13th August 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

High-class, low-bloat office suite goes open source

Cruft-free zone

"They just don't like to do the boring stuff for the stupid people!" said Bruce Sterling recently, satirising the reluctance of open source hackers to add the nice usability finishings non-hackers expect. "That's just not in the job description! It's not even a job." Well, here's some good news - we think. The powers behind …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 01:08
PGP, GPG defeated

Not broken, just beaten

OpenPGP and GnuPG are susceptible to a chosen-cyphertext attack which would allow an adversary capable of intercepting an encrypted message to use the intended recipient as an unwitting 'decryption oracle', researchers Kahil Jallad, Jonathan Katz and Bruce Schneier report in a recent paper. In a nutshell, Jane sends an …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 07:27
The original anti-piracy hack

Bizarre British case offers precedent

Hey, all you Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act purveyors! I have a can't-miss technology development plan for you. Buried deep in the stacks of ancient cyber-history, it is called the tale of the AIDS Information Trojan horse. It goes like this: in December 1989, thousands of floppies containing what claimed to be an …

Security 13 Aug 2002, 07:48
Win2k SP3 – how to uninstall MS apps, or not…

Now you see it, oops, there it is again

Microsoft yesterday began spinning the proposed MS-DoJ antitrust settlement, telling reporters it introduced new, uniform licensing terms for its top 20 OEMs on August 1st (the day Licensing 6 kicked in), and that it would be disclosing details of 272 APIs (so there's an official API counter somewhere in Redmond) and offering …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 09:29
Godzilla attacks harmless blogger

Literally

The Davezilla blog site is under threat from humourless owners of the Godzilla trademark, Toho Ltd., for using the venerable *zilla name and having a goofy cartoon lizard in their graphics. Among the more absurd claims against the blogger is the likelihood of consumer confusion over his "reptile-like character." "Please be …

Music and Media 13 Aug 2002, 09:32
TogetherSoft in, Borland out, in WebGain deal

How suite it is

A buyer has emerged for WebGain's Inc's Java development environment, but uncertainty still surrounds the suite's future, Gavin Clarke writes. TogetherSoft Corp has snapped-up the WebGain's Studio integrated development environment (IDE) from San Jose, California-based WebGain in a deal completed Friday. The price was not …

e-Business 13 Aug 2002, 09:49
ISPA wins changes to EU ecommerce directive

Splendid

The UK's Internet industry is claiming a partial victory after securing key amendments to new ecommerce regulations coming into force later this month. ISPA - the trade association for Internet Service Providers in the UK - lobbied Government in an attempt to remove certain ambiguities contained in earlier drafts of the …

Music and Media 13 Aug 2002, 09:52
e-Minister talks up wireless

Interview Timms notes rural broadband clamour

Guy Kewney, veteran IT hack, has set up The Mobile Campaign to lobbying for better Wi-Fi coverage in the UK. Also he wants the London Underground railway opened up to wireless access. That's not something that ever bothered us, and if wireless means voice, as well as data, we'll be on the other side of the barricades. Here …

Mobile 13 Aug 2002, 10:22
MS recruits for Palladium microkernel and/or DRM platform

So is it cool and elegant, DRM, or both?

Microsoft's efforts to disassociate Palladium from DRM seem to have hit their first speed bump. Some voices within the company (and we currently believe these voices to be right and sensible) hold the view that Palladium has to be about users' security if it's to stand any chance of winning hearts and minds, and that associating …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 10:23
Apple mulls EU recycling liabilities

How contingent? How substantial?

Apple Computer could face 'substantial' recycling liability costs, following the introduction of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive-enacting legislation in EU member countries. In its most recent 10-Q SEC filing, covering the quarter ended June 29, 2002, the company notes: The parliament of the European …

Mac Channel 13 Aug 2002, 10:59
KDE smokes MS in SSL bug fix

Hardly a surprise

A serious flaw in SSL certificate handling reported by Mike Benham, affecting IE and Konqueror, has already been fixed by KDE's Waldo Bastian, we're pleased to mention. The fix is available only in the CVS (Concurrent Versions System) tree at the moment, but KDE reckons it will have patched binaries available for its 3.0.3 …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 11:12
Germany: deep linking lunacy continues

Guest Editorial New bill causes even more confusion

Mainpost, a publishing subsidiary of German group Verlagsruppe Holtzbrinck, is sueing NewsClub.de, a news headline aggregator, over deep linking. It claims that NewsClub.de infringes German copyright law by doing this. Here is NewsClub's argument. The German Government has released a new draft law for regulating copyright in …

Music and Media 13 Aug 2002, 12:24
CSA computer system '£50m over budget'

Another EDS/Govt special

A computer system designed to speed up the operation of the Child Support Agency is months behind schedule and £50 million over budget. The £200 million project was due to go live in April 2003, but has now been delayed till next summer due to unspecified "technical problems", people working on the project told the BBC. EDS …

Business 13 Aug 2002, 12:26
Berkeley student fleeces UK in eBay scam

Flees to Turkey. International, or what?

