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Submission + - Stolen unencrypted laptop contains 159,000 records (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
DLa Voie
DLa Voie writes: "I received a letter from Administaff yesterday stating my data (SSN and other personally identifiable information) was one of the 159,000 records contained on the unencrypted laptop. The laptop computer, which was reported missing on Oct. 3, contained data that was being compiled "in response to a governmental reporting requirement", according to Administaff. How long will it be before this negligence stops, and what type of action do you suggest when this reoccurring scenario happens?"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Yoga for Geeks: I can haz wifi now? (itworldcanada.com)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "itWorld Canada reports on a yoga class geared for those who spend their lives around and in front of computers: 'No Lululemon required in Yoga for Geeks which includes postures for head and shoulder mobility, opening up the connective tissue in the upper body and opening up the hips, which get tight if you're sitting all day. The class also includes breathing and relaxation.' Laptop pain is serious business so don't be a laptop loser (pdf), work safely and mind your boyz. See also I can haz wifi now? and photos from Linux Fest and Penguin Day."
Media

Submission + - NY Times "Free" trial is a trap (nytimesee.com)

Submitted by LiquidCoooled
LiquidCoooled writes: The New York Times have recently begun offering an exact digital replica of the daily newspaper.
However to get a look at this nifty sounding site, you must signup and leave your credit card details.
The only thing which concerns me is the following:

Page Headline: Free: Try The New York Times Electronic Edition For 7 Days

Clause lower down: The first charge will be on the 5th day of your 7-day free trial.

My question then, how do I get a free 7 day trial?
Robotics

Submission + - First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Robots have been roaming Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the 'bots are carrying guns. The SWORDS robots, armed with M249 machine guns, "haven't fired their weapons yet," an Army official says. "But that'll be happening soon." The machines have actually been ready to a while, but safety concerns kept 'em off the battlefield. Now, the robots have kill switches, so "now we can kill the unit if it goes crazy," according to the Army. I feel safer already.
Announcements

Submission + - Mobile 'phone use gender affected (smh.com.au)

Submitted by
Petra_von_Kant
Petra_von_Kant writes: "BEWARE the chatty female driver having relationship troubles.

Research has found that while speeding is a weakness for young men, emotional phone conversations behind the wheel make women drive badly.

Macquarie University research found women were more likely to be distracted while talking on a mobile phone in the car, but less likely to be distracted by passengers.

The researchers then looked at how drivers handled different types of conversations. They asked male and female drivers a simple cognitive question — "What did you do last Tuesday?" — and then to discuss a moral dilemma."
Announcements

Submission + - Midway Only One Solid Franchise Away from Profitab (gamedaily.com)

Submitted by
njkid1
njkid1 writes: "Midway and profitable aren't words that are readily associated with each other. Year after year the struggling publisher reports losses — last year's was $77.8 million — but Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks the publisher's fortunes could be on the rise."
Power

Submission + - Electrostatic Magnet Motor Made from Kitchen Stuff (peswiki.com)

Submitted by
Sterling Allan
Sterling Allan writes: "Scott F. Hall, an associate professor of art at the University of Central Florida, was tinkering around with stuff in his kitchen and came up with a continuously rotating mechanism that appears to harness electrostatic energy from the atmosphere — or something. The gizmo spins at around 80 revolutions per minute, and is constructed from a can of dog food, tooth picks, refrigerator magnets, a pencil, spring clips, and a small corner cut out of a box. Three toothpics are formed into an inverted tripod and spin atop the fourth toothpick held vertical by a spring clip that has magnets situated around the base. A graphite pencil is held over the the point of the inverted tripod via another spring clip sitting atop the can of dog food. Hall (suitable last name) posted a video at YouTube showing the gizmo running. The next day, he posted another video showing a round paperweight spinning (though not continuously) via magnets placed on its perimeter, with magnets on two adjoining dog food cans."
Biotech

Submission + - Stem Cells Shown to Protect Dying Motor Neurons

Submitted by
Penguinshit
Penguinshit writes: "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by rapid loss of muscle control and eventual paralysis due to the death of large motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Growth factors such as glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are known to protect motor neurons from damage in a range of models. Human cortical neural progenitor cells derived from fetal tissue (ie. stem cells) can be expanded in culture for long periods and survive transplantation into the central nervous system, in some cases making large numbers of GFAP positive astrocytes. They can also be genetically modified to release GDNF and thus act as long-term 'mini pumps' in specific regions of the brain. In this study a team at UW-Madison's Waisman Center genetically modified human neural stem cells to release GDNF and transplanted them into the spinal cord of rats with mutant SOD1. Following unilateral transplantation into the spinal cord of the rats there was robust cellular migration into degenerating areas, efficient delivery of GDNF and remarkable preservation of motor neurons at early and end stages of the disease within chimeric regions.

This work is especially important to me, as I have been living with ALS for almost three years."
United States

Submission + - Forensics Expert says Al-Qaeda Images Altered

Submitted by WerewolfOfVulcan
WerewolfOfVulcan writes: Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some veeeeeery interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images that our government loves to show off.

From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos.
Amiga

Submission + - Hacker does a DIY Amiga in FPGA (hetnet.nl)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Developer Dennis van Weeren recently announced completion of his from-scratch completely re-engineered Amiga chipset. His PCB design is fully operational and compatible and his verilog code has been released under GPL. Will this finally give the Amiga community a new breath of life?
Networking

Submission + - SuprNova.org Transferred to The Pirate Bay (slyck.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Andrej Preston, ex-administrator of legendary BitTorrent SuprNova.org, has turned over the keys to The Pirate Bay.

"My deal with [The Pirate Bay] was that the role of SuprNova can't change much," he tells Slyck.com. "It needs to be community orientated, but I hope they make some updates the SuprNova was sooo missing. But what they will do, it's not my thing to decide anymore. But I know they will do [well] and will try to keep the community spirit running."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Slashdot launches Firehose

Submitted by
rstewar
rstewar writes: "Looks like Slashdot might finally be doing something about the heat from Digg. Slashdot has launched a editorial voting system called Firehose to "allow users to assist the Slashdot editors in the story selection process." It's a straight up copy of Digg, but Slashdot is not giving up ultimate editorial control of their home page.

Images are here — http://blog.stewtopia.com/2006/12/12/slashdot-fire hose/
New feature is here — http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl"
IBM

Submission + - Smaller, Faster Non-Volatile Memory From IBM

Submitted by T-Bone_142
T-Bone_142 writes: Today scientists from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda unveiled a new type of memory with the intention of possibly being a replacement for flash memory which is used in many electronic gadgets today.

The new memory announced today is called "phase-change" memory. The memory would have the same applications as flash memory, but with a a couple key advantages. First of all, the phase-change memory has shown to be faster than flash memory; up to 500 times faster. It would also only consume about half the power that flash memory does, even with the greater speed. Secondly, the phase-change memory is smaller. A cross section of the new memory prototype measures only 3 x 20 nanometers.

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