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23rd March 2004 Archive

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  • Microsoft faces ‘one per cent’ fine

    €497m misdemeanor

    Microsoft faces a fine of €497m, around $600m, according to leaks from the European Commission. That's equivalent to 48 days of net income (profit) at Microsoft's current run rate, but less than one per cent of the company's $51 billion cash chest. In theory the EC can impose a fine of up to ten per cent of gross income, which …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 03:05

  • Demon founder bailed on blackmail charges

    Stanford in court

    Cliff Stanford, founder of Demon Internet and Redbus, was in court yesterday charged with blackmail and "email poaching". Stanford was granted bail and must reappear on 14 May. The charges relate to accusations that he intercepted emails from Redbus chairman John Porter. The two fell out over strategy at Redbus and Stanford led …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 09:33

  • HP to ship Brocade low-end switches

    Broad sweep of product updates

    Brocade's promised broad sweep of product updates will begin to reach the streets next month, marking the first outing of fresh silicon that, among other things, will cut manufacturing costs for the switch maker. This will shore up Brocade's defenses against its rival McData. Hewlett Packard claims it will be the first OEM to …

    Storage 23 Mar 2004, 10:15

  • Anti-spammers press for own domain

    Nine names, 10 proposals

    Ten applications for new Top Level Domains (TLD) were published by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) over the weekend with a special TLD to prevent spam and three new names to merge the phone and Internet worlds. The names proposed are: .tel (by two competing outfits) .mobi .travel .post .cat . …

    Music and Media 23 Mar 2004, 10:19

  • Nvidia, ATI strengthen mobile phone graphics ties

    Symbian, Qualcomm partnerships

    Nvidia and its arch-rival ATI both made pitches to win big gains in the emerging market for 3D graphics on mobile phones yesterday. Nvidia said it would allow its GoForce phone-oriented graphics chips to support the Symbian OS. At the same time, ATI said it had licensed its Imageon core to US phone chip maker Qualcomm. Nvidia' …

    Mobile 23 Mar 2004, 10:22

  • German chancellor attacks ‘unpatriotic’ offshoring

    Unpatriotic maybe, but so much cheaper

    German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has condemned the growing use of 'offshoring' - outsourcing business services to cheaper, poorer countries. Schroeder said offshoring reduced things that are necessary and important for Germany to "narrow, micro-economic questions", the Financial Times reports. His comments raise the …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 10:24

  • E-minister calls for business broadband targets for 2010

    Doing well but could do better

    Ecommerce minister Stephen Timms has called for new targets to ensure that British business does not lose its broadband momentum. The government aims to have the most extensive broadband network of any G7 country by 2005. But Timms said many companies are still not recognising the potential of broadband. Timms told the …

    Small Biz 23 Mar 2004, 10:30

  • IBM CPU sales rocket…

    ...but fails to dent Intel, AMD market shares

    Intel took a whopping 80 per cent of the world microprocessor market last year, according to figures released by market watcher IC Insights. But while the chip giant unsurprisingly maintained its dominance of the market, IBM demonstrated the fastest growth, growing 160 per cent in 2003. Big Blue's 2003 sales hit $520m, largely …

    Channel 23 Mar 2004, 10:53

  • Kodak triumphs with 3D screen – possibly

    And exactly how it works is a mystery

    Eastman Kodak claims to have a working 3D screen that requires no special glasses or headgear or covering on a screen. Just exactly what that actually means in practice is hard to fathom. What Kodak says it has done is all over the news this week. It's hailed as a revolution, but unfortunately all the words are taken straight …

    Personal 23 Mar 2004, 11:08

  • Motorola and MBOA split on UWB

    Two specs risk chaos and slowdown

    The two sides in the UltraWideBand standards battle are even more polarised at the end of a turbulent week for wireless personal area networking. The Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) has devised its own media access control (MAC) layer, in effect rejecting the MAC mandated by the IEEE for the upcoming 802.15.3a standard. …

    Wireless 23 Mar 2004, 11:09

  • Napster picks former Capital FM song picker to pick songs

    But will Jeff Smith pick 'too much pop'?

