2nd October 2003 Archive

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SCO set to take SGI's Unix licence away

The inane plot thickens

SGI is set to join IBM on SCO's bad list of intellectual property miscreants. In a recent SEC filing, SGI revealed that SCO has threatened to terminate the company's Unix licence due to a breach of contract. The claim mirrors that of one handed to IBM by SCO that the vendor has illegally thrown bits of Unix code into Linux …

Hardware 2 Oct 2003, 03:33
ATI pays Cirrus Logic $9m for graphics patents

Settles legal action

ATI and Cirrus Logic have settled their legal dispute with a patent cross-licensing agreement - the standard outcome in such cases. ATI will also pay Cirrus $9 million. In return, it gets part of Cirrus' intellectual property portfolio The fight centred on two separate allegations of patent infringement, both made by Cirrus …

Channel 2 Oct 2003, 09:07
ATI unveils Radeon XT

Upgraded 9800, 9600

ATI has launched its latest Radeon graphics chips, the 9800 XT and 9600 XT - essentially higher clocked versions of the current Radeon 9600 Pro and 9800 Pro. The 9800 XT runs at 412MHz with memory clocked to 730MHz. By contrast the 9800 Pro its clocked to 380MHz and 700MHz. The vanilla 9800 runs at 325MHz and 580MHz. The extra …

Channel 2 Oct 2003, 09:09
Media Center Windows not AMD64 native

32-bit support only

AMD announced earlier this week that Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 runs on its AMD64-based processors, such as the Athlon XP. That prompted more than a few AMD fanboys to leapt on the statement as a sign that the Microsoft operating system supports AMD64 technology. Sorry, guys, but it doesn't. MCE 2004 is a 32-bit OS …

Software 2 Oct 2003, 10:10
Music industry blames Net for falling sales

The great rock 'n' roll swindle

The music industry is once again fingering piracy and illegal downloading for an 11 per cent slip in sales for the first half of the year. The problem is getting so bad in some countries that the take-up of illegal music is outstripping genuine sales of CDs. According to the global record industry organisation, IFPI, sales of …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 10:15
Official: crackers have broken into GPRS billing

The over-billing attack

Some time today, the GPRS world will reveal that it has a security vulnerability which has seen an undisclosed number of its customers ripped off. They've been trapped into connecting to malicious content servers, by hackers penetrating the billing system. The first international phone company to admit that they have installed …

Mobile 2 Oct 2003, 10:29
GPL will not pass the legal test -SCO

Stalking SGI

The SCO Group is extending its royalty campaign to encompass Silicon Graphics Inc. The company says it will revoke SGI's Irix license on October 14. It's no surprise, as SCO CEO Darl McBride has explicitly mentioned SGI over a month ago. SGI signed the license with AT&T in 1986. SGI's response is exactly the same as IBM's, when …

Hardware 2 Oct 2003, 11:26
Psion revives Netbook but drops EPOC for WinCE

Reg Kit Watch Pro model boosts speeds, feeds

Psion Teklogix has dropped the familiar EPOC operating system in favour of Windows CE.NET 4.2 for an updated version of our old mobile computing favourite, the Netbook, once also known as the Psion Series 7. The new release, the Netbook Pro, is at least a significant hardware upgrade. In place of the original 190MHz Intel …

Hardware 2 Oct 2003, 12:38
Soccer rape allegations cause major Net headache

Follow that leak

Those trying to keep the lid on the naming of eight Premiership footballers allegedly involved in the gang-rape of 17-year-old girl at a London hotel over the weekend are facing a new threat. There are concerns that football fans attending matches this weekend might chant the names of those concerned, placing broadcasters at …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 13:24
Chip and PIN goes national

Smart move against fraud

Plans for the national rollout of a more secure method of authorising credit and debit card payments were announced today. The Chip and PIN scheme is designed to make credit and debit card purchases more secure by asking the majority of consumers to enter a four digit PIN code instead of signing to verify card transactions by …

Security 2 Oct 2003, 13:29
Send BOFHs on public speaking courses

Communication breakdown

Never mind sending sysadmins off to firewall configuration courses, corporate security could be substantially improved by persuading BOFHs to joint debating clubs. While technical skills are relatively easy to measure for IT security staff, managers need to place a greater emphasis on measuring communication skills, META Group …

Data Networking 2 Oct 2003, 13:35
Music biz slams Oz Net piracy plea bargain

Defendants will be let off the hook, it claims

The music industry this week accused Australia's legal system of "watering down" the first criminal Internet piracy case because it believes the three defendants will receive sentences far too lenient for the AUD60 million ($41 million) it is alleged their actions cost the industry. The claim came after three Sydney students - …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 13:42
Doubts raised over MPs' anti-spam crusade

