Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.**********************************************************
Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/**********************************************************
China's Golden Cyber-Shield
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/07/30/china-cybercrime-war-tech-cx_ag_0730internet.htmluk: Food manufacturers target children on internet after regulator's TV advertising clampdown
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2138178,00.htmlWe are coming for your children
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2138070,00.htmlNew Scrutiny for Facebook Over Predators
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/alarm-over-facebook-predators/2007/07/31/1185647889575.htmluk:
Teachers in websites closure call
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6925444.stmau: Snaring cyber child corrupters
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22161699-15319,00.htmlau: Predator protection 'in weeks'
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22161700-16123,00.htmluk: Internet leads to rise in fraud
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2195251/internet-leads-rise-fraudBanks battle against money laundering as market complexity increases
[news release]
http://kpmg.com/Press/07.09.2007.htmEuropean Project Looks to Manage Online Threats
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135371-c,onlinesecurity/article.htmlRichard Clarke: Computers Are Best Friend Of Progress, And Security Its Worst Enemy
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202380us: Lawsuit filed in Chicago over iPhone battery
http://iht.com/articles/2007/08/01/business/iphone.phpnz: Law catches up with technology
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1260588Second Life Loses Gamblers But Finds God
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201201920comScore Reports Top U.K. Sites for June [news release]
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1553New Zealand broadband speeds up [news release]
http://www.stats.govt.nz/products-and-services/media-releases/internet-service-provider-survey/internet-service-provider-survey-mar07-mr.htmnz: More internet
subscribers going faster
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4150508a28.htmlhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455434Feeling okay? Millions of cyberchondriacs seek health advice [Reuters]
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455169au: Search site cashes in on eco-guilt
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/01/1185647951527.htmlau: The young 'learn from' reality TV
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,10221,22168360-10229,00.htmlhttp://tvgrapevine.com/index.php?topic=12473.msg43016;topicseenThe Simpsons Movie sparks spam blast
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028521Eminem sues Apple over downloads
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6926278.stmLaser printers pose health risks: study
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/31/1185647880054.htmlnz: Rural web users pay double in draft decision
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10454893Access charge to transform NZ telecoms? [AAP]
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Access-charge-to-transform-NZ-telecoms-/0,130061791,339280722,00.htmnz: Rural fears over digital divide
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411415/1261062http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.aspx?id=75448Rural areas to pay more for broadband
http://stuff.co.nz/4147572a10.htmlCommerce Commission sets draft LLU price
http://telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?id=178032nz: Draft determinations for unbundled local loop [news release]
http://www.comcom.govt.nz//MediaCentre/MediaReleases/200708/draftdeterminationsforunbundledloc.aspxFCC establishes rules for airwaves auction
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spectrum1aug01,1,1359162.storyhttp://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6199990.html**********************
CENSORSHIP
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Yahoo Testimony About Imprisoned Reporter Contradicted
A new document calls into question the extent of Yahoo's cooperation with Chinese authorities in the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese journalist Shi Tao, sentenced in April, 2005, to 10 years in prison for revealing state secrets. An English translation of the Beijing State Security Bureau's Notice of Evidence Collection, issued to the Beijing Representative Office of Yahoo (HK) Holdings, says, "According to investigation, your office is in possession of the following items relating to a case of suspecting illegal provision of
state secrets to foreign entities that is currently under investigation by our bureau. ..."
