Diamond Age Solutions News for the IT Industry

Wed May 18 06:40:59 NZST 2005

Today Index

Australian Democrats table a motion that makes software companies liable for $10,000 fines for spreading spyware:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking/Democrats-seek-to-outlaw-spyware/2005/05/12/1115843300334.html?oneclick=true

Sun and Microsoft cooperate further on their Web Single Sign-On Metadata Exchange, and support of Java under Windows:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3504976

Microsoft still have not decided if the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible. If not, games for it will be in short supply:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050514-4904.html

Out of 300 invalid security certificate alerts presented to BankDirect web customers, only one backed out of the transaction:
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/FCC8B6B48B24CDF2CC2570020018FF73?OpenDocument&pub=Computerworld

HP To offer laptops installed with Ubuntu Linux, with paid support from Canonical, but only in Europe, the Middle East and Africa:
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050512_124421.html

Greasemonkey allows the virtual embedding of user DHTML scripts inside remote web pages, allowing the user to customise any web page:
http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/

The Xbox 360's triple-core, dual-threaded PowerPC gives the machine a teraflop of performance:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163101760

Flocks of flying Linux clusters are the aim of Gridswarm and Ultraswarm, using small fixed and rotary wing unmanned aircraft:
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2142584362.html

Space weather warning issued - a K 9 event, which is the highest magnitiude warning issued. Expect power and satellite disturbances:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2437.htm

And finally. Hong Kong experiences the invasion of the bun-snatchers:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8494273

News collated from various sources by Vik Olliver for Diamond Age Solutions Ltd. The views presented in this document are the personal opinion of the collator, and should not be taken as any more than that.