Newly-published Treasury data shows Department of Health spent most, followed by Department for International Development and Home Office

The government spent 1.8bn on consultants last year, according to figures contained in the comprehensive database of the nation's finances released by the Treasury today.

The figure suggests a substantial rise on the previous year, when official estimates put the bill for outside consultants at 1.5bn. That comes after several years in which Labour had reduced the consultancy bill in efficiency savings.

The coalition government today opened up its accounting books for the first time as it published the entire contents of the Treasury spending database.

The vast database contains a total of 24m individual entries, documenting every government expenditure in the financial year 2009-10.

The Guardian has built a database that allows the public to scrutinise the data, which reveals the bills incurred in every government department for every programme they ran, from the Olympics to procurement budgets in the Ministry of Defence, to the public sector wage bill.

Initial analysis shows the government incurred a 1.8bn bill for employing consultants.

The Department of Health spent most ( 480,402,000) followed by the Department for International Development ( 288,100,000) and the Home Office ( 194,116,000). The total bill came to 1,809,676,000.

Publication of the complex 120GB Combined Online Information System (Coins) promises a unique insight into the everyday running of government, and has been widely welcomed by campaigners for open democracy.

But it is proving controversial in Whitehall. Some ministers have expressed unease about the transparency it will bring, exposing every spending decision they make.

However, Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, hailed the release of the data.

The Liberal Democrat minister said: "For too long, the previous government acted as if the public had no right to know where their hard-earned taxes were spent.

"Today we have lifted that veil of secrecy by releasing detailed spending figures dating back to 2008.

"This data is complex, but this is a major step forward and shows we are delivering on our promise to make this government more open and transparent while ensuring we deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

"I hope people will take the opportunity to scrutinise carefully how their money is being spent as I am doing every day in preparation for the spending review."

He said the government would not stop there, adding: "We plan to release more data in the coming months that will be easier for the general public to understand."

The data is being released in a raw format. Members of the public will find it difficult to understand the database without sophisticated analytical tools and expertise, and developers all over the country are working out how to break the data down.

In opposition, the Tories had suggested such a data release could stimulate an industry to analyse and create online services from it, worth up to 6bn a year.

Tom Steinberg, the founder of MySociety, a non-profit organisation that runs several democracy websites in the UK, was this week appointed to a new government committee, chaired by cabinet minister Francis Maude, looking at how to open up government data further.

Steinberg said yesterday that the publication of the data was "definitely very important as a sign to the rest of government that it is no longer out of bounds from the public any more".

He added that there had been some resistance to the idea from public bodies. "What we're doing is about institutionalising a government that is uniquely more open about publishing data and answering questions," he said.

"We have a couple of hundred years of a culture of not being open to get over. It's not surprising that the big public organisations should prefer to continue a tradition of privacy and secrecy.

"The public should be able to get information out of government, and very soon after it is created, with minimal hassle, without being asked why they want it and what it's for. This is a means to an end of a better government and a more engaged public."

The issue was debated at yesterday's cabinet meeting. A Downing Street spokesman said there had been a "discussion on the government's transparency agenda".

He added: "The prime minister emphasised the importance of transparency across all departments and made the point that while it may not always be comfortable, it was a necessary and important part of making government more accountable.

"The chief secretary to the Treasury gave an update on the Treasury's plans to publish the Coins database and set out more detail on public spending."

There are some concerns that the commercial application of public data particularly if, in future, it relates to individuals has the potential to invade people's privacy.

Jim Knight, the former Labour minister responsible for data in government, welcomed the publication, calling it "a rebranding of the open government programme we were working on".

He said: "These days, people can mesh government data with commercially available data. That can give you data right down to the level of a few houses.

"It won't be hard to get down virtually to the individual. Some would argue that gets pretty scary."

The Conservative technology manifesto said: "Our plans to open up government data and spending information will not only help us to cut wasteful spending, but according to new research ... it will also create an estimated 6bn in additional value for the UK."

Appeal by grounded passenger fined for spoof tweet about blowing up snowbound airport is backed by prominent lawyer

Paul Chambers, a former trainee accountant who was fined 1,000 after posting a message to the social network Twitter joking about blowing up an airport, is to appeal against his conviction.

Chambers was found guilty in May of sending a message of a "menacing character" under the Communications Act 2003 after he tweeted in frustration in January at the closure of Robin Hood airport, near Doncaster, owing to snow. "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" he wrote, frustrated that his plans for a flight to Ireland looked like being thwarted.

The appeal, which is likely to be heard next month or August, is being co-ordinated by Allen Green, a prominent lawyer who writes the Jack of Kent blog, and will be led by Stephen Ferguson, a leading defence barrister who is being paid from a defence and appeal fund for Chambers.

The arguments will turn on whether the message could reasonably be interpreted as menacing under the terms of the legislation.

Writing on his blog, Green says: "I think that we can be optimistic for Paul's chances on appeal, but that sadly is not a certainty. There is still a lot of work to be done so that this injustice can be remedied."

After the initial verdict at a magistrates' court, Chambers admitted that his tweet was "silly" but called the police reaction "absurd", saying his tweet was "like having a bad day at work and stating that you could murder your boss" and that "I didn't even think about whether it would be taken seriously."

Chambers left his job as a financial supervisor at a car distribution company after having been arrested in January at work by four police officers. His solicitor in the initial case argued that the tweet was a "Basil Fawlty" outburst immature, tasteless, unacceptable, but not criminal. The airport itself described the message as "not credible" as a threat, and its operations were not disrupted, but it was obliged to tell South Yorkshire police. They took a different view.

"I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post. I'm the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine," Chambers said after the initial verdict.

The recommendation site that trailblazed a new generation of sites saw an abrupt drop in unique visitors in April. A blip or a trend? And what can Kevin Rose do about it, if anything? (Updated)

Back in January 2006 we asked "Will Slashdot be overtaken by Digg?" The idea at the time that the venerable "news for nerds" site could be surpassed in popularity by a two-year-old site didn't seem tenable - until you looked at the numbers. Those showed that Digg was rushing up on Slashdot - and later that year it passed it for pageviews and unique users.

But now something's happening at Digg. Data from Compete.com - image above - shows that after ticking along at about 37m (and as many as 44m) unique visitors for the past year or so, user numbers have fallen off a cliff - from 38m in March to 24.7m in April. That's a 35% drop, and below the 26m it was claiming back in June 2008 when we interviewed Kevin Rose, Digg's founder.

That means that it's close to falling below Twitter (the orange line on the graph), though it's far above long-term rival reddit, also shown on the graph (the green line). (Reddit is now owned by Conde Nast.)

What's happened? Is it just a blip? Something odd in the way Compete collects data? Since Twitter and Reddit don't show comparable changes, that's probably not it. (Comparing it against Facebook for the same period doesn't show a comparable rise in Facebook users. So they haven't gone there.) (Update:: see the end of the post: we think we've found them. Quite possibly they were never regular Digg users.)

Digg is trying to change - perhaps in response to those frankly scary numbers. In a video released on Friday 28 May, Rose showed a preview of how you can "follow your favourite accounts" where you can follow "My News" which shows stories that have been dugg by your friends and their comments.

Only 120-140 stories make the Digg front story per day - though you'll see plenty more if you click around the site, even if not logged in. The reaction of the Editors' Weblog page: Rose is trying to make Digg the "Twitter of news" - though Rose has a digg... er, dig at Twitter and Google Buzz, saying "And because we're only links and news we cut out all the miscellaneous status updates that you see on other sites." Nice one, Kevin.

However what the new version would look like to anyone who'd never seen Digg but did know Twitter is a sort of "Twitter for news". (You can get a feed of what the people in your Twitter stream are looking at by using Twittertim.es, for instance.) That looks a tiny bit desperate.

What it doesn't look like is the old, slightly mad, Digg. Is this going to be enough then to get people to come back to Digg?

When we interviewed Rose, he talked about turning the site into a social network; what he wasn't clear about was how to make it pay.

And webmagazine thinks that Digg is Deadd: "It was a good run, Digg.com. You certainly had a great idea and funneled plenty of Web traffic to opportunistic and manipulative publishers. Alas, the run is over. And it's not coming back."

