The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

30th October 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Attack of the Mod Squads

    DMCA makes mod chips hard to defend

    On September 16, 2002, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong distributor Lik Sang International Ltd, in the High Court of Hong Kong, alleging that the company had infringed copyrights associated with their various gaming systems. In response, the company shut down, and when it came back up three weeks …

    Personal 30 Oct 2002, 07:56

  • Pet vs Pet: .NET ‘trounces’ Java

    It's a dog's life

    Java expert The Middleware Company has optimized Sun's showcase J2EEPet Store application, and reckon it still runs like a dog. Or in some cases, like a dog with a kennel tied to its hind legs: by refusing to function at all. Sun slammed the tests, which conceal important information, although the testers acknowledge that app …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 10:02

  • Want to know what people email to Saddam Hussein?

    Hacking insight

    An insight in what people want to tell Saddam Hussein comes from the pitifully poor security setup on the Iraqi President's main Web page. The contact email address on the Iraqi President's site, run by Uruklink.net (Iraq's state-controlled ISP), is press@uruklink.net. It seems most unlikely that the Iraqi President himself …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2002, 10:08

  • Growth at France Telecom, but there's that huge debt pile…

    It's the deficit, stupid

    France Telecom SA expects revenue this year to rise by 8% to 9% while it is looking for earnings at the EBITDA and EBIT levels to increase more than 15%. But this prediction, made as the Paris, France-based incumbent revealed third-quarter sales figures, is scarcely significant at a time when the market is waiting for …

    Business 30 Oct 2002, 10:41

  • Register.com sacks COO without explanation

    'Personnel issue'

    Register.com Inc has fired COO Rajiv Samant after less than 18 months on the job, the company announced yesterday. The New York-based domain name registrar said Samant has been "terminated effective today" but did not give a reason. The firm said president and CEO Richard Forman will take over Samant's responsibilities and …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2002, 10:43

  • Slow handset sales hit Orange growth

    Full range of handsets needed for take-off

    Mobile phone operator Orange SA has confirmed that it will miss its target of 15% revenue growth this year and instead is aiming at sales around the 17bn euro ($16.7bn) mark, an increase of 12.7% on last year's level. The mobile arm of France Telecom SA warned last month that while revenue from its network is on target, …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2002, 10:45

  • Borland thinks Mono for open source .NET challenge

    'Exploratory' work with Ximian

    The next planned release of Borland Software Corp's Kylix cross-platform development suite could bring Microsoft-style web services to Linux, helping consolidate the product's early market lead, writes Gavin Clarke. Scotts Valley, California-based Borland is investigating use of Ximian Inc's Project Mono in Kylix, as a …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 10:48

  • AOL IM and ICQ to interoperate, at last

    There - that wasn't hard, was it?

    If AOL Time Warner Inc has any intention of driving the instant messaging market towards open, email-style, interoperability, it is certainly taking the slow lane, writes Kevin Murphy. It emerged yesterday that the latest of several incremental moves towards interoperability will see AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, AOL's …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2002, 10:51

  • Fujitsu backs Linux for mission critical, enterprise systems

    Three year plan

    Fujitsu is to adopt Linux as one of its "key operating systems" for next generation IT systems, and is rolling out Linux versions of nine of its middleware and packaged software products, the target being to have commercialised large-scale, mission-critical enterprise systems running on Linux within the next three years. The …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 12:00

  • AOL UK launches ‘mother of all broadband services’

    Ad camp

    AOL UK is to splash out on plugging its broadband service. The new campaign - dubbed the "mother of all broadband services" will start on November 1 and feature TV, press and billboard ads. AOL UK declined to say how much it was investing in the campaign. Although it is nowhere near the £33m BT is coughing up on flogging …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2002, 12:02

  • MS gets top security rating for Win2k, makes big noise

    Reality check - it's still as secure as it was

    After three years of waiting, Microsoft has achieved Common Criteria certification for Windows 2000, so it's probably handy that the company decided not to start pulling the plugs on the OS before last from next April. Common Criteria certification, since you ask, is an effort to establish an internationally recognised set of …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 13:09

  • Nanny State to take over TV

    It's for your own good

    The E-Envoy's office has just published a frightening insight into how the Government intends to forge closer ties with ordinary people. The draft public consultation document into the future of digital TV (DTV) sets up the Government as content provider and also gives the green light to those who feel the State is there to …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2002, 13:12

