Technology

While the communications networks that aid groups set up quickly following the earthquake in Haiti were surely critical to rescue efforts, the new networks have had some negative effects on the local ISP community. Now, more than a month after the earthquake devastated the island nation, local ISPs (Internet service providers) in Haiti are starting to grumble about being left out of business opportunities and about how some of the temporary equipment — using spectrum without proper authorization — is interfering with their own expensive networks, causing a degradation of their services

In the continuing saga of the Interzone debacle, Interzone employees have just released footage of a former Interzone manager attempting to unlawfully retrieve IP from the Perth game studio containing the Interzone Futebol content and assets that the employees had worked on, the previous 18 months of which were completed without payment. Last week, Mike Turner flew in from the US with the aim of obtaining the Interzone Futebol content and bringing it back home. He attempted to sneak into the offices at night expecting little to no confrontation, however, it seems he was caught red handed by staff

ebay urged European regulators to drop a requirement for Internet retailers to have bricks-and-mortar shops, warning it would hurt small firms, keep prices high and stifle e-commerce. According to a draft regulation drawn up by the European Commission and seen by Reuters, suppliers may be allowed to require that distributors have a brick-and-mortar shop before they can sell online. The proposed rules would replace existing guidelines exempting companies from strict EU competition rules under certain circumstances. Those rules expire at the end of May

Google has received federal approval to buy and sell energy on the open market, giving it more options for the way it powers its data centres and opening the door to a potential move into the energy-trading business. Google applied for the authorization last December through a wholly owned subsidiary called Google Energy. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved its application Thursday, granting Google market-based rate authorisation, or the authority to buy and sell energy on a wholesale basis

The City of Norfolk, Virginia is reeling from a massive computer meltdown in which an unidentified family of malicious code destroyed data on nearly 800 computers citywide. The incident is still under investigation, but city officials say the attack may have been the result of a computer time bomb planted in advance by an insider or employee and designed to trigger at a specific date