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4th November 2003 Archive

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  • Court waves through Worldcom bankruptcy plan

    And with one bound MCI was free

    US telecoms company WorldCom has won court approval for its reorganisation plan and should emerge from bankruptcy in early 2004. The company, which will officially change its name to MCI after the reorganisation is complete, said that with the plan approved it would be able to turn its attention to driving up revenues and …

    Business 4 Nov 2003, 00:00

  • E-voting vendor sued for DMCA takedown

    Never mind the ballots

    Two college students and a non-profit will seek a restraining order tomorrow to prevent electronic voting machine vendor Diebold Systems from using the DMCA to plug a leak. Diebold has threatened several websites with the 1998 Act to prevent them publishing a large number of internal memos from the company's technical support …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 2003, 04:15

  • Sun shares jump on Youngjohns

    The Loon responds

    Sun Microsystems shares shot higher on Monday as one executive pumped up investor confidence while one analyst tried to drain it. Sun's share price rose 11.11 percent to a close of $4.39 per share. This gain outstripped that of rivals such as IBM, Dell, EMC and HP - all of which enjoyed modest rises (less than 2 percent) on the …

    Servers 4 Nov 2003, 05:05

  • MusicMatch issues official support curse for iPod users

    iTunes - meet Recycle Bin

    San Diego-based MusicMatch Inc. has greeted the arrival of iTunes for Windows with a stark warning to users: delete Apple's software. MusicMatch's popular Jukebox software is bundled with Apple's iPod MP3 player, but it's doubtful for how much longer. In September MusicMatch launched its own online MP3 download service as a …

    Mac Channel 4 Nov 2003, 09:49

  • IT ads ‘selling impossible dreams’ – Which?

    You mean this PC won't get rid of piles?

    Shoppers are being warned not to be suckered into buying computers and other IT gear just on the back of slick advertising. Computing Which?, published today, claims some advertising for IT products is "selling impossible dreams" with companies "advertising products unable to live up to the claims made in their ads and on their …

    Channel 4 Nov 2003, 09:51

  • Carphone Warehouse to create 1,000 jobs

    Profits up

    Carphone Warehouse is to create 1,000 jobs over the next year as it opens more shops and a new call centre in Warrington. News of the extra jobs came as the mobile phone retailer reported a jump in profits amid optimism that the sector is seeing more growth against a backdrop of increased competition The acquisition of Opal …

    Business 4 Nov 2003, 10:43

  • AMD Athlon FX-53 to counter Intel P4EE?

    Straight from the source's mouth

    AMD will hit back against yesterday's release of the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with a 2.4GHz Athlon 64 chip, the FX-53. The part will launch before the end of the year. So claim a variety of unnamed sources cited by Xbit Labs. The site also notes that it has heard, whispered on the wind, that AMD will ship an Athlon 64 …

    Channel 4 Nov 2003, 10:50

  • Microsoft looks to SiS for Xbox 2 I/O chips

    Joins IBM, ATI

    SiS has joined IBM and ATI as an Xbox 2 chip supplier, a document the company filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange has revealed. According to the filing, SiS will produce "media I/O technologies" for "future Xbox products and services". Microsoft has confirmed the content of the filing, DigiTimes reports. The SiS announcement …

    Personal 4 Nov 2003, 10:54

  • Elpida samples 2GB DDR 2 module

    ECC support for servers

    Elpida has begun sampling 2GB DDR 2 SDRAM registered DIMMs - the first of its kind, the company claims. Aimed at servers and workstations, the modules are expected to go into mass production during Q2 2004, after Intel has released it upcoming DDR 2 chipsets 'Twin Castle' and 'Lindenhurst' for those platforms. To date, Intel …

    Channel 4 Nov 2003, 11:17

  • Briefing Developing mobile apps on Series 90

    Nokia has continued with its traditional 'developer platform series' with the introduction of the next-generation of the platforms – Series 90. The series commenced with series 40 – for Java-technology enabled phones; Series 60 – for Symbian OS smart phones; and now Series 90 – a developer solution/platform for high-end media, …

    Mobile 4 Nov 2003, 11:36

  • Red Hat pulls plugs on Red Hat Linux product line

    Does this mean there's a vacancy?

