December 2001 Archive

31 December 2001

A plan to turn the Harry Potter train, the Hogwarts Express, into a tourist attraction appears to have been thwarted by the threat of legal action by Warner Brothers.

Broadband net users in the UK who are worried that their PCs could be subverted by malicious hackers can now let anti-virus companies keep an eye on their machines for them. Security company McAfee has launched a subscription service that uses the web to protect a PC against viruses and attacks by computer vandals.

30 December 2001

Dr Laura, the queen of talk-show intolerance, is learning — the hard way — that the internet will hold her accountable, one angry bulletin board posting or e-mail after another.

Canadian fisheries officers are catching cross-border crab poachers in Boundary Bay using a high-tech digital camera with the power of a 65-times zoom lens.

29 December 2001

Hewlett-Packard board member Walter Hewlett and other opponents of the proposed HP-Compaq Computer merger on Thursday filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission a proxy statement to ask shareholders to vote against the deal at a special HP shareholders meeting next year.

Hours after Monster.com parent TMP Worldwide declined to up its bid for recruitment web site HotJobs.com, Yahoo finalised its agreement to buy the job board for approximately US$436 million.

28 December 2001

The web site which provides News Interactive subscribers with archive searches on News Limited's publications in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, has been massively effected by a suspected viral outbreak.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has launched a stern crackdown on Cambodia's nightlife, unveiled a new punishment Wednesday for rogue karaoke bars — destruction by tanks.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is reportedly concerned about the title of the second film in the trilogy, The Two Towers, but won't try to change it.

An Irish Protestant minister who does not believe in xmas or that Jesus was the son of god has been suspended from his post for three months to reflect on his statements.

An enormous squid that grows seven metres long and lives more than 1,000 metres under the ocean, has baffled scientists with what they call its strange looks and weird behaviour.

27 December 2001

Arsonists are being blamed for most of the bushfires that are raging throughout NSW, destroying homes and threatening lives in a destructive rampage that is expected to get worse by the weekend.

For many elderly people in Britain, computers and the internet are a mystery. Latest official figures show that only one in 10 of those over 65 years old are online. But for one elderly British woman, an early xmas present of a Sony laptop from her stepson, computer consultant Bill Thompson, has opened up a whole new world.

26 December 2001

A hungry bear ate a hunter in Russia's Jewish autonomous region in the country's far east.

A British man who went underground behind blast-proof doors and thick concrete to avoid a family xmas has emerged early because he was dying for a pint of beer.

A rare case of chest injury in one marijuana user may offer a cautionary tale against home-made bongs.

25 December 2001

A Florida company is poised to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievement that opens the door to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening.

The European Space Agency has hit back at American proposals to scale down the operations of the International Space Station.

24 December 2001

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has denounced as a crime Israel's decision to ban him from a highly symbolic xmas eve Mass in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Drop it from a tall building? Hardly a scratch. Shoot it with a submachine gun? It survives. But run it over with a sport utility vehicle or kick it like a football and it crumbles, according to a just published investigation into that evergreen xmas question: How can you get rid of the fruitcake?

23 December 2001

Ever wondered how much snot you swallow in a day — a litre — or why your feet smell? Sylvia Branzei could tell you straight off. Disillusioned with the way children are being taught science, she invented Grossology — the science of really gross things.

A US astronomer claims he has found the first mention of the star of Bethlehem outside the Bible. The reference is in a 4th-century manuscript written by a Roman astrologer and christian convert called Firmicus Maternus.

22 December 2001

Microsoft may have touted Windows XP as the most secure operating system it has made, but the company on Thursday released a bug fix for a security hole that could leave some people's systems open to malicious attack.

Xerox has established in court that it is the inventor of handwriting technology used in Palm devices. The next step is to establish damages which, considering the numbers of Palms sold, will run into several million dollars.

The joke that was voted for as the best in the world is released by the scientific team who conducted the Web-based experiment.

High school students are learning to track cougars as part of a groundbreaking research project that pairs wildlife officials and public schools in an effort to study Washington's wildcats.

21 December 2001

New counter-terrorism measures pushed by a government 'run out of control' will see more Australian agencies able to intercept e-mails for routine investigations, according to civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers of Australia. Australia's NSW Council for Civil Liberties has described the move as reminiscent of the Soviet Secret Police, the KGB.

