The Web’s gotten all worked up this week over a sex-centric iPhone application by Pepsi. The app, called Amp Up Before You Score, provided pickup lines for different categories of women, ranging from “the nerd” to “the foreign exchange student.” It then encouraged users to keep track of their conquests on a “brag list” that [...]
Archive for October, 2009
Government: Come hack our data
This week the Federal Government will open its data to web developers during its first hack day. Around 150 attendees are expected to descend on the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra for GovHack, where developers will be encouraged to test the effectiveness of mash ups between Australian Government data sets and commercial APIs. Event [...]
Wikipedia edit system should be in place by year’s end
The English-language Wikipedia should have a system in place by December to vet anonymous edits for certain high-profile entries, according to the online encyclopedia’s founder. The system, called “flagged revisions,” would allow anonymous users to make changes to certain pages. However, the edits must be approved before going live, said Jimmy Wales on Tuesday. The [...]
Harvard Medical School develops swine flu iPhone app
Want to know if you’ve got the swine flu? There’s an app for that. Harvard Medical School is selling an iPhone application for US$1.99 with a variety of information and services related to the flu. The Swine Flu Center application, developed by a new group at Harvard called HMSMobile, includes an interactive section to help [...]
Dell offers its first multitouch rugged laptop
Dell on Tuesday started shipping its first rugged laptop with a multitouch display, which can operate in extreme environments and withstand drops, dust and spills. The Latitude XT2 XFR is also the company’s thinnest and lightest rugged touch-screen laptop, the company said. The laptop measures 1.2 inches (38.1 millimeters) at its thinnest point, and weighs [...]
10 of the Worst Moments in Network Security History
1. Arpanet outraged but here we are today Digital Equipment Corp. marketing guy Gary Thuerk gets technical assistance to send what’s regarded as the first “spam” message to thousands on the government-funded Arpanet, predecessor of today’s Internet. Arpanet management decries the mass e-mail as a “flagrant violation” of Arpanet rules. Good thing they nipped that [...]
Gaping security hole turned 64,000 Time Warner cable modems into hacker prey
A blogger helping to tune a friend’s wi-fi network uncovered a gaping security hole in Wi-Fi cable modem routers installed in 64,000 Time Warner subscribers’ homes, leaving them open to attack. Time Warner says that within the past week it has patched the problem until the manufacturer can provide a permanent fix, but before that [...]
OZ Trio Fined $15.7M For Unsolicited SMS
Australia’s Federal Court has fined two companies and three individuals $15.75 million for contravening the Spam and Trade Practices Acts, in the first court action taken by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) against unsolicited SMS messages. Three individuals former Winning Bid director Simon Anthony Owen, Mobilegate director Tarek Andreas Salcedo and Winning [...]