Postage costs on eBay sometimes beggar belief (and lead to the suspicion that vendors are trying to use postage to bolster their own profits). In that context, a new move by eBay to restrict the amount of flat-rate postage that can be charged in some categories is welcome news for buyers, though it might not do much to please sellers who’ve already had a messy 2008 when it comes to eBay policy. The limits, which will come into effect from early November, apply to CDs ($5), DVDs ($8) and books ($6). Those are still somewhat higher than the likely standard postage costs in many cases, but at least the new policy sets a ceiling
Gordon Brown last night abandoned his parliamentary battle to allow police to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days, after the Lords overwhelmingly rejected the proposal by 191 votes. In an emergency statement to MPs tonight, Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, said that the counter-terrorism bill would continue its journey through parliament without the 42 day measure
AC/DC will release its new album Black Ice
worldwide on 20 October, in physical format only since the band doesn’t sell its music online. However, the upcoming album has already been digitised by pirates, as it leaked to BitTorrent five days ago. In that time it has taken the trackers by storm, racking up a staggering 400,000 downloads
It started with a Harvard physicist acting on a hunch. It ended up producing a new material, called black silicon, that could have a broad impact on technologies ranging from ultrasensitive sensors to photovoltaic cells. Black silicon was discovered because Dr Mazur started thinking outside the boundaries of the research he was doing in the late 1990s. His research group had been financed by the Army Research Organisation to explore catalytic reactions on metallic surfaces
Perfect secrecy has come a step closer with the launch of the world’s first computer network protected by unbreakable quantum encryption at a scientific conference in Vienna. The network connects six locations across Vienna and in the nearby town of St Poelten, using 200 km of standard commercial fibre optic cables. Quantum cryptography is completely different from the kinds of security schemes used on computer networks today. These are typically based on complex mathematical procedures which are extremely hard for outsiders to crack but not impossible given sufficient computing resources or time. But quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which have been shown to be inherently unbreakable
If you pay any attention to the endless debates over intellectual property policy in the United States, you’ll hear two numbers invoked over and over again, like the stuttering chorus of some Philip Glass opera: 750,000 and $200 to $250 billion. The first is the number of US jobs supposedly lost to intellectual property theft; the second is the annual dollar cost of IP infringement to the US economy. These statistics are brandished like a talisman each time Congress is asked to step up enforcement to protect the ever-beleaguered U.S. content industry. And both, as far as an extended investigation by Ars Technica has been able to determine, are utterly bogus
Vodafone Australia’s $500 million 3G network upgrade has been delayed after the company’s equipment supplier, Ericsson, called for more time to finish the build. The carrier had set a self-imposed deadline of Christmas to complete the work
Instant Access Networks (IAN) has developed a patent-pending shielding technology that encloses a room or similar structure and protects it from EMP events. IAN’s shielding, which includes electrically isolated layers of steel and aluminium, is up to 70 percent lighter than materials traditionally used by the military and other sources for EMP protection. This enables EMP-safe rooms to be portable. IAN’s shielded rooms can protect mission-critical fibre optic network nodes and data or communication centres. They can also house generators, which, when several are connected, create a micro power grid, or microgrid, that can provide power to a campus or entire communities
Scientists at the University of Dayton have created a peel-on, peel-off glue which mimics the wall-climbing abilities of Spiderman. The substance, based on the feet of the Gecko lizard, is three times stickier than existing adhesives. The material is so strong that a 4?4mm pad would be enough to hold a 1.5kg object such as a hardback book. However, it’s likely too expensive for consumer use: one British scientist calculates that a single Post-it note using the glue would cost around a thousand dollars
A computer drive with the private details of a huge proportion of Armed Forces personnel is missing. The portable drive contains the names, addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and driving licence details of around 100,000 serving personnel across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF, plus their next-of-kin details. It also has data on 600,000 potential services applicants and the names of their referees
The World Bank Group’s computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year. It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution’s highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank’s network for nearly a month in June and July
Google is adding RSS to search result pages allows you to plug the feed into a newsreader and get notified of new listings automatically. The update to search results pages should happen soon
according to a Google spokesperson
Google is adding click-to-buy links to its YouTube video-sharing site. The new feature will let customers purchase songs and video games they like while watching videos on the site
Solyndra has developed a novel type of solar panel that’s cheaper to install and produces more power than conventional panels. Unlike conventional solar panels, which are made of flat solar cells, the new panels comprise rows of cylindrical solar cells made of a thin film of semiconductor material. The material is made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. The new shape allows the system to absorb more light over the course of a day than conventional solar panels do, and therefore generate more power. What’s more, arrays of these tubes offer less wind resistance than conventional flat solar panels, which makes them easier and cheaper to mount on roofs
An ambitious project is under way in Wales to build one of the most advanced and secure data centres in Europe. Next Generation Data (NGD) is investing £200 million (US$346 million) to modify a 750,000 square-foot (69,677 square meters) factory built by LG more than a decade ago near Newport, Wales, intended for fabricating microchips but abandoned after the Asian financial crisis
Australia and its immediate neighbours are home to a third of the world’s languages, most of which could disappear without trace. A national archive project is capturing what it can, and making the resource available online to researchers and regional cultural centres. The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) project has been recognised with the Victorian eResearch Strategic Initiative (VeRSI) Award in humanities and social sciences. The project team will receive a server worth over $26,000 thanks to the prize’s sponsor, Dell
Vodafone Australia is planning an aggressive expansion into regional centres despite the global financial crisis and expects to exceed Telstra’s footprint. The plans would give Vodafone a retail presence of more than 400 stores, about 100 more than Telstra. Vodafone intends to bolster its chain of dealer stores run by owner-operators instead of franchisees
Want to buy enough information about a stranger’s credit card to steal their money? All it takes is one email and a transfer of funds through Western Union. The Herald found it was remarkably easy to unearth the online locations where hackers conduct a global trade in stolen credit card information. If you want the data from a standard Australian credit card, it will cost you just $US1.50 ($1.80). Rather rob from a gold card holder? That’ll be $2.50, thanks
eBay will lay off about 10 per cent of its workforce, the company announced Monday in the US, and said third-quarter results will come in at the low end of expectations. The company also announced plans to acquire online payments business Bill Me Later for US$820 million in cash and approximately US$125 million in outstanding options, as well as Danish classifieds specialist Den Bla Avis and vehicle site BilBasen for approximately US$390 million in cash
A research group in Canada has discovered that Skype and its partner in China TOM Online have been spying on its users, eavesdropping on chat sessions and deploying software that searches for keywords. The revelations, in a report written by Nart Villeneuve at the Citizen Lab unit of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, have horrified Skype users and could result in a user backlash against the service
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