5,261 Posted Topics
 | After being told for years that using mobile phones on airplanes will cause them to crash and burn, it seems that one airline is experiencing a change of heart. The Irish budget airline, Ryanair, is expected to introduce the first cell phone friendly flights within a matter of months. Of … |
| | Sometimes I really love living in the English countryside. The fresh air, the sheep and horses at the bottom of the garden, the lack of crime, the sense of community that still exists in a small village, the lack of seriously fast broadband. Ah, yes, that's not so good is …  |
| | Sun Microsystems managed to fix multiple security vulnerabilities in JDK and JRE months ago now, so why has it taken Apple so long to finally plug pretty much the same Java holes in Mac OS X? Apple has known that its Java implementation has been, quite frankly, screwed since way … |
| | It was always going to generate plenty of publicity simply because it was the new Michael Moore documentary movie. It was always going to generate even more publicity because Moore decided to release it for free, on the Internet. The first time, as far as I am aware, that a … |
| | Some people, I have concluded, just have way too much time on their hands. Steve Jobs is probably not one of them, but I suspect that 'Grammar Girl' most certainly is. I also expect that this posting will fall victim to the grammatically correct squad, so have dropped a number … |
| | Some things are just made to appeal to weirdy beardy nerds. Take the 'musical' instrument invented by the Russian nutter Leon Theremin in 1919 for example. I say musical, but anyone who has ever listened to the sounds coming from this truly bizarre combining of metal antennae and the hands … |
| | Yesterday I was having breakfast in Madrid, as you do, enjoying the 30 degree heat and the ice cold orange juice. I was also enjoying the opportunity to be my usual grumpy self and throw awkward questions in the direction of my breakfast companion, Con Mallon the Director of Regional …  |
| | Well it is here at last, and this time it seems to be all gravy as they say. Apple has made the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3135.html"]iPhone 2.1 upgrade as promised[/URL] at the Let's Rock event available, and oh boy is it a little beauty! The full list of bug fixes and improvements, according … |
| | I must try and see if I can squeeze 'Balderdash and Piffle' into a story :) |
| | The UK Government's broadband advisory group has published a report which suggests the cost of deploying fibre based broadband in the UK will be as high as £28.8 billion... The [URL="http://www.broadbanduk.org/"]Broadband Stakeholder Group[/URL] report, produced by Analysis Mason, looks at the various costs of various technological options for providing next-generation … |
| | I want more toys *and* a bigger/faster car, does that make me a bad person? :) |
| | You've got to love this one. A Bangladesh government website, for the Rapid Action Battalion, was hacked last week. It was one of those hacktivism style affairs, with the home page defaced and a message left in its place. The message, in this instance, read: "GOVERNMENT DOES NOT TAKE ANY … |
| | The vibrating rabbit is back, and this time it means business. The [URL="http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2008/09/nabaztag_the_ra.html"]buzz[/URL] is that the plain vanilla rabbit is being given a makeover, with the help of some 60 different fashion designers, artists and style gurus. Personally, I have never seen the appeal of [URL="http://www.nabaztag.com/en/index.html"]Nabaztag[/URL] the vibrating WiFi rabbit …  |
| | In what has to rank as one of the most surprising outbursts of the summer, the [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7586789.stm"]BBC[/URL] reports how the president of the British Cartographic Society has blasted online maps and accused them of "demolishing thousands of years of history." The remarkable rant took place at the Institute of British … |
| | According to the [URL="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2008-08/26/content_6972421.htm"]China Daily[/URL] newspaper the latest Internet sensation, iPhone girl, will not be fired from her factory job despite some speculation to the contrary. It all started when a young Asian woman working at a factory making iPhones inadvertently left her picture on one device after it was … |
| | The Advertising Standards Authority is an independent body, established by the advertising industry in the UK, to self-police rules laid down within advertising codes. It has just issued an adjudication against Apple (UK) Ltd over what have been referred to as misleading advertisements for the iPhone. The [URL="http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44891.htm"]adjudication[/URL] comes as … |
| | File under: what was the point of that? Apple iPhone 3G users have been blighted with poor 3G reception since day one. So bad is the problem that it prompted Apple to release an iPhone software update which has had mixed results. Apple says iPhone OS 2.0.2 improved 3G communications, … |
| | The UK economy has [URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-economy-grinds-to-a-halt-906524.html"]officially ground to a halt[/URL], and is in danger of heading for recession. In the second quarter of the year growth was, well, zero actually. That means that the longest period of economic expansion in British history, some 16 years of it, has come to an … |
