14th May 2004 Archive

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HP bags brace of service companies

Thickening ITSM fold

HP has picked up a pair of consulting companies to build out its already swollen services practice. HP today announced that Dallas-based IT Infrastructure Management LLC, which operates under the ManageOne name, and the UK's CEC Europe Service Management were acquired for undisclosed sums. Both of the firms specialize in …

Hardware 14 May 2004, 01:36
Yahoo! blasts back at Google

More email storage, and more stuff

Yahoo! used its annual financial analyst day to announce an expanded email service. With Google's beta GMail service grabbing so much attention, Yahoo! will expand the amount of free storage to 100MB per user over the summer, and a rather vague promise of "unlimited" storage for paid users. GMail will offer 1GB of storage and a …

Financial News 14 May 2004, 08:37
Google decides banner ads, skyscrapers are not evil

As you were

The company that helped discredit lurid web advertising has vowed to bring it back to life. In addition to offering advertisers text classifieds on websites that sign up to its Adsense program, Google will begin offer advertisers graphic ads for the first time. The four formats offered include banner and skyscraper: although …

Financial News 14 May 2004, 08:42
Linux fans never do any work

It was five years ago today... 14 May 1999

While the IT juggernaut continues to thunder along at breakneck speed, some things remain resolutely stationary. It's reassuring to know that there are certain immutables in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in: Linux fans never do any work By Pete Sherriff Published Friday 14th May 1999 11:17 GMT Employers beware. When …

IT Director 14 May 2004, 09:52
Adobe's Warnock awarded Lovelace Medal

Pdf pioneer honoured

Yesterday evening Dr John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe, was awarded the British Computer Society's Ada Lovelace Medal by BCS president Professor Wendy Hall CBE. The prize is given to individuals for making a significant contribution to the advancement, or the understanding, of Information Systems. Ada Lovelace is remembered as …

Applications 14 May 2004, 10:02
How to fool ID card system - give a false ID, say UK gov

Er, in which case...

The UK ID card scheme will, it is alleged, greatly aid the forces of law and order in establishing the identity of offenders and suspects. But, as UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith found himself blurting out in the House of Lords yesterday, there's an easy way out of this for the thinking minor offender - give the police a …

Music and Media 14 May 2004, 10:13
Tiscali to flog four country ops

Ciao

Tiscali today confirmed it is to sell of four of its country operations in a bid to concentrate on its core businesses. The pan-European ISP intends to complete the sale of assets in Switzerland, South Africa, Norway and Sweden by the end of the year. Confirmation of Tiscali's plans, first mooted in February, to make its …

Telecoms 14 May 2004, 10:13
Jilted lover jailed for email stalking

'Worse than physical assault'

An Australian man has been jailed for three months for sending offensive emails and making abusive and threatening phone calls. Nicholas Stacey, of Torquay, Victoria pleaded guilty to stalking and using a carriage service (public network) to offend. Stacey was living in the US with his girlfriend when he returned to Australia …

Music and Media 14 May 2004, 10:50
Dabber exploits Sasser flaw

Dog eat dog

Virus writers have created a worm that exploits coding flaws in the infamous Sasser worm to spread. Dabber uses a flaw in the FTP server component of the Sasser worm. The worm will only infect users already infected by Sasser, according to security services firm LURHQ. "Even though we have seen worms utilize backdoors left …

Anti-Virus 14 May 2004, 10:50
BOFH: Frying the PFY

Episode 15 Mad Ron the bright spark

BOFH 2004 It's not good. I find the PFY flat on his back in the computer room with all but one of the telltale signs of electrocution (The missing sign being that he hadn't annoyed me in the recent past). Using my rudimentary knowledge of First Aid and for once forsaking the medicinal properties of liberal application of the …

BOFH 14 May 2004, 11:21
US edges closer to private space flight

SpaceShipOne reaches 64km

Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne team have taken another step towards claiming the $10m Ansari X-prize for the first private space vehicle. Pilot Mike Melvill yesterday took the vehicle to 64km (211,000ft) above the Mojave desert. To claim the bounty, Rutan's Scaled Composites must fly the craft to 100km (329,000ft), return …

Science 14 May 2004, 11:52
Captain Cyborg: 'I know Kung Fu!'

