16th October 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

BrightMail works to close spam loopholes

Anti-Spam 4.0

BrightMail Inc yesterday released version 4.0 of its spam filtering services to enterprises and service providers, saying it has added features aimed at recognizing sophisticated spam that was previously undetectable. Anti-Spam 4.0 has a feature BrightMail calls BrightSig, which identifies "polymorphic spam attacks". These …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2002, 07:34
AOL drops third party pop-ups

Maturing with Version 8.0?

America Online Inc, the online arm of the AOL Time Warner Inc media empire, is showing signs of responding to the maturing consumer internet audience with the launch of AOL 8.0, the latest version of its flagship service, writes Kevin Murphy. In the first service upgrade since CEO Jonathan Miller took over the reins in …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2002, 07:34
Adobe moves into document management

And goes direct

Adobe Systems Inc will on Monday announce a slew of new products targeting enterprise customers, ComputerWire has learned, and the company will for the first time use a direct sales team to peddle the software, Jason Stamper writes. The new products to be announced are: Forms Server, which renders electronic forms and …

Hardware 16 Oct 2002, 07:35
Sun may broaden jobs sweep

'Increasingly retro'

Sun Microsystems Inc could soon give up to 20% of its workforce an unexpected early Christmas present - the gift of more un-paid time with their families. Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich said Sun may cut up to 8,000 jobs this quarter - Sun is due to announce its third-quarter results this Thursday. Milunovich joins …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 07:35
France plots to evade EU rules over telecom debt

These rules are made for breaking

France is preparing plans to pump new funds into debt-laden France Telecom SA without breaching European Union rules against state bail-outs. Leaks in the French press suggest that it plans to create an "ad hoc structure" to hold the government 55% stake in the company, which could then borrow from banks to have the funds …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 07:35
Intel applies long memory to smart phones

XScale calls

Intel Corp yesterday launched an assault on the mobile handset market with the introduction of two new chips featuring high-capacity Flash memory technology. Intel described its new XScale smart phone chips as "an advancement that will help significantly improve cell phone battery life, performance and storage capacity" …

Channel 16 Oct 2002, 07:36
Storage is bustin' out all over

A clam bake in every port

Expect to find much of the storage industry away from its desk over the next few days. What with Storage Expoon in Birmingham, UK Stockage in Paris, Systems in Munich setting up a StorageSolutionsArea , and the SNIA having its US symposium in San Jose, this is storage exhibition week. Quite why it should be this week is anyone' …

Storage 16 Oct 2002, 07:43
Everywhere! starts taking sat ISP sign-ups

Broadband4all

Everywhere! Broadband has begun accepting registrations for its one-way broadband satellite service ahead of a full commercial launch later this year. The service is based on Eutelsat's OpenSky technology and enables users to download data via a satellite at speeds up to 1Mbps. Data is uploaded via a dial-up ISP. Prices for …

Telecoms 16 Oct 2002, 08:38
Windows Messenger is new spam vector

Commercial system alerts

The forces of evil have produced a devilish tool whereby spam can be sent to thousands of Windows users in minutes, in the guise of system alerts. This was brought to our attention by reader Mike MacNeill, who sent us a screenie of a Windows system alert offering him the university diploma of his dreams with "no required tests, …

Software 16 Oct 2002, 08:44
‘Explicit’ ads floor Vodafone

Stirring stuff

Another day, another big-name company gets a ticking-off from the guardians of advertising decency. Step forward Vodafone, which has been told not to use "explicit and gratuitous" images to flog mobile services. One of the ads that upset the Ad watchdog showed a couple on a stairwell. They were partly clothed with the woman …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 09:08
If I tell you that I'll have to kill you: Red Hat fights the DMCA

Not that it had a great deal of choice...

Red Hat has struck a small blow against the DMCA, by publishing a security patch which can only be explained fully to people who are not within US jurisdiction. The company's position here seems to be not altogether voluntary - according to a spokesman "it is bizarre, and unfortunately something Red Hat cannot easily do much …

Software 16 Oct 2002, 09:34
Vodafone swoops on Cegetel

Buys out BT, SBC

Vodafone has delivered a knock-out blow in the tussle with Vivendi Universal to gain control of Cegetel, the French telecoms house. It is stumping up €6.3bn cash for the stakes held by fellow minority partners BT and SBC Communications, taking its share of the company to 56 per cent. And it has made a non-binding offer to buy …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 09:42
Intel Q3 results disappoint, outlook cloudy

