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30th January 2004 Archive

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  • Whatever happened to broadband by blimp?

    Earthbound

    Last year, York-based telecoms firm SkyLINC said it would build a network of base stations in balloons, tethered 1.5km high, as a platform for delivering broadband to rural communities. SkyLINC predicted it would launch services this month (January 2004). So where are SkyLINC's broadband blimps? How are its plans progressing? …

    Telecoms 30 Jan 2004, 09:47

  • T-Mobile and Virgin settle long-running dispute

    Friends again

    T-Mobile and Virgin Group have resolved their long-running legal fight over the future of their 50:50 joint venture Virgin Mobile. Dogged by legal action, relations between the two companies were so bad that they were described as being "irretrievably broken down". Now, though, the two companies have kissed and made up with …

    Mobile 30 Jan 2004, 09:50

  • London Wi-Fi security better (but still not great)

    Leakage risks

    London businesses are improving the security of their wireless networks, but drive-by hacking and information leakage still remains a real concern in the capital. One in four (25 per cent) of London's Wi-Fi networks are still fundamentally insecure, according to the results of RSA Security's third annual WLAN security survey …

    Security 30 Jan 2004, 09:54

  • AMD sets defence against possible Intergraph legal action

    Clipper patents rear heads again

    AMD has quietly taken legal action against Intergraph, the graphics company's Q4 results statement, released this week, reveals. Earlier this month, it filed a Declaratory Judgment Act (DJA) patent action against Intergraph claiming that the latter's so-called 'Clipper' patents are invalid and, at the very least, not infringed …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 10:33

  • Sony PSX's 90nm CPU is ‘not 90nm’

    It's a 130nm part, alleges chip researcher

    Sony's PSX Playstation-cum-personal digital video recorder is not based on a 90nm processor as is widely believed but a 130nm version of the chip, Canadian technology analysis company Semiconductor Insights has claimed. "Sony claims to manufacture at 90nm, but the design rules are relaxed to 130nm," SI says. "The e-DRAM trench …

    Personal 30 Jan 2004, 10:51

  • KnowledgePool UK goes titsup

    Former employees miss out

    KnowledgePool Limited - which provides training and learning development programmes to European blue chip companies - has been placed in administration. Joint Administrators from Menzies Corporate Restructuring (MCR) were called in last week following the firm's failure to achieve sufficient turnover for 2003. The business is …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 11:13

  • Intel preps 64-bit x86 tech – report

    Competitor's Technology?

    Intel will finally come clean on its oft-rumoured 'Yamhill' 64-bit extensions to the x86 instruction set and demonstrate its entry into the 64-bit desktop processor market next month at its Developer Forum. So claim sources "familiar with the company's plans" cited by CNET. Earlier this week, Intel's President and COO, Paul …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 11:25

  • Vignette buys into traditional ECM with Tower Technology

    Transformation through acquisition

    In the dim and distant past we would have described Vignette as a “personalization engine,” to create web sites that mutated depending upon who was looking at them. Somewhere in the last decade Vignette has shifted over to a generalized all singing, all dancing content management firm. Now lured by potential “Sarbanes Oxley” …

    Hardware 30 Jan 2004, 11:36

  • SAP ties up with Teradata

    Detailed drill down in BI

    Why would SAP, which has its own Business Warehouse software, sign a partnership with Teradata this week, a company that might be considered a competitor to its software? The truth about the continued success of Teradata, in the face of challenges from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM in the business intelligence market, is that the …

    Hardware 30 Jan 2004, 11:36

  • ATI Q4 market share beats Nvidia – just

    Intel still bigger than both of them

    ATI nosed past Nvidia last quarter to retake its long-lost leadership of the graphics chip market, according to figures from market watcher Mercury Research cited in a Goldman Sachs customer report. Nvidia needn't worry too much, and ATI has no room to get cocky. The latter's Q4 2003 market share was 24.9 per cent - Nvidia's …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 11:37

  • Vodafone weighs up US options

    Marking AT&T Wireless' cards

    Announcing Vodafone’s strongest customer growth figures for three years, CEO Arun Sarin refused to rule out a bid for AT&T Wireless. With the US carrier setting a deadline of February 13 to submit any bids, the UK giant has limited time to make two important decisions – whether to pursue the US or its other mega-bid possibility …

    Mobile 30 Jan 2004, 11:39

  • Nokia poised for enterprise acquisitions

    And possible Palm tie-up

    Nokia is poised to make acquisitions this year to bolster its new Enterprise division and its ambitious bid to bite into the markets of both Microsoft and Cisco. CEO Jorma Ollila told analysts last week that “when we are looking at building our enterprise sector, we will be looking at smaller acquisitions”, although he claimed …

    Mobile 30 Jan 2004, 11:39

  • Microsoft wins Lindows fight in the Netherlands

    Vendors barred from selling OS

    Resellers of the Linux distribution Lindows in the Netherlands were ordered today to stop selling the product. Amsterdam judge Rullmann agreed with Microsoft that in many ways Lindows is "profiting from the success of Windows" by infringing the Beast of Redmond's trademarks. Within eight days Dutch resellers have to stop …

    Software 30 Jan 2004, 11:56

  • Intel to encourage channel to source notebooks direct

    Driving commoditisation

    Intel is out to accelerate the commoditisation of the notebook market, sources close to Taiwan's manufacturers have claimed. To that end, the chip giant has recruited five key notebook OEMs - Quanta, Compal, Asustek and First International - to help it launch a scheme to encourage resellers to offer notebooks sourced direct …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 11:56

  • 419ers enlist Saddam's daughter

    Dad caged, cash awaiting liberation...