A research team from CSIRO Minerals is developing a novel 3D imaging camera as part a worldwide push for faster and safer ways to clear land mines. The United Nations estimates that 26,000 people are killed or maimed each year by land mines. Of these, 80 per cent are civilians, especially women, children and farmers in developing countries.

The top scientific breakthrough of 2001 has been learning to wire up the tiny electronic components created from individual atoms and molecules by nanotechnology researchers.

20 December 2001

A lorry driver fired for wearing women's clothes away from work is firing back with a web site attacking his former employer, Winn-Dixie Stores. The US supermarket chain is seeking to shut it down. Peter Oiler, the transvestite trucker who worked for the company for 21 years, is the figurehead of ShameOnWinnDixie.com, a web site supported and maintained by American Civil Liberties Union activists.

RSA has improved the algorithm underpinning the security of wireless networks. This could halt drive-by hacking in its tracks — depending how it is implemented.

More than 3000 generic Internet names until now barred from use in Australia on the grounds they would hand an unfair competitive advantage to their owner will be auctioned.

19 December 2001

The .au Domain Authority has put former administrator Robert Elz on notice that it intends to take the asn.au, org.au and id.au name spaces from his control within 60 days.

The Linux community has applauded the recent police raids on the Australian Warez community, saying that stamping out pirated software will make open-source alternatives more attractive. Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police has been lambasted for its participation in last week's Internet piracy raids with some suggesting software houses should foot their own bill in the fight against illegal software use.

Lineo, the embedded Linux developer, has delivered a scathing attack on Microsoft's recently released white paper comparing Windows XP Embedded and embedded Linux. Lineo points out what it says are numerous inaccuracies and distortions designed to improve the image of Windows. At worst, the paper includes lies.

Companies and organisations will no longer be able to sell or pass on clients' personal details to other organisations without direct consent under tough new privacy laws set to come into force this week.

18 December 2001

The NSW Department of Fair Trading has refused to reveal the results of its investigations into claims that Nokia Australia has been knowingly selling mobile phones with inherent design faults.

Kay Hammond had hoped to pull a rich businessman husband, but instead she's been pulled off eBay's auction service.

Every person in the world would be fingerprinted and registered under a universal identification scheme to fight illegal immigration and people smuggling outlined at a United Nations meeting.

Federal and state wildlife biologists planted false evidence of a rare cat species in two national forests. Had the deception not been discovered, the government likely would have banned many forms of recreation and use of natural resources in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state.

A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network claimed that Islamic militants infiltrated Microsoft and sabotaged the company's Windows XP operating system.

17 December 2001

Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, held in the United States since July on charges of violating the terms of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, has reached a deal with prosecutors under which he will be free to leave the country in exchange for testimony against his employer.

Linux applications seem to be proliferating on the rebel operating system but are they ready for prime-time business? With more than 6 million free downloads so far, Sun's StarOffice is the closest rival on Linux to Microsoft's Office on Windows. But server application vendors are rushing to the platform with database packages, e-mail and accounting systems, plus a host of others.

An obscure metal discovered 90 years ago has been used to demonstrate a feasible solution to a core problem facing computer chip makers. Their problem centres on chip insulation, as chip makers cram in more transistors to make chips more powerful.

Genetic fingerprinting studies indicate that the anthrax spores mailed to Capitol Hill are identical to stocks of the deadly bacteria maintained by the US Army since 1980, according to scientists familiar with the most recent tests.

15 December 2001

Sony is cracking down on PlayStation mod-chip makers, forcing them to halt the distribution of their products or face the wrath of its corporate legal might.

Scientists at Britain's University of West England have developed the SlugBot, a prototype robot capable of hunting down more than 100 slugs an hour.

Grand Theft Auto 3 is now officially banned in Australia, following a second analysis by the OFLC's Classification Review Board. The game will be removed from retail shelves and it is now illegal for it to be offered for sale.

An Iranian bridegroom bit off more than he could chew when, according to custom, he licked honey from his bride's finger during their marriage ceremony and choked to death on one of her false nails.

14 December 2001

Increased reportage of denial of service attacks on Telstra's network recently has raised questions about the telco's security protection, which has been criticised as a 'reactive' approach by one industry specialist.

Scientists have found a simple solution to the problem of having to wrestle the lids off jam jars — don't screw lids on so tightly in the first place.

Dog owners get less exercise than non-dog owners, according to surprising new Australian research.

