Tamara McLean in Sydney | August 31, 2007

THE technology age has robbed young Australians of half an hour of solid sleep a night in the past two decades,

a major survey has found.

A report on the sleeping patterns of 28,000 children and teenagers has confirmed that younger people are sleeping
much less than they used to on school days, and are building up a chronic "debt" that has to be slept off on
weekends.

The study found showed kids' wake-up time had barely changed – almost all rise within 15 minutes of 7am – but
they
were going to bed later, mainly thanks to video games, internet and television.

Sleep researcher Professor Timothy Olds, from the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia,
compared two surveys of Adelaide children aged 10-13 to analyse sleep changes between 1985 and 2004.

"The decline was striking," Prof Olds said.

"There was a 30-minute drop in sleep on school days, which is a minute-and-a-half less each year – very, very
marked."

He said a drop had been observed in adults over the past hundred years, mainly due to the advent of electric lights,
caffeine and more recent technological advances.

However, only one study, from Switzerland, had ever analysed this in younger people.
They were watching late shows more than ever, as well as live broadcasts of international sport like the US Open
 or Tour de France now possible with 24-hour global TV.

The research will be presented at an international sleep conference, worldsleep07, starting in Cairns on Sunday,
which showcases the latest science on snoring, insomnia, sleeping tablets, dreaming and other sleep issues.

Older teenagers seemed to have more homework pressures, more part-time work on weekdays and were socialising
more, Prof Olds said.

And a lack of sleep on weekdays seemed to be fuelling bigger sleep-ins on weekends, creating "lopsided" patterns
which researchers said caused havoc with circadian rhythms, or body clock.

RELATED

1. Inventor demonstrates the hover car

   A US company has developed a personal "flying saucer" which it says can reach speeds of up to 100
2.  miles per hour (161km/h).

RECOMMENDED

1. Jet-powered luge record bid

   An IT worker has claimed to have set a new world land-speed record for a jet-powered 'street luge'.

2. 'Flying saucer' cars launched

   A hover car which can fly up to 10ft in the air has been showcased by a company in the US.

Andrew Colley | August 28, 2007

A CONSORTIUM led by Optus is considering the use of powerlines to deliver broadband to homes,

as it prepares to battle Telstra for rights to build a high-speed broadband network.

A senior Optus executive revealed that the consortium, known as G9, was considering the proposal in its

bid to win regulatory concessions from the federal government to build the network.

Public debate over the new network has been dominated by proposals that rely on using fibre optic cable

to boost broadband speeds.

Optus regulatory economics manager Jason Ockerby said the consortium was "not just confined to copper".

Mr Ockerby was responding to questions raised at a broadband seminar last week on whether Optus had

considered the cost of maintaining Telstra's ageing copper network as part of the consortium's bid.

Optus was testing broadband over powerlines with several utility providers including Integral Energy, Energy

Australia and CitiPower, he said.

An Optus spokeswoman declined to comment on the trials when contacted yesterday.

"Optus regularly conducts technology trials and we rarely comment on them," she said.

Broadband over powerlines would provide the G9 with an alternative to fibre-based broadband technology

that relied on Telstra's copper network.

Telstra has maintained that it would use all legal means at its disposal to block rivals gaining access to its

copper to build the new network.

There are three main proposals to boost broadband speed in Australia and all rely on using Telstra's copper

network for last-mile access to homes and premises.

Ben Woodhead | August 28, 2007

FRAUD detection systems have uncovered a rash of privacy breaches at the Australian Taxation

Office as employees flout tough data protection rules despite ongoing monitoring and training.

Accessing taxpayer records is unauthorised access

The sweeps of data access logs led to three sackings during the 2007 financial year and another nine

staff resigned after the ATO detected unauthorised access to taxpayer records.

The breaches came despite extensive privacy education programs at the agency and closely matched the

24 instances of tax officers inappropriately accessing client information that were uncovered in the 2006

financial year.

"While no level of unauthorised access is acceptable, in an organisation of about 22,000 people it is inevitable

that a very small number of people will be tempted to do the wrong thing," an ATO spokeswoman said.

"Access to taxpayer records is limited to staff members who have a business need to access that information.

Accessing taxpayer records, including an officer's own records, those of friends, relatives or others,

is unauthorised access."

The latest privacy breaches were detected during systematic checks of access to taxpayer records, which can

trigger probes with powerful data mining tools if instances of inappropriate access are suspected.

The systems used by the ATO, whose fraud awareness training has been taken up by international revenue

collection agencies, are similar to those deployed at other federal agencies and departments including Medicare

Australia and the Child Support Agency.

