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16th March 2004 Archive

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  • Explosive Cold War Trojan has lessons for Open Source exporters

    Software sabotage

    China has irked US wireless manufacturers by insisting that they conform to the PRC's encryption technology, we reported last week. Some commentators have castigated China for protecting its own fledgling tech industry. But that excludes the country's very understandable security concerns. A reminder of how important these are …

    Security 16 Mar 2004, 01:13

  • EU states back Microsoft penalties

    Time running out for Bill

    All fifteen EU countries have backed Mario Monti's draft proposals for sanctions agains Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position. A spokeswoman for competition commissioner Mario Monti said that national competititon regulators from each country had fully and unanimously backed the draft decision at a closed-doors …

    Software 16 Mar 2004, 09:57

  • EC approves Infineon state aid package

    But cuts funding total by almost 50%

    The European Commission is expected to allow the Portuguese government to grant chip maker Infineon €41m ($50.3m) in order to expand a local DRAM plant. However, the EC's ruling will mark a step back from the original plan to provide €76.8m ($94.3m). The EC launched an investigation of the Portuguese government's planned state …

    Channel 16 Mar 2004, 10:10

  • Chancellor to squeeze Betfair

    Budget brings bad news for some

    Betfair, the wildly popular and controversial betting exchange, could be hammered in tomorrow's Budget. Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to use his Budget speech to announce an investigation into some online gambling sites. He wants to see changes brought in by summer to tax people making huge bets on the exchanges, the FT …

    Business 16 Mar 2004, 10:17

  • Toilets are cleaner than computers

    Now wash your hands

    The average worker's desk is contaminated with more germs than a toilet seat, according to a University of Arizona study. The report, by University of Arizona microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba, says that there are about 400 times the number germs at computer workstations in the US than there are on a toilet seat. The dirtiest …

    Personal 16 Mar 2004, 10:18

  • Russian Itanium slayer samples first 130nm processor

    Sparc clone today, E2K tomorrow

    Elbrus, the would-be Itanium slayer, has begun sampling its 64-bit processor, the Russian company has announced. Long-time Register readers will recall Elbrus' claims made back in February 1999 that it was hard at work on a "post-Risc" 64-bit CPU that would run four to five times faster than Intel's first-generation Itanium, …

    Channel 16 Mar 2004, 10:42

  • Security: getting the facts about cybergeddon

    Straight answers rarer than hen's teeth

    When everyone in the security world has something to sell, it's harder than ever to get straight answers about genuine threats. A client called me a few weeks back cursing like Joe Pesci with Tourette's Syndrome. He had found himself defending against a maelstrom of security issues that had "become unmanageable", as he put it …

    Security 16 Mar 2004, 10:56

  • Boffins get their circuits in a twist

    Stretchy, bendy wires promise flexible electronics

    A Baltimore research team has developed a technique for building electrical circuitry that can bend and stretch like rubber. It could be used to make artificial nerves, rubbery needles or wearable electronics. The researchers used extremely thin gold wire, bent into a wave-like pattern, according to Nature. Thinner wires broke …

    Science 16 Mar 2004, 11:07

  • AOL warns of falling revs as punters flee service

    Blames competition and broadband

    AOL has warned that the "significant" erosion of subscriber numbers looks set to continue as the Internet giant faces stiffer competition from broadband and cheaper dial-up services. In its annual report filed with the US' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) AOL reported that the number of AOL subscribers in the US fell by …

    Telecoms 16 Mar 2004, 11:41

  • Nortel suspends finance chiefs

    Accounting probe digs deeper

    Nortel Networks yesterday put its two most senior financial officers on paid leave. Douglas Beatty, chief financial officer, and Michael Gollogly, fincncial controller, have been suspended pending completion of the independent review into accounting practices. Last week Nortel announced interim results of the review - initiated …

    Business 16 Mar 2004, 11:49

  • Tracking inflation by the mega-pixel

    Digital cameras gain mainstream status

    Digital cameras have officially arrived. They have been added to the Consumer Price Index shopping basket - the selection of consumer goods used to track inflation in the UK. Mini-disc players, however, have been dropped from the basket, a sign of fading popularity. The CPI shopping basket is tracked month by month by the …

    Personal 16 Mar 2004, 11:52

  • Seeking the continuous playing platform

    Analysis The future of reality gaming?

