John Lister

Facebook recently confirmed its enhanced messaging system, Facebook Messages. Officially launched November 15th, the system is designed to channel email, instant messaging and SMS text messages (cell phone messages) into a single @facebook.com email ... address so that users can manage their communications through a single inbox. (Source: eweek.com ) @Facebook.Com On-the-Way The idea of the service, which builds on the existing Facebook messaging feature, is to break down the barriers between different forms of communication such as email, site messaging, live chat, instant-messaging and the text ... (view more)

Home users have expressed dismay at news that Microsoft is to remove a key feature from its Windows Home Server software. Drive Extender, a handy options that allows users to add extra hard drives, will be axed from Windows Home Server's next ... edition. Share Files Easily with Windows Home Server Windows Home Server is designed as an easy way for with multiple computers to share files. One of the computers is designated a server, and the others are classified as clients, in much the same way as many large businesses operate their networks. However, the system is specially designed to be easy to ... (view more)

The Supreme Court is re-examining the hotly disputed issue of video game violence. In an ongoing case, it's deciding whether to uphold a California law that would ban violent games being sold to kids under 18 years of age. The law, passed in 2005, ... would have introduced a $1,000 fine for any retailer caught selling "violent" games to minors. However, it wouldn't have stopped parents or other adults buying games and letting children play them. The law soon came under challenge and in 2009 California's highest court rejected it. That ruling said that there was no conclusive evidence that playing ... (view more)

With Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system (OS) recent debut, experts are already debating whether or not it's a success. One source claims first-day sales were nowhere close to the release of other high-profile phone systems, ... while others report significant stock shortages. The sales figures come from an unnamed market research source speaking to a financial news website. The source claims a total of 40,000 handsets running Windows Phone 7 were sold the first day it went on sale. That compares poorly to the 1.7 million sales of the iPhone 4 in the first three days it was on ... (view more)

It's likely going to be many years before people stop buying movies on DVD. But rental giant Netflix is not only preparing for that day, but attempting to bring it closer. The company has announced that it will, for the first time in the US, be ... offering a special package that only allows users to stream rented titles over the Internet, with no option to obtain discs. To encourage users to make the switch, the new package will be $7.99 a month (the lowest ever offered by the company), while the price of the packages that include getting discs by mail will rise by at least $1 a month. The price ... (view more)

For eighteen minutes in April, around 15 per cent of all Internet traffic was incorrectly routed through Chinese-controlled servers. Nobody knows what was behind the move, but a US government agency suspects foul play. According to the US-China ... Economic and Security Review Commission, the incident involves servers belonging to China Telecom. That's the largest telecommunications company in China; it used to be government controlled but is now partially independent. The incident, which the commission described as "hijacking", involves the way Internet traffic travels between the computers ... (view more)

A group of cyber-security experts told US lawmakers Wednesday that American facilities could be the next target of the Stuxnet virus . The Stuxnet virus made headlines this past summer when it infected USB memory sticks and attacked Siemens ... industrial automation systems. Security experts believe that the virus went beyond the work of an individual prankster and was instead a sinister "game changer". That's because unlike most viruses, which aim either to merely cause disruption or to make money through stealing data or by redirecting web browsers to pay-per-click ads, Stuxnet is ... (view more)

While Windows 7 is doing well among home users, adoption by businesses remains comparably slow. But one research company has an interesting idea for how that might change: it thinks workers used to the system on their home PCs might pressure ... employers to upgrade. While around one in five XP and Vista users overall switched to Windows 7 in its first year (ending October 22), only one in ten businesses are currently running the system. About 75 per cent still use XP. When Windows 7 first debuted, there was some debate about how rapidly businesses would adopt it. On the one hand, many companies ... (view more)

A Chinese "supercomputer" has been confirmed as the fastest in the world, the first time the country has taken the honor. But the United States is currently working on two machines that could be 10 times faster. The ranking comes from the TOP500 ... project, which produces a list twice a year to show how quickly computers have been proven to work for a sustained period. This is usually much lower than the computer's theoretical maximum speed (which is used in the rare case of tiebreak situations). Japanese, American Dominance Ends Since the list began in 1993, only the United States and Japan ... (view more)

Imagine sitting in front of your computer and using hand gestures to control your PC. In the 2002 blockbuster movie "Minority Report," Tom Cruise did just that as he sifted through wads of information using his hands and a 3D computer screen. Fast ... forward to the 2010, and we are on the brink of using similar technology at home, but it's still officially under wraps. Hands-Free Video Game Controller Used on Microsoft Windows Recently, two hackers have found a way to use Microsoft's new Kinect controller-free video game peripheral on a Windows computer rather than an Xbox 360. Whether ... (view more)