Clipmarks | Tallulah's clips

Feds want to know what you're reading

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:12:05 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah
clipper's remarks: Good to know that they don't have access to everything.

Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request

Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show.

The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.

"Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases,"

"The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission," Crocker wrote. "It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."

Tags: amazon, feds

17 ways to get free books...Socrat, you will love this!

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:06:05 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: Thanks to delicious.com

Clip Source: www.creditpanda.com

You can never have too many books, so we are delighted to share with you some ways to get them for free. From children’s books to technical books, there are numerous resources that offer literature for free. Some of the following sites offer actual printed books, while others feature electronic books (aka “ebooks”). Please bear in mind that the list is alphabetized, not ordered by importance.

Childrens Books Online

Tags: books, websites, free books, cool, nice.

Arrested Hacker speaks at Microsoft

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:20:05 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

Microsoft stands by its invite to arrested hacker

The point is to challenge Blue Hat attendees, not coddle them

November 09, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Microsoft's security team took a bit of a chance a few weeks ago, when it invited Roberto Preatoni to give a talk at its Redmond campus.

Preatoni is the founder of Wabisabilabi, a Switzerland-based company that bills itself as an auction site for the software bugs that companies like Microsoft never want anybody to see. He spoke at Microsoft in late September as an invited guest at Microsoft's semi-annual Blue Hat security conference.

But what had been an edgy invite by Microsoft's Blue Hat planners took on a new dimension this week, when Preatoni was arrested in Milan on charges relating to a national spying scandal at Telecom Italia, Italy's largest telephone carrier.

So was it a miscalculation to invite him to Blue Hat? Not at all, said George Stathakopoulos, general manager of Microsoft?????????s Response and Product Centers

Tags: microsoft, hacker, blue hat

Are your 'Vampire Electronics' sucking you dry?

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:03:59 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah
clipper's remarks: Happy Halloween!!

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

New kind of 'vampire' sucks power out of homes

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of the electricity that seeps from your home's outlets.

Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That's "vampire" electronics.

Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as "standby mode" rather than shutting it off: That's vampire electronics.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.

lawmakers passed a proposal last year -- dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act -- to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker uses when on, off or in standby mode

Tags: vampire, electronics, electricity

Ancient Fossils found in Museum

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:54:06 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Ancient salamander-like creatures found embedded in rock

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A rock that sat untouched in a Pennsylvania museum's fossil collection for years has rare full-body imprints of not just one, but three, ancient amphibians.

Researchers found the imprints in sandstone rocks collected in eastern Pennsylvania decades ago and stored in the museum in Reading, Pennsylvania. The body impressions of the salamander-like creatures are estimated to be 330 million years old, or about 100 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared.

"The most remarkable thing about these is they exist at all. This is a very rare preservation," said John Bolt, curator of fossil amphibians and reptiles at The Field Museum in Chicago.

Details were being presented Tuesday in Denver at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

"They're really some of the oldest body imprints of land-living amphibians," said Spencer G. Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Tags: fossils, salamander, pennsylvania

New Sanctions Against Iran

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:44:30 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Bush Administration Announces New Sanctions Against Iran

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration imposed sweeping new sanctions against Iran Thursday — the harshest in nearly three decades — cutting off key Iranian military and banking institutions from the American financial system for Tehran's alleged support for terrorism and nuclear weapons ambitions.

In the broadest U.S. unilateral penalties on Iran since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, the administration slapped sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, a main unit of its defense ministry, three of its largest banks and eight people that it said are engaged in missile trade and back extremist groups throughout the Middle East.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the moves would further isolate the Islamic republic's government by further distancing it from the international economy and discouraging its trading partners from continuing to do business with it.

Tags: bush, iran, sanctions

Mattel recalls more Toys

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:39:33 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Mattel in fresh toy recall alert

Toy manufacturer Mattel is recalling 12,000 toys sold in the UK and the Irish Republic, a European Commission official has said.

The recall affects the Fisher Price-branded Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Boat toys, because of excessive levels of lead found in the paint.

As a result, its profits over the past three months slipped by 1%.

This latest recall marks the fourth in six months, prompting the EU to embark on a two-month review of its toy safety regulations, expected to be complete in November.

Tags: mattel, toys, fisher

Banksy work to be painted over

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:46:36 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Banksy works to be painted over

Graffiti art by the acclaimed artist Banksy on streets in Tower Hamlets is to be painted over.

Stencilled artwork from the guerrilla artist can be seen on walls across London, but Tower Hamlets is the first council to treat them as vandalism.

Banksy, from Bristol, made his name with public art and subversive stunts. His works now sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The actress Angelina Jolie reportedly bought one of his works for more than £200,000.

Eleven of Banksy's stencilled artworks go on sale on Wednesday at Bonham's auction house in Knightsbridge.

A statement said: "Tower Hamlets Council takes the cleanliness of the borough very seriously and is committed to removing all graffiti as soon as possible.

Tower Hamlets councillor Abdal Ullah said: "We need to be clear here, graffiti is a crime.

The future of a Banksy piece painted on a wall in Bristol recently went to public vote, with 97% of people saying it should be kept.

Tags: banksey, graffiti, tower hamlets, art

I wonder what the book's like.............

