12th September 2002 Archive

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PGP creator joins UK privacy watchdog

Hands across the ocean

Cyber rights luminary Phil Zimmermann has joined the advisory council of influential UK privacy watchdogs the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR). Zimmermann, best known as the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) who earned widespread acclaim for facing downs threats from the Feds when he exported his famous …

Music and Media 12 Sep 2002, 07:09
Open Source .NET supports Office challenge

Mono rails

A desktop challenger to Microsoft Corp's Office has adopted an open source version of .NET, potentially increasing its appeal to a cross-section of developers, Gavin Clarke writes. The KDE Project has emerged as possibly the first real-world adopter of Project Mono for application development. Mono is an open source …

Software 12 Sep 2002, 07:27
Intel rubbishes AMD's hybrid plans

EasyPeasy. Not

The head of Intel Corp's server chip division rubbished AMD's 32/64-bit hybrid processor proposition yesterday, saying that if it's such a good idea, why hasn't anyone done it before? Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's enterprise, speaking after a keynote speech at the vendor's developer …

Servers 12 Sep 2002, 07:27
Liberty president's challenge: to remain ‘relevant’

Sounds like midlife crisis

The next president of the Liberty Alliance Project must ensure security specifications are produced in a timely fashion while the organization remains relevant to the needs of nearly 100 members. Gavin Clarke writes> That's according to presidential candidate, and acting president, Michael Barrett, who this week told …

e-Business 12 Sep 2002, 07:28
CMGI cuts ties with past, sells NaviSite

ClearBlue purchase

CMGI Inc yesterday said it has sold the second of its firstborn, NaviSite Inc, to ClearBlue Technologies Inc, for an undisclosed amount. Earlier this week, CMGI divested its interest in Engage Inc, which CMGI formed at the same time as NaviSite in 1997. ClearBlue has acquired HP Financial Services' 3.2 million NaviSite …

Business 12 Sep 2002, 07:28
Bon and MobilCom's future hanging by same thread

Unravelling

The futures of MobilCom AG and France Telecom SA's chief executive, Michel Bon, appeared to be closely tied together yesterday, as speculation mounted that the embattled head of Europe's number two telco would sacrifice MobilCom to save his job. According to the French daily Le Figaro on Tuesday, Bon is begging his …

Mobile 12 Sep 2002, 07:28
Oracle and Microsoft square up for Fall CRM showdown

As you do

NetLedger Inc, an Oracle Corp off-shoot and maker of the Oracle Small Business Suite, plans to launch NetCRM this fall, putting the Oracle/NetLedger combo firmly in competition with Microsoft Corp's CRM plans and its interest in seizing a share of the small- to mid-cap market for business applications. San Mateo, …

e-Business 12 Sep 2002, 07:29
BT to trial 2Mbit/s SDSL, rollout next year

Whatever takes your fancy

BT is to begin trials of a high-speed SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) service next month, ahead of a planned full roll-out from the middle of next year. The pilot - which will test two SDSL products giving speeds of up to 2Mbit/s both upstream and downstream over a copper line - should be a hit with companies keen to …

Telecoms 12 Sep 2002, 07:41
BT boss talks up broadband

'Next big thing'

The CEO of BT is not one for nostalgia. Any talk of BT's dismal track record on broadband before he joined the company earlier this year is likely to get a prickly response from Ben Verwaayen. "I am amazed by the energy in trying to find out who is to blame instead of 'what can we do?'," he told journalists yesterday in his …

Telecoms 12 Sep 2002, 07:41
Greek court throws out gaming ban case

Starts making sense

A Greek court has ruled that the country's new ban on electronic games is unconstitutional and throwing out a case brought against two net café owners who were charged with allowing their customers to play Counter-Strike and online chess. The two proprietors, along with an employee, could have faced a three month jail sentence …

Music and Media 12 Sep 2002, 07:45
MS intros ultra-liberal ‘write your own licence’ scheme

Don't like ours? Cool, we'll use yours instead then

When it comes to Microsoft's new-look licensing agreements it's not all downhill, apparently. The texts you have to agree to in order to install Microsoft stuff have been getting tougher, but hey, if you don't like it you can just write your own and sign that instead. No, really! Take a look here, where down at the bottom you …

Software 12 Sep 2002, 10:18
Anti-email snooping proposals ‘stupid’

Recipe for litigation?

