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Biotech

Banked Blood May Not Be As Effective As Hoped 116

URSpider alerts us to two separate research reports published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pointing to the rapid breakdown of nitric oxide in donated blood as a reason why such blood loses its ability to transfer oxygen, and is sometime implicated in problems such as strokes and heart attacks. Nitric oxide depletion is significant after 3 hours of storage; yet current guidelines allow for storing donated blood for up to 42 days. The article notes: "Several of the researchers, including Stamler, have consulting and/or equity relationships with Nitrox/N30, a company developing nitric oxide based therapies."
The Internet

Bulletproof Tool For Golden Age Browsing? 366

An anonymous reader writes "I work in a retirement/assisted living home. Many of the residents had never used the Internet but really find it fascinating once they are given a little training. However, I've stopped introducing it to them because of the drain it puts on me. There are a million and one things that a computer novice can screw up, and I don't have time to solve all of them. These folks don't need any sophistication. and they need only the most basic options. Adjustable text size would be nice, but otherwise — no email, no word processing or editing, no printing — just Internet browsing. This may not seem like a big market, but it's getting bigger every day! Is there an absolutely fool-proof device that can provide this without requiring virus scanners and constant attention?"
Networking

Submission + - Half of Americans now have home broadband access

An anonymous reader writes: Nearly half of all Americans have broadband Internet connections in their homes, largely because of increasing use among minorities and the poor, according to an annual survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The number of home broadband users nationwide now equals the total number of Americans with any type of Internet connection in 2000, the first year the survey was conducted. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/070507-broad band-access-in-american-homes.html
Google

Submission + - Alternatives to Google?

An anonymous reader writes: It seems that more and more, we're hearing stories about Google that put its "don't be evil" philosophy into question. The problem, however, is that Google is very good at the services it offers. What other alternatives do the slashdot crowd use? Is there another search engine that comes even close to Google for relevancy, that at the same time is no more doubtable in terms of business ethics? What about a free email provider that offers comparible storage and reliability, not to mention free POP access?
I'm perfectly willing to explore alternatives, but I've been using Google for such a long time now that I barely know where to start looking. I can't imagine Yahoo! is much a better company (maybe I'm wrong?), and I don't want to go with Microsoft's offerings. Surely there have to be other worthwhile choices?
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple's European partners for iPhone

shilly writes: The Grauniad is reporting that Apple in on the verge of choosing its European partners. It looks like O2 / Telefonica for the UK and Spain, T-Mobile for Germany, and Orange / France Telecome for the French. Retailers apparently lost out to the operators in their bid for direct sales.
Power

Submission + - New flat screens less efficient than the old CRT (bbc.co.uk)

Alioth writes: "The BBC is reporting that our new gadgets are considerably less efficent than the old. The common opinion is our old analogue CRT televisions were huge energy sinks, and the flat screens replacing them much more efficient, but this is being wiped out by buying much larger flat screen TVs that use up to three times more power than an older CRT television. The same article shows in a graph how the larger flat screens use more power than a same-sized CRT. I think I'll keep my big (high quality) Sony CRT for quite a bit longer."
Biotech

Journal Journal: New method for reading DNA sheds light on cell identity

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard report new findings about about how a cell chooses its identity: "As a fertilized egg develops into a full grown adult, mammalian cells make many crucial decisions -- closing doors of opportunity as they adopt careers as liver cells, skin cells, or neurons. One of the most fundamental mysteries in biomedicine is how cells make such different career decisions despite having exactly the same DNA. By using a new kind of genomic technology, a new study unveil
Linux Business

Submission + - Why the Dell/Ubuntu deal Won't Improve Linux's Mar (earthweb.com)

jammag writes: This article from Datamation, Why the Dell/Linux Deal Won't Improve Linux's Market Share, talks about Dell's lack of free phone support for Ubuntu, and other problems that will hamper the release. The number of offerings is also limited — then there's a Microsoft competitive angle (Dell is beholden to the Redmond mother ship) that doesn't help.
Google

Submission + - Google defends privacy record, gets help

netbuzz writes: "Having been accused by a watchdog group of being the worst thing to happen to personal privacy since mom read your diary, Google is rising up to defend itself. Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Webspam team, waxes indignant on his blog. And industry watcher Danny Sullivan says Google and Cutts have a legitimate beef.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1608 7"
Portables

Submission + - Asus announces $189-Laptop

rustalot42684 writes: Asus has revealed a reference design for a $189 laptop, called the 3ePC at Computex. The laptop is running a custom version of Linux, has 512 MB of RAM, a 2GB solid-state drive, and an unknown processor. It will also come with 'an office suite compatible with MS Office', though Asus refused to confirm if this meant OpenOffice. There will also be a $299 version, but it unclear what the difference between the two will be.
OS X

Submission + - ZFS on Mac announced by Sun CEO

An anonymous reader writes: Mac Rumors reports Sun CEO Schwartz announced that

In fact, this week you'll see that Apple is announcing at their Worldwide Developer Conference that ZFS has become the file system in Mac OS 10.
They have a link to the video as well. On StorageMojo Robin says

Jonathan is wrong, of course, but it was sweet of him to say it
Sources that have seen the latest candidate builds tell me that if ZFS is in there it is pretty well hidden. I'll stick to my prediction that Apple, as with HFS+, will put ZFS on OS X Server first before bringing it out later for the great unwashed.
I guess we'll know more next week.

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