17th July 2003 Archive

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ISPs and labels ‘must cooperate’

Jupiter calling

Since broadband providers and music labels have not shown a willingness to cooperate, European consumers are unlikely pay for e-music anytime soon. That is the finding of a Jupiter Research report, which included a survey of 5,000 European consumers, 43 per cent of whom said they are not convinced that paying for a digital …

Music and Media 17 Jul 2003, 09:06
Intersil quits ‘overcrowded’ WiFi, finds sucker to buy

Long odds

The writing is on the wall for WiFi chip suppliers. The WLAN market may be about to boom, but the main beneficiaries of the boom look like being Cisco and Intel - so Intersil has sold off its Prism line of chips to someone who thinks they can out-think those two giants. The brave buyer is GlobespanVirata, which has agreed to …

Wireless 17 Jul 2003, 09:15
Oracle consolidation is ‘one-way bet’

Dangerous strategy, Bloor argues

It is entirely plausible that Oracle's attempt to buy PeopleSoft was an attempt to throw a spanner in the works of the latter's acquisition of J D Edwards, writes Phil Howard of Bloor Research. However, it is equally possible that the conspiracy theorists are wrong. If we assume the latter, for the sake of argument, this means …

Hardware 17 Jul 2003, 09:22
Hotspots – cold turkey or Big Mac?

Why not try selling more food?

How do hotspot locations make money out of wireless connectivity - simple, by not selling it. The problem is that many businesses are jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon thinking they are heading for the goldmine, writes Rob Bamforth of Bloor Research Many will fall off en route, many will get there and not find nuggets. We've been …

Wireless 17 Jul 2003, 09:29
Congress threatens two hi-tech Gestapo programs

TIA, CAPPS II in crosshairs

The US Senate this week proposed denying funds to two Orwellian surveillance programs sought by the Bush Administration. The Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program has come under attack in the Senate and may see its funding shut off. The 2004 defense appropriations bill contains a provision that would deny it any …

Music and Media 17 Jul 2003, 09:34
Apple posts highest revenue for three years

Selling much fewer Macs though

Apple posted a net profit of $19 million (five cents a share) for its third fiscal quarter last night on sales of $1.545 billion - it's highest quarterly sales since 2000. Sales were up 7.4 per cent on the year-ago quarter, which yielded revenues of $1.43 billion, and up 4.5 per cent on the previous quarter's figure of $1.475 …

Mac Channel 17 Jul 2003, 09:35
Micron, Infineon battle for second place in DRAM chart

Samsung well entrenched as market leader

While Samsung continues to rule the RAM roost, the real cock-fight is for the number two position, with Micron coming increasingly under pressure from Infineon, according to the latest data from DRAM market watcher Semico. For the first six months of 2003, Micron held 21.2 per cent of the market. Infineon took 18.5 per cent. …

Channel 17 Jul 2003, 09:57
Nokia Q2 profits slide on flat revenues

Handset shipments on the rise

Nokia saw its profits tumble 27 per cent during its second quarter over the same period last year on flat sales, the company said today. Net sales hit €7.02 billion ($7.85 billion), up just 1.1 per cent from Q2 2002's €6.94 billion. Operating profit totalled €858 million down 31.9 per cent on the €1.26 billion it reported this …

Mobile 17 Jul 2003, 10:53
Dell halts PPC 2003 Axim PDA shipments

Waiting for firmware fix

Dell has halted shipments of its Axim x5 PDA until it can fix a problem that has knocked Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC performance for six. As we reported on Monday, the glitch manifests itself as extended read/write times between applications and the hardware. The result is that with Windows Mobile 2003, the latest version …

Mobile 17 Jul 2003, 11:07
Microsoft issues doubleplus critical security fix

Secured Win 2003 systems among the vulnerable

Microsoft yesterday warned of a critical flaw affecting all versions of its operating systems bar Windows 98 and ME. The critical vulnerability opens the way for crackers to run malicious code and take over vulnerable machines. The flaw affects Windows NT 4, NT 4 Terminal Edition, Win 2000, XP and Win 2003 (irrespective of any …

Security 17 Jul 2003, 11:16
Severe Windows security hole patched

All versions, big trouble

Every version of Windows with the exception of ME (and including the "Trustworthy Computing" engineered Windows Server 2003) has a nasty stuff-up in the RPC (remote procedure call) process, which yields complete system ownership to a third party. RPC allows a program running on one computer to execute code on a remote system. …

