Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, starts its global roll-out on Thursday, being first made available to business customers.
The system, a replacement for the firm’s current Windows XP operating system, will not be available to private users until 30 January.
With Windows running on nine in 10 of the world’s PCs, analysts agree the new version […]

“An official document (PDF), dated November 19, summarizes an agreement between the U.S. and Russia in which Russia has agreed to close down AllofMP3.com, and any sites that ‘permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works.’ The agreement is posted to the Web site for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It summarizes […]

First customers go live on BT’s 21st century network
BT made communications history today with the transfer of the first customer lines to its 21st Century Network (21CN), the world’s most advanced next generation network. As planned, BT has started to move customers in the village of Wick, near Cardiff, to the next generation […]

The BBC reports that researchers from the University of Manchester have come up with a formula to calculate the effect of beer goggles on vision.

Researchers at Manchester University say while beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder, the amount of alcohol consumed is not the only factor.



Additional factors include the level of light in the pub or club, the drinker’s own eyesight and the room’s smokiness.



The distance between two people is also a factor.



They all add up to make the aesthetically-challenged more attractive, according to the formula.



The formula can work out a final score, ranging from less than one - where there is no beer goggle effect - to more than 100.

Here is a breakdown of the formula:

An = number of units of alcohol consumed

S = smokiness of the room (graded from 0-10, where 0 clear air; 10 extremely smoky)

L = luminance of ‘person of interest’ (candelas per square metre; typically 1 pitch black; 150 as seen in normal room lighting)

Vo = Snellen visual acuity (6/6 normal; 6/12 just meets driving standard)

d = distance from ‘person of interest’ (metres; 0.5 to 3 metres)

There may some other subtle factors but we still think it is the alcohol that plays the biggest role.

he world’s richest nations are dumping hazardous electronic waste on poor African countries, says the head of the UN’s Environment Programme (Unep).
Speaking in Nairobi, Achim Steiner said consumerism was driving a “growing mountain of e-waste”.
Unep estimates that up to 50 million tonnes of waste from discarded electronic goods is generated annually.
Improper disposal of e-waste can […]

Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.



The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual ” letters” of the genome.



It now appears much of the variation is explained instead by people having multiple copies of some key genes that make up the human genome.

The findings mean people could be much more different than previously thought which probably explains why drugs that do well for some people do not work at all for others or even make them sicker. Scientists still don’t know many multiples of a gene a person may carry.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.



The studies published today have found that instead of having just two copies of each gene - one from each parent - people can carry many copies, but just how many can vary between one person and the next.

The article says it means we are only 96% similar to the chimpanzee instead of 99% as was previously thought. The article also includes a helpful FAQ that includes this information about how we may be only 99% similar to other humans instead of 99.9% as was previously thought. That is a considerable difference.

What have scientists discovered today?



They have found that each of us is more different genetically than we previously believed. Instead of being 99.9 per cent identical, it may turn out to be more like 99 per cent identical - enough of a difference to explain many variations in human traits. Instead of having just two copies of every gene - one from each parent - we have some genes that are multiplied several times. Furthermore these “multiple copy numbers” differ from one person to another, which could explain human physical and even mental variation.

The scientists involved in the amazing discovery are hopeful it will eventually lead to breakthroughs in treating different diseases.

O2 plans to launch a new service next month that will allow businesses to send data over their broadband networks much more quickly.
Upload Plus, which officially launches on December 4, will be offered by the mobile operator’s broadband division, Be.
Using the new service, businesses will be able to increase their maximum upload speed from up […]

The search giant announced today that it is entering into a partnership with 176 newspapers in the U.S. to share content and advertising, The New York Times is reporting.
Yahoo will index and tag content from seven major newspaper chains and make the news content from 38 states available on the web. Yahoo will also power […]

The Guardian reports that NASA is drawing up plans to land an astronaut on an asteroid — the same thing Bruce Willis did in the film Armageddon.

To save the day, Nasa now plans to go where only Bruce Willis has gone before. The US space agency is drawing up plans to land an astronaut on an asteroid hurtling through space at more than 30,000 mph. It wants to know whether humans could master techniques needed to deflect such a doomsday object when it is eventually identified. The proposals are at an early stage, and a spacecraft needed just to send an astronaut that far into space exists only on the drawing board, but they are deadly serious. A smallish asteroid called Apophis has already been identified as a possible threat to Earth in 2036.



Chris McKay of the Nasa Johnson Space Centre in Houston told the website Space.com: “There’s a lot of public resonance with the notion that Nasa ought to be doing something about killer asteroids … to be able to send serious equipment to an asteroid.



“The public wants us to have mastered the problem of dealing with asteroids. So being able to have astronauts go out there and sort of poke one with a stick would be scientifically valuable as well as demonstrate human capabilities.”



A 1bn tonne asteroid just 1km across striking the Earth at a 45 degree angle could generate the equivalent of a 50,000 megatonne thermonuclear explosion. Attempting to break it up with an atomic warhead might only generate thousands of smaller objects on a similar course, which could have time to reform. Scientists agree the best approach, given enough warning, would be to gently nudge the object into a safer orbit.

Learning how to nudge the incoming asteroid away is very important because experts believe it is inevitable that we will face this frightening scenario.

A near miss, when asteroid QW7 came within 4m km of Earth in September 2000, led Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik to declare: “It’s not a case of if we will be hit, it is a question of when. Each of us is 750 times more likely to be killed by an asteroid than to win this weekend’s lottery.”

Astronomers are constantly monitoring for potential asteroid threats. They have already spotted one potential threat called Apophis. It would serve us well to have a working plan in place years before Apophis or a similar asteroid gets close enough to start making everyone nervous.

What do potential layoffs at Yahoo have to do with peanut butter? Why should hundreds of Yahoo employees care? Find out from Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933.