We knew Teletext was set to suffer an early demise, but owner Daily Mail and General Trust just pulled the plug even earlier than expected. Hope you said your fond farewells, as the service switches off from tomorrow. Not had a chance to say your last goodbye yet? Better go home quick and pop the red button, as Teletext will soon be gone. Old faithful Teletext is ending almost all of its editorial operations as of today and tomorrow after 15 years as the text provider for commercial terrestrial broadcasters. Previously, the service was expected to be ditched by DMGT in 2012, but that was brought forward to January 2010, only to be brought forward again.
We knew Teletext was set to suffer an early demise, but owner Daily Mail and General Trust just pulled the plug even earlier than expected. Hope you said your fond farewells, as the service switches off from tomorrow.
Not had a chance to say your last goodbye yet? Better go home quick and pop the red button, as Teletext will soon be gone. Old faithful Teletext is ending almost all of its editorial operations as of today and tomorrow after 15 years as the text provider for commercial terrestrial broadcasters.
Previously, the service was expected to be ditched by DMGT in 2012, but that was brought forward to January 2010, only to be brought forward again.
Australia intends to introduce filters which will ban access to websites containing criminal content.The banned sites will be selected by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. A seven month trial in conjunction with internet service providers found the technology behind the filter to be 100% effective. However, there has been opposition from some internet users. Twitter users have been voicing their disapproval by adding the search tag "nocleanfeed" to their comments about the plans.
Australia intends to introduce filters which will ban access to websites containing criminal content.
The banned sites will be selected by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
A seven month trial in conjunction with internet service providers found the technology behind the filter to be 100% effective.
However, there has been opposition from some internet users.
Twitter users have been voicing their disapproval by adding the search tag "nocleanfeed" to their comments about the plans.
One of Australia's top communications experts says the Government's internet censorship trials were designed to succeed from the outset, presented no new information and are now being used by the Government to further its political agenda. His comments came after the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, yesterday announced he would introduce legislation before next year's elections forcing ISPs to block a secret blacklist of "refused classification" (RC) websites for all Australian internet users. Separately, a report into the scope of content that will be caught up in the net filters concluded that the Government's policy may see a wide range of innocuous material disappearing from Australians' computer schemes. Commentators in Australia and overseas have interpreted Senator Conroy's policy as pushing the country towards repressive regimes such as China and Iran.
One of Australia's top communications experts says the Government's internet censorship trials were designed to succeed from the outset, presented no new information and are now being used by the Government to further its political agenda.
His comments came after the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, yesterday announced he would introduce legislation before next year's elections forcing ISPs to block a secret blacklist of "refused classification" (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.
Separately, a report into the scope of content that will be caught up in the net filters concluded that the Government's policy may see a wide range of innocuous material disappearing from Australians' computer schemes.
Commentators in Australia and overseas have interpreted Senator Conroy's policy as pushing the country towards repressive regimes such as China and Iran.
IT HAS become the "official" portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, regarded by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as the best likeness of the Jacobite hero.
In 1609-10 Rubens painted his Samson and Delilah. In 1980 the National Gallery in London paid a near record sum for what they believed to be the same painting. Controversy has raged ever since, but whether it is genuine or not, what is most fascinating is the gulf dividing its supporters from its detractors: it's been called Rubens' greatest masterpiece, and it's been called rubbish. Meanwhile, it has been named as one of only 30 'highlight paintings' in the national collection and is the centrepiece of a major new Rubens exhibition "A Master in the Making" - perfect timing, we think, for a review of the available evidence and an opening up of a narrow debate to an all-important audience: the public in Britain who own the painting, and lovers of Rubens around the world. As we have shown in the flash movie, we believe that the balance of evidence weighs strongly against the attribution. However, in the absence of conclusive proof either way, we simply ask that you review the facts, examine the painting, and let us know how you see it. after Rubens: The Strange Story of the Samson and Delilah
after Rubens: The Strange Story of the Samson and Delilah
FORMER Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail appeared in court yesterday on perjury charges.The couple, both 45, are accused of lying on oath in connection with the ex-MSP's successful 2006 defamation action against the News of the World. Sheridan, a former contestant in Celebrity Big Brother, won £200,000 in damages after the Sunday newspaper printed allegations about his private life. A date has not yet been fixed for the trial, which is expected to become the longest perjury case in Scottish legal history.
