30th September 2003 Archive
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Westcoast to buy Actebis
Mixing it up with the big boys
Westcoast has secured an agreement to buy rival distie Actebis from German giant Otto Group after nine months of negotiations. The deal - terms undisclosed - will catapult the UK-owned company into Europe's third biggest computer distie, behind Tech Data and Ingram Micro. Actebis has operations in 15 European countries. Joe …
Channel 30 Sep 2003, 07:49
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NTL preps $1bn rights issue
Interest cover
UK cable company NTL is to raise more than $1 billion through a rights issue in order to cut debt. The company, which operates in the UK and Ireland and only came out of bankruptcy earlier this year, filed papers with US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which confirmed that it was seeking to raise the cash. It had been …
Business 30 Sep 2003, 08:17
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VeriSign sued again for domain cock-up
Dotcom owner sees nightmare unfold
VeriSign is seeing its nightmare come true with a California lawsuit brought by Optima Technology for wrongful handing over of the company’s domain name to a former employee. The suit, which demands $3 million in compensation, comes after the company that owns and runs the .com registry failed to act properly when Michael …
Music and Media 30 Sep 2003, 08:21
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World chip sales rise 4% in August
Going slow, but growing
Global sales of semiconductors rose four per cent during August - small by past standards but the year's biggest sequential jumps, according to the latest figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). August saw sales total $13.42 billion, up from July's $12.9 billion and June's figure of $12.5 billion. While the …
Channel 30 Sep 2003, 09:20
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Numbers don't add up for Telcos
Opinion The Big Squeeze
This week Verizon, the local New England telephone company, reported lower revenues and of lower associated profits. The cause was the flight of their customers from conventional telephone lines and long distance calls. Verizon’s stock fell, as did other regional US telephone companies on the news and I think this wrong number …
Data Networking 30 Sep 2003, 09:23
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Lawson: swooping in on Closedloop
Infill
Lawson Software is buying Closedloop Solutions, which develops budgeting and planning software for managing financial performance, for around $4 million. Lawson says that the acquisition will bolster its performance management suite's capabilities. In buying Closedloop, the company is continuing the emerging trend of tier-two …
Hardware 30 Sep 2003, 09:33
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Dual-core Opteron to ship late 2005
Targeting Intel's 'Tulsa'
AMD made it clear at last week's Athlon 64 launch that multi-core versions of its processors were "inevitable", but the company has now put a date in place for their release. According to company officials cited by Xbit Labs, dual-core Opterons will ship late 2005. They will be pitched against Intel's first dual-core Xeon, ' …
Channel 30 Sep 2003, 09:43
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IBM boffins boost combo computing, wireless chips
Products will be way faster, using much less power
IBM chip scientists have figured out how to bring the company's high-performance processor construction technology and wireless semiconductor materials together. The discovery paves the way for better integration between computing and communications chips, the company said. The result: a 300 per cent increase in performance and …
Channel 30 Sep 2003, 10:44
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Telewest offers free broadband installs
'Nuff said
Telewest is offering new broadband punters free installation during October - a saving of £50. Said Telewest's Chad Raube in a statement: "People get confused by separate line activation fees and extra hardware costs associated with ADSL providers. With our free cable installation it won't cost you a penny and there are no …
Telecoms 30 Sep 2003, 10:48
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Kids flock online
UK leads the way
Kids under 12 are the getting connected to the Net at a rate of knots. That's according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which also found that the UK has the highest number of kids online of any European nation, with some 4.5 million youngsters accessing the Net, compared to a smidge over three million in Germany and 1.5 million in …
Music and Media 30 Sep 2003, 10:57
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NAI offers $70m to settle class action suit
Shadow of SEC probe lingers
Network Associates (NAI) yesterday announced an offer to pay $70 million to settle a class action brought by shareholders who allege the company used improperly booked revenues to ramp up its share price. According to the lawsuit the IT security firm misled investors during the late 1990s by recording software sales when …
Security 30 Sep 2003, 11:01
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Ingram Micro Europe restructures
Job losses?
