The queue for the UK iPad launch began with three people yesterday afternoon, but by today had more than 1,000. And how many of those buyers were older than Steve Jobs?

The answering service 63336 (text a question, get an answer; note pricing) has been going where lots of people already were the queue for the iPad outside Apple's Regent Street store in London. And there it carried out an exit poll to find out some salient facts. So:

When the doors opened at 7.55am, there were 451 people in the queue (rather higher than the five when I went there at 4pm on Thursday). Not long after the number grew to more than 1,000.

The most popular model was the 32GB 3G version ( 599) 33% opted for it. The average selling price, based on the preferences (see table below) is 580. (That compares to 559 if people were just buying iPad models at random evenly across the range.)

3G models are outselling Wi-Fi models by 3-to-1 (74% to 26%).

38% of queuers only used an Apple Mac; 37% had both a Mac and PC; 25% only used PCs. 17-year-old student Jake Lee, at the head of the queue, has a Dell Vostro and an ageing PowerMac G4.

Age and sex: 36% were in the 26-39 age group; 26% in the 18-25 range. 11% were older than Steve Jobs (55); 5% admitted having a pair of John Lennon circular glasses a la Jobs. (This leaves 27% either under 18 or in the 40-55 age range.) 92% were male (16% with beards; no mention of sandals) and, yes, 8% female.

84% were buying for themselves, 16% for other people.

Surprisingly given that the device has only been officially available in the US until now 44% had already tried one before. The other 56% were buying based on reviews, perceived success or "blind faith in Apple products" (to quote 63336, which might have hit the spot there).

How long? Lee started the queue, at 1155am on Thursday. 52% queued overnight (so the queue must have grown dramatically from the afternoon..) - of whom 25% did it from 4am, 1% from 5am, 13% from 6am, and 9% from 7am.

Why? Why queue rather than order online? "For the atmosphere" and "to be there", according to 44%. However, 2% (only?) said they were "die-hard" Mac fans; 29% "couldn't admit" why. (This is puzzling.) Perhaps significantly, 25% thought that the Apple Store was the only place where it would be available. Wrong! It's also available nationwide from Currys, Dixons (aka Currys Digital) and PC World, where reports of queues have not been heard.

The nitty-gritty: what is the point of the iPad? 57% said they'd use it principally to browse the net; 27% for apps (12% for games alone); 9% for listening to music; 4% for reading books; 3% for watching films and TV.

And finally, there's a table of who wanted what though remember, it's only representative of the queue. Though that's quite an impressive queue. What double-dip recession?

Film director Brett Ratner believes the BlackBerry is vastly superior to Apple's popular device

What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life?
I have to say there's a new gadget that's called a Dash [Personal Internet Viewer] it's made by Sony, and it's kind of interesting because it's by your bed basically it's like a futuristic clock radio. I can have everything from TMX to Twitter to Facebook right next to my bed, so I can wake up to my favourite music video. It's the coolest thing ever. I can see this thing being by my bed for the next 20 years. This has everything right at your fingertips.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
Every morning when I wake up I wake up differently every morning. I'm constantly being visually stimulated.

What additional features would you add if you could?
It's not a phone, so I would probably add that into it.

Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time?
All technology will be obsolete in 10 years it keeps changing and evolving, and makes life exciting.

What always frustrates you about technology in general?
How fast it's changing how I buy a new computer from Apple and in six months it's old. That's the sort of thing that pisses me off.

Is there any particular piece of technology that you have owned and hated?
I hate the iPhone. I love the BlackBerry BlackBerry wins in my opinion. The iPhone is a toy.

If you had one tip about getting the best out of new technology, what would it be?
Simplicity. Find the simplest thing to use.

Do you consider yourself to be a luddite or a nerd?
I'm definitely not a nerd

What's the most expensive piece of technology you've ever owned?
When flatscreen TVs first came out, I paid $25,000 for one of them. And I recently bought a movie server called a Kaliedescape, and that cost $250,000. I store all my movies on it.

Mac or PC, and why?
PC if it's HP, and because of Windows Windows 7 is the best. And the touchscreen HP computer is unbelievable. But the iPad is the most ingenious piece of technology I have ever come across it's really the future.

Do you still buy physical media such as CDs and DVDs, or do you download? What was your last purchase?
I still by DVDs I love the box, I love the artwork. That's the part that technology is killing the design and packaging. When you download, you're miss that three-dimensionality. The last DVD I bought was a box set of The Ben Stiller Show.

Robot butlers a good idea or not?
I would love a robot butler. The problem with most butlers is that they steal shit out of your house robots won't steal anything.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
I hear there's a way I can type somebody's phone number into my phone and find where they are anywhere in the world I can't wait for that to come out.

Brett Ratner's latest film, Kites: The Remix, is out now

Ofcom releases draft code on regime of warnings to illegal filesharers, labelled 'bureaucratic dog's breakfast' by TalkTalk

The UK's largest internet service providers will start collecting the details of customers who unlawfully download films, music and TV programmes early next year, in order to send them warning letters under a code of practice proposed today by the media regulator Ofcom.

The draft Ofcom code was immediately denounced by the UK's second largest ISP as a "bureaucratic dog's breakfast".

Any internet user who receives three letters in the space of 12 months faces having their personal details handed over to the owner of the copyrighted material so they can be sued.

The draft code of practice, which Ofcom was ordered to draw up by the controversial Digital Economy Act, was immediately attacked by TalkTalk, the UK's second largest ISP.

"Ofcom's draft code of practice is a valiant attempt to implement the Digital Economy Act's proposals, but we think it has the potential to turn into a bureaucratic dog's breakfast," said a TalkTalk spokesman. "As the code stands, millions of customers would be at risk of being falsely accused of copyright infringement, being falsely put on to an 'offenders' register' and so potentially taken to court. There is little in the draft code about protecting customers from receiving misleading or bullying letters."

TalkTalk is also worried about the lack of consideration of data protection issues and there is little in the draft code about how the regulator will ensure customers can access fair and just appeals. "The draft code exempts smaller ISPs and mobile operators, which seems arbitrary and could lead to market distortion," the spokesman added. "Finally, the way Ofcom has designed the rules may kill off public Wi-Fi networks."

Consumer and citizens' rights groups, meanwhile, called for the fair treatment of customers accused of copyright infringement using filesharing networks.

"Consumers face considerable confusion while Ofcom tries to work out how to implement new laws under the Digital Economy Act," said Robert Hammond, head of post and digital communications at Consumer Focus. "The aim should be to encourage suspected copyright infringers to use legal alternatives and achieving this rests on the process of notification being seen by consumers as fair and helpful."

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group warned that "letters being sent out could cause a lot of worry and fear". "People may feel they are under surveillance," Killock said.

"This is another extremely rushed process, forced by the Digital Economy Act's absurd timetables. There are huge unanswered questions, not least whether innocent people will have to pay to appeal," he added.

The code of practice applies to ISPs with over 400,000 customers, meaning that it will initially apply to BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Sky, Orange, O2 and the Post Office, who together control 96% of the market. Ofcom, however, will review unlawful filesharing activity on a quarterly basis and can extend the code to cover smaller ISPs and the mobile phone companies if it spreads.

Those quarterly reports will also be used to see whether the letter writing campaign is leading to a reduction in illegal filesharing. If after a year it does not appear that the code is having any effect on the use of such services as peer-to-peer networks, the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, can demand the introduction of so-called technical measures including severing the broadband connections of persistent offenders.

Sending letters to warn persistent unlawful file-sharers that they face the threat of court action has been tested in the UK before, but the code is designed to automate and standardize the process across all the major ISPs.

The code, contained in a 74-page consultation document, sets out the evidence which the music and film companies must collect about individual infringements of their copyright when making a copyright infringement report to an ISP. Content companies must make their requests to ISPs within 10 working days of them gathering the information about a breach of copyright. It then covers how the ISP must then use that information to identify the specific customer involved and send them a letter warning them that their activities have been noticed and they are laying themselves open to court action. The letter will also name the copyright owner and give details of how they can appeal against the ruling that they have infringed copyright.

The code allows for three notification letters each at least a month apart to be sent to a user, before their details are placed on a copyright infringement list. All three letters must be sent with a 12 month period, as ISPs are required to delete any notifications after a year.

The copyright infringement list, which has anonymous details of individual users, can then be requested by the copyright owner and used to launch a court action to get the user's name and address in order to sue them. The three letters can be generated by copyright infringement reports from three different copyright owners. All three can then request access to the copyright infringement list held on that user, to be received within five days though they will only see details of how that individual infringed their copyright.

The draft code, which Ofcom is consulting on until 30 July, is one of three consultations the regulator is launching as a result of the Digital Economy Act. In July it will look at how the code will be enforced before looking at how the costs of the scheme will be shared in September.

The regulator also has to set up an independent appeals body and decide how the costs of appeals should be apportioned. In its consultation document Ofcom said a successful appellant may get compensation and costs. It added "the costs of the appeals body, and the possibility that a subscriber may have to pay a fee, was raised in the government's consultation on the cost sharing arrangements" but then makes no suggestion that subscribers should pay if their appeal fails.

On the issue of costs, TalkTalk said that "copyright owners are the only ones that will benefit from this system, so unless the government decides that these companies should fully reimburse ISPs' costs, broadband customers will in effect be forced to subsidise the profits of large music and film companies".

Ofcom hopes to have the code, which needs European Commission clearance, in place by 8 January and is accepting responses to this consultation until 30 July.

In response to the draft code, the Communications Consumer Panel, Consumer Focus, Which?, Citizens Advice and the Open Rights Group have banded together to produce a set of principles they believe will ensure that the new rules on online copyright infringement properly protect consumers.

