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2nd July 2003 Archive

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  • E-commerce minister calls for spam global offensive

    No Shock. No Awe

    The Government is calling for greater international co-operation to stamp out spam. UK E-commerce Minister Stephen Timms told the All Parliamentary Internet Group ((APIG) Spam Summit today that the Government is on schedule to create tougher anti-spam laws by the end of October. This will ensure that the UK implements European …

    Security 2 Jul 2003, 08:51

  • Chip and PIN: not enough to beat card fraud

    But you knew that already

    Chip and PIN payment cards are currently being trialed in Northampton, before a planned nationwide rollout. The introduction of chip and PIN will certainly be an important development in the fight against card fraud. However, as one police chief has now pointed out, new technology may only deflect fraudsters' attentions to other …

    Security 2 Jul 2003, 08:57

  • Blocking Internet Porn in Iran

    Can't work. Won't work

    Iranian Internet 'porn' may be extremely mild by web standards; the soft core material consists of pictures of women with hair falling from their headscarves and showing a little cleavage, while the hard core goes as far as nakedness, writes Robin Bloor of Bloor Research. Nevertheless, it doesn't amuse the mullahs of Iran. …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 09:54

  • Overland bags Okapi

    Storage thang

    Last week witnessed the latest step in the consolidation race in the storage market when Overland Storage Inc. acquired Okapi Software. While the acquisition price of only $5 million is not high, the move shows Overland's desire to extend its influence in the burgeoning storage sector. The acquisition of the privately owned …

    Storage 2 Jul 2003, 09:56

  • Xbox prices axed in Asia (except Japan)

    Software down too

    All of the Asia-Pacific territories where Microsoft sells the Xbox, with the sole exception of Japan, have seen the price of the console and its software slashed this week in an attempt to compete more strongly with the PS2. In South Korea, the Xbox console sees a price cut of just over 10 per cent, bringing the system to 249, …

    Personal 2 Jul 2003, 09:58

  • Friskit alleges Real Networks is a patent violator

    Update Seeks injunction, damages

    Little-known US technology company Friskit has alleged Real Networks and its Listen.com subsidiary have infringed its intellectual property, and this past Friday filed a complaint with the US District Court of Chicago seeking redress. Friskit describes itself as "a technology licensing company focused on enabling consumers to …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 10:15

  • Bloomberg extortionist jailed for 4 years

    Cracker cracked

    A Kazakhstan man was jailed yesterday to 51 months in prison following his conviction in February for an attempt to extort $200,000 from Michael Bloomberg, founder of the Bloomberg financial news service. Oleg Zezev (AKA Oleg Zezov), 29, was convicted of breaking into Bloomberg's computer system, and then emailing Bloomberg …

    Security 2 Jul 2003, 10:21

  • New firms missing out on IT tax breaks

    Unaware

    The owners of new businesses are failing to take advantage of tax breaks that were extended in this year’s Budget to help them with the cost of purchasing IT, a survey has revealed. In a bid to help smaller businesses afford the IT equipment they need to succeed, the Chancellor extended the Capital Allowance scheme until March …

    Small Biz 2 Jul 2003, 11:34

  • Case modder smuggles PC on board Millennium Falcon

    'I've made a few modifications myself'

    We've seen some bizarre PC case modifications in our time, but this one takes the cake. One Russ Caslis has built a PC into the Millennium Falcon. Yes, Han Solo's famous smuggling vessel - 'You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?' 'Should I have?' 'It's the ship the made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs...' - now …

    Personal 2 Jul 2003, 11:35

  • MS disses small.biz marketing efforts

    Offers advice

    The vast majority of marketing material produced by small firms is not up to scratch, according to Microsoft. Recent research has shown more than a third of UK small businesses’ marketing budget is spent on the production of leaflets and brochures – making this the most popular form of promotion. However Microsoft has claimed …

    Small Biz 2 Jul 2003, 11:43

  • Websites – Are you helping the disabled?

    Legal duties

    Many website operators are unaware that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 ("Act") applies to websites as it does to, say, a public building. Under the Act, it is unlawful for a "provider of services" to discriminate against a disabled person and this includes website operators. If the structure of a website makes it …

    Small Biz 2 Jul 2003, 11:55

  • Consumers want PCs to deliver ‘all home entertainment’

    Not quite...

    British consumers want to put the PC at the heart of their home entertainment systems, a survey conducted by UK polling organisation Mori has concluded. That result will come as music to the ears of Microsoft - that's what its Windows XP Media Center Edition is all about, after all - and to Packard Bell, which sponsored the …

    Personal 2 Jul 2003, 12:09

  • RM wins £30m Scottish gig

    Rabbit and hat

    RM pulled a rabbit out of the hat for analysts who came calling on the company yesterday in the form of a £30m contract to supply all the ICT products and services for schools in South Lanarkshire. The gig will not have come entirely as a surprise to the assembled analysts, as RM was annointed preferred bidder in February. So …

    Channel 2 Jul 2003, 12:22

  • Seagate pumps £90m into NI

    Which is nice

    Seagate Technology today announced that it is investing £90 million in its operations in Derry. Invest Northern Ireland said that it would add a further £10 million to the investment, which will allow the hardware maker to develop new technology to boost memory capacity in storage devices. Seagate's main business is the design …

    Business 2 Jul 2003, 12:27

  • Consumers don't trust paid-for search

    Really?

