The Rigged-Up Net

“Google says it is aiming to raise $2,718,281,828 from its share sale, a number identical to the important mathematical constant e, which is the base for natural logarithms.”

Beyond the IPO, Google may have big plans

You paid a lot for your DVDs. Make sure you never need to buy another copy.

Dark Tip: Free DVD Backup

News aggregators may be the best new tools to appear on the Web since the browser, but as the programs and the underlying RSS standard grow more popular, some question whether the Internet will be able to handle the traffic.

Will RSS Readers Clog the Web?

Microwave ovens should display prominent warnings about the dangers of exploding eggs, says a team of opthalmologists in the UK.

Microwave ovens should warn of exploding eggs

A new system that helps cells stave off the ravages of time has been discovered by scientists. The find may help explain how some cancer cells live forever – and provide a new route of attack for up to one in 10 tumours, they say.

Secret of eternal life may give cancer cure

Plague outbreaks can be predicted by the rise and fall of the wild gerbil population in Kazakhstan, researchers have discovered. Their plague predicting model might also be applicable to other parts of the world where outbreaks are irregular.

Gerbil population boom predicts plague

Not sure about Vonage? You can test how your broadband connection will handle VoIP here:

http://www.testyourvoip.com/

In the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey out Wednesday, Korean automaker Hyundai Motor America shocked the auto industry by scoring a virtual dead-heat with quality leaders Honda and Toyota, tying Honda with 102 problems per 100 vehicles and just one point behind Toyota.

Hyundai improves dramatically in quality survey

Women tend to choose husbands who look like their fathers – even if they are adopted, reveals a new study.

Women marry men who look like dad

Before we launch into the specs and features of the new Hitachi 400GB hard drive, we need to point out a few things. Hitachi is not targeting this hard drive for your normal PC desktop. It’s really aimed at an emerging application category known as “near-line backup.” Another area of interest is media storage applications, like those used in DVRs (digital video recorders). As HDTV becomes more prevalent, we’re starting to see HD-DVRs. At 8.7GB per hour, HDTV can eat up drive space at an alarming rate. Even a 400GB drive will only hold about 45 hours of HDTV content (depending on compression).

Hitachi 7K400 400GB Deskstar Hard Drive

Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl wardrobe scandal seems to be signaling the end of a skin-saturated sartorial era.

It’s the great Hollywood cover-up!

Green tea provides a more effective and environmentally-friendly method of preparing computer hard disks, say US scientists.

Green tea polishes hard drive heads

Penn Jillette and his partner in crime, Raymond Joseph Teller, have been hypnotizing audiences for almost 30 years with their trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks and con-artistry, and blatant stand-up routine. Not only are they a staple at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Vegas, but they are disspelling myths on the Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Teller may be silent during their act, but Penn more than makes up for it…

Penn Jillette

Sunday’s New York Times feature on Apple, Steve Jobs and the iPod touches on one of the weirdest open secrets in Silicon Valley: The unacknowledged father of the iPod is engineer Tony Fadell.

Father of the IPod

A majority of national advertisers plan to cut spending on TV commercials by 20 percent in the next five years, when they believe ad-skipping devices like TiVo will take hold in households, according to a new survey.

Advertisers face up to TiVo reality

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece of a mysterious woman with a slight smile, is deteriorating quickly, the Louvre Museum said Monday, announcing that an in-depth technical study was being conducted to determine why

Mona Lisa deteriorating, Louvre Museum says

Unwrapping your shopping to find you have bought mouldy bread, rotten strawberries and sour milk could soon become a thing of the past ? thanks to a range of emerging “active packaging” technologies.

Wrappers smarten up to protect food

The ability to empathise is often considered uniquely human, the result of complex reasoning and abstract thought. But it might in fact be an incredibly simple brain process ? meaning that there is no reason why monkeys and other animals cannot empathise too.

Empathy may not be uniquely human quality

Unpublished studies on the effects of anti-depressant drugs on children suggest some are both ineffective and potentially harmful, according to a new review of research. The unpublished data contradict published results, fuelling the debate on how pharmaceutical companies reveal trial data.

Unpublished data reverses risk-benefit of drugs

New research has revealed a molecular basis for the “Mozart effect” – the observation that a brief stint of Mozart, but not other music, may improve learning and memory.

Molecular basis for Mozart effect revealed

A spice used in curry could help alleviate cystic fibrosis, new research suggests. The tests in mice show that low doses of a component of turmeric can make most of the symptoms disappear.

