Security by remote control

Broadband net users in the UK who are worried that their PCs could be subverted by malicious hackers can now let anti-virus companies keep an eye on their machines for them. Security company McAfee has launched a subscription service that uses the web to protect a PC against viruses and attacks by computer vandals

Dr Laura Hit Again

Dr Laura, the queen of talk-show intolerance, is learning — the hard way — that the internet will hold her accountable, one angry bulletin board posting or e-mail after another

Hewlett Heir Moves to Halt Compaq Merger

Hewlett-Packard board member Walter Hewlett and other opponents of the proposed HP-Compaq Computer merger on Thursday filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission a proxy statement to ask shareholders to vote against the deal at a special HP shareholders meeting next year

Arsonist Hunt As 100 Fires Rage

Arsonists are being blamed for most of the bushfires that are raging throughout NSW, destroying homes and threatening lives in a destructive rampage that is expected to get worse by the weekend

Silver surfer discovers the web

For many elderly people in Britain, computers and the internet are a mystery. Latest official figures show that only one in 10 of those over 65 years old are online. But for one elderly British woman, an early xmas present of a Sony laptop from her stepson, computer consultant Bill Thompson, has opened up a whole new world

Fruitcakes Face Machine-Gun Fire

Drop it from a tall building? Hardly a scratch. Shoot it with a submachine gun? It survives. But run it over with a sport utility vehicle or kick it like a football and it crumbles, according to a just published investigation into that evergreen xmas question: How can you get rid of the fruitcake?