IT Business Elsewhere is a look at interesting and unusual technology stories from around the world.
Reality TV, Mexican-style
CNN.com
The governor of Texas wants to set up a series of Webcams along the Mexican border. The feeds would be streamed online so voyeurs can call a toll-free hotline and turn in illegal border-crossers before they have a chance to settle into life in the Lone Star state. One civil libertarian is calling the US$5-million plan “half-baked.”
No cheap IT health-care system please, we’re British
The Guardian
Proving that it’s not just the Canadian government that suffers major IT crises, the firm that has been responsible for much of the U.K. National Health Service’s £6.2-billion upgrade is in deep financial woes. Manchester-based iSoft is revising its revenue accounting processes and has cut 15 per cent of its workforce.
Apple’s Indian software arm bites the dust
DailyTech
Where it once promised to hire 600 software developers, Apple has gone in a completely different direction and closed its Bangalore facility. Information as to why the iPod company has opted not to explore the Indian software market is scant, but local employees claim that the news was a shock.
Gooooaaaaaaalllllll
Wired.com
Soccer fanatics will be able to get their fix of World Cup action, provided the boss isn’t looking. Most of the games will be available online, either from ESPN or from your friendly-neighbourhood hacker, offering pirated material. Maybe the boss will watch too.
Crackberry crackdown
Yahoo! News/Reuters
A Chicago hotelier has set up a cold turkey BlackBerry program as the result of his own crippling addiction. Visitors to the hotel are able to lock up their devices when they check-in. No word on whether guests going through withdrawal have staged any break-ins.
B.C. PC
The Register
A Greek/British research team claim they have discovered a device in a Greek shipwreck that may be the world’s earliest computer. Constructed of more than 30 bronze components, the “Antikythera Mechanism” may have been used for astronomy.
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