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201201833'Incendiary' comments removed from Malaysia PM's website: opposition
Racially sensitive comments have been removed from the Malaysian prime minister's official website, an opposition leader said Wednesday, amid a row over government attempts to silence bloggers.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185647996155.htmlChina's Golden Cyber-Shield
The Chinese government is an infamous enforcer of digital apartheid; when its citizens try to access prominent international Web sites like Wikipedia and Flickr, they hit a filter that blocks politically
sensitive material. In the West, that information blockade is often described as the "Great Firewall of China." But in Mandarin, it is called jindun gongcheng, the Golden Shield. As that name implies, China's controls on the Internet are capable of blocking inbound as well as outbound traffic. And according to some security professionals, that means the Golden Shield is more than just a barrier to free _expression_; it may also be China's advantage in a future cyber-war.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/07/30/china-cybercrime-war-tech-cx_ag_0730internet.html************************************************
CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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uk: Food manufacturers target children on internet after regulator's TV advertising
clampdown
Some of the world's leading food manufacturers have begun marketing to children on social networking websites and internet chat programs. Brands such as McDonald's, Starburst, Haribo and Skittles are using the internet to target children now that new rules from the media regulator Ofcom have made it difficult to advertise during children's television. At the beginning of July, the sweet brand Skittles paid a six-figure sum to set up a profile on the social networking site Bebo which has already been viewed more than 50,000 times and attracted more than 3,500 "friends". In an interview with the Guardian, a Bebo spokesman described these "friends" as "brand ambassadors". Bebo users have to declare they are at least 13, but it is known that much younger children do use the site.
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2138178,00.htmlWe are coming for your children
Commercials for junk food are being banned on children's television. For campaigners, this is just the first victory in a war against advertising to youngsters. But those whose job it is to sell sweets, toys and fizzy drinks will not give up without a fight. The Guardian joins them as they move into a new battlefield - the internet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2138070,00.htmlNew Scrutiny for Facebook Over Predators
Facebook has stolen some of MySpace?s momentum with users and the news media. Now, it is being subjected to the same accusations that it does not do enough to keep sexual predators off its site. Connecticut?s attorney general, said
that investigators in his state were looking into ?three or more? cases of convicted sex offenders who had registered on Facebook and had ?also found inappropriate images and content? on the service. The inquiry continues, he said, and state officials have contacted Facebook and asked it to remove the profiles.
http://nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30facebook.htmlhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/web/alarm-over-facebook-predators/2007/07/31/1185647889575.htmlFacebook under fire over sex offenders [Reuters]
Facebook came under fire on Monday from a state attorney general who accused the fast-growing social networking site of falling short in protecting young users from sexual predators on its
site.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/31/1185647889575.htmlhttp://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN3037267720070731uk: Teachers in websites closure call
Teachers have called for websites such as YouTube to be shut down as part of efforts to prevent pupils and staff being bullied.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6925444.stmhttp://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2137270,00.htmlhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article2175844.ecehttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455160au: Snaring cyber child corrupters
Virtual worlds such as Second Life may be the new crime frontier, but Australian Federal Police are prepared to act against online offenders. AFP commissioner Mick Keelty said global authorities had seen "a convergence of pedophile activity on the internet and in the real world".
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22161699-15319,00.htmlau: Predator protection 'in weeks'
Australians will have access to a
national online child protection hotline and free internet filtering software "within weeks", when the long-delayed $116 million scheme to protect families from predators and porn finally gets off the ground. A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan confirmed that the Government was working to a tight deadline to launch the scheme in time for national child protection week, which begins September 7.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22161700-16123,00.htmlau: Students viewing porn on council computers: MP
School students are accessing Internet pornography on Bega Valley Shire Council library computers on the New South Wales far south coast, according to new claims.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/01/1993556.htmYoung prey: Predators use the Internet to snare youths in their web
Most of us have seen those news shows. You know ? the scary ones, where grown men show up for sexual liaisons with children and young teens after ?meeting? them on the Internet. ... Well, the stats speak for themselves: 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given time, according to the NetSafe/Internet Safety Group. Sales of child sexual images in 2004 were nearly $20 billion, compared to all music sales online totaling $3 billion, according to congressional sources.
