Propeller.com Stories voted on by happygeek

Google Street View could meet Privacy Road Block in UK

happygeek — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:45:12 EDT

The privacy related problems just pile up for Google as the first Street View vans are spotted in the United Kingdom and European Data Protection laws are rolled out to greet them...

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: Google Street View Nudity Nose Picking Privacy

Apple slow to patch iPhone security holes

happygeek — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:27:14 EDT

Apple is failing to keep iPhone software up to date with security patches. This despite the iPhone 1.1.4 software being nothing more than a "pared-down version of Mac OS 10.5" - the Jesus Phone is said to be vulnerable to a number of exploits which have been patched pretty damn quickly in desktop software.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Apple iPhone Jesus Mac Patch

No appeal from Google on YouTube data ruling

happygeek — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:43:22 EDT

An appeal by Google against the decision of a federal judge in New York that it must hand over details of every video ever viewed on YouTube to Viacom was not only widely expected, but thought to be pretty much a given. A comment by Google's senior litigation counsel seems to suggest otherwise...

Channel: News Tags: Google YouTube Viacom Privacy Appeal

President pays for Internet porn

happygeek — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:00:09 EDT

President Bush gives US taxpayers $600 each, free, to spend as they like in order to stimulate the economy. He ends up stimulating something else, a 30 percent growth in subscriptions to Internet porno pay sites! ROFL.

Channel: Love & Personals Tags: Porn Sex Adult Bush Free Porn

12,000 laptops lost in US airports, EVERY WEEK

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:05:59 EDT

Asking questions of 800 business travellers at some 106 major airports in the US, the Ponemon Institute also discovered that on average only 30 percent of those lost laptops are recovered. Which is worrying as just under half the people taking part in the survey admitted their laptops are full of confidential business data.

Channel: Travel Tags: airport LAX security laptop lost

12,000 laptops lost in US airports, EVERY WEEK

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:04:59 EDT

Channel: Travel Tags: airport LAX security laptop lost

Worried about rising oil prices? Microsoft is giving gas away for free

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:39:05 EDT

As headlines go it is an unusual one, but true nonetheless. Microsoft is giving its small business customers who supply their contact data the chance to win 5,000 gallons of gas. Conditions do, of course, apply...

Channel: Autos Tags: Gas Fuel Petrol Oil Free

UK Museum of Computing shuts up shop and puts history into storage

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:47:40 EDT

As the UK Museum of Computing puts its exhibits into storage, and the National Museum of Computing starts welcoming visitors at the home of the wartime code breaking Colossus machines, does this mean the battle of the geek museums is over?

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Museum Code Breaker WWII Colossus Swindon

The UK's most spammed man

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:50:35 EDT

An anti-spam outfit in the UK has compiled a list of the top five most spammed individuals in the UK. Three of them use Orange as their Internet Service Provider, and the most spammed man gets an average of 44,001 junk emails on a daily basis. But just who is the most spammed man in the UK?

Channel: News Tags: Spam UK Top 5 List most spammed

The office is on fire, forget the secretary and save your email

happygeek — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:20:32 EDT

Pop Quiz: your office is on fire, do you save the secretary or the email? Guess what most people would do...

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: office email secretary fire quiz

On the rebound from Yahoo, Microsoft buys into semantic search instead

happygeek — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:48:49 EDT

Many have been asking where does Microsoft's search strategy go if not in the direction of a Yahoo! deal? The answer could well be straight towards the semantic web following the acquisition of Powerset, a 'natural language search provider' for an as yet undisclosed amount.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Microsoft Google Yahoo Semantic Search

Official Sony PlayStation site hacked as gamers get targeted by Trojans

happygeek — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:08:50 EDT

Cyber-crims are just not playing by the rules, in fact they are playing dirty and going after gamers.

Channel: Video Games Tags: pwned PlayStation Sony hacked hacker

Italians love wine, women, football and the Asus Eee PC

happygeek — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:16:18 EDT

Can the Asus Eee PC rejuvinate the Italian laptop market? Can it fight off the challenge from the very Italian JumPC? Can kids and seniors prove to be the new ultra-portable consumer?

