From darkness comes awareness

Earth Hour illuminates the fight against climate change, writes Megan Johnston.

Computer geek uncovers British climate-data errors

LONDON: The British Meteorological Office has been forced to correct its global temperature records after a science blogger discovered that Australian weather data had been misused or discarded.

No reform for political funding

THE Rudd Government has abandoned its promise of a new, cleaner system of political funding before the next election, prompting Opposition claims it has caved in to union pressure.

How blogging can be a public service

Who is Julie Hempenstall? She lives in Bendigo and she likes reading Australia's historic newspapers. The National Library has hoisted its collection on the net and had them digitised by computers. I can see what keeps her there.

Shock around the jock - disease is the defence du jour

Now the swelling's gone down on Tiger Woods's dented head, the campaign to rehabilitate his dented image has begun with news he may seek rehabilitation for sex addiction. Meanwhile, talkback radio listeners have the fate of Chris Smith, 2GB's former afternoon announcer, to ponder. The disease excuse is the defence strategy du jour for wayward celebrities and anyone else busted behaving badly. This is not to say it's rubbish. But its claimants might do well to think about the conditions that apply.

Letters to the Editor

Chocolate support

Film of the week

Rating: 2.5/5 CALL + RESPONSE (M, 89 minutes). On general release

With a purr, not a roar

Apple's big cat triumphs by stealth, writes Garry Barker.

letterbox

iTunes is currently king of most of our digital media collections, mostly because it interacts with the ubiquitous iPod. However, alternatives do exist. Songbird is an open-source media player with the useful ability to extend its functionality through plugins. The most useful plugins include iPod support (which means you can sync and play without iTunes) and LyricMaster, which hunts down the lyrics for your music. Another is Last.fm Album Art, which collects art for your songs and adds it to the MP3 files.

Tried and tested

HTC Magic Price from $99 a month Rating 4/5 The Magic is HTC's second smartphone based on the Google Android mobile operating system. The first arrived in Australia as the Dream in February. Known elsewhere as the G1, it featured a full qwerty keyboard underneath a slide-out screen. It was a real geek gadget. Aesthetically challenged, bulky, clunky to use but full-featured and very functional.

Open Prizemoney Lifted To $23m, Thanks To Weak Dollar

THE sagging exchange rate has prompted Tennis Australia to raise the prizemoney for the four singles finalists at this month's Australian Open - to $2 million for each winner and $1 million for each runner-up. This lifts the overall purse by $1.14 million despite the harsh economic times.

Open Source Opening Minds, Cutting Costs

Linux users are eager to help newcomers, writes Leigh Tonkin.