THE exciting world of storage and databases has just gotten more interesting as Oracle supremo Larry Ellison has escalated a handbags at dawn fight with IBM.

  Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake that killed 63 people and caused nearly $6 billion worth of damage, the state of California is set to hold the largest earthquake disaster drill in US history.

  A bright ribbon of hydrogen atoms marks the edge of the solar system, where the Sun's wind meets emissions from the rest of the galaxy, US researchers report.

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. lost money in the third quarter but said Thursday that sales were stronger than expected, adding to mounting evidence that consumer spending is fueling a turnaround in the personal computer market.

  The new view will change the way researchers view and study the interaction between our galaxy and sun.

  On Thursday, Amazon.com announced a new service designed to remove as much delay as possible to anyone's order on their website: same-day shipping, with caveats. The new service, called Local Express Delivery, will debut at first in seven areas: New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Seattle, with Chicago, Indianapolis and Phoenix to come soon.

  Sidekick users who have lost some or all of their data because of a recent Microsoft / Danger hardware failure can rejoice. Microsoft has announced that it had recovered "most, if not all" of the personal data which had been reported irretrievably lost in a server failure at its Danger subsidiary, which it acquired earlier in 2008 specifically for its Sidekick device, software and services.

  The Arctic will be largely ice-free during the summer within a decade, according to new evidence collected by Pen Hadow and his team.

  Wind energy is the fastest developing renewable energy source in the US. As of the end of this year's second quarter, wind power in the United States had reached about 29,440MW of installed capacity, and in 2008 the nation surpassed Germany as the world's largest producer of wind generated power.

  Tim Berners-Lee has offered a tongue-in-cheek apology for the // which appear at the beginning of web addresses, describing them as pointless and unnecessary.

  Apple is allegedly building a new app for its iPhone and iPod Touch that will bring FM radio to the devices.

  While the media is quick to report Iran's nuclear program could potentially develop a nuclear weapon that could threaten the West, many security experts feel that the bigger threat could be if nuclear weapons are used to cause high-altitude electromagnetic pulses .

  Google Inc's Web-based email service on Thursday suffered its second technical problem in a month as users reported difficulty accessing their contacts.

  Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1 mbps broadband access a legal right, according to YLE, the country's national broadcasting company. This makes Finland the first country to take this step.