The EU carries out a survey into Open Source software use, and finds that after
the initial conversion costs, TCO is lower and IT staff are more efficient:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119080108568
The UK National Consumer Council calls for laws to protect consumer rights to
use music and movies from errosion by Digital Restrictions Management (DRM):
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29024
Despite the overwhelming rejection of software patents last year, the EU
bureaucracy is opening discussions on how best to implement them again:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1911950,00.asp
A hacked NZ Labour Department administration account sends out 3,000 trojans to
a subscription list:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10364437
The "Kick a Spammer in the Nuts Daily" campaign is shutting down spammers by
getting people to go to spam-advertised sites and place bogus orders:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060117/2323246_F.shtml
The latest benchmarks of the WINE implementation of Windows XP on Linux now
beats actual Microsoft code performance in many standard tests:
http://wiki.winehq.org/BenchMark-0.9.5
Vodafone UK's GPRS Mobile Data Network within the UK goes off-air for several
hours, with Vodafone staff unable to supply any details:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_Mobile_Data_Network_Collapses
Google connects its Google Talk service to the XMPP network, allowing Google
users to talk to the Open Jabber networks. Even wit a Blackberry:
http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/01/xmpp-federation.html
http://www.rim.com/news/press/2006/pr-12_01_2006-01.shtml
Sony tries again with their E Ink-based electronic book, dropping the
cumbersome DRM (they're learning) and launching the Sony Reader:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=522
Hacking your optical mouse to make a minuscule CCD scanner:
http://sprite.student.utwente.nl/~jeroen/projects/mouseeye/
Arranging nanoscale magnets in the same configuration as quantum dots produces
magnetic logic. It's non-volatile and low-power:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/full/060109-12.html
And finally. Clippings will be taking a week's break for the LinuxConf Australia
conference at Otago University, Dunedin, NZ. More on my return:
http://linux.conf.au/
News collated from various sources by Vik Olliver for Diamond Age Solutions Ltd. The views presented in this document are the personal opinion of the collator, and should not be taken as any more than that.