http://tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?articleID=070730_4_D1_NoArt11450us: A Multi-Front Battle Against Web Predators
The tattoo was the
giveaway. The registered sex offender who had been lurking around social networking Web sites offered few details about himself and posted no pictures to his online profiles, a method of maintaining anonymity. But he had online friends who liked to post pictures. And when the tattoo on a man in one of those pictures matched the sex offender's tattoo in a criminal database, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place for John Cardillo, the former New York cop whose company is working with the social networking site MySpace to weed out predators.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001658.htmlus: Getting Paid for Surfing for Porn
Gene Toye gets paid to surf every site that you're not allowed to look at when working. An analyst for St. Bernard Software, a maker of messaging
security products, Toye evaluates and categorizes Web sites. "My friends think it's a crazy job," he says. "Everyone thinks all I do is look for porn all day. They call me 'Porn Guy.'"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135366-c,internetnetworking/article.html***************************************
CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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uk: Internet leads to rise in fraud
Fraud levels in the UK are at record high, with the internet involved in almost all instances of fraud, according to the latest KPMG Fraud Barometer report. In the first half of 2007, the government and businesses lost £594m to fraud, almost three times the figure recorded for the previous six months. So-called carousel fraud has been the biggest contributor over the last six months, with four cases alone
totalling £440m.
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2195251/internet-leads-rise-fraudhttp://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/E0A67D275C36EAD4CC257329000A7A1FBanks battle against money laundering as market complexity increases [news release]
The cost of fighting money laundering has risen dramatically for banks across the world as they have become increasingly engaged in the struggle against criminality. However, the task is becoming more difficult due to the increasing complexity of the financial markets in which they operate, including greater exposure to sometimes unfamiliar emerging markets and the dramatic growth of alternative assets, according to a global study by KPMG Forensic.
http://kpmg.com/Press/07.09.2007.htmEuropean Project Looks to Manage Online Threats
Researchers are looking for formal European Union sponsorship of a new project that would keep an eye on malicious software and computer attacks around the world. Project WOMBAT (Worldwide Observatory for Malicious Behavior and Attack Tools) is a threat management system being backed by European technology companies and research institutions, including France Telecom SA, the Institut Eurecom, and Hispasec Sistemas, said Stefan Zanero, a researcher with the Institut Politecnico di Milano, who is involved with the project.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135371-c,onlinesecurity/article.htmlBlack Hat conference goers deal with insecurities
Security experts gather in
Las Vegas at the annual security conference, which has been "supersized" to handle more people, more topics--and more controversy. For CNet's coverage see:
http://news.com.com/2009-1029_3-6199958.htmlRichard Clarke: Computers Are Best Friend Of Progress, And Security Its Worst Enemy
The former federal counterterrorism adviser tells security pros at the Black Hat USA conference that continuing to build more of the global economy on cyberspace as it exists today is dangerous business.
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202380Politics and profit set stage for Internet security disaster [AFP]
The Internet is ripe for hacking chaos and rampant crime due to serious computer defense flaws, specialists told
cyber security experts from around the world at a major conference here. The experts who met at the Black Hat digital self-defense conference in Las Vegas also heard from US counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who blasted what he described as President George W. Bush's lack of interest in enhancing the nation's cyber security.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648039281.htmlUS cracks down on devices that let users play pirated video games [AFP]
US Customs authorities launched Wednesday a sweeping crackdown on the sale and distribution of modification chips and electronic devices that lets users play pirated video games. Federal agents executed 32 search warrants in 16 states including California, Florida, Hawaii and New York.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648032246.htmlhttp://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22175627-5013040,00.htmlEDITORIAL: Jihad like lightning
... Ansar al-Sunnah is one of the many insurgent groups operating on the Web, spreading their message of jihad through blogs, video and Web communiques. The anonymity and scope of the Internet allows them to work from anywhere in the world and hide their tracks through a labyrinth of different Web hosts, domain registrars and false names. The whole enterprise is often financed with stolen credit-card numbers.
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/EDITORIAL/107310004kr: Malicious Internet warriors dodge real-name system
"Execute the hostages! They deserve the abduction" "Families of hostages should pay for the money, which the Taliban request for releasing them." Those are just a few of the postings that have been flooding local Web portal sites last week over the reports on the 23 Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) agonizes over the case since such postings mean that the Internet real-name system is not effective.