    Napster's UK operation has brought in former Capital Radio programming chief Jeff Smith as its own Programming Director, the company said today. Smith's new role will see him "source and select" Napster UK's content. His brief, the company said, is to work with both major and independent labels, and to span all musical genres, …

    Music and Media 23 Mar 2004, 11:38

  • Novell loves Linux (true)

    Torvalds pops up at BrainShare

    Novell yesterday underlined its commitment to open source technologies by confirming that its flagship network services platform will run on either NetWare or Linux kernels. NetWare will cease to exist as a standalone product and instead we will have Novell Open Enterprise Server, a collection of networking services, including …

    Hardware 23 Mar 2004, 11:48

  • Lock down gambling sites, go to jail

    Rough justice for security professionals - DoJ style

    A new Justice Department policy threatens to jail security professionals who help lock down online gambling sites anywhere in the world. For example, you're a computer security expert who's hired by an offshore casino in the Cayman Islands to develop a security and authentication technology. Your client is a licensed Cayman …

    Security 23 Mar 2004, 11:49

  • Optical storage: destined for oblivion?

    Reports of its demise may be premature

    Cries such as "tape is dead" and "optical has no future" have been heard for some time now - and not only from the mouths of hard-disk vendors, writes Bloor Research analyst Tony Lock. This begs the question of whether non-disk based storage technologies have any long-term prospects. A little thought, however, quickly reveals …

    Storage 23 Mar 2004, 11:50

  • BT dominance ‘unacceptable’, say MPs

    Punters confused over tariffs and providers

    UK punters are paying over the odds for their phone services because they need a degree in maths to work out which tariff is best for them. There's so much confusing information around that many consumers are simply unable to decide whether it would make financial sense to switch telecoms providers or opt for alternative …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 11:56

  • Microsoft gets new UK boss

    It's all go at the top, allegedly...

    Microsoft UK has appointed a new managing director for the UK. According to sources Microsoft's UK managing director Neil Holloway has been shifted to a European post and Alistair Baker is taking over his job. Baker was previously group director for small and mid-market solutions and partners. Neil Holloway becomes vice …

    Channel 23 Mar 2004, 12:00

  • IE flaw exposes weakness in Yahoo! filtering

    Defences down

    Flaws in the filtering technology used by Web-based email services make it possible for hackers to smuggle viruses past defences. Israeli security outfit GreyMagic Software warned today that this "severe security" vulnerability could allow attackers to run code of their choice, "simply by sending an email to an unsuspecting …

    Security 23 Mar 2004, 12:07

  • LinuxUser Expo rewards open source excellence

    Loads of laureates at this year's London shindig

    London's Olympia will this year play host to the LinuxUser & Developer Expo 2004 - the UK's definitive Linux forum taking place on 20 and 21 April. The Expo is, of course, organised by LinuxUser & Developer magazine. Highlight of the event will be a gala awards bash - The LinuxUser & Developer Awards (20 April) - to recognise …

    Software 23 Mar 2004, 13:12

  • New Zealand to ‘legalise CD piracy’ – music biz

    Just for making personal copies, actually

    The music industry has claimed proposals to change New Zealand's copyright laws would destroy its business by "opening the floodgates" to piracy. So said Sony Music's New Zealand chief, Michael Glading, in a Dominion Post story today. "At the end of the day, you're sending a message that it's okay to copy, and that is going to …

    Music and Media 23 Mar 2004, 14:03

  • C&W has good day in court

    Two out of three class actions dismissed

    Cable & Wireless has succeeded in getting two US class actions dismissed by a court in Virginia. But it must continue to fight a third suit, filed in the US by non-US bondholders. C&W today said it was unable to comment further on the court case without the Court Memorandum of Opinion setting forth the reasons for the orders. …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 14:07

  • MPs accuse Oftel of failure to help consumers

    Pressure on Ofcom to deliver

    Oftel the former UK telcoms regulator - has been slammed for failing to do enough to help customers. In a scathing report Helping consumers benefit from competition in telecommunications, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee found that consumers are confused about the services and tariffs offered by telcos. Although …

    Business 23 Mar 2004, 14:12

  • Russian nuclear warship ‘ready to blow’

    Peter the Great ordered back to port

    A nuclear-powered Russian warship has been ordered back to port amid fears that it "could go sky high at any minute". That, at least, is in the opinion of Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov who said of the Peter the Great: "In those places on board where the admirals actually go, everything's fine, but where they don't go, everything's …

