19th February 2004 Archive

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UWB group dumps IEEE to speed wireless USB, 1394

IDF And maybe Bluetooth too

Ultrawideband (UWB) will not only co-exist with rival Personal Area Network standard Bluetooth but may ultimately form the basis for its future, members of newly formed UWB industry bodies suggested today. In the same way, UWB will also form the basis for wireless versions of stand device interconnectivity technologies such as …

Mobile 19 Feb 2004, 00:55
Mom sues RIAA members for racketeering

Don't call me scarface

A New Jersey mother has turned the tables on the Recording Industry Association of America by suing the major labels for racketeering. Michele Scimeca received a notice from the RIAA in December after her child used the Kazaa networks for a school project. She has countersued labels Sony, Universal and Motown by claiming that …

Music and Media 19 Feb 2004, 04:49
Judge OKs California e-voting

Do or Diebold

A Sacramento Judge has nixed an attempt to prevent Diebold's electronic voting terminals from being used in a crucial State election next month. The challenge, from campaigners including Bev Harris, argued that the machines were vulnerable to tampering. Diebold's terminals don't leave a verifiable paper trail, and according to …

Music and Media 19 Feb 2004, 05:18
Urgent assistance sought to build reader profile

Survey Spare three minutes for a quick survey, guv?

It's a funny old thing, the Internet. You can set up a successful site, attract millions of dedicated readers, but still not know anything about them. Indeed, it has been estimated that were all of El Reg's readers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, they would cover an area equivalent to three Isles of Wight, or seventeen thousand …

Site News 19 Feb 2004, 08:55
Rise of the virtual machine

The inexorable march of progress

Oh for the simple life. It seems like only yesterday that IT was pretty straightforward - in terms of technology, at least. Now every component of the physical IT infrastructure faces "virtualisation", writes Bloor Research analyst Tony Lock. This process began when the manufacturers of large mainframe servers started to offer …

Storage 19 Feb 2004, 09:52
Amstrad's em@iler makes a profit

They said it would

Amserve - the business behind Amstrad's em@iler phone-cum-email thingy - has finally made a profit. Four years or so after the Webphone thingamajig was launched to a somewhat sceptical world, those who have maintained their faith in the em@iler have at last seen some financial reward. In the six months to the end of December …

Business 19 Feb 2004, 10:45
Last call for O'Really end-of-line stock

Cash'n'Carrion Get 'em while you can

We're running down stocks of two of our terrific O'Really range, so readers who'd like to get either a "Windows NT User Obliteration" or "BOFH in a Nutshell" model will have to move fast. The BOFH apparel is available in medium, XL and XXL while there are just a few of the User Obliteration shirts left in medium. You can get …

Site News 19 Feb 2004, 10:45
Netsky B is very pesky

Mutating worm

A new, more dangerous version of the Netsky worm is making the rounds on the Internet. The bug, which goes by the name Netsky-b or Moodown-b, is a modified version of NetSky-a that surfaced earlier this week. Initial ratings from the likes of Symantec, Network Associates and F-Secure suggest that the malware is a medium- to …

Anti-Virus 19 Feb 2004, 11:23
Welsh local govt website caught with trousers down

A bit like their poor kids, in this case

They take their kids' welfare pretty seriously in Wales, make no mistake. Absolute proof of this comes in the form of the following grab, gleaned from the website of Carmarthenshire County Council: It's to be commended that this sort of examination is a legal requirement in Wales, and that headteachers play such an …

Bootnotes 19 Feb 2004, 11:24
Dust settles on AT&T Wireless battle

Vodafone outflanked by Cingular Wireless

Cingular has won the battle for AT&T Wireless with a $41bn bid. A day and night of high drama was brought to a close after Vodafone withdrew from the battle for AT&T Wireless after being outflanked by Cingular Wireless. Cingular stands to make some significant synergies with the number-three US wireless operator, while Vodafone …

