City of London to go WiFi

The City of London, one of the biggest financial centres in the world, is to be provided with comprehensive wireless coverage over the entire area. The aim is to make the Square Mile the biggest wireless zone in Europe. The system is planned to launch in the next few weeks in selected parts of the City with full coverage expected over the next six months. ...more

Compaq make cuts in Scotland

Scotland has been hit with news of job cuts by one of the major PC builders. Seven hundred jobs will be lost from the Compaq assembly plant in Erskine, the company announced yesterday. Another plant, in Ayr, will remain in operation, however. ...more

Blu-ray discs to adopt same DRM as rival HD-DVD

Blu-ray discs will employ the same digital rights management (DRM) anti-copying technology as the rival HD-DVD format, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has revealed. The discs, recorders and players will use the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) to prevent unauthorised disc copying. The BDA said that AACS' support for future 'usage models' based around home networks and the Internet was a major factor in its decision. ...more

Python 2, at a mirror-site near you

Ever thought of getting to grips with a full-featured, platform-independent scripting language? Maybe Python - one of the most respected and freely available? The major release of Python 2.0 may be the spur you've needed. Version 2. ...more

Intel juice to drive RIM's next Blackberry

Research In Motion (RIM) has plumped for Intel's chips for the next generation of Blackberry handhelds, the beloved devices of busy corporate executives. In future, RIM will adopt the Intel XScale architecture and use its PXA9xx cellular processor, codenamed 'Hermon'. The architectural shift will enable the devices to work on high-speed EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) wireless networks. ...more