30th October 2001 Archive

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Microsoft's Trick or Treat

Limping towards security

In the gothic novel of public opinion, Microsoft is a veritable "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The general business community regards Microsoft as a prominent and respected corporation with a substantial product line which has literally changed the face of modern-day computing. It's stock is on the rise (presumably in reaction to …

Software 30 Oct 2001, 04:34
Linux update withholds security info on DMCA terror

Pulling a Felten

Citing a controversial U.S. copyright law, a top Linux developer announced this week that Americans would not be given details about the security fixes in an update to the open source operating system, a first for a software development community that prides itself on transparency. An update to version 2.2 of the Linux kernel …

Software 30 Oct 2001, 05:11
UMC loss doubles as sales halve

Not too optimistic

UMC saw profit turn to loss during its most recently completed quarter - its third - as sales fell by nearly 60 per cent to NT$11.96 billion ($346 million). For the three months to 30 September, UMC lost NT$4.02 billion (NT$0.30 a share), well down on the NT$14.6 billion (NT$1.31 a share) it earned this time last year. It's …

Business 30 Oct 2001, 10:22
Canon looks to nanoholes to drive up storage densities

One terabit per square inch, anyone?

Expect storage media capacities to increase significantly this decade, if Canon's latest research bears commercial fruit. The company this week said its R&D division has developed a material capable of supporting data densities of 500Gb per square inch. By comparison, Fujitsu's top-of-the-line 2.5in hard drive, which the …

Hardware 30 Oct 2001, 10:36
Dr Bott brings Apple LCDs to Windows PCs

Feeling rich?

x86 PC users who fancy Apple's sleek, sharp LCD monitor series but have in the past been disappointed by the company's Mac-only policy can at last be assured that the screens will at last work with Windows. Oddly named Mac peripheral company Dr. Bott has released a Windows version of its DVIator product, which allows Apple's …

Mac Channel 30 Oct 2001, 11:09
Napster relaunch delayed until next year

Discontent is King

Napster yesterday blamed obstructive record companies for its decision to delay the relaunch of its music service by several months. Konrad Hilbers, Napster's new CEO, said the service will now launch in Q1, 2002, and not this year as previously announced. In his keynote speech at Webnoize 2001 in Los Angeles, Hilbers blamed …

Music and Media 30 Oct 2001, 11:13
EMC spreads software wings

Move over Tivoli, HDS etc.

Today EMC takes its first public steps down the road which leads to true heterogeneous platform management. EMC has held the rank of world's number one storage hardware supplier. Recently the company has gone out of its way to let everyone know that, in dollar terms, it leads the way in storage management software sales as well …

Hardware 30 Oct 2001, 11:38
UK govt wants to decide own spam policy

And that's bad news if you live here

The UK government has said it supports the European Parliament's plan to let individual countries decide their own spam policy, something that is bad news for UK consumers since the government is known to be swaying towards an opt-out approach to unsolicited mail. A DTI spokesman told news site Netimperative: “The …

Music and Media 30 Oct 2001, 12:24
Back broadband during the downturn

TMA You'll regret it, if you don't

NTL has called on business to embrace broadband and communication technology in a bid to beat the economic downturn. Speaking at TMA 2001 in Brighton this morning NTL Business MD, Mike Wagner, warned that cutting spending on communications could damage the potential for companies to recover once the economy begins to pick-up. …

Telecoms 30 Oct 2001, 12:44
Baltimore board votes in pay cuts

Feeling the pinch

Senior execs at security firm Baltimore Technologies have agreed to take a pay cut that reflects the firm's diminished financial health. Newly appointed chief executive, Bijan Khezri, has agreed to work for a salary of £150,000 and to wave any bonus entitlements he might earn this year. Backdated to October 1, Baltimore's …

Business 30 Oct 2001, 13:16
Handspring strikes corporate data alliance

cf. Palm and Extended Systems

Where Palm failed, Palm OS licensee Handspring is hoping to succeed - in the corporate mobile data arena. The company today announced a partnership with Synchrologic to bring the latter's iMobile Suite, which essentially ties corporate databases into mobile platforms and allows enterprise IT staff to manage their mobile …

