Diamond Age Solutions News for the IT Industry

Mon Jan 21 16:51:35 NZDT 2008

Today Index

New Zealanders seem to be paying much more for their software than the exchange rate would allow for. Why is this?
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/D204C464929949FFCC2573D3007C6966

Aside from many factual inaccuracies, the Burton report on OOXML and ODF appears to back the notion that Microsoft is an abusive monopoly:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080116214144572

IBM Adds Mac and iPhone support to its Notes groupware, and will release a free version of Symphony with ODF support for Macs:
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2207484/lotus-throw-weight-behind-apple

CNN Report on how Microsoft uses licencing fees to lock service providers into exclusive use of Messenger:
http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/01/18/the-hard-side-of-mister-softie/

AOL Starts to implement the open Jabber XMPP protocol for its online chat services. Details on which clients are supported here:
http://florianjensen.com/2008/01/17/aol-adopting-xmpp-aka-jabber/

Robots figure out how to lie based on simple genetic algorithms:
http://gizmodo.com/346029/scientists-invent-robots-that-lie-real-bender-closer-than-ever

And finally. What happens when you give a bunch of geeks an industrial robot, a load of bowling balls, an unwanted vehicle and some kerosene:
http://www.manapotions.com/robopult.html

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.