Long lost file formats could soon be resurrected by pan-European research. The 4.02m euro (£3.58m) project aims to create a universal emulator that can open and play obsolete file formats. Using the emulator, researchers hope to ensure that digital materials such as games, websites and multimedia documents are not lost for good. The emulator will also be regularly updated to ensure that formats that fall out of favour remain supported in the near and far future. Called Keeping Emulation Environments Portable (Keep), the project aims to create software that can recognise, play and open all types of computer file from the 1970s onwards. As well as basic text documents it will also let people load up and play old computer games that technology has left behind
Federal regulators tweaked recommendations for how web sites should collect, save and share information about users, extending them to internet service providers and mobile users. The US Federal Trade Commission issued new guidance for the self-regulated industry that urges web sites to tell consumers that data is being collected during their searches and to allow them to opt out. This guidance recommends that mobile companies and internet service providers also inform customers about data collection and allow users to decline
IBM has filed a patent (US 7484451) for Bionic Body Armour, that could essentially allow us to dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix. The armour would scan areas for incoming projectiles and when one is detected the system would deliver a shock to the muscles causing a swift reflexive action away from the projectile
Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking
Researchers from Australia, Denmark, and China have combined efforts to show the feasibility of terabit-per-second Ethernet over fiber-optic cables. The solution involves a photonic chip that uses laser light for switching signals, and a form of the exotic material type, chalcogenide, or arsenic trisulfide — via Slashdot
At least on the surface, most in the mainstream music industry agree: illicit file-sharing is evil. However, when you aren’t getting paid to have a certain opinion, things can change. No longer taking a salary from his former company, Ex-IFPI chairman and EMI director Per Eirik Johansen speaks freely
Photovoltaics, which convert sunlight into electricity, have long been touted as one of the most promising solutions to our energy needs. Unfortunately, today’s devices reflect a lot of solar energy as heat, which means that solar power is currently not as cheap as other forms of energy. Now, however, researchers in the Netherlands have developed an anti-reflective coating based on the nanostructure of a moth’s eyes, which could reduce the reflection from photovoltaic cells and thereby make them more efficient
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy this afternoon announced the names of six ISPs that will participate in the Federal Government’s internet filter trial — but the nation’s largest ISPs are not on the list. Primus Telecommunications, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1 are set to take part in the six week live
ISP filtering tests
The Victorian Government’s refusal to provide data for Google’s bushfire map mashup limited its scope and highlighted glaring problems with Crown copyright provisions, the search giant’s top Australian engineer said yesterday
The first phase of the federal government’s ISP filtering trial has been confirmed with an initial rollout to six participating ISPs
Google is making the process of getting your address book and calendar to your new device a little easier by releasing a beta version of Google Sync for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones as well as a contacts-only version for phones that support SyncML
Mozilla is planning to include simple-text commands and desktop web apps in the next version of Firefox. Firefox 3.2 will see the company build the Mozilla Labs project, Ubiquity, into the browser. Ubiquity allows users to type natural language phrases into the browser to perform certain tasks, such as typing map 10 Downing Street
to instantly see a Google map of that address, or share-on-delicious
to bookmark the site you’re currently visiting on the social news site
The battle between Perth ISP iiNet and a coalition of film studios and distributors fighting copyright theft began in the Federal Court on Friday in a case that will focus new attention on the role of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks
Tough economic times have triggered an upheaval in Australia’s $13 billion a year mobile sector with its number three and four players Vodafone Australia and Hutchison 3
forced into merger. The unexpected move will see hundreds of jobs cut as the two companies streamline their combined $4 billion a year businesses and take aim at SingTel Optus’s number two market position
It’s no secret that red light cameras are often used to generate more ticket revenue for the cities that implement them, but a scam has been uncovered in Italy that has led to one arrest and 108 investigations over traffic systems being rigged to stop sooner for the sole purpose of ticketing more motorists
After several false starts, the first Google-powered mobile phone — HTC’s Dream — will go on sale in Australia on Optus post-paid plans from the middle of this month. But the Dream, sold overseas as the G1, could be rendered obsolete before it even arrives as a US telco executive has said a successor would be launched overseas in the coming weeks and months
Consumer electronics manufacturers, usually quick to adopt standards that make their devices interoperable, have balked at switching to a universal power supply. Green Plug, a startup that makes components for a USB-based single power source system, drew a favourable response from readers when the Standard wrote about the technology last summer. But gadget makers seem to have no compelling financial incentive to adopt Green Plug’s technology. It would require them to add Green Plug’s chip, or similar hardware and software, into every phone, camera, or music player they build, making them more expensive and more complicated to build
Google Book Search has been ported to the mobile world for Apple’s iPhone and Google Android-powered devices. Mobile users will be able to access public-domain books formatted for the iPhone and Android-powered devices. An analyst said the trend boosts mobile devices, although the Google content can only be read online
Steve Wozniak, a cofounder of Apple, is joining solid-state storage company Fuzion-io as chief scientist. The Woz developed Apple’s first computers and founded Apple with CEO Steve Jobs. He called Fusion-io’s products extremely useful
. Fuzion-io focuses on performance storage and its products include the ioDrive
2009 will force New Zealand’s ISPs to come to grips with an amended Copyright Act, which includes a provision forcing them to disconnect customers who have allegedly infringed copyright
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