Curry spice could alleviate cystic fibrosis

According to recent research, it is true that bug zappers can end up transmitting the diseases carried by the insects they zap.

Can bug zappers help transmit diseases?

Friday brought news of a major company in wireless technology that is coming to town.

Wi-Fi Moving Headquarters To Austin

Debra Baker tells people she has TiVo. But she really doesn’t.

TiVo Faces Clone War As Market Heats Up

Representatives at TiVo Inc. said that the high-definition version of TiVo, sold through The DirecTV Group Inc., has finally begun shipping.

HD TiVOs Begin Shipping

It appears that my pimp name is “Suede Richard Large”

Pimp Name Generator

(Thanks Bart)

I found the [ALT-F1] trick in Outlook 2003 particularly useful 🙂

With every version of the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft refines an already mature set of applications and adds many handy features. But much of Office’s power—hidden options, unknown features, and shortcuts—goes unused and undiscovered by the majority of people that use the suite. In this story, we’ve compiled some of our favorite tips and tricks for Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. These are tips that will make Microsoft Office more powerful, more productive, and even easier to use, and they’ll let you customize the suite to work the way you want. Whether you’re using Microsoft Office XP or Microsoft Office 2003, you’re sure to find tips and tricks here that will help you make even better use of the nation’s best-selling office suite software.

Microsoft Office: 106 Tips & Tricks

Atheros announced its Super-G throughput enhancement technology back in April of this year, but it’s taken until now for products to hit the shelves. Something else is hitting the ,er, fan, though, in the form of a controversy stirred up by rival WLAN chipmaker Broadcom during the recent Las Vegas Comdex show.

Atheros Super-G NeedToKnow

Basic telephone service is plain boring to many people, including technology enthusiasts. The phone line may have brought us our first Internet connection, but the phone itself has been around for decades with only a few changes. Not very exciting in a world of gigahertz processors, DVD recording, and file sharing. Now there’s Vonage. Find out why you should sign up, today on “Call for Help.”

Call Long-Distance Over Your Broadband Connection

Michael Dell, 39, seems too young to retire. Then again, he’s had the same job for 20 years.
Dell has run the PC maker that shares his name since 1984, when he started it in his college dorm room. He has lasted twice as long as most chief executives — and much longer than many management experts recommend.

Has tech gotten top-heavy?

San Antonio International Airport will receive a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the administration’s effort to reduce noise pollution at America’s airports.

San Antonio International receives $6 million to fight noise pollution

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) on Wednesday confirmed what local allergy sufferers have known for years — that San Antonio is one of the worst cities in America for allergies.

San Antonio named one of worst allergy cities

A mammal that is the daughter of two female parents has been created for the first time.

‘Virgin birth’ mammal rewrites rules of biology

The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks before dawn Thursday, April 22. Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies away from city lights could see anywhere from 5 to 25 shootings stars per hour, or one every few minutes.

Meteor shower peaks before dawn Thursday

As part of its spring line, fashion label Gucci is selling a $195 carrying case designed specifically for Apple Computer’s popular music player. At that price, the ebony-and-beige, coated-canvas case costs nearly as much as an iPod itself.

Gucci serves up Apple iPod a la mode

You probably bought your digital camera to record holiday celebrations or send photos of your family to doting relatives. Or maybe you have it just for work and haven’t found much other use for it. But no matter what you use your camera for, chances are that you’ve tapped only a few of its possibilities. In this article we’ll give you some ideas of what else you can do with your digital camera for fun and possibly for profit.

Cool Camera Projects

Strategies for interviewing job candidates…

Multi-Person Job Interviews Bring Special Challenges
Read the rest of this entry »

A scientist who predicts a magnitude-6.4 or larger quake will strike the Southern California desert by Sept. 5 said his group has made other similar forecasts but that he would not disclose them publicly.

Scientists Pin Date on L.A. Quake

It is amazing to find that in this day and age, some companies have still not realized how important their email communications are. Many companies send email replies late or not at all, or send replies that do not actually answer the questions you asked. If your company is able to deal professionally with email, this will provide your company with that all important competitive edge. Moreover by educating employees as to what can and cannot be said in an email, you can protect your company from awkward liability issues. This website discusses the main etiquette rules and provides advice on how employers can ensure that they are implemented.

Email etiquette

Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.

Young female chimps outlearn their brothers