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9th February 2004 Archive

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  • US markets warm to Linux makers over SCO

    Cash Register It was good while it lasted

    If you are looking for evidence proving SCO's success in slowing down Linux momentum, you won't find it in the financial markets. We are nearing the first anniversary of SCO's lawsuit against IBM over the alleged misappropriation of Unix code in Linux. Since March 2003, SCO's shares (SCOX) have rocketed from around $2 per share …

    Business 9 Feb 2004, 00:51

  • Nokia bags Psion's Symbian stake

    Psion shares slump in early morning trading

    Shares in Psion fell 30 per cent in early morning trading today on news that the British company had sold its 31.7 per cent stake in Symbian to Nokia for up to £135.5m. Nokia is paying £93.5m in cash plus royalty payments for 2004 and 2005. Psion will get 84p for each Symbian OS license sale, which should divvy up to payments …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2004, 10:32

  • 4.8m UK BB users by year-end – report

    That's it

    The UKiwill rack up almost five million broadband punters by the end of the year, according to Continental Research. With some 3.6 million broadband users in the UK at the moment, Continental Research's Spring 2004 Internet Report reckons that the UK's continued "strong interest" in broadband should result in 4.8 million …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 2004, 12:18

  • NHS pulls plug on ailing £30m IT system

    2 years late, and staff can't make it work

    Scottish health bosses have pulled the plug on the launch of a £30 million computer system from McKessonHBOC after staff at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary complained that they couldn’t access vital information on it. According to a report in the The Scotsman, deployment has been hit by a series of delays, leaving the hospital …

    Hardware 9 Feb 2004, 12:37

  • Fewer children become regular chat users

    Internet safety messages not getting through

    Fewer children are becoming regular users of chat rooms, according to the interim results of a year-long study into young people's behaviour online. The University of Lancashire's Cyberspace Research Unit found that the number of primary school children becoming regular chat users dipped last year compared with 2002. The …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2004, 12:52

  • Vodafone leans towards AT&T Wireless bid

    All of me. Why don't you take all of me?

    UK-based mobile operator Vodafone Group is reportedly leaning toward a bid for number three US mobile operator AT&T Wireless. That's according to several newspaper reports on Monday, reinforcing earlier speculation that the British giant is eyeing up the American company which put itself up for sale in late January. However, …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2004, 14:22

  • Free Software 2004

    A call for papers

    The International Free Software Forum today issued a call for papers ahead of its next annual meeting. Proposals are due by March 7. Billed as one of the largest Free Software events in the world, this will be the fifth meeting of the International Free Software Forum. Over the last four years, these events have seen more than …

    Software 9 Feb 2004, 14:45

  • Public sector has IT companies ‘over a barrel’

    Contracts ask too much of suppliers, says trade association

    Intellect, the trade association of the ICT industry, will tell the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee that government and IT companies must take more partnership-based approach to IT contracts, when it gives evidence before MPs this afternoon. According to Nick Kalisperas, head of public sector at Intellect, the …

    Hardware 9 Feb 2004, 16:05

  • Linksys touts for Euro resellers

    Eyes bigger slice of SME networking pie

    Linksys has kicked off a campaign to expand its share of the lucrative European small business networking market with a channel putsch and the launch of a low end VPN router offering. The Cisco subsidiary's VAR accreditation, snappily-dubbed the Linksys Partner Connection Program, aims to sign up resellers by offering "special …

    Channel 9 Feb 2004, 16:15

  • People want services with IQ, says IB

    Smarter use of information critical to eGov success

    Information Builders’ UK MD has called for the Government to expand its view of the kind of services it should be offering people online. Speaking at the eGovernment conference in London last week, Jim Irving said that although the government’s plans to get its services online by 2005 were well underway, it needed to go beyond …

    Business 9 Feb 2004, 17:47

  • Is the mood changing towards the legitimate use of P2P networks?

    Analysis Smells like Teen Zeitgeist

    The mood of the media and the entertainment industry used to be very clear that file sharing equals bad and that copy protection equals good. During the past two weeks we have been told that piracy is about to be beaten and that CD sales will soon be on the rise again. Faultline chose not to tow that party line and perhaps we …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2004, 19:27

  • We want a Sony media server

    Micro who? Dell what?

    Home Networks research company Parks Associates has delivered a damning verdict to PC based suppliers of media servers, with a survey which shows that US families are looking to buy such a device from CE brands like Sony, Panasonic or Pioneer, and not from Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard or Gateway. Over 70 per cent of households …

    Channel 9 Feb 2004, 19:28

  • Powergen sets legal attack dogs on security whistle-blower

    Breach of confidence claim

    Powergen and a customer who highlighted a serious breach in consumer security at the utility more than three years ago are still locked in legal dispute. John Chamberlain earned the enmity of the British utility company for leaking to Silicon.com a list of credit cards left unprotected on the utility's Web site. He is fighting …

    Security 9 Feb 2004, 19:42

  • Checking on .eu names: want the job?

