When a journalist decided to view the MSN Video page using a browser set to tell the server that it was IE 5.0 for Mac, he saw the following message:

"We recommend the following browsers: Internet Explorer 6 or 7 and FireFox 2.x on Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox 2.x on Windows Vista, FireFox 2.x on Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger."

"What really caught our attention was the recommended browsers: IE 6 or 7 -- predictably -- but Firefox 2.0 as the second option, both on Windows and on Mac OS X," said Fernando Cassia of The Inquirer, an irreverent and much-loved website that reports on IT matters.

"So, we guess that Microsoft is still not aware of the Firefox 3.0 release, yet."

The move to endorse Firefox is notable as Microsoft originally recommended Mac users migrate to Apple's Safari browser when IE for the Mac was discontinued in 2006.

It also contradicts some of the remarks made by Microsoft's leader Steve Ballmer -- he has been scathing in the past about the value of free software packages like Firefox.

"Our goal is to try to educate people on what it means to protect intellectual property and pay for it properly," he said.

It could be said that recommending free software on your website is one way to educate people about paying for it properly -- or maybe not.

What is closer to the truth is that Microsoft have conceded defeat in the browser war -- at least on the ascendant Mac platform.

"We feel like it's smarter for us to do new things rather than bringing another browser to the Mac," said Ballmer.

Jeff Simmermon, 32, hails from Brooklyn and considers his right to drink coffee anyway he wants to be a fundamental right.

But he couldn't have anticipated the furore that a simple request for an iced espresso would cause when he walked into the door of Murky Coffee, which has a stringent list of rules about what customers can and cannot ask for.

Viewers of Seinfeld will probably be having visions of the 'Soup Nazi' when they read the following:

"We have some policies at Murky Coffee," said Nicholas Cho, owner of the coffeeshop.

"No modifications to the Classic Cappuccino."

"No questions will be answered about the $5 Hot Chocolate (during the months we offer it)."

"No espresso in a to-go cup."

"No espresso over ice."

"These are our policies."

"We have our reasons, and we’re happy to share them."

Out-of-towner Simmermon thus had no idea of what was waiting for him when he walked into Murky Coffee and asked for his usual summertime tipple of iced espresso.

"I’m sorry, we can’t serve iced espresso here," said the barista.

"It’s against our policy."

"Okay,” replied Simmermon, "I’ll have a triple espresso and a cup of ice, please."

That didn't violate their rules, so he was served the drink and as he prepared to mix it with ice, the barista took the opportunity to admonish him.

"Hey man, what you’re about to do...that’s really, really not okay," said David Flynn, the barista working on the counter.

"This is our store policy, to preserve the integrity of the coffee."

"It’s about the quality of the drink, and diluting the espresso is really not cool with us."

"So I mean, you’re going to do what you’re going to do, and I can’t stop you, but-"

"You’re goddamned right you can’t stop me,” Simmermon interrupted.

"I happen to have a personal policy that prohibits me from indulging stupid bullshit like this -- and another personal policy of doing what I want with the products I pay for."

He then proceeded to mix the two and set off something of a storm in a coffee cup.

His parting shot was to leave a $1 bill as a tip, inscribed with the legend: 'Fuck you and your precious coffee policy.'

Simmermon went on to blog about the incident at his site andiamnotlying.com -- which eventually got a reaction from Murky Coffee's owner.

But far from vindicating him, Cho's pretentious language only seems to confirm Simmermon's opinion that Murky Coffee are too 'precious' about coffee.

"The fact is, there's a lot more to coffee than people think, and there was a time that a career position like a 'sommelier' was completely absurd (before wine became 'fancy') too," Cho said.

"There's a craft to coffee, that most people haven't been exposed to."

"When we first opened our shop, nobody had ever seen 'latte art' before, or was thinking about coffee bean varietals."

"Just as the average person understands at least that a 'merlot' is different from a 'chardonnay', maybe someday people will understand that a coffee brewed from bourbon varietal from a particular coffee farm in El Salvador is different from a particular lot of Yirgacheffe from Ethiopia."