Bob Jones - the boss of email filtering and blocking outfit Equiinet - describes proposed legislation to outlaw bosses snooping on employees' email as "stupid and ill-considered". Last week Tory MP Michael Fabricant announced he was looking to introduce a Bill that would stop employers from snooping on employees' email. The …

Hardware 12 Sep 2002, 10:49
Dabs.com and Time bow to OFT pressure

Stop using misleading ads

Dabs.com and Time Computers have agreed to stop using misleading ads for interest-free credit. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) won the assurances as part of an ongoing campaign to crack down on companies it believes could be in breach of consumer law. In particular, it was unhappy with Time Computers and Dabs.com which were …

Personal 12 Sep 2002, 15:26
P2P swamps broadband networks

Cap doesn't fit...

Peer-to-peer file sharing applications are taxing the finances of broadband operators, who are struggling to manage the off-network traffic. That's the main conclusion of a study, titled The effects of P2P on service provider networks, by network management firm Sandvine, which warns P2P activity "threatens to swamp" broadband …

Telecoms 12 Sep 2002, 15:49
Levi's trousers protect your testicles

No flies on them

Levi Strauss is to introduce a new range of slacks with mobile phone anti-radiation pockets. The trousers will be introduced next year in the UK under the company's "Dockers" brand and could cost as much as £100 a pair. The phone pockets are lined with a special material, which tailors say will prevent radiation from phones …

Bootnotes 12 Sep 2002, 15:54
BA signs up Dell for one-stop IT products shop

Light on details

Dell has won a three-year product supply deal from BA. We assume it's big - the contract is expected to save BA "significant amounts financially", as the airline moves to Dell as a standard platform. But Dell won't tell us how much the deal is worth. We also infer from the very bland press release that Dell is doing a lot of …

Business 12 Sep 2002, 16:14
Meet the one shop stop security appliance

Drive down hardware firewall prices

Security appliance vendor ServGate aims to drive down the price of Gigabit speed firewalls by using network processors rather than ASIC-based or software firewalls in its line of firewall gateways. Ease of deployment and the (theoretically) enhanced security that comes from a hardware-based approach is causing a shift in the …

Security 12 Sep 2002, 16:16
Outlook Express becomes attack platform, of sorts

Lookout for fragmented messages attack

There's a pleasing symmetry about the latest security issue involving Outlook Express. For the last couple of years Outlook (Lookout) Express failings have been exploited to infect users. So why not take advantage of its features to send viruses in such a way that they might fool detection by AV and content checking tools? …

Security 12 Sep 2002, 18:31
Google China crisis over

So it seems

It seems the great Google blocking episode in China could be at an end. The Register has received a couple of emails from readers in China saying they can now access the search engine after it disappeared from view almost two weeks ago. A spokeswoman for Google told us: "We have also received a number of emails from people who …

Music and Media 12 Sep 2002, 18:35
NVidia, MS Xbox squabble drags on

No console consolation

Nvidia tells us it has several business relationships with Microsoft which are warm and productive, but the one involving Xbox graphics chipsets is beginning to resemble a divorced couple squabbling over visitation rights. Nvidia continues to supply The Beast with the graphics it needs for the games console, but the two can't …

Channel 12 Sep 2002, 18:37
Segway on track: ignore Amazon goof

Small people, pets breath again

Segway tells us that Amazon.com customers interesting in buying one of its Human Transporters should disregard an email from the e-commerce giant today saying that the transporter won't be available any time soon. "We've recently learned from our supplier that the item you requested to be notified about, Segway Human …

Personal 12 Sep 2002, 22:46