More young women in the US are using online communities than their male counterparts, according to the researchers at the University of Southern California. Online communities include popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Multiply, and MySpace, and online gathering sites which allows users to share their own interests and hobbies. While such online properties are now appealing to more women, the study which involved 2,000 families shows that men are showing signs of “network fatigue” with majority of them saying that online communities are not as important as... 

Seattle: In a landmark event, a federal appellate court on Thursday rejected Microsoft’s petition to review the $290 million ruling after losing from the patent lawsuit involving the company’s popular word processing programs. In a statement, software company i4i (based in Toronto, Canada) which sued the Microsoft in 2007, said the latest court ruling is a proof that their claims are valid, adding that the technology giant should obey the decision. Meanwhile, Microsoft said it is disappointed with the court decision and added it will consider other legal options which may... 

Beijing, China: A journalist group said Friday it has shut down its website after a series of cyber attacks which included hacking several Yahoo email accounts of foreign journalists in the country. In a letter sent through email, The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said that it had temporarily shut down its website after being attacked by hackers for two days. “We are not aware of the motivations behind the attack or those who are responsible for this hacking”, the letter said. However, the journalist group said it has traced the IP address of the hackers in US and... 

A new study by media watchdog Ofcom showed that the number of children, aged 12 years old and below, who have Facebook and other social networking accounts increased in the past couple of years. According to the report, many of these children have ignored the age restrictions by the social networking sites by posing as older persons. The average age restriction for social networking sites is 13 years old. The study also revealed that one out of five (19 percent) children, aged 12 years old below, uses social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. But the most... 

A United States District Court sentenced a 28-year-old computer hacker to 20 years in prison after pleading “guilty” to charges of orchestrating one of the largest credit and debit card data theft in history. US District Judge Patti Saris, in his order, said that Albert Gonzalez will spend 15 to 25 years in prison after he confessed of the crime and reached for an agreement with the government prosecutors. The judge rendered the decision after the convicted hacker asked for an apology to his family and the companies that were affected by his wrong doings. The firms, banks,... 

World’s largest online search engine Google Inc has ended four years of censoring to China’s Internet searches when it finally pulled the plug to the mainland on Monday. But despite the parting of ways with the Chinese government, Google said that it will still maintain other operations in the country. Many of the experts said that the company’s move to maintain operations in China is part of a maneuver that would balance the effect of the removal of the search engine blockade. They added that maintaining balance would help Google to hold ground in the fastest growing... 

Geneva, Switzerland — The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the operator of the world’s largest atom smasher, announced on Friday that they were able to pump up energy production of the machine more than three times than what they have previously achieved.  CERN reported that the Large Hadron Collider was able to produce more than 3.5 trillion electron volts during a run-up experiment, adding that proton beams shooting around the 27km tunnel (shooting at both directions) were much more powerful than it was expected. The tunnel was located under the... 

Japanese videogame guru Shigeru Miyamoto revealed plans for Nintendo Co in participating in educational development of school children by turning the company’s popular handheld consoles as teaching aids. Miyamoto, the man behind the success of Nintendo, said that he is now devoting much of his time and company resources by turning the popular Nintendo DS gaming console into educational aids and teaching tools in schools across the world. “Education is the area where I am devoting much of myself,” Miyamoto said. The Japanese gaming guru cited that Nintendo’s handheld... 

A 20-year-old Texan is now facing charges of felony breach of computer technology after he allegedly disabled the ignition and set off the horns of more than a hundred vehicles over the Internet. Omar Ramos-Lopez, a 20-year-old Texas native, was earlier fired from his job as an auto dealer. Lopez used his home computer to remotely disable the cars, which were all bought from his former workplace. The suspect used the password of his former colleague to elude the investigators, the police added. Texas Auto Center controller Jeremy Norton said that they have installed a GPS device... 

Seattle: Microsoft Bing has gained strength after the number of online consumers using the search engine tool has significantly increased in February, according to a research group. The Nielsen Co. on Tuesday said Bing currently ranks in the third position as the most used search engine tools in US, following its rivals Yahoo Inc. which ranked in the second place and Google Inc. which has dominated the market for the past several years. According to the survey, Bing’s market share has increased to 12.5 percent in February from 10.9 percent in the previous month. In June 2009,...