A recently-released roadmap for the next major Window release — Windows 7 — indicates that Microsoft is planning to release the new operating system in the second half of 2009, rather than the anticipated release date of some time in 2010. This quickly-approaching release date would seem to be at least partially verified by news of a milestone build available for review by an anonymous third party — via Slashdot
Sydneysiders will have the chance to view the excavation of a First Fleet graveyard beneath Town Hall in the city’s CBD today. The archaeological dig has so far unearthed 58 graves and the remains of four bodies in the area, which was one of Sydney’s first cemeteries. It is part of a $60 million restoration of the historic building, which is being carried out over five years
Apparently the RIAA is so busy suing consumers that they forgot to hire a decent programmer. With a simple SQL injection, all their propaganda has been successfully wiped from the site
A new report shows some populations of tasmanian devils may have developed resistance to the deadly facial tumour disease. In parts of Tasmania up to 90 per cent of the devil population has been wiped out by a contagious cancer-like facial tumour disease
Weather information from thousands of personal weather stations are being used for weather forecasting by several private and government agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) was created by a few amateur radio operators experimenting with transmitting weather data with packet radios, but it has expanded to include Internet-only weather stations as well — via Slashdot
Sources at Google have disclosed that the humble domain, research.google.com, will soon provide a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets. The storage will be free to scientists and access to the data will be free for all. The project, known as Palimpsest and previewed to the scientific community at the Science Foo camp at the Googleplex last August, missed its original launch date this week, but will debut soon
Proprietary protocols are things from yesterday. Today, Opensource technologies are taking over the world! AOL/ICQ has just launched a test server using XMPP, an open technology. This means that you’ll soon be able to talk to your ICQ/AIM contacts via Jabber. Google has already started using it
Bionic Contact Lens May Lead to Overlay Displays
A University of Washington researcher has developed a contact lens including circuitry and a matrix of LEDs. Although not yet a working prototype, this may be a foundation for terminator/robocop style overlay displays in which computer graphics could be superimposed on your normal vision. ‘Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across — via Slashdot
An ultra-resolution broadband link has been unveiled, paving the way for people on opposite sides of the earth to direct brain surgery, conduct climate change experiments or interpret human genome data in real time with high-definition precision. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the ultimate aim was to deliver the high-tech broadband links to Australian homes. The new technology, which is 250 times faster than a standard broadband connection, has the potential to transform the way Australia interacts with the world
The darkest ever
substance known to science has been made in a US laboratory. The material was created from carbon nanotubes — sheets of carbon just one atom thick rolled up into cylinders. Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths. The discovery is expected to have applications in the fields of electronics and solar energy
Sun Microsystems has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL for $US1 billion, and said its fiscal second-quarter net income nearly doubled on boosted margins, according to preliminary results
The Library of Congress is making over 3,000 photos available on Flickr for public tagging. The idea of the pilot project is to invite people to add metadata to images that previously had little. The library is hoping that the metadata will add new context and meaning to the photos and make them more accessible to the public
Oracle said that it would acquire BEA Systems for $8.5 billion, just three months after BEA handily rejected its original unsolicited bid. The $19.38-a-share deal is 14 percent higher than Oracle’s original offer of $17, and spares both companies the sort of ordeal that accompanied Oracle’s hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft in 2003
After two months of downtime, it is still uncertain whether Demonoid will ever return. However, if it is up to The Pirate Bay, it will. The Pirate Bay has recently offered 2 servers to the Demonoid team, in Sweden of course
Stanford University researchers have made a discovery that could signal the arrival of laptop batteries that last more than a day on a single charge. The researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium ion batteries — used in laptops, iPods, video cameras, and mobile phones — as much as 10 times more charge. This potentially could give a conventional battery-powered laptop 40 hours of battery life, rather than 4 hours
Japan’s Panasonic has created the world’s longest lasting alkaline battery, according to Guinness World Records. Panasonic promises its new Evolta battery cell — whose name is derived from evolution and voltage — will keep gadgets running 20 percent longer than offerings from rivals Duracell and Energizer, as well as its own upscale Oxyride batteries
PIPE Networks is to go ahead with its $200M plan for a new international link between Australia and Guam
IBM, Nokia, Sony and Pitney Bowes are expected to announce Monday that they have put 31 inventions into an Eco-Patent Commons
designed to make these Earth-friendly manufacturing and waste-reduction processes more widely available
Amazon offered free shipping in France, got sued for it by the French Booksellers’ Union, and lost. Now it’s choosing to pay €1,000 a day rather than follow the court’s order
Canadians can breathe a sigh of relief as the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal quashed a proposed levy on digital music players late last week. The proposed levies weren’t cheap: CA$5 on each Memory Stick or SD card between 1GB and 4GB of memory, and digital audio recorder
levies which top out at CA$75 for players with 30GB+ of space
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