Access blocked to Chinese users.

The Chinese government has a history of blocking websites that are deemed sensitive but is iTunes a hotbed of anti-Chinese propaganda?

The reason behind the Chinese decision was the availability of a pro-Tibet album which has become a hit on the online music store.

Over the past week, many Chinese users have been unable to access iTunes although Apple’s Beijing-based spokeswoman Huang Yuna said she did not know why music fans were unable to log on.

“We’ve noticed the problem. It’s true that users may fail to log in to iTunes store right now,” she told AFP.

Investigations are still ongoing.

The restrictions started after a pro-Tibet album, “Songs for Tibet”, was launched on iTunes on August 8. The album soon become a hugely popular download all around. It seems the albums review page became the epicentre of a huge pie slinging contest between pro-Tibet web users and Chinese nationalists. The page registered over 400 posts before it was eventually taken down by Apple. Amongst the less complimentary comments was this blinder: “The Tibetan culture has been massacred by the oppressive Chinese government.” Rumours suggest that the review page comments were the reason the site was blocked in China.

Historical note: China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to “liberate” it - I’m not entirely sure what they needed to liberated from. Facist Yetis, maybe?

Popularity: 10% [?]

4.5% growth, according to Gartner

Doom and gloom in the world economy, unless you work in IT. Gartner has suggested that Worldwide IT spending could increase by nearly five per cent from last year’s figures.

Two of reasons for this predicted growth centre around emerging regions of world prosperity and the shelving of obsolete systems.

According to Gartner analyst Jim Tully, “Organisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models,” - now you can see why SaaS is such a big thing.

Software and IT services will probably account for the largest amount of IT spend. Hardware sales growth is highest in the PC market,  representing around 60 per cent of the total hardware spend.Guess it’s time to get your learning cap on and buy into the whole IT thing!

Popularity: 15% [?]

…fat lot of good that will do!

Ok, I made up the part about the MP. In truth, the report centres on research being carried out at Reading University. Men with huge, domed foreheads have been using parts of a rats brain (you can see how easy it was to make the mistake!) to aid robotic navigation.

The project marries 300,000 rat neurons to a robot which allows the mechanical freak of nature to be taught how to navigate obstacles and walls via sonar. By studying what happens to the neurons as the boffins hope learn how memories are laid down.

Pointy-eared hybrids

“The blob of nerves forming the brain of the robot was taken from the neural cortex in a rat foetus and then treated to dissolve the connections between individual neurons.

Sensory input from the sonar on the robot is piped to the blob of cells to help them form new connections that will aid the machine as it navigates around its pen.

As the cells are living tissue, they are kept separate from the robot in a temperature-controlled cabinet in a container pitted with electrodes. Signals are passed to and from the robot via Bluetooth short-range radio.”

Hmm, I can see the headlines - ‘Robot horde gave me Weil’s disease’!

Popularity: 18% [?]

Not a scratch on Google…

…but what do you really expect? Ok, the founders of Cuil are ex-Google employees but remember ther early days of Google search results? I do - they were crap!

I’ve had a look at Cuil and all I can say right now is that it’s ‘ok’ - not great but I’m sure that a little more time and money may just make this a real competitor for the Goog!

As a search technology, the Cuil results don’t really match up to Google or even Yahoo in some respects - there’s no image search for a start and I REALLY like pictures, so much easier than reading! However, Cuil do state that they have indexed over 120 billion web pages which leaves Google trailing on a paltry 40 billion. I’ve done some testing here and I would like to know where those pages are coming from as I searched for a couple of well known sites that have a high number of inbound links using a specific anchor text….err, nothing! I’m not suggesting that the Cuil front page is lying but I’d expect to see at least a couple of hits for the searches I entered.

Ok, so Cuil could eventually knock Google of the search top spot but they some serious cash injections if they are to catch up in other areas i.e GMail, Google Apps, YouTube, Knol…. the list goes on.

