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Biotech

Submission + - New Drugs Enhance Performance, Eliminate Sleep

Submitted by
docinthemachine
docinthemachine writes: "New drugs in the eugeroic family are completing trials that offer improved memory, mood enhancement, improved alertness and cognitive powers without any of the nasty side effects and mass murder of speed and crank. They are a class of novel stimulants that produce long-lasting mental arousal. They are unique in producing hypervigilence and alertness without peripheral effects or addidition of usual stimulants. Strangely, they have minimal effect on sleep structure, and do not cause rebound hypersomnolence (crashing). Related are Ampakines that also cause memory enhancement (just a bit of abuse potential there). One of these — a drug code-named CX717 enabled sleep deprived rhesus monkeys to outperform rested normal monkeys on memory tasks. you can read details of the drugs and studies at http://docinthemachine.com/2007/03/09/eugeroic/"
United States

Submission + - DC circuit strikes down Washington DC handgun ban

Submitted by
-=Moridin=-
-=Moridin=- writes: "A panel of the DC circuit today struck down the District's law that has denied new handgun permits since the 1970s and forces current owners to keep them disassembled, ruling 2-1 the law violates the Second Amendment. This is a significant decision, as the DC Circuit is generally considered to rank second only to the Supreme Court in terms of authority, and the Mayor of DC has stated that the District will appeal. For decades, the Supreme Court has avoided cases that would force it to rule on the scope of the Second Amendment. Will this be the case that the Supreme Court can't refuse?"
OS X

Submission + - Daylight Saving Time and Mac OS X

Submitted by MHouser
MHouser writes: MacFixIt has a pretty comprehensive summary of how the Daylight Saving Time changes coming this Sunday (March 11th) will affect Mac OS X and some Mac applications. There are fixes for older versions of Mac OS X (which Apple didn't patch) and older versions of Office (which Microsoft didn't patch). There's also a way to check if your Mac is currently compliant with the new DST change.
Announcements

Submission + - GDC:Koji Igarashi says 2D Gaming Will Never Die

Submitted by
njkid1
njkid1 writes: "So this afternoon, in the rush between last day proceedings at the GDC and the attempt to catch a well-timed BART train to catch my flight, I was able to attend the Light and Darkness: 2-D and 3-D Gaming Session, led by famed Konami producer Koji "IGA" Igarashi. While he explained how 3-D appealed to the general public, he explained how developing a 2-D game would be for the better...and why the medium still has hope yet.During the 45-minute presentation, Igarashi broke down the major differences between 2-D and 3-D platforming, using Castlevania images and videos to point out each of these plusses and minusses. With 3-D, for instance, a player can navigate past guillotine blades much easier, compared to 2-D. 2-D also minimizes the presentation on-screen, but allows for more concentrated use of pixel art, making the game easier to develop than models for a 3-D game. He went through this very thoroughly, even discussing smaller aspects like how the team members got involved and would become discouraged going the wrong way with a game's development.http://gdc.gamedailyxl.com/2007/03/09/ gdc-iga-says-2-d-gaming-will-never-die?&ncid=AOLGA M000500000000009"
Software

Submission + - Daylight saving patch in Java doesn't work

Submitted by mpp
mpp writes: According to the sun website, any Java servers that have been patched for DST need to be patched again, as the current solution doesn't work. http://www.theregister.com/2007/03/09/java_time_bu g/ The SunSolve page: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetke y=1-26-102836-1 All that work you did patching your servers? Never mind! Do it all again, but in the next 48 hours...
Education

Submission + - More on Teacher Pay

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_re_us/te acher_bonuses the Houston school district runs the largest merit-based pay for teachers system in the country, but the merit system was opposed by the teacher's union. It also interestingly mentions that teacher salaries in Houston range from $40K to $68K. That seems like pretty decent pay for 9 months work. I believe this is on scale with what college professors make at public universities in Texas for 12 months work.
Programming

Submission + - Linux "greener" than windows

Submitted by
GrapeSteinbeck
GrapeSteinbeck writes: "SearchOpenSource.com reports a new study commisioned by the UK government of e-commerce:

A new report from the U.K. Office of Government Commerce about Open Source Software Trials in Government, has found that servers running Linux could combat the rising problem of e-waste because they last up to twice as long as machines running Windows.


The report said:

"One of the benefits frequently put forward for the use of open source software is the level of resources needed to support it. This means that for equivalent open source and Microsoft Windows systems, the open source will require less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality"
"
Sci-Fi

Submission + - UK military awaits Skynet launch

Submitted by Charles Puffer
Charles Puffer writes: Like they can't wait for Judgment Day. The UK Military awaits Skynet launch set for 1925 local time on an Ariane rocket. The system will provide secure high bandwidth military communications. In about a week Skynet 5A will in it's orbit, with Skynet 5B going up later in the year, and 5C in 2008. Since the revolution should be televised the Indian TV satellite Insat 4B, is the second payload.
Privacy

Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act 341

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the watching-the-watchers dept.
happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Why Apple's 'consumer' Macs are enterprise-worthy

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Seth Weintraub provides a number of reasons to think that all of Apple's machines are ready to move into the enterprise, depending on the job at hand. 'There is no comparison between Apple's "consumer" machines and the consumer lines of its competitors. ... The company's simple and elegant product line, which is also highly customizable, will be Apple's entree to the business market — if IT decision-makers can get over their prejudice against equipment that's traditionally been aimed at consumers.'

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