20th November 2002 Archive

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Microsoft lines up Operations Manager update

Better integration

While the forthcoming 2003 update to Microsoft Corp's Systems Management Server (SMS) grabs all the attention, the desktop management product's Operations Manager cousin, MOM, is also in line for a refresh. Microsoft Operations Manager Service Pack 1 is currently in beta and is expected to ship in January 2003. According …

Hardware 20 Nov 2002, 09:40
Microsoft sets course for Jupiter

Reach for the stars

Microsoft Corp will today announce further details of its Jupiter project to componentize and integrate its e-business server family, including Content Management Server 2002, Commerce Server 2002, and BizTalk Server 2002. Jupiter is Microsoft's project to enable customers to mix-and-match e-commerce and business process …

Hardware 20 Nov 2002, 09:40
Cisco expands SAFE Blueprint

Broad security upgrades

Cisco Systems Inc said yesterday it has added a dozen upgrades to its products with the aim of enhancing its SAFE Blueprint security strategy. Security was one of five areas identified as sexy, with much-sought short-term growth potential, by Cisco boss John Chambers in the company's last quarterly earnings call. The …

Security 20 Nov 2002, 09:50
At a stroke, MS cuts critical vuln reports

It's easy

The Good News: Microsoft Corp will be making fewer warnings of "critical" security vulnerabilities in its products from now on, Kevin Murphy writes The Bad News: This is because Microsoft has changed the way it advises users and administrators of vulnerabilities, raising the threshold to require a "critical" advisory. …

Security 20 Nov 2002, 09:50
Vendors' Top Execs say ‘Make IT Relevant’

There's a thought

IT that actually serves a useful purpose? Now, there's an intriguing proposition, and it's a concept gaining currency among the industry's top chief executives, writes Gavin Clarke. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc's president and CEO Hector Ruiz has become the latest convert to the cause, preaching during his Comdex Fall …

Business 20 Nov 2002, 09:54
Sun intros Linux VPN appliance

Check Point OEM gig

Sun Microsystems has teamed up with Check Point Software to develop the Sun LX50 VPN/Firewall appliance, based on Sun's recently launched Lintel server. Based on the same hardware as Santa Clara, California-based Sun's LX50 Intel Corp processor-based Unix and Linux server, the new appliance features Redwood City, …

Business 20 Nov 2002, 09:55
Phones more disruptive than PC or Internet – Rheingold

Text deficit

Howard Rheingold's got the mobile bug, big time. The genial pop commentator who mapped out virtual communities before most of us had even reached our first Gopher server has been traveling the world and discovered the transformative power of mobile phones. He thinks mobile phones will become more important than the Internet or …

Music and Media 20 Nov 2002, 11:50
Imagination losses widen

SoC it to the market

Imagination Technologies, the UK system on a chip designer, today reported interim losses of £3.9m, double the losses of 2001, on lower sales of £5.8m (2001: £6.4m). It attributes this to reduced system revenues. The company is currently redrafting itself as an IP pure(ish) play and is still in transition. Now for the better …

Channel 20 Nov 2002, 11:56
Why does self-balancing Segway need kick stand?

Letter Answer...

Buster Blocker, of Muscatine, Iowa, USA, writes: Perhaps I am being overly critical, but I did notice something in the Segway story appearing in The Register. I thought the Segway had been touted as self-balancing, but then I note in the picture there is what we Colonials would call a "kick-stand" on this Segway, near the left …

Channel 20 Nov 2002, 11:57
The XXX Clause – why it's not obscene

Letter Right approach, copyright lawyer argues

Laurence Kaye disagrees with the arguments advanced in The XXX Clause is Obscene, penned by fellow copyright lawyer Brian Esler And published on The Register. He would "welcome the opportunity for a fuller debate on ...private copying, DRM and associated issues". So would we. Send us your submissions. We may even publish them. …

Personal 20 Nov 2002, 12:39
BSG talks up UK broadband

'Bit fluffy'

Increasing the take-up and availability of broadband services in the UK are the two key proposals published yesterday by the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG). The BSG's second annual report suggests that after a slow start, the UK's broadband market is now developing rapidly. But it calls for efforts to be redoubled to help …

Telecoms 20 Nov 2002, 12:39
Will BTopenworld survive the year?

