| Zora and the explorer
As children grow older and the real world gets sacrificed even more for the virtual one, there's the risk of computer addiction and antisocial behavior. These concerns weigh heavily on Bers. They're why her three young children - in addition to Nico, there's Tali, 7, and Alan, 4 - each spend less than an hour a week on the computer. The risks also are what drive Bers professionally. "Today's kids use computers so much, if we don't turn that use to a positive outcome, we are lost," she says. Bers, who last year was among 20 US scientists to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in a ceremony at the White House, is pioneering technology that marries two independent disciplines - child development and computer technology.
Struggling to keep up with snow
Because of the continuing snowfall, the Garfield County Road and Bridge Department may have to go back to the county commissioners to request more money - used to pay for expenses like "IceSlicer" that is used to break ice on area roads - than was requested for 2008, said Marvin Stephens, the county's road and bridge director. According to the county's 2008 budget, there is $35,000 appropriated for snowplowing and ice removal.
That budget does not include money for labor or truck maintenance, Stephens said.
"It has bit into my snowplow budget pretty good," Stephens said of the constantly falling snow. "If it keeps going, we will have to go back to (county) commissioners and ask for more money."
A figure for how much the county has spent on recent snow removal was not immediately available.
New Occupational Pensions Trust to challenge buyout firms
A senior City pensions guru is launching a new "co-operative" for pension funds, with arm's-length support from the company that owns BT's telephone exchanges. Robin Ellison, the vice-chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, said the new business aimed to rival the slew of pension buyout companies that have emerged in recent years, such as Mark Wood's Paternoster and Eddie Truell's Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). But the new company, Occupational Pensions Trust, will not buy out the schemes. It will simply take control of them and merge them with other funds, achieving cost benefits in the process. .
Ten Days With Leopard: Coolest Cat Ever
The act of upgrading a MacBook from Tiger to Leopard was not without problems. Let's just say you should not proceed without first making a full-on backup. Once it's properly installed, however, Leopard shines. Spaces gives you a ton of extra desktop real estate, Time Machine will probably get more people to play it safe and keep constant backups, and smaller features just plain make sense. Be a Rockstar to Your Marketing DepartmentThese days, IT staffers work to fulfill a lot of requests. Like finding an email marketing solution for your marketing department. Lyris ListManager is the robust, scalable, and easily integrated solution your team needs. Download your free trial version today. .
Mass web infection leaves researcher scratching her head
Security maven Mary Landesman is in the midst of piecing together a who-done-it involving the infection of hundreds of websites that are generating an enormous amount of traffic. Or maybe it's a how-done-it. Either way, she's mostly drawing blanks. Landesman is a researcher for ScanSafe, a company that monitors the web surfing of employees at large companies and provides them with real-time intelligence about what sites are spreading malware. When a client visits a site that has already attacked someone else, the service automatically blocks the site from loading in the end user's browser. Viewing some seven billion web requests per month, company researchers see a fair amount of internet gremlins. .
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