New Zealand Geek - news page 22

LOS ANGELES - Nasa's Phoenix spacecraft has detected the presence of a chemically reactive salt in the Martian soil, a finding that if confirmed could make it less friendly to potential life than once believed.

Scientists previously reported that the soil near Mars' north pole was similar to backyard gardens on Earth where plants such as asparagus, green beans and turnips could grow. But preliminary results from a second lab test found perchlorate, a highly oxidising salt, that would create a harsh environment.
August 05, 2008

A barrage of haka and a little bit of technology is helping break down barriers in the New Zealand Olympic team.

As part of the effort to make athletes not based in the main village feel part of the wider team, the Oly-Whites will be hooked up via a live video link back to Beijing when they take the field for their important first-up soccer match on Thursday evening.
August 05, 2008

BEIJING - His company's gadgets are barely known abroad. But Aigo CEO Feng Jun, a boyishly exuberant walking advertisement for the fast-growing Chinese electronics maker, is out to change that.

Seconds after meeting a reporter at a business conference, the burly, baby-faced 39-year-old whips an Aigo computer memory card out of his wallet and throws it to the floor to show its durability. He plucks an Aigo digital camera off his belt and snaps pictures. Then he plays back the conversation on his MP3-equipped watch, also from Aigo.
August 05, 2008

Automated systems have again left web giant Yahoo looking stupid.

This time, the company's news site has displayed a photo gallery of Olympic scenes, tourists, performers and fluffy mascots under the bad taste headline 'Tiananmen Square massacre remembered'
August 05, 2008

One of Thailand's top video games distributors is pulling Grand Theft Auto IV off the shelves after a teenager allegedly robbed and stabbed to death a Bangkok taxi driver in an apparent attempt to recreate a scene from the controversial video game.

Thai police said Polwat Chinno, 18, told them that he was angry his parents could not afford to buy him a copy of the game.
August 05, 2008

NEW YORK - Motorola named Sanjay Jha, the chief operating officer of Qualcomm and a star of the wireless industry, to head its handset division as that unit prepares to become an independent company.

Jha will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown until the spinoff next year. Brown will take responsibility for Motorola's other two divisions.
August 05, 2008

BEIJING - The Olympics are coming to YouTube.

Highlights of the Beijing Olympics will be streamed daily on the popular video-sharing website to 77 territories where digital rights have not been sold, or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis, the International Olympic Committee said. The IOC did not release financial details of the deal.
August 05, 2008

TOKYO - Toyota has developed a motorised, stand-up-and-ride scooter designed to help people dash around at malls and airports.

But the "Winglet," shown in Tokyo, takes some getting used to. A demonstrator accompanying a reporter cautiously trying out the Segway-lookalike on a short course in a Toyota showroom was visibly worried about its safety.
August 04, 2008

At first glance it seems to be a complete oxymoron, an exercise website. Given the highly sedentary nature of going online, which typically involves being seated in front of a computer for extended periods of time, the notion that an online site is going to get me motivated enough to leave the comfort of my office cubicle and run up a flight of stairs seems a little farfetched. However, that's what Wellington based online Start-UP, TheNakedTrainer.net, is attempting to do.

Founded by Andy Hansen, a Wellington based fitness professional, The Naked Trainer is an online health and fitness community which allows it's members to set health goals, create and track weekly activity plans, and motivate each other through different group activities and individual messages of encouragement.
August 04, 2008

BEIJING - Like everything else done for the Olympics, China's quest to clear up notoriously polluted skies in time for opening ceremonies this week has been marked by gargantuan effort.

In what scientists are calling the single largest attempt ever made to improve air quality, scores of heavily polluting factories were shut down and some 2 million vehicles were pulled off roads across Beijing and a huge swath of northern China - an area roughly the size of Alaska. During the weekend, the hazy skies finally gave way to swirling blue.
August 04, 2008

SAN JOSE - Yahoo's board emerged largely unscathed from the internet company's annual meeting as a subdued crowd of shareholders raised few questions about the directors' rejection of Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 per cent of the vote.
August 04, 2008

It wasn't what anyone expected to see while perusing a news article.

But there, in the final paragraph of an online story about the call girl involved in the Eliot Spitzer scandal, Yahoo's automated system was inviting readers to browse through photos of underage girls.
August 04, 2008

Several factors make for sluggish broadband - from long phonelines to competition from other users. Photo / Getty Images

Best of business analysisGill South: Former workers get help taking the plunge into the labour poolDeborah Hill Cone: Obsessed with Eric? Just a bitSo, you've got your super-duper ADSL2+ broadband internet connection with its potential speed of 24 megabits a second - and you're wondering why it's not delivering web pages to your desktop at quite that rate? Welcome to the world of contention rates, backhaul and bandwidth bottlenecks.
August 04, 2008

Conducting conference calls in the wee hours of the morning is not exactly the lifestyle Mike Riley had in mind when he moved to New Zealand two years ago - he had set himself up for a life roaming the vineyards of Hawkes Bay.

But instead Riley found himself on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week running Endace, one of New Zealand's largest technology companies.
August 04, 2008

Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds unveils his first full-year result for the company on Friday.

He will be conscious that in the volatile sharemarket environment, any unexpected bad news may be severely punished.
August 04, 2008