Breaking in to an encrypted router and using the WiFi connection is not an criminal offence, a Dutch court ruled. WiFi hackers can not be prosecuted for breaching router security.
A court in The Hague ruled earlier this month that it is legal to break WiFi security to use the internet connection. The court also decided that piggybacking on open WiFi networks in bars and hotels can not be prosecuted. In many countries both actions are illegal and often can be fined — via benno.newsvine.com
Marine biologists say they have learnt more about the behaviour of pilot whales after the latest stranding in Tasmania — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A West Australian study into dyslexia shows many cases are going undiagnosed until sufferers reach adulthood — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Two Hunter businessmen are behind plans to build a school for children with autism in the Maitland area — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Yahoo is believed to be on the verge of selling its bookmarking service Delicious, possibly to the social discovery engine
StumbleUpon, for a price believed to be around $1m (£619,000) — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A hapless bank robber who abided by a Dallas teller’s request to provide two forms of identification before she could give him money is going to prison — via redwolf.newsvine.com
You can make your own big blanket using PVC piping and unspun wool roving. It’s hugely cosy — via Neatorama
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with the US Central Command (Centcom) to develop what is described as an online persona management service
that will allow one serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities at once.
The contract stipulates each persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries
.
The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet — via smd12364.newsvine.com
Research in Motion thought the iPhone would bomb, basically, because it’s not a BlackBerry.
A Reuters report (PDF) on RIM’s prospects quotes an anonymous former employee as saying that RIM was convinced the iPhone was so badly flawed from day one
. They thought users wanted great battery life, great security, great mail handling, minimal network use, and a great keyboard experience
. It turns out, a great user experience beats all those things — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The White House urged Congress to approve a consumer privacy bill of rights
to govern the collection and use of personal data on the internet — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A nut-based diet product has been recalled around Australia after tests indicated it was highly toxic and possibly lethal.
Australians taking The Latin Seed, which bills itself as a natural weight-loss product and is sold through health stores, chemists and online, are urged to stop doing so immediately — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Anti-piracy reports that are commissioned by the entertainment industries are suspicious by definition, but the mystery that surrounds a recent study goes far beyond that. Despite being widely covered in the press, no journalist has actually seen a copy of the report. Even worse, the company that produced the in-depth report was registered only four months ago, and appears to be carefully hidden from the public — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Today’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan has had surprisingly limited impacts on the structure and routing dynamics of the regional Internet. Of roughly 6,000 Japanese network prefixes in the global routing table, only about 100 were temporarily withdrawn from service — and that number has actually decreased in the hours since the event. Other carriers around the region have reported congestion and drops in traffic due to follow-on effects of the quake, but most websites are up and operational, and the Internet is available to support critical communications.
Those who have been following our blogs on Libya will be familiar with the excellent Google Transparency Report, which summarizes the rate of queries coming from each country over time. Despite terrible fires, floods, and power outages, traffic from Japanese clients just keeps going. It’s quite a remarkable plot — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The National Federation of the Blind claims that Google Apps lacks required features for blind people and wants the US government to investigate whether schools that adopt the e-mail and collaboration suite run afoul of civil rights laws — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The only way to stop piracy is to cut prices. That’s the vedict of a major new academic study that reckons copyright theft won’t be halted by three strikes
broadband disconnections, increasing censorship or draconian new laws brought in under the anti-counterfeiting treaty ACTA — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A flash memory working group announced a new interface specification on Tuesday that could speed up data transfers from flash storage products such as solid-state drives inside computers and consumer electronics.
The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) Working Group released the ONFI 3.0 controller specification, which allows for transfer of data at 400 megabytes per second. That is double the speed of the previous ONFI standard, ONFI 2.3, which was released last August — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A Scottdale man was charged with endangering the welfare of children after he was found dressed in black and playing ninja
on a street while his child was at home alone — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Microsoft has trotted out its latest warrior in the browser wars, Internet Explorer 9, but business use of the software is likely to be constrained because it doesn’t run on Windows XP — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Google’s YouTube said today it has acquired digital video technology maker Green Parrot Pictures for an undisclosed amount.
The Irish start-up’s technology will enable YouTube to improve the quality of jerky, blurry or unsteady videos as they are being uploaded to the site, Jeremy Doig, a director for Google’s video technology, said in a blog post — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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