Desktop virtualisation goes large

More than 350 000 virtualised desktops will be introduced to Brazilian schools in what is claimed to be the world's largest implementation of the technology, reports Computing.co.uk.

Virtual desktops are to be used in all Brazil's 5 560 municipalities, with software and hardware costing less than $50 per seat.

The project is an initiative from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and will see every computer converted into up to 10 independent workstations running the Linux operating system, which will be used in the education of millions of schoolchildren.

An iPhone or iPod Touch can be used to help you break the bank - and the law - at a casino's blackjack table, says The Register.

And gaming officials in Nevada are none too happy about it.

Earlier this month, that US state's Gaming Control Board issued a warning to casino operators of an application available from the iTunes App Store named, appropriately enough, A Blackjack Card Counter.

Three foundations have announced their intention to join in a "mobile health" effort to use mobile technology to provide better healthcare worldwide, reports The BBC.

The UN, Vodafone and the Rockefeller Foundation's mHealth Alliance aims to unite existing projects to improve healthcare using mobile technology.

The alliance will guide governments, NGOs and mobile firms on how they can save lives in the developing world.

A Swedish prosecutor on Tuesday dropped a charge levied against four men on trial for running The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines and trackers on the Internet, says IT World.

Tuesday's proceedings saw Swedish prosecutor Hakan Roswall drop a charge of aiding in the making of copies of works under copyright, said Peter Sunde, one of the four on trial. The charge was dropped due to the inability of the prosecution to prove copies of content were made, he said.

"We have definitely won this round," Sunde noted.