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20th November 2001 Archive

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  • HP looks beyond Superdome ‘sabotage’

    Have I got benchmarks for you

    In January, HP launched Superdome, the newest fastest member of the high-end 9000 Unix server family. Unfortunately it ran like a dog (think dachshund)in TPC-C benchmarks, the industry standard measurement of server performance. HP engineers scratched their heads, and set out to discover the problem. One million dollars, and …

    Hardware 20 Nov 2001, 07:51

  • UK PLC: the Net saints and sinners

    Updated again ARM bad, Reed Elsevier good

    Internet laggards and dropouts have been named and shamed with a league table based on the Web site of firms making up the FTSE Top 100. Processor design firm ARM, J Sainsbury and Royal Bank of Scotland earned brickbats for the poor performance of their Web sites, following tests conducted by audit and monitoring consultants …

    e-Business 20 Nov 2001, 07:58

  • SafeWeb goes down for the count

    Anonymity services dropping like flies

    Following the regrettable loss of ZKS (ZeroKnowledge Systems) Freedom network, popular Web proxy SafeWeb has now discontinued its free, anonymous surf portal. Services like these, however desirable, are bandwidth hogs, and it's not exactly a shock to see them going by the wayside. Regrettable yes, but not surprising. SafeWeb …

    Security 20 Nov 2001, 08:29

  • IBM and Linux: the dinosaurs and the penguin

    Popular mythology

    Not long ago, commentators were referring to mainframes as dinosaurs, heading for extinction. IBM's mainframe revenues were clearly in decline and high-end Unix servers, including even IBM's own variety, were threatening its existence. Things were looking decidedly grim for the dinosaurs. That was until the dinosaurs did a deal …

    Hardware 20 Nov 2001, 08:29

  • MS makes its pitch on security, cyber terror to House

    Dough for Feds, FOI exemptions, don't regulate us...

    One of the industry security chiefs strutting their stuff in front of a US congressional subcommittee has been Microsoft Chief Security Officer Howard Schmidt, shameless plugging the "good works" his company's execs do in the name of security while determinedly lobbying in favour of its security policies. The House Energy and …

    Software 20 Nov 2001, 08:43

  • Nokia 7650: smart phone, shame about the price

    Chicken and Egg

    It's a phone and it's a camera, all in one. It'll cost you €550 (£340)* and you can get one in six months time. That's all you need to know about the Nokia 7650, which despite months of hype and breathless gush from ... uh, well people like us, actually, is simply a fancy phone. But Nokia summoned 300 journalists and analysts …

    Data Networking 20 Nov 2001, 09:33

  • MS blames messenger for IE security hole

    Our bugs can't hurt you if you don't know they're there

    A month ago there was a little exploit, discovered by Online Solutions, which could allow an attacker to obtain or alter IE 5.5 and 6.0 cookie data with a malicious URL. It didn't seem a terribly big deal at the time. It became a big deal when Microsoft decided to throw a hissy fit about the fact that Online Solutions broke the …

    Software 20 Nov 2001, 09:47

  • VIA launches latest Pentium 4 chipset

    P4X266A paves way for ATA/133 support. Golly

    VIA has shipped its P4X266A chipset, a minor upgrade to its controversial P4X266 part for the Pentium 4. And we're sure Intel will be no more happy with this one than the other. The 'A' offers increased memory throughput with what VIA claims is the world's fastest DDR memory controller. It also hooks into VIA's latest south- …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 10:28

  • Palm, Handspring stock surges on merger rumour

    Makes strategic sense

    Speculation that Handspring chief and Palm co-founder Jeff Hawkins might be about to do a Steve Jobs and sieze Palm's helm following the departure of Carl Jankowski has rekindled investor interest in the two companies. Handspring's stock rise $1.41 to $5.41, while Palm's went up 44 cents to $3.87, both on heavy trading, but …

    Personal 20 Nov 2001, 11:20

  • Boots boots Boots off boots.com

    Sheesh

    The Boots Company - parent of high street retailer Boots The Chemist - is in the middle of a messy custody battle over who owns the domain Boots.com. Last week the Nottingham-based retailer seized control of boots.com after purchasing it "for a modest sum" from the Crown. The Boots Company believed the domain was "for sale" …

    Music and Media 20 Nov 2001, 11:58

  • Cisco hails DSL ‘killer app’

    Broadband futures

    DSL could soon become a challenger to cable and satellite in the delivery of residential TV services with advances in networking technology now falling into place. This is the view of Nigel Moulton, Cisco's group manager of access aggregation, who says that improvements in video compression technology, IP multicasting and …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 2001, 12:03

  • UK hit by major ADSL outage

    Colossus broken backbone to blame

    Britain's broadband ADSL service was plunged into darkness this morning following a catastrophic failure of BT's network. Details are still sketchy but it's understood that nearly all ADSL connections across the country are down - including those provided by service providers other than BT - along with some unmetered dial-up …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 2001, 12:05