It argues that Digg has lost out because it grew so popular that individuals couldn't make any difference:

"The biggest problem with Digg in the past was that unless you devoted serious time to it and knew how to work the system, you had little hope of ever making the front page. The only stories that made the front page were typically those voted up by voting blocs; networks of like-minded individuals attempting to send streams of traffic to each others' sites no matter the content of the story. And if you didn't make the front page, the benefits were very little, if any. Now, you still will need to dedicate serious time to the site -- only this time you won't receive near the level of exposure.

"That is, unless your "friends" vote up your stories at a breakneck pace. Which, for all intents and purposes, puts us right back where we started with Digg. In other words, there's no innovation here and the real value proposition of Digg hasn't changed, it's just become more labor intensive."

It's hard to argue against that. There is a horrible inevitability about some sites' declines. Webmagazine doesn't pull its punches:

"In the soon-to-be end, Digg will become known as the first network to die from social fatigue. Facebook and Twitter are booming, LinkedIn is holding steady and even MySpace seems to have settled into a niche. But Digg is in a deadly, unrecoverable tail spin."

Yet there's still Diggnation - in effect, the live tour that goes with the site, which is still profitable (surely?). But Rose, and Digg, have to face the problem: what happens when your early fans grow up and a new generation starts moving in - or doesn't? A site that can't renew itself and become relevant to a new group, ideally while keeping its previous users, will decline.

There may be simple reasons behind Digg's dramatic fall in users numbers - but losing a third of your visitors in a single month would make most people shiver. They haven't all gone to Facebook. So where?

Update: In the comments, yetanotherusername suggests that the axing at the start of April of the DiggBar - introduced in April 2009, precisely when those Compete stats begin - is responsible for the drop.

But the DiggBar was a framer for content - so that when you clicked, you'd still remain on Digg. If people are now going off to other sites after being at Digg, that's not going to reduce the number of unique visitors; it might reduce pageviews. The DiggBar in effect kept you on Digg longer - it didn't boost the visitor numbers.

What might have had an effect is the killing of the DiggBar allied with the fact that from July last year unlogged-in users who clicked on Diggbar links would take you to Digg, rather than the site pointed to in Digg.

Now, if there's no Diggbar, then there's no Diggbar links, and that means random people around the net aren't seeing them, so they're not clicking on them and coming to Digg.

Update 2: in comments, @kimosabe points to two links suggesting that tweaks in Google's algorithm led to far less inbound traffic from Google:

Alexa shows a 38% drop in search engine traffic from March to April for Digg.com: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/digg.com#search.

And:

They've apparently offended the Google gods, and from the look's of this they're not alone: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-mayday-update-impacts-long-tail-traffic-43054.

Conclusion: the killing of the Diggbar, which drew people in from all over without their realising where they were heading, has led to fewer visitors. That's where Digg's visitors have gone: they were unwitting users anyway. Plus loss of Google-driven visitors.

So that leaves Digg - which has apparently received $40m of venture capital in its lifetime - looking about as big as Twitter in unique visitors in the US. But without the momentum. The question still lingers: is it deadd? But at least we can understand what's happening. Kudos @yetanotherusename for pointing it out, and @kimosabe for the Google/Alexa links.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has just published a report on the iPad, and thinks Apple should allow more diversity on its platforms including the option for Adobe Flash

Apple's iPad has usability problems, and shows an "overemphasis on aesthetics", according to usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, who has just published a free 93-page report on iPad usability. He was in London last month where his company, Nielsen Norman Group, was holding a usability conference. Since he had an iPad in his hotel room, I asked him how well it had turned out.

"In some ways, less well than I expected," he said. "There were really a lot of usability problems in this first-generation of iPad applications. It's often quite difficult for people to discover what they have to do because the options are not very visible. I have to say of both the device itself and the content, it's very attractive, which is good. But at the same time, overemphasising the attractiveness and hiding the functionality, that does cause problems."

Nielsen also thinks "there are things Apple has done that diminish usability. For example, they don't have some standard things like font size control so you can define big, small or medium text. With no font preferences, every designer can do a picture-perfect layout on every screen, because they don't have to reflow the text accordingly, which is what websites should always do," he says.

"The second compounding issue is that everything is different. If you pick up a few different magazine apps, every one of them will treat the articles and pictures differently. How do you go to the next article? It's different in each application, the problem being that then you can't learn.

"When it comes to reading a magazine, the interest should come from the content, not the interface to that content. You don't want to have to struggle with 'how does this work?' I don't think [Apple] have detailed-enough guidelines, which partly comes from them pushing it out too quickly."

But, I reply, surely people are used to dealing with different applications on the web.

"They are, but they also don't like that!" Nielsen says. "But I think the web has by now evolved a fairly large set of conventions, so it's relatively well known how to deal with basic things." For example, with a long article you can either scroll or sometimes click for the next page. "You can certainly do it differently, but any website that does it differently will have problems."

Nielsen says that some of the iPad's problems are endemic to the touch tablet format. "With the iPad, it's very easy to touch in the wrong place, so people can click the wrong thing, but they can't tell what happened," he says. There are also problems with gestures such as swiping the screen because they're "inherently vague", and "lack discoverability": there's no way to tell what a gesture will do at any particular point.

"People don't know what they can do, and when they try to do something, they don't even know what they did, because it's invisible," Nielsen explains. "With a mouse, you can click the wrong thing, but you can see where you clicked."

Lack of consistency and lack of discoverability are problems that should worry Apple, because they have been its strength for decades. Discoverability was the core attraction of the Mac's pull-down menus when it was launched in 1984, and the main reason Apple opted for having only one button on the mouse. "One of the great successes of the Macintosh was that it had very detailed human-interface guidelines for how applications should work," says Nielsen. "In those days, as a Mac owner, you could pick up another application and just use it, whereas as a PC owner, if you bought another application, it was another user interface completely different."

So does he have a view on the Adobe Flash versus HTML5 bun-fight, because Flash isn't generally known for its usability.

"For once, I'm on the side of Flash," he says, "because I think Apple is trying to over-rigidly control what's on its devices. I can understand there are benefits to doing that, but there are also benefits to the diversity of the internet. Diversity is a very powerful mechanism. In the early days of the web, there were many alternatives that were closed services AOL, CompuServe, Trilogy but on the web, anybody could put up anything, including a lot of bad stuff. But users vote with their feet, or their clicks: they can click away from bad Flash and click towards good Flash. It's a shame Apple is so restrictive on what they allow on the iPad and the iPhone. When a customer has bought a device, it's theirs; they should be able to see the information they want, and run the applications they want."

Nielsen adds: "Flash has been quite often mis-used to cause grievances in the user interface. That said, it has also been used in later years for more useful things, such as video. In my view, there's no real need to change to another technology once we have one that works pretty well. But Apple doesn't seem to like Adobe, I guess, so they're pushing that we should change to HTML5. But from the user perspective, which is what I'm trying to advocate, it doesn't make that much difference. Technically, it doesn't really matter."

But don't we all expect HTML5 to win in the end?

"Five years from now, it's likely that HTML5 will be a better way of doing video it's a very good long-term trend but that doesn't mean you should throw out all the existing stuff now," says Nielsen. "You have to be able to read old formats." Not everything gets updated.

Of course, I say, another part of the iPad's appeal to publishers is that they can charge for content that would otherwise be free on the web.

"The one thing we're still missing is a great business model for content providers," says Nielsen, "and the iPad gets people to buy magazines by downloading apps. It's really a sort of midi-payment rather than a micropayment because you're still buying an aggregation of material in one go. I actually still believe more in micropayments, where you pay for individual things. Micropayments haven't taken off. It's one of those areas that has to be fairly centralised: there really has to be one system."

Microsoft has done it with points on Xbox Live, for one example, so could Facebook do it for the wider web?

"Maybe they could, and they could seed it very well by allowing you earn points from different things you do on their system," he says. "When they needed to get a critical mass of customers, PayPal gave you $5 for signing up. Facebook could give you the opportunity to gain some points by updating your profile. But they're trying too hard to leverage friend connections, and almost anything you do to make money off who's a friend of who will be a privacy violation."

To get you in the mood for E3 2010, here are Keith Stuart's picks of the games to look out for during the event

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

The Guardian science desk is hunting down the sharpest, funniest, most fascinating science blogs on the internet. And we need your help ...

Are there websites or blogs that you check every day? Places that you know you'll always find some worthwhile insights and analysis, or perhaps some guaranteed humour to keep things ticking along during those difficult afternoons? Are there places you turn to after news stories are published to make sure you've got the real story behind the latest cancer scare or acupuncture research?