    Red Hat yesterday unveiled its answer to the vexed question of what it should do about its consumer line - dump it. This is not quite how CEO Matthew Szulik put it to The Register over lunch yesterday, nor indeed did he say flat out 'oh, by the way, we're shooting the Red Hat Linux distribution when North Carolina wakes up, bye …

    Software 4 Nov 2003, 11:37

  • Skype won’t make it, says WSJ columnist

    Zennstrom replies

    A scathing criticism of Skype, the new Voice over IP Peer-to-peer system from the KaZaA founders, was voiced in the Wall Street Journal last week in an article by Lee Gomes, stating that “Skype calls are peppered with frequent voice drop-offs, as well as all manner of clicks and pops and the call often ends for no good reason. A …

    Data Networking 4 Nov 2003, 11:43

  • RIAA and DirecTV file more suits

    Drag thousands to court

    The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) legal actions against illegal file sharing activities continue apace, with 80 new suits filed this week and 156 in total, from its first batch of suits and the batch of 204 letters it sent out last week, settling out of court. Originally, 241 legal actions were filed on the …

    Telecoms 4 Nov 2003, 11:49

  • Telia blocks spam-sending Zombie PCs

    Trojans nipped in the bud

    TeliaSonera, the leading telecommunications group in the Nordic and Baltic regions, will start to immediately block Internet traffic to and from computers that send junk email or spam, the company announced yesterday. In order to prevent the rapid spread of spam and virus mails, the company will block all Trojan-infected PCs …

    Malware 4 Nov 2003, 12:05

  • How to recognise a geek

    Institute of Physics Survey (seriously, folks)

    "My parents just came back from a planet where the dominant life form had no bilateral symmetry, and all I got was this stupid F-Shirt." Laugh, you nearly did? Then you're obviously a geek. Earlier this year a random selection of shoppers on London's Oxford Street were asked to pick out the physicist from a line-up of possible …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2003, 12:11

  • Consumer Linux? Just ask my 90 year old father, says Red Hat CEO

    But there's a point here struggling to be heard

    Who drives Red Hat's product strategy? The CEO? What about the CEO's 90 year old father? Well, he certainly seems to have an input. When The Register quizzed him on the consumer market yesterday, Matthew Szulik waxed suddenly passionate: "We know painfully well what happens when my 90 year old father reads about Red Hat Linux, …

    Software 4 Nov 2003, 13:07

  • Panther bitten by second data damaging bug

    FileVault to blame this time

    Mac OS X 10.3's FileVault system, which protects each user's home folder with on-the-fly 128-but AES data encryption, has been found to contain a data-damaging glitch, Apple has admitted. The bug manifests itself as a request to regain lost disk space in the encrypted directory. If the user responds in the affirmative, …

    Mac Channel 4 Nov 2003, 13:30

  • Security fears over UK 'snooper's charter'

    UK.gov to spy on Joe Public, pass data overseas

    Human rights watchdog Privacy International (PI) will today warn a House of Lords conference that government proposals to stockpile details of all phone calls and Internet access made by the entire population of the UK will create grave dangers for both privacy and security. A number of orders - called 'Statutory Instruments …

    Security 4 Nov 2003, 13:38

  • Oftel unlikely to demand broadband cost cuts – report

    Doesn't want to 'rock the boat'

    Telecoms watchdog Oftel is expected to conclude that there is little need for further regulatory interference to force down the wholesale cost of broadband. The regulator is due to publish next month the findings of its latest review into high speed Net access in the UK. However, according to an interview in the Financial Times …

    Telecoms 4 Nov 2003, 13:45

  • Israeli man charged with hacking Mossad

    Spy hard

    An Israeli man has been arrested over accusations he hacked into a recruitment web site run by Mossad, Israel's main intelligence agency. The 23-year-old man, who is yet to be identified, has been charged in a Jerusalem court over the alleged attack, Israel Radio reported yesterday. AP reports that the nature of the charges or …

    Security 4 Nov 2003, 13:55

  • Novell bags SuSE for $210m

    IBM invests $50m too

    Linux company SuSE was today acquired by Novell in a $210 million all-cash deal. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the winding up of shareholder agreements. Novell expects the transaction to close by the end of its first fiscal quarter (January 2004). Novell said the acquisition would expand its "ability to …

    Software 4 Nov 2003, 14:36

  • Nintendo sales surge on US price cut

    How long will they stay that way?

