6th March 2003 Archive

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Toshiba to power 10,000 US Wi-Fi hotspots

'Hotspot in a box' offered to would-be WLAN hosts

Toshiba plans to roll out 10,000 802.11b hotspots across the US this year, the company's North American subsidiary announced yesterday. This is no big infrastructure project, of course, rather a commercial programme to appeal to stores, hotels and so on keen to implement public WLANs. So Toshiba will offer a "hotspot in a box …

Wireless 6 Mar 2003, 08:36
Another day, another mobile platform

Incompatible with maximum growth

Perhaps to the surprise of many, next-generation mobile data services appear to have received a generally warm welcome in Europe, with services such as Vodafone Live! reporting unexpectedly high take-up. But there is a looming threat from a lack of cross-device compatibility that could well damage the revenue-earning potential …

Mobile 6 Mar 2003, 08:40
Personal storage sites are the latest ‘security risk’

Another thing you can't do at work

Internet filtering outfit Websense has set its sights at stamping out uncontrolled use of personal storage sites in the workplace, describing data backup sites as the latest security risk. So if Websense has its way personal storage sites will join the list of prescribed workplace Internet activities alongside surfing for porn …

Security 6 Mar 2003, 08:40
Apple thanks Microsoft for inventing the Trash Can

The shame of it

Most mammals hibernate through January and February, but Apple lawyers clearly belong to the reptilian class, for winter finds them at their most productive. They certainly haven't been idle in recent weeks. We must thank attorney and Apple user John Kheit for uncovering a blizzard of patent activity since the new year that …

Mac Channel 6 Mar 2003, 08:47
PowerPC blades by year-end – IBM

Who needs mobile chips?

Tom Bradicich, CTO of IBM's xSeries line, confirmed that Big Blue will ship a Power-based blade by the end of the year. IBM will also launch a four-way x86 blade, also by the end of the year. IBM pipped Sun to the blade business, delivering its first boxes in December. The current HS20 blade uses up to two 2GHz and 2.2GHz …

Servers 6 Mar 2003, 09:15
3Dlabs pledges support for ATI's RenderMonkey HLSL

Put that in your pipe and shade it

ATI has won rival graphics chip maker 3Dlabs' backing for its RenderMonkey (RM) high-level shading language. While ATI will continue to develop the core RM framework, both partners will co-operate on the creation of plug-ins to wire the technology into the standard DirectX and OpenGL high-level shader APIs to ensure …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 09:27
Sony responds to Xbox Live boasts

My installed base is bigger than yours

Sony has greeted Microsoft's announcement this week that Xbox Live now has 350,000 users with scorn. It has issued a counter-statement claiming sales of over 600,000 PS2 network adapters. Sony may have remained aloof throughout Microsoft and Nintendo's ridiculous spat over second place in the console race earlier this year, but …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 09:54
Internet battle lines drawn at extraordinary Geneva meeting

ITU meeting sees Web great and good square up

Internet battle lines were drawn at an extraordinary meeting in Geneva this week. The non-descript "ccTLD workshop" hosted by the International Telecommunication Union on 3-4 March attracted a stellar cast including ICANN president Stuart Lynn, ITU secretary general Yoshio Utsumi and leading representatives of just about every …

Music and Media 6 Mar 2003, 10:28
ATI Radeon 9800

Review part 2

Radeon 9800 The market is led, and fed, by the 'bleeding edge', the pinnacle of 3D gaming performance, and a slot which was until recently occupied by ATI's 9700 Pro. In response to the GeForce FX, which retrieved the position of technology leader for Nvidia, it's not only news but also review samples of the Radeon 9800 Pro [ …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 10:32
ATI Radeon 9800

Review part 3

Radeon 9600 While Nvidia's entire current DX9 range is based on a 0.13 micron process out of TSMC, ATI initially stuck to the tried and tested path of 0.15 micron, and so far it has done quite well from that choice. Of course that move has to be made eventually and its competitor has finally proven a transition viable with such …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 10:32
ATI Radeon 9800

Review part 4

Radeon 9800 Benchmarks Radeon and GeForce FX in hand, we've leapt into the lab for a spot of benchmarking to see how the new ATI GPU sizes up to NVvidia?s current top chip. Test System Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz with HyperThreading sisabled ASUSTek P4G8X Deluxe - Granite Bay (E7205) mobo (AGP 8X) 1GB Corsair XMS3200 DDR - …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 10:32
Review ATI Radeon 9800

In the months leading up to the arrival of DirectX 9, the topology of the 3D graphics market has changed considerably. Nvidia, which had led pretty much since the original T'n'L GeForce, dominated the high end with its GeForce 4 Ti range and was finally ousted only by the almost premature announcement of the Radeon 9700 Pro - …

