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Power

Submission + - Walmart Goes Solar In California (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by
tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: "Walmart today has announced a way to appeal to the mass of eco-friendly California Liberals by installing solar panels on more than 75 percent of its stores in the state, making California the first state in the nation where Walmart has devoted this level of commitment to renewable energy."
Biotech

Submission + - Cancer resembles life 1 billion years ago (lifescientist.com.au) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What is cancer? It's not an invader, it's spawned from our own bodies. And it bears striking resemblance to early multicellular life from 1 billion years ago. This has led astrobiologists and cosmologists Paul Davies and Charlie Lineweaver to suggest that cancer is driven by primitive genes that govern cellular cooperation, and which kick in when our more recently evolved genes that keep them in check break down. So, far from being rogue cells that mutate out of control, cancers are actually cells that revert to a more ancient level of programming, like booting in Safe Mode. The good news is this means cancers have only finite variation. Once we nut out the ancient genes, we'll know how it works, and it's unlike to evolve any new defence mechanisms, meaning curing cancer might be not quite as mammoth a task as commonly thought.

Comment Road usage tax (Score 1) 891

by cpm80 (#28544789) Attached to: GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested
The issue is how to fairly collect taxes to pay for maintenance of roads and highways. How do we make those who use public roads and highways the most pay the most for their maintenance? Using GPS data to determine this is a poor solution. An good solution is to build the increased cost of road maintenance into a tax for new tires sold for on road use in the United States.
Media

Streaming March Madness On Linux? 120

Posted by timothy from the when-you-can-snatch-this-pebble-from-my-hand dept.
neersign writes "March Madness is here and NCAA.com is streaming all of the games over the internet for free. The downside is they are using Microsoft technologies to do so. The standard player lists Windows XP/Vista, IE6, and WMP 9 as the base requirements. The High Quality Video Player requires Silverlight 2. So my question is: how would a Linux user be able to work around these requirements and watch the games?"
Security

Intel CPU Privilege Escalation Exploit 242

Posted by timothy from the they-never-offer-the-purple-pill dept.
Eukariote writes "A paper and exploit code detailing a privilege escalation attack on Intel CPUs has just been published. The vulnerability, uncovered by security researchers Joanna Rutkowska (of Blue Pill fame), Rafal Wojtczuk, and, independently, Loic Duflot, makes use of Intel's System Management Mode (SMM). Quote: "The attack allows for privilege escalation from Ring 0 to the SMM on many recent motherboards with Intel CPUs. Rafal implemented a working exploit with code execution in SMM." The implications of this exploit are severe."
Worms

Conficker Worm Asks For Instructions, Gets Update 285

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wormed-its-way-into-my-heart dept.
KingofGnG writes "Conficker/Downup/Downadup/Kido malware, that according to Symantec 'is, to date, one of the most complex worms in the history of malicious code,' has been updated and this time for real. The new variant, dubbed W32.Downadup.C, adds new features to malware code and makes the threat even more dangerous and worrisome than before."

Comment Re:As always, amatuers like you fail at stocks (Score 1) 429

by cpm80 (#26458865) Attached to: Steve Jobs Takes Leave of Absence From Apple
People aren't spending money unless they have to (check the government's December retail sales report if you don't believe me). When people are forced to buy a new computer do you think they'll buy a $700 Dell or a $1400 Apple when both have the exact same hardware specifications? Sure the Apple looks prettier and the OS is superior to Windows, but for $700 more? In difficult financial times the value isn't there for most people. As a result I see Apple's recent market share gains retreating rapidly as the recession lingers.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Oracle's Second Bid for BEA Succeeds

Journal by jdray
On the heels of news that Sun has acquired MySQL, it seems that Oracle has succeeded in its efforts to slurp up middleware maker BEA for US$8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share. What this means for rival IBM and its WebSphere product is unclear, as is the impact that this merger will have on the future of enterprise computing. Oracle has been on a march in recent years to acquire more a
Portables

Nanowires Boost Laptop Battery Life to 20 Hours 238

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the more-bang-for-your-buck dept.
brianmed writes to tell us that Stanford researchers have created a new use for silicon nanowires that promise to reinvent lithium-ion batteries. "The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. [...] The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture."

Comment Set the tone (Score 1) 541

by cpm80 (#20392083) Attached to: Transitioning From Developer To Management?
I think the most important thing any *people* manager can do is set the tone for the entire team. I highly recommend reading "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" (amazon link - http://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workp lace-Surviving/dp/0446526568). The world doesn't need anymore assholes in management. Good luck!
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Our ATM is broken, so you go to jail? (myway.com)

Submitted by Actually, I do RTFA
Actually, I do RTFA writes: A short while ago, slashdot featured an article about possible criminal prosecution for people who took advantage of faulty slot machine software. At the time, many people drew an analogy to an ATM that dispensed too much money. Well, apparently, that too may result in criminal charges. Interestingly, although they suspect that someone may have tampered with the ATM, they are considering charging anyone who withdrew money from the ATM.

This also provides an interesting rejoinder to 'if they can build a secure ATM, why cannot Diebold build a secure electronic voting machine.'

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