Weekly News Roundup

• Study: Web site’s appearance matters [CNN]
  “In a recent study at Glamorgan University Business School in Wales, test subjects rated the personal Web pages of 60 people for usability and aesthetics.”
• ‘Largest’ Internet satellite launched [CNN]
  “Billed as the world’s largest, the satellite will provide Internet access and multimedia services for the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and New Zealand.”
• iTunes to yield ‘5%’ of Apple’s revenues in 2006 [The Register]
  “Apple will have sold 1.365bn songs through the iTunes Music Store by the end of 2006, investment house Piper Jaffray calculates.”
• Big Media Company Buying A Search Engine? [Techdirt]
  “The latest, however, is that Rupert Murdoch…is saying that he’s very close to buying a search engine.”
• Mac Hacks Allow OS X on PCs [Wired News]
  “Before Apple can bring computers featuring Intel processors to market, hackers get the company’s operating system running on generic PC hardware”
• Even Geeks Need a Breather [Wired News]
  “When tech burnout hits, you might just need a break — not a breakup.”
• Feature: Turn your old Mac into a backup server [Macworld]
  “Got an old Mac lying around? Don’t just leave it to take up space in the darkest regions of your closet—put it to work with a hand from our helpful hardware guide.”
• News Sites Making More Creative Use Of Mapping Systems [Tech Dirt]
  “E-Media Tidbits is cataloging a number of examples where newspapers are using the Google Maps API to add an interactive map to an online news story.”
• Database start-ups bet on open source [CNET]
  “Growing interest in open-source DBs fuels an industry of add-ons and support services—vital to winning corporate customers.”
• The drive for multi-disk PCs [CNET]
  “Long-term storage, instant backup and multi-core chips are pushing this hard-drive trend into the mainstream. Will consumers bite?”

Die Dulci Fruere