Other News
Date: 08/07/06
MTV Hooks Up with Google to Push Video to Affiliates
Google hasn't exactly blown away the competition with its video site, but its extensive network of AdSense affiliates has contributed to the firm's dominance in the advertising world. Through a new deal with Viacom's MTV Networks, Google will pair its video distribution technology with its affiliate network model to test an ad-supported video network offering. The companies have also agreed to sell full-length Viacom shows through Google Video....
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New Google Warnings Protect Internet Users
The distribution of malicious software is extensive, with hackers and cybercriminals creating official-looking destinations that are, in fact, "phishing" operations used to steal personal information...
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Texas company filed patent suit against Nintendo and Microsoft
Texas-based Anascape Ltd. has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft and Nintendo for allegedly infringing a number of controller-related technology patents. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Anascape, which has no web presence, cited 12 patents filed by "Brad Armstrong" in its claim...
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Symantec: Windows Vista Security Is Flawed
Matthew Conover, a principal security researcher with Symantec, cautioned about potential security bugs in a key element of Vista's security that is designed to prompt the user for consent if an application requires additional privileges. If flawed, it could allow attackers to circumvent all of the operating system's security features...
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Date: 07/27/06
Intel launches Core 2 Duo processors
Intel unveiled its new Core 2 Duo processor lineup on Thursday, increasing the pressure on rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The 10 new dual-core chips promise markedly better performance and greater energy efficiency than Intel’s existing products...
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Microsoft Issues Tool To Block IE7 Auto Updates
In earlier updates, large numbers of corporate customers running Automatic Update were caught unprepared by demands for a download blocker. This time around, Microsoft wants to give enterprises ample time to deploy the blocker toolkit so that they can test IE7 on their timeline...
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Space: Cassini probe finds gas lake
Saturn moon could be only place outside Earth with lakes (ANSA) - Rome, July 26 - The Cassini space probe has found a huge methane gas lake on the largest and most mysterious moon of Saturn ...
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Engine shutdown caused Russian rocket crash - space agency
MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The crash of a Russian carrier rocket in Kazakhstan shortly after a liftoff from the Baikonur space center occurred due to a first stage engine shutdown, the space agency said Thursday...
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Flash drive aims to improve Vista performance
July 26, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Samsung Electronics Co. today announced plans to sell a 4GB solid-state disk drive (SSD) that can be used as high-speed NAND flash cache to boost performance on PCs running the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system...
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Date: 07/25/06
U.S. Accounts For Most Spam
Of all the countries studied, the U.S. accounted for 23% all spam spewed out in the second quarter, said Sophos, with China close behind at 20%. The United States remained the world's leading spamming country, a U.K.-based security company said Monday in its quarterly roundup on junk mail...
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MySpace shut down by US heatwave
MySpace, the world's most popular networking website, has restarted after being shut down for more than half a day following a power cut. The company blamed the closure on record-breaking heat in Los Angeles where its data servers are held...
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We should be happy: AMD and Intel drastically reduce prices
Don't you just love competition? Intel and AMD have both announced drastic price reductions in the near future for their processors and we should expect even more reductions by the end of this year...
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JotSpot Takes 'Nerd Factor' Out of Wikis
Up until now, despite the draw of their collaborative functionality, wikis have been too complicated to use for the mainstream. But JotSpot hopes to change all that with tools that emulate conventional, Microsoft Office-like applications and -- as the company likes to put it -- eliminate the platform's "nerd factor."...
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Online Investigator Nabbed By Feds At Hackers' Convention
The FBI arrested the CEO of an online investigative service just before he was set to speak at a NYC hackers' conference. He faces various charges and will be speaking to a judge...
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Date: 07/24/06
Stem Cell Work Gets States' Aid After Bush Veto
CHICAGO, July 24 — President Bush's veto of legislation to expand federally financed embryonic stem cell research has had the unintended consequence of drawing state money into the contentious field and has highlighted the issue in election campaigns across the country....
