17th April 2002 Archive

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Google preps search as a Web service

Beta 1-10 of about 8,560,000

Google Inc is to offer its leading web search engine to developers using standard web services APIs, it emerged this week. Under a beta test launched without fanfare last week, the company is offering access to its index on a free trial basis, with the possibility of a commercial launch in future. The company said the …

e-Business 17 Apr 2002, 08:20
Children are not so smart online

The Kids aren't alright

The latest research forom the Nielson Norman stable aims to debunk the myth that kids are technological and online marvels. According to the firm, kids get frustrated with badly designed web sites and are just as likely to leave them in their wake as their adult counterparts. In what is claimed to be the first study of its …

Music and Media 17 Apr 2002, 09:07
Sun concentrates tools under ONE Brand

Open Net Environment

Sun Microsystems Inc is regrouping its iPlanet, Forte, StarOffice and Chili!Soft product lines under the Open Net Environment (ONE) brand. The Palo Alto, California-based company has also created a new ONE business unit to market all its software development tools. Its aim, senior director Marty Robins told ComputerWire, …

e-Business 17 Apr 2002, 09:08
i-mode makes US debut With AT&T's mMode

A la Mode

NTT DoCoMo Inc's i-mode mobile data service made its US debut yesterday, as DoCoMo partner AT&T wireless Services Inc made its take on the service, mMode, available in a dozen US markets, Kevin Murphy writes. As we reported last month, mMode is somewhat different from its popular Japanese counterpart. AT&T Wireless …

Mobile 17 Apr 2002, 09:09
AOL rekindles browser battle

Uses Gecko in CompuServe 7.0

AOL Time Warner Inc took a first step in a potential rekindling of the browser wars of the late 1990s yesterday, confirming officially that CompuServe 7.0 is shipping with Netscape Gecko as its browser, replacing Internet Explorer. Some three million people subscribe to CompuServe, AOL's brand for more experienced internet …

Mobile 17 Apr 2002, 09:10
Microsoft anti-GPL fine print threatens competition

What does it mean for Samba?

The release of reference licenses for Windows CIFS and SMB protocols - designed to increase competition in the file-sharing marketplace and also satisfy regulators' antitrust concerns - could actually kill competition ,thanks to some Microsoft Corp fine print. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft agreed to license its …

Software 17 Apr 2002, 09:11
Intel makes modest profit

Mixed bag

Intel has met analyst expectations with first quarter results that give rise to hope that the worst of the IT downturn is now behind it. The chipmakers Q1 net income was $936 million, up 86 per cent sequentially and 93 per cent year-over-year, on sales of $6.8 billion, down 3 per cent from its last quarter. Net income excluding …

Channel 17 Apr 2002, 11:25
BTo gambles on vice

Says 'no' to porn

BTopenworld is taking a punt with online betting in a bid to generate more revenue for the mass-market ISP. The new service is called "Sports and Bets" and will focus on four core gaming areas - sports betting, lotteries and bingo and casinos. The site can be found at www.btopenworld.com/sport and not www.btopenworld/sport.com …

Music and Media 17 Apr 2002, 11:27
Middle East conflict spills over into cyberspace

Israeli Web page defacements on the up

The political crisis in the Middle East has spawned an increase in defacement attacks on Israeli Web servers. Israel was the victim of 10 of 15 significant web defacements in the Middle East over the last two weeks, according to security consultancy mi2g. The most active anti-Israel hacker group, which claims to be Egyptian, …

Security 17 Apr 2002, 11:29
Mobile AthlonXP rolls off the 0.13micron line

Rebrand

AMD is to add XP to the name of its mobile Athlon chips. The Mobile AMD Athlon XP is the first CPU to roll off the 0.13micron production line. That means less heat, more performance and cheaper to produce than AMD's chips built using the 0.18micron process. AMD has lined up Epson Direct, Packard Bell and Sharp as customers for …

Channel 17 Apr 2002, 12:17
DSL has 19m users worldwide

'Impressive'

The number of global DSL users almost tripled during 2001, according to the latest stats from PointTopic. It found there were almost 19 million DSL customers at the end of 2001 - compared to 6.5 million 12 months earlier. According to the authors of the DSL Worldwide Retail Directory, Edition 5 this marks "an impressive …

Telecoms 17 Apr 2002, 14:11
Discounts a-go-go from IT-minds

Many more books for much less bunce

There are even more mouth-watering discounts this week from Reg associate www.it-minds.com First out of the starting blocks is Dameon Welch's definitive Essential Check Point Firewall-1™. Check Point Firewall-1™ is the world's leading firewall - but it's extremely difficult to find in-depth, independent guidance on using it …

Business 17 Apr 2002, 14:15
IBM hands over HDD biz to Hitachi

Duo take on EMC

Hitachi and IBM intend to pool their respective hard disk businesses in a joint venture, which is expected to 70 per cent controlled by Hitachi. The Japanese manufacturer will make an unspecified cash payment to IBM for its HDD assets. IBM's HDD business is making a loss and the logic behind the deal, details of which are still …

Hardware 17 Apr 2002, 14:23
Make broadband universally available

Equiinet boss lashes out at 'half-baked smokescreen'

IT industry entrepreneur Bob Jones has called on the telecoms regulator to make broadband universally available to all in the UK. Launching a scathing attack on BT, the MD of telecoms equipment manufacturer Equiinet, said: "BT stonewalled when told to deregulate and allow others access to its exchanges. "It has driven the …

Telecoms 17 Apr 2002, 14:46
AMD's Sanders begs 64-bit favour from Gates

Didn't read States testimony

On February 8, Bill Gates phoned Jerry Sanders, AMD's chairman to enlist him as a witness for its longrunning antitrust trial. During the call, Sanders asked for a favour - to go public with support for Hammer, its upcoming 64-bit CPU platform. "Mr. Gates said he would talk to his people about that," Howard Gutman, the …

Channel 17 Apr 2002, 15:26
360 bn text messages this year

gr8 SMS <<*>>

More than 75 billion text messages sent in the first three months of this year, according to the GSM Association. The total forecast for 2002 is now put at 360 billion messages, up from 250 billion in 2001. The explosion in text messaging is explained by greater choice of handsets and tariff options, ring tones, new business …

Mobile 17 Apr 2002, 15:29
US Supremes affirm virtual child porn

No harm, no foul

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a blow to prudes throughout the land, when it ruled 6-3 that sexual material which doesn't involve the abuse of actual children is legal. At issue was the Child Pornography Prevention Act, which Congress passed in 1996 to purge society of dangerous images and ideas. The Act would have …

Music and Media 17 Apr 2002, 16:27
The IE back-button attack

We're not making this up

Swedish security researcher Andreas Sandblad has discovered that the MS Internet Explorer history list allows JavaScript in the URLs. The code will execute in the same zone as the last URL visited, which in the case of the error page generated by IE is the local computer zone. Thus when an error page is generated, JavaScript can …

Software 17 Apr 2002, 17:51