17th February 2004 Archive

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Vodafone loses AT&T Wireless battle

Cingular outbids

The bidding battle for AT&T Wireless is over and Cingular has won. Vodafone and Cingular put in bids late last night. Vodafone was believed to have offered around $38bn, or $14 a share. But Cingular snapped up the US's third largest mobile operator. Cingular paid $15 a share, valuing the company at about $40.7bn, according to …

Mobile 17 Feb 2004, 10:02
Urgently seeking 419 haiku

Competition Compose poetry, win t-shirts, defend democracy

A recent Vulture Central investigation into an exciting new batch of 419 emails has provoked a spontaneous outburst of reader poetry. We were innocently musing on the possibility of Nigerian advance fee fraudsters using Japanese haikus to lure potential victims and, sure enough, the 17-syllable emails started to flood in. …

Site News 17 Feb 2004, 10:11
IT contractors enjoy rate rise

Show this story to your boss...

Rates for IT staff working in finance have gone up for the first time in four years. The news is being welcomed as evidence that a City recovery is underway. Average hourly rates rose two per cent to £45 an hour in the second half of last year - down from a peak of £75 four years ago. The figures come from the quarterly survey …

Business 17 Feb 2004, 10:11
Microsoft to offer rival CDs

Is it enough for Europe?

Microsoft is offering to include CD-ROMs of rival software in an effort to settle its competition case brought by the European Commission. The EC believes Windows Media Player was unfairly bundled with the Windows operating system. It asked Microsoft to either remove the media player from machines or include rival programmes. …

Software 17 Feb 2004, 10:12
WM-Data: would-be Nordic powerhouse

Aiming for a 10,000 employee, €1.1bn business

Having completed the €200 million acquisition of Finnish IT services company Novo Group, Sweden's WM-Data is looking to grow further over the next few years. However, recent attempts by Nordic vendors to build a more global business have been largely unsuccessful, and WM-Data is likely to just focus on the Nordic region instead …

Business 17 Feb 2004, 10:41
T-Mobile goes 3G in UK

But don't mention the calls

Mobile network T-Mobile has switched on its 3G network – but don't expect to see people making video phone calls anytime soon. T-Mobile already has 3G networks up and running in Austria and Germany – but customers are not able to use phones yet and the network is only accessible via a laptop. Vodafone switched its network on …

Mobile 17 Feb 2004, 11:00
AMD brings Opterons to blades

Low power

AMD has launched two new low-powered Opterons, destined for the blade server market. The chip maker says its new babies, the HE (55 watt) and EE (30 watt) processors, have the best performance per watt in their class, and has a SPEC cpu2000 benchmark to prove it. AMD’s AMD64 technology is now available on hardware across the …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 11:02
BT's ‘new wave’ mitigates fixed-line decline

Broadband and corporate buoy Q3 growth

BT Group's third quarter was buoyed by the continued growth of its IT services and broadband offerings, its so-called "new wave" services, while its traditional fixed-line business continued to decline. BT is having more success in certain areas than rival telcos, but it still has some significant challenges ahead. For the …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 11:02
Firm hunts for Nimda-like worms in Web traffic

ScanSafe

London-based security outfit ScanSafe today launched a Net-based filtering service designed to counter Web-borne viruses and malicious code. Firms such as MessageLabs have made a successful business from weeding viruses in email traffic; ScanSafe is applying much the same methodology to HTTP traffic. ScanSafe scans for all Web …

Security 17 Feb 2004, 11:34
The USA: outsourcing heartland

Opinion Selective protectionism?

The schizophrenic attitude of the US towards outsourcing continues to manifest itself, writes Bloor Research analyst Bob McDowall. US-headquartered organisations continue to be the major providers of outsourcing services, both in contract value and contract size. The major international outsourcing companies - IBM, EDS, …

Data Center 17 Feb 2004, 12:24
MS cites kidnap fears in bid to keep execs' wealth out of court

Everywhere, kidnappers' ears prick up...

Minnesota's class action against Microsoft, scheduled to go to trial on March 1st, is showing unexpected potential. Yes, it is yet another everyday story of (allegedly) overcharging folk, but Microsoft has been attempting to stop details of how rich its witnesses are coming out in court, and the rival attorneys have been …

Bootnotes 17 Feb 2004, 12:27
Windows source code exploit released

That didn't take long...

