Roy Mark

Not only is the decade going to end on a blue moon-the second appearance of a full moon in a calendar month-but also a partial eclipse of the moon, at least for sky watchers in Europe, Africa and Asia. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is partially darkened by the Earth’s shadow.Most months, […]

If it sounds like a bad movie script, it once was.According to David Adam, writing for Guardian.co.uk, Anatoly Perminov, Russia’s space agency chief, told a radio station Dec. 30 that Russia is considering mounting a space mission to divert the asteroid Apophis from a possible collision with the Earth. Perminov said NASA, the European Space […]

NASA engineers and scientists said Dec. 29 the recently launched WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) has successfully dropped its protective lens cover and opened its eyes to the starry sky. NASA is now busy adjusting the rate of the spacecraft to match the rate of a scanning mirror.WISE launched on Dec. 14 from Vandenberg Air […]

Nokia escalated its legal battle with Apple Dec. 29, filing a complaint with the International Trade Commission claiming Apple’s mobile phones, computers and portable music players all infringe on Nokia patents. The ITC complaint follows a Nokia patent infringement lawsuit against Apple earlier this year and Apple’s counter-lawsuit claiming Nokia is infringing on its patents.In […]

Notorious hacker Albert Gonzalez pleaded guilty Dec. 29 to conspiracy to hack into the computer networks of credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems, nationwide convenience store chain 7-Eleven and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers. The hacks netted Gonzalez access to data from tens of millions of credit and debit cards.Gonzalez previously pleaded guilty Sept. 11 to […]

A New Jersey county superior court judge has ordered takedown notices for three anti-H-1B Websites as part of a libel lawsuit by IT consulting company Apex Technology Group. The sites targeted by Judge James Hurley are ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com and Guestworkerfraud.com. The judge also ordered Facebook to disable ITgrunt’s Facebook page.According to a story in Computerworld, […]

DRAM makers expect to increase capital expenditures 80 percent in 2010 over 2009 totals, raising spending to $7.8 billion from $4.3 billion, according to market analyst company DRAMexchange. Dynamic RAM chips are the most common type of computer memory.While this is a promising sign of economic recovery for DRAM makers, DRAMexchange noted in a Dec. […]

Two consumer groups on Dec. 28 asked the Federal Trade Commission to block Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMob on the grounds that the $750 million deal is anti-competitive and raises privacy concerns. Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy contended in a joint letter to the FTC that “Google is simply buying its way […]

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn wasted little time in dismissing Verizon Wireless’ defense of its increased early termination fees for smartphones. In a Dec. 23 statement, Clyburn lashed out publicly at Verizon’s Nov. 5 decision to double the penalty fees to $350 for smartphone subscribers who end their subscriptions early. In response to a Federal Communications […]

Despite an early slump in U.S. employer demand for H-1B visas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Dec. 22 it had reached the 65,000 cap for the controversial guest worker visas favored by technology companies. H-1B visas allow companies to hire foreign workers with special skills to work in the United States for three […]

Microsoft said Dec. 22 it is moving quickly to comply with an injunction barring the world largest software maker from selling copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007. At the same time, Microsoft is considering all of its legal options following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling upholding a $290 million […]

While not admitting to any wrongdoing, Comcast has preliminarily agreed to pay $16 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claims the cable giant blocked or throttled peer-to-peer traffic to its customers. The maximum payout to members of the class action suit is set at $16. The proposed settlement stems from a November 2007 […]