pickens writes "The LA Times reports that 84-year-old Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro consumes 200 to 300 news items a day on the World Wide Web. In a recent interview he called Web communication 'the most powerful weapon that has existed' and extolled its power to break a stranglehold on the media by 'the empire' and 'ambitious private groups that have abused it' adding that the Internet 'has pu
Published News
Fidel Castro, Internet News Junkie
Posted by clementw 1 day 4 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
UN Tech Group Finds Most Expensive Broadband
Posted by clementw 1 day 7 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
destinyland writes "In the Central African Republic, broadband internet service costs 3891% of the average monthly income. 'Put another way, a month's broadband service costs more than three years' average wages in the country,' notes one technology blog, 'compared with less than two hours' earnings in Macau.' A United Nations' technology group released the figures in a new report in advance of a
The Last of the Punch Card Programmers
Posted by clementw 1 day 8 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
Peter Cus writes "Cluny Lace, an English lacemaking manufacturer, has reverted to 19th-Century Leavers machines in order to stay competitive. These 19th-Century machines use Jacquard punch cards. Ian Elm, thought to be the last of the card punchers, says young people don't want factory work: 'Younger people coming into a trade want a guarantee of a career out of it, and this is so uncertain.'" Re
Researchers Develop "Tea Bag" Water Filter
Posted by clementw 1 day 9 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
cybernanga writes "A group of researchers in South Africa has developed a filter that can purify water straight from the bottle. The filter sits inside a tube fitted on top of a bottle and purifies water as it is poured on a cup. From the article: 'The designer behind the filter, Dr Eugene Cloete, from the Stellenbosch University in South Africa, says the filter is only as big as an ordinary tea
Judging You By the Online Company You Keep
Posted by clementw 1 day 11 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
theodp writes "Network analysis uses data about your social network interactions to make assumptions and predictions about your behavior. The Economist notes the upside for companies looking to sell products. But don't forget about the downside, warns Adrian Chen, of living in a world where network analysis is used by financial firms to determine risky borrowers by looking at social ties, or by I
Leaders Aren't Being Made At Tech Firms
Posted by clementw 1 day 12 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
theodp writes "In this article Vivek Wadhwa laments that short shrift is paid to management training these days at many high-tech firms. You can't be born with the skills needed to plan projects, adhere to EEOC guidelines, prepare budgets and manage finances, or to know the intricacies of business and IP law, says Wadhwa. All this has to be learned. Stepping up to address the problems of 'enginee
Yellowstone Hot Spot Shreds Ancient Pacific Ocean
Posted by clementw 1 day 15 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
jamie passes along this excerpt from DiscoveryNews: "f you thought the geysers and overblown threat of a supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone National Park were dramatic, you ain't seen nothing: deep beneath Earth's surface, the hot spot that feeds the park has torn an entire tectonic plate in half. The revelation comes from a new study (abstract) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that
Dubai's Police Chief Calls BlackBerry a Spy Tool
Posted by clementw 1 day 18 hours ago (http://rss.slashdot.org)
crimeandpunishment writes "Does the battle over the Blackberry ban in the United Arab Emirates have its roots in a spy story? Dubai's police chief says concern over espionage (specifically, by the US and Israel) led to the decision to limit BlackBerry services. The UAE says it will block BlackBerry email, messaging, and web services on October 11th unless it gets access to encrypted data. Comment
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