29th April 2002 Archive

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How Oracle screwed California

And Larry's still picking the purse

Californian taxpayers paid millions of dollars too much for Oracle database software and support, thanks to a former Oracle employee, and his assistant, who now works for Oracle's law company. Normal competitive tendering rules were not followed, and the pair were pressured by staff from Governor Gray Davis office to sign an …

Business 29 Apr 2002, 07:26
Half of UK homes has Net access

Little else to report

The shape of the Internet landscape in the UK has changed little in recent months, according to the latest research from Oftel. Just under half of UK households have Net access with unmetered packages remaining the most popular form of getting online. On average people spend around nine hours online each week - an increase of …

Music and Media 29 Apr 2002, 09:49
Italy preps secondary trading in Mobile bandwidth

Significant move

In a move of immense significance for Europe's cash-strapped telecoms sector, the Italian government is preparing to enable mobile operators to trade in bandwidth, Rik Turner writes. Communications minister Maurizio Gasparri last week told the parliamentary committee on telecoms and transport that he plans to make it …

Mobile 29 Apr 2002, 09:56
EU to harmonise cybercrime laws

The common touch

The Commission of the European Union has adopted a proposal for a Council framework decision that seeks to harmonize the EU's legal response to so-called cybercrimes, including hacking, denial of service attacks and virus dissemination. The proposal, said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, "aims to …

Security 29 Apr 2002, 10:00
Sun evangelist denounces WS-I's ‘hidden agenda’

Proprietary

The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) founded by IBM Corp, Microsoft Corp and others has a hidden agenda, according to Simon Phipps, Sun Microsystems Inc's chief technology evangelist. And he should know, having played a similar role at IBM for several years before joining Sun two years ago. Never one to …

e-Business 29 Apr 2002, 10:02
Intel cuts Mobile Celeron prices

Falling down

Intel today published new prices for Mobile Celerons, with big cuts for the top three clock speeds. You know the drill: all prices quoted are for 1,000 units. The 1.2GHz part drops 21 per cent from $170 to $134; the 1.13 falls 28 per cent from $134 to $96; and the 1.06 falls 25 per cent from $107 to $80. Prices remain as is …

Channel 29 Apr 2002, 10:18
Apple unveils the eMac

E is for educayshun

Apple has launched the eMac, a desktop computer for schools, in the US. The machine is powered by a 700MHz PowerPC G4 processor and kinda like a 15in monitor iMac, but a little smaller with a bigger screen. The eMac has a 17in flat CRT monitor for "ruggedness and durability", not to mention cheapness: LCD screen prices are …

Mac Channel 29 Apr 2002, 11:01
AOL TW to spin off cable op?

Do we care?

AOL Time Warner is mulling over plans to flog part of its cable business in a move which could help resolve a dispute with cable venture partner AT&T. According to US reports if the minority sale goes ahead it could mean that AOL Time Warner could fund the buyout of AT&T's without having to dip into its own coffers or run-up …

Business 29 Apr 2002, 11:10
Dell shop cans beer based marketing bid?

What happens if blurb writers get too thirsty...

It must be a tedious and thirsty business in the Dell Shop blurb-writing department. Faced with the task of coming up with an attractive description of yet another laptop bag, somebody in there appears to have snapped recently. Even though the Belkin Bridge Street Case looks pretty attractive by the standards of such things (try …

Bootnotes 29 Apr 2002, 11:24
Microsoft interested in ITV Digital?

Do we care?

Microsoft has refused to comment on weekend reports that it is interested in buying failed digital TV broadcaster ITV Digital. Yesterday's Observer said that the giant software company was one of a number of parties which has requested an information pack from administrators Deloitte & Touche. It's believed that Microsoft - …

Business 29 Apr 2002, 12:35
Microsoft Excels @ insecurity

Guninski collars another bug

Microsoft has only partly fixed a flaw involving malicious script execution involving Office, according to veteran bug hunter Georgi Guninski. Last week Microsoft issued a patch which meant users who use Word as an email editor in Outlook 2000 or 2002 could fall victim to script execution when a malicious memo is replied to or …

Security 29 Apr 2002, 12:37
Apple refreshes TiBook with faster G4

Big screen

Apple has been a busy spelling bee today, creating the eMac, an iMac, only with an 'e', not an 'i', for the impoverished schools sector, and refreshing its Titanium Powerbook range with a faster G4 processor. Two new models are launched today, a 667MHz version (what's wrong with 666?, Apple; we know you're in league with the …

