Rockstar, maker of a video game which caused controversy after secret sex scenes were found in it, has issued a fix to disable access to the scenes.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the best-selling game of 2004, were unlocked by a fan who created software called Hot Coffee.

Installing Hot Coffee allowed people to play an explicit “mini game”.

“The Hot Coffee scenes were not intended to be part of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas experience,” read a statement from the Rockstar, the game’s developer.

“If your copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC has been altered by the unauthorised Hot Coffee download circulating on the internet, or you wish to prevent your version from being so altered, download and install the patch for your version of the game.”

Source: BBC

Thanks to the use of the “Report Spam” button, AOL has an unbroken record of success in dozens of lawsuits against some of the nation’s most prolific spammers. Working together with AOL members, AOL forced junk e-mailers to turn over their assets, including cash, gold bars and a 2003 Hummer H2 sport utility vehicle.

To show AOL’s appreciation for helping fight spam, AOL is offering an opportunity to take back these these ill-gotten gains. AOL is having a sweepstakes giving away a spammer’s Hammer and daily hard cash prices.

The AOL‚ Spammer’s Gold Sweepstakes begins at 12:00:01 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on August 10, 2005 and ends 11:59:59 p.m. ET on August 19, 2005

Phishers have added a new lure to their tackle boxes: e-mails that ask people to fax sensitive information to bogus security investigators.

In a new scam, attackers are sending e-mail warnings that appear to come from PayPal, security specialist Sophos said Wednesday. These e-mails say that someone tried to reset the recipient’s password and asks him or her to participate in an investigation.

The e-mails direct people to a Microsoft Word document hosted on a Web site and urges them to download the form, fill it out, and fax it to a toll-free number, Sophos said. The form asks for credit card information.

The new tactic comes as people are becoming more suspicious of e-mails asking them to fill out sensitive information online, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos.

Source: News.com

Opera Software and Answers.com announced a partnership Thursday in which the search engine will be integrated into the Opera browser and portal.

Under the agreement with GuruNet’s Answers.com, Opera will feature Answers.com’s content and services via a co-branded dropdown search toolbar on Opera. The added feature for Opera’s browser and portal comes as the competitive landscape for browsers heats up with such entrants as Firefox.

Source: News.com

Oracle announced general availability of Oracle(R) Cluster File System Release 2 (OCFS 2), an enterprise-class open-source cluster file system that provides customers with a free alternative to expensive proprietary systems. The new release will be included as a standard component in Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server distributions, making it easier for customers to hit the ground running with a pre-installed cluster file management solution.

“Oracle Cluster File System Release 2 delivers significant cluster file management improvements that help our customers reduce IT costs without compromising quality or performance,” said David Patrick, vice president and general manager, Linux, Open Source Platforms and Services at Novell. “Linux adoption in the enterprise continues to increase, thanks to the commitment and technology advancements made by companies like Oracle.”

OCFS 2 includes enhanced functionality that can significantly ease system management while improving performance. It allows all nodes in a cluster to access a file system concurrently, which dramatically simplifies the management of databases shared across a cluster. For Oracle Real Application Clusters customers, Release 2 eliminates the need to manage and set up raw disk devices, making cluster database administration markedly easier. The update also includes expanded capabilities to run non-database, standard file system operations, giving the new release additional value as a general-purpose file management ystem.

Members of OTN may immediately download a developer’s release of the OCFS Release 2 from http://otn.oracle.com . Additionally, OCFS Release 2 will be included in the Linux 2.6 kernel, and will be available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 9. OCFS 2 will also be included with Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 Service Pack 2.

Microsoft says it found a potentially important document in its case against its former executive Kai-Fu Lee and Google in the “recycle bin” of one of Lee’s computers.

According to papers filed with a Washington state court by the software giant, a document that describes terms of an apparent agreement between Google and Lee was “recovered from the ‘Recycle Bin’ of one of Dr. Lee’s computers.”

The document indicates Google foresaw possible litigation in hiring Lee to head its China operations. It could bolster the software titan’s claim that by taking his new job, Lee would be breaking a contract signed with Microsoft, and that Google has been encouraging Lee to violate that contract.

The document Microsoft said it found in Lee’s recycle bin states that should the software maker prevent Lee from working at both Microsoft and Google because of a noncompete clause, Google will place him on a paid leave of absence or give him a consulting job for up to a year.

Source: News.com

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of a toxic silicon bonfire, Transmeta has turned in a profit. The former CPU designer posted record revenue of $24.7m in 2Q 2005, and a net income of $6.8m. Transmeta also deferred $15.5m worth of revenue.

Source: The Register

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) yesterday ruled that Gateway had indeed violated a pair of patents held by HP, and ordered the company not to import PCs containing the disputed technology.

However, the ban does not take effect until February 2006, giving Gateway plenty of time to appeal against the decision - and to hear the effects of its own request that the ITC investigate HP, a number of newswire reports claim.

The long-running dispute between the two PC vendors stretches back to March 2004 when HP sued Gateway, alleging the smaller company had violated six of its patents covering power management, keyboard-password functions and cursor-generation, among other technologies.

Source: The Register