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29th November 2001 Archive

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  • Red Hat pre-releases major Linux bug details

    Doh! Other vendors caught unprepared

    On the surface, it was just another turn of the endless cycle of software release, hole discovery, and patching: operating system vendor Red Hat issued an advisory Tuesday warning the world about a serious security hole in a file transfer program that comes with Linux, and urged customers to download a patch. There was just …

    Software 29 Nov 2001, 02:29

  • B2B still to fulfil promise

    Manage, communicate, automate, integrate

    Business to Business (B2B) was meant to revolutionise the way that organisations did business. The development of marketplaces meant that products and services could be bought and sold with massively reduced effort in terms of both time and money. Unlike many of the so-called advances of the new economy, the B2B model isn't …

    e-Business 29 Nov 2001, 08:10

  • US courts kowtow to entertainment industry

    2600 DeCSS appeal denied; Felten SDMI suit rejected

    Wednesday was a bad day for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a watchdog group involved in several suits challenging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on behalf of consumers, researchers and publishers. First up, 2600 publisher Eric Corely aka Emmanuel Goldstein, who was barred from posting or linking to the …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 08:24

  • US Supremes mull future of Net porn

    The Web's only profitable business in the crosshairs

    The US Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which Congress passed in 1998 to purge the Internet of materials "harmful to minors." The Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia last year. The COPA would make it a …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 10:02

  • Palm axes 250 jobs

    But everything else is hunky-dory. Honest

    Palm last night said it will rid itself of 250 staff, part of the fallout of the Be acquisition, but sought to sugar the pill for its remaining employees by stressing that its Q2 revenue is on course to fall between $250 million and $280 million. That's not much to crow about, however, since that range is simply within the …

    Business 29 Nov 2001, 10:52

  • Hitachi sheds 130 more Singapore staffers

    Depressed DRAM price to blame

    Japanese chip maker Hitachi will cut a further 130 jobs at its Singapore SDRAM plant subsidiary as the depressed state of the memory market continues to hurt the company. Hitachi said last month that it would rid itself of 300 workers at the plant. The latest round of redundancies means that the company will have shed 44 per …

    Business 29 Nov 2001, 11:23

  • IBM drops 1200 chip workers

    Merry Christmas

    IBM says it will cut around 1000 jobs from its semiconductor division due to the market downturn, nearly five per cent of the unit's staff. It will also chop 180 jobs from its storage technology unit. The microelectronics unit produces processors, circuit boards and other chips for various global customers, as well as other IBM …

    Business 29 Nov 2001, 11:27

  • WinXP steals your bandwidth

    XP Roundup And other items of interest

    Windows XP helps itself to 20 per cent of your bandwidth, a useful tip at TweakXP reveals. But although this sounds like the sort of thing that could easily fuel paranoia (what's it doing with it?), it's more just a case of sloppy and wasteful configuration. The culprit is the QoS (quality of service) packet scheduler, which is …

    Software 29 Nov 2001, 11:50

  • Intel's battle with Broadcom comes to court

    <ding, ding> Round one...

    Intel and Broadcom faced each other yesterday as the wide-ranging patent infringement lawsuit the chip giant filed in August 2000 came to court. Both sides made their opening statements before the jury that will decide the trial's outcome. A second trial will follow on from the first, Intel's original lawsuit having been split …

    Channel 29 Nov 2001, 12:23

  • Europe faces legal action over ‘disappointing’ LLU

    When the writs hit the fan

    The European Commission (EC) has threatened legal action against some member states after describing local loop unbundling (LLU) in Europe as "very disappointing". In its 7th Report on the Implementation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Package published yesterday the EC claims that the progress of LLU is "overall not …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 12:23

  • Schmidt dumps Bertelsmann

    Rides off into sunset

    Andreas Schmidt is to quit his job as the global head of ecommerce at media giant Bertelsmann. Reports claim that the former head of AOL Europe decided to jump ship because he was at loggerheads with a number of key figures about the company's future e-strategy. In a statement, the company said he is leaving to "pursue new …

    e-Business 29 Nov 2001, 12:25

  • Toshiba drops desktops in US

    Market slump scalps another victim

    Toshiba will stop selling its desktop PCs in the US after pushing them unsuccessfully for the past four years. It will focus instead on its various mobile products, such as notebooks, portable servers and wireless networking. Since getting into desktop sales there in early 1997, it never claimed more than one per cent of the …

    Personal 29 Nov 2001, 12:26

  • RMS meets Kabong – the Free Software Remix

    Whistle while you work

    You'd be free, free hackers too - if you only had the time. So as a public service, we're delighted to provide the Free Software Song in an abbreviated, MP3 version entitled "RMS meets El Kabong". It's 23 seconds long, a mere 43 KB, and Brett Glass, who made this inspired mix explains: "El Kabong, in case he hasn't made it …

    Bootnotes 29 Nov 2001, 13:35

  • Time bulks up retail lines

    More goodies for Christmas

    Time Computers' retail stores will have an additional 250 product items on the shelves from Monday. The company add a range of consumable goods (cartridges, paper, etc.), as well as stand-alone goods like digital cameras, scanners and printers. Buyers can also pick up on various deals like a free DVD player with selected PCs or …

    Channel 29 Nov 2001, 13:36

  • Gates poised to clinch 500k WinXP licence deal for UK.gov?

    Updated Resistance cells in Whitehall aghast...

