Some would say blue, given the amount of sex that can be found on the web. Others might go for black, thinking along the lines of increasing online crime. To many the whole idea of Internet technology is a grey area. But, my friends, thanks to researchers at the Chinese Academy of Science, the University of Leuven in Belgium and Washington State University, the answer could soon become a lot more black and white as they plan to dye the Internet to make it run faster.
No, I have not been on the sherry again, this is a serious technology news story, honest! You see these boffins have been playing around with the electrons of a chromophore, and have discovered a new synthetic form of the organic dye molecule which performs much better than any other ever measured.
Research published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) just before Christmas revealed that UK consumers are being conned to the tune of £3.5 billion every single year. The detailed analysis suggests that nearly half of the adult population of the UK has been targeted by a scam, and as many as one in fifteen, or 3.2 million people, fall victim to such fraud and lose an average of £850 each. Investment scams were most lucrative with an average pay-off of £5,660 per victim, followed by African 419 advance fee fraud on £5000, property investment scams at £4,240, holiday club schemes at £3,030 and foreign lottery scams at £1,900.
The total fraud can be broken down as £1.2 billion to bogus holiday clubs, £490 million in high risk investment fraud, £420 million pyramid style get-rich-quick schemes and £260 million for lottery scams. Frighteningly enough, the survey also revealed that a victim has a 30% chance of being scammed again within a year of the first sting, not least because there is evidence that their personal details are included on a ‘suckers list’ which gets sold between the scammer organizations.
giants Nokia are claiming to have organized the biggest 2006 New Year’s Eve celebration in the world, with more than 2 million people in 5 locations joined by 150 million television and Internet viewers. Fittingly enough, Nokia was delivering on its promise to connect the world through five spectacular events that combined to make this the most technologically advanced New Year yet.
Five capital cities, which could also be said to be party capitals of the world, played their part in the celebrations: Hong Kong, Mumbai, Berlin, Rio and New York in that order. Things kicked off at Hong Kong's Ocean Terminal when Atomic Kitten played their first international gig since officially splitting in 2004, including such hits as Whole Again and The Tide Is High. Local mobile operators ensured that despite the challenges created by the recent earthquake in Taiwan, Hong Kong music fans could stream the live concert footage to their cellphones. Going west, Mumbai was next on the party list with another star-studded concert taking place at the Andheri Stadium and featuring Nelly Furtado as well as Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman with Bollywood legends Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor and Koena Mitra. Furtado wooed the crowd by singing two Hindi ballads, Kabhi Kabhi and Yeh Sama, alongside her usual repertoire. Rahman, the "Mozart from Madras", performed his mega-hit Humma Humma as the bells rang out at midnight.