With so many science-related blogs on the web, a good way to identify the most interesting ones, while blocking out the noise of the dud ones, is to ask your friends (real and virtual).

In that spirit, the Guardian's science desk want to share with you some of our favourite science-related blogs. Regular readers will be familiar with most of these scientific stars of the web and you'll notice that the list isn't very long - we're more interested in hearing what you read than what we read.

People argue endlessly about whether or not blogs are journalism but, frankly, that question is not what we're interested in here. We just want to find the places that are doing interesting things on the web and are being rewarded with engaged audiences, big or small.

So here, in no particular order, is our list:

http://layscience.net

http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/

http://www.labspaces.net/

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/

http://www.dcscience.net/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/

http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx

http://www.sciencepunk.com

http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday

http://www.mindhacks.com/

http://www.drpetra.co.uk/blog/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/

http://lifeandphysics.wordpress.com/

http://lifeunbounded.blogspot.com/

http://www.realclimate.org/

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

If you know them already, tell us why you like them. If you've never seen them, we encourage you to check them out.

Most importantly of all we'd love to know your favourite science blogs and websites. The ones you wish you had thought of. The ones you can't spend a day without checking, or even the ones where you go to for a quick respite from real life. Either leave your thoughts below or tweet me (@alokjha) or the science team (@guardianscience) direct. We'll collate the suggestions over the next few days and post a list of readers' reccomendations.

The 520-day simulated journey will provide invaluable data for a real trip, European Space Agency announces

Its critics have suggested it amounts to little more than sitting inside a giant tin can in a Moscow hangar with no sun, no fresh water, no alcohol and (one assumes) no sex for 520 interminable days.

But as the six fearless volunteers this afternoon sealed themselves inside a simulated mission to Mars, grinning and waving goodbye to their families before "blast-off", scientists insisted they were embarking on an unprecedented experiment that was no laughing matter.

The crewmen three are Russian, one French, one Chinese and one a Colombian-born Italian won't emerge from their isolation until November 2011.

Their goal is to recreate a return journey to the red planet, spanning a year and a half, complete with simulated emergency situations and realistic psychological pressures.

It will, say scientists, provide invaluable data on how a crew would cope with the difficulties and inevitable tedium of long-duration space flight. "This isn't a joke. It will give a lot of useful information, not just about Mars but also for Earth," said Dr Christer Fuglesang, a Swedish astronaut with the human spaceflight directorate of the European Space Agency (ESA).

He rejected suggestions that the experiment, named Mars 500, was more Red Dwarf than red planet. "People are isolated in many places in the world," he said. "We have scientists in the south pole for a long time, or in submarines. Then there are all those in jail."

The astronauts would be free to leave the experiment at any point, Fuglesang said, adding that he was confident none of them would.

The crew will live and work in a chain of cramped metal capsules. The highlight of their voyage will be a simulated spacewalk on Mars, which will take place in a large sandpit. Today journalists toured the sandpit while wearing 3D glasses the experience was similar to wandering inside a dark and disappointing Moscow nightclub.

Before bidding farewell to the world, the six men conceded their experience would be tough. This is especially true for Alexey Sitev, the crew's 38-year-old Russian commander, who was recently married. Asked what his bride Ekaterina thought of his spending the next 18 months away from her, he admitted: "It is difficult to answer this question." But, he said: "I am not the first traveller who has left his family for a long time to discover new frontiers. When they got back, they found their families waiting for them."

The fact that the crew is single-sex should prevent the dangerous sexual tensions that have affected previous mixed missions. In 1999, participants in a similar experiment were given vodka to celebrate New Year's Eve: two members then brawled when one tried to kiss a Canadian female astronaut.

Chinese crewman Wang Yue struck an exalted tone: "When people say this is a simulation, that it isn't a matter of life and death, I tell them it's much more. It's the future of mankind." He added he would attempt to learn Russian during his odyssey.

The experiment is taking place in a sprawling hangar at Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, in a suburb of dingy tower blocks and poplar trees. The institute began studying the likely effects of a Mars mission in the early 1960s.

Since the Apollo flights of the late 60s and early 70s, there have been no manned space flights beyond Earth's orbit. But Fuglesang said he hoped that a real manned space flight to Mars, with international collaboration, could take place in the next two decades or so, though not before 2025.

Mars 500 is designed to recreate as closely as possible the conditions of a spacecraft hurtling through the solar system. A return flight to Mars 34 million miles from Earth would take between 18 months and three years.

The six crew will spend 250 days performing flight tasks and experiments along the way with half of them spending 30 days "on the planet" and the others remaining "in orbit". Getting home will take a further 240 days.

The 550 sq metre complex that will be their home includes four windowless modules for sleeping, working, storage and for medical and psychological experiments. Each man has a tiny 6 sq metre room. TV is banned but the crew can send emails and communicate with "ground control" via an authentically Martian time delay of 20 minutes. They can also take books, DVDs and video games.

Italian member Diego Urbina said he would be reading the entire works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and French flight engineer Romain Charles said he was bringing his guitar "to annoy the other guys".

Oliver Knickel, a German who took part in a 105-day experiment in the same complex last year, said tensions between crewmates were inevitable. During his mock flight, the crew almost came to blows over use of the treadmill in the module's tiny gym. Knickel, a German army officer, did not enjoy eating only space rations selected by others. "You don't realise what a privilege it is to choose your own food," he said.

The challenges: battle against bugs and boredom

Eighteen months in isolation will take its toll on the physical and mental health of the Mars 500 crew and is likely to test their ability to work as a team.

The six have a storeroom full of rations and will eat the same meals as astronauts on the International Space Station, but these supplies must last the whole stay. A small greenhouse in one of the modules will provide meagre helpings of fresh food including tomatoes, radishes and strawberries.

The facility is not an entirely "closed environment", meaning water and air are piped in and waste is removed rather than recycled. There are no windows though, so the crew will live under artificial lighting for the 520 days.

The lack of natural light is expected to trigger physiological changes affecting sleep, mood and metabolism. The capsule will be lit for periods with a bluish light to see whether it counteracts any problems the crew experience.

A gym with treadmills and weights is provided but European Space Agency scientists still expect to see the crew's physical health deteriorate through lack of activity. The men will be given amino acids and omega 3 dietary supplements to see if they help to maintain their mood and keep their performance sharp.

Wherever you have humans, bacteria follow, and the mock-up space capsule has plenty of nooks and crannies where they can breed. On previous simulated trips, pathogens have grown rapidly and at the expense of more benign bugs, posing a health danger. The crew will swab themselves and the capsule to identify which bugs are taking hold. The bugs in the crewmen's mouths and guts are expected to change too, so some will take food supplements laced with bacteria to boost the "good" bacteria in their bodies.

The greatest problem by far will be coping with the stress of being locked in a small space, with limited company, for such a long time and only an internet connection to the outside world. Stress can weaken the immune system, disrupt sleep and hormones and make people irritable and even depressed. The crew will monitor each other for signs of psychological problems, but they will also be regularly assessed through online tests.

Ian Sample

Airline plans to fit jets with infrared sensors that allow pilots to detect ash clouds and fly around them

Airline disruption caused by volcanic ash could be reduced using technology found in domestic security cameras, according to easyJet.

The airline said today that installing two infrared sensors in an aeroplane tail fin, at a cost of 20,000 ( 16,600), would allow pilots to spot and fly around ash clouds up to 62 miles (100km) away.

EasyJet said it hoped to place the system on 12 of its jets by the end of the year, subject to tests. The aviation industry is attempting to prevent a repeat of April's European airspace shutdown that cost airlines and airports up to 2.5bn.

Andy Harrison, easyJet's chief executive, said millions of passengers were grounded because safety authorities across the continent did not know how much ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano was in the atmosphere and relied on computer models whose accuracy has been questioned by carriers.

Under the new system, developed by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, the two cameras effectively operating as heat sensors will be able to discern particles of volcanic ash that absorb infrared radiation and would be shown as red clouds on a pilot's monitoring screen. Ultimately, a Europe-wide ash map could be constructed if entire fleets of planes carrying the technology relay the results to operations centres on the ground.

