Seeding the Vine since 2006

AOL to cut one-third of workforce

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:14 AM EST (BBC News)

AOL and Time Warner combined in 2001, but in May, Time Warner stated its intention to spin off AOL into a separate company by the year-end. Company spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said a voluntary redundancy programme would begin on 4 December.

business, aol, time-warner, dotcom-boom, involuntary-layoff

Green Buildings: Fewer Sick Days, Higher Rents

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:09 AM EST (Business Week)

A new study found that tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days. The research also found that that green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts.

business, jobs, productivity, green-buildings, retrofitting, green-building-council, lower-vacancy-rates

Silverlight 4 In Beta. Supports Google Chrome.

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:30 AM EST (TechCrunch)

Microsoft announced the availability of Silverlight 4 in beta at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) today.

technology, google, microsoft, facebook, twitter, chrome, silverlight

Banks' H1N1 Flu Vaccines Stir Outrage

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:17 AM EST (Business Week)

Wall Street bankers once again are the target of populist outrage, this time over the news that Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and others are receiving limited doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

health, wall-street, vaccine, goldman-sachs, h1n1, cdc, citi

California First Imposes Standard on Giant New Flat-Panel TVs

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:07 AM EST (The New York Times)

Recognizing that giant new flat-panel televisions have become major power guzzlers, California on Wednesday became the first state to impose energy efficiency standards on them.

technology, energy, california, electricity, environmentalists, televisions, energy-star, flat-televisions

Potential Treatment for Down Syndrome

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:54 AM EST (Technology Review)

Drugs that boost the chemical messenger norepinephrine in the brain have been shown to alleviate cognitive problems in mice engineered to mirror Down syndrome.

health, brain, drug, down-syndrome, clinical-trials, norepinephrine

Hubble Telescope instruments on display at National Air and Space Museum

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:46 AM EST (The Washington Post)

Two instruments that helped save the Hubble Space Telescope from failure in 1993 were recently returned to Earth and are going on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

science, nasa, museum, hubble, space-telescope

Twitter's New Retweets Work Via SMS Too

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:38 AM EST (TechCrunch)

First of all, yes, everyone on Twitter now should have access to the new Retweet functionality. Currently, only Twitter.com and a handful of clients support the new mechanism. But did you know that you can also trigger the new Retweets via SMS?

technology, mobile, twitter, sms, tweet, retweets

The Latest News From Bing

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:33 AM EST (TechCrunch)

Bing announced Wolfram Alpha results for nutrition searches, more in-depth weather results, enhanced hover previews, better maps, and turned MSN Video into Bing Videos.

technology, video, twitter, search-engines, bing, news-sites, wolfram-alpha

Yammer Continues To Push Features I Want On Twitter

Seeded on Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:23 AM EST (TechCrunch)

Yammer, a twitter-like service for closed groups, continues to add new features that I wish Twitter would implement as well.

technology, twitter, android, yammer, nullwire

The AMA Reconsiders Marijuana. Will the Justice Department Follow?

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 6:00 AM EST (Newsweek)

More than 100 million Americans have smoked pot.

health, marijuana, justice-department, pot, ama, clinical-research, controlled-substance

New Hope for Neuron Protection

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:52 AM EST (Technology Review)

Trophos, a company based in Marseilles, France, has discovered a drug compound that appears to protect neurons from the effects of ALS, a rapidly debilitating degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

health, drug, als, parkinson, mitochondria, huntington, olesoxime, trophos

How Secure Is Cloud Computing?

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:42 AM EST (Technology Review)

Cloud computing services, such as Amazon's EC2 and Google Apps, are booming. Friday's ACM Cloud Computing Security Workshop in Chicago was the first such event devoted specifically to cloud security.

technology, security, secure, cryptography, encrypt, whitfield-diffie

Making 3D Maps on the Move

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:34 AM EST (Technology Review)

At a robotics conference last week, a vehicle called ROAMS demonstrated a cheap approach to mobile map-making.

technology, robot, map, roams, stevens-institute

Moon-Bombing a Success, Confirms Lunar Water Deposits

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:28 AM EST (Fast Company)

NASA today confirmed that they found what they were looking for, in the plume of dust thrown up by the lunar explosion: Definitive proof of moon water.

science, water, moon, dust, lunar

People and Powers-That-Be Disagree on Broadband

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:17 AM EST (Fast Company)

Net neutrality: Like it or loathe it, you can't deny it's a hot topic at the moment. And while Cisco's just done some research to show bandwidth hogs don't necessarily exist in the way they're portrayed, the GOP is trying to delay the FCC's vote.

technology, internet, net-neutrality, bandwidth, bandwidth-hogs

P4P Remodels File Sharing

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:10 AM EST (Technology Review)

"Peer-to-peer" (P2P) is synonymous with piracy and bandwidth hogging on the Internet. But now, Internet service providers and content companies are taking advantage of technology designed to speed the delivery of content through P2P networks.

technology, video, youtube, p2p, hulu, pando, p4p

Choosing the Small Screen of a Smartphone for E-Reading

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:01 AM EST (The New York Times)

With Amazon's Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers.

technology, books, iphone, amazon, reading, kindle, ipod-touch, e-book, e-readers

Sarah Drops the Act

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:55 AM EST (thedailybeast.com)

Now that Palin has stopped pretending to be a politician, she's back to being the appealing bombshell we first met.

politics, palin, oprah

The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It's Coming Soon

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:50 AM EST (TechCrunch)

The next "super" Android device will almost certainly be a HTC phone that's much thinner than even the Droid or iPhone -- The Dragon/Passion. This is the phone the senior Android guys at Google are now carrying around and testing, at least as of a couple of weeks ago.

technology, apple, google, iphone, samsung, android, htc, droid, dragon-passion

Obama finds Beijing a world away from Afghanistan

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:45 AM EST (The Washington Post)

Traveling thousands of miles across Asia on one of his most intensive foreign trips to date, President Obama has been curiously quiet about his most pressing international policy decision: whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan as the top general there has asked.

politics, obama, china, afghanistan, japan, troops, beijing

Software with a Better Ear for Music

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:29 AM EST (Technology Review)

Software with a Better Ear for Music A music search engine being previewed this week analyzes the waveform patterns of songs to classify them.

technology, song, music-search-engine, herdit, waveform-patterns

Hulu Steps Into Music With EMI and Norah Jones

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:21 AM EST (The New York Times)

Hulu, the joint online venture between NBC, Fox and ABC that mostly offers free TV shows and movies, is about to start singing a different tune: music videos.

entertainment, emi, music-videos, hulu, norah-jones

MyPorts Gives You Detailed Information on Open Ports

Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:05 AM EST (Lifehacker)

Windows only: We've talked about ways to portscan your computer before, but if you're looking for a simpler solution to secure your connection, free utility MyPorts shows you what open ports are being actively used and which may be unnecessary.

technology, security, bittorrent, myports, open-ports