Their principles include that there should be sound evidence of wrongdoing before any action is taken against a consumer; that comprehensive and consistent information needs to be provided to all suspected repeat infringers and this should be written in plain English; that consumers must have the right to defend themselves; and that there is an independent and transparent appeals process is essential, at no cost to the customer.

Alongside relentless action, they're promising deeper characterisation, a vast historical narrative and a revolutionary multiplayer mode. Here's the lowdown on Treyarch's latest response to the call of duty

In a rental studio complex on Shepherds Bush Road in London, a few dozen games journalists are having their senses pulverised by Treyarch operatives. With speakers cranked up to 11 and a gigantic screen, the developer is showing us Huey choppers strafing immense crowds of soldiers as buildings burn, gun fights rage and military installations explode.

This is Activision's pre-E3 event and it feels like good training for next month's massive industry get-together. Indeed, it feels like having your synapses sucked out of your eyeballs. Call of Duty is a lot of things, but what it is not, nor ever will be, is subtle.

Set during the Cold War, CoD: Black Ops follows several covert operations groups, the secret units set up by the CIA to engage in deniable actions all over the world. Steeped in conspiracy theory and no doubt paying close heed to declassified government files, the game takes in the agency's anticommunist activities in Eastern Europe, in Vietnam and in Cuba. Treyarch won't be drawn on specific dates, but I'm thinking things will focus on the sixties and seventies, from the Bay of Pigs invasion right through to 'Nam and maybe even Watergate. The missile crisis and Kennedy assassination must surely figure, too.

"We met Major John Plaster who's the world's foremost authority on SOG (studies and observations group) operations," explains studio head Mark Lamia. "He came to the studio and told us about everything about the training, the tactics, the weaponry, the missions. And he looked at what we were starting to create and gave us feedback. He'd say, 'yes, this is accurate, but this is taking a lot of creative liberties, is that what you want to do?' And sometimes the answer was yes, and sometimes we'd ask, 'okay, how should it be?'"

During the event, Treyarch plays through two levels, both set during 1968. In the first, named WMD, you begin the level in a Lockheed SR-71, flying over a covert Russian military base in some suitably frozen, mountainous wasteland. At first we're just watching a screen showing night vision footage of black ops soldiers approaching the compound. Then the PoV shifts and we're on the ground with the unit, preparing to attack. There's some lovely graphical detail here, with billows of snow wafting in the air, and great clumps of ice falling from trees.

After waiting for a convoy of trucks to drive by, the player character and three other troopers are moving in, edging down a frosty mountain slope toward multiple enemies, blasting the place up. The squad reaches some railings beside a sheer drop, lobs their ropes over and start rappelling down, with the trigger buttons controlling speed in the standard CoD style. Finally, the squad reaches the window of an observation room cut into the mountain side they swing out, shoot up the glass and smash their way in. As the camera shifts round, one of the squad is chucking an enemy over the ledge. Crude, but effective.

From here, it's all about picking off enemy solders from behind rocky cover as the descent of the mountain continues. One of the game's new weapons, a powerful, super-silent scoped crossbow, looks like enormous fun. Hits are contextual, and at several points, soldiers are caught in the legs with bolts and just stagger about the place waiting to be finished off. The player character grabs an AK-47, cutting down multiple enemies before reaching a satellite station that has to be knocked out. The character kicks the hinges off a door, while a computer-controlled comrade lobs in a knife to silently take out a lone enemy inside. Next, it's just a case of ripping out some wires to switch off a communications relay, then everyone is legging it down the mountain, just as an avalanche begins. In a nod to the climax of Modern Warfare's Crew Expendable mission, it's about charging down the icy ravine as quickly as possible, avoiding obstacles while destruction and disaster follow.

The next level we see, set in Hue City Vietnam, is enticingly named Slaughterhouse. It kicks off with a wonderfully apocalyptic twilight scene in which dozens of US choppers buzz like furious wasps over a burning mass of bombed-out buildings and incinerated palm trees. The player character is abseiling from one 'copter, when the craft is hit by anti-aircraft fire that sends it into a death spin. The character swings wildly onto an upper floor of a wrecked office block. Here we go.

Now, it's all about blasting Viet Cong soldiers while desperately locating an exit, through destroyed furniture and terrified civilians. This time, our Treyarch demo chap is using a SPAS-12 shotgun equipped with dragon's breath shells, which send out horribly pyrotechnic blasts of flame. It's completely nasty stuff, but this devilish ammo is accompanied by some stunningly evocative graphics effects as charred enemies fly across the room. Dragon's breath shells are going to absolutely rock in multiplayer.

Out on the street, and there are several mass battles with VC troops. In one sequence, the player calls in ordinance on a building where the enemy are locked down. Suddenly a shadowed chopper swoops in from above, like some awesome flying behemoth, and immediately spits thousands of rounds of .50 cal ammo into the building. Then the player is running through the street, dodging masses of enemy fire behind an armoured vehicle with 'bottom feeder' scrawled on its side a sort of hellish revisit of the Exodus level in MW2.

So, yes, this is Call of Duty alright. Intense, epic, mostly linear, intricately choreographed ... Lamia says the aim of Black Ops is to provide fans with a new and varied range of combat experiences but then, variety has always been the aim of this series, and although there is plenty of that, I didn't see anything spectacularly fresh in these admittedly brief excerpts. It appears to be what this series has always been hyper-polished FPS entertainment, jammed with breathless set-pieces and utterly, utterly relentless.

So what exactly is the high concept behind Treyarch's first CoD game to take place outside of WW2? They're not saying much. What they are promising is a far-reaching narrative that takes in multiple conflicts within the period. As Lamia explains: "We're working very hard to create an epic story. It's the Cold War, the world is on the brink, you're going to be trying to save it." But save it from what? "I'm not going to tell you what it is, because finding that out exactly " He pauses for a second before deciding on a different approach. "On the surface, it's that you don't want the Cuban Missile Crisis to happen, you don't want the nukes to go off. Well, there's more to it than that, and that's why the black operations are going on underneath the Cold War "

And, really, we're not even sure that the game plays out chronologically. Lamia is keen to hint that this might not be the case: "The time events, how it unravels, is actually part of what you're going to discover in the game. However, we've told you a great deal with the assets that are out there. If you look at those you'll get some idea of how we're doing our narrative, how we might unravel some of the events of the period."

Once again, there will be multiplayer player characters as well as a large cast of supporting roles. Lamia tells us that some of these will crop up throughout the story, changing drastically as the years go by. Interestingly, he mentions that there will be alternative versions of some characters, suggesting that, later in the game they'll look different, depending on actions and decisions you make en route. A branching story line in CoD? Stranger things have happened, possibly.

In a risky move, the team is giving the player character his own voice, a first for the series. They explain that this is because they want a rich, full story, and they need the lead character to take an active role in dialogue. To enhance plot scenes, they're also using full performance capture for the first time, simultaneously recording the movements, facial expressions and voices of actors to ensure more naturalistic, engaging performances. It all sounds intriguing, and lord help us, if there's one thing Modern Warfare 2 could have done with it is a cogent narrative. But I'm not sure how convinced I am that a good story requires a voiced lead character especially in the first-person shooter genre, where the player is uniquely immersed into the game world. Half Life managed just fine with an ever-silent Gordon Freeman at the helm.

Lamia also dropped some strong hints about a radical new weapons customisation system, and this is something inspired by Black Ops lore. As he explains: "What we found really inspirational was, when the operatives got their mission from the CIA sometimes it was reconnaissance, sometimes it was rescue, sometimes it was to capture someone alive whatever it was, they'd get the lay of the situation from reconnaissance photos or whatever intelligence they had, then they'd go to an armoury and they could outfit themselves however they saw fit. Literally. They'd go, 'we'll take one of these, two of these, two Hueys'

"There was conventional weaponry, unconventional weaponry, experimental weaponry that hadn't yet been mass produced these are the guys who'd try it first. They would modify weaponry, they would pack their own specialist ammo, they'd create their own weapons while out in the field. That sort of information couldn't be any better for us. It's ripe with gameplay possibilities. You can see how wonderfully that will tie in with what we can do in multiplayer. We're not talking about multiplayer yet, but I can tell you that customisation, allowing people to play the way they want to play those are important pillars for us in our design."

It seems then, that in the single-player campaign mode there will be a set range of weapons, but you'll be able to modify them perhaps in a similar way to Modern Warfare, with its multiple options for scopes, ammo clips, etc. In multiplayer, however, I get the feeling they're thinking of something much more radical, maybe more along the lines of Borderlands, with complete weapon construction. "Customisation and personalisation will be huge," adds Treyarch community manager Josh Olin. "Then there's socialisation, the way players interact with each other, play with their friends, play with their clans, the way they surround themselves with the Call of Duty world, even when they're not at their console or their PC that's another focal point for our multiplayer design "

Hmm, so does that mean interacting with the game or other players in social networking sites, or via your mobile? Who knows. One thing is certain, Treyarch is quietly hinting at some revolutionary new multiplayer features; they've confirmed co-op for up to four players (and split-screen two-player action), but you get the feeling this is the very least of what they're about to offer. Of course, generating hype is a key element of the E3 run-up, but these guys are confident and clearly, genuinely feel they have a significant announcement to make. We'll soon see.

Elsewhere, it sounds like squad AI will be heavily based on genuine black ops tactics and that's not just on the player's side. Treyarch also spoke with Sonny Puzikas, a former operative in Spetsnaz, the Russian equivalent of an SOG. "They were trained in how to be lethal without weapons," says Lamia.