"We believe that will mean that the mass disruption we have seen in recent months will be a thing of the past," said Harrison, who described the system as a weather radar for ash. The current ash limit, a significant change from the former blanket ban, is 2mg of ash a cubic metre, but airspace closures still rely on computer models run by the Meteorological Office. This has prompted calls from airlines to let the industry do more evidence-based monitoring.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which has accused the industry of "buck-passing" by attempting to blame regulators for the ash shutdowns, welcomed the easyJet announcement. Andrew Haines, the CAA chief executive, said: "I very much hope that this is a sign that the industry is ready to play its part in finding a fundamental solution ... rather than pretending that the problem does not exist."

The system, the Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector, or Avoid, is based on technology tested on active volcanoes in Sicily and proven to work with satellite and ground-based sensors. But the system's creator, Dr Fred Prata, admitted it still needed further testing before it could be rolled out by easyJet. Those tests include a trial aboard an Airbus A340 jet, which must fly through ash clouds elsewhere in the world because Eyjafjallajokull now appears to be dormant. Further flights will then measure ash density in the test flight area to ensure the A340 test has not generated rogue readings.

Prata said airlines should not use the drop in volcanic activity in Iceland to put off the quest for new solutions to tackling airborne ash. "There will be a next time. Volcanoes have been around for millions of years," he said.

From LP covers that come to life to the hazy, lazy sounds of summer, the pick of the best music online by Chris Salmon

At the beginning of May, a music-loving Photoshop enthusiast by the name of Dormouse set up two new blogs on Tumblr. For reasons unclear, the first, Rock Cats (rockcats.tumblr.com), features daily pictures of musicians alongside superimposed cats, be they dancing with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, or lazing next to PJ Harvey on a bed. But the blog that is really capturing the web's imagination is Animated Albums (animatedalbums.tumblr.com). As the title implies, it features Dormouse's animated interpretations of iconic album artwork. So, the cars on the cover of Radiohead's OK Computer are now whizzing along the motorway; we can see the tattoo artist at work on the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You; and Bj rk's Homogenic warrior is being fed sushi with chopsticks. The idea is as simple as the animation (Dormouse admits to being a Terry Gilliam fan), but it makes for an extremely entertaining and original website.

If you're of an artistic bent yourself, it's definitely worth checking out the thejohnnycashproject.com. To celebrate the release of Cash's latest posthumous collection, American VI: Ain't No Grave, the site launched a few weeks ago, hoping to make a video for the title track by instigating a "global art project". Visitors who click "Contribute" are presented with three random frames from a base video made using old black-and-white footage of Cash. Pick a frame, and you can then use an ingenious, browser-based drawing application to recreate it using your mouse. Submit your creation and your frame has a chance of making it into the video. Whether it does is decided by the site's users, who can view and rate the submissions for each of the video's 1,370 frames (most of which have now been drawn three or four times). If all that sounds too much like hard work, then head straight for the "Watch the video" button and enjoy the impressive fruits of others' labours instead.

It's just under a year since electronica DJ and producer Chris Coco (pictured) began streaming his terrific Melodica radio programme at mixcloud.com/chriscoco. The hour-long show was conceived for Ibizan radio station Ibiza Sonica, and Coco plays the kind of blissed-out tunes you'd expect to soundtrack a Balearic sunset. Melodica is now broadcast on stations throughout the planet, and he's begun inviting acts into his kitchen to play sessions (kicking off with Ali Love on 3 May). This week's show is a particular treat, taking its theme as "epic and beautiful" and featuring everything from new Delphic and LCD Soundsystem tunes, to reworkings of a pair of mid-tempo acid house classics. It's the hazy, lazy sound of the summer.

Send your links to chris.salmon@guardian.co.uk

Ever heard of PremierOpinion? You soon will: but this doesn't quite look like the long-expected attack of malware on Macs. Instead it's a comScore subsidiary that's the culprit.

If you have downloaded and installed one of a long list (see the end of this post) of screensavers for the Mac, you've also got some spyware on board.

Yup. Spyware. On the Mac. The sector is becoming big enough to be worth the attention of the writers of scummy software. You might think it's not malware, but that's only because you haven't read the (long) list of things it does.

Intego, which has ploughed a fairly lonely furrow offering anti-virus checking for Macs (though it also picks up malware aimed at Windows machines, which Macs can pass on via email or Office documents), says it has found the spyware program - which it calls OpinionSpy, aka PremierOpinion - distributed within a number of free applications and screen savers on a variety of sites.

The principal source, though, and the largest number of infected files, come via a site called 7art-screensavers - which is registered to Alex Korsakoff of Moscow. But we don't think he's behind the spyware; in fact we're all but certain about that.

Worth noting too that 7art-screensavers has a number of "partners" also offering screensavers. It's quite possible that they have also provided this spyware as part of installations.

Where's the spyware from? Apparently a company called PremierOpinion, which has a privacy policy as long as your arm (if you have long arms). Which is owned by VoiceFive Networks. Which is owned by comScore.

In fact the VoiceFive/PremierOpinion software - which also attacks is available for Windows - has already been pointed out by Ben Edelman, longtime scourge of spyware, as "not something you'd want on your computer".

We have contacted PremierOpinion and VoiceFive to ask why they install software which scans email and web headers. (There's no given option to remove PremierOpinion from Macs on its FAQs.)

According to Intego, "This spyware, OSX/OpinionSpy, performs a number of malicious actions, from scanning files to recording user activity, as well as sending information about this activity to remote servers and opening a backdoor on infected Macs."

How does it manage that? Because you let it: "The spyware itself is not contained in these applications, but is downloaded during the installation process. This shows the need for an up-to-date anti-malware program with a real-time scanner that can detect this malware when it is downloaded by the original application's installer.

"The information provided with some of these applications contains a misleading text that users must accept explaining that a "market research" program is installed with them, but not all of these specify this. Some of these programs are also distributed directly from developers' web sites with no such warning."

"The malware, a version of which has existed for Windows since 2008, claims to collect browsing and purchasing information that is used in market reports. However, this program goes much further, performing a number of insidious actions, which have led Intego to classify it as spyware."

If you think that you may have let this program get onto your machine, see our accompanying post on Ask Jack: How to get rid of OpinionSpy / PremierOpinion's spyware from your Mac.

Intego gives a long list of things that this does:
• This application, which has no interface, runs as root (it requests an administrator's password on installation) with full rights to access and change any file on the infected user's computer.

• If for any reason the application stops running, it is re-launched via launchd, the system-wide application and service launching facility.

• It opens an HTTP backdoor using port 8254.

• It scans all accessible volumes, analyzing files, and using a great deal of CPU time. It is not clear what data it copies and sends to its servers, but it scans files on both local and network volumes, potentially opening up large numbers of confidential files on a network to intrusion.

• It analyzes packets entering and leaving the infected Mac over a local network, analyzing data coming from and being sent to other computers. One infected Mac can therefore collect a great deal of data from different computers on a local network, such as in a business or school.

• It injects code, without user intervention, into Safari, Firefox and iChat, and copies personal data from these applications. Code injection is a form of behavior similar to that of a virus, and this malware "infects" applications when they are running to be able to carry out its operations. (It infects the applications' code in the Mac's memory, and does not infect the actual applications' files on the user's hard disk.)

• It regularly sends data, in encrypted form, to a number of servers using ports 80 and 443. It sends data to these servers about files it has scanned locally, and also sends e-mail addresses, iChat message headers and URLs, as well as other data. This data may include personal data, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, web browser bookmarks, history and much more.

• Given the type of data that it collects, the company behind this spyware can store detailed records of users, their habits, their contacts, their location and much more.

• The application can be upgraded automatically, with new features added, with no user intervention, and without the user being aware of this. It occasionally asks users for information, via the display of dialogs, such as their name, or asks them to fill out surveys.

• In some cases, computers with this spyware installed no longer work correctly after a certain period of time; it is necessary to force-reboot such Macs.

• If a user deletes the original application or screen saver that installed this spyware, the spyware itself will remain installed and continue to operate.

Worried? You should be: this is about as nasty a piece of spyware as you could expect to find. The fact that it's downloaded during installation is a clever trick. The claims to be collecting "marketing information" is a flat-out lie, so one would hope that the people behind it will be caught.

We've emailed 7art to ask about what knowledge it had of PremierOpinion/OpinionSpy and its real function. We'll update the post if and when we hear from them.

We've also emailed VoiceFive, PremierOpinion and comScore to ask them about this.