http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=75018Facebook security glitch exposes user in-boxes
Office workers logging into Facebook
on Tuesday morning were shocked to discover they were being served up other user's private pages.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/31/facebook/http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/facebook-is-back-this-time-with-the-right-profiles/Online snooping made easy through social networking
Browse any Facebook profile set up by a relatively active user and you're likely to hit on a cache of personal information that, until very recently, would've been impossible to get unless you hired a private detective to follow the person for six months. Facebook, of course, is the red-hot online social network that recently opened its doors to the public, a move that helped it attract more than 26 million visitors in May,
an almost 90% increase from a year earlier, when the website was open only to students.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ca-webscout29jul29,1,5813317.storyEBay dealt blow on fake Rolexes by German court (Reuters)
EBay Inc disclosed on Friday that Germany's top court ruled several months ago that the world's largest online auctioneer must do more to halt the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2736988920070727us: Lawsuit filed in Chicago over iPhone battery
Apple, which may have sold as many as 450,000 iPhones in its first two days of sales, is being sued by a consumer who says it did not immediately disclose the limited life of its batteries or their
$86 replacement cost.
The suit, filed last week in Illinois state court, accuses Apple of consumer fraud and seeks class-action status. The plaintiff, Jose Trujillo of Chicago, also wants money damages.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/08/01/business/iphone.phpApple's Battery Replacement Tap Dance Provokes Lawsuit
An Illinois resident has filed a lawsuit against Apple and AT&T alleging the companies were deceptive about the iPhone's battery replacement process. The suit, brought by Jose Trujillo, claims customers were not clearly informed that the iPhone was sealed, and that the device would have to be sent away for battery replacement at an additional cost. "Unknown to the plaintiff and undisclosed to the public prior to purchase, the iPhone is a sealed unit with its battery soldered on the inside of the device so that it cannot be changed
by the owner," reads the complaint.
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/58612.html'NY Post' Sues German Filmmaker Over Websites
The New York Post is suing a German filmmaker for using the newspaper's trademark Web site and logos to allegedly "get back" at the paper for publishing an unflattering article about his movie, the New York Sun reported Tuesday.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003618908au: Minister?s chatroom evidence incomplete: Dr Haneef
Mohammed Haneef, an Indian doctor held on terror charges in Australia, has said that the Internet chatroom evidence presented by Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews did not reveal the full story.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Minister-s-chatroom-evidence-incomplete-Dr-Haneef/0,130061744,339280819,00.htmau: Concern over how AFP got comments
Federal police are refusing to say how they got snippets of online conversations between Mohamed Haneef and his brother. The Herald asked the Australian Federal Police yesterday how they got the transcript of the internet conversation last month.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/01/1185647979267.htmlau: E-greeting scams snare unwary users
A new form of online scam has hit inboxes across Australia, as Victoria's consumer watchdog advises anyone receiving an unfamiliar e-greeting card notification in their e-mail to
delete it immediately.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/E-greeting-scams-snare-unwary-users/0,130061791,339280834,00.htmUse of web archive did not constitute hacking, says US court
The use of web archive The Wayback Machine did not constitute hacking in the case of a law firm which used the web archive to see pages which owners did not want it to see, a US court has ruled.
http://out-law.com/page-8337us: Casting a Wide Web for Robbers
The two masked robbers saunter into a corner market in LeDroit Park, each pointing a gun at the store clerk. The clerk runs behind the counter, but the thugs have him. ... The incident, caught on the store's video camera, took a little more than four
minutes at about 1 p.m. on an overcast and sultry Tuesday. And it's all there on YouTube.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/31/AR2007073101823.htmlYouTube responds to copyright suit
Google's YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular Web site, a lawyer Friday told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6487317**************************
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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us: Arkansas Joins States to Push for Internet Tax [AP]
Arkansas is among a group of states that don't think the Internet should be a tax-free haven for online shoppers.
