Sun invests in Java

Eighty thousand dollars up for grabs in a Java coding challenge, and $3m of funding for Open Source Java compatibility funding... ...more

New platform heralds cut price Internet radio

If you haven't yet bought a wireless Internet radio, just hold out a year longer. A new platform could drastically reduce prices to around ?30 or ?40. At next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Cambridge Consultants is demonstrating the technology, which includes just two integrated circuits: an 802. ...more

UK hacker loses US extradition appeal

Gary McKinnon, a UK computer expert, accused by Washington of the 'biggest military hack of all time', has lost his extradition appeal. Gary McKinnon was arrested in 2002 following charges by US prosecutors that he illegally accessed 97 government computers - including Pentagon, US army, navy and NASA systems - supposedly causing $700,000 (?354,355) worth of damage. Two of Britain's leading judges rejected a High Court challenge by McKinnon to an earlier court order backed by the Home Secretary that he should be extradited. ...more

Microsoft faces Netscape's communication

Former Netscape CEO James L Barksdale was given the opportunity to blast Microsoft from the witness box today, as the final phase of the antitrust case entered its second day. The New York Times reports Mr Barksdale submitted a testimony to the effect that the current proposed measures to punish Microsoft and reach a settlement would not have prevented Microsoft using anticompetitive behaviour to crush Netscape in the 1990s and therefore would not stop Microsoft from doing it again. Indeed, the crux of the current situation is whether Microsoft is currently pursuing anti-competitive behaviour in other areas, such as mobile devices and instant messaging, and how far the settlement should go to prevent Microsoft from repeating its actions. ...more

Half UK households are Net-connected, says Oftel

Oftel has announced that half of UK households are connected to the Internet, with a million set to make the broadband leap in the next year. However, Oftel is counting always-on services of 128Kbits/sec and greater, which offer prices comparable to unmetered dial-up, as broadband. With the cheapest dial-up and below average broadband tariffs in the European countries surveyed, the UK take-up of the Internet continues apace: 12. ...more