31st March 2003 Archive
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Email bullying on the rise
Want some? Do ya?
If you're the victim of email bullying, you're not alone. A survey of 3,400 people by job site reed.co.uk found that bullying in the workplace by email is on the rise with one in six of staff claiming to have been victimised in this way. Curiously, it's senior workers who claim to be bullied more - with one in four of all …
Music and Media 31 Mar 2003, 09:34
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Mobile phones ‘give away locations of soldiers’
New field orders
It's just as well that they didn't manage to install the magical CDMA mobile phone system that Qualcomm would have liked to see in Iraq; they'd have had to prevent their soldiers from using it. At least, that's the logical deduction from new field orders. There are mobile phones that work in Iraq. They just have to be satellite …
Mobile 31 Mar 2003, 09:41
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Sendmail suffers second major flaw
Particularly dangerous
Makers of Sendmail, the popular e-mail transmission software, were taken by surprise over the weekend by a public announcement of another flaw in the program. Systems affected by the vulnerability include all versions of Sendmail Pro, as well as systems running open-source Sendmail versions prior to 8.12.9, including UNIX and …
Security 31 Mar 2003, 09:44
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Qualcomm ‘superhacker’ wins change of venue
Indictment merger on cards
Accused superhacker Jerome Heckenkamp is saying goodbye to sunny San Diego, California after winning a venue change for a 10-count indictment accusing him of sophisticated hack attacks against telecom equipment-maker Qualcomm. A federal judge in San Diego ordered the case transferred Thursday to San Jose, California five …
Security 31 Mar 2003, 09:47
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BMC grabs IT Masters
Service levels
BMC Software has acquired IT Masters International S.A. and its 75 staff for around $42m, writes Tony Lock. IT Masters supplies software management tools which assess the impact that technology has on business services. The company's principal offering, MasterCell, is an adaptive management tool that is used to model the effect …
Hardware 31 Mar 2003, 10:01
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Contractor loses crucial IR35 High Court case
Implications for all contractors
On March 28, Justice Hart gave his verdict in the Gordon Stutchbury versus Inland Revenue case. He ruled in favour of the Inland Revenue. He didn't even send it back to the General Commissioners. The crucial thing here, was that he was listening to an appeal against the verdict of the General Commissioners, rather than making a …
Small Biz 31 Mar 2003, 11:31
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Chafford, Essex gets broadband
102 exchanges set trigger levels
BT has released the names of a further 102 exchanges which have now been set targets which, if reached, will prompt the telco to convert the exchange to ADSL. Congratulations go to Chafford in Essex which has, following publication of today's list, automatically triggered its target and will now have its exchange converted to …
Telecoms 31 Mar 2003, 11:52
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HP axes UK contractor rates
A lot of a trend
HP is to cut contractor pay rates from April 7 by 10 per cent as a "first step" to bringing its remuneration packages in line with the rest of the industry. "Contractor pay rates [at HP] are significantly above current industry rates and do not reflect the current 'over-supply' of IT Contractors in the market," the company said …
Business 31 Mar 2003, 12:32
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Bomb planted outside IBM Bologna offices
Defused safely
Police today safely defused a bomb planted outside IBM Italy's offices in Bologna. No-one has claimed responsibility, but Italian police think that the bomb was planted in protest against Gulf War II. If this assumption is correct, US and British multinationals will have to tighten security even further. You can find a more …
Business 31 Mar 2003, 12:51
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What do you give the man who had everything?
Clue: Steve Jobs will be listening carefully
There were tears on Thursday as Net luminary and myopic visionary Dr Stuart M Lynn handed over power of ICANN to successor Paul Twomey in Rio de Janeiro. But the terrible wrench felt by this notoriously sensitive man must have been tempered slightly by the retirement gift presented to him by his colleagues. The big question is …
Bootnotes 31 Mar 2003, 12:57
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ViewSonic to launch UK PDA
Reg Kit Watch Plus: new HP Presario desktops, notebooks; and ATI's All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro
PDA ViewSonic is to bring its V35 PocketPC PDA to the UK market. The V35 contains a 300MHz Intel XScale processor, 64MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash ROM. Expansion is provided by a single SD card slot. ViewSonic claims that, at £249, the V35 is the "lowest-priced" PocketPC in its class, but we note that Dell's 300MHz Axim X5 PDA …
Personal 31 Mar 2003, 13:03
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The security appliance is dead – report
Long live the security services switch
Yankee Group is advising clients to stop buying security appliances and to consider investing in security switches instead. Two Yankee Group reports, Security Services Switches Mark the End of Security Appliances, and Security Service Switches to Rule the Day: Security Appliances are Dead!, declare the end of the security …
Security 31 Mar 2003, 13:48
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MM02 issues upbeat(ish) trading update
But what will the writedowns be?
