PayPal, the payment service used by 20 million online shoppers in Britain, has given in to consumer demands to offer full refunds to buyers defrauded on eBay. Previously, anyone using PayPal to buy items such as a laptop or furniture risked losing hundreds of pounds on something that might not work or even arrive. Consumers who buy an item worth more than £150 using PayPal on eBay will now have protection
A computer is as good as a second pair of eyes for helping a radiologist spot breast cancer on a mammogram, one of the largest and most rigorous tests of computer-aided detection found. Like spell-checkers looking for mistakes, the computers flag suspicious areas on X-rays for a closer look by a radiologist. Mammograms are used to screen women for early signs of breast cancer but the tests aren’t perfect. In the US, the X-rays are read by a single radiologist and cancers are sometimes missed
UniverseToday has an interesting look at geomagnetic reversal, the process in which the Earth’s magnetic poles trade places. The article cites known trends and recent studies to debunk doomsday myths and unsubstantiated claims about the process. One such study is attempting to model the earth’s core with a 26-ton ball of molten metal. Another recently found evidence that the Earth has a second, weaker magnetic field. We do know that this magnetic pole flip-flop has occurred many times in the last few million years; the last occurred 780,000 years ago according to ferromagnetic sediment. A few scaremongering articles have said geomagnetic reversal occurs with ‘clockwork regularity’ — this is simply not true
— via Slashdot
Radiohead have joined FAC, which seeks to give artists greater control over their music. More than 60 artists, including Radiohead, Robbie Williams and the Kaiser Chiefs, have announced they have banded together to seek more rights over their music and break free of record labels
There are still places on the world where having anonymity might mean the difference between life and death. Covering one’s tracks is considered to be of such paramount importance that we are now witnessing the rise of a Linux distro catering to the most paranoid. The alpha-alpha
version of ParanoidLinux is now out. But is this the best way to protect oneself? Couldn’t it be easily circumvented? — via Slashdot
Does seeing through skin cells sound like crazy science fiction to you? Think again. Professor Leonid Yaroslavsky, a researcher from Tel Aviv University, Israel, thinks that humans have an ability to see through their skin. This discovery may lead to new therapies that could help the blind see
Weird Al has announced that with the Internet he can now release his songs for sale as he records each one rather than waiting for a whole album to be produced — via Slashdot
A new space race is officially under way, and this one should have the sci-fi geeks salivating. The project is a space elevator, and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility — maybe even within our lifetimes
We all know it and science has proved it — wires, string, and hair will inevitably tie themselves in knots. This astonishing non-revelation is one of 10 pieces of real research honoured this year with Ig Nobel Prizes. The spoof alternatives to the rather more sober Nobel prizes were presented in a ceremony at Harvard University. Other winners included studies that showed Coca Cola was an effective spermicide; and that fleas on dogs jump higher than fleas on cats
Since being released from prison eight years ago, Kevin Mitnick’s brushes with the law have consisted of a few parking tickets and a citation for driving without a front license plate — that is, until he returned from a trip to Colombia two weeks ago. After landing at the Atlanta airport for a security conference, Mitnick was detained for four hours for reasons still not fully explained. To make matters worse, while customs officials in Atlanta were busy inspecting his cell phone, laptop, and luggage, police in Bogota were ripping open a package he had mailed to his US address on suspicion that it contained cocaine
The federal Government says it may be flexible with mobile internet providers in its mandatory ISP filtering policy. The Australian Communications and Media Authority is planning to test internet filtering technology in a live environment after trials by the agency were deemed successful
One of the only Australian start-ups to present at the recent round of conferences in the US was Sydney-based spellr.us, which has launched a Web-based tool to check and monitor web sites for spelling mistakes. Founder Kevin Garber, who is also founder and general manager of spellr.us parent company Melon Media, told bootstrappr that the self-funded start-up grew from the need of some Melon’s customers wanting to keep their web sites free from typos
Toshiba has unveiled a battery prototype that offers a 90 percent charge capacity in just 10 minutes. The Super Charge Ion Battery is capable of handling 5,000 to 6,000 recharge cycles, compared to the typical 500 offered by standard lithium-ion batteries. The new battery is composed of a durable material that offers a high level of thermal stability and prevents overheating. In addition, the unit will not explode when crushed
A camera sold on eBay contained photos and confidential records of MI6 terror suspects. Photographs, fingerprints and confidential documents relating to suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists were allegedly found in the memory of the second-hand Nikon Coolpix camera, which was bought on the auction site for only £17. The confidential files were discovered after the buyer downloaded his holiday photos. He immediately reported the files to the police, who initially treated it as a joke
A collaborative effort by HP Labs and Rice University has produced a technique that could lower the cost of identifying dead zones
in large wireless networks. The technique enables Wi-Fi architects to test and refine their layouts before a network is deployed
The infamous Gpcode ransomware
virus that hit computers in July was the work of a single person who is known to the authorities. The individual is believed to be a Russian national, and has been in contact with at least one anti-malware company, Kaspersky Lab, in an attempt to sell a tool that could be used to decrypt victims’ files
Detective work by an Australian online poker player has uncovered a $US10 million cheating scandal at two major poker websites and triggered a $US75 million legal claim. In two separate cases, Michael Josem, from Chatswood, analysed detailed hand history data from Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and uncovered that certain player accounts won money at a rate too fast to be legitimate
A pair of alleged scammers who made millions from unsuspecting Internet users have been outed, resulting in the disappearance of all their scam sites. Matt and Jake Dylewski infamously ran fullreleases.com, which sold monthly subscriptions in exchange for standard search results from popular torrent sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay
The much-troubled Iridium, the part-Australian owned company that operates a fleet of 66 satellites delivering wireless mobile services across the world, is planning to send up a new satellite network. Hopefully they’ll provide a better service than the current one, which has its share of problems. To be fair, in Australia as elsewhere it does offer mobile phone services in remote areas no other service can reach, such as drilling rigs, deep sea fishing boats and surveying teams deep in the Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory
A glitch in Hutchison 3 Mobile’s internet service has left some of its mobile broadband customers in four major capitals struggling to use some of the most popular sites on the web. The problem began to emerge after the carrier started issuing customers with a new set of IP addresses about a week ago
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