Some Apple MacBook owners are plagued with what seems to be a defective trackpad button. The button, when pushed, seems squishy
and sometimes even unresponsive. While these MacBook owners are getting turned away at the Apple Genius Bars, they have come up with a custom and unique solution to the problem. A piece of paper, placed strategically under the battery pack where the trackpad is located, seems to fix this problem for most users — via Slashdot
Los Angeles, car capital of the country, is notorious for its epic police chases. OJ-style pursuits may make for exciting TV, but the fatality statistics are sobering: Police chases kill, on average, one Californian every week. Now the Virginia-based company StarChase has proposed a safer way to catch fast-moving crooks — shoot GPS homing devices like darts and stick them to the back of fleeing vehicles. Instead of a frantic pursuit, an officer eases off the chase and lets police headquarters track the suspect by computer. Police can then move in for a calmer arrest
Desert ants have an internal system — like a pedometer — that keeps track of how many steps they take, according to a new study. The insects seem to rely on this system to find their way back to the nest after foraging. Other insects may also possess this pedometer-like system
Imagine being able to record any smell you encounter — fragrant or foul — so you can play it back later for others to experience. Engineers in Japan are building an odour recorder capable of doing just that. The device uses electronic noses to analyse an odour, then reproduces it by combining an array of non-toxic chemicals. The system has already recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, banana and melon — and can even distinguish red and green apples
Canadian Scientists have created the first device able to regrow teeth and bones. The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada
Under the name Checkout, the venture offers an incorporated manner to search, advertise and pay. If you buy something on Checkout, 2% and $0.20 go to Google. Paypal, the biggest competitor uses 1.9% and $0.30. Analysts compare Google/Paypal to for example Visa/Mastercard living peacefully together, while others predict the end of Paypal — via Slashdot
Ever wonder what it would be like to see Yoda fly by your head or hear Chewbacca buzz instead of roar? Now you can find out thanks to entomologists Arnold Menke and David Vincent. These bug experts named new wasp species discovered in 1983 after their favorite Star Wars characters: Polemistus chewbacca, Polemistus vaderi, and Polemistus yoda — via Boing Boing
Two new security flaws have been discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, one of which could be replicated in Mozilla’s Firefox
Attack code that exploits a flaw in Apple Computer’s Mac OS X was publicly released Wednesday in the US, increasing the urgency to patch. The code’s arrival comes just a day after Apple made an update available for its operating system. The malicious program takes advantage of a locally exploitable vulnerability in an operating system component called launchd
Microsoft said that it is making another slight delay to the planned arrival time for Office 2007, citing performance concerns with recent test versions
Microsoft has removed the controversial phone home
notifications component from its WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) anti-piracy tool, but may be turning off copies of Windows without WGA installed
Three computer experts have been arrested over an alleged international plot to spread viruses via e-mail. Police say the viruses run without the knowledge of the computer owner and allow criminals to access any stored private and commercial information. The three men are alleged to have targeted UK businesses since at least 2005, and infected computers worldwide — via Spam Huntress
Two Florida girls aged 14 and 15 created a bogus profile on MySpace, grabbed a pair of pistols, then robbed an adult man who arranged to meet the lovely but fictitious 18-year-old Natalia
in person — via Boing Boing
Cthuhlu Scarf, Now Available in Tangerine!, originally uploaded by redwolfoz.
Malamute watches her favourite human.
I liked the Cthulhu Scarf so much, I made one for myself. Kept the length the same, but still cursed that decision when it came to the felting.
Microsoft has decided to initially use technology from its WinFS project in the SQL Server database, rather than directly in its Windows operating system
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday signs into law a bill to abolish the death penalty in the country — via Meta-Roj Blog
Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000
The Dell laptop seen bursting into flames in photographs on the internet is being examined as part of the company’s probe of the incident
In a rare case of music retailer-turned-Internet pirate, the Virgin store chain in France said Tuesday that it had been found guilty of downloading and reselling a Madonna hit without permission. The store’s online portal, virginmega.fr, was ordered by the Paris Tribunal de Commerce to pay €600,000, or US$754,000, in damages for downloading the Madonna song Hung Up
from a France Télécom Web site that had exclusive rights to distribute the song for one week
A publishing firm fell foul of the law by using unlicensed typefaces worth £80,000, according to licensing lobby group the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The publishing firm had claimed to be using just one font but in fact was found using 11,000. The publisher was the subject of a BSA enquiry after an ex-employee tip-off, said the BSA, which is funded by software companies
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