Intel wants to make laptops more accessible to users and would like to make devices more akin to their desktop counterparts. With the company’s new Interchangeability Initiative, components including the optical drive, LCD screen, battery, power adapter and keyboard would all be upgradeable and can be swapped between notebooks. Hard drives are already for the most part interchangeable as long as you decide on PATA or SATA — via digg
eBay helped to shut down a Russian Web site last week that was offering to sell stolen customer account information for as little as $5 each. Armed with an eBay customer’s login and password, a fraudster could post items for sale, collect payments, and then never deliver the goods. The site was also offering to sell a handful of PayPal accounts
Fujitsu expects to begin shipping a 200GB hard drive suitable for use in laptop computers in the third quarter of this year. Based on that schedule the drive could be available in computers for end-users within the year. That’s earlier than Fujitsu predicted last year when it said such drives wouldn’t be available until 2007
A team of German and Japanese scientists have collaborated to shatter the world record for data transmission speed. By transmitting a data signal at 2.56 terabits per second over a 160-kilometer link (equivalent to 2,560,000,000,000 bits per second or the contents of 60 DVDs) the researchers bettered the old record of 1.28 terabits per second held by a Japanese group. By comparison, the fastest high-speed links currently carry data at a maximum 40Gb/s, or around 50 times slower
Microsoft is for the first time encouraging people to give public feedback on Internet Explorer, with the creation of a bug database for the next version of its browser, IE 7 beta
Scientists in northeastern Ethiopia recently discovered a skull that they think may be evidence of the missing link between Homo erectus and modern man. The hominid cranium — found in two pieces and believed to be between 500,000 and 250,000 years old — comes from a very significant period and is very close to the appearance of the anatomically modern human
, said Sileshi Semaw, director of the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project in Ethiopia
del.icio.us now supports private bookmarks. To try it out, go to settings
and click on private saving
to activate; you’ll then see the new option whenever you save a page — via digg
Reports from Redmond are that Microsoft Employees are not happy with the double delay of Windows and Office being pushed back into 2007. EETimes is reporting that some Microsoft employees are calling for the termination of several top managers Including Brian Valentine, Jim Allchin, and Steve Ballmer for the delay debacle. The report references a blog by Who da’Punk, an anonymous Microsoft employee who asks, where’s the accountability for failure? So far the blog entry has generated over 350 comments from Microsoft insiders and outsiders
Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen. And they could eventually be used to make more advanced prosthetic limbs, say researchers at University of Texas
New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack. City Department of Transportation employees were conducting maintenance on the structure when they found the cache on the top floor of a three-floor space inside the bridge’s base — via Warren Ellis
The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed (by the signing into law of HB 1215, effectively banning all abortions in the state, and the comments of State Senators like Bill Napoli). A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women. To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,
she said… I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction
— via Warren Ellis
Interpol has called on politicians to help law enforcement officers bring cybercriminals to justice by making it easier for evidence to be transferred between countries
The FBI’s office in New York is supposed to be on the front line of America’s defences against terrorism, but it is so strapped for cash it cannot afford e-mail accounts for its agents — via The Guardian
With up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Vista set to be rewritten as the company scrambles to fix internal problems, Microsoft has announced a delay of Windows Vista, that will mean PCs with the new operating system won’t go on sale in Australia until January.
ISPs will be forced to block violent and pornographic material before it reaches home computers if Labor wins the next federal election. Under the policy, announced by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, international web sites would be banned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority if they contained graphic sexual or violent material, rated R or higher. The proposal has been dismissed by the Internet Industry Association as unnecessary
Another 26 episodes of Futurama will shortly go into production. This news comes from none other than Billy West (voice of Fry) himself, in a short post to his own message board. No further details are available, except that it’s likely to be on TV, not straight to DVD
A coyote that came to New York to dine on duck in Central Park was caught on Wednesday after leading police and park rangers on a two-day chase. The coyote, a year-old, tawny-coloured male, which is thought to have made its way to the city from the countryside to the north, was tracked down near 79th Street inside the 341 hectare park. Unfortunately, Hal didn’t make it, due to an infestation of heartworms — via Rogue Sun
StopBadware.org, a corporate-backed watchdog group that monitors software for deceptive and abusive practices, named Kazaa and three other applications as violators of its guidelines
Australian libraries are likely to continue resisting calls from Google to have their collections digitised and made available for search until the Web giant settles disputes with bodies representing copyright holders in the United States
Samsung has developed a 32GB Solid State Disk based on NAND flash memory technology that the company claims might eventually replace conventional hard drives in laptops
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