An anonymous reader writes "The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed. This means the Milky Way is equivalent in size to our neighbor Andromeda — instead of being the little sister in the local galaxy group, as had been believed. One implication of this new finding is that we may collide with Andromeda sooner than we had thought, in 2 or 3 billion years instead of 5." Less

Happy New Year everyone, we’re a little late but Talk Social News returns with an exciting interview with All Stern of CenterNetworks.com & CloudContacts . Allen was gracious enough to do a second interview with us and it’s just as good as the first one. Allen is an entrepreneur, blogger, consultant and his blog Centernetworks.com was recently listed as one of the top 6 blogs to read for information on social media. For more information about Allen & CenterNetworks.com here. The interview: Talk Social News Episode 18 - length 57:12 download or click to play:Download audio file (Talksocialnews-0018centernetworks.mp3) Subscribe to podcast in iTunes: Other segments of the podcast: The what to blog: New tech news site: http://TechFuga.com In the fail of the week: Michael Arrington / TechCrunch on Death To The Embargo News of the Week: Steve Jobs Health and MacWorld rumors We’re looking for sponsors, if interested see the Become A Sponsor page or email us at: Contact at talksocialnews dot com . Thanks for listening! Less

Your Hosts: Matt, Mike, and Rich S Christmas Update Students Database Update Running time: 42:46 Download Here Less

Lesson Two of my special Getting Started With Drupal series of instructional videos. This video explores the basic configuration options to consider once you have successfully installed Drupal. Less

Ponca City, We love you writes "For thousands of years, losing teeth has been a routine part of human aging. Now the Washington Post reports that researchers are close to growing important parts of teeth from stem cells, including creating a living root from scratch, perhaps within one year. According to Pamela Robey of the NIH. 'Dentists say, "Give me a root and I can put a crown on it."' In a few years dentists will treat periodontal disease with regeneration by using stem cells to create hard and soft tissue; they will take out a tooth that is about to fall, and reconnect it firmly to the regenerated tissue. Although nobody is predicting when it will be possible to grow teeth on demand, in adults, to replace missing ones, a common guess is five to ten years. Baby and wisdom teeth are sources of stem cells that could be 'banked' for future health needs, says Robey. 'When you think about it, the teeth children put under their pillows may end up being worth much more than the tooth fairy's going rate. Plus, if you still have your wisdom teeth, it's nice to know you're walking around with your own source of stem cells.'" Less

We wish everyone a Happy New Year!! Free Marvel Comics -yep Marvel is still every Monday giving away free comics via Marvel Digital Comic unlimited with 7 comics.Even better Flashback Universe.com is also still giving away free downloadable comics from the Golden age public domain called Smash Comics Mytweetspace.com-Free Twitter backgrounds hi5-free social networking website Tweetree-Birds in tree? Kaspersky Mobile Security-Anti-Theft Protection for Your Smartphone! Lovely Anime-550+ Anime series for you to watch onlineEverything USB-and I do mean Everything USB! GIMPshop free alternative to Photoshop for Windows,-Linux and Mac usersPlus GIMPshop-social network for Gimpshop usersWe discuss the Zune 30gb freezing issue and have some fun with it. Enjoy! running time: 34.18 minutesContact Us:Frank Dawson Jr: geekrodeo@gmail.com Brian Robinson: cbrcomics@gmail.com Less

CWmike writes "Amazon.com has rolled out a new option for its Simple Storage Service (S3) that lets data owners shift the cost of accessing their information to users. Until now, individuals or businesses with information stored on S3 had to pay data-transfer costs to Amazon when others made use of the information. Amazon said the new Requester Pays option relieves data providers of that burden, leaving them to pay only the basic storage fees for the cloud computing service. The bigger question with the cloud is, who really pays? Mark Everett Hall argues that IT workers do." Less

scream by rutty Continuing our “Media Science” series on sound, we discuss amplitude. We use the familiar example of a guitar making noise to show that amplitude as a percieved loudness. This episode wraps up our media science series on the basics of sound. There is more to learn and understand about sound, but the series of three episodes will give you an understanding of the physics of sound. Image from rutty Less

Steve Jobs blames emaciation on hormone imbalance. Twitter hacked to put up fake posts. China will be punishing search engines for linking to porn. Lenovo unveils clunker. Howard Stringer under pressure to do something at Sony. Freescale to roll out Netbook chip. Expert claims MSFT made huge money over "Vista Capable" scam. New Mac Mini coming out. Blu-Ray dominates Christmas sale. Ballmer to be Keynoter at CES show. Seagate moves to USB 3. Most confusing High-tech buzzwords listed. Less

Free Marvel Comics -yep Marvel is every Monday giving away free comics via Marvel Digital Comic unlimited Even better Flashback Universe.com is also still giving away free downloadable called Saturn Knight - Knight Before Christmas. New Comic Book Releases for Wednesday Free Twitter Backgrounds for your account Custom Twitter Backgrounds for Twitter users Pinksage-CustomTwitter Backgrounds Twitback-Create free Twitter backgrounds Want to see Windows 7?Sure you do see the latest pictures and video now. Free Outpost Firewall-not the best but is free Cobra Commander is on Twitter? Call Graph-free call recording application for Skype-Call Graph is absolutely a free way to record Skype calls Marvel Offers Free HOLIDAY DIGITAL SPECIAL #1 for FREE until December 31 From all us at Geekrodeo.com ,we hope you had a Merry Christmas. Enjoy! running time: 27.33 minutes Contact Us: Frank Dawson Jr: geekrodeo@gmail.com Brian Robinson: cbrcomics@gmail.com Less

