18th December 2001 Archive
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French taxpayers sign up for eDirectory
35m users by 2003
Novell has won a contract to supply the infrastructure software that will allow 35 million French taxpayers to file their returns online. The nine million euros three-year project with the French Tax Authority, DGI, represents Novell's largest eGovernment project in Europe to date. Novell has already rolled out its eDirectory …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:18
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NASDAQ ejects tech economy poster children
Farewell for now, then, Palm, Real, CNET...
The music's stopped on this year's game of musical chairs at NASDAQ and some of the most lauded poster children of the tech economy have failed to find a seat. Thirteen companies have fallen off the latest annual re-ranking of the NASDAQ-100 because of weaker market value, including Ariba, Real, Palm, Inktomi and CNet. At …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:20
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A plague on all our networks
Bug-ridden
Incidents of virus-infected emails have soared to unprecedented levels this year with an estimated one in 370 messages containing malicious code. That's the estimate from managed services firm MessageLabs which detected an email every 18 seconds during 2001. By the end of the second week of December, the MessageLabs service …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:33
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NTL slips as market gets jitters
Testing time ahead
NTL Inc's share price dipped $0.11 (15.49 per cent) to $0.6 cents in early morning trading following a weekend of speculation about the cableco's future. The Observer reported that NTL could be about to be taken over by its banks in a move which would clear the way for a merger with rival cableco, Telewest. If successful, part …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:33
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M&A on the up, grab it while you still can – Gartner
Cautious buyers to prompt hugfests
The software business is entering a period of consolidation, says research outfit Gartner, and companies should seize the chance to get bought (or indeed, to buy) while they still have the chance. Since 1998 Gartner says 25 per cent of leadfing software companies have been involved in mergers, acquisitions or divestitures, and …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:36
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Intel's ‘cut off air supply’ man to return in MS hearings
And there are some other interesting names on the list too...
The nine US States pushing for tougher remedies for Microsoft have unveiled their provisional witness list for March's hearing, and although there are two familiar faces from the earlier phases of the trial, they've clearly decided to cast their net rather wider. This makes sense, given that the States are effectively trying to …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:37
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Palm revs wireless plans with TI deal
In from the cold
Palm has revived its smartphone ambitions with a significant two-part deal with Texas Instruments. "Palm branded" devices should appear within a year promises Palm. Although Palm didn't exactly swear that these would be phones as such, and instead talked of applications such as er, biometrics, the phones logically ought to …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:37
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FBI surveillance bonanza in BadTrans.B worm
Millions of passwords in those mail dumps
Millions of Outlook and Outlook Express users have been infected by the BadTrans.B worm, which logs keystrokes in every open window and periodically sends the log files to one of several e-mail dumps, presumably for later retrieval by nosey hackers. Or Feds. According to a story from Rotten.com, an ISP which hosts one of the e- …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:38
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Mandrake 8.1 easier than Win-XP
Practically installs itself
Windows addicts curious to see how the other half lives but wary of the installation challenges Linux is supposed to present will find Mandrake 8.1 considerably easier to install and configure than Win-XP. It's quite nearly Harry Homeowner-proof. Ready for some cultural tourism? No need to hesitate; the full Pro package sells …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 09:39
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NEC to shut Scottish plant
Slowdown
NEC is to close its Livingston plant, with in the loss of 1,260 jobs. Production at the plant, which makes advanced LSI chips, will cease in March 2002 as part of the chipmaker's global restructuring plans, forced on it by the current economic malaise and slowdown in chip demand. The decision to mothball the plant, which has …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 12:59
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Salmon Days Declaration Of Principles
In a modest way a joyful celebration
The Register caught up with Salmon Days at its exquisitely-restored palazzo in the hills above Florence to ask about its hopes for the future... What are your hopes for the future? Salmon Days: I hope, as we all do, that Information Technology will effect an enlargement of consciousness enabling every man and woman to become …
BOFH 18 Dec 2001, 13:33
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Micron swoops on Toshiba DRAM biz
Consolidation. But not as we know it, Jim
This is a turn up for the books. Micron is buying Toshiba's commodity DRAM business, in effect setting the long-predicted consolidation of the memory industry in train. To be precise, Micron is buying the assets of Toshiba's US DRAM operations for an undisclosed sum, while Tosh is to stop making commodity DRAM and is phasing out …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 15:24
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Broadband use in UK to triple next year
Steady on
Broadband take-up in the UK is to triple next year, according to crystal ball-gazers at Jupiter MMXI. They claim the UK and Italy will see the biggest growth in Europe in 2002, while Belgium and Sweden will continue to lead the way with the highest proportion of homes in Europe with broadband connections. But before anyone …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 15:24
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Women fail safe text test
Rude SMS
Three out of five mobile users have sent messages they regret when they sober up. And women are worse offenders than men. According to survey by mobile services firm Zed, the female admitted to "rude" texting, sending confidential messages to the wrong person and SMSing their ex-boyfriends when under the influence. In the cold …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 18:14
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Roxio, EasyCD and Windows XP – the true story
An everday tale of upgraditis and bundling deals...
Roxio has come under sustained fire from users (and indeed The Register) for its failure to get apparently simple things like writing CD burning software for Win2k right first time, and for possible rapacity when it comes to getting people to cough up for the latest version of the software when actually, it might be a pretty …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 20:52
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Sainsbury's spams its way into mobile phone market
You pay monkeys you get peanuts...
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's appears to have committed the cardinal netiquette error of spamming. An unsolicited email apparently sent on behalf of "Sainsbury's Mobile" (which is not as far as we can make out an operation that has yet entirely gone public) has been received by numbers of Usenet old lags smart enough to have …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 21:29
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Peer-to-peer USB hits the road
And MP3 players shall talk unto phone...
The USB industry standards group, the USB-IF (Implementors Forum) has formally published the specification that describes how USB-equipped peripherals can to talk to each other directly. At present USB devices need to communicate via a host controller, which involves a PC or a Mac. The move was mooted in March, and a draft of …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 22:37
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Store giant tries to shut very cross dresser protest site
Keep on tranny trucking
A lorry driver fired for wearing women's clothes away from work is firing back with a web site attacking his former employer, Winn-Dixie Stores. The US supermarket chain is seeking to shut it down. Peter Oiler, the trannie trucker who worked for the company for 21 years, is the figurehead of ShameOnWinnDixie.com, a web site …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 22:53
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RSA supplies answer to drive-by hacking?
But devil remains in the detail
RSA has improved the algorithm underpinning the security of wireless networks. This could halt 'drive-by hacking' in its tracks -depending how it is implemented. The IEEE 802.11 committee has accepted the " Fast Packet Keying" technology, created by RSA Security and networking firm Hifn, as a way of fixing the flawed WEP …
Business 18 Dec 2001, 23:01
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Salmon Days are here again (kinda)
Viral alert
Salmon Days, the BOFH-inspired vidstrip comedy epic, is winding up for another fun-filled episode. It's released next week. But in the meantime here are Disinfected and Megashaft, two free streaming video trailers to whet your appetite. More cutlets will be released during the week - they have to be edited first for decency. …
BOFH 18 Dec 2001, 23:56
