A judge in Brazil has ordered Google to release user information relating to an investigation of child pornography and hate speech. Prosecutors in the country allege that users of Orkut, a networking site operated by Google, use the site to exchange illegal photographs and to post hate speech targeting blacks, Jews, and homosexuals. Officials from [...]

The city of Norwich, in the United Kingdom, has launched an 18-month pilot test of a free wireless network covering several areas of the city. Kurt Frary, manager of the project, said that the implementation, which includes more than 200 antennae, has been trouble-free so far. In an effort not to compete with commercial services, [...]

The California legislature has passed a bill that would require makers of wireless computer equipment to warn consumers of the risks of not securing wireless networks against “piggyback” users. Under the terms of the Wi-Fi User Protection Bill, which must be signed by the governor to take effect, makers of wireless hardware must, by October [...]

This fall, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson will coteach a course on argument with his daughter, Harvard Extension School instructor Rebecca Nesson, that will take place in the Second Life virtual world. In Second Life, users create avatars that they control, using them to move around the virtual environment and interact with others and [...]

Google’s controversial Book Search program is set to begin offering downloads of entire out-of-copyright texts. Until now, books in the program were available online only. With the option to download texts, users can now easily search those texts, print copies of them, or keep local copies on their computers to read offline. Books still under [...]

Hackers broke into an AT&T computer system and gained access to about 19,000 customer records over the weekend, according to the company. The records, which included credit card numbers, were for customers who had bought DSL equipment through AT&T’s Web site. The company issued a statement expressing regret for the incident and said it would [...]

According to new research conducted by Eduventures, online education has come to represent a considerable portion of continuing and professional education students at nonprofit institutions. For-profit institutions are typically considered the leaders in online enrollments, but nonprofits now have about 20 percent of their continuing and professional students in such programs. The study, which covered [...]

Search engine Google has begun offering a range of hosted applications. The model for the new Google Apps for Your Domain program is Google’s own Gmail for Your Domain, which the company debuted in February. With that service, customers can offer a version of Google’s Gmail service that uses the organization’s domain name rather than [...]

A California man has been sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for launching botnet attacks that damaged thousands of computers. Christopher Maxwell pleaded guilty to conspiring with two juveniles to orchestrate the attacks, which used hijacked computers to install advertising software. Victims included the U.S. Defense Department, Seattle’s [...]

Dell has announced certain prioritizations for its recall of 4.1 million laptop batteries. After reports of some batteries overheating and possibly catching fire, Dell reached a voluntary agreement with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to replace the batteries. Troy West, vice president and general manager of Dell’s federal segment, said that priority will be given [...]