http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67665

While the EU seems to be having some hard times with Microsoft at the moment, it saw no problem in following the US ministry of justice in approving Oracle's deal.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67679

After the acquisition of Xemics by Semtech first half of 2005, another European fabless wireless short range chipset company with excellent product reputation has got acquired.

It appears that European fabless chipset vendors, with very few exceptions such as e.g. Cambridge Silicon Radio, have a hard time generating enough revenues and profits from their often limited product range. Price pressure is enormous and the big volume customers (such as wireless handset vendors) usually demand very lengthy evalution phases and ultra-low prices. Of course, it is a legitimate exit strategy for their VC investors.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece


Well known as the country with probably the highest CCTV camera installation density, Britain has now gone one step further and will - based on license plate recognition - monitor the movement of all cars.

Interesting to note that this seems to go through unopposed in Britain. In other European countries this might trigger lots of privacy protection discussions and most likely would not pass the legislation.

Reminds me of the Italian couples who seem to use their cars not only to drive form A to B but also park them at quiet places... I guess that does not work in the UK, since most of the year its too cold for such activities outside anyway.