Since 2001, Arkansas has worked with several states in a project to streamline tax codes so vendors can tax online and mail-purchases when the retailer is located outside the buyer's home state.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1185786397092us: The FCC Closes a Window to an Open Internet
Too often in the give and take of media policymaking it's government officials that are giving, corporate giants that are taking, and the public that's left with little in the exchange. This was the case yesterday as the Federal Communications Commission decided to sell off licenses to an invaluable chunk of public airwaves with few conditions to ensure that Americans gain from the deal. The spectrum in question -- the 700 MHz band -- will be returned to Americans after TV broadcasters shift from an analog (and spectrum hogging) format to a more compressed
digital signal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/the-fcc-closes-a-window-t_b_58663.htmlHouse panel approves legal shield for bloggers
A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration's wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6200188.htmlnz: Law catches up with technology
The law may be about to catch up with technology as NZ's copyright laws are updated to take into account people transferring music to iPods and other MP3 players.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1260588**********************
INTERNET USE
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Half of European calls to be mobile by 2008
Mobile calls are replacing fixed-line usage across Europe, according to a new report from Analysys, but people aren't talking more, they're just using fixed-lines less. The change has been most stark in Finland, where 2006 saw another 10 per cent of calls migrate onto mobile networks; bringing the total to 74.6 per cent at the end of the year.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/31/calls_move_to_mobile/Second Life Goes Legit
Players in Second Life break plenty of physical laws, flying and teleporting around their virtual world and crafting made-to-order bodies and buildings. Federal laws, however, aren't so
flexible. Following an FBI investigation, Linden Labs has banned all forms of gambling from Second Life, according to a posting on the company's blog. Linden Labs had announced in April that it was cooperating with FBI scrutiny of the virtual world, including law enforcement officials' visits to the game's casinos.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/07/26/second-life-gambling-tech-security-cx_ag_0726secondlife.htmlSecond Life Loses Gamblers But Finds God
An Italian Catholic priest is urging the faithful to participate in Second Life as a way to keep people from losing touch with the real world, though Linden Lab's decision to ban gambling may reconnect more people with reality than spiritual intervention. In the recent issue of La Civilta Cattolica, a Vatican-approved religious journal, the
Rev. Antonio Spadaro explores the popularity of Second Life and advises his readers to visit the virtual world. He recommends experiencing the world from the inside to understand its potential and risk.
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201201920Jesuits Push Everlasting Life on Second Life
Jesuit scholar Antonio Spadaro is advocating that Catholics should become cyber missionaries in the virtual realm Second Life and sites like it. Perhaps participants have spiritual needs that need to be served, Spadaro advocates. Because Second Life mirrors social activities in the real world, such spiritual counseling has its place in the artificial world, according to analysts.
http://linuxinsider.com/story/OHrch8Oc4YDgH0/Jesuits-Push-Everlasting-Life-on-Second-Life.xhtmlSecond Life bans bet operators
Second Life has cracked down on gambling in the wake of tightening rules regarding access to sex-themed locales in the popular virtual world.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22156520-16123,00.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/31/AR2007073101693.htmlPreaching to the Perverted in Second Life
Linden Lab recently outlawed gambling in Second Life, officially making cybersex the one interesting thing that
happens there. A Jesuit scholar has suggested that Second Life is an excellent target for missionary work in an attempt to bring that number down to zero. The very concept of missionary work in an artificial world brings up a number of questions, many of them exceedingly creepy.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2007/08/alttext_0801comScore Reports Top U.K. Sites for June [news release]
comScore found the total U.K. online population to be higher than everin June - some 31.7 million unique visitors, representing 63 percent of the total U.K. population age 15 and older. The average user of the Internet in the U.K. spent almost 35 hours online during the month. Google remained the most visited property in the U.K. with 27.7 million unique visitors in June, reaching 88 percent of the total U.K.
