Comment This is early days for Social Networking (Score 1) 474
and I don't trust it yet.
I love gmail but I can see that it is possibly the most insidious Social Networking tool ever created. So I still don't use my real details on it.
Comment We did it here in Australia (Score 1) 409
When our (now 11 month old) Son was born it was an easy decision.
Over here it costs around AU$3k to store it for personal use until he is 21 years old.
Then if he still wants to keep it he has to pay extra.
It was even easier for us because the current Government was giving out a AU$4.5k Baby bonus (a once of cash lump sum). We used it for that... it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and I suspect it still was.
Something else you should know, there are public blood banks that will store it much cheaper. The down side of this is that you have no guarantee of getting _your_ blood back. It's public so that anyone who is in need can use it.
We went private.
Comment If you have to ask then it's a bad idea... (Score 1) 409
Don't swap to FOSS backed tech just because it's free.
AD is actually a pretty sweet piece of tech, and many FOSS apps work just fine with it.
_Always_ pick the best, AD is the best then for the situation pick the best OS to go with it etc
Comment I've done it in Aus (Score 1) 232
I have donated my brain in Australia
http://www.braindonors.org/
I'm not gonna be needing it after the Aus Gov filter my internet... so why keep it ?
Comment eh? Made of light? (Score 1) 39
So.. it's a hologram?
A giant solid light hologram... now _that_ would be impressive...
Comment Bolo time:-) (Score 1) 142
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(tank)
A great series of books to read:
A Bolo is a fictional type of artificially intelligent super-heavy tank. They were first imagined by Keith Laumer, and have since been featured in science fiction novels and short stories by him and others.
Bookmark China's not important: Microsoft CEO | Australian IT (news.com.au)
Submission + - Whirlpool sued for criticism (smh.com.au)
ssinct writes: Popular Australian broadband news and discussion site, Whirlpool, is being sued by 2Clix, for AUD$150,000 over "injurious falsehood", in relation to critical forum threads posted regarding deficiencies in the company's accounting software. The EFF, and local legal experts are up in arms over 2clix's move.
Submission + - Scientist Discovers a Way to Burn Salt Water
ClayTapes writes: "Yahoo reports on the front page that a Pennsylvania cancer researcher happened upon a
way to burn salt water. From the
article
"John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.""
Feed Engadget: Vista's successor now known as "7," due out within three years (engadget.com)
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Although Vista still seems fresh as a daisy, that hasn't stopped Microsoft from planning their next major OS release, and it looks like a part of the plan is changing the internal codename from Vienna to "7." The switch was disclosed at at a Microsoft sales training conference in Orlando this past week as part of the company's new "iterative" information-sharing plan, which aims to provide customers and partners with more and more info as part of a predictable release schedule. Microsoft also confirmed that 7 is scheduled to be in development for three years, which we kinda-sorta already knew. No word on when we might ever see Vista SP1, of course, but we bet all those customers and partners are still pretty psyched to know the new codename for a product that's three years out.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Submission + - Getting out of IT, where to start?
cavtroop writes: I've been doing IT for almost 12 years now, with the typical progression: pc support, server support, network support, etc. I used to love my job, and look forward to coming into work, learning something new, and surmounting challenging obstacles. After years of doing this and that in IT, I'm now an IT Generalist, and finding a job is getting tougher and tougher — most hiring managers are looking for subject matter experts. My lack of a degree (I joined the military, and went straight to work after that) is also beginning to hinder me greatly.
I've been giving some thought to getting out of IT lately. I find I no longer enjoy my work — most of the work I do provides little challenge, and I honestly don't remember the last time I learned something new and interesting. With the recent news of IBM possibly laying of 100k people plus (and the years long trend towards out-sourcing), the prospects of ever getting a meaningful IT job again are looking dim.
I think its time to hit the eject button on my IT career. But where to begin? I tried searching for a career counselor, but most of the hits were shady fly by night places, or people that just want to sell you a book.
Has anyone out there in /. land had a similar experience? What can I expect, and where can I start? Any tips, etc would be beneficial.
I've been giving some thought to getting out of IT lately. I find I no longer enjoy my work — most of the work I do provides little challenge, and I honestly don't remember the last time I learned something new and interesting. With the recent news of IBM possibly laying of 100k people plus (and the years long trend towards out-sourcing), the prospects of ever getting a meaningful IT job again are looking dim.
I think its time to hit the eject button on my IT career. But where to begin? I tried searching for a career counselor, but most of the hits were shady fly by night places, or people that just want to sell you a book.
Has anyone out there in
Submission + - The battle to dig moon dirt heats up
coondoggie writes: "Digging moon dirt is hot. How hot? This weekend NASA will give one research team $250,000 for a robotic lunar front-end loader — with benefits. Teams from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Livermore, Calif., Berkeley, Calif., Fulks Run, Va., Rolla, Mo., Berkley, Mich., Milwaukee, and Vancouver, British Columbia, have registered to participate in the The Regolith Excavation Challenge to excavate as much moon dirt or lunar regolith as possible in 30 minutes.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1483 9"
Submission + - Killer's alleged step-mom writes to Gabe of PA
Shambhu writes: In this Penny Arcade post (scroll down) Gabe displays an email received from someone claiming to be the step-mother of one of the teenage killers of a homeless man that got so much press recently. The letter was in response to Gabe's earlier rant about the media blaming video games for violent crime which included a link to this CNN article.
It doesn't make for very pleasant reading, and while I don't know how or when the authenticity will be confirmed, the letter confirms what most people expected: that these kids were not 'normal' in most senses of the term.
Submission + - Flash memory hard drive for notebooks launched
ukhackster writes: Traditional magnetic hard drive platters could be on the way out, thanks to SanDisk's launch today of a hard drive based on flash memory chips. The device can store 32GB of data and is meant for notebooks. . SanDisk claims that using flash chips means faster access and better reliability, so less danger of a serious system crash wiping out all your valuable data if you drop your laptop. The downside, though, is price. At an extra $600 dollars, are price-conscious consumers going to be interested?
Submission + - Microsoft's Xbox 360 to Run Linux Soon?
An anonymous reader writes: In a very short presentation during the Lightning Talks at the 23rd Chaos Communication Congress in Germany an anonymous masked 'hacker' showed what could be an exploit in Microsoft's new console that will allow to boot Linux or other unsigned code. After booting and loading a game of King Kong the Xbox 360 displayed a logo of Xbox360, Tux and the old MacOS with the words "coming soon...". His retail 'Core' Xbox360 unit has a small custom PCB hanging out of the case and he's using a Apple Macbook pro to proceed with his hack. Discussions on community sites suggest he might have found an exploit in the vector shaders of King Kong which aren't signed or checked for validity by the Xbox 360.
