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Linux Business

Linux installfests maturing?->

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes "Linux installfests apparently are expanding from an emphasis on serving individual users to mass network installs serving non-profits and schools. In the past, installfests have often been held as part of Linux User Group meetings, and involved individual new computer users bringing their computers to a small meeting to have Linux installed on their machines. But now there is an apparent trend visible in Linux installfests toward mass network installs supported by greater corporate or municipal involvement in Linux installfests. In many cases, the newly-installed Linux computers are being given to end user institutions such as schools. For example, a recent installfest in Austin, Texas, was put on by two non-profits and was supported by the personal participation of upper management at AMD and nFusion. The majority of the eighty-three machines were PXE-booted and mass-installed at that event over an ad hoc network. Likewise, at last year's LinuxWorld expo in San Francisco, 350 Linux computers were mass-installed over a similar PXE network in a mass installfest put on in a partnership between the non-profit Alameda County Computer Resource Center and the for-profit Untangle and IDG firms. The machines were donated to San Francisco Bay Area schools. Similar installfests have been held in Chile and India, to name just a few."
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Biotech

Brown Fat to fight obesity?->

Submitted by SpuriousLogic
SpuriousLogic writes "Three new studies show that most adults have unexpectedly large and active deposits of a calorie-burning type of fat that biologists once thought disappeared after infancy.
The persistence of brown fat suggests a potential new strategy to fight obesity, which is epidemic in the United States and increasing rapidly in the developing world. In addition to eating less and exercising more, people may one day be able to stimulate their bodies to get rid of stored energy — in the form of ordinary fat — purely as heat.
At the moment, however, the only safe way to activate brown fat is to stay chilly, right at the verge of shivering, for prolonged periods. That reproduces the conditions that led to the evolution of brown fat — namely, life-threatening cold in babies and small furry animals that cannot put on clothes to keep themselves warm.
Although the new research poses a difficult question — Which would you rather be, thin or warm? — the ultimate goal is to find a less uncomfortable way exploit this ancient adaptation."

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Earth

SPAM: Ford Tops In Green

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes "The 10.4-acre roof of Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant is a field of green — sedum groundcover to be precise. Soil moisture levels and general rooftop weather conditions are monitored by 2 Onset Computer Corp. weather stations. The resulting data is used to verify that the vegetated roof is helping to reduce the amount of stormwater released after periods of rainfall. The green roof also reduces heating and cooling costs and is part of the reason Ford has earned the EPA's ENERGY STAR Award for the fourth consecutive year."
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Handhelds

iPhone Vs. G1 Vs. Fuze Vs. Diamond Vs. BlackBerrys->

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Tom Yager reports back on long-term continuous real-life testing of seven handsets for the business environment. Rotating devices on business trips and switching regularly during long stretches at work and at home, Yager provides comparative analysis of each device's messaging, browser, and navigation capabilities, as well as workaday insights on functionality and performance, laying out the business case for adopting the AT&T Fuze/HTC Touch Pro, BlackBerry Storm, T-Mobile G1, Apple iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Curve, HTC Touch Diamond, or BlackBerry Bold."
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Power

Hybrid Mechanical-Solar Energy Harvesting Device->

Submitted by
Al
Al writes "Scientists at Georgia Tech have created a device that simultaneously harvests both sunlight and mechanical energy using zinco-oxide nanowires. A layered piece of silicon features both a thin film solar cell and a piezoelectric generator. The thin-film solar cell contains dye-coated zinc oxide nanowires to maximize surface area. The underside features a jagged array of polymer-coated zinc-oxide nanowires that generate power as they move across a another set of nanowires. Zhong Lin Wang, a professor at Georgia Tech says that the devices could end up in sensor-laden military aircraft."
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Patents

Can an Open Source Licence Be Patent-Agnostic?->

Submitted by
Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody writes "Are there ever circumstances when software patents that require payment might be permitted by an open source licence? That's the question posed by a new licence that is being submitted to the Open Source Inititative (OSI) for review. The MPEG Working Group wants to release a reference implementation of the new MPEG eXtensible Middleware (MXM) standard as open source, but it also wants to be able to sell patent licences. If it can't, it might not make the implemention open source; but if it does, it might undermine the fight against software patent proliferation. So, what should be done?"
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Google

Google forces Gmail onto Youtube members->

Submitted by societyofrobots
societyofrobots writes "Following the forced software bundling strategy of Microsoft, Youtube now requires all members to own and use a Gmail account. Any member trying to sign in to Youtube will now be rejected until this linking is complete. No opt out option is available. Has evil slowly crept into Google?"
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