15th October 2002 Archive

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MS pulls fake Mac-to-Windows testimonial

Monkey see, monkey get wrong

An advertisement for Windows ironically mimicking the Mac 'switch' testimonial series (ridiculed here) has been pulled from the MS Web site after its authenticity was questioned by a poster to Slashdot. Whereas the Mac ads appear to feature everyday computer klutzes speaking in their own words about how impossibly complicated …

Software 15 Oct 2002, 07:42
ARM11 readied for action

Core Babies

ARM Holdings Plc has unveiled its latest weapons in the fight to power the next generation of smart devices. Two new cores, the ARM1136J-S and the ARM1136JF-S, form the heart of Cambridge, UK-based ARM's latest products. These are the first implementations of the ARM11 architecture, announced at the Embedded Processor …

Channel 15 Oct 2002, 07:53
ISOC wins .org contract

Complex handover begins

Afilias Ltd, the company that runs the .info internet domain, has embarked upon the trickiest migration project in the history of the domain name system, following yesterday's announcement that it is to take over the running of .org, writes Kevin Murphy. A proposal by the Internet Society, which names Afilias as its …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 07:53
MSN, AOL go head-to-head with 8.0 releases

It's that time of year

It's the most competitive time of the year. In the run up to the holiday season, both America Online Inc and Microsoft Corp's MSN are launching version upgrades of their online services, with AOL hoping to staunch the slowing growth of it subscriber base and MSN hoping to lure more disillusioned AOLers from its archrival. …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 07:53
Web Services get Down and Dirty

War of the Press Releases

Systems management will likely be the final area where a major XML web services standard is published, with specifications expected from vendors and standards bodies early next year, writes Gavin Clarke. IBM web services guru Bob Sutor told ComputerWire a specification featuring the WS- moniker would soon appear tackling …

e-Business 15 Oct 2002, 07:53
3Pardata names customers, benchmarks performance

Hugely scalable arrays

3Pardata Inc has begun shipping the hugely scalable arrays it unveiled earlier this year, and has named some of its customers and beta testers. The company has also posted published the results of a benchmark performance test completed to the SPC-1 specification which was developed by the Storage Performance Council. Five …

Storage 15 Oct 2002, 08:32
IBM, Oxford, UK Govt build massive data grid

Breast cancer screening

Oxford University, IBM and the UK government are building a large-scale data grid to enable early screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, and to allow medical professionals to collaborate and share information that will help treat the disease. The project named 'eDiamond' by Oxford researchers is part of the UK government's …

Storage 15 Oct 2002, 08:32
NetLedger touts NetSuite business apps

No Oracle

Larry Ellison's pet project, NetLedger, launched its much vaunted NetSuite application package yesterday but it came without the punch. There's no Oracle. It's a bold move from the firm and one that almost guarantees it a more volatile future. NetSuite is the small business application suite, for CRM and basic ERP, from …

Software 15 Oct 2002, 08:48
Pay per level Nokia 7650 game goes live next month

Micropayment model gets an outing

Mobile phone gaming company Masabi, which recently completed an implementation of the BBC micro classic Repton for the Nokia 7650, will be going live with a micropayments system from next month. Although Masabi is already selling Repton for the 7650 in stand-alone form, company co-founder Tom Godber sees the real business model …

Personal 15 Oct 2002, 09:02
LinuxIT using Lindows, Ximian in custom desktops

Best of Breed

UK-based LinuxIT recently announced it had released the "Professional Open Desktop" series, calling it a solution designed for "organizations with non-technical staff." The company is offering a standard version, based on Lindows, and an enterprise version that makes use of Ximian standards. Peter Dawes-Huish, sales director …

Software 15 Oct 2002, 09:03
Jungle.com folded into Argos

150 jobs at risk

There are fears that 150 jobs could be lost at technology etailer, Jungle.com, following a decision to cut costs. Jungle.com is to be merged with Argos Retail Group (ARG) and managed from retailer's offices in Milton Keynes, from where it operates its other ecommerce operation including Argos.co.uk. Both operations are part of …

