eBay refuses to nix Tesco voucher trading

eBay has declined a request by Tesco to stop people selling Computer for Schools vouchers, saying that the practice is perfectly legal. Shoppers at Tesco supermarkets receive a voucher for every ?10 spent and schools collect them in order to buy computers. The BBC reports that people without children are selling them in batches of up to 100 for around a fiver. ...more

P4 heads for the downmarket upgrades

Intel has released the Intel 845 Chipset, supporting cheapo PC133 SDRAM. While stressing that the true performance of a P4 can only be had from an 850 chipset with its expensive RAMBUS memory, the 845 will provide an easy upgrade route for those still using SDRAM. As we reported, the 845 chipset will extend the remit of the P4 well into the value end of the market, and with the release of 2Ghz versions of the chip depressing prices at the slower end still further, we may expect to find some seriously budget systems in time for Christmas. ...more

Spamhaus names and shames world's most prolific spammers

Just ten people account for 80 per cent of the world's spam according to anti-spam organisation Spamhaus. Half of the perpetrators hail from Eastern Europe. Top of the pile, according to Spamhaus, is Ukrainian Alex Polyakov (aka Alex Blood/Alexander Mosh/AlekseyB). ...more

Judge Penfield on trial, not Microsoft

The second day of the Microsoft anti-trust case passed with the government's representatives again being forced onto the back foot. The judges - with Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards to the fore - again questioned whether the original court had been clear in its findings over Microsoft trying to monopolise the market for browsers. ...more

Freescale to debut two new PowerPC processors

Motorola's wholly-owned chip making subsidiary, Freescale, will introduce two major additions to its range of PowerPC processors at the forthcoming Multiprocessor Forum. Freescale first announced the e600 and e700 cores and platforms when it outlined its roadmap in April. The e600 succeeds the G4 that Apple currently deploys in its iBook, PowerBook, eMac and soon-to-be-replaced iMac lines, whilst maintaining full backwards compatibility. ...more