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dyous87 points out a ZDNet article reporting that Novell has endorsed a customer's comment claiming that the total cost of ownership of Linux is higher then that of Windows. Novell and Microsoft jointly issued a press release quoting an IT guy for a UK-based bank, HSBC: "Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment." The context of the comment makes it clear that HSBC's Linux environment has a mix of distros, and that a move to centralize around one distro — Novell's — will save money. Nevertheless, Novell's connection to this assertion is not likely to improve their reputation in the open source community.

retrosteve writes "Led by Professor David Leigh, the team from Edinburgh have designed and built a molecule known as a rotaxane, that can move and sort particles. It took three years of painstaking work to find a molecular form that could do this job. It is powered by light, so the Second Law is intact."

Boj writes "The Times online is carrying stories on fraud carried out on eBay using shill bidding. Citing eBay's changes to security as aiding the shill bidders and this fraud: "Last November eBay changed its rules to conceal bidders' identity — making it even more difficult for customers to see whether sellers are bidding on their own lots.""

ZahnRosen writes "Internet Users agree, Microsoft Vista Sucks. Inability to run on grandma's hardware and 'bloat' make it a stillborn OS. Seriously.

http://www.overclockingwiki.org/index.php?title=Di sadvantages_of_Vista"

SnowDog74 writes "According to an article in USA Today, Verizon Wireless apparently rejected an Apple deal. The article suggests that Verizon wasn't particularly happy with the strict terms Apple wanted. What's perhaps most interesting, however, about this story is the implication from sources that say Cingular's exclusive deal is within the United States only. If this is true, it undermines some of the criticism Apple's been receiving for their business strategy surrounding the iPhone, given the size of the cell phone market outside the United States."

RulerOf writes "Three days ago a video was posted on YouTube called "How to Sign Up for GoogleTV Beta" along with four others as part of a series called "Infinite Solutions with Mark Erickson." The video was covered over at Gizmodo and after reading the article's comments, the joke becomes much more obvious. Follow the links for some very well done pranks from How to Unlock a Hidden Minesweeper Mode to Boosting your WiFi signal with a salad bowl.

It's all wonderfully wrapped up with a reassuring video that, among highlighting the jokes, gives a much better shot of the GoogleTV beta."

JayTheHun writes "Unlike the rest of the White House, Cheney doesn't make his outside travel public By Kate Sheppard and Bob Williams WASHINGTON, November 16, 2005 — Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff have been unilaterally exempting themselves from long-standing travel disclosure rules followed by the rest of the executive branch, including the Office of the President, the Center for Public Integrity has discovered. Cheney's office also appears to have stuck taxpayers with untold millions in travel costs rather than accepting trip sponsors' funds that the rules would require to be disclosed. It's not as if those in Cheney's office don't indulge in the type of junkets that are routinely funded by private sources. Instead of accepting reimbursement for such trips like other government travelers, it appears that his office labels them "official travel." As a result, however, the public is kept largely unaware of where he and his staff are traveling, with whom they are meeting with and how much it costs, even though tax dollars are covering the bill. http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/report.aspx?a id=760"

Alsee writes "Wired News reports 'electronic civil libertarians' hearts are a-twitter' over US Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton's bold stance on the right to privacy. Wired quotes Clinton: 'At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date.' Clinton gave a speech last June to the American Constitution Society (text, WMF) in which she addressed electronic surveillance, consumer opt-in vs. opt-out, cyber-security, commercial and government handling of personal data, data offshoring, data leaks, and even genetic discrimination." Would you consider a candidate's stand on privacy important enough to sway your vote?

B00yah writes "It appears Meganova, one of the nova clones that appeared a while back after the closing of Suprnova, has disappeared off the web. This is th second major Torrent site in a short period of time. Are we going to see more in the coming weeks?"

AikonMGB writes "A young computer science student from Pittsburgh (PA) has come up with an ingenious way to look for a summer job: auctioning himself off on eBay. Andrew Warshaver is appealing to the internet community to bid for his skills as a computer programmer for a 12-week summer job in any major U.S. metropolitan area. The current bid is listed at US $6,100.00, with the auction winner paying Warshaver the total bid amount prorated on a bi-weekly basis as pay. Warshaver posted a copy of his resume along with his ad, and is offering potential bidders a chance to interview him before placing their bid."

Alberta scientists have successfully mapped the chemical equivalent of the human genome. The chemicals, known as metabolites, are the ingredients of life that is laid out by the human genome, the blueprint of life.

From the article:

"The results of the $7.5-million project, which began in 2004 and involved 53 scientists, is expected to give doctors and researchers a new way to identify and diagnose diseases: by examining the chemical composition of the human body."

marquise2000 writes "Ross Kinard created a working key for the Diebold AccuVote-TS from a photo of a key he found on Diebold's web site. Apparently the photo is gone from their site now, but I presume that doesn't solve the problem with their weak keys entirely.

The full story is here: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1113"

bvc writes "Marucs Ranum notes that 'It's really hard to tell the difference between a program that works and one that just appears to work.' He explains that he just recently found a buffer overflow in Firewall Toolkit (FWTK), code that he wrote back in 1994. How do you go about making sure your code is secure? Especially if you have to write in a language like C or C++?"

An anonymous reader writes "From Undersea Spies: Turning Sharks into Robotic Sentries "It seems like science fiction, but the U.S. military would like to use sharks as underwater spies. The folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who dream up the future of weapons and military systems, envision squads of sharks prowling the oceans with sensors that could transmit evidence of explosives or other threats.""

Pro-SEO writes, "An official document (PDF), dated November 19, summarizes an agreement between the U.S. and Russia in which Russia has agreed to close down AllofMP3.com, and any sites that 'permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works.' The agreement is posted to the Web site for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It summarizes the joint efforts of the two countries to fight content piracy, an issue in which Russia and Eastern Europe figure prominently." From the document: "This agreement sets the stage for further progress on IPR issues in Russia through the next phase of multilateral negotiations, during which the United States and other WTO members will examine Russia's IPR regime."