"From day one they were being shot at by their supervisors to desensitise them. That's the sort of mindset they were in," interrupts Olin, gleefully. "Sonny came in to give us a presentation, and it started off as a briefing, but then it quickly became, 'how many ways can Sonny kill you?'. He showed us some crazy techniques; we just watched and thought, 'that's awesome, and we put them in the game!" Later on, Treyarch was able to mocap some of Sonny's moves. "His AI type will be very hard to play against in the game, it's very dynamic, very agile," says Lamia. Naturally, each force will have different combat styles then, the Spetnaz with their deadly melee techniques, the Viet Cong with their jungle-based guerrilla tactics. I wonder if these will be transposed into the multiplayer?

Well, they've got me interested. While the brief single-player sections they showed us suggested lots more of the same (and if it ain't broke ...), but there are whispers of much more. Most telling perhaps was a sneaky little CGI sequence shown just before Mark Lamia began his presentation. It showed snippets of a prone soldier and a sinister voice-over saying, "let me give you something to assist ..." Is Treyarch referencing theories that the CIA experimented with narcotic augmentation during the Cold War and beyond? When I ask Lamia, he just smiles conspiratorially. As if Call of Duty couldn't get more insane, it may now have performance enhancing drugs. This didn't work for Haze, but it was always a neat idea. And neat ideas are what could lift this franchise in the post-Modern Warfare world.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due to be released on 9 November

We should have been clearer about Facebook settings, but we've never been cavalier with data

When the first steam-powered vehicles arrived on the roads in Britain midway through the 19th century, parliament passed a law which stated that at least three people must be employed to drive them, one of whom should be walking in front carrying a red flag. It was not until 1896 that the Highways Act allowed vehicles to be driven without such restrictions.

Initial responses to new technology often have to be adapted as usage patterns become clearer. That was true on 19th-century British roads; it is true on the internet today. Media regulations to encourage the local production of content are becoming anachronistic with content available to all. Copyright laws are having to be updated to take account of today's practices. Most relevant for Facebook, the right approach to privacy needs to take account of how consumers actually use social networks and what they want.

Although many internet companies have to deal with privacy issues, this is particularly challenging for social networking sites, whose very purpose is the sharing of information. Facebook has recently been criticised for being cavalier with users' private data and for not being clear enough about how our privacy controls operate. We plead innocent to the first charge and guilty, up until now, to the second.

Privacy has always been a central focus for Facebook. From the time Mark Zuckerberg launched the service in his college dorm room through to today, privacy has been a core part of our offering. In the early days, Facebook consisted of static pages where people could share some basic information about themselves and a single picture. Over the past six years we have enhanced our service considerably. With these changes we offered increasingly complicated privacy controls, not because we were cavalier about privacy but the contrary because we take privacy so seriously. The result was that, for many of our users, these controls became far too complex.

We heard this feedback and have made changes. Most importantly, we are putting in place one simple control that makes it easy to share on Facebook with friends, friends of friends or everyone all with just one click. All new products or features we introduce to facilitate sharing will be controlled by this setting. For users who want more granular control, we still offer it; but for many, a simple master control may work better.

We have also significantly reduced the amount of information that must be visible to everyone. We require users to make public some limited information, like their name and photo (necessary for people to find their friends), but we no longer require that a user's friends list or pages they like be public. We expect most people will want to make that information public that is what social networking is about for many but those who do not want to will not have to.

Lastly we've made it much easier to turn off the features which allow a more personalised service for Facebook users when visiting other websites. Many people benefit from the feature allowing websites to use information from Facebook pages about their likes and dislikes, but it's not for everyone, and those who don't want it will be able to turn it off easily.

Perhaps most importantly we don't plan any other changes to our privacy policy. After a couple of hiccups we feel we have got things right and we won't need to change things for a long while. We want our privacy controls to be simple and easy to operate, and to put users fully in control.

One thing that will not change is that Facebook never has and never will sell the private information of our users to anyone. We allow advertisers to target users by demographic; advertisers can, for example, target an advert for golf clubs at people who list golf as an interest in their profile. This makes advertising more targeted and more useful for people. But we do the targeting ourselves and pass no information about individuals to advertisers. Like a powered vehicle in a world used to horses, targeted advertising was once considered a terrible intrusion; it is now a dominant business model and widely accepted by consumers.

No doubt over a much longer time debates about privacy will change as technology evolves. Millions of users today benefit from making public what was once considered private. Finding the right balance between enabling people to share and express themselves and protecting people's privacy will always pose challenging questions. No doubt decades from now we will look back on some of today's norms as the equivalent of the man walking in front of the first vehicles waving a flag. Meanwhile, we are focused on today's users. Our task is to ensure that the benefits of the new technology are available, but that users are equipped to make the choices that are right for them. We think these changes do that.

On this week's Tech Weekly, Aleks Krotoski and Charles Arthur say a fond farewell to Jack Schofield, the Guardian's longest-serving technology writer, who's heading into freelance pastures at the end of the month. Jack takes us down memory lane, through his days with Mosaic, Oracle and IBM, and tells us who he wishes he could have interviewed in his 25 year with the newspaper. Here's a hint: it's not Apple's Steve Jobs.

In the news, Jemima Kiss gets answers from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the recent privacy scandal surrounding the search company's collection of our personal data, and the studio team discuss what the company must do to protect the sanctity of our online identities.

Aleks, Charles and Jack also scrutinise the technology strategy that's emerged in the fortnight of the coalition government: the Digital Economy Act won't be repealed, educational technology body Becta is being scrapped to save 80m, and Tim Berners-Lee's semantic web project, earmarked for an influx of cash through Labour via the web science initiative, is canned. What signals does this send to the UK's digital tech industry?

US technology retailer Best Buy has set up shop in the UK, but is this really the right move when all indicators suggest that technology consumers have migrated online? Producer Scott Cawley reports from the shop floor.

And finally, what are Google's plans for TV? The team tackles the announcements made at the company's annual IO conference, held last week.

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Death of 23-year-old comes only hours after parent company's chairman admitted fears of further incidents

An electronics manufacturer that builds iPhones and other well-known products faces mounting pressure following the tenth apparent suicide at its southern Chinese complex this year.

The 23-year-old man fell to his death at Foxconn's Longhua factory in Shenzhen on Wednesday night, the state news agency Xinhua reported. The news came hours after the corporation's boss said he feared there could be more deaths.

The company, a subsidiary of the Taiwanese firm Hon Hai, is said to be the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. It supplies global brands including Apple, Dell, Nokia and Hewlett-Packard.

In a mark of Foxconn's desperation it is installing nets around nearly all dormitories and factory buildings, according to the state news agency.

Labour campaigners argue that Foxconn's mostly migrant workers are vulnerable because of their 10-hour working days and the monotony of their jobs. They say many feel isolated and pressured by a strict regime that bans them from speaking on the production line and takes them far away from their families.

They argue that although the basic salary of 900 yuan ( 91) per month is above the legal minimum, workers find it hard to live on and are driven to labour for 60 hours a week to gain overtime pay.

Despite this, some workers say that conditions and wages compare well with other manufacturers.

This week the secretive company arranged an extremely rare tour of the Longhua complex as it sought to counter criticism.

Longhua is thought to be the largest factory in the world. It covers more than a square mile and contains fast food outlets, stores and banks as well as the huge production buildings and dormitories.

Hon Hai's chairman, Terry Gou, told reporters he could not sleep because of the suicides and dreaded answering his phone out of hours in case it was news of another death.

"I'm not confident we can stop every case. But as a responsible employer we have to take up the responsibility of preventing as many as we can," he said.

Gou apologised for a letter asking workers to promise not to kill themselves and to accept that their families would not receive extra compensation if they did so. He said he would withdraw the letter.

Workers reacted angrily, although Professor Michael Phillips, a suicide prevention expert, said it appeared to be in part a "non-suicide contract" used by practitioners treating suicidal patients in the past but now regarded as ineffective.

Gou said he had been "really disturbed" by widespread Chinese press reports that families were receiving 100,000 yuan compensation. "Advertising that is not a good thing, because some of these people are very poor and it will be more than their lifetime's salary," he said.

He warned that workers would probably be reluctant to use a new counselling service and helpline because they would fear others would find out and that it could affect their jobs.

Apple said it was "saddened and upset" by the suicides and that a team was independently evaluating Foxconn's measures to halt the problem. "We are in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously."

A Dell statement said it investigated any reports of poor working conditions, expecting suppliers to employ the same standards as the company itself.

Phillips, the director of suicide research and prevention at the Shanghai Mental Health Centre, warned that halting further attempts would be difficult.

"It's not something you can stop in its track; it gathers a momentum of its own," he said.

He said that once a cluster emerged the act "becomes in a sense an accepted or known way for expressing distress".

A 2008 Lancet paper co-authored by Phillips suggested that the suicide rate in China stood at 11.8 people per 100,000 between 2002 and 2006.

The Longhua plant has 300,000 workers; a third of Foxconn's global workforce and roughly equivalent to the population of Leicester.

Foxconn has said that in previous years it had one or two such deaths.

"I don't think there is any doubt that this is a cluster," said Phillips.

The Associated Press has reported two worker suicides at Foxconn plants elsewhere in China.

The wizard kid visits Legoland at the end of next month, but for now here's another taster from this building block adventure

Taking in elements from the first four reasonably well-known novels, Lego Harry Potter looks set to continue the tradition of Traveller's Tales'
hugely entertaining Lego games, mixing recognisable characters and scenes with humour-filled action adventure gameplay.

I went up to get a behind-the-scenes look at the development studio last week, and we'll be putting up a video of that visit soon. But for now, here's the latest trailer. As ever, let us know what you think in the comments section.

Guardian.co.uk remains in second place, with 1.8m average daily browsers to Mail's 2.3m, with Telegraph.co.uk in third

Mail Online remained the most visited UK newspaper website in April, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic published today.

Associated Newspapers' website network had just over 2.3 million average daily browsers during April, a 5.33% month on month and 74.5% year on year increase. Mail Online also became the first UK newspaper website to top 40 million monthly uniques in April.

