24th January 2003 Archive

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Tech firms gather to fight Hollings copy controls

Just what Washington needs: more lobbyists

A new lobbying outfit called the Alliance for Digital Progress is preparing to fight against legislation calling for government-designed and mandated technology to prevent digital piracy, such as that being peddled by US Senator Fritz "Hollywood" Hollings (Democrat, South Carolina). The organization brings together some fairly …

Software 24 Jan 2003, 08:30
Fujitsu, Intel to develop Itanium Servers

Enterprise Xeons too

The Itanium platform gets a boost today as Intel Corp and Japanese server market Fujitsu Ltd announce a strategic alliance to develop "mainframe-class" servers based on Intel's 32-bit Xeon and 64-bit Itanium processors, writes Timothy Prickett Morgan The enterprise servers borrow heavily from the experience of Fujitsu and …

Servers 24 Jan 2003, 09:15
AOL and HP Sign Instant Messaging partnership

Enterprise gig

Hewlett-Packard Co this week became one of the first companies to announce the integration of America Online Inc's AOL Instant Messenger service into its enterprise messaging line of products. AOL's Enterprise AIM Services, announced late last year, allow enterprises to manage IM communications that are carried on the AIM …

Data Center 24 Jan 2003, 09:15
Cost of securing Windows Server 2003? Nearly $200m

It's fun to stay at the TCPA

Microsoft Corp has spent the best part of $200m securing Windows Server 2003, its next major operating system, under the company's year-old Trustworthy Computing initiative, writes Gavin Clarke. Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft's security business unit, said yesterday the money was spent re-designing and …

Security 24 Jan 2003, 09:15
Cisco sues Huawei over IP ‘theft’

Hey, that's our software!

Cisco Systems Inc accused Chinese telecoms equipment vendor Huawei Technologies Co Ltd of unlawful copying of Cisco's intellectual property in a lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Texas yesterday. The suit was filed against Huawei Technologies as well as its subsidiaries Huawei America Inc and FutureWei Technologies …

Data Networking 24 Jan 2003, 09:16
Compuware sues Moody's over rating

Would you credit it

Compuware Corp has added weight to its argument that Moody's Investment Services in August 2002 unfairly downgraded its debt, by publishing figures for its third quarter 2003 that said cash flow from operations was almost $85m. The software development, testing and management vendor filed suit on Wednesday against Moody's …

Business 24 Jan 2003, 09:16
Fujitsu wins £650m UK Post Office deal

In Brief Continuity

Fujitsu Services Ltd, the company formerly known as ICL, has won the £650m, seven-year deal to manage the Post Office's computer systems. Which is nice. But not winning the contract would have been a big setback, as - FSL has managed the Post Offices 'puters under a similar contract since 1996. ®

Business 24 Jan 2003, 10:22
Voila! Workspot Linux is instant and portable ‘magic’

Very cool

Workspot. is an online Linux desktop. You go there in any browser (java-enabled is better), login, and start up Red Hat Linux within that browser. It is so cool, I really want it to be something that people go for. I want it to succeed. I'm not so sure it can - but the guy who runs things at Workspot is a believer. He's …

Software 24 Jan 2003, 10:22
BT reforms broadband registration scheme

'Bout time

BT has lowered the number of registrations needed for some exchanges to be converted to broadband in a bid to speed up the roll-out of ADSL in the UK. For instance, Holmer Green in Buckinghamshire has had its trigger level reduced from 700 to 250, and since it has already passed this threshold, is now set to be converted to DSL …

Broadband 24 Jan 2003, 12:07
NTL sacks ‘hacker’ for ‘gross misconduct’

Still has right to appeal

NTL has sacked one of its employees for "gross misconduct" after he hacked into the independent customer forum ntlhell.co.uk. The hack - which included sending the members of ntlhell.co.uk a derogatory email - took place on New Year's Eve. The incident was traced back to someone working at NTL using one of the company's …

Security 24 Jan 2003, 12:13
CodeCon to trailblaze emerging tech

Suit-free revolution

The very first CodeCon held last February was one of the highlights of the year. Take a bunch of cool stuff that some underemployed programmers have been working on in their spare time on distributed computing and cryptography problems, and throw them into Jamie Zawinski's DNA Lounge nightclub for three days. Charge a low …

Software 24 Jan 2003, 12:19
UK.gov poised for climb-down on ID cards?

Your policy reversals tonight...

The UK government's plan for an "entitlement" (aka ID card) may be undergoing serious revision and downscaling, reports BBC news. Home Office Minister Lord Falconer, who in December was pitching the scheme in glowing terms, and claiming the British public favoured it, seems to have been preparing for a swift retreat. Falconer …

Media 24 Jan 2003, 12:48
Amazon posts profit

Hurrah!

