31st July 2002 Archive

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PayPal adds FrontPage wizard to developer channel

Easy Peasy

PayPal Inc said yesterday it is distributing a plug-in for Microsoft Corp's FrontPage 2002 web development tool that allows users to add PayPal e-commerce functions to their sites using a wizard interface. The company, soon to become a part of eBay Inc, has been targeting web merchants through a variety of channels as it …

Media 31 Jul 2002, 08:10
IBM buys PwC Consulting on the cheap

So no more Monday:?

IBM Corp reasserted its position at the top of the IT services market by buying PwC Consulting for $3.5bn yesterday, Joe Fay writes. The computing giant's own Global Services business has seen growth slow of late, but the deal means IBM will inherit additional services revenues of around $4.9bn a year and 30,000 employees …

Business 31 Jul 2002, 08:11
Clock ticks on Microsoft's licensing – opposition remains

Tomorrow's the day

Tomorrow's the day Microsoft Corp's latest licensing plan officially kicks in, and still customers resist. An InternetWeek survey of 319 customers published yesterday has confirmed earlier surveys of massive - if slightly weaker - corporate resistance to Licensing 6.0. Licensing 6.0 introduces three-year licensing cycles …

Software 31 Jul 2002, 08:13
CA to record stock options as expenses

Accounting method we can understand

Computer Associates International Inc has announced that it plans to record the cost of new stock options as expenses, as it continues its efforts to improve the image of its financial accounting and corporate governance. The Islandia, New York-based systems management vendor has been heavily criticized for its accounting …

Business 31 Jul 2002, 08:13
EarthLink's mix shifts toward broadband

Lucky break

EarthLink Inc yesterday reported that during the second quarter its dialup subscriber base declined, hitting its top line, but that it is seeing good growth in its broadband access market, spurred primarily by a lucky break it got from federal regulators when rival America Online Inc bought Time Warner Inc, Kevin Murphy …

Broadband 31 Jul 2002, 08:15
EU solicits anti-cybersquatter advice

Good faith, bad faith

The European Union is looking for suggestions about how to deal with cybersquatting as it prepares to launch the .eu domain, Matthew Clark writes. The European Commission's Internal Market Directorate-General is looking for help from businesses or individuals that have faced cybersquatting in the past. In this vein, the …

e-Business 31 Jul 2002, 08:21
Win2k SP3 live tomorrow, but downloadable today

Another SP, another minor blooper...

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 is out, available now to the company's major customers, and to everybody else from Thursday. It currently being Wednesday, and Microsoft's record on dispensing service packs in an orderly and controlled manner being what it is, you will be entirely unsurprised that you can currently download it anyway …

Software 31 Jul 2002, 09:05
MS thumps the shared source in academia tub

But who's onto the winner here?

Academics from the UK's Lancaster University were this week given the snappily-titled Microsoft Windows Embedded Academic Excellence Award for work on IPV6 implementation involving shared source access to Microsoft code. This and other triumphs for the company's shared source programme were publicised at the Third Microsoft …

Software 31 Jul 2002, 09:48
Dodgy discounts offered ahead of MS licensing deadline?

Buy the upgrade programme without the product, allegedly...

An informant in the channel writes alleging Microsoft customers (or even more so, non-Microsoft customers) have an opportunity to achieve spectacular discounts in the last-minute sales rush before tomorrow's Licensing 6.0 deadline. As you know, 31st July is your absolute last chance to do something about your Microsoft licensing …

Software 31 Jul 2002, 10:37
Sizzling Summer discounts from IT-minds

XSL Companion and much, much more

This week's sizzling Summer discount offer from Reg associate IT-minds.com is the mighty Neil Bradley's new XSL Companion. A concise, comprehensive and accessible guide to the scope, strengths and limitations of the XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) family of stylesheet standards for XML, this book explains the practical ways …

Business 31 Jul 2002, 10:57
IBM kills Monday:

Rebranding: kiss: of: death: part: 437:

We all knew it was coming. When PwC Consulting recently announced - to a flourish of trumpets and Flash graphics - that it was relaunching as Monday:, it was only a matter of time before the whole preposterous venture went convincingly titsup. And sure enough, IBM has acquired Monday:, doubtless for the sole purpose of ridding …

Bootnotes 31 Jul 2002, 10:58
Nvidia's rotten Q2

Gets forecasts wrong

Nvidia had a rotten quarter in Q2, with sales plummeting up to $172.9m from Q1. Sales for Q2 ending 28 June will come in somewhere between $410 and $430m, Nvidia says. At best this is a 26 per cent slump on Q1, and wildly at odds with the company's own estimates announced in May of a 1-3 per cent advance in revenue, topping out …