Sheridan, a former contestant in Celebrity Big Brother, won £200,000 in damages after the Sunday newspaper printed allegations about his private life.
A date has not yet been fixed for the trial, which is expected to become the longest perjury case in Scottish legal history.
Hackers have released software they say sabotages a suite of forensics utilities Microsoft provides for free to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the globe. Decaf is a light-weight application that monitors Windows systems for the presence of COFEE, a bundle of some 150 point-and-click tools used by police to collect digital evidence at crime scenes. When a USB stick containing the Microsoft software is attached to a protected PC, Decaf automatically executes a variety of countermeasures.
Hackers have released software they say sabotages a suite of forensics utilities Microsoft provides for free to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the globe.
Decaf is a light-weight application that monitors Windows systems for the presence of COFEE, a bundle of some 150 point-and-click tools used by police to collect digital evidence at crime scenes. When a USB stick containing the Microsoft software is attached to a protected PC, Decaf automatically executes a variety of countermeasures.
Terry Childs finally went to court yesterday, as prosecutors accused him of being a rogue admin who locked the San Francisco city government out of its own computer network. Childs' lawyers disputed this picture, saying he was a man who'd zealously guarded the network's security, and only flipped out because city officials hadn't followed security protocols. Childs, 45, has been in prison since last July, after he was accused of setting a master password for the City's spanking new network and promptly locking the city out.
Terry Childs finally went to court yesterday, as prosecutors accused him of being a rogue admin who locked the San Francisco city government out of its own computer network.
Childs' lawyers disputed this picture, saying he was a man who'd zealously guarded the network's security, and only flipped out because city officials hadn't followed security protocols.
Childs, 45, has been in prison since last July, after he was accused of setting a master password for the City's spanking new network and promptly locking the city out.
A popular Asian microblogging site has accused Microsoft of ripping off its code and interface design to build a new MSN social-networking site in China. Microsoft tells The Reg it's investigating the matter. According to reports, the software giant is suspending access to the MSN site, but it appears it is still online. "Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world. Yes, we're talking about Microsoft," reads a blog post from Canada-based startup Plurk, which claims a membership in the "mid seven figures" concentrated primarily in Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. According to a company spokesman, it also has members in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada. The post claims that Microsoft's new Chinese microblogging service, MSN Juku/Hompy/Mclub, is "by and large an EXACT copy of Plurk's" system and that 80 per cent of its code "appears to be stolen directly from Plurk." To support the claim, the company posts screenshots of the two services:
A popular Asian microblogging site has accused Microsoft of ripping off its code and interface design to build a new MSN social-networking site in China.
Microsoft tells The Reg it's investigating the matter. According to reports, the software giant is suspending access to the MSN site, but it appears it is still online.
"Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world. Yes, we're talking about Microsoft," reads a blog post from Canada-based startup Plurk, which claims a membership in the "mid seven figures" concentrated primarily in Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. According to a company spokesman, it also has members in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada.
The post claims that Microsoft's new Chinese microblogging service, MSN Juku/Hompy/Mclub, is "by and large an EXACT copy of Plurk's" system and that 80 per cent of its code "appears to be stolen directly from Plurk." To support the claim, the company posts screenshots of the two services:
Low-cost imports of nutcrackers pose a risk to the age-old woodcraft of eastern Germany's Erzgebirge region, famous for its Christmas ornaments. The Chinese-made replicas may increasingly look like the real thing -- but don't try cracking a nut with them, warns Germany's chief woodcarver. The German nutcracker -- the bearded, wood-carved soldier who stands to attention in households around the world at Christmas waiting to bite the shells off walnuts -- faces growing competition from cheap Chinese copies that are threatening eastern Germany's centuries-old woodcraft tradition, the industry's leader has warned. The nutcracker was invented in the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, a range of hills along Germany's border with the Czech Republic, in the 19th century. Tucked in the wooded valleys of this sparsely populated, scenic region, craftsmen and women assemble ornaments under the Erzgebirge brand name that has become synonymous with German Christmas.
