5th July 2002 Archive

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Court sets March date (!) for WorldCom trial

Names monitor

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has received a provisional date for its case against near-bankrupt US telecommunications giant WorldCom Inc. However, the company could be unrecognizable by the time the case begins as US Federal District judge Jed Rakoff has set March 31, 2003 as the potential court date. Clinton …

Business 5 Jul 2002, 07:13
NEC UK sets up data storage division

Dull but worthy

NEC Corp has announced the launch of a new Data Storage Division that will sell a range of items of its own manufacture through channel partners in the UK. The UK arm of the Tokyo, Japan-based company will sell a range of hardware products through its Data Division. It will concentrate initially on the personal computer …

Hardware 5 Jul 2002, 07:13
Dell snubs Itanium 2 launch party

No customers, no Dell

Dell Computer Corp has confirmed reports that it will not be launching servers and workstations based on Intel Corp's 64-bit Itanium 2 "McKinley" processor when it launches next week. The Round Rock, Texas-based company said it will delay the launch of Itanium 2-based servers until stronger customer support materializes. …

Servers 5 Jul 2002, 07:14
UK corporate PC spending depressed

That's what Computacenter says

Computacenter, Europe's biggest computer dealer, yesterday issued a trading update: second half is better than the first, and it's meeting expectations. However, Mike Norris, chief executive, notes: "IT spending in our markets has remained depressed and conditions in certain sectors, most notably investment banking, have …

Channel 5 Jul 2002, 08:21
MobileFuture hasn't got one

WAP provider goes titsup

In another blow to the WAP format, one of the main service providers in the field, UK company MobileFuture, has announced that it is to be wound up, Andrew McLindon writes. The wireless service provider had been struggling for some time and on 27 June announced that unless it received additional funding by the end of that month …

Mobile 5 Jul 2002, 08:59
Mercury and Oracle bundle testing

Starter kit

Oracle is to bundle Mercury Interactive's testing tools into Oracle E-Business Suite. The purpose of this is to encourage customers to actually carry out some testing before they expose their online applications to an unsuspecting user community. The announcement heralds the availability of a Test Starter Kit based upon the …

e-Business 5 Jul 2002, 09:00
HP axes 1,400 UK jobs

Clobbered

Hewlett-Packard is to slash 1,400 jobs in the UK as part of the computer giant's bid to reduce its global workforce. In total, 15,000 jobs - ten per cent of the company's workforce - are to be axed following its merger with Compaq. But at more than 18 per cent, the UK's contribution to the headcount reduction is almost double …

Business 5 Jul 2002, 11:31
Dan Technology: so who's the buyer?

And why's it taking so long

Dan Technology has a buyer on the table and a deal should be announced next week, receivers BDO Stoy Hayward says. According to sources, the unnamed buyer has already taken on a small number of customer support staff, previously made redundant along with the rest of Dan's employees , to handle the backlog of tech calls. Word is …

Personal 5 Jul 2002, 11:45
Easynet chipper about broadband

'Excellent'

Easynet - one of the few companies involved in local loop unbundling (LLU) in the UK - claims broadband is proving popular with its customers and says that 2002 will prove to be an "excellent year". Publishing a trading statement yesterday that company said that trading - including revenues and costs management - was in line …

Telecoms 5 Jul 2002, 11:46
UK gov pilots services, info via MSN Messenger

Now where's that going to lead?

Britain's UKonline government portal is currently running a pilot project in conjunction with Microsoft's MSN Messenger. A UKonline tab has been added to Messenger, and from there you can link through to various UKonline services, plus other UK government services, including NHS Direct. According to the E-Envoy's CEO of e- …

Music and Media 5 Jul 2002, 12:25
.net does a ton

Happy Birthday

Congrats to .net magazine - which has just notched up its 100th issue of the popular publication. The first mag was published in December 1994 with a cover story promising to "make sense of the Information superhighway". Since then, it's covered the changing face of the Net industry and unlike some of its rivals, is still …

Bootnotes 5 Jul 2002, 13:30
Make money from the Net

Dotcom start-ups alive and kicking

Despite the severity of the dotcom crash it seems there are still some e-entrepreneurs around who reckon they can make money out of the Internet. A recent survey found that a third of e-entrepreneurs are involved in their first start-up, suggesting that these, at least, have not been put off by the negative publicity …

e-Business 5 Jul 2002, 13:31
Pay to play: the killer mobile app

But sort out micro-payments first

Network gaming provides opportunities for networking operators to boost data traffic and should become a mainstay of operators' plans to boost revenue and sign up new subscribers. That's the conclusion of a report on the mobile gaming market by industry analysts Frost & Sullivan which reckons the industry segment generated …

Mobile 5 Jul 2002, 13:37
Help! I can't stop receiving text alerts

O2 users struggle to turn off service

O2 subscribers are reporting difficulties cancelling text alerts from the mobile operator after it announced plans to charge for the service. In a letter to customers, O2 said that "in order to maintain quality standards and ensure continued improvement to our text alert services" it has decided to introduce charges for text …

Business 5 Jul 2002, 14:31
Tiscali to shut Chester office

Workers not happy

Tiscali UK is closing its office near Chester in a bid to reduce "escalating property overheads and increase corporate efficiency". The centre in Northwich - which handles Tiscali UK's B2B customer service, product development and finance departments - is due to be closed by the middle of August. Tiscali UK insists that all 50 …

Business 5 Jul 2002, 17:21
Council temp fired after virus outbreak

Aberdeen Council call in the rozzers

A council worker in Aberdeen has been sacked after technicians traced the spread of a destructive virus - which crippled the authority's network - back to him. An unnamed temporary agency worker, believed to have been employed in Aberdeen City Council's housing department, was fired earlier this week for allegedly allowing a …

Malware 5 Jul 2002, 17:30
Help! I can't stop text alerts

O2 users struggle to turn off service

O2 subscribers are reporting difficulties cancelling text alerts from the mobile operator after it announced plans to charge for the service. In a letter to customers, O2 said that "in order to maintain quality standards and ensure continued improvement to our text alert services" it is to introduce charges for text alerts from …

Mobile 5 Jul 2002, 17:33
Uk2.net blacklists its own customers

Hosting firm shoots users in the foot

It's been a frustrating week for users of uk2.net whose email messages were bounced after one of the hosting firm's domains was blacklisted for spamming. A Web site hosted on one of uk2.net's servers is selling software which could be used by spammers. Result: a blacklisting of the site spamsites.org and its IP address by …

Music and Media 5 Jul 2002, 17:37
Smartphones talk open source

Ancient Psion nastyware ditched

Good news for third parties who want their PCs to talk to the new generation of smartphones. The Nokia 7650 has banished the ancient and much unloved Psion Link Protocol used by Symbian in favor of a standard TCP/IP protocols, according to packet-sniffing early adopters. It paves the way for third party Macintosh and Linux …

Personal 5 Jul 2002, 17:40