Three major US internet provides have agreed to block access to web sites and online discussion groups featuring child pornography. The pervasiveness of child pornography on the internet is horrific and it needs to be stopped,
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on the agreement with Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable
Apple has unveiled a next-generation iPhone with faster internet access that will run on advanced wireless networks and sell for as low as US$199 — half the current entry-level price
Scientists unveiled the world’s fastest supercomputer on Monday, a $100 million machine that for the first time has performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a sustained exercise
The encyclopaedia Britannica web site is rolling out a new system allowing readers to potentially contribute to articles. Britannica has long been a vocal critic of Wikipedia’s user-generated content, and has repeatedly attacked the accuracy of its articles. Unsurprisingly then, it is keen to stress that its new web site will not be following the Wiki-model, describing it as a collaborative process but not a democratic one
. Indeed, under the new Britannica scheme those who wish to contribute will need to create a profile outlining their qualifications and expertise in the area they are commentating on. They will then be able to add comments to encyclopaedia entries, or write their own. This content will then be reviewed by the expert editors of the site, and if any of it is deemed worthy of inclusion, added to the main article with a credit
In a first, Google is opening up its testing process by calling on tens of millions of Gmail users to put new features of the service through their paces. Gmail Labs has launched 13 settings for users to play around with and tell engineers directly what they think of them
Comcast may have agreed to end its practice of using forged TCP reset packets to hinder the P2P traffic of its customers, but the cable provider isn’t out of the woods yet. Three class-action lawsuits were filed against Comcast this week in California, Illinois, and New Jersey, alleging that the company deceived and misled consumers by advertising that it offered unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer
Windows XP SP3 has been named as the culprit causing home routers to go into a crash and reboot cycle. One router maker has released firmware updates to fix the problem, but has not yet revealed what is actually different about XP SP3’s networking stack or UPnP behaviour that causes the problem. Router maker Billion Managing Director Raaj Menon said as Microsoft plans to make Windows XP SP3 an automatic upgrade this month, the number of affected routers may increase significantly
— via Slashdot
An animal welfare group charges that eBay sales of ivory are brisker than ever a year after the online marketplace promised to restrict the sale of products made from animal teeth and tusks — many of which come from endangered species. The International Fund for Animal Welfare is urging eBay to ban — not simply restrict — all such sales on its web market
Google has moved to convert its popular Gmail application from a proprietary service into a platform that developers can extend. Its launch of Gmail Labs provides a way to write and deploy modules
Intel has unveiled a new processor it says will change the information technology industry by powering small laptops at low cost. A version of the Atom can be used in mobile devices — iPhone-like tablets that provide a fuller internet experience than mobile phones do
Amazon.com was inaccessible to many US visitors for more than an hour and a half Friday. The site went offline completely by 10.21am PDT, but efforts to restore the site appeared to be taking effect about noon, said Keynote Systems, which monitors Web site responsiveness. As of 12.45pm, the site was working intermittently, with many product pages functioning but others still broken
Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered serious flaws in the way that the copyright cartel’s enforcers detect and complain about copyright infringement. The methods used by these enforcers are so sloppy that they sent a DMCA takedown notice to three campus laser-printers, alleging that the inanimate objects were downloading Iron Man and Indiana Jones. And yet these companies expect universities to take their notices seriously and spend their operating capital chasing down every wild accusation they make — via Boing Boing
Kaspersky Lab found a new variant of Gpcode which encrypts files with various extensions using an RSA encryption algorithm with a 1024-bit key. After Gpcode.ak encrypts files on the victim machine, it changes the extension of these files to ._CRYPT and places a text file named !_READ_ME_!.txt in the same folder. In the text file the criminal tells the victims that the file has been encrypted and offers to sell them a decryptor. Is this a look into the future where the majority of malware will function based on extortion? — via Slashdot
Customers of an Australian recruitment firm have been targeted with resumes booby-trapped with a backdoor trojan. Hackers are exploiting an email-forwarding feature offered by many recruitment firms, which automatically sends relevant resumes to customers when a new applicant uploads their CV to the recruitment firm’s web site
Google signed a US$146 million contract with US space agency NASA on Wednesday to lease 42.2 acres of open field at NASA Ames facility in Mountain View California to build a new facility. The 40-year agreement means Google will lease close to its own headquarters in Mountain View. By the end of 2013, Google said it will start construction on 1.2 million square feet of offices for research and development, in an effort to accommodate its growing staff of approximately 20,000. NASA Ames will oversee construction
eBay says PayPal’s security features are second to none but its own subsidiary, Skype, allows customers to use a slew of payment schemes in Australia. Skype Australia has ruled out a PayPal-only model and is determined not to follow in its parent company’s footsteps
Microsoft is boldly going where the company has never gone before — and no, it’s not an operating system that won’t crash, but rather into space. WorldWide Telescope is like Google Earth for the universe
Seven universities in Australia and New Zealand will make a great leap into online lecturing today when American computer giant Apple launches a local iTunes U education site. The participants that will offer their teaching and research free for download on iPods are Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of NSW, the University of Western Australia and Otago University
Google has announced that Google Finance will report real-time prices on NASDAQ-listed securities. While real-time stock quotes are not new, they have long encumbered with subscriptions, legal agreements, or pay software. This may be the first free source for real-time quotes — via Slashdot
Apple has completed the construction of its big Sydney retail store, with the doors to open to the public in just over a fortnight. Located on the corner of George and King streets, the store would be handed over to Apple by the construction company at the end of the week
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