AOL has released the search logs of over 650,000 users for research purposes. This looks like it may become a public relations disaster for AOL, as well as a privacy nightmare for the users involved as Michael Arrington of TechCrunch notes: AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the ability to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box
— via Slashdot
The nation of Cameroon, which controls the .cm top level domain, has typo-squatted all of the .com domain space. They have placed a wildcard DNS record to redirect all traffic to an ad-based search page. Unlike the earlier case of Verisign putting a wildcard in the real .com domain, ICANN has very little direct control over what a nation can do with their own TLD — via Slashdot
Reading blogs via popular RSS or Atom feeds may expose computer users to hacker attacks, a security expert warns. Attackers could insert malicious JavaScript in content that is transferred to subscribers of data feeds that use the popular RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom formats, Bob Auger, a security engineer with Web security company SPI Dynamics, said last Thursday in a presentation at the Black Hat security event in Las Vegas
Google has started warning people when search results could potentially lead them to malicious code. The search giant is using data from the Stop Badware Coalition to flag sites that are potentially host to malicious software. Google, along with Sun Microsystems and Chinese PC maker Lenovo, announced support for the group in January. People who attempt to go to a Web site that has been identified as risky by the coalition are taken to a warning page. Warning — the site you are about to visit may harm your computer!
the page states in bold type, then suggesting users can learn more about malware and how to protect yourself at StopBadware.org
How much greater data density? In the Hitachi Maxell device, a single disc about 1 cm larger in diameter than a CD will buy you 300GB. By way of contrast, HD-DVD currently offers a maximum of 30GB on a 2-layer disc, and Blu-ray tops out at 50GB. Although upgrades are in the works that promise to increase the capacity of both of those formats, even the most pie-in-the-sky predictions fall short of what is planned for merely the first commercial generation of holographic storage. Future plans for that medium include boosting the capacity to 800GB in two years, and 1.6TB per disc by 2010
The Domesday Book has gone online. As one of the earliest public records goes online, anyone with an internet connection will be able to access this important document. Amongst other interesting facts, the BBC is reporting that the Book can still be used today in court for property disputes. In an interesting development, the National Archives are making online searches free, but downloads of data will cost £3.50. Similar launches of historical web sites in the past have struggled to keep up with server loads in their first days and weeks, so it remains to be seen whether the Domesday Book online will be more or less fragile than the parchment originals — via Slashdot
Brazil has published a list of more than 5,000 generic terms from the Portuguese language related to Brazilian plant biological diversity to raise awareness and prevent further misuse of trademarks that hinder Brazilian exports. The Brazilian government has been, and is, involved in a number of trademark disputes with companies that, for example, take a name of a fruit in Brazilian Portuguese and trademark it to get exclusive rights to commercialise it under that name in a certain country or region. This hinders Brazilian exports, especially when it happens in larger markets, Cristiano Franco Berbert of the Permanent Mission of Brazil in Geneva told Intellectual Property Watch
French scientists demonstrated that seaweed, when burned to a crisp, is a great material for making supercapacitors that could provide more power than traditional batteries — via Boing Boing
A shape-shifting lens has been developed that alters its focal length when squeezed by an artificial muscle, rather like the lens in a human eye. The muscle, a ring of polymer gel, expands and contracts in response to environmental changes, eliminating the need for electronics to power or control the devices
om3ga has performed an experiment as to the best method to fix scratched CDs. He set himself the criteria that it can’t take longer that 5 minutes and it has to be something in his house. The result isn’t what you’d think… Hair Gel — via Slashdot
Green Wi-Fi is a non-profit that seeks to provide last mile internet access with nothing more than a single broadband internet connection, rooftops and the sun. Their wi-fi access nodes, which consist of a small solar panel, a heavy-duty battery, and a router, can be linked together to extend one internet connection into a larger network
Last week the BBC demanded video host YouTube remove many copies of its Top Gear
TV service from its web site. That was because, this week, the BBC made Top Gear
available in its entirety on-line at BBC2 — via digg
YouTube removed all parody/fanfilm/spoof Star Wars content two days ago due to copyright violation. This morning, in an incredibly awesome PR move, Lucasfilm contacted YouTube, and told them to put it all back online — every last one — via digg
Telstra’s hopes of building a $3.4 billion fibre broadband network are near collapse, with negotiations between telco and competition regulator set to be abandoned as early as today
Time Warner says its plan for AOL to offer free email and web services will generate higher profits starting next year, rejecting Wall Street concerns that the move could destroy the internet division’s main source of revenue
Computer researchers are developing a prototype architecture for halting distributed denial-of-service attacks, where a barrage of traffic is directed at a server to shut it down
Looks like a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland believes that invisibility may be possible. And its not going to be a potion or a cloak, but will come in the form of a device
German scientists may have found a way to significantly reduce the radioactive decay time of nuclear waste. This could render the waste harmless in just tens of years and make disposal much less difficult as opposed to current standards — via Slashdot
Armor Holdings plans to start selling their liquid armour next year. The new armour, originally envisioned to be spread on like peanut butter, is instead sprayed onto Kevlar in ultrathin coats. It’s a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. Together they produce a sheer-thickening liquid
that stiffens instantly into a shield when hit hard by an object. It reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates — via Slashdot
Boston is toying with a somewhat unique approach to their version of the city-wide low-cost wireless network. Rather than put the network in the hands of a private organisation under contract the city may allow a non-profit group to run the show — via Slashdot
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