20th August 2003 Archive

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Intel picks Dell over HP for free PCs

More bang for your buck, less bucks

It's as easy as Dell for Intel employees. The chipmaker has ousted HP as its supplier of choice for a free employee PC program that Intel recently reinstated. Intel workers receive $1,000 to go toward a new Dell of their liking. Intel started the free PC program three years ago in conjunction with HP, but put it on hold as the …

Personal 20 Aug 2003, 00:13
BOFH and the Boss' PA

Episode 17 Coo er gosh, I luv gurls

BOFH 2003: Episode 17 A wise man once wrote: "All power corrupts, absolute power should be left in the hands of professionals." I was that soldier. So the Boss' PA has become a liability - more so than the boss himself, which in itself is quite a feat. Since 'catching' the Boss and I (allegedly) browsing some disgusting porn …

BOFH 20 Aug 2003, 08:39
VIA unveils fastest embedded chip

Fanless

VIA yesterday began shipping its fastest embedded x86 processor, the Eden ESP7000. Clocked at 733MHz, the chip is designed for fanless systems, including set-top boxes, point-of-sale terminals and thin clients. It consumes a maximum of 6W of power, but under typically usage situations just 1W. Based on VIA's Nehemiah processor …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 08:49
Nokia to acquire Sega.com

Game on

Mobile phone giant Nokia is to acquire the assets of Sega's online and wireless gaming operation to boost its own N-Gage online games device. The Sega Network Application Package (SNAP), which enables networked multi-player games, will form the core of Nokia Mobile Phones' Entertainment and Media Business Unit's online games …

Mobile 20 Aug 2003, 08:54
DRAM upturn threatened by vendor ‘greed’

Softly-softly, catchy recovery, urges analyst

Market watcher Gartner yesterday echoed Hynix and others, and announced that the global memory business is "on the verge of recovery". However, it forecast that the recovery will be "tentative" - it remains only a "possibility" - and warned DRAM manufacturers and suppliers not to overreact and excessively ramp up output. "This …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 09:14
ATI RV360 reference board specs leak

In production next month, apparently

ATI's RV360 graphics chip - the successor to the Radeon 9600's RV350 chip - will go into volume production next month and will appear in cards clocked at 450MHz or higher soon after. So claims Xbit Labs, citing sources close to ATI. The company has prepared three RV360-based reference cards for OEMs, targeting high-end gaming, …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 09:35
RIAA, MPAA appeal against ‘Grokster is legal’ ruling

Precedent schmecedent

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) has launched its appeal against an April US District Court ruling that the Grokster P2P media-sharing network does not infringe copyrights juts because its software may allow users to do so. The appeal, filed on Monday with the Los Angeles District Court, is backed by the movie …

Music and Media 20 Aug 2003, 10:12
RIAA pledges not to target casual file sharers

Just think of the outcry if it did

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) this week said it will not target small-scale copyright infringers, only the big boys. The statement follows questions put to the music industry group by Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Associated Press reports. As chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Sub- …

Music and Media 20 Aug 2003, 10:47
AMD confirms Applebred launch

Durons for developing nations

AMD has confirmed the existence of the Applebred processor, and said that the Duron-branded core has already begun shipping. As we reported yesterday, Applebred - not, as we wrote, 'Appalbred', which was how Babelfish translated the original Russian report on the chip - is a low-end part equipped with just 64KB of on-die L2 …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 11:06
Elpida, Nanya demand Hynix DRAM probes

Rivals pounce after US, EU impose import tarrifs

Elpida has asked the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to investigate Hynix. So have four Taiwanese memory makers, including Nanya, who this week asked their government to probe the troubled South Korean memory maker. All five companies have been spurred to action by the apparent success Infineon and Micron …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 11:24
Nintendo GameCube follow-up not due until 2006?

Expecting new Sony, Microsoft consoles to come later

A report in a Japanese business magazine has suggested that Nintendo may release its next home console later than expected, although the company still plans to be first to market in the next-generation console race. Speaking to business publication Diamond Loop, a Nintendo executive is quoted as saying that it is "not an …

Personal 20 Aug 2003, 11:32
Slammer worm crashed Ohio nuke plant net

Whoops

The Slammer worm penetrated a private computer network at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January and disabled a safety monitoring system for nearly five hours, despite a belief by plant personnel that the network was protected by a firewall, SecurityFocus has learned. The breach did not post a safety hazard. The …

Anti-Virus 20 Aug 2003, 11:42
Check Point targets MEs with firewall/ VPN combo

Mind the (market) gap

Internet security firm Check Point is targeting medium-sized companies with a firewall/VPN package designed for organisations with up to 500 employees. Check Point Express includes firewall, VPN, network and application attack protection combined with multi-site, centralised management functions. The package is designed to be …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 11:44
Small firms shun IT security

Blaster worm? What Blaster worm?

