The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

19th December 2002 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Easynet to buy Maiaah!

    LLU Ya!

    Easynet - the pan-European broadband operation - is to buy French Internet outfit Maiaah! for around €100,000. Maiaah! is a high-end provider of wide area network (WAN) Internet connectivity in France and notched up revenues of €2.4m for the first ten months of 2002. Easynet predicts Maiaah! will make a profit in Q2 2003 and …

    Telecoms 19 Dec 2002, 09:56

  • AOL obtains IM patent

    Keeping mum

    AOL is keeping mum over news that it has acquired the patent for instant messaging (IM). News of its success broke yesterday even though the patent, number 6,449,344, was granted in September. A spokesman for AOL said the company holds more than 100 patents and no decision has yet been made about what to do with its latest …

    Music and Media 19 Dec 2002, 10:00

  • Sysadmin accused of Paine Webber computer sabotage

    Cash from chaos

    A former sysadmin with UBS PaineWebber was indicted yesterday on federal charges of trying to manipulate the stock price of the brokerage's parent company by crippling its computer network. Roger Duronio, 60, allegedly sent a logic bomb to over 1,000 PCs used by Painewebber brokers in hopes of disrupting operations to such an …

    Security 19 Dec 2002, 10:03

  • Bulldog in consumer ADSL offer

    That's it, really

    Broadband outfit, Bulldog, is to start offering ADSL to consumers in the UK. The Alltime 500 service costs £26.99 a month and provides speeds of 256kbps upstream and 512kbps downstream. It has also waived the set-up fee for all orders processed before February 28. Those people living in London will be offered the service via …

    Telecoms 19 Dec 2002, 10:04

  • IBM 16-way Xeon server hits the shelves

    x440 here just in time for Xmas

    IBM today started volume shipments of the eServer x440, a 16 processor Xeon machine. Big Blue has been making a great deal of noise about the x440 server of late. Look how the x440 included "second generation" 2.0GHz Intel Xeon MP (Gallatin) processors before Dell or HP. Or how 16 processor x440 servers will bring Windows into …

    Servers 19 Dec 2002, 10:07

  • Iraqi Oil worm spreads over the Net

    Weak passwords pave the way

    A Windows network worm which spreads through shared folders is spreading across Internet this week. Unusually, the Lioten (or Iraqi Oil) worm doesn't spread via email, according to an analysis of the worm by AV specialists F-Secure. Instead, Lioten scans the Internet on port 445 for Windows 2000 machines which have shared …

    Security 19 Dec 2002, 10:10

  • SSH flaws sighted

    DON'T PANIC

    Secure shell (SSH) protocol implementations from several vendors are subject to a number of potentially serious security flaws, security clearing house CERT warned earlier this week. Read further down the noticeand you'll see that most major system vendors - and OpenSSH - are immune, but there's some work ahead for users of SSH …

    Security 19 Dec 2002, 10:12

  • Oracle heralds end of IT glut

    But is it enough for recovery

    Oracle Corp played-up license renewals during its second quarter, reported yesterday, which it believes herald an end to the IT glut that has hampered customers' spending. Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle reported $534m net income, down 3% year on year, on revenue that fell 3% to $2.3bn for the three-month period to …

    Business 19 Dec 2002, 10:36

  • Palm scrambles out of red in Q2

    Better running

    Palm Inc gave itself a corporate pat on the back yesterday as it clawed its way back into profit in its second quarter and turned in sales well ahead of forecasts. However, the firm tempered its good news by predicting it would still make an operating loss in the third quarter and hinting at further job cuts. The Milpitas, …

    Business 19 Dec 2002, 10:36

  • VB developers take back seat at BEA

    Strategic reversal?

