22nd August 2002 Archive

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Transmeta WinCEs

Embeds with Microsoft

Transmeta has announced that it's entering the Windows CE business. Just as everyone else is leaving, you might jest. But the embattled chip start-up hopes that this avenue will give it a new lease of life. Transmeta has exhausted its financiers' patience, and has been told to get profitable by Q4 2003. That's seen 40 per cent …

Channel 22 Aug 2002, 00:04
VIA, TSMC united in 10-strong WCDMA alliance

Next gen SoCs for handsets

A group of 10 Taiwanese electronics manufacturers has formed an alliance to share what are expected to be high costs, and considerable risk, in the development of system-on-chip device specifications for use in next-generation WCDMA handsets. According to Taiwan's Commercial Times, motherboard giant VIA Technologies Inc, …

Channel 22 Aug 2002, 07:12
Eclipse project gains netCOBOL for Linux

'Mandated,' says Fujitsu

The IBM-backed Eclipse open source project consolidated its presence on the Linux platform yesterday. Fujitsu Software Corp announced availability of its NetCOBOL product for Linux, based on the open source application development tools framework. NetCOBOL for Linux is available at an introductory price of $999 from the …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 07:14
T-Mobile to go global with WLAN hotspots

And its chums at Starbucks

T-Mobile, the Deutsche Telekom AG wireless unit which picked up the former Mobilestar Networks Inc's US wireless hotspot network when it bought VoiceStream Wireless last year, yesterday dusted off its windfall investment, and announced plans to go global with its partners Starbucks Coffee Co and Hewlett-Packard Co. Shortly …

Data Networking 22 Aug 2002, 07:18
TurboLinux distro business sold, PowerCockpit retained

Becomes division of SRA

Turbolinux Inc has become the latest company to exit the Linux business after selling its Linux distribution interests to Japanese software house Software Research Associates Inc. The company has retained its proprietary PowerCockpit server provisioning software, around which it is planning to launch a new company name and …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 07:22
RIAA suspends DMCA lawsuit as listen4ever ducks

Tanks back to fringes of ISPs' lawns

The copyright infringement lawsuit filed against four major US backbone ISPs by the Recording Industry Association of America has been dropped, the RIAA said yesterday, after a controversial music download site went offline of its own accord. "In an apparent response to the extensive anti-piracy efforts of the …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 07:25
Opera poised for beta of version 7 heavy duty rewrite

RSN...

'Other' browser developer Opera Software intends to go to first beta of its new version, Opera 7, soon, with soon probably meaning weeks rather than days or months. Bugs permitting, naturally. The new browser, which represents an extensive rewrite, will be out first on the Windows platform, but according to a spokesman this has …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 09:16
Linux, StarOffice in frame for 45k Oz desktop deal?

Telstra considers heaving MS...

Australian telco Telstra is looking at Linux as a possible new standard platform for its 45,000 desktops, according to a report by ITnews Australia. Telstra at the moment is just considering Linux and Sun StarOffice as possible candidates for its corporate standard, but a deal of this size would be a major boost for open source …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 09:32
Bark twice for bear – hunting dogs get mobile phones

Next, MMS?

Some while back, when the times were still good, Nokia was happily predicting that the reason mobile phone sales would continue to grow was because people would have several apiece. You know, the cool one for clubbing, the chunkier one for email, the waterproof one for scuba-diving... Well that all turns out to be far too …

Personal 22 Aug 2002, 10:00
BT sets more broadband trigger levels

Deep pockets, short arms

BT Wholesale announced the broadband registration trigger levels for a further 169 exchanges yesterday, giving hope to yet more people that one day, maybe, just maybe, they too could get affordable broadband in their area. The telco claims the launch of its broadband registration system gives people a "direct influence on [its …

Broadband 22 Aug 2002, 10:02
Big-media Axis of Evil on the march

RIAA assaults on several fronts

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) may have temporarily abandoned plans to censor Web sites available to American surfers, but they've still got their shock troops on heightened alert. Recently they've attempted to force Verizon.net to identify a customer they claim is making music files available for download. …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 11:38
BT coughs to AOL broadband slowdown

Ahem

Last week AOL UK got a right old lashing following customer complaints about its broadband service. It was dire, said punters, even slower than slow old dial-up Net access. And this from a service that costs a wallet-denting £34.99 a month. At the time AOL UK apologised for the fact that punters were experiencing a "slower …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 12:03
Punters unaware of ISDN-to-ADSL conversion

