Winston Hide, the associate editor of Elsevier’s Genomics has resigned due to the Elsevier’s high subscription charges (see my previous post on the matter).

No longer can I work for a system that provides solid profits for the publisher while effectively denying colleagues in developing countries access to research findings.

A website that maintains a list of those who have chosen to boycott Elsevier (the scientific literature publisher) because of excessively high subscription charges. Some of the researchers have added their own comments:

Science requires the exchange of ideas. Anything that impedes that exchange obstructs progress. Elsevier’s practices are anti-science.

As a researcher I’m public servant. Society pays me for education and research activities. Results belong to society.

801.11ac, or 5G Wi-Fi, is backwards compatible with a/b/g/n standards, and promises a significant speed boost compared to 802.11n. From Wikipedia:

Theoretically, this specification will enable multi-station WLAN throughput of at least 1 Gigabit per second and a maximum single link throughput of at least 500 megabits per second (500 Mbit/s).

Better WiFi security could soon be just a few rolls of wallpaper away. French researchers at Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, in cooperation with the Centre Technique du Papier, have developed a wallpaper that can block WiFi signals, preventing them from being broadcast beyond the confines of an office or apartment.

Unlike other types of signal-blocking materials, this one lets cellphones and other radio waves through. Ars Technica’s article mentions that the wallpaper should be available for sale sometime in 2013; I found out that the Finnish manufacturer licensing the technology is Ahlstrom.

Simple and functional.

I have to give the designers credit; The Verge is extremely pleasing to the eye for such a complex site.