Police are trying to trace a Turkish man concerning an alleged fraud carried out on online auction outfit eBay. Mehmet Onay - who until recently was studying business administration at University of California Berkeley - is thought to have conned people out of an estimated £125,000 ($190,000). Onay ran a business - Berkeley …

Music and Media 13 Aug 2002, 12:32
Sun cool on AMD's Hammer

Too tasty?

Last week Sun praised AMD's 64-bit extensions lavishly. AMD was the hottest date in town, and Sun had her number! But yesterday, when we asked if Sun might extend its new line of x86 computers to encompass AMD's Opteron, passions had cooled. "There's no point confusing the public," said Sun's "chief competitive officer" (more …

Channel 13 Aug 2002, 13:15
Norwegians scramble for tech savvy DeCSS judge

Trial delayed until December

The trial of the teenage Norwegian programmer accused of creating the DeCSS "piracy tool" has been delayed until December 9 this year. Jon Johansen, who created DeCSS as a utitlity to play DVDs on PCs running on Linux, was due to stand trial for creating the DeCSS programme this summer. But the trial has been put back so that a …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 13:41
Xbox Live set for November 15 launch

MS pins console dreams on the Internet

The Xbox finally goes online on November 15 this year, exactly one year after the original launch of the console. But only in the US, where Microsoft rolls out its Xbox Live service, along with six online-enabled software titles. The Xbox Live Starter Kit will be sold for $50 (about £33, although no European details have yet …

Personal 13 Aug 2002, 14:21
Apple goes SMP for all pro-Macs

Clean sweep

Apple has added faster memory across its professional PowerMac range, cranked the top of the range to 1.2Ghz, and made dual processors the default across the line. That puts some ClearBlueWater™ between the iMac range and the professional range, the two had grown so similar in capabilities that the biggest difference appeared …

Mac Channel 13 Aug 2002, 14:47
My Life as a Teenage Dotcom Millionaire

Auto-confessional press release

Today, We received a press release concerning one time "teenage dotcom millionaire" Benjamin Cohen. We thought we'd share it with you. Reproduced in full below. The Last of the Teenage Dot.Com Millionaires is to Disappear... He's turning twenty Benjamin Cohen has been at the forefront of one of the most innovative industries …

Music and Media 13 Aug 2002, 14:55
BT enlists sponsors for rural ADSL trial

'Community Broadband'

BT Wholesale is to run a series of trials beginning this autumn which could pave the way to bring ADSL to rural Britain. The "Community Broadband Concept" trial adopts new technology and a fresh business approach in a bid to deliver ADSL to areas where it is currently deemed not commercially viable to upgrade an exchange. The …

Telecoms 13 Aug 2002, 16:51
Hollywood's private war for social control

Total world domination or bust

A July 25 letter sent to Attorney General John Ashcroft by 19 American legislators asked him to devote more Justice Department resources in the fight against peer-to-peer networks and users swapping digital media without permission. Forget the fact that the FBI is neck-deep in an internal crisis of confidence and competence, …

Telecoms 13 Aug 2002, 16:52
Tele2 UK Ltd becomes Liberty Broadband

Name change

Fixed wireless broadband operator Tele2 UK Ltd has changed its name to Liberty Broadband Ltd. In June, there were concerns about the future of the broadband provider, following major restructuring at the company. Jobs were lost and the company also decided to close its doors on new customers, concentrating instead on serving …

Telecoms 13 Aug 2002, 16:52
Bring on the clones: Sun's Linux emerges

Wearing a Red Hat

Sun's much feared, much vaunted Linux distro is now public, and users anticipating a revolutionary advance might be disappointed. It's essentially Red Hat Advanced Server - which Sun took a few jibes at yesterday. In Sun's words it's "highly compatible" with Red Hat AS. A reader claims that it's the result of a co-operative …

Software 13 Aug 2002, 17:37