Intel unveils chip technology

Intel on Monday is providing the first details of a chip technology that is designed to help break into new markets, starting with high-end graphics used for computer games and animation, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The company says the technology, code-named Larrabee, will be the basis for a series of chips that have far more than the two to four electronic brains found on its current microprocessors.

Intel isn't being specific, but industry executives expect initial Larrabee models to have 12 to 48 calculating engines.

Cuil - still pronounced "Cool" - has apologised for serving up random adult content graphics in response to searches for a Grenoble-based quantum computing researcher," says The Register.

The search engine blames the incident on "a serious corruption of [its] files". In a personal e-mail to said researcher, Cuil general counsel Pete Szymanski insists the company's experiment has been retired.

"We very much regret this incident and offer you our sincerest apologies," Szymanski tells loyal Reg reader Jonathan Grattage. "It was indeed a serious corruption in our files that resulted in the inappropriate image being displayed. We understand this may have caused you embarrassment and inconvenience. We have taken down the inappropriate materials and have identified and fixed the issue that caused the problem."

The US Senate has passed a bill to strengthen the hands of federal prosecutors who fight computer crime by removing some of the more common hurdles in prosecuting online miscreants, says The Register.

One provision would eliminate a requirement that prosecutors prove illegal activity has caused at least $5 000 in damage before they can bring charges of unauthorised computer access.

The threshold often proves problematic in pursuing cyber crime because a single incident may spread the damage across hundreds of thousands of victims. Because the harm is so dispersed, it's often hard to meet the burden.

Google has been accused of "hypocrisy" over its stance on personal privacy, reports The BBC.

In court documents defending a lawsuit brought against its Street View mapping tool it has asserted that "complete privacy doesn't exist".

But, points out the US National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), it responded to a Californian politician's concerns about its growth by saying that it "takes privacy very seriously".

The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), may be place by the end of 2008, reports the DailyTech.

The agreement, to which details were being ironed out, would demand investment in large policing organisations to "bust" those who download and share music and movies.

The bill was well received at the G8 meeting, the meeting of the world's largest economic superpowers which takes place each July. 

The new policy allows random warrantless search and seizures at the border.  Under ACTA, border patrol agents will be able to seize peoples' laptops, iPods, and other electronics which they suspect contain illegally-obtained media.  If the border patrol thinks they've found such media on the devices, they are authorized to destroy them at their discretion.