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Canada

Cheap Cancer Drug Finally Tested In Humans 363

Posted by timothy from the good-enough-for-the-likes-of-you dept.
John Bayko writes "Mentioned on Slashdot a couple of years ago, the drug dichloroacetate (DCA) has finally finished its first clinical trial against brain tumors in humans. Drug companies weren't willing to test a drug they could not patent, so money was raised in the community through donations, auctions, and finally government support, but the study was still limited to five patients. It showed extremely positive results in four of them. This episode raises the question of what happens to all the money donated to Canadian and other cancer societies, and especially the billions spent buying merchandise with little pink ribbons on it, if not to actual cancer research like this."
Biotech

Submission + - Cancer Breathalyzer

Submitted by Tiger4
Tiger4 writes: Cancer researchers in the UK have come up with a way to sniff for lung cancer on the breath.

"From the results, the researchers identified 42 "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) present in the breath of 83% of cancer patients but fewer than 83% of healthy volunteers.

Four of the most reliable were used to develop a nine-sensor array made from tiny gold particles coated with reactive chemicals sensitive to the compounds.

Other sources have picked up the story as well. Obviously, this would be a big breakthrough for rapid screening, and early detection significantly improves outcomes.

The Internet

Submission + - Internet's First Registered Domain Name Sold (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Believe it or not, it wasn't iternet.com or dot.com that was purchased when the Internet was "born." Instead, it was the somewhat off-the-wall name of symbolics.com. The Symbolics company was the first to use an internet domain name to guide Internet viewers to its line of Lisp machines, which were single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp programming language. XF.com Investments, which is a Missouri-based Internet investments firm, has managed to secure the domain name from its original owner for an undisclosed sum and XF's CEO was quick to proclaim his excitement over the acquisition. It's hard to say why this domain name was the first purchased back on March 15, 1985, but for obvious reasons it holds a special place in history. There has been one original owner for nearly 25 years. Over that time, we've seen the Internet grow to the tune of 180,000,000+ registered domains, and thousands more are being added each and every day."
Power

Submission + - Electric Company Wants Monthly Fee For Solar Users

Submitted by 7-Vodka
7-Vodka writes: Xcel Energy customers who have their own solar panels are worried about a new fee being proposed by the company. The monthly fee to pay for transmission and distribution of energy would be charged to customers who have solar panels irrespective of their energy use for the month.

An Xcel Energy spokesman said that the fee is to ensure that regular customers don't subsidize the "connectivity fees" for the solar panel customers who don't pay their fees when they use no electricity. Unfortunately, when pressed the spokesman admitted that nobody actually pays a "connectivity fee" yet however they wanted to prevent the mooching from occurring in the future (presumably when they hit everyone with such a fee) and also called the absence of a connectivity fee for solar customers a "double subsidy" because many solar customers receive rebates to install the panels.

Comment Re:not surprising (Score 1) 559

by cb_is_cool (#26760601) Attached to: Is It Windows 7, Or KDE 4?
I actually had a long argument with my park ranger about deer scat vs. rabbit scat. My main point was this: whenever he experiences any trouble he still complains to me, and for me it is much easier to deal with deer scat. So he gave it a try and it all tasted OK to his own surprise, he had no troubles eating partially digested berries, pine needles and pigeons. Thanks alot folks! I'll be here all week! (PS This wasn't in reference to parents comment, it just fit well here)
Security

Submission + - First Person Shooter Used in Fire Drill Simulation

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Researchers at Durham University have modified a video game and turned it into a fire drill simulator using "The Source Engine," the 3D game engine used to drive Half-Life 2 and created a virtual model of one of the university's departments. Dr Shamus Smith said that although 3D modeling software was available, modifying a video game was faster, more cost effective, and had better special effects. "We were interested in using game technology over a customized application and The Source Engine, from Half-Life, is very versatile," said Smith. "We used the simulation to see how people behaved in an actual fire situation and to train people in 'good practice' in a fire." The team says the virtual environment helped familiarize people with evacuation routines and could also help identify problems with a building's layout. One problem, however, was that while the simulation worked for most people, those who played a lot of video games did some unusual things when using the simulation. "If a door was on fire, they [gamers] would try and run through it, rather than look for a different exit," said Smith."
Communications

Submission + - Verizon is still bad at math (eyelesswriter.com)

Submitted by
mikesd81
mikesd81 writes: "Eyelesswriter reports has a report about a guy who called Verizon 56 times to test Verizon's rate policy. You can get some background information on this at verizonmath.com. Some may recall the whole .002 cents vs .002 dollars episode. The results of this informal survey shows only 2% of the Verizon operators are aware of the proper policy. From the article: While many operators did mistakenly quote cents instead of dollars, a large portion of the mistakes were simply wrong, regardless of where the decimal fell. This means that even if Verizon has since addressed the cents/dollars issue, that by itself wouldn't be enough.

By the end of the 56 calls, this guy still had to call a PR rep and ask for a printed quote of the rates. There's a video also."
Graphics

Adobe to Unclutter Photoshop UI 403

Posted by CowboyNeal from the time-for-a-facelift dept.
spotplace writes "It's not common to see a company blast their own product for failing to adapt to times and people's necessities, unless they're trying to give you a reason to buy the latest and greatest of said product. That's exactly what Adobe has done. John Nack, senior product manager at Adobe, says the old Photoshop interface doesn't cut it anymore: "I sometimes joke that looking at some parts of the app is like counting the rings in a tree: you can gauge when certain features arrived by the dimensions & style of the dialog. No one wants to work with — or work on — some shambling, bloated monster of a program.""

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