14th October 2002 Archive

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CIO survey gloomy on IT upturn prospects

Not much hope for 2003

There is not even a glimmer of hope that IT budgets will grow next year, latest research from Merrill Lynch & Co Inc has confirmed, with two-thirds of European business CIOs polled in a survey of technology spending forecasts expecting their budgets to be flat or down in 2003 compared with 2002. Half of all the 300 …

Business 14 Oct 2002, 06:52
Check Point claims victory in Firewall/VPN tests

Sponsorship works...

Tests of three market-leading firewall/virtual private networking devices by the engineer calibre testing outfit The Tolly Group puts Check Point Technologies Ltd's VPN-1 Pro ahead of rival systems from Cisco Systems Inc and NetScreen Technologies Inc. The tests rated the performance of the $16,000 Check Point product as …

Security 14 Oct 2002, 06:58
MS seeks ISO approval for C Sharp, CLI

Houston, we have an image problem...

Microsoft Corp's C Sharp programming language and the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) has been passed to the International Standards Organization (ISO) for ratification. C Sharp and CLI were handed over by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), which ratified the technologies in December 2001. C Sharp …

Software 14 Oct 2002, 07:02
Server budgets down, but Intel sales go up

Ideal price-performance for poverty-stricken customers...

The last time the world was in a serious recession, a little more than a decade ago, Windows NT did not yet exist, Novell ruled the Intel-based server market, and Intel servers were not really practical platforms for enterprise applications, writes Timothy Prickett-Morgan. And at that time, there was a dramatic shift …

Hardware 14 Oct 2002, 07:06
IBM to Sell Linux-Only Regatta Servers?

Segmentation strategies...

IBM Corp last week announced that it has delivered the AIX 5L Release 5.2 version of its Unix operating system for its pSeries RISC-Unix servers, writes Timothy Prickett-Morgan. While most Linux customers don't care much about what IBM does or does not do in the pSeries line, my sources at the company say that IBM might be …

Software 14 Oct 2002, 07:09
Lawscot.co.uk domain dispute continues

Owner sacks legal advisers

The controversy over lawscot.co.uk shows no signs of ending soon, with owner Tommy Butler sacking his legal advisers. Mr Butler is in a court battle with the Law Society of Scotland over the domain, which says Mr Butler is infringing its "lawscot" trademark and so has to hand it over. Mr Butler argues that he registered the …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 08:48
Visa Web-porn CC processing regs invite censors

Thin end of the wedge

Porno paymasters CCBill, iBill and Epoch/Paycom have issued a set of strict credit-card-order handling regulations for adult Webmasters using their services, which they say have been handed down to them from Visa International. The billing service providers, also called processors or aggregators, will now be responsible for a …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 09:19
Linux-based TMTA tablet PC for $600?

How can you refuse, even if it is a close-out sale?

After reviewing Acer's Tablet PC recently I mused out loud about the viability of using a more overtly tablet-like CE device for what I think of as 'proper' Tablet PC tasks. But why wait, asked reader Per Hammer - this one looks just the ticket, and it's only $600. I wrestled with myself for, oh, 20 minutes or so. Is this …

Personal 14 Oct 2002, 09:29
China clamps down on Net cafes – again

No kidz

China has launched another crack down on Internet cafes this time banning children under the age of 16 from using them. The new regulations - due to come into force next month - were introduced following a fire at a Beijing Internet café in which 24 people died and 13 were injured. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the new …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 11:03
Lucent throws 10,000 more overboard

Flying through a storm and trying to change engines

Lucent has announced plans to axe a further 10,000 workers after issuing a further profits warning. The embattled telecoms equipment manufacturer said it expects to employ only 35,000 workers by the end of 2003, down from an estimated 45,000 employees at the end of this year. Overall that means two in three workers will have …

Business 14 Oct 2002, 11:08
Cert-based authentication 'on life support at UK.gov

System isn't working, so time to look for alternatives?

Single sign-on via certificates is "on life support" at the UK Government Gateway, and there now seems a strong possibility that the Gateway will pull out the plug, and start banging heads together. Speaking to The Register earlier today Alan Mather, the UK e-Envoy's CEO of e-delivery, said that uptake of certificates wasn't …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 12:58
S Korea broadband in league of its own

Just look at what the UK is up to

The UK Government has yet to respond to a report which examines South Korea's place as the world's leading broadband nation. The report, compiled by Brunel University and part-funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), attempts to understand why six out of every ten (9.2m) South Korean households has broadband. In …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 13:02
Web sites blackout over Spanish monitoring law

Nobody expects the Spanish Internet Inquisition

Spanish Web site operators have taken their sites offline in protest at government proposals to regulate online content. The spontaneous protest comes amidst deep concern among free speech advocates about Spain's "Law of Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce" (or LSSI as it is known in Spain), which became …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 13:08
MSN chucks $300m at new software

Dig at status quo (no old rocker gags, promise)

MSN is chucking $300m at marketing the latest version of its Net access software. The announcement of this major marketing blitz comes just 24 hours before AOL goes public with its latest version of its family-oriented service. Of course, the timing of the launch of MSN 8.0 is designed to spoil the launch of AOL's new 8.0 …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 14:46
DMCA critics get chance to object

US Copyright Office wants reasoned objections, not rants

The US Copyright Office has opened the door to exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by inviting comments on the controversial law. But don't get too excited, this is a very narrow consultation process that won't have any bearing on the law itself - only on how it might be applied. Still, it is only the second time …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2002, 18:05
IBM announces 64-bit PowerPC processor

Big chip Apple bound?

Apple can look forward to a boost in speed and performance after news emerged of IBM's plans to produce a 1.8GHz 64-bit PowerPC processor next year. Maybe. The PowerPC 970 will be a scaled down version of IBM's Power4 server chips and will be able to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The desktop-orientated part is …

Channel 14 Oct 2002, 18:08
PC doldrums, Back to BASICs, Google's blog skew

Letters Morning, constutionals

: Life can be Krewell - and MDR analyst Kevin Krewell gets a rough reception for the predictions he made here:- Intel 'back in the driver's seat' Nice rosy 'status quo' forecast from Instat/MDR. Here is an alternative prediction. Businesses, realizing there is no need for 3 Ghz machines that run hot, use a lot of power, and …

Letters 14 Oct 2002, 23:01