Last week the agency and Medicare confirmed that they had uncovered dozens of instances of employees spying

on client records after they upgraded computer systems used to monitor information access.

The agency is considering whether to pursue criminal charges against three workers who resigned after they were

found accessing customer records without proper authorisation.

Medicare confirmed 49 instances of inappropriate access during the 2007 financial year and is investigating another

35 possible breaches during the period.

Rachel Konrad in San Francisco | August 27, 2007

YAHOO will introduce new features for its popular web-based email program, including software that

allows users to send messages directly to someone's mobile phone.

The enhancements make it easier to send email, instant messages or text messages from a single website – no
need to launch or toggle between separate applications or devices. It will take up to six weeks for all the new
 features to become available to all 254 million Yahoo Mail subscribers in 21 languages worldwide.

The most obvious beneficiaries will be parents, who will be able to use their keyboards to type messages sent to

their children's mobile phones – no thumb-twisting typing on a dial pad, said Yahoo vice-president John Kremer.

"We're giving you the right way to connect at the right time with the right person," Mr Kremer, whose two preteen

sons vastly prefer text and instant messages to email, said.

The changes come amid fierce competition among providers of free, web-based email services. Yahoo and

Microsoft's Hotmail have long dominated the niche, but Google's Gmail has grown quickly since its introduction

in April 2004.

In February, Yahoo announced it would provide unlimited storage space, and earlier this month Redmond,

Washington-based Microsoft said Hotmail would increase free storage from 2 to 5 gigabytes. Time Warner's AOL,

the fourth largest email provider, began offering unlimited storage in the northern summer last year. Google

provides nearly 3 gigabytes.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! bills the changes as the most significant overhaul of Yahoo! Mail since its

launch in 1997. The new version replaces a one-year-old beta program and adds new features, including text

messaging, a more comprehensive email search engine and an easier to read and edit contacts database.

Users who don't want the upgrades – or whose computers are too slow to handle them – can opt to remain with

the current version, which Yahoo! will call Classic.

The new version allows users to click on a contact and then select whether to send that person an email, instant

message or text message. You could send an email or instant message if you know the recipient is at the computer

– or a text message if the recipient is on the road with a mobile phone.

"This gives people the ability to reach anybody in their contact database anytime," Mike McGuire, vice-president

of research at industry analysis firm Gartner said. "For good or evil, it's going to be much easier for anybody to

get a hold of you."

Jane Schulze | August 27, 2007

SIX years after free-to-air digital TV launched, TV manufacturers will finally make it easier for consumers to

buy high-definition TV receivers, with the launch of a new campaign.

The industry group representing TV and set-top box manufacturers, known as AEEMA, has launched a high-definition

(HD) certification 'tick' logo to identify TVs and set-top boxes capable of broadcasting in the cinema quality HD

standard.

The campaign aims to direct consumers to digital TVs or digital set-top boxes that comply with Australian standards,

given that it is not mandatory for the TV reception devices to comply.

"What we are trying to do is help consumers clearly identify products that are developed to relevant standards,

while providing greater certainty when connecting with other digital devices," the chair of AEEMA's suppliers industry

forum, Ross Henderson, said.

The new logo was launched last week at Channel Ten, and its chief executive Grant Blackley said most of Ten's

prime-time schedule was already broadcast in HD.

"And we are the only network telecasting premium live sport in HD, which as we've seen in Australia and overseas is

a key driver in the take-up of digital TV generally and HD in particular," he said.

About 30 per cent of Australian homes now have free-to-air digital TV, with the market also buoyed by the popularity

of wide-screen TVs, many of which have built-in HD tuners.

Mr Henderson said the suppliers forum predicted that more than 10 million flat panel HD TVs would be purchased in

Australia by 2012.

Correspondents in San Francisco | August 27, 2007

HACKERS says they have found a way to use Apple iPhone on networks other than AT&T, opening up

he coveted device to rival carriers and overseas customers, according to web reports.

Hackers say software lets the iPhone work on networks belonging to AT&T's rivals

A group called iPhoneSIMfree.com said it had developed a piece of software that, allows the iPhone to use rival
mobile services such as T-Mobile, a widely followed technology blog Engadget.com has reported.

AT&T has an exclusive two-year agreement to provide phone and data services for the iPhone in the US. Apple
is in talks with carriers in several European countries to launch the device there by the end of the year.

Enabling the combination phone, media player and web browser to run on other networks – known as "unlocking" –
 has been a stated goal of many hackers since the iPhone hit the market in late June.

"The unlock process took only a couple of minutes. From our end it was totally painless," Engadget said.