Guardian.co.uk was again the second most popular national newspaper website, with just over 1.8 million average daily browsers, and Telegraph.co.uk third, with just under 1.6 million.

News International withdrew its websites from the ABCe audit last month in preparation for content from the Times and Sunday Times going behind a paywall in June, to be followed by the Sun and News of the World at a later date.

National newspaper websites now use an average of daily visitor numbers as their headline measurement figure as it is felt to be more representative than a monthly user figure.

Mail Online

Daily average browsers: 2,366,495

Month-on-month change: +5.3%; Year-on-year change: +74.5%

Monthly browsers: 40,500,667

Monthly change: +3.4%; Yearly change: +75%

14,648,952 UK monthly browsers (36% of total)

Guardian.co.uk

Daily average browsers: 1,837,331

Monthly change: -0.81%; Yearly change: +22.4%

Monthly browsers: 31,900,127

Monthly change: -4.41%; Yearly change: +16.7%

13,504,527 UK monthly browsers (42% of total)

Telegraph.co.uk

Daily average browsers: 1,583,305

Monthly change: +1.68%; Yearly change: +28.5%

Monthly browsers: 30,227,486

Monthly change: -0.1%; Yearly change: +26.6%

10,720,923 UK monthly browsers (35.4% of total)

Independent.co.uk

Daily average browsers: 455,255

Monthly change: +2.17%; Yearly change: -2.4%

Monthly browsers: 9,871,286

Monthly change: -1.21%; Yearly change: -5.38%

4,322,113 UK monthly browsers (43.7% of total)

Mirror Group Digital

Daily average browsers: 441,768

Monthly change: -5.55%; Yearly change: +11.38%

Monthly browsers: 9,329,485

Monthly change: -7.28%; Yearly change: +8.52%

5,094,940 UK monthly browsers (54.6% of total)

To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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Game review; 39.99; cert 3+; Nintendo

Consoles usually take a while to get into their stride, but the Wii, as befits its disruptive nature, seemed to have reversed that trend. The compelling games with which it was furnished when new dried up in recent months to a trickle of dross, and one suspects many Wiis began to gather dust in the back of toy-cupboards. The arrival, then, of Super Mario Galaxy 2 could not be more timely.

The problem isn't likely to resolve itself until medical technology allows us to clone several copies of Nintendo's in-house development genius, Shigeru Miyamoto. At least Miyamoto-san saves his best efforts for games featuring Mario, as Super Mario Galaxy 2 amply demonstrates.

Structurally, it is near-indistinguishable from its predecessor, with several worlds to navigate, each split into seven or so galaxies (the last of which presents you with a boss to be defeated before you're awarded a Grand Star). This time around, you can opt to play as Luigi as you enter each galaxy. As in the first Super Mario Galaxy, you have to reach stars to open new galaxies, by executing deft platform moves and solving all manner of puzzles, often involving delicious mischief with the laws of gravity. Those puzzles are invariably so good that they will make you chuckle and nod in appreciation of their sheer cleverness.

The key to reaching what often appear to be unreachable stars is Mario's array of power-ups and special abilities, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 has two new ones. The first is a drill attachment, which Mario carries above his head; shake the Wiimote, and he will burrow straight through the centre of whatever planet he is on. This clever mechanic can be used for puzzle-solving by, for instance, burrowing to the top of pillars too high for Mario's jumping abilities, or for boss-battles, in which you have to time and position your burrowing to hit creatures' vulnerable parts.

But the undoubted star of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is Mario's old mate, Yoshi. He appears in many galaxies, bringing a range of abilities when Mario jumps on his back. With his lizard-like tongue (the direction of which you can control with the Wiimote), he can gobble up and spit out enemies, and swing from designated points. Feed him Blimp Fruit and he will float for a while. And when he swallows a chilli pepper, he gains the ability to run like Forrest Gump (complete with boggle-eyed expression and siren sound effect), enabling him to temporarily escape the normal restrictions of gravity (although he becomes tricky to steer).

All of Mario's existing power-ups appear, too, including Bee Mario and Fire Mario (one clever ice world can be reshaped by Mario's fireballs and by rolling snowballs into melted areas). There are underwater worlds and a flying sequence in which Mario is suspended from a Fluzzard, and at one point, he can power-up into a rolling boulder. His ground-pound move also features heavily.

As the above suggests, the surreal nature that characterises Mario's games is to the fore. Mated with the game's irresistible sweetness, the outcome is a game-world which is truly universal in its appeal the youngest children and grizzliest hardcore gamers alike will be held equally rapt by its charms. A long-overdue reminder of what the Wii is all about.

Rating: 5/5

Xbox 360/PS3/PC; 49.99; cert 7+; Bizarre Creations/Activision

Blur has been heavily anticipated created by the British developer Bizarre Creations, of Project Gotham Racing fame, it promised to create an entirely new genre of racing games. Which turns out to be easy to describe: Mario Kart's gameplay welded to the real-life cars and tracks from Project Gotham Racing. Which sounds fun but, unfortunately, proves disappointing.

Despite the graphics (which go heavy on visual effects but have an unsatisfactory murkiness as a result), Blur clearly leans more towards Mario kart than PGR. It has tweaked versions of pretty much all of Mario Kart's power-ups (speed boost, homing missiles, mines, gun, car repair, lightning strike and temporary invulnerability among them), but you can carry three at a time, and must switch them strategically according to what is going on around you. You can use them inventively for example, the shock-wave power-up, which affects nearby cars, can also be used to repel incoming homing missiles.

There are straight races, checkpoint races (in which you have to pick up stopwatch and speed-boost power-ups in order to pass a specified number of checkpoints), destruction races (in which you must use triple-shot gun power-ups to acquire extra time by destroying rival cars) and one-on-one races. Each of the tracks has Fan Runs you can trigger, opening up a series of gates you have to steer through for bonus fans and lights (which are what you otherwise win by finishing in the top three).

But there's a fundamental problem: the car handling is so appalling that it swiftly leads to frustration. Although you drive real, licensed cars, they are split into categories of "grippy", "all-round", "drifty" and "off-road", but those translate into "tail-happy", "wallowy", "American style" and "so slow as to be completely undriveable". You only really stand a chance of winning any of the races with the first car you're given during each tranche of races the cars you unlock are hopeless. Very surprising from a developer that built a reputation on realistic virtual recreations of real cars.

The checkpoint races, too, appear to have been designed to annoy you they soon place you on twisty tracks, with the power-ups in positions that require you to crawl around and completely emasculate speed-boost, which is the only power-up on offer. At least when played online, the power-ups level the playing field, so that those normally intimidated by the high standard of online competition stand a chance of holding their own.

Blur is by no means a bad game, but given its pedigree, it's nowhere near as good as you would expect, and if you compare it to recently released arcade-racing rival Split/Second: Velocity, it's both unprepossessing to look at and mundane to play. A promising idea hampered by poor execution.

Rating: 3/5

Xbox 360 (reviewed)/PS3; 29.99; cert 16+; Namco-Bandai

The main problem with Clash of the Titans is that the combat mechanics and there is nothing else to this game but combat, so you would expect it to at least make a decent attempt are just not good enough.

A fight is invariably the same every time. Button-bash for a while until prompted, then execute a quick time sequence, often several times in a row. If you do it right, your character executes a finishing move. You're not so much controlling the character as you are requesting that he attack on your behalf.

Annoying the first time, this gets extremely repetitive, because you need to get a lot of seize points to upgrade weapons. This means you are forced to go through the same tedious quick-time sequence with practically every skeleton grunt you meet: and there is only one type of finishing move per class of enemy, and only one solitary generic cut scene to accompany it. This might be very cinematic for bosses, but it is just frustrating when fighting lesser creatures. As if all that wasn't bad enough, there are also some quests for which your sword is taken away, leaving quick-time as your only attack option.

As in the recent dreadful Hollywood remake of the same name, the main character is Perseus, a young fisherman who discovers that he is the estranged son of Zeus and finds himself in the middle of a war between Man and the Gods. After this war claims his adoptive family, Perseus takes it upon himself to massacre everything in the world that isn't human in ascending order of size, pausing briefly to engage in stilted banter with some of the most hysterically two-dimensional personalities ever to grace a polygon. The NPC performances are as bad as you would expect from a tie-in with an awful movie, and to add insult to injury you sometimes have to re-watch the same awkwardly-written conversation several times because you can't skip past some of the cut scenes.

The level design is lazy too. Minescule stages, 10-seconds small between loading screens in some cases, wouldn't test the processor on a Sega Saturn. They invariably fit into three categories: the Castle, the Mountain, and the Cave; within those, everything looks the same. This is the sort of design I'd expect from a four-year-old with only three different crayon colours. On top of all that, Clash of the Titans grades you after each level, a relatively common and degrading device designed to artificially ratchet up game-play time.

This was never going to be a classic, but it could have been good fun. It is a pity that having put fighting centre stage and letting the work-experience kid design everything else, the combat mechanism was not given nearly enough attention resulting in both a tepid spectacle and a frustrating player experience. The obvious elephant in the room is, of course, God of War 3, and Clash of the Titans simply doesn't come close.

Rating: 2/5

The author and blogger explains why he publishes his books free online

Politically engaged and disarmingly geeky, Cory Doctorow is one of the better-known faces of the digital revolution: co-editor of the celebrated blog Boing Boing ("a directory of wonderful things"), he is also author of half-a-dozen science fiction novels and a journalist. Born in Canada, the 38-year-old writer now lives in London, although when we speak, he's in the US, promoting his latest book, For the Win. This tells a story of teens rebelling against global corporations and is pitched at the "young adult" market. As with all his fiction, the book has been released simultaneously in bookshops and, for free, online.

You've released For the Win using a Creative Commons licence, giving it away for free. Why?