Hardware 30 Oct 2001, 14:31
£25m Barclays blackmail trial begins

Tales from the crypt(o)

An encryption expert attempted to blackmail Barclays Bank for £25 million after becoming disillusioned with his work and leaving the bank, a jury at the Old Bailey heard yesterday. Graham Browne, 57, from Knutsford in Cheshire, told police that his threat to reveal the encryption codes which protected the security of credit …

Security 30 Oct 2001, 15:31
AMD Processor Products, Prices

Updated Yesterday we did Intel - now it's the other lot's turn

In the event, AMD made only one price cut yesterday, dropping the top-end Athlon XP 1800+ from $252 to $223, a fall of 12 per cent. Not much, you might think, but presumably sufficient in AMD's view to pitch the part against Intel's mid-range Pentium 4s. AMD also trimmed its Duron prices a little and dropped some T'bird Athlons …

Channel 30 Oct 2001, 15:32
Orange takes bronze in 3G race

A runners and riders 3G special

Orange has put claim to the UK's bronze medal for 3G today, saying it has completed its first voice, data and video call on a third-generation network. The call happened in France - Orange's biggest market and home of its owner France Telecom - and VP Didier Quillot called it "a key milestone". He continued: "The significance …

Data Networking 30 Oct 2001, 16:16
AOL told to stop shipping AOL 6.0

AOL 7.0 roll-out threatened

AOL has been forced by a US court to halt shipments of its AOL 6.0 software - and could affect the recently launched version 7.0. PlayMedia, the company behind the AMP MP3 player engine under the hood of WinAMP and other popular MP3 playback applications, has successfully forced AOL to cease shipping product that contains its …

Music and Media 30 Oct 2001, 16:18
Secondhand WinXP for sale

Can you sell a pre-owned version?

Computer Exchange (CeX) is to buy and sell secondhand copies of Windows XP. But all copies must be unused and sealed. By insisting on this, the UK's leading retailer of secondhand games and IT goods hopes to avoid any copyright issues arising from the new product activation system used in Windows XP. Here are CeX's prices (inc …

Software 30 Oct 2001, 16:25
Pure ASPs face rough ride – BT

ERP is no-go

Pure Application Service Providers (ASPs) are in for a rough ride as big systems integrators and telcos bundle managed applications onto their offerings. They will need to provide much more than just application hosting in order to survive. This is the message from David Furniss, BT Ignite's eBusiness VP, who compares the ASP …

Channel 30 Oct 2001, 16:44
Tiny chooses DVD-RAM

Did it really want to do that?

Tiny has bundled a recordable DVD drive into its latest home PC deal - the first time its gone with DVD. But the PC ships with a Panasonic DVD-RAM drive, which could be a concern for consumers wanting to share their data with others. While users are able to burn CDs easily (and cheaply) and then share them with friends, …

Personal 30 Oct 2001, 16:50
Ali Demin leaves Samsung

On his back or back in business?

Long-serving Samsung UK chief Ali Demin left the company this month to "concentrate on returning to full fitness after suffering from a back injury." That's the official company line, anyway, but Demin is setting up a management recruitment consultancy called adandad.com (AD & AD). A visit to the site confirms this, with a …

Channel 30 Oct 2001, 17:42
Oftel reconsiders digital TV pricing

Should Sky should pay more than BBC?

Oftel announced today it is to review how digital TV companies pay for "conditional access services" i.e. things like encryption and user identification which allow subscribers to view certain programmes but others can't. Currently there's a free market approach but Oftel is considering setting the prices of the services, and …

Business 30 Oct 2001, 17:59
Get online from low-earth-orbiting research craft

Cisco IOS tweak

Cisco Systems has developed technology which makes it easier for a router, along with a network of connected IP devices, to access the Internet from planes or trains that are themselves on the move. The capability, which has attracted the interest of NASA, comes from the addition of mobile IP functionality, called Cisco Mobile …

Data Networking 30 Oct 2001, 18:03