crowbarsarefornerdyg - Slashdot User

Submission + - Clues to the Strategy Behind the gPhone 4

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Saturday November 03, 2007 @06:53PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The New York Times is running a story about Andy Rubin, Google's resident gadget guru, and one of the primary architects of the gPhone. You won't find any new technical details about the gPhone in the story, (Google is planning an announcement on Monday about it's future mobile plans.) but the story about Rubin gives some clues that indicate that Google plans to do more than merely develop an operating system for cellular phones. One clue to the gPhone is that after Rubin left Apple he joined General Magic, the company co-founded with Mac pioneers Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld, that developed Magic Cap in the 1990's, a PDA precursor years ahead of it's time that included a cell phone and email. The Times speculates that Google may also be planning to replay the strategy that Microsoft used to bulldoze Netscape in the mid-1990s by "cutting off" Microsoft's air supply by giving the gPhone away to hand-set makers and to put Microsoft Windows Mobile out of business. If the strategy works, it will be because Rubin and his team have successfully developed a vision of the smartphone of the future and a strategy for getting it accepted by the public and by the carriers."

Submission + - Walmart and Gadget Lab selling $200 Ubuntu laptops (wired.com) 1

Submitted by lecithin on Saturday November 03, 2007 @06:52PM

lecithin writes: "Touted as a "green" machine, it has a 1.5 Ghz VIA C7 CPU embedded in a Mini-ITX motherboard, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. Normally, this would simply mark it as unacceptably low-end for use with modern software. By using the fast Enlightenment desktop manager (instead of heavier-duty alternatives like Gnome or KDE), the makers say it's more responsive than Vista is, even on more powerful computers."

This sounds like a good start to me.

Submission + - List of Websites with Google Pagerank 10 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

technojuice

on Saturday November 03, 2007 @02:09AM

technojuice writes: "Ever wondered what kind of website would have a utopian 10/10 Google Pagerank ? I guess there are only 3 people (Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and God) who know how the hell the trademarked Pagerank is calculated. After the recent shakeup which saw Statcounter dropping to PR 9 here are PR 10 ! No Domain Backlinks 1 adobe.com 116,000 2 google.com 3,090,000 3 real.com 428,000 4 w3c.org 122,000 5 whitehouse.gov 60,200 6 energy.gov 423,000 7 macromedia.com 116,000 8 mit.edu 415,000 9 nasa.gov 233,000 10 nsf.gov 43,000 http://technojuice.blogspot.com/2007/11/website-google-pagerank-10-list.html"

Submission + - Securing a PC when others have physical access?

Submitted by on Sunday October 14, 2007 @11:58AM

An anonymous reader writes: I will be going to college next year and I am concerned about room-mates and other random people having physical access to my computer and viewing/copying my data or putting remote access trojans on it while I am away. I am running Windows XP for software development purposes (and lets be honest, games :-)) and I know that running Windows is a problem but at this point I don't think it can be avoided. I will of course have anti-virus and firewall software but what is the next step? Thank you for reading!

Submission + - Topamax for Alcoholism: A Closer Look (blogspot.com)