online population, down slightly from May. Microsoft and eBay remained the second and third most visited properties in the U.K., with 26.8 million and 22.1 million unique visitors respectively.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1553comScore reveals UK's changing surfing habits
comScore has unveiled the June results of its World Metrix audience measurement service, and although the top visited sites remain largely unchanged, emerging sites are starting to nip at the heels of the established stalwarts. The company registered a record 31.7 million unique UK visitors to the internet in June, representing 63 per cent of the total UK population age 15 and older. The average internet user in the UK spent almost 35 hours online during the month.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2195359/comscore-reveals-uk-changing-surfing-habitsBritain 'failing' net speed tests
There is a huge gap between advertised broadband speeds and the actual speeds users can achieve, research has shown. A survey by consumer group Which? found that broadband packages promising speeds of up to 8Mbps (megabits per second) actually achieved far less.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6924866.stmNew Zealand broadband speeds up [news release]
More broadband subscribers were using faster download speeds at 31 March 2007, Statistics New Zealand said today. Results from the Internet Service Provider Survey for March 2007 show that an increased download speed of 2Mbps to less than 10Mbps had become the
predominant download speed for broadband subscribers. The leading upload speed for broadband subscribers continued to be 128kbps to 256kbps.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/products-and-services/media-releases/internet-service-provider-survey/internet-service-provider-survey-mar07-mr.htmnz: More internet subscribers going faster
The number of broadband internet subscribers is growing and they are using faster download speeds, new information from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) shows.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4150508a28.htmlhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455434Facebook continues its rise, but not in Asia
Facebook has continued its inexorable rise as the social networking site of the moment, but questions remain about its ability to tap the Asian market, where other sites are significantly more popular. Facebook's audience grew by more than 270 per cent to 52.2 million users in the 12 months to June ? far outpacing the increase at Bebo (a rise of 172 per cent to 18.2 million) and MySpace, which grew by 72 per cent to 114.1 million.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2180632.ecehttp://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028640Time-wasting staff given a slap in Facebook
Tens of thousands of workers have been banned from using social networking sites such as Facebook by employers seeking to curb the wasting of office time. IT experts say that companies are asking for help in blocking access to Facebook, MySpace and Bebo after realising that they could not prevent their staff from surfing the sites in work hours.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2155515.eceFeeling okay? Millions of cyberchondriacs seek health advice [Reuters]
Worried about that niggling pain in your arm? Concerned about those persistent
headaches? If you've searched online for information about medical woes you're not alone. The number of so-called cyberchondriacs seeking health information on the web has soared to about 160 million in 2006 - a 37 per cent rise over two years, according a new poll.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10455169http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6200081.htmlhttp://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKPAR10595820070801au: Search site cashes in on eco-guilt
The Sydney-based makers of a so-called eco-friendly version of Google claim they're helping to rescue the planet, but all that's really
been saved is the piles of money they're banking in the process. Hundreds of thousands of searches a day are conducted by Blackle.com users, who use the search engine instead of Google because they believe they're doing their bit for the environment.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/01/1185647951527.htmlRudeness, threats make the Web a cruel world
Brooke Brodack remembers her first online "hater." Nearly two years ago, the person posted rude comments about a video she had posted on YouTube, says Brodack, 21, of San Francisco, whose videos show her lip-syncing and creating characters. "It was shocking to me. Why would someone want to be so mean for no reason?"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-07-30-cruel-web_N.htm**********************
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Mediterranean Mystery Solved: Modern technology cracks the code of "the world's first computer"
Just over a century ago, sponge divers working the waters near Antikythera, a Greek island between the mainland and Crete, discovered the wreck of an ancient ship. Now, anyone who has ever gone snorkeling in Greece knows it's not unusual to swim over bits and pieces of the past, usually broken wine and grain pots that once lay in the holds of sunken sailing ships devoured by worms long ago.
http://www.edutopia.org/antikythera-mechanism-ancient-greek-computerau: The young 'learn from'
reality TV
Moral crusaders who want to ban shows such as Big Brother may have overestimated the negative impact reality TV has on young people. A previously unreleased Australian Communications and Media Authority report reveals reality TV may make better citizens of the 15- to 24-year-olds who constitute the principal audience.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,10221,22168360-10229,00.htmlhttp://tvgrapevine.com/index.php?topic=12473.msg43016;topicseenFlash memory obsolete in 3 years?
