European regulators have hit Microsoft with a $357.3 million fine, citing the software giant’s continued noncompliance with its landmark 2004 antitrust ruling
The British music industry has stepped up its campaign against illegal file-sharing, demanding that two ISPs suspend 59 accounts it believes are being used to swap copyrighted songs
Vodaphone has quietly disabled the DRM on the mobile episodes of 24 it sells; now those videos can be copied to iPods and PCs — via Boing Boing
Microsoft will no longer issue security updates or provide support for Windows 98 and Windows ME, which could lead users to trying alternative operating systems such as Linux. Especially with Microsoft’s plan to release software that turns older PCs into more modern and secure systems, but in the process also makes them less than full-fledged computers
Kyle MacDonald, the guy trying to trade a red paperclip for a house, has succeeded in his quest. His recently traded a KISS Snowglobe in exchange for one afternoon with Alice Cooper. He in turn traded the snowglobe to an enthusiastic snowglobe collector, for a role in a movie. Now, the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan in Canada, located about two hours east of Regina with a population of 1,100, has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie
Ricoh claims they have developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats — Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD — with one pickup and one objective lens. The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating. Based on disc information the drive can identify which format disk is loaded, Ricoh’s optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens
For the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, Hollywood implemented a complete copy protection scheme; almost everything has to be encrypted and authenticated. Despite the crypto-stuff in Advanced Access Content System and High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection, they left the backdoor wide open — they forgot about the PrintScreen button. Using this function you can create exact digital copies of a film picture-by-picture and reassemble them into a stream
Microsoft announced Wednesday the creation of the Open XML Translator project, so its Office suite will support the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard. The move comes in response to government requests for Microsoft products to be compatible with ODF, such as the national governments of Belgium and Denmark, and the state government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
A few Mac users are concerned about a feature in the latest update to Mac OS that directs their computers to check in with Apple Computer’s servers on a regular basis without the user’s knowledge or permission
Paris wants blanket wireless internet cover by the end of 2007, helping to make it the most connected capital city in the world. Under a new plan, the city hopes to set up 400 free Wi-Fi access points next year and allow internet service providers to install antennae on strategically-located public property
eBay has added Google Checkout to the list of payment options banned on eBay. A recent update to the Accepted Payments Policy includes Google Checkout: click on ‘Show’ next to ‘Some Examples’ to reveal the list
New landmines will soon communicate via a radio network, and move from place to place in order to be most effective. Termed the self-healing minefield, the individual mines are capable of detecting an enemy breach and then moving to seal the gap
The Queensland police force has begun using the first phase of a $35 million technology system that will grow into a one-stop access point for officers
Freedb, the free music database used by tons of CD ripping software, has been shut down due to a disagreement among its developers. One of its developers used a data dump from the original freedb.org and is providing the service at freedb2.org, though, and will be adding features and posting them at his site as they become available. Unfortunately, a database dump or source code for freedb2.org is yet nowhere to be found — via Slashdot
In an attempt to explain his reasons for voting against a Net Neutrality bill recently, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens delivered a jaw-dropping attempt to explain how the Internet works. Said Stevens: They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material
Microsoft has denied that WGA will kill pirated copies of Windows. According to Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft anti-piracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer.
Microsoft also says that WGA is a necessary part of its campaign to catch those illegally using Windows XP which leads one to think what WGA really does then — via Slashdot
Some Apple MacBook owners are plagued with what seems to be a defective trackpad button. The button, when pushed, seems squishy
and sometimes even unresponsive. While these MacBook owners are getting turned away at the Apple Genius Bars, they have come up with a custom and unique solution to the problem. A piece of paper, placed strategically under the battery pack where the trackpad is located, seems to fix this problem for most users — via Slashdot
Los Angeles, car capital of the country, is notorious for its epic police chases. OJ-style pursuits may make for exciting TV, but the fatality statistics are sobering: Police chases kill, on average, one Californian every week. Now the Virginia-based company StarChase has proposed a safer way to catch fast-moving crooks — shoot GPS homing devices like darts and stick them to the back of fleeing vehicles. Instead of a frantic pursuit, an officer eases off the chase and lets police headquarters track the suspect by computer. Police can then move in for a calmer arrest
Imagine being able to record any smell you encounter — fragrant or foul — so you can play it back later for others to experience. Engineers in Japan are building an odour recorder capable of doing just that. The device uses electronic noses to analyse an odour, then reproduces it by combining an array of non-toxic chemicals. The system has already recorded and reproduced the smell of orange, banana and melon — and can even distinguish red and green apples
Under the name Checkout, the venture offers an incorporated manner to search, advertise and pay. If you buy something on Checkout, 2% and $0.20 go to Google. Paypal, the biggest competitor uses 1.9% and $0.30. Analysts compare Google/Paypal to for example Visa/Mastercard living peacefully together, while others predict the end of Paypal — via Slashdot
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