If you’ve tried to give up smoking but don’t have the willpower or are too embarrassed to seek help, Dutch researchers may have the answer.

They are developing a virtual coach to provide smokers with round-the-clock reinforcement to help them kick the habit.

Source: Reuters

Jason Tomczak, who is mentioned as the lead to the iPod Nano ‘Scratch’ Class Action law suit filed against Apple computers has published an open letter to the mac community. In it he claims that he never asked to be represented by David P. Meyer & Associates or Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, the lawyers in the case. He spoke to them once by phone about his scratched iPod case and asked that his name not be used.

Source: Slashdot

Retailer Toys “R” Us Inc. said on Wednesday that it intends to relaunch its Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com Web sites with new appearances in July.

The launch comes after Toys “R” Us said in March that its online arm prevailed in a lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc., severing a deal between the two and allowing Toysrus.com to run an independent retail Web site.

Toys “R” Us said the transition of Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com to the new platform is expected to occur on July 1, and the relaunched sites will have a different look.

Source: Reuters

Google Inc. said Wednesday that it has agreed to shut down some communities on its popular Orkut social networking site because the Brazilian government says they advocate violence and human rights violations.

Google agreed to shut down any sites that violate Orkut’s terms of service, which forbid “any illegal or unauthorized purpose,” after the company met Tuesday with a Brazilian human rights commission, which presented evidence that Brazilians have been using the invitation-only networking site to promote crimes and violence.

Source: AP

The ongoing patent dispute between TiVo Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. flared up again this week as TiVo filed an injunction seeking to ban EchoStar from making or selling its digital video recorder product.

Source: AP

Nokia plans Wednesday to release the source code for its S60 WebKit, the engine for its S60 mobile phone Web browser, to the open source development community. In doing so, Nokia is trying to unify mobile browser developers on a common platform.

Source: InformatioWeek

At E3, the world listened to Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates single out GarageGames’ Marble Blast Ultra as his six-year-old son’s favorite game. On June 5th, 2006, GarageGames will again stand out from the crowd as they launch the B.I.G. (Break Into Games) Competition - the nation’s most exhaustive search to showcase America’s greatest independent videogame developers. Culminating with a light-hearted American Idol style finale, the entrants and winners will vie for prizes including professional gaming hardware and coveted publishing deals with GarageGames and its partners.

All B.I.G. entrants will be given the opportunity to build their game prototypes with a free trial version of the new Torque Game Builder (TGB) from GarageGames, which will empower them to build amazing games from scratch and compete for top prizes and recognition. Said GarageGames President Mark Frohnmayer, “We’ve seen compelling games prototypes created with TGB in one to two weeks.”
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Honda scientists have created a system that will translate thoughts into electrical signals that can be used to control machinery. The technique doesn’t require the user to undergo surgery or extensive training - a major advance over past thought-controlled technologies, the company said.

Source: TheRegister

Microsoft Corp. launched on Tuesday a new version of its Windows Live Local online mapping service with real-time traffic reports and features to make it easier to share maps and information.

The company also plans to expand its mapping service with the release of a test version in the U.K. and a limited offering in Canada. It pledged to add new markets in the coming months.

Source: Reuters

Use Microsoft Word in safe mode to protect against targeted zero-day attacks.

That’s the advice from Microsoft’s security response team to counter known attacks against a serious code execution vulnerability in the widely used word processing program.

In the absence of a patch, independent security researcher Matthew Murphy has released a registry script fix that sets a Software Restriction Policy that runs any instance of ‘winword.exe’ with the ‘Basic User’ policy.

Source: eWeek

Apple is teaming up with Nike to cross-promote sneakers and iPods. The footwear and earwear giants are soon launching a new line of iPod-compatible sneakers, plus a wireless pedometer-cum-connection-kit that pumps exercise feedback into runners’ ears. “Faster, fat ass!”

Source: Wired