John Lister

A major newspaper has recently questioned how much AT ... (view more)

Wikipedia.com is planning to introduce a feature which will color-code parts of its articles in order to show how reliable the information is likely to be. It's a solution to an ongoing problem that has led to a planned freeze on edits to entries ... about living individuals. The WikiTrust feature analyzes the text on a page and ranks each piece of text based on how recently it was edited. This is based on the idea that the longer a piece remains unchanged, the more likely it is that it is trustworthy -- otherwise (it is reasoned), Wikipedia's users would have overturned the edit. The feature ... (view more)

A campaign group known as The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has accused Microsoft and its upcoming Windows 7 operating system of seven sins against freedom. The freedom in this case does not pertain to whether or not companies charge for their ... software, but rather the way it affects the user's rights to control their software. The group has written an open letter and sent it to CEOs of 499 of the leading 500 corporations asking them to consider carefully whether or not to upgrade to Windows 7. Of course, the FSF didn't think it was worth sending the copy to Microsoft, though oddly enough, a ... (view more)

NOTE: Be sure to grab the our supplemental reports 'Top 8 Freeware Antivirus Reviewed' and 'Top 10 PC Security Essentials' at the end of this article to learn how to better protect your PC online -- or click here to go to our Top 10 Reports now! If ... you're a fan of Jessica Biel, you may want to take care when searching for her name online. She's the celebrity whose name is most likely to produce spyware infected search results. The news was revealed by security firm McAfee, which has carried out a survey of the most dangerous search terms based on individuals for the past three years. Paris ... (view more)

An anonymous blogger whose identity was revealed by Google says she will sue the firm for $1.5 million. But Google, which only revealed her name after a court order, says it was following both the law and its own user policies. The uproar began ... after former model Liskula Cohen complained to Google about a site using its Blogger service. The "Skanks of NYC" blog contained unflattering pictures of her and the words "I would have to say that first place award for 'Skankiest in NYC' would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen." Cohen said she wanted to pursue legal action against the writer but ... (view more)

If you were planning to download the release candidate of Windows 7, you're too late. But there are still ways to try the system for four times longer than the standard 30-day trial period. Microsoft has, as scheduled, removed the release candidate ... of Windows 7 from its download sites. That edition, which had been available since May, marked the penultimate stage in the new operating system's development process. Those people who downloaded it will be able to continue to use the prenatal OS until March 2010, when it automatically and officially expires. (Source: pcworld.com ) If you want to ... (view more)

Prominent PC makers say Microsoft's warning that the recent MS Word injunction could cause the company and the industry "irreparable damage" is no hype after all. The claim comes as i4i makes it clear it won't be backing down in the fight to protect ... its patent. As reported yesterday , Microsoft is asking a court to overturn an order that it stop selling Word in its current form from October 12; it wants the order put on hold until the appeals process is complete. The firm says that the order would cause it "irreparable harm". That's not an understatement. The term "irreparable ... (view more)

The gang accused of one of the biggest online security heists ever have been indicted over the incident. The alleged ringleader, a government informant gone bad, has also been charged with other high-profile breaches. Albert Gonzalez was formally ... charged with breaking into the networks of payment processing firm Heartland Payment Systems, regional supermarket Hannaford Brothers, and three national retailers including 7-Eleven. His alleged loot from these attacks was 130 million credit and debit card numbers. Two other accomplices are listed in the indictment but not named, referred to only as ... (view more)

Facebook's purchase of a "social aggregation site" has prompted speculation that it may be planning to challenge Google's domination of the search market. The buyout of FriendFeed has been seen as the first step in an attempt to improve search ... through social networking. FriendFeed is a site which allows users to bring together information from their accounts with around 60 websites. These include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, plus other services which have user accounts, including YouTube, Flickr and Amazon. As well as bringing together the user's own information from ... (view more)

Microsoft has been accused of failing to do enough to prevent rogue pharmaceutical ads on the results page of its new search engine, Bing. But the claim comes in a report from a group with a clear commercial interest and uses language which gives a ... misleading impression. The authors of the report searched Bing for ten pharmaceutical products, covering a mix of drugs for sexually-related conditions and drugs with the potential to be abused. They then looked at the "sponsored search results" which appear on the right-hand side of the screen. According to the authors, 89.7% of the drug providers ... (view more)