5th March 2002 Archive

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Ballmer weeps for Windows – video clip

They're trying to turn it into Linux...

Microsoft has released carefully-edited highlights from CEO Steve Ballmer's 8 February deposition by lawyers for the non-settling states on a video clip for all to appreciate. MS wants these bits seen so badly that they're offering it in both Win Media and Real Player formats. Those accustomed to Ballmer's teased-gorilla-on- …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 06:44
Judge blocks route to GPL legal test case

Copyleft does not have its day in court

Attempts by the Free Software Foundation to turn NuSphere Corp and MySQL AB's contract dispute into a legal test case for the GNU general public license (GPL) seem to have fallen at the first hurdle as the judge hearing the case declined to consider technical arguments. While the GPL is widely recognized as a binding …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 08:15
Oracle loses Ellison's Java certification challenge

Self-inflicted

Oracle Corp risks slipping further behind leading application server rivals and failing to broaden its product appeal to customers, after losing a self-imposed race for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3 certification against BEA Systems Inc. Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle failed to achieve J2EE 1.3 …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 08:15
HP stays top of the midrange – Gartner

8-way Unix server earns analyst accolade

On February 25, HP told the world that it had fortified its lead in the midrange server market with the rp7140, the new 8-way Unix server formerly known as Matterhorn (HP touts advances in self-healing to trump IBM). Just a few days later this claim has earned the support of Gartner. In a First Take briefing note, the analyst …

Hardware 5 Mar 2002, 09:15
Macromedia Unveils Neo

ColdFusion Meets Flash

Macromedia Inc has released more details of its long awaited 'Neo' ColdFusion project, demonstrating a number of forthcoming server software releases at an invitation-only event in San Francisco. The product's official name is ColdFusion MX. The company has also released the next version of Flash, its vector graphics …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 09:17
Oracle objects to Reg security coverage

Letter to the editor

I received an e-mail memo from Oracle Security Product Management Director Mary Ann Davidson taking exception to my recent article, Staying on top of Oracle's holes. The text of Mrs Davidson's letter is reproduced below in full, and my reply is reproduced below that in full as well. Our exchange occurred on Friday, 1 March. I …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 09:24
Tiscali's email service goes tits up

'Unprecedented hardware failure' - apparently

Tiscali has apologised for losing a stack of emails over the weekend following an "unprecedented hardware failure". In an email to punters the monster ISP said that even though its engineers "worked throughout the night" to resolve the problem it admits that the messages "will have been lost". The service went tits up on …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2002, 11:51
1901 Census farce runs and runs

You couldn't make this stuff up

The re-opening of the 1901 Census site, which crashed as soon as it was launched in early January , has been delayed – yet again. An announcement on the Public Records Office Web site says that testing is continuing and is taking longer than anticipated. A statement on the PRO Web site reads: "The testing of the technical …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2002, 12:07
NTL to offer 1MB broadband service

Costya

NTL is to launch a 1-megabit broadband service for residential users from next Monday. The new service will cost £49.99 a month and should appeal to speed-hungry Net users who are into gaming, music downloads, yada, yada, yada. The cableco has trialled the new service for the last two months and denies that today's …

Telecoms 5 Mar 2002, 15:37
Freeserve ups prices for AnyTime service

Surprise, surprise

Freeserve is to increase the cost of its flat-rate narrowband service by an extra £1 a month, the UK's biggest ISP has confirmed. From April 5 Freeserve's AnyTime tariff will cost £13.99 a month. In a statement the ISP said: "With effect from 5th April 2002, Freeserve is raising the price of its AnyTime unmetered access …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2002, 15:41
Foundry casts Ethernet into service provider core

Metro section

Foundry Networks is offering service providers a cheaper way to build metropolitan Ethernet networks with a range of purpose-built Metro Routers for both MPLS and Layer 2 Metro networks. In common with most networking equipment endors, Foundry wwants to coax its cash-strapped telco customers to invest in its kit in order to …

Data Networking 5 Mar 2002, 15:46
Poison applet blights browsers

Hijack risk to IE and Netscape

Crackers can use a malicious Java applet to hijack Internet sessions - leaving victims not so blissfully unaware. Exploiters can re-direct Web traffic once it has left the proxy server to a destination of the attacker's choice, Microsoft warns. Because of the vulnerability, a variety of man-in-the middle attacks are possible; …

Security 5 Mar 2002, 16:06
Court rules against barcelona.com

Adios Amigo (or Catalan equivalent)

A Spanish travel site is considering an appeal against a US court's decision to strip it of its domain name. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld an earlier ruling ordering the owners of barcelona.com had to hand over the domain to the Barcelona City Council. According to the ruling, the owners of …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2002, 16:08
New RADIUS vulns exposed

No rest for the wicked

Numerous holes in the ubiquitous RADIUS (remote authentication dial-in user service) protocol can be exploited with results including denial of service and running arbitrary code on the target device, a Russian security researcher has demonstrated. The risk of the DoS attack is considerably greater, and can be achieved two ways …

Data Networking 5 Mar 2002, 20:47
MS asks time-out to re-consider states' demands

How to misrepresent this clarification?

Microsoft has requested two weeks' additional time to evaluate a clarification by the dissenting states which has put the lie to Redmond's claim that "thousands or millions" of Windows versions would be required if the states get their way, Reuters reports. There the Beast was, ready to defend itself against unreasonable …

Software 5 Mar 2002, 22:49