| | Paris Hilton is 27 years old and pretty much made her name for two things: being the heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune, and starring in a home made porno flick that ended up on the Internet. OK, make that famous for one thing, being the heiress to the Hilton … |
| | I am assuming that was sarcasm? :-) It does seem odd to go with an iPhone 3G launch way before any 3G network is operational. My understanding is that the spectrum auctions have not even been held yet, let alone any work done on infrastructure building. Makes no difference if … |
| | That's the question I had not thought of asking, nor really given much thought to at all, until now. What prompted the question was the appearance of the [URL="http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/08/18/windows_5F00_7_5F00_team.aspx"]Official Engineering Windows 7 blog[/URL]. The third posting proved to be a fascinating read, providing the kind of insight into the development … |
 | Rumour has it that this is the much talked about software fix for the Infineon chip 3G reception problem, although users who have already updated seem to have mixed opinions ([url]http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20104/53/[/url]) as to whether it actually makes any difference or not... |
| | Nobody likes the [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19936/53/"]iPhone kill switch[/URL] that was recently confirmed by [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2008/08/11/big-brother-apple/"]Big Brother Apple[/URL] as being very much a reality. Apparently it is there for our own good, just in case something nasty gets on to the iPhone by way of a rogue App Store application. Apple can then remotely … |
| | According to reports, Intel has decided that there will be no more Centrino Atom chipsets. Fear not, mobile Internet device loving gadget fans, for this does not mean the same thing as there being no more of the chipsets that are helping to power the ultra-low-cost mobile PC market. All … |
| | Italian Internet Service Providers have been ordered to block access to the Pirate Bay file-sharing Bit Torrent tracker site in Sweden by a judge in the Northern Italian town of Bergamo. This is the same judge, who has not been named, which only last month closed a leading Bit Torrent …  |
| | It would appear that Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, who won gold in the men's 100m breast stroke event, [URL="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=195049"]has a Nintendo Wii to thank[/URL]. I was always told not to wee in the pool, but Kitajima had his Wii in the gym so that's OK then. Apparently, the Olympic swimmer … |
| | VIA has a pretty long and glorious record when it comes to producing low budget but high performance motherboard chipsets. Indeed, for many shoestring performance PC enthusiasts VIA has achieved something nearing saintly status. Unfortunately, like all other saints, it seems that as far as the VIA motherboard chipset business … |
| | Well, at least as far as getting reasonably unrestricted access to the Internet is concerned it does. It had been [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19764/53/"]widely reported[/URL] that the Chinese authorities had backtracked on their promises to the IOC that reporters would get free and unrestricted access to the Internet during the games. This, no … |
 | Re: Got XP? Dell is still selling new machines with XP, under what it ironically calls the Windows Vista Bonus scheme :) |
| | If you have ever been vaguely interested in search beyond the simple 'where can I find x' type question, and perhaps more from an 'who is asking about y' or 'where is z the most popular' instead, then listen up. Google has announced the launch of [URL="http://www.google.com/insights/search"]Insights for Search[/URL] which … |
| | That didn't take long! Apple has started rolling out the first update to the iPhone 2.0 software in the shape of the mysterious iPhone 2.0.1 which iTunes told me was available when I fired it up this morning. I say mysterious with good reason: Apple isn't exactly shouting loudly from … |
| | Wow! That's a lot of e-book reader hardware units. I mean, everyone knew these things were popular after selling out so quickly straight off the bat. But 240,000 units? Who would have thought there would be such a huge demand for this kind of technology. Especially since every e-book reader … |
| | According to a survey by [URL="http://www.BroadbandChoices.co.uk"]BroadbandChoices.co.uk[/URL], most parents in the UK are not actively monitoring what their kids are up to when using the Internet. In fact, while 40 percent of kids between the ages of 11 and 16 use Facebook and MySpace, 45 percent make new friends in chatrooms … |
| | Not quite 'free Internet access' or 'unrestricted' though, even for the media. The report that you referenced says, towards the bottom and quoting the IOC press commission spokesman: "There will be sites blocked that have to do with pornography or where in the opinion of the national government are sites … |
| | Looks like the PC Advisor story, using an IDG interview, was not 100 percent accurate in as far as the HD Moore owned quote is concerned at any rate. The Inquirer ([url]http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/31/hd-moore-owned-dns-flaw[/url]) has a piece about HD Moore himself saying he was misquoted, and never said he was owned like … |