"Right now, to most people, coffee is coffee, just like a Diet Coke is a Diet Coke."

Cho clearly believes that keeping the integrity of his coffee is better than keeping his customers.

"To others reading this I will say that if you don't like the policies, I respectfully recommend that you find some other place that will give you what you want, or select something that we can offer you," he said.

For his part, Simmeron is ambiguous about his reaction to the incident.

"I have mixed feelings about it, and I'm not really proud of the behaviour that triggered this," he said.

"These things take on a life of their own, and I don't want to be a part of it."

"He had a bad day, the owner had a bad day, and I had a bad day."

"That's all."

Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found the five-year-old e-mail while preparing a major series of articles about Gates' departure from day-to-day life at Microsoft.

"It shows that even the Microsoft co-founder -- who champions the 'magic of software' -- isn't immune to the frustrations of everyday computer users," said Bishop.

The e-mail details Gates' difficulties in downloading a copy of Windows Movie Maker, a simple video editing program aimed at consumers.

Things started to go wrong when Gates had difficulty connecting to the download site.

"This site is so slow it is unusable," he wrote in the e-mail.

His problems multiplied when the complex nature of the Windows operating system turned what should be a simple operation into something more arcane.

"In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve," Gates wrote.

"It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations."

"This struck me as completely odd."

Gates attempted to continue installation of the software, but the process ended up damaging the 'Add/Remove Programs' control panel that should make installing software easy.

"Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?" he wrote.

"What an absolute mess."

It is clear from the e-mail that Gates was intensely displeased by his failure to complete what should be a simple task.

"So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package," wrote Gates.

"The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind."

When asked about the e-mail by Bishop, Gates was blase about the e-mail and the tone of its content.

"There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail...like that piece of e-mail," he said with a smile.

"That's my job."

CEO Steve Jobs indicated that the price cut is a deliberate move to make the iPhone as much of a mass-market item as the iPod.

"It changes the game for all smartphone makers," said Tim Bajarin, head of Creative Strategies, a technology consultancy.

The new iPhone also signals a new relationship between Apple and the mobile networks.

Previously Apple demanded a slice of the monthly revenue from each iPhone -- but that money will now be used by the networks to subsidise the price of the new iPhone.

"The vast majority of agreements we have reached do not have those follow-on payments, so you can conclude that the vast majority of carriers do provide subsidies for the phone," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer,

The change in business model will hurt AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the US -- the company expects a significant drop in revenue.

But analysts believe that in spite of the lower price and loss of call revenues, Apple will come out on top.

"It is still a very profitable business," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.

"Now the negative is they announced the elimination of some of the monthly fees."

"But I can't really imagine the economics really being too much different."

"These lower price points seem somewhat designed to cope with the economy, the softer environment."

"They definitely make this product more resilient."

As well as support for faster mobile broadband over 3G networks, the new iPhone also boasts GPS and tools to allow easy access to corporate networks -- making iPhone a serious competitor to devices such as the Blackberry, manufactured by RIM.

"This positions Apple well vis a vis other smartphone competitors such as Nokia and RIM," said Shannon Cross of Cross Research.

"iPhone is no longer an expensive device."

"It's now priced at the mass market."

"This is a historic victory in the fight against online crime," said Bob McDonnell, Virginia's Attorney General.

"Spam not only clogs e-mail inboxes and destroys productivity -- it also defrauds citizens and threatens the online revolution that is so critical to Virginia's economic prosperity."

Jeremy Jaynes was one of the world's most prolific spammers -- he is thought to have made millions of dollars in revenue from sending unsolicited bulk e-mail.

His lucrative trade came to an end when Virginia prosecutors took advantage of the fact that his e-mails transited via a server located in the state, operated by AOL.

Jaynes was sentenced in 2004 to nine years in jail for violating the Virginia Anti-Spam Act.

