OpenOffice beta 2 available

Beta 2 of the OpenOffice.org office suite (OpenOffice.org 1.1) is now available for download.

The makers say advances in the application include features and changes introduced in the developer builds over the past year. New functionality, features and bug-fixes include new import/export formats like DocBook, PDA Office file formats, flat XML and XHTML, support for PDF and Macromedia Flash export, and for Complex Text Layout (CTL) and vertical writing languages, enhanced integration with Java, support for accessibility, enhanced support for add-on components and improved online help.

Click here for a complete list of features.

Japanese researchers think robots built to detect land mines or search rubble for earthquake survivors may soon save human lives. Reuters quotes Tokyo Institute of Technology professor Shigeo Hirose as saying: "Give us about five years and I think we can show the world something pretty impressive."

Hirose`s state-funded work is an example of efforts to develop robots for use outside factories, where most now operate.

Officials and researchers in Japan, home to almost half the world`s 756 000 industrial robots, hope a new robot industry will give the stagnant economy a boost.

Japan is not alone. Rescue robots helped search through the rubble of the World Trade Centre after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, and remote-controlled, unmanned vehicles have helped clear mines in countries such as Cambodia.

Symbol Technologies has teamed up with Micros-Fidelio, a provider of information solutions for the hospitality industry, installing Micros-Fidelio`s Micros Restaurant Enterprise System 3000 at 35 Wimpy restaurants.

The system replaces a waiter`s traditional pen and paper with a Symbol PPT 2846 ruggedised handheld computer, featuring fully integrated barcode scanning, linked to a wireless local area network via the Symbol Spectrum24 wireless network, speeding up the ordering process, reducing errors and raising customer satisfaction levels.