http://www.paulduggan.co.uk Internet & Technology Blog Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:34:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Slysoft says the new version of its AnyDVD programme allows users to make "backup security copies" from Blu-ray discs The claim is a blow to Sony which developed the Blu-ray format. The discs are protected by an anti-piracy system called BD+. When it launched in 2007, developers bragged that it ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/blu-ray/a-company-claims-to-have-cracked-the-anti-piracy-technology-on-blu-ray-discs/ A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (~£109,000) in damages for illegally sharing music files over the internet. The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 32, from Minnesota, to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online - a cost of $9,250 per song. The fine could ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/music/massive-fine-for-american-music-file-sharer/ Social networking site Facebook has added a public-facing search function in a move which is likely to anger advocates of personal privacy. The function will at first allow anyone who is not registered with the site to search for a specific person. More controversially, in a month's time, the feature will ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/facebook/facebook-profiles-to-be-indexed-by-the-search-engines/ More than a 1/3rd of workers say they feel "stressed out" by the sheer number of e-mails they receive in the office and the pressure to respond promptly. Scottish research found that some workers are viewing their inbox up to 40 times each hour, leaving them tired and frustrated - ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/general/workers-stressed-by-e-mails/ Lenovo, one of the world's biggest PC manufacturers, is to begin selling laptops to business and consumers with Linux pre-installed on the machines. Linux is a free, open source operating system developed as an alternative to systems such as Microsoft's Windows. Novell will provide the Linux software on the laptops, ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/linux/lenovo-set-to-offer-linux-on-laptops/ Google has refused to deny mounting speculation that it is working to produce its own brand mobile phone. Reports suggest that the web colossal is developing a series of "GPhones", centred on its mobile services, such as search, e-mail and maps. In a statement, Google said it was working with ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/google/google-avoids-mobile-talk/ Police chiefs have urged websites to remove violent video footage of children fighting, held on such sites as popular video sharing website Youtube. Panorama found that films showing vicious fights between children are regularly uploaded to sharing websites. Police say the companies should monitor what is posted on their sites and ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/youtube/child-fights-criticised-on-sites-such-as-youtube/ Japanese game giant Nintendo has seen its quarterly profits rocket thanks to the popularity of its Wii game console. Nintendo's net profits hit 80.25bn yen (approximately £323.9m) in the three months to June, up from 15.55bn yen in the same period a year earlier. The Wii has been successful in ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/nintendo/gaming-firm-nintendo-profits-boosted-by-wii/ Five years after the idea was first proposed, the so-called ‘$100 laptop’ is set to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the go ahead to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organisation behind the scheme said that ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/portables/production-begins-on-the-100-laptop/ Demand for new products such as the Windows Vista saw Microsoft make profits of $3.03bn (£1.47bn) in the past quarter, up a healthy 11% on last year. For 2007-8 as a whole, the software colossus reported a $14bn profit on total sales of more than $51.1bn. Profits in the past ... http://www.paulduggan.co.uk/microsoft/new-products-keeps-microsoft-growing/