Comment Re:Belgian RIAA? (Score 1, Informative) 76
RTFA, this is not RIAA, this is SABAM (Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers).
Submission + - Flowers For Algernon
Baldrson writes: "Drug Researcher reports that Algernon lives:
''...[R]esearchers ... have conditionally knocked out a specific gene to prevent an enzyme called cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) from being produced, but only in the brain. This led to the mice becoming more adept at learning and also able to more quickly decipher environmental changes...."It's pretty rare that you make mice 'smarter,' so there are a lot of cognitive implications," said Dr Bibb. "Everything is more meaningful to these mice," he said. "The increase in sensitivity to their surroundings seems to have made them smarter." ''
The mice did have a more difficult adolescence than the "normal" mice, who bit them and pushed them off the wheel when the researcher wasn't looking."
The mice did have a more difficult adolescence than the "normal" mice, who bit them and pushed them off the wheel when the researcher wasn't looking."
Submission + - Software piracy by country
UnHolier than ever writes: A short article and interesting graph from the Economist. "America and China lead the world in terms of total losses from piracy at $7.2 billion and $5.4 billion respectively. But when calculated according to the number of computers in each country a different picture emerges. Cash-strapped countries dominate the leader board. In Azerbaijan, which comes out on top, computers are loaded with $262-worth of pirated software on average. But Iceland is the surprise second-placed nation" with about $220/computer.
Submission + - Dell releases Ubuntu 7.04 PCs at Windows prices
Tookis writes: The day Linux advocates have been waiting for has arrived. Dell has announced three different systems with Ubuntu 7.04 installed: the XPS 410n and Dimension E520n desktops and the Inspiron E1505n notebook. However, those expecting lower prices for their Linux boxes may be disappointed because there is little or no price differential between the Linux and Windows models. In fact, the entry level E520 Windows desktop is significantly cheaper. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/12396/1023/
Submission + - WordPress Bloggers in for a shock
BlogSecurity writes: "David Kierznowski, a security analyst shocked bloggers yesterday with a survey showing that 49 out of the 50 blogs he checked may be running exploitable versions of the famous WordPress software.
"The main concern here, is the lack of security awareness amongst bloggers with a non-technical background, and even those with a technical background," Mr Kierznowski said.
Mr Kierznowski also uncovered recent vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins that ship by default with the software. He added: "WordPress users developing plugins must be aware of the security functions that WordPress supports, and ensure that these functions are used in their code."
The following statement was taken from WordPress: "[WordPress Versions that] are safe to use... [include] 2.0 or 2.1 series, which are both actively maintained."
Users not using the latest versions of the software may be putting their blogs at risk.
References "
"The main concern here, is the lack of security awareness amongst bloggers with a non-technical background, and even those with a technical background," Mr Kierznowski said.
Mr Kierznowski also uncovered recent vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins that ship by default with the software. He added: "WordPress users developing plugins must be aware of the security functions that WordPress supports, and ensure that these functions are used in their code."
The following statement was taken from WordPress: "[WordPress Versions that] are safe to use... [include] 2.0 or 2.1 series, which are both actively maintained."
Users not using the latest versions of the software may be putting their blogs at risk.
References "
Submission + - Hong Kong An ISP charge customers without consent
Sky Lau writes: "In Hong Kong, one of the ISP called i-Cable (http://inews.i-cable.com/icable/home/eng/content. php). The service is poor, slow and low availability. When there is bad weather they usually cannot connect. The big problem is their contract. The contract assume the customers continue subscribe the service for another 18 months without any consent, and in some case up to the charge as US$50 / month. It is deadly difficult to cut the service as their Customer Service intentionally delay the process, the CS phone line always down and takes years to get the line on, and denying any fault that is caused by the company but on the setting and configuration of the customers. You simply cannot ignore the payment or there will be legal charges against you. How a company like this still exists in Hong Kong just like a triad?"
Submission + - NVIDIA GPUs aiming for one teraflop in 4Q07
Arun Demeure writes: Beyond3D has found out that NVIDIA publicly confirmed their next-generation graphics processors will reach close to one teraflop, and that they plan to release the chips before the end of the year. This information was given at a recent analyst conference with NVIDIA's VP of Investor Relations, and it seems that this figure is comparable to the GeForce 8800 GTX's 346GFlops, so they're promising about three times the performance for arithmetic operations. It might also be more power-efficient than their previous chips, since it will be manufactured on 65nm instead of 90nm. And it's potentially a very interesting product for the high-performance computing market, via APIs such as CUDA and Peakstream.
Submission + - Sterptomycin : A Highly Potent Antibiotic
Submission + - Disney presents: Fair use and copyrights
jdavidb writes: "Eric Faden of Stanford University's Fair Use Project "stole" thousands of tiny clips from dozens of Disney films to create an educational film explaining copyright and fair use. Right out of the mouths of characters from Disney, the chief advocate behind the most recent ex post facto extension of copyright, you can learn how copyright terms have been extended, how important it is for works to pass into the public domain in something resembling a reasonable period of time, and what exceptions are granted by the principle of fair use."
