Technology

It will still be at least a year before DVD recorders become standard in home computers. That’s because of a nasty format war among consumer electronics companies, much like the one that eventually saw VHS win over Betamax in the world of videotapes

The net has shrunk ever so slightly. For only the second time ever, an authoritative monthly survey of the number of sites on the net has found fewer sites online than in the previous month. The fall has been put down to a drop in the number of registered domains. Despite the drop, the net remains hugely popular, and there are now over 36,000,000 sites in cyberspace

Software giant Microsoft has sued computer operating system maker Lindows.com, claiming Lindows.com’s name is too close to that of its own dominant Windows operating system

A US man accused of sending harassing e-mails to an American police department has been told to surrender — via e-mail

Broadband net users in the UK who are worried that their PCs could be subverted by malicious hackers can now let anti-virus companies keep an eye on their machines for them. Security company McAfee has launched a subscription service that uses the web to protect a PC against viruses and attacks by computer vandals

Dr Laura, the queen of talk-show intolerance, is learning — the hard way — that the internet will hold her accountable, one angry bulletin board posting or e-mail after another

Hewlett-Packard board member Walter Hewlett and other opponents of the proposed HP-Compaq Computer merger on Thursday filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission a proxy statement to ask shareholders to vote against the deal at a special HP shareholders meeting next year

The web site which provides News Interactive subscribers with archive searches on News Limited’s publications in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, has been massively effected by a suspected viral outbreak

For many elderly people in Britain, computers and the internet are a mystery. Latest official figures show that only one in 10 of those over 65 years old are online. But for one elderly British woman, an early xmas present of a Sony laptop from her stepson, computer consultant Bill Thompson, has opened up a whole new world

A Florida company is poised to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievement that opens the door to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening

Microsoft may have touted Windows XP as the most secure operating system it has made, but the company on Thursday released a bug fix for a security hole that could leave some people’s systems open to malicious attack

Xerox has established in court that it is the inventor of handwriting technology used in Palm devices. The next step is to establish damages which, considering the numbers of Palms sold, will run into several million dollars

RSA has improved the algorithm underpinning the security of wireless networks. This could halt drive-by hacking in its tracks — depending how it is implemented

More than 3000 generic Internet names until now barred from use in Australia on the grounds they would hand an unfair competitive advantage to their owner will be auctioned

The .au Domain Authority has put former administrator Robert Elz on notice that it intends to take the asn.au, org.au and id.au name spaces from his control within 60 days

The Linux community has applauded the recent police raids on the Australian Warez community, saying that stamping out pirated software will make open-source alternatives more attractive. Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police has been lambasted for its participation in last week’s Internet piracy raids with some suggesting software houses should foot their own bill in the fight against illegal software use