US jobs boost for Tyneside

US firm ATMEL is to buy Seimens' former DRAM wafer factory in Wallsend, on Tyneside. In a deal partly financed with a ?27.8m regional assistance grant from the Government, the programmable logic, flash and microcontroller firm will create around 700 jobs in the area which could double as production gains momentum. ...more

Half of ISPs fail to meet contractual obligations

Connection monitoring company iowatch has published a survey today showing ISPs could end up forking out compensation on a regular basis unless they sort out their acts. The survey monitored 189 business connections with its linkscan software ten times a minute for availability, speed and quality. It found that few ISPs manage to meet their Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99. ...more

Gamer gives insurers the finger

PC gamer Alex Nikitin has insured his fingers for a meaty ?375,000 ahead of the Korean Cyber Games in Korea this week. The Telewest sponsored player quite rightly considers his pinkies to be one of his greatest assets. Obviously, the speed and intensity of the championship has given Nikitin cause for concern, prompting him to take out the policy. ...more

Sun to sit ultra-thin client suite on Linux servers

Low cost and security likely to appeal to government and education buyers Previewing at the San Francisco Linuxworld Conference and Expo, Sun is showing off its Sun Ray Server Software 3.0 (SRSS 3)running on low-cost x86 Linux-based servers. Sun Ray technology allows workers to log in to their desktop environment via a remote terminal that has almost no computing power in it at all: Just a keyboard, mouse and a screen. ...more

20-04-2002 Essential news of the week

Brought neatly together and presented on a plate, here is a roundup of some of the week's main news stories from the world of IT. PDAs the third way Big Blue a bit green, Sun slightly sour, but Apple solid HP claims narrow victory Xbox price slash for Europe McAfee launches free security analysis tools The Athlon XP, in mobile form States get the go-ahead to pursue tougher remedies NTL splits in financial restructuring BT starts 'fast Internet' satellite trials 21st century bullying, a modern menace Don't forget, we welcome your comments. Just click on a story and go for the 'Comments' link on the right-hand side of the screen. ...more