Parents and teachers are forcing some schools to dismantle wireless computer networks amid fears that they could damage children’s health.
More schools are putting transmitters in classrooms to give pupils wireless access from laptops to the school computer network and the internet.

But many parents and some scientists fear that low levels of microwave radiation emitted by the transmitters could be harmful, causing loss of concentration, headaches, fatigue, memory and behavioural problems and possibly cancer in the long term. Scientific evidence is inconclusive, but some researchers think that children are vulnerable because of their thinner skulls and developing nervous systems.

View: Full Story
News source: Times Online UK

Here’s something abandonware enthusiasts can be thankful for: the Library of Congress yesterday approved six exemptions to US copyright. The one most pertinent to gamers is that, for archival purposes, copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder can be cracked.

What does this mean? Well, those retro games — classic or otherwise — that you can’t seem to find anywhere can now be preserved without fear of ramifications. Although it is still unlawful to distribute the old games, free or otherwise, rarely do any abandonware cases go to court. The ruling is more symbolic than anything, but a step in the right direction.

View: Full Story
News source: Joystiq.com

54 Vista RTM Wallpapers

Here is a set of 54 wallpapers that come pre-installed in vista:

View: Windows Vista (RTM) Wallpaper Set

Seeing I have been in the PC business for over seven years I have noticed something about the support industry.

PC support companies build their business on the backs of high school and college graduates, the people who get a job just to get by until something better comes along. These people are called hardware technicians; they bare huge responsibility and work for low pay, often for little better than minimum wage. Hardly any of these people take their job seriously and those that do are usually looking to get into a more prestigious field like Network Administration or Security. Who could blame them with such a poor pay rate? But there are a few, such as myself, who specialize in this area. The problem is this, although the market for our skills is virtually limitless, the pay is scant. The only way for serious hardware specialists to make money is to “go it alone” or start their own tech company. When we start our own firm we then have the problem of finding reliable staff. Now, considering that WE started our own firm because we were not satisfied with low pay and an excessive workload, the odds are that anyone else who we would consider reliable would be looking to do the same. So, we are left with one option: Training the staff ourselves. Naturally, just when you have someone trained, they leave and try to “go it lone”. You can see how this becomes a problem.

View: Full Story
News source: Tweak News

Running your computer is pretty darn cheap when viewed at an hourly rate – approximately $0.02 an hour. This figure was obtained with the following assumptions: The typical desktop computer uses around 200 watts of energy per hour (with a 50% / 50% split of energy consumed between the computer and the display screen). We pay about $0.10 per kilowatt hour for electricity where I live (this varies across the US, so you can put in your actual rate here). From there you simply divide the watts used by 1000 (since electricity is charged at a rate in kilowatts – 1000 watts) multiplied by the rate charged: 200 divided by 1000 = 0.2 x $0.10 = $0.02.

With the cost of using a computer so cheap, many people believe that it isn’t worth the time to bother turning it off. When multiplied over time, however, it can add up. That $0.02 an hour comes to $0.48 a day, $3.36 a week, $13.44 a month and $175.20 a year if you leave your computer on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

That means if you turn off the computer for half the day while asleep, you have saved $87.50. Add in a few extra hours it will likely stay off on the weekends, and you have reached $100 a year in savings by simply turning off your computer. If you have a small business with 10 computers, making sure they get turned off at night means an extra $1000 to your bottom line (and if you work for a business that rewards employees that submit money saving ideas that get implemented, you could even earn a bit of money by suggesting this).

View: Full Story
News source: pfadvice.com

When asked last month whether Microsoft was planning to punish alleged Office 2007 pirates by crippling the functionality of their software in the same way that Microsoft is doing with Vista via reduced-functionality mode, Microsoft officials were noncommittal.

But now Microsoft’s intentions are clear: Just as it is doing with Vista, Microsoft plans to incorporate what basically amounts to a “kill switch” into Office 2007. Office 2007 users who can’t or won’t pass activation muster within a set time period will be moved into “reduced-functionality mode,” according to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article.

“When a program runs in reduced-functionality mode, many commands are unavailable (dimmed). Therefore, you cannot access those functionalities,” the article explains. “Some of the limitations of reduced-functionality mode include the following:

• You cannot create new documents.

• You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.

• You can print documents. However you cannot save them.”

View: Full Story
News source: All About Microsoft

Small businesses must become more aware that they are the potential victims of cybercrime, former White House security adviser Howard Schmidt has urged.

Speaking at an IT security event at London’s House of Lords on Monday, Schmidt said all businesses are at risk through a lack of proper configuration of security equipment, or through not taking proper security precautions.

“SMEs (small and midsized enterprises) are not aware of being a potential victim–spending 40 pounds per year on antivirus is not a high priority,” he said at the event, organized by managed services specialist Claranet. “SMEs have to realize that just because they are small, it doesn’t mean they won’t be targeted. Bad guys target wherever they can get money.”

Ninety percent of small businesses and consumers install antivirus, but 10 percent never update the software’s signatures, which are matched against suspected threats, Schmidt said. Small businesses with limited staffing resources simply do not have time to devote to cybersecurity issues, he said.

View: Full Story
News source: News.com

Microsoft is helping law enforcers hunt down criminals who try to steal bank account details on the Internet and has initiated 129 lawsuits in Europe and the Middle East, the U.S. software company said.

One court case in Turkey has already led to a 2.5-year prison sentence for a so-called “phisher” in Turkey, and another four cases against teenagers have been settled out of court, Microsoft said on Wednesday, eight months after it announced the launch of a Global Phishing Enforcement Initiative in March.

“Sometimes we initiate our own legal action, but more importantly we work with law enforcement agencies,” said Nancy Anderson, deputy general counsel at the software company.

View: Full Story
News source: Washington Post

On the show, we did a test. We blew up a photograph to 16 x 24 inches at a professional photo lab. One print had 13-megapixel resolution; one had 8; the third had 5. Same exact photo, down-rezzed twice, all three printed at the same poster size. I wanted to hang them all on a wall in Times Square and challenge passersby to see if they could tell the difference.

Even the technician at the photo lab told me that I was crazy, that there’d be a huge difference between 5 megapixels and 13.
I’m prepared to give away the punch line of this segment, because hey—the show doesn’t air till February, and you’ll have forgotten all about what you read here today, right?

Anyway, we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses—but were wrong.

View: Full Story

Webroot Software Inc., known for its anti-spyware program Spy Sweeper, is bringing back a product to help parents limit where and how long their children go online.

Child Safe joins Web filtering programs like Net Nanny, CYBERsitter and ContentProtect in the parental-control arena. The program is listed for $39.95 for a one-year subscription for use on up to three computers.

One of Webroot’s early products was a similar program, but it was discontinued because demand at the time wasn’t heavy. Amid concerns of online predators finding teens through social networking sites or chat rooms, the time is right to bring it out again, CEO David Moll said.

View: Full Story
News source: Forbes