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2nd February 2004 Archive

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  • First 65nm IBM PowerPC chip to be dual-core

    Good news for Mac users?

    IBM's first dual-core G5-class processor will be the PowerPC 976. It will also be the first PowerPC fabbed using a 65nm process. So claims web site TeamXbox following up on a San Jose Mercury story presenting leaked Xbox 2 specifications. The Xbox-oriented site cites a variety of unnamed sources as the basis for its …

    Mac Channel 2 Feb 2004, 09:56

  • Intel ‘Prescott’ 90nm Pentium 4

    Review Here at last

    The year's not even a month old and already the CPU market is shaping up for another exciting 12 months for the consumer. Following AMD's speed bumped Athlon 64 3400+ on 6 January it's now Intel's turn to play its hand and introduce the latest incarnation of the Pentium 4 processor, Prescott, writes Wayne Brooker. OK, so we've …

    Reviews 2 Feb 2004, 11:38

  • Big Mac turns down Big Blue in BPO

    Back-office outsourcing met with skepticism

    IBM Global Services' attempts to extend its outsourcing reach beyond its clients' IT infrastructure, and into its back-office departments such as finance and accounting, have been met with skepticism from fast food giant McDonalds. The resistance highlights some of the major issues facing IT services companies trying to …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2004, 11:38

  • Is this the worst scam email of all time?

    Phishing illiterates trounce even 419ers in linguistic ineptitude

    We have in the past made merry at the linguistic deficiencies of 419 advance fee fraudsters, but nothing the boys from Lagos have ever issued even comes close to what some chancer has just sent reader Joskyn Jones. The email purports to come from Citibank, (not a new line of attack, as we previously reported) and is a bog- …

    Bootnotes 2 Feb 2004, 11:39

  • Sony to spend $1.13bn on Cell chip fabs

    Sampling H1 2005

    Sony today said it plans to invest ¥120 billion ($1.13 billion) during its next fiscal year on 65nm chip fabrication line using 300mm wafers. Some ¥36 billion ($340 million) of that total will go toward production lines at IBM's East Fishkill, New York facility. Of the rest, ¥53 billion ($500 million) will go toward upgrading …

    Channel 2 Feb 2004, 12:24

  • Vodafone preps bid for AT&T Wirelesss – report

    Will the shareholders swallow it?

    US mobile operator AT&T Wireless may be the target of an acquisition bid by multinational mobile firm Vodafone, which is looking to increase its US presence. According to a report in The Observer, Vodafone is drafting a proposal for a takeover worth USD30 billion. If such a deal were to go through, it would represent the …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2004, 12:25

  • Visto snaps up Psion Software

    Transcendental

    Visto, the acquisition-hungry US firm, has bought Psion Software for an undisclosed sum. This will give it ownership of Psion's Transcend Mail, a push email/PIM product for mobile devices. The company is to integrate the technology into its portfolio of software for mobile operators. California-based Visto has now bought three …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2004, 12:25

  • Virgin Mobile tipped to buy Danish outfit

    Industry shake-up mulled

    Virgin Mobile is sniffing around Danish no frills, low cost mobile phone outfit, CBB Mobil, according to Reuters. News of Virgin Mobile's interest in buying CBB coincides with last week's amicable resolution of a bitter row between Virgin Mobile and its 50:50 joint venture partner T-Mobile. As part of the healing process, …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2004, 12:27

  • MyDoom assault forces SCO off the net

    Swamp Thing

    SCO has pulled the plug on its main Web site in response to a huge DDoS initiated from PCs infected with the MyDoom worm last weekend. In a statement, SCO said that its site was "flooded with requests beyond its capacity". "This large scale attack, caused by the MyDoom computer virus that is estimated to have infected hundreds …

    Security 2 Feb 2004, 12:28

  • Microsoft releases metadata removal tool

    No more embarrassments?

    A year ago, 10 Downing Street published a dossier on Iraq's security and intelligence organisations. It was cited by none other than Colin Powell in his address to the United Nations. Then a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University discovered that much of the 19-page document was copied from three different articles, one …

    Software 2 Feb 2004, 12:34

  • Apple and Microsoft to sing from same digital music sheet?

    Talking about it

    News magazine The Economist this week forecast that Apple's share of the emerging online music business would plummet later this year when Microsoft moves into the market. But according to a Billboard report, the two firms' love-hate relationship may be tending toward the former in order to build links between their music …

    Music and Media 2 Feb 2004, 12:51

  • Intel finally launches Prescott

    Faster P4 Extreme Edition, too

    Intel will today launch 'Prescott', the 90nm version of the Pentium 4, along with a pair of faster P4s based on the 130nm 'Northwood' chip. Five Prescotts will debut: two at 2.8GHz, and one each at 3GHz, 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz. Priced at $163, $178, $218, $278 and $417, respectively, the chips will the suffixed with an 'E', to …

    Channel 2 Feb 2004, 12:53

  • Black helicopters hover over Martian surface

    Letters 1+9 = conspiracy theory

    Our spine-tingling discovery of the number "19" on the surface of Mars last week - proof were it needed that we are all in fact descended from extraterrestrial robot beings - immediately provoked a spectacular meteor storm of emails. The implications of this written evidence of mankind's ancestry are too unnerving for most of …

