23rd October 2001 Archive

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DoS attacks getting scary, CERT warns

Routers being used now

Windows users and Internet routing equipment are the latest pawns of malicious intruders intent on launching denial of service attacks online, an expert from Carnegie Mellon's CERT Coordination Center warned network operators here Monday. Attackers have begun favoring particular chunks of Internet address space that are more …

Security 23 Oct 2001, 01:49
Net security in an open electronic society

Microsoft's argument self-serving and illogical

A recurring argument in the computer security world is that clamping down on the dissemination of information about vulnerabilities, and tools that exploit them, will mitigate everyone's risk. Last week, one proponent of this argument, Scott Culp, manager of Microsoft's security response center, coined the term "information …

Security 23 Oct 2001, 02:03
Disney cartoon lambasts evil music-sharing

Are you watching, children?

The Disney Channel cartoon series The Proud Family aired an episode on October 5 entitled EZ Jackster . In the storyline, EZ Jackster is a Napster-like site, and the show's little heroines get addicted to the service and play a part in the downfall of the music industry. Disney is one of the backers of the SSSCA legislation that …

Music and Media 23 Oct 2001, 06:40
Web services marchitecture wars get personal

Sun vs The Beast, Part 94.

In a move timed to steal headlines from Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference, which is running concurrently in Los Angeles, Sun is hosting a 'Web Service Summit' to talk up its Sun ONE marchitecture in Santa Clara later today. Real news might be harder to find: Sun is expected to announce that it will bundle iPlanet …

Software 23 Oct 2001, 09:43
Lexmark to lay off 1,600, as Q3 profits rise

Printer splinter

Printer company Lexmark is laying of 1,600 workers - 12 per cent of its staff - in spite of seeing a Q3 profit rise. It's cut its forecasts for the rest of 2001 and Paul Curlander, Lexmark's chief exec, said the cutbacks were necessary to maintain the company's cost competitiveness. The company's HQ in Lexington and an …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 10:21
Intel denies 20% capex cut claim

Hasn't made up its mind yet

Intel has damned as inaccurate a report in yesterday's Asian Wall Street Journal which claimed that CTO and VP Pat 'Kicking' Gelsinger had said the chip giant would cut expenditure on new plant and equipment next year by 20 per cent. Intel has this year committed itself to maintaining its original capital expenditure budget of …

Channel 23 Oct 2001, 10:25
Rambus unveils 6.4GBps, 3.2GHz next-gen RDRAM

Yellowstone debuts

Rambus yesterday introduced Yellowstone, its next-generation memory technology, designed to accelerate data transfer rates of up to 6.4GBps between processors and RAM. Yellowstone comprises two key components. The first, Octal Data Rate, essentially doubles Rambus memory's data rate. Using a phase-locked loop - which sounds …

Channel 23 Oct 2001, 10:44
IBM hit with hard drive class action suit

Glass platter 75GXP HDD is giving pain

Michael T. Granito, Jr., an American user of IBM's 75GXP hard drive, filed a class action lawsuit against the company last Tuesday for defects in the product causing it to "crash", according to an article on The Tech Report. Of course, class action means that anyone who happens to purchase one of these drives is now able to …

Personal 23 Oct 2001, 10:45
Taleban – who can't hack – get hacked

Updated 'God Bless America' or cunning spoof?

A Web site associated with the Taleban has been hacked by 'American patriot' defacers, or so it appeared. Talibanonline.com, which is registered in Kabul, Afghanistan, though hosted in the United States, now carries a message mourning the loss of life on September 11 and threatening death to the enemies of America. The message …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 11:05
SGI turnaround getting closer, company promises

Yes, its loss narrowed, but its sales are still shrinking

SGI continues to haemorrhage red ink, losing a further $69 million during its most-recently completed quarter, the first of its 2002 fiscal year and covering the three months to 28 September. That $69 million (36 cents a share) loss is 41 per cent deeper than the $49 million (26 cents a share) SGI reported this time last year, …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 11:25
Grim Reaper fingers BT in Brum

Tries to save telco from itself

The Grim Reaper and ET turned out in an eleventh hour bid to stop BT from spinning off its mobile phone business. BT employees joined the pair outside the NEC in Birmingham to lobby shareholders attending the emergency general meeting (EGM), which many commentators believe will give the monster telco the green light to divest …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 11:42
$8.8bn loss but Lucent predicts return to profit in 2002

Halving workforce should stem flow of red ink

Lucent Technologies has posted results that show its business is still operating at a loss despite its massive restructuring program. The telecoms equipment manufacturer's Q4 results show a net loss from continuing operations (which excludes one-off charges) of $909 million. These results exclude restructuring charges of $8 …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 13:01
EU says ‘oui’ to spam

Don't they always?