    Consumers lose faith in search results when they are informed that some of the results are paid for. Says who? Says Consumer WebWatch, an arm of America's Consumer Union. It bases its findings upon an ethnographic (i.e. deep observation) study of 17 (i.e. very few) people, none of whom were aware before the research kicked off …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 13:25

  • Browser innovation is dead – Andreessen

    But don't blame me

    Netscape founder Marc Andreessen has taken a potshot at the product that earned him his fortune. The former Illinois student commercialized Tim Berners Lee's web browser first with Mosaic, then took the team with him to found Netscape. But Andreessen says that "that there hasn't been any innovation on the browser in the last …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 13:29

  • UK.gov pumps £90m into nanotech

    Set to double

    The Government is funding nanotechnology R&D and facilities to the tune of £90m over six years. It expects regional and industry investment will top up the pot to £200m. The government is allocating £50m for an applied research programme into making very small things and £40m for facilities which will make up a UK …

    Data Center 2 Jul 2003, 13:48

  • Peoplesoft trumpets Q2

    Up! Up! Up!

    Peoplesoft today offered a teaser for Q2 which it says are better than it had anticipated. Prelimary results for the quarter ended June 30 indicated license revenue will be $105m-$1115m and total revenue will be $490-$500m. Earnings per share are now expected to be $0.10- $0.11, compare with previous guidance of $0.9-$0.10. …

    Data Center 2 Jul 2003, 14:04

  • Liability loopholes catch UK tech firms

    Customers make hay

    Technology companies were today warned to check for costly contract liability loopholes in their insurance policies. According to specialist insurer Hiscox, a significant number of UK technology companies and consultants have insufficient or no insurance against contractual disputes. The company, which underwrites risks for …

    Channel 2 Jul 2003, 14:43

  • Wanadoo is caching your KaZaA

    Traffic unjammed

    Subscribers of Wanadoo Netherlands can download MP3s and videos twice as fast, thanks to a PeerCache set up by the company for users of KaZaA and other peer to peer networks. Wanadoo's Dutch subsidiary has stored 0.8 terabyte of frequently asked files on local servers, and this cache reduces the volume of international traffic …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 16:29

  • Hull Uni scoops prize in .Net compo

    Imagine Cup

    A team of student programmers from the University of Hull has secured third prize in an international competition, sponsored by Microsoft, designed to get students interested in developing .NET applications. The winners of the first worldwide Imagine Cup Student Programming Contest, judged on creativity and real-world …

    Software 2 Jul 2003, 17:13

  • Open and closed source software defects reloaded

    Rhyme and Reasoning

    Open source and closed source software packages start out with roughly equivalent defect rates even though code inspection gives OS packages an edge over time. That's the conclusion of a pair of studies by software tools vendor Reasoning. In the first study, published in February, 2003, Reasoning found that the TCP/IP protocol …

    Software 2 Jul 2003, 17:13

  • Reg test-drives MyOrigo motion control smartphone

    Preview Quick spin round the block

    When we first wrote about MyOrigo and its motion-controlled cellphone, MyDevice, a few weeks ago, the Finnish technology company appeared to be offering little more than a handful of Flash animations with which to persuade mobile phone networks and punters that MyDevice is worthy of closer attention. We demanded a demo of the …

    Mobile 2 Jul 2003, 19:14

  • All-you-can-eat phone data

    Almost...

    Vodafone has introduced an almost-all-you-can eat data tariff on its UK network. Subscribers can sign up to the plan for £45 per month. In practice, there's a 150 MB cap. It's part of a complete overhaul of Vodafone's GPRS rates, which sees three new capped tariffs. For £5 a month, the occasional user can use GPRS at £2 per MB …

    Mobile 2 Jul 2003, 20:06

  • Anyone ever managed to claim on PayPal's Money Back Guarantee?

    Thought not

    The perfect insurance company would have thousands of customers paying for its services but never claiming. But then that's a fantasy scenario. Or it was anyway before PayPal managed to fit for a second time into a legal grey area with its Money Back Guarantee service. In March this year, the US Federal Deposit Insurance …

    Media 2 Jul 2003, 20:29

  • Mister Tanglewood tapped as Intel Fellow

    The Alphacide continues

    Intel has tapped a former DEC chip engineer as one of its prestigious Fellows. They call him Peter Bannon, but we suspect a better name might be Mr. Tanglewood. Bannon, 41, will work as director of Intel's Itanic processor family. He has spent 19 years designing processors for HP, Comaq and DEC. Until yesterday, he was …

    Servers 2 Jul 2003, 21:57

  • The Bastard School of Argument

    Episode 12 Devil makes work for idle hands

    BOFH 2003: Episode 12 It's not a good day for The Boss - for two reasons. First, there's no work on and I'm bored - and we know who makes work for Idle Hands. (Apart from Software Assurance). Second because there's no work on and The PFY is also bored. "I think I'm going on an Operations Mission." "Really," I ask,. "What …

    BOFH 2 Jul 2003, 22:38

  • IBM gives blades a kick in the pants

    New Xeons on the way

    IBM plans to give its blade servers a boost later this month with new Xeon processors from Intel. IBM already has some of the most powerful blades around but plans to add 2.8GHz Xeon chips as an option. The chips will appear in IBM's HS20 blade server and are of particular importance because of their speedy 533MHz front side …

    Servers 2 Jul 2003, 22:47