IDG.net: Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV plans to lay off a total of 441 employees from its production facilities in Hasselt, Belgium and scale back its production of CD-RW (compact disc-rewritable) drives, a company spokesman confirmed Thursday.
C-Net: The rapid evolution of Windows Messenger underscores two basic challenges for Microsoft. One, Microsoft is under pressure to come out with an operating system with upgrades compelling enough to get people to upgrade their PCs. Second, and just as important, Microsoft’s dominance on the desktop is being challenged by AOL Time Warner and Yahoo. Their competing IM programs mean another brand sits on the desktop, a situation that sets off alarms in Redmond, Wash.
AP: Contradicting the prevailing sentiment in Europe against biotech crops, a report Tuesday from the European Union’s head office suggested they may even be safer than regular foods.
ComputerUser: A report just published says that broadband Internet adoption across Europe is starting to take off at last. … Currently, researchers found, the countries with the highest level of DSL household penetration include Sweden (4.6 percent), Denmark (3.9 percent), Belgium (3.9 percent) and Austria (3.3 percent).
Fox News: Bert Heyvaert, a piper from Belgium, said he would play at the American memorial in Ypres, site of a devastating battle in World War I. “My respects to the [New York] rescue workers and all those who have not given up hope in their wounded city,” he wrote in a message to the pipers’ association. “I’ll be proud to honor all of you.”Wired: Studies by the Natural Resource Defense Council estimate that more than 150 B61-11s are currently in the U.S. arsenals, scattered among NATO aircraft carriers and planes on bases in Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.
Could Kleine Brogel be used as a base for a tactical nuclear attack on Bin Laden?
C-Net: Bowing to customer pressure, Microsoft has extended the deadline for business customers to sign up for a licensing program, just days after backing off a controversial provision that forced some to pay twice for software they purchased.
Salon: Officials have said there is no evidence that Stevens was the victim of terrorism. Wiersma said tests of Stevens’ blood helped confirm that belief because the anthrax in the sample responded to penicillin. Anthrax developed by some countries as a biological weapon could be resistant to the antibiotic, he said.
C-Net: The former computer administrator at DeKalb Technical College in Georgia found out recently that he could face up to 30 years in jail and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars because he installed some distributed computing software on the school’s computers.
FreeMcOwen: Charges now include 8 Felony counts for 120 years, 15 years each count. Also each count carries $50,000 fine in addition to the $415,000 in restitution and damages they seek.
Dave Winer: “When I grew up in NY I used to spend winter weekend afternoons at the public library scrolling through the Times on microfilm. I don’t recall paying any money for this.”