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Search Engines: How They're Reshaping Your Brain

Is faster thinking always better?

(Newser) - Although he’s thrilled with all the time he saves using the Internet for research and awed by the vast intellectual opportunities available to every web surfer, Nicholas Carr is a bit disconcerted that he no longer has the patience for reading books or long articles. With his netizen mind...

Not Very PC: Why Typewriters Beat Computers

Fed up with tech snafus, some Brits reach for the Wite-Out

(Newser) - Favored by novelists and technophobes and sold out of car trunks, typewriters remain the implement of choice for some Brits, reports BBC. Despite their weight and Internet deficiencies, the tangible writing experience free from computer meltdowns or deletions may save the typewriter from extinction—at least for now. One sales...

Biology Class Is No Cut-Up for US Kids

More pupils duck dissections by doing them virtually

(Newser) - More biology students are ducking icky frog and fetal pig dissections by doing them on computers, the AP reports. Animal rights activists, thrilled that 14 states let kids skip dissections, are helping get the interactive programs to schools. One West Virginia group donated software to a high school that spends...

Microsoft Warns Windows Users of Safari Threat

(Newser) - Windows and Safari mix like virus-vulnerable oil and water, Microsoft warns, and Windows users should stop surfing with Apple’s web browser until the security holes have been patched. The “blended threat” combines a bug in Safari that downloads files to the desktop automatically and a vulnerability in how...

Mixed Day Yields Mixed Results
 Mixed Day Yields Mixed Results 
MARKETS

Mixed Day Yields Mixed Results

Dell performance rallies tech; Commerce Department gives bad news

(Newser) - Stocks ended mixed after a seesaw session today, with strong performance by tech and energy shares contrasting with bad news on consumer spending and incomes, MarketWatch reports. The Dow closed down 7.90 at 12,638.32. The Nasdaq gained 14.34 to 2,522.66, while the S&P...

Low-Income Buyers Make Brazil 5th-Biggest PC Market

More money and more credit fuel surge, helping Dell and HP

(Newser) - Brazilian consumers are putting better credit offers and growing wealth into computers, and HP and Dell are the beneficiaries. The country is now the 5th-biggest PC market in the world, and low-income buyers are fueling the boom there. Computer shipments rose 38% last year to 10.7 million, Bloomberg reports,...

One Laptop Per Child Embraces Windows XP

Move gives new life to seemingly immortal operating system

(Newser) - Now that Microsoft has signed on to the One Laptop Per Child initiative—aimed at getting low-cost PCs to kids in poor countries—its Windows XP operating system is again getting a new jolt of life, reports InternetNews.com. The project originally used only free, open-source software such as Linux,...

Get Over XP 'Worship'
Get Over
XP 'Worship'
OPINION

Get Over XP 'Worship'

Accept Vista or leave Windows altogether for another OS, columnist writes

(Newser) - Nostalgia for Windows XP is misplaced, Rob Pegoraro argues in the Washington Post: Vista has its problems, but they’re not solved by XP, which is ill-equipped to face the “busy” and “brutish” modern Internet landscape. “XP is not something that needs to be ‘saved,’...

Subnotebooks Don't Quite Measure Up
Subnotebooks Don't Quite Measure Up
PRODUCT REVIEW

Subnotebooks Don't Quite Measure Up

Lenovo, Asus debut lightweights that are close, but not there

(Newser) - Hamstrung by poor battery life, and burdened with an overly weighty Vista operating system that makes starting up a drag, a pair of new subnotebook computers offer a glimpse of what could be—but isn’t quite, writes Wall Street Journal tech guru Walt Mossberg. Lenovo’s IdeaPad—a junior...

Keyboards 'Dirtier Than Toilet Seats'

Microbiologist warns that filthy keys can make people ill

(Newser) - A microbiologist studying computer keyboards discovered that some of them harbored more bacteria than the average toilet seat, the Guardian reports. The dirtiest—which had to be removed from an office—had 150 times the level of acceptable bacteria, putting the user at risk of catching bugs that cause diarrhea...

