Google has published its year-end Zeitgeist, the tool which reveals what internet users are searching for
Internode, iPrimus and Westnet have all made ABC’s online video site iView unmetered content. These ISPs follow iiNet, which has unmetered the iView service since its launch in July. The site features full TV episodes that have previously aired on the ABC such as The 7.30 Report and The Bill
When a car’s underbody or a ship’s hull begins to corrode, it usually ends up junked. New protective coatings developed at the University of Illinois heal over their own scratches with no external intervention, protecting the underlying metal. The self-healing elements, enclosed in microcapsules that rip open when the coating is scratched, are compatible with a wide range of paints and protective coatings. The coatings, being marketed by Autonomic Materials of Champaign, IL, may be on the market in as soon as four months
A British Steam Car is a step closer to breaking the longest held speed record after completing a number of successful runs. After a first successful low-speed run last week at Newton Park, the car was shipped to the MoD’s Thorney Island facility near Portsmouth for a series of higher speed runs this week
University of Utah researchers have invented technology that could come to be embraced by teenagers with the same enthusiasm they have for curfews and ID checks. And like those things, it could save their lives. Key2SafeDriving technology uses RFID or Bluetooth wireless capabilities to issue signals from car keys to mobile phones to prevent drivers from talking on their phones or texting while driving
Bettie Page, the brunette pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85
In a lawsuit, the US charged the music unit of Sony of collecting information from more than 30,000 children under the age of 13 since 2004
The UK government has changed its mind: it now supports retroactive copyright term extension for musicians, up from 50 to 70 years. The end result for the majority of aging artists? A paltry £30 per year
A fast-charging laptop battery that promises to last at least three years without any degradation in performance is coming to the market as an option with Hewlett-Packard laptops. The Sonata battery is the product of three years of development work by Boston-Power and will be rebranded by HP as the Enviro
battery and offered from early 2009 with select machines. The battery can be charged to 80 percent of capacity in 30 minutes, which could be useful for travellers who only have a limited amount of time near an electric outlet, and will go 1,000 charges before the battery’s capacity begins degrading. That’s a charge a day for three years — or four years if it’s only used on weekdays — so it should last the average life of a business laptop. Common laptop batteries today start to degrade after 300 charges
Wikipedia functionality has returned for Brits after the country’s internet watchdog reversed its decision to prevent users in that country from visiting a Wikipedia page containing an image of a naked child
There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a 16-year study by German astronomers has confirmed
The Government’s plan to censor the internet is in tatters, with Australia’s largest ISP saying it will not take part in live trials of the system and the second largest committing only to a scaled-back trial. And the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has written to critics saying that the so-called live
trials would be a closed network test and will not involve actual customers
. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said this was a sign the Government was slowly backing away from the heavily criticised policy
Among international outrages, depriving citizens of personalised maps seems far down on the list. Still, that was the condition put on the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 3G in Egypt. The government demanded that Apple disable the phone’s global-positioning system, arguing that GPS is a military prerogative
The simple act of climbing could throw space elevators off track and potentially into harm’s way, a new study suggests. Fixing the problem could require agonisingly slow trips lasting nearly a month or the careful choreography of multiple climbers
Identity thieves who claim they stole details of 21 million German bank accounts are offering to sell the data on the black market for €12 million (US$15.3 million)
A genetic marker which makes some people more likely to be hooked on cigarettes could also allow them to drink their friends under the table by dampening their body’s response to alcohol
Consumers will no longer have to wait weeks or even months after a film is released on DVD to watch it on pay-TV or download it over the internet, with major studios planning simultaneous roll-outs. Australia’s biggest video rental group predicts a major film studio will begin simultaneously releasing movies to DVD and video-on-demand by March
Wikinews has learned that at least six of the United Kingdom’s main ISPs have implemented monitoring and filtering mechanisms that are causing major problems for UK contributors on websites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, amongst up to 1200 other websites. The filters appear to be applied because Wikimedia sites are hosting a Scorpions album cover which some call child pornography. The Scorpions are a German rock band who have used several controversial album covers and are perhaps best known for their song, Rock You Like a Hurricane
A material that can be squirted into broken bones, where it hardens within minutes, has been developed by UK scientists. The toothpaste-like substance forms a biodegradeable scaffold over which the body’s own bone grows
A coroner has matched a dismembered female right foot discovered on the British Columbia coastline in November with a left foot discovered in May. Both feet were encased in New Balance running shoes and were among five feet that have mysteriously floated ashore in Canada’s West Coast area since 2007. A sixth foot was found on the shores of Washington State’s Orcas Island in Puget Sound in August
RSS – Posts