Channel 15 Oct 2002, 10:42
Porno pop-ups blight McDonald's McNet Access trial

Service suspended

McDonald's has suspended a trial providing Net access in its restaurants after customers complained that they couldn't stomach porn with their burgers. Three outlets in Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and Paisley began a scheme to offer "McNetAccess" in the summer. Although McDonald's took measures to block access to adult sites, this …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 10:43
‘RIAA-written’ Net radio bill served to Senate

Recriminations

The United States Senate today will consider the bill to "save Internet radio", HR.5469. It's a bill which does nothing for education, religious, non-profit or hobbyist radio. Many webcasters were stunned when the bill morphed from a two paragraph "stay of execution" into an alternative royalty scheme after a splinter group …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 10:52
ARM cuts jobs as sales tumble

'More appropriate'

ARM is to cut 10 per cent of its workforce as it reports its first-ever fall in quarterly sales. For the third quarter ending 30 September, the semiconductor designer reported revenues of £33.3m, a drop from the £37.5m reported for the same quarter last year. The company also reported net income of £5.9m, a fall from the £8.8m …

Channel 15 Oct 2002, 11:07
Opera to unleash ‘full web’ browser for smartphones

7650, P800, Linux...

Opera Software has developed a 'secret sauce' implementation of its browser intended to bring the full web experience to smartphones (with Nokia's Series 60 and Sony-Ericsson's UIQ platforms among the early targets. And as a consequence, Opera CTO Hakon Lie told The Register earlier today, WAP will become redundant, and will die …

Mobile 15 Oct 2002, 11:10
Nominet director calls for .net.uk clemency

Domain death sentence may be commuted

A non-executive director of Nominet's Council of Management and member of its Public Advisory Board, Alex Bligh, has launched a scathing attack on a recommendation by one of the organisation's subcommittees to shut down the second level domain .net.uk. Stressing that he was writing in a personal capacity, Bligh has produced a …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 11:57
Apple UK leases notebooks to students for £7.58 per week*

* Subject to etc. etc.

Apple UK is to lease iBooks and Powerbooks to students for as little as £7.58 a week. At the end of the lease period, the notebook is offered for sale to the lessee for just fifty quid. Insurance and support is thrown in as part of the deal and Airport WLAN access is an optional extra. Students can avail themselves of the …

Mac Channel 15 Oct 2002, 12:41
Teenage Finns held over DIY bomb chat room tips

Forum for home chemistry

Police have arrested two teenagers over bombmaking tips on an Internet chat room used by the prime suspect for the explosion which killed seven people in Finland last week. Finnish police say that bombmaker Petri Gerdt, a 19 year-old university chemistry student, was among those blown up. And they are questioning the two …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 13:04
Tiscali UK pledges to resolve billing complaints

Sets tight deadline

Tiscali UK has pledged to resolve all its outstanding issues concerning billing complaints before the end of the month. Speaking on the BBC's Working Lunch programme Tiscali UK ISP director Steve Horle, acknowledged that some customers had suffered problems at the hands of the company's billing process. He was told of a rack …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2002, 13:10
Kiosks charge phones on the go

Plug and glow

Mobile phone users could soon be able to charge their handsets at kiosks if a trial beginning next month proves successful. London-based Nearplay Systems has launched Charge Me, which allows punters to charge up their mobile phone or PDA while out and about. The service costs 50p for five minutes or £1 for ten minutes - will be …

Mobile 15 Oct 2002, 13:57
Get your Reg logos here

Full set of gif images for your viewing pleasure

In response to the many requests we receive for Reg vulture logos, we're pleased to offer the following set of gifs:

Site News 15 Oct 2002, 14:09
BOFH: Going Postal

Episode 5 Is that a gun in your pocket, or...

