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20th October 2003 Archive

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  • Anti-scam site beats domain attack

    European City Guide on last legs

    Anti-scam website StopECG.org has been vindicated in a domain dispute judgement brought by the subject of its attention - European City Guide. The National Arbitration Forum refused ECG’s request that the domain be handed over to it for alleged trademark infringement. Instead, it followed an increasing body of arbitration …

    Music and Media 20 Oct 2003, 08:16

  • Nvidia GeForce FX 5950, 5700 to launch Wednesday?

    So say graphics card companies

    Nvidia's NV38 and NV36 chips will debut this week if claims made by the Taiwanese tech press are to be believed. Commenting on graphics card companies who offer products based on both ATI and Nvidia chips, DigiTimes notes that one such firm, Gigabyte, will announce cards based on the GeForce FX 5950 and GeForce FX 5700 on …

    Channel 20 Oct 2003, 09:11

  • Microsoft monopoly says Apple monopoly is too restrictive

    'Beware the March of iTunes,' warns Fester

    Microsoft would be negligent if it didn't see Apple's music ambitions as a competitive threat. On the eve of Apple's splashy launch last week, Microsoft offered a Q&A which warned users not to be seduced by iTunes, Apple's integrated MP3 player/ripper/burner/radio/music store, which is now available on Windows. Microsoft's …

    Business 20 Oct 2003, 09:20

  • RIAA to issue warnings first, lawsuits second

    Stop sharing - or face the consequences

    The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) has selected its further batch of lawsuit targets, but this time has given the file swappers the chance to pack it in before being served with writs. Some 204 alleged copyright infringers have been targeted. Each has been given ten days to respond to the RIAA's warning letter, or …

    Music and Media 20 Oct 2003, 10:26

  • BT loses 2m punters

    It's good to walk...

    Two million people have deserted BT and opted for an alternative telco to provide their phone services. That's according to official figures released today by regulator Oftel, which claims that signing up to the likes of Carphone Warehouse, One.Tel or Tiscali could enable punters to "get a better deal on their phone bill". The …

    Business 20 Oct 2003, 10:28

  • Creative unveils 60GB iPod alternative

    Reg Kit Watch Plus: LG's Microsoft smart phone

    MP3 Player Creative has extended its Nomad Jukebox Zen line of hard drive-equipped portable music players with the Xtra - a unit that packs in not only an iPod-beating 60GB hard drive but a new display that addresses one of the key criticisms of older Zens: screen size. Of course, the iPod has the Zen Xtra licked on looks and …

    Mobile 20 Oct 2003, 11:21

  • Windows server buyers buy it… because it's there?

    But they're less likely to like it, or believe in it

    Why do you use Windows? Um, because it's there? That appears to be one of the bottom lines of a recent InformationWeek survey of 400 IT business professionals, where companies using Windows for servers explain themselves in what seem to us to be distinctly unethusiastic terms. The Windows Interoperability 2003 survey (report …

    Software 20 Oct 2003, 12:03

  • Kingston Comms rejects buy-out talk

    Speculative rumours

    Kingston Communications has dismissed press reports that it is to be split up as nothing but "rumour and speculation". The telco, which operates principally in Hull, could be about to be swallowed up by Scottish telco Thus, with other morsels being gobbled up by Energis and Colt. The Mail on Sunday reports that the deal would …

    Business 20 Oct 2003, 12:17

  • NetScreen firms firewalls against app attacks

    Deep Inspection

    NetScreen Technologies is to integrate intrusion protection technology into its range of hardware firewalls this winter as part of its plans to provide more robust defences against application-level attacks. Firewalls were traditionally designed to guard against network-level attacks - such as IP spoofing and port/network scans …

    Security 20 Oct 2003, 12:31

  • Motorists face £1000 fine for cellphone use

    Mirror, (mobile) signal, manoeuvre...

