1st October 2002 Archive

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Don't buy computer games for a week

Consumer boycott call

Consumers should avoid buying computer games in the run-up to Christmas as part of a campaign to secure cheaper prices for games. A group of gamers has set up "Don't buy a videogame week", which runs from 1 - 8 December, to protest at what they describe as the "rip off" cost of games. And they hope that if enough people take …

Personal 1 Oct 2002, 07:26
BTo confirms plan to ditch unmetered Anytime service

Just like we said

BTopenworld has confirmed that it is to cap its AnyTime and SurfTime unmetered dial-up services. From November 1 AnyTime customers will only be allowed to stay online for 150 hours a month before they have to start paying Internet call charges. SurfTime customers get 120 hour quota. The changes will affect around 900,000 of …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2002, 07:27
Overture wins MSN deal extension

Smaller slice of pie?

Overture Services Inc, which sees its shares jump around whenever a new deal is announced in the online paid-search advertising market, yesterday said it has renewed its distribution deal with Microsoft Corp's MSN service. Its share price increased 7% on the news. There had been a question mark over the relationship since …

e-Business 1 Oct 2002, 07:49
Microsoft buys Liquid Audio DRM patents

'Long term vision for DRM technology'

Microsoft Corp has got its hands on a suite of digital rights management patents, but one of the companies most likely to be concerned by the move talked down its importance. Microsoft said it is to pay $7m for Liquid Audio Inc's US an international patents, believed to be around 20 or over in number. Liquid, which is …

e-Business 1 Oct 2002, 07:49
HP fires patent lawsuit, EMC fires back

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel Out of the blue

The lawyers have been called out once again in the storage industry, this time on behalf of Hewlett Packard Co and EMC Corp which traded patent-infringement lawsuits yesterday. HP threw the first punch, filing a surprise lawsuit yesterday morning that named seven patents from the mid-nineties that it alleges EMC has …

Storage 1 Oct 2002, 07:50
Clustered Linux shines on commercial TPC-C test

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel Weighing scales

Hewlett Packard Co, which has become perhaps the staunchest supporter of the TPC-C online transaction processing benchmark, is the first vendor out the door testing Oracle Corp's 9I Real Application Clusters (RACs) clustering software, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. RACs, unlike the generic clustering technology used in …

Servers 1 Oct 2002, 07:50
Yukon take Microsoft back to developer roots

Simplification

Features that anticipate and complete a developer's next programming move are slated for Microsoft Corp's Visual Studio.NET Yukon, billed by one executive as a "return to the company's roots", Gavin Clarke writes. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft told ComputerWire Visual Studio.NET Yukon would "dramatically simplify" …

Software 1 Oct 2002, 07:51
Red Hat Linux 8.0 gets mixed reception

Bluecurve

Red Hat Inc has announced the release of its latest attack on the desktop operating system market, but the release of Red Hat Linux 8.0 has proved controversial not only for its potential to impact Microsoft Corp's desktop dominance. Included in Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat's latest version of the desktop …

Software 1 Oct 2002, 07:51
SAP ushers SuSE into World League

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel Enterprise Play

SAP has signed up SuSE Linux, the German-based Linux distro firm, as a global technology partner for MySAP.com deployments. SuSE is pleased as punch with the endorsement - this is the first Linux distro to gain SAP Global Technology Partner status. With SAP's backing, SuSE could present a more credible challenge to Red Hat, the …

Hardware 1 Oct 2002, 09:23
BT sets up consumer mobile phone biz (again)

'Not mass market'

BT has confirmed that it is once again to provide a mobile phone service to consumers, less than a year after flogging its mobile division. Called Mobile Sense, individual accounts will be managed and run entirely from BT's Web site, bt.com. By accessing the site punters can decide which of 12 handsets they want and chose a …

Mobile 1 Oct 2002, 09:27
“I am not Henry Raddick” – HRH Prince of Wales

Official: Highgrove disowns Amazon.com epistles

A spokesman for Prince Charles has scotched rumours that the heir to the British throne is the real author of a series of mysterious Amazon.com reader reviews that have perplexed and entertained Internet users over the past eighteen months. After the leak of two letters from the Prince to the Lord Chancellor, Charles' devotion …

Bootnotes 1 Oct 2002, 09:49
Tyan puts dual Xeons on ATX Tiger

Format

Tyan today claimed a first - a dual Xeon mobo, shoehorned into the bog-standard ATX board form factor. The upshot means that system builders and OEMs can build smaller servers, maybe cheaper. The Tyan Tiger i7500 incorporates Intel's E7500 chipset - hence the name. And it's got plenty of server-friendly features - dual …