    There are perhaps 200 million home games platforms currently being used on the planet and perhaps around 90m current-generation devices. Sounds impressive, but in global terms it's not a large number. Compare it with more than 1bn PCs, 1.3bn phone lines and over 1bn TV households on the planet. What's more, numbers of DVDs have …

    Personal 16 Mar 2004, 11:56

  • FCC attempts telco compromise

    Negotiated settlement to wholesale impasse

    FFC chairman Michael Powell's reaction to having his new telco wholesale rules rejected by a US court has been to kick the entire thing back to the leading telcos and call them to the negotiating table. One such telco - Bellsouth - has already publicly agreed. To date, the FCC under Powell's guidance has tried three times to …

    Telecoms 16 Mar 2004, 12:05

  • EDS: new lease of life for PLM business

    Much-needed cash injection

    IT Services provider Electronic Data Systems is to get a much-needed $2.05bn cash injection through the sale of its product lifecycle management software business to a group of three private equity firms. EDS has struggled to grow the business, but there are encouraging signs for the new owners. Bain Capital, Silver Lake …

    Hardware 16 Mar 2004, 12:25

  • Amiga flogs off ‘classic’ OS

    Focusing on mobile multimedia

    Amiga, the one great hope for the future of the 1980s games platform, has sold off the operating system for which it is named. Instead of developing the 'classic' Amiga OS, the company will focus its efforts on its mobile multimedia platform, the Amiga Digital Environment (DE), which is largely what it had been doing in any …

    Software 16 Mar 2004, 12:26

  • Easynet buys Dutch broadband outfit

    Share issue

    UK broadband outfit Easynet is to gobble up Novaxess Beheer BV, a Dutch outfit that, like Easynet, is big into providing high-speed Internet services over unbundled local loops. The deal is worth £26.2m (€38.4m) in cash and assumed debt, and Easynet is part-funding payment through a new share issue, which will raise £8.25m …

    Telecoms 16 Mar 2004, 12:34

  • eBay scamming teen faces 40 years jail

    Lucky to escape date with Ol' Sparky

    A teenager from Gainsville, Georgia, faces a possible 40 years in jail for ripping off eBay customers. Grogory Klimeck, 19, is accused of advertising non-existent goods and pocketing more than $4,500 in payments. In one instance, he advertised ATI Technologies All-in-Wonder video card and took 20 payments ranging from $20 to …

    Music and Media 16 Mar 2004, 12:58

  • BOFH: Enforcing the excremental IP

    Episode 9 Make cheques payable to BIP PLC

    BOFH 2004: Episode 9 So my plan to extort money from company staff under threats of legal action is coming along nicely. The case is fairly open and shut in that the staff consumed food grown with the aid of my excrement, which was in turn used without my knowledge or approval. As I later revealed, my excrement is the 'fruit' …

    BOFH 16 Mar 2004, 13:22

  • Gov UK names broadband aggregation bidders

    Seventeen in the running

    The UK Government has named 17 companies that will be able to bid for public sector contracts for broadband. This is the latest stage in the Government's broadband aggregation project to pool £1bn of public sector spending on high-speed Internet services. The 17 winners are BT: Cable & Wireless; Colt; Easynet; Energis; Equinox …

    Telecoms 16 Mar 2004, 13:36

  • Starbucks launches in-store CD burning service

    HP provides PCs, 20,000 albums' worth of songs

    Coffee shop chain Starbucks today unveiled its digital music initiative, as expected, offering beverage imbibers the chance to "burn full-length albums and personalised compilations from a comprehensive digital library". The scheme, launched in partnership with HP, will kick off with the opening of the first Hear Music …

    Business 16 Mar 2004, 13:37

  • Lindows asks US court to halt MS ‘worldwide assault’

    Jurisdiction hopping

    Lindows has asked the US District Court in the Western district of Washington to stop Microsoft filing trademark lawsuits against it in other countries Microsoft has tried, and failed, so far, to get lindows.com shut down through the US courts. It has now started filing similar suits in courts across the world and has hit …

    Software 16 Mar 2004, 13:51

  • ‘Software detox’ deadline looms

    Complete software audit, fight piracy, save humanity

    The Business Software Alliance is reminding British businesses that the deadline for its 'software detox' campaign is fast approaching. The BSA is an anti-piracy group funded by the main software vendors. Companies have until 26 March to complete and send off their Software Audit Return. All information collected during the …

    Software 16 Mar 2004, 14:37

  • AMD to launch Wi-Fi network

    Access free of charge

    Chip maker AMD has quietly rolled out a network of Wi-Fi hotspots. The company will formally launch the service next quarter, The Register has learned. And in a bid to challenge Intel's desire to equate its Centrino brand with wireless networking, AMD will provide wireless access free of charge. Operating under the AMD Hotspot …

