Secret service takes frontline role in piracy fight

The record industry has upped the ante in the fight against CD copying, enlisting US Secret Service agents in a raid on a CD duplicating plant in New York. The industry's US body - the RIAA - hailed the raid as a success, claiming the capture of 35,000 CDs, 10,000 DVDs and 'the equivalent of 421 CD-R burners'. It later admitted that there were in fact just 156 burners, but justified its earlier statement saying, 'There were only 156 actual burners, but some run at very high speeds, some as high as 40x. ...more

Swatch turns to Microsoft Smart Watch technology

Swatch has announced its Paparazzi watch featuring Microsoft's Smart Watch technology that wirelessly feeds in data via a US network of FM radio signals. The Paparazzi will go on sale for $150 and give wearers access to entertainment news and national news headlines; local weather high and low temperatures; major stock indexes and horoscopes delivered through Microsoft's MSN Direct service. Paparazzi is the result of three years collaboration between the companies. ...more

AMD support forum infected with .wmf attack

Finnish security company F-Secure says that AMD's online discussion forum appears to be infected a WMF exploit. It says that anyone visiting the site is sent such an exploit through an encoded IFRAME directive and warns against viewing. It says it has told AMD of the problem and that the company is working on fixing the problem. ...more

Phone some art today

You can't dial a Dali or ring a Renoir, but a new exhibition at London's Design Museum will let you interact with its exhibit in a telephonic manner. The Digital Aquarium at the Design Museum Tank, on the museums river-front terrace, contains 150 mobile phones suspended within a glass tank. Viewers can dial one of the mobile numbers posted on the aquarium to stimulate the exhibition into life. ...more

Niku releases project management software as open source

Project management software developer Niku has released its Open Workbench desktop project manager under an open source licence. The aim is to provide an alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Project and offer project managers the upgrade. The program is said to support a wide range of project management functions including forward and backward task allocation, critical path analysis and estimated time to completion. ...more