AP reports that the State Department’s electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide for several hours late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government briefly unable to issue visas. The virus crippled the department’s Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more… Read More »
Good piece by the BBC on how micropayments may not be taking off online, but are with handphones. “While many of us are happy to use a credit card online, spending tens, hundreds, and occasionally thousands, of pounds, parting with just 50p is less common.” Despite the lack of any common system for micropayments, the… Read More »
From the Useful Research Dept comes a report that narrow exits may be safer. Nature magazine says that research indicates that, faced with a narrow door, mice form a kind of queue and make a relatively orderly escape. Wider doors cause the animals to block one another, making their getaway sporadic and inefficient. Escape is… Read More »
As predicted a month or two back, EA has issued an expansion pack for SimCity 4, called Rush Hour. allowing players to “take charge of vehicles in their cities to drive or solve missions that earn reward buildings and vehicles. Players have the ultimate level of control over their city’s transportation network by completely taking… Read More »
An independent reviewer of anti-spam tools I hadn’t heard of called Spamotomy has awarded its highest rating ever for a desktop anti-spam product to InBoxer from Audiotrieve, which I also haven’t heard of. And I thought I was on top of the whole spam thing. The Spamotomy review, apparently, is the result of an… Read More »