September 2005 Archive

30 September 2005

The minefields in the Falkland Islands are the breeding and nesting ground for thousands of penguins and other animals that fortunately are too light to trigger any explosions — via BoingBoing

29 September 2005

Australia's IT research flagship, National ICT Australia, is confident it is on pace in an international race to deliver data wirelessly at up to 10Gbps — enough bandwidth to download a DVD in 30 seconds. The project aims to produce technologies to move data over short ranges using the 60GHz spectrum. Dr Stan Skafidas said his team was about two years away from producing a working prototype using the technology, which promises to provide small, inexpensive wireless units that can work together to form a mesh network

Around 1250 buildings in Tasmanian cities Hobart and Devonport will have 100Mbps fibre broadband piped to their front door in a two-year trial due to start late November. The trial — dubbed the Tasmanian Collaborative Optical Leading Testbed (TasCOLT) and initially announced back in January — is similar to a trial of broadband over powerline technology in Tasmania announced several weeks ago in that it is being carried out by a partnership between government and private industry

The leader of the Republican Party in the US House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, has been indicted on a criminal conspiracy charge over an illegal campaign finance scheme. A Texas grand jury has charged DeLay and two associates with orchestrating political donations to local Republicans, knowing the donations were illegal

28 September 2005

One of the biggest problems with the Fasttrack network has been poisoning. This is the practice of sharing a file on a P2P network that looks like the real thing, but isn't. Bittorrent until recently has been largely immune to this. Now a new type of torrent is tricking bittorrent sites to rising to the top of the download lists

Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying toxic dart guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet’s smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing. Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea — via Warren Ellis

IFPI — the international equivalent of the RIAA — has released a piece of software (Digital File Check) that will delete your P2P software, strongly implying that P2P is itself illegal and using ridiculous, non-legal terms like copyright theft. So much for 17,000,000 freely shareable CC-licensed works, so much for the public domain, so much for everything except for content from giant publishing organisations. No word on whether this malware also deletes your web-browser, e-mail client and IM software, since all these, too, are sometimes used to infringe on copyright — via BoingBoing

27 September 2005

LimeWire is working on new code that will block non-licenced material. The new code checks to see if shared material is licensed, if it is not, the LimeWire client will politely inform the user, LimeWire can't determine if one or more files have been published under a suitable license. These files will not be shared

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has urged the Commonwealth to rewrite its proposed new anti-terrorism laws, saying the laws could undermine basic rights. Prime Minister John Howard will meet state and territory leaders on Tuesday to discuss the 12-point anti-terrorism package that would give police extra powers to stop and search people, and allow suspects to be held for up to 14 days without being charged. Civil libertarians and academics says the measures will unfairly target the nation's Muslim community

The International Monetary Fund is to wipe out the debt of 18 of the world's poorest nations after rich countries bridged differences that had threatened a pact first signed in July

A 60m long pink toy rabbit lies on the side of the 1,500m high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy's Piedmont region. Viennese art group Gelatin designed the giant soft toy and say it was knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool. The bunny is not just for walking around, the artists are expecting hikers to climb its 20 foot sides and relax on its belly. The giant rabbit is expected to remain on the mountain side until 2025 — via lucie

26 September 2005

David Mery is a London geek who was going down into the tube one night in July when he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism. He was held, his flat was searched, his computers and phones were confiscated, his data was copied, and his photo, DNA and fingerprints were taken. He was released the next day, but his computers were not returned, nor was his record expunged — via BoingBoing

Optus has announced a AU$150 million rollout of its own DSL equipment to hundreds of exchanges around Australia. Telstra claims this is bollocks, as Optus is only piggybacking on Telstra's network and cherry picking the most lucrative exchanges

The city that never sleeps will darken the lights of the famed Manhattan skyline after midnight to help save migrating birds. New York civic leaders said the lights of buildings above the 40th floor will be turned off after midnight in the fall and spring migration seasons to save birds. Since 1997, more than 4,000 migratory birds have been killed or injured from colliding into skyscrapers

25 September 2005

The Authors Guild has filed a class action lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit claims that Google's scanning and digitising of library books as a part of the Google Print Project constitutes massive copyright infringement. In addition to the lawsuit The Authors Guild has also issued a press release to explain its actions. Google has responded, pointing out that the Library Project is fully consistent with both the fair use doctrine under US copyright law and the principles underlying copyright law itself, which allow everything from parodies to excerpts in book reviews

