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27th April 2004 Archive

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  • EDS cuts losses

    Navy deal still costing it money...

    Services giant EDS has lost a mere $12m in the first quarter, versus a $1.4bn loss for the same period last year. It claimed losses would have been as low as $3m excluding a one-off restructuring charge and gains from a divestiture. Sales were $5.43bn, up 4 per cent compared to the same period a year ago. EDS signed contracts …

    Financial News 27 Apr 2004, 08:23

  • Sun rallies J2EE faithful

    All friends again

    Long-time industry rivals rallied together in San Francisco today to salute a Java enterprise milestone, J2EE 1.4. The launch had actually come and gone recently, but without the required degree of unanimity. You could tell what the theme of the day was when an open source representative described IBM's recent call to open …

    Developer 27 Apr 2004, 08:34

  • Xbox 2 innards laid bare on web

    All there: three-core 3.5GHz PowerPC CPU, everything

    Microsoft's Xbox 2 architecture has been exposed for all to see - if a posting on a Chinese bulletin board is to be believed. The schematic, which appears here on GZeasy.com, reveals a three-core 3.5GHz CPU backed by 256MB of main memory and a 500MHz graphics chip. In what may be a blow to hopes of some AMD fans that the Xbox …

    Consoles 27 Apr 2004, 08:48

  • Intel's deskbook CPU platform merger plan

    Jonah? Merom?

    When exactly does Intel plan to align its desktop and notebook processor families around the same architecture? Recent roadmaps cited by Japanese web site PC Watch put it in 2006 with the launch of 'Merom' and 'Conroe', the mobile and desktop versions of the Pentium M-derived architecture. But DigiTimes today cites Taiwanese …

    Channel 27 Apr 2004, 09:09

  • HP touts blade PC

    Computing in the cage

    It's a few weeks late, but HP's Blade PC has arrived, bringing with it the same thin-client computing fluff that has existed for what feels like ages. Last year, HP promised to roll out the Blade PC bc1000 in March, saying the product would provide serious PC management cost-savings to customers. The Blade PC concept basically …

    Personal 27 Apr 2004, 09:15

  • ATI kicks off Radeon X800 promo plan

    R420 offers 'xtreme' gaming, apparently

    The anticipated 26 April launch of ATI's next-generation graphics chip, the R420, failed to materialise yesterday, lending weight to our conclusion that the part will ship later: sometime during the next few weeks. ATI wasn't inactive yesterday, we note. Its web site now features an invitation to submit your email address and …

    Channel 27 Apr 2004, 09:33

  • Europe drags heels in war on spam

    Infosecurity Europe 2004 Legal review

    The shortcomings of Europe's war against spam are highlighted in a study of anti-spam legislation published today. The Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam and security firm Sybari Software looked into the law regulating unsolicited commercial email (i.e. spam) in the EU. Special emphasis was …

    Security 27 Apr 2004, 10:26

  • Small.biz fails to tackle spam

    UK firms vulnerable to attack

    Small businesses are leaving themselves vulnerable to spam, with over a third of firms still without a junk email policy, new research has found. The study, conducted by Clearswift, found that 34 per cent of small companies did not have measures in place to combat spam, with a further 57 per cent of firms with a policy not …

    Small Biz 27 Apr 2004, 10:28

  • BOFH: The enemy at the gate

    Episode 13 Semper vigilo

    BOFH 2004: Episode 13 So we’ve got someone on the network who considers themselves a bit of a ‘leet dood’ hacker. I notice when IDS starts throwing up portscans stepping through our IP address range one at a time. “He’s not even bothering to disguise it...” the PFY remarks drily, pointing at an IP address allocated to one of …

    BOFH 27 Apr 2004, 11:04

  • Japanese CE firms launch Any Music

    Music download alliance

    If music devices are going to have to become intelligent in order to run a DRM protection scheme, then they might just as well run a communications stack and browser and communicate directly with music web sites. Why put music through a PC every time? And that's just what Sony, Sharp, Kenwood, Pioneer, Onkyo, D&M Holdings, JVC …

    Financial News 27 Apr 2004, 11:25

  • Novell channel man speaks

    "We've taken a battering, but we're bouncing back"

    Ben Bulpett, enterprise director at Novell UK, is looking to recruit new resellers in the middle ground between its traditional high-end business from Novell resellers and lower-end deals from SUSE partners. He said the company had "taken a battering, but we're back and better for it." He believes Linux is making progress on …

    Channel 27 Apr 2004, 11:39

  • BT joins WiMAX standards group

    Telco gives wireless tech the thumbs-up

    British Telecom yesterday announced its has joined the WiMAX Forum, the industry body promoting the would-be wireless broadband standard. BT's interest in WiMAX is well known. The monster UK telco is currently running a trial to test the technology in Ballingry in Fife, Scotland, Pwllheli in Wales, Porthleven in England and …

    Broadband 27 Apr 2004, 11:40

  • IBM makes late DRM bid

    xCP system backed by Intel, Matsushita and Toshiba

    IBM has thrown its hat into the ring as a late entrant into efforts to build sane and effective digital rights management. This week the company announced xCP - its eXtensible Content Protection system - at the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event in Las Vegas. IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose has been …

    Financial News 27 Apr 2004, 11:41

  • Tcl programmers' Bible at 30% off

    Site Offer But that's not all...