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC has an interesting article on the long-standing issue of how to power the 'climber' that would ascend a space elevator into space. Previous ideas have included delivering microwave or laser power to the climber beamed from the Earth's surface, but now European Space Agency ground station engineer Age-Raymond Riise has demonstrated a device that could provide a "lift into space" for cheaper space missions along a 100,000-km long tether anchored to the Earth. Riise demonstrated sending power mechanically by providing carefully timed jerks of the cable at its base with a broomstick to represent the cable held in tension, an electric sander to provide a rhythmic vibration to the bottom of the stick, and three brushes representing the climber with their bristles pointing downwards allowing the climber assembly to slide upward along the broomstick as it moved slightly downward, but grip it as it moved slightly upward. 'It would be possible to make a suspension system that completely decouples the cabin where the passengers are,' says Riise. 'For them it would be a linear movement with very little disturbance.' Riise says that he has been approached by commercial elevator companies, who are researching new ideas for elevators in superscrapers where the simplicity of the approach makes it attractive when compared to other ideas for powering lifts, such as compressed air." Less

New cultural changes may effect the UX industry ... "What are the profound socio-cultural changes currently taking place and are people-centred designers well equipped to help companies and institutions address this new context? The current economic recession is turning out to be very severe (The Guardian evokes the spectre of a 1930s-style depression), with rich countries being the biggest losers, and this slowly unfolding reality will drastically transform our societies and our lifestyles, our values and our choices. In a recent article on the cultural shift currently taking place in the US, Paul Harris paints a dire picture. But he also starts defining the values that define our new world: a rejection of luxury and excess replaced by a new sense of frugalism (which doesn't necessarily mean quality), a renewed attention on the lives of ordinary people, a greater focus on community and an end to individualism as the dominant cultural, social and economic idea. "America," he says, "now is more frugal, less consumerist and more community-minded. But it is also poorer, angry and afraid." Reflecting on this from a European perspective, where communities are traditionally stronger, as is the role of government and the public sphere, I can see the following seven clusters of values taking shape: * A shift in the price/value balance when buying products or services. An entirely different logic comes into play now. When people are tight with money, they want their basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) to be addressed in the cheapest possible way, whereas other higher level acquisitions are only done when the vendor can guarantee security, durability and long-term value. This applies also to corporate purchases. The throw-away culture is grinding to a halt; * A shift in needs: what seemed liked needs just half a year ago, are no longer perceived as such. There is a back to basics and a no frills culture, but it is not yet clear what that might imply on a larger scale, as things are evolving quicly and little research exists; * A renewed focus on people's physical community: your neighbourhood, town, core friends and family - the people who are always there and can help you out if needed. You look for company when you are in trouble;" (Continued via Putting people first ) [Usability Resources] Less

surely_you_cant_be_serious writes "A nationwide survey finds that most companies consider their systems vulnerable to attack. Historically, crime rates increase during recessions — and some believe that cybercrime may well follow suit, especially given massive layoffs and the dim prospects many laid-off employees face in finding a new job. 'One thing companies can start doing is monitoring their networks on an ongoing basis so that they understand the normal pattern of data flow and usage, Brill said. In many cases, companies may not have the internal capability to do this, but outsourcing options are available. Kroll Ontrack, for instance, will be rolling out a 24/7 monitoring service for its global clients manned from a US location by professionals in early 2009.'" Less

This Episode we talk about Steve Rude Custom Sketches Christmas Special Internet Explorer is still unsafe to useNew Smallville and Supernatural TV Spots Briefly mention Zune addons and attachments for Christmas gifts this year Amazon's 25 Days of Free Christmas Music Wolverine-X-Men Origins- NOW in High Definition on Geekrodeo.com Browser updates galore! New Wolverine movie Wallpaper ZUNE Free weekly songs-for DEc Majel Barrett-Roddenberry passed away on Dec 18 2008, Change Your Zune Background with new Zune backgrounds Faronics Deep Freeze Standard cool secruity product that Works on Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Vista plus Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows Server editions. Frank mentions the OSX leopard Update and the news about The End of an Era!! Apple's Last Macworld! Enjoy! running time: 33.04 minutes Contact Us: Frank Dawson Jr: geekrodeo@gmail.com Brian Robinson: cbrcomics@gmail.com Less

An anonymous reader writes "Wired has the inside story of Max Butler, a former white hat hacker who joined the underground following a jail stint for hacking the Pentagon. His most ambitious hack was a hostile takeover of the major underground carding boards where stolen credit card and identity data are bought and sold. The attack made his own site, CardersMarket, the largest crime forum in the world, with 6,000 users. But it also made the feds determined to catch him, since one of the sites he hacked, DarkMarket.ws, was secretly a sting operation run by the FBI." Less

This Episode we talk about Zune addons and Zune gift items. Enjoy! running time: 15.57 minutes Contact Us: Frank Dawson Jr: geekrodeo@gmail.com Brian Robinson: cbrcomics@gmail.com Less

Happy New Year! Today we sit with down with Caroline McCarthy and K-Flow from Heavy & Flow to talk about our winter break shenanigans. Justin Yu joins us over the phone from beautiful San Fransisco to remind us how clean the show was the week he wasn't around. We want to thank all of our listeners for the tons of mail we received over the break, it really means a lot. Here's to making 2009 the year of The 404! So sit back, relax, and enjoy our first episode back. There won't be a show tomorrow, but we'll be broadcasting live everyday from CES 2009 beginning this Wednesday at 8pm eastern. EPISODE 252 Download today's podcast Follow us on twitter! The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Wilson Tang ... Less