Low-cost imports of nutcrackers pose a risk to the age-old woodcraft of eastern Germany's Erzgebirge region, famous for its Christmas ornaments. The Chinese-made replicas may increasingly look like the real thing -- but don't try cracking a nut with them, warns Germany's chief woodcarver.
The German nutcracker -- the bearded, wood-carved soldier who stands to attention in households around the world at Christmas waiting to bite the shells off walnuts -- faces growing competition from cheap Chinese copies that are threatening eastern Germany's centuries-old woodcraft tradition, the industry's leader has warned.
The nutcracker was invented in the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, a range of hills along Germany's border with the Czech Republic, in the 19th century. Tucked in the wooded valleys of this sparsely populated, scenic region, craftsmen and women assemble ornaments under the Erzgebirge brand name that has become synonymous with German Christmas.
You know me as James Chartrand of Men with Pens, a regular Copyblogger contributor for just shy of two years. And yet, I'm a woman. This is not a joke or an angle or an analogy -- I'm literally a woman. This is my story.
You know me as James Chartrand of Men with Pens, a regular Copyblogger contributor for just shy of two years.
And yet, I'm a woman.
This is not a joke or an angle or an analogy -- I'm literally a woman.
This is my story.
Why James Chartrand Wears Women's Underpants | Copyblogger
I was still bringing in work with the other business, the one I ran under my real name. I was still marketing it. I was still applying for jobs -- sometimes for the same jobs that I applied for using my pen name. I landed clients and got work under both names. But it was much easier to do when I used my pen name. Understand, I hadn't advertised more effectively or used social media -- I hadn't figured that part out yet. I was applying in the same places. I was using the same methods. Even the work was the same. In fact, everything was the same. Except for the name. The answer was plain. Without really thinking much about it, I tried an experiment when I chose my new pseudonym: I became a man (in name only) Taking a man's name opened up a new world. It helped me earn double and triple the income of my true name, with the same work and service. No hassles. Higher acceptance. And gratifying respect for my talents and round-the-clock work ethic. Business opportunities fell into my lap. People asked for my advice, and they thanked me for it, too.
I was still bringing in work with the other business, the one I ran under my real name. I was still marketing it. I was still applying for jobs -- sometimes for the same jobs that I applied for using my pen name.
I landed clients and got work under both names. But it was much easier to do when I used my pen name.
Understand, I hadn't advertised more effectively or used social media -- I hadn't figured that part out yet. I was applying in the same places. I was using the same methods. Even the work was the same.
In fact, everything was the same.
Except for the name.
The answer was plain. Without really thinking much about it, I tried an experiment when I chose my new pseudonym: I became a man (in name only)
Taking a man's name opened up a new world. It helped me earn double and triple the income of my true name, with the same work and service.
No hassles. Higher acceptance. And gratifying respect for my talents and round-the-clock work ethic.
Business opportunities fell into my lap. People asked for my advice, and they thanked me for it, too.
It is not a conspiracy of evil men in a smoke-filled room, it is thousand of individual decisions where males are assumed more competent then females almost every single time. Because that is how a culture of discrimination works. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
In an effort to make its materials globally accessible, Cornell University Library is sharing tens of thousands of digitized books with the Internet Archive. "We have been carefully preserving and storing materials for years, and now we're diversifying the channels for them to be studied and used," said Oya Reiger, associate university librarian for information technologies. "We have the ability to take books to the places where readers are." The new collaboration repurposes nearly 80,000 books that the Library has already digitized in-house or through its partnership with Microsoft and Kirtas Technologies. All the books are in the public domain, printed before 1923 mainly in the United States. They cover a host of subject areas, including American history, English literature, astronomy, food and wine, general engineering, the history of science, home economics, hospitality and travel, labor relations, Native American materials, ornithology, veterinary medicine and women's studies.
In an effort to make its materials globally accessible, Cornell University Library is sharing tens of thousands of digitized books with the Internet Archive.
"We have been carefully preserving and storing materials for years, and now we're diversifying the channels for them to be studied and used," said Oya Reiger, associate university librarian for information technologies. "We have the ability to take books to the places where readers are."