    The Tool Command Language (tcl) is two things: a comprehensive scripting language; and an interpreter specifically designed to easily be embedded into applications. The latest edition of Tcl/Tk8.4 offers: powerful improvements in functionality flexibility performance! This week, The Reg readers can get their hands on THE …

    Site News 27 Apr 2004, 12:13

  • Navman preps PocketPC with GPS

    Reg Kit Watch Mitac's Mio 168 finds another supporter

    GPS specialist Navman has pitched itself against the likes of German electronics company Medion and UK PC vendor Evesham by launching its own low-cost PocketPC-based personal GPS system. And like Evesham's recently launch bundle (check out El Reg's review), the Navman PiN is based on a PDA with an integrated GPS receiver. …

    Mobile 27 Apr 2004, 13:22

  • VAT man claims five fraud scalps

    Prison sentences total 28 years...

    Customs and Excise today secured a seven-year prison sentence for a mobile phone salesman convicted of a £16m VAT fraud. Monmohan Singh Sandhu, of Birmingham, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court for his part in a missing trader intra-community (MTIC) scam. This involved buying mobile phones from Luxembourg, claiming they …

    Channel 27 Apr 2004, 13:55

  • Spanish judge rules X-Box mods 'legal'

    Intellectual property loophole

    A Spanish judge has ruled that modifications to games consoles to allow them to play DVDs and games from other countries "are not illegal". According to El País, the ruling comes after the Guardia Civil charged Barcelona video games shop Innovagames with offering its clients "alteration of Play Station 2 and X-Box games …

    Media 27 Apr 2004, 13:58

  • £1 USB memory watch offer extended

    Cash'n'Carrion Buy one, get one almost free

    Our promotion yesterday offering a buy-one-get-one-almost-free deal on the lovely MeMIX USB2.0 Memory Watch proved so successful that we have toiled tirelessly to secure new supplies of the 32MB version. Happily, we have triumphed, which means that if you buy the 256MB model (which normally retails on its own at £80.85, or £94. …

    Site News 27 Apr 2004, 14:24

  • BT moves to 'universal availability' of broadband

    Pre-registration scrapped

    BT is scrapping its broadband pre-registration scheme after realising at last that there is sufficient interest in broadband after all. The move is set to make DSL broadband available to 99.6 per cent of UK homes and businesses by summer 2005, bringing the UK "significantly closer to universal availability". The BT pre- …

    Broadband 27 Apr 2004, 15:19

  • Say 'Yes' after the tone

    Where are we at with speech recognition?

    Speech recognition that actually works, Star-Trek style, is a genuinely tough computing problem. So, when the HomeTalk consortium said it was to start European trials of its vision of voice-activated domestic bliss, we wanted to find out some more. Hometalk is the latest in a series of high-profile speech recognition …

    Applications 27 Apr 2004, 15:28

  • Korean Air gives nod to Boeing's in-flight broadband

    Surf the friendly skies

    Korean Air is the latest bird to sign up for Boeing's pricey in-flight high speed Internet access service. Korean Air plans to prep its long-haul Boeing fleet with the Connexion service in early 2005 with the service rolling out shortly thereafter. The service costs $29.95 for unlimited access on long flights and comes down to …

    Broadband 27 Apr 2004, 15:31

  • IBM and Stanford's spintronics revolution

    Electron spin is cool

    IBM and Stanford University have announced a major research drive in the field of Spintronics, a new field of nanotechnology that researchers hope will turn electronics on its head, in the same way the invention of the transistor did, 50 years ago. As more of the ever smaller transistors get packed on to every chip, the power …

    Science 27 Apr 2004, 15:54

  • US music swappers change their tune

    Switch to paid providers

    Some US music swappers have heeded industry warnings regarding potential legal action over downloads. According to a survey of 1,371 Internet users by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the ongoing recording industry campaign against Web users who download and swap music online has made an impact. However, the overall …

    Media 27 Apr 2004, 16:04

  • Freeserve morphs into Wanadoo

    Confirms £17.99 a month broadband offer

    Freeserve finally completes its month-long corporate makeover tomorrow as it ditches its well-known brand and swaps it for Wanadoo instead. As part of the rebranding, Wanadoo UK confirmed that it is launching a new £17.99 per-month 512k broadband product with a 2 Gig a month cap. While it admits that the product will be loss- …

    Broadband 27 Apr 2004, 16:17

  • Brits are text maniacs

    2.1bn messages sent in March

    Mobile phone users in the UK sent a whopping 2.1bn text messages in March this year, or an average of 69m texts per day. The Mobile Data Association (MDA) points out that March's figures are over 80m higher than February's. Call us abacus-rattlers if you will, but we suspect that March being two days longer than February this …

    Mobile 27 Apr 2004, 16:41

  • IBM workers call for shareholders to 'Offshore the CEO'

    Big Blues

    A group of IBM employees protested the company's annual shareholder meeting held today in Providence, Rhode Island, taking shots at the outsourcing of jobs and executive compensation packages. Alliance@IBM - Communications Workers of America Local 1701 - led the protests with around 60 people rallying ahead of and after the …

    Management 27 Apr 2004, 18:48

  • Patriots praise Bush's 'Null Provider' plan

    Letters The first to nothing

    Patriots throughout The Reg kingdom have celebrated President Bush's call for the US to become "the null provider" of broadband Internet access. A number of letters hit the old inbox after Bush made the following declaration yesterday during a speech. "And so - by the way, we rank 10th amongst the industrialized world in …

    Letters 27 Apr 2004, 21:36