I give away all of my books. [The publisher] Tim O'Reilly once said that the problem for artists isn't piracy it's obscurity. I think that's true. A lot of people have commented: "You can't eat page views, so how does being well-known help you earn a living as a writer?" It's true; however, it's very hard to monetise fame, but impossible to monetise obscurity. It doesn't really matter how great your work is; if no one's ever heard of it, you'll never make any money from it. That's not to say that if everyone's heard of it, you'll make a fortune, but it is a necessary precursor that your work be well-known to earn you a living. As far as I can tell, these themes apply very widely, across all media.

As a practical matter, we live in the 21st century and anything anybody wants to copy they will be able to copy. If you are building a business model that says that people can only copy things with your permission, your business is going to fail because whether or not you like it, people will be able to copy your product without your permission. The question is: what are you going to do about that? Are you going call them thieves or are you going to find a way to make money from them?

The only people who really think that it's plausible to reduce copying in the future seem to be the analogue economy, the people who built their business on the idea that copying only happens occasionally and usually involves a giant machine and some lawyers. People who are actually doing digital things have the intuitive knowledge that there's no way you're going to stop people from copying and they've made peace with it.

Your young adult novels are concerned with the political issues surrounding new technologies, such as questions of privacy. Why?

Kids' relationship with privacy is really confused; they're told by teachers and adults that their privacy is paramount, that they should stop disclosing so much information on Facebook and so on. And then they go to schools where everything they do is monitored; there's mandatory spyware that takes every click they make, every word they utter and sends it back to teachers and headmasters for disciplinary purposes.

When they go out in public, they're photographed every five minutes and there are signs that prohibit taking any affirmative step to hide themselves from scrutiny or maintain any privacy.

So on the one hand, we're telling kids that their privacy is the most important thing in the world and that they have to guard it as jealously as anything that matters to them. On the other hand, we're systematically depriving them of their privacy and punishing them for asserting it.

The problem with privacy is the same problem as with smoking: the consequences of doing something that's bad for you are a long way from the action itself and so you don't learn.

If we want kids to give less information to Facebook, then we should start by having them give less information to everybody. That means giving them the tools that help them to understand that privacy really matters and that giving up your privacy is something that's hard to stop doing once you start.

Do you see young adult fiction as an effective way of getting a message across?

Young adults treat literature with a lot more seriousness and often see literature as a call to action whether that's to go to the library or to try to write some software or even to found a protest group. I do hope to have this alerting presence about the risks of technology. I want to inspire kids and adults to ask how we can start seizing the means of information again, how we can use technology to liberate us as it did when I was an adolescent.

Upgrade to iPlayer video-on-demand service designed to link with social media, and drive traffic to other broadcasters

What do you think of the new iPlayer?

The BBC has unveiled the latest version of the iPlayer video-on-demand service, a customisable upgrade that includes deals with Facebook and Twitter allowing users to share content via the social media networks.

Broadcasters including ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five will also benefit from iPlayer's user traffic for the first time, with the service offering links through to the VoD players of commercial rivals.

The tie-up with Facebook and Twitter, which will allow iPlayer users to recommend programming to their friends as long as they log into the BBC website first, forms part of a strategy to make the service more social.

However, users will have to sign up to the BBC's own website ID service, already used for posting comments on the site, so that the corporation can maintain a "complete social eco-system" with iPlayer users. The corporation has more than one million users already signed up to BBC ID.

Huggers stressed that this was not the first step in turning the BBC iPlayer into a full social networking website.

"Does the BBC need to build its own social network? I think the answer is no. We want to integrate with other services," he said.

The new version of the iPlayer, which goes live in a beta testing version from today, will see the channel icons of rival broadcasters appear in the online electronic programming guide alongside the BBC's own TV services.

In addition, rivals' shows will appear if a non-BBC programme, such as "Coronation Street", is entered into the iPlayer's search engine and can be added to an constantly updated favourites list of content.

Deals have been struck with the ITV Player, Channel 4's 4oD, Five's Five on Demand, S4C's Clic and the VoD aggregation service SeeSaw.

The new links to commercial rivals will go live on the iPlayer service later this year. The deals with rival broadcasters will not see the sharing of content or technology.

Erik Huggers, the director of future, media and technology at the BBC, said that there was "no particular reason" that BSkyB's Sky Player was not one of the launch partners.

"It is an open programme, if Sky wants to be part of this it is no particular problem. They are considering it," Huggers added.

The partnerships form part of the BBC's pledge in the strategic review of online activities to be more of a "window on the web" and double the number of clickthroughs to rivals' websites from 10m to 20m per month.

Huggers said that one reason that director general Mark Thompson's original plan to form partnerships with commercial broadcasters using the iPlayer, which fell apart last year, failed was because it involved the sharing of BBC technology.

The BBC has also struck a deal with Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger chat service so that iPlayer users can message each other at the same time as watching shows.

Huggers said that the iPlayer, which was previously criticised for not launching products simultaneously on multiple technology platforms, was in "exploratory discussions" with operators of other chat services including Google and Facebook.

"The fact we chose Microsoft [first] was because they have the largest installed base [of users]," he added.

Huggers said that the "interlinking" service with rival broadcasters would apply to "premium, long-form video" and represented "just the start" of partnerships.

A spokesman for Five said it would consider providing links to online video content from other public service broadcasters on its own Demand Five service. "It makes sense if done in the right way. It is something we will actively consider," he added.

Huggers also said that a long-delayed international version of the iPlayer, which would be operated by the corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, was still in the works.

"It is still very high on the agenda. We are working closely with BBC Worldwide on it. It is absolutely something we are looking into," he added.

Huggers also lent his support to Google TV, the service that will allow viewers to search the web and eventually download VoD content while watching their TV set, arguing that he does not see it as a competitor.

"I think Google TV is an interesting new product that shows the level of competition in the marketplace and that living room innovation is moving fast," he said. "I welcome it. I see GTV, if it is successful, as a fantastic receiver for BBC services... the iPlayer, news, sport, childrens whatever. We want to provide on a platform neutral basis."

The new-look iPlayer aims to remain both simple for users that just want to watch TV or radio while also allowing a massive amount of functionality so advanced web users can customise their iPlayer experience.

To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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We grumble about privacy on Facebook and Google, but the sharing of personal information online is second nature

I'm an inveterate oversharer. I tweet what I eat, I blog my baby photos, I check in on foursquare. It is second nature to me now. But even early adopters didn't start out this way. Most of us are resistant to new technology, and pick it up a few months, or years, down the line, when it seems more mainstream and relevant and when friends seem to be using it. That never happened more dramatically than with Facebook, which credits this "network effect" for an exponential increase in users after its launch in 2004 to the 500 million it is about to announce.

Five years ago a pseudonym was de rigueur, yet now we share the minutiae of what we're reading and thinking, and who we're seeing. We are all sliding up the adoption curve to a future where this behaviour will only become even more extensive, more normal. How did our perception of what is an appropriate public identity shift so far, so quickly?

Concern over the dilution of our privacy came to a head in the last week with a sizable faction of Facebook's users rebelling against users' profiles being made publicly accessible by default. Their action may just have pushed Facebook into simplifying its bewildering 150-option privacy settings. Google, meanwhile, confessed that some remarkably lax code-pasting led to its Street View cameras accidentally recording personal data from domestic WiFi networks.

Both have rightly prompted outrage and an interrogation of the state of our digital privacy and are being scrutinised by regulators. But Facebook and Google are fashionable and intriguing targets for sensational headlines. In truth, most Facebook data is meaningless and conversational while most of us are still listed by our home address in BT's online phone book.

Assuming none of us this side of the digital divide are willing to disenfranchise ourselves socially and professionally by giving up the internet altogether, we have to be prepared to give up something. The free lunch is over; we pay with money, time or behavioural data. There is a benefit, too, because sharing information about ourselves opens the door to the semantic web; the powerful, personalised internet of the future.

Already, from your internet connection to the sites you use, everything you share, search, comment, email, read and watch every social signal you make is recorded. The only rule you need to protect yourself online is to commit something to the web only if you would be happy for anyone to read it.

The internet is indelible. I put a lot online, but I filter. I don't post my home address or about my childminder. Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, reminded us this week that much of the five exabytes of digital information the world generates every two days equivalent to 100,000 years of DVD-quality video is created by our social signals.

If you want to experiment and, like me, understand what's possible, you could try Blippy, a Twitter-like service that records every purchase you make and shares it with friends. If you want to take control, try Garlik or ReclaimPrivacy.org. For startups, there's opportunity at every turn.

Mark Zuckerberg, the fresh-faced Facebook founder, has a demanding audience he needs to impress, and increasingly expectant investors who want to see a return on those 500 million users. Facebook, in particular, is constantly pushing and testing the boundaries of what its users will accept as public information. It has normalised much of the information-sharing we were once uncomfortable with, and will continue to act as an agent for change.

In Google's case, it is tempting to characterise this uniquely influential company as a vast corporate machine with $25bn in the bank, questionable ethics and a world-dominating agenda, quite possibly operating from a hollowed-out volcano somewhere near Mountain View.

The truth is far less dramatic. Neither company has a malevolent agenda, but both operate in the fast-moving, demanding bubble of Silicon Valley, with the world's smartest engineers and both appear at times almost naive to the implications of the technology that they wield.

Google famously wants to index the world's information and, with 65% of the world's search market, is better placed than anyone to help us find and manage what we put online. In the past it has provided advice and created centralised profiles to give users more control, but this all needs to be much more comprehensive and conspicuous.

It is beholden on both these companies to educate, inform and empower their users to take control of their digital footprint. The web will only keep developing and keep challenging us in this way. This is not just a phase we are going through. All these issues are only going to intensify, and as they say on Facebook: it's complicated.