    Just before last Christmas we were delighted to report that Nigerian 419ers had surfaced in post-war Baghdad and had laid their hands on large quantities of gold and cash, like you do. We now have reason to doubt these extravagant claims, because the latest intelligence - courtesy of reader Dave - suggests Saddam's booty had …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 2004, 11:59

  • Shush! OSS outfit forms secret society to combat MS hit teams

    B*stards keep buying our lunch...

    Netproject,, the consultancy whose open source desktop pilot triggered large discounts from Microsoft for Newham Borough Council has formed an "Incubator Club" for organisations considering an open source switch. The membership of the club is being kept confidential, says Netproject's Eddie Bleadsale, because "we don't want the …

    Software 30 Jan 2004, 11:59

  • PalmOne retains world PDA crown

    But 2004 will be challenging year - analyst

    PalmOne may no longer be Europe's number one PDA maker, but globally it managed to hold off HP, full-year figures from Gartner reveal. But a 19 per cent decline in shipments saw the company's performance fail to keep up with the industry as a whole. Some 11.5 million PDAs shipped last year, Gartner said - 5.3 per cent fewer …

    Mobile 30 Jan 2004, 14:09

  • Socitm slams one size fits nobody e-gov plans

    National prescription

    The Society of IT Management has raised "significant concerns" over Whitehall's latest plans for rolling out e-governnment across the UK. Socitm's hackles were raised by recently-unveiled proposals outlined in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's consultation document Defining e-Government Priority Services & …

    Hardware 30 Jan 2004, 14:11

  • IT Marathon girl goes head-to-head with perjuring peer

    Athlete battles Lord Archer to raise £2m for charity

    We salute our generous readers today for the tremendous effort which has seen the total raised for charity by the topless Somerset girl jump from £1,092.50 to £1,754.50 in just three days. One kind-hearted soul, who gave 50 quid, noted: "I found you through The Register. You look gorgeous, I hope you stay healthy for many years …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 2004, 14:13

  • London Mayor mulls broadband subsidy

    'Second to none'. Shouldn't we move to none, then?

    London Mayor Ken Livingstone is mulling the idea of public subsidy to ensure that future developments in the capital are wired up for high-speed telecoms services. According to the report, I>Connecting the capital: information and communications technology in London, the provision of telecommunications services in London is " …

    Small Biz 30 Jan 2004, 14:20

  • MS posts $250,000 MyDoom worm bounty

    A snitch in time...

    Microsoft yesterday put up a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the author of the MyDoom-B worm. The reward follows a similar offer $250,000 offer from SCO for information leading to the capture of MyDoom-A, which is programmed to launch a DDoS attack on SCO's web site from infected …

    Malware 30 Jan 2004, 14:21

  • ATI files to sell up to $500m of stock

    How much, when and what it can't yet say

    ATI is getting ready to sell up to $500 million worth of shares sometime in the next two years. The graphics chip maker today said it had filed a preliminary sales prospectus with both US and Canadian financial regulators. The filing register's the company's plan to offer (perhaps) a variety of different securities or …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 14:38

  • Gateway to buy eMachines

    Embracing retail channel to return to profitability

    Gateway has said it will buy low-cost PC maker eMachines in a bid to boost its market share around the world and in the US market in particular. The deal, announced today, will see Gateway pay $30 million in cash plus 50 million Gateway shares to eMachines' owners, valuing the transaction at $235m. If the deal proceeds as …

    Channel 30 Jan 2004, 15:15

  • BT call centre worker suspended over eBay ad

    Protest at jobs to India

    An agency worker at BT Retail's call centre in Newcastle has been suspended for posting a "for sale" ad on eBay in protest at jobs being exported to India. The ad for "one hard working call centre advisor" challenges the growing trend of companies exporting jobs overseas and the threat it poses to British jobs. Protesting …

    Music and Media 30 Jan 2004, 16:30

  • MS drop authentication technique to foil phishing

    Significant overhaul

    Microsoft has outlined plans to make phishing attacks more difficult by dropping support for a common Web authentication method. Redmond's plans to remove support for handling user names and passwords in HTTP or HTTPS URLs in IE are designed to protect Web surfers from being lured to malicious constructed or fraudulent sites. …

    Security 30 Jan 2004, 16:35

  • The Number apologises for BT comment

    'Sorry'

    Following our story "BT scores £40k win over The Number" earlier this week concerning an out of court settlement between the two companies, The Register has been asked to publish the following statement on behalf of The Number. We are happy to oblige In the statement, The Number apologises for a comment that it made about BT …

    Telecoms 30 Jan 2004, 16:39

  • Sun's JXTA becomes big business play

    Consumers left behind

    Despite the entertainment industry's best efforts to clamp down on peer-to-peer software, the technology appears to be thriving in the world of big business, at least if Sun Microsystems' JXTA software is any indication. This week Sun gave word that JXTA has been downloaded 2 million times. These downloads combine with the more …

    Software 30 Jan 2004, 22:38

  • Howard Dean's Net architect blasts ‘emergent’ punditocracy

    Campaign 2004 Thanks for nothing

    One of the two founding architects of Howard Dean's Internet campaign has hit back at the traveling circus of "emergent" pundits, authors and opportunists that attached itself to the grassroots campaign. Thanks but no thanks, says Jerome Armstrong, who was blogging for Dean in 2001 and who with Mathew Gross convinced Dean's …

    Music and Media 30 Jan 2004, 22:39

  • iSCSI is fully baked

    Works in all the right places

    After pounding away at the iSCSI protocol, a university laboratory has deemed the technology fit for public consumption. The University of New Hampshire InterOp Laboratory (UNH-IOL) has teamed with some of the largest storage vendors to put version 1.0 of the iSCSI spec through its paces and found that all is working as planned …

    Storage 30 Jan 2004, 23:13