London/Cambridge  - Many office workers in Germany struggle to understand complicated PC software designed for office usage, according to a survey by Global Solutions in Cambridge.

The survey, carried out among 1,015 office workers this February, showed that four out of 10 found the software at their workplace difficult to use.

Many of those quizzed believe that such user-unfriendliness has a negative effect on work performance, with 22 per cent claiming to lose up to five hours of work time a week as a result.

Hamburg  - When Jens Kuerpick looks at photos from old, school outings, he can't help but grin. Not because he and his old buddies were just kids back then, "but because they all have red eyes in the photos," the Dusseldorf university student says.

Those flaws can now be fixed using a computer. Yet digital photo editing is also increasingly being used for artistic aspects. Practical solutions can come through special programs on the internet.

Bonn  - For years now retailers have been selling more notebooks than PCs and thanks to the success of ultra-portable net books, more people than ever before are carrying their computers - and their valuable data - around with them the whole time.

Needless to say, this increases the risk of data being skimmed, stolen or of it simply falling into the wrong hands. Fortunately, confidential information on portable computers can be reliably secured using state-of-the-art encryption techniques or biometric authentication.

Bonn  - The computer virus, Conficker, continues to pose a threat, according to the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn.

The experts say the C and D variants of the computer virus continuing to exploit a vulnerability in Windows, including an upgrade of its activities to now include the downloading of updates. Conficker used peer-to-peer functionality to exchange data directly with other internet-accessible PCs.

Washington, April 18 : A new study has suggested that increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) and decreasing oxygen in the oceans will make it harder for deep-sea animals to "breathe".

The study, by marine chemists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), US, suggests that low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century.

These predictions are based on the fact that, as more and more carbon dioxide dissolves from the atmosphere into the ocean, marine animals will need more oxygen to survive.

The leading computer manufacturer in the world - Acer has announced two new laptops from its Aspire series. The Taipei, Taiwan based company has announced Acer Aspire 3935-6504 and Acer Aspire 8935G notebooks.

The Acer Aspire 3935-6504 is 13-inch ultraportable slim easy-to-carry notebook; it weighs about 2 kg (4.1 pounds). The Aspire 3935 notebook features 13.3-inch HD Acer CineCrystal LED screen, with 1368 x 768 resolution, multi-touch trackpad, and nice keyboard. The Aspire 3935 comes with 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7350 processor, 3MB L2 cache and 1066MHz FSB.