24th March 2003 Archive

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Samsung 1GB DDR 2 DIMM enters mass production

Double bandwidth

Samsung announced this morning that it is now producing a 1GB DDR 2 DIMM in volume. The announcement follows Micron's shipment last week of the first 4GB DDR DIMM. The Samsung part is based on the company's 512Mb DDR 2 chips, which it began sampling almost a year ago. The chips operate at 1.8V a deliver data at a rate of …

Channel 24 Mar 2003, 09:09
Why the Dogs of Cyberwar stay leashed

Opinion Can of worms

As the U.S. and U.K. campaign to "shock and awe" the Iraqi leadership and population continues, as "bunker buster" bombs hit the Iraqi Presidential palaces and coalition forces attempt to disrupt the command and control of the Iraqi military, one widely-reported offensive capability is nowhere in sight: the United States has not …

Security 24 Mar 2003, 09:33
Argos to retain Cube following massive sales increase

Cheaper consoles sell more units - who'd a thunk it?

After suggesting that it would follow Dixons Group in dropping the GameCube from its range, UK retailer Argos has seen a surge in interest in the cut-price console and has confirmed that it will continue carrying it. The retail chain slashed the price of the console to £78.99 (including a free game and memory card) last week, …

Personal 24 Mar 2003, 09:33
Elpida licenses Rambus Yellowstone

Smarter than the average ~~bear~~DRAM vendor, Boo-boo?

Memory maker Elpida has licensed Rambus' Yellowstone high-bandwidth interface technology, the pair announced today. Elpida joins Sony and Toshiba as Yellowstone licensees. Sony and Toshiba are believed to want the technology for the Playstation 3. Elpida wants it for its high-end offerings. Rambus expects the first Yellowstone …

Channel 24 Mar 2003, 09:33
Eircom sets wholesale DSL price

'Positive development'

Esat BT has described Eircom's new wholesale price for DSL as positive, with both firms now set to roll out retail services at dramatically lower prices. Earlier this year, Eircom said it planned to introduce a retail DSL Internet service for about €50 a month (€45 excluding VAT), about half the price of the company's existing …

Telecoms 24 Mar 2003, 09:33
F5 starts patent litigation bunfight

Cookie monster

Application switching firm F5 Networks this week filed suit against three rival firms after securing a patent on a key aspect of its technology. The ink was barely dry on F5's patent on a Method and System for Storing Load Balancing Information with an HTTP Cookie (U.S. Patent No. 6,473,802), before the company filed patent …

Data Networking 24 Mar 2003, 09:37
Iraq war architect in Global Crossing conflict of interest

Perle paid to persuade...

Among the neo-conservatives advising US President George W. Bush on matters military and imperial, Richard Perle looms large as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an unpaid policy brain trust appointed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Perle, a former Reagan-Administration Assistant Defense Secretary, is associated, …

Music and Media 24 Mar 2003, 10:04
Europe judges Hynix rescue funding illegal

30-35 per cent tariffs sought to punish illicit Korean government aid

The European Commission wants punitive tariffs of 30-35 per cent imposed on all Hynix chip imports after it found the world's third largest memory maker guilty of receiving aid from the Korean government. Such aid is banned by the World Trade Organisation and illegal in the EU. The demand, reported by the Financial Times this …

Channel 24 Mar 2003, 10:09
The price of failure: $35m

And Edser, in bed, Sir, was dead, Sir!

EDS is to take a $35 million charge in Q1 to cover the severance package of Dick Brown, the CEO and chairman who was fired last week. No wonder his valedictory email to the EDsers was so touchy-feely. Brown is to receive $12.4 million cash, vested stock options worth $5.4 million; retirement benefits - currently worth $19.6 …

Business 24 Mar 2003, 10:22
Affinity Internet shares suspended

Announcement due

Shares in Affinity Internet Holdings PLC were suspended on the London Stock Exchange this morning. The company did not give a reason for the suspension but said that an announcement "would follow". Two weeks ago Affinity Internet flogged its loss-making Internet operation to an outfit called Cleverview Investments Ltd for £250 …

Business 24 Mar 2003, 10:50
Amazon iPaq imbroglio moves Reg reader to song

Altogether now...

