Articles by Katherine Noyes

Following the massive cyberattacks against the Baltic country of Estonia in April, NATO on Thursday asserted that cyberdefense must now be a priority among member nations Several defense ministers, including Estonia's, raised the issue during a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and all 26 alliance members agreed that a new focus on...

After two critical computers crashed aboard the international space station (ISS) Wednesday, U.S. and Russian flight controllers have partially restored functioning, but long-term prospects remain uncertain The crash occurred Wednesday while crew members were working to retract a solar array as part of their scheduled mission. One of the computers ...

Sprint Nextel announced Wednesday that it is acquiring Minnesota-based affiliate Northern PCS for US$312.5 million The deal includes the assumption of Northern PCS's debt, and should close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals, the Reston, Va.-based company said....

Intel and Google led a number of other technology and environmental organizations Tuesday in announcing the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which is dedicated to slashing the power consumption of technology The goal of the initiative, which currently includes Dell, EDS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Pac...

YouTube is planning to test new technology that will help it identify copyrighted video content that has been uploaded onto the site illegally, according to press accounts In tests with Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co., the video-sharing site reportedly plans to assess software developed by engineers at its parent company, Google, to flag illega...

The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum announced Monday the publication of its first specifications aimed at fostering interoperability across the Linux-based mobile phone market The first installment of LiPS Release 1.0 includes a reference model, address book and voice call enabler, as well as user interface services such as widget sets, navigati...

It may be against the law for U.S. consumers to import prescription drugs into the United States, but that isn't stopping the growth in rogue Internet pharmacies In fact, the number of such sites is skyrocketing: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found a total of 581 Web sites advertising or selling ...

Researchers at Osaka University in Japan demonstrated on Friday a toddler robot designed to assist in studies of child development Called the "Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body," or CB2, the robot is designed to mimic a real, human child between one and three years old. It stands just over 4 feet tall, weighs 73 pounds, and crawls, changes its facia...

Power cords and chargers may rule the technological world today, but their days could be numbered, thanks to a breakthrough at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology It's called "WiTricity," and it's essentially the transfer of power through the air, without wires. It was demonstrated by a team of researchers from MIT's Department of Physics, De...

Forget Nintendinitis -- the new affliction for those who enjoy gaming just a little too much may be "Acute Wiiitis," which was first reported Thursday in a brief posted to the New England Journal of Medicine's Web site "A healthy 29-year-old medical resident awoke one Sunday morning with intense pain in the right shoulder," wrote Dr. Julio Bonis of...

Two hedge funds are pushing TD Ameritrade Holding to pursue a merger with a rival firm, the online brokerage announced Tuesday As an attachment to its regulatory filing, TD Ameritrade included a May 29 letter from hedge funds Jana Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, which own an aggregate of about 50 million shares of the company, equivalent to 8...

Digital music startup Lala.com has launched an iPod-compatible online music service that allows users to play songs online for free, the company announced Tuesday. In the future, it will reportedly allow users to download individual tracks without digital rights management (DRM) protection directly to their iPods Users of the free service can liste...

A Chicago man faces the possibility of three years in prison for leaking four episodes of the Fox show "24" onto the Internet before they had aired on prime-time TV Jorge Romero, 24, is accused of uploading the first two episodes of this season's "24" onto LiveDigital.com on Jan. 6, and doing the same thing with the next two episodes the next day.

In theory, Internet pharmacies have the potential to offer consumers considerable benefits over their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Convenience and lower prices, in particular, are two of the big ones proponents frequently cite Unfortunately, the current reality reveals a very different potential. "Rogue Internet pharmacies," as they're called, ha...

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin stirred up a maelstrom Thursday when he said he's not convinced global warming is a problem humans should try to solve On the very same day that President Bush announced his widely disparaged proposal for tackling global warming -- a plan many have called a delay tactic to avoid undertaking any real action before ...

Just a week ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit to be held in Germany next week, President Bush Thursday outlined his own proposal to combat global warming A group of 15 or so nations will be invited to a meeting in the United States this fall as part of a plan to agree upon a global target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 20...

At US$30 million a ticket for orbital space travel and about $200,000 for suborbital trips, demand can only go so far. Before space tourism can really take off -- so to speak -- prices are going to have to come down, and that may require a new business model Part 1 of this three-part series discusses the latest advances in commercial space travel.

Google's acquisition of DoubleClick may be under scrutiny for potential antitrust and privacy violations, but that's apparently not stopping the search giant from snatching up another smaller firm -- this time, security software maker GreenBorder In what's likely an effort to reassure Web users fearful of attacks, Google confirmed Wednesday that it...

The Chinese People's Liberation Army has set up "information warfare" units to create viruses for use in attacking enemy computer systems and networks, according to a Department of Defense report released Friday "The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on...

Web surfers all too familiar with the distorted-letter tests that accompany so many site registration forms today can now take heart -- the time they spend on those tests is being put to good use Thanks to a project at Carnegie Mellon University, a new version of those pesky CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Hum...