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30th October 2003 Archive

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  • Intel outsells Nvidia, ATI

    All down to its integrated chipsets

    Intel commanded the graphics market during Q3, thanks to its integrated chipsets, according to market watcher Mercury Research. It dominated both the desktop and mobile integrated graphics segments. Some 35 per cent of all graphics products shipped during the three-month period were made by the chip giant. Nvidia and ATI took …

    Channel 30 Oct 2003, 10:24

  • Pseudonymous blogging under subpoena threat

    Come out, come out, whoever you are

    Many webloggers like to post pseudonymously, but a legal threat on one of the most popular raises the question - for how much longer? The impish Atrios, a pseudonymous and widely read Democratic weblogger has been threatened with a subpoena by right-wing columnist Donald Luskin. Luskin is obsessed by the Princeton economist …

    Media 30 Oct 2003, 10:45

  • DMCA exemptions boost archivists, disabled

    But not much else

    A small ray of light has shone through the draconian Hollywood-backed DMCA, or Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The Library of Congress has the job of looking at rulemaking, or how the Act is interpreted, and it has identified four areas where copyright circumvention has legitimate, non-infringing applications. The DMCA …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 10:50

  • Indian call centers: cracks begin to show

    High rate of attrition

    India's business process outsourcing market is expanding rapidly, but cracks are beginning to show. Concern is growing over a tightening supply of skilled IT workers, and a high rate of attrition among workers in the sector, particularly in offshore call centers. The situation in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry …

    Business 30 Oct 2003, 11:38

  • Welcome to Orange World

    I am curious, Orange

    Orange today peeled the wraps off a series of European initiatives including a revamped portal known as Orange World, simplified tariffs, developments to the Orange Signature Phone series and the rollout of its phone trainer scheme beyond the UK. The services go live in the UK, France and Switzerland next week and across other …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2003, 11:40

  • Orange revenues up, capex down

    Looking after the parent

    Orange today emerged from its recent harsh capital expenditure squeeze with the release of bullish third quarter financial results. The mobile operator's base line revenues rose just over eight per cent to to €4.7bn in the three months to September 30 2003 as 1.3 million new subscriptions boosted the firm's total number of …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2003, 11:44

  • Usability – is it what we think it is?

    Dropped and dragged through the mire

    Computer Associates has done some extensive research on what exactly users want when it comes to so-called usability, writes Phil Howard of Bloor Research. Some of the results, which CA wanted to find out about for implementation within its CleverPath Portal product, turned out not to be what was expected. The most surprising …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 12:25

  • Rio Chiba 256MB MP3 player

    Reg Review Farewell, jog-dial controls

    First Diamond Multimedia, then Sonic Blue, now Digital Networks. The Rio range of portable digital music players may have had many parent companies since it was launched back in the late 1990s, but the MP3 pioneer is still going strong. This past summer saw the family updated with set of new solid-state and hard drive-based …

    Reviews 30 Oct 2003, 12:38

  • Informatics UK goes titsup

    Sound the Retreat

    Informatics Group UK (IGUK)went into administration today, following the decision of its Singapore parent to scale down IT training and e-learning ops in the UK. Withdrawing from IGUK - where it is a 60 per cent shareholder -will cost Informatics Holdings S$1.84m (c. £625.000), but it will staunch what it says is the its only …

    Channel 30 Oct 2003, 13:13

  • UK.gov websites under fire (again)

    Out of Form

    UK government websites today came under attack for failing to help the very citizens most likely to need the information and services that they offer. According to a damming study from the Society of IT Management (Socitm) and Citizens Advice, the charity representing the national network of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Whitehall's …

    Media 30 Oct 2003, 13:32

  • EDS waves goodbye to 5,200 staff

    Putting on the pink slips

    EDS is axeing 5,200 jobs worldwide by the end of 2004. The computer services giant had already announced that it was making 2,700 of these job cuts in June, so this news represents more belt-tightening. EDS yesterday announced a net loss of $0.5m on revenue up 6 per cent to $5.24 billion. In a memo to staff, Bob Swann, CFO, …

    Business 30 Oct 2003, 13:34

  • Gone Phishin'

    Analysis Tactics to curtail email scams

    It seems that you're nobody in UK banking unless your customers have been targeted in phishing scams. In recent weeks customers of Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Halifax and Citibank have all been targeted with scam emails which attempt to trick unsuspecting punters into handing over sensitive account information to …

    Security 30 Oct 2003, 13:49

  • Longhorn as the next Microsoft desktop domination play

    Yes, you have been here before...

    Microsoft's shiny new (but not entirely finished) Longhorn operating system is a move to reassert and to extend the company's weakening control of the desktop, according to Gartner analyst Michael Silver. He claims, effectively, that Microsoft is using the introduction of new technologies in a decidedly old-fashioned and tried …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 14:15

  • Paper offers Nokia N-Gage for 1p

    No wonder game retailers can't shift it

    When Nokia launched its N-Gage console-cum-phone, it was keen that mobile phone networks shouldn't subsidise the handset and thus limit the scope for games retailers to offer the product competitively. Alas, the Finnish phone maker failed. O2 and T-Mobile are currently offering the N-Gage for £100 - less than half what it's …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2003, 14:19

  • Ericsson posts profit

    Ends restructuring

    Ericsson has posted an adjusted third quarter pre-tax profit, as the firm continues to benefit from radical cost cutting. The Swedish telecoms equipment maker had sales of SEK28 billion (€3.22 billion) in the third quarter, down from SEK33.5 billion in the same quarter in 2002. However, the figure for net orders booked in the …

