Government tops chart for IT contract work

Where do all your taxes go? Well, according to new research, increasing amounts are being spent on IT contractors. A study indicates that the Government is now the biggest employer of IT contractors, and it seemingly has doubled its share over the last two years. According to Giant Group, the public sector now accounts for 27 per cent of work by contractors in the UK, up from 13 per cent in 2003. ...more

AMD issues second profit warning

AMD has warned of lower sales, again. It's the company's second profit warning within a month - the sales forecast has been revised further downwards. The microprocessor company yesterday issued a formal statement anticipating sales of $600 for its second financial quarter, ending June 30, 2002. ...more

Google archives 200 years of news

Google has launched a searchable news archive stretching back some 200 years, before the age of the Internet. It is hoping that by over-seeing an OCR open-source project, it will be able to digitise print material more quickly and accurately, putting it further down the road on its stated mission 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. The News Archive Search includes free, paid-for and subscription listings from the likes of Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Washington Post among others. ...more

ACS launches two new MP3 players

Japanese multimedia specialist ACS Innovations launched two new CD-R-based MP3 players at the recent World PC Expo 2000. The Compro MPCD-455 looks very much like a standard portable CD player, but it can read CD-Rs comprising MP3 files as well as standard audio CDs. The unit comes with AA NiCad batteries and has a handy recharging function. ...more

HP boasts fuller figures

HP has posted its Q4 results, exceeding analyst expectations. All divisions put in profitable performances, marking a turnaround for the Enterprise Systems as it edged back into the black with an operating profit of $106mn. Personal systems grew 19 per cent with $6bn revenues: shipments rose 23 per cent for desktops and 53 per cent for laptops. ...more