19th January 2004 Archive

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December bonanza for Game Cube sales

Nintendo claims victory

Nintendo came out on top in the crucial December sales period last year, according to the Japanese company, with a massive 70 per cent year on year increase in worldwide sales of the GameCube console. The company believes that price cuts in all three major territories were a major factor in the turnaround of the console's …

Personal 19 Jan 2004, 09:55
Enough phones at last! Hutchison goes 3G in Hong Kong home

But what about the UK?

The uncertainty of 3G wideband CDMA phone technology isn't all in the mind of cynics; and Hutchison, which has managed to get 3G live in the UK and in Italy, hasn't managed to launch in its home area - Hong Kong. Until now... The service, it says, will start this month. Key to the final release of Hutchison there is that at …

Mobile 19 Jan 2004, 10:07
Microsoft lawyers threaten Mike Rowe (17)

Losing the domain name plot

In what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe, demanding the handover of his Internet domain. The domain? MikeRoweSoft.com. No, seriously. Victoria-based Mike is currently studying maths and chemistry and plans to …

Music and Media 19 Jan 2004, 10:57
Virgin.net opens doors again to new BB punters

At last

Virgin.net has begun to recruit new broadband punters some six weeks after it suspended new registrations for its high-speed Internet service. At the time, the decision to halt sign-ups until the middle of December was described as just one of a number of "precautionary" decisions the ISP has taken to resolve what it admitted …

Telecoms 19 Jan 2004, 10:59
Letters My PC is older than yours

The story about the oldest working in the Netherlands, a vintage IBM 5160 (Intel 8088) computer from 1983, which is still being used to test matrix printers, attracted a fair amount of comments. We asked you if you knew about other old desktops still chugging away somewhere. And many of you responsed. So what else is old and …

Letters 19 Jan 2004, 11:06
Illegal stun guns sold on eBay UK

Exclusive Shocking

Ebay UK is being used to sell illegal weapons such as vicious stun guns which can temporarily disable victims by delivering massive electric shocks. Although the online auction service prohibits the sale of firearms on its site - including the sale of "high voltage electric stunning devices" - stun guns are still openly …

Music and Media 19 Jan 2004, 11:10
Say hello to the Bagle Worm

Why can't virus writers spell?

Sunday evening saw reports of yet another email-borne worm affecting MS Windows. Bagle spreads via email, following the opening of an attachment. Sound familiar? Bagle comes as a standard email from a random mail address with 15kb attachment, the subject line of which is imaginatively titled 'Test'. The creative energy …

Anti-Virus 19 Jan 2004, 11:17
Euro kids prefer online games to e-mail, music – survey

Not necessarily a bad thing

European kids spend more time playing games on the Internet than sending e-mails or downloading music, according to Safety, Awareness, Facts and Tools (SAFT), an EU-backed body that monitors and advises on how children use the Internet. While the organisation acknowledges that gaming is a "new and positive element" in kids' …

Personal 19 Jan 2004, 11:55
IBM to hire 15,000 more staff

Upturn

IBM is to take on 15,000 more staff in 2004, the company said at the weekend. Most new positions will be in software and services, and 4,500 net jobs will be created in its American homeland. This will take IBM's headcount to 330,000, its highest since 1991. Randy McDonald, IBM veep of human resources, said the company is to …

Business 19 Jan 2004, 11:55
UK Internet awards nominees named

And the winner is...

The UK's Internet trade group - ISPA - has announced the finalists for its annual industry awards. Of course, while those in the industry are on tenterhooks to find out who is the "best ISP", the "serious" awards have been eclipsed by the now infamous gong for the "Internet Villain" award. Last month, ISPA named Net-savvy MP …

Music and Media 19 Jan 2004, 12:14
BT flogs SDSL to ‘data-heavy’ small firms

Kicking off in London and Coventry

BT today unveiled plans to sell SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband direct to businesses, starting in London and Coventry. The product, Business Broadband Advanced, will be offered at speeds of 500 Kbps, 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps. ADSL is offered at these speeds but with SDSL businesses get a high speed link to upload …

Small Biz 19 Jan 2004, 12:17
Gov.uk publishes home PC loan scheme guidelines

Tax savings

The UK government has published guidelines to help businesses keen to provide PCs to employees for home working. The Home Computing Initiative (HCI) stresses the benefits employers will gain from providing some workers with home computers, but the scheme is as much about leveraging tax breaks as anything. British business …

Small Biz 19 Jan 2004, 12:30
Gershon ‘not comfortable’ with reliance on EDS

Get cracking, IBM and CSC!

