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27th February 2004 Archive

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  • VMware’s virtual software gets ever more real

    'Intuitive' and 'virtualisation' in same article. Amazing

    Some companies manage to become so intimately associated with the functionality that they supply that their brand almost becomes a verb, writes Bloor Research analyst Tony Lock. In the wild world of virtualisation one company is getting close to that status now and for many people managing machines in the Intel world the name …

    Storage 27 Feb 2004, 10:11

  • MyDoom and Netsky cause chaos

    Viral plagues pillage and burn

    MyDoom.F and Netsky.C have been sweeping across the Internet, deleting files, hijacking PCs and apparently attacking the Microsoft and the RIAA Web sites. Self-propagating e-mail bug MyDoom.F, which emerged last Friday, has been corrupting digital entertainment files and Microsoft Office documents. It also uses the host …

    Malware 27 Feb 2004, 10:14

  • WebTV 911 ‘hacker’ charged with cyberterrorism

    Malicious script triggers false alarms

    FBI agents arrested a Louisiana man last week under the cyberterrorism provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act for allegedly tricking a handful of MSN TV users into running a malicious email attachment that reprogrammed their set-top boxes to dial 9-1-1 emergency response. According to prosecutors, David Jeansonne, 43, was targeting …

    Security 27 Feb 2004, 10:18

  • IBM not guilty of knowingly poisoning workers

    Unanimous verdict

    IBM has prevailed against allegations that it wilfully hid the risk of chemical poisoning from workers at one of its hard drive factories. The Supreme Court of Santa Clara yesterday heard the jury unanimously rule in the computer giant's favour. The four-month trial centred on claims made by Alida Hernandez and James Moore …

    Channel 27 Feb 2004, 10:22

  • Memory makers hit by price-fixing claims

    US investigation to lead to criminal charges, says paper

    The DRAMurai - the world's leading memory makers - have been accused of running a price-fixing cartel And, according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, a US Justice Department investigation into the anti-trust claims is nearing its conclusion. The report claims that the DoJ has evidence that the major memory companies …

    Channel 27 Feb 2004, 10:40

  • CeBIT promises Linksys 11g goodies

    Plus lots and lots of boys' toys

    Gadget-hungry punters will not be disappointed to discover that Linksys will use CeBIT to unveil a range of 11g wireless routers to exploit the Broadcom 802.11g chip set. Of course, most consumer markets will be more interested in the expected Linksys boys' toys. Like that £80 disk controller, or the Hi-Fi Wi-Fi audio system, …

    Wireless 27 Feb 2004, 11:07

  • DVD Forum ‘approves’ rewriteable HD-DVD spec

    Another win for NEC and Toshiba's blue laser tech

    The guardians of the DVD specification have approved a rewriteable version of the standard that supports high definition images. The DVD Forum approved the HD-DVD-RW (our name for it) format in Tokyo this week, according to an official of one of the member companies, cited by IDG News. However, officially, the organisation …

    Storage 27 Feb 2004, 11:35

  • Wiltshire chucks £7m at broadband

    Splendid

    One of the largest public-private sector partnerships in Wiltshire is helping to bring broadband to this rural county. Some £7m is being invested to increase access to broadband for residents and businesses and to help those who already have access to take full advantage of the technology. As part of its £3m commitment to the …

    Telecoms 27 Feb 2004, 11:42

  • Spam villains: named and shamed

    From Russia, via the US, with love

    The US sends out more spam than the rest of the world put together according to inbox defenders at Sophos. Researchers at the anti-virus firm checked the origins of two days worth of spam, and compiled a list of the worst offenders. Although the vast majority of spam comes from computers in the US, the picture is not as simple …

    Malware 27 Feb 2004, 11:48

  • German police drop iBook power rustling charge

    Student who plugged-in in public walks free

    A 23-year-old German arrested last year for plugging his laptop into a railway station power socket will not be prosecuted, the authorities this week confirmed. Jan Michael Ihl faced the full weight of the law for stealing electricity valued at €0.002 from the terminus in Kassel when he connected his Apple iBook computer. The …

    Music and Media 27 Feb 2004, 11:49

  • IR591: the number of the beast

    Small.biz trembles before chancellor's 'weasel words'

