15th December 2003 Archive

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VIA ships integrated Athlon 64 chipset

Taking 64-bit beyond workstations and gaming PCs

VIA has begun shipping its Athlon 64 chipset, the K8M800 - the world's first integrated chipset for the 64-bit AMD processor, it claims. You might wonder why a workhorse like the Athlon 64 would be paired with an relatively low-spec. integrated graphics core, given the focus of 64-bit computing on high bandwidth applications, …

Channel 15 Dec 2003, 09:52
The BOFH-father: Part One

Episode 31 Ah may 'im an uffer 'e cudden refoose...

BOFH 2003: Episode 31 . . . Late one evening, in a darkened corner of Mission Control . . . "...and so we agreed that for justice, we'd have to talk to the Operators," a helldesk geek gushes to me. "Why did you go to the Head of IT? Why didn't you talk to me first?" I whisper, sitting back in my padded leather wheely chair …

BOFH 15 Dec 2003, 10:18
The return of the ‘free’ PC

IBM to supply 200k PCs

A British start-up is to offer up to free PCs to the public. The catch? The PC fills the screens with ads for 60 seconds every 20 minutes. Each month, the company, Metronomy, mails a CD containing targeted advertising. Your PC will work only if the CD is installed. You must also agree to use the PC at least 30 hours a month and …

Channel 15 Dec 2003, 10:46
‘Bored’ teens blow £80m in e-shopping spree

Astonishing

Three "bored" German teenagers blew a staggering £80 million (€130 million) in just two hours after they ran amok in an online spending spree. Using stolen credit card details the trio bought airplanes, works of art, designer clothes, restaurants, industrial machinery, patents and sound systems. They were arrested by police on …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2003, 11:01
Disgo Pro 1GB USB Flash drive

Reg Review Capacious

Disgo is one of the pioneers of the USB Flash drive business and while there's now a deluge of the things, Disgo hasn't been lost in the flood thanks to a steady line of improvements, incorporating higher capacities, the faster USB 2.0 specification and security features. The 1GB Disgo Pro is the company's most advanced product …

Reviews 15 Dec 2003, 11:55
Spooks seek right to snoop on Internet phone calls

Will VoIP be wiretap-ready?

If a rapid-fire series of announcements from cable and telecom bigwigs last week confirms that Voice over IP (VoIP) has a future as a mainstream consumer technology, it's worth noting that the electronic surveillance mavens in the FBI and Justice Department saw it coming. On Thursday, AT&T announced plans to deliver consumer …

Security 15 Dec 2003, 12:05
16,000 punters sign up for 1Mbps ADSL

BT announces wholesale cost cuts

More than 16,000 punters have signed up to BT's faster 1Mbps ADSL service since the product was launched a month ago. News of the growing appetite for faster broadband services came as the telco announced it is to cut the wholesale cost of some of its broadband products in the New Year. The offer, which runs from January 12 to …

Telecoms 15 Dec 2003, 12:06
Register Reader Studies

We want you as a new recruit

You may remember that The Register used to run reader surveys online and publish summaries. More than 8,000 of you signed up to participate in the surveys, some conducted online and some by way of email. Some of you may even receive the occasional email from our former survey partner seeking assistance in compiling a survey or …

Tech Panel 15 Dec 2003, 13:10
O2 test runs 3G in Ireland

25 guinea pigs

O2 on Monday announced that its 3G network is in operation and is currently being piloted by a number of customers. The company is required under ComReg licensing conditions to open its network before the end of this year. Vodafone already made a similar announcement in May of this year, when it revealed that its 3G network was …

Mobile 15 Dec 2003, 14:31
Sanyo sub-sonic mobile phone to ship by month's end

Bone conduction

Japanese electronics giant Sanyo has developed a truly silent mobile phone. Instead of a loudspeaker, the handset, the TS41, uses the user's own skull to transmit the incoming call. Using bone to conduct sound waves isn't new, but this is the first time we've heard the technique being used for a mobile phone. Sanyo claims it's …

Mobile 15 Dec 2003, 14:42
Massive MyTravel losses blamed on botched IT system install

Living on the margins

MyTravel, the UK's biggest travel company, lost up to £60 on every holiday it sold last year. If that wasn't bad enough, the holiday group had no idea of the hole it was digging for itself - the firm thought it was making a profit of £40-£50 on each sale. Upshot, MyTravel fell £911m to the red last week, of which the lion's …

Hardware 15 Dec 2003, 15:33
E-envoy gets the chop

'Head of e-Government' appointed instead

The UK Government's post of "e-envoy", currently held by Andrew Pinder, is to be ditched and replaced with a new job - "Head of e-Government". Four years after the position was first created "to champion e-commerce" in the UK and "spearhead a wake-up call to British business", the Government has decided it's time to change tack …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2003, 15:34
Germany regulates dialler market

No more scams?

From today, all PC dialler programs in Germany must dial only through 09009 numbers. All other numbers (including 0190 and 0900 numbers) are deemed illegal, according to a new decree by the German Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts. With these measures the watchdog aims to end the growing abuse of call …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2003, 16:32
Bapco releases Sysmark 2004

Calcs 'thing time - the time where the user is assessing what to do next'

Benchmark consortium Bapco has released the latest version of its PC performance testing suite. Sysmark 2004 uses an "updated" range of commercial applications in its scoring system, including Adobe's Acrobat 5.0.5, After Effects(R) 5.5, Photoshop 7.01 and Premiere 6.5; Discreet 3DS max 5.1; Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and Flash …

Personal 15 Dec 2003, 17:08
American football star phones mom (in middle of game)

That'll be a penalty, then

New Orleans Saints footballer Joe Horn set a new low on Sunday, becoming the first player to be hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty for using his cell phone during a game. The flash receiver caught his second touchdown pass of the day in a game against the New York Giants and then met teammate Michael Lewis in the end zone. …

Bootnotes 15 Dec 2003, 17:12
EMC eyes the server with $635 million VMware buy

Who knew?

In one of its boldest acquisitions to date, EMC has announced plans to scoop up virtual machine software maker VMware. EMC has pounced on a number of software vendors over the past year - Legato and Documentum - but none of the past deals place the company so squarely on the server. VMware makes the industry's premier set of …

Servers 15 Dec 2003, 21:51
Israel accelerates free software migration

Wants Thai prices

The strategic decision to loosen dependencies on Microsoft software instigated by the Israel Department of Commerce is gathering momentum in other government departments. More intriguingly, departments are demanding that Microsoft follow suit with its Thai price cuts - which Microsoft has steadfastly refused to contemplate in …

Software 15 Dec 2003, 21:55
Very flat, Norfolk – for Voda users

No signal

Vodafone users in East Anglia are still suffering connection problems, the monster mobilephoneco confirmed this evening. On Saturday, punters in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire reported their inability to register with the Voda network, rendering their phones effectively useless. This glitch was resolved, only to be replaced by …

Mobile 15 Dec 2003, 22:55
IBM mulls sending engineer jobs to India

White collar crimes

IBM is planning to move up to 4,730 programmer jobs offshore, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The plans are still under debate, according to the newspaper, which cites internal documents, but involve Application Management Services group, part of IBM's Global Services operation. As is the modern fashion, a final …

Business 15 Dec 2003, 23:37