Monday, September 18, 2000		Lens on IT

Huge surf boards are set up as part of the decoration at "Surf Shacks" for athletes to connect to the Internet at the athletes' village in Sydney. The free service is provided for athletes to communicate with their families during the Olympic Games

Nguyen Thi Than, a blind teacher, helps eight-year-old Co Gia Dinh learn keyboard skills at the Bung Sang, or "flashlight," school for the blind in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City. The school launched a European-funded computer project last month aimed at increasing learning opportunities for some of Vietnam's 60,000-70,000 blind school children. The students use special audio and speech programmes as well as braille keyboards to control the computers.

Sony Corp's Yoko Dobashi shows off the electronic maker's new digital organiser, the CLIE, at Sony headquarters. Sony joined the fast-growing PDA, or personal digital assistant, market with the CLIE . The CLIE adds video playback to the usual array of organiser functions and hooks up to the Internet. The colour-screen version is expected to retail for around 55,000 yen ($525) and the monochrome display model at 50,000 yen.

— Reuters photos