MySpace under legal fire over assault

The mother of a 14-year-old Texas girl is suing MySpace for $30mn after the girl was assaulted by a man she met through the popular social networking website. The lawsuit claims that the site does not require users to verify their age and says that the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users younger than 16 are 'utterly ineffective'. 'MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online,' lawyer Adam Loewy, who is representing the girl and her mother, told the Austin American-Statesman. ...more

Mozilla Web browser update released

The Mozilla Organization has released version 1.4 RC2 of its open source, standards based Web browser. Although somewhat on the hefty side, largely due to the combination of browser, email software and chat client, Mozilla is serious alternative to better known Web browsers. ...more

Report urges BBC Online to stand aside for commercial competition

A report on the BBC Online services says that the corporation's web sites should be reined in. The Graf Report, published today, says that the websites should outsource up to 25 per cent of its content by the end of the 2006/7 financial year. The report also says that the Corporation should err on the side of caution when considering whether to launch an online service against a commercial competitor. ...more

Comment: Rows and columns by any other name

Does anyone really like the naming convention used today for display pixel formats? Everyone is familiar with acronyms like VGA, SVGA and XGA, although few remember anymore that 'VGA' stands for 'Video Graphics Array,' the 'S' for 'Super' and the 'X' for 'Extended.' However, the alphabet soup of display acronyms is becoming even more jumbled and harder to understand. For an example of this, look no further than two very different standards that have very similar names: QUXGA and QVGA. ...more

Epson looks for 'typical' British family to do an 'Osbournes'

Imaging specialist, Epson is looking for a 'typical' British family to star in a worldwide reality show live on the Internet. For over three months, Epson cameras will follow the family around and record their every move beginning March 2004. Epson threatens. ...more