Report: Canada Lagging Behind In Innovation

A report released Wednesday suggests that Canada is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to business innovation. Robert Brown, the chair of a panel assembled by the Council of Canadian Academies, and an author of the report said "Too few Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs choose strategies that emphasize innovation,"

When compared to other countries, the report found that Canadian businesses are relying on outdated business models, are slow to incorporate new technology, follow the lead of other countries and don't get the same payoff from research spending. Innovation is defined by the report as "... new or better ways of doing valued things. An 'invention' is not an innovation until it has been implemented to a meaningful extent,"

Source: CBC

Swine Flu Spam Carries Malicious Payload

Symantec Security Response is reporting of a document entitled "Swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf" which is showing up in e-mail in-boxes and being used to drop malware on computers when opened. The file, known now as Bloodhound.Exploit.6, utilizes an old Adobe vulnerability to drop a malicious "infostealer" file on the user's computer. "We see so many of those and all they're doing is they're trying to steal your personal information, like you're credit card number, your online bank credentials," Marc Fossi, manager of security response at Symantec, said Wednesday. The best defense of course is to avoid opening e-mail attachments and to keep your software patch levels up.

Source: CBC

Keeping An Eye On Swine Flu

Swine Flu, the mysterious outbreak that has killed in Mexico and is spreading globally is top of mind for a lot of people and is definitely all over the media. If you're looking for a graphical representation of the outbreaks check out The New York Times "Tracking Swine Flu Cases Worldwide" and Google Flu Trends. I expected to see a lot more activity on Flu Trends but perhaps it takes some time to affect change on the site, we'll see.

Scene Of The Crime... Twitter

An Oklahoma City man, Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested earlier this month by the FBI for allegedly issuing death threats on April 11th. The threats were in the form of tweets on his Twitter account (http://twitter.com/CitizenQuasar) which is still active, particularly disturbing are the posts of April 11 and 12. “The WAR wWIL start on the stepes of the Oklahoma State Capitol. I will cast the first sotne. In the meantime, I await the police.” and "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!" There is also a direct threat to police which I'll refrain from posting...

Source: Globe and Mail

G.E. Breakthrough - 100 DVDs On A Single Disc

General Electric is said to have created a technology in it's labs that enables the company to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs on a standard-sized disc. “This could be the next generation of low-cost storage,” says Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering, a technology research firm. G.E.'s work is in the field of holographic storage, making use of an optical process that stores not only three-dimensional images but the 1’s and 0’s of digital data like traditional storage devices. According to the New York Times "Holographic storage has the potential to pack data far more densely than conventional optical technology, used in DVDs and the newer, high-capacity Blu-ray discs, in which information is stored as a pattern of laser-etched marks across the surface of a disc. The potential of holographic technology has long been known. The first research papers were published in the early 1960s." If G.E. is able to mass produce the technology it will be a big leap forward for low-cost storage.

Mystify Your Friends And Win Free Beer

Wired contributor Chris Lesinski shows us a great bar trick that could amaze your friends and win you beers or win you friends and amaze your beers... whatever!