Since the government has finally declassified the program, the people who worked at Area 51 can now talk about A-12 OXCART, a Wicked Secret program to build an test a Mach 3 spyplane at Nevada’s Groom Lake. You may know it as the forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird. The LA Times talks to survivors of the program — via Boing Boing
Google search results are now based on a best guess of the user’s location, using the IP address. Search users can also specify a default location for Google to use. The new Google location capability works on all computing devices and browsers, a change from previous smartphone technology that required Windows Mobile and Internet Explorer
Libraries and archives from around the world have come together in a project to share their collections of rare books, maps, films, manuscripts and recordings online for free. Almost four years in the making, the World Digital Library will launch on 21 April, functioning in seven languages — Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish — and including content in additional languages. A prototype of what will be on offer includes a voice recording of the 101-year-old grandson of an American slave, a 17th-century map of the world and 19th-century Brazilian photographs. The brainchild of James Billington, from the US’s Library of Congress, the project has been developed by Unesco and the Library of Congress, along with 32 other partners from around the world, including national libraries from Iraq, Egypt, Russia, Brazil, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Uganda. As well as documents and recordings, the digital archive will also feature videos from curators explaining why they are important and what they reveal about a culture, and the option to translate material into different languages. Users will be able to browse and search by place, time, topic and type of item, with material to also include musical scores, prints, photographs, architectural drawings and other significant cultural materials
Apple has followed through on its promise to remove all digital rights management (DRM) from music sold on the iTunes Store. The company also unveiled tiered pricing for individual songs and albums. All songs on the iTunes Store are now available at 256kbps AAC encoding, which Apple says is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings
Google launched an updated version of Gmail for iPhone and Android phones that takes advantage of some advanced features from their browsers. Gmail’s mobile site can now be used even when you’re offline thanks to iPhone’s offline storage and Android’s implementation of Gears. If the data network drops out on you, rest assured that Gmail won’t. You’ll still be able to open recently read messages and to compose over a flaky, or non-existent, network connection.
Some other enhancements: Gmail loads faster, there’s a floating toolbar that includes options like archiving or reporting spam and the interface is more consistent
The federal Government has terminated the tender process for its national broadband network project and will instead look to partners to build a $43 billion fibre to the home network. A new company, National Broadband Network Corporation, will be created to build the network. It will be jointly owned by the Government and the private sector, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. Mr Rudd said not one of the private bidders for the NBN’s request for proposals met the government’s requirements. None of the bids offered value for money,
Mr Rudd said. The panel noted the rapid deterioration of the global economy had a significant impact on the process
The board of Sun Microsystems was reportedly divided as it rejected a $7 billion purchase offer from IBM. Sun also reportedly terminated its agreement to negotiate exclusively with IBM, and IBM withdrew its offer. The action was reminiscent of Yahoo’s rejection of Microsoft, but Sun appears to have few suitors other than IBM
It could take up to eight weeks for Sydney’s electricity supply to return to normal after the latest blackout, EnergyAustralia said over the weekend. About 50,000 homes and businesses in the northern part of the Sydney CBD, parts of Surry Hills and the Eastern Suburbs lost power on Saturday after a transformer tripped at 10.28am (AEDT). It is the second time large sections of the city have suffered power outages within the past week, with the first occurring during the Monday afternoon peak-hour. About 20 key CBD building managers have been asked to reduce their air conditioning and other non-essential electricity use
The CSIRO‘s legal win against Hewlett Packard over the use of its patented wireless technology could mean big bucks for the Australian science agency, says a patent attorney. The four-year lawsuit was brought by the CSIRO over the use of its Wi-Fi technology, which has been widely used as industry standard in computer products by major international corporations. The CSIRO was granted patent for its IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products in 1996, but since has been used extensively, regardless. The companies have agreed on an undisclosed settlement amount and Davies Collision Cave patent attorney, Neil Shoot, says it is highly likely there will be a similar outcome in the other litigation cases the CSIRO is involved in
