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31st October 2002 Archive

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  • Responsible bug disclosure by corporate fiat

    Who should decide?

    I must have a masochistic streak. Nothing else could explain why I occasionally argue in this space that people should act responsibly when disclosing holes in software. If I even hint that the doctrine of full disclosure has limits, the reaction is overwhelming. Among other things, I've been called a Microsoft lackey, a …

    Security 31 Oct 2002, 08:52

  • MS satisfied with Kmart ISP license transfer

    Whew

    Bankrupt mega-retailer Kmart managed to sell its Bluelight.com ISP to NetZero owner United Online Wednesday after satisfying Microsoft, which had fretted in court that software licenses might be transferred without its permission, Reuters reports. Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in January. The $8.4 …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 08:55

  • UK WAP use tops 340m pages a month

    Sort of successful after all

    WAP mobile internet usage on the UK's networks topped 340 million page impressions in September, according to the Mobile Data Association. The figures may well come as surprise to WAP skeptics, who have largely viewed the technology as failing to inspire much consumer interest after its initial hype. The MDA will report …

    Mobile 31 Oct 2002, 09:30

  • Country bodies threaten ICANN walkout

    Showdown?

    Spokespeople for the organizations that run country-code top-level internet domains (ccTLDs) threatened this week that they could take their leave of ICANN, the international body that has been trying to woo them for four years, writes Kevin Murphy. According to reports from the floor of ICANN's quarterly meeting in …

    Media 31 Oct 2002, 09:32

  • New IBM boss describes $10bn ‘gamble’

    Bold but not risky. Allegedly.

    Sam Palmisano, president and chief executive of IBM Corp used his first speech as the company's chief executive to highlight the company's vision of "on-demand" computing. Palmisano, who is set to add the mantle of chairman to his business card next year when he takes over from current incumbent Lou Gerstner, addressed his …

    Business 31 Oct 2002, 09:34

  • Borland comeback continues with tools purchase

    TogetherSoft even more together

    Borland Software Corp is buying TogetherSoft Corp in a $185m transaction which dramatically expands its .NET and Java tools' application life-cycle management capabilities, writes Gavin Clarke. Scotts Valley, California-based Borland, which has 40% of the Java tools market and is number two on Windows behind Microsoft, …

    Business 31 Oct 2002, 09:36

  • Simputer Linux handheld for developing world finds builder

    1,000 a month, billions to go?

    India-based PicoPeta Simputer Private Ltd has struck a manufacturing deal for its Simputer mass market computing device, and expects to have the 1,000 first batch to come off the production line next month. The Simputer is designed to be a cheap, mass market computing device which will fill a yawning gap in developing …

    Personal 31 Oct 2002, 09:40

  • Tape backup goes intercontinental

    CNT router removes latency for 1000 mile range

    A tape drive thousands of miles away can be used as if it were attached to a local SAN, thanks to IP-based storage router technology. CNT says that its latest UltraNet router overcomes latency issues that would otherwise limit the range to perhaps 50 or 100 miles. The device is basically a big buffer, and it removes the latency …

    Storage 31 Oct 2002, 10:36

  • CIM shows open SAN management

    Son of Bluefin swims free in Orlando

    Despite some worried faces during set-up, the demonstration of CIM, the common information model for SAN devices, at Storage Networking World in Orlando seems to have been a success. The demo SAN included 32 products from 19 companies, and showed CIM-compliant management tools being able to query and manage any of the storage …

    Storage 31 Oct 2002, 10:36

  • BT blends Costa and Wi-Fi in Openzone deal

    Mellow Birds of a feather

    BT has confirmed that Costa coffee has become the latest partner to sign up to its grand plan to bring mobile broadband to the nation. Public wireless LAN sites, called BT Openzones, have been installed in five of Costa's coffee shops in the City of London as part of a nationwide roll-out of Wi-Fi. BT now has 36 live sites …

    Broadband 31 Oct 2002, 10:38

  • Computer stuff-ups hobble US ICBM arsenal

    Yanks might have difficulty incinerating the planet

    The US Air Force Audit Agency has discovered numerous failures in a computerized maintenance scheme used by nuclear missile bases ironically called the Improved Maintenance Management Program (IMMP), according to a story by the Utah-based Deseret News. "Of 2,863 computerized records on individual items reviewed, auditors found …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 10:40

  • Opera goes gold for FreeBSD

    Plus the next Linux rev

    Opera Software has released a production FreeBSD version of its Opera browser, bringing the total number of operating systems catered for by the company to eight, according to the company. This however would come to a lot more if you said 'platforms' instead, and if you counted different OS variants, but we're not going to do …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 11:25

  • BT will ‘dominate DSL segment’

    Competition?