Mobile 19 Feb 2004, 11:34
AOL and Earthlink chase spammers through the courts

Legal cudgels

AOL and EarthLink have set their lawyers against spammers they hold responsible for inundating their respective users with illegal junk email. AOL is suing a Florida company while EarthLink is targeting a "multi-state spam ring" it accuses of sending out more than 250 million spam messages. Both actions develop legal cases …

Security 19 Feb 2004, 12:17
BT wins NHS broadband megadeal

Big savings

BT has won a £530 million contract to provide and manage a broadband network that will link all NHS organisations in England. The deal will run for seven years and is the first significant public sector investment in broadband. The network will now serve all 18,000 NHS locations and sites. The current NHSnet contract only …

Hardware 19 Feb 2004, 12:34
Job fears raised as Demon offshores tech support to India

Just a trial, insists ISP

Demon is to outsource some of its call centre operation to India, but insists no jobs will be lost as part of the six-month trial. The ISP says it is offshoring part of its dial-up helpdesk to concentrate more UK resources on handling its increasing number of ADSL customers. The Thus subsidiary claims more than 50,000 broadband …

Business 19 Feb 2004, 12:39
BOFH: Interviewing for Helpdesk

Episode 5 Easy when you know how

BOFH 2004: Episode 5 Sigh. Interviewing for new Helldesk types with the Boss and the Helldesk Coordinator is a tedious, timewasting and pointless job and I sometimes find myself wondering why the agency doesn't just cut out the middle man and send us people who've never used a computer before. As the "technical person", I'm …

BOFH 19 Feb 2004, 12:40
Stob: Number patents Euro-endorsed

Stob Bonjour la tristesse

Strasbourg. Jean-Paul Le Cliché, Euro commissioner for regulation and commerce, has announced - as predicted in The Reg - that the new US extension of patents to integers will be incorporated into EC law. "This change will come as an element from a greater unit from measurements from reform from patent than we have now at …

Bootnotes 19 Feb 2004, 12:43
Sex, drugs and cans of spam

Viagra and diet pills jamming inboxes everywhere

Viagra and diet pills are top of the spam chart. Email filtering firm Clearswift's monthly Spam Index records that 42.6 per cent of the unsolicited mail clogging our inboxes in January was from companies touting pharmaceuticals. The volume of porn-related mails has risen to its highest level since June 2003, but it still comes …

Security 19 Feb 2004, 14:52
Aberdeen councillor proposes motion on toilet

Another .gov howler

Thanks very much to the anonymous correspondent who has just sent us a lovely e-card from sunny Aberdeen. This kindness was provoked by today's very silly piece regarding Carmarthenshire County Council's website. Well, it's not just the Welsh who are prone to Net howlers, as Aberdeen City Council proved when they put the …

Bootnotes 19 Feb 2004, 14:55
AOL calls for UK broadband competition

Key challenge

Ensuring that the UK has effective wholesale broadband competition is a key challenge for the coming year, AOL says. Addressing the ISP Forum in London yesterday, David Carr, AOL UK VP of broadband, said the lack of wholesale ADSL competition is holding back the industry. "2003 was a fantastic year for the UK's broadband …

Telecoms 19 Feb 2004, 15:01
Cisco gets into video conferencing

Sound and vision

Cisco Systems yesterday introduced real-time video conferencing for its range of IP telephony products. The networking giant aims to steal the march on established competitors by making video calls much easier to set up. At a presentation at its UK headquarters, Cisco showed how its VT Advantage client technology combines a …

Data Networking 19 Feb 2004, 15:28
Cruel sea threatens Torpoint's ADSL plans

Bandwidth-starved locals praying for fair weather

The residents of Torpoint in Cornwall could be just weeks away from getting broadband - so long as the weather holds. You see, before Torpoint is wired up for ADSL (it reached its trigger of 500 in July last year, BTW), the town needs to get a new backhaul connection. And therein lies the problem. To provide the backhaul …

Telecoms 19 Feb 2004, 16:29
Technology sales to bloom in 2004

Looking good for IT and telecoms

Western European and worldwide markets for IT and telecommunications are recovering to healthy rates of growth. The 2004 edition of the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) estimates that the Western European information technology market will grow 2.4 per cent this year to reach €294bn. Last year, by the same …

Business 19 Feb 2004, 16:38
NTL renews assault on broadband hogs

'Please, for the sake of all our customers...'