The leak of Windows source code last week has already enabled a hacker to create an exploit. Days after portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally leaked onto the Web, an anonymous hacker has found a buffer overflow flaw and crafted an exploit. The attack relies on a vulnerability in …

Security 17 Feb 2004, 12:43
US spammer fined £75k for porn sting

'Entirely inappropriate'

A US company has been fined £75,000 for spamming punters with porn emails that led to users racking up whopping phone bills. The spam sent by New York-based BW Telecom contained peak-rate dialler software which disconnected users from their ISP before reconnecting them to a service that charged them £1.50 a minute for Net …

Media 17 Feb 2004, 12:52
100 rural areas in Europe to get subsidised broadband

It's a TWISTER

One hundred rural communities in Europe are to get broadband for free as part of a project part-funded by the European Commission (EC). European satellite outfit EADS Astrium is leading the TWISTER (which stands for Terrestrial Wireless Infrastructure integrated with Satellite Telecommunications for E-Rural) project. TWISTER …

Media 17 Feb 2004, 12:52
Stob: Softwron number stolen

Stob Lost weapon of maths destruction

Pioneering patentee and litigator Softwron Inc admitted today that its infamous so-called 'Wron number (see El Reg passim) has been stolen and made available on the Internet, "where just anybody can download it and use it". The theft was discovered late last night, when the employee assigned to look after the number found the …

Bootnotes 17 Feb 2004, 12:55
AMD halves Opteron 848 prices

Big cuts ahead of anticipated Intel x86-64 announcement

AMD today slashed prices across its multi-way Opteron processor families, ahead of an anticipated announcement from Intel that it will bring 64-bit computing to the x86 server market. The move also follows the launch of low-power, blade server-oriented versions of all three Opteron families. AMD focused its cuts on the Opteron …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 14:24
Nvidia unwraps PCI Express graphics chips

GeForce FX PCX

Nvidia today officially unveiled its first PCI Express-oriented graphics chips, dropping the 'FX' from its current top-end GeForce series chips and replacing it with 'PCX'. Four graphics processors will carry the tag: the GeForce PCX 5950, the GeForce PCX 5750, the GeForce PCX 5300 and the GeForce PCX 4300, aimed at the …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 15:14
Lindows now Lindash

No me--ing about

The operating system Lindows is now available as Lin---s (pronounced: Lin-dash) in those countries where Microsoft has blocked the availability of the desktop Linux distribution. The new name complies with a recent Amsterdam court ruling, the San Diego company says. "By removing 3 letters from our product name, Lindows.com will …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 16:01
Close Encounter yours for $1.3m

Interdimensional eBay madness

Blimey they don't half sell some old rubbish on eBay, eh? The latest extraordinary item to come to our attention is a close encounter video apparently shot in 1998 by someone called "Sargel18". Of course, there's plenty of this sort of nonsense going down on the world's favourite auction site, but the blurb accompanying this …

Bootnotes 17 Feb 2004, 16:04
London's charge zone: blueprint for road pricing 'success'?

The spin says one thing, the numbers something rather different

One year on, London's congestion charge is being widely hailed as a success, Mayor Ken Livingstone is pushing for its extension, and numerous other cities seem poised to follow London's lead. London has shown that the public will accept road pricing, and has also shown that it can be used to reduce traffic. So it's the blueprint …

Media 17 Feb 2004, 16:12
ATI touts low-cost HDTV tuner card

Well, cheaper than a digital TV, anyway...

ATI will this Spring allow North American buyers of its All-in-Wonder video cards to view free-to-air digital TV broadcasts. The graphics chip company will bundle its new HDTV Wonder decoder with certain versions of the All-in-Wonder. The HDTV card will also be offered as a standalone product from ATI's web site. In addition …

Personal 17 Feb 2004, 16:20
IT Pros demand govt broadband intervention

What do we want? USO!