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AMD Goes Mobile With ATI Technologies
New York -The possibility had been discussed for years, but finally, on Monday morning, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices announced that it plans to acquire ATI Technologies, the Markham, Ontario, manufacturer of graphics chips, for $5.4 billion. That's a 24% premium over ATI's Friday closing price of $16.56....
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Selling a New Digital Tune
Microsoft Corp. faces major challenges as it readies a portable music player and service to take on Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod, analysts said Sunday. The device, the first of a family of hardware and software products under the new Zune brand, is expected to ship by year's end and represents a fundamental shift for the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant...
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MySpace Victim of Calif. Power Outages
MySpace was inaccessible for nearly 12 hours beginning Sunday night, as a power outage in its data center crippled the popular social networking site's ability to handle web traffic...
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Potent New Sunscreen Approved by FDA
July 24, 2006 — For the first time since 1988, the Food and Drug Administration today approved a new type of sunscreen compound that protects skin from shortwave ultraviolet A light and doesn't break down as easily as other products...
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Date: 07/23/06
Israel Will Accept a Disarmed Hezbollah
The United States, Israel, the United Nations and the European Union have reluctantly concluded that despite punishing military attacks, Hezbollah is likely to survive as a political player in Lebanon, and Israel now says it is willing to accept the organization if it sheds its military wing and abandons extremism, according to several key officials....
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Tsunami's death toll rises to 668
THE death toll from the Indonesian tsunami rose to 668 yesterday as reports of fatalities came in from remote villages along Java's battered southern coast. Another 287 people are missing and 74,100 have been displaced....
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Frank Rich: President Bush's 'passion of the embryos'
On Sunday in a column entitled "The Passion of the Embryos," New York Times columnist Frank Rich blasts President Bush's decision to use his first veto on a bill passed by both Houses which would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, RAW STORY has learned....
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8 employees stabbed at Tenn. grocery store
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A knife-wielding grocery store employee attacked eight co-workers Friday, seriously injuring four before a witness pulled a gun and stopped him, police said....
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O'Connell Urges Students to Keep Trying to Pass State Exit Exam
More than 40,000 high school seniors still have not passed California's new mandatory exit exam but state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said Friday that he hopes students will continue studying, even taking a fifth year of high school, to help them pass the test...
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Date: 07/21/06
Baby triceratops unearthed in Montana.
BOZEMAN - A Montana State University student unearthed the skull of a baby Triceratops last week near Jordan....
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Bush's Back Rub.
NEW YORK - An impromptu back rub that President Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now massaging millions of funny bones...
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Genesis 1 Video (Private Space Craft).
(Must have IE 6.0 to view video)
Private craft sends video from orbit
Genesis 1 cameras track the sun — and stuff floating in zero-G. The company behind an inflatable space module that could serve as the prototype for future private-sector space stations has released its first video clips from orbit, showing a whirling view of the sun and Earth as well as a flurry of photos and other mementos floating within....
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Online 'advergames' target kids.
WASHINGTON - When they play Chips Ahoy Soccer Shootout and Pop-Tart Slalom, kids aren't just having fun. They also are subjects in marketing efforts to sell food, a study finds...
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Thousands in New York City without power.
NEW YORK - Tens of thousands of New Yorkers were still without power Friday, the fifth day of a mysterious electrical problem that has been blamed for subway delays, flight cancellations and dead air conditioners during the hottest week of the year....
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Date: 07/18/06
Microsoft Updates Vista Beta.
Microsoft has released an update of its Windows Vista Beta operating system. The new version is referred to as build 5472 and marks the first update since Microsoft ended public availability of Windows Vista Beta 2. The release is available only to a group of about 500,000 testers...
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Dell Extends WiFi Capabilities
Dell on Tuesday unveiled a wireless card that the company says can provide up to five times the speed and twice the range of the industry's widely used 802.11g WiFi technology standard. The greatest productivity comes when connected to a wireless Draft 802.11n network router featuring Broadcom's Intensi-fi technology...