    Science 23 Mar 2004, 14:13

  • BOFH: Hitting the savegame panic button

    Episode 10 Drastic measures in the dungeon of drudgery

    BOFH 2004: Episode 10 Some days I just look at my Inbox and feel uninspired. Stacked ahead of me are the dull and mundane tasks that'd bore anyone with an IQ higher than their pants size. You know the sort of thing: "Can you install a printer driver on the server?", "Can we get more disk on the Homeshare machine?" etc. So, at …

    BOFH 23 Mar 2004, 14:36

  • Supercool atoms and quantum computing

    Hot stuff at the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Conference

    One highlight of this year's Institute of Physics Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Conference will be the presentation of research on atom chips. A University of Munich team will propose a new kind of microchip in which whole atoms - rather than electrons - move around circuits. Also up for discussion is probing into …

    Science 23 Mar 2004, 15:02

  • Judge delays Kazaa case to clear up ‘mess’

    Seized material not properly sifted

    The legal battle between Kazaa owner Sharman Networks and the Australian music industry has been delayed yet again. The reason centres on Judge Murray Wilcox's last ruling, made on 8 March, that the two parties to the case determine "a regime for custody, inspection and analysis of the material that was authorised to be taken ( …

    Music and Media 23 Mar 2004, 15:11

  • Europeans indifferent to 3G

    Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn

    A report has concluded that a full 49 per cent of mobile phone users in Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belgium are not interested in 3G services. The Harris Interactive survey - the results of which were published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday - noted that this figure was highest in the UK, where …

    Mobile 23 Mar 2004, 15:17

  • Crikey – a freebie toolbar that works!

    Cram access to entire planet into slim desktop aid

    There isn't a search engine or web service these days that doesn't have a bolt-on Toolbar or Explorer Bar for Internet Explorer offering instant access to searches or messaging. Unless you own a 25-inch screen we don't recommend installing and activating all of them at the same time, as they demand a lot of real estate. Most of …

    Music and Media 23 Mar 2004, 16:01

  • Dixons bottom of ‘customer respect’ index

    Research flawed, says retailer

    When it comes to winning the respect of your customers, it seems Dixons just isn't making the grade. So says a new batch of research which measures people's experience while interacting with companies online. The Customer Respect Index (CRI) ranked the Web sites of the UK's top 100 companies according to 90 different factors …

    Channel 23 Mar 2004, 16:01

  • Develop Linux applications in a jiffy

    Site Offer Tasty Mozilla titles and lots more at 30 per cent off

    Mozilla is far more than just a Web browser - it's the platform of choice for today's application and web developer. An innovative blend of XML vocabularies, easy-to-use scripting languages, and pre-existing software objects, Mozilla is a powerful, standards-compliant platform whose functionality guarantees rapid application …

    Site News 23 Mar 2004, 16:03

  • AMD faces legal action over ‘zealous’ Wi-Fi promotion

    Sites alleged to have been branded without permission

    AMD has come under fire for its over-zealous attempt to create a company-branded network of Wi-Fi hotspots that may see the chip maker getting into legal hot water. AMD's network will comprises a large number of sites offering free wireless Internet access. While the project is expected to be officially launched during Q2, the …

    Wireless 23 Mar 2004, 17:08

  • Red Hat wins pre-load slot on IBM POWER servers

    Big deal

    IBM customers can now buy their POWER servers with Red Hat Linux Enterprise Linux v.3 already pre-loaded. Red Hat says the deal is significant for the company, as it marks the first big Linux distro to appear as an optional pre-load for the POWER platform. Red Hat Linux will be available all the way from entry level 1-2 way …

    Hardware 23 Mar 2004, 17:40

  • MS waves goodbye to bCentral

    Meet the replacement

    Microsoft today officially launches the Microsoft Small Business Centre, the latest version of its online small business support service. It is waving goodbye to bCentral, its current online service for small businesses. Presumably this is on the grounds that bCentral has been a branding failure, as Microsoft is migrate all its …

    Small Biz 23 Mar 2004, 17:54

  • DVD Forum chooses Apple music format for DVD Audio

    AAC 'sounds better' than WMA, MP3 et al

    The AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), the audio format supported by Apple's iTunes Music Store, has been chosen as a key future DVD Audio disc technology by the standard's governing body, the DVD Forum. According to an unnamed Forum member cited by web site High Fidelity Review, AAC beat Microsoft's Windows Media 9 format, MP3 and …

    Personal 23 Mar 2004, 20:14