Technology

T-Mobile is taking a huge financial hit in the fallout over the Sidekick data loss . But Microsoft, which bears at least part of the responsibility for the mistake, is paying the price with its reputation. As reported earlier this week, the phone ... network had to admit that some users' data had been permanently lost due to a problem with a server run by Microsoft-owned company, Danger. The handset works by storing data such as contacts and appointments on a remote computer rather than on the phone itself. Microsoft Recovers Lost Data BBC news reports today that Microsoft has in fact recovered ... (view more)

Users of the Sidekick range of smartphones have been warned that technical problems may mean some of the data they stored on the device has been permanently lost. The story follows a period of around a week during which no users of the device were ... able to access any data services. The phones are carried by the T-Mobile network in the US, and are produced by Danger, now a subsidiary of Microsoft. One of the key aspects of the devices are that they work on cloud computing , meaning most data is stored remotely at a Microsoft owned server rather than on the device. In theory this make for a ... (view more)

The null character (also referred to as a null terminator) is a character with the value zero, and is used in nearly all mainstream computer programming languages. Use as String Terminator The character has special significance in C programming ... language and its derivatives, where it serves as a reserved character used to signify the end of strings, such as a sentence. The null character is often represented as the escape sequence '\0' in source code. Strings ending in a null character are said to be null-terminated. Security Exploit: Poison Null Byte The "poison null byte" was originally used ... (view more)

AT&T is testing a system that uses home broadband to solve poor home cellphone reception. If successful, it would lead to the biggest audience yet for the technology, though consumers may not be impressed with the proposed pricing scheme. The ... technology involves a device known as a "femtocell," which AT ... (view more)

British computer researchers have produced a tiny microchip capable of using light rather than electricity to carry out calculations. It employs quantum mechanics to drastically cut the time taken for computations and could one day mean a ... substantially more secure Internet. University of Bristol researchers say the small size of the chip is the easiest change to demonstrate, but that this isn't its real innovation. And they are open about the fact that it won't replace standard computer processors. But the principle of what it does do is a genuine breakthrough. Exponentially Faster than ... (view more)

Scientists in Israel have reportedly demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence and undermine the credibility of what was once considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases. The scientists were able to fabricate blood and ... saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could easily construct a sample to match that profile without having to obtain any tissue from that person. Crime Scenes Can be Easily Engineered According to Dan Frumkin, lead author of the study, any ... (view more)

How smart is your pooch? Many of us have often wondered how Rover, Rex, or Cocoa interpreted and understood the wider world around them. Now, a recent psychological study has pinpointed just how smart our dogs are, and the results are surprising. ... The report was part of a presentation called "How Dogs Think," staged in front of a Toronto crowd this past weekend. The presenter: University of British Columbia emeritus professor of psychology Stanley Coren, perhaps the leading expert in the examination of dog intelligence. Canines Think Like Toddlers Coren's finding: that the best way to study ... (view more)

Imagine scanning the pages of a new cookbook and finding a recipe for an appetizing dish. You take note of the preparation time and ingredient blend, questioning whether the finished product will be worth all of the hassle. If only there was some ... way to ensure that you could sample a taste of the dish before taking the time to prepare it. As strange as it may sound, a new hi-tech cookbook is attracting worldwide attention for its amazing ability to allow would-be chefs the chance to sample the same dishes seen in the illustrations of the book. Print, Sample a Taste using Flavor Cartridges ... (view more)

In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers and untrusted users. A sandbox in computing terms ... (also referred to as "sandboxing") provides a tightly-controlled set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as 'temporary' space on disk and memory. In such a scenario, network access and the ability to inspect the host system or read from input devices are disallowed or heavily restricted. In this sense, sandboxes are a specific example of ... (view more)

The agency in charge of U.S. road safety kept secret hundreds of pages of data about the dangers of using cellphones while driving. The former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says he feared publishing the details could ... jeopardize Congressional funding. Dr. Jeffrey Runge says the data was so compelling that he wanted to write to all of the country's state governors and warn them of the dangers. He also wanted to publish the data, including a July 2003 memo concluding with the advice that "drivers not use wireless communication devices, including text messaging ... (view more)