A unit of Colombia's ultra-right death squads, blamed for some of the worst massacres in a 37-year war, has sent xmas cards to its fighters wishing them peace and a prosperous New Year.

13 December 2001

Melbourne IT has lost its monopoly position as the registry of main Australian Internet domain names.

Telstra yesterday launched a new .name domain space to its one million Telstra BigPond Home customers, saying they can now keep the same Web and e-mail address for life.

Workers will be able to act as Big Brother by monitoring the corporate activities of their bosses on a new Internet site, Bosswatch — which will probably never be as scary as They Rule!

A clever species of crow is causing scientists to puzzle over how most human beings came to be right-handed.

The poison on an arrow that paralyses a wild beast in the jungle and a pill that can relax our tense muscles have something in common — they both come from the curare plant discovered by Brazilian Indians. Now, the indigenous people of Brazil want this type of link between primitive hunting trick and modern pharmaceutical technology to be recognised as a property right that could bring much-needed cash to needy tribes, some of them on the brink of extinction.

David Soul won a libel case today against a journalist who called a play Soul was in the worst he had ever seen — without having seen it.

12 December 2001

A defecating reindeer and an action figure that seeks to infect his daughter and others with a virus are among the most warped toys on the shelf this Christmas.

Scottish and Southern Energy is planning to build a 100 megawatt wind farm in southern Scotland which will involve an investment of 60 million pounds.

A court in Sweden has ruled that a man who donated sperm for artificial insemination, enabling a lesbian couple to have three children, must pay child support after the two women separated.

A man in southern Sweden scared his neighbour's dog, which then tore off his ear and swallowed it.

Policemen in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh played fathers of the bride when an orphan they raised at their police station got married.

11 December 2001

Two of the four winners of the Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the alternative Nobel, accused the United States of adopting policies which threaten the world.

Authorities in the city of Lucknow have decided to serve the 35 or so primates at the local zoo a daily dose of brandy to ensure they stay warm and happy.

At BBC children's TV Newsround Bill Gates got some hard-hitting questions that left him inarticulate, the reporter was Sarah, 15, from Lincolnshire.

Two separate denial of service attacks hit Telstra's data network at the weekend.

10 December 2001

European telecommunication ministers have agreed that unsolicited e-mail and wireless text messages should be prohibited under a new data protection law.

The German Federal Government and the State governments have agreed to new measures for protecting youth from pornography on the Internet: all such content is banned from 11:00pm until 6:00am.

Advanced Micro Devices has developed a transistor with a gate length of 15 manometres that can switch more than 3 trillion times per second.

09 December 2001

KPMG are sending out 'please explain' or 'cease and desist' requests to people found linking to their sites.

Internet backbone provider MCI WorldCom has acknowledged that network-intrusion specialist Adrian Lamo used a security hole in a company Web server to grant himself access to its administrative network. The quizzical hacker poked around WorldCom's system four times over the past two months, ending last Friday when he told the company of the hole and helped it secure a misconfigured server.

Sean Thomas has won the most dreaded of British literary prizes — the Bad Sex in Fiction Award, with the award winning passage: 'It is time, time... Now. Yes. She is so small and compact and yet she has all the necessary features... Shall I compare thee to a Sony Walkman. She is his own Toshiba, his dinky little JVC, his sweet Aiwa... Aiwa, aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwa aiwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.'

A dog may be many men's best friend, but not Nandor C Santho. At least not after Santho's dog helped turn him in to police in what may be the biggest drug bust in Delaware County history.

08 December 2001

A flexible computer screen or TV that you can watch on the train or bus then roll up and put in your pocket is a step closer to reality.

The Computer Emergency Response Team's Co-ordination Centre, an important national clearinghouse for computer-security information, came under attack Wednesday, leaving its main Web site only intermittently reachable.

British supermarket chain Asda said it would be using chicken waste and used cooking oil to power its delivery trucks.

Tasmanian state-owned electricity generator Hydro Tasmania said yesterday it was considering investing in mainland Australia wind projects.

07 December 2001

It is being hailed as one of the most significant advances in nerve regeneration in a decade. After severing an optic nerve in rats, neurologists have found a way to reconnect it to the brain so that it once again transmits normal electrical signals.

The birth records of more than 24 million Californians have been sold by the state and posted on the Internet, offering easy access to critical information needed to create fake identities.

