February 2003 Archive

28 February 2003

Terry Jones: 'I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I!'

In an attempt to curb identity theft on its service, online career listing site Monster.com has begun warning its users of fake job postings bent on stealing personal information.

Students at the 151-year-old Tufts University were paid as little as $20/month to relay spam from computers in their dorms. Interestingly enough, the students approached the spammers about this scheme and not vice-versa.

Genetic material has been used to store information for around five billion years. Now scientists have discovered a way to use it to store the information we desire.

27 February 2003

Members of the W3C are leading by fiat, not example, according to the third biannual survey, published by Helsinki, Finland-based Web designer Marko Karppinen. It showed that a vast majority of the W3C member home pages do not pass the standards body's own test for compliance with W3C recommendations Telstra is considering launching a 128kbps symmetrical ISDN product before the end of the financial year in a move to extend high-speed Internet access across its regional user base Andrew O'Conner, a former public defender, was abruptly interrupted at the St John's College Library when city police officers arrested him at the computer terminal he was using, handcuffed him, and brought him for questioning by Secret Service agents who accused him of making threatening remarks about the retarded monkey boy in an Internet chat room. Interestingly enough, US senators from both parties are accusing the FBI of excessive secrecy and demanding details of how federal agents use antiterrorist laws to spy on people's Internet activity

26 February 2003

One of the Federal Government's main policy objectives, a free trade agreement with the United States, could damage the interests of farmers and hurt Australia's broader economic interests, according to an independent report.

The South Australian Government is drafting legislation to fight identity theft — the process of assuming another persons identity for nefarious reasons.

Telstra is rigging a major upgrade of its network switching gear from 1 gigabit a second to 10 gigabits a second.

The vast majority of people say they have been mentally tortured at one point in their lives by a song that keeps repeating itself over and over in their heads.

25 February 2003

Greenpeace activists, some dressed as tigers, forced the closure of Esso's British headquarters and 100 petrol stations yesterday as a protest against what it called the firm's 'fuelling of the Iraq crisis'.

Amnesia, a small Australian dot-com, claims to have found the solution to the problem of selling music online in a way that satisfies both consumers and record labels, and has received backing from Telstra to bring it to market.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service took careful note last summer as computer hobbyists Jason Kaczor and Brad Haines invited participants to help find access points to wireless networks in Red Deer, Alta.

Computer games that simulate killings of particular races are being sold over the internet and Australian laws are ineffective to deal with them.

24 February 2003

School officials ordered a 16-year-old student to either take off a t-shirt emblazoned with the words 'International Terrorist' and a picture of President Bush or go home, saying they worried it would inflame passions at the school where a majority of students are Arab-American.

Environmental pollution crusader Erin Brockovich and her partner, Ed Masry, have a new cause — allegedly cancer-causing gases they say are leaking into the air in Los Angeles.

Hard working Nigerian craftsmen say they have run into an unexpected problem when trying to sign up for a new national identity card scheme: their fingerprints have worn out.

23 February 2003

To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war... Robert Byrd, a US senator, appeals to fellow Americans to reject the administration's 'outrageous, reckless and inexcusable' foreign policy.

A lawsuit over possibly fraudulent withdrawals from cash machines in London could gag academic research into the vulnerabilities of banks' cryptographic systems. Dr Klaus Lackner has invented an artificial tree designed to do the job of plants. But the synthetic tree does not much resemble the leafy variety.

22 February 2003

eBay logs all user interaction with them, and will happily hand over all the information to any law-enforcement official without a warrant — a fax is quite sufficient. They seem quite proud of their 'flexible' privacy policy.

Arch rivals AOL and Microsoft say illicit e-mail has so overwhelmed their efforts to stop it that they are joining forces to press for tough federal legislation to stymie the spammers.

Experts have poured cold water on claims sweeping the Internet that Swiss researchers have cracked the ubiquitous SSL protocol.

Unlike Hollywood's Hannibal Lecter or the real-life Ted Bundy, not all serial killers present an easy-to-spot profile ripe with rituals, methods and arcane messages. Many remain unnoticed for years because their crimes show little or no common link.

21 February 2003

Intel is setting ambitious targets for the battery life of a laptop and hopes people will be able to use the newest machines for up to eight hours before they need to be recharged.

