Disabled Rights Commission slams website access

A study by the Disabled Rights Commission (DRC) has revealed that many websites are rendered useless to disabled people who are unable to perform tasks such as booking tickets because of poor design and failure to adhere to web access guidelines. Bert Massie, DRC Chairman, said: 'Eight in 10 sites are next to impossible for some disabled people to use - that means no last minute holidays, cheaper car insurance or lower rates of interest on credit cards. It also means a technological lock out from chat rooms and web forums, from recruitment opportunities that are increasingly happening through the Web, and education and information services that have had an increased profile. ...more

USB-powered Zip announced

Iomega has announced the latest, USB-powered addition to its range of 100MB Zip drives. The new drive, requiring no separate power supply, is half the size of its mains-powered predecessor and includes the same bundle of back-up, file management and image editing software. It is compatible with Windows (95, 98, 2000, Me and NT 4. ...more

UK company scoops technology 'Nobel Prize'

A UK company is one of three grand prize winners of this year's EU 'Nobel prize' for ICT Transitive Corporation is the only UK company to receive an award this year. It was awarded the prize, which includes a €200,000 bounty, for its pioneering QuickTransit translator that can adapt applications for different operating systems and hardware architectures without the need for changing either binary or source code. The company claims that the resulting applications run as fast and efficiently as a native port. ...more

Four-fold increase in online images of severe child abuse

Images of child abuse posted and sold online are rapidly becoming more graphic and more sadistic and involving younger children, an Internet monitoring group said today. In its annual report, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said in the last year there had been a four-fold increase in the number of images involving severe abuse. The group said nearly 60 per cent of all commercial child abuse websites now sold images of child rape. ...more

Apple to develop iTunes for Windows

Apple is advertising for a Sr. Software Engineer, 'to desing [sic] and build Apple's newest Consumer Application, iTunes for Windows.' The advertisement at jobs. ...more