Copyright terms have been continually extended since they were passed into English law by the Statute of Queen Anne. As these monopoly rights have grown, so the public domain has shrunk, greatly reducing our access to creative works, condemning vast quantities of our culture to obscurity and disappearance, and limiting the opportunities for future creators to build upon the works of the past. The 14+14 campaign has a simple goal: to restore a balance long lost by returning copyright to its original term as laid down in the Statute of 14 years with the option of a 14 year renewal — via BoingBoing

Edmonton police deliberately used a restricted database to gather information on a journalist who wrote anti-camera columns. With the information, cops tried to set up a sting to arrest him for drunk driving. Except some pesky journalists happened to have police scanners and blew the lid off of the operation — via Politech

Reporters Sans Frontieres with the backing of the French government, identifies bloggers as the new heralds of free expression and offers advice on how to set up a blog and run it anonymously. Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure, RSF Internet Freedom Desk Julien Pain said. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents can be downloaded from the RSF web site in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Farsi

24 September 2005

The US have put a satellite jammer in space that will allow them to disrupt enemy communication systems at will

The RIAA has been pushing the FCC to impose a copy-protection mandate on the makers of next-generation digital radio receiver/recorders. Never mind that digital audio broadcasting is not significantly greater in quality than regular, analogue radio. Never mind that its music quality is vastly less than than that of audio CDs. In spite of these inconvenient facts, the RIAA is hoping that the transition to digital audio broadcasting will provide enough confusion and panic that they can persuade Congress or the FCC to impose some kind of copy-protection scheme or regulation on digital radio broadcast

Switchfoot's new album Nothing Is Sound shipped from Sony with copy protection software on the CD, much to the dismay of thousands of iPod-wielding fans. The band posted a response on their official forum apologising for the protection and detailing ways to circumvent the protection and rip their songs to PC. Switchfoot linked to open-source program CDex's download page with instructions on disabling the autorunning protection and ripping the files to MP3. Many of Switchfoot's fans have been upset by the copy protection measures, and it's nice to know the artists seem to care about the issue — via Slashdot

23 September 2005

Zotob.E, Tpbot-A, Rbot.CBQ and IRCbot.worm: all names given to a single worm that wreaked havoc in Windows 2000 systems last month. Among the plethora of identifiers, perhaps the most useful — CME-540 — didn't make an impact. But that's about to change. CME-540 was the tag attached to the worm by the Common Malware Enumeration initiative, which is just emerging from its test phase. Next month, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team plans to officially take the wraps off the effort, meant to reduce the confusion caused by the different names security companies give worms, viruses and other pests

Just last month, Opera was celebrating their 10 year anniversary by giving away free registration codes; now they've trumped that by offering Opera for free. Quoth their site, Opera has removed the banners, found within our browser, and the licensing fee. Opera's growth, due to tremendous world-wide customer support, has made todays milestone an achievable goal. Premium support is available. Anyone who was on the verge of switching before now has virtually no reason not to — Slashdot

The software, developed by NEC and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, goes further than existing mobile phone camera technology by allowing entire documents to be scanned simply by sweeping the phone across the page. As reported, an A4 sized page takes only 3 to 5 seconds to scan, and it is causing copyright concerns

Technology startup U3 is expected to announce Monday the release of USB drives based on its smart computing platform, which lets applications run directly off USB drives, independent of other storage devices. Smart USB drives based on U3's software and hardware platform will allow users to carry their entire PC in a USB drive, so that when they hook up to a PC on the road, it will have the same look and feel as their work or home PC

22 September 2005

Canberra could become the first Australian city to provide its population with digital network access anywhere and anytime across its CBD and suburbs

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies now has a hard drive upgrade alternative for notebook computers that is so simple, most users will be able to increase their notebook hard disk capacity and restore their operating system, applications, and data. The upgrade includes a replacement internal hard drive, a case to convert allow the existing hard drive to be used as an external USB drive, cables, tools, and step-by-step instructions

Traditionaly screws are poorly suited to many applications, because they displace the material they're being screwed into, causing brittle substances like plastic and concrete to crack. Now, for the first time in decades, Kenneth LeVey, a stubborn engineer at Illinois Tool Works, has created a radical new design for screws that solves this problem — via BoingBoing

