Thousands of people are having their phones cut off every time it rains because of cost-cutting by the No.1 telco, Telstra; meaning that the lines are no longer waterproof and are sometimes are protected by children’s lunch bags.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt of the faults, which has skyrocketed to more than 5000 problems during last week rains, compared to an average of 1000 during normal conditions.

The problem is so severe that parts of NSW are even referred to as “Baghdad” because the plastic bag patch-up technique is predominant. The situation follows massive job cuts as parts of the controversial cost-cutting program by CEO Sol Trujillo in 2005.

The telco, which posted a $3.3 billion profit last year, has slashed thousands of technician jobs in the past 18 years; causing a massive backlog of work and leaving phone lines unprotected from the weather.

The situation has been so severe that last week, Telstra bosses forced technicians to work double time to clear the backlog. One text message obtained by The Daily Telegraph states that the “Total volume is 5233 & we are currently in contingency mode. All efforts to complete ALL TOW’s (tickets of work - fault reports) will be greatly appreciated.”

In many cases, Technicians are overloaded with an increase of 500% in workload and are forced to do hasty patch-up jobs with tape and plastic bags. They then put in a request for an outside contractor to finish the job, but this often not done in time.

The Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) said Telstra’s cost-cutting was to blame for a massive spike in faults.

“These rising high volumes of faults are caused by Telstra’s ongoing program of retrenching skilled communications technicians and major cutbacks to the maintenance of Telstra’s copper cable network,” assistant secretary Steve Dodd said to Australian IT.

“Hundreds of skilled communication technicians have been made redundant in Sydney over the past 18 months following Telstra’s CEO Sol Trujillo’s announcement in 2005 to reduce its workforce by 12,000.”

The CEPU has warned people to be prepared for a deterioration of services, including lengthy delays.

New research by scientists have found that the subscriber identity module (SIM) card can survive heat up to 450°C and possibly beyond, which could help probes into terror attacks and other crimes. The SIM card is the heart of a mobile phone, as it provide a record of numbers received, dialled and also text messaged.

In an unusual investigation, electronic engineers Benjamin Jones and Tony Kenyon, both from University College London, subjected the SIM cards by burning them. Collecting 12 cards, all recently or currently in use, from members of the public in Britain, Ireland and Sweden.

Using acid, it removed the protective epoxy moulding surrounding the chip to expose the circuitry. Then the cards were placed in heated air for 10 minutes, then were allowed to cool down. The researchers then sought to recover the data by attaching tiny probes to the circuit and reading the contents via an interface pad.

Six were heated to around 180°C and could be read after rewiring with no loss of data

Five were cooked to 450°C, with four could not be read and one could, briefly.

One was cooked to 650°C and could not be read.

They also pointed out that the rewiring technique used is not the last resort for forensic experts, with other hi-tech data-reading methods could be used.

In addition, SIM cards survive much longer in a blaze if they were close to the floor or on a desk.

Their paper appears in the latest issue of Forensic Science International journal.

The first major upgrade since the HTML specifications since 1997, the W3C published an early draft about the new HTML 5 specifications. The new draft sees APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics and control of audio and video content.

HTML 5 intends to boost interoperability and reduce costs on software by providing rules on how HTML documents are written correctly. New features mostly are for new Web applications and integrating video has a first-class medium on the web.

Other capabilities planned for HTML 5 also include the ability for users to edit documents and parts of documents interactively. Also planned are features to represent familiar page elements - including section tags, footers and navigation elements. Client-side storage is another highlight in version 5.

Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple and Opera have been actively been involved in the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group), as their browsers will need to support them. Capabilities offered in the new standard are already offered through Flash and Silverlight.

HTML 5 will be the first version to be implemented under the W3C Royalty-Free Patent Policy, meaning that the standard can be implemented without paying royalties.

HTML 5 is set to become finalized in 2010.

Skype has been forced to turn-off a video-sharing feature in its software because the feature could be misused to launch a self-copying worm against Skype users, security researchers announced on Tuesday.

A bug in the software was reported by Aviv Raff, and stems from that it uses Internet Explorer to render HTML. The video-sharing feature allows users to share videos hosted with Metacafe.com and Dailymotion.com, while chatting with other users.

Raff show how attackers could exploit the bug last week, but said on Tuesday that it was worst then he first thought. The worm can “be triggered by simply visiting a Web site, or clicking on a link from your instant messaging application,” Raff wrote in a blog post, “Which basically means that this vulnerability is now wormable.”

Skype has currently pulled the feature from its client software as a result of a bug. Users who attempted to click on the “videos” button within a chat window were greeted with a message that it was unavailable due to “some security concerns.”

In a statement, Metacafe videos are expected to be back up to Skype users as early as Wednesday morning. The problem is that Skype uses a component of Internet Explorer with inappropriate security settings. It renders pages using IE’s “Local Zone” not “Internet Zone”.

Raff has said that until Skype makes some changes into their software, more of these problems will continue to pop up.

The Bangkok Post, a Thai daily newspaper, is reporting that Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), who owns the Australian telco Optus, is in talks with Apple to gain exclusive rights in the Asia-Pacific region; which could see Australian customers pleased.

Advanced Info Systems (AIS, has been discussing phone volumes, marketing terms and the business model with Apple over the past few months.

Optus spokeswoman Melissa Clare has declined to comment on the report, but a SingTel spokesperson had confirmed that it was in discussions with Apple to launch the iPhone in Singapore.

SingTel has a 21.4 percent stake in AIS, and hold similar or greater interests in Asian operators including Warid Telecom (Pakistan), APT Satellite (Honk Kong), Bharti Group (India), Glove Telecom (The Philippines), New Century Infocomm (Taiwan), Pacific Bangaladesh Telecom and Telkomsel (Indonesia).

SingTel has also operations in Japan, Vietnam, Korea, China and the Middle East.

However, Apple skills in negotiating has taken a beating in the last few weeks with China Mobile ending talks after it couldn’t agree over revenue-sharing terms.

Apple is also have said to be in discussions with NTT DoCoMo and Softbank to launch the iPhone in Japan.

However, even though the Apple iPhone is not officially launched in Australia; enthusiasts have been “unlocking” the phones that have been purchased overseas or from eBay to work on Telstra an Vodafone.

Apple has sold 4 million iPhones globally after it was launched in the US, UK, France and Germany.

CNN (via AP) has said that hundreds of questions were submitted online to al Qaeda’s No.2 leader, showing that its supporters are in the dark about its operations than Western analysts and intelligence agencies.

Among the questions were: Where will it strike next? Does it control small militant groups in the Mideast and Europe? Why hasn’t it hit America again?

The media arm of the terrorist network, Al-Sahab, announced that Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, would take questions from the public in an “online interview.”

More than 900 entries, some with multiple questions, were posted on a militant website before the January 16 deadline. The site has not been disclosed by CNN (or AP). So far, al Qaeda has not given answers, with it saying that al-Zawahiri would respond “as soon as possible”, and the questions have disappeared after the cutoff date.

CNN has reported that it is currently impossible to confirm independently that the questions came from active fighters, nor was it possible to verify that the interview came from al-Zawahiri, though it was posted with the logo of Al-Sahab.

Questions came from many people, including one who said that he was living with his divorced mother and wanting how to join jihad - like many others.

“I want to travel to join jihad and I sought my mother’s permission, but she would not give it to me,” the 23-year-old man said. “Can I go without her permission?”

Others wanted to make sure that al-Qaeda has a long-term strategy, and asked about the current situation with bin Laden’s health. Another hot topic was Iran, with several questions asking why it did not attack the mainly Shiite nation; with some expressing concern over rumors of an understanding between the network and Iran.

The Register is reporting that Brazil is taking the hard line against two computer games that federal officials say that they incite violence and harm consumer health.