He has been under house arrest during the appeal process -- Jaynes hoped that his e-mails would be protected as free speech under the US constitution.

But the state's Supreme Court took the opposite view in a 4-3 decision, ruling that commercial material was not covered by the constitution.

The dissenters on the Supreme Court's panel took a different position, stating that the decision sets a difficult precedent.

Justice Elizabeth Lacy claimed that the Virginia Anti-Spam Act was 'unconstitutionally overbroad on its face, because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States constitution.'

Jaynes' defence took consolation from the dissenting opinion.

"Unfortunately, the state that gave birth to the First Amendment has, with this ruling, diminished that freedom for all of us," said Thomas Wolf, the lawyer representing Jaynes in court.

"As three justices pointed out in dissent, the majority's decision will have far reaching consequences."

"The statute criminalises sending bulk anonymous e-mail, even for the purpose of petitioning the government or promoting religion."

Jon Praed, a lawyer with Internet Law Group, described the ruling as 'groundbreaking.'

"Before this case, the only spammers who had been convicted were convicted of things that were crimes without reference to their spamming activity," he said.

"It was important to establish that spam is illegal because it's unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail -- without regard to the quality of the content that you're advertising."

Jaynes' case may now go up for appeal before the US Supreme Court, according to his lawyer.

"We are going to study these lengthy opinions, but I don't see us giving up on these important constitutional issues," said Wolf.

Although format wars in the past have been costly for all involved, Toshiba thought that it could take on the might of Sony -- originator of the CD along with Royal Dutch Phillips -- but they had underestimated the power of Sony's gaming division.

By installing Blu Ray into the third version of Sony's Playstation console, Sony has already bought themselves a tremendous advantage over Toshiba.

But it was last month's decision by Warner Brothers to drop HD DVD in favour of Blu Ray that signed the death warrant for the nascent format.

"That had tremendous impact," said Atsutoshi Nishida, president of Toshiba.

"If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."

In some parts of Toshiba's global empire, senior executives are manfully spinning the defeat into a victory of sorts.

"The projected lifespan of HD DVD has shortened significantly due to the acceleration of digital content distribution via the internet," said Mark Whittard, general manager of Toshiba Australia.

"We believe that technology developments will leapfrog high definition, whether it be HD DVD or Blu Ray discs."

Sony refuted Mr Whittard's argument in no uncertain terms.

"I think if he'd seen the digital download numbers he wouldn't say that," said Michele Garra, managing director of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

"The perception versus the reality is that it's happening a lot more slowly then anyone figured."

"It may still be eight to 10 years away -- at the earliest five if we're wrong."

Consumers with a collection of HD DVD discs may now be feeling disappointed, but Korean manufacturer LG have offered them some comfort.

The company have pledged to retain support for HD DVD for now.

"LG believes that at this present moment in time, it is necessary to provide a player which supports both formats and therefore create simplicity and convenience for the existing HD DVD consumer," read a statement from the manufacturer.

"From today onwards nobody should ever get caught short again, and we understand how important that is, be it for a young mum with children in tow, older people or friends on a shopping trip or night out," said Councillor Alan Bradley, cabinet member for street environment.

Westminster council aims to make a 'substantial impact on reducing street urination.'

"45,460 litres of urine is at risk of ending up in the city's streets and alleyways through irresponsible and anti-social behaviour," they say.

The service came about as a result of an innovation competition run by the council.

"When I'm out with friends we're always ducking into McDonalds or department stores to use their loos but we feel a bit bad about it," said Gail Knight, a 26-year-old student and the brains behind the idea..

"I thought a text service would be really useful for people on the move."

SatLav has received a warm welcome from the British Toilet Association, the campaign for better public toilets.

"It's the first fully managed service that we're aware of," said Richard Chisnell, British Toilet Association director.

"Thank heavens for Westminster's public toilets."

"This is going to bring the Internet into cell phones in a very cool way," said Andy Rubin of Google's director of mobile platforms and originator of the Android OS that underpins their mobile strategy.

