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11th July 2003 Archive

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  • 3 UK adds NEC e808Y to handset roster

    Big discounts

    3 UK has added a fourth 3G phone to its line-up. The NEC e808Y, a non-folding version version of the NEC e808 3 UK already supports, costs from £49 with a contract. We can't see many people buying a phone without a contract - the full price is £449. Which goes to show the huge discounts that 3 is prepared to offer to grab …

    Mobile 11 Jul 2003, 06:47

  • Cheap DSL will hurt providers: report

    Caught in a Trap - any turning back?

    A broadband strategy based on cut-rate prices could hurt the commercial viability of broadband providers, a new report says. Cheap broadband availability, specifically DSL, would trip up broadband providers in the same way that it impeded the viability of dot-com companies, since cheap or free services aren't viable in the long …

    Telecoms 11 Jul 2003, 07:00

  • Iraq: the view from the ground

    Long way to go with Internet and IT infrastructure

    With post-war Iraq continuing to create huge controversy - non-existent WMDs, organised Iraqi resistance, uncaptured Saddam, little or no electricity or running water - we thought we'd look at the wholly less controversial issue of IT infrastructure. What there is, what there was and what efforts are being put in to make it …

    Music and Media 11 Jul 2003, 07:19

  • Amsterdam: home of the 419 lottery scam

    Collect your prize, but first pay money

    "Fortune Trust Finance & Securities opens a whole new world of opportunities providing you with that financial security you can count on," reads a brand new web site. Take a closer look and you understand why. Profiles of "our dedicated Executive Directors" make you laugh: the low res-pictures are noticeably copied from other …

    Music and Media 11 Jul 2003, 07:44

  • Consolidation: what does it mean for small players?

    More choice, weirdly enough

    Anyone interested in the enterprise applications market will have had their eyes focused recently on the potential mergers among some of the larger players - Oracle, PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards. But, as uncertainty reigns, what is happening to the other players in the market, asks Fran Howarth of Bloor Research. At the high end …

    Hardware 11 Jul 2003, 08:29

  • EC launches Infineon state aid probe

    €76.8m from the Portuguese govt.

    The European Commission has launched as "in-depth probe" into financial aid the Portuguese government plans to provide to a local DRAM plan owned by an Infineon subsidiary, the Commission said this week. The investigation will focus on a proposed &euro:76.8 million ($87.4 million) grant from the Portuguese government to …

    Channel 11 Jul 2003, 08:42

  • Right of Reply We've found the perfect solution to spam: Mark takes the stand

    We have found the perfect Solution to Spam Greetings 'GIEIS' or the Global ISP Email Identity system offers Mr McCarthy the 'Technical Satire of the Year Award'. The entire development team has had such a great laugh at the article posted here by 'The Register'. So, just to even the score a little, in a good nature of course, …

    Letters 11 Jul 2003, 08:50

  • Axe-wielding Texans savage oak tree, post pics, get caught

    Updated Illegal loggers fingered by own website

    One guiding principle of committing the perfect crime is to leave or no evidence of the misdemeanour. A good set of prints on the murder weapon or a size-ten shoeprint in the flowerbed will not help your case when the Feds come hammering on your door. Sadly, the five Texas men who took an axe to an oak tree in Austin completely …

    Music and Media 11 Jul 2003, 08:54

  • Intel enables RAID 1 support on 865, 875 chipsets

    Software update

    Intel has updated its chipset support software to enable RAID 1 arrays. It also adds support for Windows 2000. The release, version 3.5 of Intel's Application Accelerator RAID Edition, enables RAID 1 - disk mirroring - on certain 865 and 875 chipsets. The previous version, 3.0, only offered RAID 0 - data 'striping' - support. …

    Personal 11 Jul 2003, 09:14

  • Web Conferencing – Ready for Prime Time

    Just as well

    Like many new technologies, when teleconferencing was first introduced it was desperately difficult to get it to work, writes Martin Langham of Bloor Research. I can remember struggling to match 10 different plugs to 10 different sockets and configure a PC in a desperate attempt to have a teleconference. In the end, the struggle …