So is that the end of innocence for the Mac? Actually, there's been malware about on Mac OS X for quite some time (much of it spotted by Intego, it should be said) - but there hasn't been a piece of software with this vicious potential on OS Xbefore that I can recall. The subtle element here being the download-during-install, and the use of the admin password to install as root and make itself self-launching.

And more to the point, this isn't a team of l33t hax0rs writing malware aimed at the Mac: it seems to be a company trying to get more information about web users (that's comScore's raison d'etre), and deciding that the Mac demographic - so far underserved by spyware - deserves a bit of attention. Unwelcome attention, with a program that goes too far (a monitoring program shouldn't install as root, and shouldn't install in launchd). But it's not the stealth attack that's often been feared.

How to protect against this sort of stuff? The pricier method: get anti-virus such as Intego. The cheaper method, though requiring more attention: don't run as an administrator (run as a normal "user" with limited rights); when you're asked for your password, ask yourself why this piece of software needs it. (Most applications will work perfectly fine without having to be in the /Applications or /Utilities folder, so there's no reason for them to go there; it also makes it easier to update or wipe your machine if only the Apple set of apps lives in /Applications. Some apps won't agree, but that's tough on them.)

As Intego notes, "this application that purports to collect information for marketing reasons does much more, going as far as scanning all the files on an infected Mac. Users have no way of knowing exactly what data is collected and sent to remote servers; such data may include user names, passwords, credit card numbers and more. The risk of this data being collected and used without users' permission makes this spyware particularly dangerous to users' privacy.

"The fact that this application collects data in this manner, and that it opens a backdoor, makes it a very serious security threat. In addition, the risk of it collecting sensitive data such as user names, passwords and credit card numbers, makes this a very high-risk spyware. While its distribution is limited, we warn Mac users to pay careful attention to which software they download and install."

comScore/VoiceFive/PremierOpinion will no doubt disagree on the privacy point. But in our opinion, adware is virtually indistinguishable from spyware, and both are scummy. Consider yourselves warned.

Here's the list of affected screensavers, from Intego:
"Below is a list of the screensavers and applications that we have found so far which install this spyware.All these screensavers are made by the same company, 7art-screensavers, and are available from their web site, http://7art-screensavers.com. (We're not linking to them. Can you guess why?) Note that you may have downloaded one of these screensavers without going there - a number of download sites offer them.

7art Eternal Love Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
7art Foliage Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Color Therapy Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Crystal Clock ScreenSaver v.2.6
Emerald Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Everlasting Flowering Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Fiesta Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Fire Element Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Fractal Sun Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Freezelight Clock ScreenSaver v.2.9
Full Moon Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Galaxy Rhythm Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Gravity Free Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Lighthouse Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Love Dance Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Magic Forest Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Nature Harmony Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
One World Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Precious Stone Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Radiating Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Rocket Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Secret Land ScreenSaver v.2.8
Serenity Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Silver Snow Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Sky Flight Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Sky Watch ScreenSaver v.2.8
Sunny Bubbles Clock ScreenSaver v.2.9
Water Color Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8
Water Element Clock ScreenSaver v.2.8

Applications: so far, Intego has only found this spyware in one application:
MishInc FLV To Mp3, http://www.mishinc.info/mac_flv_to_mp3.php

Former US president George Bush attempts to fill those empty hours of retirement by setting up a Facebook account

After dreaming of this day for so long, it's finally here: former US president George W Bush has joined Facebook. That leaves only his father George HW Bush and approximately 16 other US citizens who haven't yet joined the popular social media site.

Sadly, there is no option to "poke" George Bush.

At the time of writing, George Bush already has 36,000 Facebook citizens who "like" him since the page went public on Wednesday morning, although judging by the messages on his wall there is also a substantial number who would like an option to "unlike" him. "I'm glad you finally learned how to use a computer so your supporters can reach you," writes one on Bush's wall, followed by: "And with this, Facebook has officially jumped the shark."

As Facebook accounts go, it doesn't tell us much about him, other than his birthday is on 6 July 1946, and "Personal information: 43rd President of the United States, Former Governor of Texas," which is already in the public domain (although given Facebook's sieve-like privacy posture, anything you post on Facebook is also probably in the public domain, whether you know it or not).

The wall comments are a bizarre bunch: "Thanks to you, we have more than one internet!! God bless!!!" writes one. "Mr President, I SO WISH you had played yourself in the Harold and Kumar film. NOT KIDDING!" writes another. Others are more pointed:

This is awesome to have you on Facebook. The true Americans miss you a lot. Obama is screwing our country. How could so many stupid people vote for that man. He's a muslim just like the ones that took down our Twin Towers. We miss you. God Bless America. And lastly glad to have you back in Texas !!

First prize for best wall comment:

Please don't have your farm pre-emptively attack my farm on Farmville. Sincerely, The Ghost of Saddam

Oh, and then there's this advice:

ps don't join myspace!

Xbox 360; 39.99; cert 16+; Rising Star Games

Released in the same month as Super Street Fighter 4 and anticipated by pretty much no one, Samurai Shodown Sen is a fighting game so relentlessly difficult it often feels like the creators were setting out to punish anyone failing to take it seriously enough.

The Shodown series originated with a fondly remembered 1993 arcade outing that was steeped in Japanese tradition. Set in the late 18th century, the cast was heavy on dispossessed ronin, the soundtrack aimed for authentically Japanese music, and the weaponry was reasonably believable. These aspects are present and correct this time around so don't go expecting any sci-fi weapons or guests dropping in from, say, the Star Wars universe. Instead, there's a couple of dozen fairly vanilla characters to choose from (muscular samurai types, big-eyed manga girls, beardy monks, etc), separated into four categories "skill", "speed", "power" and "tricky."

For those who feel at home with the Soul Calibur series, to which this bears a passing resemblance, SSS is likely to seem infuriatingly inaccessible, wholly lesser experience. There's a basic palette of kicks, slashes and throws which can be combined and/or modified with the D pad to a certain extent but you can forget about perfecting an array of pleasing, spectacular combos. Instead, this is all about the hard slog chipping away at your enemy's life bar, furiously blocking and countering attacks, and trying (and most likely failing) to land the occasional more substantial attack, without leaving yourself open to a barrage of blows that'll make you want to sling your controller across the room in disgust at the bloody-minded unfairness of it all.

It's certainly breaking no new ground in terms of theme, game play or visuals its make-do approach to graphics won't win any prizes, although there are some beautifully illustrated menu screens that draw from traditional Japanese caligraphy, bringing to mind Okami's elegant visuals.

SSS is certainly not for the habitual button basher, or even anyone who'd like to have a decent grasp of a fighting game within a couple of hours of picking it up. However, for connoisseurs of the genre it's still worth a look. It's awkward, infuriating and it does not want to be your friend, but these aren't necessarily the worst things in the world. If you think of Dead or Alive as a Mini Babybel, this'd be some sort of smelly cheese that is actually surprisingly tasty once you get over the whiff.

Rating: 2/5

A pedestrian is suing Google for supplying unsafe directions in its Maps tool after she was hit by a car on a Park City road. Even with the acknowledgement that most American cities are built for cars, rather than people, isn't that a lawsuit too far?

Lauren Rosenberg is seeking $100,000 in damages after the accident in January when she tried to cross a busy state highway with no pavements at night and was hit by a car. A lawsuit filed in a Utah District Court last week accused Google of being "careless, reckless, and negligent" in supplying unsafe walking directions.

Rosenberg's lawyer Allen Young said: "We think there's enough fault to go around, but Google had some responsibility to direct people correctly or warn them. They created a trap with walking instructions that people rely on. She relied on it and thought she should cross the street."

Rosenberg has been the subject of some vitriol for an apparent lapse in common sense and a rather 'hopeful' lawsuit. Unfortunately that appears to have been directed at another Lauren Rosenberg - a PR executive with a strong online profile who has received various incredulous voicemail and email messages - including one from a friend who said "I thought you were smarter than that".

Danny Sullivan on SearchEngineLand points out that Google Maps' walking direction, which are still in beta, clearly show a warning: "Use caution - This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths". He also says: "I suspect a court is going to find that despite getting bad directions from Google (or a gas station attendant, a local person or any source), people are also expected to use common sense."

Young later told Sullivan that if Google "is going to tell people where to go, they need to have some responsibility to warn them that that might not be the way to go".

"She was in an area that she'd never been to before. It was pitch black. There were no street lights. She relied on Google that she'd cross there and go down to a sidewalk."

