John Lister

Warner Bros. (WB) Entertainment, Inc. is offering British students the opportunity to spend a year helping with a new anti-piracy campaign. The job will involve finding pirated content online and even going undercover. While the role is advertised ... as an "Anti-Piracy Internship", it actually pays an equivalent to $26,000 US dollars. It's only open to students on a computer-related course and is designed to be filled by somebody on a "sandwich" course, which involves a year-long industrial work placement. Given that the post is based in London, that's about the going rate for such a placement ... (view more)

Microsoft's share of the web browser market has dropped since the release of the " browser choice " screen in Europe. But the decline is not significant enough to draw firm conclusions that the ballot is making a serious difference. The browser ... ballot is the result of a settlement between Microsoft and the European Union (EU) over antitrust concerns related to Internet Explorer's packaging in the Windows operating system. The screen has been appearing gradually since March 1, 2010 to all users in EU countries who have Internet Explorer (IE) set as their default browser. It prompts ... (view more)

Apple is no longer promising that new orders of its iPad will be shipped on the official launch date. It appears the first batch of 700,000 units has already sold out. The iPad is set to launch in stores by April 3rd, 2010, and until recently people ... placing pre-orders had been told their iPads would ship on the same day. However, Apple has now revised its website to say that pre-orders after Sunday won't ship until April 12th. (Source: 9to5mac.com ) Additionally, those users placing pre-orders from now on will not have the option of picking up the device in a store. Those who've already ... (view more)

Two hackers took just two minutes to break into a PC running Windows 7 64-bit with Internet Explorer 8 at a security conference earlier this week. The ethical hacking took place at the CanSecWest security event in Vancouver, which hosts an annual ... contest named "Pwn2Own." The name is taken from an online corruption of "own" in two senses: whomever is first to take control of a system wins the relevant hardware, plus between $5,000 and $10,000 in cash. (Source: darkreading.com ) Windows 7 DEP and ASLR Hacked, Disabled In the contest, the hackers were not able to physically access the ... (view more)

Microsoft appears to have accidentally confirmed that it will release a tablet computer called 'Courier'. The device would be marketed as a rival to Apple's upcoming iPad. Rumors of the Microsoft Courier device go back to last September, when leaked ... documents showed a design for a twin-screen device with no physical keyboard. The concept was of a multi-function design that could: Be held in portrait mode like a book with facing pages Landscape mode with the top screen display and bottom screen touch keyboard Or hinged back on itself and used as a tablet or "slate" PC. At the time, though, it ... (view more)

Opera has reported that downloads of its browser have doubled since the release of the " browser ballot ". In some countries, the numbers of downloads have risen four-fold. The ballot, which will eventually appear to all European Union citizens who ... have Internet Explorer set as their default browser, prompts the user to select from a list of 12 browsers. It came about as a settlement between Microsoft and the EU after investigations into whether the browser being bundled with Windows was anti-competitive. (Source: google.com) As noted earlier this month , Opera's downloads rocketed ... (view more)

A Californian company says it has developed a revolutionary new way of capturing digital images. It could mean cellphone cameras take shots four times more detailed than current models, putting professional quality capabilities in everyone's pocket. ... At the moment, digital cameras work by capturing light on a sensor chip, a layer of silicon effectively broken up into millions of points. The information from each of these points is converted into digital format, with each point's information being one pixel in the captured image -- hence the term 'megapixel' which is used to describe how many ... (view more)

Google has upped the ante in its dispute against China by uncensoring its previously censored search results. Officially, Google has not breached Chinese rules which insist on search results being filtered to remove content officials class as ... objectionable; this includes political information and viewpoints the government wants to suppress. Instead, Google has set its Chinese home page (google.cn) to route directly to Google's search tool via the Hong Kong version of the site (google.com.hk). It looks inevitable that China will simply block access to that site altogether. The government has ... (view more)

Microsoft has told developers more about its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system. There'll be more tools for application creators to produce apps easily, while the firm has indicated it is aiming the system itself at the consumer rather ... than business market. The details came at MIX10, an annual Microsoft event for developers. While Mix covers all aspects of online technology, mobile systems are becoming a more important part of the event as that market grows. Copy And Paste Gets Cut One revelation that's attracting a lot of attention among developers is that the system itself won't ... (view more)

Google has been considering pulling out of China for a few months now, saying it is no longer prepared to meet official demands to filter results its in line with Chinese government rules. The dispute heated up around the time Google was the victim ... of a substantial hacking attack , and while no link to the Chinese government has been proven, it's believed in some circles that the attack was an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of political opponents of the ruling Communist party. Officials Forewarn of Google Closure Chinese officials are now said to have contacted several major websites ... (view more)