Welsh college rapped for spying on employees' Net usage

A European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a college had breached an employee's privacy by spying on her emails. The court awarded ?6,000 in damages to Lynette Copland after she successfully sued her employer, Carmarthenshire College in west Wales. Nine years ago the college, where Copland still works, had recorded whom she emailed and the websites she visited for 18 months. ...more

HP exposes new technology for labelling CD and DVD discs

The days of labelling CDs and DVDs with marker pen, sticky label or one of those CD printing attachments for inkjets are over, says Hewlett-Packard. The company has developed a new technology which uses the same laser that burns data to a disc to also burn the label. Known as LightScribe, the technology uses the laser to 'expose' a chemical on one side of specially-coated discs. ...more

AMD bullish on sales growth

Speaking at the company's annual analyst meeting yesterday, AMD president and CEO Hector Ruiz confirmed that he expects a sales increase of 20% or more in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared to the third quarter ended September 29, 2002. Speaking at the company's annual analyst meeting yesterday, AMD president and CEO Hector Ruiz confirmed that he expects a sales increase of 20% or more in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared to the third quarter ended September 29, 2002.AMD reported $508m in third-quarter sales. ...more

Hollywood wants tougher iTunes DRM

Hollywood studios want Apple to further restrict the number of devices on which iTunes movies can be played before they will agree to sell their films through the online store. According to the Financial Times, months of talks between Apple and Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros have stalled on this point. Apple currently allows content from Walt Disney - the only studio to have signed up to date - to be played on up to five authorised devices, such as Macs and iPods and, when it is released next year, the 'iTV' wireless television interface. ...more

Website reveals where's in a name

A new website has been launched that shows the geographical distribution of surnames throughout the UK. The surname profiler has geographical data on more than 25,000 surnames and is the result of a year's research into social patterns such as economic and cultural migration. The data comes from the 1881 census and 1998 electoral register. ...more