All interesting news, I’ll leave you with a well thought out and deliverd quote echoed by many of the search engine users community, “…it’s crap.”

Popularity: 32% [?]

Oh dear!

There was huge amount of hype around the iPhone 3G launch but it seems that activation issues and supply problems are leaving users rather pissed off annoyed. Many buyers queued for hours around the world to buy their shiny new iPhone only to find they couldn’t activate it at the point of sale - now that sucks!

So, the blame lies at Apple’s feet. Well, apparently not. The telcos balme Apple and vice versa - I bet all the new iPhone owners are sooo happy that nobody has a clue what’s going on.

The iPhone was made available in 21 countries simultaneously but stock shortages caused a few raised hackles. In Regent Street, London police were called after the store stopped selling to customers not already in the queue!

Look, I know this is a ‘must have’ item for many people but, calling the police…

Popularity: 41% [?]

Dubbed a “burglars charter”.

Some of you may already know this, but Google has sent cars around the UK to take close-up pictures of houses, road, hospitals and everything inbetween. This mammoth task is being carried out to allow Googles Streetview website to show a 360 degree picture of every UK address of postcode.

There’s one small problem - data protection. People can still be easily identified leaving, say, a sex shop! The Information Commissioners office is so concerneed that they have written a letter to Google  demanding privacy guarantees. Hmm, I wonder if that’s like the strongly worded government letters we hear so much about? I can just see Mr. Horrendous Despot wiping his arse on the letter as we speak (I am in no way suggesting that Google is despotic!)

In addition, checking out access points and weak spots becomes far easier for Mr B. Urglar - I wonder, could you sue Google if it was proven that a burglar used the Streetview service to break into your home? Now there’s something for the Goog to think about.

Popularity: 53% [?]

It ain’t over until…

…Icahn says “It’s over”! I know, we all thought the Yahoo thing was pretty much dead and buried. Guess again. It now looks like billionaire investor Carl Icahn might just get oust the current board members.

Investore Gordon Crawford looks like he may side with Icahn and back proposals to sweep away the current board of directors. So what? Well, this will leave Icahn in a position to review the Microsoft acquistion offer (Icahn believes Yang and co. should have accepted the MS bid).

And right on cue, up pops the Microsoft who have apparently suggested they are willing to talk to Yahoo!

Yawn!

Popularity: 43% [?]

So called ‘fix’ stuffs web connection!

You really can’t deny that Microsoft are keen to ensure their products are secure, hence ‘Patch Tuesday’. That said, maybe they should do just a little more testing before they release.

The issue we’re relating here’s stems from the release of MS08-037 which addressed four vulnerabilities in the Windows DNS service. Basically, the ZA prevented users from accessing the internet as the number of random UDP ports that DNS uses was increased…can you see where we’re going?

Zone Labs became aware of the issue yesterday when Windows users started to download and install the patch.  Zone Labs recommend users remove the patch until a work around is found - so much for being a ’security patch’.

Popularity: 50% [?]

Now, as you may or may not know Hans Reiser, the founder of ReiserFS (Linux file system) was found guilty of his of his wifes murder. Reiser and his wife, Nina, had been going through a bitter divorce battle when she disappeared in 2006.

According to the San Francisco Chronical, police believe that Reiser has lead them to her remains in the hills of Oklahoma, California. As yet the remains have not been formally identified.

Reiser is currently being held, without bail, pending his sentencing on Wednesday.

Popularity: 36% [?]

8,002,530 is the number to beat.

That’s right, FF 3 was downloaded over 8 million times in the first 24 hours of availability following a campaign to mobilise the Open Source community.

“As the arbiter and recorder of the world’s amazing facts, Guinness World Records is pleased to add Mozilla’s achievement to our archives,” Gareth Deaves, records manager at Guinness Worlds Records, said in a statement.

On the day the record was FireFox also notched up 6% of market share; its highest figure so far. Now that’s pretty impressive regardless of how you look at it. Well done, keep up the good work

Popularity: 39% [?]