16th May 2003 Archive

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TI, Nokia gang up on Qualcomm

CDMA R'Us

Maybe there's money in the emerging Iraqi cellphone market? Although Qualcomm accounts for less than twenty per cent of mobile chipsets, Texas Instruments and Nokia want a piece of the CDMA pioneer's lucrative business. TI, whose OMAP platform gives it a dominant position in the GSM/GPRS handset business, has announced a deal …

Mobile 16 May 2003, 00:32
Reg launches eBay auction killing service

You want it down? Done - in minutes

It took El Reg just two minutes yesterday to kill the eBay auction for one annoying twat of a girlfriend. Two weeks ago, our story on the offer of a date with four geeks led to that sale's almost immediate removal. The lightning speed with which eBay acted led some readers to suspect that the company had some poor office junior …

Bootnotes 16 May 2003, 08:48
Latest addition to hacker toolkits – a light bulb

Shining a light on virtual machine flaws

Java and .Net virtual machines can be prised open with a little ingenuity and hacking tools as crude as a light bulb, according to a pair of Princeton University researchers. The attack, presented in a paper presented at an IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland this week, relies on creating memory errors on a …

Security 16 May 2003, 08:48
Interview E3: N-Gage boss talks price points and more

Following Tuesday's announcement of launch details for Nokia's new console at an underwhelming press event in LA, gi.biz spoke frankly with N-Gage boss Ilkka Raiskinen about criticisms of the system. The $299 price point announced on Tuesday has drawn flak from most quarters of the industry, but it's not the only area that's …

Mobile 16 May 2003, 10:25
Dell does exceedingly well in Q1

IT spend stable

Dell continues to dramatically outperform industry rivals, with shipments up 29 percent during fiscal Q1, even as industry volumes sank 1 per cent. For the quarter ended 2 May, Dell said the strongest growth in worldwide shipments came outside the US, with 29 percent growth in the EMEA region, and 40 percent in Asia-Pacific and …

Channel 16 May 2003, 10:44
Silence versus power: the quest for the quiet PC

Passive cooling, miniITX, what works?

Regular readers will have noted this writer's concern (oh, all right, obsession) with quiet, unobtrusive PC, but may not have entirely grasped why. Particularly as I don't recall ever telling you. But there are good reasons for this, in addition to the semi-bigoted (e.g. a Sinclairesque prejudice against moving parts, and a …

Personal 16 May 2003, 10:56
Ask Jeeves: Why did you junk Espotting for Google?

Well, sir...

Ask Jeeves UK is to replace its sponsored search results supplier, swapping Espotting for Google AdWords. The search company has already used Google AdWords "with excellent results" for nine months in the US, a spokeswoman noted. The financial terms offered by Google for Ask Jeeves' UK business was better, she said. In other …

Music and Media 16 May 2003, 12:41
Telewest to get new email service after spam attacks

More disruption

Telewest punters are set to suffer more disruption to their service next week when the cableco moves its email service to a new platform. The move follows weeks of hassle for Telewest users as the ISP's email service collapsed under a deluge of spam. After a second spam attack last week, which resulted in mail delays of up to …

Music and Media 16 May 2003, 12:41
Oi! Carphone Warehouse, that's our name

Talk UK gets feisty over trademark

Scottish telephone company TalkUK plc is to threatening legal action against Carphone Warehouse over the latter's use of talkUK as a brand name. TalkUK plc sell a product called Carrier Pre Select which enables consumers to route their telephone calls through TalkUK automatically without having to dial a prefix or install any …

Mobile 16 May 2003, 12:46
Has NTL gone soft on 1Gb cap?

'Don't see the need now to impose a rigid cap'

There's speculation that NTL has softened the stand on its 1Gb a cap for its broadband users. In a conference call earlier this week NTL boss Barclay Knapp was asked whether the cableco had seen an improvement in its network performance following the introduction of the cap in February. Here's what he said: "In terms of …

Telecoms 16 May 2003, 13:11
Outrage as Telewest cuts wages

Not happy bunnies

There's unrest at Telewest's Business Fault Centre in Peterborough after workers there were told that the cableco has decided to cut wages by around £1,100 a year. Insiders angry at the decision have told The Register that the pay cut will take a sizeable chunk out of people's salaries. As a result morale has plummeted since …

Business 16 May 2003, 14:46
OptusNet cracker is fined on appeal

'You don't access 435,000 passwords to fill in a Saturday afternoon'

A cracker who broke into the systems of a big Australian ISP and obtained access to hundreds of thousands of customer records was this week convicted on appeal, even after escaping without any punishment at an earlier hearing. Stephen Craig Dendtler, 22, of Bankstown, New South Wales, hacked into OptusNet, gaining access to 435 …

Security 16 May 2003, 14:51
Secure phones no obstacle to wiretapping – US Govt

Uncommonly ineffective

The use of so-called secure telephones presents almost no barrier to wiretapping, according to official US government documents. This interesting revelation is contained in a recent report on Applications for Orders Authorizing or Approving the Interception of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications). The report (pages 10-11 …

Security 16 May 2003, 14:55
Matrix Sequel Has Hacker Cred

Trinity uses a 'sploit

The average American moviegoer taking in the Matrix Reloaded this weekend will likely be wowed by the elaborate action sequences and dazzling special effects. But hackers who've seen the blockbuster are crediting it with a more subtle cinematic milestone: it's the first major motion picture to accurately portray a hack. That's …

Security 16 May 2003, 15:16