22nd November 2002 Archive

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Patent blow to Lawsuits In Motion, Inc.

Biter bitten

Litigation-happy pager company Research In Motion, Inc. received a taste of its own medicine today, as a Virginian jury found RIM had infringed patents held by NTP Inc., and awarded $23m in damages against the company. Lawsuits In Motion will take the case to the appeals court, but before then the trial judge could increase the …

Software 22 Nov 2002, 01:05
Helms explains webcasting deal

Hands across the sea

Saturday sees a joint Anglo-American webcast in "solidarity" US webcasters, under the cosh from crippling CARP rates. stage4 in collaboration with Pirate.TV will be broadcasting from both London and New York. Details here. Now that's a little more topical than the following, which is important nevertheless. We were a little …

Music and Media 22 Nov 2002, 01:41
European m-commerce trials to begin

One system goal

In a bid to boost mobile commerce in the EU, trials will begin next year on a project that aims to harmonise European mobile payment and security standards. The Trusted Transaction Roaming (T2R) system, which will be managed by non-profit organisation Radicchio, is attempting to establish a single m-commerce infrastructure …

Mobile 22 Nov 2002, 08:27
WebMethods, i2, HP add supply chain links

It's a dirty business, but someone's got to do it

WebMethods, i2 and Hewlett-Packard are to collaborate to enable customers to more easily monitor and manage supply chain business processes. The companies said that by adding systems management capabilities to supply chain processes, customers can more readily view the interactions between the systems and applications that …

Business 22 Nov 2002, 08:38
One licence for MS Jupiter apps

All for One and One for All

Microsoft plans to introduce a single licence for its Jupiter suite of integrated e-business components that will eventually replace the existing Content Management Server 2002, Commerce Server 2002, and BizTalk Server 2002 products. The company's e-business server lead product manager, Dave Wascha, revealed at Microsoft's …

e-Business 22 Nov 2002, 08:50
Websense takes aim at Spyware

Gator gater

Websense Inc is offering customers the opportunity to block "spyware", the new breed of desktop software which surreptitiously sends data from users' computers to internet servers for marketing purposes. The company, known for its web content filtering gateway, has added a spyware category to its $5-per-seat Premium Group …

e-Business 22 Nov 2002, 08:50
Battle lines drawn over XML Office formats

MS sets out stall

Battle lines are forming over Microsoft Corp's support for a Sun Microsystems Inc initiative to build a standards-based set of XML-based file formats for Office applications. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft yesterday set the ground rules for joining an Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information …

Hardware 22 Nov 2002, 08:51
DB2 8.0 ventures into chilly IT climate

DB, it's cold outside

IBM yesterday braved the on-going spending freeze on IT spending by launching the latest version of its DB2 database. IBM, recently upbeat about its database sales, announced the immediate availability of DB2 version 8.0, which features re-worked pricing and packaging to attract medium sized businesses. DB2 8.0 also …

Hardware 22 Nov 2002, 08:51
ISC seeks cash amid BIND security concerns

Fees, please

As the internet's domain name system suffers a series of security setbacks, the custodian of BIND, the software overwhelmingly used by ISPs to converts names into IP addresses, wants to ramp up security and is seeking the cash to do it, writes Kevin Murphy. This week the Internet Software Consortium introduced a membership …

Security 22 Nov 2002, 08:52
Man burns penis with laptop

Yes, yes, but what make?

And now for proof that some laptops run hotter than a badger. A 50-year old scientist, previously healthy, burned his penis after placing his laptop on his, err lap, for an hour. Oh, he was fully dressed in trousers and underpants, according to this letter printed in the Lancet, the UK's best-known medical journal. (reg req'd, …

Personal 22 Nov 2002, 10:10
Support web satire at Cash'n'Carrion

New limited edition puts Rockall on the map

Regular readers will know that nobody likes a good chuckle more than ourselves, and so it is with great pleasure that we announce the immediate availability of a limited edition t-shirt in support of UK satire site The Rockall Times. This weekly web publication recently celebrated its first birthday, and in celebration of the …

Site News 22 Nov 2002, 10:17
BTo launches broadband sports service

King content

BTOpenworld underlined its credentials as a content business today by announcing that it is to create the UK's first broadband sports network. BT's mass-market Internet business has jumped into bed with ukbetting plc, Sportev Ltd and InTheBox Media to launch the service, called Sportal OnDemand. Subscription to the service …

Telecoms 22 Nov 2002, 11:17
Lastminute.com lands profit

We always knew they would...

