New Zealand Geek - news page 45

NEW YORK - The magazine industry, already facing a decline in news-stand sales and falling ad revenue, is being besieged by a new foe: digital piracy.

A fledgling website called Mygazines.com encourages people to copy and upload popular magazines that are currently on news-stands. Visitors can read high-quality digital copies of dozens of current titles, including People, Men's Health and The Economist, in their entirety.
August 18, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Here's a mind-bending idea: The US military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts.

The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.
August 18, 2008

The latest BlackBerry model will reach New Zealand "later this year", says Vodafone.

An exact date for the BlackBerry Bold is not yet available, but reports say it should be hitting North America within a month now that Research In Motion has started selling it in Germany and Chile.
August 18, 2008

To most people the terms global warming, carbon emissions, bio-fuels and sustainability are often linked to the green enthusiasts. However New Zealand based Start-Up Celsias say "Climate Change is not a spectator sport!"

By using the power of web 2.0 technology, Celsias is bringing together companies and individuals that are serious about making a difference to the environment. The website provides a platform for companies to showcase their sustainability efforts and invite the large green Celsias community to comment or enter into dialogue with them. It may appear daunting at first for a company to make their sustainability actions so public, but the benefits in terms of employee morale, retention and recruiting can be significant.
August 18, 2008

GENEVA - The format Microsoft's Office 2007 programs use to save documents will become an ISO standard after appeals against the move failed to gather sufficient support, the International Standards Organisation said.

The decision ends months of wrangling over whether Microsoft's Office Open XML format should be considered an open standard - a requirement for many lucrative government contracts.
August 18, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - In a crucial win for the free software movement, a federal appeals court has ruled that even software developers who give away the programming code for their works can sue for copyright infringement if someone misappropriates that material.

The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., helps clarify a murky area of the law concerning how much control programmers can exert over their intellectual property once it has been released for free into the so-called "open source" software community.
August 18, 2008

Imagine you had a party that got reported around the world. A party that never took place at all.

Here's what the fictional party looked like: "A birthday party invitation posted on the popular social websites Facebook and Bebo attracted some 400 guests and gatecrashers.
August 17, 2008

If you think computers and the internet have done a power of good for individual freedom, you've clearly not been exposed to the thinking of Richard Stallman.

Stallman, an American, is part-way through a speaking tour on which he is outlining the philosophy of the Free Software Foundation, of which he is founder and president.
August 17, 2008

Web 2.0Online directory to detail firms' green claimsKiwis lead the world onlineFacebook has overtaken MySpace in terms of the amount of users who have signed up to its services, making it the biggest social networking site worldwide.
August 15, 2008

GamesXbox updates - what's coming this ChristmasGetting animatedXbox (G)
August 15, 2008

An internet glitch yesterday left university students' confidential grades and lecture notes open to access by strangers.

Slingshot customers trying to use their own accounts were directed into random email, Trade Me, Facebook and Bebo pages.
August 15, 2008

The pre-Christmas run-up is about to begin for gaming fans, with a series of big titles being released to the New Zealand market. But there's more than just software on the agenda for Xbox, according to Tom Hunt, the head of Xbox in New Zealand.

The 360 consoles are in for a rev-up, with a move to a 60GB hard drive for the pro console, which ties in with a makeover of Xbox LIVE to make it more user-friendly. New features will include avatars, and for some games, the ability to hard load part of a game, improving the high definition experience.
August 14, 2008

STOCKHOLM - A Swedish media report says poor wireless broadband connectivity for some of Apple's new iPhones is most likely due to a hardware problem introduced during mass production.

Technical magazine Ny Teknik cites unnamed sources as saying that tests show the handset's sensitivity to third-generation network signals is well below the level specified in the 3G standard.
August 14, 2008

The HP TouchSmart PC IQ500 has just one cable.

ComputeFast food just got a bit fasterCourt blocks Defcon presentation on subway hackIn our house the kitchen bench is the hub of the home. It serves as a combination of dining table, children's art desk and document dumping ground.
August 14, 2008

National nationalises the network. Crazy as it sounds, this could be the outcome of the party's proposed $1.5 billion, six-year investment in a new fibre-to-the-home network for New Zealand.

Details of the plan remain sketchy, but we do know it will involve some form of public/private partnership to make up the shortfall of the $3 billion-plus needed to realise this bold vision for 75 per cent of New Zealand homes.
August 14, 2008