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Google

Submission + - China Slams Clinton's Call for Internet Freedom (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: China on Friday slammed remarks made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promoting Internet freedom worldwide, saying her words harmed U.S.-China relations. Clinton's speech and China's response both come after Google last week said it planned to reverse its long-standing position in China by ending censorship of its Chinese search engine. Google cited increasingly tough censorship and recent cyberattacks on the Gmail accounts of human rights activists for its decision, which it said might force it to close its offices in China altogether. On Thursday in Washington, D.C., Clinton unveiled U.S. initiatives to help people living under repressive governments access the Internet for purposes such as reporting corruption. The U.S. will support circumvention tools for dissidents whose Internet connections are blocked, she said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu called for the U.S. 'to respect the facts and stop using the issue of so-called Internet freedom to unreasonably criticize China.' China's laws forbid hacking attacks and violations of citizens' privacy, the statement said, apparently referring to the issues raised by Google.
Education

Submission + - Why Most Professors are Liberals

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times has an interesting article on typecasting in professions that explains why, for example, less than 6 percent of nurses today are men. Discrimination against male nurses may be a factor, but the primary reason for the disparity is that most people consider nursing to be a woman’s career say Neil Gross and Ethan Fosse who undertook a study to identify other forms of typecasting in professions. They found that “professors and a number of other fields are politically typed" because the academic profession “has acquired such a strong reputation for liberalism and secularism that over the last 35 years few politically or religiously conservative students, but many liberal and secular ones, have formed the aspiration to become professors.” The study also found that journalism, art, fashion, social work and therapy are also dominated by liberals; while law enforcement, farming, dentistry, medicine and the military attract more conservatives. To understand how a field gets typecast, one has to look at its history (PDF). From the early 1950s William F. Buckley Jr. and other founders of the modern conservative movement railed against academia’s liberal bias. Buckley even published a regular column, “From the Academy,” in the magazine he founded, The National Review. “Conservatives weren’t just expressing outrage,” Gross says, “they were also trying to build a conservative identity.” To Mr. Gross, accusations by conservatives of bias and student brainwashing are self-defeating. “The irony is that the more conservatives complain about academia’s liberalism,” says Gross, “the more likely it’s going to remain a bastion of liberalism.”"
Google

Submission + - Hong Ke suspected of the Google attacks 2

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: They are cloaked by pseudonyms and multiple addresses, but China's legions of hackers were thrust into the spotlight last week after Google said it suffered a sophisticated cyber-attack emanating from China. There are tens of thousands of Hong Ke, or red visitors, as they are known in China. Many are motivated by patriotism, although it is more difficult to establish their relationship with the Chinese government or military, which some experts suspect as being behind the attacks. The Honker Union, China's most famous group of Hong Ke, shows the grey area between patriotic hackers and the state. The group has denied involvement in the Google attack. In the past the group has had involvement in cyber-warfare with U.S. hackers over the Hainan spy plane incident in 2001 and last week attacked Iranian websites in retaliation for the Iranian Cyber Army's temporary takeover of Chinese search engine Baidu.
Games

Submission + - SPAM: Bigger Brains Improve Video Games Success 1

Submitted by kghapa
kghapa writes: Still want to argue that video games shrink your brain? While video games have been previously shown to stimulate brain activity and improve coordination skills, a recently published study has directly linked structures in the human brain with video game aptitude. And yes, apparently size does matter in this case.
Link to Original Source
Linux

Submission + - ext4: prime time in three years, says Ts'o (itwire.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It will take about two or three years for the ext4 filesystem, that has been adopted as the default by some community GNU/Linux distributions, to be routinely deployed on production systems, according to senior Linux kernel hacker Theodore Ts'o.
AMD

Submission + - 2010 CPU forecast: Your next PC (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: No one should be surprised that the big action in the CPU market this year will be in the mobile and low-power processor segments. Rapid growth in the power-saving all-in-one and small-form-factor desktop PC markets, continued strong demand for portable computers, and new usage models such as HD viewing will all ignite demand for powerful new processors that consume less energy than previous generations did. What's more, a new category of small portable computer is springing up between smartphones and netbooks: the smartbook. Michael Brown takes a broad look at the road maps from the major chip makers for 2010, as well as a peek what they might offer in 2011.