Despite large numbers of computer systems being struck down with deadly viruses over the past weeks, almost one-third of small firms do not think anti-virus or firewall protections is important to their business. Research by BT Openworld found 28 per cent of companies claimed software solutions designed to protect their …

Small Biz 20 Aug 2003, 13:04
Nvidia confirms PCI Express support

Didn't say with what chips, so we will

Nvidia has confirmed that it will support the PCI Express next-generation expansion bus at some point in the future. That's not entirely surprising, and was always on the cards - even if roadmaps listing Nvidia's PCI Express-enabled chips hadn't leaked out of the company. The confirmation comes from Nvidia's VP of hardware …

Channel 20 Aug 2003, 13:38
VeriSign misses Sex.com trial deadline

Case will come to court

Domain registration giant VeriSign has missed a deadline to ask a federal appeals court to reconsider a landmark decision in the Sex.com case, which established that Internet domain names are subject to state property law. Last month, Gary Kremen, rightful owner of the Sex.com domain name, won the right to sue VeriSign- …

Music and Media 20 Aug 2003, 14:26
Fluency buys Vocalis for £1

Speechless

Cambridge-based speech recognition outfit Vocalis has been sold to Netdecisions Holdings Ltd for just £1 after calling in the administrators. News that Vocalis was in talks with the IT services group surfaced last week - six weeks after Vocalis revealed that it had received no new orders since March. The July statement warned …

Software 20 Aug 2003, 14:28
Windows XP SP2 knocked back to 2004

But not delayed, exactly...

Microsoft has delayed Service Pack 2 for Windows XP for anything up to a year, sweetly claiming as it does so that there's been no official schedule announced, so it's not delayed at all. News of the notadelay was unearthed by BetaNews, which says Windows client team members have confirmed that SP2 will be delivered in 2004; the …

Software 20 Aug 2003, 14:31
Power cable broadband trial goes live today

'Live'? What on 'earth' do you mean?

The future of broadband in rural areas via electrical cables hinges on the success of a commercial trial that got underway in Winchester today. Powerline Communication (PLC) technology, which uses the existing electricity network to deliver broadband by simply plugging a specially-adapted modem into a socket, has already been …

Telecoms 20 Aug 2003, 15:16
Outlook Express: dead, not dead, or just deadly?

All of the above...

Outlook Express has been reprieved, ZDNet Australia announced last week, having two days earlier announced shock news of the product's demise. But if you do the sums, you'll likely conclude that ZDnet was right in the first place - if Outlook Express has any future, it's not likely to be a happy one. The problem is that Express …

Software 20 Aug 2003, 15:45
Dell's support button dream turns into user nightmare

Patent granted, button dismissed

Dell has received a patent for its once highly touted E-support button - a tool which appears to have caused more support problems that in it solved. On 12 August, the US patent office approved Dell's claims for a "method and system for automated technical support for computers". The method is long and involved, but the system …

Personal 20 Aug 2003, 16:39
Auto-responders magnify Sobig problem

Stir of echoes

Bounced messages from auto-responders in receipt of the prolific Sobig-F worm are feeding a flood of useless and malicious messages that threatens to swamp legitimate emails for many users. Sobig-F, like viruses such as Bugbear, Fizzer, Mimail and Klez before it, spoofs or forges the name in the From: field in infected emails …

Anti-Virus 20 Aug 2003, 17:30
Dell celebrates HP's poor Q3 with price cuts

Cheaper kit for everyone

Dell put on a Texas-sized boot on Wednesday and kicked HP where it hurts with a series of consumer and enterprise product price cuts. Dell will trim prices by up to 22 percent on desktops, notebooks, workstations, servers, monitors and, of course, printers. The reductions come one day after HP reported lackluster third quarter …

Personal 20 Aug 2003, 20:05
Long wait for Mac OS X OpenOffice

But you're probably used to waiting already...

A version of OpenOffice that takes full advantage of Mac OS X won't be ready until 2006, according to a note posted on the OO website. A Quartz version of version 2.0 of the suite - which takes advantage of the OS X display model, rather than the Unix standard X11 - is slated for Q1 of 2006. The reason cited is major API changes …

Software 20 Aug 2003, 23:18
Tampa cops send face recognition code packing

Flop

Tampa's Police Department has abandoned a two-year face recognition trial which failed to provide a single identification or arrest, let alone a conviction. The district's citizens didn't lose too much money, as Identix Inc (then Visionics Corp.) installed the system in June 2001 at their own expense. "It was of no benefit to …

Security 20 Aug 2003, 23:21
Investors squeeze 10% out of HP shares

Poor margins

HP's shares were hammered during Wednesday trading as investors reacted to a poor showing in the company's third quarter. HP's stock fell 10.45 percent to close at $19.80, while rivals and the overall market were flat. The vendor was punished by poor margins in its PC business in the third quarter and then taken to task by …

Business 20 Aug 2003, 23:40