    Business 30 Oct 2003, 15:10

  • Sony Ericsson ships GPRS Wi-Fi combo card

    Reg Kit Watch Plus: Sony upgrades to Vaio to Centrino, adds 802.11g kit

    Wi-Fi Sony Ericsson yesterday launched a combined GPRS and Wi-Fi PC Card. The GC79 allows notebook users to access the Internet via 802.11b networks when they're in range of a hotspot, and to go online over a mobile phone carrier's GPRS network when they're not. The card provides GPRS connectivity across the three GSM bands ( …

    Broadband 30 Oct 2003, 15:13

  • Reg kit now available in £, € and $

    Cash'n'Carrion Easier shopping for Europe and the US

    Well, it's taken a while, but in response to all those customers from Europe and the US who demanded Cash'n'Carrion prices in local currencies, our e-emporium now offers shopping in pounds, euros and dollars. All you have to do to take advantage of this new facility is go to Cash'n'Carrion, select your preferred currency in the …

    Site News 30 Oct 2003, 15:14

  • Intel pushes back the fashion envelope

    Luxury laptop bag for today's connected woman

    We're delighted to announce that Intel has teamed up with top British designer Julien Macdonald to reinvent the humble laptop bag. Yes indeed, Macdonald has managed to "redefine the laptop bag as the luxury handbag for the 21st Century", while simultaneously "celebrating the growing role that technology plays in women’s lives" …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2003, 15:19

  • Crack codes and win prizes

    Fancy a go at the Thawte Crypto Challenge IV?

    We here at Vulture Central know how fond our readers are of codebreaking challenges, so we're happy to point would-be cryptographers in the direction of the Thawte Crypto Challenge IV. Thawte explains it thus: "The Crypto Challenge is a fun, on-going competition aimed at Cipher hobbyists able to crack level 3 - 4 of Simon Singh …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2003, 15:21

  • Brussels starts probe of MS consumer electronic deals

    Hardware OEMs get "routine" request for information

    The European Commission looks set to open a second investigation of Microsoft, even before the current one is done and dusted - and this time it's about the company's relationships with OEMs. Following a report of the matter in the Financial Times, the Commission today issued a statement confirming that it had asked a number of …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 15:43

  • Unlucky phisher pleads guilty

    Why oh why did I try the FBI?

    An Ohio woman whose credit card fraud schemes began to unravel when she unwittingly spammed an off-duty FBI computer crime agent pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge Tuesday, and potentially faces years in prison. Helen Carr, 55, admitted in a federal court in Virginia to conspiring with colleagues in the spam …

    Security 30 Oct 2003, 15:47

  • Lexmark loses round 2 in DMCA chip case

    US Copyright Office lands punch

    Lexmark has suffered a setback in its attempts to use the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against a firm which makes chips that enable third party toner cartridges to work in its printers. Microchips from Static Control Components (SCC) do not contravene the DMCA, the US Copyright Office ruled this week. The US …

    Media 30 Oct 2003, 16:00

  • Broadband Britain back on track – or is it?

    Fetch me the BB gun, Boy

    Broadband Britain has suffered a "rough start" and is still lagging behind other comparable countries when it comes to availability of fast Internet access. But these problems are being overcome, at last. According to Fat Pipes, Connected People , a study conducted by the Work Foundation's iSociety project and Broadband …

    Broadband 30 Oct 2003, 16:32

  • FTC calls for US patent reform

    More hurdles, less backlog

    Proposals to make US patents harder to obtain and easier to challenge were put forward this week by the US Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has issued a report calling on the US Patent and Trademark Office to apply tougher standards in granting patents. Congress should also establish a mechanism to permit companies to …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 16:37

  • Berners-Lee comes out fighting to save Web

    Father of the Web insists US patent office reviews vital case

    Inventor of the World Wide Web and head of the W3C, Tim Berners-Lee, has taken the unprecedented decision to actively fight a patent case, claiming it will undermine the Internet and wipe out huge swathes of Net history. Berners-Lee is well known for his robust defence of open, royalty-free standards as the only way to progress …

    Media 30 Oct 2003, 16:53

  • College students care more about beer than software

    Unethical sods

    The ever-vigilant Business Software Alliance (BSA) has struck out against immoral college students, saying it's concerned about the lack of respect kiddies have for software. The software industry trade group commissioned a study that found students are quite willing to pirate software. The collegians' main motivations for …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 16:56

  • Calling Coders for the Greater Common Good

    The UK needs you

    mySociety.org launched today with a call to arms for UK techies to come forward with ideas to further the common good by way of technology. The not-for-profit organisation is also seeking enthusiastic tech-savvy people to put together what it calls Open Source++ projects that will benefit society as a whole. "Our aim is to …

    Software 30 Oct 2003, 18:21

  • StorageTek gives early look at tape library behemoth

    Mounts faster than a prized bull

    StorageTek is giving customers an early preview of a new beast of a tape library - the StreamLine SL8500. StorageTek is billing the new system as the cornerstone of its information lifecycle management strategy. In other words, it thinks the box is a pretty big deal. And at first glance, the SL8500 is indeed impressive. The …

    Storage 30 Oct 2003, 19:51

  • Minimize your ROI with IBM

    Less is... less

    In a rush to pepper potential customers with marketing speak, IBM has slipped up and issued a less than flattering message about its skills with SAP applications. Users at the SAP TechEd conference held last month in Basel were thrown off by the "key-message" displayed at IBM's booth. The standard phrases such as "empowered to …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2003, 22:47