15620572
submission
Albanach writes:
The State of Virginia has entered the third day of ongoing computer problems, blamed on 230 crashed servers. State offices have, amongst other things, been unable to issue new driving licenses and been unable to process new jobless claims. The State has outsourced much of its IT provision to Northrop Grumman in a $2bn deal that was criticized by auditors for poor service. That deal was rewritten with the State pledging increased funds in return for improved service.
15084390
submission
Albanach writes:
WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange has been quoted by the Associated Press as stating "the organization is preparing to release the remaining secret Afghan war documents". According to Assange, they are halfway through processing the remaining 15,000 files as they 'comb through' the files to ensure lives are not placed at risk.
12088272
submission
Albanach writes:
Apple's recent decision requiring developers use Apple tools when coding for the iPhone and iPad has drawn the attention of Government regulators, The Reuters news agency reports that regulators in the United States are now considering an antitrust investigation into the restriction. Reuters quote David Balto, a former FTC policy director as saying "What they're (Apple) doing is clearly anticompetitive ... They want one superhighway and they're the tollkeeper on that superhighway."
5512307
submission
Albanach writes:
An OECD report published today has shown moderate cell phone users in the United States are paying some of the highest rates in the world. Average US plans cost $52.99 per month compared to an average of $10.95 in Finland. The full report is available only to subscribers, however Excel sheets of the raw data are available to download.
3147695
submission
Albanach writes:
In a widely anticipated move Microsoft have today confirmed an immediate cull of 1,400 staff, with up to 5,000 positions to go over the next eighteen months. Microsoft are blaming the rise of netbooks and the slump in the global economy for their current woes. The jobs being cut appear to be across the company with cuts in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT.
3008757
submission
Albanach writes:
By bike
By boat
By bus
By car
By train
Cowboy Neal flies me
1154867
submission
Albanach writes:
Following up to yesterday's story that anti-DRM campaigners had posted numerous one-star reviews of Spore, someone seems to be feeling the pain. Amazon UK have responded by removing all reviews of the game. For now at least, the reviews on Amazon's US site remain. 1300+ one-star reviews and less than a hundred for two to five stars combined. Perhaps the reaction of Amazon UK is because the mainstream media have picked up on the story, with articles from the BBC and Financial Times. The big US news outlets seem slower to react.
708505
submission
Albanach writes:
The New York Times is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation of Intel. Subpoenas have already been issued to Intel, AMD and unnamed computer manufacturers. The decision to launch an investigation marks a u-turn for the FTC and follows the appointment of new FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic.
521842
submission
Albanach writes:
The European Union Commissioner for the Internal Market has today proposed extending the copyright term for musical recordings to 95 years. He also wishes to investigate options for new levies on blank discs, data storage and music and video players to compensate artists and copyright holders for 'legal copying when listeners burn an extra version of an album to play one at home and one in the car.'
331601
submission
Albanach writes:
The BBC has confirmed that television shows available to download for Windows users within the UK will be available to Linux and Mac users by the year end. The BBC has signed a deal with adobe to make streaming versions of these programmes available using Flash. While the BBC have not ruled out a download and watch later version for Linux and mac users, they state "It comes down to cost per person and reach at the end of the day".
292301
submission
Albanach writes:
It was announced today that Yahoo! has purchased Zimbra, provider of the leading open source groupware software of the same name for $350 million. Zimbra has a blog post about the takeover, as well as a Q&A page.
29403
submission
Albanach writes:
The UK Parliament is, this afternoon, debating a motion from the SNP calling for conduct an inquiry into the Iraq War. In his blog, Simon Dickson a technology consultant notices that You Tube has been used as a news channel to broadcast a statement by the leader of the SNP, uploaded today and designed for viewing before the end of the debate. When the news channels each have a bias, will we see more of those generating the news, bypassing the traditional outlets and going straight to the electorate?
