Teens warned off Social Websites

Social websites such as Facebook and Myspace could have a detrimental effect upon teens. According to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, posting personal details on social websites could result in identity fraud and an electronic footprint that could be costly to them in the future. Many potential employers and educational institutions now use the internet to vet applicants. Finding something undesirable that a candidate wrote whilst at school could bring a halt to their career.

A survey carried out by the ICO found that 71% of the 2000 teens questioned would not want potential interviewers to search their details on the web, before they'd had a chance to remove specific information.

Too bad really, when you think that Google only revises it's chache every quarter. A search, even after information is removed, will bring up a Spider's view of a specific website- ergo specific details posted by someone. Probably best if, in the long term, people start refraining from posting the wierd and wonderful- or at least start using an Avatar to protect themselves from (shall we say) incrimination.

Sun Microsystems does a U-turn.

Sun announced its earnings last week; it made $55M last quarter. That's a reasonable turnaround from the previous year when, over the same period, it lost almost $90M. On the upside, that's four straight quarters of profits for Sun " on the down site, it's not a lot of profit and it comes largely on the back of efficiency efforts rather than growth in sales.

When Sun struck its deal with Intel to build systems based its chips, Chairman Scott McNealy said he was looking to IBM for another such deal. Talk about heretical. Now, Solaris runs on the BladeCenter, and Domino and Tivoli software now officially run on Solaris 10. Supposedly, Solaris has even been ported to IBM mainframes. To top it off, Dell recently announced that Solaris would show up on its price lists.

In August, the company announced that was releasing its Niagara 2 chip " which amounts to a pretty darn impressive eight-way system on a chip. Where the original Niagara was impressive with eight cores on single chip, the newer version will probably pack the punch for applications that Sun claimed for the original chip. That's largely due to the inclusion of eight floating-point units (the original had only one).

That, along with eight on-chip crypto units a couple 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and onboard memory controller units make this the sort of technology that gets a propeller head's prop spinning. More importantly, it'll all amount to real performance benefits for Sun customers.

Broadband in the Sewers

The University of Aberdeen (UK) plans to provide broadband Internet service to its residence halls by using a hard-wired system through the sewers, reports vnunet.com.

H2O Networks is building the system to provide a high-capacity link to dorm rooms in the university’s Hillhead student village for the next 10 years, replacing a microwave link between the main campus and the village.

The project is due to be complete the second week of September. With the 1GB connection, the university will offer its own wireless broadband service, called ResNet, to 1,700 students, reports ZDNet.

China's Spying on You... and You...

So, you think America's safe do you? Borders are manned and shutters are down on the Middle East? You'd better think again. After all, America did design and deploy the Internet and of course the plethora of paths available for entry (illegal or otherwise) into it's not so controlled borders.

Look at it this way, China's growth has been exceptional and the country is probably the world's number one superpower... except for the small matter of it's weapons research. In effect, it's got decades of catching up to do, but thanks to the internet, it doesn't even have to try. Just like the Japanese and Koreans with their reverse engineering, China has in effect stolen the necessary blue prints from the US. According to a report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commision "Chinese espionage activites in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies. As stipluated by the BBC, the commision urged Congress to study "military, intelligence and homeland security programmes that protect critical American computer networks and sensitive information, specifically those charged with protecting networks from damage caused by cyber attacks".

The report also identified other grounds for concern, such as the fact that the Chinese are manufacturing "sophisticated weapon platforms" speedily and efficiently.

The unexpected pace of China's military development has fuelled analysts' suspicions that it is being helped by stolen information, the commission said.

Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) Awarded Unix Certification

OS X 10.5—also known as Leopard—has been a long time in the making.

Apple first unveiled the successor to Tiger in August 2006 at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Then, its original spring 2007 ship date was pushed back to October as Apple directed its resources towards getting the equally-anticipated iPhone on the shelves.

October has arrived, and so has Leopard. And it’s one of the most significant upgrades to Apple’s Unix-based operating systems in many years.

The Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard” and Leopard Server have both received UNIX 03 product standard certifications from the San Francisco-based open standards and interoperability consortium, The Open Group, reports Computerworld. The certification ensures the operating system conforms to a standard set of interfaces to enable back-office and other applications to be easily ported between them, according to Macworld.

The certification makes Leopard another option in the enterprise, according to the group, adding that Mac OS X is the first operating system derived from the open-source BSD Unix project to meet the certification requirements. Meanwhile, a flaw in Mac Mail that Apple had fixed previously has reappeared in Leopard, according to vnunet.com.

Playstation 3 Sales Double after Price Cut

U.S. sales of the PlayStation 3 more than doubled in the weeks after the company slashed the video game console's price $100 and launched a low-end model, Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer told The Associated Press. Sony said it sold more than 100,000 consoles of all types in the week ending November 11. The price cut and new model make the PS3 more competitive against Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 as the holiday season opens, Stringer said. "It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," Stringer said. "We've been holding our breath."

Sony said it had been selling between 30,000 and 40,000 consoles per week before the October 18 price cut from $599 to $499 of the 80 GB model.

Sales rose to 75,000 in the week of October 29, reflecting both the lower price of the high-end model and the introduction of a 40-gigabyte model for $399 on November 2, the company said. And it was the following week that sales hit 100,000, Lagging sales of the PlayStation 3, compared to sales of the Wii and XBox 360, prompted Sony to cut the price in the U.S. as it had in Japan and Europe.

Nintendo Wii running low in time for Christmas Shortages of the ultra-popular Nintendo Wii game console may do what Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony (NYSE: SNE) PS3 have not been able to do in the competitive marketplace. They may give the two companies trying to catch the Wii a leg up for the holidays. Nintendo "said it cannot keep up with demand and that U.S. consumers should expect shortages this holiday season," according to The New York Post. The paper adds that "just last month the Wii became the best-selling console over Microsoft's popular XBox 360 and Sony's ailing PlayStation 3, pulling a virtual hat trick by making the Wii the must-have device in North America, Europe and Japan." Of Course, Nintendo were aware of the issue as early as November. Rumours were circulating on the 8th that there may be a problem. Play.com, a leading retailer of consoles allegedly claimed that there will be a shortage for the console and that Christmas for many may not be all that cheery after all. Neither Play.com or Nintendo had at the time confirmed or denied the reports but here’s the note that one Wii shopper (allegedly) got: “Due to a European shortage of the Nintendo Wii Consoles, we regret to inform you that Play.com will be unable to supply your pre-ordered Nintendo Wii at launch. As an Official distributor of Nintendo products we are guaranteed more stock before Christmas, but Nintendo have informed us, along with all other official Nintendo retailers, that the console will not be freely available until next year.” Add this to:     Digg Del.icio.us Sphere

Amazon Kindle Sells Out!

From Business Wire, Dated: 19th Nov 2007: Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight. More than 90,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 101 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases, which are $9.99, unless marked otherwise. Kindle is available starting today for $399 at http://amazon.com/kindle.

"We've been working on Kindle for more than three years. Our top design objective was for Kindle to disappear in your hands -- to get out of the way -- so you can enjoy your reading," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. "We also wanted to go beyond the physical book. Kindle is wireless, so whether you're lying in bed or riding a train, you can think of a book, and have it in less than 60 seconds. No computer is needed -- you do your shopping directly from the device. We're excited to make Kindle available today."

As reported yesterday 22 Nov by the BBC, the Kindle has sold out on Amazon's website and won't be back in stock until the 3rd December. Basically, a marketing Coup for Amazon and most probably a bumper Christmas, thanks in part to the press coverage this will be receiving and of course the sales that will ensue.

Felxible PDA display set to debut

The Readius PDA

One of the first mobile devices with a roll up screen will go on sale in Italy later this year. Billed as a PDA, electronic book and music player the Readius device has onboard a flexible LCD screen that unrolls to 12.7cm (5in) across. Polymer Vision, the creators of the gadget, claims the high-contrast black and white screen is as readable as printed paper.

Telecom Italia has signed an exclusive deal to sell the gadget.

Although unable to make phone calls the Readius uses several wireless technologies, including wi-fi and 3G, to allow data to be shipped in and out.

Polymer Vision said the device could be used to read newspapers, e-books, news feeds or location-sensitive maps while on the move.

The company said it could also be used to listen to podcasts, music or audio books.

Although the monochrome screen on the first Readius can only display up to 16 shades of gray, Polymer Vision said it was working on versions with colour screens that can also handle moving images.

The device has 4GB of memory, a mini-USB port and is expected to last 10 days between battery charges. Polymer Vision has not said how much it will cost nor when exactly it will go on sale.

The device will be on show at the 3GSM mobile conference that takes place in Barcelona from 12-15 February.

Which iPod are you?

The iPod has come a long way since it's launch. There's now a plethora of devices on the market, all launched by Apple and aimed to cover everyones needs, desires or ability to just shut out the rest of the world. So the question is, which one best suits you, your budget and lifestyle. From the iPod mini to iPod Touch, we review all the models and give a breakdown of pricing, buying outside of Apple and technical specs.

here's the link: Apple iPod Guide

Tis the season for the Hacker

November 20, 2007 (Network World) -- You know retailers are ready for Black Friday -- but so are hackers poised to launch a slew of Web-based attacks against consumers. Your money and personal information could be at risk.

"The holiday season in general is a huge time for hackers ... [and] Black Friday is typically the start," says Paul Henry, vice president of strategic accounts for Secure Computing. "This year, my biggest concern for consumers is all the Web-borne malware out there."

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is followed in marketing lingo by Cyber Monday. Both are big days for retailers and online fraudsters. Consumers should watch out for e-mails advertising incredible deals that seem too good to be true. "Freebies may be freebies in the sense that you get free malware," says Jamz Yaneza, a senior threat researcher at Trend Micro.

A common scam is to pick the hot toy of the season and send out a spam e-mail blast offering it for much less than the typical price, Henry says. Victims end up entering credit card information on malicious sites designed to look like well-known, trusted ones. They might also unknowingly download a keylogger that can steal personal information people type in when making any kind of Internet transaction.

In an HTML e-mail, it's a trivial task for hackers to hide the real URL a victim is clicking on.

"It might say 'ebay.com,' but you're actually clicking on something entirely different," Henry says.

Online fraudsters have been busy this year. Fraud losses related to U.S. e-commerce will top $3.6 billion in 2007, up 20% from last year, according to a report by the vendor CyberSource this month. The increase in dollar loss is due mostly to growing e-commerce sales, as the percentage of transactions that are fraudulent has held steady.

The run-up to Christmas and tax filing season are the two most dangerous times of the year for online shoppers, Yaneza says.

In addition to being wary of e-mails, be careful when searching for holiday deals or specific products on Google and other search engines. Operators of malicious sites have figured out ways to rise to the top of search listings.

The Beauty and Action of Crysis

Crytek's spiritual sequel to Far Cry, Crysis is an action first-person shooter based on a massive "Lost"-like island, the mysteries of which are revealed to you in naturally occurring areas (or levels) that can take several minutes to sprint across and hours each to polish off.

The game's graphics engine is so sophisticated that bullets fired through sun-streaked foliage cause leaves to shiver, while massive explosions thousands of meters away can produce clouds of dust that settle gradually over jungle canopies like smog. Oh, and as you can see in this screen, you can also expect epic skirmishes with anti-grav aliens. --Matt Peckham and Danny Allen

End