Amazon's decision to scrap shipping costs for orders over $25 appears to have been a hit with punters. Reporting Q4 figures Amazon.com notched up a profit of $3m in Q4 2002, down from $5m during the same period in 2001. Net sales for the quarter skipped in at a record $1.429bn up 28 per cent compared to $1.115bn posted in Q4 …

Business 24 Jan 2003, 14:05
Virgin.net in Leeds Castle blunder

Yorkshire puddings

There were red-faces at Virgin.net today after a vulture-eyed Reg reader spotted a curious picture accompanying a city guide to Leeds. The city guide, as it happens, coincided with those destinations served by Virgin Trains, another one of Sir Richard Branson's enterprises. Snag is, one of the pictures was of Leeds Castle, a …

Bootnotes 24 Jan 2003, 15:47
‘Missing’ Barclays Web site mystery solved

Sooper sloofs

Here's a funny one. Yesterday, we received a stack of emails from readers who swore blind that Barclays' Web site had disappeared. "Nah," we said, "nuffin' rong dis end." Barclays PR bunnies also told us that they were unwaware of any problems. Anyhow, it seems there was an incident. Cue this statement from Nominet. "Nominet …

Media 24 Jan 2003, 15:50
UK WHOIS service suspended after rogue attack

Incoming...

Nominet UK was forced to suspend its WHOIS service last night after a rogue attempt to copy the entire registry of .uk domains. Spammers are thought to be behind attempts to copy the WHOIS database, attempts which started last week. Last night, though, the attack was so severe that Nominet - the national Registry for all domain …

Media 24 Jan 2003, 15:50
Flaw leaves door open for Trojan contamination

Open source software projects at risk

Linux developers were warned yesterday of a potentially devastating flaw affecting Concurrent Versions System (CVS) software widely used by the open source community. CVS, a version control and collaboration system often used in open-source software development projects, is commonly configured to allow public, anonymous, read- …

Security 24 Jan 2003, 15:56
MS to hire 1,500 sales team to win more server revenue

Apparently we still don't have enough money...

Microsoft's business customers should brace themselves - the company is attempting to compensate for slowing retail sales of software by pushing sales of bigger ticket items such as network and database software. Historically the company has made most of its profits from the Windows PC 'tax' and from Office sales, and has found …

Software 24 Jan 2003, 16:03
IPv6 Task Force UK works on five-year plan

Chicken and egg situation

A task force has been formed in the UK to promote wider adoption of IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol. The IPv6 Task Force UK, which held its first public meeting at University College London last week, aims to produce a roadmap for IPv6 deployment in the UK. It also wants educate end users and service providers …

Data Networking 24 Jan 2003, 16:18
Cisco buys behaviour blocker

In Brief $154m stock deal

Cisco Systems is to acquire security firm Okena in a $154 million all-stock deal. Okena's technology takes a behaviour-based approach to blocking malicious activity on servers or desktops. The technology is positioned as a complementary addition to traditional signature-based anti-virus software. According to Cisco, Okena's …

Security 24 Jan 2003, 16:57
'Practical TCP/IP' at 30 per cent off

New year offer from IT-minds.com

To kick off the new year in style, Register associate IT-minds.com is bringing you a huge discount on Practical TCP/IP - the only book you'll need to follow to ensure that your networks work. Based on years of practical experience, this hands-on guide explains the principles of networking, and the TCP/IP protocols in depth. …

Site News 24 Jan 2003, 17:06
Your Privacy and The Register

What we do with your data

The Register is owned and operated by Situation Publishing Limited Situation Publishing Limited 36 Union Street Southport PR9 0QE The Register strongly believes in the importance of keeping readers' personal information personal. It will never use your information for any use beyond that stated or the permissions you give …

The Company
UK distie fights Cisco injunction

Spot the difference

A Shropshire distie is threatening to report Cisco to the DTI for uncompetitive behaviour after the networking giant's lawyers began moves to stop it selling kit from Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei. Spot Distribution's robust response comes after receiving a "cease and desist" letter from Cisco for distributing Huawei …

Channel 24 Jan 2003, 21:18
DoD offering admin privileges on .mil Web sites

Add your own site or edit one of theirs

Care to register a .mil Web site of your own for free? The DoD has gone out of its way to make it a snap. An unbelievably badly-protected admin interface welcomes you to register whatever domain you please (http://Rotten.mil anyone?), or edit anything they've already got. The interface is so ludicrously unprotected that it's …

Security 24 Jan 2003, 21:23