7th April 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Big Brother nominated for Google Award

Total Information Awareness

Watchdog Privacy International, known for its annual "Big Brother Awards," has asked the UK Information Commissioner to investigate Google's email service. Gmail was launched as an ill-advised April's Fools Prank last week. Simon Davies, director of the watchdog, describes Gmail as "a vast violation of European law". Google …

Music and Media 7 Apr 2004, 01:16
Register 'too kind' to The Beast?

Letters Mass murder, Microsoft and mediocrity

In this story, Why Sun threw in the towel in Mankind vs. Microsoft, I thought I was damning Microsoft with faint praise by pointing out that they don't commit mass murder, and there are many more bloody corporate villains. You're not impressed. Don't talk bollocks, Andrew: "Let's keep things in perspective. Microsoft's …

Letters 7 Apr 2004, 02:15
Green red-faced over Sun exit charges

More of a silent type

A number of Sun executives have expressed "disgust" over our use of the word "disgust" to describe Rich Green's state-of-mind when exiting Sun. The Sun staffers reckon that Green, the public voice of Java, stayed on until the last possible minute, hashing out the final details of the Microsoft settlement. The deal with Redmond …

Bootnotes 7 Apr 2004, 02:59
Air Fiorina takes flight on Big Board

Proxy Cleopatra

HP's CEO Carly Fiorina has been tapped as one of two new members joining The New York Stock Exchange's board. The addition of Fiorina and Jeffrey Greenberg, CEO of Marsh & McLennan, brings the NYSE board member total to 21. The Big Board has been reorganizing its structure since word of former Chairman Dick Grasso's massive $ …

Business 7 Apr 2004, 05:30
Xansa wins £75m Census contract

ONS shells out for integration

The Office for National Statistics has picked Xansa to sort out its IT systems. The contract is worth £75m. The ONS had problems with the last census when one million men appeared to have disappeared, the office had to issue a series of corrections. The ONS was formed in 1996 through the merger of the Central Statistical …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 08:39
Telstra dials up Kaz for $250m

Tier two Aussie services firms unite

Telstra has gone ahead with its purchase of the Kaz Group, shelling out A$333m ($250m) in a bid to become a major player on the Australian IT services scene. The purchase price ended up lower than the A$400m figure tossed out earlier this week by Aussie media outlets. The deal combines the seventh (Telstra) and eighth-ranked …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 08:43
Q2 DRAM prices to rise

Strong PC OEM demand fuels shortage

SDRAM prices on both the contract and spot markets will rise this month by up to 20 per cent, market watcher DRAMeXchange reported today. DRAMX is forecasting price rises across the board, both for regular SDRAM and for DDR memory. On the contract market, where prices are typically applied across a half-month period, 266, 333 …

Channel 7 Apr 2004, 09:36
Real Player 10 arrives

Pesterware gets upgraded...

Real Networks has launched the latest version of it media player and claim it is the world's first free player to support all the major formats - RealAudio, RealVideo, Windows Media, MP3, QuickTime MPEG-4 and AAC - the format used by Apple's iTunes. The free download claims better video and audio streaming and the ability to …

Telecoms 7 Apr 2004, 09:43
3i prescribes DocMorris sale

Europe in Brief Internet pharmacy up for grabs

Online pharmacy DocMorris, the Netherlands-based firm which for three years sold over-the-counter and prescription medicines to Germans, is to be sold by its main investor 3i. DocMorris was involved in a much-publicised dispute with German pharmacists' union last year. The union tried to stop the company from conducting …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 09:46
Google's Gmail hits trademark problem

Who's got the trademark?

Google's path to world domination took a turn for the worse yesterday with news that a small British company has already got the trademark for Gmail and has been using it in 80 countries. The Market Age, which supplies online financial analysis tools, claims its subsidiary ProNet Analytics has been using Gmail as the brand for …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 09:48
MS pronounces TSMC an 'Xbox 2' partner

Redmond-designed chipset?

