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13th February 2004 Archive

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  • MacMall says Apple G5s are history

    Sorry, piece of history

    How do you make used parts of supercomputer seem enticing? Bill them as a pieces of history. That's what MacMall is doing with the old G5 computers used to make up the now iconic "Big Mac" Virginia Tech supercomputer - ranked the third fastest system on the planet. The university recently decided to switch out the G5s with …

    Mac Channel 13 Feb 2004, 01:18

  • Sun sees a lot of cache in its future

    UltraSPARCs gain weight

    While Sun gets ready for the Rock, it's looking improve the near term performance of its UltraSPARC IV and UltraSPARC III processors. Just this week, Sun introduced the UltraSPARC IV processor at speeds running between 1.05GHz and 1.2GHz. Now, officials are saying that its successor the UltraSPARC IV+ - aka Panther - will run …

    Servers 13 Feb 2004, 01:54

  • Copy-crippled CDs launch in UK, baffling Auntie Beeb

    Borked by the BPI

    Mondeo man has lost his music. And not just Mondeo man - anyone who has bought a new car and wants to play a CD has been borked. That new CD is only half a CD, and in the half where it counts, it doesn't work. Crippled CDs that won't play on many CD drives, including car players, crept onto the UK market last month. Of course …

    Personal 13 Feb 2004, 03:08

  • Sony pledges to move chips to 45nm in 2005

    While everyone else is shifting to 65nm

    Sony and Toshiba will beat Intel, AMD and co. to the 45nm node, the duo announced yesterday, reaching that point in 2005, around the time other processor makers are shifting to 65nm chip fabrication processes. Pride, they say, comes before a fall, and the pair's aggressive forecast could be seen as setting them both up as …

    Channel 13 Feb 2004, 09:44

  • MS Windows source code escapes onto Internet

    Say it's a vital secret for long enough and it'll turn round and bite you...

    Microsoft has suffered what appears to be a severe leak of Windows source code, with a file circulating on the Internet appearing to consist of several million lines of code from around mid-2000. The source code seems to relate to NT4 and Windows 2000, and in a statement the company has conceded that "portions of the Microsoft …

    Software 13 Feb 2004, 10:04

  • iPaq 6000 wireless PDA shots slip onto web

    Apparently genuine ones this time

    Seemingly genuine pictures of HP's upcoming iPaq 6000 cellular PDA have leaked onto the web, courtesy of Italian site PocketPCItalia. And the handheld they show looks nothing like the one that appeared in iPaq 6000 piccies posted online earlier this year. While those shots showed a device with a Treo-style micro keyboard, the …

    Mobile 13 Feb 2004, 10:15

  • Appeal judge bats back Intel-Intergraph patent case

    Lower court must rethink the case

    The US Court of Appeals this week sent Intel's appeal against Intergraph back to the lower court and told it to revise its decision. Intel launched its appeal in October 2002 after the District Court ruled that it had infringed Intergraph's intellectual property rights. The appeals court rejected the lower court's ruling on two …

    Channel 13 Feb 2004, 10:52

  • Eicon snaps up Shiva

    Remote access play

    Eicon Networks has bought Shiva's remote-access business by acquiring all the shares of Mernet Secure Network. Financial terms of the deal, announced yesterday, were not disclosed. Eicon is promising to make substantial enhancements to Shiva's LanRover product line and touting spin-off benefits in security enhancements to its …

    Data Networking 13 Feb 2004, 10:55

  • Apple to open flagship London store this Xmas

    Prestigious Regent St. site

    Apple's first European retail store will open on London's Regent Street later this year, in time for Christmas, the Times reports today. According to the report, Apple will pay around £1.5 million a year to rent the prestigious 20,000sq ft location, currently being redeveloped by its owner, the Crown Estate (prop. HM the Queen …

    Channel 13 Feb 2004, 11:20

  • EMI admits CD copy protection compatibility problems

    Fix coming in April

    EMI's Australian operation has admitted that its CD copy protection system has resulted in "compatibility issues" since it began using the technology in November 2002. The confession came in an email sent to an Australian music buyer, Michael Ellerman, The Melbourne Age reportedyesterday. Over a year ago, Ellerman complained …

    Personal 13 Feb 2004, 12:27

  • Cupid, love hearts, revenge and monkeys

    Yes, it's Valentine's Day tomorrow

    Valentine’s madness has swept through the IT sector, and everyone who could possibly link their product to luurrve has done so – regardless of the obscurity of said link. We couldn’t let all this hard work pass without mention, so here, for your entertainment, is a round-up of the best. EDS wants to warn the lovely general …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2004, 12:31

  • Freeserve ‘committed’ to unbundling local loop

    Wants to 'sever reliance on BT' for broadband

    Freeserve is prepared to put its full weight - and the financial muscle of its parent, Wanadoo - behind local loop unbundling (LLU) in a bid sever the ISP's reliance on BT for broadband. The Register has learnt that Freeserve is so committed to the idea that it could even be in the market to buy an operator - or at least enter …

    Broadband 13 Feb 2004, 12:35

  • 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 13 Feb 2004, 13:06

  • IBM fabs 90nm G5 using strained silicon

    Better results than Intel, ahem...

    IBM's first 90nm chip, the G5-class PowerPC 970FX, incorporates a key technique used by Intel to improve processor performance, it has emerged, courtesy of a small mention tucked away at the end of a Reuters story. Like Intel's Prescott Pentium 4, the 970FX uses Strained Silicon. By stretching - or 'straining', as it's called …

    Mac Channel 13 Feb 2004, 13:11

  • El Reg accused: not right, not funny and not clever

    Letters Part I - devoted to the point of dotGNU

    Blimey. You lot had a thing or two to say about an opinion piece we ran this week: Mono and dotGNU: what's the point?. Personally, my only real issue with Java is that it tends to keep me awake if I drink any after 4pm, but then I am a hack, not a hacker… I broadly agree with Neil Davidson's assessment of Open Source …

    Letters 13 Feb 2004, 15:11

  • Of penises and paranoia…

    It can only be Letters

    And so to the rest of your correspondence this week. Let us begin on a reasonably light note: I really have to comment on your story Californian sues penis pill spammers for fraud. Mr Horton cannot possibly win this case as it's clear that the drugs did, in fact, work. He is clearly the biggest cock in America. Indeed. Droll, …

    Letters 13 Feb 2004, 15:19

  • Tiscali mulls sale of some country ops

    Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland named

    Tiscali is mulling the idea of selling its operations in a number of countries. Publishing its results yesterday, the Italian-based ISP which grew by gobbling up other ISPs said it planned to focus on a number of core countries. Said the company in a statement: "According to Tiscali’s strategic plan, the Group will focus its …

    Broadband 13 Feb 2004, 15:23

  • PHP for experienced developers and newbies

    Site Offer Plus, Check Point FireWall-1 NG and other titles all at 30% off

    The Register bookstore this week has two PHP programming guides for both existing PHP developers and PHP newbies. Core PHP Programming is the authoritative guide for PHP 5 - the "keepers" of PHP, who are also the developers of the Zend Engine which powers PHP, are now co-author and tech editor on this book. We've also got the …

    Site News 13 Feb 2004, 15:31

  • Dell unveils Pentium 4 Extreme Edition notebook

    Reg Kit Watch LAN party-friendly kit

    Dell today unveiled a notebook based on Intel's expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. The machine follows on the heels of much-maligned PC supplier Liebermann, which announced just such a system of its own late last year.* The Inspiron XPS will features the upcoming 3.4GHz P4EE, though you can also choose one based on the ( …

    Personal 13 Feb 2004, 16:10

  • Cliff Stanford charged with hacking Redbus

    Net millionaire accused of blackmail too

    Redbus Interhouse founder Cliff Stanford was today charged with conspiracy to blackmail and computer crime offences by officers of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. Belgium resident Stanford, 49, is jointly accused with George Nelson Liddell, 45, of Nether Winchendon, Buckinghamshire with blackmail and interception of …

    Security 13 Feb 2004, 16:16

  • MS partner fingered in Windows code leak, Linux box implicated

    Bill was right after all: share stuff with these creeps and the whole thing goes to hell...

    Yesterday's Windows source code leak tracks back to long-term Microsoft partner Mainsoft, according to Betanews. An analysis of the code finds numerous references to Mainsoft's MainWin product, while a post-crash core dump file provides a possible smoking pistol pointing to a Linux machine likely to have been used by Mainsoft …

    Software 13 Feb 2004, 16:29

  • Nvidia Q4 figures fail to lift full-year totals

    Income halved

    Nvidia's fourth quarter saw the graphics chip company make some small gains on previous quarters - yet insufficient to lift the firm's full-year performance ahead of last year's totals. For the three months to 25 January, Nvidia saw sales total $472.1 million, down a little on the previous quarter's $486.1 million, but up …

    Channel 13 Feb 2004, 17:48

  • Small.biz told to swot up on Net security

    Green Cross code for SMEs

    Industry groups, vendors and police came together in Westminster today to collaborate on producing guidelines to help protect small firms from the growing menace of e-crime. Parliamentary lobby group Eurim and the Institute for Public Policy Research hope their Protecting the Vulnerable report will act as a catalyst for …

    Small Biz 13 Feb 2004, 20:10