Theresa May agrees adjournment of judicial review to consider whether Gary McKinnon is fit to be extradited to US

The extradition of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon has been put on hold after the home secretary, Theresa May, agreed to an adjournment of a judicial review that was supposed to start within days.

The move will allow May to begin formal consideration of the medical evidence to see whether McKinnon is fit to be extradited. If it is established that he cannot be allowed to go, it paves the way for a prosecution in the UK.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has considered the proposal from Gary McKinnon's legal team and has agreed an adjournment should be sought. An application to the court is being made today."

McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, said she hoped May would make a decision on whether he was fit to be extradited in a matter of weeks.

Todner said: "The secretary of state, having recently taken office and having received further representations from the claimant's representatives, wishes to have appropriate time fully to consider the issues in the case." She said she hoped the decision was "a signal of a more compassionate and caring home secretary".

McKinnon's lawyers were granted permission for a judicial review last week having failed to win one last year into whether a decision by the former home secretary Alan Johnson to allow extradition and trial in the US breached McKinnon's human rights.

The judicial review was supposed to start next week and was virtually a last throw of the legal dice. Its adjournment allows May to cast a fresh eye on what has turned into a cause celebre, and to make a close examination of the extradition agreement between the US and the UK.

Legal experts said May's main difficulty would be to override her Home Office advisers.

"They will, perhaps, tell their minister that if she reverses the [Jacqui] Smith-Johnson decision, the Americans might take her to court for judicial review. But this is unreal: the Obama administration is unlikely to challenge, on behalf of a local state prosecutor, a decision of the new British government," Geoffrey Robertson QC wrote on the Guardian's Comment is free website, this week.

McKinnon's supporters believe the new coalition government is sympathetic to their cause as David Cameron and Nick Clegg have in the past publicly criticised plans to extradite McKinnon. Last year, Cameron said any trial should take place in the UK. He said there was "a clear argument to be made that he should answer [any questions] in a British court".

McKinnon admitted to hacking into 97 computers in the US defence department and Nasa from his London flat, and said he was looking for evidence of UFOs between 2001-2.

Despite a lengthy legal battle and strong public support for the Free Gary campaign, McKinnon has so far failed in his seven-year fight against extradition. His supporters argue that McKinnon has Asperger's syndrome and was driven only by an obsession with UFOs. The US government argues that his hacking attempts were a deliberate effort to breach American defence systems.

McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, called the development good news and said it was significant that the court process is now on hold.

"Overall I'm cautiously optimistic," she said. "It's a step in the right direction, but we really need to know that Gary will be staying here. Only then can we relax. In some ways this is almost the most difficult time. I've got hope for the first time and if that hope was dashed I don't know what I'd do.

"We've had this hanging over us for eight years. Some murderers get less than that. All he was doing was tapping away on a keyboard in Crouch End, being curious."

Sharp added that McKinnon was not in a good way: "He can't go out, watch anything about the case on TV. He's under the care of a psychiatrist."

The controversial case has crossed the desks of six home secretaries.

Scores of zombie accounts on the social network are being used to try to install a banking and keylogging Trojan - and many have fallen victim already

A malware attack is being spread via Twitter using "zombie" accounts to push a site which claims to link to a fun video.

Using the tagline "haha this is the funniest video ive EVER SEEN!", and a wide variety of Twitter hashtags, the website instead uses a Java exploit to drop a keylogger program and a banking Trojan (which will search your hard drive for any banking details and watch when you log in to online banking sites) on Windows computers that visit it.

The large number of accounts are being used to try to push the link onto trend-mapping sites that show popular links on Twitter.

F-Secure spotted the emergence of the threat today, and explained how it works. And it had a suggestion for how to avoid the problem: "Lesson of the day is probably this: do you really need Java in your browser?" asks the company. "Seriously, do you? If not, get rid of it."

The breadth of the attack indicates that the linked problems for Twitter - that it doesn't seek any authentication of accounts beyond an email - and URL shorteners, which can make it hard for people to know where they are going mean that users of these services have to be cautious when using Windows systems.

Bit.ly has been alerted to the threat from the link; presently its statistics indicate that there have been more than 1,630 clicks on the link - each of which means an infected computer and someone whose banking details are therefore at risk, and whose computer is a potential spam generator and botnet member.

If you have clicked on the link, you should immediately take your machine offline and scan it with an antivirus system.

If you need to check the final destination for a bit.ly URL, it's easy with bit.ly links: add a + to the link you're offered (eg http://bit.ly/b6Z3BC+, which shows the statistics for the URL for the dangerous site).

Other URL-shortening services can make it harder to check where you're being sent. Tinyurl offers a "preview" function, but it's always wise to look at any available information before continuing to a link from a source you don't completely trust.

The Information Architects team have come up with a way of looking at Twitter that echoes maps of how the universe began

Back at the dawn of microblogging time, when Twitter had only just started, there were only three users who mattered: Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey - the three key people behind the service. Now there are more than a hundred million users - but the key influencers in this huge network can be quite easily identified.

Now the team at Information Architects have decided to come up with a neat Twitter visualisation, akin to The Independent's classic 1992 "How the universe began" graphic, of the top 140 Twitter influencers, "sorted by #name #handle #category #influence #activity" and by when they joined the service (which determines how close to the centre they are).

The size of the blob indicates how many followers; "influence" is measured by... actually, they don't explain, though possibly it's using something like the Twiinfluence algorithm.

Interesting to see who's in there: Stone and Williams, of course, but also latecomer Marissa Mayer (VP of search product and user experience at Google), who only joined in July 2009, and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google (December 2009) - and of course there's always Bill Gates, who didn't get on board until January 2010. And of course Stephen Fry and indeed Jonathan Ross.

You can get the PDF (1.1MB) or buy it from them for $99 because, as they remark, "we're convinced that our print is way superior to what you can do with your plotter". And you will need a plotter - the graphic is 84cm by 119cm.

We're happy to see that @guardiantech is in there, showing up in something like the place where Kappa Velorum would be in the Milky Way. (We've highlighted it below to help.)

Does this make any difference? Well.. it might do, if this list of the top 140 were made into a list. Anybody up for that, we wonder?

In a commentable online site, the coalition government announces its main plans - which include plans to publish contracts with ICT suppliers and government data

The coalition government says that it will "create a level playing field" for open source software in government projects, and split large computing projects into smaller ones - which will give smaller companies a better chance to compete in tenders.

In details laid out in its Programme for Government, the coalition also outlines sweeping changes which will introduce a new "right to data" - and oblige government and councils to publish more data in standard forms so that they can be examined and analysed.

The programme's section on government transparency - which also allows, and has attracted, comments - sets out a number of key steps that will be implemented under plans outlined in the Queen's Speech to Parliament.

The coalition says it will:
• take steps to open up government procurement and reduce costs;
• publish government ICT contracts online.
• create a level playing field for open-source software and will enable large ICT projects to be split into smaller components.
• require full, online disclosure of all central government spending and contracts over 25,000.
• create a new 'right to data' so that government-held datasets can be requested and used by the public, and then published on a regular basis
• require all councils to publish meeting minutes and local service and performance data
• require all councils to publish items of spending above 500, and to publish contracts and tender documents in full
• ensure that all data published by public bodies is published in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily and with minimal cost by third parties.

Although the previous Labour administration had set out an aim to encourage the use of open source software and methods in government projects, it gained little traction. Its statement in February 2009 (now archived) said that open source should be on an "equal footing" with proprietary systems. That said that "Procurement decisions will be made on the basis on the best value for money solution to the business requirement, taking account of total lifetime cost of ownership of the solution, including exit and transition costs, after ensuring that solutions fulfil minimum and essential capability, security, scalability, transferability, support and manageability requirements." It also added that the government "will, wherever possible, avoid becoming locked in to proprietary software".

The coalition does not specify which departments will be in charge of implementing each of the plans. However, the "right to data" would probably be most easily effected through the Office of Public Sector Information, which is part of the National Archives - which is in turn managed through the Ministry of Justice.

However data about contracts may be published through the Cabinet Office. Meanwhile the Department for Communities and Local Government may have to bring in the laws relating to local councils - and there is so far no clear agreement on the formats in which data should be published.

Web crackdown began last week when Facebook page invited users to post images of the prophet Muhammad

Pakistan will restore access to YouTube but will block videos offensive to Muslims posted on the website, the government said today.

A number of high-profile sites were blocked last week over offensive content, such as a Facebook page that urges users to post images of the prophet Muhammad. Many Pakistanis supported the crackdown, but some questioned why whole sites were blocked rather than specific pages or videos.

The government seemed to move in that direction today by deciding it would restore access to YouTube but continue to block videos "displaying profane or sacrilegious material", said NajibullahMalik, the secretary at Pakistan's information technology ministry.

Videos displaying "profane or sacrilegious" material would be blocked, said the information technology ministry. Most Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.

Large and sometimes violent protests erupted in Pakistan and other Muslim countries in 2006 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad and again in 2008 when the cartoons were reprinted.

Search giant securely storing data captured from home Wi-Fi networks by Street View cars pending more specific instructions

Google is to retain data captured from UK home wireless networks while carrying out its Street View mapping until it receives more specific instructions from the UK Information Commissioner, it said today.

Update: the ICO said it has already told Google that the data can be deleted - but Google stated it will not do so yet.

The company also faces the threat from the advocacy group Privacy International that it might be liable under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) for unlawful interception of users' data and that the group may try to get the police to instigate an investigation.

Google is already facing criminal investigations in Germany over its capture of the data from open Wi-Fi networks and faces further investigations from a number of European countries for possible breaches of data protection laws and, possibly, computer hacking.

It has deleted the data that was collected in Ireland, Denmark and Austria, according to those countries' wishes. That means there cannot be any threat of prosecution in those countries as any evidence for a court case is unavailable.