Channel 31 Jul 2002, 11:37
Aussies go for scramjet gold

Masters of water and air

The Australians have apparently succeeded where NASA spectacularly failed in firing up an experimental scramjet. The news has caused much excitement at Vulture Central with the prospect of the hypersonic flying car we were promised in the early 1970s now one step closer to realisation. The scramjet has no moving parts and uses …

Personal 31 Jul 2002, 11:46
IBM enables DB2 for AMD Opteron

Nice win

IBM is optimising DB2, its enterprise database, on Opteron, AMD's upcoming 64-bit multiprocessor platform. And it didn't take long either: according to AMD, DB2 over SuSE Linux was 'successfully enabled' to support x86-64 in just two days. The chip firm reports improved DB2 data loading and unloading between servers using …

Servers 31 Jul 2002, 12:18
OASIS adopts UDDI 3.0

Open business standard

The third version of a specification for web services directories has officially passed to the Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). OASIS yesterday confirmed a Computerwire report it will steward technical work for Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). The …

e-Business 31 Jul 2002, 13:06
HP invokes DMCA to quash Tru64 bug report

How to win friends and influence people

Hewlett Packard has threatened to use computer crime laws and the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act to muzzle a group of security researchers who unearthed a flaw in its Tru64 operating system. The threat comes in a letter to SnoSoft from HP Veep Kent Ferson warning that the security researchers "could be fined up …

Security 31 Jul 2002, 13:07
VeriSign, Segway, JPEGs, lava lamps

Letters A choice collection

No flame of the week, this week. But a glorious howitzer aimed in the direction of the .com monopoly kicks off this week's eclectic postbag:- Re: VeriSign lied in ICANN race caseEx-ICANN chief spotted in low earth orbit ICANN director to see accounts Andrew, Am I alone in saying: "Fuck Verisign in ways only legal in Haiti …

Letters 31 Jul 2002, 13:12
DVD: the new saviour of the PC industry?

Joins very long queue

DVD could be the key driver in hauling PC makers from the Slough of Despond. It certainly has the potential to prop up "sluggish PC and chip industries", according to Pioneer Electronics and its research partner IDC. Already the fastest growing technology ever, consumers are now ready to embrace DVD recording and home video …

Personal 31 Jul 2002, 14:23
Cisco exec pleads guilty to $50m fraud

Go straight to jail

Disgraced former Cisco Systems executive Robert Gordon has pleaded guilty to fraud and insider dealing charges. Gordon, 43, a former vice president and director of business development at Cisco, has admitted conducting an elaborate scam which involved diverting $50 million of Cisco-owned stock through overseas accounts he …

Business 31 Jul 2002, 14:24
Geeks. Law. Everything in between

Site of The Day GrepLaw

Oftentimes, lawyers ask us for references to cases/ opinions when we cover legal stories. This not our bag, but it fits snugly into Greplaw, a new Berkman Internet and Society production. Greplaw's tagline is "Geeks. Law. Everything in between." The site is discussion-based, runs on Slashcode and links to law stories affecting …

Bootnotes 31 Jul 2002, 15:55
Klez tops the virus charts

Again

Yet again, variants of the Klez worm are by far the most common viruses circulating on the Internet. That's according to MessageLabs which stopped more than 475,000 copies of the virus in July, down from in excess of 788,000 infected emails it blocked in June. It's the fourth month in succession that Klez has topped monthly …

Security 31 Jul 2002, 16:01
That £76 Vaio notacontract receipt explained

WorldPay speaks, Foris doesn't

After two days of dead silence, The Register has been given a statement on the Foris £76 Viao fiasco - but from WorldPay, not Foris. Silence continues to reign in that particular quarter. Foris, you may recall, accidentally advertised Sony Vaios at £76 last Friday, along with a number of other products with prices listed as low …

Personal 31 Jul 2002, 16:55
Today's MS Licensing 6.0 deadline to loom again tomorrow

Please, no more last chances...

OK, so you didn't give in and buy Microsoft Software Assurance or Upgrade Advantage in good time, and today you haven't given in to the blandishments of the resellers desperate to get you to save yourself "35-60% in future upgrades" by putting your hand in your pocket. So at midnight, you'll be safe, because the Microsoft …

Software 31 Jul 2002, 17:48