Articles by Katherine Noyes

Electronic Arts (EA) and Endemol announced Monday that they are partnering on Virtual Me, a new avatar-based offering in digital entertainment that is expected to span the worlds of TV and video games The technology combines cutting-edge avatar creation technology from EA with popular TV formats from Endemol to give consumers a way to meet, compete...

Following Google's announcement Friday that it is acquiring online advertising company DoubleClick, its Internet and media rivals began urging regulators to scrutinize the US$3.1 billion deal Microsoft, itself no stranger to competitive complaints both in the United States and abroad, issued a statement featuring the comments of Brad Smith, its sen...

A new collaborative project between the U.S. military and the communications industry promises to give new meaning to the term "satellite communications" by sending an Internet router into space The Internet Router in Space (IRIS) project, which is being worked on jointly by the Department of Defense, satellite provider Intelsat General and network...

The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, but the 63-34 vote in favor of the bill fell short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override an expected presidential veto The House passed similar legislation earlier this year and is expected to adopt the Senate's version....

A scientist studying a large, gaseous planet located 150 light-years from Earth has found strong evidence that there is water vapor in the planet's atmosphere Previous analyses of the transiting planet, which resembles Jupiter and is known as "HD209458b," had not found evidence of water. However, Travis Barman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, ...

Although a federal judge dismissed its lawsuit last Thursday, Sun Microsystems now says it will refile the suit against Hynix Semiconductor and other makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips for what it says was illegal price-fixing Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed Sun's complaint because she said she needed more information on the DRAM ...

Environmentalists were jubilant last week when the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could regulate automobile emissions, and now a trial beginning Tuesday in Vermont could carry that momentum even further Vermont is one of 10 other states that have chosen to follow California's strict emissions regulations, and for...

Drought trends that have affected the American Southwest in recent years are likely to get worse in upcoming decades, according to a new study from Columbia University Using projections from 19 different climate models, the study's authors found that there is widespread agreement that southwestern North America and the subtropics in general will ge...

Part 1 of this three-part series focused on the Internet's rise in importance on political campaigns, especially fund-raising. The second part looked at how online campaigns are building on the fund-raising theme and making the sites more interactive. This third part focuses on the increased use of social networking and online games to expand candidates' political presence...

Two of the retail industry's largest trade associations have joined forces with the FBI to develop a network dedicated to fighting organized retail crime The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, known as LERPnet and due to launch on April 9, is a secure, national database that will allow retailers to share information on organized retail cri...

Part 1 of this three-part series focused on the Internet's rise in importance on political campaigns, especially fund-raising. This part looks at how online campaigns are building on the fund-raising theme and making the sites more interactive The Home Front...

The FBI is reportedly investigating the legal issues associated with virtual casinos in Linden Lab's "Second Life" online world In "Second Life," millions of registered users can create their own avatars, or personas, in an online world with its own economy. The virtual world also has its own currency, known as Linden dollars, that can be exchanged...

When Phil de Vellis, creator of the "Hillary 1984" mashup video, wrote that "the game has changed," he summed up in four words the virtually earth-shaking revolution that is now changing the nature of the political campaign. Candidates in the 2008 presidential election face a landscape unlike any other in political history, and it's all because of Web 2.0

British UFO enthusiast Gary McKinnon, who hacked into U.S. military computers in 2001 and 2002, lost his extradition appeal Tuesday in London's High Court McKinnon is accused of hacking into 97 U.S. military and NASA computers in the hopes of finding secret data on UFOs. He was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia...

Today, most corporate CEOs come up through the ranks from eithersales or operations. Fast forward a few years, though, and IT leadership may be a third route to the helm A number of trends in recent years indicate that the role is evolving, Martha Heller, managing director of the IT leadership practice at executive recruiter Z Resource Group, told ...

After coming under fire last week for replacing aerial photos of Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans on Google Earth with earlier pictures of the city in its pre-hurricane splendor, Google on Sunday switched photos once again to reveal the city more accurately in its current state Last week's media coverage even sparked a letter from Rep. Brad Mi...

It always pays to be suspicious when unsolicited e-mails arrive, and on Friday new evidence underscored the point: A malicious e-mail purportedly from Microsoft actually serves up a worm dubbed "Grum." The e-mail, which claims to come from admin@microsoft.com and reads "Internet Explorer 7 Downloads" in the subject line, displays an image that invi...

Intel on Wednesday laid out its road map for the next year or so, including details about Penryn, its 45nm chip due later this year, as well as the next generation beyond that The company will begin producing its Penryn chip in the second half of this year, officials said, featuring enhancements to the Intel Core microarchitecture as well as 45nm p...

After ranking first in 2006, the United States has fallen to seventh place this year among 122 economies in its network readiness, or ability to leverage the opportunities of IT, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum In its evaluation of each country's ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by technolo...

AT&T brought its customers one step closer to the promise of mobile banking Tuesday when it announced partnerships with BancorpSouth and a number of other banks to offer banking capabilities to wireless users Customers of the participating banks who subscribe to AT&T's wireless service can download a mobile banking application directly to their cel...