21 September 2005

Google has confirmed they are rolling out their wifi network, first in the San Francisco bay area. They are also including a Secure Access programme for use in conjunction with this

The final plan for managing protected grey wolves that migrate into Oregon will prohibit ranchers from killing wolves that attack livestock and will not include compensation for losses to wolf attacks — via Tidepool

CubeSat is a program at Stanford and California Polytechnic State University to assist college and high school students and companies in building their own tiny satellites and launching them into low Earth orbit. The satellites are tiny — they weigh a kilogram and generally measure about 10cm on each side — but they cost far less than conventional commercial satellites. A CubeSat unit costs roughly $40,000 to build and only $40,000 to launch. As part of the program, Cal Poly takes care of the bureaucratic and logistical hurdles. By contrast, a conventional satellite can run between $150 million and $250 million to build and $100 million to launch

Mailinator, the free, temporary e-mail service gets a lot of spam; over a million e-mails a day. And with another cool application of Google maps, the site now shows a Spam Map indicating what sites are spamming mailinator in almost real time. It's oddly addictive to poke around and see where the spam is actually coming from

20 September 2005

NASA has announced that the US will send four astronauts to the moon in 2018 in a major return to its pioneering manned missions into space. Welcome to 1969

Toshiba has developed two small fuel cell prototypes that can dramatically increase the playing time for mobile music players. A fuel cell unit the size of a pack of chewing gum can power a flash-memory-based player for about 35 hours on a single charge, using highly concentrated methanol as its fuel. For a hard disc drive system, a fuel cell unit the size of a person's palm could let the player run for 60 hours on a single charge. Toshiba hopes to introduce the products commercially in 2007

The Concerned Women for America, a backward group of hate-mongering homophobes, have attacked the Girl Scouts for apparently trying to make feminist lesbians out of girls. At least, that's how they portray it

Derrick Hixson's Mac mini was already being used as a media centre Mac, when he spotted a toy Millennium Falcon and thought that cobbling the two together would be a fine idea

19 September 2005

Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia came up with an ingenious way to fight back against anti-choice fundamentalists who block clinic doors and harass workers and patients. The idea: hold a fund drive in which donors give cash for each protestor that shows up. The more there are, the more money Planned Parenthood receives. And, let the harassers know how much their presence is helping the clinic raise funds — via Warren Ellis

A malfunctioning light bulb in a school gym, at the Baker Elementary School in Columbia, exposed more than 100 people to short-wave radiation for an hour, sending 18 to the hospital with severe sunburns and swollen eyes. Dr Michael Richardson, an emergency room doctor from the Maury Regional Hospital, said the symptoms, similar to overexposure from a tanning bed, were produced by a radiation leak from a halide bulb. The bulbs, commonly used in gyms, are designed with a special membrane that blocks the UV rays, but occasionally the membranes break — via Warren Ellis

Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500m long. It was the meander of an ancient river

18 September 2005

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told a UN summit that fighting the war in Iraq without UN authorisation showed Washington did not respect the world body. He recommended moving UN headquarters to a country that has more regard for the organisation. He won rousing applause for his critique

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe. Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is traditional and nothing to make such a big fuss about — via BoingBoing

Microsoft has unveiled Microsoft Expression, a suite of Web site design and graphics software that enables .Net developers to handle tasks similar to those that users of corresponding software from from Adobe Systems and Macromedia have performed for years. I expect it to be the nightmarish, bastard child of Publisher and Frontpage

17 September 2005

The FBI and New Jersey officials have started a hushed but intensive search for three missing lab mice reportedly infected with deadly strains of plague. The incident has been cited as not that big a deal, but it's a little disturbing Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist, comments about certain federal bio-terrorism labs: You have more security at a McDonald's than at some of these facilities

In the first case of its kind, US Magistrate Judge James Orenstein chastised the US Department of Justice for trying to constantly track a mobile user's location without providing any proof of criminal behaviour. Their Patriot Act surveillance request was denied — via Politech

IP Address Typo Leads to a False Arrest Brian and Sarah Doom were shocked when police showed up at their Wichita home accusing them of child pornography. But the police had the wrong house, based on mistaken information from the Dooms' ISP, Cox Communications, who typed in an IP address different from the one provided by police — via Politech

