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Biotech

Submission + - Darwin debunked: Survival of the fastest theory

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "It seems Darwin was a bit wrong about his theory of evolution. Survival of the fittest does not quite explain why the rate of evolution accelerates. But survival of the fastest model does.

The new theory suggests that the speed of evolution has increased over time because bacteria and viruses constantly exchange transposable chunks of DNA between species, thus making it possible for life forms to evolve faster than they would if they relied only on sexual selection or random genetic mutations.

The moral of the story? Sex is not enough :)"
Enlightenment

Submission + - How To Network: For Introverts

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Technical types tend to lean towards the introverted side of the spectrum. But being an introvert may hamper your career if you don't take the time to network. If meeting people isn't your natural thing, check out How To Network: For Introverts, and pick up some good tips to get you through the pain of being social.
Oracle

Oracle Lines Up Unbreakable MySQL 132

Posted by Hemos from the the-swirling-of-large-and-small dept.
munchola writes "MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos, has revealed to CBRonline that Oracle has threatened to provide support for MySQL and is already distributing the open source database. "They have hinted to us that they will," said Mickos, indicating that the database giant is planning to repeat its October 2006 Unbreakable Linux plan, which saw it undercut Red Hat with enterprise Linux support. Despite the competitive threat, Mickos is unmoved. "I hope they do that," he said, noting that it would be seen as an endorsement of the open source database.""
Windows

Submission + - Windows XP Activation in the Future?

Submitted by bigredswitch
bigredswitch writes: Now we're on the verge of Vista being released, how are we going to activate XP when Microsoft drop support, either when performing a reinstall or resurrecting old hardware? It's not going to be a problem now or for the next few years, sure, but what's the future going to be like (flying cars aside)? Getting an older machine back into action to pull files off, run machine automation, etc., is easy with Win2k and everything that went before (I've worked at places running Gem on 286s still for in-house stuff) but is this at an end with XP and onwards? How are other people looking to handle this?
Security

Submission + - EarthLink Unveils Zero-Day Protection

Submitted by
jimbojw
jimbojw writes: "A recent PR Newswire Article describes EarthLink's new Attack Shield technology which has been unveiled today:

EarthLink's "Attack Shield" technology is proactive: by utilizing Sana Security's (http://www.sanasecurity.com) award-winning multi-behavioral security engine, the application is able to monitor in real-time the consumer's PC to detect potential behaviors to determine if an installed program is malicious and remove it without requiring definition updates.
Can this possibly be effective? How long until malware accounts for such detection? Will false-positives annoy users into just turning it off?"
Education

Submission + - DOPA returns from the dead

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Perhaps it was a little premature to write an obituary for the Delete Online Predators Act (DOPA), as senator Ted "the Internet's a bunch of tubes" Stevens has proposed the new Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act which has a rather DOPA-esque ring to it, and would essentially ban the use of social software — such as blogs, wikis, and social networks — in schools and libraries which receive federal funding.
Networking

Submission + - UK introduces Internet voting

Submitted by
Mostly Cloudy
Mostly Cloudy writes: "The United Kingdom Electoral Commission has introduced Internet voting for the first time. The Government says: "More and more people, and particularly young people, are using the internet everyday. We need to see if we can use this to encourage people even more to participate in the democratic process." But the others are pointing out that "Using a voting system based upon the Internet poses a serious and unacceptable risk for election fraud. It is simply not secure enough for something as serious as the election of a government official." Considering the large scale postal vote rigging that took place at the last General Election, it remains to be seen whether the British electorate would accept this new scheme."
Windows

Professor Michael Geist on Vista's Fine Print 314

Posted by Hemos from the peering-into-the-dark-legal-innards dept.
Russell McOrmond writes "With Microsoft's Vista set to hit stores tomorrow, Michael Geist's weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at the legal and technical fine print behind the operating system upgrade. The article notes that in the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user. If you are a Canadian and think that the owner of computers should be in control of what they own, rather than some third party (whether virus authors or the manufacturer/maker), then please sign our Petition to protect Information Technology property rights."
Music

Submission + - Music Industry in a Jam with Subscription Services

Submitted by
Infonaut
Infonaut writes: "AOL Music Now and Virgin Digital are toast. Yahoo's subscription music service isn't doing well, nor is MTV Urge. Rhapsody and Napster are hovering at around a million subscribers, but they're having a difficult time adding customers. Could it be that the music execs actually don't want to see the subscription model succeed? Seems they can't find a business model they like. They're scared of Apple, they're scared of even the Zune, and they're scared of subscription services."

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