Tag: AUSTRALIA

Share If you're a hacker determined to prove your invincibility, what better place to make a statement than at high-profile event committed exclusively to information security? That's exactly what happened at this week's AusCERT conference, where, for the second time in as many years, organizers fell prey to a virus planted on USB keys handed out to delegates. "At the AusCERT conference this ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Yahoo! has struggled to deter Google's increasing dominance, but the company is apparently forging ahead with a plan to considerably diversify its brand. Yahoo! has scheduled a Monday media gathering concerning the confusingly titled "Project Nike," which will reportedly involve a deal with Nokia to manufacture a Yahoo! phone. ...

We know what you're thinking: "It's been way too long since I've heard a good GPS fail story." This latest tale is actually an incredible double fail where poor judgment only served to make the failure of the GPS system even worse. A group of South Korean tourists found themselves stuck in a gully in the Australian wilderness after following their GPS's direction off-road. The group can be ...

The ability to create memorial pages on Facebook allows friends, family members, and well-wishers to remember and celebrate lost loved ones. Since it is the Internet, though, heartless and conscienceless people frequently utilize those pages to display their repulsiveness. Such dregs of humanity reportedly plagued the memorial pages for two recently deceased Australians. Tragically, the ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Governments around the world have been implementing censorship programs, and arresting dissident bloggers and writers at an alarming rate. Iceland is reportedly attempting to become a safe haven for those beleaguered reporters with a parliamentary proposal that would provide the most protective free speech measures in the world. ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... AT&T has been under siege from consumers and competitors over its network coverage, particularly for spotty and inconsistent iPhone service in major metropolitan areas like New York City and San Francisco. The company has vowed to address the issue, and has pledged $2 billion to improve its coverage over the next year. [From: ...

What began as a major assault on an underground hacker forum last Wednesday soon became a major embarrassment for Australian police. While authorities may or may not have learned valuable information about the hackers, they've certainly learned a lesson in humility. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, hackers broke into a federal police computer system days after the same police bragged about ...

Ha, and you thought your HotSeat Chassis was the next best thing to paying way too much to carry an appropriate amount of luggage on your next jaunt to paradise. Australia's own Matthew Sheil has been tinkering on his own personal flight simulator for over a decade now, but the latest iteration is just too good to ignore. Aside from setting a Guinness world record for his efforts, the man has ...

In Australia, if a video game doesn't have an Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) rating, typically, it's not carried on store shelves. Similarly, if a game has anything over an MA15+ rating (suitable for children 15 and up), it's also not carried in stores. The exception? A number of massively multiplayer online games, including the one and only 'World of Warcraft.' ...

Drunk driving kills thousands every year in the United States, a disturbing and rising trend that has resulted in the passing of new legislation in many states that will require in-dash breathalyzers for formerly convicted drunk drivers. Now, though, a man in Australia has managed to have a similar device removed from his car after proving that a common ice cream treat resulted in false positives. ...

Certain ingredients do not mix well with driving. Alcohol, of course, comes to mind. And we all know that driving after a large turkey dinner and/or heroin injection can lead to trouble. There is, however, a secret killer out there. Its name? Ice cream. Okay, it's not a killer, but it can cause you to test positive on a breathalyzer. According to UPI.com, an Australian man recently blames a ...

Facebook users have started an online group in honor of Australian father Sam Burt, whose lovingly disciplinarian parenting approach has won him accolades from Australian parents, Reuters reports. Last week, the Australian press told the story of Sam Burt and his five-year-old son. When the boy got in trouble for beaning his bus driver with an apple core some time ago, his daddy took ...

Every so often, we get wind of some new "breakthrough" from a few guys / gals in a lab that promises to simply revolutionize the Web. A team from the University of Sydney is the latest bunch to do so, claiming that a piece of scratched glass (or a Photonic Integrated Circuit, if we're being proper) could enable Internet speeds 60 times faster than "current Australian networks." Essentially, the ...

Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where ...

There's no shame in admitting that shape-shifting creatures are a touch frightening, but we'll go ahead and warn you -- those spooked by petite bots will be utterly terrified by this. The SkinForm Project has arisen from the University of Technology Sydney, and while there aren't any elaborate details available just yet, it's described as an "intelligent pneumatic structure that transforms ...