The new collaboration repurposes nearly 80,000 books that the Library has already digitized in-house or through its partnership with Microsoft and Kirtas Technologies. All the books are in the public domain, printed before 1923 mainly in the United States. They cover a host of subject areas, including American history, English literature, astronomy, food and wine, general engineering, the history of science, home economics, hospitality and travel, labor relations, Native American materials, ornithology, veterinary medicine and women's studies.
A normal digital camera can take snaps of objects not directly visible to its lens, US researchers have shown. The "ghost imaging" technique could help satellites take snapshots through clouds or smoke. Physicists have known for more than a decade that ghost imaging is possible. But, until now, experiments had only imaged the holes in stencil-like masks, which limited its potential applications. Now Yanhua Shih of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and colleagues at the US Army Research Laboratory, also in Maryland, have now taken the first ghost images of an opaque object - a toy soldier (see image, top right).
A normal digital camera can take snaps of objects not directly visible to its lens, US researchers have shown. The "ghost imaging" technique could help satellites take snapshots through clouds or smoke.
Physicists have known for more than a decade that ghost imaging is possible. But, until now, experiments had only imaged the holes in stencil-like masks, which limited its potential applications.
Now Yanhua Shih of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and colleagues at the US Army Research Laboratory, also in Maryland, have now taken the first ghost images of an opaque object - a toy soldier (see image, top right).
Widespread overuse of CT scans and variations in radiation doses caused by different machines -- operated by technicians following an array of procedures -- are subjecting patients to high radiation doses that will ultimately lead to tens of thousands of new cancer cases and deaths, researchers reported today. Several recent studies have suggested that patients have been unnecessarily exposed to radiation from CTs or have received excessive amounts, but two new studies published Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine are the first to quantify the extent of exposure and the related risks. Each year that current scanners are used, researchers reported, 14,500 deaths could result. In one study, researchers from UC San Francisco found that the same imaging procedure performed at different institutions -- or even on different machines at the same hospital -- can yield a 13-fold difference in radiation dose, potentially exposing some patients to inordinately high risk. While a normal CT scan of the chest is the equivalent of about 100 chest X-rays, the team found that some scanners were giving the equivalent of 440 conventional X-rays. The absolute risk may be small for any single patient, but the sheer number of CT scans -- more than 70 million per year, 23 times the number in 1980 -- will produce a sharp increase in cancers and deaths, experts said. "The articles in this issue make clear that there is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognized previously," Dr. Rita F. Redberg of UC San Francisco, editor of the journal, wrote in an editorial accompanying the reports. Even many otherwise healthy patients are being subjected to the radiation, she said, because emergency rooms are often sending patients to the CT scanner before they see a doctor. Whole body scans of healthy patients looking for hidden tumors or other illnesses are also becoming more common, even though they rarely find anything wrong. The irony is that, by exposing healthy people to radiation, the scans may be creating more problems than they solve.
Several recent studies have suggested that patients have been unnecessarily exposed to radiation from CTs or have received excessive amounts, but two new studies published Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine are the first to quantify the extent of exposure and the related risks. Each year that current scanners are used, researchers reported, 14,500 deaths could result.
In one study, researchers from UC San Francisco found that the same imaging procedure performed at different institutions -- or even on different machines at the same hospital -- can yield a 13-fold difference in radiation dose, potentially exposing some patients to inordinately high risk. While a normal CT scan of the chest is the equivalent of about 100 chest X-rays, the team found that some scanners were giving the equivalent of 440 conventional X-rays. The absolute risk may be small for any single patient, but the sheer number of CT scans -- more than 70 million per year, 23 times the number in 1980 -- will produce a sharp increase in cancers and deaths, experts said.
"The articles in this issue make clear that there is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognized previously," Dr. Rita F. Redberg of UC San Francisco, editor of the journal, wrote in an editorial accompanying the reports. Even many otherwise healthy patients are being subjected to the radiation, she said, because emergency rooms are often sending patients to the CT scanner before they see a doctor.
Whole body scans of healthy patients looking for hidden tumors or other illnesses are also becoming more common, even though they rarely find anything wrong. The irony is that, by exposing healthy people to radiation, the scans may be creating more problems than they solve.
