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15th May 2003 Archive

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  • NewZealand.com saga continues

    Answers to Parliamentary queries raise yet more questions

    The saga of the US$500,000 paid by the New Zealand government for domain NewZealand.com is still rolling on, with official responses to Parliamentary questions producing more queries than they did answers. New Zealand MP Rodney Hide has been bombarding the government with queries over its strange conduct. First the government …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 07:38

  • SCO invokes RIAA in Linux jihad

    'Rabid'

    SCO has warned Linux users that they might be liable if they continue to use the open source operating system. It also suspended its own Linux business. Open Source community leader Bruce Perens described the actions as "rabid". In March, SCO sued IBM for $1 billion damages claiming that Big Blue had violated SCO's ' …

    Servers 15 May 2003, 07:41

  • Verisign granted DNS lookup patent

    Mind your forks

    Verisign has been granted a patent protecting the lookup of domain names. The patent protects the act of performing several look-ups at once, or "performing a multitude of searches simultaneously, transparent to the user. "Specifically, the improved query server searches for an existing domain name records in various domains …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 07:42

  • Can US software developers form an ‘open source’ union?

    The CyberLodge

    There has never been a successful union-style organizing movement among US software developers. Ian Lurie, who runs a Seattle Web design firm, believes this is because traditional "industrial" union structures don't serve programmers' needs very well, but that a new, "open source" union structure based on pre-industrial craft …

    Software 15 May 2003, 08:07

  • Broadband buoys Tiscali

    Revs up

    Tiscali has upped its revenues on the back of increased take-up of broadband, the pan-European ISP reported today. Publishing Q1 results today Tiscali generated revenues of €212.5m - an increase of almost ten per cent compared to the same period last year. EBITDA (earnings before interest etc) skipped in at €15.6m, an increase …

    Telecoms 15 May 2003, 09:16

  • MS ‘slush’ fund provides big discounts to stop Linux – email

    Top exec's 'keep Linux out of government programme revealed

    Microsoft's head of worldwide sales last summer circulated a 'stop Linux at any price' email to sales execs and senior company executives, including Steve Ballmer, Jim Allchin and Jeff Raikes. According to the International Herald Tribune, which has seen the email, Orlando Ayala was aiming to block Linux's progress in government …

    Software 15 May 2003, 10:27

  • Paedo ring sysadmins jailed for 11 years

    Operation Informal

    Two British men yesterday began prison sentences totalling 11 years and three months for their involvement in a sophisticated paedophile ring. Simon Chan, a 27 year-old IT engineer from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, was sentenced to a total of five and half years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute indecent …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 11:57

  • NTL to escape ASA ad cap rap

    Some you win...

    NTL looks set to escape a rap from the advertising watchdog over complaints concerning whether its capped broadband service offers "unlimited surfing". In February NTL sparked a flood of criticism from its punters after it introduced a 1GB a day usage limit on its broadband service. The cableco insisted that the cap would only …

    Telecoms 15 May 2003, 11:58

  • Ballmer on Linux

    Refining arguments

    Last week Microsoft held a meeting in Berlin with European industry analysts to discuss Linux and other Open Source Software (OSS), writes Tony Lock, of Bloor Research. The day concluded with CEO Steve Ballmer discussing Microsoft's position in the world. The discussions began with Microsoft noting that Linux and OSS is …

    Servers 15 May 2003, 12:08

  • Vodafone asks for wireless data guinea-pigs

    Flat line charge rate

    An integrated - GPRS and WiFi - mobile data service is due to be rolled out by Vodafone in July or August. The company is now asking for corporates who want to be guinea-pigs of the new version of Vodafone Mobile Office, to sign up. The new service will be "officially" secret for another couple of months, but it will be aimed …

    Wireless 15 May 2003, 12:14

  • ‘No fuss’ e-risk cover for SMEs

    Indemnity cover

    Click For Cover, A Lloyd's underwriting firm, has unwrapped a "no-fuss" e-risk insurance policy designed for smaller businesses. Called Club Esurance, the policy is designed for companies employing fewer than 30 people (including directors). It indemnifies businesses against losses and liability claims for up to £500K arising …

