Monday, January 7, 2002		Latest in IT world

The Wall Street Journal reports two computers believed to have been used by the Al-Qaida terrorist network for years contain hundreds of documents about the organisation's operations. The newspaper said last week one of its reporters bought the computers for more than $ 1,00,000 from a Kabul computer merchant who says they were looted from an al-Qaida office after US bombings. The US intelligence officials have confirmed the computers contain Al-Qaida files. The documents reveal the day-to-day operations of the organisation, including al-Qaida's efforts to develop chemical and biological weapons. But the computers apparently do not contain files related to the September 11 terrorist attacks or any future attacks. The computers do contain documents pointing to Al-Qaida involvement in this year's assassination of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud.

Women outshopped men on the Internet during the holidays for the first time ever, infiltrating a retail realm once dominated by young, wealthy white males, according to a national survey released last week by a non-profit research group, Washington Post reports. Of the 29 million Internet users who bought gifts online between Thanksgiving and Christmas, about 58 per cent were women, up from 50 per cent last year, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found after polling more than 2,000 adults with Internet access. The research group's findings suggest women have crossed a major threshold in cyberspace, where the gender mix is becoming more consistent with the traditional retail world. Young, white, educated men are classic early adopters of any technology, and they dominated online shopping in its infancy. As the Internet grew in popularity, though, female shoppers prevailed, analysts said.

US officials said they have warned 71 Websites selling products that claim to protect against bio-warfare agents to remove any claims they cannot support with scientific evidence or risk legal action, Reuters reports. The Federal Trade Commission said the warnings, sent via e-mail, were the second wave in an effort to crack down on the Internet sites that try to sell fraudulent products to Americans worried about bio-terrorism. Dozens of Websites began offering anti-biotics, gas masks, air filters and other products in October following the discovery of letters tainted with potentially deadly anthrax spores. The Internet searches by state and federal authorities found more than 200 sites marketing bio-terrorism-related products. In mid-November, the FTC warned 50 Websites, and more than half of those have eliminated suspect claims, the FTC said. Those warnings went mostly to firms promoting cures or treatments for anthrax or other possible bio-terror weapons.

The world's oldest computer, the abacus, which has survived for more than 2,000 years, remains a favourite with the Chinese in the digital age. It is portable, uses no electricity, emits no radiation and cannot be damaged by viruses. This environmentally friendly calculator prospers as a complement to modern computers. It is also used widely in China's finance and accounting sectors, Straits Times found out. Although the number of abacus-makers has been dropping and now stands at fewer than 200, many producers are working to develop new types of abacuses. Mr Fu Xiaoyou, who is head of Shanxi Shengtian Industrial, which is an abacus manufacturer in north China, has, with the aid of modern computers, managed to come up with new abacus products. His new abacus looks like a keyboard. It is now on sale in Singapore and Japan. In Chinese banks, abacuses can usually be seen along side computers. And bank employees are required to pass an examination that test whether they are able to do calculations using this age-old device.