The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

22nd July 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • ARM plans to charge options against profits

    UK market's first 'we're not Enron, oh no sir' move

    For some time now British businesses have been donning their most sincere expressions and stressing that Enron/Worldcom style shenanigans could not happen here, because UK accounting standards on creative counting are somewhat tighter than the US version. But just in case, chipmaker ARM is reportedly twiddling its numbers with a …

    Business 22 Jul 2002, 07:30

  • MS planning to tackle leaked WinXP keys with SP1?

    Mass zeroing of corporate keys mooted

    Microsoft may be readying the next escalation in the Product Activation wars for the release of WinXP Service Pack 1, according to a report at BetaONE. The site claims that Microsoft has done a rewrite of the way corporate product activation keys are generated, and that although this feature is currently switched off in the SP1 …

    Software 22 Jul 2002, 09:16

  • WorldCom dives for Chapter 11 cover

    No surprises there

    Worldcom - which has rocked the corporate world with its $3.85 billion accounting scandal - has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. The move gives WorldCom breathing space for the telcoms giant to carry on trading under protection from its creditors while it tries to sort out its self-inflicted financial mess …

    Business 22 Jul 2002, 09:18

  • Tiscali to launch Excite across Europe

    Ssssshhhh, it's a secret

    Tiscali is about to relaunch the Excite portal and search engine through out Europe. In April the ambitious Italian ISP revealed that it had acquired the Excite brand and domain name for the whole of Europe. And last week visitors to Excite.co.uk noticed a new message: "Welcome to EXCITE! We are back - and we have created the …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2002, 11:57

  • We hate our iPAQs

    Very long list of complaints

    A bevy of iPAQ owners has set up an online petition to shame HP/Compaq into repairing their pocket PCs or offering full refunds. And they want signers of the petition to "inform everyone they can of their conclusion that HP/Compaq knowingly and willingly continues to sell defective products to consumers". Found at ipaqpetition. …

    Personal 22 Jul 2002, 13:01

  • Hopes of PC market recovery dashed

    Dell close to overtaking HP in becalmed sector

    Hopes of a recovery in the PC market have been dashed; IDC reports that worldwide PC shipments were down 0.5% from 31.2 million in Q2 2001 to 31.1 million in the second quarter this year. It's the fifth consecutive decline in PC shipments, the analysts note. IDC had predicted that Q2 shipments would rise by 1.3 per cent this …

    Business 22 Jul 2002, 13:06

  • EDS rejects WorldCom accounting allegations

    'Unfounded'

    EDS - the outfit that provides IT and consulting services to companies and government agencies - has dismissed allegations concerning its financial dealings with WorldCom. The Observer reported yesterday that a former WorldCom UK employee turned whistleblower has produced copies of invoices from EDS to WorldCom which allegedly …

    Business 22 Jul 2002, 14:34

  • Fingerprinting of UK school kids causes outcry

    Prison-style fingerprint checking technology replaces library cards, or What Big Brother did next

    The widespread fingerprinting of UK primary school children has been roundly condemned by watchdog Privacy International. The human rights watchdog today warned that tens of thousands of UK school children are being fingerprinted by schools, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents. This under-reported …

    Software 22 Jul 2002, 14:39

  • Volunteer snoops coming to an ISP near you?

    Operation Cyber-TIPS

    Congress has been working on legislation to create a militia composed of 'technology experts' who will manage the telecommunications infrastructure in times of national emergency. The Senate bill passed last week emphasizes disaster response, not terror prevention, with such things as patching leaky government servers and …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2002, 15:29

  • Microsoft's Canary phone – the first pics

    What a Stinker!

    Orange UK is evaluating a reference design for a Stinker smartphone (aka Microsoft Smartphone 2002) produced by contract manufacturer HTC, according to documents received by The Register. The network is already believed to have struck a deal with Sendo for its much-delayed Z100 phone, also based on the Stinker platform. The …

    Personal 22 Jul 2002, 15:59

  • EU intros site, freephone service to solve citizens' problems

    Their internal market problems anyway. Yum...

    The European Commission has unveiled a brace of advice-giving and problem-solving services for European citizens and businesses, both being designed to make it easier for people to exercise their internal market rights and - we surmise - to give the Commission lots of sticks to bask recalcitrant EU governments over the head with …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2002, 16:16

  • IETF puts weight behind Advanced Encryption Standard

    Improved secrecy and security, one TLA at a time

    The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has published standards for improvements to SSL which add support for the recently ratified Advanced Encryption Standard. Request for Comments (RFC) 3268 adds support for AES to the TLS protocol (Transport Layer Security - which was formerly known as SSL). As well as adding support for …

    Security 22 Jul 2002, 17:18

  • Bruce Perens on Real's Open Source gambit

    Media Frenzy

    Real Networks is announcing plans to release some, but not all of its technology under an Open Source-friendly license within 90 days. Under pressure from Microsoft, and completely open formats, it's decided to meet the open source community halfway. The first batch of technology to be released under a new "community license" …

    Software 22 Jul 2002, 17:22

  • IBM ACTs on server cabling spag

    Daisy chain ACTion

    IBM is introducing server connectivity technology which allows Intel-based servers to be linked together with up to 90 per cent fewer switches. With Advanced Connectivity Technology (ACT), IBM’s customers can chain servers together rather than running cables from each server to the switch. The technology allows users to link …

    Servers 22 Jul 2002, 17:24

  • Symantec's SecurityFocus buyout met with pessimism

    Bug trackers fear BugTraq death

    There's been considerable discussion this weekend of the recent sale of SecurityFocus to mega-corporation Symantec for a sweet $75 million. At issue in particular is SF's BugTraq mailing list, which has for years been the most popular full-disclosure vulnerability list going. While Symantec has stated that it will not exert …

    Security 22 Jul 2002, 19:06

  • Serious PHP vuln reported

    Worse on Sparc than Intel

    The PHP form-data POST handler is susceptible to a malicious POST request that can trigger an error condition which, depending on your hardware, can crash the machine or provide for remote exploitation. On an Intel x86 machine an attacker has no control over memory allocation/recovery and can only cause a denial of service; on …

    Security 22 Jul 2002, 21:11