    Controversial tax increases, nicknamed IR591, currently being drafted by chancellor Gordon Brown will leave IT contractors and owners of small firms who take income as dividends facing "huge" tax increases in this year's Budget. The tax proposals are buried in paragraph 5.91 of the government's December 2003 Pre-Budget Report …

    Small Biz 27 Feb 2004, 12:02

  • Rosetta still earthbound

    Urgent repairs mean no comet chasing until Monday

    The launch of the comet-chasing Rosetta mission has been delayed again, this time to allow for repairs to the Ariane 5 rocket's thermal sheilding. Lift-off was cancelled after the mission team noticed an area of foam protecting the main fuel tank was missing during a final inspection. This thermal protection prevents …

    Science 27 Feb 2004, 12:29

  • Sendo launches 5x zoom camera phone

    Fast viewfinder, multiple picture sizes too

    UK mobile phone maker Sendo unveiled its latest camera phone, the S600, this week. The handset's digicam offers a typical 640 x 480 resolution, but improves on rival units thanks to a 5x smooth digital zoom - dubbed "Xoom" by Sendo. As usual, the phone's 16-bit colour display doubles up as the camera's viewfinder, but operates …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 12:33

  • Dell adds Bluetooth to Axim X3i Wi-Fi Pocket PC

    Available in UK, but not in US

    Dell has quietly added Bluetooth to its Wi-Fi enabled Axim X3i Pocket PC. The PDA, which was launched last October, was touted by the manufacturer as a WLAN-only device. However, as we spotted in our review of the product, its Wi-Fi antenna module also sports the Bluetooth logo. The manual makes the odd reference to this …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 12:58

  • Nvidia's phone chips as the camcorder, console killer

    3GSM Gameboy killer? No, no, bigger than that...

    Sometimes the product development goes by too fast for you to notice the revolutions as they pass, and Nvidia's announcement of the GoForce 3000 and 4000 chips earlier this week was a case in point. Yeah, PC class graphics coming to handheld platforms, substantial improvements in power dissipation, cool, but so what? Well, if …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 13:26

  • T-Mobile to offer ‘seamless’ 3G, Wi-Fi data service

    Even as US vendor patents the technique

    Network operator T-Mobile has pledged to combine its Wi-Fi wireless LAN and 3G mobile phone services into a single high-speed data network. The company aims to achieve "total seamlessness" between the technologies, T-Mobile CEO Rene Obermann said this week. "We are creating one multi-speed, multimedia network; integrating 2G, …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 14:03

  • BT in 118 500 price hike

    Oh yes it is, oh no it's not, etc

    BT is 'revising' charges for its 118 500 directory enquiries (DQ) service, although analysts claim it is an inflation-busting hike in the cost of looking up phone numbers. From 25 March, the connection charge of calls to BT's 118 500 service will increase from 25p to 40p. At the same time, the UK's dominant fixed-line telco is …

    Telecoms 27 Feb 2004, 14:41

  • Does your business have the tools to evaluate and implement change?

    Site Offer Save 30 per cent on featured books

    Every business has plenty of information, but do they have the right information when they need it? FT Executive Briefings concentrate on delivering actionable information, designed to help executives ask the right questions, make the right decisions and take the right action. This week at The Reg Bookstore we've selected three …

    Site News 27 Feb 2004, 14:50

  • DVD X Copy re-issued without ripper

    321 Studios answers trial judge's ban

    DVD copying software developer 321 Studios has made good its pledge to offer 'ripper-free' versions of its DVD X Copy range of utilities. The company announced its plan to strip the DeCSS-derived code out of its applications last week after US District Court judge Susan Illston ruled that the programs violated the US Digital …

    Personal 27 Feb 2004, 15:15

  • US porn typosquatter banged up

    30 months' jail under Amber Alert law

    A Florida man who directed children to pornographic websites by registering misspellings of domains likely to be popular with kids was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years yesterday. John Zuccarini, 56, of Hollywood in Florida, pleaded guilty in December to 49 charges under the newly-enacted Amber Alert law - a federal statute …

    Music and Media 27 Feb 2004, 15:52

  • Judge denies MS attempt to re-define ‘card’

    Means any 'flat, rectangular piece of stiff material', apparently

    A US District Court has agreed that the word 'card' means any 'flat, rectangular piece of stiff material', paving the way for intellectual property company E-Pass to pursue its claim that HP iPaqs running Microsoft software violate its patent for a "multi-function card". Register readers may be more familiar with E-Pass' other …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 16:28

  • Could DoCoMo be the saviour of MMO2?

