I work as a consultant in a Windows-centric work-place and we remotely administer Windows servers. We trouble-shoot Windows clients. We keep spammers out of our Exchange servers. We defrag. We update. We install antivirus programs. We eliminate spyware. I suppose it would be fair to say that Microsoft keeps us in business. One day, while the boss was away, I shoved a spare hard-drive into my computer and installed Ubuntu 5.04. I managed to work for a month and a half before the Boss noticed I was using Linux - and that was only because he happened to glance at my screen. Half a year later, I am still using Ubuntu (now version 5.10) at work and I am more productive than ever.

My name is Simon, I am a Linux addict, and this is my story.

:: Reviews : Ubuntu On The Business Desktop

This supports the idea that snakes and venomous lizards evolved from a common venomous ancestor, and after connecting the DNA dots, Fry and his colleagues traced venom to a single origin 200 million years ago.

"That's also when the small, bite-sized animals were starting to exist. Any time there's a new food source you see the emergence of a new predatory trick," Fry told LiveScience. "In this case, venom was the new trick."

Which came first, the TV dinner or the microwave?

The common ancestor had venom glands on both its upper and lower jaws. Since then, snakes have evolved to having glands on just their upper jaw – glands on the lower would make it difficult to swallow prey.

A very intelligent design decision...

The Surprising Origin of Venom Revealed - Yahoo! News

Signs are scheduled to go up in about a week advising motorists that reconstruction on the Homestead Grays Bridge will start after Thanksgiving weekend.

From Nov. 28 through the end of February, some bridge lanes will be closed only during the day for preparation work, then for the main event, two of the four lanes will be closed around-the-clock up to May 4, 2007.

If Balfour-Beatty, the prime contractor, doesn't have the new deck and sidewalks totally open by the then, it is to be assessed a $15,000-a-day penalty.

If there's anything positive to be said about such a disruptive project, it's this: "The bridge will be wide open for the upcoming shopping season," said Doug Aiken, construction manager for the Allegheny County Public Works Department.

I will probably just move if I'm not actually leaving in December... This is going to be royal pain.

Homestead bridge work to start Nov. 28

Gunfire in the Loews Waterfront movie theater killed a man Wednesday night, West Homestead police said.
...
As of Thursday afternoon, the movie is no longer showing at the Waterfront theater.

ThePittsburghChannel.com - Channel 4 Action News - Waterfront Slaying Investigated; Rapper's Movie Gone

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BurningWell.Org - Free Public Domain Images and Photos

Triumph International modeled the bra in Japan which has launched a "Warm Biz" campaign urging people to bundle up to save on heating.

The bra pads are filled with an eco-friendly, reusable gel that can be heated up in a microwave or with hot water. For good measure, a pendant of a hot pepper dangles from the front.

Microwave your bra to stay warm this winter - Yahoo! News

The common form of sleep apnea, in which the throat closes off throughout the night, at least doubles the risk of stroke or death, a study released on Wednesday showed.

The researchers at Yale University also raised questions about whether existing apnea treatments reduced that risk, the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed.

A separate Canadian study also published in the journal concluded that breathing machines used to treat a form of apnea common in people with heart failure do not prevent death or the need for a heart transplant.

About 4 percent of Americans suffer from extreme daytime fatigue because their sleep is disrupted by sleep apnea, forcing them to repeatedly wake up if only for a second. Another 16 percent of Americans have apnea without fatigue.

Sleep apnea doubles risk of stroke, death - study - Yahoo! News

The cable channel will feature Lewis Black _ known for his rants on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" _ in a handful of segments starting Wednesday night.

He's the first in what the Weather Channel hopes is a series of celebrity guests.

The Weather Channel Brings in Lewis Black

k wrote:

Two NASA astronauts have figured out a way to create a real-life version of a "Star Wars" "tractor beam" to keep an asteroid from crashing into Earth.

By hovering nearby for perhaps a year, the astronauts say, the spacecraft's own gravity could minutely slow the asteroid's progress or speed it up, a process that 10 or 20 years later would cause the rogue rock to miss Earth by a comfortable margin.

[Uh, not *exactly* a tractor beam, but still an ok idea. -k]

The APoD photo and description are ever so much better. You've quoted a science journalist out of their depth.

They're proposing a space tractor or tugboat. Big, slow moving, mechanically simple (well, if ion propulsion can be considered simple) -- tractor.

RE: A New Path for Asteroids

Maybe not as world shaking as milbots or healthbots, but if you're Google or Amazon, or possessed of a very large dead tree library, you'll want Kirtas Technologies' Bookscan (check out the video).

Bookscan 1200 -- robots that read books!

Due Diligence: Bookbots