The US Department of Homeland Security plans to develop software that analyses and summarises opinions expressed in articles, providing a possible tool for better monitoring what is written about the United States in the global press
Social networking web giant MySpace.com has moved to protect its Australian operation and users from music copyright infringements
Google has finally integrated Writely and spreadsheets into Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Writely.com now redirects to this new location. The design has also changed to match the look of other Google services
Microsoft appears to be more deeply involved in SCO’s legal battles against Linux than previously reported
IceWeasel is a version of Firefox created for use in free
operating systems like Debian (and its derivatives, such as Ubuntu), which eschew any element that can’t be freely reused by anyone, for any reason. Iceweasel was developed because Firefox and the Firefox logo are trademarked, and because some of the default Firefox plugins can’t be freely redistributed. Iceweasel will be synchronized with the current Firefox release, but without the non-free artwork and plugins — via Boing Boing
An international team of scientists has discovered a substance to heal bleeding wounds within seconds. They’re using a solution of protein molecules that self-organises into a biodegradable gel. Until now they’ve only tested it on animals, but the tests were highly successful — via Slashdot
Mexico’s Teotihuacan, once the center of a sprawling pre-Hispanic empire, is set to become the launch pad for an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life. Starting Tuesday, enthusiasts from around the world have a chance to submit text, images, video and sounds that reflect human nature to be included in the message. Those contributions — part of media company Yahoo’s Time Capsule project — will be digitalised and beamed with a laser into space 25 October from the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, now an archeological site near Mexico City
CNet looks at what happens to the loved ones of people who take their passwords to the grave — Microsoft and Yahoo will provide you with your departed’s mail (but Yahoo requires a court order!), while data that is locked up locally may not be retrievable at all — via Boing Boing
Seeing as most riders that make their way into the public eye tend to be about the weird demands of musicians, it makes a nice change to see the hilarity that Jos Grain, Iggy and The Stooges roadie, has invested in their rider.
3 x MARSHALL JCM 800 100WATT AMPLIFIERS That have been tested recently. And when I say “recently”, I don’t mean “Sometime in the three weeks preceding the occasion when it fell 5 metres off the top shelf in the warehouse as we were fork-lifting it back up, after it came back from that Inane Clown Pussy gig where they had the Piss On The Live Marshall Amplifier Competition (If you make smoke and sparks come out, and you are still alive afterwards, we’ll give you a bottle of M***er Lite. And a go on the band’s skateboard. And some clown make-up.) The sound it made as it hit the concrete!! BAD-OI-OI-OING!!! How we laughed”.
No! I mean recently. Within living memory. Preferably that of a goldfish.
With regard to the lighting design: (This was written by someone who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. I cannot tell a lie. Lights-wisely speaking, I’m an absolute arse-head. But I know what I like. And although nobody goes home whistling the lights, it’s also true that no-one goes to gigs to stare at the fucking P.A. stacks.)
Joy! — via Boingboing
iiNet has sold its New Zealand operations, ihug, to mobile phone giant Vodafone for $NZ41 million (AU$36.4 million). ihug, New Zealand’s third biggest internet service provider, was put up for sale in July after iiNet said it had received a large number of approaches to buy the company
Google Buys YouTube
Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. YouTube will operate independently, and the companies will work together on building new features for independent users as well as for aspiring directors, they said in a press release. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006
Apple has admitted problems getting hold of enough replacement parts to repair faulty MacBooks that have been randomly shutting down. Many owners of Apple’s MacBook, which was launched in May, subsequently complained about the computer randomly shutting down after a couple of months use. The issue was caused by faulty logic boards (motherboards), problematic heat-sinks or a combination of both
A UK firm is hoping a mobile phone security system it has developed which sets off a high pitch scream, permanently locks the handset and wipes all data if stolen, will halt the spiraling rise in phone theft. The sound will only stop if the battery runs out or is removed, but it will begin again as soon as the battery is replaced or charged. Even replacing the SIM card will not help
President Bush, again defying Congress via a signing statement, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists
Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist known as a fierce critic of the Kremlin’s actions in Chechnya, has been found dead in Moscow. The 48-year-old mother of two was found shot dead in a lift at her apartment block in the capital. A pistol and four bullets were found near her body and a murder investigation has been launched — via Warren Ellis
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is closer to being made into a film by director Terry Gilliam… if the director can track down a coin that hasn’t been minted since the 1780s called a groat — via Boing Boing
Mark Thomas, the stand-up comedian, has done more to expose illegal arms deals than the Ministry of Defence, the Export Control Organisation and HM Revenue and Customs put together, simply by searching the internet and the trade press and attending the arms fairs the British government hosts — via Defense Tech
Google has launched Google Code Search, which the company says will let programmers search billions of lines of code for tips on how to write their own software. The service, conceived by the Google Labs early technology group, will crawl publicly available code, most of which is made available through open-source projects. The search and indexing covers code on Web pages and code that resides in compressed files. Google expects that the search engine will be used primarily as a learning tool to help students and serious programmers, rather than a way to find and copy another person’s code. Hackers immediately found new and interesting uses for it
An undercover TV investigation claims to have infiltrated criminal gangs selling thousands of UK credit card and passport details for as little as US$9.50 each from offshore call centres. The Dispatches
documentary, shown on UK’s Channel 4, follows a 12-month investigation. It included footage of middlemen offering an undercover reporter the credit card details gleaned from Indian call centres of 100,000 UK bank customers
Telstra has launched a AU$1 billion NEXT G mobile broadband network, offering high-speed wireless mobile and Internet access to 98 percent of Australians. NEXT G, which boasts 12 channels of Foxtel television, sport and movie downloads, is more than 100 times bigger geographically and up to five times faster than any other 3GSM network in Australia
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