30.09.2004
The Russian government's decision to approve the Kyoto climate change treaty has been hailed by the European Union and environmental groups. The cabinet has sent it to parliament to be ratified, where President Putin's supporters hold a two-thirds majority 
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has released its broadband policy paper, encouraging whoever wins government to develop a strategy that will deliver
true broadband servicesto Australians. The ACS stated that the political parties have compromised strategy for broadband in Australia by diverting the attention towards ADSL, which the ACS believes is nothing more than an
interim solution. ADSL runs at 256 to 1024Kbps; the ACS defines true broadband as greater than 10Mbps
Researchers at UC Berkeley, along with scientists from the University of Oregon and the University of Illinois, say they can slow the speed of light in a way that could help speed the delivery of movies to your PC
29.09.2004
The NSW Department of Commerce has released its eagerly anticipated Linux tender, calling for a panel of suppliers to provide enterprise-level software and services for government agencies. The contract, reportedly worth $40 million, is seen as a major step forward for open source lobbyists, as it requests suppliers to provide Linux software for both desktop and server environments
Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an anti-spyware bill banning unauthorised installation of deceptive software that hides in personal computers and secretly monitors user activity. The bill clears the way for consumers to sue responsible parties for actual damages
28.09.2004
Toshiba announced that it's increasing the song capacity of its Gigabeat line of hard drive-based digital audio players to 60GB. It will be available before the end of the year in Japan, along with 10GB and 20GB versions
Biological heart pacemakers made from human embryo cells have been successfully tested in pigs, raising the possibility that tissue transplants could replace electronic pacemakers. Because they would be natural, the cell implants would need no power source and, over time, would integrate naturally with the heart. They could even be genetically engineered or manipulated to enhance or alter their function
Liberal party stooges and professional religious loons, Family First, want an annual levy of $7 to $10 on all internet users to fund a $45 million mandatory national internet filtering scheme aimed at blocking pornographic and offensive content at server level. And I'm sure that their idea of censorship would include a whole raft of things that wouldn't be offensive to that vast bulk of society
Former President Jimmy Carter says that despite changes designed to eliminate voting problems in Florida — where the disputed 2000 presidential election was decided by only a few hundred votes — conditions for a fair election in that state still don't exist
27.09.2004
eBay has come under the scrutiny of the Australian Taxation Office as part of its crackdown on evasion in the cash economy. The tax office believes unregistered
micro-businessesare a big source of untapped tax revenue and has made tracking them down one of its highest compliance priorities this year. The ATO has written to eBay asking for details of power sellers — eBay users with sales of at least $2000 a month
Eighty years after they were written, a previously unknown story and a handwritten letter ascribed to Ernest Hemingway have surfaced, stirring a literary and legal dispute between people who want to see them published and people who do not
Giorgio Angelozzi, 80, has lived alone outside Rome with seven cats since his wife died in 1992, but he took the unprecedented step of putting himself up for adoption last month via the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Not satisfied with just running the advertisement, Italy's main daily ran a front-page story about Angelozzi's plight. Inundated with offers from families across Italy and as far away as New Zealand, Brazil and the United States, the retired schoolteacher has decided to go to live with Elio and Marlena Riva and their two teenage children in Bergamo, northern Italy
26.09.2004
The Biomod company in Montreal has released plans for building your own solar scooter for only CA$1600. Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints
25.09.2004
Students have developed a tool which could mean broken web links are history. Peridot, developed by UK intern students at IBM, scans company weblinks and replaces outdated information with other relevant documents and links. It works by automatically mapping and storing key features of web pages, so it can detect significant content changes
More than 50% of Australian online shopping sites are selling goods or services with terms and conditions which robbed shoppers of their legal consumer rights. Deputy ACCC chair Louise Sylvan said many of these sites contained clauses which attempted to disclaim consumers' warranty rights or limit liability
Nudists, grab your yoga mats and head for San Francisco. City prosecutors on Wednesday said it was not illegal to perform naked yoga in the city — even at the crowded tourist destination of Fisherman's Wharf. Prosecutors dropped charges against a limber nudist, known locally as the
Naked Yoga Guy, who made a habit of striking yoga poses in the buff in order to promote a book and his lifestyle
24.09.2004
Wolves and other predators have long been hunted by farmers hoping to protect their livestock — but new research suggests the slaughter may be unnecessary. The first worldwide review of the effect of predators has found little evidence that they have a significant impact on livestock
