AAASA new version of an electronic implant which restores visual capabilities in blind people holds untold promise, those gathered at a meeting in San Francisco heard today, as the technology behind the device is taken to the next level.

BEA Systems will restate almost a decade's worth of earnings to the tune of nearly $400m thanks to misallocation of stock to employees.

A jury has awarded a former security analyst for Sandia National Laboratories $4.7m after he was fired for conducting his own investigation into computer attacks and taking his findings to authorities of a separate agency.

AnalysisA quick stroll through Platform Solutions Inc.'s (PSI) data center reveals why IBM has sued the start-up. There's a hulking HP Superdome system with a tiny PSI label on it, and this box promises to do much of a mainframe's work for a fraction of the cost.

As you’ll no doubt be aware, the Mono Project is an ambitious, open-source initiative, largely coordinated by Novell. The aim is to build a complete suite of ECMA- compliant .NET tools (C# compiler, runtime, class frameworks, etc) which work across all supported platforms, including Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. For more background on the project, check out “Mono (software)” on Wikipedia.

Drugs giant Eli Lilly has failed in its bid to restrict a wiki from linking to documents that could be damaging to its business. The ruling of a New York court said the court could not rule against the internet "in its various manifestations".

Intel insiders have claimed that the combination of the chip giant's P35 and G35 chipsets - aka 'Bearlake' - and its Core 2 processors will yield a performance boost of 15 per cent at a given clock speed.

The Government's planned two-year jail sentence for information thieves will not apply to people who steal or trade in personal information from most manual filing systems. Apart from some Government files, the penalties will only apply to electronic databases.

A US analyst has expressed "increasing concerns" that AMD is heading toward a cash-flow crisis even a shareholders' ears prick to whispers that a private equity company is looking to buy a stake in the chip maker - or even the whole kit and kaboodle.

The European Commission has set aside €50m this year to support the establishment of digital repositories for storing scientific data.

UpdatedThe internet is a cruel mistress, and no messing. Pity if you will poor old Joss Stone, whose performance at the Brit awards earlier this week might have been consigned to the dustbin of history were it not for YouTube

Bad weather has forced Japan to postpone the launch of a new spy satellite. Japanese space agency JAXA scrubbed the launch shortly before the rocket carrying the satellite was due to blast off from Tanegashima island.

Isporty.com is a MySpace for sports fans where you can set up a page for your team or sports club, or a personal page showing your sporting interests - whether it's football, fishing or darts.

Researchers at Wrexham Maelor Hospital who tested wobbly hospital patients who claimed their drinks had been spiked found most were simply legless, the BBC reports.

Troubled health provider iSoft is in talks with Australian company IBA Health about a possible takeover, but says it is still looking at other options.

Episode 7

NSFWThanks very much to reader Nick L for alerting us to a rather strange eBayer who has decided to deploy her not inconsiderable assets as a sort of mammary display stand. Try this "auction" for a Panasonic CD player front panel:

Samsung is getting ready for the day when Mobile WiMAX - also known as 802.16e - services become widespread an users want to connect their computers to the network. This week it demo'd a USB key that provides both WiMAX and 3G HSDPA connectivity.

CommentFifteen years ago a plethora of different network communications protocols were being used for computer communications. Getting computers to talk to each other was a complex business and vendors like Novell made a good living enabling them to do so.

LogoWatchWe here at El Reg like to think that our LogoWatch strand has done much to rid the world of Powerpoint presentation-weilding Strategy Boutiques - redefining brand frontage paradigms and delivery mission-critical synergistic solutions to better represent the brand proposition companies represent to their end user demographic while blasted off the planet on Bolivian marching powder.

The Bank of England told HM Treasury about the secret US surveillance of international banking transactions as long as five years ago.

DRM intellectual property business Intertrust has issued a license price for its patent portfolio that is designed to totally undermine the existing MPEG LA patent pool for the Open Mobile Alliance DRM 2.0 system, although it’s being very careful not to say that out loud.

Two of the three main defendants in the FTPWelt trial, which opened this week at the District Court of Mühlhausen in Germany, have admitted that they offered bootleg software, games and movies through a high speed download service Ftpwelt.com.

Europeans who bought a new PC in time for Christmas and were persuaded that they would get a Vista upgrade soon after the rollout by redeeming a voucher, are learning that demand for the upgrades far outstrips "supply".

Here's a Friday afternoon poser for you: what do you do if you're on a beach doing a swimwear shoot for Sports Illustrated and your bikini inexplicably falls off and you're left sprawling butt-naked on the golden sands with your ample charms exposed to the snapper's sweaty lens?

Lexar's 4GB SHDC card isn't the first of its kind to be rated Class 6 for speed - Transcend won that accolade in October 2006 - but it's no slouch for that. Class 6 devices have a guaranteed minimum data transfer rate of 6MBps, and Lexar said its card has a minimum write speed of 20MBps - hence the 133x speed.

Japanese whaling vessel the Nisshin Maru - partially evacuated yesterday following an engine-room fire - is still wallowing powerless in Antarctica's stormy Ross Sea, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The European Council has endorsed a pan-European police database that was established by a small club of countries outside the European framework last year.

Ingram Micro made sales of $8.85bn in the fourth quarter ended 30 December 2006, an increase of 11 per cent on the $7.96bn the distie made in the same period of 2005.

When it comes to preparing a pitch you can always go for the ‘Industry Standard’ PowerPoint, but these days you can also push the boat out and take a more integrated approach. It’s a bit like whether you drive a sensible family car or – like Jeremy Clarkson – yearn to drive something a little sportier. They both get you from A to B but with Mr Clarkson’s jalopy you get to travel with a bit more style.

Steve Ballmer has played down the hype surounding Vista sales saying some analysts have taken an overly optimistic view.

LettersTony Blair has his finger on the button and is preparing to fire. Fortunately, there are no weapons of mass destruction, only emails of mass dissemination, as New Labour preps a reply to the 1.5 million people who don't want road tax priced by the mile:

Brocade has introduced its first Fibre Channel switch that can be used within both Brocade and McDATA SANs.

AAASGeneticists are shedding light on why some people can't handle their beer, or rather may eschew a noble chalice of foaming chestnut ale in favour of a less challenging sweeter beverage.

Dell has done some Zandr poaching, grabbing Motorola's handset chief to run its consumer products unit.