Commuters want Wi-Fi, contactless: survey

A survey of 8000 Australian commuters has revealed a high demand for Wi-Fi and contactless ticketing options when using public transport in major cities around the country.

Results published by the Tourism and Transport Forum this month show that while commuters were keen for wireless internet access on trains, buses and trams, many of them wouldn’t be willing to foot an increase in their ticket price. Instead, many would be happy to use a service supplemented by advertising — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google acquires G.co domain for its shortened URLs

Google has acquired G.co to use as the exclusive domain for shortened URLs of its sites, following in the footsteps of other major Internet companies that have bought .co domains recently and bypassing the crowded field of .com sites.

Google will use G.co for creating URLs that act as shortcuts to its sites, making their URLs easier to distribute via social networks and microblogging services and simpler to remember for end users — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Hotmail banning common passwords to beef up security

Passwords are a perennial problem in computer security. We all know that we’re meant to pick secure passwords and never reuse them, but few of us actually bother. One consequence this can cause is losing access to our accounts; some bad guy figures out the password to our World of Warcraft, Steam, or e-mail account, and then proceeds to trash it. To try to ensure that Hotmail accounts don’t fall prey to such attacks, Microsoft will soon be changing its password policy, to forbid the use of particularly common passwords — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Stop ignoring us, Aussies tell Google

Google is facing a wave of complaints from users around the globe after it launched yet another service that is only available to those who live in the United States.

On one of its in-house blogs this week, Google revealed it had launched a new marketplace for its Android mobile platform, which dramatically expands the platform’s functionality, allowing users to rent movies and purchase books. The Android Market has also been overhauled in general to make it easier for users to find applications.

However, the book and movie purchasing functionality is limited to customers in the US only, a fact that has drawn the ire of customers located in other regions. In the US, wrote one user in response to Google’s blog. Also in the US, along with Google Music and Google Voice, both available in the US. Here’s to the centre of the universe — via redwolf.newsvine.com

TPG makes $12.8m cloudy acquisition

TPG has made a bid for on-demand specialist IntraPower, which the telco said would help it move into the corporate and government market.

IntraPower provides on-demand infrastructure, IT, voice and data communications services. It has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, which service over 2000 customers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Tweet revenge: Turnbull publishes climate critic’s number

Federal opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has out-trolled a troll by publishing on Twitter the name and phone number of a man he says has been sending him abusive text messages.

I don’t mind abusive emails or tweets but why does Thomas Lynch [mobile phone number omitted] think its ok to send me abusive smses about climate change, the former Liberal leader tweeted today.

The tweet, which has since been removed, also included a mobile phone number — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Facebook friends a no-no for doctors

Doctors are being warned not to befriend patients on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter because of the risk that this could breach rules on confidentiality.

The British Medical Association said medical staff and students should reject any approaches by current and former patients to avoid the risk of blurring the boundaries of the doctor-patient relationship — via redwolf.newsvine.com

WiFi-hacking neighbor from hell gets 18 years in prison

A Minnesota hacker prosecutors described as a depraved criminal was handed an 18-year prison term Tuesday for unleashing a vendetta of cyberterror that turned his neighbour lives into a living nightmare.

Barry Ardolf, 46, repeatedly hacked into his next-door neighbours’ WiFi network in 2009, and used it to try and frame them for child pornography, sexual harassment, various kinds of professional misconduct and to send threatening e-mail to politicians, including Vice President Joe Biden.

His motive was to get back at his new neighbours after they told the police he’d kissed their 4-year-old son on the lips — via ars technica

Amazon planning Aussie datacentre: report

Amazon has speedily become one of the largest players in the burgeoning global cloud computing market since it launched its Web Services division in mid 006. A wide number of online services are available through the service, including the provision of storage, virtual compute instances and databases.

In that time, the company hasn’t put down roots in Australia, with local organisations instead using Amazon’s services hosted in datacentres located within countries such as Singapore and the US. However, all that may be about to change, according to The Australian.

This morning, the newspaper reported that a local datacentre was slated to be unveiled by early 2012. Three Sydney sites were on the selection list, with one datacentre provider being Equinix, which maintains one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest datacentres in Sydney’s Darling Harbour — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The fanless spinning heatsink: more efficient and immune to dust

There’s a fundamental flaw with fan-and-heatsink cooling systems: no matter how hard the fan blows, a boundary layer of motionless, highly-insulating air remains on the heatsink. You can increase the size of the heatsink and you can blow more air, but ultimately the boundary layer prevents the system from being efficient; it’s simply a physical limitation of fan-and-heatsink cooling systems in specific, and every kind of air-cooled heat exchanger in general, including air conditioning and refrigeration units.

But what if you did away with the fan? What if the heatsink itself rotated? Well, believe it or not, rotating the heat exchanger obliterates the boundary layer, removes the need for a fan, and it’s so efficient that it can operate at low and very quiet speeds. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Air Bearing Heat Exchanger [PDF]. Developed by Jeff Koplow, a researcher at the US government’s Sandia National Laboratories, the new heatsink (which has also been dubbed the “Sandia Cooler”) basically resembles a big, metal fan. The cooler consists of a static metal baseplate, which is connected to the CPU, GPU, or other hot object, and a finned, rotating heat exchanger that are cushioned by a thin (0.001-inch) layer of air. As the metal blades spin, centrifugal force kicks up the air and throws it up and outwards, much like an impeller, creating a cooling effect — via redwolf.newsvine.com

How eBay’s data center benefited from solar

eBay has installed a 100 KW solar array on its data centre in Denver. That’s not enough power to run a data centre, but Tom Price, eBay’s Global Data Centre Services manager, said the system, which was completed last November, is delivering benefits.

The solar array is taking up approximately 18,000 square feet of the 21,000-square-foot data centre roof. In an interview, Price outlined the project.

How is the power being used? The power runs non-critical loads, meaning it is being used to supply office space power. This includes equipment such as the desktops used by the data centre’s 35 employees. The office power is segregated from the data centre loads — via redwolf.newsvine.com