VeriSign could lose its right to sell dot-com
domain names if it fails to address accusations that it violated its contract with global Internet addressing authorities
The Public Anemone is an organic robot set in a rock pool filled with greenish water which reacts to light and touch, much like an real sea anemone. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston see their robot as a way of exploring artificial life
If the next big thing in computers, the grid, comes true, war will know no boundaries. Virtual war, that is. A grid is a kind of hypernetwork that links computers and data storage owned by different groups so that they can share computing power. By comparison, today’s Internet, allows independent users to trade data, not computer resources
The perennial rumour that Apple is developing its OS X platform for Intel chips has come around again, with Apple reported to be running a parallel x86 version of the Unix-based OS X under the Marklar
moniker
Red Hat plans to build out a growing portfolio of enterprise products with a desktop Linux offering targeted at business users
Venezuela has adopted a policy for the use of open-source software in government wherever possible. They have practical rather than philosophical motivations: keeping cash in the country and promoting local software development
Hot on the heels of the Mozilla 1.1 release, Netscape have launched Navigator 7.0 into the world
When MIT announced in March that it won a US$50 million grant to design high-tech gear for the US Army’s soldier of the future
, the project was hailed as the stuff of science fiction and comic book heroes. The school has grudgingly acknowledged that it copied images from the sci-fi comic book Radix
as part of its winning bid
A federal law that the recording industry is using to unmask a suspected KaZaA music-trader is unconstitutional, according to a coalition of non-profit groups
Hackers have attacked the Recording Industry Association of America’s web site for the second time in a month, dramatically altering several pages of content in a humorous protest against the industry group’s position on file sharing
A Melbourne company, MediaWeb, is offering 5GB a month broadband access for less than AU$50, while pundits from across the IT industry in Australia have defended the more legitimate uses of the broadband in the wake of porn comments made by the deranged Senator Richard Alston. And as Yahoo in the US gears up for the introduction of a high-speed Internet service with telco giant SBC Communications, the portal’s Australian arm is keeping its eyes open for similar revenue diversification opportunities
Scottish Hydro-Electric have started a trial of broadband internet access via power lines. Just plug the modem into any power point in your house, with no need for additional lines into the house, and reasonably priced too
The Canadian government is considering a proposal that would force ISPs to rewire their networks for easy surveillance by police and spy agencies. A discussion draft released Sunday also contemplates creating a national database of every Canadian with an Internet account, a plan that could sharply curtail the right to be anonymous online
Australia’s chances of securing a multibillion-dollar microprocessor manufacturing plant have strengthened, with Intel chief Craig Barrett preparing to meet the Federal Government. This has since been rejected due to Australia being too economically mature
Defence lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union are up in arms over a police file of potential criminals in Delaware. The database contains a list of people who police believe are likely to break the law. It features names, addresses and photographs of potential suspects — many of whom have clean slates. Since the system was introduced in Wilmington in June, most of the 200 people included in the file have been minorities from poor, high-crime neighbourhoods
A new Internet Peering service has been launched in Brisbane, a system that could allow ISPs to offer cheap broadband access. Routing local traffic directly between ISPs instead of communicating over the Internet could cost Telstra more than $100K per month in lost revenue
Lost your cat or dog? No need to whistle or call on a fruitless search — just track your pet with your mobile phone
BT has lost its controversial bid to sue Prodigy Communications over a patent that it claimed covered the use of hyperlinks. US District Judge Colleen McMahon awarded Prodigy its motion for summary judgement to have the case dismissed, saying that no jury could find that Prodigy infringes BT’s patent
Telstra will explore using the open source Linux OS as part of a new standard operating platform being scoped by the telecommunications giant as it looks to reduce its $1.5 billion annual IT budget. Such a move could see Microsoft further sidelined at its biggest Australian customer, following a recent deal with Sun Microsystems that will see Java 2 used as Telstra’s web services platform, as well as revelations that Telstra is considering Sun’s StarOffice desktop application suite as a possible replacement for Microsoft Office on some or all of its 45,000 desktops
In contrast to a declaration by Telstra, the nation’s biggest broadband provider, just weeks ago that it was comfortable with current pricing for fast internet services, a forum held by the Government’s Broadband Advisory Group saw a consensus that price was the key determinant, according to a report from the National Office for the Information Economy
RSS – Posts