Halo 2 Xbox game leaks over the Net

According to reports, copies of the eagerly awaited Halo 2 Xbox game made an impromptu debut last night on Usenet groups and pirate sites. The leaked game, purportedly the French version, precedes its official release in the second week of November, although Bungie, the studio developing the game, had earlier this week said work on the title was finished. Microsoft, which owns Bungie, said in a statement that it would take a dim view of anyone downloading a copy of the leaked game from the Internet. ...more

Adobe chastens Windows-favouring author

Adobe has disowned the anti-Mac comments made by one one of its employees in a recent book. In the recently-published Illustrator CS for Dummies, Ted Alspach, Adobe's Group Product Manager for Illustration Products, wrote: 'As of 2003, Windows systems have taken a decisive lead over Macs when it comes to performance. The difference is most apparent with graphics applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator, but you'll notice it with other applications as well. ...more

UPDATED: McAfee highlights danger of sponsored search results

Sponsored search engine results are twice as likely to be a security risk as an ordinary listing, according to a McAfee report. Citing the statistic that four out of five website visits start with a search engine query, the security company has examined the trustworthiness of paid-for entries. While 4% of all search results link to suspect websites, sponsored results contain 2. ...more

Eclipse shadows 8meg Net rollout

Eclipse Internet is the latest ISP to tweak its high-speed broadband offering. It is offering two different up-to-8Mbps packages designed to allow Net users to allow to choose the type of service that best suits their needs. The Evolution service combines unlimited monthly traffic with varying degrees of what the ISP describes as 'sensing and adapting to busy service conditions' designed to optimise performance during peak hours. ...more

Borland unveils new Janeva conventions

Borland has announced Janeva, a system designed to bridge the gap between .Net and enterprise Java. Borland believes many organisations will be using both Microsoft and Java platforms when it comes to providing Web Services, and it sees Janeva as a means to fill some of the gaps between the two approaches. ...more