Demand for CD-R discs up because of SARS

Demand for CD-R discs has been growing recently as distributors are increasing inventories amid worries that the SARS epidemic might affect supply. Strong demand has been seen not only for 48x and 52x discs but also for 24x and 32x products, sources said. With most of their clients from major brand companies, first-tier optical disc makers in Taiwan usually see low demand for 24x and 32x discs compared to those with higher capacities. ...more

Sno-Cross hits Freeloader

Everyone likes something for nothing, so how about a free Snow-cross racing game? Those lovely folk at Freeloader.com are giving away the most excellent snow racing game, Sno-Cross. From March 22, you will be able to download this little beauty and take part in this icy race over 7 courses to win the Sno-Cross Championship. ...more

MPs bid to tackle online extortion

The All Party Internet Group (APIG) is to put forward a bill to update the venerable 1990 Computer Misuse Act. The amendments, if accepted, would explicitly make a crime of distributed denial of service attacks and raise the punitive measures for hacking from six months to two years. The amendments are mainly directed at tackling the rising incidence of blackmail and extortion against online services, such as bookmakers, where organised gangs demand sums of money or threaten to take the service offline with such an attack. ...more

Yahoo! ups limit on its Mail service to 1GB

Yahoo! Mail is to increase its storage capacity to 1GB. The move may not be entirely unconnected to the fact that Google's Gmail is widely expected to become available to anyone from the 1st of April - one year to the day since its launch. The current storage limit for Yahoo! Mail until now has been 250MB. ...more

Analysis: MAC codes hijack wantaway customers

Migration Authority Codes (MACs) were supposed to streamline the arduous process of moving from one broadband provider to another. Instead, they remain a source of frustration, because service providers avoid giving them out in a selfish bid to retain customers. Switching broadband ISPs often results in weeks with no service, but a MAC should speed up the process from four weeks to ten days. ...more