EU claims world's first IPv6 research network

The European Commission is celebrating the launch of what it describes as the world's first all IPv6 research network. The 'Global IPv6 Service Launch', which is dated for today, is intended to provide an IPv6-based networking infrastructure for various research communities around the world. An event in Brussels will feature such IPv6 technology as a 'satellite car' (that can be connected via satellite to IPv6 anywhere in the world), a digital house (with lights, blinds and alarms connected via IPv6) that can be controlled remotely, and a television using of IPv6 advanced multicasting capacity. ...more

Microsoft joins race for world digital library

Microsoft is the latest company to venture into the online book search arena, claiming it will not endure the same legal troubles that rival Google has faced. The software giant has joined an alliance called the Open Content Alliance (OCA), along with Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe, which aims to digitise books, academic materials and other publications for online publication reports Reuters. Microsoft has said that it will avoid copyright issues for now by focusing on literature that is already in the public domain. ...more

Microsoft Windows Advantage validation cracked in under 24 hours

There are some red faces in Redmond this weekend following the discovery that Microsoft's much-vaunted Windows Advantage programme could be defeated with a simple piece of JavaScript. The code, which appeared on a number of sites throughout the Internet, appeared within 24 hours of Windows Advantage going live. The JavaScript, which has been posted on various websites, simply prevents the Windows advantage checker from being installed. ...more

Gates promises Microsoft challenge to iPod

Bill Gates has told a group of Seattle schoolchildren that Microsoft plans to outdo Apple when it unveils its own digital music player and rival to the iPod. Schyler Mishra, 19, a senior at Seattle's John Marshall High School, asked the visiting chief software architect: 'Is Microsoft going to develop a hand-held, you know, MP3 player, to combat iPod?' 'Yeah,' Gates said, seemingly confirming a report last month that Microsoft plans to tackle Apple's digital music hegemony, 'Apple has done a fantastic job with the iPod.' He then expressed dissatisfaction with other manufacturers' efforts to unseat the iPod. ...more

FBI gets the marketing bug

FBI's infamous Internet monitoring system, Carnivore, is no more. But it hasn't ceased to exist; it's just got a new name. The surveillance tools - that are installed on a US ISP's network with federal authority - are to be called DCS1000, which is certainly nicely anonymous. ...more