Dot com disaster dishes out dogs' dinner

Are you fed up reading about how yet another Web site has bitten the dirt? Well, some good has come out of one dot com crash. When online pet superstore Pets.com collapsed after lack of funding at the beginning of November, no one would have thought that a little ray of light would come out of the darkness of financial ruin. ...more

Logica establishes ?370m foothold in Germany

Logica yesterday strengthened its presence in Germany - Europe's biggest and fastest growing IT market - with the ?370m purchase of German computer services firm, pdv Unternehmensberatung GmbH. The deal will be funded by Logica through a share issue (a 1 for 10 rights issue at ?11.50 per new Logica share). ...more

Microsoft submits new email authentication system for approval

Microsoft has made another move to tackle the problems of spamming and phishing. It has announced that it will converge its Caller ID system with the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which was devised by Meng Weng Wong, co-founder and CTO of Pobox.com. ...more

The Stinger in Microsoft's tail

Microsoft set out its hopes for the mobile future this morning at the Mobile Convergence 2001 conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Magnus Ahlberg, a senior marketing manager, claimed that we were about to enter 'Wave 2' of the Internet, with wireless-specific applications such as interactive city guides appearing, while the mobile phone will also replace your wallet and ATM card. He played a brief video demonstrating Microsoft's forthcoming smart phone operating system known as Stinger, which will provide real-time access to services such as e-mail and online retailers. ...more

Amazon goes into the groceries business

Online retailer Amazon, which has already cornered the market in online books and a wide range of other goods ranging from consumer electronics to kitchen appliances and garden furniture, is going into the dried goods business in the US. The company has started to offer a range of 10,000 non-perishable groceries such as pasta, tinned food, breakfast food and sauces. It is also stocking a range of bathroom goods such as razor blades, shampoos and over the counter medicines. ...more