Caught in PC Doldrums

Intel's third quarter results, released on Tuesday, showed profits significantly higher than the previous year, but short of analysts' expectations. The world's largest chipmaker earned $686m, or $0.10 a share, in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $106m, or $0.02 a share, in the same period last year. Though higher, …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 09:53
Lik-Sang lives! (Minus mod-chips)

Back on feet after MS, Sony, Nintendo lawsuit

Hong Kong-based online retailer Lik-Sang, one of the most popular importers of console hardware and software, has reopened its website for business after over a week offline which resulted from a lawsuit filed by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft with the high court of Hong Kong. The suit, which accused Lik-Sang on infringing on …

Personal 16 Oct 2002, 10:03
Now we are two: OpenOffice.org celebrates

Still aiming to catch MS Office

OpenOffice.org, the Open Source office suite based on Sun's StarOffice, celebrated its second birthday this week with a couple of new releases: a 1.0 beta for Mac OS X and a new developer release, charting the path for future user versions of OpenOffice.org 1.0. In the battle of the office suites, where there's Microsoft …

Software 16 Oct 2002, 10:15
Pensioner gets five years for German cashpoint scam

Tries to defraud judge too

A German pensioner who failed to sell banks his encryption scheme for ATM machines has been convicted of counterfeiting credit and debit cards. The 71-old (nicknamed 'The Professor') was sentenced last Friday by Munich's State Court to four years and ten months in jail for creating 671 fake cards, which he used subsequently …

Security 16 Oct 2002, 10:20
IBM, HDS, Sun, VERITAS form storage management gang

Yeah! Baby!

Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Sun Microsystems and VERITAS Software Corporation announced on Tuesday "a new effort dedicated to the promotion and progress of SNIA's Common Information Model (CIM), Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) technology and Storage Management Initiative (SMI) specifications (formerly Bluefin) for Storage …

Storage 16 Oct 2002, 10:38
Text me, Sex me, my porn star baby

'Personalised' SMS porno enters UK

With news still fresh that Vodafone believes many people use text messages to "enhance their love lives", here's something that might be of interest to the monster mobileco. NASDAQ-listed Private Media Group has launched an adult SMS service that gives punters access to their favourite porn stars. With the Private Stars …

Mobile 16 Oct 2002, 10:43
MS kills another clip-art fan rave

Hall of shame

Microsoft has yanked another of its fraudulent user testimonials, in this case a fictitious twelve-year-old boy raving about a fictional homework assignment and the indespensable insights he received from MS Encarta Reference Library in preparing it. Judging by his phony picture he's one of those fussy, antiseptic, precocious …

Software 16 Oct 2002, 11:13
Sklyarov denied US visa to testify in DMCA case

Bizarre turn of events

Dmitry Sklyarov, the Russian programmer at the centre of the first Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prosecution, has been denied a US visa in a move that jeopardises his requirement to testify in the forthcoming trial of his former employers, ElcomSoft. ElcomSoft's chief executive, Alexander Katalov, has likewise been …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2002, 11:40
Do you need a storage security appliance?

Feeling alright with Decru

The Register's new Enterprise Storage Channel Despite the high profile that all security matters currently hold, little attention has been paid to the protection of data storage platforms at source. It is into this arena that a small US vendor, Decru, has started to make a mark. Based in Redwood City, California, Decru was …

Storage 16 Oct 2002, 12:03
Silvermead launches Sat broadband next month

Choice

Yet another ISP is to offer broadband via a one-way satellite service bringing high-speed Net access to people all over the country. Silvermead's service is due to go live next month and can work using an existing Sky TV satellite dish. The monthly fee for the service - which also includes an unmetered dial-up service to upload …

Telecoms 16 Oct 2002, 13:54
Trap blackhat hackers with IT-Minds

'Honeypots: Tracking Hackers' at 30 per cent off

It's all gone a bit Mata Hari this week at Reg associate IT-minds.com. Our favourite online bookshop is offering an insight into how to lure blackhat hackers to a sticky end with Honeypots: Tracking Hackers. This ultimate guide to a rapidly growing, cutting-edge technology will teach you the skills you need to deploy the best …

Business 16 Oct 2002, 13:57
Feelies with Intel's Mr Banias

Microprocessor Forum Truth or dare

Mooly Eden, the director of Intel's Israel Mobile Platform Group, dared us to see how cool the Banias mobile chip really is yesterday, in the queue for salad. "Would you touch it?" he asked. The machine, a Banias test rig has been on for at least an hour, we reckoned. It wasn't being taxed by its demo, but nevertheless, we don …

Channel 16 Oct 2002, 23:43