'Opt out' vs 'opt in'

A bid by UK politicians to take their anti-spam message to the US later this month is likely to fall on deaf ears. The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) - which includes MPs Derek Wyatt, Brian White and Andrew Miller, and e-Envoy Andrew Pinder - is due to meet with Senators and officials in Washington DC between …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 15:12
Apple seeks Wi-Fi hotspot promoter

Wants to show wireless doesn't end with Centrino

Apple UK is looking for a presentable, intelligent, pro-active and self-motivated lad or lass to make sure World+Dog doesn't come to believe Wi-Fi is an Intel invention. According to a job description on the Mac maker's web site, Apple is seeking a Hot-spot Evangelist to "raise the profile in the marketplace of AirPort, Apple's …

Wireless 2 Oct 2003, 15:38
Napster 2.0 public beta to go live next week

Wherefore art thou, Roxio?

Napster will be reborn next week, when Roxio releases a public beta test version of the online music service. Roxio acquired Napster last November, essentially paying $5 million for the name. It also owns the Pressplay subscription-based music service launched by major labels Universal and Sony, but later offloaded to Roxio. …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 16:02
Trading Standards ate my PC

Fraud probe man claims agency junked his computer

A Scottish man is incensed with the poor condition of computer equipment returned to him after a criminal investigation against him collapsed. Keith Calder, from the Moray region of North East Scotland, complains that his £4000 computer was returned after a year-long probe by police and local council officials looking like "a …

Personal 2 Oct 2003, 16:14
Credit Suisse mulls major outsourcing deal

IBM and HP fingered

Investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) could be about to shunt almost 400 IT jobs outside the company as part of a global outsourcing move. Staff were told earlier today of the planned moves. Those affected include the whole range of CSFB's end-user computing function, including deployment and helpdesk support. …

Business 2 Oct 2003, 16:40
Google shafts blogger, adds gagging clause to Adsense

Your First Amendment rights are violating our contract…

Google has added a gagging order to its Adsense Terms and Conditions in an attempt to quell a firestorm of controversy over payouts to participants. Erik Thauvin, a well-known figure in the Java community and an Apple alumini [weblog], discovered his AdSense account was suspended this week, with Google owing him two months …

Music and Media 2 Oct 2003, 20:00
BenQ opts for Picsel's ‘mobile killer app’

A desktop in your hand

Glasgow-based UI pioneer Picsel has scored a major win, with BenQ opting to put its kit and caboodle on its own P30 smartphone to be launched this year in the Far East. As we've noted, it isn't easy to describe the Picsel suite. The file viewing portion already graces the Sony Clie, but its strength is as a fast and …

Mobile 2 Oct 2003, 20:38
Curse of Itanic doomed MigraTEC

Cold shoulder for custom 64bits

Not even high profile partners such as AMD, Intel, HP and Microsoft were enough to keep software porting company MigraTEC alive, as the board of directors have ordered the company to close up shop by October 15. MigraTEC is a small company based in Dallas, Texas focused on helping customers move 32 bit applications onto 64 bit …

Servers 2 Oct 2003, 20:45
EU rejects Sony PS2-is-PC claim

No you can't have your money back

Shock of the week - your games console is, in fact, a games console. The European Union has officially branded the PS2 as a games console rather than a computer, in a move which foils Sony's plans to claim back millions of euros of customs duty by having it reclassified as a PC. Sony has been fighting to have the system …

Personal 2 Oct 2003, 22:07
SMEs slammed for unlicensed software use

Turning a blind eye

Small and medium-sized firms are the worst offenders in Britain when it comes to using unlicensed software, according to the lBusiness Software Alliance. The self-proclaimed software copyright watchdog points to its 2002/3 settlement figures which show nine out of ten UK companies that settled with it over illegal software use …

Small Biz 2 Oct 2003, 22:31
Dell invades Europe with services putsch

Branching out

Dell is planning to launch a European IT services programme targeting small and medium-sized firms "within weeks". The offering, which represents the direct PC manufacturing giant's first foray into outsourced services in Europe, will see Dell offering its customers packages including IT maintenance and data centre support. In …

Small Biz 2 Oct 2003, 22:37
OpenOffice signs off v1.1

Download your Way

The latest releases of the popular open source OpenOffice.org office suite were signed off today and posted for immediate download. OpenOffice.org said it was "proud" of its 1.1 versions for Windows (98/ME/NT/2000/XP), Linux (x86 & PowerPC), and Solaris on SPARC. As with its predecessors, there's no licensing small print: the …

Software 2 Oct 2003, 22:41