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Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Why do we condemn children to such terrible care homes? Two-thirds (65 per cent) of foster carers are aged 50-plus according to the Fostering Network and may choose to retire i...

Front Page: 'Whisperer,' 'Scrubs' on the road to renewal -- Who's got the wind at their back as the Big Four and CW begin the seven-day countdown to upfront week?

Barence writes 'Baby monitors and wireless TV transmitters are responsible for slowing down Wi-Fi connections in built-up areas, according to a report commissioned by British telecoms regulator Ofcom. The research smashes the myth that overlapping Wi-Fi networks in heavily congested towns and cities are to blame for faltering connection speeds. Instead it claims that unlicensed devices operating in the 2.4GHz band are dragging down signals. 'It only requires a single device, such as an analogue video sender, to severely affect Wi-Fi services within a short range, such that a single large building or cluster of houses can experience difficulties with using a single Wi-Fi channel,' the report claims.' of this story at Slashdot.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- Dish Network, the nation's second-largest satellite TV provider, says its first-quarter profit rose 21 percent as revenue climbed partly on equipment sales....

Buy two of these and call me in the morning? Docs in ads stir a healthy debate.

Village Idiot sends word of a patent granted to MIT researchers for a cone of silence a la Maxwell Smart. This one doesn't use plastic, but rather active and networked sensors and speakers embedded in a (probably indoor) space such as an open-plan office. 'In 'Get Smart' secret agents wanting a private conversation would deploy the 'cone of silence,' a clear plastic contraption lowered over the agents' heads. It never worked — they couldn't hear each other, while eavesdroppers could pick up every word. Now a modern cone of silence that we are assured will work is being patented by engineers Joe Paradiso and Yasuhiro Ono of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Instead of plastic domes, they use a sensor network to work out where potential eavesdroppers are, and speakers to generate a subtle masking sound at just the right level. ... The array of speakers... aims a mix of white noise and randomized office hubbub at the eavesdroppers. The subtle, confusing sound makes the

Mainz, Germany - When registering for e-mail services or online networks, it is important to remember that a strong password is not the only thing you need to consider. The security question used to identify yourself in case of a lost password must a...

QI used the free WiFi on the Vamoose Bus to New York, but I was leery of somebody recording my passwords so I only visited sites that did not require a login. Was I being too paranoid?

Dish Network Corp., the second-largest satellite TV provider in the U.S., surprised investors Monday by posting first-quarter results that were not as bad as feared. Earnings rose by 21 percent on the back of price increases and lower costs....

Wired is running a piece on the big idea of Robin Chase — the founder of Zipcar — that we need to build our smart power grid on open standards and include cars as nodes in a mesh network. ''Today in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and tanks and airplanes are running around using mesh networks,' said Chase. 'It works, it's secure, it's robust. If a node or device disappears, the network just reroutes the data.' And, perhaps most important, it's in motion. ... Build a smart electrical grid that uses Internet protocols and puts a mesh network device in every structure that has an electric meter. Sweep out the half dozen networks in our cars and replace them with an open, Internet-based platform. Add a mesh router. A nationwide mesh cloud will form, linking vehicles that can connect with one another and with the rest of the network. It's cooperative gain gone national, gone mobile, gone open.' of this story at Slashdot.