The use of checks on web sites before comments, forum posts, or registrations, are allowed to happen are commonplace with probably the best known being the CAPTCHA test. CAPTCHAs present users with characters that are obscured in some way and presented as an image making it very difficult for anything other than a human to decipher. Those tests are quite effective, but one company called reCAPTCHA had a better idea: use the CAPTCHA tests to serve another purpose by helping to digitise books. When you solve a reCAPTCHA you are actually turning a reference from one of those digital book projects into text. This is necessary because the optical character recognition software used to scan those books can’t always figure out what some of the words are, especially in older books, or when copies exist that have some damage. Now the use of reCAPTCHA is set to expand as Google has announced it has acquired the company
Mobile technology specialist Myriad Group has acquired Xumii, a mobile social networking and instant messaging start-up with roots in Australia that also operates in the United States
Adobe Systems said it would buy the Web analytics software company Omniture for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers monitor the effectiveness of such content
Panasonic has launched a new household LED lightbulb in Japan that it says lasts 40 times longer than incandescent bulbs. The screw-in bulbs are part of the EverLed line, and they’re scheduled to hit stores in Japan on 21 October, with monthly production at 50,000 units. No changes to lighting equipment used for incandescents are required. If used an average of five and a half hours per day, the new bulbs can last up to 19 years, according to Panasonic. That’s 40 times longer than incandescent bulbs
Thousands of businesses and homes in Sydney’s CBD could be without phone, internet and mobile phone coverage for up to a week after a contractor accidentally severed crucial cables. Contractors working for Energy Australia cut through a bundle of 10,000 Telstra copper wires and some multiple-fibre optical cables near the corner of York and Erskine streets about 9.30pm yesterday
Male masturbation and extreme anal fisting are now PG, as far as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are concerned. However, mainstream films such as V for Vendetta and American Gangster are prohibited content — at least if they happen to be distributed through the iTunes Store Gift this movie
menu. This would appear to be the latest peculiar twist to the censorship debate in Australia, and is in part a direct consequence of the Australian government pressing ahead with plans for its super-hi-tech firewall — without first sorting out the law that the firewall is meant to embody
After its initial adoption in May, the original version of the 3 strikes
Hadopi anti-piracy legislation was struck down by France’s highest legal authority after declaring the proposals unconstitutional. A modified version of the bill was accepted in July by the Senate and today it was passed in the National Assembly
A Maori legend about a giant, man-eating bird has been confirmed by scientists. Te Hokioi was a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips, in an account given to Sir George Gray, an early governor of New Zealand. It was said to be named after its cry and to have raced the hawk to the heavens
. Scientists now think the stories handed down by word of mouth and depicted in rock drawings refer to Haast’s eagle, a raptor that became extinct just 500 years ago
Google is unlocking its data door by launching a new initiative called Data Liberation, an approach to engineering that allows users to move their data — be it pictures, mail or documents — from Google’s servers to any other location
The Internet Industry Association (IIA) has drafted a new code of conduct that suggests ISPs contact, and in some cases disconnect, customers that have malware-infected computers
Australian internet users now consume twice as much data than they did a year ago, but figures by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal there are still over 200,000 businesses and government agencies on a dial-up connection. Last June, over a three-month period, Australia downloaded around 55.4 terabytes (TB). This year the figure almost doubled to 99.9TB as more subscribers ditched dial-up for faster ADSL-style fixed line connections or wireless broadband
The Rudd government has announced a package of reforms to telecommunications regulations that will pave the way for a break-up of Telstra. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the reforms would address the telco’s high level of integration with the aim of promoting greater competition and consumer benefits
Pioneering Australian documentary filmmaker and one half of the Leyland Brothers, Mike Leyland, has died aged 68 from Parkinson’s disease-related complications. The Leyland Brothers rose to fame as explorers and documentary filmmakers, best known for their popular Channel Nine television show Ask The Leyland Brothers
Think you can be anonymous online? Most people simply have no idea how easy it is for law enforcement officials — and other litigants, like someone suing you — to gain access to personal email, Google searches, and other online information users think is theirs
. The latest ominous evidence of this fact comes from our friends to the north. A Canadian court has ordered Google to turn over the identities of anonymous Gmail users who had accused York University faculty members of fraud and dishonesty. Like similar cases in the US, the York incident shows just how easy it is for courts to allow authorities to gain access to our
personal information
ALIS, Israel’s answer to the MPAA, has moved aggressively against a site which provides translated subtitles for movies and TV shows. Three individuals who work to provide free subtitles on Qsubs, one of Israel’s most prominent subtitle providers, have been ordered by ALIS to pay $264,000 each in damages and issue a public apology
Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more
A security researcher has discovered a cluster of infected Linux servers that have been corralled into a special ops botnet of sorts and used to distribute malware to unwitting people browsing the web. Each of the infected machines examined so far is a dedicated or virtual dedicated server running a legitimate web site. But in addition to running an Apache webserver to dish up benign content, they’ve also been hacked to run a second webserver known as nginx, which serves malware
Virus writers keep getting sneakier. In an effort to evade detection, they’ve begun hiding their command and control instructions in legitimate Web 2.0 sites such as Google Groups and Twitter. Recently, security vendor Symantec spotted a Trojan horse program that’s been programmed to visit a private Google Groups newsgroup, called escape2sun, where it can download encrypted instructions or even software updates
The company known as China’s eBay will aim for expansion abroad in the long term, but first it wants more foreign products sold on its platform in China. Taobao.com, a booming auction and retail site, does not have a concrete plan for the overseas market but will likely target regions with cultural similarities to China first. Alibaba Group, Taobao’s parent company, wants 1 billion global users shopping on the site in 10 years, group CEO Jack Ma earlier told reporters. The target, more than one-seventh of the world’s population, compares with Taobao’s current average of up to 25 million shoppers each day
Librarians, youth-workers, and local vicars are being encouraged to apply to a fund which will provide free net access in selected UK communities. The fund is run by Freerunner, a company that installs wi-fi hotspots. The firm has said it will install 50 access points in communities across the UK, no matter where they are
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