    Analysis Unlikely, with investors running scared

    As new speculation mounted over Vodafone's next move, following its failure to acquire AT&T Wireless, another takeover saga began with the rejection of a bid for the UK's MMO2 from the Netherlands' KPN. Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, under pressure to give investors some clear signals on his acquisition strategy, was playing it …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 16:30

  • Open source punch-up surrounds mobile Java upgrade

    Debate unabated

    Sun is working with Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson on a certification program for mobile Java applications, designed to speed time to market and increase the reach of Java. But Sun critics claim only making Java open source will guarantee its ubiquity and its power as a weapon against Microsoft, and this week IBM …

    Mobile 27 Feb 2004, 17:13

  • Government Gateway gets first local recruit

    Shepway goes live

    Residents of South Kent can now pay their council tax online, as Shepway District Council switched on its connection to the Government Gateway. The local authority, which this week announced the UK's biggest council tax increase this year, is the first in the UK to make its services available through the Gateway. Rather than …

    Hardware 27 Feb 2004, 17:24

  • Server vendors cheer strong Q4

    Up in all the right places

    The worldwide server market surged in the fourth quarter with system sales from the low to high-end all increasing for the first time since 2001, according to researcher IDC. Overall, server revenue increased 11.4 percent to $13.7 billion in the period. This came as unit shipments jumped 22 percent year-on-year. Low-end, …

    Servers 27 Feb 2004, 17:59

  • El Reg hacks' linguistic shame

    Letters You set us straight on reading, writing and 'rithmetic

    This week’s post bag yields your views on a wide range of mistakes we’ve made. Once the plethora of helpful letters correcting typos and punctuation was eliminated, we could just about see over the virtual pile on our desks. This isn’t unusual: We vultures find it hard to type, on account of our claws, so forgive us those …

    Letters 27 Feb 2004, 18:17

  • Counting the cost of cybergeddon

    Letter Cyberliability witchdoctors cast the runes

    Estimating the value of damage caused by viruses is a tricky business, as John Leyden pointed out in his article Q: What's the AV industry's definition of happy?. Suggestions that the skill involved is akin to checking the direction of the wind with a wetted finger met with some disagreement. Here, in full, is a letter from …

    Letters 27 Feb 2004, 18:17

  • F-inSecure mailing list spreads Netsky-B virus

    Red faces all round at AV outfit after 'human error'

    Oh dear, oh dear. F-Secure's UK antivirus mailing list became the unwitting vector for the spread of Netsky-B worm this week after the AV vendor failed to stop an infected email from making it onto its security list. F-Secure has apologised for the cock-up, which it blames on human error. The Finnish-based firm's UK bulletin …

    Malware 27 Feb 2004, 18:28

  • Bargain Basement reopens for business

    Cash'n'Carrion Big savings on end-of-line stock

    Whether you're an impoverished student living on pot noodle and boiled cardboard, a cash-conscious savvy shopper with an eye for a bargain or just plain tight, there's certainly something for you in our reopened Bargain Basement. This candle-lit cellar of low-cost kit - also known locally as Cheap'n'Cheerful - is where …

    Site News 27 Feb 2004, 19:01

  • EMC confirms low-end storage charge

    Diamond Joe outs Dell

    EMC's CEO Joe Tucci has confirmed a joint EMC/Dell attack on the low-end of the SAN (storage area network) market. Diamond Joe, speaking this week at a Goldman Sachs conference, gave the best indication to date that EMC will roll out the CX100 and CX150 Clariion systems. In addition, Tucci confirmed that EMC plans to make this …

    Storage 27 Feb 2004, 20:59

  • South Korea mulls spam curfew

    Cunning plan

    South Korea wants to ban unsolicited commercial email between 9pm and 9am. The novel proposal is one of many outlined by the government in an attack against spam. The measures will cost up to 10 billion won (£4.6 million) by 2007. Convicted spammers are to face fines of up to 30 million won (£13,650), three times higher than …

    Malware 27 Feb 2004, 21:03