Microsoft yesterday added TSMC to its list of "future Xbox products" chip makers, hiring the world's largest semiconductor foundry to punch out 90nm parts, it is believed. "Future Xbox products", is generally taken as code for Xbox 2. The announcement is widely being seen as confirmation that Microsoft plans to design more of …

PCs 7 Apr 2004, 09:50
US set for massive broadband growth...

...if it becomes simpler to use

The growth in broadband is set to accelerate in the US but only if it becomes easier to use, research outfit In-Stat/MDR said this week. With around 27m broadband lines spread between US businesses and homes at the end of 2003 high speed Net access is now perceived to be a mainstream service. With so many users, the growth in …

Telecoms 7 Apr 2004, 10:58
NTL axes 1500 jobs

Call centre cull

NTL is ridding itself of 1500 workers in a massive cull of call centre jobs. Some 200 staff have been given the elbow today, while a further 200 to 300 are expected to be made redundant over the next 18 months or so. The rest will go through natural staff turnover over the next couple of years. Following the cull, the number …

Telecoms 7 Apr 2004, 10:59
Your Perl and PHP problems solved

Site Offer Save 30% on these essential titles

Ever looked at old Perl code and thought, what the !**?! Developers regularly estimate that they spend 60 to 80 per cent of their daily grind working with legacy code. This is particularly true with Perl - primarily due to Perl's flexible style and ad hoc origins, which means it is especially susceptible to maintenance problems …

Site News 7 Apr 2004, 11:02
Intel extends Pentium M, Celeron M lines

Rolls out new Xeons, too

Intel quietly rolled out a number of new server processors this week, increasing the top speed of both the Xeon MP and Xeon, and today expanded its mobile chip offerings. The Xeon MP line now tops off at 3GHz in a part that also includes 4MB of on-die L3 cache. Intel also filled out the family with 2.7GHz and 2.2GHz versions of …

Channel 7 Apr 2004, 11:13
Fujitsu files plasma display patent suits against Samsung

Alleges IP infringement

Fujitsu has alleged Samsung of plagiarising its plasma display intellectual property, and yesterday back up the allegation with lawsuits in Japan and the US. In a complaint submitted to the Tokyo District Court and the US Federal District Court of Los Angeles, the Japanese company claims Samsung's PDPs infringe on a patent it …

Peripherals 7 Apr 2004, 11:27
ISO applauded for MPEG 21 DRM blessing

Rights Expression Language

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) - which these days we are obliged to call the International Organisation for Standardisation - has blessed a major part of the future MPEG 21 standard with ratification. In effect, MPEG 21 Part Five is the rights expression language (REL) part of the future DRM standard. By …

Music and Media 7 Apr 2004, 11:28
Habeas wins $100k judgement against spammer

Poetic justice

Habeas, the company that fights spam with Japanese-style poetry, won its second victory over spammers this week with a $104,103 judgement against junk mailer William "Billy" Carson. Warrant Mark services from Habeas help ISPs and anti-spam companies to recognise that an email is genuine by embedding a haiku, a 17-syllable …

Spam 7 Apr 2004, 11:30
Cable TV ruled comms medium

US court rejects FCC bit-carrier claim

A US court of appeal has rejected a request by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take another look at its October decision which defined cable TV companies as bit carriers, thereby falling under the FCC guidelines for telecommunications services. If this court decision remains unchanged, it will mean that all of …

Telecoms 7 Apr 2004, 11:34
419ers muscle in on merchandising

Cash'n'Carrion Get-clothed-quick solicitation

- COMPLIMENT OF THE SEASON. Kindly accept our apology for this unsolicited T shirt, the product of sudden deaths, sons in detention, traumatized and frustrated widows in states of utter confusion, ghostly crashes on Sagabma express highway and huge sums of money confidently lodged in various security companies waiting for …

Site News 7 Apr 2004, 11:34
ATI 'to ship R420 as Radeon X800'