The Government should intervene to guarantee universal access to broadband services in the UK. That's according to a survey of the UK's top IT professionals, two thirds of whom said that broadband was so important it should be available everywhere. It's just one of the findings contained in the latest annual survey from the …

Broadband 17 Feb 2004, 16:26
BBC ponders P2P distribution

BT and Auntie do lunch over Internet plan

The BBC is to make its programme archive available over a peer-to-peer network, it said at the International Broadcasting Convention last weekend. BT, meanwhile, has confirmed that it is in talks with the BBC to find a way "of ensuring that their plans have a positive impact on broadband Britain". The BBC plans to develop a " …

Media 17 Feb 2004, 16:35
Outcry as Chinese Net dissident arrested

Claims of subversion 'abusive'

A Chinese dissident has been arrested by police after being accused of posting subversive messages on the Internet. According to official state media, 40-year-old Du Daobin was arrested for "inciting subversion of China's state power and [the] overthrow of China's socialist system" after posting 28 articles on the Net since …

Media 17 Feb 2004, 16:36
Sony unveils two-tone Vaio K series notebooks

Reg Kit Watch Slick systems designed for DVD watching

Sony's lead in funky-looking Wintel notebooks continues unabated with today's introduction of new K series Vaios, introducing not only a slick look but the manufacturer's XBrite screen technology, which it claims yields "sharp contrast, crisp graphics and breathtaking colour resolution during video playback". The K series …

Personal 17 Feb 2004, 16:47
Microsoft co-founder to demo always-on mini PC

Combines power of a notebook, portability of a PDA

Vulcan, the company set up by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will show off its FlipStart always-on mobile "mini PC" this week. FlipStart is a compact 14.8 x 10.1 x 2.6cm (5.8 x 4 x 1in) notebook that sports an unnamed 1GHz processor and runs Windows XP. Vulcan's idea is to offer a machine that has the compatibility, power and …

Mobile 17 Feb 2004, 17:14
Germans bag über-dooper super computer

Europe's No.1 number-cruncher?

Scientists in Germany can now boast the fastest super computer in Europe – on paper at least. The new IBM number-crunching giant is capable of performing 8.9 trillion floating point calculations per second – a cool 8.9 teraflops in supercomputer parlance. It lives at Research Centre Juelich, which is working in five key areas: …

Servers 17 Feb 2004, 17:59
Bagle-B clobbers weary Net users

More mass mailing worm madness

Long-suffering Net users are finding their in-boxes clobbered again today with the appearance of yet another mass mailing worm. Mercifully, Bagle-B is much less prolific than the recent MyDoom worm. Bagle-B (AKA Tanx-A) normally arrives in emails with a subject line of "ID" followed by random characters and the message text: " …

Security 17 Feb 2004, 18:01
Intel unveils 64-bit capable Xeon

IDF 2004 Emphasis on memory, not number crunching

Branding it one of the industry's "worst-kept secrets", Intel CEO Craig Barrett this morning revealed that 'Nocona', the first Xeon CPU fabbed at 90nm, will extend the 32-bit x86 ISA to 64-bit addressing. Barrett gave away little in the way of specifics: no codenames, no brand names, no speeds, no feeds, no word on AMD64 …

Channel 17 Feb 2004, 20:10
Intel's Barrett hints at 64-bit compatibility glitches

IDF Xeon contains magic Intel-only instructions

At long last, Intel has done the deed and followed AMD with 64-bit extensions to its 32-bit processors. But how compatible will Intel's 64-bit Xeon be with AMD's Opteron? CEO Craig Barrett said that Intel plans to introduce the 64-bit extensions in the Xeon processor line (Nacona) in the second quarter. The Prescott chip will …

Servers 17 Feb 2004, 20:39
Who sank Itanic?

Analysis Remembering the i432 and other billion dollar gambles

As expected, Intel effectively sidelined its decade-long, multi-billion-dollar VLIW processor by announcing 64-bit extensions to its IA-32 processor family today. Itanium represented one of Intel's biggest gambles: the company had never successfully moved its customers from the x86 instruction set onto an entirely new …

Servers 17 Feb 2004, 21:50
IBM shows Itanic love with Power4 benchmark

What's IDF?

Proving what a big Itanium backer it is, IBM released a new benchmark for its highest-end Power4+ server on the same day that Intel kicked off its developer conference. IBM now has a 32 processor p690 box churning out 1,025,486 transactions per minute - the highest mark for any single system. The score beats out the 1,008,144 …

Servers 17 Feb 2004, 23:05
Intel moots Centrino-style home PC platform

IDF Spring 2004 Grantsdale chipset details emerge

Intel wants its upcoming Grantsdale chipset and the recently released Prescott 90nm Pentium 4 to form the basis of a home computing platform along the lines of Centrino. At this stage, it's not clear if the chip giant intends to create a branded platform, as it did with Centrino, or simply tout the technology as a broad …

Personal 17 Feb 2004, 23:40