In The News

Scientists Discover More Gases Attacking Ozone Layer

Pilita Clark March 10, 2014
Researchers have detected new manmade gases, chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon, eroding the ozone layer in the Earth’s stratosphere and curtailing its ability to absorb ultraviolet rays and radiation from the sun. “It is thought the gases may be being emitted from chemicals used to make insecticides and solvents for cleaning electronic components, although their precise origin is...

“Contagious” Wi-Fi Virus Created by Liverpool Researchers

Dave Lee March 3, 2014
A team of researchers have invented a wi-fi computer virus that spreads from network to network like the common cold – with the goal of inventing and integrating detection systems at wi-fi access points. “The virus, dubbed Chameleon, seeks out wi-fi access points – devices that transmit the wi-fi signal, found in many homes – that have not had their admin password changed,” Dave Lee reports for...

Desis Are Rising Up the Technology Ladder

Sujit John February 26, 2014
A high proportion of Indians are in top management of leading technology companies – including Google, Intel, Cisco and Microsoft. Indians are responsible for innovations like Google+, the Pentium chip, the USB and virtualization that made cloud-computing possible. The trend is to be expected: Many Indians obtained work visas and immigrated to the United States and other nations in anticipation...

Linking to Free Web Content Is Legal, Says EU Court

February 17, 2014
Free online content can be freely linked by others and does not violate copyright law, so rules the European Court of Justice. A Swedish court requested the ruling after disputes between journalists and a web company that posted links to online news articles, reports BBC News. “The journalists argued in the original case that users of Retriever Sverige's website would not know that they had...

Microsoft Blames “System Error,” Denies Censoring Chinese Search Results

Dominic Rushe February 13, 2014
Internet users, hungry for instant but complete information, often type a search term and check out top offerings. Depending on a user’s expertise, discrepancies or missing data may or may not be apparent. “On Tuesday, campaigners at FreeWeibo, a tool that allows uncensored search of Chinese blogs, revealed that Bing returns radically different results in the US for English and simplified Chinese...

Turkey Approves Harsh New Internet Law

Joshua Hersh February 10, 2014
Turkey’s government has approved a law, which requires the president’s approval, imposing new regulations for the internet: “The law, which still requires final approval by the country's president, would permit the government to quickly shutter a website deemed inappropriate, and orders Internet companies to store traffic and other data for two years,” reports Joshua Hersh for the World Post...

Obama Must Face the Rise of the Robots

Edward Luce February 7, 2014
Robots pose “the central economic dilemma for the Obama era,” suggests Edward Luce in the Financial Times, and that extends to future US administrations as well as leaders and workers in other nations. “With each month, the US economy becomes steadily more automated. In January the US economy added just 4,000 manufacturing jobs, and the net increase since July is zero,” Luce writes. “Yet last...