Bill Gates rates business blogging

Bill Gates rates blogging as the perfect medium between the impositions of email and the distance of a website. In a speech to CEOs at Microsoft's CEO Summit, Redmond's Chief Software Architect detailed how blogging - essentially an online diary - solves the problem of either relying on your audience to check your website for new content proactively or relying on intrusive emails where you decide who would like to know about the new content. Using an RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed, anyone interested in knowing when there is new content on a blog gets alerted and can decide whether or not to view it. ...more

Xerox puts mark on secure printing technology

Xerox has applied for a patent on a new technology that allows holographic images to be embedded in printed documents using any printer. The technology, known as Glossmark, could make it much easier to prevent the unauthorised reproduction of printed material, as the embedded holographic images cannot be copied or scanned. As well has having security implications, Glossmark could also be used for what Xerox calls 'novelty printing applications'. ...more

ISP throws in free router to 8Mbps broadband signups

ISP UK Online is offering new signups to its Broadband 8000 service a free Wireless Ethernet router. The offer is open to everyone who signs up before 21 February. The wireless router, said to be worth around ?70 in retail, allows customers to link up to 10 PCs, laptops and consoles to the broadband link from anywhere in the home. ...more

Kazaa fails in anti-trust bid against RIAA

Sharman Networks - the developer of the popular Kazaa file sharing software - has failed in its bid to force the major record and film production companies to allow file sharing. The suit - which even the most optimistic US anti-trust lawyers thought was a bit of a flyer - alleged that the companies conspired together to prevent Kazaa from distributing authorised copies of music and films. The implication was that by refusing Sharman Networks permission to distribute 'legal' copies of the products, it was forcing Kazaa users to share 'pirated' copies. ...more

Ericsson and Vodafone go 3G

Ericsson and Vodafone made the first commercial WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) live voice call yesterday. This heralds a breakthrough in 3G network technology as the call was made using commercial equipment, using commercial WCDMA nodes. The call was made on a mobile phone via Vodafone's 3G network in Thames Valley, to be terminated at a fixed line in Newbury. ...more