Airport laptop searches draw fire

Advocacy groups and some legal experts told Congress yesterday that it was unreasonable for federal officials to search the laptops of US citizens when they re-enter the country from travelling abroad, says The New York Times.

Civil rights groups have said certain ethnic groups have been selectively profiled in the searches by Border Patrol agents and customs officials, who have the authority to inspect all luggage and cargo brought into the country without obtaining warrants or having probable cause.

Companies whose employees travel overseas have also criticised the inspections, saying the search of electronic devices could hurt their businesses.

Investors got an unpleasant surprise the last time software maker Oracle reported quarterly results. Sales fell short of expectations, Oracle's stock fell, and Wall Street questioned the company's ability to shrug off a slowdown in technology spending. The doubts proved to be short-lived, says BusinessWeek.

Oracle's business snapped back in the most recent quarter, which ended 31 May, typically its strongest of the year - though a tempered forecast for the current period curbed investor enthusiasm.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 24% and profit soared 27%, beating analysts' expectations on both counts, Oracle reported yesterday. And sales of new software licences, an indicator of future sales, surged 27%, versus Wall Street's expectation of 16% growth.

Panasonic is taking Intel's Atom processor into unexplored PC territory. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1, which the company announced yesterday, will carry the Intel Atom Z520 -1.33GHz, 533MHz FSB and 512KB L2 cache - along with a 16GB solid state drive, a 5.6-inch-wide screen and the promise of nine hours of battery life, eWeek.com reports.

What makes the Toughbook CF-U1 intriguing is that Panasonic decided to use Atom for its decent performance capabilities and ability to push the envelope in terms of battery life to create an ultramobile PC for vertical enterprise markets.

Typically, the Atom has been used to provide Internet access at a low price without the capabilities of a full laptop such as the Intel's "netbook" design or some options from OEMs built mostly for consumers.

The attempt by ministers to blame the loss of personal data on 25 million people on junior officials at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was undermined yesterday by scathing reports on the incident by two independent inquiries, reports The Independent.

They said the "entirely avoidable" loss of two computer discs containing child benefit records on seven million families was due to "serious institutional deficiencies" at HMRC and criticised senior management for not explaining data protection rules to junior staff.

But the Tory Opposition sought to pin responsibility on Gordon Brown, who, as chancellor, forced through a merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise.