Comment Re:Iliad Reader (Score 1) 469
If you can afford it, go for Iliad. Unlike Sony, it has very cool ergonomics, and feels much more like a book, especially because of its larger screen.
Submission + - GoogleDocs, OpenOffice or Microsoft Office?
E. Stride writes: "An office suite expert explains the differences between GoogleDocs, OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, and goes deeper into the OpenXML vs. OpenDocument debate."
Submission + - Wi-Fi - Health Risk?
Ynot_82 writes: Yesterday, the UK Panorama programme ran a section on Wi-Fi and recent health concerns.
With some schools reportedly removing their Wi-Fi networks amid the concerns, many are calling for a detailed investigation into the safety of Wi-Fi Networks.Is this overkill, or are there real concerns here? Scientists are divided on the issue, and in the mean time, IT in the education sector looks to be taking the cautionary route.
With some schools reportedly removing their Wi-Fi networks amid the concerns, many are calling for a detailed investigation into the safety of Wi-Fi Networks.Is this overkill, or are there real concerns here? Scientists are divided on the issue, and in the mean time, IT in the education sector looks to be taking the cautionary route.
Feed Scientists Isolate Anti-cancer Compounds From Apple Peel (sciencedaily.com)
Doctor Mom's admonition, "Don't peel your apple," is getting new scientific support from scientists in New York, who are reporting isolation of chemical compounds from apple peel that may be involved in the apple's beneficial health effects.
Submission + - British police raid allofmp3.com voucher seller
Gossi writes: "The Register reports a 25-year-old man has been arrested under the Fraud Act. His crime? "Advertising and selling allofmp3.com vouchers through auction sites such as eBay and the website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk". Apparently the bust followed an investigation by global recording industry body IFPI and the BPI. What's interesting about the case is that it's now a criminal offence in the UK under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 to sell music without authorisation, rather than it being a civil matter, and that law is being used to target sellers of vouchers."
Submission + - One Laptop Per Child using Microsoft OS
pallmall1 writes: The One Laptop Per Child flagship XO laptop is going to roll off the assembly lines loaded with Microsoft embedded software. The recent price increase of the laptop to $173 is due in part to the hardware and licensing costs required to run the Microsoft software. According to Mary Lou Jepsen, CTO of the OLPC project, the "OLPC`s XO laptop series uses Microsoft`s embedded operating system, which requires special drivers to work. However, this increases the cost by nearly US$20 for the laptop, including US$3 for Microsoft`s operating system, and US$15 for a 2GB flash memory to drive the system".
So much for the statement from the OLPC project's President of Software and Content, which flatly denied any plans to incorporate Microsoft software by default.
So much for the statement from the OLPC project's President of Software and Content, which flatly denied any plans to incorporate Microsoft software by default.
Submission + - NYT Shines a Light on Firefox's Financial Sucess
NewsCloud writes: "Noam Cohen raises the issue of Mozilla's amazing financial success with Firefox's Google relationship.:
The article compares this approach to Wikipedia's ongoing fundraisers and raises the issue of transparency in open source projects. i.e. should Firefox's 1,000 to 2,000 developers and 80,000 evangelists have full knowledge of how revenue is spent as well as the extent to which Google is able to influence strategy vs. other stakeholders.""Thanks to the Google agreement, the Mozilla Foundation went from revenue of nearly $6 million in 2004 to more than $52 million the next year [similar revenue is expected in 2006]...In 2005, the foundation created a subsidiary, the for-profit Mozilla Corporation,...mainly to deal with the tax and other issues related to the Google contract...By creating a corporation to run the Firefox project, Mozilla was committing to be less transparent. In part, that is because Google insists on the secrecy of "its arrangement and agreements," said board member Mitch Kapor.
Bird Flu Pandemic Could Choke the Net 364
PetManimal writes "If a pandemic were to occur, many companies and organizations would ask their staffs to work from home. The impact of millions of additional people using the Internet from home might require individuals and companies to voluntarily restrain themselves from surfing to high-bandwidth sites, such as YouTube. If people didn't comply, the government might step in and limit Net usage. The scenario is not far-fetched: last year at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, a group of telecom and government officials conducted a pandemic exercise based on a hypothetical breakout of bird flu in central Europe. The results weren't pretty." From the latter article: "'We assumed total absentees of 30% to 60% trying to work from home, which would have overwhelmed the Internet,' said [one] participant. 'We did not assume that the backbone would be gone, but that the edge of the network... would be overwhelmed... The conclusion [of imminent collapse] was not absolute, and the situation was not digitally simulated, but the idea of everyone working from home appears untenable,' [he] said."
Gonzales Says Publishing Leaks Is A Crime 889
loqi writes "The NY Times is reporting on a statement from US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declaring that journalists may be prosecuted by the federal government for publishing classified information. On the 1st amendment ramifications: "'But it can't be the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity,' he said. 'And so those two principles have to be accommodated.'" So our 1st amendment rights don't trump the right of the federal government to violate them?"
Bio-diesel Made from Sewage 322
tito writes "A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold. New Zealand Herald is reporting that a Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds.
It is believed to be the world's first commercial production of bio-diesel from 'wild' algae outside the laboratory - and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April."
Dvorak Avocates Open Sourcing OS X 571
xzvf writes "Dvorak claims OS X and Apple in trouble. He suggests open sourcing OS X for an epic battle with Linux. In many ways, this is just insane rambling, but it's certainly entertaining on some levels." From the article: "That would make the battle between OS X and Linux the most interesting one on the computer scene. With all attention turned in that direction, there would be nothing Microsoft could do to stem a reversal of its fortunes. Let's start at the beginning. There's been a lot of fuss over Apple's rollout of the unsupported Boot Camp product, which lets Mac users run Microsoft Windows easily on an Intel-based Macintosh. I got into various levels of trouble when I suggested that Apple was going to gravitate towards Windows since it would be easy to do and there was some evidence that the company might want to do it."
Journal Journal: (rej:articles) Walla beats Google to the 1GB e-mail market
Arutz Sheva has the news about an Israeli portal and e-commerce company
Walla to become the first to publicly offer 1GB e-mail service for free. While the Google's G-mail has been in beta-testing for quite a while, it is still unavailable to general public, unless you get an
