EU closes in on Microsoft fines - reports

The EU has begun moves to impose huge fines on Microsoft for failing to comply with the 2004 antitrust ruling, according to reports. The Associated Press says that competition regulators met yesterday to approve the imposition of penalties that could be as high as EUR€2mn every day. A second meeting will be held next week to determine the precise size of the fines. ...more

Be a slave to your handheld

The playful passing of time could be about to stop for PDA users, with the introduction of some new time management software. Kronos has announced that its new iSeries MobileTime products will allow employees to use their Palm PDA to punch into work. The same software will also enable users to keep track of time spent on specific work projects. ...more

Java Web Start vulnerability highlighted

The security company Secunia is warning of a 'highly critical' vulnerability in Java technology. Specifically, it reports a problem with Java Web Start, which is included in the Java 2 platform Standard Edition (J2SE). This can be exploited by a malicious application elevating its privileges to read and write local files that are accessible to a user running the Java Web Start app. ...more

Waterstone's ditches Amazon to go it alone

Waterstone's has severed its link with Amazon and will launch its own online bookshop later this year. HMV, which owns the high street bookseller, said that the company had underestimated the impact that the Internet would have on its business. 'The Amazon partnership has been good but when we first entered into it we felt that online sales would not get to more than 10 per cent of the UK books market,' said chief executive Alan Giles. ...more

Top ten viruses for September 2000

Yes pop-pickers, it's time for the September rundown of computer viruses that are making life difficult for the average computer user. This list has been compiled, surprisingly enough, by anti-virus software company Sophos and is an ongoing monthly roundup. The table lists the Kakworm virus as the most persistent offender (haven't we all been infected by that little fellow?) followed by LoveLetter and Apology. ...more