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13th April 2004 Archive

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  • Veritas and BEA vow to love Java together

    Dependent software vendors

    Veritas and BEA Systems have awakened to the reality around them and decided to tackle the likes of IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems as a united front. The two software makers today announced plans to develop, sell and market their products together. Veritas will toss in its software for managing server-side applications and …

    Applications 13 Apr 2004, 01:37

  • Intel salutes Itanium with speed bump

    Pfister pfixing pfrice pferformance

    Intel has done its part to take care of the "sweet spot" of the Itanium market by releasing two new processors for two-way servers. At IDF Taiwan, Intel unveiled a 1.4GHz Itanium 2 chip with 3MB of cache and a 1.6GHz chip with 3MB of cache. Intel expects the 1.4GHz product to be popular with customers looking to build server …

    Servers 13 Apr 2004, 05:39

  • Intel to merge Xeon, Itanium chipsets

    Out to create a common platform by 2007

    Intel is to align its Xeon and Itanium chipsets to allow vendors to build servers and workstations that can take either processor family by 2007. Speaking at last week's ClusterWorld event, Intel Software and Solutions Group executive David Kuck said the chip giant will create a "common platform so that Itanium and Xeon …

    Servers 13 Apr 2004, 08:39

  • Sega Dreamcast spawned Intel PDA graphics tech

    PowerVR powers 2700G

    Imagination Technologies has confirmed what Intel has - so far - not: that the 2700G mobile graphics accelerator chip the chip giant launched yesterday is based on its PowerVR MBX core. "The Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator incorporates a PowerVR MBX graphics core and PowerVR video acceleration and display processing cores …

    Mobile 13 Apr 2004, 08:58

  • Vonage goes to Canada

    Bell tolls for telcos

    VoIP upstart Vonage is opening shop in Canada - its first foray outside the US. Canadian customers will be billed in Canadian dollars and can choose local telephone numbers. VoIP, or broadband phone service as Vonage styles it, uses DSL web connections to route phone calls at much cheaper prices than thos of the traditional …

    Telecoms 13 Apr 2004, 09:22

  • Time Warner invests in ContentGuard

    Funding for DRM standards process

    ContentGuard, the company that has almost single-handedly driven DRM interoperability work at ISO, MPEG and at the Content Reference Forum, has taken on board investment from Time Warner and more money from existing investor Microsoft. Time Warner, Microsoft and ContentGuard have purchased substantially all of the ownership …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 09:26

  • Hynix rejects bid for its non-memory biz

    Citigroup offer 'unacceptable'

    Hynix has rejected the latest offer US banking combine Citigroup has made for its non-memory business as "unacceptable", the South Korean manufacturer said today. Negotiations between Citigroup Venture Capital (CVC), the bank's seed-investment division, and Hynix began last September after CVC submitted a letter of intent. Non …

    Channel 13 Apr 2004, 09:27

  • Broadcom acquires Sand Video

    Move to trigger more codec M&As?

    The acquisition this week of Sand Video by Broadcom is just about as logical as you can get in the M&A business. Sand Video had a lead, albeit only a small one, in the silicon for the video encoding market, and Broadcom operates as market leader or close in every other broadband and communications chip market. The price of just …

    Telecoms 13 Apr 2004, 09:36

  • MS and Micro Focus target mainframe movers

    Windows migration

    Micro Focus is working with Microsoft to migrate users and applications from legacy mainframe systems onto Windows-based servers. The Cobol specialist claims costs can be cut by as much as fifty per cent by moving applications from ageing mainframes to Intel-based servers. It says customers have also reported better performance …

    Servers 13 Apr 2004, 09:45

  • Nokia N-Gage 2 debuts on web

    To be announced this week?

    Nokia's N-Gage 2 has apparently surfaced on the Web, and the images clearly indicate how the mobile phone giant has solved the first version's notorious telephonic user-unfriendliness: it has made the device oval-shaped. You can see the (blurry) pics of the console's front and back here. They certainly show a sleeker, more …

    Consoles 13 Apr 2004, 10:12

  • Iomega ships 35GB 'son of Jaz'

    Tape killer

    Iomega has begun selling its 'son of Jaz' removable hard drive, Rev. Pitched as an alternative to tape back-up rigs, Rev provides 35GB of uncompressed storage capacity per 2.5in removable disk. The disk is mounted inside a 10 x 8 x 8cm cartridge, and yields a 25MBps transfer rate - eight times faster than DDS-4 tape, Iomega …

    Storage 13 Apr 2004, 10:35

  • IBM throws weight behind BPEL

    BPML dispatched to acronym Valhalla

    IBM has joined Microsoft - which announced BizTalk 2004 last month - in implementing Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) for the first time, writes Bloor Research analyst Peter Abrahams. WebSphere products incorporating the technology will make its way into the public from the middle of this year. The …

    Developer 13 Apr 2004, 11:02

  • Brocade and McDATA's Spring offensive

    Suppliers mobilise

    As technologies mature over time the leading suppliers often end entrenched in positions that have evolved over the course of their marketing battles, writes Bloor analyst Tony Lock. However, when it comes to the still comparatively youthful world of storage networking things have yet to reach a state of affairs where the major …

    Storage 13 Apr 2004, 11:05

  • 'Universal' hard drive system to ship this month

    IVDR arrives

    Japan's IO Data will this month ship the first removable hard drive based on the Information Versatile Disk for Removable (IVDR) specification. IVDR is a cartridge-based format that encapsulates a standard hard drive and interconnect electronics, designed as a way of making it easier to transfer very large files not only …

