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6th December 2001 Archive

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  • Microsoft disowns Nokia cybersquatting prank

    Where do you want to be redirected to today?

    Microsoft has blamed a lone, crazed cybersquatter for hijacking Nokia-related domains and diverting them to The Beast's own rival PocketPC website. The prank works like this. Type www.series60.com into your browser - that's as in Series 60, the name of the software platform for Symbian smartphones that Nokia launched at Comdex …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2001, 01:23

  • Lamo strikes again: WorldCom

    The helpful hacker loves port 80

    It's dusk in San Francisco, and at a Kinkos copy shop deep in the financial district Adrian Lamo shrugs off his overstuffed backpack and pulls out a battered Toshiba laptop. With a few keystrokes, the hacker fills the computer's display with a map of the United States, crisscrossed with hundreds of colored lines, crowded with …

    Security 6 Dec 2001, 06:10

  • Elcom sells UK reseller op

    MBO jobbie

    Ebusiness software shop Elcom is selling off its UK reseller business. The UK management is buying the operation and will call it Elcom Information Technology. Alongside the reseller business, the UK managers are buying Elcom's StarbuyerGold technology for use in the UK, Elcom will keep hold of this for the US. Elcom …

    Channel 6 Dec 2001, 08:37

  • The Trivia Quiz – BOFH-style…

    Episode 30 Test your mettle

    BOFH 2001: Episode 30     Yes! It's time for the Bastard Trivia Quiz! Test your skill! Place your bets! Answers at the bottom! General Knowledge 1. You're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. Where do you go? A. N B. S C. E D. W E. To lunch 2. Network utilisation figures are reaching an all time high for …

    BOFH 6 Dec 2001, 08:38

  • Evesham staff get Xmas bonus

    PRP is back

    The good times are here again for staff at Evesham.com - profit related pay (PRP) has returned to pad out Christmas pay packets. The company stopped the scheme last year after suffering tough trading from June to December 2000. Following that the company laid off 20 staff and ditched its freephone customer support line in …

    Channel 6 Dec 2001, 10:43

  • Ericsson boss gets death threat

    And a bullet in the post

    The chief exec of Ericsson, Kurt Hellström, has been sent a 9mm bullet along with a letter saying he will "die soon". Swedish police are investigating the matter but as yet few details have been released. A spokesman for Ericsson told The Register that Mr Hellström had received a bullet accompanied by a letter, but he declined …

    Business 6 Dec 2001, 10:46

  • No-HTML plug-in for Outlook available

    Halleluiah, almost

    I've always believed that if the US Government were ever to get really serious about Internet security, the top players in Microsoft's management hierarchy would find themselves handcuffed, blindfolded, led onto a tarmac within some obscure Air Force base, and shot. Witness if you will Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, the …

    Software 6 Dec 2001, 11:09

  • Siemens slashes Infineon stake

    Parent cuts more apron strings

    Siemens has cut its stake in Infineon, its erstwhile semiconductor division, to under 50 per cent, paving the way for the chip maker's independence. Siemens made the cut by selling Infineon shares on the open market. In addition to 13.5 per cent of the chip maker owned by Siemens' pension fund, the German industrial giant held …

    Business 6 Dec 2001, 11:22

  • UMC bond sale raises $302m

    Nvidia deal fuels investor interest

    UMC's attempt to raise cash selling convertible bonds yesterday proved more successful than it had anticipated with the sale more than 17 times oversubscribed and the bonds changing hands for 40 per cent more than the 4 December closing price of previously offered American depositary receipts. The sale netted UMC $302 million. …

    Business 6 Dec 2001, 11:29

  • UK eshoppers becoming more mature

    Anyone got a cure for e-acne?

    The UK's Net users are becoming more confident with shopping online, according to the latest survey from Forrester. The research outfit found that the more people use the Net, the more they are likely to shop online. This shift from mere browser to active shopper is a sign of increasing maturity among UK Net users and comes at …

    e-Business 6 Dec 2001, 11:57

  • School sales make up 60% of Viglen business

    Must start calling it Learning Technology

    Learning Technology, the system builder formerly known as Viglen, has reported 59 per cent of its sales now come from the education market. To reflect the importance of education business to the company, it is now shifting its financial reporting period to tie in with the academic year. So, for the fifteen months to September …

    Channel 6 Dec 2001, 12:27

  • Sony to bring PlayStation 2 to Korea

    PSone too

    Microsoft's plan to sell Xbox to Korean gamers next October has driven Sony to bring its own machines to the console-free country (officially, at any rate). Sony has said it will open a Korean office on 10 December which will prepare the ground for the launch of both the PSone next February. By the end of June, the Japanese …

    Personal 6 Dec 2001, 12:28

  • ‘Computers for schools’ promotions ungenerous

    Fat kids get more kit

    School-targeted shopping promotion schemes don't provide particularly good value to participating schools, consumer rag Which? has claimed. The magazine calculates that for a primary school to obtain one free entry-level PC plus printer and digital camera it would need 232 kids to collect 90 tokens each over a ten-week period. …

