Computing.co.uk – Free state data initiative goes local
The government’s plan to put public sector information online continued apace yesterday as communities minister John Denham announced new measures for local authorities.

BBC – Battery made of paper charges up
Batteries made from plain copier paper could make for future energy storage that is truly paper thin. The approach relies on the use of carbon nanotubes – tiny cylinders of carbon – to collect electric charge.

IT PRO – Seagate releases its first SSD
Seagate has finally jumped on the solid state disk (SSD) train, today releasing its own version under the name Pulsar. The 2.5-inch SSD is an enterprise class drive that uses single-level cell (SLC) technology. The company claims that at peak performance the Pulsar produces up to 30,000 read IOPS and 25,000 write IOPS, 240MB/s sequential read and 200 MB/s sequential write.

IT PRO – Companies need to deal with social media threat
Dramatic changes in the way companies do business will have a big impact on what they need to secure themselves, according to Cisco.

The Guardian – Darling to reject tax break for Britain’s video game developers
Calls from video game developers for government support are understood to have fallen on deaf ears, with chancellor Alistair Darling expected to reject the idea of a tax break for the industry in the pre-budget report.

The Register – Israel tests biometric database
The Israeli Knesset has voted in favour of a bill for a compulsory biometric database of all citizens.