The company is basically giving away for free that which Microsoft wants you to pay for.

Windows Mobile runs on millions of phones, PDAs, SatNavs, and the like -- but they demand a license fee from the manufacturer, which the consumer ends up paying.

Google's Android however will be free of license fees -- and unlike Windows Mobile, it will be 'open source.'

This means that anyone will be able to access the source code that makes up the software -- meaning that it can be endlessly improved by anyone that chooses to do so.

Android's open nature will also make it easier for developers and manufacturers to create new applications -- in stark contrast to the relatively closed iPhone made by Apple.

"This is a shot that is going to be heard around the world, but it's just the first shot in what is going to be a very protracted battle in the next frontier of the mobile Web," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president. of industry analysts Jupiter Research.

The company also announced an alliance with over 30 manufacturers -- as well as stalwarts such as Motorola and Samsung, new kids on the block such as China Mobile have also signed up.

"Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive and Apple board member.

No mention was made of Apple's iPhone -- Schmidt appeared onstage with Steve Jobs when the device was first presented to the public, demonstrating a Google Maps application.

How Google's move to enter the mobile marketplace will affect their relationship with Apple remains unclear -- but they definitely sees mobile devices as vital to their future.

"This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world," said Schmidt.

National Defence Force (NDF) spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope said that it "is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have."

"It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers."

The NDF are now investigating if the cause of the failure was due to errors in the software.

But a pessimistic note was sounded by defence expert Helmoed-Römer Heitman, who believes that if "the cause lay in computer error, the reason for the tragedy might never be found."

According to defence engineer and entrepreneur Richard Young, this is not the first time that a computerised or so-called 'smart' weapon has malfunctioned on South African soil.

Young's company C2I2 were commissioned by the SA government to deliver two air defence artillery upgrade programmes during the '90s.

“I personally saw a gun go out of control several times,” said Young, referring to shooting trials at the state-run Alkantpan shooting range.

“They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the poles down.”

Young attributes the problems with smart weapons to the SA defence force's acquisitions agency, Armscor.

In the '90s, Armscor would allocate money on a yearly basis, resulting in programmes that were often rushed.

“It would not surprise me if major shortcuts were taken in the qualification of the upgrades," Young said.

"A system like that should never fail to the dangerous mode, except if it was a shoddy design or a shoddy modification."

“We saw that when people are speaking on the phone, typically they were doing something else,” said Ariel Maislos, head of the system's developer Pudding Media.

“They had a lot of other action, either doodling or surfing or something else like that.

"So we said, ‘Let’s use that’ and actually present them with things that are relevant to the conversation while it’s happening.”

The system is similar to the Adwords service that has generated millions of dollars in revenue for Google.

Whilst Google targets ads based on web searches and text in web pages, Pudding Media are using voice-recognition algorithms to pick out keywords in conversation and serve up ads accordingly.

The software is still in beta and is not always accurate.

"Sometimes crazy things pop up. It actually enriches the conversation, which is very cool," said Maislos.

Potential advertisers have given the development a cautious reception, as concerns over privacy refuse to go away.

“We can never obtain too much information from the targets, and I would love to get my hands on that information,” said Jonathan Sackett of Arnold Worldwide, part of the global marketing and advertising network Havas.

“Still, it makes me caution myself and caution all of us as marketers.

"We really have to look at the situation, because we’re getting more intrusive with each passing technology.”

Pudding Media claim that they do not store phone calls themselves or keep records of keywords used by individual callers.

"Have you talked about mountain biking? We wouldn't know," Maislos confirmed.

"I am delighted to welcome Anthony to the BBC," said Erik Huggers, controller of BBC Future Media and Technology Group, and a former employee of Microsoft.

"His knowledge and expertise in the digital media field is world class. I look forward to working closely with him to take our on demand services to the next stage."

The BBC has already courted controversy over the shape of the corporation's digital strategy.