    BT will dominate the broadband market in the UK if it is allowed to proceed unchecked with its no-frills, access-only product BT Broadband. Independent research commissioned by Freeserve found that BT could end up with three quarters of all DSL subscribers in the UK by the end of 2003. With such a massive slice of the DSL …

    Media 31 Oct 2002, 12:24

  • Fujitsu faces lawsuits over HDD failures

    Writs fly over drive failure fiasco

    Fujitsu faces a class action lawsuit alleging that it mishandled the replacement/recall of up to 300,000 faulty hard disk drives. The class action, lodged by attorneys Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller and Shah on October 23 in the Superior Court of the State of California, names the defendants as Fujitsu Computer Products US, …

    Personal 31 Oct 2002, 13:27

  • Proof Win2K is still insecure by design

    Did you ever believe anything else?

    A day after boasting that Windows 2000 has won Common Criteria security certification, Microsoft was yesterday obliged to warn of two nasty vulnerability affecting, er, Windows 2000. The timing couldn't be more embarrassing for Redmond but, let's face it, the appearance of more bugs in Win2K (or IE, WinXP etc.) is hardly much …

    Security 31 Oct 2002, 16:20

  • NTL in telephony tariff shake-up

    All shook up

    NTL has announced a shake-up of its telephone tariffs, claiming that the offer is the "biggest and best range of free talk tariffs in the UK". From November 1, customers who use the telephone for voice and Internet calls can sign up to NTL Phone and Surf - 24/7 internet access plus free off peak UK calls, for a fixed price of £ …

    Media 31 Oct 2002, 16:23

  • Intel loses Itanium patent infringement case

    Appeal or cough up? No prizes for guessing...

    The "sword of Damocles" hangs over Itanic after a US judge yesterday passed an order - which he suspended immediately - preventing Intel from making or selling its most powerful line of server processors. The injunction, suspended until November 29, will only come into effect if Intel fails to reverse the decision. The company …

    Channel 31 Oct 2002, 16:28

  • How to get certified security for Win2k, by Microsoft

    Lock up your network, no secondary boot devices, stay away from the Net, no mad admins, etc...

    Windows users whose spirits lifted at this week's announcement of Common Criteria certification* for Microsoft's Windows 2000 would do well to take a look at some of the assumptions and restrictions associated with the tested system. While perhaps not as extreme as when NT passed Orange book certification so long as it wasn't …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 17:52

  • BugBear tops virus charts as Klez refuses to die

    Trick or treat?

    The nasty BugBear worm finally displaced the irksome Klez-H as the most common virus circulating on the Internet this month. That's according to monthly statistics from managed services firm MessageLabs, which show it blocked 576,286 copies of BugBear over the last four weeks. MessageLabs stopped Klez-H, the next most common …

    Security 31 Oct 2002, 17:56

  • easynet in broadband for schools voucher scheme

    Think of the children

    easynet is looking to increase its broadband subscriber base by introducing a voucher scheme to give free or subsidised high-speed Net access to schools. Launched today, new business subscribers signing up for easynet's broadband service can earn "SPLAT" vouchers. If schools gather together enough of these vouchers they can, in …

    Broadband 31 Oct 2002, 17:58

  • Namibia wisely spurns M$ ‘gift’ in favor of Linux

    The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

    The African nation of Namibia is large in area and small in population with considerable distances between communities. Imagine the challenges of getting its schools wired to the Net. SchoolNet Namibia, a chiefly volunteer organization, struggles to do precisely that with a free ISP and numerous other initiatives to get the …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 22:28

  • You cannot hope to bribe or twist, the Java benchmark analyst

    Thank God! But was PetStore test payola research?

    "You cannot hope to bribe or twist thank God! The British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to." - Humbert Wolfe The Middleware Company (TMC) has responded to criticism of a Java vs .NET benchmark it published recently, and admits setup costs were met by Microsoft. "Microsoft provided …

    Software 31 Oct 2002, 22:49