A potential replacement for Flash memory could be on sale within three years, with small start-up company Nanochip announcing a new device that will hold eight times as much data as flash memory, while having a cost per
gigabyte of up to four times less.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/soa/Flash-memory-obsolete-in-3-years-/0,130061702,339280813,00.htm**********************
SPAM
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The Simpsons Movie sparks spam blast
Spammers are jumping on the success of The Simpsons Movie to trick e-mail users into validating their addresses, so they can then send them more spam. Since the launch of the movie on July 27, spammers have been sending messages with an embedded picture of Homer Simpson in his underwear. The text asks if the recipient plans to see the new movie and to fill out a related survey by following an embedded link. If the recipient clicks on the link, the Web site records the e-mail address -- now knowing that there is a valid user -- and sends the address more
spam.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028521http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/31/Simpsons-Movie-sparks-spam-blast_1.htmlSpam: You?ve Come a Long Way, Baby
According to the majority of the testimony at this month?s ?Spam Summit,? held by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the state of the fight against spam is pretty much the same as it has been for the last several years.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/spam_summit_ftc_isp/War-Driving Pornographic Spammer Escapes Jail Time
A California man who pleaded guilty
to using unprotected wireless access accounts to send out porn site advertisements was sentenced to probation and home detention.
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202305**********************
DIGITAL DIVIDE
**********************
Dealing with disasters: Flood, famine and mobile phones
... As Mr Sokor's bemused London recipient points out, two worlds were colliding. The age-old scourge of famine in the Horn of Africa had found a 21st-century response; and a familiar flow of authority, from rich donor to grateful recipient, had been reversed. It was also a sign that technology need not create a ?digital divide?: it can work wonders in some of the world's remotest, most wretched places. ?Technology completely alters the way humanitarian work is done,? says Caroline Hurford of the World
Food Programme. Once upon a time, when disaster struck, big agencies would roll up with grain, blankets and medicine and start handing them out. Victims would struggle to the relief camps, if they could. For aid workers (let alone recipients) there was no easy way to talk to head office.
http://economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9546242Muslim political parties grow online but digital divide continues to widen
Political life in Muslim countries is surprisingly wired, according to researchers at the University of Washington. In 2000, fewer than 50 political parties from Muslim countries had Web sites. By 2007, there were more than 200 parties represented online, the majority of them secular. The expansion of online politics in the Muslim world outpaces that of the rest of the developing
world.
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=35768**********************
FILE SHARING
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Eminem sues Apple over downloads
Rap star Eminem is suing computer firm Apple for allegedly selling his music in its iTunes store without permission.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6926278.stmhttp://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/01/1185647943349.htmlhttp://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028661au: Music on
discs are still in the pink
Music and technology retailer JB Hi-Fi has dismissed a warning that sales of traditional music formats such as CDs will be halved within four years as digital downloads take over. JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Uechtritz said local music sales were "as strong as they've ever been" and there was no indication shoppers would stop buying their music in hard copy.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/01/1185647948427.html*********************************
COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
*********************************
Wikipedia launches DIY search engine
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has said that just as internet users can contribute to articles on an open-source encyclopedia, so too will they be able to play a hand in the way the web is searched. Mr Wales said that his open-source
search engine, which will let users influence the ranking of search results, should be released by the end of the year. The engine will also allow users' computers to help crawl the hundreds of millions of pages on the web, indexing the content of each.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2167763.eceAre we heading towards another internet crash?
Tudor Aw looks to history ? the manias over the steam train revolution and the dot.com boom ? for lessons on how companies can avoid becoming victims of a digital bubble: Stockton and Darlington may seem an unusual place to begin exploring the potential pitfalls of the digital revolution, but as the birthplace of the railway revolution, it provides a context for some alarming parallels to be drawn.