Channel: Shopping Tags: Asus Eee PC JumPC Italy IDC Shopping

All your YouTube viewing data are belong to us

happygeek — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:26:57 EDT

A judge has ordered that YouTube must hand over every record of every video watched by YouTube users to Viacom. That's the user name, address and IP address relating to every video clip you ever watched. And so, it seems, all your YouTube viewing history belongs to Viacom...

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: YouTube Google Viacom MTV Privacy

Apple iPhone 3G creates shortage of flash memory chips

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:42:34 EDT

Could it be that Apple, having placed an order for some 50 million 8Gb flash chips, is planning to sell rather a lot of the new iPhone 3Gs? At the very least it will mean that the competition, such as Samsungs other customers, will have to go hang.

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: Apple iPhone 3G chips flash memory

Microsoft announces host of new security features for IE8

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:26:10 EDT

Want to know what Microsoft has up its sleeve regarding making Internet Explorer safer?

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: IE8 MSDN safety beta security

Is the mobile phone mightier than the gun?

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:54:26 EDT

Over the next two days the 2gether08 Festival is being held in London to bring together 300 innovators looking to use digital technology to make a real social difference. Innovators such as the students of South Thames College and its LIFEWISE project which sees London teenagers using mobile phones to tackle gun crime in the capital.

Channel: News Tags: teens guns knife crime London festival

More people listen to Podcasts on PCs than iPods

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:31:49 EDT

Strange but true. 79 percent of people listen to Podcasts on a PC while only 66 percent listen on an iPod or other MP3 device. And that's not the only bizarre statistic to come out of this Radio Joint Audience Research survey.

Channel: Music Tags: iPod Podcast Apple Comedy Music

Internet snoops wanted. Apply US Army

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:01:02 EDT

Do you have what it takes to snoop around web pages, chat rooms, blogs and other Internet areas? Great, the United States Army has just the job for you...

Channel: News Tags: US Army War Terror Spy Jobs

Seeing double, twice, with Matrox QuadHead GPU

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:22:46 EDT

Matrox has announced what it claims to be the first true QuadHead GPU, the Matrox M-Series. Which begs the question, just how many monitors do you need?

Channel: Art & Design Tags: Graphics Hardware Matrox Quad Display

Prince Charles runs Aston Martin on wine and cheese

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:28:19 EDT

The 2008 Annual Review of household expenses for the heir to the British throne, shows that Prince Charles has converted one car to run on wine and cheese while several others run on used cooking oil. Oh, and he stops his cows from farting as well...

Channel: Celebrities Tags: Prince Prince Charles Queen Royal King

Bill Gates leaves Microsoft software behind as well

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:37:11 EDT

Shock horror - Bill Gates not using Microsoft software. Whatever next, we catch him and Melinda on the bus with a Linux lappy running Firefox?

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Gates Linux Microsoft Firefox Funny

New law says computer repair guys in Texas must also be licensed private investigators

happygeek — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:56:11 EDT

If you want to repair computers in Texas then you need to complete a three year apprenticeship and get your private investigator license first. Either that or face a year in jail, according to an amendment to the Texas Occupations Code...

Channel: Humor Tags: Weird Bizarre Texas Law Private Eye

Googlebot gets to grip with Flash

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:46:35 EDT

According to the official Google Webmaster Central Blog it would appear that much better Adobe Flash indexing is heading for Google.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Google Googlebot Adobe Flash SEO

Dell Windows Vista Bonus is a PC with XP instead

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:20:41 EDT

According to Microsoft, Windows XP died on June 30th when it stopped sending it to the likes of Dell and HP, as well as ceasing shrink-wrapped distribution. According to Dell, new buyers can have a Windows Vista Bonus: a machine with a copy of Windows XP pre-installed instead...

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Dell Vista XP Bonus Microsoft

Apple Leopard changes spots

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:29:36 EDT

Apple has rolled no less than 25 patches into the Mac OS X 10.5.4 Leopard update that was announced yesterday - including six fixes for Ruby security holes.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Apple Mac Leopard OS X Ruby

As web legend Andreessen joins Facebook we ask what happens next?

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:07:15 EDT

One has changed the face of social networking, the other changed the face of the web. Now that Facebook and Marc Andreessen have joined forces who knows what will change next...

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Netscape Facebook Andreessen Mosaic Dotcom

Vodafone turns to MySpace for mobile musical nirvana

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:12:29 EDT

Wannabe music journos can showcase their talents and stand a chance of being featured in a special MTV show which will be broadcast both online and via mobile handsets.