Servers 1 Oct 2002, 10:05
Creative sticks with Nvidia for Christmas (probably longer)

'Best silicon for the consumer market'

In August this year Creative Technology conducted an internal review of the graphics chips players, examining roadmaps, benchmarking the products etc. The outcome, revealed in London yesterday, is that the PC peripherals player is sticking with Nvidia, certainly until Christmas. For "Nvidia has the best silicon for the consumer …

Channel 1 Oct 2002, 11:00
AOL, Freeserve, Tiscali stick with unmetered Net access

No plans to follow BTo's capping lead

The UK's leading ISPs all say they have no plans to follow BTopenworld's lead and cap their 24/7 flat-rate dial-up services. Yesterday's move by BTopenworld to introduce a 150-hour a month cap on its unmetered AnyTime service is a major change for ISPs to consider. No doubt the industry will watch with interest to see if there …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2002, 11:16
Danger Inc snags all-you-can-eat deal for Hiptop debut

A little gem

T-Mobile's Sidekick communicator rolls into US stores today, and Danger Inc has ensured the device will make a splash by snaring the first all-you-can-eat data deal on this side of the Atlantic. Tariffs for the new generation of always-on, packet data digital services from cellphone companies, described as 2.5G (or if you're …

Mobile 1 Oct 2002, 11:27
Freeserve network probs in Midlands and South

Working on it now

Freeserve is busy trying to restore service to customers in the Midlands and the South of England after customers reported that accessing Web sites was proving impossible. The problem, which affects users of its AnyTime dial-up service, means that many Web pages load slowly - if at all. Customers have told The Register that the …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2002, 12:01
Mobile phone Java risks ‘minimal’

There's a relief

Is wireless Java at risk from malicious code attack? The answer appears to be no - for vanilla Java 2 Micro Edition (Java 2 ME). But vendors' proprietary extensions are more problematic, according to Markus Schmall, of T-Mobile. He recently conducted a study of the security of Java 2 ME, using tests on a Siemens SL45 phone. …

Security 1 Oct 2002, 12:32
Porn diallers and Trojans – the new face of malicious code

Muck Spreading

The profile of malicious code on the Internet is changing with porn diallers and Trojan horses becoming more serious problems. A study on the malicious code blocked last year by managed services firm MessageLabs finds the spread of Trojan horses is becoming more organised. From recording Trojans sporadically, MessageLabs is now …

Anti-Virus 1 Oct 2002, 12:32
America's National Cybersecurity Strategy

Same stuff, different Administration

Yesterday the White House released its long-awaited "National Strategy To Secure Cyberspace." This high-level blueprint document (black/white or color), in-development for over a year by Richard Clarke's Cybersecurity team, is the latest US government plan to address the many issues associated with the Information Age. The …

Security 1 Oct 2002, 13:10
BTo to cap ADSL?

Let's look through the...round window

The Register has received a number of emails from worried customers of BTopenworld asking if the ISP's decision to cap its unmetered dial-up service could have an impact on its broadband service. It seems they're concerned that if BTopenworld caps its dial-up service, what is stopping it from capping its broadband service? The …

Telecoms 1 Oct 2002, 14:49
Crucial starts flogging graphics cards in Europe

ATI boards

Crucial Technology is to start selling two ATI graphics cards through its European web site with immediate effect (Crucial US has been selling graphics cards for a wee while - of course). Two versions are available. First up is a performance -game card - the Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro, retailing at 237.59 of our "British pounds", …

Personal 1 Oct 2002, 15:01
BTo emails service cap sob story

Snot fair

BTopenworld has begun sending out bleeding heart emails to its punters informing them that its is capping its flat-fee AnyTime package. It seems some naughty people use the service too much and this isn't "fair", says BTo. "We're making some changes to your service in order to maintain the quality and reliability of Internet …

Music and Media 1 Oct 2002, 19:14
On AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 333 FSB, nForce2 and VIA

Gametastic!

Nvidia has confirmed that the nForce 2 graphics chipset is in production, timing the announcement to coincide with today's big CPU launch, the AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with the 333 frontside bus (FSB). A data throughput improvement of "up to 25 per cent" is promised by AMD for its new CPU. nForce 2-powered mobos should be heading …

Channel 1 Oct 2002, 20:00