    Wireless 16 Mar 2004, 15:14

  • Revealed: sultry Sedna's sizzling secrets

    Forget Planet X, bring on Planet Sex

    It's good to see that the UK media is straight on the case analysing exactly how the identification of distant planet Sedna will benefit humanity. And the award for the most enlightening discovery goes to the Sun's Mystic Meg for this sizzling revelation: "Sedna - named after the Inuit goddess of the sea who is said to have …

    Bootnotes 16 Mar 2004, 15:24

  • Cisco retails networked hotel vision

    IP Hospitality

    Cisco Systems paraded its vision of the networked hotel of the future last week with the official launch of the first hotel in Ireland to offer premium IP-telephony based services. The four star Crowne Plaza in Dublin has invested in a unified infrastructure for voice, data and video based on a single IP network to deliver …

    Data Networking 16 Mar 2004, 15:57

  • Computacenter profits up

    Markets improving, but not a lot

    Computacenter, Europe's biggest computer reseller, made sales of almost £2.5bn for the year ended December 31 2003. The company made profits before tax of £65.2m - an increase of 18.3 per cent on last year. Computacenter made sales of £2.48bn, up from £1.93bn in 2002. Ron Sandler, chairman, said the company is seeing some …

    Channel 16 Mar 2004, 16:04

  • 200,000 Wi-Fi laptops up for grabs – if you're an Essex schoolkid

    County goes Centrino crazy

    Essex County Council is making 200,000 Centrino-based laptops available to teachers and pupils over the next three years. The "Anytime Anywhere Learning" (AAL) campaign is kicking off in the classroom, but the council's goal is to see the whole county go wireless, with businesses and residents all having cable-free access to …

    Wireless 16 Mar 2004, 16:06

  • Boeing to offer roaming via in-flight WLANs

    Connexion to connect to other WISPs

    Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems subsidiary and Boeing are to seek ways in which the aircraft maker's in-flight WLAN service, Connexion, can be tied in to T-Systems' wireless ISP-oriented roaming enablement platform. Connexion is all about offering passengers wireless Internet access during flights. T-Systems customers include …

    Wireless 16 Mar 2004, 17:03

  • Co-op IT staff to strike over SCC outsourcing gig

    Pension dispute

    Twenty-one IT staff at Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) are due to begin a 24-hour strike tomorrow in protest at a decision to outsource their jobs to SCC, the leading UK reseller. The workers - all members of the Amicus union - are unhappy that the move to SCC would result in a reduced pension for workers. Amicus said …

    Channel 16 Mar 2004, 17:21

  • IBM prepares Opteron workstation charge

    Better than Itanium and Xeon

    IBM will bulk up its line of Opteron-based products later this year with the roll-out of a new workstation. At the end of May, IBM will start shipping the new dual-processor IntelliStation A Pro system, offering AMD's Opteron processor running at up to 2.2GHz. The box will be aimed at engineers in need of powerful kit and at …

    Servers 16 Mar 2004, 17:26

  • MPs hold inquiry into UK computer crime law

    Time for revision

    The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) is to hold a public inquiry to see if Britain’s key computer crime law - the Computer Misuse Act 1990 - needs updating. The inquiry will look at issues such as whether the Computer Misuse Act is broad enough to cover the criminality encountered today and the possibility that the …

    Security 16 Mar 2004, 17:31

  • IT guru donates millions to Oxford

    Institute named after him

    Dr James Martin is to have an institute named after him at Oxford University. It will research the global effects of technology. The computing pioneer and prolific author has made a multi-million pound donation to his old university - an initial gift of £700,000 will rise to £1.4m annually in perpetuity, according to the BBC. …

    Science 16 Mar 2004, 17:36

  • Investors scamper from Veritas shares

    Backed-up confidence

    Investors dumped shares of Veritas on Tuesday, reacting to a second restatement of financial results in as many years. Shares of Veritas were down 8 percent, at the time of this report, to $26.73. This follows a 6 percent drop on Monday after Veritas announced it would restate figures for 2001 and 2002 and delay filing of a …

    Storage 16 Mar 2004, 19:40

  • HP to bundle iTunes ‘late March’

    Web site code reveals all

    Apple's recent launch of a version of its iTunes jukebox software geared toward users of HP and Compaq-branded consumer PCs will be followed later this month by the inclusion of the software with new machines. HP will start to bundle iTunes "in late March", according to the HTML meta tags at http://www.hp.com/music, which …

    Music and Media 16 Mar 2004, 20:57

  • Storage software is all the rage in Q4

    EMC still king

    The market for storage software surged in the fourth quarter with particularly strong growth for much-hyped storage resource management (SRM) products. Overall, the worldwide storage software market posted 17.7 percent year-on-year revenue growth in Q4, according to IDC. Software makers pulled in a total of $1.78 billion in …

    Storage 16 Mar 2004, 21:01