Personal 6 Mar 2003, 10:41
BoFHs fail Stenchmark test

Letters Dress to Smell Well

Do you BoFHs smell? Is the cost of a bar of soap and some natty threads too much? Such weighty questions were provoked by our recent letter "OK - I smell a bit" - but leave us BoFHs alone! from a sysadmin who resented being relegated to the smelly underclass by know-nothing IT types. Here are your views. I just read the reply …

Letters 6 Mar 2003, 10:52
Aussies chew over enforced Net filters

Police raids over alleged music piracy

Lawmakers down under are considering making it compulsory for ISPs to filter out unwanted XXX content. The measure is just one proposal currently being tossed around following the publication of a report by the Australia Institute research group, which claimed that Australia's anti-porn legislation simply wasn't working. …

Music and Media 6 Mar 2003, 12:08
Email scam aims to swipe PayPal users' credit card details

Just send them to the Russian Mafia...

PayPal scam artists are getting more ambitious, and less subtle, in their attempts to hoodwink gullible punters. A bogus email doing the rounds this week asks punter not only for their PayPal login but their bank account and credit card details. The email, which might appear authentic at first sight, tries to hoodwink punters …

Music and Media 6 Mar 2003, 12:11
Support Comic Relief online

Credit cards at the ready

Good news for couch potatoes who'd like to support this year's Comic Relief Red Nose Day on 14 March, but would rather not skydive from 15,000ft dressed as a baboon to do it, comes in the form of the charity drive's e-commerce enabled website. For the first time, online donations can be processed in sterling, euro, Australian …

Bootnotes 6 Mar 2003, 14:36
US bar owner executes Dell laptop

Jail for computer assassin

A bar and restaurant owner from Lafayette, Colorado was jailed earlier this week after pumping four rounds into his Dell laptop, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. George Doughty, 48, announced to patrons of his Sportsman's Inn Bar and Restaurant that he intended to execute the portable. He then disappeared into his office, …

Bootnotes 6 Mar 2003, 14:37
Games' copy protection cracked in days, says newsletter

StarForce struts its stuff

Russian copy protection specialist StarForce Technology has stepped into the gap left by the DoJ's repurposing of ISONews. Not, we presume, deliberately, but it's a funny coincidence all the same. Prior to becoming an antipiracy propaganda site, and indeed prior to getting involved in Xbox mod chips, ISONews produced lists of …

Software 6 Mar 2003, 14:42
Mad antipiracy bot sics BSA on OpenOffice FTP site

University of Münster in conspiracy to distribute free software

The Business Software Alliance has pulled off an astonishing anti-piracy coup, identifying a major European university as a distribution hub for... OpenOffice.org. Oops. The University of Münster last week received a "Notice of Claimed Infringement" concerning the unauthorised distribution of Microsoft Office from one Corinna …

Software 6 Mar 2003, 15:47
Scan your browser's security for free

One thumb up for ScanIT

Surfers are being offered a check on the security of their browser with a free security tool. The Browser Security Test, from Belgian security outfit ScanIT, tests for system vulnerability against a range of 22 simulated attacks. Browser insecurity is, of course, a significant source of Net security problems. ScanIT says its …

Software 6 Mar 2003, 15:52
BT ‘not responsible’ for suspended FreeDial service

Telco stands firm against accusations

BT has said it will "vigorously" defend any legal action brought against it by ISP FreeDial.biz. The telco's resolute stand follows reports that FreeDial has been "forced to suspend" all of its broadband operations following an alleged dispute with BT Wholesale. In an email to customers published on ADSLGuide FreeDial reports …

Music and Media 6 Mar 2003, 15:53
Rumours circulate over NTL price rises

'Speculation' says cableco

NTL has described as "speculation" rumours that it is to increase the price of its 128k service from May 1. Postings on its nthellworld Web site point to a £3 a month increase - from £14.99 to £17.99 - from the beginning of May. There are even suggestions that prices for its digital TV packages could also rise. A spokeswoman …

Telecoms 6 Mar 2003, 17:26
Key Internet registry weathers serious DDoS assault

RIPE for the plucking

Internet registry RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) yesterday reported its services were back to normal, after it became the victim of a serious DDoS at the end of last month. All but a tenth of traffic sent to RIPE failed to reach the registry during the two and a half hour duration of the attack on February 27. The distributed ICMP …

Music and Media 6 Mar 2003, 17:28
Oracle seeks manicurist

Company-specific skills will be taught

Silicon Valley's economy may be in the tank, so kudos to the Oracle Corporation for doing what it can. An opening advertised on Craigslist calls for a "very special, highly professional manicurist" to work on site at the Redwood Shores complex. The candidate "will also prescribe appropriate nail products and services, educate …

Bootnotes 6 Mar 2003, 20:43