Episode 084

 Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, will temporarily join the board of directors of US news agency The Associated Press (AP).

The AP also announced it will launch a mobile service later this year which sends news and other information to smartphones such as Apple's i-Phone.

"The Mobile News Network will provide a national platform for smartphone users to access local content from brands they trust," AP president Tom Curley said.

Images show busy Earth orbit | NEWS.com.au
Images show busy Earth orbit

 

• Computer generated images show satellite saturation
• At least 12,000 objects in orbit around the Earth

The images show trackable objects in orbit around Earth, with at least 12,000 objects doing their rounds.

The majority of those, about 11,500 pieces,are in low Earth orbit, which is at an altitude of between 800 and 1500km, where most commercial, military, scientific and navigational satellites operate.

In this low orbit, debris can stay adrift for decades before it eventually burns up in Earth's atmosphere.

There are another 1147 pieces in geostationary orbit, where the satellite orbits in the direction of the Earth's rotation, at an altitude of approximately 35,786km.

Man charged over police spam email attack | NEWS.com.au
Man charged over police spam email attack

 

A WEST Australian man has been charged after he allegedly bombarded the email networks of the NSW and WA police with spam.

The WA Computer Crime Squad launched an international manhunt as part of its investigation into the disruption of the NSW Police and WA Police email networks between January 28 and February 18.

They charged a 22-year-old man from Coolongup, south of Perth, with two counts of unlawful impairment to computer data.

It is alleged the man sent thousands of spam emails to WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan's work computer and Blackberry.

Never gonna give Rick Astley up | NEWS.com.au
Never gonna give Rick Astley up

 

A BIZARRE internet prank centred on 1980's singer Rick Astley has been re-enacted by up to 500 people in a crowded train station.

The large crowd gathered in London's Liverpool St Station to sing Rick Astley's 1987 hit, Never Gonna Give You Up.

The song has become part of an online phenomenon known as "RickRolling", a trend that began on blogs and internet forums about a year ago. Users bait readers with an innocent-looking link that redirects to a YouTube video of Astley's song.

Most Aussies don't use expensive mobile web | NEWS.com.au
Most Aussies don't use expensive mobile web

 

• 91 per cent of mobile users don't use their phone to access the net
• 80 per cent would increase their use if prices were brought down

The survey, released by Sony Ericsson and 3 mobile, revealed that 91 per cent of respondents don't use their phone for accessing the internet, believing it costs too much or offers a poor user experience.

It also found that 80 per cent would increase their mobile internet usage if the price was brought down.

Three-quarters of respondents said search engine sites and email were the most valuable to access while on the move, with travel and timetables sites (67 per cent), and news and current affairs sites (63 per cent) also popular.

Proving that more people want to be online wherever they are, 53 per cent said they would like to access the internet when out and about, 45 per cent while on holiday, 23 per cent while commuting, and 11 per cent when out with friends.

Make sure you do a good deed every day | The Courier-Mail
Make sure you do a good deed every day

 

American Debbie Tenzer was so sure the world would be a better place if everyone did one nice thing for a stranger at the start of the week that she started sending emails to her mates encouraging them to do just that. Those friends forwarded the email to others and, before long, hundreds of people were getting involved.

The next step for Tenzer was turning the idea into a website and now her internet page, Do One Nice Thing, gets millions of hits every month.

Record label 'found using pirated software' | NEWS.com.au
Record label 'found using pirated software'

 

RECORD label Sony BMG, one of the most vocal and ferocious opponents of music piracy, has been accused of using unlawfully installed programs on its computers by a small software company.

French company PointDev, which makes applications for Microsoft Windows, claims to have discovered pirated versions of its software installed on Sony BMG computers and is suing the label for €300,000 ($514,910).

PointDev said it was alerted to the illegal software after a Sony BMG employee rang the software company's technical support number for assistance and gave a pirated product key when asked for a customer number, French website 01net reported.

A raid on the French offices of Sony BMG in January revealed that almost half of the software used by the company may be unlawfully installed, according to the report.

Lesbian alien 'sex' scene spooks censors | NEWS.com.au
Lesbian alien 'sex' scene spooks censors

 ENSORS in Singapore have banned the highly-anticipated Microsoft game Mass Effect due to a human-on-alien, girl-on-girl love scene.

Mass Effect is the first Microsoft video game to be banned in Singapore by the Media Development Authority.

The scene starts with a conversation between two females, one human and one alien. As the music swells, the human places her hand on the alien's cheek. There is a close-up of them leaning in towards each other, then a Titanic-style shot of a hand pressing up against a window.

High-speed broadband at tender stage | NEWS.com.au
High-speed broadband at tender stage

 THE federal government has moved a step closer to delivering on plans to build a national high-speed broadband network, while promising the bush will not be left out
The successful tender will be required to deliver minimum download speeds of 12 megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses.

It must also have the network rolled out and made operational progressively over five years using fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-premises technology.

The network must support high quality voice, data and video services, including applications such as high-definition video-conferencing.

The closing date for proposals to build the network is July 25, with the federal government to announce the successful tender in October.

Rolling Stones team with YouTube to promote new film | The Courier-Mail
Rolling Stones team with YouTube to promote new film

 

THE Rolling Stones have teamed with YouTube in a global question-and-answer session to promote a new band film.

YouTube has launched the Living Legends entertainment channel, with the Stones the first cab off the rank.

The launch coincides with the release of the Stones/Scorsese film Shine A Light and the new Rolling Stones album of the same name.www.youtube.com/livinglegends viewers will be able to upload footage of themselves asking their questions to Mick Jagger and/or Keith Richards. The best questions will be personally answered, with the subsequent footage of the Rolling Stones available to watch exclusively on this new YouTube channel in a few weeks.

Fans from across the globe will be invited to upload their questions to the Rolling Stones about Shine A Light, working with Martin Scorsese, as well as any other burning questions.

Canal Road downloads to be offered free | The Courier-Mail
Canal Road downloads to be offered free

 

AFTER battling illegal internet downloads of its hit program Underbelly, the Nine Network will offer free online access to its new series Canal Road.

Viewers will have the opportunity to download the first four episodes of the new Aussie drama for free before it debuts on national television on April 16.

Set in a medical-legal centre in the heart of Melbourne, Canal Road stars Sibylla Budd, Brooke Satchwell, Diana Glenn and Paul Leyden. Ninemsn will make the first two episodes available for download on April 7, with episodes three and four following on April 14.

Every other episode will be available to download immediately after it airs on the Nine Network.

Nine said in February that it was considering taking legal action after thousands of people started downloading leaked episodes of its controversial gangland drama Underbelly, which was banned in Victoria.

Email spy plan about national security: Gillard – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Email spy plan about national security: Gillard

 mployers would be able to read their staff's emails under proposed new national security laws being considered by the Federal Government.

The new laws would give companies extra powers to monitor their computer networks to prevent cyber-attacks.

They would be allowed to check their staff's emails and internet communications without their consent.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Channel Nine the proposed changes would step up national security of Australia's computer networks.

'Black hole' physicist dead at 96 – Technology – BigPond News
Black hole' physicist dead at 96

 US physicist John Wheeler, one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators who gave black holes their name, died at the weekend, his family said. He was 96.

He coined the term "black hole" for stars that collapse into such dense cores that light cannot escape from them.

During a conference on the subject in New York in 1967, a student shouted "black hole" to suggest a name for the phenomenon. Dr Wheeler made the name a household word.