15th April 2012 Archive

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Yahoo! enters! last! chance! saloon!

... through the revolving door

The lazy reaction to Yahoo!‘s latest attempt at revival is cynicism, but a closer examination suggests it is playing a mixed hand of cards as well as it can. As we all know Yahoo! lost the search wars to Google, as did a bunch of other vendors that appeared well placed at the time. One of them, Alta Vista, ended up being …

CIO 15 Apr 12:06
Assange^TM TV broadcasts this week

Max Headroom meets Andy Warhol

The spotlight on Julian Assange is on high beam, this time masterminded by his own content production efforts. Assange warned us in January that he would be launching his own pirate TV talk show. This Tuesday (April 17) the hotly anticipated production will go live, branded The World Of Tomorrow. To whet our appetite, the …

Security 15 Apr 21:35
ANU puts quantum random numbers online

Your quantum device on a USB key

Last year, Oxford university demonstrated the use of quantum fluctuations to generate random numbers. Now, the Australian National University has gone a step further – putting its quantum-generated random numbers online. “Vacuum noise” is one of those “couldn’t possibly be true, except that it is” characteristics of quantum …

Security 15 Apr 22:00
Yet another OSX/Java Trojan spotted in the wild

Kaspersky Labs tags MS Word as the vector

Hard on the heels of the Flashback Trojan, Kaspersky Labs is warning of a new OSX threat, which it’s dubbed Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a. In a post to Securelist, Kaspersky’s Costin Raiu says the Trojan connects to a command and control server hosted on a Californian-based VPS associated with the Onedumb.com free DNS. Apparently a …

Security 15 Apr 23:10
Oz parliament may investigate tech price discrimination

Gouging to go under microscope?

Australians should get ready for a publicity assault by rent-seeking vendors, with reports emerging that the Australian government is likely to launch an inquiry into price gouging, otherwise known as price discrimination. The year-long campaign by MP Ed Husic against vendors gouging Australian IT buyers may finally result in …

Business 15 Apr 23:11
Cloudy QR code bike theft stopper gets Police thumbs up

Victoria Police will need BYOD QR code reader to make it work

Police in Victoria have started recommending a cloud-and-QR-code-driven product that aims to make retrieval of stolen bicycles easier. The product is called MyBikeRego, the eponymous creation of an Australian startup. The product offers buyers – who stump up $30 a year – three QR codes to affix to their bicycle. That QR code is …

Cloud 15 Apr 23:41