Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, had his web site hijacked. Stanhope was the brave soul who recently posted the Government’s draft, but draconian, anti-terrorism legislation on his web site — via journoz
A worm found spreading via AIM is carrying a nastier punch than usual. The unnamed worm delivers a cocktail of unwanted software, including a so-called rootkit. A rootkit is a tool designed to go undetected by the security software used to lock down control of a computer after an initial hack
Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, a demonstration of its affinity for open source initiatives and one the company believes also shows sound practical sense. Google believes it can help OpenOffice — perhaps working to pare down the software’s memory requirements or its mammoth 80MB download size
After more than a year in development, two Sydney-based developers have launched their online solution to the paper-based to-do list using advanced web development techniques. Dubbed Remember the Milk, it lets users create and manage tasks on the web, and even share lists with others. In addition, it’s possible to send reminders via SMS, e-mail or instant message, and view the lists themselves via RSS
Oracle intends to release a free version of its database, a reaction to the growing competitive pressure from low-end open-source databases. Oracle 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE), which will be generally available by the end of the year. It is targeted at students, small organisations and software vendors that could embed the Oracle database with an application. The new low-end edition is aimed squarely at free and open-source alternatives to Oracle’s namesake database
With iTunes selling a couple of popular TV shows now there has been significant hesitation from other television producers to follow suit and put their content on the Web. It has also sparked activity from the actors unions who want additional compensation for what appears online. But there is also existing content that stands to be revived in this new context, older television shows from the 50s and 60s that have been squeezed out of the traditional broadcast by popular shows of more recent vintage. It was suggested to a producer who is presently digitising 27 episodes of a 1950s show called Captain Zero to offer it up on iTunes for a dollar an episode. Purveyors of old radio programmes have enjoyed a significant revival by embracing web-based technology
Austar has confirmed it will commence rollout of a broadband network, planning to have broadband in two regional markets by the first half of 2006, with 15 more areas online by the end of 2007
Google is testing a database service that would put it into competition with one of its big advertisers: eBay. Blogs had buzzed with word of Google’s motives after some internet users a day earlier found a test service called Google Base that handled online classified advertising. The site was later taken down. Google Base would allow people to list items wanted or offered for sale in an online-classified forum similar to those provided by eBay and Craigslist, according to feedback in blogs
A Hong Kong computer user was Monday convicted of copyright infringement in what is believed to be the world’s first piracy case involving the use of BitTorrent software
A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was recently developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. And it’s completely emission free
The computer industry is fast-tracking a system called e-mail authentication, which will attempt to do for e-mail what caller ID does for telephone calls
DeLaval, a 122-year-old dairy equipment company, has used embedded Linux in a robotic cow-milking system (the system is robotic, not the cows). The Voluntary Milking System allows cows to decide when to be milked, and gives dairy farmers a more independent lifestyle, free from regular milkings
This has been a pretty big couple o’ weeks for Apple. New iMacs, new powerbooks, new G5’s and pro photography app Aperture all released. But for me, it’s new black video iPods and iTunes music store in Oz that’s really taken my fancy.
I see a white pod, and I want to paint it black… FINALLY! Black! Apple why has this taken so long! I’ve seen the black iPod Nano in the flesh, and that black is damn sexy! I mean Steve Jobs is always in black, so why not the pods up until now?
I of course have one of these babies on order, so I’m debating which would be the best/quickest/pain free-est option for exchanging my ye olde 3rdGen 30GB iPod for some bucks. Same goes for ye olde Sony Cyber shot camera.
ITunes Australia: Sony BMG have not signed up as yet, which is unfortunate, I think, well I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head which bands with Sony BMG I like. $1.69 per song, some albums going for $16.99. Is this too much? I don’t know. I guess I’d have to try the store out first to see how it goes.
Update: I got my iPod yesterday along with a camera connector. It is gorgeous and makes my 3rd Gen iPod look like a brick-like fossil. It does come with a flimsy case. This will have to do until I can find one that is more suitable. I used the new iTunes site to purchase Bjork’s Oceania video, store is quite nice to use, and the video playback on pod is great. You don’t get an AC adapter for non computer charging though, which sucks.
The camera connector works pretty good too so far.
After a number of false starts Apple has finally made its iTunes music download service available in Australia
A working reconstruction of an ancient Greek computer, the Antikythera mechanism, which was found at the bottom of the ocean in 1900 has been unveiled and is on display at the Technopolis museum, in Athens. The device is believed to have been used to calculate the positions of various celestial bodies including the sun and the moon on any given date. While some guesswork was required in the reconstruction, the bulk of the design is based on updated X-ray photographs of the device
A recently foiled botnet operation, controlled by a crime ring, has turned out to have put about 1.5 million computers and servers under its control, the largest botnet ever detected, 15 times larger that police initially thought
E Ink has just announced a breakthrough in flexible electronic paper displays. The new display which has a 100dpi resolution and is only 300 microns thick has the potential of truely changing the way we read our information
After more than a year of speculation and false starts, Apple is finally expected to announce the iTunes Australia music store on Tuesday
It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn’t. The pages coming out of your colour printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the US government
15 years ago today, Col Needham posted some shell scripts to rec.arts.movies which allowed anyone to search lists of actors, actresses, directors, and biographies. From this humble beginning — which predates Yahoo, Google, and even the web itself — the IMDb has wrangled the collective wisdom of millions of submitters to become not only a top 100 web site but also a standard hollywood tool for film making. IMDb is celebrating with a retrospective of the last 15 years of IMDb and movies
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