BOFH 2002: Episode 5 It's 9am when I pause from my daily operational maintenance procedures (checking the out trays of the printers to see if anyone's been printing any juicy porn) to observe The Boss swiping his heart out outside the office. "Could you let me in please?" he asks through the glass, giving up on the …

BOFH 15 Oct 2002, 14:26
The BOFH Questionnaire: How Geeky Are You?

Episode 21 Simple test. Won't take long

BOFH 2002: Episode 21 In these days of backward masked cookies, electromagnetic thought-induction from Plasma displays and TV footage of Bill Gates getting hit in the face with a pie, none of us are safe. The subtle seduction of your subconscious (try saying THAT fast, ten times when you've had 4 pints and you'll know how hard …

BOFH 15 Oct 2002, 14:51
PDAs are go-go

Net access to fuel sales growth

Fresh form factors, components and pricing models are set to jumpstart the quiet PDA market. In-Stat/MDR forecasts handheld sales will move from mobile professionals to embrace mainstream consumer and corporate markets. The market research firm estimates annual growth in the PDA market of 17.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006, …

Personal 15 Oct 2002, 16:23
MS announces complex and baffling product lifecycle list

We think it means they're going to be good, but only from now on...

Microsoft today announced what it categorised as more "consistent and predictable guidelines" (surely "rules"? - Ed) for customer support. Entirely consistently and predictably, it's ruddy baffling and you've got to strain quite hard to work out what they mean, as opposed to panicking about what they say. For the record, what …

Software 15 Oct 2002, 17:35
IBM confirms Altivecked POWER4-lite

Microprocessor Forum Speeds and feeds

IBM's Peter Sandon disclosed technical details for IBM's PowerPC 970 processor in San Jose this morning and confirmed that the processor supports the AltiVec instruction set. In addition to providing a competitive workstation and edge server chip for IBM - which deploys POWER3 in these space and power sensitive designs, the …

Channel 15 Oct 2002, 20:40
Intel touts security on a chip

10Gbps network processor

Intel today announced what it bills as the industry's first network processor for secure content processing. The Intel IXP2850 network processor features high-performance packet processing with security features in a single chip and is designed for applications such as Virtual Private Networks, Web services and Storage Area …

Security 15 Oct 2002, 21:17
Quantum sells Snap

NAS teenager finally leaves home

Check out The Register's new Enterprise Storage Channel Quantum is following Maxtor out of the NAS business. It is selling its NAS division for $11.3m to a new company called Snap Appliance Inc., founded out of privately-held Broadband Storage and funded by venture capital. Quantum intended to spin off its NAS arm a year ago …

Storage 15 Oct 2002, 21:17
Stupid Bugbear tricks

Author is no rocket scientist

"Please, please, please" came the blandishments of the P.R. men. "If you want to talk to someone about Bugbear, pleeze give me a call," twittered one. Dear Sir, would you notice my client's rubbish for a computer virus story angle? But even when ignored, the work of the flacks remains astonishingly efficient. I often received …

Security 15 Oct 2002, 21:29
Standards ahoy! Bluefin and CIM products out next year

Storage industry really is working together. Honest

The Register's new Enterprise Storage Channel Hitachi, IBM, Sun and Veritas today jointly promised to deliver interoperable tools for managing storage - and products to manage - during 2003. It is an effort to reassure customers that they really are serious about SNIA's storage management standards. But will it succeed? The …

Storage 15 Oct 2002, 22:03
Agere, Infineon pool WLAN development

Geeing up for 802.11a/g

Wireless LAN specialist Agere and chip maker Infineon are to jointly develop high-speed 802.11a/g wireless LAN technology. The two companies will pool expertise in developing WLAN chipsets, software and reference designs, and aim to have product ready for sampling by the second quarter of next year. Agere will provide its WLAN …

Mobile 15 Oct 2002, 22:12