Reg reader Paul Smith (no relation) was inspired to verse by last week's Amazon iPaq pricing gaffe. The online retailer's UK wing inadvertently offered two cut-price HP PDAs for £7.23 and £23.04, respectively, prompting - we dare say - thousands of orders, all of which will go unfulfilled. Says Paul: "I've been following this …

Bootnotes 24 Mar 2003, 10:51
Hulme exitsTadpole

Boardroom shuffle

Bernard Hulme has resigned from Tadpole as CEO and director with immediate effect. He's available to the board for six months thereafter for advice. Hulme used to run SCO's European ops. There's nothing in the Tadpole statement released to the London Stock Exchange today to indicate the cause of departure, so one can but …

Hardware 24 Mar 2003, 11:16
End in sight for UK IT tax holiday

No sign of renewal

A treasury initiative to give small and medium-sized businesses 100 per cent tax relief on IT purchases runs out at the end of the month. There is no sign from Chancellor Gordon Brown that he will extend the gig in the next Budget, accountancy firm Hacker Young warns. Introduced in 2000, the scheme is designed for businesses …

Small Biz 24 Mar 2003, 11:30
Yellow Pages launches new DQ service

Deregulation

Yell - the outfit behind Yellow Pages and the online business information service, Yell.com - has launched its own-brand directory enquiries (DQ) service. It joins a clutch of other operators who have entered the market following the decision to deregulate the UK's DQ industry. The outfit reckons that its 15-years experience …

Data Networking 24 Mar 2003, 11:32
Apple WWDC delay prompts PPC 970 speculation

Rescheduled to meet IBM's chip delivery plan?

Apple's decision to postpone its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from mid-May to mid-June might at first seem nothing more than panic caused by too few pre-registrations. Certainly the new, juicier carrot being dangled in front of developers - a "more complete" preview of Mac OS X 10.3, codenamed Panther - makes it …

Mac Channel 24 Mar 2003, 11:48
Hacktivists DDoS 10 Downing St site

Also sundry anti-war defacements

UK government website 10 Downing Street (also at this URL) was briefly rendered inaccessible yesterday after a co-ordinated denial of service attack protesting the Prime Minster's role in the conflict. The site, which runs IIS on Win2K (according to Netcraft), is back on-line. Unconfirmed reports suggest hackers went one step …

Security 24 Mar 2003, 12:47
Leeds Uni, MS teach undergrads to write secure code

Course work

Microsoft has teamed up with the University of Leeds to develop the UK's first undergraduate computer security module to focus on the skills which developers need write secure code. The course kicks off in January 2004. Students will get hands-on experience of writing secure code and will learn to appreciate the fundamental …

Security 24 Mar 2003, 13:09
France Telecom sells €15bn in new shares

Europe's biggest rights issue

France Telecom today began its much-touted €15bn today, flogging new shares at €14.50 apiece to existing shareholders. According to Bloomberg, investors are flocking to buy the stock, which represents a discount of 28 per cent on Friday's closing price of €20.20. The French government will stump up 60 per cent of the new money …

Mobile 24 Mar 2003, 14:36
Samsung readies Nexio ‘super PDA’ for Europe

Palmtop-tablet cross

Samsung is due to ship its Nexio S160 PocketPC "super PDA" into Europe later this year, during the third quarter. Recently launched in Korea and Hong Kong, the S160 falls between the classic PDA palmtop form factor and that of a tablet PC. Based on a 400MHz Intel PXA250 processor and running Windows CE .NET, the 128MB S160 has …

Personal 24 Mar 2003, 14:59
Intel Xtends Xscale

Update PXA255 launched officially

Intel is growing its Xscale family with the addition today of two new chips: the PXA260 and 263. And it officially announced the PXA255. The PXA26x line's USP is stacked Flash memory - the memory chips are built into the processor packaging. The 32MB PXA263 joins the current 261 and 262, which contain 16MB and 32MB of Flash, …

Channel 24 Mar 2003, 15:40
Last post for BT's trumpet bloke

LogoWatch Prancing piper put out to pasture

Telecoms monolith BT has decided to ditch its infamous and much-ridiculed "prancing piper" logo. Long-suffering customers have for 12 years endured this preposterous piece of rebranding, which provoked much tabloid ire on its unveiling in 1991. The Sun, as we recall, was moved to emblazon its front page with "BT blows £5m on …

Bootnotes 24 Mar 2003, 16:28
IT worker burnout gets critical

You're too busy to read this story

Morale among IT workers is at rock bottom, with workers struggling to cope with increased workloads. That's the main conclusion of Meta Group's annual IT Staffing and Compensation Guide. It found the majority of managers believed their techies are close to breaking point. Increased pressure, due to recession-induced staff …

Business 24 Mar 2003, 16:35
AMD roadmap slots 400MHz FSB Athlon XP launch in April/May

Thorton to replace Morgan as Duron core

Japanese Web site PC Watch has posted what it claims is the latest iteration of AMD's roadmap. Essentially, AMD will launch the Barton-based Athlon XP with 512KB of L2 cache and a 400MHz FSB late April/early May. Performance ratings will range to at least 3200+. AMD has already announced it will launch the 64-bit Opteron (aka …

Channel 24 Mar 2003, 16:37
Public Records Office to preserve digital documents

What's wrong with paper?

The Public Records Office (PRO) is to reveal at a conference next month how it intends to preserve electronic documents for the future. As the PRO makes clear, it is necessary to maintain the software and hardware needed to read those documents. This is easier said than done when software viewing applications can become …

Hardware 24 Mar 2003, 16:41
Sun adopts Write Once, Revise Anywhere license

Don't like it? Write your own

Tired of outrageously restrictive software licenses? Sun Microsystems can help. It's posted a most lenient license for its JavaBeans Development Kit (BDK), which lets users set any terms they like for a download of the software. A quick click on the continue button from this download page reveals a terms and conditions screen …

Bootnotes 24 Mar 2003, 19:12
Met police use spam to warn against 999 timewasting

Tell all your friends!

The Metropolitan Police Service is to reinforce the message that 999 calls should be made in the event of an emergency - by spamming up to 250,000 Londoners. Scotland Yard has signed a deal with messaging outfit Buongiorno to state the bleeding obvious to the capital's residents. Non-urgent calls to emergency service personnel …

Music and Media 24 Mar 2003, 20:19
GNOME, KDE get their kicks from XFree86

Hans Blix diplomacy manual

Leading GNOME and KDE developers have borrowed a leaf from the Hans Blix diplomacy manual in a joint statement on the XFree86 schism. Last week a leading XFree86 developer, Keith Packard, was expelled in an acrimonious dispute which put the project's fundamental goals and architecture in the spotlight. Sixteen GNOME and KDE …

Software 24 Mar 2003, 20:46
Is this the end of the domain transfer nightmare?

ICANN has an opportunity to do something useful

An end to the frustrating, illogical and frequently abused system of transferring domain names between registrars may finally arrive this week at the ICANN meeting in Rio de Janeiro. In meetings today and a council tomorrow, a report enticingly named "Policies and Processes for Gaining and Losing Registrars" will seek to bring …

Music and Media 24 Mar 2003, 20:52
EMC chief cashes in on losses

Storage pays

EMC's chief executive officer Joe Tucci was rewarded handsomely last year with a gutsy salary and piles of options even though the company lost ground to the competition. Diamond Joe was awarded a US$675,000 bonus on top of his million dollar salary, according to a Friday SEC filing. The EMC chief also received 2 million shares …

Storage 24 Mar 2003, 23:36