dnebin - Slashdot User

Submission + - Australia to phase out incandescent light bulbs

Submitted by rblancarte on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @01:10PM

rblancarte writes: Citing a reduction in greenhouse gases, the Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country. 'Federal Government figures suggest energy used for household lighting in Australia contributes up to 12 per cent of coal-energy greenhouse gas emissions and around 25 per cent of emissions from commercial and public lighting.' While a small percentage in Australia's goal in greenhouse gas reduction, it is one of the first major steps taken to reduce greenhouse gases by any national government. The incandescent bulb is a 125 year-old technology with few changes made in the last century.

Submission + - Genetic origin found for autism

Submitted by

etherlad

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @12:21PM

etherlad writes: "Researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and the Offord Centre for Child Studies in Hamilton teamed with scientists and clinicians from centres elsewhere in Canada and eight other countries to scan the entire human genome for autism-related genes. The consortium of scientists — 137 from 50 centres worldwide that make up the Autism Genome Project — analyzed DNA from about 1,600 families with autistic children to try to zero in on a specific group of brain cells and the genes that affect their development and function. Their analysis led them in part to a region on chromosome 11, as well as to a gene known as neurexin 1, part of a family of genes believed to be important in communication between neurons, particularly during the brain's development."

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:59AM

PetManimal writes: "A loophole in Vista's activation scheme that lets users install an upgrade version of Vista on Linux machines and save up to $140 is spreading over the Internet and causing Microsoft a fair amount of embarrassment. The trick involves installing Vista twice but not entering the product key the first time, which effectively fools Vista into upgrading itself. While most home users are unlikely to try this, it may appeal to some PC DIYers and other power users:

The type of person most likely to benefit from this workaround are power users and hobbyists who own multiple computers running Windows as well as Linux and Mac OS X. Indeed, one concrete scenario would be someone with a used PC that's just one or two years old running either Linux or OS X who decides to convert it to Vista and buys the upgrade version of the OS to do so.
According to the last article, Microsoft is aware of the scheme and says it violates the Vista EULA."

12 Crackpot Ideas That Could Transform Tech 213

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:20AM from the circuits-going-places dept.

InfoWorldMike passed us a link to an entertaining article with a sort of 'top 12' innovative technologies that could change the world. Some of the techs include solid-state drives, holographic and phase-change storage, artificial intelligence, e-books, desktop web apps, and quantum computing/cryptography. For each of these technologies, expert observers weigh in on the potentials and pitfalls of these disciplines. Here are Esther Lim's comments on e-books: "Another issue, besides the prohibitive cost and cumbersome nature of e-documents, concerns the vast portion of the contracts that were signed and agreed upon before e-books came onto the scene ... That raises questions not just in terms of what rights the user has, but what rights the publisher has vis-à-vis the copyright holder." We've discussed almost all of these technologies on the site at one point or another. Which is the most important? Which one do you think we'll never 'get right'?

Submission + - Ajax and E-Commerce Solutions

Submitted by

ecart

on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:19AM

ecart writes: "Ever wonder what large e-commerce retailers use for a shopping cart solution? Do they build their e-commerce solution in-house or outsource? Do their CIO's go through the same process of researching and selecting a cart solution that us little guys go through? You betcha.

They fish in a much larger pond than micro/small e-commerce operations and the solutions available to them blow many of the hosted shopping cart solutions that we know and love right out of the water. Take for instance Demandware.

Demandware has an impressive client list that includes Playboy and Vermont Teddy Bear. Even more impressive is their solution. Features include an AJAX shopping cart, highly evolved merchandising ability and a robust checkout system that can include incentives and offers for upselling. Oh and did I mention they offer AN AJAX SHOPPING CART?!!?

Sorry of getting so excited over this technology but it makes the shopping experience SO MUCH better than other web technologies. With AJAX you can kiss the following goodbye:

— Requiring customer to click to go through a checkout.
— No more disjointed steps to "Add to Cart" or "Continue Shopping".
— No more clicking to get shipping costs.

All of these benefits sum up to higher sales conversion rates for the store. Quite simply, the easier you make to buy something from your online store — the more people will buy. Think out it as a one-step checkout on steroids. I'll take it further and say the AJAX shopping carts make one-step shopping cart looks so 1990's. The big boys know this and are going through great pains to update their e-commerce solutions to make uee of AJAX. The Gap even temporarily closed their online stores down to upgrade AJAX. Yes, it's that important.

Now us little guys will just have to wait for an affordable AJAX hosted shopping cart to come along..."

Submission + - Linode.com announces availability on East Coast

Submitted by on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @11:09AM

An anonymous reader writes: Linode.com, a premier VPS hosting provider, has added an east coast data center to it's offerings. Linode.com provides a highly customizable Virtual Machine Management Platform using Linux that lets you configure your own server complete with root access, without the burden of a dedicated server's upkeep, maintenance, and co-location fees. The official announcement is here: http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2619

Slashdot Top Deals