The founder of the world wide web has voiced concern over increasing abuse of the internet, with truth the first victim as technology develops at ever more dizzying speeds. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the web while working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the late 1980s, said the global online network was at growing risk of being misused by undemocratic forces
Microsoft has backed off their Vista license, now allowing transfers and even legal sales between third parties — via digg
Google aims to close the gap between the classic way people get e-mail — sitting at a computer — and the slow-as-molasses reality of receiving e-mail on mobiles. They’re introducing a custom version of Gmail that can run on any phone with Java software, or close to 300 different mobile phone devices
Everyone must have noticed a surge in spam recently, particularly for stock pump ‘n’ dump scams. Anti-spam companies have seen a 30% increase in the last two months and, more worryingly, more of this spam is getting through to mailboxes due to the spammers’ change in tactics. Rather than use unsecured mail relays spammers are using bot nets, making spam harder to identify and eliminate. Bounced spam is also on the up, and some experts reckon it’s past time to start worrying
A second security flaw that could cause the new Firefox 2 browser to crash has been publicly disclosed. The vulnerability lies in the way the open-source browser handles JavaScript code
Forgent Networks has settled its lawsuit concerning the so-called JPEG patents for US$8 million, a fraction of what the company initially sought
Providing some information is better than giving none at all, search giants are saying, but human rights groups warned that filtering of web content is increasing in developing countries
Even as it does damage control on the random shutdown problem, Apple is trying to address other MacBook flaws, ranging from discolouration and cracks in some of its computer cases to strange sounds that come from inside them
The use of carbon nanotubes in ultrafast computers and other electronic devices has been stymied because batches of the material contain nanotubes with varying electronic properties. One nanotube is semiconducting, while the next is conducting. Now Northwestern University researchers have developed a reliable and potentially practical way to sort through this mess, segregating nanotubes into precisely the types needed for high-performance electronics. The advance could speed progress toward nanotube computers and has many nearer-term applications, including high-definition displays, devices for nanotoxicity testing, and solar cells
MySpace has licensed new technology to stop users from posting unauthorised copyrighted music. The move comes amid pressure from major studios and record labels against popular online sites like MySpace and YouTube, which they accuse of infringing the copyrights of their artists’ music and videos. MySpace, one of the most popular sites on the internet, has licensed technology from privately-held Gracenote allowing it to review music recordings uploaded by community members to their profiles
A Perth-based company has been fined $5.5 million for sending millions of unsolicited emails, with a judge labelling the spam annoying, costly to combat, and a threat to the internet
The FBI has raided the home of Christopher Soghoian, the grad student who created the NWA boarding pass site. Details can be found on his blog including a scanned copy of the warrant. The bad news is that he really did break the law. The good news is that Senator Charles Schumer did it first, 19 months ago, on an official government website no less. The outcome of this trial should be at least academically interesting. At best, it could result in nullifying some portion of the law(s) that the TSA operates under — via Slashdot
What happens when a film studio and a fanbase get into bed? Fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, and the movie by Universal Studios — Serenity — are not amused. After being encouraged to viral market Serenity, the studio has started legal action against fans (demanding $9000 in retroactive licensing fees in one case and demanding fan promotion stop), and going after Cafepress. The fans response? Retroactively invoice Universal for their services — via Slashdot
New studies on rogue elephants have determined that they rape and kill rhinoceroses; attack villages with intelligent measures like blocking escape routes and pinning down humans before goring them to death; and display psychological traits previously only observed in people — via Rogue Jeff
A Texas judge has refused to allow the RIAA untrammelled access to the defendant’s hard drive in Sony v Arellanes. The court ruled that only a mutually agreeable, neutral computer forensics expert may examine the hard drive, at the RIAA’s expense, and that the parties must agree on mutually acceptable provisions for confidentiality — via Slashdot
Either Lieutenant Colonel John Pine-Coffin has the strangest military career in history or the obituary writers at the Telegraph have been indulging in long lunches. In 1963 he was in Nassau when he was ordered to investigate a party of Cuban exiles that had infiltrated Andros Island, part of the Bahamas. His seaplane landed in thick mud and Pine-Coffin decided that his only chance of reaching dry land was to strip off. On coming ashore, plastered in mud and wearing only a red beret and a pair of flippers, he was confronted by a party of armed Cubans. Mustering as much authority as he could in the circumstances, he informed the group that they were trespassing on British sovereign territory and were surrounded. The following morning, when the Royal Marines arrived to rescue him they were astonished to find him and his radio operator in a clearing standing guard over the Cubans and a pile of surrendered weapons. He was appointed OBE
— via Charlie Stross
In a stealth manoeuvre, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy, will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions
The dye in your blue jeans could soon be used to kill cancer cells, say scientists. UK researchers are employing tiny gold nanoparticles
, 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly. The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties
EO-1 is a new breed of satellite that can think for itself. EO-1 can re-organise its own priorities to study volcanic eruptions, flash-floods, forest fires, disintegrating sea-ice–in short, anything unexpected
23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention and a $3000 fine for the work he put in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents
RSS – Posts