Euro politicians gave the thumbs up to spam last night by passing an amendment that will force Net users to register if they don't want to receive unsolicited commercial email. Anti-spam campaigners had hoped that the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs would approve an "opt-in" method, which …

Music and Media 23 Oct 2001, 13:08
World chip sales down 32% during 2001

Rather worse than earlier estimate of 14% fall

Last May, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics team forecast global chip sales would fall 14 per cent during 2001. If only. Nearly six months and the WSTS' prognosis is worse - much worse. The market will be down 32 per cent - more than double the organisation's previous prediction. Announcing this dire statistic, the WSTS …

Channel 23 Oct 2001, 14:04
You won't believe how much fun the Windows XP launch will be

Oh, you will

You may have already seen the Windows XP grassy knoll TV ad, backed by Madonna's Ray of Light, but this is just the start. The OS goes on sale on Thursday 25 October, and boy do Microsoft and friends have some exciting things lined up to kick start sales. The actual product kick-off will occur in two primary locations, New York …

Channel 23 Oct 2001, 14:47
Sony preps worldwide PlayStation 2 Linux release

Coming soon

Sony is bringing its PlayStation 2 Linux distro to the US and elsewhere following its release in Japan last June. "We are preparing the finalised Linux kit for the worldwide market," said Shin'ichi Okamoto, Sony Computer Entertainment's senior VP and CTO, speaking at the Rambus Developers Conference yesterday. There's no …

Software 23 Oct 2001, 14:58
Virgin.net in strategy U-turn

Is there an 'R' in the month?

Virgin.net has completed a U-turn in its Internet strategy with confirmation that it is to remerge its ISP and portal businesses. Last year, Virgin.net said it was going to concentrate on being an entertainment portal and flog its ISP business to partner NTL in a deal reportedly worth £240 million. That, though, fell through. …

e-Business 23 Oct 2001, 15:20
Virus writers are industrial terrorists – MS

Bunker mentality seizes Redmond

Virus writing is comparable industrial terrorism, according to senior .Net developer evangelist Michael Lane Thomas. Writing about Microsoft's Strategic Technology Protection Program, Michael Lane Thomas said that if people seek alternatives to Microsoft's IIS because of security concerns (as Gartner advocates) this "would only …

Anti-Virus 23 Oct 2001, 16:36
Apple's ‘breakthrough’ – iPod or iWalk?

Take your pic of the pre-release rumours

So is Apple's 'breakthrough' digital device called iPod or iWalk. Wired News claims it's the former, but little-known site SpyMac reckons it's iWalk and has the pictures to prove it. Well, picture, singular. The snap shows a prototype that's a little bigger than a pack of smokes - handily place to the right of the device for …

Mac Channel 23 Oct 2001, 16:43
Intel super shrinks flash memory

Flash, aahhhhaa, saviour of the universe

Intel has announced a new flash memory product today, built on its 0.13-micron production process technology. Flash memory is a type of non-volatile memory, usually used to hold control code like your PCs BIOS. The new chip (officially called the 3 Volt Advanced+ Boot Block flash) is almost half the size of its predecessor and …

Channel 23 Oct 2001, 17:13
Ex-Microsoft CFO steers new biz to negative revenues

Is Greg Maffei giving it away?

Canadian fibre optic network services provider 360networks has posted Q2 results announcing it has negative revenue of $63 million (down from $158 million in positive revenue in the same period 2000). It attributes this abysmal performance to its renegotiation of a number of "dark fibre optic contracts ... Revenue of $102 …

Business 23 Oct 2001, 17:24
Apple pops iPod

Cute, but 'me too' hard disk-equipped MP3 player

In answer to our previous question, Apple's so-called "breakthrough digital device" is called the iPod, but as we feared, it also proves to be a 'me too' product. Designed with Apple's usual flair, iPod is ultimately nothing more than an MP3 player with a built-in hard drive, little different from Creative Labs' Nomad Jukebox …

Mac Channel 23 Oct 2001, 19:26
Intel kit took iPOD name before Apple's did

Should we have mentioned it sooner?

Apple may run into problems following its decision to opt for iPod as the name for its new "breakthrough" MP3 player - from Intel. The chip giant already has a product on the market called... er... iPOD. You'll note the capital letters - enough, perhaps, to save Apple's ass - which stand for Phone Over Data. The Chipzilla …

Mac Channel 23 Oct 2001, 19:49