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Sex offenders surface on MySpaceOCTOBER 20, 2006HUNDREDS of convicted sex offenders have been discovered using the popular internet website MySpace following an investigation by a US technology magazine, it emerged. Former computer hacker Kevin Poulsen, a senior editor for Wired, made the discovery after developing a programme that cross-referenced people using the phenomenally successful site with registers of sex offenders. Inputting the names of nearly 386,000 sex offenders from 46 states across the US, Mr Poulsen found thousands of possible matches. Mr Poulsen, who achieved notoriety in the early 1990s for a string of audacious hacks that ultimately earned him jail time, sifted through 7,000 names before discovering 744 sex offenders with profiles on the site. Wired's investigation led to the arrest of 39-year-old Andrew Lubrano, a New Yorker now facing his fourth arrest for a sex crime. Mr Poulsen told AFP the investigation highlighted the flaws in existing security procedures at MySpace, which has an estimated 100 million users. "MySpace have done a lot in terms of security to stop predation. But this clearly shows that they could be doing more," he told AFP. "Lubrano sent messages to one 14-year-old boy where he addressed him as 'Sextoy'. It seems like they should be able to come up with a technological solution where they could spot behaviour like that." Mr Lubrano was arrested by undercover police officers and eventually charged with the misdemeanour offence of attempting to endanger the welfare of a child. A statement from MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said the website was working to develop software that would identify sex offenders. "We are committed to keeping sex offenders off MySpace and are evaluating all functional and scalable solutions," the statement said. "In the meantime, we will delete profiles of any convicted sex offender we find on MySpace." Reuters YouTube erases 29,000 clipsOCTOBER 23, 2006GOOGLE's YouTube.com removed 29,549 video files from its popular website after receiving a demand from a group of Japanese media companies over copyright infringement, an industry group said. The television, music and movie clips had been posted without the permission of copyright holders, the Tokyo-based Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers said in a statement. The group, which represents 23 media companies including TV networks and movie distributors, said it would ask YouTube to set up screening and other measures to block postings of unauthorised files. It also called on internet users not to post video clips in violation of copyright laws. YouTube, which serves more than 100 million videos a day on its free website, has drawn complaints from some copyright owners, as the site says it can't track which videos are pirated. YouTube officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Reuters Dell loses PC crownOCTOBER 20, 2006HEWLETT-PACKARD has nudged Dell out as the leading seller of personal computers worldwide for the first time in nearly three years as growth in the overall market slowed, market research surveys showed. A recent survey released by Gartner said that HP took 16.3 percent of the global market in the third quarter with 9.65 million units shipped. Dell meanwhile saw its market share slip to 16.1 percent with 9.54 million units. A separate report by IDC showed the two companies nearly even with 17.3 percent of the global market, but HP marginally ahead in the number of units shipped. Both surveys showed the overall market losing steam and growth fell from a double-digit level. Gartner said the global market saw a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year with the US market down 2.0 percent - the first decline since 2002. The IDC report showed 7.9 percent growth in the global market and a 0.7 percent decline in the US market. Analysts said HP took advantage of changing market conditions that hurt Dell. "HP continues to take better advantage of the faster growth segments such as the consumer market. The company's share trajectory reflects its improvements in operational execution and changes in marketing," Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said. "Dell felt the effects of the weak sales in the US market, and it gave up some ground." "This quarter's results show a similar volatility to last quarter, with strong international sales and growth in portables reflecting continued demand while we saw weak results for Dell and the US market overall," Loren Loverde at IDC said. "Dell has had some negative publicity recently regarding its battery recall but it is hard to attribute the third-quarter results to bad publicity alone. Dell will likely be very aggressive in the fourth quarter, and we will see how similar battery recalls affect other vendors. These factors may cut into fourth-quarter growth, but overall we don't see a broad threat to fourth-quarter growth." Reuters 10 Biggest Computer Flops of all timeOver the years, computers have changed the way we live today! In order to get us there, many hardware and software companies have pushed the envelope to create what we use today. Although we currently live in an age of amazing hardware and software achievements, these products did not come at no cost.Click to View DIGG Photo Collection Of Funny Town Names" warning: may be offensive to some... 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