MP resigns to fight 'database state'

Google and Yahoo have confirmed a non-exclusive deal to run Google's search and contextual advertising technology through its AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content advertising programmes on the Yahoo search engine, reports eWeek.

Financial terms of the deal, which has been rumoured since the companies began testing it in April to throw a wrench into Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo, were not disclosed.

The agreement, coming only hours after Yahoo's negotiations with Microsoft, to sell its search business or do some other deal, were proclaimed dead, includes a four-year initial term and two three-year renewals if Yahoo chooses.

UK shadow home secretary David Davis plans to fight a parliamentary by-election in which he will campaign against the creation of "a database state", reports Computing.co.uk.

The Tory MP is a vocal opponent of the drive to set up a national ID card system and plans to resign his seat to force the election in which he will stand.

Davis is credited with persuading the shadow cabinet to commit to scrapping identity cards. Davis announced his maverick decision - taken without Tory leader David Cameron's support - on the steps of the public entrance to the Commons.

A hacker who hooked up a botnet within Newell Rubbermaid's corporate network was sentenced to 41 months in prison, says ITWorld.

Robert Matthew Bentley, of Panama City, Florida, must also pay $65 000 restitution. He was sentenced in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Bentley could have received a 10-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud for using the botnet to install advertising software on PCs located throughout Europe.

Nasa scientists plan to pre-position robots and robotic rovers on the red planet before the first astronauts arrive. That way, the robots will be ready to help their human counterparts on what will probably be Nasa's most taxing mission yet, says Computerworld.

And while that's years away, Nasa is testing its robotic muscle now. With three robotic arms aboard the International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery returning from the most robotically intense mission yet, Nasa is using this robotic work as a test bed for future missions.

"We're using robots a lot more," said Allard Beutel, a Nasa spokesman. "We keep increasing the complexity of the robotics work we do. This really complex robotics work is becoming commonplace. This mission was entirely dependent on robotics. We couldn't have done this work without them."