Ho hum

Sheffield-based ISP PlusNet claims ISDN users are still under the impression that they have to pay through the nose to upgrade to broadband. Earlier this year BT introduced a scheme that enabled ISDN users to upgrade to ADSL for less than £30. If for any technical reason the conversion fails, BT will convert the line back to …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 12:05
Small and rack servers shine through market gloom

But overall sales slip 4% in EMEA

Server shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) continued to decline in the last three months, with sales down by four per cent in Q2 2002. That's the somewhat depressing conclusion of the latest study by analysts Gartner Dataquest, who estimate total server sales in EMEA during Q2 2002 totalled an estimated 308,000 …

Business 22 Aug 2002, 12:09
BT Broadband in summer promo

Small carrot

BT Broadband - the stripped down, frill-less (or is that "thrill-less") high-speed Net access service from BT Retail - is now a smidge cheaper. BT Retail has halved the activation charge for the service to £30 as part of a late summer promo. The catch is that if you want to take up this offer you need to order it before …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 14:18
CacheFlow dons Blue Coat moniker

Hi-Di-Hi to security repositioning

CacheFlow, which made its name supplying hardware based caching devices to telcos, yesterday announced a change of name and a change of emphasis to security supplier. Blue Coat Systems, as the company will henceforth be known, has repositioned itself as a supplier of security appliances designed to combat the increasing number …

Data Networking 22 Aug 2002, 14:22
MSN cuddles up to OS X

Snaring newbies

Microsoft will produce a version of its MSN browser client for Mac OS X next year, the company said yesterday. The client is bundled with the MSN ISP, or available by subscription. Microsoft is probably looking in two directions here: Apple has decided to make its iTools and .mac email a $100-per-year subscription service, …

Media 22 Aug 2002, 14:26
UK's DMCA: there ain't no sanity clause

Patent Office "criminalises" netizens, researchers

The UK's take on the "European DMCA" - the European Copyright Directive - will make criminals out of ordinary computer users, according to a new critique by the UK Campaign for Digital Rights. And it will also fail to protect researchers, says Julian Midgley who penned the report. "As it stands, the UK implementation of the …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 14:27
Swedish government mulls Linux

Penguins go Nordic

Despite signing a recent deal with Microsoft, Sweden has become the latest country to investigate the benefits of free software. In a report entitled "The state wants to save money" in Swedish magazine Ny Teknik, the Statskontoret, (Swedish Agency for Public Management) is setting up a working group to investigate the value …

Software 22 Aug 2002, 14:31
BBC to host Bill Thompson vs John Perry Barlow

Cambridge vs Cattle Ranch

Bill Thompson, whose Damn The Constitution polemic we published here , will take to the air on BBC's flagship Newsnight current affairs slot tonight. (10:30PM BST, 2:30PM Pacific Time) He'll be joined by libertarian icon John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. You don't have to have a TV to watch …

Business 22 Aug 2002, 14:35
Admins slow to tackle SSL security risks

SSL servers last in line for Apache fix - Netcraft

Web admins are faster at fixing flaws to conventional Web servers than SSL servers, figures from Netcraft latest Web site survey suggest. The study, released this Tuesday, found almost half of the 22 million Apache HTTP sites scrutinised are running Apache/1.3.26, whilst only around a quarter of the Apache SSL sites are running …

Security 22 Aug 2002, 17:58
Worm spreads through KaZaA network, again

Don't download Duload

Virus watchers have discovered the latest in a line of viruses targeted at file sharing networks. The Duload worm is spreading across the KaZaA file-exchange network, antivirus firm Kaspersky Labs warns today based on reports of infections from Italian internet users. Duload appears as a Windows executable written in Visual …

Security 22 Aug 2002, 17:59
Chip sector releases mixed figures

Sorry to hear that

The semiconductor sector received mixed news on Wednesday. Sales of equipment used to make chips were down again, but orders were up. Figures from industry bodies in Japan and North America showed that the sector has yet to make its long-awaited recovery, but indications for its longer-term future are positive. According to …

Channel 22 Aug 2002, 18:01
A Stuckist Net – you want in

Letters Somehow

Register readers are dreamers - but not schemers. That's the conclusion from your response to our story, The Stuckist Net - what is your post-Palladium future? - asking how a non-Palladium world might be sustained if the biggest names in the computer industry continue to capitulate to . We suggested that in India and China are …

Letters 22 Aug 2002, 18:24