Submitted by __aahplg8815 on Saturday October 13, 2007 @04:58PM

__aahplg8815 writes: Epilepsy drug gains ground, draws fire as newest anti-craving pill A drug for seizure disorders and migraines continues to show promise as an anti-craving drug for alcoholism, the third leading cause of death in America, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported in its current issue. 371 male and female alcoholics between the ages of 18 and 65 took part in the study. The subjects received either topiramate or a placebo. Over 14 weeks, patients taking topiramate showed a significantly higher rate of abstinence for 28 consecutive days or more. (Rates of abstinence increased slightly in the placebo group as well. Both groups received some psychological counseling.) Topamax is currently only approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use against seizures and migraine. The controversial practice of "off-label" prescribing — using a drug for indications that are not formally approved by the FDA — has become so common that Johnson & Johnson said it had no plans to seek formal approval for the use of Topamax as a medicine for addiction. In an editorial accompanying the study, published in the October 10 issue of JAMA, Mark Willenbring of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) wrote: "We now have very high-quality evidence that shows efficacy. The medical world doesn't wait for the indication. Topamax is a drug that many physicians have used and many patients have had an experience with because of its use in migraines." In addition, Topamax is already prescribed off-label in some cases for depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to reports. At present, there four medications legally available by prescription for alcoholism: disulfiram (Antabuse), SSRIs (off-label), naltrexone (Revia), and acamprosate, the latest FDA-approved entry. Acamprosate binds to both GABA and glutamate receptors. Acamprosate, marketed in the U.S. as Campral, has been widely used in Europe on problem drinkers. Dr. Bankole Johnson, chairman of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia, told Bloomberg News that Topamax does everything researchers want to see in a pharmaceutical treatment for alcoholism: "First, it reduces your craving for alcohol; second, it reduces the amount of withdrawal symptoms you get when you start reducing alcohol; and third, it reduces the potential for you to relapse after you go down to a low level of drinking or zero drinking." According to Forbes.com, "The drug isn't cheap — it costs about $1,000 for three months, according to Johnson. "And, patients, don't see benefits for two to four weeks." Moreover, Topiramate is not without serious side effects for some users, including vision problems, difficulty remembering words, and a tingling in the arms and legs known as parasthesia. The study was funded by Ortho-McNeil-Janssen, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) that produces and markets Topamax. Citing this and other alleged irregularities, Public Citizen's Sidney Wolfe, Director of the Health Research Group, sent a stinging letter to the FDA demanding that the agency "stop the illegal and dangerous promotional campaign by Ortho-McNeil-Janssen-funded researchers for the unapproved use of Topamax (topiramate) for treating alcoholics." And to make things even more interesting, drug developer Mylan (MYL) received FDA approval last month for a generic form of Topamax, seeking a share of the estimated $50 million in annual sales the drug currently enjoys. Like Campral, Topamax causes changes in the GABA and glutamate systems, which in turn affect dopamine and serotonin function. Acamprosate, like topiramate, harkens back to earlier work on GABA transmission in alcoholism. Both drugs attack the craving and relapse dilemma by stimulating GABA, the inhibitory transmitter that is the target of benzodiazepines like Valium, Xanax and Klonopin. However, Campral is not sedating. There is no buzz, no psychoactive effect, and no evidence of abuse potential whatsoever. Major side effects of acamprosate include gastrointestinal cramps and diarrhea. In addition, Campral may also "restore receptor tone" in the hyperactivated glutamate system of the alcoholic, specifically in the nucleus accumbens. In a dozen clinical trials conducted in Europe, involving thousands of alcohol abusers, 50 per cent of acamprosate users maintained sobriety for three months without relapse, compared to 39 per cent of the placebo group. (The distressingly low numbers are testimony to the fierce mechanism of relapse.) Topamax shows a similar mechanism of action. Earlier, researchers from the University of Texas conducted topiramate studies at the South Texas Addiction Research and Technology Center, later published in Lancet. Alcoholic patients achieved a rate of continuous abstinence six times higher than those in a placebo group did. They also reported fewer cravings, compared to a placebo group. The downside to Topiramate may prove to be side effects. The NIAAA's Raye Z. Litten, chief of treatment research, believes that the drug may ultimately be a strong player. "On the other hand," he cautions, "Topiramate appears to have more severe side-effects than naltrexone and acamprosate." Litten argues that greater efforts at testing are needed. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that it would be sponsoring more than 30 new clinical trials of drugs for alcoholism in the next few years. The JAMA editorial, "Medications to Treat Alcohol Dependence," concludes that the pace of development for alcoholism drugs in increasing. "A solid understanding of the neurobiology of alcohol addiction is providing the framework for multiple avenues of further medication development."