Microsoft affirms its plan to make its Internet Explorer upgrades available only through XP updates, while half the Windows world operates with older operating systems
The chairman of the Motorcycle Council of NSW has expressed his outrage at the Road Traffic Authority's neglect of motorcycle riders in its planned cashless tollways, saying the RTA has not considered motorcycle riders in their plans
Wholesale network provider Comindico will be sold as soon as possible, the company's voluntary administrator Ferrier Hodgson has announced. The company, which has spent around AU$445 million establishing its IP-based network and backhaul links to the US, entered voluntary administration Wednesday after critical negotiations with investors to save the business failed
23.09.2004
Looks like Elvis Costello doesn't like the FBI talking about what you can do with his discs once you buy them. Above the obnoxious FBI anti-piracy warnings he has added:
The artist does not endorse the following warning. The FBI doesn't have his home phone number and he hopes that they don't have yours— via BoingBoing
Australian purebred dogs will soon need genetic identity papers to prove their pedigree and show if they carry hereditary diseases. Only dogs used for breeding stock will need this genetic
stud bookand not purebred show dogs or the average pet poodle, according to the Australian National Kennel Council. Testing will be introduced in stages, before it becomes mandatory in January 2008. The move towards genetic testing, which was made at the ANKC's recent annual conference in Sydney, is aimed at confirming dogs' parentage and reducing the incidence of hereditary disease in purebreds
Sanjay Kumar, a former chief executive of Computer Associates International, and Stephen Richards, a former vice president for sales, were indicted in what US prosecutors called a massive fraud that inflated the company's sales by $2.2 billion
22.09.2004
Singer Cat Stevens and his daughter were escorted off a diverted transatlantic flight by FBI agents. The pop star, who converted to Islam, was denied access to the US because his name was on a security
watch list, government security sources said. The Transportation Security Administration said the singer was denied access to the US
on national security groundsand would be returned to Britain
Rumours have flown around the Web about Google's potential plans to release a Web browser. These rumours have been fuelled by a number of high-profile hires that Google has made, including various people who worked on Microsoft Internet Explorer, added to the fact that Google Inc. has registered the domain name gbrowser.com. A Google spokesman refused to comment on reports surrounding the Google browser, but analysts believe they may have some substance. James Governor, a principal analyst at Red Monk, said that he would be surprised if Google was not working on browser technologies. He does not think it will create a new proprietary browser. Instead, he expects Google to build on Mozilla, the open-source browser
McDonald's lost a legal battle in Singapore to stop a food company from distributing products named
MacNoodles,
MacTeaand
MacChocolate
21.09.2004
Telstra competitors are rushing to build their own high-speed internet networks, eyeing the promise of the voice, video and faster data triple-play as the wrecking ball for the telecoms giant's broadband dominance
What seems to be an embarrassing blunder by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in its hunt for online pirates has prompted Linux Australia to contact its legal representatives and warn of a possible breach of Australian law
A recent Symantec internet security threat report shows that Australia is a world leader in phishing scams and the fourth most common launching pad for internet attacks
20.09.2004
The FTC is considering imposing a bounty on spammers. They are guessing it would take between $100,000 to $250,000 to get people to rat out their friends and coworkers. Interestingly enough is that it is higher than rewards in most high-profile criminal and terrorism cases. For example, the FBI pays $50,000 for tips leading to the arrests of most of its top 10 fugitives
University of Washington scientists plan to infect monkeys with a killer flu virus grown from tissue exhumed from victims of the 1918 epidemic. They hope the insight they gain will unravel the mystery of why tens of millions of people worldwide died from the virulent flu strain and lead to development of better vaccines and drugs that may save lives in the future
19.09.2004
What was once a Monty Python joke has become reality with a renegade sheep eluding live export now set to live happily ever after. The Monty Python team once joked about the most dangerous of creatures — a clever sheep called Harold who escaped after realising his life was about standing around and then being eaten. Now there is the story of the sheep who 10 weeks ago escaped while boarding a ship at Port Adelaide and hid out the aptly named Mutton Cove, eating rare plants and scaring birds
18.09.2004
Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band The Ramones that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55. Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band's longtime artistic director Arturo Vega
Big detailed map of Springfield, including the whereabouts of the Matlock expressway (not completed), The Gilded Truffle, 99c Porno Store and other gems — via Lucie
17.09.2004