    Motorists are unaware that they could face fines up to £1000 once new mobile phone legislation comes into force in the UK in little over a month's time. Motoring organisation the RAC reckons that ignorance surrounding the new regulations is so bad that three million motorists could unwittingly break the law once the change …

    Mobile 20 Oct 2003, 12:36

  • Spam inspires musos to song

    The Outside the Inbox compilation

    Proving artists can take inspiration from the most unlikely of sources, a group of musicians has produced a compilation of songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of spam messages. The Outside the Inbox compilation features 14 tracks by a variety of musicians, in a variety of styles, ranging from the wistful …

    Security 20 Oct 2003, 12:46

  • Comtralis unwires Newmarket

    'We're number one in rural broadband'

    There's a touch of shock showing on the faces of many in the wireless 'rural broadband' business in the UK since the collapse of Invisible Networks. Comtralis Networks reckons it is now top of the heap - having just unwired the town of Newmarket, Suffolk. It's been 'meshed' too. Steve Richardson, founder of the networking …

    Wireless 20 Oct 2003, 12:48

  • US corporate security disclosure plan won't help

    Analysis Bad idea

    In an effort to shore up the security of the US' critical infrastructures, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security recently proposed that all publicly-traded companies disclose in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission precisely what they are doing to protect the security, confidentiality, …

    Security 20 Oct 2003, 12:52

  • 'We have your water supply, and printers' – Brumcon report

    All purely in the interests of science, of course...

    Brumcon this year was held at the Brittania hotel in Birmingham, the agenda was as varied as one can expect when h4xors, Phreeks, geeks and assorted wannabes get together to discuss the interweb thing and how abusing computers is more phun than abusing yourself, writes Arthur Barnes. The whole thing kicked off with a …

    Music and Media 20 Oct 2003, 13:19

  • HP unveils the last, big Alpha box

    Era ending

    The time has come for friends of DEC and Compaq to give a final tip of the cap to the AlphaServer. The 64-processor AlphaServer GS1280 introduced by HP on Monday is the last new Alpha box ever to arrive. The system, running on EV7 processors, doubles the size of the previous 32-processor GS1280. The server will be upgraded with …

    Servers 20 Oct 2003, 14:47

  • Tiscali's 150K service goes through roof

    Take-up 'extremely good'

    Take-up of Tiscali UK's new 150K ADSL service has rocketed, according to newly appointed chief exec Mary Turner. Although it's only little over a week since the product was launched - and three weeks since she took up her new post - Ms Turner appears in little doubt that this cut-price ADSL product is going to prove popular …

    Telecoms 20 Oct 2003, 15:22

  • Boffins discover true power of water

    Electrokinetic energy

    Canadian scientists have discovered how to generate electricity - by nothing more than pushing water through a fine glass tube. As water passes through the tube, tiny amounts of glass - itself a supercooled liquid - 'dissolve' into the water. That gives the surface of the tube a positive charge, which attracts negative ions in …

    Mobile 20 Oct 2003, 15:44

  • Apple adds iTunes DRM to one million Windows PCs

    Come and get it, kiddies

    Apple has coaxed more than one million downloads of its iTunes DRM store out of Windows users in four days. The iTunes for Windows software is flying off the virtual shelves at a quicker pace than the Mac-only code. The funny thing, however, is that Windows users don't appear to have much of a music appetite. Apple is selling …

    Mac Channel 20 Oct 2003, 16:36

  • Design patterns for a Black Box Brain?

    Guest Opinion Pt.2

    Bill Softky is a scientist at the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, founded by Jeff Hawkins. He has worked as a software architect, visualization designer, and educator. Part One can be found here. The bad news is that biologists are very far from figuring out the grand mystery of the brain. The good news is that software …

    Software 20 Oct 2003, 19:32

  • Boeing boosts Dell services

    Desktop deal

    The unheralded services arm at Dell has secured a major win by inking a five-year-deal with Boeing to manage the company's PCs. Dell is to take charge of the notebooks, desktops and workstations for Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business unit. The agreement covers a host of services, including software distribution …

    Business 20 Oct 2003, 20:45

  • Victory declared in the open source war that never was

    But that's not all right then, really...

    The Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) has declared victory in the open source war that never was - Massachusetts' "Open Source Mandate", which would have outlawed the purchase of practically all non-open source software by state agencies, if it had ever existed. Which it never, ever did. As The Register pointed out when the …

    Software 20 Oct 2003, 21:02

  • SCO licenses Microsoft protocols

    Redmond Music Store, IM also concerns watchdog

    The SCO Group is one of four new licensees for Microsoft's interoperability protocols, we learn from the latest antitrust compliance bulletin. Regular reports are issued to monitor compliance with the Antitrust settlement, specifically "to ensure that rival middleware can interoperate" with Microsoft servers. Alongside SCO, …

    Software 20 Oct 2003, 22:37