Security 17 Jul 2003, 12:40
Congress mulls prison terms for KaZaA users

Trade one lousy file, go to jail

Not satisfied with hacking P2P networks, or destroying the computers of file sharers, House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) is now sponsoring legislation that would jail people who trade as little as one MP3 on the Internet. Berman has hooked up with House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John …

Music and Media 17 Jul 2003, 12:41
Trojan turns victims into DDoS, spam zombies

Meet the Webber worm

Anti-virus vendors are warning of the mass mailing of a new Trojan program "Webber" (aka "Heloc" and "Berbew") which is capable of turning infected PCs into pr0n or spam propagating zombies. Webber is the latest in a series of malicious programs that turn innocent computers into spam machines. It installs a proxy server at the …

Malware 17 Jul 2003, 13:24
Sage acquires Timberline

Best Buy

Sage is to buy Timberline Software, a US developer of financial and operations software, for $91m net cash. The transaction will be conducted through Best Software, Sage's US subsidiary. Post-completion, Timberline will operate as a wholly-owned subsidary of Best. Timberline is a vertical play for Sage. The company produces …

Business 17 Jul 2003, 13:30
SAP profits up, sales down

Cost-cutting

First the bad news: revenues were down in Q2 and a weak dollar and a sluggish global economy means that sales will be weak, at least for the rest of the year. for SAP, Europe's biggest software house. Now for the good news for SAP shareholders: cost-cutting means that profits are up and are higher than consensus analyst …

Hardware 17 Jul 2003, 13:58
Windows device development faster, cheaper than Linux?

But if so, why are so many outfits committing suicide?

A survey of embedded device developers claims a 4:1 development cost advantage in using Windows embedded platforms over Linux ones. By happy coincidence the report was funded by Microsoft, and will no doubt therefore be playing its part in Redmond's current 'get Linux' campaigns, but nevertheless it should not be dismissed out …

Software 17 Jul 2003, 14:14
Sanmina buys Newisys

Rescue bid touted as strategic acquisition?

Sanmina SCI is to buy Newisys, a server maker that's been one of the few to sign up to use AMD's Opteron processor. The deal's terms were not made public - Newisys is privately owned - but it is to all intents and purposes a done thing, and completion is expected in a day or two. Sanmina is one of the world's largest …

Hardware 17 Jul 2003, 14:23
Service tunes 56Kbps modems up to 784Kbps

Instant broadband - for a fee

Data compression specialist QuikCAT Technologies has launched a service it claims is capable of accelerating email and web page access by up to 14 times. The software, Miliki Dialup Accelerator, uses the company's patented content sensitive compression technology to reduce the amount of data passing down the connection. The …

Personal 17 Jul 2003, 14:59
PC price war good for business

Dell back on top

Consumers flocked to pick up lower priced PCs in the second quarter, as worldwide sales jumped by the largest margin since 2000. "The PC industry performed better than expected, and suggests that market conditions are improving," said Charles Smulders, a vice president at research firm Gartner. PC price-wars tend to favor Dell …

Channel 17 Jul 2003, 15:54
Thawte issues doppelganger certs warning

Deduping

Digital certificate specialist Thawte has discovered that its systems have issued certificates with duplicate numbers over the last few months. If one of the paired certificates is revoked the other will also be disavowed. Which is a pain. But essential encryption and security functions are not affected. A technical rep for …

Security 17 Jul 2003, 16:11
HP's old Bluestone team found off New Jersey Turnpike

Oracle makes XML tools grab

The case of the missing HP Bluestone developers has been solved with close to 20 of them turning up at an Oracle XML sweatshop located in New Jersey. When HP's ill-fated Bluestone adventure ended last year, a number of investigators in the industry went in search of the application server IP and developers. Oracle and HP had …

Hardware 17 Jul 2003, 17:33
DirecTV dragnet snares innocent techies

Dolphins in the Tuna Net

In recent months the satellite TV giant has filed nearly 9,000 federal lawsuits against people who've purchased signal piracy devices. But some of those devices have legitimate uses, and innocent computer geeks are getting caught in the crackdown, writes Kevin Poulsen of SecurityFocus. In 2000, Texas-based physician Rod Sosa …

Music and Media 17 Jul 2003, 20:52
Congressman pocketed $18,000 for RIAA ‘lobbying trip’

Ethics probe call needs your help

The powerful Congressman at the center of the controversy over royalty rates for small webcasters took $18,000 from the Recording Industry Association of America. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner was instrumental in forcing the deal that could result in an antitrust suit against the RIAA being …

Music and Media 17 Jul 2003, 23:07