ISPs offer 2Mbps ADSL broadband

Trials of BT's 2Mbps wholesale broadband service began yesterday, with eight ISPs offering connections. BT Retail has already filled its quota, but anyone wishing to take part in the trial can apply to any of the following. • Andrews and Arnold Home-Fast - ?27. ...more

Interview: Skype CEO Niklas Zennstr?m talks telephony

Skype, a little application that lets you make high quality voice calls on the Internet for free, is growing to such an extent that it now has nearly 30 million users. It is finding its way on to an increasing number of mobile devices, and hotspot operators are recognising the exploding popularity of the application, with Broadreach Networks offering free use of Skype through its access points. But CEO Niklas Zennstr?m says this is just the beginning. ...more

World's largest computing grid goes live

The world's largest permanent computing grid has gone online, giving scientists access to the processing power of 6,000 computers at 78 locations, including 1,000 at 12 sites across the UK. The Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (LCG) is designed to be big enough to handle the 15 petabytes (15 million gigabytes) of data that will be generated each year by the large hadron collider at CERN, Europe's particle physics laboratory In Geneva, Switzerland. By 2007, LCG will be able to generate the processing power of the equivalent of 100,000 of the fastest computers, creating a 'virtual supercomputer' that can be expanded as required. ...more

Instant messaging, with pictures

Yahoo! is adding a video feature to its instant messaging service so that you will be able to see just who it is you are communicating with. It's not yet full video because the images that accompany the live chat will only appear at the rate of one frame per second, but the idea is to help users convey the meaning and emotion of messages. (A different take on the Emoticons for email that we have reported on before, but the principle is the same. ...more

Spammed-out ISP awarded $1bn damages

A US judge has awarded damages totalling $1bn to an ISP whose mail servers were swamped by spam. Robert Kramer runs an email service for some 5,000 subscribers in Iowa and filed lawsuits against 300 spammers after his servers received up to 10 million junk emails each day. District Judge Charles R Wolle has awarded damages against three companies under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act and the Iowa Criminal Conduct Act, which allows plaintiffs to claim up to $10 per spam message received. ...more