17684078
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
An Apple 1 was auctioned off today, for a winning bid of £133,250, or roughly $211,535. While a 3 rotor Enigma device only went for $108,000. Engadget and the WSJ cover the story.
17512904
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
In a preemptive strike against a Facebook "Cease and Desist" order for trademark dilution, the founders of Lamebook have filed a suit against Facebook claiming First Amendment protection for parody. AV Club also has some coverage
14964516
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
Guy Norris of Aviation Week was taken on a test-flight to demonstrate the capabilities of Auto-GCAS (Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System). In his words "The Auto-GCAS’s capabilities can best be appreciated firsthand.". Previous systems warned the pilot of an imminent collision, the Auto-GCAS actually takes control of the plane and performs the manoeuvres to avoid collision.
14461564
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
FROM a child's foulmouthed rant to police protection and death threats — one US family is learning the hard way about the dangers of giving their 11-year-old daughter a computer. Kerligirl13 aka Jessi Slaughter posted a youtube video that attracted the ire of 4chan trollers and "Anonymous". The follow up video from her father stated that "he's informed the cyber cops" and "I've backtraced it" and also "consequences will never be the same". She's now under police protection according to Gawker.
14226948
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
MORE than 10 years ago, someone in a gorilla suit wandered through a group of people tossing basketballs to each other. It was caught on film and shown to a group of Harvard University students. When asked about the gorilla, half of them said they didn't see any gorilla. Now it has a sequel, the Monkey Business Illusion. News.com.au covers the story.
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced her support for Senator Stephen Conroy's internet filter, with the aim of introducing legislation by the end of the year. The Australian covers the story.
13798130
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
HOW did Stephen Gillett go from college graduate to the youngest ever chief information officer of a Fortune 500 company in less than six years?
By playing World of Warcraft, says the Silicon Valley guru who gave him his first job. So there's hope for us budding millionaire guild masters yet!
News.com.au covers the story
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
Wired UK brings us a review of Secret Cinema's production of Blade Runner, complete with live action "Futuristic police enforcement patrol the Chinese restaurants, the seedy strip bar complete with giant video wall and silhouetted dancers, the decrepit Orwellian apartments, the street vendors...". Pay attention MPAA, *this* is the way to get people back into the cinema.
13621560
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
A 2 year long enquiry into cyber-crime by a standing committee of the Australian House of Representatives has found that unless consumers have installed anti-virus and firewall software, they shouldn't be granted internet access by their ISP. The report, titled Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime also found that "Companies who release IT products with security vulnerabilities should be open to claims for compensation by consumers." News.com.au covers the story.
12509142
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
In the ongoing saga of the Australian governements science agency the CSIRO suing to protect their wifi patents, The Australian newspaper reports that the CSIRO have now launched legal action against the 3 major US carriers.
From the article "Court filings obtained by The Australian have revealed that the CSIRO has sued the three carriers for alleged infringements of its WiFi patent in eastern Texas's US District Court, as it pursues a fresh bounty from its intellectual property golden goose.Its WiFi technology, which is almost standard in laptops and smartphones, has already netted the science agency an estimated $250 million in royalties."
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
Australian gamers are yet again left disappointed by our government response to a lack of an R18+ rating for games. Gamespot reports that the Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has blamed "interest groups" for swamping the public consultation with Pro R18+ submissions.
To quote the article "A strong response from gamer groups in the Australian Federal Government's R18+ public consultation has led Censorship Ministers to claim that more views from the community are needed before a decision into the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games can be reached.
11866546
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
Solar sail technology is coming of age as Japan prepares to lauch the Ikaros "space yacht". "Ikaros, which cost ¥1.5 billion ($17.5 million) to develop, will be the first use of the technology in deep space, as past experiments were limited to unfolding its sails in orbits around the Earth, Mr Tsuda said."
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
With the first "useful" object for WoW players for less than a week, over 140,000 players have shelled out US$25 for a pretty picture. Does this signify a shift to Real Money Transactions in conjunction with a subscription model? Has Activision-Blizzard found a winning formula for squeezing even more money out of their users?
7967280
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
NORAD has finally turned their hand to something other than watching the skies for rogue hijacked airliners and incoming ICBMs. NORAD tracks Santa uses the ballistic EWS to track Santa's launch, and geostationary infrared tracking satellites to follow his progress towards detonation... errr, present giving. "Amazingly, Rudolph's bright red nose gives off an infrared signature, which allow our satellites to detect Rudolph and Santa."
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Dexter Herbivore writes:
A report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has indicated that cosmic rays are one of the few causes yet to be ruled out when an Airbus A330-303 twice plunged hundreds of feet in seconds over the Western Australian coast last year. News.com.au covers the story.
As if pteromerhanophobics don't already have enough to worry about!
