In addition to just being plain old funny, this is actually a great adaptation of new technology!

RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

“Water me, please.”

Your houseplant wants a drink – and a Twitter account.

Thanks to New York-based Botanicalls, tech-savvy gardeners who lack a green thumb can now digitally link their plants to the increasingly popular micro-blogging site Twitter, so that their ferns and philodendrons can let them know when it’s time for a little TLC.

The technology was developed in 2006 to enable plants to place phone calls to their owners when the moisture in their soil began to dry up, as part of “an effort to open a new channel of communication between plants and humans,” according to the company’s website.

Now Botanicalls has created a system that allows plants to post their moisture levels – which are measured and tracked by probes placed in the soil and connected to a leaf-shaped electronic transmitter – to a Twitter page that sends updates to their keeper’s cellphone when it’s time to be watered.

The plants even send thank-you notes once their thirst has been quenched.

Setting up the system is a little more complicated than planting seeds, however. The Botanicalls sensor kit, which will run you about $100 (U.S.), requires a bit of technical know-how, an Ethernet cable and a soldering gun to assemble.

Still, your plants will thank you for it. Literally.

Also, here’s a link to a full kit available from the ever cool make magazine (they do all the soldering for you, in case you’re not down with the flux yo): http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKBT1

New to me, at least. It’s definitely cleaner. A lot of community functionality is taken out of the interface and moved to the text space, immediately below the video window.

RTFA: http://goodbye-microsoft.com/

Click on the image to install Debian GNU/Linux

Totally sweet. I use Ubuntu, which is derived from and roughly parallels Debian. However, you really can’t lower the barrier to entry any more, at this point. There isn’t a one-click, browser-delivered installer for Windows XP or Mac OS X. Try Linux.

RTFA: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=9165…

Selected by InfoWorld Test Center editors and reviewers, these first annual Bossies celebrate the best open source software available for the enterprise. From CRM and ERP to OSes and middleware to networking, storage, and security software, our 36 winners prove that if your business is willing and your IT staff is ready, there’s an open source solution that’s able.

RTFA: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/09/14/oldsters-…

hehehe