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2817083.eceLaser printers pose health risks: study
The office laser printer could be posing as much danger to the lungs as a drag on a cigarette, according to air quality tests by Australian scientists. An investigation of dozens of laser printers revealed that almost 30 per cent emit potentially dangerous levels of tiny toner-like material into the air. These ultra-fine particles are capable of infiltrating the lungs and causing lasting damage on the scale of inhaled cigarette smoke, said researcher Professor Lidia Morawska, from the Queensland University of Technology.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/31/1185647880054.htmlhttp://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135297/article.htmlhttp://out-law.com/page-8342Disney acquires popular tween hangout Club Penguin for US$350M
Club Penguin, an online hangout that has quickly become a rage among preteens despite limited marketing and advertising efforts, has been purchased by the Walt Disney Co. for at least $350 million.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648011573.htmlhttp://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22175634-15306,00.htmlhttp://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6200267.htmlDisney joins social networking race
Walt Disney has made its first acquisition in social networking, buying Club Penguin, which operates an online virtual world for children, for a fee that could eventually rise to $700m
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/879c87b8-4069-11dc-9d0c-0000779fd2ac.htmlhttp://nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/02disney.html**********************
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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id: ICT stakeholders prepare roadmap for convergence
In order to anticipate changes and to channel advances in technologies and ideas into a coherent growth stream, stakeholders in the information and communication
technology sector have created a formulating roadmap. "The roadmap basically says how we want the ICT sector to move forward, considering all the existing challenges faced by all the stakeholders involved," Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body member Heru Sutadi told The Jakarta Post after a seminar on fixed-mobile convergence in Jakarta.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=75011nz: Rural web users pay double in draft decision
Rural phone and internet customers will get the same services as urbanites for twice the price, if a Commerce Commission draft is upheld. The Commission's draft decision on local copper loop unbundling was released today, outlining the monthly rental costs that other companies have to pay Telecom, in order to access their customers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10454893Access charge to transform NZ telecoms? [AAP]
The Commerce Commission of New Zealand's proposed charges for access to Telecom's local network have raised hopes that greater telecommunications competition is on the way.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Access-charge-to-transform-NZ-telecoms-/0,130061791,339280722,00.htmnz: Rural fears over digital divide
Farmers fear they are going to be left in the slow lane of the internet super highway. The Commerce Commission has recommended charges for rivals' use of Telecom's unbundled local loop set the rural rate at $32.20 a month - twice the price of urban
areas.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411415/1261062http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.aspx?id=75448Rural areas to pay more for broadband
Telecom's competitors will pay twice as much to access its copper phone network in rural areas than in cities, if a Commerce Commission draft ruling is upheld.
http://stuff.co.nz/4147572a10.htmlCommerce Commission sets draft LLU price
The New Zealand Commerce Commission has issued a draft determination for the prices under which Telecom New Zealand must make unbundled copper local loop and co-location regulated services available to other telecommunications providers.
http://telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?id=178032nz: Draft determinations for unbundled local loop [news release]
The Commerce Commission has issued its draft determinations on the price and non-price terms on which Telecom must make unbundled copper local loop and co-location regulated services available to other telecommunications providers. These are the services required to unbundle the local loop.
http://www.comcom.govt.nz//MediaCentre/MediaReleases/200708/draftdeterminationsforunbundledloc.aspx**********************
MOBILE/WIRELESS
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us: FCC Hands Google a Partial Victory
The Federal Communications Commission moved cautiously toward creating an open wireless broadband network as it
weighed the interests of cellphone carriers and other contenders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/technology/01spectrum.htmlhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/01/fcc_opens_up_us_wireless_spectrum/http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6199990.htmlFCC establishes rules for airwaves auction
Federal regulators sought to alter the nation's wireless future Tuesday, taking steps to improve public safety response during emergencies and to spur new competition for high-speed Internet access.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spectrum1aug01,1,1359162.story**********************
VoIP
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VoIP Vandals
Internet telephone services like Skype and Vonage are starting to look less like digital gimmicks and more like the next generation of voice communication. They're cheaper than traditional phone services and increasingly fast and reliable. But they may also be far more hackable. Security professionals at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas spent Wednesday outlining the exploitable vulnerabilities in voice over Internet protocol technology, or VoIP. In a series of presentations, they demonstrated ways in which cybercriminals can eavesdrop on VoIP calls, steal data from Internet telephony devices, intercept credit card numbers from VoIP connections and shut connections down altogether.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/08/02/voip-security-flaws-tech-internet-cx_ag_0802techvoip.html+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!The domain name news is supported by auDA.
For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent
updates.Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(c) David Goldstein 2007
---------
David Goldstein
address: 4/3 Abbott Street
COOGEE NSW 2034
AUSTRALIA
email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au
phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home)
"Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery
