Posted on March 31, 2009 by Maggie James
Call it a practical application of social engineering technology… Professor James Murray of Oxford University has devised a mathematical formula which he says is 94 per cent successful in predicting which newly-wed couples will eventually divorce. Murray and his research team filmed more than 700 newlywed couples discussing issues deemed likely to cause stress, such as sex [...] [...more]
Posted on March 30, 2009 by Maggie James
Microsoft (MS) usually never responds to Apple Inc.’s taunts (in its own advertising), about the quality, security or ease of use of MS’s Windows operating system. But MS is now fighting back on the one issue where it can blow Apple and it’s Macs out of the water: Price. The first of a new series of MS [...] [...more]
Posted on March 30, 2009 by Maggie James
Cell phone sales are expected to drop by more than eight per cent this year, over last, according to a new IDC thinktank survey. That’s bad news for the major cell handset makers, who are already feeling a major pinch from sagging sales last year. Motorola, Ericsson and other have already announced production cutbacks and layoffs [...] [...more]
Posted on March 30, 2009 by Susan Alexander
Apple has finally released a promised graphics firmware update for its 17 in. MacBook Pro portable. The 17 in. MacBook Pro — recently released. The patch, announced at Macword back in January, addresses stability issues with the computer’s display. A sigificant number of users reported seeing vertical lines disrupting their screens, after the new 17 in. unibody [...] [...more]
Posted on March 28, 2009 by Maggie James
Earth Hour will be celebrated tonight, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time, all around the world. People everywhere are being asked to turn off their lights for one hour to dramatize the link between global warming and energy use. A spectator in space viewing Earth from its dark side would, ideally, see a rolling backout [...] [...more]
Posted on March 27, 2009 by Maggie James
A major curriculum revamp for British schools reportedly institutes requirements for digital literacy while stripping out traditional requirements for cornerstone subjects including science, history and geography. The proposals, leaked recently to the Guardian newspaper, would dramatically alter not only what British primary school children are taught but how they learn. Instead of learning about the Victorian Era [...] [...more]
Posted on March 27, 2009 by Maggie James
The Conficker worm, which has been circulating for several months, now, has sparked a major global effort by cyber exterminators to track down the infection and help the owners of the estimated five to ten million infected computers worldwide protect themselves from digital harm. . But the clock is ticking. Conficker is one of those bugs that [...] [...more]
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Maggie James
Nintendo yesterday announced it has sold more than 50 million Wii game consoles since the device launched. The company recently announced that sales of its popular DS portable game console had passed the 100 million mark. The Wii has distinguished itself from the ‘bigger’ consoles both by keeping its price well below the (US)$400 range, where [...] [...more]
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Maggie James
The German federal cabinet earlier this week agreed to move forward with legislation that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to block Web pages containing child pornography. The new law, which will likely be passed next month, will probably take another three to six months to implement as ISPs move to install and activate blocking systems. [...] [...more]
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Susan Alexander
It might be seen as homage to master conman Frank Abagnale Jr., who went to work for the FBI helping to catch fraud artists after being convicted of passing bad cheques just about everywhere in the world the major airlines fly. An 18-year-old New Zealand hacker who allegedly caused (US)$20 million worth of damage around the [...] [...more]
Posted on March 26, 2009 by Maggie James
Yesterday in this space, we recalled the height of the personal computer boom of the late 1990s, focusing on the fortunes of one of the iconic publications that chronicled that heady time. Today, we remember the decline and fall… *** Boom to bust Around the turn of the millennium, the computer retail industry started to ‘turn over’. The vast [...] [...more]
Posted on March 25, 2009 by Susan Alexander
In the latest chapter of the controversy over redesign of Facebook’s home page, the company had responded to an avalanche of reader feedback with a list of proposed changes and improvements based on what the users wanted most. The ‘most-wanted’ list includes: Adding more control and relevance in the stream via live updating, photo tags and additional [...] [...more]
