Despite only 4% of businesses in the Asia-Pacific region using Linux, International Data Corporation's recent report, "Linux Adoption and Forecast", revealed that another 24% of companies have experimented or are experimenting with Linux. Based on this high level of experimentation, the group predicts that paid licences for Linux in the region will grow to 700,000 by 2004.
I know you
The world might become like the television bar, Cheers - "a place where everyone knows your name" - if the scientists at IBM have their way. The company's research boffins have come up with what they call a "Vision Pad Identifier", a system that follows its wearer's gaze. Your gaze having alighted on someone's face, the camera would scan the face, run it through a database (the technology for this is already widely deployed) and come up with a name, which it would display, perhaps on the sunglasses you are wearing with the camera embedded. You need never worry about not remembering the names of people you bump into. You would even know the names of people you never bumped into.
Mobile makers sued
Motorola, Ericsson, Sprint PCS, Nextel, AT&T, Verizon and others have been named in a class action lawsuit filed in Baltimore, and state courts in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The suits were filed by Peter Angelos, a lawyer who made a reputation on suing the tobacco and asbestos industries. The suits allege that mobile phones are potentially injurious to the health of their users, that the respondents knew about it and that they failed to warn their customers. The suits want the wireless industry to cover the cost of headsets that, Angelos says, would protect users from the alleged radiation hazards, which include, the suits claim, damage to basic brain function. They also claim unspecified punitive damages. Some plaintiffs are not claiming to have suffered any health problems caused by mobile phones, but are asking the companies to pay for headsets as a preventative measure. Citing recent studies, mobile phone makers insist there is no scientific evidence of any health risks.
Dot-porn
Sacked dotcom employees are looking to the porn industry as a possible saviour. Porn producers in California report a surge of resumes and telephone inquiries from programmers and other dotcom types. The adult entertainment industry remains one of the only profitable enterprises on the internet. It seems the industry is having the last laugh. "Last year we couldn't get anyone to return our calls," one industry insider told the LA Times. The newspapers reported that IT industry watchers across the US say the migration is increasing as the porn industry expands and say the calls and resumes underscore the acceptance into the corporate mainstream of porn.
Hackers feel sting
Two suspected hackers from Russia have been nabbed by the FBI on US soil. The two have been indicted on counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and violations of the Computer Crime and Abuse Act. The pair are claimed to have broken into the computer systems of several e-commerce companies, stolen credit-card information and then returned to the companies as "consultants" to charge for fixing the flaw. Playing them at their own game, the FBI set up a company, installed a system and invited the hackers to penetrate it. When they did, the "company" offered the Russians a job in the US. When they arrived to take up their lucrative positions they were met at the airport by their new "employers", a phalanx of FBI officers.