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The Almighty Buck

For Sale On eBay: One Man's Life->

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes "Linda Rosencrance writes, at some point in your life, haven't you just wanted to chuck it all — house, car, job, even your friends — and start over? Of course, after a while, you realized how silly that all sounds and settled back into your familiar existence. No so with 44-year-old Australian Ian Usher. After a painful, failed marriage that lasted five years, Usher, originally from Darlington, England, decided to sell everything he owns — a three-bedroom house, a car and a motorbike — and some things he doesn't own — his lifestyle, job and friends — walk out the door of his home in Perth, Australia, and never look back. And where better to auction off your life than on eBay?"
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Security

The story behind the mass SQL injection attacks->

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes "The wave of SQL injection attacks that began several weeks ago with password-stealing Trojans from China is continuing, now with the help of a botnet and an automated attack toolkit. And researchers say it's only going to get worse. "It doesn't take a lot of effort," said Billy Hoffman, lead security researcher for the Web Security Research Group at HP Labs, and an expert on Web application security. "There are so many Web-facing applications out there and a lot of them were written years ago and didn't go through any kind of code review.""
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It's funny. Laugh.

Safe robotic sex, the future of mankind->

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "Nothing quite like knowing that the condoms you use have been tested by robots. Ars Technica has an article regarding just that. Excerpt:

"They found that, in general, it was difficult to cause a condom to fail, but there was one exception. If a condom was locally stretched and not allowed to recover before being stretched again for several iterations, it became fairly easy to rupture. Furthermore, the ruptures had characteristic traits, making it easy to identify the cause by simply looking at the failed condom. However, a test tube is not a penis. In order to find out if this source of failure could occur during intercourse, a sex robot was constructed. It consisted of a large rubber penis that was mechanically thrust into a variable-tightness rubber vagina.""
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Biotech

Nanotubes: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?->

Submitted by conlaw
conlaw writes "As we all know, scientists have been all excited about nanotubes and the great forward strides they'll make in our lives. I guess most of them had failed to ask that perennial Slashdot question: whatcouldpossiblygowrong. Discovery News reports on one answer:

May 20, 2008 — Strong, versatile little "nanotubes" made out of carbon are considered future stars in nanotechnology research in medicine and industry. Now a study finds that longer threads of the stuff mimic the toxic qualities of asbestos, renewing questions about how carbon nanotubes can be used safely.
Oops."
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The Internet

SPAM: Seoul district wins Intelligent Community of 2008

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes "New York City-based think tank Intelligent Community Forum has named the Gangnam District in Seoul, Korea as the 2008 Intelligent Community of the Year. ICF says the Gangnam district "led the nation in using broadband to make government more transparent, increase citizen participation, and even to help citizens who remained outside the local broadband economy.""
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Medicine

SPAM: Debugging Repetitive Strain Injury

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes "Like many a geek, Sean McGrath became afflicted with repetitive strain injury (RSI) after years spent 'slouched in a dodgy chair with hunched shoulders and tensed arms squinting at a monitor.' Since being diagnosed, McGrath made a variety of changes and has managed to reduce his pain and discomfort pretty significantly. But having taken the kitchen sink approach, he hasn't been able to isolate which change or combination of changes worked. And so in hopes of helping the similarly afflicted, here are some of the things he's tried:

I now do basic Pilates/Yoga exercises pretty much every day for a few minutes, focusing on torso muscles and stretching.


I use an ergonomic desk setup with a high monitor; low keyboard table, split keyboard keys; and a vertical mouse.


I have installed an application that reminds me to take a short break after 5 minutes of continuous typing (30 seconds) and a longer break after 30 minutes (5 minutes).


I have started incorporating short mindfulness meditation sessions into my daily routine. It appears to be helping me become conscious of the onset of stress which gives me a chance to do something about it before my muscles get it.
"
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Networking

Time Warner Cable Wins State-Wide Cable Franchise-> 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes "Time Warner Cable has received the second state-wide franchise agreement, covering 260 communities, in 60 of Ohio's 88 counties, for 10 years. AT&T was the first to earn a state-wide franchise contract, after a law was passed in September that allowed operators to negotiate a single state-wide agreement. Normally operators negotiate franchise agreements at the local level."
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Businesses

The Epic Battle between Microsoft and Google 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes "There is a long article in the NYTimes well worth reading called "Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft" about the business strategies both companies are pursuing and about the future of applications and where they will reside — on the web or on the desktop. Google President Eric Schmidt thinks that 90 percent of computing will eventually reside in the Web-based cloud and about 2,000 companies are signing up every day for Google Apps, simpler versions of the pricey programs that make up Microsoft's lucrative Office business. Microsoft faces a business quandary as they to try to link the Web to its desktop business — "software plus Internet services," in its formulation. Microsoft will embrace the Web, while striving to maintain the revenue and profits from its desktop software businesses, the corporate gold mine, a smart strategy for now that may not be sustainable. Google faces competition from Microsoft and from other Web-based productivity software being offered by start-ups but it is "unclear at this point whether Google will be able to capitalize on the trends that it's accelerating." David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School, says the Google model is to try to change all the rules. If Google succeeds, "a lot of the value that Microsoft provides today is potentially obsolete.""
Sci-Fi

Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team 1

Submitted by Curlsman
Curlsman writes "Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team

Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.
We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.

If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them.

Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2316633.html

Is this site worth a write-in campaign?"

Never have so many understood so little about so much. -- James Burke