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Government defeat on DNA database

The government has been defeated in the House of Lords over the issue of keeping people's DNA and fingerprints on the police national database.

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Games to outsell music and video

UK sales of games will outstrip music and video for the first time in 2008, says a report from Verdict Research. A huge shift in consumer attitudes has turned video games into the UK's most popular form of entertainment, say the retail analysts.

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Firms demand aid on hi-tech crime

UK businesses have little faith that the government is doing enough to tackle hi-tech crime, says a report. 57% of those questioned by the Corporate IT Forum said they felt hi-tech crime in the workplace would not be dealt with properly by the police.

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Foreign students fingerprint fear

Fingerprinting of overseas students will begin this month - and university chiefs are warning that it needs to be a simple and efficient process. Under tougher immigration rules designed to tackle bogus colleges, overseas students coming to the UK will need biometric identity cards.

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PC users to invent the ideal machine

Ask the average computer user what bugs them and they will probably mutter about the speed of their broadband connection and how slow their machine can be when working hard. It is not just computer users that moan about such things, computer makers are worried about them too.

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The pains of switching to digital

On Thursday morning, 52,000 households in the Scottish Borders will wake up to the dawn of the new digital era. Switchover was successfully trialled in the town of Whitehaven in Cumbria last year, but the big roll out starts with the Border TV region. Analogue TV signals will be turned off from the Selkirk group of transmitters and replaced with a stronger digital signal.

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A hands-on preview of Windows 7

Microsoft has released an early preview copy of its new operating system, Windows 7.

The release follows in the wake of Vista, which has been subject to fierce criticism from a number of users.

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The end of an era - Windows 3.x

Windows 3.x has come to the closing moments of its long life. On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US.

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Ferrari test drives supercomputing

As computer power goes up and costs come down more and more firms are turning to small-scale supercomputers to help them get the job done. David Reid visited Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello, Italy as it put Microsoft's high performance software through its paces.

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Tech giants win white space fight

Federal regulators have approved a plan to use currently unlicensed parts of the US TV airwaves, known as white spaces, to deliver broadband services

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Microsoft gives start-ups leg up

In a bid to win over future business, Microsoft has announced a programme to give some start-ups free software and support. BizSpark is a global project open to private companies that have been in business for less than three years with less than $1m in annual revenue.

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Pledge Watch: Laptops for all

In October 1999, Gordon Brown pledged: "We will pioneer a system so people can use computers and software in the new century the way local libraries have loaned books in the last century."

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Capturing the scents of warfare

Video games use realistic graphics and sounds to create virtual worlds. Now researchers in Birmingham are adding smells to the experience to prepare soldiers for war.

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The Game Girl

Nancy Smith, who got her career break as the "token woman," is now riding high in a world dominated by men. For Ms Smith it has mostly always been so as she worked her way up the ladder from selling spreadsheets and word processing packages to becoming one of the most influential women in video gaming.

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Bionic hand makes inventions list

The world's first commercially available bionic hand has been recognised as one of the top inventions of 2008.

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The baby being used to train medics

Baby Gertrude is not real, but a simulated nine-month-old baby used to train medical staff how to deal with a seriously ill baby. The clever simulation can run a series of conditions to train staff.

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Web helps Obama with transition

Barack Obama is turning to the web as he prepares to become US president. Via a website called Change.gov, the Obama campaign plans to provide a guide to the transition process.

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Malaysia blogger's joy at release

A prominent critic of the Malaysian government, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, has been freed from jail on the orders of a judge.

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MPs want UK jail time for hacker

UK MPs are calling for hacker Gary McKinnon to serve any sentence he receives in a British jail. Mr McKinnon faces extradition to the US for breaking into American military networks between February 2001 and March 2002.

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New lifeline for Bletchley Park

Britain's code-cracking and computing heritage has won a lifeline in the form of a donation from English Heritage. The grant of £330,000 will be used to undertake urgent roof works at Bletchley Park - where Allied codebreakers worked in World War II.

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New MP3 logo gets online support

Seven of Britain's largest music download sites have got together to promote a new "MP3 compatible" logo. It aims to raise the profile of the open MP3 music format and show people what they can do with their downloads.

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French pirates face net cut-off

French plans to throw persistent pirates off the net have got closer to becoming law.

The French Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the law, which aims to tackle ongoing piracy of music, movies, and games online.

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