| | Claiming to be the biggest search engine on the web is a pretty confident thing to do on the day that your search engine launches, but that is exactly what the creators of [URL="http://www.cuil.com"]Cuil[/URL] have done today. Combining the "biggest Web index" with "content-based relevance methods" whereby results are organised … |
| | According to the [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/27/internationalcrime.hacking?gusrc=rss&feed=technologyfull"]Observer newspaper this morning[/URL] Gary McKinnon, the British hacker accused of what US prosecutors refer to the biggest military computer hack of all time, has claimed he was threatened with a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. His lawyers are using this as part of their defence against … |
| | Well, OK, they have agreed to throttle the bandwidth of those accounts found to be indulging in the illegal downloading of music via file-sharing networks if their customers do not take heed of a warning letter or two. The [URL="http://www.bpi.co.uk/"]BPI[/URL] (formerly known as British Phonographic Industry) which represents the British … |
| | It has been a long time coming, and the subject of much online speculation as a result, but now Google has finally officially launched [URL="http://knol.google.com"]Knol[/URL]. Google seems to be positioning this as less alternative to, and more complimentary with, Wikipedia. "Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics" Google says "written … |
| | It seems that botnet usage could have been behind an increase in the number of click fraud clicks cited in the latest [URL="http://clickforensics.com/Pages/click-fraud-index.asp"]Click Fraud Index[/URL] which monitors such things. Running for three years now, the index monitors and analyses data from more than 4000 online advertisers and advertising agencies. The … |
| | Wow! That's a lot of kit being shifted by Apple. With the publication of its financial results for the fiscal 2008 third quarter ended June 28, Apple announces revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share. International sales accounted for 42 percent … |
| | It might come as a surprise to some that there is an underground economy online which revolves around the sale of malware. However, with botnets for hire by the hour and rootkits to purchase outright such off-the-shelf security nightmares have been the norm for a number of years now. What … |
| | Security researchers within the Marshal TRACE Team have [URL="http://www.marshal.com/trace/traceitem.asp?article=714"]warned[/URL] that malicious spammers are using fake United Parcel Service invoices in order to deliver a malware payload. Always looking for a new and convincing hook to snare the unsuspecting user into downloading malicious components from the web, this new attack utilises … |
| | According to the [URL="http://www.CE.org"]Consumer Electronics Association[/URL] the global revenue for consumer electronics will jump 10 percent this year, reaching a staggering $700 billion by next year. In its Worldwide Consumer Electronics Sales & Forecast report, the CEA says that consumers will spend $42 billion more in 2009 than they did … |
| | Yes, I know it sounds pretty daft, but MIO has [URL="http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/09/knight_rider_satnav_confirmed/"]confirmed[/URL] that it will be releasing a satnav built entirely around a Knight Rider theme next month in the US. Fans who want to experience that genuine eighties retro feel, but in a totally modern way, will just love KITT … |
| | We now know that developers working on applications for the iPhone [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/here-comes-the-iphone-app-store/"]had to submit[/URL] those applications to Apple on Monday if they were to be included in the launch day offerings for the all singing, all dancing, all new Apple [URL="http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/"]iPhone App Store[/URL]. The developers were told "Have your application … |
| | According to a [URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/04/iphone_security_patch_lag/"]report[/URL] at The Register Apple is failing to keep iPhone software up to date with security patches. This despite the iPhone 1.1.4 software being nothing more than a "pared-down version of Mac OS 10.5" it says. The Jesus Phone is said to be vulnerable to a number … |
| | [URL="http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/04/hundreds-thousands-laptops-left"]According to The Inquirer[/URL] a new report by the Ponemon Institute, rather appropriately sponsored by Dell, has revealed that an astonishing number of laptops are lost at airports across the United States on a weekly basis. Asking questions of 800 business travellers at some 106 major airports in the US, … |
| | Matrox has announced what it claims to be the first true QuadHead GPU, the Matrox M-Series. Which begs the question, just how many monitors do you need? With 512 MB of memory, native PCIe x16 performance and a fanless design for quiet operation you might think Matrox has done enough … |
| | According to the official [URL="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html"]Google Webmaster Central Blog[/URL] it would appear that much better Adobe Flash indexing is heading for Google. In fact, if the Googlebot engineers posting to that blog are to be believed, the ability to index textual content in SWF format files, including Flash, has already improved. … |
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