A project to create a broadband TV player known as the iPlayer opted to use proprietary technology from Microsoft -- shutting out users of Macs and Unix boxes amongst others.

At the same time, the BBC hired the above quoted Erik Huggers to head up the coming programme of digital services -- a man who worked at Microsoft for over a decade, ending his career as senior director of Windows Digital Media, responsible for the business strategy at their entertainment division

This latest hiring shows that Ashley Highfield, the corporation's head honcho in the field of New Media, is unafraid of making controversial decisions.

As well as Rose's experience of P2P file-sharing, he also has expertise in the field of Digital Right Management (DRM) -- the anti-piracy technology advocated by Microsoft that restricts the rights of users to playback and store the media they own.

It is Microsoft's use of DRM that prevents the BBC iPlayer from working on other platforms such as the Mac -- the Redmond-based software company refuses to support computers that don't use their Windows operating system.

Although the BBC press office released the news through their own site, at the time of writing it is conspicously absent from their main news site.

Perhaps Highfield is afraid of controversy after all?

“The iPod touch is a landmark iPod, ushering in a whole new generation of features based on its revolutionary multi-touch interface and built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

“People are going to be amazed at how thin it is and how much it does.”

The newest iPod has less memory that the iPhone, but is much thinner -- the new device is a mere 8mm thick.

Apart from playing songs and videos, the iPod touch comes with wireless networking and the Safari web browser.

"Others have done this and have failed," Jobs said, possibly alluding to the botched implementation of wireless networking on Microsoft's Zune music player.

"We think we know why it's failed. What's the problem with adding Wi-Fi? Part of it is getting on Wi-Fi itself.

"When you're at home, you might need a password. When you're in the office, you might have a password.

"But everywhere in between can be challenging. You go to any hotel, and to log in, they throw up a web page. Portable devices don't know how to deal with web pages.

"You go to an airport, you'll see a web page. Even walking through Stanford University, to use their Wi-Fi, you have to log into a web page.

"So you can view all those web pages, zoom in, log into any Wi-Fi network pretty much. But beside that, you get an incredible web browser -- the best web browser on any mobile platform."

Jobs also announced a version of the iTunes music store that runs on the iPod itself -- as long as there's a Wi-Fi connection available.

Apple have formed an alliance with Starbucks -- the coffee chain has become a significant record company in its own right, boasting artists such as Ray Charles and Bob Dylan on its roster.

The new iPod touch will allow users sitting in Starbucks to purchase the track that they are listening to at the moment, as well as reviewing the previous ten tracks played.

Early coverage of the new iPod has been generally positive, ranging from the guardedly cautious to something approaching gushing hyperbole.

"Apple you’ve done it again. It’s time the competition just packed up and went home," wrote one correspondent on the website of T3, a glossy magazine for gadget aficionados.

In the opinion of this correspondent, the device is clearly a shot across the bows of the mobile networks.

Many of the problems with the iPhone's launch related to AT&T's infrastructure -- which was out of the control of Apple and no doubt caused immense frustration to Steve Jobs, a notable control freak.

The iPhone was also notable for eschewing mobile-only standards such as WAP browsers and MMS messaging in favour of the more universal HTML browser and e-mail.

Apple and AT&T fundamentally have different agendas -- Apple is in the commodity business of shifting units, be they Macs, iPods, or iTunes tracks.

AT&T are in the business of constantly selling services eg net access priced by the kilobyte, ringtones, and other forms of content bought over their network rather than downloaded onto a computer and then sideloaded onto a phone.

Jobs has seen which way the wind is blowing -- the next generation of Wi-Fi is WiMax, which has the potential to be available over long distances.

Expensive proprietary solutions from the mobile networks may be rendered obsolete by WiMax and associated technologies.

The iPod touch is Steve Jobs' subtle way of telling the mobile operators that their days are numbered -- the day will come when he doesn't need them anymore.

"This individual was getting paid for not working," said Margie Feinberg, spokersperson for New York's Department of Education and former employers of John Halpin.