  • Introducing Network Attached Encryption

    Ingrained security

    Application security specialist Ingrian Networks has developed a technology to offload encryption functions from application or database servers onto appliances with the aim of providing more robust security for data in storage. Ingrian, which made its name marketing hardware platforms to speed up the processing of SSL, secure …

    Security 30 Oct 2002, 13:15

  • Europe hits Nintendo with €168m fine for fixing game prices

    Dishonourable mention for John Menzies

    Nintendo and several of its distributors have been hit by the European Commission for total fines of €167.8 million for "colluding to prevent trade in low-priced products." And to the slight shock of The Register, these low-priced products seem to have been in the UK, with Nintendo and friends acting to block their export to …

    Personal 30 Oct 2002, 14:51

  • UMC bounces back

    Bucks market decline with sales wins of hi-tech chips

    Taiwanese bespoke chip vendor UMC has returned to profitability after winning new customers and improving sales of its more expensive chips. UMC turned a net profit of NT$1.4 billion ($41 million) for its third quarter, compared with a NT$4 billion loss ($115 million) in Q3 2001. While encouraging the profits failed to meet …

    Channel 30 Oct 2002, 14:54

  • Office 11 won't run on Win9x, says MS

    Win2k and XP only

    Microsoft is kissing goodbye to Win9x users with Office 11. The product, currently in beta, will require Win2k SP3 or XP, according to a posting, reported here in Betanews, by Office 11 beta coordinators, who said that stability and security were the reasons for dropping Win9x. The move is, up to a point, understandable, …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 15:28

  • Sayonara to the cathode ray tube

    Sharp pictures future of LCD TV displays

    Forget cathode ray tube, large screen TVs with LCD displays will become a fixture in homes within the next three years. That's the vision of Zenpei Tani, who's in charge of Sharp LCD business, which he expounded in a recent interview with Nikkei Microdevices magazine in Japan. Next year, Sharp plans to increase the attraction …

    Personal 30 Oct 2002, 15:29

  • Open Source Scripting with IT-Minds.com

    Save £26.40 on 'The Complete Python Training Course'

    This week's featured books from Reg associate IT-minds.com are the pick of their Perl, Python and PHP offerings. The top choice is The Complete Python Training Course. This hands-on, interactive training course combines The Python Multimedia Cyber Classroom and the book Python How to Program. It delivers 12 full hours of audio …

    Business 30 Oct 2002, 15:30

  • Nintendo massively underestimated EC fine

    PR slip tells all

    Nintendo wildly underestimated the scale of the fine slapped on it by the European Commission (EC), The Register can reveal. Today the EC imposed a massive €168m on Nintendo and its distributors for running a cartel in the 1990s that artificially fixed prices for Nintendo's consoles and games in Europe. Nintendo's share of the …

    Personal 30 Oct 2002, 17:12

  • New Alliance for webcasters

    Dissenters look for healing touch

    Webcasters have a new forum this week, with the launch of the Webcaster Alliance. Many of the founding members dissented against the attempted compromise Small Webcasters Amendment Act, or HR.5469. The Alliance's founding members include Mike Hays of Twangcast, who was part of the negotiations with the RIAA until he quit in …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2002, 17:55

  • Brussels to spend €250k on Linux migration study

    Major architectural rethink

    The European Commission has awarded UK-based consultancy netproject a €250,000 contract to study the issues of migrating government computers in member states to a Linux / Open Source environment. netproject has been hired by the Commission to draw up guidelines on a move to open source technologies and to help define EU IT …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 18:52

  • PalmOS 6 details emerge

    Be-atified, biometric, .NET friendly

    PalmSource has offered us a glimpse of the next milestone for PalmOS, version 6.0 due for release next year. Version 6.0 will be as dramatic a change for the platform as OS X was for Apple, or NT was for Microsoft, and represents the culmination of work from the former Be team Palm acquired last year. The new OS will feature …

    Software 30 Oct 2002, 19:23

  • MS Tablet suits Corridor Warriors, Canteen Commandos

    Work is War, war is peace, gwana is gwana

    Microsoft today identifies a key demographic for its TabletPC initiative, and it isn't pretty. "She's a corridor warrior," begins the blurb. "she spends more time attending meetings and dashing between conference rooms than at her desk." "Yet as she dashes along the corporate hallways…" it continues, but we think you get the …

    Personal 30 Oct 2002, 21:35