3rd October 2002 Archive

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Tech giants back Fair Use bills

Chipzilla blesses Boucher

The IT industry's giants including Intel will rally behind a bill to be announced by Congressman Rick Boucher in Washington DC, tomorrow morning. Boucher's bill complements the first significant measure proposed to tame the Pigopolists, and protect Fair Use in the wake of the DMCA, which was published today by Congresswoman Zoe …

Mac Channel 3 Oct 2002, 01:40
AMD delivers Q3 sales warning

Misses targets

AMD has warned of much lower than expected revenues for the third quarter, which it blamed on the poor performance of the PC market. The company, Intel's biggest competitor, said that it expected revenues in the third quarter ending 29 September to be around USD500 million. The company had predicted a small "improvement" on …

Channel 3 Oct 2002, 09:37
Public WLAN access slips into St Albans

Eat, drink and surf

People visiting bars and restaurants in St Albans, Herts, will be able to hook up to wireless Net access for free thanks to a deal with reseller Wialess.com and 3com. Two premises have the gear so far and another should be up and running soon. The reasoning behind the scheme is simple enough; pubs offer premium TV and music …

Mobile 3 Oct 2002, 09:39
DoCoMo writes off $4.7bn overseas

Hutchison is very cross

A massive slide in the value of mobile carriers has forced NTT DoCoMo Inc to write JPY 573bn ($4.7bn) off the value of three of its major overseas investments. The move comes at a bad time for the Tokyo, Japan-based carrier as the costly consequences of its expansion into world markets comes at a time when it is being …

Business 3 Oct 2002, 09:50
Oracle CFO remains bullish

Stronger than competitors

Oracle Corp's chief financial officer Jeff Henley says that the database and e-business applications software company is in a good position to benefit from an upturn in economic conditions, despite continued concern about the likelihood of that recovery. When he announced the Redwood Shores, California-based company's …

Business 3 Oct 2002, 09:50
Fast advances advanced search

Less portal, more Google

Fast Search & Transfer ASA yesterday revealed enhancements to the advanced search part of its AllTheWeb.com web search engine, which allow users to refine their queries at a more granular level than before. The company has introduced a range of features, some of which represent Fast playing catch-up with its more …

e-Business 3 Oct 2002, 09:51
Array claims lead as SSL boosters play leapfrog

Compressed HTTP

Array Networks Inc yesterday unveiled the next iteration of its multiple-purpose web traffic management appliance, saying it handles secure sockets layer faster than rivals and can now also handle compressed HTTP, a feature it says is unique, Kevin Murphy writes. The Array TM (for Traffic Manager) replaces the Array 500 …

Data Networking 3 Oct 2002, 09:52
McData maxes out on director size

SAN storm

Size counts, but only so far, according to McData Corp. The hugely dominant supplier of high-end SAN switching gear launched its latest flagship director yesterday, offering more than double the number of ports offered by its previous largest device, or the hardware shipping from rival Brocade Communications Systems Inc or …

Storage 3 Oct 2002, 09:53
Software sales to outpace PC growth

Growth opportunities

While PC shipments are expected to begin a faltering recovery next year, packaged software sales will initiate a period of slow to moderate growth, according to IDC. The analyst said yesterday that sales of packaged software would enter a five-year period of growth in 2003, generating compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of …

Software 3 Oct 2002, 09:54
Congress reps launch fightback on DRM rights erosion

Fair rights to copy - are these people communists or what?

Two US Congress representatives are this week raising the standard of rebellion against the entertainment business' use of DRM and the DMCA to erode consumer rights, and hence to enhance their own revenues. Rep Zoe Lofgren of San Jose introduced her Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002 earlier this week, while Rick Boucher, …

Software 3 Oct 2002, 10:24
Elpida to swallow Mitsubishi DRAM biz

Last big Japanese player

Elpida will be the last major Japanese DRAM maker, after buying Mitsubishi Electric's DRAM business. First, it's taking over the sales operation and then - no date fixed yet, but it has to be before March, when the purchase is to complete - it's taking on the Mitsubishi products, intellectual property concerning manufacturing …

Channel 3 Oct 2002, 10:52
Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom prep big job cuts

Euro hordes

T-Com - Deutsche Telekom's fixed network division - is to shed an extra 22,000 jobs over the next couple of years as it embarks on a massive restructuring to improve efficiency and competitiveness. Deutsche Telekom's decision comes as the telecoms industry continues to struggle with the ongoing slump in the industry. In a …

Business 3 Oct 2002, 10:56
Cable modem users top 10m in US

Any excuse for a party

There are more than 10m cable broadband punters in the US, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). It claims some 75m households in the US have access to cable broadband services, with around two thirds of these owning a computer. "Surpassing 10 million high speed Internet customers is a …

Broadband 3 Oct 2002, 11:43
FBI names 20 most unwanted security flaws

Windows and *Nix

The FBI has teamed up with the SANS Institute to draw up a list of the worst 20 security vulnerabilities bedevilling Windows and *Nix systems. The list, now on its third year, serves as a general resource most specifically aimed at less experienced admins. It highlights the top 10 Windows and top 10 Unix issues in their …

Security 3 Oct 2002, 11:46
AOL surprised to be a Lindows partner

News to them

How might a small software company with big ambitions draw vast amounts of free advertising press coverage? Fans of the movie "The Mouse That Roared" know the answer to that one: get sued by software superpower Microsoft, of course. Lindows.com has been there and done that. How else might it generate a major-league buzz? How …