Mac Channel 29 Apr 2002, 12:51
Fayrewood misses targets

UK 'particularly challenging'

Fayrewood, the European networking distie, has missed its second half targets. In a trading statement, issued the day before its current financial year comes to an end, the company said its anticipation of a 'significantly stronger' second half, published in December, had not worked out. for its financial year - which ends …

Channel 29 Apr 2002, 13:13
US server sales show green shoots of recovery

Rest of world is barren

The server market remained flat during the first quarter this year, as the slowdown in IT spending continued to bite. However the US market is stabilising, giving rise to hopes of a recovery in spending later this year, according to Gartner Dataquest. The analyst firms reports a preliminary figure for server shipments of 1.09 …

Hardware 29 Apr 2002, 13:16
BT faces ‘civil war’ over broadband

Do we care?

BT has played down weekend press reports that its decision to offer "no frills" broadband access could lead to the "prospect of civil war" within the company. The Independent on Sunday reported that BT Retail chief Pierre Danon and Alison Ritchie, head of BTopenworld, face a potential conflict since both will offer broadband in …

Telecoms 29 Apr 2002, 14:12
UK leads e-Money revolution

E-Day

It is not everyday that the United Kingdom is seen to be leading the European Union (EU), never mind the rest of the world, but on Saturday April 27 2002-E Day--Britain became the first member state to implement the EU directive covering the issuing of electronic money. The British, of course, responded to this momentous event …

e-Business 29 Apr 2002, 15:49
MS shared source licence strangely GPL-like

Non commercial, self-propagating... Heard this somewhere before?

In his keynote to the recent Government Leaders Conference Bill Gates warned developing countries against using dreaded GPL software in their governments and universities. If they did so, he said, they would be unable to commercialise the resulting programs, and they would never be able to develop an IT industry. Not such a bad …

Software 29 Apr 2002, 16:21
Billion-dollar virus economics

When math attacks

Let us now pause to praise the computer virus cost accountants. We pray they cease their counsel, which falls into our ears as profitless as water in a sieve. Yeah and verily, the computer virus econometrics gurus join a royal college of experts who live primarily to feed statistics and figures to the news media. Well before …

Security 29 Apr 2002, 18:51
UK lags in next-gen broadband buildout

More fibre required

Britain is already behind its European neighbours in positioning itself for next generation broadband access, through high-speed Ethernet connections, even though the technology is still in it's infancy. Ethernet Metropolitan Area Networks have the potential to allow service providers to offer voice, data and digital television …

Telecoms 29 Apr 2002, 19:36
WinAmp's ‘malicious MP3’ vuln

All you need is an upgrade

Users of NullSoft's popular WinAmp player should upgrade to version 2.80 (available here) to avoid a vulnerability reported on the BugTraq mailing list by Swedish security researcher Andreas Sandblad and confirmed by the company. What we have here is a buffer overflow condition which can be exploited, with some difficulty, by …

Security 29 Apr 2002, 20:56
Gigabyte GA-81RXP revisited

We've been bought

Last week we published a letter from Gigabyte announcing Bios 7a, a revision intended to resolve a persistent boot problem experienced when manually changing the vcore for the GA-81RXP motherboard. This bug rendered the board pretty much useless for overclocking, a key target market. Unfortunately, the link, supplied by the …

Personal 29 Apr 2002, 20:56
Microsoft, Nvidia at war over Xbox

Price, not patents at issue

Partners Microsoft and Nvidia are at war over the troubled Xbox, for which the latter supplies graphics chipsets. In this SEC filing, NVidia discloses that Microsoft is seeking damages for violation of the deal. Microsoft - and not Nvidia as reported by some wires today - took the case to arbitration a week ago. The tattooed …

Channel 29 Apr 2002, 22:17
Where did Hercules.com go?

Guillemot regrets...

Hello, We regret to inform you that due to a technical problem Hercules sites are temporarily unavailable. This not very informative message greets readers when they click on to the web site of Guillemot,, the owner of the Hercules brand name used for retail graphics cards. So what could the technical problem be? Since last …

Personal 29 Apr 2002, 22:34