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9th January 2002 Archive

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  • ‘Punish software makers for bad security’ – NAS

    Scientists ask Congress for sane laws

    Congress should make it easier to punish companies that produce insecure software that puts business and consumers at risk, a panel assembled by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said Tuesday. "Policy makers should consider legislative responses to the failure of existing incentives to cause the market to …

    Software 9 Jan 2002, 01:06

  • AOL buddy-hole fix has backdoor

    'You've got bugs'

    A member of w00w00, the security enthusiasts who first reported the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) games request vulnerability, has alerted users that a fix the group recommends has its own backdoor. Apparently, the AIM Filter by Robbie Saunders which w00w00 had recommended is infected, group member Jordan Ritter disclosed on the …

    Software 9 Jan 2002, 06:17

  • Centrica buys iomart broadband ops

    iomart out of telco biz

    Scottish ISP iomart has sold its broadband business to Centrica for £2 million. The company's support centre in Stornoway, 40 staff and 2,750 customers will be transferred to Centrica as part of the deal. In return Centrica - which trades under the brands of the AA, British Gas/Scottish Gas, Goldfish and One.Tel - picks up a …

    Telecoms 9 Jan 2002, 09:46

  • User fury as Sun puts x86 Solaris to sleep

    Cost cutting to blame

    Sun is putting the Intel version of its Solaris Unix OS in the deep freeze, citing support and development costs as the reason. There won't be an x86 version of Solaris version 9 this year, but Sun will support existing versions for seven years, Solaris marketing director Graham Lovell told IDGyesterday. More charitably - or …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2002, 09:50

  • IBM outsources Netvista PC production

    Confirms commitment to PC market

    IBM, the creator of the industry standard PC, is to stop making desktop computers, handing over production of Netvistas in US and Europe to Sanmina-SCI. The OEM deal is worth $5bn over three years to Sanmina-SCI, a specialist electronics contract manufacturer, which is paying an undisclosed sum for IBM's Netvista manufacturing …

    Business 9 Jan 2002, 10:17

  • Fujitsu Siemens to pre-load Tiscali on PCs

    Going a bundle

    Fujitsu Siemens will pre-load Tiscali Internet access on all consumer PCs in the 14 European countries in which the ISP operates. Financial terms are undisclosed. The deal also includes the creation of value added bundled services, such as Voice over IP solutions, unified or instant messaging, music and entertainment services …

    Music and Media 9 Jan 2002, 12:46

  • Mobile phone thefts hit kids

    Let's be careful out there

    School kids are five times more likely to be victims of mobile phone thefts than adults, according to a Home Office report. However, in many cases it is younger people who are responsible for the thefts, according to the report Mobile Phone Theft. Although it claims it is impossible to say exactly how many mobile phones are …

    Data Networking 9 Jan 2002, 12:49

  • Moody's downgrades Gateway credit status

    Junk status

    Moody's has downgraded its credit assessment of Gateway to junk status, following worse than expected Q4 sales reported by the pan-US PC maker. Gateway has been demoted to Ba-3 from Baa-1, meaning that the company is now below investment grade. This should have no material effect on Gateway, which still has plenty of cash in …

    Personal 9 Jan 2002, 13:17

  • DRAM recovery means higher PC prices -Time

    Time warns

    The modest rebound in memory prices will mean higher prices for home PCs, according to Time Computers. The consumer PC maker is to issue a warning on all advertising that will pass this on to home buyers. The company reckons that on charging £49 more on 512MB systems at the end of next week, and - maybe - another £49 at the …

    Personal 9 Jan 2002, 13:53

  • UK to follow broadband lead of S Korea – Hewitt

    Or not, as the case may be

    There's confusion today over whether Britain should follow South Korea and use Government money to finance the deployment of broadband. Today's FT reports that trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt "made the case for heavy government investment in high-speed internet infrastructure", while visiting South Korea. At the …

    Telecoms 9 Jan 2002, 16:36

  • One.Tel to rebrand iomart DSL service

    Major player in five years

    Discount telco One.Tel believes it will be a major ADSL provider within the next five years following Centrica's £2 million acquisition of iomart's broadband business. One.Tel, part of Centrica Telecommunications, will rebrand the iomart service in the next couple of months. According to Centrica Telecommunications MD, Ian El- …

    Telecoms 9 Jan 2002, 16:37

  • Kodak discount camera fiasco

    Legal minefield

    The latest internet fiasco involving Kodak.com taking orders for discount cameras at £100, realising their mistake and then cancelling those orders, leaves customers stranded in a legal minefield. Clearly, on-line retailers have still not learnt the lesson that they must set out clearly their terms of business. The Kodak terms …

    e-Business 9 Jan 2002, 16:59

  • Hush – do you want to store a secret?

    Online secure storage service

    Hush Communications has introduced an online service for secure personal storage based on encryption technology. Called HushDrive, the service is delivered through online storage services firm Xdrive and provides a facility that enables users to securely upload, download, and access their files from anywhere, at anytime using …

    Security 9 Jan 2002, 16:59

  • iPlanet security flaws unmasked

    More annoying than serious

    A pair of vulnerabilities on widely-used Web server software from iPlanet has been uncovered. In the more serious case Netscape Enterprise Server 3.x and iPlanet Web Server 4.x, running on the Windows operating system, can be subjected to a denial of service attack. Hackers would need only to enter a simple browser command in …

    Security 9 Jan 2002, 17:32

  • Google calls time on AIMSearch prank

    Cheating spouses and computer neophytes - relax

    Google's legal department has put a stop to a subversive web prank that makes a point about our loss of Internet privacy. The delicious URL has been circulating privately for the past fortnight. The website is a détournement of the Google features page, only with the intriguing addition that Google now hosts five years' worth …

    Bootnotes 9 Jan 2002, 22:11

  • WWW patent threat lawyers are not talking

    Send us cheques instead

    The law firm representing web patent opportunist UDTL put out a press release today ... to say it won't talk to press. Merchant & Gould, a Minneapolis-based law firm, has been sending generic letters to developers who use the W3C's RDF (Resource Description Framework) claiming that their software which processes RDF content …

    Music and Media 9 Jan 2002, 23:14