Net plugs gap in teaching

Birmingham city council has found a way around the teacher shortages - it is planning to use video-conferencing to link up classes. According to the authority, it has no option but to combine classes this way, otherwise pupils would have to be sent home. Existing technology will be used, so there will be little cost to the council. ...more

First Palm virus found

Experts have discovered what they claim to be the first example of a virus written specifically for the Palm platform. The new virus was sent to antivirus company Network Associates and although the company said the virus is not a high risk to Palm users, it warned that the popularity of handheld devices means that the devices are now viable targets for malicious programmers. The PalmOS/Phage wireless virus infects any . ...more

Horses being held on AOL and Time Warner link up

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the would-be merger partners, America Online and Time Warner, have failed to reach an agreement on conditions for their link-up. The combined might of the two organisations - the link-up is valued in the region of $130bn - has put the pressure on the FTC to insist on conditions that would prevent the new entity discriminating against rival ISPs and content providers. There is concern over the cable-based Internet services already controlled by Time Warner to many US households and the charges it may raise against rival ISPs for its content. ...more

OFT finds online travel offers misleading

As if the travel industry doesn't have enough to contend with, as people lose the travel bug in times of war and SARS, the OFT has found that 40 per cent of UK travel Web sites make potentially misleading claims over the deals on offer. If you needed any more reason not to travel, the Office of Fair Trading's travel site search identified more than one thousand sites globally (54 in the UK) that breached consumer legislation promoting deals that bear little resemblance to the prices of the holidays actually on offer. It quotes examples where flights to Australia were advertised 'from ?599', where the cheapest deal was ?891. ...more

AMD overtakes Intel in US retail sales for first time

AMD has nosed ahead of Intel in sales of processors in the US retail market for the first time according to market researcher Current Analysis. The research findings carried out via a panel of leading US retailers found that during October, 49.8 per cent of the total market for desktops and notebooks sold in the US retail market were fitted with AMD processors. ...more