If you typed “pins and needles” into Google, what kind of results would you expect to find? According to a recent study from Bupa Health, the search engine could diagnose you with anything from a completely…
What if there were an algorithm that could guarantee marketing success?
Hanga Girl
Creating a 30 second YouTube movie that goes viral is the holy grail of marketing. So how is it done? Ensuring the success of a viral-produced movie is still largely hit-and-miss. Some of the more well-known…
The “scorched-earth” tactics espoused by SOPA are raising serious concerns.
Abode of Chaos
A pair of bills currently making their way through US legislature has set off alarm bells among internet technologists and users worldwide. The aim of PROTECT-IP, in the Senate, and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy…
We need to make sure quality is more important than quantity in our online engagement.
Flickr/joshfassbind.com
Social media provokes some of the most voluminous and heated responses in two key areas of contemporary society – democracy and privacy. Promoting the first and threatening the second, social media is…
Last week, the English High Court ordered British Telecom (BT) to block access to a members-only website that offers links to pirated films. NewzBin2, the site in question, offers links to pirated films…
In one vision of the future, every “thing” is connected to the internet. This “Internet of Things” will bring about revolutionary change in how we interact with our environment and, more importantly, how…
Technology reinforces traditional power structures.
Jared Rodriguez/Truthout
Last night, SBS screened the first instalment of a three-part documentary by Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. The program attracted intense debate when broadcast in the UK earlier…
David Salt, Australian National University and David Harvey, Australian National University
The information revolution is hurtling towards Antarctica in the shape of a 20 centimetre cube weighing less than 10 kilograms. It can’t come soon enough. Not because Antarctic scientists (numbering more…
Creators of a new “red light” suffix hope to put porn in its proper place.
Julian Smith/AAP
This month’s launch of the .xxx internet domain, a new section of the internet dedicated to pornography and erotica, is getting people hot and bothered. The global body coordinating internet addresses…
We’ve come to view operating securely online as a given, but it’s not.
shellygrrl
Two recent hacking incidents have highlighted the increasing fragility of the internet’s core infrastructure. They serve as a stark reminder that online security is somewhat illusory. The weaknesses have…
Is the internet free – or a bird on the wire?
David Fraiz
Net neutrality was succinctly described in a recent study as “the belief that ISPs [internet service providers] must treat all internet content equally”. Without net neutrality we see situations such as…
Graphene may have humble beginnings, but it’s becoming a major draw.
qwertyuiop
It inspired the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. It’s the best thermal conductor we know of. It’s a crystal stiffer than diamond, but able to stretch by 20% of its length, and can carry a current density one…
On July 19, Doctor Nefario, founder of the Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange, arrived at Seattle airport and was asked if he had enough money to cover his stay in the US. He replied that he did, but that it…
Apple chief steve Jobs exits, but his grip on the company is likely to remain.
“God dammit, Gil,” shouted Bill Gates. “Why are you spending $400 million on this junk? Steve knows nothing about technology. He’s just a kind of super salesman. Virtually everything he thinks and says…
Google CEO Eric Schmidt will discuss collaboration at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
Peter Parks/AFP
Google chairman Eric Schmidt will make history tomorrow as the first IT/internet executive to deliver the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. In doing so, he will face…
It was announced overnight that cryptography researchers have found a “vulnerability” in the encryption scheme used in the vast majority of secure online transactions – a scheme known as AES-256. Every…
Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Deputy Dean Research at Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne