A pilot project in Africa that aims to provide a single computer that can be used by four students simultaneously has stumbled across one of the business world’s basic facts of life. Why make a cheap machine when customers in the developed world will pay good money for a more expensive one?
Paul Khlebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, walked out of his office late on Friday in northeastern Moscow when a car pulled up and several shots were fired at him. Khlebnikov, a US citizen of Russian origin, died on his way to hospital. He was the latest victim of post-Soviet city-center killings which have struck down officials, businessmen and journalists
A Kirkland man arrested last week on allegations that he stole proprietary technology from the AltaVista search engine two years ago is a Microsoft employee who has been working on the MSN Search initiative
San Francisco talk show host, Katherine Fettke, has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, accusing the world’s largest fast-food restaurant company of failing to switch to healthier lower-fat cooking oil as it had pledged
The movie industry, in yet another illustration of just how much damage the Internet is doing to the long-suffering members of the MPAA, has just endured a record breaking $1 billion dollar takings for the single month of June. Clearly there is a desperate need to tighten up copyright laws in the face of this huge mountain of cash that is literally being metaphorically siphoned into the studios’ pockets. How will they survive? — via Slashdot
Australia’s most successful band, AC/DC, looks set to have a city lane named after it. Melbourne City Council is tonight expected to approve a recommendation to rename Corporation Lane, a narrow alley off Flinders Lane, ACDC Lane — not AC/DC Lane, as street names in the CBD are not permitted to have slashes — in honour of the band’s global success. There is already a street named Calle de AC/DC on the outskirts of Madrid
It used to be only Superman who could see through concrete walls, but an exhibit at the National Building Museum shows that mere mortals can do it, too.
Called Liquid Stone, the show features variations of translucent concrete, a newfangled version of the old construction standby that offers a combination of aesthetics and practicality.
A prototype wall of translucent concrete is shown at the National Building Museum. When backlit, a human form can be seen through the wall. The blocks are made by mixing glass fibers into the combination of crushed stone, cement and water — via boingboing
Developers at the open-source Mozilla Foundation have confirmed that the latest version of their Web browsers have a security flaw that could theoretically allow attackers to crash computers or launch unauthorised programs. The flaw was publicised Wednesday on a security mailing list, along with a link to a fix for the problem. Updated versions of the affected software programs, which include the Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird browsers, have been released
Italy is finally cracking down on the many fickle pet owners who dump their cat or dog on the roadside as they head to the beach for their summer vacation
Miners once used canaries to judge whether a mine was safe from poisonous gases and now Australian scientists at the University of Melbourne are using insects found in your garden to measure carcinogenic arsenic levels in old gold mines
It’s always nice to get positive feedback on your design efforts from your audience.
Nice!
A computer science researcher has highlighted the shortcomings of Microsoft’s latest patch for its Internet Explorer browser by identifying another way that online vandals could run malicious programs on a Web surfer’s computer. Download Mozilla now
A recent scientific study that indicate marijuana consumption can improve night vision. The results backed up claims by the Observer columnist Sue Arnold, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa and is officially registered blind. She noticed several years ago that drawing on strong Jamaican skunk suddenly and temporarily enabled her to see things clearly. But Ms Arnold has since warned of side-effects that could impede night-time navigation. Only trouble was,
she said, I couldn’t stand up
— via Pagan Prattle
A new technique might allow surgeons to operate on internal organs without making any cuts in the skin. The Johns Hopkins University team says a mini-telescope could go down the throat and make a cut in the stomach wall to reach abdominal organs. The technique, tested in pigs, could mean faster recovery times say the authors in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy — via Die Puny Humans
A woman with the words HELP ME
carved on her stomach was killed after she fell off the scooter she was driving on the 79th Street Causeway. The victim — Desiree Lee Campasano, 36, of Miami Beach — appeared to have lost control of her scooter, hit a curb and then fell off it and hit her head. She was not wearing a helmet. She died at the scene — via Die Puny Humans
The US Centres for Disease Control offer print-and-clip collectable infectious disease trading cards. A little something to go with your plush Giant Microbes — via boingboing
A federal appellate court on Tuesday said a lower court erred in invalidating two patents for ergonomic computer keyboards, dealing a blow to Microsoft, which fought to have them voided after being sued by the holder of those patents
eBay is taking the unusual step of removing the option of setting a reserve price for users of its Australian site
Researchers have moved a little bit closer to the day when new teeth can be grown to replace damaged or missing teeth. One set of researchers has succeeded in growing teeth tissue on bio-degradable scaffolding
in rats. Another group has been able to coax stem cells to form tooth structures in mice. Both reports appear in the July issue of the Journal of Dental Research
A one-year-old Pakistani boy saw the world for the first time through an eye donated [BugMeNot] by an Indian. Mohammed Ahmed gained partial vision after a difficult operation at the Agarwal Eye Institute in the southern city of Madras. Doctors said Ahmed, who was born blind, would get near-normal sight by the time he heads back to Karachi next week
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