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
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
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
Nokia has been on an acquisition tear lately, albeit mostly small deals (Plum, Cellity and Bit-Side all this year). A source close to the deal says that they’ve just made one more acquisition: boutique travel social network Dopplr, headquartered in London
Data centres in Sydney and Brisbane have shut off external ventilation systems, restricted loading dock access and attended false alarms after a major dust storm choked the cities today. Macquarie Telecom, Equinix, ac3, manageNET and AAPT outlined a number of preventative measures taken in their respective data centres to prevent dust ingress. At least two major firms — Optus and CBA — confirmed false alarms had been set off in Sydney facilities due to high winds and dust particles in the air. But all reported they had come out largely unscathed from the storm, one of the worst on record
Web pages have long included anchor links, which, when clicked, send you to a specific section of the page. Wikipedia uses them heavily to help users jump between headings and navigate the sometimes large articles more efficiently. Google has announced that it is now including these anchor links in search results. This is right in line with Google’s mission of helping users to find the information that they are looking for as quickly and accurately as possible
Delays of more than two weeks have prompted irate buyers on eBay, and other sites such as Amazon, to start payment disputes, sparking financial disruption. eBay sellers are worried they may suffer negative feedback from customers as buyers with goods caught up in the postal strike launch pre-emptive dispute
claims in a bid to avoid being out of pocket. Many users of the online auction house have been left empty-handed as the Royal Mail union snarl-up over job cuts and pay causes huge disruption at sorting offices across the country
They aren’t selling personal supercomputers at Best Buy just yet. But that day probably isn’t too far off, as costs continue to fall and supercomputers become easier to use. Silicon Graphics International on Monday released its first so-called personal supercomputer. The new Octane III system is priced from $7,995 with one Xeon 5500 processor. The system can be expanded to an 80-core system with a capacity of up to 960GB of memory
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