16th May 2002 Archive
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BTo ups revs, cuts losses
Getting there
BTopenworld - BT's mass market ISP - continues to lose money in spite of seeing a massive jump in income. Publishing full year prelims it reported that turnover for the year jumped 59 per cent from £140 million to £222 million. However, the ISP still made an EBITDA (earnings before interest, etc) loss of £102 million, a £96 …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 12:28
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BT revenues rise, debt cut
Anyone spot a spring in their step?
BT has halved its debt over the last year and increased revenues, the monster telco revealed today. Publishing its prelims for the year ended March 31 BT announced that net debt had fallen from £27.9 billion to £13.7 billion. The improvement comes as BT raised £5.9 billion through a rights issue last June, demerged its …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 12:31
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Tiscali breakeven in Q1
So?
Tiscali reckons it's taken yet another step towards its master plan to become a major force among ISPs in Europe. Yesterday it reported that it reached breakeven in the first quarter of the year with EBITDA (earnings before interest etc) topping E1 million. Total revenues in the quarter were E195.2 million - up 78 per cent …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 12:32
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Gummi bears defeat fingerprint sensors
Sticky problem for biometrics firms
A Japanese cryptographer has demonstrated how fingerprint recognition devices can be fooled using a combination of low cunning, cheap kitchen supplies and a digital camera. First Tsutomu Matsumoto used gelatine (as found in Gummi Bears and other sweets) and a plastic mould to create a fake finger, which he found fooled …
Security 16 May 2002, 12:35
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A Perl of an offer from IT-minds
Terrible pun, great discount
This week Reg associate IT-minds.com brings you a Perl of an offer as part of their treasure-trove of discounted books. The jewel in the crown is The Complete Perl Training Course - your very own training course in a box. Created by world-renowned corporate trainers Deitel & Associates, The Complete Perl Training Course brings …
Site News 16 May 2002, 12:41
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IBM Web services guru predicts WSDL future
Mix and match alphabet soup
If you think the alphabet soup of web services acronyms is bad - with SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, WS-Security and WS-Routing to name but a few - then hold on to your spoon, writes Gavin Clarke. Things are going to get much, much worse. IBM's director of e-business standards Bob Sutor predicts between 20 and 25 XML-based …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 13:30
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KPNQwest heads for telco dead pile after banks pull plug
Crunch escalates to crisis
The cash crunch facing European backbone telecoms operator KPNQwest NV has turned into a full-blown crisis after it revealed that its banks have pulled the plug on its credit facility. The Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based carrier which last month finally admitted that it could be forced into a massive debt-for-equity swap to …
Business 16 May 2002, 13:34
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Wordcom taps $2.65bn debt as bank talks continue
We'll pay it back when we've borrowed some more
WorldCom Inc yesterday confirmed it is to break into its $2.65bn debt facility as the company struggles to reassure customers and investors that it has available cash to continue operating. The company expects to draw the entire amount, then pay it back in a few weeks when it completes negotiations on a $5bn secured debt …
Business 16 May 2002, 13:40
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Marconi clams up as finance talks enter new phase
Constructive discussions, apparently
Marconi Plc has abruptly called off a meeting to reveal details of its five-year business plan with the excuse that talks on a refinancing deal with bank and bondholder creditors have "entered a new phase." Leaks from the company earlier this week suggested that a conclusion of talks with bankers could be more than a month …
Business 16 May 2002, 13:47
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Wanadoo joins OD2 online music band
Je suis un rock star
Wanadoo - the French ISP which also owns Freeserve - has followed in the footsteps of Tiscali and signed an online music distribution deal with On Demand Distribution (OD2). The deal means that Wanadoo will be able to offer a music subscription service to its 5.75 million punters in France and the UK. Basic subscription …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 13:49
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Outlook worm markets porn site via your sig
How blush-making...
A malicious Javascript worm adds a link to a porn site on emails coming from infected users' machines, AV firms have warned. JS.Fortnight drops a file on a victim's Windows PC which is then inserted into the default signature for Outlook Express. Every time the infected computer sends an email message, the message will contain …
Security 16 May 2002, 13:57
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Siemens signs up for Nokia Series 60 on Symbian
The poodlemeister strikes...
Siemens today put more of its weight behind Symbian OS, licensing Nokia's Series 60 platform and agreeing to collaborate in its development. Series 60 is Symbian-based, and Siemens itself bought a five per cent stake in Symbian last month. The deal is useful from the point of view of standardisation, and is perhaps a sign that …
Mobile 16 May 2002, 15:00
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MS releases grand daughter of all IE security patches
Critical patching time, again
Microsoft released another cumulative patch for Internet Explorer yesterday, which promises to plug up six recently discovered security defects involving the browser. The patch, for IE 5.01, 5.5 and 6.0, includes the functionality of previously released fixes, as well as tackling the new problems - the most serious of which …
Security 16 May 2002, 15:05
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Exam results by SMS? E-government goes mobile
Not a runner, we fear, but they may be on the right track...
The E-Envoy's CEO of e-delivery Alan Mather has come up with a whole new e-delivery channel for government services - the mobile phone. In today's issue of Computing,* Mather suggests that children could receive their exam results in a text message, while the infrastructure delivering this and other government services could …
Mobile 16 May 2002, 16:27
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Yahoo! charges! for NYTimes! content!
Thin end of the wedge
The creep towards paid-for online content continued today with news that access to the NYTimes.com's archives is now available at a price on Yahoo!. The archives date back to January 1st 2000 and individual stories can be bought for $2.50 each - the same price as charged by the NYTimes.com's own archive service. This agreement …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 16:31
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Academics float NVidia pixel plans
"CPU through you we can"
A collection of small furry animals catches our attention, pointing their paws at this very interesting research paper. Have a look, says one. It's a project rather unpromisingly entitled "Ray Tracing on Programmable Graphics Hardware" and it's emerged from Stanford's Graphics Lab, with more than a little help from NVidia. The …
Personal 16 May 2002, 18:54
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World leaders use terror card to watch all of us. Forever
Not a G8 idea, say privacy advocates
Pronouncements from this week's G8 Justice and Interior Ministers meeting about data protection and the retention of Internet traffic data have created concern among privacy activists. Controversy centres around whether blanket retention of traffic data on the entire population should be permitted (effectively making every …
Music and Media 16 May 2002, 18:56
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Lindows judge throws the book at MS
The Microsoft Computing Dictionary, to be precise
Lindows is a cock-a-hoop over a decision by a Seattle district court judge not to allow an injunction against the knock-off Linux distro. That's because "windows" is a generic term, according to the Judge, denying the Microsoft motion. He cited evidence - including Microsoft's own dictionary of computing - to support the view …
Business 16 May 2002, 22:33