In a curiously worded press release, Ingram Micro Europe yesterday "announced the sale" of its components business to another Ingram Micro subsidiary. So for how much then? Ingram was unable to tell us. The new owner is Ingram Micro Components (Europe) GmbH which does what it says on the tin. It's the distie giant's European …
Channel 30 Sep 2003, 11:10
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Dell x3 PDA details emerge
FCC filings spill beans
Dell's Axim x3 PDA, announced last week and due to be released next month, will feature integrated Wi-Fi, according to Federal Communications Commission filings that detail the product's spec. The FCC documents reveal the x3 is based on Intel's XScale CPU running at 300MHz or 400MHz, depending on which version of the x3 you buy …
Mobile 30 Sep 2003, 12:15
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Vodafone tops games content for Live! with Lara Croft exclusive
Mobile Tomb Raider
Vodafone seems to be able to buy content for its Live! online media phone service with impunity. This week it has landed a deal with Eidos, the UK's biggest games company for exclusive phone use of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, by far its most famous daughter and money spinner. The deal will run across 22 countries for mobile …
Mobile 30 Sep 2003, 12:29
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Kazaa owner back for another bite at content conspiracy
Anti-trust action
File sharing network owner, Sharman Networks is set to give its private anti-trust action against the major record labels and Hollywood studios, another bash, after it failed to get a court to take it seriously last time, saying it didn't offer evidence of harm from the defendants. Now it has come back with another suit, this …
Mobile 30 Sep 2003, 12:29
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MS issues take-down to Lindows, redefines ‘guilt’
The more you spend, the more innocent you must be...
Microsoft has risen to Lindows.com's MSFreePC bait and responded with a take-down notice which harumphs at some considerable length about fraudulent claims, invalid claims, mischaracterisations and the starving schoolchildren of California. And as was all too predictable, Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson has shot back with a …
Software 30 Sep 2003, 12:44
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Man invades .mil nets, tells hacks, lands in jail
Putting bragging rights to wrongs
A computer security consultant who broke into US military networks to demonstrate their vulnerability to attack by cyber-terrorists or hostile governments was arrested in San Diego yesterday. Brett Edward O'Keefe, 36, president of California start-up ForensicTec Solutions, faces charges of breaking into computers run by the …
Security 30 Sep 2003, 13:08
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November hearing mooted for MS-EU antitrust case
Could this really be the 'one last chance,' at last?
The next stage in long-running saga of Microsoft, antitrust and the European Commission is likely to be an oral hearing behind closed doors in November, where the company will defend itself. The Commission has already communicated its misgivings to Microsoft, gone away to think about it for a long time then come back, this …
Software 30 Sep 2003, 13:25
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Attrition.org bans Verizon
Gotta admire their pluck
Usually we hear of ISPs banning a Web site over some bit of content that a well-heeled and lawyered-up malcontent objects to. But this time a small Web site has audaciously banned customers of telecomms colossus Verizon from accessing it because the mega-ISP is unwilling to discipline would-be spammers. At issue are repeated …
Security 30 Sep 2003, 13:31
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SuSE speaks of sneak peek for Linux geeks
V.9 engine uses some Linux Kernel 2.6 features
SuSE today gave the world a quick flash of its forthcoming SuSE Linux 9.0 operating systems, saying that the platform offers a "sneak peek at the enhanced capabilities" of the next generation 2.6 Linux kernel. The OS, based on SuSE's Linux kernel 2.4.21, will ship in three flavours: Personal, Professional and Professional for …
Servers 30 Sep 2003, 13:44
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CACI: defence contractor gets defensive
Buying C-Cubed
CACI International, the IT services company that chiefly serves the US federal government, is to acquire C-Cubed, a provider of specialized defence and intelligence services. CACI's move looks to be largely defensive, as two of its rivals in the sector have recently been acquired. CACI, which has not released details of the …
Business 30 Sep 2003, 13:55
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Music biz should shift to flat-fee, P2P model – exec
Opinion Actuarial copyright, anyone? asks Jim Griffin