    Data Networking 11 Jul 2003, 09:31

  • About that Sony static electricity claim

    Letter Killing field

    "A spokeswoman likened the shock to strength of a static electricity charge" Sony recalls 18,000 Vaios Reg Reader Dan writes: I do love it when spokespersons (to be properly PC here) say things like "... a shock such as that from static electricity". Last time I checked, lightning was static electricity. So's that …

    Letters 11 Jul 2003, 09:39

  • Sharp cans Linux PDA in Europe?

    Update New ones on the way, apparently

    Sharp's introduction of two new Linux-based PDAs for the Japanese market appears to have heralded the death of earlier members of the Zaurus line in Europe. Register readers have been told by various Sharp support personnel that the Zaurus SL-5500 has been discontinued. One reader was told in email signed 'Z UK Support': "We …

    Mobile 11 Jul 2003, 11:05

  • Chip VAT fraud gang sentenced to 31 years

    £7.1m in confiscation orders

    A criminal gang found guilty of an £11m VAT carousel fraud * involving computer chips has been sentenced to a total of 31 years in jail. Confiscation orders totalling £7.1m have been made against some of the nine gang members. The convictions in a three trials at Blackfriars Crown Court follow a joint Customs and National Crime …

    Channel 11 Jul 2003, 11:25

  • GSM Association calls for MMS push

    Let's Work Together

    The GSM Association yesterday issued a rallying call to the wireless industry to speed the arrival of enhanced, fully-interoperable Multi-media Messaging Services (MMS) services and devices. The influential trade association wants to drive the acceleration of MMS roaming, national MMS network interworking, and terminal …

    Mobile 11 Jul 2003, 11:29

  • Let's do PS3 launch… in 2005

    Elpida production schedule

    A late 2005 launch date for the PlayStation 3 looks increasingly likely today, with confirmation from Elpida that it will be beginning production of memory chips for the console early that year. Earlier this year, Elpida was officially named as the memory supplier for the PS3, with the company set to supply memory architecture …

    Personal 11 Jul 2003, 12:04

  • Chip makers' 2003 capex to buck downward trend

    Buying more kit as customers buy more chips

    Semiconductor manufacturers are set to increase spending on chip-making equipment this year, reversing the downward trend witnessed over the last few years, market watcher Gartner claimed this week. That, it reckons, is a sign of incipient recovery, with the industry starting to "emerge from its holding pattern and... to move …

    Channel 11 Jul 2003, 12:25

  • ATI gears up for Q3, Q4 chip launches

    Revving RV350, R360, R420

    ATI's release schedule is proceeding as planned, with follow-ups to the Radeon 9600 Pro and 9800 Pro coming later this month and mid-to-late August. So claim unnamed sources cited by Xbit Labs. The two upcoming chips are dubbed the RV350 and R360, respectively. Further down the line, ATI is expected to unveil the R420 in …

    Channel 11 Jul 2003, 12:41

  • BBC Domesday Project saved for Nation

    Pop along to Kew

    The BBC's Domesday Project, the groundbreaking multimedia tour of the UK as it was in 1986, is again open to the public. You can pop along to the National Archive at Kew, to view it on a PC for free. This is a very appropriate home, as the original Domesday Book also lives there. At one time, the BBC Domesday Project looked …

    Music and Media 11 Jul 2003, 12:42

  • Oftel dismisses Freeserve BT complaint

    Same old, same old

    BT's broadband marketing does not breach the Competition Act, Oftel has ruled. The regulator investigated BT's tactics after a complaint from Freeserve alleging that BT was behaving anti-competitively by using its 'blue bill' and '150' customer service line to market BT Broadband products. BT's joint telephony and Internet …

    Telecoms 11 Jul 2003, 12:55

  • Autonomy swoops on Virage

    Video Play

    Autonomy, the world's most hyped search software company post-AltaVista and pre-Google, is snapping up Virage Inc. for $24.8m. The net purchase price of this US webcast and video production software developer falls to $13.3m after Virage's expected net cash balance is put into the pot. Autonomy expects the purchase to be …

    Hardware 11 Jul 2003, 13:03

  • Virus hysteria debunk-site in difficulties

    Curtains for Vmyths.com?

