Archives: ICANN might spit out domain-tasting grace period

After widespread outrage over Network Solutions’ program of locking up domain registrations for the five-day grace period, ICANN says it’s considering doing away with the grace period. The move is an attempt to combat domain tasting, in which people register tons of domain names, see which ones gather some decent traffic and release the rest, […]

Lethargus is a Caenorhabditis elegans sleep-like state

Nature 451, 569 (2008). doi:10.1038/nature06535

Authors: David M. Raizen, John E. Zimmerman, Matthew H. Maycock, Uyen D. Ta, Young-jai You, Meera V. Sundaram
& Allan I. Pack
There are fundamental similarities between sleep in mammals and quiescence in the arthropod Drosophila melanogaster, suggesting that sleep-like states are evolutionarily ancient. The nematode Caenorhabditis […]

NLRX1 is a regulator of mitochondrial antiviral immunity

Nature 451, 573 (2008). doi:10.1038/nature06501

Authors: Chris B. Moore, Daniel T. Bergstralh, Joseph A. Duncan, Yu Lei, Thomas E. Morrison, Albert G. Zimmermann, Mary A. Accavitti-Loper, Victoria J. Madden, Lijun Sun, Zhengmao Ye, John D. Lich, Mark T. Heise, Zhijian Chen
& Jenny P-Y. Ting
The RIG-like helicase (RLH) family of […]

It has been rumored off and on through the last few years that Dell was going to launch a Windows Mobile Smartphone as a natural evolution of its foray into the PDA market with the popular Dell Axim devices. Needless to say, those Dell smartphones never arrived and the rumors just remained rumors. Well, the […]

Judge to MSFT: Two more years [WaPo] Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia extended the court’s supervision through Nov. 12, 2009, writing that the2002 settlementhad not fully taken effect. Several U.S. states involved inthe casehad sought a five-year extension, despite opposition from the Department of Justice. Net broken […]

The chart on the left of this canvass represents CNN’s just-about-final results of yesterday’s 2008 Republican Presidential primary results in Florida On the right is the latest tally of YouTube views from various candidate sites, both Republicans and Democrats. This is from the website Tech President. So what gives with Rep. Paul’s more thn 12 […]

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor stimulates AMP-activated protein kinase in the ischaemic heart

Nature 451, 578 (2008). doi:10.1038/nature06504

Authors: Edward J. Miller, Ji Li, Lin Leng, Courtney McDonald, Toshiya Atsumi, Richard Bucala
& Lawrence H. Young
Understanding cellular response to environmental stress has broad implications for human disease. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) orchestrates the regulation of energy-generating and -consuming pathways, […]

DBC1 is a negative regulator of SIRT1

Nature 451, 583 (2008). doi:10.1038/nature06500

Authors: Ja-Eun Kim, Junjie Chen
& Zhenkun Lou
The NAD-dependent protein deacetylase Sir2 (silent information regulator 2) regulates lifespan in several organisms. SIRT1, the mammalian orthologue of yeast Sir2, participates in various cellular functions and possibly tumorigenesis. Whereas the cellular functions of SIRT1 have been extensively investigated, […]

Net2Phone, the pioneering Internet phone company that was destined to become a subsidiary of IDT despite objectons from some shareholders, seemingly has figured out a way to strike back against their enduring irrelevance. Now, they’re taking Skype to court for patent infringement. The Patent that seems to be causing this ruckus is 6108704, Point-To-Point Internet […]

Microsoft has published an article aimed at helping Vista users speed up their system - but the article takes a somewhat hit-and-miss approach to speeding up a PC.  Oh, and the best performance tip of all has been left out! Since several of you sent me a link to Optimize Windows Vista for better performance I […]