    Bill Gates is due to swing through the UK next week, trailing clouds of Windows XP licences, and according to embittered Register sources, his good friend Tony Blair will be signing the UK government up for 500,000 of them at a Blair-Gates meeting on 6th December. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman however categorically denied at …

    Software 29 Nov 2001, 14:28

  • UK Govt says ‘no’ to unprotected eshopping

    Let's be careful out there

    The Government has published five top tips for safe e-shopping this Christmas in a bid to boost consumer confidence online. In a nutshell, those thoughtful chaps at the Ministry suggest that shoppers only use trusted sites and that they keep a record of what they buy. Oh, and if they do get ripped off, don't worry, because if …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 15:12

  • Europe to probe Infineon aid package

    May have to pay $194m back to German govt.

    European Commission investigators are to take a close look at the $194 million handout granted to chip maker Infineon by the German government. The financial package may have broken EC competition rules. Certainly that's the EC probe's starting point. "The Commission doubts the aid is compatible with the EC treaty," the …

    Channel 29 Nov 2001, 15:13

  • Xbox goes under the knife

    Xbox Roundup Fiddling with the console's insides

    People just will not stop tinkering with their Xboxes! We're all in favour of course, with reservations (the ones that stop us getting sued) so here's a little round-up of things people are speculating on, and some things people have actually done. The first thing we discovered was Icrontic’s articles on disassembly and …

    Personal 29 Nov 2001, 15:33

  • Motorola updates PowerPC 7450

    Bug fix rather than feature boost

    Motorola has quietly extended its PowerPC family with two G4-class CPUs: the MPC7451 and the MPC7441. Both parts appear to be basic updates to the existing MPC7450 and 7440. The 7450, also known as the G4 Plus, was Motorola's second generation of G4 processor while the 7440 is a low-power version designed for mobile systems. …

    Mac Channel 29 Nov 2001, 15:57

  • KaZaA ordered to cease infringing copyright

    Updated Round one to music biz

    Music sharing system KaZaA has been given two weeks by a Dutch court to cease infringing recording artists' copyrights. If the company fails to comply with the order, it faces a penalty of 100,000 guilders ($40,317) a day, the Judge warned. The ruling concludes a copyright violation case brought by the Dutch wing of the …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 17:11

  • The e-biz skinny on leather tanning

    Hiding to nothing

    The UK's leather tanning sector is reluctant to take part in the ecommerce revolution despite pressure from the Government to get businesses online. A Government-sponsored report found that fewer than one in five companies (17 per cent) has a formal ecommerce strategy. And while three quarters of leather tanners have a Web …

    e-Business 29 Nov 2001, 17:40

  • Dabs.com offers free online credit

    Online offline approval

    Online retailer dabs.com is offering its customers interest free online financing for any purchase over the value of £500. The site teamed up with Halifax-Cetelem to create an online finance approval process. Check-out with more than £500 of goods, choose the interest free finance payment option, fill in your details, wait …

    Channel 29 Nov 2001, 17:42

  • Orange kills Locust

    Mobile operator pulls plug on text message community

    Orange pulling the plug on the world's oldest text message community, Locust, by ending its Talk 60 Text 1500 tariff, which enabled a company to make large numbers of text messages for £60 a month. From 18 December, Locust members will have to pay to receive each message rather than a monthly flat-rate fee. The extra cost will …

    Data Networking 29 Nov 2001, 17:58

  • Jungle.com inches to break-even

    E-commerce still a costly business

    GUS, parent company of Argos and Jungle.com, has released its interim results, and announced an 11 per cent increase in profit and 7.8 per cent increase in sales to £2.9 billion. However, in an almost identical statement to its last results announcement in July, it has removed Jungle.com's sales and its Argos Additions Net …

    Channel 29 Nov 2001, 18:02

  • Jaguar workers face sack over ‘inappropriate’ emails

    Ford can't take it

    Eleven workers at Jaguar's Halewood, UK factory are facing the sack, with another 19 lined up for possible disciplinary action, after circulating "inappropriate" emails around the office. Jaguar does not comment on what kind of "inappropriate material" had been sent, although an icLiverpool source claims the mails contained …

    Music and Media 29 Nov 2001, 18:10

  • Cisco accountant hackers sent to jail

    Stock fraud scheme tied to insiders

    A pair of former Cisco beancounters have been sent to prison for 34 months after they were found guilty of hacking into the network giant's computers as part of a $8 million fraud scheme. Geoffrey Osowski, 30, and Wilson Tang, 35, were also ordered by US District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte to pay the balance between the $7.8 …

    Security 29 Nov 2001, 18:11

  • Govt unveils £11m e-truancy fund for schools

    Little Brother gives rascals an education

    The Department for Education and Skills has unveiled a £11.25 million fund for schools to purchase hi-tech solutions for the age-old problem of truancy. Secretary of State Estelle Morris will write to all Local Education Authorities to explain the scheme and ask them to encourage schools to apply for the funds. Schools with …

    Personal 29 Nov 2001, 18:14

  • Protocol switch security risk in Cisco IOS

    Cute, but far from devastating

    Don't hold the front page: a vulnerability in a Cisco security software package for routers has been discovered - but the risk is moderate. In a security notice issued today, Cisco said its IOS Firewall Feature Set (also known as Context Based Access Control [CBAC]), has a vulnerability which permits traffic to flow when it …

    Security 29 Nov 2001, 18:16