News:Internet bill limit for overseas use is introduced

Greater protection to prevent mobile phone and computer users from running up large bills when overseas comes into force across the EU on Thursday.

New rules mean that users will be automatically cut off when their monthly bill for using the internet abroad reaches 50 euros ($61; £41), excluding VAT.

Customers will receive a warning when they have used 80% of this limit.

They can set their own monthly cut-off point by contacting their provider.

Accessing the internet via your mobile phone while abroad is called "data roaming".

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News:Sony Vaio laptop in mass 'recall'

Authorities in the US have instructed Sony to conduct a recall of its Vaio laptops, after problems with overheating were reported.

Sony said the problem affects more than half a million of its F and C series laptops sold since the start of 2010.

The American Consumer Product Safety Commission said that "the computers can overheat, posing a burn hazard."

But Sony said that this is "not a recall" and that the problem can be rectified with a software patch. Laptop recall

News:Pirate Bay disbanded

The Swedish anti-copyright group Piratbyran, which gave rise to the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has disbanded.

Marcin de Kaminski, a founder of Piratbyran, which means "piracy bureau" in English, told BBC News "we don't feel we are needed" any more.

But the group also decided to close following the death of a co-founder.

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Centos maintainance

You may be aware that many systems run on some form of Linux these days. This is true of my web server, which uses Centos/Red Hat. When one of those rare problems arises, a bit of help is often needed. Here is a method for fixing up Centos files:

'shutdown -rF' will reboot the server and run fsck on all disks. For 'mySQL, 'mysqlcheck -Aor' will repair and optimise local databases.

News:Wikileaks makes contact with US government

By Chris Vallance
BBC News

Whistleblower website Wikileaks has made contact with the US government over claims that an American serviceman is one of its sources.

Soldier Bradley Manning has been held for three weeks without formal charge.

The US is investigating claims that he passed confidential information to Wikileaks.

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CCTV development may increase misuse

A privacy expert says the developments of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) may increase the misuse of the technology.

CCTV cameras are widely used privately and publicly, and while some say it gives an added sense of security, others consider it an invasion of privacy.

Questions are being raised over who controls the footage, where it ends up and whether it encroaches on our privacy.

Privacy lawyer John Edwards says users of CCTV are so far behaving responsibly, "but as technology develops, we are seeing things which can transform the usability of that."

"The possibility of misuse expands with expanding technology and we do need to be conscious of this and monitor the developments."

Edwards says currently there are no specific laws on how CCTV cameras are operated, that they are just one of many technologies regulated under the general Privacy Act.

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One Laptop per Child updates design for older pupils

By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News

The so-called $100 laptop has undergone a facelift in order to be used by secondary school children.

The machines, designed by One Laptop per Child (OLPC), are based on the original XO laptop, which was built for primary school children.

The new computers feature a larger keyboard and upgraded software.

Uruguay, which has already distributed nearly 400,000 XO laptops to primary schools, has ordered 90,000 of the new laptops, known as the XO-HS.

It has also ordered 10,000 machines designed by rival Intel, which makes the Classmate PC, also developed for children.

"We want to see how students react and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each," said Miguel Brechner, director of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay, who is in charge of the country's Plan Ceibal (Education Connect) project.

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