At this years HOPE conference in New York, Jonathan Westhues of www.cq.cx demonstrated the ability to clone an RFID chip imbedded in the arm of his colleague. Using a laptop running signal processing software, a standard RFID reader and antenna, Westhues was able to read the ID number from the embedded VeriChip.

“Their (VeriChip’s) website claims that it cannot be counterfeited — that is something that Jonathan and I have shown to be untrue,” Annalee Newitz (colleague).

A “VeriChip” is an implantable, passive Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) about the size of a grain of sand that can be used in a variety of applications such as assessing whether somebody has authority to enter a high-security area.

more information can be found at Westhues site : http://cq.cx/verichip.pl

Shanghai’s Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies have created a toy car that will run entirely from hydrogen as part of their research into cleaner fuel alternatives.

The 6 inch car uses a small electric current, supplied by the solar cells, to extract the hydrogen from water and can run for 4 minutes on a full tank.

Horizon’s car, the H-Racer, comes complete with its own solar powered refuelling station and is expected to retail at around $80 USD.

More Information: www.horizonfuelcell.com

Popular social networking site MySpace.com has been down since sunday. Visitors to the site have been instead greeted with a notice from the companys president and founder, Tom Anderson, and a flash interface for the classic arcade game Pacman.

Whilst the official word is that the outage is due to a power loss, rumours are spreading that the chav valhalla has been a victim of futher spyware in their banner advertising, with some people, such as RadioIO.com’s beat Hi, going as far to claim that the server has been hacked.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported a new form of scam in the 419 category. Unsuspecting mobile phone users are recieving text messages thanking them for their subscription to a bogus dating agency and notifying them that $2.00, per day, will be charged to their phone until such a time that the subscription is cancelled.

A link to www.irrealhost.com is provided which, upon visiting, requests the users phone number and offers a cancellation tool. Once run, this malware edits the host file to prevent access to common anti-virus sites and lowers Windows security settings, effectively turning the machine into a zombie.

Currently, there are no reports of this type of scam occuring in the UK.

Source : Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

This month see’s Sony’s rival to the HD DVD induced Toshiba Qosmio G30 laptop. To compliment Sony’s Blu-ray bound media desktop system (VGC-RC204), the new VGN-AR11S notebook sports a writable Blu-ray drive that, with its dual layer capability, can achieve upto 50GB storage. But what exactly is Blu-ray?

With the spreading availability of High Definition media, comes the need for a storage system that can provide adequate space for this high bandwidth service. Blu-ray, or Blu-ray Disc (BD), is a huge advancement in digital storage media. Holding more than its rival HD DVD, (100GB compared to 60GB (25/15GB per layer, dual layered double sided)), the Blu-ray disc supports more features and, arguably, wider industry support.

Blu-ray discs not only hold more information than a standard CD or DVD (700mb and 4.7GB respectively), but they do so on a disc that is exactly the same size as a DVD. This means that Blu-ray drives are able to playback CD’s and DVD’s, eliminating the need to replace your film collection as you may have had to during the VHS to DVD period. Blu-ray discs achieve this higher capacity by using a different type of laser to write data. Using a blue-violet laser (hence Blu-ray), which has a shorter wavelength, the laser can be focused to a much finer point than a conventional red laser, meaning the data can be packed more tightly into the same space. A 25GB Blu-ray disc will hold approximately 2hours of High Definition footage or 13hours of standard TV recording.

Reminiscent of the VHS - Beta tape wars, there is currently a battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Whilst Blu-ray supports a higher capacity and more features, HD DVD production and release times have been quicker. From a consumer perspective this presents quite a problem, do you go for the better spec, or the first released? In light of this, many hardware manufacturers are readying their devices to support both formats (think DVD- vs DVD+). With a Blu-ray film catelogue of over 100 titles ready for release in September, and full 1080p High Definition gaming available in the form of the Sony PS3 games console (release date November 16th 2006), it would appear that Blu-ray may just punch through to market dominance. However, until both formats are mainstream, we shall have to wait.

Further Information:
Wikipedia Blu-ray
Wikipedia HD DVD

Slashdot reports:
“According to a the BBC, ‘the UK recording industry is urging the foreign secretary to raise the issue of Russian bargain music download website allofmp3.com at the G8 summit’. British Phonographic Industry (BPI) chairman Peter Jamieson wants Margaret Beckett to ‘urge the Russian government to take action against the operators of the site by insisting that it is removed from the internet’. Allofmp3 has insisted in the past that it is operating in compliance with Russian copyright laws.”

Source: Slashdot - UK Recording Industry Wants Allofmp3 An Issue at G8

Its almost that time of year again when we all don our Red Hats and Slacks and make our way to London. This years LinuxWorld Expo will offer 26 hours of Open Source topics as well as 16 top name industry speakers, by the likes of Bruce Perens, Alan Cox, Ian Pratt and Chris DiBona.

For more information and registration, please follow this link for the LinuxWorld Expo 2006

Despite failing to see the Vaio U70 Micro PC in the UK, Sony have recently released their latest effort in the handheld computer market. Currently available in the states, the Sony Vaio UX180P Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) features all the spec of a full blown notebook reduced down to a size that will fit comfortably in a large jacket pocket. With the xBlack screen a mere 4.5″ in size, the UX180P boasts a huge 614400 pixels (1024×600 widescreen aspect).

The unit runs XP Professional ontop of the new 1.2Ghz Intel Core U1400 processor. With a more than ample 533FSB, the UX180P ships with 512MB of DRR2 RAM and a 30GB hard drive. Connectionwise, the unit is provided with a standard ethernet port, Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g and a docking station, as well as all the usual USB ports.

The spec is fairly impressive for a unit that only measures 6 x 3.74 x 1.27 inches. But the features don’t end there. Being a small compact PC, capable of carry sensitive corporate data, security is somewhat of a concern. To this end the UX180P incorporates a biometric fingerprint scanner for file and OS control and comes bundled with our favourite bloatware - Norton Internet Security.

With a full set of features, including a touch screen, both front and rear facing cameras and a backlit thumb keyboard, the UX180P doesnt come in cheap. Retailing at $1,799 in the states the unit is expected to be available at around £1,000 in the UK.

More information can be found on the Sony Website
More pictures provided by Google

“eBay has added Google Checkout to the list of payment options banned on eBay. A recent update to the Accepted Payments Policy includes Google Checkout (click on ‘Show’ next to ‘Some Examples’ to reveal the list). More comments on this action can be found at the eBay Strategies Blog.”

Src: Slashdot - eBay Bans Google Payments