Debuts on 26 April, apparently

ATI will ship its much-anticipated R420 chip later this month as the Radeon X800 Pro. The part's 26 April debut will be followed a month later by the Radeon X800 XT on 31 May. So claims Anandtech, citing unnamed vendor sources and a glance at ATI's roadmap. If the date is accurate, it puts ATI just 13 days behind Nvidia's NV40 …

Channel 7 Apr 2004, 12:01
Intel cribbed x86-64 tech 'from AMD documents'

But not 100% compatible with AMD64, says analyst

Intel developed its 64-bit extensions to the 32-bit x86 instruction set by "reading AMD's pre-release documentation", Microprocessor Report analyst Tom Halfhill has claimed. This exercise in "reverse engineering", he says, has yielded a technology that's almost but not quite fully compatible with AMD's AMD64 architecture, the …

Servers 7 Apr 2004, 12:27
HP offers $50-125 for your old PDA

And not so old ones too

HP has launched a trade-in programme allowing PocketPC and Palm users to sell their old handhelds back to the manufacturer for $50 or more to set against the cost of a brand spanking new iPaq h1940 or h2210. The offer, made to US customers, runs through to 10 July. According to HP's website, it has set what it calls a "fair …

Mobile 7 Apr 2004, 12:56
Linux vendors attack Forrester report

Some vulns more equal than others

Analyst Forrester has come under fire from leading Linux distributors for suggesting that Windows and Linux are equally secure. In a research note published last month entitled Is Linux More Secure Than Windows?, Forrester argues that the perception that Windows is far less secure than Linux is unfair. In assessing the …

Enterprise Security 7 Apr 2004, 13:01
From the Computer Trade Show floor

Channel Roundup Bits and bobs

It's dealer-tastic at Birmingham's NEC, with CTS, the UK get-together for channel firms targeting system builders, and sister exhibition, the Comms Show, for telephony resellers, both running this week. Here are some announcements which caught our eye. Centerprise praises Sweex Centerprise banged the drum at CTS for its latest …

Channel 7 Apr 2004, 13:41
Offshore IT jobs = higher employment

In the US, at least

Whether they intend to stoke up a debate in the IT sector or it's just part of the political agenda, a number of US economists are asserting that moving IT jobs to so-called offshore locations will add jobs to the US economy, writes Bloor Research analyst Bob McDowall. One economist, Lawrence Klein, has used his own economic …

IT Director 7 Apr 2004, 14:46
London Wi-Fi plan hits lamppost

Westminster repeater beater

The future of wireless, we thought, was short-range repeaters on street furniture. Either, the Wi-Fi based model proposed by Westminster Council, or the revolutionary telematics model patented by Last Mile communications. Here at the WLAN Event in Olympia, Last Mile has officially revealed its plans to install 150,000 wireless …

Mobile 7 Apr 2004, 14:47
Lucent fires 'corrupt' gang of four

Ongoing investigation into China execs

Lucent has fired four execs at its China operation amid allegations of corruption. The telecoms kit outfit has been carrying out an investigation into overseas business practices after bribery allegations surfaced last year in Saudi Arabia. Lucent has been investigating its overseas operations in 23 countries - including …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 14:50
Japanese finger virus for police document leak

Bug in Japan

Japanese police are blaming a computer virus for a leak of information about criminal investigations. Information from 19 documents - including investigation reports, expert opinions and police searches - found its way from the hard disk of an officer from Shimogamo Police Station in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, onto the Net last month …

Enterprise Security 7 Apr 2004, 14:56
Eeeeshk! What have you done!

