LEGO goes to the movies

Things have moved on a lot since I was first introduced to these plastic building blocks when I was a wee nipper. First, they tried to put motors into LEGO blocks, then it was computers and now those Dutch scallywags want our children to have hands-on experience of video editing with their brand new LEGO Moviemaker package. Produced in association with Pinnacle Systems, the pack includes LEGO studio software, which has been aimed at the younger Steven Spielbergs out there. ...more

AMD launches three new dual core Opteron chips

AMD has upped the ante in the battle for the next generation of x86 class servers with the announcements of three new versions of its dual core Opteron range. The three new chips span the range from one-way devices for workstations through to a version aimed at large eight way enterprise class servers. The three new parts announced are the Model 880 for up to eight-way enterprise servers that equates to a 16-core machine while the Model 280 is targeted at high performance dual-processor workstations and servers. ...more

Redmond pulls critical update

Microsoft is breaking its monthly cycle of security updates - there will be no release this Tuesday, covering the month of September, despite having previously flagged the presence of a 'critical' vulnerability. Traditionally, the second Tuesday of each month sees Microsoft batching together any Windows security updates, rather than releasing them piecemeal. But it seems that the company is concerned about the quality of the patch that was being prepared, and no update will appear tomorrow. ...more

Jobs shows off Leopard's top spots

Steve Jobs has taken the wraps off some of the new features of Leopard, the next major upgrade to Mac OS X, which is scheduled to begin shipping in spring next year. The Apple CEO introduced new software for recovering and restoring date and managing desktops and applications, a significantly enhanced Mail and iCal, improved support for 64-bit hardware and a new desktop animation technology. Time Machine [pictured] is perhaps the standout new feature in Leopard. ...more

Blueyonder afflicted by service outage

Most of Telewest's Blueyonder Internet services were unavailable for some time yesterday and continue to be affected after a 'network fault' blocked access to the company's servers. Blueyonder services including Selfcare, webmail and email were affected, though the company said that since then access has 'greatly improved' but could still be 'slow and intermittent'. Telewest added that the fault causing this would also be affecting other ISPs. ...more