First the library brought you the Internet. Now the Internet is bringing you the library. Google has just announced exclusive deals with five libraries, including the New York Public Library, and university libraries at Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Oxford, to scan some or all of their collections and incorporate the results into the Google search engine database.

Aunty must really be behind the times. Lots of dust on this old fossil, apparently. You see, Aunty thought that the purpose of sending our children to school was so that they could..you know..learn things. Things like how to read and write, how to string words together – properly –…

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when grocery stores are selling Christmas decorations and toys, drug stores are selling Christmas trees (hey, nobody actually buys food or medicine, do they?), and Starbucks is playing Jingle Bell Muzak on infinite loop. And, oh yes, the Komarnitsky family is once again…

Air to breathe. Water to drink. Access to the Internet. These are all things which we have come to take for granted as being available to us any time, anywhere, so long as we have the requisite pulmonary system, digestive system, or computer system, respectively. But George Tenet, the recently-resigned…

It really wasn’t what they meant by “rage against the machine”, but radio reporter Rachel Buchman (no relation to Paul and Jamie) was fed up with spam and couldn’t take it any more, and when the spam which broke the camel’s back came in from LapTopLobbyist.com, she called them up…

Aren’t those new camera phones so fun? Some of them are so tiny and cute! You can put them in your pocket, take them everywhere, take pictures of people without them even realizing… Whoops, hold on, because that latter can get you into trouble, maybe even into jail. There seems…

Webroot, the developers of the Spy Sweeper anti-spyware product, this week released their “Top Ten Unwanted Spyware” list (is any of it actually wanted?) The list was developed based on data obtained in scans done by Webroot, both from their own site, and in conjunction with Earthlink. The top ten…

Anurag Jain has a radical idea to clear your inbox of spam: unplug your mail server for several days. According to Jain’s blogspot blog, the institute of which he is part, the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, had to upgrade their Microsoft Exchange server. As a result, the mail server…

Microsoft has taken the unusual step of foreshadowing the release of an upcoming Windows security bulletins. On Thursday, December 9th, Microsoft announced on its TechNet site that it would announce on the following Tuesday, December 14th, “5 Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows”. Microsoft also announced that “The greatest maximum…

Have you ever fallen for an Internet hoax, urban legend, or doctored data? Well, you’re not alone. Even Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, has fallen for at least one. Giving the keynote address at the annual Oracle OpenWorld show this week, at Moscone Centre in San Francisco, McNealy spoke…

As reported by Aunty a few weeks ago, here, failed dot.com Commerce One had filed bankruptcy and on the bankruptcy auction block, among other things, were nearly 40 patents for various web services, many of which are in widespread use across the Internet, and incorporated into the web software protocol…

Blood Diagonostics, a South Carolina biopharmaceutical firm, has sued Health Coalition Inc. (“HCI”), claiming that HCI has used Blood Diagonostic’s name in meta tags on the HCI website. Blood Diagnostics claims that the use was a calculated act on the part of HCI intended to harm Blood Diagnostic’s business. According…

It’s like Godzilla versus King Kong, or Kramer versus Kramer, or something. CNet news is reporting that adware and spyware (and bears, oh my!) has started targeting competitor wares by detecting and removing them from computers infected by both. In fact, in a lawsuit filed last month, Avenue Media is…

Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink, and several other industry giants, along with the FBI, the FTC, the U.S. Secret Service, and the USPS announced today the formation of Digital PhishNet, a collaborative initiative designed to take phishers down by arresting and convicting them. “The key to stopping phishers and bringing them to…

Just when you think that you have heard everything. Perfect 10, a website which offers nude photos of women, has sued Internet search giant Google, claiming that Google’s search engine allows people to access lists of Perfect 10 usernames and passwords, and that it also allows them to view photos…