Submission + - Depression is elevated among women engineers

Submitted by yali on Saturday October 13, 2007 @04:14PM

yali writes: A U.S. government survey of depression rates by job category has revealed some interesting results. The headlines are about food service and healthcare providers, who perhaps unsurprisingly have the highest depression rates. But buried in the official report is an interesting split. When the data are separated by gender, engineering is the least-depressing job for men. But it has one of the higher depression rates for women (fifth-highest among 17 job categories). Although women are generally at greater risk for depression, that does not fully explain the difference. 3.3% of male engineers have a major depressive episode per year (versus 4.7% of men overall). By comparison, the rate is 11.1% for women engineers (versus 10.1% overall). Is the engineering workplace an especially depressing place for women?

Submission + - Technology work for charity

Submitted by Trilobyte on Saturday October 13, 2007 @03:15PM

Trilobyte writes: I want to get involved in my community to do some good and make a difference. You know, something along the lines of Habitat for Humanity. But while I can't build or maintain a house, I sure can build or maintain the heck out of a computer. So I'm wondering, Slashdot: what is a good way for me to get started volunteering my technological services to charities in my midsized, midwestern town, to ideally do some good?

Submission + - Porn Spammers Get Five Years

Submitted by

Frosty Piss

on Saturday October 13, 2007 @02:26PM

Frosty Piss writes: "Two men who sent millions of unsolicited pornographic e-mails have been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison as part of the first prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Friday. They sent millions of unsolicited e-mails, prosecutors said. During nine months in 2004, Kilbride, Schaffer and an associate transmitted more than 600,000 spam messages advertising pornographic Web sites, according to court documents."

Submission + - Tom Yager likes solaris (infoworld.com)

Submitted by

Peter Clark

on Saturday October 13, 2007 @01:50PM

Peter Clark writes: "Tom Yager, an infoworld columnist often accused of being a shill for Apple, discusses his newfound love for solaris 10 on x86/x64 hardware."

Submission + - Novell and Red Hat facing patent suit (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg on Saturday October 13, 2007 @01:34PM

crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: IP Innovation LLC and Technology Licensing Corporation have filed a patent infringement suit against Novell and Red Hat in Texas. According to the complaint, the infringement stems from a patent on "User Interface With Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects". The patent numbers referenced in this suit are 5,072,412, 5,533,183, and 5,394,521. IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corporation are seeking damages against Novell and Red Hat.

Submission + - Schools Placing at 99th Percentile for Cheating 3

Submitted by

theodp

on Saturday October 13, 2007 @01:29PM

theodp writes: "Time reports that sometimes No-Child-Left-Behind really means No-Test-Scores-Left-Behind, creating opportunities for data forensics firms like Caveon (check out their Ten Most Wanted Cheaters poster). Take Houston's Forest Brook H.S., which was a shining example of school reform. In 2005, after years of rock-bottom test scores, 95% of its 11th graders passed the state science test. Teachers were praised and the school was awarded a $165,000 grant by the governor. But an investigation found a host of irregularities and last year's testing was monitored by an outside agency. Test scores plunged and only 39% passed science."

Submission + - EA to purchase two game studios (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg on Friday October 12, 2007 @02:53PM

crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: According to a BBC article, Electronic Arts is poised to purchase Bioware and Pandemic Studios for $855m. This is going to be Electronic Arts' largest acquisition.

Submission + - Microsoft limits number of Hotmail recipients (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by crowbarsarefornerdyg on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @06:27AM

crowbarsarefornerdyg writes: Apparently, Microsoft has decided that only the first 10 hotmail or msn email recipients will get the mail. The rest will be bounced back with a 552: Too Many Recipients error. From TFA:

Now we're fielding reader tips that Hotmail has placed Draconian limits on the number of Hotmail recipients who can receive an email. The first 10 Hotmail addresses included in a mass email go through just fine, according to these reports. But any additional addresses are returned to sender with a message that reads: "552 Too many recipients." (Microsoft denies it has placed any such restriction on the number of senders.)

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