China closes training website for hackers

The Chinese authorities have shut a training website for hackers and arrested three of its organisers, Chinese state media reported today. The Black Hawk Safety Net site taught thousands of people how to launch cyber attacks and supplied malware, the China Daily said. Officials in Hubei province said the hacking site was the largest in the country.

Via The Guardian

Windows Mobile 7 details leaked ahead of Mobile World Congress

An Australian court has ruled that the country's third-largest broadband operator cannot be held responsible for the actions of illegal file-sharers, in a landmark case that has been warmly welcomed by British internet companies fighting government plans to make them police the web on behalf of film and TV firms.

Via Tech Herald

Nexus One sales disappoint

Android poster device the Nexus One isn't selling all that well according to figures released by Flurry Inc. The analytics group says that Google has only managed to shift 80,000 units its first month. That figure doesn't compare well against the 600,000 that the first iPhone managed. The silver lining for Google, if there is one, is that Motorola managed to sell 525,000 units in its first month, which goes to show there is an appetite in the mobile market for Android powered devices.

Via The Register

Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Puts Old Atomic Clock to Shame

Scientists have built a clock which is 100,000 times more precise than the existing international standard. The quantum-logic clock, which detects the energy state of a single aluminum ion, keeps time to within a second every 3.7 billion years. The new timekeeper could one day improve GPS or detect the slowing of time predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Via Wired

Cambridge to study computer games

Computer games and comics are to be analysed alongside the time-honoured classics of children's literature at a new Cambridge University centre. The ideas children pick up from books as well as other sources will be studied at the university's new centre for the study of children's literature. Academics argue that books, films and other media, reach children in a way that their teachers and parents cannot.

Via BBC Online

What do we know about the human brain and the way it functions?

Scientists this week announced that they had succeeded in communicating with a man thought to be in a vegetative state, lacking all awareness, for five years following a road accident. Using a brain scanner they were able to read his thoughts and obtain yes or no answers to questions. What does this tell us about the brain?

Via The Independent