Since January 17th, the games “Counter-Strike” and “EverQuest” have been banned from sale in Brazil. This comes after an October Brazilian federal court decision which ruled that games who encourage “the subversion of public order” are an “attack against the democratic state.”

According to the AFP, they have banned Counter-Strike, created by Valve but distributed in Brazil by Electronic Arts, after it includes a level set in Rio de Janeiro’s slum quarters. Players can choose to play either on the side of a gang who has kidnapped three UN representatives or police officers who are storming into their compound.

Federal officials has said that it teaches “war strategy” to its audience.

EA Brazil has said that the level wasn’t part of the original game, but it is a player-created mod with no affiliation with the company.

EverQuest got the chopping block after officials weren’t that happy when players could choose to be an “evil” or “good” fantastical creature while adventuring in a magical realm filled with Barbarians, Elves, Ogres and Lizard-men. EverQuest used to have a huge audience worldwide since it’s release in 1999; but it has been less popular due to “World of Warcraft” and others in the MMORPG genre.

Counter-Strike was sold under the 18+ rating, while EverQuest wasn’t officially sold in Brazil.

A US-based anti-spyware company has registered the “.com.au.com” domain name which experts say it could be used by cybercriminals to create convincing phishing attacks.

For example, typing in www.google.com.au.com or www.commbank.com.au.com will lead you to an anti-spyware download page, as will all other URLs ending with “.com.au.com” or “.org.au.com”.

Users who accidentally add .com to the end of an Australian domain will also be redirected to a fake anti-spyware site.

Bradley Anstis, vice president of Marshal - a security firm, was concern about the new development. “This one is pretty worrying really; I think it sends a very strong message to domain registrars, how they can allow a top level domain to be registered as a secondary level domain is clearly beyond me.”

Though, it is redirecting traffic to the fake spyware page, Anstis claims that more specific attacks are possible.

The au.com domain is owned by Australian domain name reseller and hosting provider Net Registry. According to ZDNet Australia, the auDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) could take legal action over the domain.

Security firm F-Secure has analysed the “anti-spyware” program and confirmed that the software was fake. Patrik Runald said to ZDNet that when it scans your PC “when you scan your PC it will always find something to complain about … to clean anything you need to register your e-mail address and then it asks you for your credit card.”

During Steve Job’s keynote at Macworld, he announced that all the Hollywood major studios have signed up to offer their movies to be rented over iTunes. These included Paramount, Universal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, New Line and 20th Century Fox.

Using the iTunes Store or the brand new Apple TV, customers will be able to hire new-release movies for $US 3.99 for 30 days. Older titles will cost $2.99 for the same duration.

These can be viewed from many platforms, including the iPhone and the latest generations of the iPod range.

However, Apple has bad news for Australian customers, saying that it won’t be introduced in Australia. This has come as no surprise to many local Apple users, with the music store coming to locals 1 year after it was launched in the US and Europe. Owners are still awaiting the ability to download and buy Television shows and movies.

As well, the iPhone will not be available in Australia, as Apple are still looking for carriers that could handle the EDGE connection.

Sony, who apparently loves creating format wars, has now initiated another one; this time with the new, and more widely supported, wireless USB standard.

Called TransferJet, it offers (in theory) a maximum data transfer rate of 560Mbps in a 4.48GHz ban, although in real-world applications it will see transfer rates of 375Mbps. It also operates only at a distance of 3cm or less; this is due to its low powered nature.

However, the Wireless USB offers a maximum rate of 480Mbps within a distance of 3 metres. But since it uses a variety of spectrum bands, it could suffer from radio interference.

Sony is pushing TransferJect as an ideal data transfer system from devices like mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders to the television set. It was unveiled last week at CES in Las Vegas.

Sony is the only company not using the widely accepted Wireless USB standard; but Sony has a reputation of creating its own rivals to accepted standards. Take for instance the Memory Stick, it is competing with SD and CompactFlash cards. This might be to encourage customers to buy Sony products for compatibility.

It is unknown when Sony will integrate TransferJet into its products.