Mandrake 7.2 Linux released

MandrakeSoft today launched Linux-Mandrake 7.2, the latest in its Red Hat-based Linux distributions. This version, which is available as a free download from the company's Web site, includes an Internet messaging program that is compatible with systems run by AOL, MSN, ICQ and Yahoo. ...more

AdCenter live in UK

Microsoft's adCenter now serves all of the paid search traffic on Microsoft online properties in the UK, principally MSN Search and Windows Live Search. The deal with Yahoo!'s Search Marketing in Britain has been terminated. Over the past few months, Microsoft has been trialling the service with a number of its key advertisers, and has now pronounced itself satisfied with the results. ...more

e-beeb squeezed

Forty jobs to go as beeb.com, the BBC's e-commerce portal, undergoes 'restructuring'. The closure is another reflection of dot-com woes - of the struggle to generate revenues from online services and advertising. ...more

Sony shows super, slim digicam

Sony has unveiled a new 'super slim' digital camera with a pot pourri of technological firsts for a camera of its size. The Cyber-shot DSC-T9 is, Sony says, 'the first super slim digital still camera with double 'anti-blur' technology - combining optical image stabiliser and high sensitivity', added to which Super SteadyShot, 'reduces camera shake for crystal clear photos'. Combine Super SteadyShot with High Sensitivity [Sony's caps] and the camera can shoot happily in the dark without a flash or capture moving objects with the 'reassurance that they will be blur-free'. ...more

New York Senator urges boycott of video game

A US senator has proposed a boycott of a new video game ahead of its launch this summer. The move is guaranteed to make the game, '25 to Life', a best seller and likely to revive the fortunes of its publisher Eidos, which has struggled to find another hit franchise after the Tomb Raider series. In the game, reports Reuters, the player can choose either to play the role of the gangster or the police and it is the former which has raised the hackles of Democrat Senator, Charles Schumer from New York. ...more