Oracle will complete its showy acquisition of retail software maker Retek on Tuesday, beating out rival SAP.

China is changing the rules for government departments which want to buy software produced outside the country.

Intel continues to recycle its older notebook and desktop products into the consumer electronics market. Yesterday, at Intel Developer Forum Taiwan, the chip giant introduced a 'new' chipset aimed at set-top boxes.

The Met Office has broken out its shiny new supercomputer and has started using the NEC beast to produce its weather forecasts.

ReviewIn a hundred years' time, if there one object was to be chosen to represent the Western world of the early 21st Century, the iPod would be a strong contender. Once merely a music player it's become the 'must have' fashion accessory of the moment. And even with its ubiquity, there's no backlash yet in sight, writes Benny Har-Even.

VIA NET.WORKS, Inc. - the business-focused telco in Europe and the US which recently said it was facing an "urgent liquidity problem" - has agreed to be rescued by UK ISP Claranet for $27m.

Not content with creating a continent-spanning lawsuit-sharing network using special P2P (person to perpetrator) technology, the record companies' consortium, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) now wants your ISP to sign up to a new "code of conduct" that it has helpfully drafted with the help of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). A warning, though: you probably won't like it.

UK music retailer HMV is to ditch its digital music partner Loudeye subsidiary OD2 in favour of MusicNet, it emerged last night.

Research commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions into the workings of the Child Support Agency reveals staff are still struggling with EDS's new computer system dubbed CS2.*

Ibas, the data recovery and computer forensics firm, is to buy its main European competitor, UK-based Vogon International.

Scientists at Harvard University have discovered how to freeze light, so that it can be used to build an optical computer, theoretically capable of processing information ten times faster than traditional electronics.

VIA has posted open source drivers for its graphics chipsets, part of its project to encourage the use of Linux with its EPIA embedded x86 platform.

Shares in Fibernet dipped this morning after the UK alternative telco warned of tough times ahead.

The record industry is targeting nearly 1,000 people in a new wave of lawsuits against alleged "illegal song-swappers" in actions in 11 countries in Europe and Asia.

The amount of spam reaching Netizen inboxes is still on the rise, yet fewer people are offended by it than were a year ago, a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found.

Intel has lost Moore's Law and is offering a $10,000 bounty to anyone who can provide information leading to its return.

Rumours that Google UK is planning to take on local area information suppliers such as the Yellow Pages at their own game were confirmed as fact this week. Head of Google Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Holger Meyer, went on-the-record and stated that the UK was to receive a new "local" button to its search engine "later in the year."

A 39-year-old Italian man convicted of running a porn dialler scam was last week jailed for 14 months on fraud and virus distribution charges. The unnamed perp was also fined €3,000 by a Milan court, after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate virus writing scam designed to fleece gullible Windows users. The case marks the first conviction for virus writing in Italy, Italian tech daily Punto Informatico reports.

The developing world stands to gain most from nanotechnology through its advances in energy storage and production, according to a report. In a poll of 63 experts in the field, nanotechnology's potential to transform food production was also highlighted.

A new web site has been created for people who want to buy and sell votes in the upcoming general election. Whether it's a genuine bid to raise some extra cash or a satirical comment about the state of British politics, the site is likely to stir up more controversy.

The US Army will by June deploy in Iraq its "Matrix" system of remotely-detonated landmines, despite widespread concerns about the technology. The Mosul-based Styker Brigade will, according to Yahoo! news, be able to control individual devices from a laptop via a WLAN set-up. The Army reckons Matrix will eliminate accidental deaths caused by dumb landmines. Critics say otherwise.

A UK independent record label boss has warned that indies may this week launch an assault on the UK singles chart to prove that it is not secure following the incorporation of downloads into sales figures. The plan is simply to download specific songs as many times as possible to improve their chart position - an armchair version of the old "send out the manager to buy every copy in HMV" ploy.

Ta very much this afternoon to wags Bob & Paul who send news of perhaps the ultimate antidote to preposterous eBay auction syndrome.

Credit agency Moody's is cutting its rating outlook for Hewlett-Packard from positive to stable. The analysts are worried about HP's longer-term performance and the increasing risk of competition.

The Bush Administration plans to extend its mighty neural networks to international banking in hopes of discovering terrorist activity, the New York Times reported in its Sunday edition.

Proposed European legislation on data retention may be illegal, according to lawyers at the European Council and Commission.

Apple will ship the next major release of Mac OS X on Friday, 29 April, the Mac maker said today, 24 hours or so before it announces its Q2 FY2005 results.

Management software maker BMC will can almost 12 per cent of its workforce in a bid to please investors with improved profitability. In addition, the company revealed preliminary fourth quarter financial figures well below previous expectations.

Cheaper bandwidth at higher speeds is promised with the introduction Tuesday of a new telco standard 'Carrier Ethernet'. The standard is backed up by an international certification programme from trade association the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF).

UK Online's headline-grabbing offer of entry-level broadband for under £10 a month has caused a stir among UK punters keen to snap up the offer of cheap broadband.

Mandatory fingerprinting of new UK passport applicants is to begin next year, as a "building block" for a future ID card scheme, according to a Guardian report The Government's ID Card Bill was spiked after the election was announced, but the Government is said to contend that as passports are issued under royal prerogative, it doesn't need legislation to demand fingerprints from passport applicants.