One of Australia’s best-known rock musicians, Billy Thorpe, has died at the age of 60. The singer suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, early this morning. The singer worked for a series of bands in Sydney after emigrating from England, including in a support act for Johnny O’Keefe
Australia Post is planning to expand its use of radio frequency identification tags following their successful use in monitoring mail. The organisation has already set up much of the infrastructure it will need to broaden its use of radio frequency identification
Google is planning to sell Australian users licences for its web-based office productivity suite, Google Apps, under a local-currency pricing scheme
A US federal appeals court noted that a federal law was designed to ensure that within broad limits, message board operators would not be held responsible for the postings made by others on that board
, adding that, were the law otherwise, it would have an obvious chilling effect
on blogger speech
University of Washington Scientists are reporting that they have a new autonomous underwater vehicle that increases both the attainable depth and duration of deployment over current submersibles. Weighing in at just under 65kg, the Deepglider
is able to stay out to sea for up to a year and hit depths of 2,700m
The latest breed of surveillance cameras, known as intelligent video
, could transform cameras from passive observers to eyes with brains, able to detect suspicious behavior and potentially prevent crime before it occurs
2a26ref=”http://uk.gay.com/headlines/11114″>Female koalas enjoy lesbian romps, rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers. The cute, eucalyptus-eating wombat-like creatures seem to develop this tendency for gay orgies when they are in captivity. In the wild, they appear to remain heterosexual. Scientists monitoring the marsupials with digital cameras counted three gay interactions for every straight one — via Feòrag
BitTorrent, makers of a technology often used to trade pirated copies of Hollywood movies, is launching a Web site that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network was set to launch Monday with films from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate and episodes of TV shows such as 24
and Punk’d
The appalling delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing getting overseas-produced series is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. The problem is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes web site. According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series, Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first-run series first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective? This is exactly how North Otago’s newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down. 45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home
The Citizenr company will install a solar generator on your roof, completely for free. You then buy power from it, instead of a regular power company, at a fixed rate that’s likely to be lower than the usual power fees. The company will make money on these usage fees, as well as credits from the federal government for spreading the use of solar power. If it sounds too good to be true to you, you’re not alone. A number of financial analysts have warned people away from the company — via Slashdot
The recent surge of video sites such as Youtube and Google video are pushing the limits of the Internet’s bandwidth, or soon will be. Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Qwest Communications, says that traffic volumes are growing faster than computing power, meaning that engineers can no longer count on newer, faster computers to keep ahead of their capacity demands. Further, a recent report from Deloitte Consulting raised the possibility that 2007 would see Internet demand exceed capacity. Admittedly, this seems a bit sensationalist, but are we headed for a massive slowdown of the whole internet?
Xerox is developing a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology includes reusable paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times and has the potential to revolutionise printing
There have been direct observations of chimps in the west African savannah modifying sticks to create spears. They then use these spears to kill small mammals and eat them. It is the first time that an animal other than a human has been directly observed in crafting a weapon for the purpose of hunting or killing
Google’s online productivity suite (Google Apps) has already replaced Microsoft products at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises. Additionally, it’s been deployed for serious work-related projects at two of the largest companies in the world. Product manager for Google Enterprise Kevin Gough was quick to point out that although the premier edition of Google Apps only just launched, it’s already been adopted by companies like GE, Procter & Gamble, Prudential and Loreal
Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labour-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season. The robotic work has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, and pushed forward by the uncertainty surrounding the migrant labour force
A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows. In its verdict, the jury assessed damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. The case could have broader implications, should Alcatel-Lucent pursue claims against other companies that use the widespread MP3 technology
Telstra’s rivals have challenged the telecoms giant to prevent a rerun of the $7 billion cable wars of the 1990s by creating an independent infrastructure company to bring fast broadband services to up to 6 million Australian homes. A consortium led by Optus, iiNet and Macquarie Telecom, known as the G9, announced the proposal in July and yesterday provided financial details of the network which would stretch further than one originally mooted by Telstra
Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars. By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be quasicrystalline
designs, Harvard University’s Peter Lu and Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science. Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry
Two circus clowns have been shot dead during a performance in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta. The attacker jumped into the arena and fired before fleeing. Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realising both men had been killed. Last year, a prominent circus clown, known as Pepe, was also shot dead by a unknown assailant in Cucuta — via Warren Ellis
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