Facebook, Myspace and now Microsoft Vine?

Microsoft, an investor in Facebook, is to begin testing their own version of the wildly successful social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Called Microsoft Vine, the company plans to charge subscription fee's in an attempt to make sites such as these viable for profit. To compensate for the fees, Microsoft will allow public officials to interact with the general public. City officials from Seattle are already willing to participate. Microsoft also said they would offer a free version of the service.

Need security in XP... Join the Air Force

Microsoft is producing a "special" copy or Windows XP for the United States Air Force (USAF). It will contain over 600 locked/preconfigured settings to help standardize secure instillations throughout the Air Force. The change is going to save the USAF over $100 million in what normally would be a contracting job. It will also cut down complete patch times from almost 2 months (including testing) down to just shy of 3 days on average. Since switching to the new configuration, the USAF is claiming 85% of all "attacks" on the network are being blocked. Air Force CIO John Gilligan said, "I will not say that the Air Force cannot be penetrated, but the incidents have decreased."

US Missile Data Found on Second Hand Computers

Researchers from British Telecom have found sensitive data on how to shoot down intercontinental missiles on approximately 300 second-hand computers bought randomly on auction sites and at computer fans The data in question was bought via eBay, and details test launch procedures for the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD). This missile defence system was tested as recently as March this year. Other data found on the 300 harddisks included bank details, NHS records from the UK, personal ID numbers, and a proposal for a US$50 billion currency exchange through Spain. Simple tools were used to uncover the data.

How too fit 300 DVDs on one disc

A new optical recording method could pave the way for data discs with 300 times the storage capacity of standard DVDs, Nature journal reports. The researchers say this could see a whopping 1.6 terabytes of information fit on a DVD-sized disc. Recent efforts based on holography have shown that up to 500 Gb could potentially be stored on standard DVD-sized disks.Dr Chon says that the material cost of a disc would be less than five cents (£0.03)

Microsoft Puts Patent on "Magic Wand" Controller

Microsoft has sparked speculation after applying for a new patent on a so-called "magic wand". The interest sparked implies that the Xbox is about to see a Wii-like overhaul in time for the E3 expo in LA. Analyst Gavin Ogden said: "We thought they were going to show something off at the E3 Expo in 2007 - some sort of waggle stick - but nothing materialised. I have no doubt they are going to try and do something, although it remains to be seen how..." The patent reads that Microsoft has created a magic wand with "biometric sensors" used to examine "fingerprint, hand geometry, hand vein pattern, palm pattern, and grip configuration" and a "facial thermogram, a facial feature, a retinal feature..."

Female Iranian Serial Killer Inspired By Agatha Christie

A prosecuter in the city of Qazvin, Iran has stated that a woman aged 32 has confessed to being a serial killer having killed six other women, mostly middle-aged or elderly. She has told investigators that she got ideas on her methods of killing from the villains of the novels of English author Agatha Christie. She would aparantly murder the women by means of drugging them with laced fruit juice and then after strangling them she would steal their jewlry and other possesions.

DVDs Enter the 5th Dimension

There may be more life in current DVD technology yet with Australian scientists revealing they have unlocked the potential for DVDs to hold 10,000 times their current limit. The scientists from Swinburne University have achieved this by adding two extra dimensions for the discs to hold data on, one being the colour spectrum and the other being polarisation. Polarisation is achieved by layering data at different degrees. There is still work to be done as the researchers are yet to determine the recording speed of the discs. They estimate we won't be seeing this technology for around five years. Korean company Samsung has signed off a deal on the research.

Bugatti Veyron Supercar Outpaced 1979 VW Golf

Cambridgeshire: 42-year-old Andy Waite has turned a 1979 VW Mk1 Golf that he paid £50 for into a drag racer which can accelerate from 0-60mph in 2.36 seconds and can reach speeds up to 180mph. The vehicle operates of unleaded petrol and is still street legal. Waite spent £60,000 changing it from an average old car into a speedster which can hold off a Bugatti Veyron supercar over a quarter mile. "The biggest problem is that once you get over 160 you can only drive it in a straight line because the steering goes wobbly," said Waite

Windows 7 Being Shipped to Europe Minus IE

European Windows users will have to download their browser of choice, even if it's IE, when they start using Windows 7 towards the end of this year. Microsoft will take out the automatic browser of its operating system in a bid to appease the EU. In a statement, Microsoft said: "We believe that this new approach, while not our first choice, is the best path forward given the ongoing legal case in Europe." The European Commission was still not pleased. In a response to the announcement, the EC said: "In terms of potential remedies... the Commission has suggested that consumers should be offered a choice of browser not that Windows should be supplied without a browser at all."

3,000 People Now Testing Pirate Bay's IPREDator

Sweden: In an attempted comeback by The Pirate Bay it announced this past month it would be offering a VPN based anonymity service. This service will allow file-sharers to download content without leaving a strong data trail. Having experianced many setbacks, such as millions of dollars in fines and a possible year of jail time the service still plans to be released. The service is now available to 3,000 Testers and another 180,000 in que. IPREDator is being released in response to the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) that went into effect in April. The service promises to not even keep network logs effectively canceling out the new IPRED directive.

Google, Please Limit the Porn

A not for profit organization has called for Google's You Tube to be more 'family friendly'. It claims that the pornographic content on the website is a 'teaser for the sex websites' Culture and Media Institute conducted a study to prove their point. Founder Brent Bozell has gone so far as to ask that Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt look into the problem personally. Google has made a concerted effort to accommodate Chinese State Media after complaints were made about this very thing. It would seem that measures already in place are totally inadequate to deal with the problem.

Compound Touted as Possible Successor to Silicon in Computers

Bismuth telluride has been put forward as a potential successor to silicon in the computer industry, with physicists discovering that electrons don't lose energy as they go through the compound. Component density on silicon chips has historically increased by 100 percent every two years, but there are concerns that silicon is closing in on its limits, driving the search to find the basis for the next generation of computers. "We're at the very beginning of understanding this new class of materials. The next step is to apply what we've learned - to see if it can be fabricated and made functional," said Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science's Yulin Chen.

Teens Paid Not to Get Pregnant

College Bound Sisters is the name of the program that is trying to keep 12- to 18-year-old girls from getting pregnant. Participants in the program attend 90-minute meetings weekly. They are taught about abstinence and contraceptives. Each week that they do not get pregnant $7 dollars is deposited in a bank account. The money can only be collected when they enroll in college. The cost of paying teens not to get pregnant is minuscule compared to the $9 billion teen pregnancy costs annually.