In a statement released on Friday, the company said: "Following requests from the Irish, Danish and Austrian data protection authorities we can confirm that we have deleted payload data identified as coming from those countries. We can also confirm that, as requested, we are keeping data from Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

"Given that there is some uncertainty about deletion generally for example, one data protection authority changed its instruction from delete to retain in the last 24 hours we think it makes sense to keep the remaining country data while we work through these issues."

Google later clarified that it is retaining the data for the UK so that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) can inspect it as required. The data is being held in secure isolation. However the ICO restated that it has not required its preservation, reiterating a statement from earlier this week: "there does not seem to be any reason to keep the data concerned for evidential purposes. Therefore, in line with the data protection requirement that personal data should be held for no longer than necessary, we have asked Google to ensure that these data are deleted as soon as reasonably possible."

Google has insisted that it was trying to map the existence of the networks, which use the Wi-Fi standard, but that it accidentally left in computer code which collected actual data from unsecured networks.

The German prosecutors data protection authorities have requested access to one of the hard drives used in the data gathering though Google has so far refused. German data protection officials have given the company until 26 May to hand over the system.

Google admitted last week that it collected 600GB of data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks around the world while collecting photos to Street View

The UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said on Thursday that the ICO did not want to "declare war" on Google over the matter and that it thought its response which was initially to accede to Google's offer to delete the data was "proportionate".

However, Google now appears to have decided to delay the deletion while it makes sure that no investigations have been opened; otherwise it might be deemed to have destroyed evidence.

Privacy International says that deleting the data would be "irresponsible" until its content has been investigated to see whether it does infringe the law. "We have directly put Google on notice that it is likely to be imminently subject to civil or criminal legal action as a result of the Wi-Fi interception," it wrote on its blog. "To eliminate the data would constitute destruction of evidence." It urged the ICO to rescind its earlier order to destroy the data: "We urge the commissioner to immediately rescind the order and allow Google to place the data in secure storage until such time as the legal questions are resolved.

"In the absence of a commitment from both Google and the commissioners to temporarily secure the data, Privacy International will seek a prosecution for unlawful interception under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. In those circumstances there would be no question of destroying the data."

Updated with statement from UK ICO that it is not seeking retention of data.
Update with clarification that it is German data protection authorities, not prosecutors, who are seeking access to hard drive.

The Streak is a big Android touch-screen tablet that you can take anywhere instead of your current mobile -- as long as you don't mind carrying a giant smartphone.

Early next month, Dell's Streak -- its first Android tablet -- will go on sale in the UK. The device formerly known as the Dell Mini 5 is what Intel calls a MID (mobile internet device). It has a 5 inch capacitative multi-touch screen and it works as a mobile phone, so it's not a direct competitor for the Apple iPad or iPod Touch, which are not phones. It also has built-in Wi-Fi, and turn-by-turn navigation using Google Maps.

The Streak does look big if you hold it up to your ear, but most buyers will probably use it via a Bluetooth earpiece.

It's also different from the iPad in other useful ways. It has a front-facing 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash, multi-tasking with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a removable battery, and a MicroSD card slot that can handle 32GB.

Dell says the system will get an over-the-air update to Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash 10.1 later this year.

The Streak's 16:9 WVGA widescreen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, which provides more of a letterbox view of web pages. Dell describes it as "a full screen browsing experience", which is pushing it a bit. It looks more comfortable than most mobile phones, but obviously doesn't compete with larger devices such as the iPad, netbooks and notebook PCs, which typically have 10 inch or larger screens.

"The Dell Streak hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets. Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect, and navigate their lives," says Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions Group.

He could be right. What remains open to doubt is just how big this "sweet spot" might be.

Prices and 3G data plans will be announced at the UK launch, with a US launch to follow. That means it will appear after the Android-powered HTC Evo 4G superphone, which Sprint has announced for June 4.

paidContent:UK Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt says the new government will not repeal the controversial Digital Economy Act

Outspoken Yahoo boss Carol Bartz tells TechCrunch blogger to 'fuck off' if he thinks her company should be performing better

Beleaguered and overshadowed by powerful competitors, the internet company Yahoo and the mobile phone manufacturer Nokia are pooling their expertise in an effort to regain an edge in crucial services such as maps, chat, navigation and email.

But an alliance between the two companies got off to a rocky start as Yahoo's chief executive, Carol Bartz, lost patience with criticism of the speed of her firm's turnaround and delivered a four-letter rebuke to an interviewer at an industry conference.

"I don't want to hear any crap about something magical that the fine people of Yahoo are supposed to do in this short time, so fuck off," Bartz told Michael Arrington, editor of the influential blog TechCrunch, in front of an audience of technology gurus at the annual TechCrunch Disrupt gathering in New York.

Bartz, who took the top job at Yahoo early last year and has a reputation for salty language, made it clear that she had little time for complaints about the pace of change at the Silicon Valley company, which has fallen second fiddle to Google in internet searches.

"I've been at this company 16 months," said Bartz, complaining that her critics seemed to expect her to turn Yahoo into the next Apple computer empire overnight. "I'm supposed to have an iPod, an iPad, an iBlah."

Lukewarm

Her outburst came amid a lukewarm reaction to the latest step in Yahoo's attempted resurrection following years of tepid growth and investor frustration. Bartz has forged a deal with Finland's Nokia to create co-branded applications, partly aimed at the millions of new mobile users in the developing world who use their handsets as their sole way to connect to the internet.

Under the agreement, Yahoo will provide chat and email services on Nokia handsets. For combined offerings, the European phone firm's present internet brand, Ovi, will by supplemented by the words "powered by Yahoo". Meanwhile, Nokia will bolster Yahoo's mapping and navigation services on the web, which presently lag far behind Google's global mapping.

"This is two powerful consumer brands working together to bring even better services to potentially billions of people around the world," said Nokia's chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, at a press conference held at the Nasdaq stockmarket in Times Square.

On the surface, the tie-up seems a formidable combination. Yahoo is the web's leader in display advertising, while Nokia is the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, making roughly four out of every 10 handsets globally. But both companies are under fire for being outmanoeuvred by rivals.

Nokia last month warned of weak profits as it struggles to produce a compelling smartphone to match Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry. Meanwhile, Yahoo has been outflanked by Google on online search and has failed to keep up in maps, which have become a crucial element in online information.

No game changer

The alliance garnered only weak accolades from Silicon Valley commentators. Yahoo's shares edged up by 1.8% to $15.75 during early trading on Wall Street.

Michael Gartenberg, a technology analyst at Altimeter Group in California, said: "It's two companies that have both lost a lot of relevance in their relative spaces that are both looking to reclaim that. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot here to indicate how they're going to do that."

Gartenberg said that although the combination makes sense, it was difficult to see it as a game changer: "The centre of gravity has shifted to Google, Apple, Research in Motion, Microsoft. I'm not sure how combining these things together helps them gain ground on those competitors."

At Yahoo, a new management team is trying to shift a perception that the internet firm is simply a smaller, less successful version of Google. The company's share price is far below a $33-a-share takeover offer tabled by Microsoft two years ago but vigorously opposed by Yahoo's board.

Bartz was installed to succeed Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang and it is not the first time that her impatience has bubbled over into intemperate language.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts in April last year, she complained of the poor productivity she encountered on arrival at Yahoo: "We had a lot of people telling engineers what to do but nobody fucking doing anything."

Definitely not a venue for wing-wang squeezing

The thing about superminis, which appear to have adopted lapine habits of reproduction, is that they may be reasonably mini but they're not, on the whole, that super. The Citro n C3 gained a reputation when it first turned up, about eight years ago, as a sort of dull Ford Fiesta. Given that few people have ever required smelling salts as a result of driving a Fiesta, that's pretty damning faint praise.

Rather than cruelly raise false hopes, it's best to state straight away that the updated C3, in keeping with its predecessor, is also not a study in boundless excitement. There are improvements, but it's fair to say that when PJ O'Rourke penned his seminal National Lampoon article "How to Drive Fast On Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed And Not Spill Your Drink" he didn't have the C3 in mind, and not just because the piece was published over 20 years before the C3 was created.

Of the various C3 set-ups, the 1.6VTi is the tastiest, with a sprightly 0-62 acceleration of under nine seconds. Yet somehow it doesn't feel that tasty to drive and nor is it a hatch that looks particularly hot. None of these points is a criticism, really, because there are plenty of people who want a smallish car that doesn't look as if it's supposed to be a mobile venue for wing-wang squeezing.

My only reservation is that my feet kept clipping each other. This could be because I've advanced further into failing middle-aged co-ordination than I'd imagined or that the clutch and brake pedals were too close together. If it's possible to damn a car with faint criticism, then the suggestion of pedal proximity may be one such case.

Otherwise, it's fine. Actually, there was one other thing. The gears are not entirely pleasurable to shift and there's a slight need to over-rev at low speeds. But that aside, it's a sensible, light-filled, well laid out car that has good fuel economy and nothing crass or off-putting in its design.

Nor, it's true, is there much that's on-putting, other than the kind of sound engineering that is taken for granted by today's consumers. In many ways, then, the C3 is a renunciation of just about every Gallic clich : it's unpretentious, undramatic and uncool (the French are often uncool, of course, but rarely do they recognise the fact, much less make a virtue out of it).

But its lack of presence is indeed the C3's most conspicuous virtue, in that it would make an ideal car for someone who doesn't much care about the joy of driving or the thrill of design, and who just wants something compact, mobile and reliable that won't look like a fashion statement. From A to B via C3.

Citro n C3 1.6VTi

Price 14,690
Top speed 118mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 8.9 seconds
Average consumption 47.9mpg
CO2 emissions 136g/km
Eco rating 7/10
Bound for Marks & Spencer car park
In a word Straightforward

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had his passport confiscated when he returned to his native Australia last week, according to The Age.

