The Australian competition watchdog has accidentally revealed Google as the anonymous source of a submission that is highly critical of eBay’s proposal to force its users onto the PayPal payments system
Teenage hackers temporarily hijacked and defaced several Comcast Web sites and redirected user e-mail in an exploit that appears to expose weaknesses in the Internet’s Domain Name System
The worldwide boom in commodities has come to this: Even guano, the bird dung that was the focus of an imperialist scramble on the high seas in the 19th century, is in strong demand once again. Surging prices for synthetic fertilisers and organic foods are shifting attention to guano, an organic fertiliser once found in abundance on this island and more than 20 others off the coast of Peru, where an exceptionally dry climate preserves the droppings of seabirds like the guanay cormorant and the Peruvian booby
Google used its annual developer conference here this week to show off its nearly completed mobile software system to about 3,000 computer programmers, hoping to cultivate more services and advertising. The demonstration, held Wednesday, represented the most extensive public look so far at the system, Android. First announced nearly seven months ago, it is an open-source platform being designed for smartphones and other mobile devices that surf the Web
Mozilla is hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the most number of downloads of an application in a day, on the release of its Firefox 3 Web browser. There is currently no official Guinness World Record for the total number of downloads of an application in a day. During the first 24 hours of Firefox 3’s release, Mozilla is aiming for over 1.6 million downloads and hoping for five million, according to a Mozilla spokesperson
Austar has flagged it could open its service to allow access to any video content from the internet through its next-generation set-top box. A high-definition version of the company’s MyStar digital video recorder — which was first launched in March — is due out in the second half of next year, containing a USB port and an internet port
An ancient gold cup mysteriously acquired by a British scrap metal dealer is to be sold at auction with an estimate of nearly $1 million, after languishing for years in a shoe box under its current owner’s bed
Solar-powered Apples may on the horizon with the filing of a patent for utilising solar cells in portable devices. The solar panels would be under the display of both handhelds and portable computers
Soul Communications, known internally by some staff as Two.Tel
, is currently under investigation in four states for failing to pay wages and entitlements to staff. The revelation comes as the telco faces legal action from dealers claiming they will lose their businesses because Soul owes them more than $1 million in commission fees. Staff still working for Soul, a subsidiary of SP Telemedia which merged with Australian internet service provider TPG in April, yesterday said the business was in chaos
. It is not related to private equity group TPG
A hacker has used a loophole to collect more than $50,000 from Google Checkout and online brokerage firms, a few cents at a time. When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment — ranging from only a few cents to a couple of dollars — to verify that the user has access to the bank account listed. Services such as Google Checkout and Paypal use a similar tactic to verify credit and debit cards linked to accounts. According to court documents, Californian Michael Largent used an automated script to open 58,000 such accounts, collecting many thousands of these small payments into a few personal bank accounts
DARPA wants to develop a dynamic putty-like material that can be packed around a shattered bone, support the body while the patient heals — and biodegrade, once it’s all over. If successful, this Fracture Putty
could rapidly restore a patient to ambulatory function while normal healing ensues, with dramatically reduced rehabilitation time and the elimination of infection and secondary fractures
, the agency notes
Cisco and the security community are debating the reality of rootkits attacking the Cisco’s Internetwork Operating System (IOS) after a researcher presented a proof of concept attack, which threatens Cisco routers and voice over IP phones
Researchers have discovered a new species of spider on Western Australia’s south coast. The group has also uncovered a population of an ancient arachnid known as the Assassin spider. The spiders were found at a number of sites along a 70 kilometre stretch of coastline near Albany. The Assassin spider is just five millimetres in length and, despite its name, is harmless to humans
A Singapore firm, VueStar has threatened to sue websites that use pictures or graphics to link to another page, claiming it owns the patent for a technology used by millions around the world. The company is also planning to take on giants like Microsoft and Google. It is a battle that could, at least in theory, upend the Internet. The firm has been sending out invoices to Singapore companies since last week asking them to pay up — via Slashdot
A giant squid has been found off Portland in Victoria’s south-west. The six-metre long, 230-kilogram squid was still alive when it was netted by commercial fishermen last night. Fisheries Victoria says the creature is being kept in a freezer and will be transferred to the Melbourne Museum. The museum is yet to confirm whether it will be used for scientific research or put on display
A $US1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit over YouTube’s ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the internet, owner Google said
Samsung Electronics has announced the world’s fastest, 2.5″, 256GB multi-level cell (MLC) based solid state drive (SSD) using a SATA II interface. The new Samsung 256GB SSD is also the thinnest drive with the largest capacity to be offered with a SATA II interface
StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karm??y. The The company is investing approximately 400 million NOK. Planned startup is autumn 2009
The MPAA won judgments totaling $4M against two sites which merely link to infringing content. They’re not arguing that it’s an infringement of their distribution right, like the RIAA has with their making available
argument. Instead, they got the sites for contributory copyright infringement
, just like RIAA vs LimeWire. To translate all that legalese into English, search engines which primarily index copyright-infringing material and the people who run them may not be safe in the US. That applies even if the sites in question do not host any infringing materials, participate in, or encourage the infringement done by their users — via Slashdot
Researchers at the University of Utah describe how the Lamprocyphus augustus’, an inch-long Brazilian beetle, iridescent green scales are composed of chitin arranged by evolution in precisely the molecular configuration that has confounded the would-be fabricators of optical computers. By using the scales as a semiconductor mold, researchers hope to finally build the perfect photonic crystal
RSS – Posts