A recently-released roadmap for the next major Window release — Windows 7 — indicates that Microsoft is planning to release the new operating system in the second half of 2009, rather than the anticipated release date of some time in 2010. This quickly-approaching release date would seem to be at least partially verified by news of a milestone build available for review by an anonymous third party — via Slashdot
Apparently the RIAA is so busy suing consumers that they forgot to hire a decent programmer. With a simple SQL injection, all their propaganda has been successfully wiped from the site
Weather information from thousands of personal weather stations are being used for weather forecasting by several private and government agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) was created by a few amateur radio operators experimenting with transmitting weather data with packet radios, but it has expanded to include Internet-only weather stations as well — via Slashdot
Sources at Google have disclosed that the humble domain, research.google.com, will soon provide a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets. The storage will be free to scientists and access to the data will be free for all. The project, known as Palimpsest and previewed to the scientific community at the Science Foo camp at the Googleplex last August, missed its original launch date this week, but will debut soon
Proprietary protocols are things from yesterday. Today, Opensource technologies are taking over the world! AOL/ICQ has just launched a test server using XMPP, an open technology. This means that you’ll soon be able to talk to your ICQ/AIM contacts via Jabber. Google has already started using it
Bionic Contact Lens May Lead to Overlay Displays
A University of Washington researcher has developed a contact lens including circuitry and a matrix of LEDs. Although not yet a working prototype, this may be a foundation for terminator/robocop style overlay displays in which computer graphics could be superimposed on your normal vision. ‘Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across — via Slashdot
An ultra-resolution broadband link has been unveiled, paving the way for people on opposite sides of the earth to direct brain surgery, conduct climate change experiments or interpret human genome data in real time with high-definition precision. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the ultimate aim was to deliver the high-tech broadband links to Australian homes. The new technology, which is 250 times faster than a standard broadband connection, has the potential to transform the way Australia interacts with the world
Sun Microsystems has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL for $US1 billion, and said its fiscal second-quarter net income nearly doubled on boosted margins, according to preliminary results
The Library of Congress is making over 3,000 photos available on Flickr for public tagging. The idea of the pilot project is to invite people to add metadata to images that previously had little. The library is hoping that the metadata will add new context and meaning to the photos and make them more accessible to the public
Oracle said that it would acquire BEA Systems for $8.5 billion, just three months after BEA handily rejected its original unsolicited bid. The $19.38-a-share deal is 14 percent higher than Oracle’s original offer of $17, and spares both companies the sort of ordeal that accompanied Oracle’s hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft in 2003
After two months of downtime, it is still uncertain whether Demonoid will ever return. However, if it is up to The Pirate Bay, it will. The Pirate Bay has recently offered 2 servers to the Demonoid team, in Sweden of course
Japan’s Panasonic has created the world’s longest lasting alkaline battery, according to Guinness World Records. Panasonic promises its new Evolta battery cell — whose name is derived from evolution and voltage — will keep gadgets running 20 percent longer than offerings from rivals Duracell and Energizer, as well as its own upscale Oxyride batteries
PIPE Networks is to go ahead with its $200M plan for a new international link between Australia and Guam
Amazon offered free shipping in France, got sued for it by the French Booksellers’ Union, and lost. Now it’s choosing to pay €1,000 a day rather than follow the court’s order
Canadians can breathe a sigh of relief as the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal quashed a proposed levy on digital music players late last week. The proposed levies weren’t cheap: CA$5 on each Memory Stick or SD card between 1GB and 4GB of memory, and digital audio recorder
levies which top out at CA$75 for players with 30GB+ of space
Never one to settle for an open standard when the opportunity to push a proprietary alternative presents itself, Sony has announced that it will wade into the next-generation short-range interconnect wars with a proprietary new wireless spec called TransferJet
The One Laptop Per Child project is turning its attention to children in the United States. The XO laptop developed by the OLPC was conceived to boost educational efforts in developing nations. Now the OLPC has set up a US office and has begun talking to state governments about ways to get the laptop into the hands of the poorest American children. The organisation said it would formally launch its XO programme in America later in 2008
Contrary to earlier predictions, Duke University engineers have found that a three-dimensional sound cloak is possible, at least in theory. Such an acoustic veil would do for sound what the invisibility cloak
previously demonstrated by the research team does for microwaves — allowing sound waves to travel seamlessly around it and emerge on the other side without distortion
Last week, seven Swedish MPs wrote to a prominent Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen
to express their dissatisfaction with proposals for dealing with copyright infringers. Now, that number has increased to 13, and the issue seems to keep growing
The agency that governs educational technology in the United Kingdom has advised schools in the country to keep Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system and its Office 2007 software out of the classroom and administrative offices. Becta officials said a study the group commissioned found that upgrading school systems from Windows XP to Vista and Office 2007 would increase costs and create software compatibility problems while providing little benefit
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