The dusty stacks of the nation’s great university and research libraries are full of orphans — books that the author and publisher have essentially abandoned. They are out of print, and while they remain under copyright, the rights holders are unknown or cannot be found. Now millions of orphan books may get a new legal guardian. Google has been scanning the pages of those books and others as part of its plan to bring a digital library and bookstore, unprecedented in scope, to computer screens across the United States. But a growing chorus is complaining that a far-reaching settlement of a suit brought against Google by publishers and authors is about to grant the company too much power over orphan works
For the first time, MIT researchers have shown they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery. The new virus-produced batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars, and they could also be used to power a range of personal electronic devices, said Angela Belcher, the MIT materials scientist who led the research team
A spate of burglaries in a Buckinghamshire village had already put residents on the alert for any suspicious vehicles. So when the Google Street View car trundled towards Broughton with a 360-degree camera on its roof, villagers sprang into action. Forming a human chain to stop it, they harangued the driver about the invasion of privacy
, adding that the images that Google planned to put online could be used by burglars. As police made their way to the stand-off, the Google car yielded to the villagers. For now, Broughton remains off the internet search engine’s mapping service
Australia’s competition watchdog tonight issued a strongly worded statement of concern that the proposed merger of mobile carriers Hutchison and Vodafone could lead to increased retail prices on mobile telephony and broadband services. In February the pair announced plans to merge in a joint venture dubbed VHA that would have around 6 million customers and combined revenues of approximately $4 billion for the 12 months ended 30 June 2008. The merger is subject to a shareholder vote and is the subject of a current ACCC inquiry
The Huffington Post said Sunday that it will bankroll a group of investigative journalists, directing them at first to look at stories about the nation’s economy. The popular Web site is collaborating with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors to launch the Huffington Post Investigative Fund with an initial budget of $1.75 million. That should be enough for 10 staff journalists who will primarily coordinate stories with freelancers, said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. Work that the journalists produce will be available for any publication or Web site to use at the same time it is posted on The Huffington Post
Yeast cells feeding on the glucose in human blood might one day power implants such as pacemakers. A living source of power that is able to regenerate itself would eliminate the need for regular operations to replace batteries. Now that prospect is a step nearer. A team at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has created tiny microbial fuel cells by encapsulating yeast cells in a flexible capsule. They went on to show the fuel cells can generate power from a drop of human blood plasma
Microsoft is to exit its Encarta encyclopedia business later this year after losing ground over the years to freely available reference material on the Internet on web sites like Wikipedia. Encarta websites worldwide, except Encarta Japan, would be discontinued on 31 October and Encarta Japan will cease after 31 December
An almost finished copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman has been leaked online a month before its cinema release. The high quality copy of the film has been uploaded to several file sharing and streaming video web sites. The movie is incomplete, with some special effects still in need of fine tuning and green screens and wires attached to actors still visible. The film is not due for release in the UK until 29 April and 1 May in the US
Someone has put the Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy up for auction on eBay. Item number 180342524797 is described as the big mouth of Broadband and Communications in Australia — The uneducated idiot that plans to filter all internet content at an ISP level for end users. The rightful owner will have full use of Mr Conroy — As you see fit. (Although It is recommended only bringing him out for sexual pleasure at parties.) He has failed the Australian Government as Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. The asking price is around $8?000, or best offer. but send me your thoughts, No reasonable offer refused. He will be delivered via FedEX Courier Service to your doorstep where you can do with him as you wish. More Images are available via email on request — Including Nooooodes. Signed, K Rudd
On April Fools’ Day, Google continued its spoofing tradition by having CADIE declare she rules the search site. Google used gobbledegook to explain CADIE and suggested it may keep the joke going. Along with CADIE, Google also added Auto Red-Eye
to pictures on Picassa, flipped videos on YouTube, and added to its China and Australia sites
Spam, that annoying but ignorable scourge of the Web, has finally recovered from the jolt it received last November, when Internet backbone providers cut off McColo Corporation, a California Web-hosting service that spammers were using to coordinate e-mail attacks. The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year — around 94 percent of all e-mail — according to the antispam company Postini, a division of Google
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