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A homemade Rube Goldberg device...

(CBS) NEW YORK Walking in high heels just became a lot more comfortable for women. A Philadelphia woman has created the high heel shoe with an adjustable heel. Women love the way high heels make them feel, but at the same time they hate the way high heels make them feel. One woman gladly said, “You look pretty much better in pretty much everything you’re wearing in heels.” Another complained, "I start to get this burn on the ball of my feet after wearing them all night." Women routinely trade in Stilettos for sneakers, choosing comfort over style. Now that...

I have 5 networked pc's here and a "floater" laptop, running a mix of XP Pro, Win2K, and Ubuntu. My subscriptions for A/V, Firewall, and Anti-Spam are all up this month. Currently, I use paid-for full version/suites of ZoneAlarm and AVG. I also have MS Defender, and Ewido. I have a regular maintenance routine I perform once a week using spyware blaster, Opt Out, Spyware S&D, Black Light, and Crap Cleaner. I also use a registry monitoring app, and sysinternals process explorer. I haven't had an infection in well over a year, and then it was so mild I've forgotten...

<p>16 May 2007 - Air Canada and Virgin Atlantic last month each placed new orders for Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the midsize aircraft capable of flying transoceanic routes. At last count, Boeing had compiled 567 orders from 44 customers. It said it remains on track to test fly the first 787s this summer and begin deliveries in 2008. Having opened the order book in April 2004, Boeing called the 787 "the fastest-selling commercial airplane in history." It also has helped Boeing get an edge on Airbus--which has been beset by development problems for its jumbo A380--and position itself as the industry leader at a time when all forecasts point to growing global air traffic. According to Boeing and its 787 customers, the new jet will allow airlines to serve existing routes more efficiently and open many new ones. It is designed to operate more quietly and burn "20 percent less fuel" than similarly sized airplanes. Inside, passengers should expect higher cabin humidity, improved lighting and air quality, big windows, large stowage spaces and an overall design developed with disabled passengers in mind. Such features represent "little things that all add up to make your 16 1/2 hours a little more pleasant," said Jim Friedel, Northwest Airlines senior vice president of Pacific and cargo, speaking at the Masters Program in February. "The 787 will be a game-changer especially for us at Northwest, but I believe this will be an industry trend over time." Northwest has 18 firm orders, with options and purchase rights for another 50. It expects to begin commercial 787 service in October 2008. Continental Airlines president Jeffrey Smisek, speaking in April at the UATP Airline Distribution 2007 conference, also described the 787 as "a game-changing product." Continental currently has 25 787s on firm order, and Smisek said he expects that the airline "will be taking more than that over the years." Weyerhaeuser director of travel, meetings, food service, fleet and transportation Suzanne Fletcher, who has been involved with 787 presentations, said she agrees with Boeing that air travelers would begin selecting their flights based on the airplane serving the route, not the carrier. "It is so much more of a passenger-focused than before when planes were carrier-focused," she said. "The comfort built into this aircraft is amazing." Fletcher, who also serves as president and CEO of the National Business Travel Association, noted that Boeing designed the 787 to fly at lower altitudes. As a result, "Passengers will feel better when they arrive," she said, "and that is important for business travelers." Other Boeing 787 customers include ANA, Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines, India's Jet Airways, LOT Polish, Qantas and Singapore Airlines. At Air Canada, the latest order for 23 of the new jets brings its total to 37, with options for another 23. It will start taking deliveries in 2010 to replace the existing B767 fleet, which burns 30 percent more fuel, according to Air Canada. Virgin Atlantic's 15-plane order from April marked the largest 787 agreement with a European airline. CEO Steve Ridgway tagged the 787 as "our aircraft of the future." Virgin, which also entered an "environmental partnership" with Boeing centered on biofeul development, hyped the new plane as "revolutionary" for its fuel efficiency. The airline said the 787 would enable it to expand into more markets, "possibly" including Bangkok, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Seattle and Vancouver. Virgin will start taking delivery in 2011 and has purchase rights and options for as many as 28 additional 787s. Boeing is building three 787 variations, with capacities ranging from 210 to 330 passengers, and ranges up to 8,500 nautical miles, which would allow for nonstop flights between London and Perth, for example. "Now we have the capability to envision nonstop flights from the States to points in Asia that simply were out of reach or economically unattractive because you had to find 400 passengers a day to get there," said Northwest's Friedel. "Using that airplane, we at Northwest can contemplate nonstops from Detroit to Shanghai, Beijing, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. All of those are comfortably within reach and economically viable because it's a 225-seat airplane." "That will be an important trend for you and your travelers because we airlines frankly struggle with maintaining nonstop services to Asia," Friedel continued. "East Coast to Europe, you can get there with a variety of technology choices today. The Pacific didn't have that before. A machine like this allows us to make more nonstop routes stick." For example, airlines can avoid suspending certain longer-haul flights because of high fuel prices or modestly lower demand, as Northwest did in September 2005 on its New York JFK-Tokyo route. The 787 has given Boeing momentum and the company now is poised to reclaim from Airbus the distinction as the world's largest airplane manufacturer (measured by deliveries). The new plane has attracted some intercontinental airlines that have been disappointed by developmental delays for the Airbus A380, which will be the world's largest passenger aircraft when it enters service--now expected in late 2007, nearly two years behind schedule. Despite some cancellations, Airbus as of March had 156 firm A380 orders from 15 airlines, including Air France, launch customer Emirates (which now has 47 of the jets on order), Lufthansa, Qantas and Singapore airlines. Airbus--which has described the double-deck jumbo A380 as "cleaner, greener, quieter and smarter"--also is developing its A350 line, an extra-wide plane designed for 270 to 350 passengers. As of March, it had collected 104 firm orders. Boeing and Airbus are developing these new aircraft families--as well as Boeing's 747-800 program now underway--at a time when air traffic is expected to climb steadily. According to the International Air Transport Association, global airline passengers will number more than 2.2 billion this year, up from 1.7 billion in 2000. Looking out to 2025, Boeing predicted that more than 27,000 new airplanes would be needed, including more than 3,000 in the smaller, twin-aisle aircraft category (which includes the 787). By 2025, it projected 650 deliveries of the largest commercial planes (those with more than 400 seats), including its own 777 and the Airbus A380. An Airbus forecast predicted the world's airlines would need nearly 22,000 aircraft of over 100 seats by 2025 to handle 5 percent annual passenger traffic growth, including more than 1,600 of the largest aircraft.</p>

Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It's often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will. It's versatile - it can be customized to perform almost any large-scale computing task - and it's blessedly crash-resistant. A broad community of developers, from individuals to large companies like IBM, is constantly working to improve it and introduce new features. No wonder the business world has embraced it so enthusiastically: More than half the companies in the Fortune 500 are thought to be using the free operating system Linux in their data centers....

I have no way of knowing if this post is permitted or not? Freerepublic .. as I see it usually deals in current events and breaking news. I have a question and it seems Odd, even to me to ask a question on this site. My wife, God bless her, has children, (previous marriage) who graduated from Virginia Tech. Somehow, I stepped over the line tonite by saying that some students .. at Tech, stood, like sheep and waited to be shot by Cho. She is in complete denial and is so mad at me that I don't know what...

Well folks, it looks like the U.S. Census Bureau is finally getting high-tech for their 2010 census. With $600 million poured into the Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) project, half a million (500,000) field enumerators will be getting hooked up with a HTC Census smartphone. Armed with an EVDO data-only Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC, and integrated GPS, the enumerator's job of collecting absentee census information will get nice and streamlined. As a high-tech plus, the built-in GPS unit also keeps the enumerator honest.Back in 2000, I was actually a census enumerator. My job consisted of driving to households to...

The powerful "Cell" microprocessor that fuels Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 video game console will be available in IBM mainframe computers so those high-performance machines can run complex online games and virtual worlds. Jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba Corp., Cell is touted as a "supercomputer on a chip" because of its design, which includes one central processing unit helped by eight additional processors working on specific tasks. Because of that unusual architecture, Cell's use outside of PlayStations has been limited to specialized hardware for graphics-intensive functions such as military or medical applications.

