John Lister

Rumor has it the first service pack update for Windows Vista will be out on 15 February. A 'service pack' is a single download produced by Microsoft to fix many different problems and add general improvements to a version of its Windows operating ... system. Microsoft have so far only confirmed that the update will be out in the current quarter (by the end of March). It's thought Microsoft may be confident about releasing Service Pack 1 early because a test version, which users download at their discretion from the company website, has proven successful. The official service pack releases ... (view more)

HBO is launching a 'free' service allowing viewers to watch its programming on computers. The 'HBO on Broadband' system offers a live feed of the television channel, and more than 350 movies and TV shows to download and watch at a later time. That's ... more than most cable TV operators offer through video on demand services. There's no specific charge to use the service, but it's only available to people who subscribe to HBO's television channel. And you must get your broadband access from the same cable company from which you get HBO TV. At the moment it's only being tested on two broadband ... (view more)

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Time Warner is testing a plan that could end flat-rate monthly broadband subscriptions. The second-largest Internet service provider in the US, Time Warner will soon launch a trial in the Beaumont, Texas market with four different prices for those ... downloading up to 5, 10, 20 or 40 gigabytes each month. They chose Beaumont randomly and say the area doesn't have a specific problem with heavy broadband use. A spokesman said it was a possible way to tackle the problem of light users effectively subsidising those who use the Internet more often. "What we're trying to accomplish is to create a ... (view more)

Microsoft has warned that several older versions of Excel contain a bug that could be exploited by hackers. It affects both Windows and Macintosh users. The bug could make it possible to execute code remotely. That means a hacker would be able to ... gain some degree of access to a user's computer, with the potential to steal personal information. The problem affects versions of Excel (including the stand-alone viewer) dated up to and including 2004. However, if the user has downloaded Office Service Pack 3, the bug will have been removed. Those versions dated 2007 or 2008 do not have the bug. To ... (view more)

Yahoo has signed a deal to add all existing Yahoo usernames and passwords to the OpenID database. When a Yahoo user visits one of the 10,000 sites in the scheme, they will be able to simply type 'yahoo.com' in the registration box and will then be ... taken to the Yahoo site to confirm their details before being returned to their chosen website, automatically logged in. (Source: pcworld.com ) People with a Yahoo account could find online life a bit simpler now that the firm has joined the OpenID scheme. However, critics question whether the scheme serves any real purpose. The idea lets Internet ... (view more)

Toy firms Hasbro and Mattel have launched legal action to shut down the popular Facebook feature Scrabulous. The application allows users of the social networking site Facebook to play Scrabble against one another. Around two million people have ... used the feature, with almost 600,000 estimated to play it every day. It's an entirely unofficial game, and the toy companies have described it as a "gross copyright and trademark infringement". Though the feature doesn't specifically use the term 'Scrabble', there is no attempt to keep secret that it's based on the original board game. (Source: bbc. ... (view more)

Britain's Chancellor -- or, finance secretary -- recently unveiled one of the largest and most powerful computers in Europe. HECToR (High-End Computing Terascale Resource) can handle 63 trillion calculations per second, the equivalent of 12,000 ... standard desktop computers. Its power is equal to every person on earth simultaneously carrying out 10,000 calculations in a second. The $220 million machine is based in Edinburgh, Scotland and takes up 60 wardrobe-sized cabinets. It will be used for projects such as predicting climate change effects, projecting how quickly disease epidemics will ... (view more)

Regulators from the European Union (EU) have begun two investigations to find whether Microsoft is again constructing a tidy monopoly abroad. The first probe examines a complaint by the Norwegian firm Opera, rival Internet browser to Microsoft's ... Internet Explorer. Opera say it's illegal for Microsoft to include Internet Explorer free of charge with Windows, arguing that Microsoft should either include a range of browsers or none at all. A second investigation is currently peering into claims Microsoft didn't give other software firms enough information on how to make their programs compatible ... (view more)

Online video sites are reaping the benefits of the ongoing writer strikes, with television viewers switching to their PCs to find new programming. Nielsen Online, which surveys and measures Internet use, says YouTube's audience has risen 18% since ... the strike began. Rivals DailyMotion and LiveVideo have both seen similar increases, while Crackle, an offshoot of Sony Pictures, has seen traffic double in the same period. Visitor figures across all video sites have gone up by 10% during the strike. Analyst Alex Burmaster says such rapid growth is far higher than normal and suggests the strike is ... (view more)