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Movielink to Offer DVD-Burning Capability
In a move that could help unlock the potential for selling feature-length movies over the Internet, Movielink Monday said it had reached an agreement to license technology allowing downloaded movies to be burned onto DVDs by users. Movielink said it had licensed the technology to allow DVD burning but retain digital rights management controls to avoid piracy from Sonic Solutions...
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Successful Landing Concludes Shuttle Mission
After the wheels were down and Discovery rolled to a halt from a 5.3 million-mile journey in space, the six astronauts on the 13-day mission looked at each other and said, "We did it." With the second return-to-flight mission over and all its goals completed, a jubilant feeling spread throughout NASA's sprawling work force...
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Microsoft to Alter Its Reporting Structure
Software giant Microsoft says it will change the way it reports its results, although its underlying financial reporting regime will not change. The Redwood, Wash.-based firm said it would now break its results into five categories rather than the seven it had previously used...
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Dell To Pay Out Millions In Law Suit
Internet shoppers know the drill. You buy something online and think you've cleverly avoided paying sales tax, but sometimes you lose the gamble and have to pay anyway, depending on a cryptic set of tax laws full of legal terms like "nexus." Ultimately, you trust the Web site to charge the proper taxes, because what else can you do?...
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Who's To Blame?
Google video, YouTube and other online video sites host violent clips of children lighting themselves on fire and doing other dangerous, stupid things. MySpace is loaded with provocative photos of children and has become a playground for pedophiles. I think all these companies should be doing more to protect children, and I said so in two columns this week. Hundreds of readers have chastised me, saying that parents -- not companies -- are responsible for keeping their kids safe....
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Date: 07/16/06
Microsoft Live Drive vs. Google GDrive
The war between Microsoft and Google heats up. The water got a little hotter this week when code for Google's newest project was discovered by a blogger. The blogger stumbled upon code for Google's file storage service, code-named "Platypus (GDrive)."
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Girl Gadgets
Stop Gina Hughes in the street on any given day and you'll find the following in her bag: a Treo, a Bluetooth headset, a digital camera, an iPod--and, quite possibly, a few more gadgets for good measure. (be sure to check out the pictures along wih this article!)
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F.B.I. struggles with out-of-date computers
Four years ago, a former FBI project manager lamented the state of the agency's primitive electronic case-management system.
"There's no mouse; there's no icon," the official told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2002, according to a recent government report. "There's no year 2000 look to it. It's all very keyboard-intensive." ......
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Judge Sullivan wants info on AT&T, Verizon mergers
Four years ago, a former FBI project manager lamented the state of the agency's primitive electronic case-management system.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Friday asked for full, unredacted versions of Federal Communications Commission orders that approved the megamergers of SBC Communications with AT&T and Verizon Communications with MCI last fall, according to a court filing. The request came as Sullivan ponders whether to sign off on proposed settlements between the government and the respective companies that would officially allow the mergers to proceed with minor conditions in place.......
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High tech's slow march in land mine campaign.
The search for land mines is not something done in haste. Nor, as it turns out, is the search for new technology that could be used to find mines........
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Eorope hits Microsoft with $357.3 million dollar fine.
European regulators hit Microsoft with a $357.3 million fine Wednesday, citing the software giant's continued noncompliance with its landmark 2004 antitrust ruling.
The European Commission issued the 280.5 million euro fine for the period between Dec. 16 and June 20. That figure amounts to a daily fine of 1.5 million euros, which the Commission is prepared to increase to up to 3 million euros per day if the software giant does not come into full compliance beginning July 31. ........
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MySpace may face legislative crackdown.
Politicians on Tuesday accused MySpace.com and other social-networking sites of failing to protect minors from sexual predators and other malign influences and said a legislative crackdown may be necessary. ........
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