    The popular Vmyths Web site which has for several years ridiculed the excesses of virus and cyber-terror hysteria may be going down for the count. A chronic lack of advertising income has left editor Rob Rosenberger pretty much the sole, volunteer contributor, but now he's been called up for military duty overseas. The site …

    Malware 11 Jul 2003, 13:03

  • DTI doles out £5.4m in hi-tech research grants

    EUREKA money split 36-ways

    The Department of Trade and Industry today dished out £5.4m in high-tech research grants, "the largest DTI payout in recent years" to EUREKA projects. The money comes from the Government as part of a Europe-wide initiative to promote multi-national R&D partnerships and is split between 36 UK companies working on 17 projects. …

    Small Biz 11 Jul 2003, 13:31

  • Premium rate scam hits London

    Pass The Parcel

    Parcels delivery company Interlink Express today distanced itself from a premium rate telephone scam taking place in the London area over the last few days. The scam involves a bogus company claiming to be "Interlink International Post" contacting members of the public via door-drop cards or by telephone requesting prospective …

    Data Networking 11 Jul 2003, 13:40

  • Oftel should ‘raise awareness’ of BT rivals

    Watchdog Watchdogged

    Oftel, the telecoms watchdog, should do more to raise public awareness of BT rivals, the National Audit Office claims. In a report to be presented to Parliament today, the NAO notes that just 23 per cent of consumers could name a telecom supplier other than BT. Which just goes to show that it is unwise to underestimate the …

    Data Networking 11 Jul 2003, 14:13

  • 90% of notebooks to bundle Wi-Fi by 2008

    WLANs here to stay - in hardware at least

    The Wi-Fi hotspot bubble may yet burst, but WLAN access is going to play an increasingly important part in the notebook market over the coming years, according to the latest report from market watcher Strategy Analytics. This year, some 24 per cent of notebooks will ship with built-in 802.11a, b and/or g support, around eight …

    Wireless 11 Jul 2003, 15:22

  • UK ID scheme complex, costly, won't work, says expert

    Biometric bog-up ahoy...

    UK home secretary and serial control freak David Blunkett's national ID card scheme has come under fire from an unlikely source - the company currently deploying Belgium's national ID card scheme. This has a certain piquancy, given that Blunkett thinks the UK is "out of kilter" with Europe on ID cards, yet here we have an outfit …

    Music and Media 11 Jul 2003, 15:24

  • Apple attempts to patent fast user switching

    Rewriting patent history?

    Apple has filed for a patent that suggests the company is working on a new mobile device capable of supporting multiple users. Either that or it's cunningly trying to outflank Microsoft's lead on fast multi-user switching by retrospectively patenting the technique as its own. Almost as interesting as the patent's content is the …

    Mac Channel 11 Jul 2003, 16:42

  • IBM, Sun and HP locked in giant Unix OS spat

    Migration sensation

    Analysts say the Unix operating system market is dwindling with speed, but the major server vendors are fighting hard to hold onto their clientele and to attract new customers with a host of Unix migration offerings rolling out in recent weeks. Right atop IBM's Web site is a handy link to a Solaris onto AIX migration program. …

    Servers 11 Jul 2003, 19:34

  • Inflexible work kills creativity

    Don't cramp my style

    UK companies are jeopardising creativity through inflexible working hours. The common practice of working late into the night kills creativity - except in workers under 24, according to research sponsored by Corel released today. Afternoon brainstorms which try to force creativity are actually killing productivity, the study …

    Small Biz 11 Jul 2003, 22:05