Now teachers may want to rewrite the lesson about oil and water not mixing. If you first remove any gas that is dissolved in the water, it will mix spontaneously and even stay that way indefinitely, according to chemist Ric Pashley of the Australian National University in Canberra.

A new algorithm that spots jumps in a word's rate of usage could indicate fast-emerging trends in weblogs or customer complaints.

Australian entrepreneur, Bernard Palmer, has created what may be the first antispam service that lets its users charge for the privilege of sending them e-mail.

20 February 2003

A malicious attacker broke into computer systems and gained access to several million Visa and MasterCard accounts in the US in one of the largest security breaches to affect the two credit card companies

Major record companies have instigated a legal battle with Australian universities over students' alleged use of university networks to engage in illegal file swapping. But while the major music companies may fret over falling revenue, one label saw its business jump 33 percent last year — thanks in part to the recordable compact discs that the industry says are hurting its sales. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is using CD-Rs, to ensure that each release in its extensive catalogue is always available.

How to regulate wolves and wolf-dog hybrids is the subject of debate in cities in Washington and among lawmakers in Olympia.

China has sentenced Tao Haidong, an Internet activist, to seven years in prison for publishing articles critical of the Chinese government.

19 February 2003

An online civil liberties organisation has raised serious concerns about the implementation of an e-mail monitoring policy for NSW education institutions, while a teachers' body has issued a guarded response.

IBM and Ipex are likely to escape penalties over their failure to meet industry development requirements under their federal government outsourcing contracts, after the Government suggested it would water down the provisions. While Senator Richard Alston's equally weak reaction to the tight and unpopular download caps imposed by broadband ISPs is that they were 'almost inevitable'.

Consumers will pay more under the major banks' plan to more than double charges on using Eftpos terminals in shops. The Australian Retailers Association believes the banks plan to increase the charge on merchants for providing the Eftpos service from 17 cents a transaction to 37 cents.

18 February 2003

The NSW government is moving to clamp down on crime rings' stealing and trafficking in credit card data following recent thefts involving information from users of ATMs.

The beggars are making their pleas for help via the Web. Some are struggling single mums or recent university graduates loaded down with student loans and maxed-out credit cards. Others are childless couples seeking treatment for infertility. One even makes a pitch for a cat named Buster.

Airline pilots are taking 'naps' for up to two hours during flights and ordering cabin crew not to disturb them.

People who believe they have been 'taken' by aliens show real stress symptoms like those of traumatised war veterans.

17 February 2003

Two experts in a new technology which maps telephone numbers to the Internet are scheduled to address an Australian workshop as the United States government throws its considerable weight behind moves for its implementation.

The last secret of one of the greatest historical hoaxes in the history of the West has finally been revealed — it was a joke pulled on an eminent UC Berkeley professor by members of E Clampus Vitus, which describes itself as either a historical drinking society or a drinking historical society. It involves the mysterious 'Plate of Brasse' supposedly left by Sir Francis Drake in Marin County 424 years ago when he claimed what he called New Albion for England.

Access to a Windows 2000 CD is all that is needed to bypass most Windows XP security features. An attacker can boot up XP and start the Windows 2000 Recovery Console which allows them to operate as any user, even Administrator, without requiring them to enter a password. This method even allows someone to copy files to removable media, something which normally the Administrator can't even do in the Recovery Console.

The Prime Minister insists he will not be swayed by the human tide of protest against a war with Iraq — not by the more than 250,000 people who marched in Sydney yesterday, nor the 10 million who rallied worldwide. While the United States and Britain have vowed to press on with a second United Nations resolution, preparing the way for war on Iraq in spite of unprecedented worldwide peace protests.

16 February 2003

Two weeks ago it was revealed that Microsoft's MSN portal targeted Opera users, by purposely providing them with a broken page. As a reply to MSN's treatment of its users, Opera Software has released a very special Bork edition of its Opera 7 for Windows browser. The Bork edition behaves differently on one Web site: MSN. Users accessing the MSN site will see the page transformed into the language of the famous Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show: Bork, Bork, Bork Close to one million people, from veteran peaceniks to first-time marchers, have packed central London to tell the government and the United States to pull back from war with Iraq in the country's biggest ever peace march Following firmly in Clinton's footsteps, the retarded monkey boy's US$15 billion AIDS plan for Africa and Haiti would restrict the flow of money to groups that perform or promote abortions overseas

15 February 2003

The nine companies promoting Blu-ray Disc technology — a next-generation recordable DVD format using blue-violet lasers — announced Thursday that licensing will begin 17 February. Blu-ray Disc technology allows for 27GB storage capacities on a single-sided 12cm disc.

