Hundreds of private emails and documents from climate scientists have been unleashed into the wilds of the internet, and climate sceptics are calling their contents “the greatest scandal in modern science“. Ruth Brown investigates.
The Internet
Telstra’s Tivo: TBox set to launch
Telstra has confirmed it will launch its “TBox” set-top box and digital video recorder next month, allowing users to download movies, TV shows and sport onto their televisions. Will it be embraced like the iQ, or largely ignored like Tivo?
The 10 defining internet events of the decade
The folks behind the Webby Awards have named their 10 most influential internet moments of the decade, including the launch of Wikipedia, the closure of Napster, the 2008 US Presidential campaign, and more.
Meet the man who killed the letter
In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson was asked to find something interesting to do with the newly created ARPANET computer network. So he invented email, inadvertently changing human communication forever.
Tim O’Reilly: The War for the Web is just getting started
Murdoch’s threat to take News Corp content out of Google’s results in just the beginning, says tech publisher Tim O’Reilly: big players like Facebook, Apple, and, yes, News Corp, are breaking off bits of the Web for themselves — and they won’t always want to share.
Qld Hansard a closed book to OpenAustralia
Why won’t the Queensland Parliament allow OpenAustralia to publish the Queensland State Parliamentary Hansards? Crikey intern Michelle Loh investigates.
The biggest websites you’ve never heard of
Forget Facebook: Megavideo.com, Megaupload.com and Megarotic.com are the real heavyweights of the online world, proving piracy and porn are still the hottest commodities on the internet.
Can Salon.com be saved?
Despite its iconic status, seminal news and opinion website Salon.com lost $4.6m last year and recently laid of 20% of its staff. PBS asks new CEO Richard Gingras whether the site can really be saved.
Meet the man who beat Glenn Beck
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck recently tried to sue Isaac Eiland-Hall, a 34-year-old IT student and the owner of a website called GlennBeckRapedAndMurdered AYoungGirlIn1990.com. He lost.
Blogger Belle de Jour’s true identity revealed
The anonymous blogger behind the famous Diary of a London Call Girl diary, which inspired spin-off books and a TV show, has revealed her true identity to the Times: Dr Brooke Magnanti.
The Vatican discovers LOLcats, Rick Astley and hax0rz
Ambassadors from the Web 2.0 — aka execs from Google, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia — are headed to the Vatican to introduce Catholic bishops to the mysterious ways of the internet. We think the Pope and his pals will fit riiiight in.
Internet: 1, Glenn Beck: 0
Controversial Fox News anchor Glenn Beck has lost his battle to rid the internet of the site glennbeckrapedandmurdered ayounggirlin1990.com. Following his victory, the owner of the domain has penned an open letter [pdf] to Beck slamming him, but volunteering to relinquish the site.
Dear Rupert, this is how the internet works. Google it.
Rupert Murdoch may be rich, clever and influential, but his plan to remove News Corp content from Google’s index is just daft. If he wants us to read his stories, let alone pay for them, we have to be able to find them first.
Google’s next target: Facebook
Google is making moves into the social networking world with a bunch of improvements to its Friend Connect feature. It’s a blatant “declaration of war” on Facebook, says Douglas Rushkoff, and one Google will most likely win.
Google Dashboard: what is it and do you really need it?
Google has released its latest toy: Google Dashboard, a one-stop-shop for users to access all their Google-related junk (gmail, Google docs, chat, etc). It’s neat, and potentially time-saving, but do you really want so much personal data in one place?
The top internet memes of 2009
Balloon Boy, David after the dentist, the Three Wolf Moon tshirt, Susan Boyle, Kanye West at the VMAs… so many memories. Mashable looks back at 2009 through internet memes.
leaked 
Politico and Wash Post to engage in DC territorial pissing
Online political news site Politico is going to launch a local Washington DC edition of the site, headed up by the former editor of WashingtonPost.com. It’s a pretty direct attack on The Washington Post’s DC supremacy, and HuffPo has its hands on an internal memo that outlines the plans.
graph pr0n Internet access: more than just smut and piracy
New data shows Australia’s young people are overwhelmingly using the internet for education more than anything else — yes, even porn — but their access to the web is strongly tied to socio-economic factors. Should the government started subsidising net access for low-income families?
The internet ushers in the age of the ‘amafessional’
The internet has allowed amateurs to directly rival professionals in opportunity, talent, quality and price, says Mark Penn — and not just in the field of journalism; bedroom musicians, artists and authors are all shaking up their respective fields with some serious competition.
What will the web look like in 5 years? Chinese
Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicts what the Web will look like five years from now: Chinese-language sites will dominate, social media will continue its epic rise, and will all come in real time via super-fast broadband.
MySpace and Facebook to team up?
Facebook has well and truly bested MySpace in the social networking game, but MySpace still has one ace up its sleeve: music and entertainment. Instead of competing, the two are apparently putting their differences aside to share content across the two networks.
Why good programmers go bad
Why do computer programmers turn to a life of online crime? Poor education, a criminal record and a dislike of authority, according to an undercover investigation by IT researchers — but some are just good people who can’t resist the lure of the dark side.
A girl always remembers her first time: a tribute to GeoCities
Yahoo has finally pulled the plug on GeoCities. Though most will say “good riddance” to the home of eye-searing fluro text, badly animated GIFs and never-ending Midi tunes, Ruth Brown looks back fondly on the site that popped her HTML cherry.
Why Twitter’s non-existant business model is brilliant
Don’t be fooled by Twitter’s apparently non-existent business model: by inking deals with Google and Bing last week, the social networking site has shown it has major money-making potential, and its experimental approach is all part of the genius.
Facebook: We see dead people
After a new feature on Facebook created a stir by inadvertently recommending users “reconnect” with dead friends, the site has decided to “memorialise” the profiles of users who have died as creepy online tributes to the deceased.
