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Submission + - HillarysBlinds50% off blinds todayCall0800 916 773 (blinds-on-line.co.uk)

Submitted by
hillarysblinds
hillarysblinds writes: "Hillarys Blinds, Awnings and Shutters Home Service and Web Blinds online sales for every type of window blinds including romans and rollers. We do vertical blinds, venetian blinds,wood venetians,roller blinds,roman blinds,pleated blinds,woodweave blinds,honeycomb blinds,velux blinds also. Book a Hilarys Home Visit. FREE Phone # 08009167730."
Power

Breakthrough in Electricity-Producing Microbe 177

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the devil-in-the-dark dept.
University of Massachusetts researchers have made a breakthrough with "Geobacter," a microbe that produces electric current from mud and wastewater. A conservative estimate puts the energy output increase at eight times that of the original organism, potentially allowing applications far beyond that of extracting electricity from mud. "Now, planning can move forward to design microbial fuel cells that convert waste water and renewable biomass to electricity, treat a single home's waste while producing localized power (especially attractive in developing countries), power mobile electronics, vehicles and implanted medical devices, and drive bioremediation of contaminated environments."
Space

Submission + - South Korea to launch its first rocket into space (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by
xp65
xp65 writes: "South Korea will launch its first carrier rocket from the Naro Space Center on August 11. If the launch is successful, South Korea will become a member of the so-called 'space club,' whose members have developed their own rockets and satellites and sent them into space from a launch facility on their own soil. A second, more powerful rocket named KSLV-2 could be created and launched by 2018 without foreign assistance. It is expected to be a 50-meter (164-foot) three-stage rocket, capable of carrying up to one metric ton of payload. Additionally the construction of South Korea's first space center on the island of Naro, about 500 km (311 miles) south of Seoul, was completed in June. The facility covers an area of over 5 square km (1.9 square miles). The cost of construction totaled $248.6 million, according to the country's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Apple: iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers (wired.com) 1

Submitted by AHuxley
AHuxley writes: Apple notes nation's cellphone networks could be open to "potentially catastrophic" cyberattacks by iPhone-using hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their wireless devices.
The Copyright Office is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking.
Apple feels that if the "baseband processor" software, which enables a connection to cell phone towers is exposed then a user could crash the tower software, or use the Exclusive Chip Identification number to make anonymously calls.
Apple feels its closed business model is what made the iPhone a success.
Costas Tsalikidis, the Greek telco (Vodafone) whistleblower did show what could be done within the Greek telco network but that was from within and he was later found hung.
What do slashdot readers think? Is Apple playing the "evil genius" hacker card or can "anyone" with a smartphone and a genius friend pop a US cell tower?

Comment Layoffs (Score 3, Interesting) 506

by bowl_of_petunias (#26330509) Attached to: Microsoft Rumored To Lay Off Thousands Worldwide

I know a few people in the NYC office who have been worried this week by the layoff rumor. Hopefully, Microsoft will streamline the company responsibly. It is unfortunate that so many companies are considering large layoffs, but it is hardly surprising. Many corporations are bogged down by redundancy or mediocrity in the workforce, and would benefit from a careful re-analysis. I know it's easy to jump to the "microsoft sucks" conclusion, but I'm afraid we will be hearing more of these stories from around the country in the next few months. I'm sure even the "evil" microsoft top executives are heartsick over the human cost (and bad press).

Comment Hmmm... (Score 0) 277

by bowl_of_petunias (#26329231) Attached to: Review of 'MacHeads' Documentary

"self-confessed Apple-obsessed and girls who claim they'll never sleep with Windows users"

Probably true... the odds of *ever* getting laid are not particularly good for os-obsessed humans.

~bowl_of_petunias~

ps- Speaking of not getting laid, anyone know a hot linux-obsessed lesbian?

Comment Popeye=Propaganda (Score 1) 229

by bowl_of_petunias (#26329109) Attached to: Image of Popeye Enters Public Domain In the EU

Did you know that Popeye did not originally eat spinich?

Mental Floss Magazine had a brief story about our spinich-eating friend this month.

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20794.html

In part:

"Everyone knows Popeye's secret. Whenever the cartoon sailor is on the verge of losing a fight, he squeezes open a can of spinach, pours the greens down his throat, and uses his supercharged muscles to pummel opponents. But fewer people know that the U.S. government is directly responsible for his dependence on canned vegetables."

That's right, folks! Popeye=propagana

Also, the article mentions that spinich was actively promoted due to its high-iron content, which was miscalculated when a scientist moved a decimal point.

~ bowl_of_petunias ~

Oh no! Not Again!
Linux

Getting Inked for Tux at OSCON 108

Posted by timothy from the mama-with-a-heart-is-so-last-century dept.
OSCON isn't just a gathering for talks on topics like Creating Location-aware Web 2.0 Applications on an Open Source Geospatial Platform and fightin' words from the stage; it's also an excuse for some interesting social gatherings, like this year's Community Choice awards (organized and sponsored by the corporate overlords at SourceForge, as you might recall, and with Slashdot's own special category), at which, among other festive activities, attendees were offered the chance to get open-source-related tattoos. There are shots of some of these up on the SourceForge Community pages, and — with some overlap — even more in this set at Flickr. (My pasty bicep^h^h^h^h^h shoulder is the one now adorned with a circled head of a happy Tux ala IBM; I was expecting it to hurt more than it actually did.) Anyone with techie tattoos, please disclose below.
The Internet

Your Online Profile Actually Tells a Lot About You 272

Posted by timothy from the explains-my-dating-life dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Despite all the media reports that your Facebook profile is giving the wrong impression, a psychological study shows people really can understand your personality from your online profile. Turns out you're not giving the wrong impression with your profile; you're giving the right impression to the wrong people. You can actually learn more about someone's Agreeableness from their online profile than from a first date."
Media

MPAA Scores First P2P Jury Conviction 335

Posted by Soulskill from the connection-reset-by-jury-of-peers dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The MPAA must be celebrating. According to the BitTorrent news site Slyck.com, the Department of Justice is proclaiming their first P2P criminal copyright conviction, against an Elite Torrents administrator. The press release notes, 'The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of a small group of Elite Torrents members known as "Uploaders," who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group. At sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008, Dove faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.'"

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