A little altruism could go a long way in speeding up the Internet. That's the conclusion two Cornell University computer scientists, Éva Tardos and Tim Roughgarden, came to after finding that computer networks tend to be 'selfish' when each tries to route traffic by the fastest pathway, causing that path to become congested and slow.

Human rights watchdog Privacy International has started a competition to find the world's most pointless, intrusive, annoying and self-serving security measures.

Bring On The Junk! Junkyard Wars is looking for new contestants to compete on the 2003 series. Teams of contestants are given ten hours to build a machine to solve a specific challenge using parts they salvage from a junkyard.

14 February 2003

Meganet has developed an encryption technology that appears to be unbreakable, enabling governments and corporations, to keep their data safely out of the hands of competitors, thieves and saboteurs.

Telstra has plans to upgrade technology at many exchanges around the country to enable people to have high-speed internet access. However, those who are eager to find out if their exchange is on the upgrade list will have to wait until the deed is done.

Humans make an attractive meal for all lions and not, as had traditionally been believed, just old and infirm animals unable to catch faster-moving meals.

13 February 2003

Spheral Solar has created a flexible, power-generating material that looks like denim can be draped over almost any shape.

Russia has threatened to use its veto to block Washington's plans for a United Nations-endorsed Iraq war, as China swung behind the European proposal to beef up weapons inspections and avoid military action. While the anthrax rebellion in the Australian armed forces has widened, with another eight sailors en route to or already in the Persian Gulf refusing inoculations.

Karl Suleman has finally been forced to face fraud charges stemming from the AU$60 million investment scam based around KSE and the Froggy group of companies.

Western Australia's Minister for Consumer Protection, John Kobelke, has issued a public warning about Web-based business service Australian Trade Register, describing its services as 'questionable'.

12 February 2003

The UK parliament is using the domain www.parliament.uk. It's a top-level domain because it was registered before August 1996, before Nominet handled .uk domains. But since there is no registrar, they can't prove that they own it.

France has released 'en masse' a new card to replace money. No private information is stored on the card and anybody can use it. Just like cash: you lose it and someone else uses it.

An internal memo from Sun strongly suggests that Java should not be used for Sun's internal projects. More interesting still, they go on to state which other languages fulfil Java's goals better than Java does itself. Finally, the memo states Sun's own Solaris is the cause of many of Java's woes.

11 February 2003

A start-up company, Neah Power Systems, says it has developed a way to make fuel cells out of silicon, a change that potentially could increase the performance of cells and make them easier to manufacture.

Net freedom fighter Lawrence Lessig has urged the UK Government to ensure that digital copyright laws are fair.

The US Department of Commerce has quietly renewed ICANN's contract to run the Internet — but other organisations are crying foul, saying ICANN is simply not up to the job.

The construction of one of Britain's most famous ancient landmarks, the towering megaliths at Stonehenge, might have been supervised by the Swiss, or maybe even the Germans.

10 February 2003

France and Germany have developed a secret alternative plan to war against Iraq in which thousands of armed UN troops would enforce Saddam Hussein's disarmament.

Several Colorado lawmakers are supporting legislation to elevate the status of cats and dogs from property to companions.

Mobile phone maker Nokia has warned that a growing number of its handsets are being damaged by badly made or counterfeit batteries from other companies.

Ratepayers in the City of Stonnington have helped pay for a booklet by a pro-life group that claims there is a link between abortion and breast cancer. The claim has been condemned by a leading cancer specialist as untrue and scare mongering.

09 February 2003

Madeleine Rees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bosnia, has broken ranks to demand that UN officials, international peacekeepers and police who are involved in sex crimes be should be stripped of their immunity and prosecuted in their home countries.

GE has a new polymer called Sollx that covers plastic surfaces and is more resistant to scratches and random chemicals compared to conventional paint.

Michael Fey, a priest from Duisburg Germany, built a computer interface into his washing machine to let it run an automatic brewing program.