Halpin had worked in New York schools for over 20 years, latterly as a supervisor overseeing carpenters.

His employers became suspicious about the timesheets that he was submitting and spent five months monitoring his movements using the GPS capability of his phone.

The data revealed that Halpin was frequently turning up to work two hours early -- but then leaving work two hours early as well.

A court hearing resulted in a recommendation that Halpin be dismissed for his misconduct.

He was damned by the fact that he falsified his timesheets, operating under the assumption that his chances of being found out were minimal.

Halpin's attempt to mount a defence on the basis that the GPS data was inaccurate as well as being an unethical approach failed to sway Judge Tynia Richard.

Judge Richard's decision called for his dismissal, stating that the Department of Eductation was under no obligation 'to notify its employees of all the methods it may possibly use to uncover their misconduct.'

New York has no legislation obliging employers to tell workers that they are being tracked -- Connecticut and Delaware are the only states in the US to have such a law.

Unions have stepped into the legislative void, negotiating with individual companies to prevent covert tracking.

One such deal has been formed between the Teamsters, a union of professional drivers, and the UPS delivery company.

UPS have agreed that GPS devices cannot be used to gather information that can then be used to dismiss employees.

"It's a horrible waste of money," said Tom, a student at a private school in Melbourne.

"They could get a much better filter for a few million dollars made here rather than paying overseas companies for an ineffective one."

The filtering software was distributed as part of the NetAlert programme launched by John Howard's right-wing goverment as part of their campaign against what they see as obscene content.

"Sadly, just as a seatbelt will never prevent every fatal car crash, as the government has always maintained, no filter is foolproof," responded Helen Coonan, Australia's Communications Minister.

Wood found that circumventing the software was a relatively trivial process.

"I downloaded it on Tuesday to see how good it was, because for AUS$84 million, I would have expected a pretty unbreakable filter," he said.

"Tried a few things, it took about half an hour and it was completely useless."

After Wood's exploits became public, a different filter was released for download -- it took him around half an hour to bypass it and render it useless.

He believes that even when anti-porn filters work, they don't offer a solution to the problems that net users face.

"Filters aren't addressing the bigger issues anyway," Wood said.

"Cyber bullying, educating children on how to protect themselves and their privacy are the first problems I'd fix.

"They really need to develop a youth-involved forum to discuss some of these problems and ideas for fixing them."

Fakers have been getting sophisticated when creating knocked off versions of sought after phones.

When LG launched their iconic Chocolate phone in Korea, they found that Chinese cloners managed to create their own version that was 'exactly like the real one in design,' according to a company spokesperson.

"Chinese people think it's LG electronics that manufactures the fakes."

Now Apple are discovering that their sought after iPhone has become the latest target -- fuelled by the company's decision to only launch the product in America.

LG have changed their launch strategy and now bring new phones to market in China as quicky as possible, eliminating as much opportunity for cloners as possible.

In Apple's case, the iPhone will only be available in the US for at least a year before other countries will see it in use -- meaning large profits for those companies that produce cheaper knock offs.

The first fake iPhone, known as the P168, first emerged a few days before the official launch of the real thing -- it has also been seen on sale in China, although the manufacturer is keeping a low profile due to the the threat of legal action.

Another company producing a fake iPhone has allegedly been threatened with lawsuit by Apple in a Hong Kong court.

Meizu have announced their miniOne, which looks similar to the iPhone but has extra features not found in the original.

Some commentators have pointed out that some of these fakes are superior to the iPhone -- unlike the original, they come with removable batteries and are not locked to one specific mobile network.

"If you're able to crash something you are most likely able to exploit it," said Lukas Grunwald, an adviser to the German parliament on e-passports.

Grunwald first cloned the embedded chip in the e-passport last year, making it trivial to create a duplicate of an existing document.

Now he has delved further into the actual data stored on the chip, finding flaws in the way that the e-passports have been implemented.

He found that the passport photo was stored digitally in the industry-standard JPEG2000 format -- used in digital cameras and on websites -- making it easier to recycle old methods of attack.