Lastminute.com has made a profit. Let's say that again just in case it didn't sink in. Lastminute.com has made it into the black. It earned more cash than it spent. Publishing its Q4 results today the online bucket travel and gift outfit reported that it made a pre-tax profit (pre exceptionals) of £302,000 compared to a pre-tax …

Business 22 Nov 2002, 11:34
BT names more exchanges for ADSL upgrade

And some that didn't make it too

BT Wholesale has confirmed that Tottington, Danbury and Bradford-on-Avon are to have their exchanges converted to ADSL by January 31. It also confirmed that Wymondham, Alton (Hampshire), Merthyr Tydfil and Inverness Culloden would also be upgraded to broadband after sufficient orders were received. There's further good news …

Telecoms 22 Nov 2002, 12:56
Key NHS project in sick bay

Back to the drawing board

An important Department of Health IT project has suffered a serious, though apparently not fatal, setback. Proposals for the Integrated Care Records Service project, a scheme for establishing integrated care records for patients and the electronic delivery of prescriptions and appointments, has failed to win wider government …

Hardware 22 Nov 2002, 12:57
Punters 'don't need' wireless data services

That's what they're telling Yankee Group

Despite the best efforts of the wireless operators across the globe, interest in the value add next generation data services remains worryingly low. In its latest study of the wireless market, industry experts Yankee Group has found that few people use wireless data services today and few see the value of these services in the …

Mobile 22 Nov 2002, 13:32
On the Microsoft FTP server leak

Oh dear, oh dear

Microsoft made customer details - along with numerous confidential internal documents - freely available from a deeply insecure FTP server earlier this month. A well as numerous PowerPoint slides, such as Linux Vs Windows comparisons and .NET strategy papers, Microsoft "published" files an estimated 11 million customer email …

Security 22 Nov 2002, 14:09
Thomson to stop making TiVo boxes

TiVo seeks new partner

TiVo has confirmed that its UK partner, Thomson, is to stop manufacturing its popular line of Personal Video Recorders. In a statement issued to us, TiVo said the decision the end the relationship with Thomson was amicable It is "actively speaking to partners and potential licensees" about future products for the UK. The …

Personal 22 Nov 2002, 15:23
BTo scores own goal

Sports content not quite so unique

A few hours is a long time in the life of the Net. Earlier today BTopenworld announced the launch of a new sports portal for broadband punters in the UK. It boasted: "The Sportal OnDemand will also feature content available nowhere else in the UK including the hugely popular Italian Serie A football." Not so, says AOL UK, …

Bootnotes 22 Nov 2002, 15:24
Samsung offers £100K reward for Heathrow DRAM theft info

Believed to be still in UK

Samsung and its insurers are offering a £100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people, or person, behind the $4.5m Heathrow computer chip theft in October Here are some clues to be going on with - Samsung reckon the chips are still in the UK. The stolen consignment, contained in 290 boxes consist mainly of …

Channel 22 Nov 2002, 15:35
Didata says market has stabilised

Not getting better though

Network services giant Dimension Data Holdings Plc has posted a net loss after exceptional items and goodwill amortization of $2.58bn for the 12 months to September 20, from $1.72bn the previous year, on revenue that fell 11% to $2.19bn. The Johannesburg, South Africa-based company said that global demand had stabilized during …

Channel 22 Nov 2002, 17:18
Gamers shut out in Asheron's Call 2 billing mess

No play

Today's launch of Microsoft's new multiplayer game - Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings - in the US and Canada has been mired in controversy after the giant software company admitted that the game is only available to subscribers in nine countries. Thousands of people around the world currently play Asheron's Call 1, an online role- …

Personal 22 Nov 2002, 17:21
Ruin your PC with an Aqua Dock

A Friday novelty

Perhaps Apple has realized that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or perhaps it's seconded its lawyers to Research in Motion, Inc. Because a small number of sites continue to produce knock-offs of the Aqua UI. On two of the most popular, Aqua-Man and Emaculation, you can find work in progress to bring Aqua controls, …

Mac Channel 22 Nov 2002, 17:35
Sun talks future systems, N1, and WinFS

The big picture

Quite apart from the Java politics, Sun's software business isn't short of challenges. On the big iron side it has to cope with tightly integrated IBM systems that refused to get any cruftier, with Big Blue moving its mainframe know-how into its Unix systems. On the other there's Microsoft's WinFS, which promises to do away with …

Hardware 22 Nov 2002, 17:41
Trade Wars: Micron vs. Asia

Guest Opinion Jobs before profits

Christopher Whalen is the editor of The Edge: Research from the Technology Front, a daily newsletter published by Ramberg, Whalen & Co. LLC, a specialty research and publishing firm focused on the semiconductor industry. Micron Technology says that the ruling by the US Commerce Department that it is going to start an …

Channel 22 Nov 2002, 23:58