New Zealand Geek - news page 40Geek - a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
Google faces anti-trust fight over Chrome browser
Microsoft has vowed to fight back against the launch of a new web browser by arch-rival Google, promising new features for its market-leading Internet Explorer and putting itself on alert for a challenge to Google on competition grounds.
Internet users in 100 countries were yesterday able to download Google's Chrome, which is said to be less likely to crash and more efficient in running complicated applications.
September 03, 2008
'Free money' for ISPs now in doubt
NEW YORK - It sounded like a winning proposition - free money - for internet access providers. By tracking their subscribers' personal web surfing habits, they could help deliver ads targeted to the consumers' interests, and claim a share of the burgeoning online advertising market dominated by internet search companies.
But those efforts to sniff out consumers' interests are running into the ditch.
September 02, 2008
Google's new browser takes aim at Explorer
Google says its new open source browser project will be ready for public consumption on Tuesday in 100 countries.
In a strange move well short of an official announcement, the web search giant 'leaked' a web comic to a blog site, detailing features of Google Chrome - a new browser well capable of putting a dent in Microsoft's Internet Explorer's market share.
September 02, 2008
Former Microsoft exec takes over Gates Foundation
SEATTLE - The arrival of a new CEO at the world's largest charitable foundation comes with much less fanfare than Bill Gates' own decision to leave Microsoft to focus more on his family's philanthropy.
Jeff Raikes, 50, a former top executive at the software giant, will be the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's second leader since its inception in 1997. He is replacing Patty Stonesifer, another former Microsoft exec and friend of Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced in February that she would step down.
September 02, 2008
Korea, Japan scrap over RAM tariffs
SEOUL - South Korea has urged Japan to scrap punitive tariffs on computer memory chips made by Hynix Semiconductor, saying it is considering taking retaliatory measures.
Japan said on Aug. 22 that, pending Cabinet approval, it would reduce the 27.2 per cent tariff it imposed on Hynix DRAM chips in 2006 to 9.1 per cent, after the World Trade Organisation ordered the duty be recalculated by Sept. 1.
September 02, 2008
When particle physics and hip hop collide
EAST LANSING - Who says science doesn't turn people on? Kate McAlpine is a rising star on YouTube for her rap performance - about high-energy particle physics.
Her performance has drawn a half-million views so far on YouTube.
September 02, 2008
Telco hits out at National's fibre plan
One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a fibre-optic network, saying the party should be focused on business.
The telco says the main result of faster broadband links to the home may be more downloads of pornography and movies rather than improvements to productivity.
September 02, 2008
TelstraClear adds competitiveness to cellphone market
TelstraClear joins the local mobile market today, bringing welcome competition for cellphone users.
Its entry into the market includes an offer of a free Nokia 6275i handset, worth nearly $500, 29c a minute for national calling and 500 texts to any network for $20 a month. Customers can also call a mobile or landline in Britain, the US, Australia, Ireland and Canada for 40c a minute.
September 01, 2008
New Zealand software company to fuel US group's expansion plans
Wright Express Corporation, an American payment and information services supplier for vehicle fleets, says it has completed a US$9 million ($12.9 million) purchase of a New Zealand provider of fuel card processing software.
The Auckland company, Financial Automation, will power Wright's new international operation, Forbes magazine reported.
September 01, 2008
Romantic proposal - geek style
MORRISTOWN - He reprogrammed her favourite video game so a ring and a marriage proposal would pop up when his girlfriend reached a certain score.
And on Saturday, computer programmer Bernie Peng married Tammy Li in a New Jersey ceremony and reception replete with references to Li's favourite game, Bejeweled.
August 31, 2008
New name in mobile game
A cellphone price war is set to erupt as a third telecommunications giant attempts to break the stranglehold Telecom and Vodafone have on the mobile phone market.
The Herald on Sunday can reveal that Telstra Clear will tomorrow launch its own mobile network to the public, providing what the company calls a "staggeringly cheap" choice for cellphone users.
August 31, 2008
Supermarkets go high-tech to combat shoplifters
Supermarkets are introducing electronic tags on items popular with shoplifters and other thieves.
The Source Tagging Alliance, set up by leading retailers, is encouraging suppliers to use radio frequency identification (RFID) and source tagging on grocery product packaging at the point of manufacture.
August 30, 2008
Website pinpoints where in the world your name is
It is a question that not even Google can answer: where in the world are all the other people with my name?It sounds impossible, but it can now be answered thanks to a remarkable new website launched yesterday, which enables the names of most people in the English-speaking world, and a sizeable chunk of the rest of it, to be tracked to the places they live.
Set up by geographers at University College London (UCL), the site, publicprofiler.org/worldnames, will provide a remarkable tool for tracing family history and also a powerful aid for governments to keep track of intra-national and international migrations.
August 30, 2008
A Google decade - 10 years of searching
Google co-founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page at the company's headquarters. Photo / AP
ConnectKiller freebies on iTunesBlogger arrested over Guns N' Roses song leakEagerly they came - the young, the ambitious, the smartest of the smart.
August 29, 2008
'West Wing' writer set to make Facebook: The Movie
When Mark Zuckerberg's social networking website Facebook became a global phenomenon, he famously remarked that his journey from dishevelled Harvard undergraduate to billionaire media mogul would make a good Hollywood movie.
August 29, 2008
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