16 September 2005

Yahoo has hired veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites to single-handedly report on every armed conflict on the planet. Video, audio and daily blog entries will be combined to bring some of the world's most important, yet under-reported stories to a web site called Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. Yahoo says Sites will cover every armed conflict in the world within one year, reporting from every place which the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London deems to be armed conflict areas. His first reports from a war zone will be published on 26 September

This is the golden age of the internet, a time of glorious anarchy where information is free and anyone, rich or poor, can blog their views to the world. But government and big business are moving in — the clampdown has started

Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been deputised by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte

15 September 2005

Google BlogSearch beta is out. Clean UI, fast responses, not yet such a great index, but it is getting there. That's what you should find in the much-awaited new Google service. Some say Technorati and friends have been having nightmares about this very day

Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals

PC World spills the beans about a bunch of things technology companies would rather you didn't know, including the lowdown on exploiting Windows' bad security, unlocking mobiles, using an iPod to move music and useless specs. Nothing groundbreaking, but might be a good primer for the non-techie in your life — via Slashdot

A USB device called imFONE allows you to use your existing mobile as a VoIP. You simply plug the device into your PC's USB port, pair it via Bluetooth to your phone, and you're ready to go. Unfortunately it only works on a select few mobiles — via Gizmodo

14 September 2005

There could soon be a new player in the telecommunications industry with Tasmanian energy company Aurora Energy and Mitsubishi Electric announcing a joint trial. The companies have launched the first commercial trial of broadband over power lines (BPL) in the Southern Hemisphere. The technology relies on existing power lines and connection is as easy as plugging a modem into a household power point. Aurora's Piero Peroni says the new technology is faster than phone line and wireless services

eBay agreed Monday to pay at least $2.6 billion for Internet-telephony company Skype Technologies SA in a deal that a deal that confounds many analysts not just for the lofty price tag but also for what some consider the companies' dubious compatibility. Skype — founded by the creators of Kazaa, the free music-sharing program that riled the music business — gives away software lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones

A restaurant in northeastern China that advertised illegal tiger meat dishes was instead found instead found to be selling donkey flesh — marinated in tiger urine. The Hufulou restaurant, located beside the Heidaohezi tiger reserve near the city of Hailin, had advertised stir-fried tiger meat with chilies for 800 yuan ($98), as well as liquor flavored with tiger bone for 600 yuan ($74) a bottle, the China Daily reported. Raw meat was priced at 7,000 yuan ($864) per kilogram. The sale of tiger parts is illegal in China and officers shut down the restaurant, only to be told by owner, Ma Shikun, that the meat was actually that of donkeys, flavored with tiger urine to give the dish a special tang. The report didn't say how the urine was obtained — via Warren Ellis

A flying reptile that lived 100 million years ago and had an 18m wingspan has entered the record books as the largest-known animal to have taken to the air. Scientists discovered the fossilised bones of the dinosaur-like creature at a site in Mexico and have calculated that its wingspan was nearly twice the length of a Spitfire's

13 September 2005

Activist's Arrest Prompts Questions About Security Powers Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC has questioned whether the Federal Government has abused its powers by planning to deport Scott Parkin, an American peace activist. Greens Senator Bob Brown has described Mr Parkin's detention and probable deportation as an abuse of ASIO's powers. To add insult to injury, John Howard's minions have charged Scott Parkin $11,000 for sending him back to the US

Two activists in Massachusetts are planning to create an online database of all the 65,825 people who signed a recent petition calling for a ballot question to ban gay marriages in the state. The activists say that the online list — which will include the names, street addresses, hometowns and ZIP codes of all the homophobes who signed — will help gay people to determine if their friends and neighbours are secretly bigots — via BoingBoing

Ghosts may be headed to court in Orlando to help settle a very human fight. The owners of Amura Japanese Restaurant say they don't want to move into a renovated building at Church Street Station because it's haunted, according to a lawsuit filed by the building's landlord — via Neil Gaiman

A new architecture for a nanomemory chip could boost the capacity of flash memory cards to around 100GB. Engineers from Imperial College London, Durham University, and the University of Sheffield report on their prototype, called Magnetic Domain-Wall Logic — via BoingBoing

