One of the latest editions of Tech News Around The World was made using The Register only and I really enjoyed it, so I decided to do more of those. Here it is, the best news of last week from The Register:

• MS and Google team to fund net lab - Arch rivals Google and Microsoft have combined with Sun to fund an academic research lab which aims to pioneer the development of new approaches to software development. The three companies will provide $7.5m over five years to fund research at the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed systems laboratory, or the RAD Lab, at the University of California, Berkeley... Continue reading


• Apple axes 'iRingTones' project - Apple has canned a software project that was guaranteed to prove controversial, just weeks ahead of its slated announcement at MacWorld Expo next month.
  
  The project would have seen Apple move into the ringtone retail business in direct confrontation with cellular carriers, with whom Apple already has a stormy relationship... Continue reading


• Wikipedia science 31% more cronky than Britannica's - Coverage of Wikipedia in the popular press veers between two extremes.
  It's either the admirable heroics of plucky amateurs - it's Neasden FC winning the FA Cup - or it's the latest net threat to civilization. This week a survey by Nature gave sympathetic news editors the chance to revisit the first view... Continue reading


• Sony BMG shortlisted for 'internet villain' gong - Sony BMG, the European Commission (EC) and Russia have all been nominated for this year's "internet villain" award.
  
  The annual awards - run by UK trade group ISPA - are supposed to "reflect those individuals or organisations that have either helped or hampered the interests of the Internet industry in the past year"... Continue reading


• London's top science scholars under hoodie ban - In what appears to be a misguided attempt to steal a march on the government's plans to deploy science and technology to fight crime and terrorism, Imperial College (IC) has banned staff and students from wearing hoodies and hijabs on campus... Continue reading. I feel sorry for them, really!