Jim Griffin, the ex-Geffen Records new media boss described by CNN as "one of the sharpest minds in digital music", today heads Cherry Lane Digital, a company focused on the digital delivery of art, meaning music, movies, books and other means of creative expression. Here, Jim explains why the online music business needs a …
Music and Media 30 Sep 2003, 14:40
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New edition PS2 comes to the UK
Price cut
The new edition of the PlayStation 2 hardware, the SCPH-50000, which offers improved DVD playback, is set to arrive in the UK this week at the same time as Sony cuts the price of the PS2 to £139.99. The new revision hardware features a built in infra-red port and better DVD playback quality, including surround sound decoding, …
Personal 30 Sep 2003, 15:03
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PCCW buys Red Spectrum – sources
Rural BB domination
PCCW, the Hong Kong-based telco, has gobbled up one of the two other companies to win a 3.4GHz licence in June. According to insiders, the acquisition means that PCCW - through its Poundradio subsidiary - owns all the licences auctioned by the Government earlier this year except one. Execs at Red Spectrum were asked to comment …
Wireless 30 Sep 2003, 15:50
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Investors shed Sun shares
Analysts upset
Shares of Sun Microsystems have fallen close to 15 percent during Tuesday's trading, as investors react to a massive charge taken by the company. Yesterday, Sun revealed that it is to take a $1.05 billion charge, turning what was once $12 million fourth quarter profit into a $1.04 billion loss. The accounting shift came as a …
Business 30 Sep 2003, 16:41
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Forgotten war dialling risk leaves networks in peril
Modem madness
War Dialling, the scanning of telephone lines to find insecure modems that provide a back door route into corporate networks, is ignored as a risk by many organisations, security testing outfit NTA Monitor warns. The company is calling on organisations to revise their procedures to guard against the long established, but still …
Security 30 Sep 2003, 17:06
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IBM expands virtual server pool to entire server line
Slice, dice and service
IBM's Virtual Server Service isn't just for mainframe customers anymore. IBM has decided to make the hosting service available on its entire line of servers, including RISC- and Intel-based systems. Unlike its standard hosting offering, the Virtual Server Service lets customers pay for processing power and bandwidth on a fluid …
Servers 30 Sep 2003, 17:32
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BSA imagines open source policy, attacks mass.gov
People start saying 'open,' next thing you know they're durn Linux commies...
When it comes to antipiracy policy Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance have a great deal in common, but when the BSA mounts an attack on a software purchasing policy that doesn't quite exist yet, and quite possibly won't exist, one begins to wonder who's driving the "voice of the world's commercial software industry". …
Software 30 Sep 2003, 18:09
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ID cards protect civil liberties – Blair
Run that one by us, again
The Prime Minster has given his strongest support yet for the introductiuon of identity cards in UK. In what was billed as a make-or-break speech at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth today, Tony Blair presented ID cards as a way of guarding against bogus asylum claims. "In a world of mass migration, with cheaper …
Music and Media 30 Sep 2003, 18:59
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Google buys search engine – PageRank™ RIP?
Got bots?
Google has bought Kaltix, a three-month-old, three-man Stanford startup that's working on personalized and context-sensitive search. Despite its battalion of PhDs, Google isn't too proud to acquire external search technologies, and earlier this year bought Applied Semantics for its CIRCA ontology, which "understands, organizes, …
Music and Media 30 Sep 2003, 21:29
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Verizon launches 600 kbit/s ‘real 3G’ network
Lessons for Hutchison
Stateside cellular carriers have fielded plenty of brickbats for describing their 2.5G-speed CDMA 2000 1X networks as '3G' - not least from us. Thanks to a generous decision by the IMTU, 1X is recognized as a 3G-class standard, and Sprint has not lost the opportunity to exploit this in its marketing. Last year a Sprint rep …
Mobile 30 Sep 2003, 21:33
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HP hides its secret SCO shame
Disguised pride
HP still has plenty of love for SCO, but it doesn't want the public to know about it. Just yesterday, we noted HP's appearance as the premier sponsor on SCO's City-to-City Tour Web site. The HP logo was displayed in full force, showing their backing of SCO's October user conference tour. Then, but a few hours later, the HP …
Servers 30 Sep 2003, 22:42
