10th October 2003 Archive

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Terminator Carly joins Team Schwarzenegger

Keep your hands to yourself, Governor

Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is to advise the new Governor-elect of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's one of four Silicon Valley appointees on a bi-partisan Transition Team, which includes the Mayor of San Francisco Willie M Brown. Schwarzenegger has vowed to pare debt-ridden California's spending to the bone. And …

Bootnotes 10 Oct 2003, 02:53
Google bug blocks thousands of sites

Choking on spam, noise - 'Bots are 'ready to give up'

Google, like the rest of us, seems to be fighting a losing battle to make sense of a rising tide of Internet garbage. But a programming error by the search engine has compounded the problem: by inadvertently blocking thousands of sites from Google users. It's been called a "Google-NACK": you enter a particular search term and …

Music and Media 10 Oct 2003, 07:12
SCO: irrevocable doesn't mean forever

Star Letter And Never means Never, Mr.Bond...

IBM, and now SGI claim that their UNIX™ licenses are irrevocable. Not on your nelly, says SCO - and is there anyone left on the planet who isn't aware of SCO's litigation against Linux and open source? To: <andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk> Subject: Why do these guys keep calling the license irrevocable? I have read over …

Software 10 Oct 2003, 07:32
Why 'Download.com' isn't what it appears to be

We fell for it

Earlier this week we reported that CNET's Download.com had booted an anti-spam product after complaints about its makers. They appeared to be spammers themselves and were lying about their product. The spam we got referred to Download.com, Cnet's popular shareware library, where the product could be downloaded from. At least, …

Letters 10 Oct 2003, 09:32
Microcomm Systems buys Invisible Networks

Service saved

Invisible Networks, the Cambridge-based wireless broadband operator that went titsup last week, has been bought by London-based Microcomm Systems, the outfit behind Mesh Broadband. Financial terms were not disclosed. However, once IN's business and assets have been transferred to Microcomm Systems Ltd, it's expected that IN …

Wireless 10 Oct 2003, 09:34
Siebel OnDemand CRM: has Siebel shot itself in the foot?

Under pressure

Across the board, large enterprise business application vendors have seen licence sales under pressure, with deals taking longer to close and average transaction size having slipped for many vendors to half of the level seen two or three years ago, writes Fran Howarth of Bloor Research. Many customers have been burnt by long …

Hardware 10 Oct 2003, 10:05
The Netherlands: DSL Heaven or Hell?

Price wars turn ugly

In a matter of weeks the Netherlands have turned into DSL heaven, with prices dropping as low as €14.95 a month. DSL users were used to €40 and €50 plans just two months ago. Now providers and, more surprising, customers, are complaining. In August Versatel offshoot Zon introduced its €14.95 DSL service; Wanadoo, Het Net and …

Telecoms 10 Oct 2003, 10:31
Students to get own ISP

ISP round-up

A new ISP aimed specifically at UK students is due to go live later this month. NETStudent reckons it can serve up just want students want - keeping its service simple and affordable. There's a pay-as-you-go option, while £13.99 a month gets you 150 hours online. Oh, and NETStudent's ADSL broadband service costs £25.55 a month …

Telecoms 10 Oct 2003, 11:26
Intel preps 1MB cache 130nm Pentium 4s

Extreme Edition to be priced high - very high

Intel intends to charge a whopping $925 for its Pentium 4 Extreme Edition - the recently announced 3.2GHz part with 2MB of on-die L3 cache. And the chip giant plans to offer regular Pentium 4 chips with 1MB of cache to expand the number of high-end desktop parts it offers before the arrival of 'Prescott', its next-generation P4 …

Channel 10 Oct 2003, 11:40
Toshiba to demo simplified 100Mbps WLAN

1Gbps version coming in three years

Toshiba's European R&D division will next week demonstrate a "low complexity" WLAN capable of achieving raw data rates of up to 100Mbps - almost double what today's 802.11g standard can offer. The company will show off the technology at the ITU Telecom World 2003 conference in Geneva, which opens its doors on Monday. Toshiba's …

Wireless 10 Oct 2003, 12:11
European notebook prices fell 25% during Q3

Q2 fall followed by big dip last quarter

European notebook prices are shrinking fast. A new mobile system will today set you back around three-quarters of what it would have cost you a year ago, market watcher IDC reported today. And notebook prices are just over 42 per cent less than they were in August 2000. During September, European notebook prices dropped by 1.7 …

Personal 10 Oct 2003, 12:33
Sculley explains how he missed the chance to trash Apple

Could have been a coke-vendor...

Earlier this week former Apple CEO John Sculley claimed that one of the "biggest mistakes I've ever made" was turning down Andy Grove's suggestion, in the late 80s, that Apple switch from the Motorola 68000 processor line to Intel's x86. Not doing this, he said, meant that Apple wasn't able to benefit from the commoditisation …

Mac Channel 10 Oct 2003, 12:58
World's worst Internet groomer jailed

'Frightening case'

A 64 year-old paedophile described by police as the "most prolific Internet groomer ever caught" has been jailed for five years. Former postal worker, Douglas Lindsell, was sentenced yesterday at Kingston Crown Court after pleading guilty to attempting to abduct a young girl. Lindsell, from Twickenham, gained the trust of his …

Music and Media 10 Oct 2003, 14:22
Lycos UK cans POP3

Hello 'premium' service

Lycos UK is canning its POP3 email service later this month. In an email to punters the company said: " Lycos will discontinuePOP3 service on the 21st of October 2003. But don't worry, you can still access your Lycos Email through Outlook and Outlook Express by using our new synchronisation tool. "Synchronisation lets you …

Music and Media 10 Oct 2003, 14:24
Sun's Solaris x86 customers see the light of day

Out and proud

After a couple of months of being nudged, prodded and begged, Sun Microsystems has forked over some Solaris x86 customer wins to prove the OS has plenty of backing. The customer list is impressive. You won't find any massive enterprises picking up Solaris x86 for equally massive rollouts on the list, but you will find a diverse …

Servers 10 Oct 2003, 17:03