It seems that, thanks to an undersea cable in the Med being cut, there's massive internet disruption across the Middle East and South-East Asia.

According to the Beeb, who have helpfully collated reports from Reuters and the AP, Egypt has lost 70 percent of its national network and the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are also reporting problems. India is also reportedly 60 percent down.

Somehow I anticipate we'll be providing further coverage as the story progresses...

UPDATE (10am, Thursday):

OK, so - for what it's worth - the cable was running between Alexandria in Egypt and Palermo on Sicily. It is run by FLAG Telecom and SEA-ME-WE 4. It is possible that this was all caused by a ship's anchor (anchors oy vey - I'll get my coat)...

Insofar as this affects the UK, the biggest hit companies will be those who've outsourced to the affected regions. Of course, this is bad for those companies - but (in a silver lining kinda way) it's great news for those who're sick of getting unsolicited telephone calls from Indian call centres.

That said, for those customers who actually do want to access the call centres - where they are is up to the outsource-happy company they use for flights or gas or whatever, and not the customer's fault - this is a bad thing. Hmm - this is definitely a story of flipsides.

Either way, not great for the outsourcing industry.

Nokia is buying Trolltech, probably the most important mobile Linux company out there in terms of current deployment. I'm listening to the audiocast right now, so expect a story soon... this is big. It's not just mobile Linux either - Trolltech's Qt platform is at the core of Skype, Google Earth etc...

No, not a please-leave-me-alone note like analyst Dean Bubley has recently posted (although if your company does not have any relevance to business tech, then do please leave me alone) but rather this:

Unless you are Microsoft or Nokia, or some other similarly-sized behemoth of the mobile/IT world, for heaven's sake stop scheduling your big announcements for the Monday of the show. We may want to cover your exciting innovations/partnerships/strategies, but if you're putting yourself up against the big boys then you are just asking for your announcement to be buried or forgotten. Think about it. And save us poor tech hacks from a Wednesday where you can see metaphorical dust-balls blowing aimlessly through the exhibition halls.

Thank you, and see you (or not) in Barcelona.

It is an attention-grabbing headline for a post, isn't it? Here's the original, on Microsoft's Channel 9 forums.

"There is little to no innovation in Linux," says Yorkshire developer vesuvius. "One cannot afford to be as structured in an open source environment. Yes old ideas are used innovatively but there is no new stuff."

"... what are the innovative features that Linux brings to the table? For the recent Flurry of Windows 7 pandemonium here at '9, the debate was centred around design and implementation of features. We can almost always expect to be surprised (anticipate derision here) by each new Windows OS, what is it that Linux has? Why is it so great?"

Feel free to discuss ideas below...

ICANN, the body that oversees the world's domain registries and internet policy, has formally asked the US government to let it be transferred to the private sector [.pdf alert]. It was originally set up by the US government in 1998, but its joint project agreement (JPA) with the government is due for a "mid-term review" in March, and it wants out.

The US government had originally said it wanted this transition to be completed by September 30, 2000 - an "outside date". As ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush says in this latest submission, we are now nine years and seven versions of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) down the line. Can we get out now, please?

From the submission:

Through this process, the ICANN community undertook the institution-building tasks necessary for it to take up the role envisaged in the White Paper.
Just some of these achievements have included:
• Introducing competition in domain name registration services for gTLDS, including the implementation of new TLDs;
• Implementing the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for resolving cyber-squatting and other intellectual property disputes;
• Establishing formal legal arrangements with the regional Internet Registries, including the establishment of the Address Supporting
Organization;
• Establishing agreements with ccTLD operators, including the
establishment of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization.
ICANN-ccTLD agreements are now in place with ccTLD operators who
represent over 60% of ccTLD registrants worldwide;
• Developing a contingency plan to ensure continuity of operations;
• Establishing a community consultative process for the integrated
development of ICANN’s Strategic Plan, Operational Plan and Budget;
and,
• Implementing a financial strategy that delivers predictable and
sustainable sources of revenue.

From the BBC, quoting ICANN president Paul Twomey:

"Has the process of the MoU and JPA towards building a stable, strong organisation which can do this transition, has that been successful? The board is effectively saying yes."

Instead of creating more hoops for ICANN to jump through, Mr Twomey said it was time for talk to move on and for thoughts about the future of the net body.