Arriving at Melbourne, immigration staff told Assange his passport was looking worn and would be cancelled. Thirty minutes after his passport was returned to him, a police officer then searched his bags and questioned him about his computer hacking offences he committed in 1991 when he was a teenager.


Julian Assange, left, speaking at the 26th Chaos Communication Congress in January this year. Photo by andygee1 on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Despite the search, Assange was then told his passport is still classified as 'normal' on the immigration database and could therefore travel freely.

Speaking on Australia's Dateline show, Assange said he is wary of travelling in Australia, where he was born, because of information that has been published on Wikileaks.

Assange had been told that the publication of a proposed blacklist of banned sites has been referred to the Australian Federal Police, who were investigating how it was leaked and then published on Wikileaks, though AFP told the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday that the case had been dropped.

Looking at the site, it's hard to believe there are many countries where travel is not a problem. Some light reading from the front page:

CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe
US Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks
Cryptome.org takedown: Microsoft Global Criminal Compliance Handbook

Next attack could come down fibre optic cable, warn experts
Russia seen as potential partner in missile defence against Iran

The world's most powerful military alliance is increasingly vulnerable to attack by unconventional weapons and cyberwarfare in particular, Nato governments were warned today.

"The next significant attack on the alliance may well come down a fibre optic cable", according to a draft new Nato "strategic concept". There are unacceptable "serious gaps" in Nato's cyber defences, it warns.

The warnings are contained in a report by a group of high-level experts chaired by Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state. They will provide the basis for an agreement due to be signed by Nato leaders at a summit in Lisbon in November.

Senior Nato military officials and diplomats say they are concerned about the lack of co-ordinated planning against cyber attacks. They are wrestling with the prospect of member states asking for help under article five of the Nato treaty, originally designed to provide mutual assistance to an ally faced with a conventional military attack.

Asked whether a cyber attack or the cutting off of energy supplies also cited in the report would in future be considered a military attack, the paper dodges the issue by stating that whether Nato's article five would be triggered would depend on "the nature, source, scope, and other aspects of the particular security challenge". Article five was invoked for the first, and so far only, time after the September 2001 attacks on the US. Three years ago, Estonia appealed to its Nato and EU partners for help against cyber attacks it linked to Russia.

"Already, cyber attacks against Nato systems occur frequently, but most often below the threshold of political concern," says the Albright report. "However, the risk of a large-scale attack on Nato's command and control systems or energy grids could readily warrant consultations ... and could possibly lead to collective defence measures under article 5."

Effective cyber defence, it continues, "requires the means to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from attacks".

The most probable threats to Nato allies in the coming decade were unconventional, more volatile, and less predictable, according to the report. Three stand out, it says an attack by ballistic missiles from a rogue state, strikes by international terrorist groups, and cyber assaults of varying degrees of severity.

Other threats that pose a risk include disruptions to energy and maritime supply lines, the harmful consequences of global climate change, and financial crisis.

The report also recommended that Nato's new strategic concept should endorse "constructive re-engagement" with Russia, which should be embraced as a potential partner in a missile defence system directed principally at Iran. Nato must also win the war in Afghanistan and assure the security of its 28 members.

The report distances itself from some countries, notably those from eastern Europe, which enthusiastically backed Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia, a prospect strongly opposed by Russia. Although the report reiterates Nato's "open door" policy, it says only that the allies "should make regular use of the Nato-Ukraine and Nato-Georgia commissions to discuss mutual security concerns and to foster practical co-operation".

It also states that "as long as nuclear weapons remain a reality in international relations, the alliance should retain a nuclear component to its deterrent strategy at the minimum level required by the prevailing security environment".

In a reference to US tactical nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, it says: "Under current security conditions, the retention of some US forward-deployed systems on European soil reinforces the principle of extended nuclear deterrence and collective defence."

Oracle chief Larry Ellison says he is already turning around Sun, but can a software maker figure out the hardware world?

In the movie Iron Man 2, Larry Ellison makes a cameo appearance as a billionaire, playboy software magnate. It is a role he knows well. He is playing himself chief executive of Oracle, one of Silicon Valley's most enduring, successful and flamboyant figures.

At the age of 65, he is undertaking one of the biggest challenges of his career, and it's not playing Hamlet on Broadway. Oracle, the company Ellison founded three decades ago and built into dominant force in the software industry, is making a go at hardware with the acquisition of money-losing Sun Microsystems.

This is not entirely unlike MIT deciding to field a competitive football team, but Ellison being Ellison, he could not be less worried. "We have a wealth of technology to package into systems," said Ellison, who won the America's Cup in February. "I see no reason why we can't get this to where Sun under Oracle should be larger than Sun ever was."

In a rare interview he discussed his turnaround efforts at Sun so far, revealed plans to buy additional hardware companies and detailed new products that will launch in the near future. And he did so with his usual in-your-face style heaping all manner of abuse, for example, on Sun's previous managers.

During the 1990s, Sun prospered by selling high-end computers at top dollar to large corporations and dotcom startups. Its business peaked in 2001, then slid with the collapse of the internet boom and never recovered, though the company is still widely respected for its technological prowess and the brain power of its engineering staff.

Sun came into play in November 2008 after IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano made an overture to buy it. Oracle, which had been strictly a software maker, unexpectedly jumped in to outbid IBM by just 10c a share, paying a total of $5.6bn ( 3.8bn)in cash.

Now Ellison says he is going to rebuild Sun's hardware business by using a strategy that helped IBM prosper in the 1960s selling computer systems built with standardised bundles of hardware and software.

Plenty of skeptics doubt Ellison can pull it off. Sun lost $2.2bn in its last fiscal year as an independent company. Conventional wisdom holds that he will end up divesting the company's hardware business.

Ellison has a pretty good track record when it comes to predicting where the industry is headed. Besides innovating the wildly lucrative relational database that bears Oracle's name, Ellison was quicker than most in creating software that works with both internet technology and the widely used Linux operating system.

He also started buying up smaller software makers in 2003 when critics said his consolidation strategy was doomed to fail. It hasn't. "People have lost a lot of money second guessing Larry about IT strategy," said Dave Roux, co-founder of Silver Lake, the world's biggest private equity firm focused on technology, in which Ellison was an original investor.

"He's a very thoughtful and reasoned observer of the big tectonic forces that kind of go rippling through the industry," said Roux, who worked for Oracle before setting up Silver Lake.

Ellison has maintained his status as the leader of a powerhouse in the topsy-turvy, protean technology world. IBM, which pioneered business computers, nearly collapsed in the 1990s, but then recovered as it aggressively expanded in services and software. Ellison's close friend Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple, only to return a decade later to resurrect his company with the iPod. Meanwhile, Google has replaced Microsoft as the "ubertech company" and occasional villain.

Although his products are used by businesses only and not nearly as recognisable as Apple's Macs or Google's search engine, they've made Ellison the world's sixth-richest man, worth an estimated $28bn, according to Forbes. Oracle counts the bulk of the world's major corporations as customers, and the company's market value now tops that of Hewlett-Packard, the world's top maker of personal computers.

Ellison says he has already stopped the carnage at Sun, less than four months after the sale closed in January.

"Their management made some very bad decisions that damaged their business and allowed us to buy them for a bargain price," he told Reuters. He added that he expects profit from Sun's operations to boost Oracle's earnings in the current quarter, which ends May 31.

The integration has proceeded swiftly, says Ellison, because a protracted antitrust review in Europe gave Oracle time to draw up an exhaustive plan for resuscitating Sun. In typical Ellison fashion, he took a hands-on approach to the integration, choosing to meet directly with technical managers at Sun as often as four days a week to diagnose its problems, rather than delegating the work to underlings.

Mark Barrenechea, a former Oracle executive who used to sit in on weekly engineering meetings with Ellison and is now CEO of specialty computer maker Silicon Graphics, says this is what Ellison does best.

"He doesn't write the code. He doesn't solder resisters onto motherboards. But he understands how all the pieces fit together and how he wants the building to look," Barrenechea said.

Ofcom report reveals users of sites such as Facebook have become more savvy about online security and are reluctant to reveal details online

UK internet users have become significantly more cautious about how much personal information they reveal on social networking websites such as Facebook, according to a report by media regulator Ofcom.

The twice-yearly report, a survey of the internet habits of 1,824 people aged 16 and over, found that since 2007 users have become more savvy about online security and are now more reluctant to provide personal information online.

Ofcom's report found that 80% of those surveyed who have a social networking website are likely to only allow friends or family to see it. This is a significant seachange in attitude compared to 2007 when just 48% of those surveyed took such steps.

The report has been published in a climate where the practices of social networking sites Facebook in particular have come under scrutiny for privacy and security practices. Earlier this month, EU data protection officials called Facebook's latest privacy changes "unaceptable" and the world's biggest social networking site has been embroiled in a controversy over "panic buttons" for child users.

Almost half of adult internet users in Scotland say they have set up a social networking profile compared with 46% in Wales, 44% in England and 31% in Northern Ireland.

However, about a quarter of internet users say they "lack confidence" in installing filtering software or security features.

The report found that the Scottish were the least likely to worry about entering personal details online with 50% "happy" to enter their home address details on the internet, compared with 23% in Wales and Northern Ireland. More than 40% of Scottish adult internet users are also happy to enter credit card details.

When it comes to trust in media, just 31% of internet users believe web content to be "reliable and accurate". This compares to about 50% of adults that trust television and radio content. However, news sites are trusted by 58% of web users.

Adults in Scotland say they use the internet at home the most at 10.6 hours per week, with adults in England at 8.3 hours per week and those in Wales at 6.8 hours per week. Adults in Northern Ireland say they use the internet at home the least at 6.5 hours per week.