By employing a technique known as 'buffer overrun', he injected rogue data into the passport photo file.

At a security conference, he scanned the e-passport through two different makes of scanner and crashed them both.

It also emerged that the fingerprints of the passport holder are stored as a standard image file.

This would be enough to allow someone to theoretically create fake fingerprints from gelatine that could be placed on the fingers and fool the scanner.

Such a technique has already been demonstrated by Japanese security researchers.

At least three proof-of-concept viruses have been created by hackers as they stumble upon undocumented vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, Apple's rival to the Windows operating system.

The discoverer of the latest exploit harbours deep antipathy towards Apple's feelgood attitude around security.

“I do believe in being responsible and working with vendors, but I also feel that some vendors need to be treated like children and learn lessons the hard way," said Infosec Sellout.

“Apple has a very long way to go when dealing with security issues in their products.”

Although Apple has been diligent in patching holes in Mac OS X as they are found, the recent success of the company has brought so much attention that some of it has been of the unwelcome kind.

A series of bugs have been discovered by independent researchers affecting such key components as QuickTime, the video technology created by Apple.

Another factor causing this interest in Mac security may be the decision by the company's leader Steve Jobs to switch from using PowerPC chips to those made by Intel -- the same silicon used in rival Windows machines.

When Macs used PowerPC chips, the number of hackers able to manipulate the silcon at the most basic level would have been comfortably small.

But the switch to Intel means that a global army of budding virus writers familiar with their chips due to experience writing Windows viruses have a new hobby.

The key insight for the successful virus author is realising a strategy to fool a computer processor so that anti-virus software can't detect the malicious software they wish to deploy.

As it stands, these virii only exist 'in the lab' -- but a truly sophisticated piece of malware may already be out there in the wild.

In the words of Donald Rumsfeld, the first true Mac OS X virus could very well be one of those 'unknown unknowns.'

The six-month study show that Facebook users are more likely to come from wealthier homes than Myspace users.

Facebook users are also more likely to go to college that their Myspace counterparts.

"Social networks are strongly connected to geography, race, and religion; these are also huge factors in lifestyle divisions and thus 'class'," said Danah Boyd, the researcher behind the study.

Her research found that Facebook students were predominantly white and came from families keen for them to succeed.

"They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities."

Myspace users tend to come from families that weren't so keen on pushing their children to succeed.

She also found that Myspace users come more from non-white ethnic groups such as Latinos and Hispanics.

As opposed to Facebook, Myspace is a home to the marginalised.

"MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracised at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers."

Whilst Boyd was wary of drawing conclusions from her research, she did think that society was being represented online.

"This division is just another way in which technology is mirroring societal values.

"Teens are using social network sites to build community and connect with their peers.

"And through it, they are showcasing all of the good, bad, and ugly of today's teen life."

Although sites from around the world were affected, the vast majority of infected computers were sited in Italy.

"We were referring to it as 'Italian Job 3,' in-house," said David Perry of security firm Trend Micro.

The compromised sites were mainly tourism sites with Italian domains ending in .it such as http://www.adriahotel.it, http://wwww.bestoftuscany.it and http://www.mothertheesacause.info.

"Do not go to these sites," said Perry.

Most of the infected Web sites are legal, Perry emphasised.

"These aren't porn sites, they aren't gambling sites; they are hotels, fish-and-tackle sites, tourist information," he said.

Surfers are only vulnerable if they are using older versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The spyware takes the information from your computer and sends it to a server located in Chicago, USA.

Even if the server is located and shut down, the spyware can be reprogrammed remotely to send it elsewhere.

"Your system belongs to them," Perry said.

"If Chicago is shut down, they could move anywhere in the world."

"It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end," a spokeswoman for parent company Yahoo Hong Kong said.

"It appears that the Chinese Government is restricting access to Flickr, although we have not received confirmation from them."

The Chinese Government have yet to make any comment about the matter.