<p>And all those big cops, scores of them, hundreds, with the latest, heaviest, most sophisticated gear, all the weapons and helmets and safety vests and belts. It looked like the brute force of the state coming up against uncontrollable human will.</p>

...In modern America, there's always plenty of trauma to go around. Even if you knew no one involved in the shootings, have never been to Virginia and can't tell the difference between a Hokie and a Wahoo, there's no need for you to feel left out. Did you feel sad when you heard the news? Did you ponder, however fleetingly, the mystery of mortality? If so, don't just go on with your ordinary life as if nothing has happened to disrupt it (even though nothing has happened to disrupt it). Honor your grief! Attend a candlelight vigil, post a poignant...

The recent tragedy on the campus of Virginia Tech has once again put the spotlight on stricter gun control laws in the United States, but Americans need to be aware of the dangers that lurk within these proposed laws. Gun control laws are analogous to throwing money at a problem and hoping that it goes away. That, unfortunately, is what Congress does best. Our politicians cannot expect a further restriction on the America people's constitutional right to bear arms to provide any relief from violent crime. In fact, it may perpetuate it. While the Virginia Tech student who shot more...

THIS is the face of the girl who may have sparked the worst school shooting in US history. Eighteen-year-old Emily Jane Hilscher was one of the first two victims to be identified in the Virginia Tech massacre, along with 22-year-old Ryan Clark. The pair were neighbours in rooms 4040 and 4042 on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory where a gunman began the first of 33 campus shootings on Monday morning just after 7am, US time.

The National Rifle Association joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families. We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.

The deadly university rampage in Virginia that killed 33 people sent shock waves around the world Tuesday with newspapers and talk shows delving into the American psyche and raising questions about lax gun controls in the United States. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the shooting underscored the problems of a U.S. “gun culture,” but the gun control debate echoed loudest across Europe, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the world. Prime Minister Tony Blair offered his condolences to the victims’ families. “I would like to express on behalf of Britain and the British people our profound...

Today, April 16th, the day of the Virginia Tech massacre, is my birthday. Every year for the rest of my life, I am going to be reminded on my birthday that my attempt to alert the American people to the lethal dangers of victim disarmament did not succeed in preventing this act of criminal terrorism. My 1994 book, Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns, makes the point -- through analysis of history, criminology, statistics, and dramatic examples -- that "Gun control increases violent crime by disarming helpless victims and shifting the balance of power to the illegally...

While many jobs in IT my be sent off shore, the basic office call will always be here. The is a record of one of the first IT calls made.

NOT CONTENT with hypergrowth in the business world, ubiquitous on-demand software pioneer Salesforce.com is moving into politics after providing the underlying CRM program for US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s ComMitt fundraising efforts. Political campaigns have traditionally been concocted using a ham-handed combination of chewing gum and string but the face of the Salesforce platform probably fits for anybody seeking a highly distributed and shareable programme that is accessible over the web. Having done the deed for Romney, Salesforce wants to productise its work in a programme called CampaignForce that will be distributed on the AppExchange trading site for Salesforce-compatible...

Is there a free and EASY way to save YouTube videos?

The Skynet system brings an increase in power and bandwidth The British military is set to take one of its most significant steps into the digital age with the launch of the first Skynet 5 satellite. The spacecraft will deliver secure, high-bandwidth communications for UK and "friendly" forces across the globe. It is part of a multi-billion-pound project that will allow the Army, Royal Navy and RAF to pass much more data, faster between command centres. The Skynet 5A platform lifts off from Kourou, French Guiana, on Saturday. It will fly atop an Ariane 5-ECA launcher that is scheduled...

Down To Business: Talent Shortage ? Employers Must Take Some Of The Rap Many tech pros are demoralized, thanks to knee-jerk offshore outsourcing and the post-bubble malaise. Employers must move beyond the "you should be happy you have a job" mentality. By Rob Preston InformationWeek March 3, 2007 12:00 AM (From the March 5, 2007 issue) Ask a dozen CIOs and tech vendor CEOs to identify their single most pressing challenge, and you'll likely get at least 10 different answers, right? Not exactly. In fact, they all come back to one overarching concern: finding, grooming, and retaining tomorrow's leaders. I...