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From CNet News: Although it has taken Microsoft five years to develop the next version of Windows, the software maker seems to crank out a new Windows Live service every five minutes. And, to some degree, that’s the point. Last fall, MSN executive David Cole and his colleagues pitched CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill …
From CBC News: A university in the Halifax area is banning the use of computer software designed to help professors catch plagiarists. Student leaders at Mount Saint Vincent University in Bedford, N.S., have been lobbying to stop professors from using the online database turnitin.com, and the university’s senate agreed in a vote on Monday. The …
From TechRepublic: A Cuban dissident who has been on a hunger strike for 36 days to demand unfettered Internet access is refusing medication and his health is deteriorating rapidly, fellow dissidents said on Wednesday. Guillermo Farinas, a 41-year-old psychologist, went on a hunger strike on Jan. 31 to press Cuba’s Communist authorities to respect his …
From BBC News: Browsing the internet has overtaken watching TV as the nation’s favourite leisure activity, says a new report. A survey by search engine giant Google has found that Britons with internet access now spend more time surfing the web than watching the box. The average web user now spends 164 minutes online each …
From Reuters (via Yahoo! News): He can find George Bush senior’s social security number and Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother’s maiden name in under 15 seconds, and led the FBI on a three-year manhunt as he hacked his way into the world’s biggest firms. “Computer terrorist” Kevin Mitnick is one of the world’s most famous computer hackers …
From TechRepublic: Microsoft plans to announce on Tuesday that it has been granted its 5,000th U.S. patent The patent milestone represents a key marker for the software maker in its recent push to boost its patent filings and then license its technology to other companies. The milestone patent covers technology used to provide a distinct …
From the New York Times: THERE are lots of ways to describe Boing Boing, the Web’s obliquely subtitled “Directory of Wonderful Things,” which draws millions of eyeballs to its relentless, stylistically minimalist scroll of high-weirdness each month. It is a site where, on Saturday morning, there were links to video games that “subvert post-industrial capitalism,” …
From TechRepublic: Windows Vista won’t have a backdoor that could be used by police forces to get into encrypted files, Microsoft has stressed. In February, a BBC News story suggested that the British government was in discussions with Microsoft over backdoor access to the operating system. A backdoor is a method of bypassing normal authentication …
From the New York Times: For a while, the wireless Internet connection Christine and Randy Brodeur installed last year seemed perfect. They were able to sit in their sunny Los Angeles backyard working on their laptop computers. But they soon began noticing that their high-speed Internet access had become as slow as rush-hour traffic on …
From TechRepublic: The English-language version of Wikipedia has racked up its millionth article. Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind the online encyclopedia written by its readers, said late Wednesday that an article about the Jordanhill railway station in Scotland became its millionth one. Wikipedia was created in January 2001. At present, it is growing by about …