14th November 2003 Archive

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Dell keeps zooming in Q3

Strong like bull

The profit machine that is Dell kept on rolling in the third quarter. Dell brought in $10.6 billion in revenue for the period ended Oct. 31, which is a 16 percent increase over the same quarter last year. Dell churned out $677 million in net income for the quarter versus $561 million last year. These are rather stunning results …

Servers 14 Nov 2003, 00:19
Scottish tribunal hears mass wrongful dismissal claim

Bitterness over Convergys takeover

One of Scotland's biggest employment cases in being heard at a tribunal in Glasgow following a claim against billings system outfit TelesensKSCL. The preliminary hearing - which kicked off yesterday and is expected to last until tomorrow - focuses on the redundancy of 220 people last year. TelesensKSCL, which was subsequently …

Business 14 Nov 2003, 09:39
Carriers invest in convergence

Out with the old, in with the new

Many North American and European service providers are planning transitions from their current networks to next generation converged networks, according to an Infonetics Research study published today. Despite a "lean capex environment, service providers are increasing their investments in IP, MPLS [Multiprotocol Label …

Data Networking 14 Nov 2003, 09:42
IBM cites SCO judge in latest SCO filings

This one looks familiar...

IBM has dispensed with traditional legal circumlocution and gone for the jugular with its latest court filings against The SCO Group. IBM moved to have three of SCO's claims alleging fraud struck down. IBM argues that fraud allegations must be backed up in great detail, and give the defendant fair notice to prepare a defense …

Software 14 Nov 2003, 10:02
NHS: improvements online

Gov.uk revamps NHS website

The UK government has recently relaunched the NHS website, an information portal designed to help the public find the health information and services they need. Health websites are already popular with UK consumers and the NHS' ongoing improvements should go some way to meeting remaining patient requirements. The new NHS site …

Software 14 Nov 2003, 10:02
Five year's jail for camcorders in cinema

MPAA goes after pirate movies

Holidaymakers - think again before bringing your camcorder into a US cinema. If your fumbling with the battery is misconstrued as an attempt to film what's on the screen, it could land you with a five jail term under a bill proposed by two US Senators yesterday. Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn who announced the bill …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2003, 10:03
AMD to ship 1GHz FSB Athlon 64 FX Q1 '04 – SiS

Chipset maker launches support part

SiS has begun shipping its latest Athlon 64 FX chipset, the SiS755FX - a part designed to support next year's 939-pin processors. It also supports PCI Express alongside AGP. SiS' next Athlon 64 chipset, the SiS756, will do away with AGP altogether as soon as Q2 2004, The Register has learned. AMD has already said it will ship …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 10:20
Unsafe Nokia batteries – or counterfeits?

Belgian watchdog takes another look

Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Aankoop is to re-examine its claims that Nokia batteries are not safe. Nokia says that the batteries Test Aankoop tested must have been counterfeits. Recently, the Belgian consumer watchdog, along with German counterpart Warentest, branded several Nokia mobile phone batteries as "unsafe" and " …

Mobile 14 Nov 2003, 10:21
Media, people blamed for 1901 census site cock-up

It's not funny, not clever

The media - and anyone who tried to access the 1901 Census Web site in January 2002 - is to blame for the site going titsup for nine months. That's according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) which found that the Public Record Office (PRO) had only planned a "low key" launch of the site. Unfortunately, "press …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2003, 10:35
Belgian watchdog reconsiders ‘unsafe’ Nokia battery claim

Plans to retest batteries

A Belgian consumer organisation which last week claimed that three Nokia batteries were unprotected against short-circuiting is to re-examine its findings. It seems that Test-Aankoop may well have been hoodwinked and tested fake Nokia batteries instead of the real thing. The Belgian consumer watchdog has admitted that its …

Mobile 14 Nov 2003, 10:58
Does AMD want out of the chip making game?

Analysis Choice of next fab more about AMD's role than location

So where has AMD chosen to build its next-generation wafer fab? The company says it has a preferred location in mind, but won't - for obvious reasons - say exactly where it has chosen. This week, Reuters ran a story claiming AMD had put its Dresden facility on the shortlist - hardly a staggering conclusion to leap to since that …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 11:28
60m DSL lines by year end

$80bn BB revs by 2008

The global take-up of DSL continues to grow, with experts forecasting the number of lines will exceed 60 million by the end of the year. The prediction - from broadband researchers Point Topic - comes as the total number of DSL lines topped 53 million at the end of September - an increase of 73 per cent on the year before. …