    Personal 6 Dec 2001, 12:29

  • Govt watchdog slams £1 billion IT failure

    Worst public sector IT debacle, says PAC man

    The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has today published its report into the government's failed payment card scheme - which saw £1 billion of taxpayers' money wasted - and pulls no punches. The project, which aimed to replace a paper-based system for benefits claims with a magnetic strip card, "must rank as one of the biggest …

    Hardware 6 Dec 2001, 12:37

  • Mesh marketing mush

    Spinning jobs

    Marketing and communications jobs at Mesh Computers are getting the revolving door treatment. Last month communications manager Paul McEvoy left the business, choosing to head into the dotcom world. And this week marketing manager John Hendrick clears his desk to go travelling and pursue a freelance marketing career. Andrzej …

    Channel 6 Dec 2001, 12:43

  • Toshiba breaks off 3G partnership with Siemens

    Updated And now we know why

    Toshiba has ended its partnership with Siemens to build 3G phones, blaming delays in European networks and poor prospects for the next-generation service. News of the break-up first surfaced on the Web site of German newspaper Handelsblatt, where it quoted a Toshiba spokesman saying the joint research group "is not progressing …

    Data Networking 6 Dec 2001, 14:31

  • How to set a record for the number of games sold per console

    MS Xbox masterclass

    Microsoft is trumpeting the fact that its console buyers, "can't get enough of the Xbox launch games... gamers are buying 2.4 games with every Xbox, resulting in the highest game attach rate ever recorded for a console at launch". So reads Microsoft's latest press release, but as a few Reg readers have been quick to point out, …

    Personal 6 Dec 2001, 15:56

  • SMS phone crash exploit a risk for older Nokias

    Broken message, frozen phone

    Nokia has upgraded its phone software to guard against a security glitch that might allow a cracker to render a phone inoperable by sending a text message. However, older phones may still be vulnerable. Job de Haas, a researcher at security firm ITSX, gave a presentation during a recent Black Hat conference, where he …

    Security 6 Dec 2001, 16:15

  • Sports supplier drops punters' pants in public

    Web security gaffe exposes customer details

    An elementary security mistake by the official online supplier of Welsh Rugby and UK Athletics has resulted in the exposure of sensitive customer information on the merchant's Web site. Up until yesterday, Official-merchandise.co.uk was using a database query string for order-checking. This HTTP Get method would allow anyone so …

    Security 6 Dec 2001, 16:58

  • Jungle cancels £250K worth of sales

    Fears it can't deliver for Xmas

    Jungle.com is cancelling 2,500 orders because it believes it can't fulfil them before Christmas. The average order value at Jungle is £100 which means the company is turning away £250,000 worth of revenue. The company said it made the decision because it wanted its customers to have time to buy their goods elsewhere. "It's a …

    e-Business 6 Dec 2001, 17:16

  • Mediawave not dead after all

    Ex-employee hacks company's Web site and posts hoax (apparently)

    Yesterday we reported that the company responsible for the infamous Madonna gig Webcast had gone into receivership. An announcement on the front of its Web site read: "MediaWave today announced it had brought in receivers PWC to assist in its current refinancing round. The company has been the most innovative in the streaming …

    e-Business 6 Dec 2001, 17:17

  • WStore profitable in early 2002

    More stores soon

    Corporate-focused e-reseller WStore says it expects to break even in the fourth quarter of this year and will enter profitability in the first quarter of 2002. The reseller's revenue jumped from £5 million last year to an anticipated £14 million this year and is expected to grow to around £20 million next year, reckons MD Tony …

    Channel 6 Dec 2001, 17:35

  • Europe told to rethink e-privacy directive

    Puts "fundamental and constitutional liberties" at risk

    Privacy expert and MEP Marco Cappato has written an open letter to the presidents of the European Council and EU Telecoms Council asking them to reconsider legislation due to be discussed in the European Parliament tomorrow. The directive on protection of privacy in electronic communications has had several recent amendments …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2001, 17:43

  • Afilias gets to grips with .info fiasco

    Lessons learnt

    Afilias, the registrar behind the new .info top-level domain, has outlined its latest approach to the mass cybersquatting problem that has troubled it from launch at the end of July. Due to a flawed registration system, huge numbers of .info domains were wrongly acquired during the company's "sunrise" period. The problem …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2001, 17:47

  • Larry Ellison loves the PC

    Clusterific!

    Ageing Oracle boss Larry Ellison has declared his infatuation with the young PC. Or more accurately, after years of dissing the PC as an unwieldy hairball and promoting his own alternatives, the old fox has realised he can make a mint by selling Oracle clustering on Xeon boxes. So the x86 version of Oracle will no longer be a …

    Hardware 6 Dec 2001, 18:07