    Small Biz 15 May 2003, 12:54

  • Arctic Circle village gets VDSL

    Fringe benefits from space station project

    Residents of the remote Arctic Circle village of Longyearbyen in Norway are to get some of the highest speed Net connections in the planet. The 1,700 residents will be able to watch "100 TV stations and a full VDSL (very high speed DSL) network", thanks to plans to lay two fibre optic cables between the mainland and the island …

    Data Networking 15 May 2003, 13:11

  • Banks ‘fail to protect IT systems’

    Lack of clarity

    Nearly 40 per cent of banks have suffered a major IT security breach in the past year despite investing heavily in IT security practices and technologies. The Deloitte & Touche survey of 35 per cent of the world's top 500 global financial institutions contradicts the common belief that most security breaches come from inside …

    Security 15 May 2003, 13:32

  • Tiscali to launch Euro Sat BB service

    Summer launch

    Tiscali is hooking up with Eutelsat to provide a one-way broadband satellite service throughout 15 countries in Europe. The pan-European ISP is targeting the service - based on Eutelsat's OPENSKY platform - at home users in areas not covered by terrestrial broadband technologies. It's estimated that one in four of Europe's …

    Telecoms 15 May 2003, 13:53

  • VCs pump $23m into RLX

    Blades made

    RLX Technologies, the Texan maker of ultra-high density blade servers, has secured $23m in new capital. This is apparently the biggest VC investment in a computer hardware firm in 2003. Which shows either how little VCs think of computer hardware firms, or how much they think of RLX. Or both. All of RLX's existing 'major' VCs …

    Servers 15 May 2003, 14:22

  • For sale: One annoying tw*t of a girlfriend

    Updated More eBay auction fun and games

    There's no doubt that eBay really is a vast improvement on the old Exchange and Mart when it comes to getting rid of unwanted items. Like girlfriends, for instance. Indeed, where else could you expect to attract a bid of £10,000,000 for one second-hand partner, described thus?: One annoying twat of a girlfriend. WARNING GOODS …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 15:03

  • Rural wireless broadband goes national

    plug gaps in hi-speed Net access

    Peterborough based X-Systems Management aims to overcome rural gaps in ADSL and cable service with a wireless LAN-based broadband service, launched yesterday. X-Systems Broadband uses the 2.4 GHz radio frequency to provide true 'always-on' broadband access to businesses and homes, at connection speeds of between 1Mbps and 4Mbps …

    Wireless 15 May 2003, 15:07

  • Oftel restates call for mobile phone charge cut

    Is there an echo in here?

    Oftel has restated its call for mobile phone operators to cut the cost of calls for consumers. In a statement today Oftel boss David Edmonds said: "Calling someone on their mobile phone is expensive because consumers have no option but to pay the connection charge set by the operator of the network they call. "Oftel believes …

    Mobile 15 May 2003, 15:29

  • T-Mobile exits as curse of MS smartphone strikes again

    Customers succumbing to lifeboat-frenzy?

    In what begins to look like what Lady Bracknell would call carelessness, Microsoft mislaid another smartphone customer today. T-Mobile International, which along with AT&T was one of Microsoft's two best shots at winning volume for its phone platform, confessed today that it wouldn't be launching its version this summer after …

    Mobile 15 May 2003, 15:35

  • UpMyStreet saved for Nation

    New owners

    UpMyStreet.com, the brilliant UK web site which went titsup last month after failing to get new funding has a new owner. uSwitch.com, a household bills comparison service, has bought the info-by-post code company from administrators for an undisclosed sum. But there should be some more more cost savings and more cross …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 15:50

  • Internet is dying – Prof. Lessig

    .Pottersville

    The Internet is dying, says Lawrence Lessig, a law professor with a cult following amongst technophiles. Lessig is mobilizing against the FCC's relaxation of media controls which will leave most of the United States' professional media outlets in the hands of a tiny number of owners. In FCC chairman Michael Powell's vision, Old …

    Music and Media 15 May 2003, 21:33

  • Come and get your Linux: SCO opens door to suing self?

    Server ajar

    Yesterday, SCO was so shocked - shocked! - by the degrading effects of Linux on Unix, that it pulled out of the Linux business. The company sent warning letters to 1,500 enterprises and solemnly announced that "until the attendant risks with Linux are better understood and properly resolved, the company will suspend all of its …

    Software 15 May 2003, 22:28