links for 2009-03-04

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it.

Researchers show that it's possible to build three-dimensional clusters of cells with specific interactions by linking them using DNA as an adhesive.

We often discuss ways to invest money for various goals like college funding, big-ticket purchases, and retirement. But before investors can tackle where to put the money, they need to tackle where to find the money.

Gmail has been slowly but surely rolling out cool new features ever since they started Gmail Labs. If you haven't taken advantage of the fruits of Labs, here's a look at 10 Labs features you should enable.

MIT's TechTV (no relation) has a couple of videos that use LEGO to illustrate the mechanics of RNA transcription within DNA, animating the building blocks of life with life's best building blocks.

"The privilege against self-incrimination, a federal court has ruled, does not bar prosecutors from forcing a defendant in a child pornography case to decrypt his laptop hard drive—reversing a 2007 decision that found the demand to enter a password equivalent to compelled testimony." -- I wonder what the rules are if this were a locked safe with pictures/video in it, as opposed to a laptop.

Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science

As an administrator, you can choose to interact with the Sun Grid Engine system using the command line interface, the graphical user interface (QMON), and the Distributed Resource Management Application API (DRMAA).

Although it comes with a GUI that can be used for various administrative and configuration tasks, the fact that all of those tasks can be scripted is very appealing.