Telecoms 14 Nov 2003, 11:47
Phishing and viral tech combines in new menace

Mimail-I targets PayPal punters

A new computer virus targets PayPal users in an attempt to dupe consumers into divulging sensitive credit card details. Mimail-I, the latest in a series of security-threatening worms, has spread widely since its first appearance yesterday. Mimail-I typically arrives in an email with a subject line of "YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT …

Anti-Virus 14 Nov 2003, 12:02
One blogger is worth ten votes – Harvard man

Emergent marketing aids

Working in his secret laboratory at Harvard University, a Fellow of the prestigious institution has come up with a formula that rocks electoral maths to its core. Former software developer Dave Winer has worked out that one weblogger is worth ten ordinary voters, and he revealed the results of his complex calculations to Wired …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2003, 12:15
Click here if you love sheds

The wonderful world of sheddie net porn

If you know what a sheddie is, what creosote is for and can tell your featherboard from your elbow, then you are advised to proceed directly to www.readersheds.co.uk - a cutting-edge online resource for shed lovers worldwide. Anyone who has - or covets - a shed of their own will immediately understand why this site is making a …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2003, 12:34
Intel unveils 2.5GHz Mobile Celeron

Last P4-based value mobile chip

Intel extended its Mobile Celeron line to 2.5GHz yesterday. The 130nm part is based on the same core as current Pentium 4s, but with only 256KB of L2 cache and a 400MHz effective bit rate frontside bus. It consumes up to 35W of power. The chip will probably be the last Mobile Celeron based on the current, 'Northwood' P4, …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 13:14
First dual-core Itanic to sport 24MB of cache

Monster

Intel's first dual-core Itanic, 'Montecito', will sport a whopping 24MB of L3 cache, the chip giant said yesterday, by way of Reuters. And in a staggering feat of processor engineering that has clearly wowed the news agency's hacks, the chip will "be able to run several applications at once". Gosh. If only we could do that now …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 13:15
The truth about mobile phones and driving

What the 1 December law change really means

New legislation will be introduced into the UK on 1 December aimed at stamping out the potentially dangerous use of mobile devices while driving, writes Dale Vile of Quocirca. The problem is that many people out there are confused about what exactly the new rules are and how they are likely to be interpreted by the police. In …

Mobile 14 Nov 2003, 14:19
Silicon on insulator key to AMD 90nm success – analyst

Make more chips, more cheaply with higher performance

AMD's Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology is going to save the company's migration to a 90nm process from the delays that appear to have plagued Intel's shift to 90nm. So says American Technology Research (ATR) analyst Rick Whittington, who also reckons we should all go out and buy AMD stock. Whittington's line is that AMD's …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 15:20
Al Jazeera hacker gets community service

'Patriotic' hacking is still a crime, says judge

A Californian web designer was fined and sentenced to community service this week after he admitted to hacking into the web site of Arabic satellite TV network Al Jazeera during the war in Iraq. John William Racine II, 24, posed as an Al Jazeera worker to obtain passwords that allowed him to re-route surfers intending to visit …

Security 14 Nov 2003, 15:24
Tiscali swelled by broadband users

800,000 by year-end

Pan-European ISP Tiscali reported that the take-up of broadband is accelerating and as a result it has upped its prediction for the number of high speed Net users it expects to have at year-end by 50,000. Reporting Q3 results today, the ISP revealed that it now has more than 600,000 broadband punters, with numbers growing on …

Telecoms 14 Nov 2003, 15:25
Sony launches 0.4in thick notebook

Reg Kit Watch Portable desktop too

Desktop Just when you thought the notebook had become the ultimate in desktop PC portability was the Sony this week unveiled the Vaio PCV-P101, a slimline and remarkably Apple-like portable desktop computer. Actually, the PCV-P101 effectively is a notebook - just one mounted with the 1280 x 768 widescreen 17in display facing …

Personal 14 Nov 2003, 17:19
Reversible computing is ‘the only way’ to survive Intel's heat

Spring load code

A researcher at the University of Florida has come up with a new set of chip designs called "reversible computers" that may steer chip makers away from creating incredibly hot processors and toward "green computing." Michael Frank, an assistant professor at UF, created a way to re-engineer current chip designs, letting them …

Channel 14 Nov 2003, 17:46
Motorola nixes ‘walled garden’ phone patch

Forget the Internet - look at our tropical fish

Motorola has clamped down on a phone patch which unlocked the full capabilities of one of its smartphones. But there are no hard feelings from the recipient of the copyright notice, Marius Vincent, who blames British 3G operator 3 for crippling the A920. The A920 is a smartphone with built-in GPS, web browser and Bluetooth that …

Mobile 14 Nov 2003, 23:39