Government cools on PKI

Failing PKI industry isn't growing fast enough to meet 2005 deadline. At the Internet Goes Public Conference in London yesterday, Steven Marsh, director of security policy at the Office of the e-Envoy, told the public sector audience that the government's commitment to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for authentication to its online services is in no way exclusive. He said that industry just hasn't grown in the way people thought it would five years ago. ...more

HP reveals five new notebooks but keeps quiet on Microsoft's Ultra Mobile PC

HP today announced a broad swathe of notebooks and mobile technologies at its second annual Mobility Summit in San Francisco. But it was notable that amidst all the glitz and glamour of HP's new marketing campaign, Microsoft's Ultra Mobile PC initiative - codenamed Origami - didn't get a mention. In the UK, the most notable new products are five business notebooks, and it was the lightweight tc2400 that stole most of the limelight. ...more

AOL releases AIM beta for OS X

AOL has released a beta version of its Instant Messenger software - AIM 4.5 - for OS X. AOL are keen to retain their Mac user base, as AIM has recently been usurped by Microsoft's MSN Messenger as the leading messaging service. ...more

Virtualisation becomes enterprise critical - Gartner

According to analyst firm Gartner, Virtualisation will be the most important IT technology for the next three years. According to the company, the number of virtual machines will increase from 540,000 at the end of last year to more than four million by 2009. "Several things will make virtualisation critical to most enterprises in the next few years: the need to consolidate space, power, installation and integration, and providing server resources which are capable of responding to unpredictable workloads," Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman told a conference in Sydney yesterday. ...more

Nude Dutch phone frenzy

Nudity, it seems, is on the rise for people who spend their time sat in front of a computer screen, as a Dutch call centre is advertising for staff that want to work naked. Holland, with its multi-lingual workforce and attractive rates of taxation, is a popular location for international call centres, resulting in a shortage of applicants for new posts, but the naked opportunity has succeeded in attracting a rush of highly-qualified applicants, according to Reuters. There could be quite a few from Yorkshire, if results of a survey by NOP for AOL are to be believed. ...more