    Nintendo today claimed a 37 per cent share of the US games console market, and it's all down to price cut it made just over a month ago. Some 35 days after knocking the GameCube's retail price down to $100, Nintendo's share of the market has rise from 19 per cent to 37 per cent, propelling the Japanese company to number two in …

    Personal 4 Nov 2003, 14:56

  • Reader revolt IBM minimizing ROI – what it means to you

    re: Minimize your ROI with IBM Last week, we brought you news that IBM had kicked off a new SAP services plan that focuses in on "reducing TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and minimizing ROI (Return on Investment)." It's not often that a vendor touts its ability to minimize an investment, and we decided the IBM slide presented at …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2003, 16:29

  • Sex and the City worms promise illicit thrills

    Mildly irritating

    Fans of Sex and the City were today warned to look out for emails claiming to contain a screensaver showing adult out-takes from the raunchy hit TV show. Instead of delivering illicit thrills, the emails carry one of two variants of a new email worm, called Torvil-A and Torvil-B). The infectious email typically travels with a …

    Security 4 Nov 2003, 17:37

  • WorldPay floored by malicious attack

    DDoS attack?

    WorldPay - the Royal Bank of Scotland's Internet payment outfit - appears to have been floored by a malicious attack. The site fell over just before 8.00am this morning and hasn't been seen since. Detail are still sketchy and the full extent of the problem is not yet known. However, the company has just issued the following …

    Security 4 Nov 2003, 18:01

  • IT contractor wins IR35 case

    Worth a pint or two?

    IT contractor Roger Tilbury is celebrating today after winning his IR35 case against the taxman. The Inland Revenue had tried to prove that Mr Tilbury, from Bedford, was actually an employee of Ford Motor Company. But in his ruling yesterday Mr Stephen Oliver QC found that Mr Tilbury was not a Ford worker since he had a …

    Small Biz 4 Nov 2003, 18:48

  • IBM marries Opteron and Xeon in cluster

    Blade troubles

    IBM is taking its Opteron-based server to the next level by adding the kit as an option for the pre-packaged Cluster 1350 system. IBM's x325 system will now sit alongside the Xeon-based x335, x345 and x360 servers. These systems can be combined to form up to a 512-processor cluster. The system uses either gigabit Ethernet or …

    Servers 4 Nov 2003, 18:51

  • Orange outage hits 10,300 punters

    No signal, no nuffink

    Orange has coughed up to a glitch that left more than 10,000 people without access to their mobile phone service. The snag surfaced late last week and affected punters who were upgrading or swapping their SIM cards. For some reason - and we ain't been told - things just didn't seem to click and punters were unable to connect …

    Business 4 Nov 2003, 18:54

  • VeriSign unveils flash new site seal

    Mark of Trust marketing ploy

    VeriSign today unveiled a redesign of its ubiquitous Trust Mark seal symbol. Instead of a static GIF image, the new Trust Mark features a Flash-based animated design to make it more recognizable online. By clicking on the new VeriSign Trust Mark, consumers can verify a business's legal name, determine the validity period for …

    Security 4 Nov 2003, 19:08

  • G5 cluster secures elite spot for Apple, IBM

    I'll swap my Big Mac for your Green Destiny

    With some help from Virginia Tech, Apple has managed to join the ranks of the high-performance computing elite, as the "Big Mac" cluster is set to capture the title of the world's third fastest supercomputer. The cluster made up of 2,200 G5 processors has reached 10.28 teraflops. This places it behind the 5,120 processor Earth …

    Servers 4 Nov 2003, 22:54