Cisco Systems continued to show just how serious it was about videoconferencing, announcing the $3 billion acquisition of Tandberg, a Norwegian video communications company
The drug metformin, a mainstay of diabetes care for 15 years, may have a new life as a cancer treatment. In a study in mice, low doses of the drug, combined with a widely used chemotherapy called doxorubicin, shrank breast-cancer tumours and prevented their recurrence more effectively than chemotherapy alone
Google has added a few new filters to the search options panel it introduced last May, emphasizing speed and continuity on its search results pages
The High Court has given permission for an injunction to be served via social-networking site Twitter. The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger. The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney’s Blarney. The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr Blaney
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has begun to offer free Wi-Fi wireless internet access in over 100 locations across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, in an act of generosity to last the next few months. Customers in 46 Melbourne, 46 Sydney and 10 Brisbane cafes will receive free Wi-Fi from the bank for the month of October
A judge Tuesday heard arguments in a dispute over software sales that could potentially have repercussions on the secondhand sale of virtually any copyright material. The suit was filed by Timothy Vernor, a seller on eBay, after Autodesk, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, asked eBay to remove some of its software products that Vernor had listed for sale there, and later to ban him from the site. Vernor had not illegally copied the software but was selling legitimate CDs of the products secondhand. For that reason, he argued, he was not infringing Autodesk’s copyright
The US government has ended its 11-year contract with the nonprofit body, ICANN, that oversees key aspects of the Internet’s architecture, after demands from other countries for more say in how the Web works. The move addresses mounting criticism in recent years that no one country should have sole control over important underpinnings of the Internet, such as determining domain name suffixes like .com
An Australian inventor, who was set to reap the lion’s share of a mammoth $US388 million ($445 million) damages award from Microsoft, is now set to get nothing after the US judge hearing the case decided to ignore the jury’s decision and hand victory to Microsoft. Ric Richardson, who divides his time between Northern Rivers in NSW and California, is the founder of Uniloc, which sued Microsoft in 2003 for violating its patent relating to technology designed to deter software piracy. The company alleged Microsoft earned billions of dollars by using the technology in its Windows XP and Office programs
The Pirate Party, which champions issues such as intellectual property rights, free speech and data privacy, is on its way to becoming an official party in Australia. The party is gathering followers with the hope of achieving the 500 exclusive members needed to achieve official registered party status in the eyes of the Australian Electoral Commission
Bletchley Park, the wartime intelligence centre, has achieved a breakthrough which could mean that its historic wooden huts are saved from going to rot. There is now a high chance that the Enigma machines, which cracked the codes used by the Nazi high command, will be able to go back into the hut where they were first housed. The trust that runs the site has been awarded a grant by the National Lottery which is the first step towards a much larger award, totalling more than £4m
Scientists at the University of Utah have developed an adhesive with many possible medical uses, including repairing bone fractures, based on a glue produced by the sandcastle worm. The announcement was made at the August meeting of the American Chemical Society. The worm creates a complex water-based mortar to create a home from grains of sand and bits of shell. The adhesive can stick to wet surfaces and doesn’t dissolve at certain pH levels, making it ideal for medical applications. Once it has done its job, it can become water-soluble and dissolve
In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defence modeled after one of nature’s hardiest creatures — the ant. Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these digital ants
wander through computer networks looking for threats, such as computer worms
— self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorised use of machines. When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn’t take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate. The concept, called swarm intelligence, promises to transform cyber security because it adapts readily to changing threats
Alcatel-Lucent has said that scientists at Bell Labs have set an optical transmission record that could deliver data about 10 times faster than current undersea cables, resulting in speeds of more than 100 Petabits per second.kilometer. A petawhat? This translates to the equivalent of about 100 million Gigabits per second.kilometer or sending about 400 DVDs per second over 7,000 kilometers, roughly the distance between Paris and Chicago
Xerox has announced an agreement to acquire business process outsourcing firm Affiliated Computer Services. The $6.4 billion cash and stock deal is expected to close in the first quarter next year
Chimpanzees ambushing and eating colobus monkeys, great white sharks leaping clean out of the ocean to catch their prey and the first footage of an entire snow leopard hunt are just some of the wonders of nature made available by the BBC as it opens up its vast archive of wildlife footage online today. Over 500 video clips have been made available to view on the BBC’s web site, along with audio and an introduction from Sir David Attenborough
The good news is that Illinois is no longer the most heavily spammed state in the country. According to a report released this week by a unit of anti-virus software maker Symantec, the Land of Lincoln dropped to No 5 from last year’s top ranking. The bad news is that Illinois residents are still receiving a huge amount of unwanted e-mails pitching prescription drugs, prospective suitors and international finance schemes. And most states are getting more spam than ever
In a highly unusual move, a federal judge has ordered Google to deactivate the email account of a user who was mistakenly sent confidential financial information by a bank. The order also requires Google to disclose the Gmail account holder’s identity and contact information. The Gmail user hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing. The ruling stems from a monumental error by the Rocky Mountain Bank, which mistakenly sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address. When the bank realised the problem, it sent a message to that same address asking the recipient to contact the bank and destroy the file without opening it. No one responded, so the bank contacted Google to ask for information about the account holder
A lack of sleep could help toxic plaques develop in the brain, accelerating the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. David Holtzman looked at how sleep affected the levels of beta-amyloid protein in mice and humans. This protein causes plaques to build up in the brain, which some think cause Alzheimer’s disease by killing cells. Holtzman’s group found that beta-amyloid levels were higher in mouse brains when the mice were awake than when they were sleeping. Lack of sleep also had an effect on plaque levels: when the mice were sleep-deprived — forced to stay awake for 20 hours of the day — they developed more plaques in their brains
The Finks Motorcycle Club has struck a major blow against new laws in South Australia aimed at targeting organised crime. The laws allow for control orders against recognised members of motorcycle clubs, to prevent them from associating with each another. The Supreme Court has ruled in a majority decision that part of the legislation governing control orders is invalid
Social networking web site Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a significant round of funding
. Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms. However, he did not confirm earlier reports that suggested the firm had managed to secure $100 million (£62m), which would value the firm at $1bn
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