You never know when the next breaking story might be right around the corner, but with ABC’s new Google Earth layer, you’ll get to see the news as it happens — whether it’s just around the corner, or in another corner of the globe. Today, ABC announced the launch of ABC Earth, integrating ABC content, including video, audio and text, as a layer in Google Earth. This trial launch will feature live stories (with updates every two hours), archived reports from around the world, profiles of Australian regional centres, and reports from the award-winning Foreign Correspondent
They set sail for the other side of the world in search of fortune and freedom. For the millions of free settlers, Australia was a country of hope and promise — a chance to escape class systems, poverty and overcrowding. This week, more than 150 years on, their stories will be available online for the first time, giving their descendants the chance to trace their journeys. The collection will allow people to search 8.9 million names of passengers and crew who arrived in New South Wales as free settlers between 1826 and 1922. It follows the launch of the records of 160,000 convicts on the site last year. Ancestry.com.au spokesman Brad Argent said about seven million Australians were related to early settlers, giving the average Aussie a one-in-three chance of having a free-settler ancestor
An explosion Saturday evening at a Texas-based, privately held server hosting provider has caused server outages effecting 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers. According to The Planet’s website, at about 5.00pm Saturday electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding their electrical equipment room. No injuries were reported and no servers were damaged or lost
You can look at almost anything on Google. Just don’t try to sneak a peek of the homes in the private community of North Oaks. The city of 4,500 residents has demanded that Google Maps remove images of North Oaks homes from the website’s Street View feature, where any Internet user can glimpse a home from the nearest road. North Oaks’ unique situation, in which the roads are privately owned by the residents and the city enforces a trespassing ordinance, may have made it the first city in the country to request that the online search engine remove images from Google Maps
Seagate will introduce its first solid-state drive (SSD) storage and 2TB hard drive next year. The company’s first SSD product will be targeted at enterprises that need speedy storage and can afford to pay a premium for the expensive drives. Seagate has no plans to release SSD drives for consumers, as the high prices could deter them for the next few years
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
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