Tuesday, August 14, 2007

social networks British Report Details the Stress of Email Communication. WaltonNews writes "British researchers have found that pressures from handling emails throughout the work day cause stress and frustration with workers. Researchers from a pair of collaborating universities have found that heavy email communication causes anxiety, with some workers thinking they checked their email as often as once every fifteen minutes. The reality was much worse. From the article: 'When researchers fitted monitors to their computers, workers were found to be viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour. About 33 per cent said they felt stressed by the volume of e-mails and the need to reply quickly. A further 28 per cent said they felt "driven" when they checked messages because of the pressure to respond. Just 38 per cent of workers were relaxed enough to wait a day or longer before replying.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. 11:57:23 AM    comment [] econtent See Who Is Whitewashing Wikipedia. Decius6i5 writes "Caltech grad student Virgil Griffith has launched a search tool that uncovers whitewashing and other self-interested editing of Wikipedia. Users can generate lists of every edit to Wikipedia which has been made from a particular IP address range. The tool has already uncovered a number of interesting edits, such as one from the corporate offices of Diebold which removed large sections of content critical of their electronic voting machines. A Wired story provides more detail and Threat Level is running a contest to see who can come up with the most interesting Wikipedia spin job." Read more of this story at Slashdot. [Slashdot] 11:56:30 AM    comment [] OS hosting Share sale values VMware at $11bn. The hotly-awaited flotation of virtualisation software firm VMware values the firm at $11bn. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] 7:50:48 AM    comment [] privacy Security Threat In the New Wiretapping Law. The NSA wants automatic surveillance capabilities in telephone switches. But once such capabilities are built in, others could use them to intercept communications. Within 10 years this could render the US vulnerable to attacks from terrorist groups across the globe, as well as from the military establishments of other nations. "Such threats are not theoretical: In April 2004, phones belonging to members of the Greek government, including the prime minister, were spied on with wiretapping software that was misused."Read more of this story at Slashdot. 7:50:09 AM    comment [] health His Heart Whirs Anew. The number of human bionic parts in existence or in the pipeline is accelerating, but now, in light of victims of psychological and cognitive trauma after intervention in their bodies, some scientists fear that we are tampering not with a bodily mach... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 7:45:08 AM    comment [] power Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of nanocomposite paper. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage technology using carbon nanotubes. It can be used to create ultra-thin, flexible batteries and energy storage devices for next-generation electronics and implanta... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 7:43:30 AM    comment [] brain control The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain. A new generation of genetic and optical technology can give researchers unprecedented power to turn on and off targeted sets of cells in the brain, and to do so by remote control.  Some day, the remote-control technology might even serve as a treat... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] 7:42:22 AM    comment []

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