Software 3 Oct 2002, 13:46
Help! MS issues another critical security fix

Patch bonanza

Microsoft has released a patch to fix critical flaws within Windows Help Facility which could enable attackers to execute arbitrary code on a victim's PC. The HTML Help facility in Windows includes an ActiveX control which provides much of its functionality. One of the functions exposed via the control contains an unchecked …

Security 3 Oct 2002, 13:51
Windows servers in the data centre? IBM is working on it

Xeon MPs

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel IBM, Intel and Microsoft are teaming up to devise a Windows-based 32-bit x.86 server proposition for the Data center. IBM is point-man: it's sending out the press release and it refers to support from Intel and Microsoft for an enterprise server platform based around the Xeon …

Servers 3 Oct 2002, 16:20
Fujitsu takes the mainframe to Unix

Big SPARC boxes, big architecture

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) is cranking up the processor speeds with its new PRIMEPOWER SPARC-based servers. There are three new members of the PRIMEPOWER XA family, models 900, 1500 and 2500 and they scale up from 4 to 128 CPUs. They all run on Solaris 8 or 9, "an …

Servers 3 Oct 2002, 16:20
IFfy Web site lives again

Bankety bunk

If.com - the Halifax's Internet bank - is working again after going titsup for the last four or five days. Thankfully, normal service was restored last evening. So far so good. So, what went wrong? A spokeswoman told The Register: "Some specialist code caused problems with our user profile database which made the database …

e-Business 3 Oct 2002, 16:22
Voice ‘texting’ – the killer GPRS app from the -erk- USA?

Still, it'll no doubt work much better on 'proper' networks

Mobile phone technologies that have been pioneered in the US are about to be deployed in Europe? Surely some mistake... But from what Sonim Technologies CEO John Burns had to say to The Register earlier today, it looks both possible and plausible. Sonim is pushing a system called Push to Talk, which in essence allows your phone …

Personal 3 Oct 2002, 16:34
BT extends cheap install promo for no frills broadband

Next!

BT Retail is to extend its half price line activation offer until the end of the year, the monster telco announced today. It means anyone signing up for its no frills BT Broadband service (that's the wires only one with no email, content etc) can get their line activated for £30 instead of £60. The promo runs until December 31 …

Broadband 3 Oct 2002, 16:34
Junk mail evades Hotmail filter

It's hard to get rid of unwanted staff@

Hotmail users are irked at a loophole in Hotmail's anti-spam technology which makes them unable to block messages from certain senders. Spammers sending unsolicited emails from staff@somwhere.something are sailing past defences because addresses prefixed by staff can't be blocked by Hotmail's filter, Reg readers inform us. It' …

Media 3 Oct 2002, 16:39
Chinese chips, moonlighting heirs, 3G inflation

Letters A postbag that's green and Red all over

"I am not Henry Raddick!" - HRH Prince of Wales Prince Charles' denial fails to quash Raddick theory More speculation on the moonlighting activities of the heir to the throne. Is HRH the real HR? Despite an official denial, the theory continues to gain ground. Dave Benyon offers Raddick's review of Beyond Charles and Diana …

Letters 3 Oct 2002, 17:41
The old DEC, the New HP, the price of The Right Thing

Letters Your say

: The last thing I wanted to do in the story titled HP reprising DEC's fate: Microsoft VAR? was to sentimentalize Digital, or suggest it had a divine right to exist, no matter what mistakes it made. As Len Dobrowsky points out:- "Don't go deifying Ken Olson. Digital was a great company from its start until about 1972, but then …

Letters 3 Oct 2002, 17:55
RIM keyboard patent harmful only to RIM – experts

Lawsuits in Motion, cont'd

RIM's incendiary patent for a wireless device keyboard may explode harmlessly, after all: killing only the bomb-maker. That's the verdict of m'learned Register readers. The patent claim, riddled with typos and non-sequiters, has already been widely reviled, but if successful could blow a chill through the handheld …

Personal 3 Oct 2002, 19:09
Real cure for the vileness of Visual Basic

GOTO Win32

More choice for BASIC afficionados: REAL Software announced on Tuesday that it would port its highly-regarded Mac development platform to Windows. Since 1999 REALbasic been able to create Win32 binaries, but once it will run natively on Windows too, so PC developers will be able to target Macintosh users too. And have an excuse …

Software 3 Oct 2002, 20:43
Fired! Veritas CFO lies on CV

The humiliation...

The Register has a new Enterprise Storage Channel Veritas is Latin for 'truth', a commodity in short supply in the resume of Kenneth Lonchar, chief financial officer of the storage software firm called Veritas. Mr. Lonchar is - ahem - resigning after he was caught lying about an MBA from Stanford Business School. He said he …

Storage 3 Oct 2002, 21:01
Boucher's DMCRA sandbags Pigopolists, DMCA

Sun, Gateway, Intel, Verizon back Fair Use leg

As we reported yesterday, some of the biggest names in IT names were on hand to support a legislation from Rep. Rick Boucher unveiled this morning. Boucher vowed to strike out the repressive portions of the DMCA, and "directs the Federal Trade Commission to undertake a rulemaking to assure adequate notice to the public of any …

Personal 3 Oct 2002, 22:01