Hackers unveil satellite network plans

Hackers have announced work on a ground station scheme that would make amateur satellites more viable, as part of an aerospace scheme that ultimately aims for the moon, reports ZDNet.

The Hackerspace Global Grid (HGG) project hopes to make it possible for amateurs to more accurately track the home-brewed satellites. As these devices tend to be launched by balloon, they are not placed at a precise point in orbit as professional satellites deployed by rocket usually are.

Armin Bauer, one of the three German hobbyists involved in the HGG, said at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, that the system involved a reversal of the standard GPS technique.

Wikipedia has raised $200 million in its annual plea for donations to help expand and improve the Internet's leading encyclopaedia, states Yahoo.

More than a million people throughout the world contributed the money during a 46-day fundraising drive, which ended on Sunday. The amount pledged to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit group that oversees the volunteer-driven Wikipedia, is a third more than the $15 million donated during the previous year's fundraising campaign.

The year-end financial push accounts for most of Wikipedia's revenue. The foundation also gets money from grants and other donations spread throughout the year.

Microsoft said its campaign to drive Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) into extinction had done its job in the US, where less than 1% of users ran the decade-old browser last month, according to Computerworld.

To celebrate, Microsoft posted a photograph of a cake frosted with the phrase: "Goodbye IE6!"

"IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we've been as eager as anyone to see it go away," said Roger Capriotti, head of IE marketing at the Redmond, Washington. developer, in a blog.

Despite steep holiday discounts, Research In Motion (RIM) continues to grapple with its unsold PlayBook inventory, which weighs heavy on the company as it heads into the New Year, reports All Things D.

RIM is taking increasingly desperate measures to unload its stock. From now until 4 February, or whenever inventory runs out, RIM is selling all models of its PlayBooks for $299.

The 16GB unit's price has dropped as low as $199 at some outlets, while the 64GB version, which debuted at $699.99, is currently selling on Amazon for around $370.