The head of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC)has told MPs that he is "not comfortable" with the government's reliance on EDS for IT services. Speaking before the Treasury sub-committee on Friday (Jan 16), Sir Peter Gershon, said the OGC had talked to the likes of CSC and IBM to encourage them to bid for big public sector …

Hardware 19 Jan 2004, 12:43
T610 fuels Sony Ericsson recovery

On the comeback trail

Sony Ericsson has announced growth in sales, shipments and profits for Q4. The firm, a joint venture between Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and Japanese consumer electronics company Sony, had struggled to make an impact on the market after its formation in 2001. However, the latest set of results, for the quarter …

Business 19 Jan 2004, 13:10
Vodafone snaps up Generation Telecom

Direct touch

Vodafone today announced the acquisition of Phones International's Generation Telecom subsidiary for an undisclosed amount. The all-cash deal gives Vodafone direct access to more than 27,000 business customers, almost 85 per cent of which are existing Vodafone subscribers. Generation Telecom specialised in providing service to …

Mobile 19 Jan 2004, 13:11
Beware the Habeas Joe Job

Spam attacks

Habeas, the company known for putting copyrighted haikus in legitimate email to distinguish it from spam, says it has come under attack from an as yet unidentified spammer. The spammer is illegally using the Habeas Warrant Mark in emails which are promoting websites such as pharmawarehouse.biz, pharmacourt.biz and valuepointmeds …

Security 19 Jan 2004, 13:48
'Saddam – my part in his downfall' – by Microsoft military guru

And he did 'Electronic Pearl Harbor' before that, too...

Microsoft is clearly applying strong money and key personnel to the task of making money out of the rebuilding of Iraq, according to a report in The Nation by Naomi Klein. Klein is usually described as the author of No Logo, but is it not wonderfully appropriate, under the circumstances, that her latest book is called Fences and …

Software 19 Jan 2004, 14:13
Sentencing date set in nuclear lab hack case

US.gov seeks £21,000 compo from UK teen

A sentencing date has been set for a UK teenager who admits breaking into the network of a US high-energy physics research lab. Joseph McElroy, 19, from Woodford Green in East London, is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on February 2 for hacking into the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in June 2002. McElroy …

Security 19 Jan 2004, 14:50
BT execs in bitter row – report

'Complete fiction' - BT

BT's top execs are involved in an "increasingly acrimonious power struggle", according to a report at the weekend. The Mail on Sunday reckons there's a "whispering campaign" against BT Retail boss, Pierre Danon, who is being blamed for the telco's lacklustre performance. The report also claims there's an internal squabble …

Business 19 Jan 2004, 14:56
Brussels gets up to speed with IPv6

Next-gen roll-out

The European Commission is getting member states up to speed with the next-generation IPv6 Internet protocol by deploying the technology across its e-Infrastructure global research and education networks. Erkki Liikanen, the Commissioner in charge of IT policy, last week sang the praises of the protocol. In a speech in Brussels …

Data Networking 19 Jan 2004, 15:26
AMD Athlon 64 3400+

Review Fastest mainstream CPU?

It wasn't long ago that the Athlon 64 family of CPUs was launched by AMD and it has already had two new additions: the 3000+ and now the 3400+. The only difference is the speed. The 3400+ clocks in at 2.2GHz, making it as fast as the Athlon 64 FX-51 processor in terms of raw gigahertz. But as we know from past experiences with …

Reviews 19 Jan 2004, 15:30
No porn for kids, say mobile phone operators

18-rated content

The six British mobile phone operators have unveiled a joint code of practice to help prevent youngsters from accessing porn, gaming and other unsuitable content on their mobile phones. The guidelines agreed by Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and 3 will also monitor the use of chat rooms by children. Under the …

Mobile 19 Jan 2004, 16:28
Veritas salutes SuSE and VMware

Friends come in all sizes

Veritas this week took a major step to bulk up its Linux business by announcing partnerships with SuSE and VMware. Veritas has been working for some time to bring its entire server and storage software lines up to speed on SuSE and is now saying the mission is accomplished. As of today, customers will find SuSE on equal footing …

Storage 19 Jan 2004, 17:55
Romanian Blaster trial kicks off Friday

Landmark virus case

A Romanian man accused of creating a variant of the infamous Blaster worm faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted in a trial due to begin this Friday (January 23). Dan Dumitru Ciobanu, 26, is accused creating a virus variant (Blaster-F) that spread over the intranet of the Hydrotechnical University in the north Romanian City …

Anti-Virus 19 Jan 2004, 18:23
In praise of outsourcing

What's good for the economy is good for you. Oh yes

Outsourcing will become ubiquitous within five years and has the potential to increase UK gross domestic product by a cool £16bn and close the country's productivity gap by 10 per cent. This upbeat assessment was voiced in a study published today by LogicaCMG which focuses on the macroeconomic impact of outsourcing in the UK. …

Hardware 19 Jan 2004, 18:33
Tech bubble banker slapped on wrist

$30,000 fine, ban for CSFB's Quattrone

The go-to guy for greedy tech CEOs during the dot com bubble has been suspended for a year and fined $30,000 by the securities industry regulator NASD. Frank Quattrone amassed a $120 million personal fortune as the head of Credit Suisse First Boston's technology investment unit based in Palo Alto, and took over one hundred tech …

Business 19 Jan 2004, 20:13
How HP invented the market for iPod resellers

Buying its own IP

Apple's iPod is the killer device of online music, and HP very well should have owned it. Back in 1999, researchers at Compaq designed a 30 Gbyte portable music player that weighed 9.5 ounces, could fit in your pocket and had 10 hours of battery life. The Personal Jukebox - aka PJB - went on sale for more than $500, and Compaq …

Personal 19 Jan 2004, 20:29