The Internet may be working to take WikiLeaks offline, but the site's contents aren't going to disappear, thanks to hundreds of mirrors that popped up over the weekend. But even though more than 200 sites around the world now host the controversial leaked documents, WikiLeaks may face an all-too-familiar funding problem if it wants to continue publishing new leaks.

WikiLeaks has been server hopping lately thanks to a combination of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and pressure from politicians. A DDoS attack had originally pushed WikiLeaks to move some of its operations to Amazon, but then Amazon booted the site from its servers after Sen. Joe Liberman (I-CT) pressured the company to stop associating itself with WikiLeaks. That move was quickly followed by WikiLeaks' DNS provider EveryDNS pulling the plug, claiming that the continued DDoS attacks would threaten the stability of EveryDNS's other sites.

Google has announced a significant update for its App Engine (GAE) cloud hosting service. The App Engine SDK 1.4.0 introduces several noteworthy new features and resolves some of the long-standing limitations of the service.

One of the most significant additions is the new Comet-like Channel API, which GAE developers can use to create a real-time communication stream between the server and the browser. This push mechanism can obviate the need for heavy polling, make interactive applications more responsive, and simplify the development of multiuser applications.

Google Earth isn't just for spying on people's backyards anymore—it's being put to work as a tool for studying climate change. Google announced the introduction of Google Earth Engine on its blog today, a platform that makes a huge amount of satellite images of the planet available for viewing, along with tools and computing power for analysis.

Google highlights how a comprehensive set of satellite images over long time scales can provide some interesting data. Some examples include tracking changes in forest and water coverage; the site has already posted a couple of image sets for the Earth's albedo, or sunlight reflection.

In addition to raw data, Google Earth Engine will also provide tools for analysis. The company is donating 10 million CPU hours over the next two years to facilitate everything from cloud removal in the images to providing underfunded sustainability researchers with computing power to cut and slice the images as they see fit.

Of course, satellite images can only communicate a small part of the state of the world, and would probably be best used in conjunction with other data. Still, Google hopes that Earth Engine will help with some big climate change agents, like deforestation.

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LimeWire has been squeezed by the RIAA, a federal judge, and a group of music publishers. Despite overtures that the company would unveil a new legal music store in the near future, however, LimeWire appears to be shutting down its store in the face of mounting legal woes.

AllThingsDigital reports that as late as October, LimeWire was planning to preview a new legitimate online music store to the press. Those plans have apparently been cancelled. Furthermore, LimeWire's director of partner relations announced via e-mail that the current store—stocked with independent label releases—would be shutting down as of December 31. A note on the store website warns that no new users are being accepted.

AllThingsDigital notes that LimeWire may be eliminating assets before a court hearing in January to determine damages the company will owe to the RIAA. The company already laid off roughly a third of its employees following October's verdict, and has faced additional legal pressure since a group of hackers released a "pirate edition" of the LimeWire software.

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The BBC's online, on-demand video streaming service iPlayer will launch worldwide sometime early next year. Much to the dismay of expats around the world, iPlayer has been limited to UK residents, who pay a yearly license to watch BBC content. Now, the Beeb plans to launch a subscription-based service available to anyone, anywhere—with an Apple iPad.

The BBC first launched its iPlayer service in 2007, though only on Windows XP. It allowed viewers to access streaming video of BBC shows, like Top Gear and Doctor Who, up to seven days after airing, as well as download DRM-restricted copies. The service later expanded to Mac OS X and Linux via a Flash-based, streaming-only player. The BBC added an iOS-compatible online player as well, though it has had to work to thwart attempts to circumvent the DRM for downloads via iPhone-compatible HTML5 video (and open source software) due to strict licensing agreements with show producers (the downloads remain Windows-only to this day).

Katalabs, a small company that emerged from a Stanford research community, has released an open source framework for building browser-based virtual worlds. The software, called KataSpace, uses emerging Web standards like WebGL and WebSockets. It allows users to interact with each other in a 3D environment that loads natively in modern Web browsers—without requiring any proprietary third-party plugins.

When the user loads the KataSpace demo page in a compatible browser, they will be prompted to input a username and select an avatar. After completing those steps, the user will enter the 3D world, which is displayed directly in the Web page. The user will see 3D terrain and the avatars of other users who are in the environment. The user can walk around the environment by pressing the arrow keys. A chat box at the bottom of the screen allows the user to chat with other people who are in the virtual world.

Google has added a new twist to its Page Rank algorithms to prevent businesses from turning bad reviews and negative comments into a workable business model. The change was sparked by the story of a Brooklyn-based online eyeglass seller that made a habit of threatening customers if they complained about shoddy service or being sent knockoff products. Somehow the negative comments about the site were boosting its ranking to the top of many searches, but Google says its algorithmic changes can now detect merchants that "provide an extremely poor user experience" and reduce their search ranking accordingly.

The website DecorMyEyes was the subject of a recent New York Times exposé detailing the site owner's penchant for using foul language and thinly veiled threats to "deal" with customers who complained about poor service or poor quality products. Vitaly Borker noticed that the more people complained about his website online, the higher his ranking in Google searches rose and the more business he got.

At long last, the couple that sued Google for its Street View capture of their home and yard have achieved victory, in the form of a single dollar. The judge handed down the decision today, and while it's technically a win for the little guy, it doesn't make Google exactly a target for emotional duress money.

In April 2008, Aaron and Christine Boring filed suit on multiple counts against Google over Google Maps' Street View images of their private road. The same information was already available elsewhere on the internet, as well as documents on the home's sale and price, and many of the counts were thrown out. Likewise, an appeal was turned down.

Still, the couple pursued the only viable charge: a Count II Trespass. Two and half years later, the court ruled has ruled in their favor, conceding that, technically, they have a point. But their blatant lack of concern about privacy in other venues (including the fact that the couple did not seal the suit so their names wouldn't be attached) must have grated on the judge, because they were awarded a grand total of $1 in nominal damages.

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