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:49:40 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: www.time.com

Not very long after James Watson finished his Nobel Prize–winning work on the structure of DNA in 1953, he started firing off some eyebrow-raising comments about his fellow man: that fat people don't get hired because they lack ambition; how sunlight (and darker skin) is the source of the "Latin lover" libido; what he found distasteful in the appearance of his female research collaborator, Rosalind Franklin.

But as the great geneticist slunk back to the U.S. on Friday — his sold-out U.K. tour for his new book called Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science canceled after the apparently racist remarks he made to Britain's Sunday Times Magazine last weekend

Indeed, Watson, 79, says he is "mortified" by the imbroglio, and apologizes "unreservedly" for the offending comments, in which he suggested black people are not as smart as whites

Tags: james watson, dna, nobel prize, geneticist

Microsoft going Small?

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:44:33 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah
clipper's remarks: And why not?

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

Microsoft plans smaller acquisitions, 'independent path'

What's a company with $23B lying around to do?

October 19, 2007 (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday that his company aims to pursue an independent path, focusing on up to 20 smaller acquisitions of $50 million to $1 billion each annually rather than on megadeals.

Armed with a cash pile of $23 billion, Microsoft has been rumored to be targeting acquisitions like Yahoo Inc. or social networking phenomenon Facebook. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Ballmer would not comment directly on any potential acquisitions, but he said Microsoft's current focus is the "independent path."

Both Zuckerberg and Ballmer were reserved in response to questions about reports that Microsoft is in talks to buy up to 5% of Facebook in a deal that could value the social networking company at $10 billion or more.

"We'll probably buy 20 companies a year consistently for the next five years," said Ballmer.

Tags: microsoft, small

Global Warming Good for Greenland?

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:24:15 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah
clipper's remarks: New opportunities are always good but I think Greenland is just beautiful the way it is.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Global Warming Good for Greenland?

For some in Greenland these days, the grass is looking greener.

Rapid thawing brought on by global warming on the world's largest island has opened up new opportunities for agriculture, commercial fishing, mining, and oil exploration. The island's native people, though, may not be on the "winning" side of warming.

Scientists now report Arctic temperatures are rising almost twice as fast as elsewhere in the world. (Related news: "Greenland Ice Sheet Is Melting Faster, Study Says" [August 10, 2006].)

Positive Effects

Dairy cattle have recently been reintroduced, and a government-led project is expected to yield 29,058 gallons (110,000 liters) of milk annually, according to the new report.

Commercial fishermen are anticipating bumper cod catches after the fish recently moved north into Greenland's waters. Halibut are also increasing in size.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Threats to Native Culture

Yet for Inuit subsistence hunters, global warming promises no silver lining.

Tags: greenland, global warming

Have they found Blackbeard's Ship?

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:29:53 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Famed Pirate's Cannon Possibly Raised From Deep

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — State underwater archaeologists on Monday raised a cannon from a sunken ship that could have belonged to the pirate Blackbeard.

The roughly 8-foot-long cannon weighs about 2,500 pounds and was pulled from an ongoing excavation at the presumed site of the Queen Anne's Revenge

Historians believe Blackbeard's ship — the Queen Anne's Revenge — ran aground in Beaufort Inlet in June 1718.

State archaeologists have researched the shipwreck for 10 years, but are still looking for a indisputable link to Blackbeard.

Tags: ship, blackbeard, pirate

Eclipse - A Free Web Development Tool

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:12:18 GMT

clipped by: kielipuoli

Clip Source: www.eclipse.org

Eclipse - an open development platform

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform. New to Eclipse?

Eclipse is used for ...

Enterprise Development

Embedded + Device Development

Rich Client Platform

Application Frameworks

Language IDE

Tags: web, tools, free

Facebook to make Profiles Public

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:39:02 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Facebook opens profiles to public

Popular social networking site Facebook has added a public-facing search function in a move which is likely to anger privacy advocates.

The function will initially allow anyone who is not registered with the site to search for a specific person.

More controversially, in a month's time, the feature will also allow people to track down Facebook members via search engines such as Google.

The firm said that the information being revealed is minimal.

Privacy erosion

The public search listing will show the thumbnail picture of a Facebook member from their profile page as well as links allowing people to interact with them.

Users who want to restrict what information is available to the public or opt out of the feature altogether can change their privacy settings. They have a month to do so.

"This move transforms Facebook from being a social network to being a quasi-White Pages of the web," commented technology writer Om Malik in his blog GigaOm.

Tags: facebook, profile, public, networking

Luciano Pavarotti Dies

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:03:40 GMT

clipped by: Tallulah
clipper's remarks: What an amazing voice and a sad loss.

Clip Source: news.sky.com

Opera Star Pavarotti Dies

Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died, according to reports.

The world-famous singer had suffering kidney problems and losing consciousness.

The 71-year-old singer, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease, though doctors said the surgery offered improved hopes for survival.

At the time of the operation, Pavarotti had been preparing to resume his farewell tour.

Pavarotti is most widely known for having been one of the Three Tenors - along with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo - and for his interpretation of Nessun Dorma, which became the theme tune to the 1990 World Cup.

Tags: opera, luciano, pavarotti, dies, itilian, tenor