A new website offer subscribers a simple web interface to a caller ID spoofing system that lets them appear to be calling from any number they choose.

US PC company Gateway will finally ship its long-awaited own-brand digital music player on 15 November, more than a year after its first move on the market was planned to debut.

The United States Air Force is commissioning a fleet of 277 F/A-22 Raptor fighter jets at a cost of $260m each. The first, which was due to be completed on Wednesday this week, is to join a fighter squadron close to Washington, DC.

The world's two largest chip foundries, TSMC and UMC, posted their latest quarterly results this week, each showing solid sequential and year-on-year growth.

Four in ten IT workers have been sick at their Christmas party while more than third admit to snogging their boss or a colleague, according to research from Sussex internet outfit Sigmer Technologies. The research doesn't reveal what proportion of people threw up before snogging their boss.

Extortionists have threaten to send out images of child abuse in emails in the name of Blue Square unless the online gambling site hands over €7,000 ($8,900).

Open Source Software is now a viable and credible alternative for government, says a report published yesterday by the UK's Office of Government Commerce. The report, detailing the verdict on a series of proof of concept trials of OSS, which were carried out in conjunction with Sun and IBM over the past year, notes that the three main areas of implementation are at different stages of maturity, but notes that cost savings can be achieved, and signposts OSS' attractiveness as a possible escape route from vendor lock-in.

An international team of astronomers has identified the surviving companion star to the 1572 supernova explosion witnessed by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. This looks to be the first piece of direct, physical evidence that supports the long-standing theory of how this particular type of supernova explosion actually occurs.

George Bush has seen off some stiff competition to win Total Film magazine's movie Villain of the Year, the London Evening Standard reports.

Wanadoo UK - formerly Freeserve - has lost almost quarter of a million punters over the last year but insists its strategy to concentrate on broadband is delivering results.

The UK's e-Government Unit, formerly the Office of the e-Envoy, has finally published the long-awaited update to its policy on open source software in government. But if it didn't have version 2 and today's date on the cover, you might have difficulty spotting it.

Sunspot activity is more intense now than at any point in the last 8,000 years, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. The solar scientists have constructed an 11,000 years record of solar activity based on tree ring data, and discovered that the last 70 years have been particularly spot-filled.

Sourcefire, the company founded by the creator of the open source Snort intrusion detection system, has added improved vulnerability detection technology to help customers bolster their security defences.

Amstrad is to splurge £2m in the run-up to Christmas advertising its new email-enabled home videophone - the Amstrad E3. The new device was unveiled in September by boss Sir Alan Sugar in a bid to bring video telephony to the masses.

Reg reviewVodafone's massive marketing campaign for its RIM-made 7100v is proof enough that the mobile phone networks believe that businesses are desperate for mobile email and that they think most handsets' SMS-oriented keypads won't hack it. It's not just the networks - PDA vendors on both sides of the Palm OS-Windows Mobile divide are touting email on the move for businesses as a key feature of their products.

Orange - the mobilephoneco owned by France Telecom - reported strong customer growth during Q3 adding 1.3m new punters in all. France saw the biggest influx with the addition of 207,000 new customers, while the UK added 140,000 new users. Its "Rest of the World" segment (Orange, segment, geddit? [Clear your desk, you're fired - Ed]) also did well nudging the company past 52m customers around the world.

US scientists have taught a monkey to operate a robotic arm to feed itself using only the power of its thoughts.

O2 maintains that it has resolved a billing issue that is currently being examined by Ofcom after OpenAir - a former O2 reseller - had sent a 67-page report to the regulator detailing allegations that the mobile operator overcharged some of its punters.

Static Control Corp. (SCC) has won an appeal that will allow it to resume the sale of replacement ink cartridges for Lexmark printers pending the resolution of a lawsuit between the two companies. The ruling by the US Courts of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, on Tuesday (26 October) overturns a February 2003 injunction and as is a significant victory for SCC. However, the case is yet to go to trial.

Several of the largest makers of touch screen ballot machines are submitting at least some of their source code to the National Software Reference Library, the Associated Press reports.

Letters specialLet’s just get straight to it, with a letter from a chap called Frank. Indeed, it is Frank’s letter that has prompted this particular letters special:

Google has acquired 3D mapping company Keyhole for an undisclosed sum, and announced that it's cutting the price of the consumer edition from $69.95 to $29.95. Keyhole's EarthViewer mapping service is a technical tour de force, making use of the 3D capabilities of modern PC graphics cards to do the heavy lifting, or rendering in this case. Earthviewer allows you to "fly" between specified points. EarthViewer came to widespread attention during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when CNN, ABC and CBS used the imaging technology.