08 February 2003

The retarded monkey boy has signed a secret directive ordering the government to develop, for the first time, national-level guidance for determining when and how the United States would launch cyber-attacks against enemy computer networks Ageing television satellites in orbit could become part of a European digital radio service for drivers Engineering Professor Susumu Tachi, from the University of Tokyo, claims he and his research team have developed a system that can make you invisible A man has been charged with killing twelve wombats in multiple hit and runs along a road in the Wollemi National Park

07 February 2003

British scientists at the National Physical Laboratory in London have invented the darkest material on Earth. The key to the nickel and phosphorous coating's blackness is that its surface is pitted with microscopic craters The retarded monkey boy's plan for a massive antiterrorism database centre, announced in his state of the union address last week, could be up and running within months, from a technology standpoint. But harder to overcome will be privacy concerns of a non-technical nature The Bush administration is drafting a proposal that would greatly increase logging in national forests in the Sierra Nevada and effectively jettison an elaborate set of environmental protections adopted in 2000 after years of study and analysis

06 February 2003

Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has called on Australians to return their 'terrorism kits' to the Federal Government. But don't mark it return to sender, address it to John Howard personally and, if you really want to mess with the little toad, send it registered post The cut-throat battle between Microsoft's Xbox games machine and Sony's PlayStation 2 has put Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division US$348 million in the red Only a couple of weeks after its networks became infected with the ExploreZip virus, the BBC has managed to mail a copy of the Sobig worm to fans of the long-running Radio 4 show, The Archers Five jurors in the trial of a medicinal marijuana advocate issued a public apology to him and demanded that the judge grant him a new trial

05 February 2003

The US Fish and Wildlife Service will ease the federal protections that allowed the wolves to make a comeback. As early as next year, all federal protections for wolves could be removed and their management turned over to the states. Conservationists fear the move will lead to the wolves' numbers dropping off again.

Electronic security experts have warned that face recognition and other biometric systems are 'categorically not' an answer for airport security and identity checking.

Three Victorian detectives and a former detective were today arrested by corruption investigators and charged with trafficking cannabis worth at least $100,000.

Resurrected Australian e-tailing brand dstore has revealed its intention to challenge online computer hardware and software shop, E-Store. dstore will have to do better than their last outing, where they were consistently selling over RRP.

04 February 2003

Paul Lawton, a submarine buff, sifted through disparate accounts of a WWII ship's demise in New England waters to get history rewritten.

The growth of three private water utility companies in the past 10 years raises fears that mankind may be losing control of its most vital resource to a handful of monopolistic corporations.

The widow of the only Australian to die fighting the war against terrorism has slammed the Federal Government for failing to review a death and injury compensation scheme before deploying more troops to the Gulf.

Aalfred the pet eel, who was threatened with eviction from a German family's bathtub where he has lived since 1969, can stay at home provided he gets a piece of pipe to sleep in.

03 February 2003

Computer security experts say the recent 'SQL Slammer' worm, the worst in more than a year, is evidence that Microsoft's year-old security push is not working.

The next round of globalisation is sending upscale jobs offshore. They include basic research, chip design, engineering — even financial analysis. Can America lose these jobs and still prosper?

The next time your computer crashes or your surfing flounders, try appealing to a higher power. The Internet is going to receive its very own patron saint. Saint Isidore of Seville, who died more than 1400 years ago, is the most popular candidate.

02 February 2003

If you think your prized collection of DVD movies will last a lifetime, think again — some are already starting to DVD rot while others are falling apart. Unofficial estimates put the number of affected discs at between one and 10 per cent. Yet some of the largest distributors for Hollywood Studios are accused of refusing to accept the problem exists and replace faulty products.

A Bush administration overhaul of decades-old labour regulations could force many Americans to work longer hours without overtime pay.

Scientists have been shocked to discover that four dormant volcanoes in South America are in fact active.

Some of the biggest failures in console gaming were the Halcyon, a US$2500 laserdisc system with only two games and Nintendo's Virtual Boy, a stereoptic system that had red-on-black simulated 3D graphics.

01 February 2003

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor who gave us the World Wide Web, a system built on 'languages' largely created by Berners-Lee. He's now working on a sequel, called the Semantic Web.

Internet users are mystified by a tricky browser add-on that installs itself without permission and defies attempts to remove it. Some are calling the program the most insidious thing on the Web.

Australian and US researchers have moved much closer to finding effective anti-malaria drugs by identifying 500 points in malaria DNA where drugs could shut the parasite down.

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