Several other methods for unlocking the iPhone have emerged on the internet in the past few weeks, although
they
involve tinkering with the iPhone hardware or more complicated ways of bypassing the protections for AT&T's
 exclusivity.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel declined to comment on the Engadget report and an Apple spokesman could not be
immediately reached. An email sent to iPhoneSIMfree.com was not immediately answered.

The iPhone is based on GSM wireless technology, which is deployed widely throughout Europe but used in the United
States only by AT&T and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile.

"Inside the United States it's not going to be a huge deal, outside the United States it's probably going to be a big
deal until Apple gets agreements in place with partners there," Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief of Apple news-tracking
site iLounge.com said.

The hacker victory could also be fleeting since it may be possible for Apple to render the unlock process useless with
an update to the iPhone software, Mr Horwitz said.

Jim Finkle in Boston | August 29, 2007

SOFTWARE included with high-end memory sticks sold by Sony can make personal computers vulnerable

to attack by computer hackers, according to researchers with two internet security firms.

Sony's MicroVault USB memory stick and fingerprint reader includes software that creates a hidden directory on
the computer's hard drive, researchers with Finnish security software maker F-Secure has reported in its company
blog.

Such software that hides itself, which is known as a root kit, leaves room for hackers to secretly infect personal
 computers, they said.

Software that is installed on such hidden drives is not only invisible to the human eye; some types of computer
security software are unable to detect viruses and other types of so-called malware, or malicious software,
 stored on them.

F-Secure's blog posting said it attempted to contact Sony before alerting the public about the software, but
the company had not replied.

Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa said he could not immediately comment on the situation.

Researchers with McAfee recently said they had confirmed the vulnerability described by F-Secure.

"The apparent intent was to cloak sensitive files related to the fingerprint verification feature included on the
 USB drives," McAfee spokesman Dave Marcus said. "However, software creators apparently did not keep the
 security implications in mind. The application could be used to hide arbitrary software, including malicious software."

This is not the first time F-Secure has found Sony software installing hidden directories on the drives of its
 customers. In 2005 there was a similar situation involving the electronics maker's digital rights management
software, security experts say.

Correspondents in Moscow | August 29, 2007

RUSSIAN music download site www.allofmp3.com has said it will resume business soon, after a Moscow

court ruled its operation is in accordance with Russian law.

No music is currently on sale, but a statement on the web site says business will begin shortly, with enhanced
 payment procedures and a larger selection of music.

The statement was dated August 31, but did not make clear whether that was when the site would resume
 business.

Earlier this month the Cheryomushki Court in Moscow ruled that Denis Kvasov, allofmp3's former head, was not
guilty of intellectual property theft, and had not violated Russian copyright laws.

Neither Kvasov nor a representative from allofmp3's parent company, Media Services, could be reached for
comment.

The US Commerce Department in 2006 called allofmp3 "the world's highest-volume online seller of pirated music,"
and made its closure a key point in bilateral trade negotiations for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.

The site was closed in early July ahead of a summit between the Russian and American presidents, though
internet visitors were directed to a similar web site where allofmp3 credit could be used to purchase music.

Allofmp3 sold digitally encoded music across a wide range of artists and genres at prices significantly lower
than Apple's popular iTunes or the newly legalised version of Napster.

The Russian site also paid no music industry royalties, saying it was in compliance with Russian law by instead
paying 15 per cent of its profit to a non-commercial partnership that traffics in licensing and payment for digital
 media.

"We pay royalties to those who sign up with us and ask for them. But none of the majors, among them I mean
labels like EMI and Universal, want their money," Oleg Nezus of the Russian Organization for Multimedia and
Digital Systems said.

"I've been sending them letters since November of 2005, stating there's a dividend. The labels don't respond."

Mr Kvasov and allofmp3 were being sued by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) on
 behalf of media companies EMI, NBC Universal and Time Warner for more than one trillion dollars.

"From a Russian law point of view, these sites aren't legal because they go through pseudo-official licensing
agencies and don't have direct agreements with copyright holders," Igor Pozhitkin, regional representative of the
IFPI said.

• Overview
• Compare Specs
• Gallery
• Warranty Info

Intel Core 2 Duo processor

Powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the new Mac mini is up to 33 percent faster than the previous

generation.²

 

Front Row and Apple Remote

From across the room, you can browse through all the music, photos and movies on both your Mac mini and other

computers across your network.

 

iLife ’08: Home of your life’s events

Turn special times into photo books and slideshows, Hollywood-style movies, and DVDs. And create stunning web

pages, blogs, and podcasts.

 

BYODKM

Mac mini makes it easy to upgrade from an older system or set it up side-by-side with another computer.

Just BYODKM — bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse.