World Digital Library expands the shores of digitisation

The Library of Congress has announced it will expand its digital library to include works from across the globe and make the digitised collections available to other libraries. The project will use public and private sector funding to support it, with an initial $3m from search giant Google. The World Digital Library (WDL) builds on work already undertaken by the Library of Congress. ...more

Microsoft and RIM ink deal on Blackberry connectivity

Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) have signed a deal to extend the connectivity between Microsoft's new Office Live Communications Server 2005 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The deal means that Blackberry subscribers should see improved enterprise level instant messaging and presence. The deal also shows further endorsement of the Blackberry platform by the world's biggest software company. ...more

Danes charge pirates, BT to test 'Midband', broadband Q&A

A Danish anti-piracy organisation has started sending bills to people it says have illegally downloaded music, movies and games. According to the Associated Press, the AntiPiratGruppen, funded by Danish entertainment companies, has billed 150 individual, schools and businesses. Bills ranged from around ?83 to ?8,450 and so far half have been paid, despite concerns that billing process may have violated Danish anti-piracy law. ...more

Hackers take axe to Internet root servers

Three of the world's 13 root DNS servers have come under fire in a distributed denial of service attack that lasted hours. These computers manage the routing of traffic on the Internet, and the offensive was thought to be one of the biggest seen in the last four years. According to reports, the offensive lasted around 12 hours on Tuesday, although most Internet users didn't notice it. ...more

W3C gives browsing a voice

The organisation that determines Web standards is turning its attention, once again, towards vocal interaction with websites. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has announced it is relaunching its Voice Browser Working Group, to better enable users to speak and listen to Web-based apps. The group, says the W3C, will concentrate on 'standardising languages for capturing and producing speech, and for managing the dialog between users and computers'. ...more