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The mobile phone will be your credit card in the future . . . has a chip inside so why have another piece of plastic?
Mike Smith, CEO ANZ Bank, Interblack Dec 2009
For more Did Your Know? <click here>
Contact lens as display units No longer a fantasy as corporations, universities and defence agencies are gearing up to this possibility. The eyelid movement can be the prime source of control with the eye brows acting in support. Flying a fighter jet or even navigating while driving a car are applications that come to mind. Further applications can be made out for learning, security and entertainment will follow. <australian link>
World's biggest spammer fined $16m A Queensland based operation that at one time representing one-third of the world's spamming traffic was fined $16m by US Federal Trade Commission on top of the fines already imposed on the culprits in New Zealand and Australia. They sent billions of emails directing recipients to websites advertising bogus male enhancement drugs and weight loss pills shipped from India, which they falsely claimed had come from a licensed pharmacy in the US.
Online Church Growing

The World Wide Web has become the hottest place to build a church. A growing number of congregations are creating Internet offshoots that go far beyond streaming weekly services. The sites are fully interactive, with a dedicated Internet pastor, live chat in an online 'lobby,' Bible study, one-on-one prayer through IM and communion. (Viewers use their own bread and wine or water from home.) On one site, viewers can click on a tab during worship to accept Christ as their savior. Flamingo Road Church, based in Cooper City, Florida, twice conducted long-distance baptisms through the Internet. <more>
3.2GB photosize of the universe That's 150 times larger than the top DSLR cameras can put out! The new Chilean-based telescope appropriately named, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), will be in production in 2010 thanks to fundings from Microsoft's Bill Gates and several others. But the LSST's stunning image quality won't just be suited to capturing the rich luminescence of the heavens; it's also just as good at capturing the not-so-easy to see secrets that lurk within and this includes the presence of dark matter, one of the veritable holy grails of astronomy according to press release. <more>
Bluetooth loses its bite WiFi Alliance industry group had released WiFi Direct which will allow new versions of gadgets like cameras, mobile phones and computers the ability to talk to each other using Wi-Fi without needing to connect to a wireless network first which had to date being the domain of the slower and less efficient Bluetooth. Watch out for 'WiFi Direct' labels on new gadgets in the coming months <more>.
Another new technology in smaller packaging that fits a wristwatch and consumes only a tenth less energy had hit the market alongside the above development. <more>
Do you know that CSIRO, Australia's leading science body, holds the patent to 802.11 Wi-Fi? <more>
2000 Movies on a single DVD?

Australian scientists have unveiled new DVD technology that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2000 movies onto a single disc. Already a major manufacturer has signed on to produce this product which is expected to hit the market in five years. <more>

MICROSOFT ENCARTA ENCYLOPEDIA CLOSED ITS BOOK


 A victim of its own success when it put the printed Brittanica Enclopedia, once dominant in this industry, to cease printing years back. With the rise and rise of Wikipedia, the online free-for-all both in downloading and uploading of information, the Microsoft outfit had obviously failed to keep up with its rival.
Battery Powered Vehicle's Dream One of the major stumbling block with battery technology is the time it takes to recharge. With new technological breakthrough the 2-minute recharge for motor vehicles relying mainly on battery power may will be the final impediment for it to replace the petrol-driven engines of most vehicles on the road today. <more>
Music Download made eze Muziic software created by 15-year-old David Nelson enables computers to mine YouTube's rich database of songs and play customised lists of tunes free of charge.
Google Phone Think of Android as an attempt to do for phones what Windows does for the PC, or OS X does for the Mac. But unlike Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), Google isn’t looking to make money off of phone software or hardware; instead, it’s giving Android away for free to any phonemaker and wireless carrier who will bake it into a handset. Why? If people use their phones to get online, the more they’ll do Google searches, click Google ads, and in the process, make Google money. <FortuneMag on Google Phone>

Internet TV to hit Australia		 Making the TV a complete family's entertainment hub. You'll be able to have stock, news, sports and weather information streamed on your TV. <more>

xt3.com -church answer to Facebook		 Catholic social networking site launched to coincide with the World Youth Day Sydney 2008 is the Facebook alternative for those who prefer to network within the ethos of no-offend, no-bully or no-insult and that material posted are those that can be viewed by a general audience. <more>
Australia's silicon breakthrough with a revolutionary chip that had far wider application than been proposed. The "GiFi" chip is one of the smartest chip around for its size with the capacity to receive and transmit data signal with built-in amplifier and programmable logics for multitudes of functions. <more>, <update>
Aussie supercharged Internet traffic with an algorithm to reduce the electromagnetic interference and improve data transfer 100x faster. The research earns Dr John Papandriopoulos his doctorate but also supercharged his earning capacity. <more>

What will the television be in 2010?		 Free2air TV programs will be incorporated into the Internet and viewers can choose to watch screened programs whenever they chooses to without previously downloading the programs themselves. It won't run on slow start up Windows but on Linux. The remote control will incorporate a PC mouse with increased functionalities. Japan is making plans for the introduction of online 'free2air' TV in 2009. <more>
Cyber-Campaign determines Election Results becoming even more pronounce lately during the general election in Malaysia. "We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television was supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMS and blogs. It was a serious misjudgement. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important," says Malaysia's PM Abdullah Badawi.
SONY won this one after losing with Betamax in the VHS war -their Blu-ray DVD format had finaly succeeded after the Toshiba-led HD-DVD consortium had finally conceded defeat. <more>
Mine is Bigger, Panasonic Up the Ante with the introduction of the biggest flat screen TV, 381cm measured diagonally (150 inches in the old measurement). More appropriately used for commercial display but expect a few egoistic home-owners to possess them when it hits the market. <more>

One Laptop per Child
project meant well but the two biggest players, Microsoft and Intel, opted out of it, instead, promoting a more costly option in achieving similar aims. <more>
Warning: Office Printers Danger to Lungs! These lasers emit fine particles that caused lung diseases not unlike those troubling smokers. <more>
How much you need to retire? Answer to this query is now made simpler through an Excel program released by Australian Securities & Investment Commission. <download>
How to protect your Wireless Network now that Wi-Fi plays such a major role in networking these days due to its convenience, practicality and even cost savings. However, there are some housekeepings to take care which may save you much headaches. <more>
Internal security threat much overlooked according to Microsoft's Bill Gates. "Programmers build bigger moats and thicker fortress walls - but they don't bother to protect the corporate crown jewels when members of their fiefdom exit the castle and leave the drawbridge open." <more>
How Ctrl-Alt-Del had wiped out $US38 billion account and left Alaskan's Tax officers red-faced. <more> The lesson to learn, ensure backups are done right all the time.
Another Great Leap Forward in CPU technology when both Intel and a consortium led by IBM which also include Sony and AMD announced a breakthrough in compacting 80 cores on a single chip (current technology is quad-core). This microprocessor will do 1.01teraflops per second equivalent to the fastest computer hardward ever built in 1996 except that the latter occupied 600 square metres of floor space and consumed 500KW of power. Moore's Law is still very much alive since it was first coined in 1995 that the power of computer will double every 18 months. <more>

Stolen GPS gives thieves away 		as the US authorities activated the devices and located the loot from a warehouse in New York State. The handpieces use signals from satellites to accurately fix and relay their positions. The thieves believed theyhad snagged mobile phones and planned to sell them.