Alfred Taubman, the 76-year-old American shopping mall developer and former chairman of auction house Sotheby's, brokered a deal with his counterpart Anthony Tennant at the auction house Christie's to fix commission on the sales of artworks. He has been found guilty in New York of conspiring to fix art prices.

The largest prime number yet discovered is revealed to the world — all four million digits.

06 December 2001

AOL has joined the growing force developing an open-source alternative to Microsoft's .Net network. And in other related news, the Seven Network is reportedly in advanced talks with AOL Time Warner for a merger of their Australian online businesses.

A defiant Froggy has hit back at OzEmail and iPrimus campaigns to lure the pint-size ISP's customer base, filing complaints with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Department of Fair Trading.

Colins the stowaway cat was finally reunited with her New Zealand master, 18 days after she took a catnap on a South Korea-bound tanker that took to sea.

The Jaragua Sphaero or dwarf gecko measures just 16mm in length. The species lives in Jaragua National Park in the Dominican Republic and on Beata Island, off the southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

05 December 2001

Mail Server hiccups causing a temporary delay in outgoing mail for some OzEmail customers are currently under investigation, and thought to be linked to a sudden surge in traffic thanks to the Bad Trans virus.

An Australian deckhand was electrocuted while thumbing the controller of a Sony PlayStation when a wave smashed into the boat's wheelhouse.

Regional pay TV company Austar United Communications confirmed it will switch off its satellite broadband Internet service. This coming on top of more than 400 staff losing their jobs as part of a major restructuring of the company.

A Canberra primary school banned a teacher after she told a class of six year olds that Santa Claus does not exist.

Italian archaeologists have discovered one of the world's best-preserved prehistoric villages, a Bronze Age Pompeii that was buried in volcanic ash near the world-famous Roman city almost 4,000 years ago.

04 December 2001

The guessing game over Ginger has come to an end as Dean Kamen unveils his engineering marvel under its official name: Segway. Developed at a cost of more than $100 million, Kamen's vehicle is a complex bundle of hardware and software that mimics the human body's ability to maintain its balance. Not only does it have no brakes, it also has no engine, no throttle, no gearshift and no steering wheel. And it can carry the average rider for a full day, non-stop, on only five cents' worth of electricity.

Telstra will evade penalties exceeding AU$10 million despite not complying with all of the competition watchdog's demands by the 30 November deadline.

A new study of the Martian atmosphere has added strength to a popular theory of why there is so much carbon dioxide in the red planet's air. Researchers have detected hydrogen molecules in the atmosphere, which had been predicted but not found for decades.

03 December 2001

Windows XP helps itself to 20% of your bandwidth, a useful tip at TweakXP reveals. But although this sounds like the sort of thing that could easily fuel paranoia, it's more just a case of sloppy and wasteful configuration.

Mojo Partners is being sued by the Business Software Association of Australia members for alleged copyright infringement in relation to Adobe and Microsoft software.

Microsoft offered Germany's parliament and Interior Ministry access to the source code for its Windows operating system to counter concern that data could be diverted to the CIA.

02 December 2001

An instrument that allows fast, non-destructive wood testing has won its developers the CSIRO Chairman's gold Medal for the year 2001. SilviScan allows the rapid analysis of wood samples to determine the optimum and most valuable end use of the wood without destroying trees. It can predict paper properties, or the strength of sawn timber from tree structure.

Scientists are recommending a slash and burn method to replenish the world's mahogany trees. Researchers in Indonesia claim planting seedlings in slash and burn fields imitates what happens in nature when a fire follows a hurricane and is better than other ways used by forestry experts to re-establish mahogany trees.

Stung by media reports on the dire conditions in Kabul's ruined zoo, keepers around the world launched a fund drive to support what is left of the animal park in Afghanistan's battered capital.

01 December 2001

Camouflage make-up that can protect troops from the heat of explosions is being developed by British defence researchers. Wearing the cream could mean the difference between a severe burn that needs a skin graft and a far less serious injury.

A new system combining a mobile phone and a cryptographic technique will soon allow you to get the name of any music track you hear on the radio — perfect if the DJ babbles on afterwards without naming the tune.

Tiny tubes of carbon may conduct electricity without any resistance, at temperatures stretching up past the boiling point of water. The tubes would be the first superconductors to work at room temperature.

Scientists say they can genetically modify whole mosquito populations so that the flies are either susceptible to pesticides, or can't transmit the malaria parasite. And they would only need to release relatively few GM mosquitoes to kick-start the process.

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