Spam - the scourge of every e-mail inbox - celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend.
The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker.
The message was sent via Arpanet - the internet's forerunner - and won its sender much criticism from recipients.
Thirty years on, spam has grown into an underground industry that sends out billions of messages every day.
Japan plans to launch a paper airplane from the International Space Station to Earth and study its trip for future spacecraft design.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced plans for four experiments in space, including the paper plane project. Up to 90 million yen (900,000 dollars) is earmarked for the three-year study.
There has been tremendous enthusiasm for the Asus Eee PC subnotebook, mainly because of its low price - it starts at around £200. But the big question has still to be answered: is the Eee PC a one-off, or is it ushering in a new era of subnotebook use?
Guardian Technology 27/*03/08
Mobile phone use is currently banned onboard aircraft
The use of mobiles on planes flying in European airspace has been given approval by UK regulator Ofcom.
It has issued plans that will allow airlines to offer mobile services on UK-registered aircraft.
The decision means that mobiles could be used once a plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more.
But airlines keen to offer the services must still satisfy other regulators about how the hardware will be used.
Google is pressing the US government to allow the unlicensed frequencies of TV "white space" to be used for wi-fi.
The firm has written an open letter to regulators saying the US spectrum was a "once in a lifetime opportunity".
White space is unused blocks of frequencies in-between channels broadcast on analogue airwaves.
The Observer, Sunday March 9 2008
According to some market research I read recently, the world market for digital cameras is predicted to reach 122 million units by 2010.
That seems like an underestimate to me. Everyone I know has at least one camera, and most cellphones seem to have one. Some Nokia phones now come with 5 megapixel cameras and Zeiss lenses, enabling their users to produce images of quite startling quality.
Continue reading "How Flickr developed into a classic Web 2.0 success" »
A bamboo-encased laptop made by Asus, has finally hit the market after several months of testing. "Bamboo is the most sustainable raw material there is," said Jellent Sun, a senior director at Asus. "It grows very fast and therefore we decided to combine bamboo with metal, and leave out the plastic."
reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
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