Ellison to recruit thousands

Larry Ellison has promised jobs for Sun Microsystems' existing employees and an expansion in their ranks, along with instant profits for his shareholders, reports The Register.

Oracle's chief executive on Wednesday claimed that - far from laying off beleaguered Sun employees - his company would hire 2 000 additional people during the next few months.

He reprimanded as "irresponsible" the UBS analyst who said last week that Oracle will cut up to half of Sun's 30 000 workforce following the completion of the deal.

More than 150 people have approached consumer publication Which? Computing, claiming to have been wrongly targeted in crackdowns on illegal file-sharing, states the BBC.

ACS:Law has sent thousands of letters to people claiming they have illegally downloaded material and offers them a chance to settle by paying around £500.

Which? says it has been approached by some - including a 78-year-old accused of downloading pornography - who have no knowledge of the alleged offence.

President Barack Obama used his state of the union address on Wednesday evening to reiterate his administration's commitment to taxpayer-subsidised solar cells, clean coal, and biofuel technology, says CNet.

The comments were not as much a call for new initiatives as they were a summary of what his administration has already announced, including a $2.3 billion tax credit unveiled earlier this month, and the proposals the president outlined last year in a speech at MIT.

One surprise that few people would have anticipated only a few years ago: a mention of biofuels and clean coal received moderate applause. What drew the audience to its feet, cheering, was Obama's call for the construction of more nuclear power plants. Wind and solar combined produce less than 5% of US electricity; Republicans have been calling on the administration to embrace a goal of authorising 100 new nuclear reactors over the next 20 years.

The UK government introduced a radical overhaul of its IT strategy today, which it says will save the public sector £3.2 billion annually in IT costs, writes Computing.co.uk.

The new initiative aims to facilitate greater sharing of resources across the public sector in the use of hardware and software where departments have traditionally taken a more siloed approach.

Government CIO John Suffolk told Computing yesterday: "The technology has matured to allow us to do this now. It will mean we can cut costs and deliver public services better."