14th January 2002 Archive

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Samsung snuggles up to Ericsson, GSM

Phone wars

CDMA leader Samsung has strengthened its ties with the GSM world, signing an agreement that gives it access to Ericsson's patent war chest. The deal covers GSM, GPRS EDGE and 3G WDCMA air interfaces, and covers both carrier and handset technology. The deal's non exclusive, and includes a reciprocal license. Samsung has the …

Data Networking 14 Jan 2002, 09:29
Borland demands users pay for license audit

Take the TV too, while you're at it guys

A couple of unfeasibly draconian clauses in the Borland's JBuilder and Kylix end user license agreements has caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth [*] in the open source community, with calls to boycott the products. Kylix - the Linux version of Delphi - comes with very reasonable terms for proprietary software: you don't …

Software 14 Jan 2002, 09:33
UK Parliament broadcasts live on the Web

Four channels

Today marks the start of a 12-month experiment in which proceedings from both houses of Parliament, plus some Select Committees, will be broadcast live over the Web. Parliamentlive.tv can be viewed by people using a standard dial-up modem, the government says. The site offers four channels, viewable through Windows Media and …

Music and Media 14 Jan 2002, 09:44
Adobe chief threatens to abandon Asia over piracy

Simple business decision

Adobe Systems Inc last week threatened to stop supporting Chinese language versions of its software because of persistent pirating of its products in China and other Asian markets. The threat was made by Adobe's CEO Bruce Chizen in an interview with the Hong Kong English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post. In …

Software 14 Jan 2002, 10:26
Sprint CEO promises mid year 3G US roll out

Question of definition

Starting what is likely to be the long, long run up to the delivery of third generation mobile services in the US, Sprint Corp CEO Bill Esrey last week pledged at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, that his Kansas City, Missouri-based company will be the first to launch full 3G services in the summer. "We're going …

Data Networking 14 Jan 2002, 10:27
NTL to offer wholesale broadband?

That's what it wants us to think

NTL is toying with the idea of offering wholesale broadband services over its cable network to other operators. According to the FT the debt-laden cableco has already held discussions with AOL and Freeserve, among others, to enable them to offer broadband services direct to consumers. A spokesman for NTL told The Register: "It …

Telecoms 14 Jan 2002, 11:33
Jailbirds remember porridge online

Convicts Reunited

The craze for reunion Web sites has taken a new twist following the creation of a site dedicated to re-uniting old jailbirds. Convicts Reunited was set up as a spoof site last month but since then has attracted 3,000 subscribers. A statement on the site reads: "This website is for Convicts and Ex-convicts who have either lost …

Music and Media 14 Jan 2002, 11:59
Hynix to re-open Oregon plant

DRAM makers tool up for 256Mb switch

Hynix, the debt-ridden Korean memory manufacturer, is to re-open its Oregon DRAM plant this week, mothballed since last summer. The factory has been rekitted to make 256Mb DRAM - previously it made 64Mb parts. The upgrade is representative of a move by major DRAM makers to mainstream on 256Mb production, as the market moves to …

Channel 14 Jan 2002, 12:30
Ministry of Defence loses 594 laptops

PC theft and cracking hit UK Government

Almost 600 laptops have been misplaced or stolen from Britain's Ministry of Defence over the last five years, the government has admitted. Opposition Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow obtained figures through a series of parliamentary questions which show a total of 1,354 government-owned computers have gone walkabout over the …

Security 14 Jan 2002, 12:37
MS Windows Update suffers multi-day outage

Security update backlogs all round...

Microsoft's Windows Update site has been experiencing severe problems in the past week, and numerous users have been unable to access the site. According to several people who've contacted The Register, problems began on Thursday and carried on through Friday. Over the weekend it does seem to have been possible to access the …

Software 14 Jan 2002, 13:28
Korea migrates 120K civil servants to Linux desktop

Microsoft is big loser

The Korean government is to buy 120,000 copies of Hancom Linux Deluxe this year, enough to switch 23 per cent of its installed base Microsoft user to open source equivalents. By standardising on Linux and HancomOffice, the Korean government expects to make savings of 80 per cent, compared with buying Microsoft products. This …

Software 14 Jan 2002, 13:55
RC2 Win2k USB 2.0 drivers leak

Still no word on when they'll be finished...

Microsoft produced Release Candidate 2 of the USB 2.0 drivers for Windows 2000 late on Friday, and they promptly leaked to littlewhitedog.com and Digital Silence. There is as yet no word on when finished drivers will be available, although finished WinXP drivers themselves leaked two weeks ago, and are also downloadable via …

Software 14 Jan 2002, 14:25
E-sales jump at GUS

But how did Jungle do?

GUS, owner of Argos, is the latest UK high street retailer to report a good December quarter. The mass marketer also did well on the ecommerce front, today reporting Q3 sales of &163;48m, two-thirds up on the same period in 2000. Unfortunately (for us), the company did not break-out revenues for separate businesses. It would …

e-Business 14 Jan 2002, 14:31
Let's talk about .me.uk

Bugger.me.uk

More than 1,300 domain names have been snapped up this morning following today's launch of the .me.uk suffix. The new second level domain (SLD) is the first to be introduced since Nominet started operating the .uk registry in 1996. It won the backing of almost 75 per cent of those Nominet members that voted on the new SLD …

Music and Media 14 Jan 2002, 14:45
BT botches 3,500 email accounts

Emails disappear into the ether

BT has apologised for losing emails belonging to 3,500 customers. The cock-up took place last week and wiped out emails belonging to users of BT's Web-based talk21 email service. The glitch happened during maintenance of 3,500 email accounts. As a result users were unable to access their email for several days. And incoming …

Music and Media 14 Jan 2002, 17:50
Help! I can't cancel my sex site subs (Part 2)

iBill hardware failure

Troubled billing processor iBill has again been forced to take its customer database offline, risking excess credit card charges for subscribers to thousands of adult web sites. The latest meltdown, blamed circuitously on a "hardware failure on a non-redundant database", led to iBill's private and public customer service sites …

Music and Media 14 Jan 2002, 22:04
.NET virus is .NOT – Microsoft

Donut the cross-dresser

Last week, antivirus vendors exposed Donut, supposedly the world's first .Net virus. Only it isn't a. NET virus, Microsoft argues. Donut is simply a native executable that elects to modify only applications written for the Microsoft .NET Framework in the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) PE format, the software firm says …

Anti-Virus 14 Jan 2002, 22:17