Power moves
The new department of constitutional affairs will cover privacy, data-sharing, data protection and freedom of information, following last week's reshuffle. The department swallowed most of the work of the lord chancellor's department and retains its web address <A HREF="http://www.lcd.gov.uk"" TARGET="_NEW">www.lcd.gov.uk, which contains numerous references to the abolished department. Ministerial responsibilities had not been allocated as Online went to press. Stephen Timms added energy to his ministerial brief at the Department of Trade and Industry, which includes e-commerce. Lord Hunt, who was in charge of NHS IT until he resigned in protest at the Iraq war, will be replaced after a three-month gap.
OFT raps sellers
The Office of Fair Trading has told 12 computer retailers to change their terms and conditions. These include London-based computer retailer Micro Anvika. The firm promised to revise its terms, and gave undertakings not to exclude liability for mistakes or inaccuracies on its website, exclude or limit liability for defective software, have a term allowing it to vary the price and specification of goods, or restrict cancellation rights. Dabs Direct was among other firms that agreed to change their terms and conditions. The OFT says it is investigating 10 more computer sellers.
Full list: www.oft.gov.uk/News/
Bad year for growth
Analyst Ovum Holway says that last year was the worst year for growth in IT software and services, with the market shrinking by 4%. The firm says this year, the market will shrink by a further 3% to £22 billion, and will grow by less than the whole economy until at least 2006. IT managers will focus spending on making existing systems last longer and working better, rather than new technology, Ovum Holway said. The trend towards sending IT work offshore to countries such as India would continue, although the price difference between the UK and offshore staff would narrow.
Open councils
Nottingham and the London borough of Newham are considering moving their desktop computers from Microsoft Windows to the open source operating system Linux, according to E-Government Bulletin. Nottingham has already moved its email system to Linux, although it says it is unlikely to decide this year on whether to move its desktops.
The German city of Munich has decided to move about 14,000 desktop computers from Windows to Linux. In the UK, Sun says that 1,000 schools have obtained free licences for StarOffice, its rival to the Microsoft Office suite, which has an open source core.
www.headstar.com/egb
VAT on e-commerce
Customs and Excise has launched a website through which non-EU e-commerce firms can register for VAT payments, which they must do by July 1. This has hit several US-based companies, which were previously exempt. Users of auction site eBay recently complained that it hiked prices using VAT's introduction as cover.
Firms can choose where to base themselves in Europe for VAT purposes. US internet service provider AOL chose Luxembourg's low 15% rate, but is absorbing this tax within its prices. Rival Freeserve - which charges unlimited-use narrowband customers through Madeira, with 13% VAT - says AOL UK has saved £150m in the past two years.
https://secure.hmce.gov.uk/ecom/voes
Stabilised
Intel has launched the Stable Image Platform Program (SIPP), formerly code-named Granite Peak, to try to make PCs more consistent. It will limit "major technology modifications" for 12 months following the launch of a new chip set, and align the release of system driver software. Intel claims this will save IT departments time and money because they will not have to re-test PCs. SIPP is a hardware feature and makes its first appearance in Intel's 865G chip set. Dell, IBM, HP and Gateway all seem to be backing SIPP.
www.intel.com/info/stableplatform
Faster mobiles
Intel has released a new range of Mobile Pentium 4 processors that finally run at desktop Pentium speeds - 2.40GHz to 3.06GHz - if the machines are plugged in to the mains. On battery power, they all step down to the same speed, 1.60GHz. All the new chips have 512K of cache memory and 533MHz buses. There is also a slower 2.60GHz/1.20GHz version with a 400MHz bus, at more than twice the price of the 533MHz alternative. It is, in fact, the most expensive Mobile Pentium 4 in the range, but it consumes less than half the power of its siblings. It should lead to fast (but not cheap) portables with longer battery life.
Smart web
Axiope, a University of Edinburgh spin-off, plans to develop a specialised environment for scientists to share and discover research information. The company, formed in September, has been awarded a £45,000 Small Firms Merit Award for Research and Technology (Smart) by the Department of Trade and Industry to create a system to allow researchers to share and integrate their data in more flexible ways. Axiope co-founder Fred Howell says: "We are giving scientists the opportunity to grow their own semantic web, in their laboratories and across the internet right now."
www.axiope.org/software.html
