The UK marks National Work from Home Day

Today is the second annual National Work from Home Day, where employers are encouraged to transform their homes into offices for the day. In addition to making employees happier and therefore more productive through aiding the work/life balance, the ability to work away from the office - even occasionally - lessens the burden on our roads and public transport networks, believes Work Wise UK. 'Although some would suggest this could be an excuse to skive, or to extend the weekend, it has been demonstrated that enabling staff to work from home, even occasionally, increases productivity,' said Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, the not-for-profit organisation behind National Work from Home Day and Work Wise Week, which kicked off on Wednesday and runs until next Tuesday. ...more

Sun virtualises the network with N1

Sun has trumpeted the launch of its 'N1' range of storage and server technology. Described as providing 'just in time computing', N1 is Sun's attempt to better manage large-scale network resources. It creates a 'virtual system' out of the underlying computer systems - 'virtualising' the administrator's view of the varied hardware and software resources. ...more

EMI withdraws from DRM-free downloading talks

EMI has withdrawn from talks about the possibility of selling DRM-free music downloads, after online store operators baulked at the advance payments that the record company was demanding, according to Bloomberg. The business news service says that EMI was asking for the payment to compensate it for the 'risk' of releasing unrestricted MP3s. It claims that operators including Apple, Microsoft and Real Networks had countered with a lower offer, but this was rejected. ...more

Ofcom to find BT guilty of broadband margin squeeze

Ofcom is putting further pressure on BT over broadband pricing. The regulatory body has announced that it is to find BT guilty of uncompetitive behaviour in regard to recent residential broadband pricing. The short statement from Ofcom reads: 'Ofcom proposes to make a decision that BT Group plc has infringed Section 18 of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty in relation to the company's residential broadband pricing. ...more

Java plugs in to Windows XP

Sun has released a plug-in for running Java on Windows XP. One for Java developers and enthusiasts, this 'early access' version - which previews the latest support for Java technology - is available for download from Sun's Web site. This JVM (Java Virtual Machine - a platform-specific environment that supports the running of standard Java programs within it) for Windows XP works with Internet Explorer (5. ...more