    Bootnotes 2 Feb 2004, 13:14

  • Intel prunes desktop, mobile Pentium 4 prices

    Make way for Prescott

    Intel yesterday reduced the prices of a number of its Pentium 4 processors ahead of today's debut of 'Prescott', the 90nm version of the chip family. Prices fell between 33 and 16 per cent, but only the 130nm chips the match the new 90nm introductions' clock frequencies were adjusted: 2.8GHz/533MHz FSB, 2.8GHz/800MHz FSB, 3. …

    Channel 2 Feb 2004, 14:09

  • World chip sales record ‘strong’ 2003 growth

    Slightly better in 2004

    Global chip sales grew 18.3 per cent last year, rising from 2002's $140.8 billion to $166.4 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said today. That's just 1.5 percentage points lower than the 19.8 per cent forecast the SIA made back in November 2002. Come June 2003, following the Iraq conflict and the SARS …

    Channel 2 Feb 2004, 14:10

  • Computers can seriously damage your marriage

    Rows sparked by non PC PC use

    Couples whose relationships are in trouble are using the Internet to avoid dealing with their problems, according to counsellors at Relate. Computers have a bad impact on up to one in ten relationships, says Paula Hall, one of Relate’s couple’s counsellors, who bases the estimate upon her caseload experience. In the past …

    Music and Media 2 Feb 2004, 14:27

  • Verizon, Vodafone stake out in the US

    Stumbling block removed

    A potential stumbling block to Vodafone launching a bid for AT&T Wireless was removed last week, after Verizon Communications, the majority shareholder of Verizon Wireless, said it would not oppose a decision by Vodafone to sell its 45% Verizon Wireless stake. Verizon Wireless is a successful business, but Vodafone prefers to …

    Mobile 2 Feb 2004, 16:57

  • KnowledgePool axes 30 jobs

    Buyer still sought

    KnowledgePool Limited - the former Fujitsu-owned training outfit that recently went titsup - axed 30 jobs last week as administrators continued to find a buyer. The job losses hit staff in KnowledgePool's UK offices in Bracknell, Brighton and Stockport. And unless a buyer for the business can be found soon, the administrators …

    Channel 2 Feb 2004, 16:59

  • IBM teaches sales force to go vertical

    Lays down financial services pack

    IBM on Monday kicked off phase one of a new sales strategy that includes bundles of middleware targeted at specific vertical markets. And the first such market to be hit is the financial services sector. The chest-thumping from IBM here is a bit confusing at first. The software is not new and neither are the services that come …

    Hardware 2 Feb 2004, 17:06

  • UK teen escapes jail in nuclear lab hack case

    No fine, either

    A UK teenager who admits breaking into the network of Fermilab, a US high-energy physics research lab, has escaped imprisonment. Joseph McElroy, 18, from Woodford Green in East London, was today sentenced to 200 hours community service at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court this afternoon. Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Goymer …

    Security 2 Feb 2004, 17:28

  • ‘Openworld’ to be erased from BT product names

    BT Openworld still exists though

    BT Openworld - the ISP division of the UK's dominant telco - is ditching all reference to "Openworld" in the names of its products. From February 4, "BT Openworld Broadband", for example, will become BT Business Broadband. "BT Openworld Business 500 plus" will be changed to "BT Business Broadband Network 500" while "BT …

    Telecoms 2 Feb 2004, 17:29

  • Want cheap BB? Head for Italy

    Freeserve, Eclipse updates too

    Italy is the cheapest country in Europe for broadband, according to consultants Teligen. Its report Broadband Pricing in Europe found that the cost of broadband in Italy is less than €20 a month, compared with the UK at just over €30 a month. Greece wis the dearest at almost €70 a month. Indeed, the difference in price between …

    Telecoms 2 Feb 2004, 17:31

  • Old people need computers too

    None of us is getting any younger

    More than half (57 per cent) of the work-age population will benefit from 'accessible technology', according to Forrester Research. And numbers will grow as the demographic of the West shifts to the grey and a greater proportion of the population experience problems with sight, hearing and dexterity. Accessible technology is …

    Small Biz 2 Feb 2004, 17:56

  • CSC pulls vacations from ‘unproductive’ workers

    Be more billable

    A large chunk of CSC employees hoping to enjoy some time off received word last week that any vacations must be cancelled to help the company meet business goals. Workers at CSC's San Diego Regional Center (SDRC) found out that there will be no holidays or sick days allowed through the end of the fiscal year, according to docs …

    Business 2 Feb 2004, 18:47

  • US cities unite for ad muscle

    Dot.com daydream

    Believing there is strength in numbers, a group of US city domain owners have banded together for what they hope will be an advertising bonanza. Associated Cities has formed a collection of what it calls "pure city.com" Web sites, which is less interesting than say "pure cocaine" but more interesting than "pure fluff." The …

    Music and Media 2 Feb 2004, 23:23

  • Letters Apple users' disgust at RIAA's Pepsi child ad

    "Apple: I use to think you were different than Microsoft and more family-oriented," writes a horrified reader. "Instead, you showed the world your true colors." The backlash against Pepsi's decision to humiliate the victims of the RIAA's campaign against file sharing in front of a mass TV audience continues to appall Register …

    Music and Media 2 Feb 2004, 23:32