Welcome to the IT Week Insider.

This week the IT Week Insider comes live from the Big Brother house. Well, barely alive and huddling in a darkened corner. It is a strange world out there, and we don’t like it. Who would have ever thought that we would miss the monkeys? Well of course we missed them that time we fashioned that large net out of vendor T-shirts, but we think we have a mole in the team who spilled the details of that plan.
Given their lack of sun exposure we can only assume that it is one of the labs lot, but we never see them, so we can’t ask them.

Anyway, while we were in The House we managed to sneak some messages to the outside world. These are they. Enjoy them.

News:
Sun subscriptions target Linux
Sun is taking on Linux in server support with a new programme offering support subscriptions and migration sweeteners to attract green-field sites and convert users to Solaris running on x86 servers. Slightly more impressive than a two-for-one offer at your local fried chicken shop.

More news:

HP uses nano technology to shrink chips
Hewlett-Packard has released research that it said could lead to an eight-fold increase in transistor density in a particular type of chip. Oh. We thought the headline meant the fish & chip kind of chip. But then, why would anyone want to shrink them? We don’t get enough of them anyway.

More, more news:

PCIe 2.0 up and running
The PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 base specification has been finalised and released, doubling the interconnect or signalling bit rate from 2.5GT/s to 5GT/s to support high bandwidth applications like graphics, networking and storage. (GT/s has nothing to do with the little silver letters on the back of a hot hatch - it stands for giga transfers per second. But then you knew that.) Component manufacturers are expected to start integrating PCIe 2.0 components into new servers and desktop PCs within the year.

Comment:

Whitehall faces tug of war over data
Madeline Bennett on why the government should remember that if it is to demand information, it should also be happy to provide it. How, she asks, are firms supposed to comply with acts and regulations if they have never heard of them?

Is free IT too good to be true?
Phil Muncaster studies a survey from Deloitte that suggests IT managers will soon want to pay to get the best out of social networking sites. What? like MySpace? Surely shome mishtake.

IT Week Podcast
Will GPS become ubiquitous thanks to cheap chips? And what goodies does Lotusphere have in store for us?

Lem Bingley blog
How many rows do you need in an Excel spreadsheet these days? Millions according to Microsoft. Not so many, says Lem.

Green Business News
More government plans for offsetting carbon that have nothing to do with not chewing the end of your pencils, or pushing fridges off the side of cliffs.

Phil Muncaster blog
Phil is having a mid-life crisis about storage. We keep telling him he has it all wrong - Phil, you are only in your twenties.