2006: The end of opportunity?

Internet users beware - within a couple of years you may have fewer opportunities to reduce your debt or increase the size of things you`re unhappy with. Reuters reports spam offers currently account for more than half of all e-mail traffic. But at least two technology executives say the torrent of pornography and unbelievably low mortgage rates could slow to a trickle by 2006.

Bill Gates, for one, has predicted the demise of unsolicited commercial e-mail. His prediction, made on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was backed up on Monday by the head of a prominent anti-spam company, Brightmail.

An International Data Corporation report has been confirmed by Canalys: over 1 million handhelds and 2 million smartphones shipped in Europe in the last quarter.

Although the PDA market has been dismissed as close to saturation, reports Infosync World, this was a record quarter for the device.

Google`s experiment with social networking has gone offline for now. The engineers behind the Orkut.com Web site have taken down the social network in order to make some improvements suggested by users, a Google spokesperson confirmed yesterday.

The Orkut site is the brainchild of Google engineer Orkut Buyukkokten and went live last week. It raised speculation that Google would enter the rapidly expanding social-networking space with the likes of Friendster, LinkedIn and Ryze. Read this report by eWeek for more on this craze, which has ramifications for enterprises too.

Meanwhile, CNet reports that social networks have started charging. The rising Internet trend got an early shake-up with Tickle first out of the gate in charging for access to some profiles.

Microsoft South Africa will launch a locally hosted Webcast to its partners and customers on 28 January at 2pm. The Webcast will use multiple bit-rate streaming in an effort to reach as many users as possible.

Colin Erasmus, information security manager at Microsoft SA, says as the year is predicted to have even more malicious security threats in store, companies and consumers are looking for practical ways to get informed and get better protected. "There is a move to approach it much more proactively and not wait for the disaster effect of another Blaster."

This first in a series of local Webcasts intends to allow customers to share the company`s local knowledge and experience. On the day, go to www.microsoft.com/southafrica/security.

Microsoft has launched a pilot project to incorporate product-tracking radio frequency (RF) technology within the supply chain of Danish snack maker KiMs, reports InformationWeek. The radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has been incorporated in Microsoft`s Axapta warehouse-management system for small and mid-size businesses.

Meanwhile, ZDNet reports that the software vendor is filling out its business intelligence portfolio with the release of a reporting application for SQL Server.

Atheros Communications has developed a component that makes it easier and cheaper to add WiFi capabilities to a range of consumer electronics devices, reports CNet.

The start-up has announced that samples of the low-power component have been sent to manufacturing partners, with high-volume production expected in Q2. The part is based on the 802.11g standard (20Mbps) and combines the functions of two chips into one: a media access controller, base-band processor and 2.4GHz radio.