Another week day, another Google acquisition. This time, Google bought DocVerse, a company founded by two former Microsoft employees which built a plug-in for Microsoft Office that lets you collaborate with other people in real-time
In Seattle, IE6
was a trending topic on Twitter thanks to a CNN story on Aten Design Group’s funeral for Internet Explorer 6. The tongue-in-cheek memorial is happening this evening in Denver. Those mourning the antiquated Web browser, but unable to attend, were asked to send flowers. So, guess who sent flowers. Microsoft
A new type of solder can be melted and shaped in three dimensions under the force of a weak magnetic field. Using a magnet to pull the solder up through narrow holes makes it possible to create electrical connections between stacked silicon chips, for example. These three-dimensional chips pack more computing power in a given area, but making connections between them is expensive, a problem that the new solder might address. The solder also contains no lead, and it is stronger than other lead-free solders
Google is developing a system that will enable web publishers of any size to automatically submit new content to Google for indexing within seconds of that content being published
The leader of a UK-based gang who made millions selling counterfeit luxury golf kit and other knock-off goods through auction site eBay has been jailed for four years. Gary Bellchambers and six others ran what is reckoned to be the biggest ever such scam between June 2003 and March 2008. Their fraud was eventually rumbled by a trading standards team at Havering Council, who were put on the trail of the fraudsters by pensioner Christine Manz
The Internet Industry Association (IIA) will press ahead with its new internet service provider security code, with plans to launch a quarantine
proposal for infected computers by around June this year
This is freaky future stuff, where you’re the interface. That’s where electronics are heading, apparently. Researchers have developed a way for people to use their own skin as a keypad or pull down menu to control MP3 devices, make phone calls or play games. It’s called Skinput, and here’s how it works: The user wears an armband, which contains a very small projector that projects a menu or keypad onto a person’s hand or forearm. The armband also contains an acoustic sensor. Why? Because when you tap different parts of your body, it makes unique sounds based on the area’s bone density, soft tissue, joints and other factors. The software in Skinput is able to analyse the sound frequencies picked up by the acoustic sensor and then determine which button the user has just tapped
Some Southern California cities fine residents for watering their lawns too much during droughts. But in Orange, officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for removing their lawn in an attempt to save water
Edmunds Auto has announced that it will be offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can find the cause of unintended acceleration. As Wikipedia notes, this is a problem that has plagued not only Toyota, but also Audi and other manufacturers. Consumer Reports has some suggestions all automakers can implement to solve this problem, including requiring brakes to be strong enough to stop the car even when the accelerator is floored — via Slashdot
After making the totality of public tweets available to search giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, Twitter is now cutting similar deals with smaller players. The partnerships generate revenue for Twitter, which also stands to benefit from new tools that could help users and companies manage the torrent of Twitter messages posted every day. Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup, CrowdEye and Chainn Search all have licensed the Twitter firehose
of tweets, moves that Twitter expects will lead to a rush of innovation
in the area of real-time search and discovery
Spanish police have arrested three men accused of masterminding one of the biggest computer crimes to date — infecting more than 13 million PCs with a virus that stole credit card numbers and other data. The men were suspected of running the Mariposa botnet, named after the Spanish word for butterfly
Following a DMCA takedown request from Fox regarding an Avatar torrent, Google has removed the BTJunkie homepage from its search results. A few months ago Google erroneously banned The Pirate Bay homepage for which it later apologized. Whether or not the BTJunkie ban is also a mistake is unclear
When state health officials were sued last year for storing infant blood samples without parental consent, they said it was for medical research into birth defects, childhood cancer and environmental toxins. They never said they were turning over hundreds of dried blood samples to the federal government to help build a vast DNA database — a forensics tool designed to identify missing persons and crack cold cases
The web developer whose code was modified to remove references to internet filtering on a government website has asked for it to be taken down. Aleks Bochniak is the original author of a script on Senator Conroy’s official website that was modified to remove mention of the words ISP Filtering
A new photovoltaic material performs as well as the one found in today’s best solar cells, but promises to be significantly cheaper. The material, created by researchers at Caltech, consists of a flexible array of light-absorbing silicon microwires and light-reflecting metal nanoparticles embedded in a polymer. Computational models suggest that the material could be used to make solar cells that would convert 15 to 20 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity — on par with existing high-performance silicon cells. But the material would require just 1 percent of the materials used today, potentially leading to a dramatic decrease in costs
A Cold War-era nuclear bunker in Britain has been put up for sale on online auction site eBay, and by Monday bidders had pushed the price up to £19,300 (€21,500, US$29,000). A rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Cold War history,
read the sale advert on the web site. Set in a stunning location with glorious views. Your own nuclear bunker within a plot of land and much original equipment.
After being advertised at a starting price of £500 late Thursday, a bidding war saw the price of the underground shelter rocket. Early Monday the price stood at £19,300 after 39 bids
Online news has become more popular than reading newspapers in the US, according to a survey. It is the third most popular form of news, behind local and national TV stations, the Pew Research Centre said
A colossal red granite head of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs has been unearthed in the southern city of Luxor, officials said. The 3,000-year-old head of Amenhotep III — grandfather of Tutankhamun — was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple. Experts say it is the best preserved example of the king’s face ever found
Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then, the routine of life in the Prohibition era. The bootlegged whiskies and so-called gins often made people sick. The liquor produced in hidden stills frequently came tainted with metals and other impurities. But this outbreak was bizarrely different. The deaths, as investigators would shortly realise, came courtesy of the US government
A classified review of the United States Secret Service’s computer technology found that the agency’s computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s
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