MM02, the mobile network operator formerly owned by BT, has reported an improved performance in most regions, although it will be reviewing the carrying value of its assets. MMO2's lack of size may eventually result in it becoming a takeover target, and an improved performance should help it drive a harder bargain. Wireless …
Mobile 31 Mar 2003, 14:05
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NTL racks up BB numbers
Something to smile about
NTL - which recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after last year's annus horribilis - attracted almost 400,000 new high speed Internet customers in 2002, the company announced today. Publishing full-year results today the cableco said that it had 517,00 high speed punters at the end of 2002 - an increase of …
Telecoms 31 Mar 2003, 14:07
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Chip sales slide as recovery ‘stalls’
But industry still looking healthier than it was last year
The chip industry's fifteen-month recovery "stalled" in February, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today. "Geopolitical uncertainty" - what you and I call 'war' - is to blame, the SIA said. The SIA's latest monthly figures show a 3.3 per cent decline in sales between February and January. Some $12.2 …
Channel 31 Mar 2003, 14:54
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Broadcom wins HP support for ‘54g’ WLAN brand
What's in a name?
Broadcom's cunning plan to dominate the 802.11g WLAN market by attaching its '54g' brand name to the putative standard took a step closer to fruition today when HP said it will not only integrate a 54g-based chipset into its Compaq Presario 2100 and 2500 notebooks, but both machines will sport the '54g' logo. Broadcom's 54g …
Wireless 31 Mar 2003, 15:07
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Klez-H hangs around like a bad smell
Odious worm top viral charts, again
Klez, yet again, was the mostly reported viral menace on the Internet this month. Managed services firm Messagelabs has blocked Klez-H 387,026 times this month. The virus accounted for 15.3 per cent of support calls to AV firm Sophos. March marks the fourteenth month on the trot that Klez-H has appeared in Sophos' top ten …
Malware 31 Mar 2003, 15:16
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The Bastard wants to know – How's your interviewing style?
Episode 5 Quiz time
BOFH 2003: Episode 5 Due BOFH 2003: Episode 5 Due to an unfortunate spate of Onion Bhaji poisonings at the staff cafeteria, you have been called upon to act as a member of the interview panel to select some computing 'professionals' for work at a distal site. Your company needs your help, but first, we need to verify your …
BOFH 31 Mar 2003, 16:07
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UK SMEs are sitting ducks for crackers
Don't get fooled again
More than one million UK businesses are vulnerable to hacker (or more properly cracker) attacks. according to a study by Microsoft, 65 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK have no form of intrusion detection system, while more than 15 do not even a basic firewall. "This lack of basic protection leaves over 1 …
Small Biz 31 Mar 2003, 18:02
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Oftel in tizz over broadband
Confusion reigns
Oftel is in a right old tizzy about its definition of broadband. Here's its usual definition: "'Dial-up'or 'narrowband' Internet access is used...for access speeds up to and including 128 kilobits per second (kbps). 'Broadband' is used...to refer to higher bandwidth, always-on services, offering data rates of 128 kbps and above …
Telecoms 31 Mar 2003, 18:04
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Oracle aims low with App Server
Spelling BEA
Oracle continued its assault on BEA Systems with the release today of a new lost-cost version of its application server and a program to move BEA customers onto Oracle free of charge. The new Oracle9i Application Server Java Edition is to be offered at $5,000 per processor to customers. The standard and enterprise editions cost …
Hardware 31 Mar 2003, 18:32
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Staff penalised for Dick Brown's failure
Letter EDS UK pensions under fire
This letter from Colin Sambrook Senior National Officer of the Public and Commercial Services Union was published in the weekend edition of The FT (Mar 29/30). We republish it with permission from the PCS. You have recently reported on the turmoil in EDS, including the departure of Dick Brown, who will receive a $35 million …
Business 31 Mar 2003, 19:00
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Adaptec scoops up Eurologic
Hardware build-out
Adaptec will pay a cool $30 million to acquire Eurologic Systems and build out its storage hardware portfolio. Adaptec already sells some external storage products under its DuraStor brand. It will now add Dublin-based Eurologic's external disk products and networked storage gear. The takeover should be completed in April. …
Storage 31 Mar 2003, 21:13
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SAP costs too much – customers
ROI challenged
Every now and then, an analyst firm gathers up its collective courage and issues an ROI study which contradicts everything a vendor's marketing department would have you believe. So hats off to Nucleus Research for firing a salvo at SAP for causing customers to shell out millions on software with little more than added worker …
Hardware 31 Mar 2003, 23:02
