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If you run MediaWiki software, then you really need to check this plugin out. This paticular plugin allows you to pick specific criteria, the below example shows some of the parameters you can pass: category=+Africa|Europe category=Politics and conflicts ordermethod=category,sortkey headingmode=ordered You can setup a list of last modified articles, top articles, newly created article. For full documentation on what parameters are available you can view the DPL Manual at The official link on MediaWiki’s extension page: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList

FBI Seeks To Restrict University Student Freedoms – amigoro writes with a link to the Press Escape blog, which is discussing new guidelines suggest by the FBI for university administrations. The Federal Bureau, worried about the possibility of international espionage via our centers of learning, now sees the need to restrict the freedoms of university students for national security. “FBI is offering to brief faculty, students and staff on what it calls ‘espionage indicators’ aimed at identifying foreign agents. Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials, attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage indicators.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Slasdot]

Thieves take off with $50,000 worth of cellphones –

Filed under: Cellphones

The anecdotal evidence for a spike in electronics robberies is piling up, with the latest high profile robbery netting the thieves $50,000 worth of cellphones from a T-Mobile store. Three armed men walked into the store in Fort Bend County in Texas on Thursday, and demanded the “good phones” from the store’s safe and the tapes from the CCTV. Staff were tied up, and the thieves deposited the phones into black plastic bags and walked out. Unfortunately for the robbers, T-Mobile keeps a good track of its inventory, and can identify any of the phones if they turn up on the network (meaning that the $50,000 sticker value is much lower on the black market). Crime doesn’t pay, especially when your stolen goods can be tracked.

[Via textually]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Web 2.0: Apps for the well-organized student –

Read/WriteWeb has created a list of their top web applications for students – but honestly, anyone who wants to be more organized could benefit from this list.

Many of these have been featured here at Lifehacker central; however, I really like how this list is organized into specific categories: office replacements, taking notes, mind mapping, studying, bookmarking, collaboration, calendars, calculators, and more. Do you see anything missing from this list? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students [Read/Write Web]

[LifeHacker]

Whaddya mean WalMart is sold out of Telekinesis Helmets®, Mommy? – The latest fashion in mindwear Hitachi: Move the Train With Your Brain The “brain-machine interface” developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain’s blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals. A cap connects by optical fibers to a mapping device, which links, in turn, to a toy train set via a control computer and […] [Dvorak]

PatentMonkey: NEC Gets Cell Phone Smart File Downloading Patent –

Apple notes it is the only player one of two players in WiFi enabled smart phones offering expanded reach when cell coverage is, well, not so good. This week, NEC was issued a related patent on wirelessly downloading files by selecting between cellular or WiFi networks reminding us that the iPhone is going to launch with so many cool features, and will most happily step on some toes in doing so.

NEC has been working a bit with WiFi enabled cell phone technologies. Details on the latest after the jump… (more…)

[CrunchGear]

Google May Close Gmail Germany Over Privacy Law – Matt writes “Google is threatening to shut down the German version of its Gmail service if the German Bundestag passes it’s new Internet surveillance law. Peter Fleischer, Google’s German privacy representative says the new law would be a severe blow against privacy and would go against Google’s practice of also offering anonymous e-mail accounts. If the law is passed then starting 2008, any connection data concerning the internet, phone calls (With position data when cell phones are used), SMS etc. of any German citizen will be saved for 6 months, anonymizing services like Tor will be made illegal.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Slasdot]

Vision Robotics' harvesting machines edge closer to the farm –

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

In just eight short months, the automated harvesting machines at Vision Robotics have apparently come quite a ways. Currently, funding is flowing in from growers’ associations who are “very nervous about the availability and cost of labor in the near future,” which has allowed the company to move forward in developing a pair of robots to pluck fruit from trees or vines. The duo would work in succession as the first robotic “scout” would scan the area and construct a 3D map with the location of each item that needs captured; the “harvester” would follow behind and pick the fruits that its eagle-eyed teammate mapped out. The firm has reportedly reached the build phase on the complex machines, and while a prototype or two should be ready to rock by next year, we’re unlikely to see these go mainstream before the next decade.

[Via Wired]

Gallery: Vision Robotics’ harvesting machines edge closer to the farm

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

[EnGadget]

Search: Find useful web apps with SimpleSpark –

If you’re looking for a specific web application to meet your needs, but you’re not sure where to find it, you might want to check out SimpleSpark, a catalog of over 3000 useful online services.

For instance, I typed in “organize” and retrieved around 95 different results to help me get my stuff together. You can also browse through the entire catalog (organized by category), browse pending listings, or check out what’s just been added. I found this incredibly helpful especially since there’s just so much good new stuff coming out; it’s somewhat tricky to keep track of what works and what doesn’t.

Simple Spark

[LifeHacker]

Fiber Optic Table Illuminates Your Dining – Deepa writes “We highly doubt LumiGram’s Luminous Fiber Optic Tablecloth was designed with power outages in mind, but why hook up a boring string of lamps or fiddle with half melted candles when you can plug this bad boy into the generator? The cloth, which has fiber optics woven throughout, cotton borders, and a Europlug mains adapter, proves most useful when the lights are dimmed, and should prove quite the centerpiece at your next get-together. The illuminating device is available in a trio of sizes, comes in a variety of color schemes.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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