Google's Asia pipe nears completion

Google and a group of telecommunications companies are about ready to turn on a fast Internet cable running under the Pacific Ocean, from the US to Japan, increasing bandwidth by about 20% and giving Google its own connection to Asia, reports CNET.

The Unity Consortium, which consists of Google, Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet and SingTel, has nearly completed the testing of the $300 million project.

Internet users in Asia will start seeing faster Internet speeds over the next several months from the new cable, which has the potential to create a 7.68Tbps connection under the Pacific.

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas, found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a Web-based vehicle-immobilisation system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments, states Wired.

Police with Austin's High Tech Crime Unit arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Centre employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership's four Austin-area lots.

“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Centre manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”

Jerome York, the financial mind and turnaround expert who most recently shared his business acumen as a long-serving member of Apple's board of directors, died on Thursday morning of a brain aneurysm suffered on Tuesday. York was 71 years old, writes The Register.

"Jerry joined Apple's board in 1997 when most doubted the company's future," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. "He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our board for over a dozen years. It's been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I'm going to miss him a lot."

In addition to working with Jobs to save Apple from near-collapse, York is credited with helping engineer IBM's turnaround in the early 1990s as Big Blue's CFO, where he instituted rigorous cost-cutting measures.

Siemens will lay off 4 200 employees in the IT division, in what some news sources claim is preparation for an IT division spinoff, reports eWeek.

The company said it plans to invest 500 million euro in SIS, its IT solutions and services business, by 2012. "The combination of IT outsourcing and specific industry solutions makes SIS an excellent partner for comprehensive IT consulting and IT management, and can build on the specific industry and software know-how of the Siemens Sectors," Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser said in a statement.

Roughly 2 000 of the 4 200 job eliminations to occur between now and 2011 will take place in Germany. Siemens employs over 35 000 employees.