    Zurich Oh, and does anyone fancy being the Maltese registrar?

    . The href="http://www.eurid.org">EURid, the consortium appointed by the EU to manage the .eu domain, tries to keep smiling. Still, Fay Howard, project manager of the registry, could not restrain herself at last week's Digitial Pulse conference in Zurich, when a representative of the German Government said there certainly would …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2004, 20:37

  • Peoplesoft spurns Oracle's final final offer

    On the curious grounds that it's undervalued

    Peoplesoft's board of directors has unanimously rejected Oracle's revised offer of $9.4bn -$26 a share -on the astonishing grounds that it's not enough money. But don't take Peoplesoft's word for it: this too is the considered opinion of its gold-plated advisors, Citibank and Goldman Sachs. The Peoplesoft board is on surer …

    Hardware 9 Feb 2004, 21:48

  • EMC floods market with new hardware

    Shock and storage

    As expected, EMC rolled out a sweeping set of hardware upgrades today (Feb 9). Just about every product line was touched by the refresh, including Symmetrix, Clariion, Celerra and Centera systems. EMC's attention to the hardware side of the house comes as good news for customers, after the company spent the last few months …

    Storage 9 Feb 2004, 21:55

  • EC probes mobile sports right sales

    It's a game of two halves, Gary

    The European Commission has launched an inquiry into the sale of sports rights to Internet companies and 3G mobile operators. The review will look at the availability of audiovisual sports rights in the European Union amid concerns the market might become the subject of anti-competitive practices. As the first broad …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2004, 22:08

  • Rockall Times back with a bang and a new shirt

    Cash'n'Carrion More solid advice on smoking from UK satire outfit

    UK satire site The Rockall Times has, we gather, finally addressed its content management issues and re-entered the Web stage left to a slightly discordant fanfare of trumpets. To celebrate this momentous occassion - and presumably to shamelessly rattle the tin in aid of their new CMS - they have expanded their popular smoking …

    Site News 9 Feb 2004, 22:17

  • Nokia wins mobile network deal in Iraq

    Phone battles

    Nokia has secured a deal for building a GSM mobile telephone network in the south of Iraq, Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reports. Iraq's interim administration has divided the country into northern, central, and southern areas, each of which are primarily getting one mobile operator. Last autumn a consortium led by the …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2004, 22:24

  • Californian sues penis pill spammers for fraud

    But will it stand up in court?

    A Californian man has put his manhood on the line by suing the spam-vertisers of penis enlargement pills. The dicky medicine sold to Jeffery (sic) Horton failed to have the desired effect, prompting his decision to file a lawsuit against Leading Edge Marketing of British Columbia, shipment agent TechniPak of Greeley, Colardo …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2004, 22:25

  • ‘Crackpot’ VAT laws aid offshoring – Tories

    Unions launch jobs-to-India enquiry

    "Crackpot" VAT laws are being blamed for encouraging British firms to outsource jobs to foreign countries. So says Shadow Chancellor, Oliver Letwin, who claims a tax loophole is providing an extra incentive for companies to outsource jobs overseas. He accused the Government of effectively "providing a subsidy of 17.5 per cent …

    Site News 9 Feb 2004, 23:27

  • Public offering for Opera, Mozilla renames browser

    Who says the browser is dead

    Who says the browser is dead? Norway's Opera, with a loyal base of eight million users, says it plans a stock market listing in March at the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE). "After developing and refining the technology and commercial side for nine years, Opera Software is now ready for public listing," CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner said …

    Software 9 Feb 2004, 23:29

  • Nokia leads bid to control mobile DRM standards

    The race against Microsoft

    Nokia, Intel, Samsung and Matsushita have formed a non-profit group called the Content Management License Administrator to license and oversee digital rights management (DRM) technology on mobile devices. The companies will adopt new specifications from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), which are optimized for multimedia content, …

    Channel 9 Feb 2004, 23:36

  • Alcatel buys in wireless routing, shops around in Wi-Fi

    Beyond the carrier base

    The suppliers of mobile infrastructure are increasingly looking to penetrate Cisco’s enterprise networking territory as voice and data converge, and that means taking a new interest in Wi-Fi. Motorola has already set out its stall, and now Nokia and Alcatel are both heavily tipped to be on the WLAN acquisition trail in a bid to …

    Channel 9 Feb 2004, 23:37