NTL has sent letters to some customers warning them not to over-use their broadband services. The cableco is blaming a "small number of broadband customers who are continually uploading and downloading extremely large files" for causing a "detrimental effect on [its] network". It went on: "Please, for the sake of all our …

Telecoms 19 Feb 2004, 17:03
UK Watchdog bites mobile spam scammers

Two operations shut down under emergency procedures

The UK's Premium rate call watchdog ICSTIS invoked its emergency procedures yesterday to shut down two scam operations which had generated hundreds of consumer complaints. One of the companies closed, Vertical Media, used a phone message to direct callers to its premium lines. Quartel3, also known as Greenbay, had live …

Mobile 19 Feb 2004, 17:38
Telewest MD Burdick quits

'Leaving to pursue other opportunities'

Charles Burdick has resigned as group MD for cableco Telewest, it was announced today. In a statement Burdick said that "it is a time of change," adding: "I am leaving to pursue other opportunities". Barry Elson, who until recently was COO of Silicon Valley outfit Urban Media, has been appointed as acting chief exec. Cob …

Business 19 Feb 2004, 17:43
Intel to combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth in Centrino 2

IDF Next-gen ProWireless module

Intel plans to integrate Bluetooth onto its next-generation Wi-Fi sub-system, it has emerged. Speaking during his IDF keynote, Sean Maloney, Intel general manager of the company's Communications Group, revealed the chip maker is to offer a "specially designed low-power... integrated Bluetooth/Wi-Fi device". The module, he said …

Wireless 19 Feb 2004, 18:40
Intel chief touts mobile 3D chip, ignores next-gen XScale

IDF Wireless MMX shunned

Having once claimed that its next-generation XScale processor, codenamed Bulverde, would bring "mobile gaming into the 21st Century", Intel now argues that you'll really need a discrete mobile graphics chip too. Bulverde was announced at last autumn's IDF by Ron Smith, the company's then head of wireless products. The processor …

Mobile 19 Feb 2004, 19:19
Function trumps form at Intel showcase

IDF We muster an Itanic cluster or two

Vendors showcasing their wares at this year's IDF checked all their glitzy booth adornments at the door, picking a plain and simple pitch instead. For the most part, the IDF show floor was covered with drab, little vendor receptacles. Some companies like Nvidia managed to put up a flat panel or two to show off their graphics …

Servers 19 Feb 2004, 20:12
As stock sank, Fatcat SBC boss paid himself $19.5 million

First person Cingular

It's election year, and the jobless recovery has prompted complacent politicians on both sides of the duopoly to look concerned. But in one of the most baffling collective decisions since the Jonestown Massacre, the telecommunications workers' union - the CWA - has blessed Cingular's takeover of AT&T Wireless. Although the …

Mobile 19 Feb 2004, 20:15
Music fans beg to buy music

Help us, help you

Close to 30 Web sites plan to kick off an act of "coordinated civil disobedience" next Tuesday by putting up downloads of a controversial album despite EMI's demands that the album be destroyed. Anti-RIAA activists at Downhill Battle are leading the charge for what they call "Grey Tuesday." The Web site along with other as yet …

Music and Media 19 Feb 2004, 20:58
EC IP enforcement ‘threatens more SCO-style attacks’

Has 'pulling a SCO' entered the English language?

Campaigners issued a call to arms today ahead of a far-reaching directive on intellectual property rights due to go through the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee next Monday. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) expressed dismay at the progress of the contentious measures, which it has …

Software 19 Feb 2004, 22:13
Wi-Fi in the real world – pt. 2

There's a hotspot where?

Last week, we explored the practicalitie of using Wi-Fi in London. As the UK's most populous area, London was always going to play host to some of the nation's first public Internet access hotspots. But wireless is all about mobility, and its value is severely limited if you can't get an Internet connection when you're …

Wireless 19 Feb 2004, 23:29