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Submission + - Four ways to harvest solar heat from roads (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Anyone who has every tried walking barefoot on an asphalt road will know how good the substance is at storing solar heat – the heat-storing qualities of roadways has even been put forward as an explanation as to why cities tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas. Not content to see all that heat going to waste, researchers from the University of Rhode Island (URI) want to put it to use in a system that harvests solar heat from the road to melt ice, heat buildings, or to create electricity.
Graphics

The First Photograph of a Human 138

Posted by samzenpus from the fist-cheese dept.
wiredog writes "The Atlantic has a brief piece on what is likely to be the first photograph (a daguerreotype) showing a human. From the article: 'In September, Krulwich posted a set of daguerreotypes taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in Cincinnati 162 years ago, on September 24, 1848. Krulwich was celebrating the work of the George Eastman House in association with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Using visible-light microscopy, the George Eastman House scanned several plates depicting the Cincinnati Waterfront so that scholars could zoom in and study the never-before-seen details.'"
Businesses

Linux To Take Over Microsoft In Enterprises 237

Posted by samzenpus from the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race dept.
shougyin writes "For years, Linux has enjoyed much of its success as a replacement for Unix. Companies turned to Linux to replace Unix servers, or for new deployments within a Unix-heavy environment. Linux is still king there, but it's starting to encroach on Microsoft as well. Big companies are planning overwhelmingly (76.4%) to add more Linux servers in the next year, and less than half (41.2%) of the companies are planning to add Windows servers in the next year. Even more interesting, nearly half (43.6%) are actively planning to decrease use of Windows servers in the next year."
Advertising

Microsoft Admits OpenOffice.org Is a Contender 480

Posted by CmdrTaco from the first-you-ignore-them dept.
ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "Microsoft has unwittingly admitted that OpenOffice.org is a rival, by launching a three-minute video of customers explaining why they switched to Microsoft Office from OpenOffice.org. Glyn Moody writes: 'You don't compare a rival's product with your own if it is not comparable. And you don't make this kind of attack video unless you are really, really worried about the growing success of a competitor. [Microsoft] has now clearly announced that OpenOffice.org is a serious rival to Microsoft Office, and should be seriously considered by anyone using the latter.'"
Games

Valve Announces Dota 2 128

Posted by Soulskill from the new-and-improved-ways-for-people-to-call-you-terrible dept.
RulerOf writes "Just over a year after hiring IceFrog, the lead developer of the wildly popular DotA Allstars mod for Warcraft III, and the speculation surrounding Valve's recent trademark filing for the 'DotA' name, Valve has officially announced Dota 2. Gameplay of Dota 2 is being ported 'exactly' from the current DotA Allstars and includes every hero, but vast improvements are being made to the game including VoIP, a coaching system, in-game rewards, and AI that takes over for disconnected players. Lastly, it all runs on top of the Source engine. (GameInformer's website appears to be struggling right now though, as they had an exclusive on this story.)"
Iphone

iPhone 4 Screens Break 82% More Than 3GS 348

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-that-kind-of-crack dept.
A surprising number of readers have submitted linkage to a story discussing a recently released study that proclaims that iPhone 4 glass breaks way more often than the 3GS's. Although the chart that I found more surprising was the one that said almost 9% of iPhone 3GS screens crack after a year.
Iphone

The Surprising Statistics Behind Flash and Apple 630

Posted by CmdrTaco from the math-is-hard dept.
Barence writes "PC Pro's Tom Arah has dug up some statistics that cast severe doubt over Steve Jobs' assertion that Flash is the technology of the past, and Apple's iOS is the platform of the future. He quibbles with Net Applications' assertion that iOS growth is 'massive,' considering that mobile accounts for only 2.6% of web views, and the iOS share stands at only 1.1%. By comparison, Silverlight penetration now stands at 51% while 97% of web surfers have Flash installed, according to Stat Owl. 'At least when Bill Gates held the web to ransom he had the decency to first establish a dominant position,' Arah claims. 'In Steve Jobs' case, with only 1.1% market share, the would-be emperor isn't even wearing any clothes.'"
Advertising

Anti-Product Placement For Negative Branding 130

Posted by samzenpus from the touch-of-death dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Product placement to promote your brand just isn't enough any more. These days, apparently, some companies are resorting to anti-product placement in order to get competitors' products in the hands of 'anti-stars.' The key example being Snooki from Jersey Shore, who supposedly is being sent handbags by companies... but the bags being sent are of competitors' handbags as a way to avoid Snooki carrying their own handbag, and thus potentially damaging their brand."
Firefox

Submission + - Latest Firefox 4 Beta Enables GPU Acceleration (mozilla.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Beta 5 of Firefox 4 has been released and brings with it Direct2D acceleration enabled by default on Windows Vista and Windows 7, a new audio API to read and write raw audio data within the browser, and HTTP Strict Transport Security. An add-on called Grafx Bot has also been released to assist with GPU acceleration testing. Accelerated compositing is also in progress but is not yet enabled in the beta releases.
Google

Submission + - Primary WHOIS Servers Hacked, Apparently For Lulz (sophos.com)

Submitted by Titoxd
Titoxd writes: Sophos reports that the primary WHOIS servers for the web at whois-servers.net have been hacked, and that several high-profile websites (such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, MySpace, and others) have had their WHOIS records altered. The attack seems to be more of a nuisance than anything more serious.
Ubuntu

Submission + - Previewing and Tweaking Ubuntu 10.10 (linuxtrends.com) 5

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: On September 1st, the Ubuntu development project issued the beta version of Ubuntu 10.10 — aka Maverick Meerkat — as a step toward achieving a stable release by October 10th. This quick test of the beta by LinuxTrends suggests that the new version of Ubuntu might be 'the most user-friendly, full-featured desktop Linux distribution ever.' In addition to showing Ubuntu 10.10's installation process, desktop, menus, and list of default applications, the review touts the benefits of using Ubuntu Tweak to add more functionality and modify various GNOME settings and attributes.
Hardware

Submission + - Hands-on with the iPad alternatives (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: This week's IFA show has seen a flurry of Android-based alternatives to the iPad emerge from leading manufacturers. The Samsung Galaxy Tab made a strong first impression on PC Pro's reviewer. The 7in tablet's TFT screen "beams forth with rich, saturated colours and wide, wide viewing angles", the device is capable of Full HD playback and the TouchWiz UI is "clearly intended to draw customers away from the iFamily". Elsewhere, ViewSonic has launched a pair of 7in and 10in tablets, the larger of which dual boots into either Android or Windows 7. "Our first moments with Windows 7 were surprisingly painless, too: we expected the Atom processor and 1GB of memory to be horrendously sluggish, but it wasn’t the case," PC Pro reports. Finally, Toshiba's 10.1in Folio 100 marries Android 2.2 with Nvidia's Tegra 2 platform to deliver "mighty graphics crunching power". The build quality left a little to desire, though. "The 14mm thick chassis feels lightweight, and even relatively gentle twisting motions left the Folio’s plastic body creaking under the stress."

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