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Almost 16.5 million households in the UK now have internet access, an increase of 1.2 million since 2007, the latest official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics ONS said the new figure represented close to two-thirds of UK households.

Homes in the South East are most likely to have internet access with those in north-east England least likely.

Over two-thirds of adults go online every day or almost every day, with men more regular users than women.

Graph showing rise in internet connectivity since 2005

In the 35% of households with no access, there was an increase in the proportion that said they did not want the internet at home, from 3% in 2006 to 24% in 2008.

The survey also found that the better educated were more likely to be online.

Graph showing rise in internet connectivity since 2005

The ONS said that 93% of adults aged under 70 who had a university degree or equivalent qualification had internet access.

This compared with just 56% of those with no formal qualifications being online.

Communications regulator Ofcom said earlier this month that PC and laptop use had grown fourfold since 2002.

BBC NEWS | Two-thirds of UK homes now online

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Computers will be more intelligent than humans within 40 years, according to Intel’s chief technology officer.

Justin Rattner was speaking at the final keynote of the Intel Developer Forum as Intel celebrates its 40th birthday, and he believed that the next 40 years will see the company create true AI.

‘In that time, machines from Intel will surpass human intelligence,’ he was quoted as saying on vnunet.com.

‘And progress in the next 100 years will be more like the progress of the past 20,000 years because of technology.’

Other inventions that the human race can look forward to in this time will be shape-shifting, programmable matter applications that can be controlled with the mind, reported ITPro.

Intel’s short-term goals are slightly less science-fictional, however, with the company signing a deal with Yahoo to enhance how people use their televisions by adding internet applications.

One example of this was a ’snippet bar’ at the bottom of the screen which contained information like weather, news, sports and share prices.

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Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

This morning, August 15 2008, Blog Action Day has launched. In the next two months they are hoping encourage thousands of bloggers, podcasters and videocasters to learn about poverty, and on October 15, take action.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

All the blogers are invited to examine poverty from their own blog topics and perspectives, to look at it from the macro and micro, as a global condition and a local issue, and to bring their own ideas, views and opinions on the subject.

Because Poverty as a subject for blogging can feel a little daunting, they’ve prepared a series of resources to help bloggers get started with tackling this issue. Visit the Resources pages for help.

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IT organisations utilising blade servers need to be ready for changes in the technology, according to Gartner.

Blade-server growth will be limited during the next five years - despite the technology representing the fastest-growing segment of the server market, the analysts say.

This lack of growth will be due to continued, rapid change and a lack of standards.

While a compound annual growth rate of 19 per cent is predicted for blade shipments from 2007 through to 2012, this will not equal market domination, as blades only represented 10 per cent of shipments in 2007 and will only rise to 20 per cent in 2012.

However, Gartner did not want to put companies off buying the servers.

‘We are not suggesting that IT organisations stay away from blades - blades do address many problems in the data centre,’ said the vice president of Gartner, Andrew Butler.

‘What we are saying is that IT organisations adopting blades need to be prepared for further changes in this technology.

‘Blade servers have been a rapidly changing technology, and we fully expect this to continue, particularly during the next five years.’

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Almost all small online businesses do not believe they are liable for fraud on their websites, according to research sponsored by PayPoint.net.

The company found that 99 per cent of the 350 companies they surveyed did not accept any responsibility for fraud, with most passing it on to someone else.

Most blamed banks (35 per cent), nearly a quarter (24 per cent) blamed credit card companies while 23 per cent laid the blame on payment service providers.

However, 87 per cent did not anticipate complaints about fraud to reduce in the next year and 81 per cent of consumers are suspicious of security systems used by small companies, potentially pushing customers towards more familiar, big-name companies.

PayPoint.net managing director Alessandro Hatami said: ‘Small online online businesses lack the resources of their larger competitors but have an even greater interest in ensuring that customers have the safest possible experience.’

The company suggest comparing the IP address of the PC being used by the customer’s location with the billing and shipping address to improve security.

Small companies should also comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

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The IT services market is expected to weather the current economic storm and remain strong, according to Gartner.

End-user spending is to exceed $819 billion (£409 billion) in 2008, a growth of 9.5 per cent from 2007, predict the analysts.

However, the first half of 2008 has shown mixed results, with both optimism by some and delays in projects for others.

‘In the first quarter of 2008, results for the top nine providers came in above expectations, and several market leaders have expressed optimism for the remainder of 2008,’ said Gartner’s research vice president Kathryn Hale.

‘However, at the recent Gartner Outsourcing Summit in Washington DC in May of this year, some providers indicated that some outsourcing contract signings are being delayed and some projects are being placed on hold.’

Core outsourcing is still the largest growth area in the market, with core outsourcing services in 2008 set to make up 42 per cent of all IT services end-user spending.

Consulting and development and integration are growing steadily due to a demand for cost reduction.

These areas are forecast by Gartner to reach $327 billion (£163 billion) in 2008, a growth of 10.1 per cent from 2007.

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If you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, you wont be aware that on the web, one of the best ways of generating new, direct traffic to your website or blog is via Social Media marketing. The blogosphere and twitter trail is all a buzz with the term, which can seem dauntingly new and intimidating to marketers with traditional experience. Hopefully this guide should help to summarise how to interact online, and what services to use.

An idiots guide to Social Media Marketing

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