A new plan would make Oregon the first Western state to independently accept the return of wolves. The plan, created by a panel of experts which included Amaroq Weiss, western director of species conservation for Defenders, could provide protections for several breeding pairs of wolves in the state. Many biologists feel that it is only a matter of time until wolves migrate from Idaho and elsewhere to reclaim their historical range in Oregon
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United States decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was illegal [BugMeNot]. Mr Annan's comments are likely to reignite debate over whether the retarded monkey boy, John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair acted within the bounds of international law by failing to get a final UN Security Council resolution on Iraq
16.09.2004
Nokia has signed a licensing agreement to support the use of Secure Digital (SD) flash memory cards in its mobiles. The company also will continue to support MultiMediaCards
The National Australia Bank is about to pilot a new service delivering internet banking passwords via SMS
15.09.2004
Transitive Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup, claims to have cracked one of most elusive goals of the software industry: a near-universal emulator that allows software developed for one platform to run on any other, with almost no performance hit. They claims their QuickTransit software allows applications to run
transparentlyon multiple hardware platforms, including Macs, PCs, and numerous servers and mainframes
Linux backers have agreed on a standard version of the operating system so that programs written for one Linux distribution will work with others
Estate agents the world over are often alleged to be guilty of sharp practice but a Siberian real estate firm has been accused of much worse; namely of poisoning its clients before burning them alive and then stealing their homes. Russian prosecutors allege that the firm, ironically named Comfort, murdered nine of its clients during 2002 and 2003 and managed to get its unfortunate victims to sign over their property beforehand
14.09.2004
Grameen Bank, famous for pioneering micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, has launched a new idea to empower the poor: arming beggars with mobile phones so they can sell a roving service for cash
Having sex with corpses is now officially illegal in California after Schwarzenegger signed a bill barring necrophilia. The new legislation marks the culmination of a two-year drive to outlaw necrophilia in the state and will help prosecutors who have been stymied by the lack of an official ban on the practice, according to experts. I'm a little bemused to hear that there are necrophilia experts
Zambian police have arrested a man who exhumed, cooked and ate part of his grandson's corpse. Police spokeswoman Brenda Muntemba said police had no idea why the man, who had no history of madness, had started eating his grandson, who died in July. The man was charged with interfering with a dead body and also for trespass in the graveyard
13.09.2004
A US federal judge has thrown out a state law requiring internet service providers to block web sites containing child pornography, saying the method used also caused
massive suppressionof free speech
Scientists in the United States have found that the right ear is better at picking up speech-like sounds and the left is more attuned to music, after studying the hearing of babies. It has long been known that the right and left halves of the brain process sound differently. However, those differences have been thought to stem from cellular properties unique to each brain hemisphere. The new research suggests that the differences start at the ear
12.09.2004
The search for a bengal tiger on the loose at the US Army's Fort Polk in western Louisiana has been halted because no one can find the cat. The tiger has not been seen in a week despite a search that involved 100 soldiers, trackers, trappers and police using military helicopters
11.09.2004
Cannabis-based treatments may have longer-term benefits for multiple sclerosis patients. The findings of a short, 15-week trial of MS patients published last year were inconclusive because although patients reported relief in muscle stiffness, rigidity and mobility, the findings could not be confirmed by physiotherapists. But Dr John Zajicek, of the Peninsula Medical School at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in southwestern England who headed the study, told a conference there seemed to be further benefits for patients who continued treatment for a year
10.09.2004
It eats flies and stinks to high heaven, but if this robot works, it will be an important step towards making robots fully autonomous. To survive without human help — perhaps to rove in dangerous or inhospitable terrain — a robot needs to generate its own energy. Now a robot has been developed that catches flies and digests them in a special reactor cell to generate electricity — but to do so it will most likely have to attract flies by using a stinking lure made from human excrement
A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver's trigger. Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, was charged with felony animal cruelty, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. He was being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to his wrist. Bradford said he decided to shoot the 3-month-old shepherd-mix dogs in the head because he couldn't find them a home, according to the sheriff's office. Unfortunately the fuckwit had already murdered three of the pups before his next intended victim turned the tables
09.09.2004
Optus has hit back at claims that its broadband service, OptusNet, has run out of international bandwidth, saying the article printed on technology news web site Whirlpool is
