with no anti-cancer drug, end up living a happy cancerous life. Figure C shows untreated cells and cells infused with unactivated nanoimpellers in the dark.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
Dr. Jefferey Zink stands in the chemistry laboratory where the nanoimpellers are created.
A member of the California Nanosystems Institute, Zink is one of the authors of a recent paper on nanoimpellers. Zink has worked in the chemistry department of UCLA for almost 40 years and he is a widely recognized authority on nanomachines.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
This ventilated workbench is used to prepare living tissue samples for testing with the nanoimpellers. The samples containing the cancer cells and the nanoimpellers are then taken back to Zink's lab for blue-laser zapping.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
Vials filled with solutions containing billions of nanoimpellers cover a lab bench in the UCLA Zink Group laboratory.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
A scanning electron microscope is used to image the nanoscale features of the nanoimpellers (see next slide).
: Courtesy Jie Lu, Eunshil Choi, Fuyuhiko Tamanoi and Jeffrey I. Zink/Wiley Small 2008, 4, No. 4
Using a transmission electron microscope, we can see the sponge-like pores on the outside of the silica that contain the nanoimpellers (figure B and enlarged view on right). In figure A, a scanning electron microscope shows a zoomed-out view of three silica particles. Note that the actual nanoimpellers are too small to be imaged with either of these instruments.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
This X-ray diffraction scanner is used to image nanoscale crystalline structures like the ones that make up the nanoimpellers. The machine sends X-rays through a rotating sample and depending on the way they bend and scatter, the sample's structure can be determined. While the scanner does not produce an image, the physical configuration of the crystal can be reconstructed in software.
The first female Supreme Court justice in the United States is lending her penchant for civic life to a new videogame project in which players "step into the shoes of a judge, a legislator, an executive."
Erik J writes "Apparently Jack had heard enough. The Florida Bar asked for an 'enhanced disbarment' in the disciplinary hearing of Jack Thompson, held earlier this afternoon. The recommendation means Thompson would be disbarred and prohibited from applying to practice law again for ten years, according to 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida spokesperson Eunice Sigler. Thompson's disciplinary hearing apparently ended in the attorney walking out of the courtroom after saying the judge did not have the authority to hear his case."
The US group Sony Pictures completed the acquisition yesterday of the Dutch production company behind a string of hit shows including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Under the deal, first announced in March,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Jun 2008 | 11:05 pm
Immune system is trained to tolerate pollen reducing symptoms such as sneezing, itchy eyes and a runny nose Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Jun 2008 | 11:04 pm
Apple is to rebrand its ".Mac" web, synchronisation and email service next week, focussing instead on "mobile me", according to clues unearthed around the web and inside its software. The update would... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Jun 2008 | 11:04 pm
No, so long as the service is well managed. Contrary to some media reports (such as Radio 4's Today programme), the information commissioner has not torpedoed London mayor Boris Johnson's plan to require... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Jun 2008 | 11:04 pm
The next census is still three years away yet it already has MPs abuzz. But the country may not be ready to do it well because of the shortcoming in national address databases, apparently caused by rivalry... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Jun 2008 | 11:04 pm
Surfing ain't just for browsers. But before you get wet, you've got to know how to read the wave, where to paddle out and when to give it your all. Remembering to play nice with the locals helps, too. Grab your board and follow our guide.
coondoggie writes "Can Internet worms be thwarted within minutes of their infection? Researchers at Ohio State University say they can and they have the method to prove it. The key, researchers found, is for software to monitor the number of scans that machines on a network send out. When a machine starts sending out too many scans — a sign that it has been infected — administrators should take it off line and check it for viruses. In a nutshell, the researchers developed National Science Foundation funded a model that calculated the probability that a virus would spread, depending on the maximum number of scans allowed before a machine was taken off line.'The difficulty was figuring out how many scans were too many' researchers said."
The upgraded version of Flip's popular, inexpensive video camera, the Flip Mino, has an improved look, slightly better controls and a rechargable battery pack instead of a slot for AA batteries. We put it through its paces in Gadget Lab.
The brand-new OEmbed specification is a way for web builders to add one-click media sharing to their browser-based apps. It lets users post photos, videos and MP3s by simply pasting a single URL. No more tricky embed codes, no more videos and images that fail to load correctly. And most importantly, no mess! Get started coding for the sharing masses with Webmonkey's tutorial.
Online music service Pandora has debuted a version of its streaming radio player that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux desktops. The application gives fans of the service the opportunity to run Pandora outside of the web browser, freeing up resources and adding some behaviors unique to desktop apps.
The upgraded version of Flip's popular, inexpensive video camera, the Flip Mino, has an improved look, slightly better controls and a rechargable battery pack instead of a slot for AA batteries. We put it through its paces in Gadget Lab.
Reuters - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that
it would buy Alltel Corp for $28.1 billion, including $22.2
billion in debt, vaulting the combined company to first place
in the U.S. mobile services market ahead of AT&T Inc .From design to production, every aspect of this calming drink was inspired by today’s popular hip hop artists who embrace the much sought-after hip hop lifestyle that encourages people to capture a stress-free state of mind.
I just finished listening to the Audio Realms audio edition of H Beam Piper's classic science fiction novel Little Fuzzy and fell in love with the book all over again. Little Fuzzy was the first book I ever bought for myself: it was on my first trip to Bakka, the world's oldest surviving science fiction bookstore, at the age of nine or ten. Tanya Huff -- now a bestselling writer in her own right -- was working that day and I asked her for some recommendations. She marched me back to the used section of the store and took down a copy of Little Fuzzy, promising that I'd love it.
Reuters - When 17-year old Yuna Hua bought a new
notebook computer for school, she chose a smaller, lighter and
cheaper one to replace her bulky and expensive laptop.David Allenby/Pierre Boulez/Catherine Corman/Chuck D/Erik Davis/Scott De Lahunta/Manuel DeLanda/Cory Doctorow/Eveline Domnitch Frances Dyson/Ron Eglash/Brian Eno/Dmitry Gelfand/Dick Hebdige/Lee Hirsch/Vijay Iyer/Ken Jordan/Douglas Kahn/Daphne Keller/Beryl Korot/Jaron Lanier/Joseph Lanza/Jonathan Lethem/Carlo McCormick/Moby, Naeem Mohaiemen/Alondra Nelson/Keith and Mendi/Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist/Pauline Oliveros/Philippe Parreno/Ibrahim Quraishi/Steve Reich/Simon Reynolds/Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud/Nadine Robinson/Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)/Alex Steinweiss/Bruce Sterling/Lucy Walker/Saul Williams/Jeff E. Winner
AP - As if BlackBerry users needed one more excuse to be glued to their screens, E-Trade Financial Corp. is giving its account holders an application that will let them get real-time stock quotes and trade on their phones.
AP - In the latest effort to placate restless investors, Yahoo Inc. president Sue Decker laid out plans Wednesday for building the company's online advertising operations, and Yahoo announced a slew of new partnerships.
AP - Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Courtesy Jie Lu, Eunshil Choi, Fuyuhiko Tamanoi and Jeffrey I. Zink/Wiley Small 2008, 4, No. 4
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
: Courtesy Jie Lu, Eunshil Choi, Fuyuhiko Tamanoi and Jeffrey I. Zink/Wiley Small 2008, 4, No. 4
: Photo: Dave Bullock/Wired.com