    BEA Systems Inc is back-pedaling on efforts to attract Visual Basic developers to its WebLogic Workshop Java programming environment, in what appears a strategic reversal, writes Gavin Clarke. After 12-months' rhetoric, San Jose, California-based BEA told ComputerWire Microsoft Corp's Visual Basic developers are no longer a …

    Hardware 19 Dec 2002, 10:36

  • Microsoft pencils ‘early 2003’ for CRM debut

    Misses end of year deadline

    Microsoft Corp said yesterday that it will not meet its end of 2002 deadline for the launch of its CRM product. Instead, the best the vendor could offer was that the much anticipated CRM offering will finally see the light of day "in early 2003". The vendor had been expected to launch the much-anticipated product by the …

    Hardware 19 Dec 2002, 10:37

  • US high speed Internet growth slows

    Slippage

    High speed internet connections are finding their way into homes and businesses across the US, but the rate of growth has slipped compared to last year, according to the Federal Communications Commission. According to figures released by the FCC the number of high speed lines, offering 200kbps in at least one direction, …

    Telecoms 19 Dec 2002, 10:38

  • US military takes pot shot at 802.11a

    Jam today, jam tomorrow

    High-tech executives in the US are battling to prevent the Department of Defense from imposing restrictions on the use of radio spectrum for Wi-Fi products. Defense officials said this month that they are concerned that proposals to open up more radio spectrum to cater for the increasing popularity of wireless LAN applications …

    Mobile 19 Dec 2002, 10:52

  • Broadband is ‘favourite’ stocking filler

    Ho, ho, ho

    Forget Hornby train sets and Eminem CDs - it seems the favourite item on Christmas wish lists this year is broadband. So says ISP, Zen Internet, which claims its sources at the North Pole report that broadband is proving to be a popular item on Christmas shopping lists. O'Really...? Anyhow, if BT has got round to enabling the …

    Telecoms 19 Dec 2002, 10:54

  • Platform Computing branches out

    Grid pattern

    Platform Computing, the distributed resource management and Grid computing software, is reaching out beyond its traditional commercial customer base. At first glance, it looks like Platform - traditionally strong in target verticals in the commercial space - has shifted their focus to more technical research-oriented markets …

    Storage 19 Dec 2002, 11:01

  • Small Biz promo: Win an Acer Tablet PC

    Prize draw UK only, read the big print etc.

    This week we announced our intention to run a small business channel for UK readers, and we unveiled bCentral.co.uk as our first information supplier. We have set up a trial landing page for your perusal. We've had a lot of feedback, and some complaints. First, there is a competition/prize draw to win an Acer Tablet PC, the …

    Site News 19 Dec 2002, 12:27

  • Don't photocopy your bum this Xmas

    Use a camera phone instead

    Office party revellers should not photocopy their buttocks this Christmas - not unless they want some nurse to pick out shards of glass from their backside. That's the helpful advice currently being dished out on the TUC's (Trades Union Congress) Worksmart Web site with an online guide to surviving the festive season at work. …

    Music and Media 19 Dec 2002, 12:30

  • 35 per cent off the best of 2002 with IT-minds

    Extra discount on this year's favourites

    Register associate IT-minds.com is pushing out the festive sleigh this week. They've picked your favourite books of 2002 and are offering a special Xmas discount of 35 per cent. So that you have plenty of time to take advantage of this unbeatable offer, you can buy the books listed below at 35 per cent discount until 8 January …

    Site News 19 Dec 2002, 12:32

  • Macromedia Flash Crash

    Buffer overflow bug fixed

    A buffer overrun flaw in Macromedia Flash can be used to inject malicious code into target systems. Potential attackers could try to persuade victims to download maliciously altered versions of Macromedia Flash movies (SWF) but there's still a risk there as crackers are hardly adverse to disguising Trojan code as prOn download …

    Security 19 Dec 2002, 12:38

  • Proposed UK star wars base ‘invents’ BMW death ray

    There, they can hit something, after all...

    It may not be all that successful at knocking out incoming missiles yet, but the US "son of star wars" missile defence programme has already - albeit accidentally - spawned a death ray that can knock out motor vehicles, reports today's Guardian. The UK government is currently thought poised to green light a US government request …

    Mobile 19 Dec 2002, 16:28

  • Campaigners report titsup ADSL exchanges

    BT investigating

    Broadband campaigners are spitting feathers after reporting that their recently ADSL-upgraded exchanges don't appear to be working. Net users in Leek and Irby - which had their exchanges converted to ADSL last week after drumming up enough local demand for broadband - are reporting problems trying to connect to ADSL. And there …

    Telecoms 19 Dec 2002, 16:29