Who knows?

BT's top brass are unable to say whether its ISP, BTopenworld, will still be around this time next year. Speaking at the e-Summit in London yesterday BT's newly-appointed chief broadband officer (CBO), Alison Ritchie, was asked whether BTopenwaif would still be part of the BT stable this time next year. Ms Ritchie shrugged her …

Music and Media 20 Nov 2002, 12:40
Patent Office swamped by EU Copyright Directive response

Will miss EU deadline

The Patent Office will miss the European Union Copyright Directive "transposition" deadline of 22 December deadline. In other words, it's not ready to draft EUCD-compliant provisions for Parliament to wave through to UK law. In a "progress" report published yesterday, Teresa Arnesen, Copyright Directive, UK Patent Office, noted …

Software 20 Nov 2002, 12:43
BT unsure about availability of new mid-band service

Who knows?

BT could be sailing into a storm over plans to roll-out an 128k "mid-band" service. The service - aimed at bridging the gap between dial-up and broadband services - was formally announced yesterday ahead of a trial in the Spring. Specific details are still hard to come by, but on the issue of price BT Retail chief exec Pierre …

Telecoms 20 Nov 2002, 12:48
Fire devastates Dutch Internet hub

Updated Debian's security archive turned to digital ashes

A fire at the University of Twente in the Netherlands today has destroyed one of the fastest computer networks in Europe. The fire, the cause of which is currently unknown, has gutted a building housing the vast majority of the University's computer servers and networking equipment. While the fire is still burning, fire crews …

Music and Media 20 Nov 2002, 13:09
The truth about tritium

GlowRings and weapons of mass destruction

There has been a veritable explosion of correspondence over the last two weeks concerning the marvellous Traser GlowRing. Many have expressed outrage that we are not able to ship the GlowRing overseas, demanding an explanation. Well, the facts are these: the GlowRing contains radioactive tritium gas. It's this which excites the …

Bootnotes 20 Nov 2002, 13:37
Users call for cheaper broadband

Industry urged not to ignore punters

The broadband industry is warned that it could lose hard-fought-for customers, unless it cuts price and improves performance. So says research published this month by Berlin-based market research firm Metrinomics, which found that nine out of ten people believe high subscription charges are a major obstacle to the take-up of …

Telecoms 20 Nov 2002, 13:50
DCGrid broadens apps support

Entropia upgrade

Entropia, a provider of PC compute grid solutions recently announced DCGrid 5.1, the latest revision of its grid software that improves application deployment and grid resource management support. PC compute grids are being widely used in the life sciences, manufacturing and financial services industries for compute intensive …

Data Networking 20 Nov 2002, 14:23
MS Stinger, my part in its downfall, by Sendo?

Department of show sessions that ain't going to happen...

Chugging along in the wake of Sendo's shock departure from the MS smartphone camp we have a particularly neatly-worded piece of advanced PR for CTIA Wireless 2003 in New Orleans next March. The agenda doesn't seem to up at the show site yet, but Microsoft (oh yes...) would particularly like you to attend a session entitled " …

Mobile 20 Nov 2002, 14:56
No server Longhorn, but big .NET Server changes due in 2004

Call it .NOT Server then...

Microsoft's next major version of Windows, Longhorn, will be a client OS only, Microsoft's objective being not to trouble its customers with a major server OS upgrade so soon after .NET Server 2003 ships. But from what Microsoft senior vp for Windows Brian Valentine was saying at Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen this week, …

Software 20 Nov 2002, 15:28