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Domain: cyberguideatlinuxfan.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to cyberguideatlinuxfan.com.
Stories · 8
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Tetris Study Reveals Dreaming's Role In Memory
Cy Guy was one of the legion who wrote with this news: "Dr. Robert Stickgold, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, released results of a study of amnesiacs who had played Tetris. Though they dreamed about playing the game (as is common), they failed to improve. Stickgold hypothesizes that dreaming uses the long-term memory area that the amnesiacs retained rather that the short-term memory areas of the brain that were damaged. More information on the study is available from this Reuters article, and Harvard Med School's Focus magazine." This is not what I dream about no matter how much tetris I've played. -
California Opens Office of Personal Privacy
Cy Guy writes "Legislation signed by California Governor Gray Davis today establishes an Office Personal Privacy within the Office of Consumer Affairs, where consumers will be able to file greivances if they feel their privacy has been violated. Read the Press Release for more info." Says it will open for business in 2002. Why the delay? -
Slashback: Bits, Bytes, Words
Do you want an i-Opener, and for how much? Are space-vehicle rescues "your thing"? Does your cute iMac suffer from a video-game-violence deficiency? Do your Web habits stray to courtroom and crime-scene voyeurism? Do you think that online privacy agreements must of needs outlive the dot-com-ephemera which offer them? If Yes to any or all, you've come to the right place.Money changes everything. After numerous writeups about the hacking potential of their iOpener device, Netpliance changed their service model and even the design of the product itself. Sounds like that wasn't enough: Cy Guy writes: "Netpliance has announced that they are raising the price of the i-Opener from the introductory price of $99 to $399 (neither price reflects the $21.95/month cost of Netpliance's Internet service which must be used with the device.) In a c|net interview Netpliance president Kent Savage dismissed hacker modifications to the device as a factor in the price increase." As Ioldanach puts it, "Think its 'cause they finally realised it was cheaper to raise prices then 'hack-proof' their product?"
What I'd like to see is Netpliance package the LCD and CPU of the i-Opener and sell those packages to OEMs, so they could create custom housings, new uses, etc -- after all, lots of people would like a small LCD X-terminal.
MacGuyver, The A-Team, NASA ... Grave writes: "Looks like NASA got DS1 functioning again. A probe that was almost entirely made up of experimental technologies can be salvaged, yet two hopefully-soon-to-be-routine flights to Mars can't be. Ah, well, at least we know that Ion Engines are workable. Bring on the TIEs!"
TRUSTe dusts off the white hat for a bit? Last week, a story appeared which noted the alarming news that failed web-merchant Toysmart planned to sell its customer information in an effort to recover some money. According to this Standard story, "The nonprofit organization TRUSTe announced Friday it is planning to file a brief in bankruptcy court that will decide whether Toysmart.com can sell its customer lists." Jamie raises two points to consider:
- Time will tell what effect (if any) TRUSTe's planned brief will have on the Toysmart bankruptcy proceedings.
- The company that bought Boo.com insists they will continue to honor the old privacy policy for old customers.
Maybe we could combine this with 'Survivor'? jgalvin222 writes "APB Online, Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. This web site is known for offering in-depth breaking news, tons of information on ongoing investigations, and you can listen to live police scanners. This web site will surely be missed, and if you read the article, you can see that some of their techs have volunteered to post crime and safety articles over the next couple of weeks - without pay. If anything, you should peruse their video library, some of the clips are both amusing and interesting."
The Devil will find work for idle hands to do. Ryan writes: "Here is something to keep us Mac fans happy. Go2Mac reports that Diablo II has gone gold for Mac version, making this one of the quickest PC to Mac conversions ever." Here is the official announcement from Blizzard.
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Internet.com Launches Apache Today.
Cy Guy writes "Internet.com has announced the launch of Apache Today. Per the announcement, Paul Ferris, Apache Today's editor has the following goals for the site: 'A place where honorable discussion can take place...; A place where any item about Apache can be found...; [and,] A wide, diverse spectrum of views and styles.' " -
Dolly Cloning Method Patented
Cy Guy writes "The BBC is reporting that Roslin Institute, along with two government agencies that helped fund the research, has been awarded a UK patent for the technology used to produce a clone of Dolly the Sheep in 1996. Roslin has already been sold an exclusive license for the technology to the U.S. company Geron for $45M. " -
Linux to be Official OS of People's Republic of China
Cy Guy writes "YAHOO UK is reporting that the People's Republic of China will be naming Linux as its "Official Operating System". The story is repeated with more details and notes that government officials are "enthusiastic about the community ethos behind the open source community." The story also links the announcement to the recent deal with Graphon Corp for Linux Server-based computing software. " I dunno how I feel about this. I think having a state bird is silly enough. -
Encyclopedia Britannica Goes To The Free
Cy Guy writes "You can now complete those research papers in half the time for free! EB has incorporated the full text of their dead tree and CD-ROM editions into a portal interface (with the typical web-based email, news headlines, etc.) A search of the Encyclopaedia, also searches "The Best of the Web", Magazines, and Books in Print. The results page also lets you pass your search to Searchopolis. They've released more information about it in the press release. " -
Japan Suffers its Worst Nuke Plant Accident Ever