Letters Reg makeover shocker

Yesterday afternoon El Reg went under the knife for a bit of cosmetic surgery. Wheeled into theatre with saggy and dimpled flesh hanging off its arthritic frame like water-filled balloons, it re-emerged several hours later as a fresh-faced, lithe IT nymphette of a site, full of vital energy and joie de vivre. That's what we …

Letters 7 Apr 2004, 16:22
UK gov computer misuse is 'rife'

Lib Dems call for tough sanctions

The Liberal Democrats claim computer misuse among Government department is "rife" resulting in "serious security" concerns. The worst department is the Inland Revenue, which was forced to investigate 1,369 cases of computer misuse between 1997 and 2003. According to official figures, 1,174 of those resulted in disciplinary …

Public Sector 7 Apr 2004, 16:33
Intel to cut 95% of lead used in CPUs

But industry's eco cred limited by fab emissions

Intel has pledged to ship lead-free chips... well, almost lead-free chips during Q3. In a bid to make its processors more environmentally friendly, the chip giant will remove all but five per cent of the lead it currently uses to construct processors and chipsets, Michael Garner, director of Intel's materials technology …

Channel 7 Apr 2004, 16:47
Biometrics vendors face 'more lean years'

Homeland Security's prints found at scene of crime

Biometrics companies, says Gartner, face more lean years, following a US decision to extend the deadline for the implementation of biometric visas from October this year until the end of 2006. The Visa Biometric Program requires 27 countries to issue citizens travelling to the US with biometric passports, but the inability of …

ID 7 Apr 2004, 17:02
The wrong stuff: what it takes to be a TSA terror suspect

ACLU files suit over no-fly list

The plaintiffs' statements in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Transport Security Administration provides some useful clues about what it takes to make the grade as a dangerous terror suspect. Career USAF Master Sergeant and mother of three? Retired Presbyterian …

Music and Media 7 Apr 2004, 17:47
V-TEC V-Drive Flash Pen

Reg Review It writes, it stores your files

How to prevent the loss of a valuable USB Flash drive? That's a question that taxes many a user of these devices. Conveniently portable, they're equally easy to lose or forget. The best solution we've seen is Memix's Memory Watch, which cleverly fits drive and USB connector into a wristwatch and strap, and it's certainly …

Reviews 7 Apr 2004, 20:15
Draft ID card Bill one month away - Blunkett

Steamroller tactics

A draft ID card Bill is to be published within a month, the Home Secretary said today. David Blunkett told BBC Radio Five Live that the government intends to push ahead with controversial proposals for a biometric ID card scheme, despite a cabinet split and widespread opposition led by privacy activisits. Last week Prime …

ID 7 Apr 2004, 20:45
Kazaa and eDonkey brace for NetSky-Q onslaught

Zombie Nightmare

Zombie PCs infected with the NetSky-Q worm are set to launch distributed denial of service attacks against P2P and warez sites tonight. The worm will attempt to flood the main Web sites of Kazaa and eDonkey with spurious traffic between 00:01 8 April and 11 April (time taken from system clocks). Other sites including www.cracks …

Anti-Virus 7 Apr 2004, 20:59
US big biz loosens IT purse strings

Catching up on servers and infrastructure software

Worldwide IT spending will increase by five per cent in 2004, courtesy of an improving economy and the need to address infrastructure issues. This forecast was made at IDC's Directions 2004 Conference in Boston. In a series of end-user surveys conducted over the last nine months, IDC found the likelihood of IT budget increases …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 21:15
Witty extinction

Evil new 'firsts' in the ever-changing world of worms and viruses

The "Witty" worm appeared on 19 March, and within a few short days it completed its mission and effectively disappeared. It received minimal coverage by the major news media outlets and for many people it has already been largely forgotten, a mere blip on the radar among so many blips of new viruses and virus variants that …

Anti-Virus 7 Apr 2004, 21:38
Dell ups Q1 forecast on overseas boom

Round Rock Express throws strikes

Dell plans to up its first quarter revenue forecast at a Thursday analyst meeting, sighting both strong US and overseas growth as reason for the move. The Round Rock Express continues to outpace competitors in both good times and bad. Dell is now looking for first quarter sales of $11.4bn, which is $200m higher than a previous …

Financial News 7 Apr 2004, 23:16