Column of the Wolf

A daily mix of news covering technology, science, human rights, wolf news, stupid human tricks and many other topics.

21.10.2009

Oracle is seeing fierce opposition from the European Union against its proposed Sun Microsystems acquisition. Technology and consumer groups alike are pushing the European Commission to block the deal for one reason: MySQL. Sun owns MySQL, and opponents are concerned that Oracle's ownership of the open-source database will stifle competition

European astronomers announced they had found 32 new planets orbiting stars outside our solar system and said they believe their find means that 40 per cent or more of sun-like stars have such planets. The planets range in size from about five times the size of Earth to about five times the size of Jupiter, they said. More have been discovered, too, they said, promising more announcements later this year

In the 10 years since researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, first reported producing the superheavy element 114, some tens of other sightings of the element (as well as elements 115, 116, and 118) have been documented — but all by the same group. Now a team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, led by Heino Nitsche and Ken Gregorich, has confirmed the results

20.10.2009

Amiga and Hyperion Entertainment announced a settlement over ownership and licensing over AmigaOS 4.0 and future versions. Since the bankruptcy of Commodore, Amiga's history has been littered with lawsuits that have affected the development of Amiga hardware and software. Having a lawsuit-free OS probably will help a great deal to the continuity and recovery of the Amiga heritage. Hyperion also provides AmigaOS SDKs for developers — via Slashdot

A prediction two years ago by IT security solutions firm Kaspersky Lab on the possible use of YouTube as a medium for disseminating spam has finally been fulfilled. Kaspersky Lab reported it has detected the mass mailing of unsolicited messages that include links to video advertisements on the popular video hosting site. However, this is the first time the company's specialists have detected a mass mailing specifically intended to make users view an advertising video

The fake antivirus phenomenon has taken an unpleasant turn with the discovery of a Windows program that not only cons users into buying an unnecessary license but appears to lock files and applications on the victim's PC. According to security company Panda Security, rogueware program Total Security 2009 starts out in conventional fashion with the 'discovery' of a non-existent malware infection for which it demands an unusually ambitious $79.95, and even has the cheek to ask a further $19.95 for premium technical support

19.10.2009

Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk. Microsoft shipped the Firefox add-on as part of a .Net software update last February, causing outrage among some Firefox users, who complained that the software was sneaked onto their systems without their knowledge or approval and was extremely difficult to remove

Germany's new Government coalition has spoken out against legislation that will allow alleged pirated to be disconnected from the Internet. The two parties, CDU and FDP, agree that such a law is not going to solve the piracy problem. In the coalition agreement that's currently drafted both parties have agreed not to allow Internet disconnections for alleged copyright infringement offences. The decision is huge blow to the lobbyists of the movie and music industries, but not really unexpected

The results of a new poll reveal the extent of opposition to Lord Mandelson's proposals for tough sanctions against alleged file-sharers. The survey, commissioned by the Open Rights Group, shows that not only is the public in favour of due process, but a third would be much less likely to vote for political parties supporting these proposals

Stem cells so far have been used to mend tissues ranging from damaged hearts to collapsed tracheas. Now the multifaceted cells have proved successful at regrowing bone in humans. In the first procedure of its kind, doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center replaced a 14-year-old boy's missing cheekbones — in part by repurposing stem cells from his own body. The technique, should it be approved for widespread use, could benefit some seven million people in the US who need more bone--everyone from cancer patients to injured war veterans

18.10.2009

New Canadian anti-spam and anti-spyware legislation is scheduled for a key vote on Monday. Michael Geist reports that the copyright lobby has been pushing to remove parts of the bill that would take away exceptions which currently allow spyware to be installed without authorisation. The copyright lobby is deeply concerned that this change will block attempts to track possible infringement through electronic means. There have also been proposals to extend the exemptions granted to telecom providers to include the installation of programs without the user's express consent, which Geist says will 'leave the door open to private, surreptitious surveillance — via Slashdot

Laser-controlled flies may be the latest addition to the neuroscientist's tool kit, thanks to a new technique. Researchers have devised a way to write memories onto the brains of flies, revealing which brain cells are involved in making bad memories

Stanford University researchers used nanotechnology and magnetics to create a biosensor that they said should be able to detect cancer in its early stages, making a cure more likely. The sensor, which sits on a microchip, is 1,000 times more sensitive than cancer detectors used clinically today, according to scientists at Stanford. The researchers announced this week that the sensors have been effective in finding early-stage tumours in mice, giving them hope that it can be equally successful in detecting elusive cancers in humans

17.10.2009

Google is launching a new online service for booksellers next year called Google Editions, which will let readers buy books and read them on gadgets ranging from cell phones to possibly e-book devices. It's the first foray into charging for books for the Mountain View, California-based company, which began its Google Books program in 2004, and will put it in competition with Amazon's Kindle reader

Geoff McCormack, a student at Deakin University, had a fascinating idea for a final project — to send a balloon up 30,000 metres into the stratosphere with a digital camera attached. The university was supportive, and the project took shape. Although there were some serious hitches along the way, the project was successful, and he managed to retrieve the balloon — with the pictures. What's really amazing is that the total cost was so low; the most expensive part was buying the helium gas for approximately AU$250 — via Slashdot

16.10.2009

A 12 million digit prime number, the largest such number ever discovered, has landed a voluntary math research group a $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The number known as a Mersenne prime, is the 45th known Mersenne prime, written shorthand as 2 to the power of 43,112,609, minus 1. A Mersenne number is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two, the group stated

In the hope of helping oncologists remove every piece of tumour tissue during surgery, researchers are developing new imaging tools that work in real time in the operating room. European researchers have now demonstrated that a chemical analysis instrument called a mass spectrometer can be coupled with an electroscalpel to create a molecular profile of tissue during surgery. The researchers have shown that the method can be used to map out different tissue types and distinguish cancerous tissue. The device will begin clinical trials next month

By putting sensors in the brains of mice as they ran through a Quake-derived virtual reality, scientists have found a way to study neurological activity in moving animals. The setup allows for real-time, almost-real-motion tracking of single neurons. That feat has eluded researchers who have a fuzzy, general understanding of brain systems, but little knowledge of how individual cells actually work. They hope that cell-level details will make sense of motion, cognition and other complex mental functions

15.10.2009

Australia's peak science body has earned a $200 million windfall — and counting — from its long-running patent battles with the world's biggest computer companies. The CSIRO yesterday delivered its best results in five years, recording a surplus of $122 million in the 2009 financial year — more than twice the size of last year's. It had been budgeting for a $34.2 million loss. Despite the economic downturn, the CSIRO earned $634.8 million in royalties from its own inventions — the largest amount it has ever recorded and a 74 per cent increase on just two years ago. Much of this success relates to a patent granted to it in 1996 that the CSIRO argues is essential for setting up wireless networks. It claims the technology is used in more than 800 million devices right now

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1-megabit broadband Web access a legal right. According to the report, every person in Finland (a little over 5 million people, according to a 2009 estimate) will have the right of access to a 1Mb broadband connection starting in July. And they may ultimately gain the right to a 100Mb broadband connection. Just more than a year ago, Finland said it would make a 100Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. Wednesday's announcement is considered an intermediate step

Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones. The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice. The phenomenon, dubbed magnetricity, could be used in magnetic storage or in computing

The Guardian newspaper was forbidden by a judge from reporting a question in UK parliament. The press's freedom to do so has been fought for since at least 1688 and fully acknowledged since the 19th century. At issue was a matter of public record — but the country's libel laws meant that the newspaper could not inform the public of what parliament was up to. The question concerned the oil trading company Trafigura, the toxic waste scandal they are involved in, and their generous use of libel lawyers to silence those who would report on the whole thing. After tweeters and bloggers shouted about Trafigura all over the Internet, the company's lawyers agreed to drop the gag request — via Slashdot

14.10.2009

Last night, a routine maintenance of Sweden's top-level domain .se went seriously wrong, introducing an error that made DNS lookups for all .se domain names start failing. The entire Swedish Internet effectively stopped working at this point. Swedish (.se) web sites could not be reached, email to Swedish domain names stopped working, and for many these problems persist still

An international expert on ATM card skimming gangs has warned Australia is seen as a soft target because of large withdrawal limits and old ATM technology. Chief inspector Elvis Tudose, from the Romanian police, delivered the warning at the National Identity Crime Symposium being held on the Gold Coast yesterday. Inspector Tudose told reporters international criminals were willing to take the risk of being caught because the massive profits far outweigh any punishment a first offender is likely to be given in Australia

British sci-fi author Charles Stross has confessed that he has long hated the Star Trek franchise for its relegation of technology as irrelevant to plot and character development — and the same goes for similar shows such as Babylon Five. The problem, according to Stross, is that as Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore has described in a recent speech, the writers of Star Trek would simply insert technology or science into the script whenever needed, without any real regard to its significance; then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later — via Slashdot

13.10.2009

For the past month, some Mac OS X users have been reporting their personal data missing after logging into their guest accounts, and Apple now says it's working on finding a fix

Unlucky T-Mobile Sidekick owners lost their contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists and photos this weekend when Microsoft subsidiary Danger suffered a technical glitch. Not all T-Mobile Sidekick owners were impacted, and the actual extent of the data loss is unclear. However, those affected have little hope of recovering lost data, according to Microsoft

A spider that dines almost exclusively on plants has been described by scientists. It is the first-known predominantly vegetarian spider; all of the other known 40,000 spider species are thought to be mainly carnivorous. Bagheera kiplingi, which is found in Central America and Mexico, bucks the meat-eating trend by feasting on acacia plants

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