Update: We asked Google for comment but they declined.

With MySpace (NYSE: NWS) having bought iLike and imeem, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) likely to launch a subscription service out of Lala's ashes and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) having partnered with both iLike and Lala for music playback, the spotlight remains on Facebook and what its music ambitions might be.

In an interesting interview with BBC 6Music, MySpace's UK general manager Christopher Moser says MySpace isn't yet ready to get in to the subscription game, but, when asked what if Facebook showed an interest, said he would be "very happy" for it to do so

"That would be great for the music industry - artists need more outlets for their music where they can make money. If Facebook wanted to enter that area, we'd be very happy." Listen here.

On MySpace's struggles:-

"MySpace started as a company in 2004 - we're a fairly new company - we're only six years old." (Does that still qualify as 'new'?)

"The key question remains, how do you monetise traffic these days? This is not (just) a MySpace problem, it is a generic question around content creators. We have unlimited supply of advertising space. There's millions and millions and millions and millions of web pages, and they all sell ads. Making a business model on the internet is not easy.

"We have been very successful very early, then we have not grown our audience over the last one and a half years."

So, profiting from subscriptions?

"Music subscription is something that is definitely interesting - it's not a mass-market product at the moment, you're talking about a very tiny niche.

"These days, most people still want to own music - this thing on access to music is not a mass-market product. Do we consider moving in to that space? Of course, but when the time is right and when we really believe that there's mass-market appeal."

Until then, Moser suggested musical MySpace must open up to output to Twitter, Facebook, et al: "MySpace will have to adapt to allow artists to publish from MySpace in to any other potential platform that is out there."

British audio company releases Wi-Fi-enabled digital radio and iPod dock, and a 'soundbar' using spatial stereo technology

Orbitsound, the British audio company created by sound engineer and one-time session musician Ted Fletcher, will today unveil a new range of gadgets using its innovative spatial stereo technology that are likely to have audiophiles drooling.

Alongside the T12 a new version of its "soundbar", which sold out within a few months of being made available in John Lewis last year, amid widespread critical acclaim Orbitsound is releasing a new gadget: a Wi-Fi-enabled digital radio and iPod dock, called the T4 Radiopod.

Both gadgets make use of the company's airSOUND system, Fletcher's patented technology that produces clarity and depth of sound wherever the gadget is positioned.

With a traditional stereo system there is a "sweet spot" a certain distance from the speakers in which the listener will experience perfect sound. Orbitsound maintains that its products produce fantastic stereo "spatial" sound with depth and clarity wherever the system is positioned, creating a so-called "infinite sweet spot". The technology was developed by Fletcher in 2004, but the first devices were not unveiled until the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008.

Fletcher's experience of the audio industry stretches back to the early 1960s, when he worked with music producer Joe Meek whose most famous hit was Telstar by The Tornados first as a session artist and then as a sound technician. He went on to set up his own sound mixer manufacturing company in 1969, called Alice, and his kit was soon in demand by the likes of Jethro Tull, the Eagles and the Who. He went on to sell Alice and set up an audio compression business, whose most popular line of stereo compression equipment Fletcher named after Meek. It was snapped up by PMI Audio Group seven years ago.

The original backing for Orbitsound came from John Cameron and Harvinder Hungin, two City financiers who were behind the 2004 multi-billion pound buyout of property group Chelsfield. They are both executive directors of Orbitsound. The company, meanwhile, recently finalised a fresh investment round and an overdraft with a major international bank, in order to fund its expansion.

IE director Ryan Gavin says his aims are to reduce IE6's market share to zero and to achieve cross-browser standards compatibility with the forthcomng IE9

Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's senior director of Internet Explorer, is remarkably chirpy for a man whose product's market share has plunged from 90% to roughly 60%, but it seems things are not all bad.

"The future for IE is as bright as it's been any time over the past five years," he says. "IE8 is the fastest-growing browser in history: it's the number one browser on Windows, and the number one across all OSs. The simple truth comes down to: every single day, more users are choosing Internet Explorer 8 than any other modern browser out there."

Gavin is also showing a platform preview of next year's IE9 which, at least on his chosen demos, trounces Google Chrome for speed by making use of the PC's graphics processor.

What's more, he's just as keen to see the back of the nine-year-old IE6 as anybody else. "IE6 was built for a very different web at a very different time," says Gavin. "A modern web does require a modern browser. My aim is to get IE6's market share to zero as fast as humanly possible. That's good for the web, good for developers, and good for us."

IE6 is still around because companies standardised on it, and because it ships with Windows XP, which is still the most widely-used (and, arguably, most popular) operating system. The problem will shrink as Windows 7 takes off. However, IE9 won't run on XP: wouldn't it help kill IE6 if it did?

"XP is a fantastic operating system, it was simply built for a different time. The security profile from nine years ago is not the security profile needed today," he says. IE9 has a strong focus on security Gavin says it blocks far more malware than either Firefox or Google Chrome but "you need security all the way through the operating system". That's obviously not XP .

Gavin says the IE9 preview has been downloaded more than 1m times since 15 March, and developers are excited about it because it makes new kinds of web experience possible: experiences that are much more like applications than websites. This is using HTML5 and hardware acceleration, of course.

"We're all in on HTML5," he says. "We've been co-chairing the HTML5 working group, and we're actually leading the HTML5 testing group. With CSS 2.1, we've submitted 7,000 test cases to the W3C. We're actively participating with other browser vendors to get consistency across browsers. The goal is 'same markup'."

Microsoft's Test Drive site shows that IE9 is implementing important HTML5 standards better than rival browsers, but it still lags on Acid3 test. Gavin says Microsoft is implementing the features most commonly used by popular websites, rather than targeting Acid3. "We're using real-world customer data to inform our vision [for IE9], but as we focus on standards and markup, as a by-product, our Acid3 scores go up."

Gavin says Microsoft is taking a similar line with browser performance, testing against thousands of real-world sites rather than optimising for benchmark tests. "There are dozens of subsystems that make up the real-world performance of a browser which is not just speed and JavaScript can be as little as 5%," he says. "Rendering matters a ton. Layout matters a ton. It varies site by site. Looking at one specific test is a very narrow view of the web."

But, I suggest, Microsoft could save itself the effort if it just used the open source WebKit rendering engine as used by Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and most mobile browsers instead of developing its own.

"Trident is actually a much bigger engine with many more components than WebKit," he says, "and I'm not even sure what WebKit is. There are a lot of different versions that get different results on the same tests."

Of course, another factor is that Microsoft has to maintain compatibility with earlier versions of its browser that are still used by many corporate customers and government departments. I ask Gavin if Microsoft's focus on HTML5 means that ActiveX is on the way out.

"ActiveX continues to be a choice," he says, "along with HTML5 and various plug-ins. Choice is a good thing! Developers will continue to choose the right tools for the job.

"There's more choice in the browser space than ever in history. Choice is great for customers, it's great for developers, and it's great for Microsoft. I think we do some of our most innovative work in a healthy competitive environment, serving customers and partners."

Those are fine sentiments so we can only hope that IE9 actually delivers on them.

Intel has revisited last year's Classmate 2 convertible netbook and upgraded it to this year's Pinetrail platform, but some niggles remain

I criticised several aspects of Intel's Classmate 2 netbook when I looked at an early version in April 2009. The new model deals with many of my complaints, though the basic system has not changed.

If you missed it, Classmate 2 is a rugged convertible aimed at the schools market, particularly children aged 5-11. In normal use, it's a conventional Atom-powered netbook, but you can also swivel the screen around handy for some classroom uses and fold it over the keyboard, to form a tablet computer. You can then use a stylus to make notes, with the option of converting your handwriting into text.

The latest Classmate 2 (PDF) has had its 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor upgraded to a 1.66GHz N450, the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics have been slightly improved to GMA3150, and the 60GB hard drive has expanded to 150GB. The 8.9in screen has grown to 10.1in, and the old Microsoft Windows XP has been replaced by Windows 7 Starter. All of these are worthwhile improvements to what is not, after all, intended to be a cutting-edge system.

However, the screen still offers the same limited resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, and the keyboard remains a little unpleasant for adult touch-typing, though it's now spill-resistant. The main memory (shared with the integrated graphics) has stuck at 1GB, though there's an empty slot so it can easily be expanded to 2GB.

