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Businesses

Submission + - How to Get Rid of the Cubicle?

wikinerd writes: "How can we get rid of the widely hated cubicle and its ugly cousin, the stressing open-plan office? Some business owners and managers are too old, and having grown up in a different environment, cannot understand the advantages of teleworking, or even of private offices with Aerons. There are people in high positions who seem to think that stuffing a bunch of engineers into a noisy landscaped office is the best way to organise a company. It is not, and we all know it, but can we prove it? How can we communicate to them the fact that teleworking is good not only for the engineers, but also for the organisations?"

Active Noise-Canceling Headsets In Server Rooms? 141

An anonymous reader asks: "Recently I co-located our computer room to a temporary hosting facility. It's a big shop, with everything you could want, along with quite a high dB of background noise. I've no desire to wear those silly little yellow earplugs for several hours when I'm on site there, and standard headsets are such non-IT apparel. Given that technology is the cure to many of todays evils I was wondering if any people had experimented with active noise canceling headphones and has something to say about them. Does anyone use any active noise canceling headsets in a computer room or data facility, and if so how good are they?"
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii : First Impressions

An anonymous reader writes: HEXUS.gaming have an article about their first experience hands-on with Wii. It comes to the opinion that it's the social aspect of some of these interactive games and the sharing of the experience with others that makes Wii so special, rather than the solo experience of hardcore games such as Call of Duty 3, which don't seem to translate well to the new controllers.
Education

Submission + - New island emerges and witnessed by yacht crew

An anonymous reader writes: A NEW island has emerged out of the sea between Tonga's volcanic islands of Kao in the Ha'apai Group and Late in the Vava'u Group, according to an eyewitness report. The island is thought to have emerged after a volcanic eruption in early September that has also spewed large amounts of floating pumice into Tongan waters that has been sweeping across Fiji about 350 km to the west south west of where the new island has formed. links here: http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/natur al_events/tonga_eruption_081106.shtml http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/natur al_events/new_island061106.shtml
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Thinks the BSOD is Funny

snafu109 writes: "Microsoft can't always be considered to be a completely humorless monolith, but this is a pretty sick joke: When Microsoft acquired Sysinternals, they also inherited the BlueScreen Screen Saver. Some features: "Bluescreen is a screen saver that not only authentically mimics a BSOD, but will simulate startup screens seen during a system boot... Use Bluescreen to amaze your friends and scare your enemies!". Hilarious!"
Announcements

Submission + - Zamzar - Free online file conversion

Chris writes: A new kid on the block — Zamzar — has just launched a service to enable you to convert files online for free. The site supports over 150 conversion types, and sports a neat Web 2.0 style user interface !

According to the site's blog, Zamzar "allows you to transform your songs, videos, images and documents into a variety of different formats". You can use the website to:
  • Make your PDF documents editable by converting them to MS Word
  • Convert your ITunes (aac) files to mp3
  • Upload up to 5 files at a time to convert simultaneously
  • Take advantage of over 150 different conversion types
The site was launched just over a week ago, and has already been getting some good reviews from Wired and Download Squad.
Software

Submission + - Blue Screen Of Death screensaver, from Microsoft

jedir0x writes: "Apparently somebody at Microsoft actually has a sense of humor. From the site: "Bluescreen cycles between different Blue Screens and simulated boots every 15 seconds or so. Virtually all the information shown on Bluescreen's BSOD and system start screen is obtained from your system configuration — its accuracy will fool even advanced NT developers. For example, the NT build number, processor revision, loaded drivers and addresses, disk drive characteristics, and memory size are all taken from the system Bluescreen is running on." I wonder if Vista will include this screensaver? Somehow i doubt it."
Communications

Submission + - Sign me up for SPAM

An anonymous reader writes: I want to get spam. Sign this up: SpamHawg9999@hotmail.com
Graphics

Submission + - Game cinematics are deceptive in advertising

Gre7g writes: "Is it fair that game vendors continually show us ads of what appears to be gameplay, only for this to later turn out to be a cinematic? Don't get me wrong, I like the cinematics and I like to see them, but there should be some way in the TV ads to mark the actual gameplay, so we can know what it is we're really buying. Is a law asking for too much, or could one company start a convention that others would have to live up to? What do you Slashdotters think?"
Google

Submission + - Google filing reveals video lawsuit

narramissic writes: An article on ITworld today opens: 'Google revealed that its own online video-sharing service is the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit, adding to worries that the company may become the subject of expensive lawsuits related to the YouTube Inc. video-sharing service it is buying.' Well, no kidding.
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox 1.5.0.8 released today

Cedric Graebin writes: "Everybody must be using Firefox 2.0 now, but the Mozilla Foundation released a security-patched Firefox 1.5, or Firefox 1.5.0.8 to be short. The release notes and the bugs corrected in this version can be found in http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/releases/1.5. 0.8.html. By the way, anybody using Firefox 1.5 has recieved an automatic upgrade to 2.0 or just donwloaded it manually?"
Handhelds

Submission + - The once might Palm OS is on its last legs

buzzardsbay writes: "The good folks at VARBusiness Magazine have broken a story that probably portends the beginning of the end for the once venerable Palm Operating System. According to the article, in the latest blow to Palm, Symbol Technologies is taking its last orders for devices based on the once popular platform. The enterprise mobile computing vendor is pulling the plug on its last two Palm-based ruggedized handheld lines, the SPT1550 and SPT1800. Symbol quietly began notifying its reseller partners a couple of months ago of its plans. The last ordered units will ship in January. Kinda sad."
Power

Submission + - Battery power at the tip of your tongue

bain writes: "The news agency Reuters reports that Japanese inventor Susumu Suzuki has invented a battery that uses water and some carbon based compounds to create an electric charge. "For example, when you get lost on a mountain, by just licking (the battery's) surface, you can get electricity for a flashlight or a radio" said Suzuki."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft: Vista is ready to roll

klwood911 writes: Windows chief Jim Allchin said Microsoft signed off on the code less than an hour ago. "It's rock solid and we're ready to ship. This is a good day," Allchin said in a conference call.

Allchin said Vista will go on sale to consumers January 30. He said that Microsoft is releasing Vista in five languages. The French, Spanish and Japanese versions were actually signed off on before the English version, Allchin said.

Full story can be found at CNET: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Vista+is+ready+to+ro ll/2100-1016_3-6133660.html

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