5th January 2004 Archive
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Prince Charles tops UK Google 2003 top ten
But Britney rules worldwide
Prince Charles, tree-hugging heir to the British throne, has topped the Google most wanted list for 2003, according to the search engine. Our Charlie proved the most sought-after subject on the web after scurrilous allegations prompted a fact-starved UK public to scour the Net for tasty titbits. This royal rumpus beat soap …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 11:37
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Europe's first HDTV satellite channel
'Event cinemas'
As of January 1 Euro1080 is the first European satellite channel to broadcast in the high definition TV (HDTV) format, which has roughly double the number of vertical lines and horizontal lines of traditional analog television. The satellite channel, set up by Belgian production company Alfacam, will distribute language- …
Personal 5 Jan 2004, 11:38
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100m broadband lines and counting
Explosive growth
Broadband is one of the "fastest growing new technologies in history" even beating the meteoric rise of mobile phones, according to analysts at research outfit Point Topic. Its end-of-year look at the world-wide broadband market - including DSL, cable modems and fibre-optic - found that there are now more than 100 million …
Telecoms 5 Jan 2004, 11:40
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Amstrad slashes em@iler prices
Mass market play
Amstrad today reduced the list price for the e-m@iler plus to £29.99, down from £49.99. It says the price cut is intended to take its phone-cum-emailer to mass market status (it was after all, always a mass market, or rather downmarket, play). The price cuts were made possible through lower manufacturing costs and better …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 12:12
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Uncle Sam fingerprints visitors
Visa-exempts exempted (for now)
Visitors to the US from many countries may be fingerprinted or photographed in a Federal anti-terrorism programme. The scheme cover travellers from countries who require a visa to visit the US - an estimated 24 million people a year - but not (as yet) visitors from visa-exempt countries. Exempt countries include Western …
Security 5 Jan 2004, 12:21
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Siebel does better than expected in Q4
Tops guidance
Siebel Systems' Q4 was better than expected, with the CRM vendor comfortably surpassing its previously announced guidance on revenue and profit. In preliminary results announced today, Siebel said total revenues for Q4, 2003 were approx $365m, with license revenues standing at approx $150m. Earnings per share are approx. eight …
Hardware 5 Jan 2004, 12:42
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Gates to star at UK chancellor's entrepreneur summit
Lesson one: give me lots of your money
Bill Gates will be the star guest at "tycoon's summit" of top company bosses to be held in London this month, according to the Sunday Times. The conference, to be hosted by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown, is being pitched as an entrepreneur's summit, intended to help foster the spirit of enterprise and 'can do' in British industry …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 13:25
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Haitians seek Vice City ban
Haitian Divorce
The row between publisher Take Two Interactive and Haitian civil rights groups in the United States has escalated further, with a lawsuit being filed in Florida seeking an outright ban on the sale of GTA Vice City. The legal action comes despite a move by Take Two last month to placate the Haitian groups by removing …
Personal 5 Jan 2004, 13:52
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Alabama workers clock in with their fingerprints
Scanner monitors body temperature
Jefferson County, Alabama is calling time on fraudulent overtime claims by making non-salaried employees clock in with their fingerprints. The County Commission last week placed a $460,000 order for 60 extra biometric time clocks. It has already installed 30 of the hi-tech gizmos. "I'm not saying anybody has been doing …
Security 5 Jan 2004, 13:59
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Norway throws in the towel in DVD Jon case
No more appeals
Jon Lech Johansen, creator of the DECSS DVD crack, won't be going back to court. The Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (Økokrim) today confirmed that it will not appeal the upholding of his acquittal on copyright charges to the Norway's Supreme Court. To be precise, Økokrim confirmed its withdrawal from the case by failing to lodge …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 14:16
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Texts lost in New Year's Eve crush
Ahem...
It's estimated that some 100 million texts were sent in the UK over the New Year. Yet mobile services outfit Sicap reckons that by sending just four text messages over this busy time is enough to provide it with an insight into the performance of the UK's mobile phone networks. Four (4) "researchers" sent a (1) text message …
Mobile 5 Jan 2004, 14:38
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Aussie spam watchdog investigates itself
Who guards the guards?
An Australia anti-spam watchdog is investigating its own workers following complaints about the alleged distribution of pornographic and racist emails within the organisation. The Sydney-based Daily Telegraph reports the Australian Communications Authority began the investigation after staff reported receiving lewd emails from …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 15:26
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Cray to set Strider and Black Widow loose on server world
Spidery future
Details remain fairly thin on Cray's Opteron-based supercomputer ambitions, but last month at an investor's conference some more information on the upcoming systems trickled out, including their "Strider" code-name. This year will mark Cray's effort to package its Red Storm supercomputer for a wider audience. The system will …
Servers 5 Jan 2004, 17:13
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BT faces fresh complaint over late BB delivery
'Catalogue of errors, late reporting and misinformation'
A rural broadband scheme in Norfolk has complained to the UK's new communications regulator after BT failed to supply high-speed links to a new community wireless scheme on time. West Norfolk Community Broadband (WNCB) was due to have the new lines in place - connecting the community wireless scheme to the Net - by December 18 …
Telecoms 5 Jan 2004, 17:15
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South Korea slams IBM with server slush fund charges
Government officials in the clink
IBM executives and a host of South Korean government officials have been fingered in a bribery scandal relating to server and PC sales. The Seoul District Prosecutor's Office claims that IBM Korea won deals for servers and PC parts worth close to $55 million by bribing government workers with cash, according to reports out of …
Servers 5 Jan 2004, 18:20
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iTunes DRM cracked wide open for GNU/Linux. Seriously
Exclusive DVD Jon unpicks locked music
Norwegian programmer Jon Lech Johansen, who broke the DVD encryption scheme, has opened iTunes locked music a tad further, by allowing people to play songs they've purchased on iTunes Music Store on their GNU/Linux computers. "We're about to find out what Apple really thinks about Fair Use," Johansen told The Register via email …
Music and Media 5 Jan 2004, 20:34
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$1 million Grand Challenge map leaked on Web
DARPA says all going as planned
Another dollop of controversy has been dished out on DARPA's $1million Grand Challenge robot race with an early version of the planned route for the contest leaking onto the Web. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has posted the Grand Challenge race map as part of a safety review process ahead of the DARPA (Defense Advanced …
Business 5 Jan 2004, 22:46