Channel: Music Tags: Music MySpace Vodafone Amy Winehouse Arctic Monkeys

Outsourcing makes you more vulnerable to hackers

happygeek — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:20:00 EDT

More than 60 percent of IT security professionals believe that outsourcing code increases the likelihood of hacking, according to the results of a new survey. 81 percent of them admitted their applications were vulnerable...

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: Security Outsourcing Hacking Business India

How the new Digg Recommendation Engine works

happygeek — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:22:11 EDT

Filtering the 16,000 new entries on Digg every day is an impossible task, for a human. However, the Digg Recommendation Engine can do it for you by analysing your past activity and revealing what Diggers Like You have been looking at...

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Digg Digg Recommendation Engine Search How it works social

McAfee S.P.A.M. experiment concludes that spam will never go away

happygeek — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:20:05 EDT

McAfee has today published the results from its 'Spammed Persistently All Month' experiment, which saw people from 10 countries surf the web unprotected for a whole month. What they encountered is disturbing to say the least...

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: Spam McAfee Phishing Cybercrime Nigeria

French fakes land eBay with $65 million fine

happygeek — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:31:59 EDT

eBay has been warned about counterfeit goods being sold online before. Now a French court has given them 65 million reasons to get their act together.

Channel: Shopping Tags: Louis Vuitton Dior Hermes eBay Fake

30 years on and Space Invaders is back

happygeek — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:12:01 EDT

Space Invaders changed gaming history when it was first launched as an arcade game back in 1978. 30 years on, it has returned and is just as playable as ever - if a bit more pocket friendly in all regards...

Channel: Video Games Tags: Space Invaders Arcade Retro DS PSP

Blizzard introduces most powerful World of Warcraft weapon ever

happygeek — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:18:24 EDT

There are more World of Warcraft weapons than you can throw the Twin Blades of Azzinoth at. From Alcor's Sunrazor to a Warp Slicer, with a couple of hundred others in-between. The new Blizzard Authenticator, however, might just save your virtual life from a very real world foe...

Channel: Video Games Tags: World of Warcraft Blizzard Weapon Game Virtual World

Too many computers

happygeek — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:05:29 EDT

Gartner has been coming out with some seriously bug figures over the last week or so. I mean huge, even by Gartner standards. Take, for example, the little gem revealed in the "Market Trends: Worldwide PC Market Scenarios, 2Q08" report that says some 297 million computers will be shipped worldwide this year.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Computer PC Gartner Numbers Green

Global spam trends reveal a taste for text, drugs and eBay

happygeek — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:39:44 EDT

An in-depth survey of the state of spam for the first half of 2008 reveals that spammers have re-discovered a love for the written word. They still rather like drugs and ebay as well...

Channel: Do No Evil Tags: Spam Drugs eBay Text Global

Russians more likely to Yo Yandex than Go Google

happygeek — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:38:51 EDT

Everybody, it might seem, uses Google to search the Internet. But not the Russians. They are far more likely to use Yandex, the most popular search engine you have never heard of. Yet!

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Google Russia Yandex Search BusinessWeek

The ipodmechanic is sued by Apple

happygeek — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:47:33 EDT

According to AppleInsider Nicholas Woodhams, an Apple iPod repair shop owner from Michigan, has found himself at the wrong end of the Apple legal machine. Apple has apparently filed a lawsuit which claims misuse of the iPod trademark.

Channel: Gadgets & Tech Tags: Apple iPod Mechanic Lawsuit Trademark

Google goes back to the future with the PlayStation 3

happygeek — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:08:00 EDT

Google Media Server puts everything on your PC on your TV, via your PlayStation 3. Everything, plus adverts of course.

Channel: Video Games Tags: Google YouTube PlayStation 3 PS3 Xbox 360

Tears and triumphs as Gates says his final goodbye

happygeek — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:54:49 EDT

Friday 27th June will go down in geek history as the day Bill Gates officially left behind his Microsoft day job. As Bill wiped away the tears at the Redmond HQ, we look back at some magic Microsoft moments and mistakes...

Channel: News Tags: Microsoft Bill Gates Worlds Richest Man Wealth Tears