12 September 2005

US authorities have backed off a proposed ban by the US military on journalists and photographers documenting the recovery of bodies in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. CNN filed a suit in the US District Court in Houston to halt government efforts to exclude the media, rejecting the official argument that the television images would not respect the privacy of the dead. A judge granted CNN a temporary restraining order, prompting the Government back off the zero access policy

Australian researchers have patented a search method that they claim could revolutionise existing search engines, complementing searches conducted on services such as Google, Yahoo or MSN

The BBC has released the first TV clips from its archive onto the internet for people to rip, mix and share. Almost 100 clips, from shows such as Walking With Beasts and Tomorrow's World, are for the UK public to use for free in their own creative works. The BBC hopes to foster innovation by letting anyone re-use its material for personal and educational purposes under the Creative Archive Licence. BBC Radio 1 launched the scheme with a competition to produce a music video — via BoingBoing

11 September 2005

Google has announced that it has hired Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, as the search giant seeks to build a network foundation for its future Internet applications

Scotland Yard's Special Branch, the world's oldest unit dedicated to tackling political violence, is to disappear under a major reform of the way the Metropolitan Police deals with terrorism. The unit was established in 1883 to counter Irish Fenian terrorism on mainland Britain and has remained an autonomous unit, with its own selection and promotion systems and a culture seen by some mainstream officers as high-brow and at times elitist

10 September 2005

CNN obtained a temporary restraining order late Friday to prevent government agencies from restricting news coverage as victims are recovered in New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. A hearing has been scheduled for today to determine if the order should be made permanent — via BoingBoing

In a move that could mark a big strategy shift for the online auction company, eBay is in talks to acquire Skype for between $2 billion and $3 billion

Federal Emergency Management Agency — whose three top jobs went to the retarded monkey boy's political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes — has been spending its time blocking relief efforts instead of helping the people of New Orleans

Infecting allergy sufferers with the humble hookworm could be used to treat asthma — providing more support for the idea too much hygiene is responsible for rising rates of the disease. The idea is the parasitic bugs that suck blood from people's guts will prime their immune systems so they no longer react to grass pollen, cat dander and dust mites

09 September 2005

A group of scientists are about to present their breakthrough in hydrogen storage. In contrast to previous storage mechanisms, this method binds hydrogen to a pellet which is completely safe to handle at room temperature. While bound in this medium no hydrogen loss occurs, enabling hydrogen to be stored cheaply for indefinite periods. When needed, the extraction of hydrogen is relatively simple. The pellets exceed all criteria set by the US Department of Energy for 2015, enabling a car to drive more than 500km on a 50L tank

An offer of aid from the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, which included two mobile hospital units, 120 rescue and first aid experts and 50 tonnes of food, has been rejected, according to the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson

When Carl the labrador chased a squirrel into the woods, his owners' only concern was for his quarry. But they should have worried about their dog. Because seconds later Carl re-emerged with the grey squirrel firmly clamped to his neck. The squirrel launched itself at the dog and sank its teeth and claws into his neck. The attack continued until a passer-by intervened. Carl, who is two, was taken to a vet and needed surgery to stitch up his wounds — via Warren Ellis

08 September 2005

Apple have released the iPod nano, which is an iPod photo-esque replacement for the iPod mini. It comes in 2GB and 4GB flavours, is half the thickness of the mini and is available in black or white. A new iTunes was released as well, which has some dull cosmetic changes and seems even slower than its predecessor

The US government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticised for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims

Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for divulging state secrets. Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo's Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information. The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a police informant in order to further its business ambitions — via Warren Ellis

Derrick Hixson has submitted an amazing entry to the MacMod Mod Competition, a Millennium Falcon: complete with Mac mini and iSight. It even includes front USB ports. His modguide contains complete build instructions, and plenty of pictures

07 September 2005

Samsung will next year release a DVD player capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD if backers of the rival standards fail to agree on a unified format

Lawrence Lessig predicts that the public domain will die a slow death at the hands of anti-piracy efforts. The danger remains invisible to most, hidden by the zeal of a war on piracy. And that is how the public domain may die a quiet death, extinguished by self-righteous extremism, long before many even recognise it is gone

06 September 2005

Australian scientists have created mice which can regenerate absolutely any tissue except for the tissues of the brain. Heart, lungs, entire limbs, you name it. This is the first time this has been seen in mammals