IBM Raises Dividend 25%
 IBM Raises Dividend 25% 

IBM Raises Dividend 25%

Firm paying out $2.5B, expecting $12B in stock buybacks

(Newser) - IBM raised its quarterly dividend for the thirteenth consecutive year today after posting strong Q1 earnings two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. The firm expects to pay $2.5 billion to shareholders this year after raising its dividend 25%, from 40 to 50 cents. IBM also expects to...

World's Smallest Transistor Sets Path to Better Chips

Newfound material could replace silicon

(Newser) - Scientists in England have created the world’s smallest transistor, the BBC reports. At 1 atom thick and 10 atoms wide, it could be the key to creating microchips beyond the power of silicon. The transistor is made of graphene, a single layer of graphite and an excellent conductor of...

Quantum Internet Gets Closer
Quantum Internet
Gets Closer

Quantum Internet Gets Closer

New kind of Net would be automatically secure

(Newser) - A recent quantum computing breakthrough is a step towards creating a quantum Internet—which would be "automatically secure," a researcher told Technology Review. A Northwestern University professor has created a fundamental element of a quantum computer, a quantum logic gate, within an optical fiber, where previous gates used...

Dell Jumps on Cheap Notebook Trend
Dell Jumps on Cheap Notebook Trend

Dell Jumps on Cheap Notebook Trend

Caters to emerging low-cost high-mobility market

(Newser) - Cheap, small notebooks look like the next big thing. Dell today announced it was jumping into the burgeoning segment, which doesn’t quite have a name yet—some call them netbooks, others mini-notebooks, still others ultramobile PCs or UMPCs. Dell’s machine will start at $399, and sport a wee...

Feds Lift Ban on IBM Contracts

IBM withdraws protest of lost EPA contract

(Newser) - The government Thursday lifted a week-old ban that prevented IBM from competing for new federal contracts. In exchange, IBM agreed to withdraw its protest of an $84 million contract with the EPA it lost last year, and to refund any attorney fees and costs the Government Accountability Office paid to...

Silicon Valley Unplugs for Meetings

Companies go 'topless' to boost employees' attention

(Newser) - Tired of competing for attention with iPhones, BlackBerrys and laptops, some Silicon Valley companies are banning them from meetings. One exec calls it going "topless," short for laptopless, and the Los Angeles Times reports that it's boosting some companies' efficiency. "Aside from just being rude," an...

Venezuela Tried to Arm FARC, Colombia Says

Unverified docs reveal activities of Colombian rebels

(Newser) - Colombian officials claim to have computer files captured from its FARC rebels that indicate Venezuela sold arms to the terrorist group, the New York Times reports. If Interpol verifies the files, they would also suggest links between FARC and Ecuador’s government and provide insight into the rebel organization. Colombia...

Sun Banks on Lasers to Make Next Speed Leap

Using light, not wires, to connect chips could make computers 1,000 times faster

(Newser) - Sun Microsystems is moving toward connecting computer chips using lasers instead of wires, a move that could make computers 1,000 times faster. The company snagged a $44 million Pentagon contract to continue work that could also mean smaller, more energy-efficient machines. It won’t be easy, though: A Sun...

Personalized Security Protects Laptops

New software adjusts to individuals' behavior

(Newser) - A new laptop security system in development at Intel learns to adjust to you—that is, the user—getting to know your pattern of Internet use in order to provide more personalized protection. The software, called Proteus, is meant for companies that provide laptops to many employees, normally equipping all...

World's Biggest Tech Show Goes Green

Top IT companies will display environmental friendliness at CeBIT

(Newser) - Greener tech solutions are a focus of this year’s CeBIT technology trade fair, which opens tomorrow in Germany. Tech companies from around the world will showcase products like servers that use less electricity alongside their hot new gadgets, AP reports. The emphasis on green ideas sets the tone for...

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