Virtual, moving fences controlled from a laptop could one day herd cattle to fresh fields for grazing. A farmer would control multiple herds from a single server at home as if they were playing a video game. Although static virtual fences already keep dogs inside yards in affluent US neighbourhoods, no-one has attempted a moving virtual fence before, nor attempted to apply the idea to large herds of animals. Basically we download the fences to the cows,
says Zack Butler, of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. We say: ‘Today stay here, tomorrow go somewhere else
Google is considering renewing support for RSS, the latest twist in a standards war that could change how people read the news
An adware purveyor has apparently used two previously unknown security flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to install a toolbar on victims’ computers that triggers pop-up ads
Apple have just unveiled their latest shiny new thingy, the AirPort Express, a portable wireless base station which also allows you to stream music throughout your home, wirelessly. That’s right, you can hook one of these babies into your stereo/speakers, (and/or it’s sprawled out speakers) and set up your playlists from your laptop from the other side of the house.
The new base station is not like it’s older UFO shaped brother, and fits nicely in the palm of your hand, and uses 802.11g wireless standard, so data rates up to 54 Megabits per second.
Nice. Fucking damn nice. You know what else is fucking damn nice? It is backwards compatible with the older 802.11b wireless cards. Of course this means a new iTunes (AirTunes) with streaming capabilities, and yep, both Mac and PC are invited to this party.
Microsoft says it will ask a European court this week to suspend parts of the European Commission’s landmark decision that ordered it to stop business practices that violate antitrust law
NetGear’s WG602 access point has a hidden password that provides remote and local administrative control. Unlike Linksys’, where turning the firewall on (which is on by default, but a researcher found new units in which it was off when taken out of the box), the NetGear hole cannot be disabled. The backdoor seems to have been created by the vendor that packaged the device for NetGear
Yahoo’s new browser toolbar is advertised to clean out adware and spyware from the user’s PC. They forgot to mention that Yahoo excludes by default two popular adware/spyware applications — Claria (ex-Gator) and WhenU.com — Claria has commercial bonding with Yahoo
An open source Solaris is in the works, Sun spokesperson Russ Castronovo has confirmed. However, he declines to reveal any significant details about the project, including what software license Sun will use, whether all of the components of the operating system will be open-sourced, and when, exactly, Sun intends to release an open source Solaris
It has been announced that the latest version of Shareaza, a popular P2P application for Windows, was released under the GPL. Currently the source code is hosted by the Shareaza servers, but the announcement makes mention of the code becoming a project on Sourceforge. The binaries are still available for Windows only, but I imagine it is only a matter of time before a Linux port emerges
A smart bullet that can be fired at a target and then wirelessly transmit back useful information has been developed by US researchers. The projectile, created at the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, is 1.7 centimetres in diameter can be fired at from an ordinary paint-ball gun. The front is coated in an adhesive polymer that sticks it to the target. Inside, the elongated projectile holds a sensor, a tiny wireless transmitter and a battery. This enables it to report back its findings to a laptop or handheld computer up to 70 metres away. It can also reusable, because compressed gas within the gun provides the propulsion — via Die Puny Humans
Nokia’s new 3220 camera air phone is an effort on the part of the company to gain market share that has been slipping away to manufacturers of mobiles considered trendier than Nokia’s older standby models. A motion sensor in the 3220 makes the lights blink in a sequence that spells out letters when the handset is waved. Joi Ito ponders the joys of an airtexting enabled BlackBerry and its potential as a hecklebot
The German inventor who pioneered the technology behind the Sony Walkman has won a multimillion-pound payout nearly 30 years after dreaming up his invention. Andreas Pavel’s original 1970s concept of the stereobelt
revolutionised portable listening and Sony’s version — the Walkman — became a global hit. Now the 57-year-old stereo enthusiast, who works in Milan, is threatening to use his payout to sue Apple Computer, whose iPod portable music player is the digital successor to the Walkman. He is believed to be considering cases in Italy and Canada, where his patents were filed later and may still be valid
In celebration of D-Day, Colossus, one of the earliest electronic code-breaking machines, has been rebuilt after ten years of effort by computer conservationists. Colossus was used to break the Lorenz cipher. Remarkably, the use of parallel processing (five tape channels) and short gate delay time (1.2µs) allows the Colossus to match the speed of a modern PC
The recording industry is testing technology that would prevent consumers from making copies of CD burns, a piracy defence that could put some significant new restrictions on legally purchased music
Tim Robinson has built a computer capable of solving polynomial equations — using Meccano. His difference engine uses a similar approach to Babbage’s design. He’s also created a differential analyser complete with a GUI. Both could be scaled up indefinitely to handle larger problems
Queensland Internet service provider OnTheNet claims it is the first non-Telstra ISP in the state to install broadband ADSL infrastructure into telephone exchanges
A 15-year-old grammar school boy yesterday became the first person in Britain to be convicted of inciting someone to murder him. The boy, who can be identified only by the pseudonym John, invented a cast of characters in an internet chatroom as part of an elaborate plan to commission his own murder
Xingtone is a new application that will convert your MP3 to ringtones and the music industry is freaking out (despite the fact that phones like the P800, which can play an MP3 without any conversion as a ringtone, have been around for at least a year) — via boingboing
Popular Science has an article on getting your mobile phone unlocked. In London, there are shops that advertise phone unlocking on practically every block, but it’s almost unheard-of in the USA and Australia — via boingboing
Howard Carmack, a US man who sent 850 million junk emails through accounts he opened with stolen identities has been sentenced to up to seven years in prison
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