Netbook-watchers will recognise the specification as the Intel Pinetrail platform used in many of this year's netbooks, such as the Asus Eee 1005PE.

The new Classmate 2 scores 2.3 on the Windows Experience Index, the same as the Asus 1005PE which you'd expect, because they have the same processor. In other respects, the Classmate 2 is fractionally quicker, except for the 1005PE's better 250GB hard drive. But while you can measure the difference, it's not so large that any user could tell.

The system is available with either a 4-cell battery lasting up to 4.8 hours or a 6-cell battery claimed to last 8.5 hours. As well as having two USB ports, an SD slot, Ethernet and other ports, the new model optionally supports WiMax networking, 3G and GPS.

Another benefit for schools is the provision of a simple Blue Dolphin front end with a bundle of preloaded educational software. When you turn the Classmate 2 on, it tries to connect to your teacher's PC, so that you can receive assignments and hand them in (via a button that says Hand In). Programs such as Smart Notebook SE, MyScript Stylus and MyScript Studio look suitable for classroom use. There's also webcam and parental control software. However, the bundle includes some trialware that you would need to remove, and configuring Blue Dolphin for a specific school would take quite some time. You'd want Intel Education Administrator or a similar program to configure 30 or more.

The new Classmate 2 is bulky and somewhat heavy (1.52kg or 1.74kg) in comparison to consumer-oriented designs such as the Asus Seashell and Acer Aspire. It doesn't look anything like as stylish as a Seashell or the silver Toshiba NB305. But it should be more likely to survive rough handling, or even being dropped.

Classmate netbooks are developed and sold by manufacturers in many different countries. Previous versions have been sold in the UK by CMS under the Fizzbook Spin brand name, and the latest model will be distributed by Steljes in the UK and Ireland. It has been pilot tested at St Matthew Academy, Blackheath, London.

Pros: Rugged design and construction; converts to tablet; stylus-operated touch screen; Blue Dolphin front end; Windows 7 Starter.
Cons: Limited screen depth (600 pixels); keyboard; weight.
Classmatepc.com

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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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?

Disconnecting downloaders will alienate the entertainment industry's most loyal customers

With the passage into law of the dread Digital Economy Act comes Ofcom's guidelines that are the first step toward rules for when and how rightsholders will be able to disconnect entire families from the internet because someone on or near their premises is accused of copyright infringement.

Consumer rights groups and privacy groups such as the Open Rights Group, the Citizens Advice Bureau, Which, and Consumer Focus participated in the process, making the Ofcom rules as good as possible (an exercise that, unfortunately, is a little like making the guillotine as comfortable as possible).

But this isn't the last word in the copyfight not even close. Because disconnection for downloaders will only serve to alienate entertainment industry customers (remember that the most avid downloaders are also the most avid buyers "most avid" being the operative word here the 20% of customers who account for 80% of sales, downloading, concert tickets, box-office revenue, DVDs, T-shirts, action figures, etc). And because those who download most avidly will simply change tactics.

The entertainment industry's capacity to gather evidence and make accusations against downloaders relies on the fact that, at present, most downloading systems don't bother to encrypt the traffic or disguise the user's identity. Neither of these things are very hard to do, though both are computationally more expensive than the alternative. But, in case you haven't noticed, computation is getting cheaper all the time.

Once non-anonymous, non-encrypted downloading bears a significant risk, downloaders will simple switch to anonymised, encrypted alternatives.

For example, SSL-based proxies like Sweden's IPREDator (use of which is also a tonic against identity thieves and other creeps who may be monitoring your network connection) provide a nigh-impenetrable layer of misdirection that confounds anyone hoping to trace a download session back to a user. And services like Easynews.com provide encrypted access to enormous libraries of material including infringing copies of popular shows, music and movies.

So why worry? If users won't be deterred from downloading and may even be driven to start taking care to protect their connections from snoops and creeps then how bad will the Digital Economy Act be?

Bad.

Because the naive user who only downloads occasionally will still be in harm's way, as will his family or housemates if his connection is disconnected by an entertainment bully.

And because once the state decides that it has a duty to police the internet to maximise the profits of a few entertainment companies (no matter what the public expense), it sets itself on a path of ever-more-restrictive measures. Once disconnection drives downloaders to make use of SSL-based proxies, watch for Big Content to inveigle their friends in parliament to enact laws prohibiting the use of virtual private networks never mind that these are the best practice of anyone trying to safeguard a corporate or organisational network.

Once the Act drives downloaders to use SSL-encrypted services that are harder to monitor, watch for the entertainment lobby to ask for great swaths of the internet to be blocked by the Great Firewall of Britain that the Act also provides for.

Once you swallow a spider to catch a fly, you're on a course to swallow a bird to catch the spider, a cat to catch the bird, and so on until you swallow a horse and every toddler knows that happens next.

'Suicides' at Chinese factory 'troubling' says Apple chief executive at All Things Digital conference in US

Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, finds "troubling" a string of worker deaths at Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles the company's iPhones and iPads, but said its factory in China "is not a sweatshop".

Jobs was making his first public comments about employees' apparent suicides at a complex operated by the unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which also counts Hewlett-Packard and Dell among its clients.

At this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in California, Jobs sniped at Adobe Systems's "waning" Flash technology, vowed not to get into a search battle with Google, and waxed lyrical about the future of tablet PCs.

Jobs also talked about how he conceived the iPad even before the iPhone. Apple released the iPad in April and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 2,000,000 units in the first 60 days.

But a string of deaths at Foxconn's base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device's success.

"It's a difficult situation," Jobs said on stage. "We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution."

The iPad's momentum has helped drive share gains. Apple last week overtook long-time nemesis Microsoft to become the world's largest technology company by market value an event unthinkable a decade ago and Apple's shares have spent much of 2010 hitting new highs.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple, rose 1.5% yesterday to end at $260.8 on the Nasdaq.

"For those of us that have been in the industry a long time, it's surreal. But it doesn't matter very much, it's not what's important," Jobs said. "It's not what makes you come to work every morning."

Jobs has appeared at the event in previous years, but not since 2007. Much has changed for Apple and its chief executive in that period. A pancreatic cancer survivor, the company's founder underwent a liver transplant a year ago.

The company's growing clout and business ambitions have also increasingly put it at the centre of several high-profile disputes and in the regulatory spotlight.

The US justice department is making preliminary inquiries into whether Apple unfairly dominates the digital music market through its iTunes store, sources say.

Hostility between Apple and Adobe has been brewing for months. Apple has criticised Flash as a buggy battery hog, while Adobe has accused Apple of exerting tyrannical control over developers creating programs for the iPhone and iPad.

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash or anything else. We just made a technical decision," he said.

Adobe's Flash multimedia technology allows video and interactive media on the web.

Apple is widely expected to unveil its newest iPhone next Monday, when Jobs delivers his keynote address at its developers' conference in San Francisco.

Consumers may already have seen the next iPhone after a prototype, famously lost by an Apple employee at a bar earlier this year, was purchased and displayed online by a technology blog.

Jobs said there was debate about whether the phone was picked up after being left at the bar, or stolen.

"This is a story that's amazing," Jobs said. "It's got theft. It's got buying stolen property. It's got extortion. I'm sure there's sex in there somewhere. Somebody should make a movie out of this."

Four idealistic students at New York University have raised $200,000 to fund a project building a more privacy-centric social network.

Diaspora isn't likely to take Facebook down just yet, but after a very flattering introduction in the New York Times a few weeks back the group watched hundreds of small donations flood in - more than 6,400 donations have been pledged so far - and in less than one month. Zuckerberg himself is rumoured to have contributed.

The four wrote on Monday that they had expected to scrape an initial $10,000 together through Kickstarter, the creative project funding site, from friends and family - but recognise they have "struck a chord with the world and identified a problem which needs to be solved".

That 'problem' is the need for what they describe as a "privacy-aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network".

"You may not hear too much from us in the coming months and we will try our best to provide regular updates, but our silence means we are hard at work," wrote the team: Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer and Ilya Zhitromirskiy.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg was given a grilling by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the D8 conference yesterday; what MarketWatch described as his "Nixon moment".

"Zuckerberg, literally squirmed in his seat, took off his famous hoodie sweatshirt and had a Richard Nixon-like moment under the grilling... Sweat literally dripped from his face as he mostly dodged giving specific answers about the backlash stemming from the popular social network's recent privacy changes that caused ire among users. Zuckerberg also mostly dodged specific answers about how the backlash stemming from another recent privacy uproar affected him personally."