Submission + - Apple to make Bing default iPhone search engine? (businessweek.com)

Submitted by recoiledsnake
recoiledsnake writes: Business Week is reporting that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. "Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy," says one of the people, who's familiar with Apple's thinking. "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle." Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, a move that would encroach on Google's ad-serving business. The person familiar with Apple's thinking says Apple has a "skunk works" looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that "if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it's about buying itself time."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft sues TiVo to help AT&T (wsj.com)

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes: File this in the "twisted tale" folder. Microsoft is suing TiVo claiming patent infringement. Microsoft is doing this because TiVo has sued AT&T and AT&T happens to be Microsoft's largest customer of Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology. Microsoft says that TiVo has copyied Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV technology in its DVRs. If Microsoft wins, it would effectively block TiVo from selling DVRs without a licensing deal with Microsoft.
Medicine

Submission + - Inside the cancer-pill hype machine (wired.co.uk)

Submitted by Lanxon
Lanxon writes: Yearly sales of resveratrol, a supplement claimed to "stop cancer" and "increase lifespan", are worth $20 million, yet no peer-reviewed study backs these claims. So who is making them, and who stands to profit? Wired has investigated, interviewing top minds on both sides of the argument, and produced a detailed and disturbing report. The internet seethes with similar "miracle" pills and cures, but resveratrol — a polyphenol also known as trans-3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene — demands closer attention. The compound's advocates talk up an eye-popping ability to stave off a host of age-related diseases including certain cancers, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurological conditions. And its popularity as a dietary supplement — sold mostly online — is growing exponentially.
Entertainment

Submission + - Boxee Embraces Paid Content (openboxeebox.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Boxee announced today that it plans to roll out a Boxee payments platform this summer. The new capability, compared to Apple's iPhone App Store, will equip the Boxee multimedia streaming platform to deliver a host of PPV (pay per view) and subscription-based A/V content to consumer's PCs and TVs via a one-click opt-in process. The company suggests that the iPhone's App Store model has provided ample evidence that users are ready and willing to pay modest fees for premium content and services. Actually, Netflix instant video streaming had been one of the most asked-for capabilities among the Boxee's early adopters.

Submission + - GMO Flax ordered destroyed 10 years ago is back (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by innocent_white_lamb
innocent_white_lamb writes: A genetically modified flax seed that was ordered destroyed ten years ago has mysteriously turned up again in flax crops in Canada, threatening the entire $320 million dollar industry.

Researchers say "It's a situation no one could have foreseen and it's taken everyone by surprise."

The head of the National Farmers Union disagrees. "Myself and others predicted this would happen and that's why we worked to get rid of [it] 10 years ago. If you're going to play around with [genetically modified] crops, once the genie's out of the bottle, once it's in the environment, you can't control it."

With a lovely bit of irony, the genetically modified seed is named Triffid after the flesh-eating plants in John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids novel.

Comment Re:Westerners (Score 1) 269

by harp2812 (#30661838) Attached to: Living In Tokyo's Capsule Hotels

Hey, those theme rooms don't pay for themselves! ;)

Actually, I think they were like only $40-$60 a night ($25 for a few hours), but I wasn't paying that much attention to the signs beyond getting a chuckle out of the pictures of the rooms... never actually stayed in one though, so maybe I misread the rates.

Comment Re:Westerners (Score 1) 269

by harp2812 (#30661320) Attached to: Living In Tokyo's Capsule Hotels

Yup - I stayed a couple nights in a capsule hotel back in March, and I'm a pretty standard Seattle-ite... My hotel was also somewhere around Shinjuku IIRC, however
my cubby hole didn't look quite that nice. Only $25 a night in downtown Tokyo though, so ya can't knock that.

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