Gates rues his megawealth

Poor Bill Gates: the world's richest man has revealed that he wishes he was not. 'There's nothing good that comes out of that,' the Microsoft founder told a conference of online advertising executives near the company's Redmond, Washington HQ. Gates is worth an estimated $50bn, although he has made considerable efforts to give a lot away. ...more

IBM breathes life into autonomic computing

IBM has unveiled details of software that can automatically manage spikes in processing end-user demand. The new initiative comes under the umbrella of 'autonomic computing', which is where a computer system manages its own operation - often referred to as self-healing software. The three technologies, in sequence, are 'Adaptive Forecasting', 'On-line Capacity Planning' and 'Rapid Reconfiguration'. ...more

AllofMP3 speaks out against victimisation by music industry

AllofMP3.com has stepped up its media offensive, telling an online press conference that it is a legitimate, tax-paying business. Vadim Mamotin, director general of Mediaservices, which runs the Russian digital music service, said that in addition to contributing to the state coffers, it also pays 15 per cent of every sale to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, a rights collecting agency. ...more

COMMENT: E-voting - surrendering more than tradition?

Swindon votes 'yes' to e-voting, but is convenience voting the panacea for voter apathy? Swindon, one of the districts trialling e-voting during this week's local elections, has turned to the Net as its ballot of choice. In the biggest shake up of the electoral process for 150 years, Swindon residents have been given the opportunity to cast their votes not only in the traditional way, but also by post, public kiosk, telephone, interactive digital TV and over the Internet. Although the results polling booths won't be in until tomorrow, the e-votes have already been totted up. ...more

Microsoft establishes 'interoperability council'

Microsoft has established a group known as the 'Interoperability Customer Executive Council' with the aim of identifying areas for interoperability improvements across its range of products and the overall software industry. Among the founding members are Soci?t? G?n?rale, LexisNexis, Kohl's Department Stores, Denmark's Ministry of Finance, Spain's Generalitat de Catalunya and Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), and the states of Wisconsin and Delaware The choice of founding members says something about Microsoft's business strategy. Many of the companies are from Europe where the EU has been involved in an increasingly bitter dispute over interoperability issues with Windows Server. ...more