greatly exaggerated
A gun safety demonstration went awry and landed Monroe County coroner David Toumey in the hospital after he shot himself in the leg. Toumey said his gun discharged as he was checking to make sure it was unloaded and a bullet struck him in his left leg during the demonstration to a group of people at a Lake Monroe boat ramp
08.09.2004
Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement. Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries — via Die Puny Humans
A burial site of six Viking men and women, with swords, spears, jewellery, fire-making materials and riding equipment, has been found in England. The site, discovered near Cumwhitton in northwestern England, is believed to date to the early 10th century
07.09.2004
Sydney security firm DataDot is on the verge of sealing $140 million worth of business with Russia thanks to a law that will make an Australian technology compulsory for all new cars by 2006
Anthropologists stepped into a hornets' nest after revealing research that suggests the original inhabitants of America may in fact have come from what is now known as Australia. The claim will be extremely unwelcome to today's native Americans who came overland from Siberia and say they were there first
A replica of the Kon-Tiki balsa raft will sail the Pacific in 2005 to study mounting environmental threats to the oceans since Thor Heyerdahl made his daredevil 1947 voyage. One of Heyerdahl's grandsons will be among the six-strong crew for the trip from Peru aiming to reach Tahiti, about 500km west of the Raroia atoll where the Kon-Tiki ran aground after traveling 8,000km in 101 days
06.09.2004
The Greens have launched their new donations web site, www.democracy4sale.org. At last, you can find out who is making big donations to the main political parties at the press of a button. Follow the money trail of over $100,000,000 of donations made to political parties since 1999, when the Australian Electoral Commission first started recording them electronically
Jason Jepson, the rocket scientist responsible for Star38, a service that fools caller ID systems [BugMeNot], has decided to sell the business. It seems he didn't reckon on the man in the street find his service less than ideal, but it took harassing e-mail, phone messages and a death threat taped to his front door to convince him of the error of his ways
A poll of almost 43,000 people has shown Britain's most popular screen scientists to be a pair of Muppets — Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his hapless assistant Beaker. It's obvious that the polled audience never grew up watching Julius Sumner Miller torture Sydney school boys or Rob and Dean on the Curiosity Show
05.09.2004
Thanks to the success of Firefox, Mozilla now appears to have 14.9% of the browser share, double that of 9 months ago. Let this be a lesson in complacency — via Slashdot
04.09.2004
The retarded monkey boy's network of snitches (concerned citizens) called the Feds on a neighbour informing, them that he had a potentially threatening bumper sticker on his car. The Feds, of course, over reacted and scared the crap out of the guy
A Wal-Mart-owned discount store rising less than a kilometre from the ancient temples of Teotihuacan has touched off a fight by a small coalition that doesn't want to see the big, boxy outlet from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun
03.09.2004
Astronomers involved in SETI have found an unexplained radio signal. This signal, now seen on three separate occasions, is an enigma. It could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon. Or it could be something much more mundane, maybe an artefact of the telescope itself. But it also happens to be the best candidate yet for a contact by intelligent aliens. Astronomers, surprised that a blip generated so much hype, have moved swiftly to quell speculation they may have received a deep-space radio signal from ET
If you ask anyone who cares about the look of their HDTV or graphics workstation display, they'll tell you the same thing: LCDs don't reproduce colour very well. But over the next few years, that situation may change, thanks to improved backlighting using LED technology
02.09.2004
Philadelphia has unveiled an ambitious plan to coat the city with Wi-Fi, using a mix of public and private funds to provide the service. Dianah Neff, the city's CIO, has presented a proposal to mayor John Street that would see all of Philadelphia's 1.6m residents receive the wireless web by late 2005 or early 2006. The city hopes to complement existing wireless services at hotels, coffee shops, businesses and homes while also opening up wireless access to some residents who might be unable to afford typical high-speed Internet costs. The city expects the initial rollout to cost $10m with annual maintenance costs coming in around $1.5m
01.09.2004
A firewall designed to eliminate spam has been developed at Queensland University. The researchers say it is the only true spam firewall in existence, and are chasing investors to help take the breakthrough system to market. Co-developer Matthew Sullivan, a specialist systems programmer, said the spam firewall relied on a statistical learning method, or Support Vector Machine, to categorise e-mails. It is the only anti-spam software that analyses emails as a whole picture rather than based on components, such as keywords or phrases
The ACT police are warning Internet users to be wary of a new e-mail scam that deceptively alerts the recipient that their identity has been stolen. ACT Detective-Sergeant Fiona Sagripanti said the latest scam has the subject
Your ID was stolenand attempts to persuade the user to visit a web site