FTP man fetches $500,000 in TV quiz

You can't make this stuff up. Jim Matthews, author of the Mac FTP client Fetch, won $500,000 on the US-edition of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" He answered the questions without using his lifelines until the very end. On the last question he asked the audience, but he was unsure of their answer and took the half million. ...more

Microsoft does U-turn to support anti discrimination laws

Microsoft has formally reversed its position on anti gay discrimination in its home state of Washington. Steve Ballmer, the company's CEO has announced that in future Microsoft would put its weight behind any legislation that came before the state's lawmakers. A furore broke out recently when Microsoft, which originally supported an anti discrimination bill HB1515 suddenly changed its stance to 'neutral'. ...more

Monotype acquires font rival

Monotype has acquired one of its major rivals in the font business, Linotype. The Germany-based owner of classic typefaces including Helvetica, Frutiger and Optima will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Monotype Imaging. Monotype believes that the combination of Linotype's library and Monotype's font technology will help to fulfil the increasingly sophisticated font requirements of consumer electronics markets. ...more

Dell launches low-priced Latitudes

Pricing starts at just ?399 (excluding VAT and delivery) for Dell's new entry-level notebook, the Latitude 110L. Pitched at ordinary users who only require word processing, e-mail and Internet functionality - as opposed to video editing or high-end gaming, for example - the black cased machine weighs 2.87kg. ...more

Seagate to make HD for PS2

Not content with securing the contract to produce the hard drives for the Xbox, it looks as if Seagate will also be providing hard disk hardware for Sony's PlayStation 2. The company is rumoured to be producing two types of hard drive for the PS2 - one to be part of an external unit, the other to be used internally, which seems to indicate that future versions of the PlayStation 2 could come with a hard drive built in. This isn't the only indication that the PS2 is slowly turning into a PC. ...more