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Portables

Submission + - Hands-on with the ASUS UL50 CULV laptop (mobilecomputermag.co.uk)

CheetoGuy writes: Laptops that use one of Intel's new CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) are starting to pop up now and Mobile Computer has taken a look at the latest from ASUS. With its 15.6in screen, the UL50 is a little on the large side for this 'thin & light' category — although it just about qualifies on both counts. There's a hands-on video that gives a good impression of the laptop, though this pre-production model doesn't have the final specification.
Censorship

Submission + - Yahoo Threatens To Call Police on User (thomashawk.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this year, Flickr user Shepherd Johnson made headlines in the media after posting comments critical of President Obama on the President's official Flickr photostream. Johnson had his account deleted at the time by Flickr. In addition to losing his Flickr account, Johnson also lost politically sensitive photos that he had not backed up elsewhere. At the time Flickr offered Johnson a $24.99 gift card as consolation for his account deletion. Now, however, it would seem that things have taken a turn for the worst. After trying to address his account deletion again with a now unresponsive Yahoo/Flickr staff, Johnson had his account locked out of their help forum Tuesday after posting on it there. Johnson said he next placed a few polite phone calls to Yahoo and received a call back from one of their security officers (who also claims to be a former FBI special agent) threatening him that if he calls Yahoo again that they will report him to the Sunnyvale police. Talk about your poor customer service.
Biotech

Submission + - Bacteria Used To Make Radioactive Metals Inert (sciencedaily.com)

Serenissima writes: Researcher Judy Wall is experimenting with bacteria that can cleanse the radioactivity from toxic areas by rendering the heavy metals into non-toxic, inert versions. The technology is not without it's flaws (the bacteria can't exist in an oxygenated environment yet), but it does have the potential to cleanse some of the world's hazardous sites.

From the article:

The bacteria Wall is studying are bio-corrosives and can change the solubility of heavy metals. They can take uranium and convert it to uraninite, a nearly insoluble substance


Businesses

Submission + - The Rise of the New Super Publishers (sleeperhit.net)

Ronald Diemicke writes: "With Disney's acquisition of Marvel, the amount of quality intellectual property that Disney owns is just staggering. Marvel is a force to be reckoned with in most forms of media, with a stable of recognizable characters at their disposal — they also have a notably strong presence in the video game environment, something Disney has typically shied away from. But maybe what we're seeing here is Disney taking the first steps toward moving head on into the interactive media marketplace."
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook ordered to turn over source code (blogspot.com)

consonant writes: "A Delaware District Court judge has ordered Facebook to turn over ALL its source code to Leader Technologies, who allege patent infringements by Facebook. The patent in question appears to be for "associating a piece of data with multiple categories".

Additionally, while the judge in question deems it fine to let Leader Technologies look at Facebook's source (for a patent, no less!) in its entirety for a single feature, it would be "overboard to ask a patentee to disclose all of their products that practice any claim of the patent-in-suit"."

Role Playing (Games)

Ultima Online Expansion Sept. 8, WAR Expansion In Near Future 40

IndustryGamers recently spoke with Mythic Entertainment execs about the futures of Ultima Online and Warhammer Online. UO's newest expansion, Stygian Abyss, was recently given a September 8th release date. As for WAR, they say, "... we just finished up a major patch for Warhammer Online and there's a lot of stuff we're thinking about for improving and enhancing the gameplay experience and guaranteeing that the product lives up to the legacy of the Warhammer franchise. You should expect an expansion in the near future." The Overly Positive blog suggests that recent developer interviews have undergone a change in tone, demonstrating a greater willingness to acknowledge the game's flaws and work out ways to correct them.
Privacy

Hard Drive With Clinton-Era Data Missing From Nat'l Archives 180

CWmike writes "An external hard drive that's believed to contain nearly 1TB of data from the Clinton Administration is missing from the US National Archives and Recording Administration (NARA). The drive includes more than 100,000 Social Security numbers and home addresses of people who visited or worked at the White House. Among those whose information is on the list is one of then-Vice President Al Gore's three daughters. The drive also contained details on the security procedures used by the Secret Service at the White House, as well as event logs, social gathering logs, political records and other information from the Clinton administration. Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) said the Archives was in the process of converting information from the drive to a digital records system when it apparently disappeared. The hard drive was apparently removed from a secure storage area to a workplace where at least 100 'badge-holders' had access to it, Issa noted."
Medicine

Cola Consumption Can Lead To Muscle Problems 420

wjousts writes "As I'm sure many Slashdot readers live almost exclusively on cola drinks, a new warning from doctors: 'Doctors have issued a warning about excessive cola consumption after noticing an increase in the number of patients suffering from muscle problems, according to the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. ... 'Evidence is increasing to suggest that excessive cola consumption can also lead to hypokalaemia, in which the blood potassium levels fall, causing an adverse effect on vital muscle functions.' And sorry, diet colas aren't any better."
Data Storage

Researchers Store Optical Data In Five Dimensions 239

Al writes "Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria, Australia, have developed an optical material capable of storing information in five dimensions. Using three wavelengths and two polarizations of light, the Australian researchers were able to write six different patterns within the same area. The material is made up of layers of gold nanorods suspended in clear plastic that has been spun flat onto a glass substrate and multiple data patterns can be written and read within the same area in the material without interference. The team achieved a storage density of 1.1 terabytes per cubic centimeter by writing data to stacks of 10 nanorod layers."

Comment Re:I stopped reading... (Score 1) 682

Aside from the fact that I like my line and paragraph spacing set up a certain way (a personal nuance), I need a word count and I'm not aware of any raw text editor that offers that. I've settled on Scrivener for day-to-day writing since it offers a few nifty built-in versioning tools. But you're dead-on â" NeoOffice and Word are sledgehammers for my (and most people's) needs.

Comment Re:I stopped reading... (Score 1) 682

Apple Pages may be fantastic at page layout, but it sucks at word processing. It's a page-centric application, which is great if you want DTP features for little money, but the lack of any kind of text-centric view makes it hopeless for mere word processing. If you're a writer who just wants to bash out words and leave the layout to someone else, then Pages' inability to hide margins and page breaks is severely limiting. Which is why Word (or NeoOffice, or Scrivener) is much better-suited to writing. /rant

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