Problems with the site begin after photographs of an environmental protest in Xiamen were uploaded to the site for public viewing.

Thousands of local residents were demanding the relocation of a toxic chemical plant, and had clashed with police at points.

Coverage of the protest movement was subject to the usual newspaper censorship.

It was China’s growing army of bloggers that ended up covering the event, complete with videos and pictures.

The protest evidently rattled the authorites as a suspension of work on the chemical project was ordered until an environmental impact assessment could be carried out.

Until the situation can be resolved, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterworth has few words of comfort for frustrated users:

"We definitely haven't forgotten about you, but there is not much for us to announce publicly at this point.

"As soon as anything changes, will let you know.

"And we're all rooting for you!"

"Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists of or comprises immoral or scandalous matter," wrote Michael Engel, the lawyer reviewing the case for the US Government.

"The term ‘fucking’ is an offensive and vulgar reference to the act of sex. A mark that is deemed scandalous is not registrable.”

There have been 39 trademark attempts that included the word 'fuck', five that have 'fucking', and at least 50 with 'shit'.

None have been successful.

However 'bitch' is permissable and around 140 trademarks feature the word 'ass'.

Marc Randazza, the lawyer representing the parent company of fuckingmachines.com, has persuaded his client to appeal the decision on the grounds of free speech.

“This much maligned four-letter word has no intrinsic meaning,” Randazza wrote in a submission to the appeal court.

"Fuck can play a role as a figurative term, for example, ‘to fuck’ can also mean ‘to deceive.’ It is a word of force that can assist us in our expressions of joy when used as an infix, as in ‘abso-fucking-lutely’.

"‘Fuck’ helps us express rage when we scream ‘fuck you’ at a football referee, or at a motorist who has just cut us off in traffic.

"'Fuck' can help us express pain, as it is quite frequently the first thing out of most men’s mouths when they strike their thumb (accidentally) with a hammer.

"'Fuck' is a vehicle for our disappointment, when we see that our report card is not as good as we had hoped, or when our significant other is late for dinner, or leaves us altogether.

"'Fuck' is an old friend, who can always make us laugh."

Much of Randazza's argument rests on the fact that the law forbidding 'obscene' trademarks was formulated in 1905 and is thus outdated.

Also he points out that standards have changed over time as society's values shift.

He uses the example of how it is no longer possible to trademark the names of Native American tribes.

But for all his legal arguments, Randazza is not under any illusions about the prospects for success.

"I’m jousting at a windmill," he admits.

"Net cafes? Only the rich can afford them," said Koba, one of the new breed of 'McRefugees'.

"Even with a special night time deal, they still cost about 1,000 yen (£4) a night.

"So I sleep at McDonald's three or four nights a week.

"More McDonald's restaurants have started operating 24 hours since the spring and there are plenty of others like me who are sleeping there."

The infamous burger chain has helped spawn the nickname 'McRefugee' due to their popularity amongst thrifty homeless people.

"I sometimes stay overnight at family restaurants, but they have a late night surcharge," said Toba, a fan of McD's low prices.

"They do have the lure of an all-you-can-drink bar, but even that still costs more than 500 yen (£2).

"I only need to spend 100 yen (40p) at McDonald's and I can stay the whole night."

Economist Takuro Morinaga sees the McRefugees as trapped between the two worlds of being housed and being homeless.

"They're people who probably have a tad more money than those living on the streets, but not enough money to allow them to change their lives," he said.

"It costs about 400,000 yen (£1600) to 500,000 yen (£2000) to rent out an apartment, so people who can't afford to do that become net cafe refugees, sauna refugees and, now McRefugees.

"The vast majority of them are not full time staff and are probably only making about 1 million yen (£4000) a year at most.

"For these people, 500,000 yen is an enormous sum of money."

Morinaga is pessimistic about the prospects for the homeless in Japan.

"I think we'll see more of these types of people," he said.

"With society polarising the way it is now, I guess they'll be like Europe and the United States where all the same types of p