  • Broadcom sues Intel – again

    This time: alleged intellectual property violation

    Broadcom and Intel are at each other's throats again, this time with the former claiming that Intel's processors and other chips use Broadcom intellectual property without permission. In a lawsuit, filed yesterday with the Federal District Court for Eastern Texas, Intel is alleged to have wilfully violated certain Broadcom …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 12:05

  • DDR demand to drive RAM recovery – Nanya

    Sales up 220% between October and December

    World+dog clearly can't get enough DDR SDRAM, if the example set by Taiwanese memory maker Nanya is anything to go by. The company reckons that its DDR sales next month will have rocketed 220 per cent over October's figure. Last month, Nanya sold five million DDR chips. This month, sales will double to ten million parts, the …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 12:11

  • Teacher training boosts RM profits

    Gravy for school dinners

    Education specialist RM has boosted full year profits by 42 per cent on the back of selling software to train teachers in IT. Net income for the year to September 30 was £10.7 million, compared with £7.5 million for the year earlier. Sales for the full year grew 17 per cent to £241.9 million, from £207.6 million the previous …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 13:56

  • Duron 1.2GHz packs Lennox Lewis right hook

    HWRoundup 3D cards, Comdex coma & more

    3D Graphic accelerator cards steal the headlines this week, with both Tom's Hardware Guide and Cryoeniac running lengthy reports covering a wide range of cards. Dr Tom features a comparison table on all GeForce 3-based cards, with a close-up on Abit's Siluro GF3, while Tweakers Asylum has a look at a Inno3D Tornado GeForce 3 …

    Personal 20 Nov 2001, 14:01

  • Severn Trent Water subsidises staff PCs

    Half price HPs

    Severn Trent Water has joined the band of businesses subsidising PCs for their staff. The utility is offering to cover £470 of the price of a £900 HP Pavilion PC with Net access, software and support. The deal is being rolled out throughout December and is open to all 4,500 employees. They will be able to pay £12 a month over …

    Business 20 Nov 2001, 14:03

  • Motorola to bring MPEG 4 to ARM CPU

    Hoping to keep Intel out of Palm's way

    MPEG 4 video playback will be built right into the heart of next-generation Palm PDAs - if the company (or any of its licensees) choose Motorola's upcoming ARM-based DragonBall MX1 processor. Motorola this week agreed to license MPEG 4 codec from Finnish wireless multimedia technology company Hantro for inclusion in the MX1. …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 15:00

  • Time beefs up warranty to snag repeat business

    Trade-in option

    Time is adding a trade-in scheme for its CoverGold warranty option to encourage repeat business from its customers. After three years of ownership, customers are eligible for a discount on their next Time PC purchase and CoverGold package. The UK system builder has not announced yet exactly how much discount it is offering on …

    Channel 20 Nov 2001, 16:01

  • KPNQwest to shed up to 440 staff

    Jobs to go in the UK

    KPNQwest is to axe up to 440 staff across Europe as part of costs cutting measures, the company said today. Between 10 and 20 per cent of its 2,200 employees are to be axed with some 140 positions being shed in The Netherlands. The rest will come from its other operations in countries throughout Europe including the UK. The …

    e-Business 20 Nov 2001, 16:12

  • A fright at the Opera

    It ain't over 'til the fat lady pings

    JavaScript vulnerabilities in Opera could allow hackers to access users' cookies and other potentially sensitive files. Veteran bug hunter Georgi Guninski has discovered that versions of the Web browser on both Windows and Linux allow the execution of script code across domains. This means it's possible for a hacker to set up …

    Security 20 Nov 2001, 16:18

  • AOL UK abandons Mac OS X

    Beta programme culled to focus on Windows

    AOL UK has pulled the plug on Mac OS X support, effectively freezing the development of the Classic version of its online access software - all to focus its efforts on Windows software development. AOL has offered a public beta version of AOL 5.0 for Mac OS X for some time, but this test programme was recently shut down. When …

    Mac Channel 20 Nov 2001, 17:13

  • ADSL restored to UK

    Broadband Britain splutters back to life

    A major network incident that wiped out much of the UK's ADSL and unmetered dial-up Internet services earlier today has been fixed. Things should be improving throughout the afternoon and into the evening, although pockets of users could still experience difficulties getting online. BT says that its Colossus IP network crashed …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 2001, 22:45

  • Escalade: end of life, or back to life?

    Respect 3Ware indecision

    What is 3ware doing with Escalade? In September, the Californian storage hardware vendor issued an end of life notice for the ATA RAID line, announcing the 'strategic decision' to focus instead on its Palisade IP products. But this month it said it would continue full "support, development and production for its popular …

    Hardware 20 Nov 2001, 23:11