Aibo receives 40,000 orders

The virtual dog that's making all the headlines proves he's not a flash in the pan. Sony has revealed that it has received 40,000 orders for the new version of its robot dog Aibo in the four weeks since its launch on November. A spokesperson revealed that orders for the new ERS-210 topped 40,000 on December 11, while the company has already sold over 45,000 units of its original Aibo unit worldwide. ...more

Indymedia gets its servers back

The UK-based Indymedia servers which were seized following a court order in the US have been returned. The Independent Media Centre says that whilst the servers have been returned by the Feds and are now back in the Rackmedia racks, they are assumed to have been compromised in some way. As a result, IMC is checking out the drives for spyware and other interesting pieces of code that the Feds might have left behind before pressing them back into service. ...more

Happy(ish) ending to bad year for Intel

Intel has published encouraging results for Q4 at the end of a 'terrible' year. Sales for the fourth quarter ended up 7 per cent over the previous quarter with a $7bn revenue, exceeding most expectations. This was down 20 per cent over Q4 2000, however, and end-of-year revenues for 2001 were down 21 per cent from 2000. ...more

Britain to build Europe's fastest Supercomputer

Britain is to build Europe's biggest supercomputer. When completed the High-End Computing Terascale Resource (or Hector) will be capable of running at speeds of up to 100 teraflops. The Government is to put ?52 million towards the project, which is likely to be completed next year. ...more

MEPs strive to clarify new computing patent directive

MEPs are calling for a redrafting of the controversial proposed patent directive for 'computer implemented' inventions. A group of 61 MEPs have signed a motion to have the proposal sent back to the European Parliament for a first reading, whereby the scope and aims of the directive can be more stringently set out to ensure concerns over the broad patentability of software are addressed. The motion states that dramatic changes both in software patents and the EU itself since its original drafting means that the door is open to redraw the proposal from scratch. ...more