The Australian record industry celebrated a win against online music-swapping service Kazaa. Future versions of Kazaa will need to include filters to prevent the trading of copyrighted music works, the federal court ruled. Kazaa's owners would have to apply maximum pressure on existing users to upgrade their software to the new, filtered version. Sharman Networks has announced it will appeal the ruling

Massachusetts has cited legal concerns over Microsoft's software as a factor behind its decision to only use document formats based on open standards

05 September 2005

A police box has been discovered embedded in a brick wall in Glasgow's east end. The Mark Two cast-iron box dates back to 1912, and is the oldest known example in the city. Glasgow Police Museum plan to rescue it, restore it to its former glory and put it on display from next spring. Meanwhile, new hi-tech police boxes are being introduced to Glasgow — via Doctor Who News

There is a new plugin available for IE that can make Internet Explorer resemble Firefox by adding tabbed browsing capabilities and an integrated search box. Moreover, the plugin improves IE's privacy and security by integrating a firewall designed to block out Internet exploits, phishing sites, spammers, spyware and worms, with a special HTTP filter that removes private data, and an anti-spyware tool that can identify and remove all pests in less then 10 seconds

One of the world's largest and highly venomous centipedes has been found crawling up a living room wall in north London. The scolopendra gigantea, nine inches long and an inch wide, a native of Central and South America, was identified by the Natural History Museum. Experts believe that it could have found its way to Britain as a stowaway in electrical equipment or a large import of fruit

04 September 2005

3700 Creative Zen Neeons shipped with a virus. The virus in question was the W32.Wullik.B@mm worm. Creative released a statement today to help consumers pinpoint the possibly effected devices

Thousands of German Harry Potter fans who could not wait for the latest JK Rowling epic to be published in their own language have translated the book in less than two days. The hobby translators were too impatient to wait the 77 days required by German translator Klaus Fritz to complete the task and logged on to Harry-auf-Deutsch.de to finish the job in 45 hours — via BoingBoing

03 September 2005

According to the American Red Cross site: The state Homeland Security Department had requested — and continues to request — that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders —via Warren Ellis

Some US libraries are using Microsoft Media DRM to automatically return audiobooks checked out of their catalogue. A patron with a valid library card visits a library Web site to borrow a title for, say, three weeks. When the audiobook is due, the patron must renew it or find it automatically returned in a virtual sense: The file still sits on the patron's computer, but encryption makes it unplayable beyond the borrowing period

Jan Erik Vangen's Bender casemod is a life-sized version of the robot from Futurama. His eyes glow and he says Bite my shiny metal ass on demand. He also has a terabyte of storage, WiFi, and a DVD burner — via BoingBoing

02 September 2005

The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be legitimate in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent criminals from doing so. But who knows their true intentions. We have an inside source in the NOPD who says that command and control is in chaos — via Warren Ellis

Diamond is no longer the hardest substance known to man. Scientists have created a new material, called aggregated diamond nanorods by compressing carbon-60 under high heat. The hardness of a material is measured by its isothermal bulk modulus. Aggregated diamond nanorods have a modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa), compared with 442 GPa for conventional diamond

Roborior, a house-sitting robot armed with a digital camera, infrared sensors, and a videophone is on sale in select Japanese department stores. The house-sitting robot can detect break-ins with its infrared sensors and then call the owners cell phone and stream video to the tiny screen. At US$2600 each the Roborior is not cheap. For those that require something a little more substantial, Tmsuk, the manufacturer of Roborior, has produced a four legged version called Banryu. This one is the size of a large dog and sells for around US$18,000. It's not supposed to shed hair or sleep on the furniture which could make it quite popular — via Slashdot

01 September 2005

iiNet has revealed that it may expand its DSL network to at least 260 exchanges as part of a $34.5 million upgrade program next year. iiNet, Australia's third largest internet provider, expects to have DSL equipment installed in 211 exchanges by January when it completes the third stage of its roll-out. The internet provider's managing director Michael Malone said iiNet was planning a fourth stage which would involve a further 50 to 100 exchanges.

PWNtcha is a package that breaks various on-line captcha algorithms. The site provides numerous examples of easy (Paypal, and an older version of Slashdot make the list) and hard Captcha. It also links various sources explaining why Captcha is a bad idea

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