First, they threatened to sue over a song. Then they shut down his web site. In its losing battle with a maverick comic, the government of Kazakhstan even took out full-page newspaper adverts to confront what it saw as damaging slurs. Yesterday, however, Kazakhstan made an abrupt change of tack in its attempts to stifle Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian who has made the oil-rich Central Asian country an international laughing stock. The deputy foreign minister, Rakhat Aliyev, invited Cohen to visit the country he has lampooned across the globe
Less than 24 hours after the launch of Internet Explorer 7, security researchers are poking holes in the new browser. Danish security company Secunia reported today that IE7 contains an information disclosure vulnerability, the same one it reported in IE6 in April. The vulnerability affects the final version of IE7 running on Windows XP with Service Pack 2
Microsoft has released the long-awaited version of the Internet Explorer 7 browser for the Windows XP operating system. It is the first major new version of Internet Explorer since 2001. IE 7 for Windows XP is available as a free download, and it also will be offered as a high-priority update via Microsoft’s Automatic Updates service starting in November.
An invisibility cloak that works in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum has been unveiled in the US. While not quite as effective as Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, the device is the first practical version of a theoretical set-up first suggested by physicists earlier this year. About the size of a movie reel canister, the cloak works by steering microwave light around an object, making it appear to an observer as if it were not there at all
ICANN has reviewed the Spamhaus-e360 case, according to a statement from the domain-name agency, and noted that it has no knowledge as to the merits of e360’s claim against Spamhaus and why Spamhaus did not appear in court to defend itself. However, ICANN did say that it would be unable to comply with a court order to suspend the spamhaus.org domain, if one is handed down
News Corporation has bought a 7.5 per cent stake in the John Fairfax newspaper group, as Rupert Murdoch’s media empire moves to take advantage of changes to Australia’s ownership laws. The company launched a share raid on Fairfax last night, snapping up 7.5 per cent of the group for $364 million. News Corp bought the shares at $5.20, in a big premium on yesterday’s closing price of $4.74. The move is the latest in a rapid series of media manoeuvres that have followed the passage of the new ownership laws through Federal Parliament
Aladdin has come up with a new way of restricting the data stored on optical discs. It’s XCD
format has a chip built directly into the disc and which fits into a USB port. So, a user needs to plug the disc into their computer to access a cryptophic key before being able to use the data stored on the disc (presumably in some sort of proprietary player) — via Slashdot
Google plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest US solar-powered corporate office complex. The Web search leader said it is set to begin building a rooftop solar-powered generation system at its Mountain View, California headquarters capable of generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1,000 California homes
Some video iPods made after 12 September have the RavMonE virus loaded onto it. In Apple’s announcement they take a swipe at Windows security and encourage Windows users to install anti virus applications
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an international version of the MPAA, is breathing down the necks of 8,000 users of file-sharing software. The new cases cover file sharers in 17 different countries who have been allegedly using sites including BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek and WinMX. For the first time legal action is being taken in Brazil, Mexico and Poland. The IFPI said the actions affect a wide-variety of people: a laboratory assistant has been charged in Finland, while a parson has been served with action in Germany
Creative Labs has updated
two of its MP3 players in order to break their FM radio recorder features. If you bought your Creative device because it said, Record FM radio!
on the box, you’re shit outta luck now — Creative just stole that value out from under your nose. Guess that means I’m not going to be buying anymore Creative devices — via Boing Boing
Wired News editor and former hacker Kevin Poulsen wrote a 1,000-line Perl script that checked MySpace for registered sex offenders. Sifting through the results, he manually confirmed over 700 offenders, including a serial child molester in New York actively trying to hook up with underage boys on the site, and who has now been arrested as a result. MySpace told Congress last June that it didn’t have this capability. Wired News says they will publish Poulsen’s code under an open-source license later this week — via Slashdot
Just days after patching four bugs in PowerPoint, Microsoft is warning of a new attack targeting its presentation software. Microsoft is not aware of any attacks that take advantage of the bug, but with code now in circulation on public Web sites like Securitydot.net, the attack is easily available to attackers
Microsoft is making several key changes to its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system in an attempt to soothe European antitrust worries, while keeping its worldwide distribution plans on schedule
The details of a day in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Britons will reportedly be recorded and compiled into a digital time capsule that will be stored permanently at the British Library. The One Day in History project, described as a blog for the national record
, will feature British celebrities such as actors Stephen Fry and Derek Jacobi, and the writer Bill Bryson contributing to the compilation, along with any Briton with access to the internet who wants to participate
The Australian ISP Exetel has decided to cut bandwidth for P2P traffic in half from noon to midnight. This move will save Exetel about $45,000 per month, while it only takes $75,000 to implement the bandwidth throttling mechanisms
A Hungarian airport has been bilked into trying an insane scheme to RFID-track every passenger. This panopticon was invented by snake-oil salesmen from University College London. It will track every passenger to within one meter, and it will contain countermeasures to prevent passengers from removing or trading their snitch-tags. The idea is that safety
is something abstract that can be enhanced by treating air travelers like rapists on day-release — as opposed to each traveller’s personal security of being free, and un-spied-upon. Imagine the things a terrorist could do with perfect knowledge of the location of every passenger in the airport: I think we’ll put the bomb there
— via Boing Boing
In conflict zones, children are often killed by the live leftovers of war — unexploded bombs or landmines can be mistaken as toys. In Singapore, activist and designer Rapp Collins created frisbees that look like landmines, and volunteers are scattering them throughout the city — via Boing Boing
Eudora is going open source — it’ll be based on Thunderbird, the email client from the Mozilla foundation, the folks who run the Firefox project — via Boing Boing
China has partially unblocked Wikipedia. Wikipedia refused to censor itself to appease totalitarian Beijing, but China unblocked it anyway. China needs Wikipedia and Chinese net-users would access it using circumvention tools — the block on Wikipedia made Chinese Wikipedia users into automatic dissidents. Readers in China report having problems getting to the Chinese language version, and English-language articles on certain subjects, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 — via Boing Boing
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