Watch Zuckerberg answering key questions on privacy; as John Paczkowski says in the introduction "if you're looking to straightforward answers to those questions, you're going to be disappointed".

New-look Microsoft site to link up with social media, reduce download time and give higher profile to MSN Video Player

Microsoft is to unveil a new-look MSN UK homepage later today that includes tie-ups with Facebook and Twitter and a new high-profile slot for its online TV service.

A key element of the refresh, the first major overhaul since September 2007, is to simplify the design to reduce download time, which is considered a key factor in keeping users engaged for longer.

"The new homepage is much lighter, much whiter, much shorter [in overall length], much smaller," said Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN UK at Microsoft.

MSN UK's new-look website, which is scheduled to go live from 8.30pm today, will also include social media integration with Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live. The website will also offer more news and larger images.

Users will be able to access and update their social media accounts directly from the MSN homepage although not if they are members of the second largest network, News Corporation-owned MySpace.

"It is acknowledgment there are other services out there that people's lives also revolve around and it is important to making the MSN homepage indispensible," said Bale.

Microsoft has also given video-on-demand service MSN Video Player, which has 1,000 hours of shows including Peep Show, Shameless and Midsomer Murders, a high-profile slot.

Previously the service, which officially launched in March, was positioned below the "fold" in the lower half of the homepage; it is now near the top.

"We are meeting targets for streams, we are pretty happy about [MSN Video Player] at the moment," said Bale. "One of the difficulties was making it prominent enough for users. It is a very valuable product. We see video as front and centre of our revenue ambitions in the coming year."

A huge amount of web traffic to the MSN UK homepage comes from when users log off from Microsoft-owned email service Hotmail. As such the new redesign features a much more prominent Hotmail service.

"There will be a much cleaner, crisper look and feel," said Chris Maples, the commercial director for Microsoft UK. "This will create greater engagement for users and for advertisers. It feels a bit more nimble, adds some verve."

Users of the microblogging service complain at apparent censorship as discussion grows around deaths on convoy - but it isn't justified (updated)

The attack by Israel on a flotilla of ships approaching Gaza has, as you'd expect, generated a huge response on social media - and of course Twitter, with its real-time content, was quick to react.

Many users began the morning by tagging their comments about it with "#flotilla" - a "hashtag" which gives a structure to a discussion or emerging event, as you can filter searches in applications such as Tweetdeck so that you only see those with that tag.

But at around 11am, as #flotilla began "trending" - rising to the topmost-used hashtags on the service - it seemed to vanish.

Was this censorship by Twitter? Quite a few asked the question.

Certainly if you went to the standard URL for such a search - http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23flotilla - you briefly got a result saying "Twitter error".

However if you used the advanced search, you get the results as you'd expect.

What also happened was that people started using a new hashtag: #freedomflotilla. That rapidly trended.

The error in #flotilla search results quickly fixed itself, though. Possibly the rapid rise in the hashtag's visibility tripped an anti-spam filter at Twitter headquarters (where it was 3am in the morning, so we might assume that it's the machines, rather than the people, who are on duty - though then again, knowing the nocturnal habits of programmers, perhaps not).

Update: Mike Butcher at Techcrunch points out that this surely was a case of anti-spam filtering: there had already been a "flotilla" story in the past week - the anniversary of Dunkirk (for non-Britons: a dramatic rescue during the second world war of British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches by small craft). And Gaza is frequently topical. (Thanks @vensa in the comments.)

So Twitter's anti-spam algorithms - that is, the machines - likely decided that this was a spam attack trying to piggyback on old hashtags, and pushed the "#flotilla" hashtag out of the trending topics. Is it censorship if it's done by machines that think it's spam? Given that "#freedomflotilla" instead rapidly trended, clearly there's no human censorship against the story of the attack being made visible to other Twitter users.

That's why Trendsmap, which is independent of Twitter and from which the screenshot is taken, looks as it does: it reflects what's on Twitter.

Update 2:: Sean Garrett, who handles communications for Twitter, tweeted this morning to say that "We are investigating a technical issue that caused search errors for a short period of time this morning. Twitter facilitates the open exchange of info & opinions -- when that is hampered by a bug, we take it very seriously." The bug has now been fixed, Twitter says.

So: shock as Twitter not being used to censor news. But it does show the enormous sensitivity there now is about Twitter's impartiality that any suggestion that a world event might be pushed out of its "trending topics" (displayed on the right-hand column of every Twitter user's home page) can create such frustration.

It doesn't, of course, help anyone on the convoy that was attacked. But getting information into public hands is a public good. Twitter is coming closer and closer to being viewed as a utility - certainly by those who use it. Perhaps we'd all feel more comfortable if it had a business model that had real, declared profits - because (to answer @Strummer) that would mean you could be confident of unmediated messages from everywhere in the world.

Computer and services business to spend $1bn over three years to consolidate operations in automated data centres

Hewlett-Packard, the computer and services business, is to cut 9,000 jobs while spending $1bn over the next three years to consolidate its operations in automated data centres as it completes its corporate digestion of the services company EDS, which it acquired for $14bn in August 2008.

But the company will hire an extra 6,000 staff as it invests in the new data centres and expands global operations, it said in a statement. The move is expected to lead to gross savings of $1bn annually once completed, it said.

The shift is part of an ongoing effort to reduce the headcount at the company, which has increasingly focused on services as a path to profit as older parts of the business, such as its PC and printer division, have seen profits remain stagnant. The fastest growth in profits in the past two years has come from its services side.

But it has not abandoned the computer side of the business: in May it announced the purchase of Palm, the smartphone maker, for $1.2bn after winning a brief five-way bidding war. It plans to introduce tablet computers running Palm's WebOS software later this year.

In September 2008, following the EDS acquisition, the company said it would cut 24,600 jobs representing 7.5% of its 320,000 headcount at the time. That three-year programme was expected to generate $1.8bn cost savings, and is still ongoing though in recent investor presentations HP has told shareholders it is "closing the chapter" on its operational integration of EDS.

"Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating EDS and improving profitability," said the senior vice-president and general manager of HP's Enterprise Services, Tom Iannotti. "Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business."

In February, HP's global headcount stood at 304,000 even though it has cut 75,500 jobs in the past decade. However it had not previously reduced effective headcount: in 2000 it had only 88,000 employees, but acquired a number of companies including Compaq and EDS. Overall, the total number of staff, including those from companies it acquired, has not so far changed although the balance of its business has.

HP shares rose slightly on the news of the restructuring.

Tim Dowling imagines the problems for posters having to identify themselves

Today's topic: with both the Times and the Independent banning anonymous comments from their websites, the age of the unidentified poster may be at an end. Is this a good thing? If you think so, why not take this opportunity to introduce yourself?

My real name is Bruce Wayne.

Batman at 06:36 on 31 May 2010.

Hi all. I'm Nick, the moderator on the site, but I sometimes post mildly inflammatory comments under this pseudonym, just to keep the ball rolling. Otherwise it gets really boring. kronick68 at 07:02 on 31 May 2010.

I applaud the decision made by those newspapers. It's time to put an end to abusive anonymous posters. What possible harm could come from people taking responsibility for their online comments? I changed my username to my real name this morning and I hope others will do the same.

MaryFDolan_Acc407371sortcode81-60-21_answer_to_secret_question:"Fluffy" at 07:09 on 31 May 2010.

I'm Donald J and I get paid to come on sites like this to change the subject to internet poker. I don't even know anything about poker, I just paste in phrases from a list. A robot could do it, but I'm cheaper, apparently.

BonusBob at 07:27 on 31 May 2010.

What a cool idea! My real name is Mark Pearce, and I just told work I was ill when I'm really still in Spain! Here's a link to a pic on my Facebook page of me being sick all over a police horse! http://btx4Jk9. Friend me!

TheOfficeThief at 09:13 on 31 May 2010.

YOu FEAR OUR POWEr! YOU CaNOT SILENCE ThE POEPLE!!!

kronick68 at 09:54 on 31 May 2010.

Mark: you're fired.

IamyourBOSS at 10:17 on 31 May 2010.

Dudes! I just won 360 playing heads-up hold 'em! Check out this great site! http://gh7lkp9

BonusBob at 11:04 on 31 May 2010.

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.

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.