by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

The next space tourist to visit the International Space Station with Russian astronauts will be the son of an astronaut, and not a Russian politician, as was rumoured earlier.

Video game developer Richard Garriott, who made his name as one of the makers of the Ultima series, will board a Russian Soyuz rocket in Oct. 2008, becoming the first American to follow in his father's footsteps on a journey to space, the Associated Press reports.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

Yahoo is closing its podcasting directory and listening service at the end of October, just over two years after it first launched.

As Techcrunch notes, it's just the latest peripheral project of Yahoo's to bite the dust since the company underwent a management shake-up earlier this month, joining the likes of Yahoo Photos, Yahoo Auctions, music playlist project WebJay and Yahoo Bill Pay (slated for Sept./Oct. shutdown).

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

The first U.S. lawsuit over a violation of a public license that governs open-source software appears to be heading towards a quick out-of-court settlement, according to the latest reports.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

It sounds like the perfect job: A full-time permanent position with a salary range of between $59,000 and $130,000 US. Sure, the want ad says "frequent travel may be required", but what do you expect for the title of "Astronaut Candidate."

By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

It's been a tough week for telecommunications companies on both sides of the border, but a good one for class-action lawsuits. First, a Saskatchewan court gave the thumbs up to a class-action lawsuit by lawyer Tony Merchant against Canada's cellphone companies. Merchant is seeking the return of up to $20 billion that he says has been unfairly charged by the providers through their monthly system access fee. The providers have been falsely identifying the fee as a government-mandated charge, he says. The providers plan to appeal the ruling.

Down in the United States, antitrust lawyer Maxwell M. Blecher has filed a lawsuit against television providers for forcing customers to take packages of channels that include individual channels they neither watch or want. Blecher says forcing consumers to take channels they don't want inflates their monthly bill, so he wants television providers to offer them "a la carte." Consumers should be able to pick and choose they channels they want, he says.

by Jesse Brown, CBC Radio

In an interview with CBC Radio One program Search Engine, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day suggested Thursday that the controversial wording in the “lawful access” document, which was leaked to the media last week, had originated with the Liberal Party.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

Back in June, people with their wedding, vacation and baby pictures stored on Yahoo Photos got a little notification telling them the end was near. Yahoo was shutting down the site in favour of its new acquisition Flickr, and the deadline date to get your photos off was Sept. 20, which is today.

But fear not. Yahoo has extended the deadline to Oct. 18. As the company writes: "Yahoo! Photos is closing on October 18, 2007 so we are no longer accepting new accounts or allowing users to upload photos if you don't already have photos in your account. We've decided to focus all our efforts on Flickr - the award-winning photo sharing community that has been called "completely addictive".

The company lets people with existing accounts on Yahoo transfer their files to Flickr before they go kaput. What you do with your photos after the 18th is up to you. But here are some ideas.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore said the rapid doubling of computer power the technology industry has taken for granted is coming to an end in the next 10 to 15 years.

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum this week, the retired computer chip pioneer said the principle commonly known as Moore's Law is coming up against the laws of physics.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

A dozen people in a Peruvian village near the border with Bolivia have fallen mysteriously ill after a suspected meteorite crashed nearby, according to reports from AFP and Peru's Andina News Agency (in Spanish and translated to English here).

by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

In a refreshing change, a web start-up - SpiralFrog.com - has actually come out of beta testing and gone into full-fledged operation. SpiralFrog is yet another iTunes challenger, of which there seems to be a new one every week, and its special twist is that it is offering legal music downloads for free. Wait a minute... did they say legal music downloads for free? What's the catch?

by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

Who'd have thought a few years ago, when Nintendo was getting whooped in video games by rivals Microsoft and Sony, that the venerable Japanese company would now be the one laughing? According to the Financial Times, Nintendo's Wii has officially surpassed the Xbox 360 in sales, despite Microsoft's console having a year headstart. Sony's PlayStation 3, by the way, is a distant third.

The Wii, which launched in November last year and is built around simple games that use its motion-sensing controller, has sold approximately 9 million units worldwide as of the end of July. The 360, which launched in November of 2005 and is built around high-end graphics and online gameplay, has sold 8.9 million units, according to the FT. The PS3, which was released at the same time as the Wii and features the most advanced technology not to mention a Blu-ray DVD player, has sold only 3.7 million. It's a remarkable turnaround for a company that finished last in the last round of video game console wars, where the Nintendo Gamecube sold less than the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2.

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

Well, that didn't take long. Less than a day after IT consultant Capgemini said it would recommend Google Apps Premiere Edition (GAPE) for its business clients, a Microsoft email surfaces offering a top 10 "questions that enterprises should ask when considering the switch to GAPE."

Blogger Mary Jo Foley posted the list after receiving it via an emailed statement, attributable to a “corporate spokesperson, she writes. The list is here.

One criticism in particular stands out, in question No. 2:

"Google has a history of releasing incomplete products, calling them beta software, and issuing updates on a 'known only to Google' schedule – this flies in the face of what enterprises want and need in their technology partners – what is Google doing that indicates they are in lock step with customer needs?"

Say, isn't it patch Tuesday today?

by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

Back when the internet was first taking off in the mid-nineties, one of its first uses - for male teen- and university-aged students, anyhow - was the seeking out of pictures of their favourite female celebrities in, shall we say, a semi-dressed state. A pretty hot trend at the time was the use of Photoshop to cut and paste a celebrity's head, say Teri Hatcher (now on Desperate Housewives, at the time a hot commodity on Lois & Clark) onto a significantly less-clothed model, resulting in what was known as the "fake nude." At the time, many of us wondered when technology would evolve to make the fake nude possible in videos.

by Jesse Brown, CBC Radio

Ever hear the story of the regular Joe who built one of the world’s most influential political fan pages and then lost it to the candidate he idolized?

by Robin Rowland, CBCNews.ca

Sony had a little surprise Thursday, Sept. 6, when it introduced its Alpha 700 digital single lens reflex camera — a line of High Definition television sets to go along with the new camera.

What's the connection?

by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca

For most computer users, spam is recognized and deleted from the inbox almost as quickly as it arrives, but for reasons that continue to escape the general population, spam seems to always be on the rise.

That's why the latest reports from computer security firms include an odd, and possibly encouraging fact: After a brief spike in .pdf spam, the tactic appears to have gone away.

by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

Have you ever played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? You know, that game where you try to link one actor with Kevin Bacon in no more than six moves? For example, let's take Jackie Chan. He was in Rush Hour with Chris Tucker, who was in Friday with Ice Cube, who was in Three Kings with George Clooney, who was in Ocean's Eleven with Julia Roberts, who was in Flatliners with… Kevin Bacon. Well, the game is not just for movies anymore – it can be easily applied to how one technology company can affect another.

by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has initiated a public consultation on the future of the internet economy. On its web site, the OECD is asking any and all interested parties for their input on what should be the future of the internet and how it should be governed in advance of a ministerial meeting on the subject in Seoul, South Korea, in June next year. The OECD is especially looking for comments from civil society groups, representatives of the internet technical community, individual experts and businesses, but comments from every-day folk are welcome as well.