Home cinema goes online and Windows 2000 gets a push in 2001

For a charge of £2.30 movie fans (with over 500MB of free space on their hard drive, high speed internet access and half an hour free to do the download) will be able to watch the film anytime over a 24 hour period. After this time the film is encrypted to become unplayable and uncopyable, a measure taken to allay studio fears of movies becoming the next source of Napster-style file sharing.

So, in terms of cost per day the system is on a par with renting a video, but in terms of comfort it is on a par with sitting at your desk at work looking at your computer screen - something that may keep enthusiasm low. Another issue in terms of comfort is the fact the chosen film is a romance. Quiet nights in, cuddled up with your loved one in front of the computer monitor is probably not the way forward.

Furthermore, rather than launching a new film into a brave new world of distribution, Miramax is re-releasing its 1999 film Guinevere. The film, which seems to have passed largely unnoticed on its first outing, is unlikely to start the revolution with anything more than a whimper, but watch this space...

Moving on to more work related computing matters, this morning's Guardian reports that Microsoft is stepping up further its attempts to make Windows 2000 the OS of choice.

Having announced that it is withdrawing volume licensing deals for earlier Windows versions from the marketplace (see http://www.silicon.com/a42106 ) the software giant is now ploughing $220m into a massive advertising campaign for the OS which celebrates its first birthday next month...

Other stories in the papers are reasonably thin on the ground - following a quiet news day. The imminent flotation of Orange is still occupying the business pages with the Financial Times noting that the FTSE has risen despite the dramatic near-halving of the mobile operator's valuation. Other news, covered yesterday in this column is the onrunning debate over ISPs hosting adoption sites. Despite a knee-jerk reaction that seemed as misinformed as it was well-intended both the Guardian and the Telegraph report that the government intends to continue with plans to censor the content ISPs can host...