    Storage 13 Apr 2004, 11:17

  • Virgin Mobile float is go

    Bankers appointed, date pencilled

    Virgin Mobile is lining up advisers to help it make an Initial Public Offering (IPO) later this summer. So far three banks have been chosen: Investec, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, and a fourth adviser will be appointed shortly before the flotation, according to Reuters. 28 June is the rumoured date for the stock market sale. …

    Mobile 13 Apr 2004, 11:37

  • Browser-based attacks on the up

    Viral menace recedes, slightly

    Browser-based attacks are becoming more of a threat to corporate IT security. A survey of nearly 900 organizations found that 36.8 per cent were plagued by one or more browser-based attacks over the last six months. The figure is up from 25 per cent in last year’s survey by CompTIA , the Computing Technology Industry …

    Enterprise Security 13 Apr 2004, 11:40

  • French ISPs to carry the can for dodgy content

    Lobbyists push for changes

    The French government is being urged to change legislation which would make ISPs legally responsible for any content they carry. Activists including Reporters Without Borders, the Union of Judges and the Odebi League have written to Nicolas Sarkozy, the minister of economy, finance and industry urging him to reconsider. As it …

    Telecoms 13 Apr 2004, 12:11

  • SlimDevices Squeezebox

    Reg Review A multi-talented wireless audio player - hurrah

    I have a dream, ladies and gentlemen, of listening to music of my choosing that has been pumped through the ether as if from nowhere. There are no discs to change, no turntables, drives or tape mechanisms to disturb the concentration, just pure audio, accessible on whim and a player. Compact Disc welcomed us to the world of …

    Reviews 13 Apr 2004, 13:52

  • Man pays $1.1m for mobe number

    Online auction for 'lucky' numerals

    A Chinese man has paid the equivalent of $1.1m for a mobile phone number. The unnamed buyer shelled out a whopping nine million yuan for 135 8585 8585, which is apparently pronounced as "let me be rich, be rich, be rich, be rich" in Chinese. He beat off around 70 other bidders on EachNet.com, where the sale of "lucky" numbers …

    Bootnotes 13 Apr 2004, 14:53

  • Libya disappears from the Internet

    Bye-bye to .ly

    Libya has disappeared from the Internet and no one seems to be able to explain why. Late on Friday, all .ly domains stopped working and they're still not up now. The administrative and technical contact for the country's Internet presence have not answered phone calls or emails at their Tripoli office. However, one intriguing …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 14:54

  • Sun's Java chief finds greener pasture at Cassatt

    The twentieth defector

    Former Sun Microsystems' Java chief Rich Green has found a new home at stealth software start-up Cassatt. Green's April 13 start date beats our prediction by two days, but the end result is the same. Cassatt named Green as EVP in charge of product development. This is Green's first job outside of Sun in 14 years. At Cassatt, …

    Applications 13 Apr 2004, 14:59

  • EU braces for software patent demo

    Man the barricades

    Campaigners are mobilising tomorrow (14 April) in opposition to plans to establish US-style software patents in Europe. This month the Irish Presidency of the EU referred back the controversial EU Directive on software patents to a committee of politicians from member states. The proposed draft text rejects all amendments made …

    Applications 13 Apr 2004, 15:01

  • Irish gov to seize control of .ie

    Loses patience with instability and back-biting

    Control of Ireland's national Internet domain, .ie, looks set to be wrenched from the hands of the company set up to administer it. Minister for Communications Dermot Ahern, TD, said on Tuesday that officials within his department were drafting legislation that will see control of the .ie domain registry shifted to Ireland's …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 15:17

  • Asteroid apocalypse: the online guide

    Boffins deploy Armageddon analyser

    If the newspapers and grant-seeking boffins are to be believed, it's only a matter of time before an enormous lump of rock comes hurtling out of the heavens and puts a serious downer on everbody's day. Not satisfied with having wiped out the dinosaurs, asteroids are apparently hungry to inflict more terrestrial mayhem - and …

    Science 13 Apr 2004, 15:31

  • NetScreen touts firewall brawn

    Next-gen consolidated protection

    Firewall vendor NetScreen yesterday announced a brawny security appliance that it hopes will eventually take the place of separate intrusion prevention and firewall devices in corporate and telecoms networks. The ISG 2000 integrated security gateway, available now at prices from $38,000, is positioned by NetScreen as a platform …

    Enterprise Security 13 Apr 2004, 16:24

  • American Airlines data used to test passenger snoop system

    TSA to inaugurate frequent liar club?

    A third US airline, American, has admitted handing over passenger data to the Transport Security Administration, and this time it has emerged that the TSA promptly shared the information with four private contractors. American had previously denied passing records on, while the TSA had previously told Wired that it hadn't …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 16:31

  • Stock spam scams ramping up

    There's a sucker born every minute

    Spam messages promoting bogus financial tips are on the rise. Financial spam rose from 10.8 per cent to 26 cent last month, according to mail filtering outfit ClearSwift. The increase is due largely to bogus stock tips, it says. By implying that recipients of spam emails are in possession of privileged information - such as …

    Spam 13 Apr 2004, 22:40

  • California Senator seeks Google Gmail ban

    The regulators are coming

    A California state senator is planning to introduce legislation to block Google's Gmail service. Liz Figueroa says that the 'free' email service, which users pay for by tolerating advertisements injected into their correspondence, violates the assumption that emails are private. Figueroa introduced Do Not Call legislation into …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 22:45

  • Google values its own privacy. How does it value yours?

    Analysis GMail meets G-Men

    It's absurd to suggest that Google doesn't appreciate the value of privacy. When it comes to its own privacy, the company takes it very seriously indeed. Let's recap some of the ways. Sometimes Google is so obsessively private that it gets into trouble when it shouldn't. The company's finances are formally a black hole, …

    Music and Media 13 Apr 2004, 23:15