Letters Plus Linspire and geek sexual equality

Ah, Kevin Warwick. The man of many electrodes and implanted silicon (not silicone, but more on that later) resurfaced at a conference in London. He spoke eloquently, and at some length, about speechless communication. We don't understand why people don't take him more seriously... I love your coverage on this guy. I seriously …

Letters 14 May 2004, 12:05
Video Networks to speed up LLU roll-out

Takes BT on its word

Video Networks Ltd (VNL) - which switched on its new broadband and digital TV service in London yesterday - is to bring forward plans to expand its service following BT's proposal to slash local loop unbundling (LLU) costs. BT yesterday announced that LLU costs would fall 70 per cent while communications regulator, Ofcom, said …

Telecoms 14 May 2004, 12:08
Symantec fights auto-responder menace

No tsunamis swamping spoofed addys

Virus notification alerts will hopefully become less of a nuisance after modifications to Symantec's mail server security products announced this week. Mass mailing viruses frequently spoof the sender's address in infected emails sent out from pox-ridden PCs. This forged email address is often randomly plucked off the infected …

Anti-Virus 14 May 2004, 12:15
Intergraph and Gateway kiss and make up

Patent suit settled out of court

Intergraph has ended its legal action against computer maker Gateway. The case concerned patents for Intergraph's memory management technology - called Clipper - which it claimed Gateway had infringed. Under the terms of the agreement, Gateway will pay Intergraph $5m within ten days and two payments of $2.5m in July and October …

Financial News 14 May 2004, 13:36
US small biz filled with optimism

Blue skies ahead, survey claims

A survey of small businesses in the US has revealed optimism about prospects for the year ahead and almost half expect to take on more staff. 62 per cent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) believe business will improve this year. Respondents to the survey also believe they need technology which as least as good as that used …

Small Biz 14 May 2004, 14:00
NHS computers prescribe trouble

Lives may be at risk, study claims

NHS computer systems fail to spot dangerous prescription errors, according to researchers. The problem may put lives at risk. The study was conducted by teams at universities in Edinburgh, Kent and Nottingham. All of the computer systems in use in three quarters of the UK's GP surgeries had flaws, the research teams said, when …

Data Networking 14 May 2004, 14:01
Berg execution website shut down

Malaysian Web host takes action

The website which originally hosted the video of Nicholas Berg being beheaded has been shut down. Malaysian web hosting company Acme Commerce Sdn. Bhd. took action because the number of requests threatened to overwhelm its systems. The company told the BBC the decision was taken because the volume of requests was so great it …

Music and Media 14 May 2004, 14:56
UK gov gets school IT gold star

IT provision working, report shows

Government efforts to boost IT provision in schools appear to be working, according to a report from Ofsted, the body that monitors standards in education. British classrooms now have record levels of IT equipment, and resources compare favourably with other European nations. ICT teaching standards have gone up too, with 90 per …

Public Sector 14 May 2004, 15:06
Spam fighters infiltrate spam clubs

Tales from the underground

Spam fighters are gaining vital clues in the battle to keep in-boxes clean of junk mail by infiltrating spammer clubs. Online spammer forums like the Pro Bulk Club the Bulk Club and bulkmails.org have been gatecrashed by activists from organisations like Spamhaus. Steve Linford of Spamhaus said spammers know this already but …

Spam 14 May 2004, 15:10
HP assuages Canada with $105m

Vows to sue another day

HP has played peacemaker with the Canadian government, agreeing to shell out $105m to settle a long-running contract dispute. The $105m sum matches what Canada's Department of National Defence had been seeking from HP. The government argued that HP - and the old Compaq - had received payment for services never actually …

Business 14 May 2004, 15:16
'System error' downed RAF Tornado

Gulf Patriot strike killed two crewmen

An RAF Tornado which was struck by a US Patriot missile while returning from a sortie over Iraq last year was downed by a 'system error', UK defence minister Ivor Caplin has admitted. In a written statement, Caplin said that there were several contributory factors which led to the deaths of crewmen Flt Lt Kevin Main and Flt Lt …

Science 14 May 2004, 15:26
EBS outpaces Sun with Solaris x86 kit

Witness our Opteron workstation

Sun Microsystems garners a lot of press for its Solaris x86 push, but a small company based in Massachusetts is arguably doing more to sell actual product running the operating system. Electronic Business Solutions (EBS) has just rolled out a new dual processor Opteron-based workstation, which is certified to run both Solaris …

Servers 14 May 2004, 16:55