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24th May 2004 Archive

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  • Apple patches critical Mac OS X hole

    'Theoretical vulnerability'

    Apple Computer on Friday (21 May) issued a patch for a security hole in Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take over vulnerable machines, but the company went out of its way to downplay the importance of the bug. The vulnerability in the operating system's Help View application allows attackers to craft a special URL …

    Enterprise Security 24 May 2004, 08:13

  • PCG slams Abbey's India jobs move

    What about unemployed UK contractors?

    The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has written to the chief executive of Abbey in protest at the retail bank’s plans to offshore hundreds of IT jobs to India. As first reported in The Register, Abbey is keen to end its outsourcing contract with EDS. EDS is considering offshoring to salvage the project. As many as 600 UK …

    IT Director 24 May 2004, 08:17

  • Intel 'acquires' Russian Itanium killer's R&D staff

    And its technology, too

    Intel today confirmed Russian news reports that it has entered into an R&D relationship with chip designers Elbrus and UniPro. Elbrus, Register readers may recall, is the developer of the E2K - once touted as the world's first Itanium clone. The structure of deal is unusual. While Intel was at pains to point out that the …

    Channel 24 May 2004, 09:07

  • Wireless kit sales on the up-and-up

    Competition should keep lid on prices

    Wireless networking kit sales rose 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2004 compared to the last quarter of 2003, according to Infonetics Research. Worldwide wireless LAN hardware sales were worth $696.4m in Q1 2004 and will grow another 2 per cent to $713.6m by the first quarter of 2005. Revenue growth in the coming year will …

    Data Networking 24 May 2004, 09:26

  • Scrap space robots, government urged

    Manned flights the answer, say UK boffins

    Using robots to roam the solar system is a false economy, and priority should be given to human-based space exploration, a group of UK scientists insists. They are urging the government to reconsider funding research into human missions. They claim the fringe benefits would make the investment worthwhile. The British government …

    Science 24 May 2004, 09:50

  • PalmOne overturns Xerox Graffiti patent

    Unistroke 'not unique'

    A Xerox pen-based text-entry system patent - ownership of which forced Palm to ditch its Graffiti character-input technology - is invalid, a US District Court judge has ruled. The patent, number 5,596,656, details Xerox's Unistroke system, a series of 'shorthand' symbols drawn instead of real character glyphs. The symbols are …

    Mobile 24 May 2004, 09:58

  • eBay scammer gets stung

    Powerbook fiddle ends in humiliation

    An eBay user, assisted by dozens of fellow surfers, has turned the tables on a scammer who tried to rip him off in an online auction. The saga began last month when Jeff Harris ran an auction on eBay auction to sell a new G4 Powerbook for a friend. He was approached by a UK resident, calling himself Gianluca Sessarego, who …

    Music and Media 24 May 2004, 10:15

  • DoCoMo pins 3G hopes on handsets

    New kit wins contracts

    DoCoMo is hoping new handsets will encourage more of its customers to upgrade to 3G services. The company, which is the leading Japanese mobile outfit, has been playing second fiddle to KDDI which has managed to get far more of its customers to move to next-generation phones. KDDI, with 21m customers, has 14m signed up to 3G …

    Mobile 24 May 2004, 10:17

  • NTL to branch out into ADSL - report

    'Rumour and speculation' says cableco

    NTL - which has more than one million cable broadband punters - could be about to offer ADSL broadband to parts of the UK outside its cable franchise areas, according to a report by Digital Spy. The company currently provides phone and dial-up Internet services to customers in such areas. According to insiders, the 512k service …

    Telecoms 24 May 2004, 10:28

  • Abit VT7 Pentium 4 mobo

    Review No bells and whistles but a definite bargain

    We had a look at a reference board from VIA based on its VIA PT880 chipset back in February and it performed admirably. But now it's time to see how the first production boards measure up. The Abit VT7 is fairly basic compared to many of Abit's other motherboards, but at under £45 it's understandable that you don't get all the …

    Channel 24 May 2004, 10:43

  • Sony samples Cell

    300mm wafer fab rolls out very early dies

    Sony has begun punching out sample quantities of its Cell processor at its Nagasaki-based 300mm wafer fab, the company has revealed. The announcement - made in a brief comment from Sony Computer Entertainment chief Ken Kutaragi, last week - follows the company's recent joint declaration with Cell partner IBM that it will offer …

    Channel 24 May 2004, 10:56

  • No killer app, but mobile data will boom

    Thus spake IDC

    Mobile consumer applications are to drive the take-up of data services and generate traffic and revenues for mobile operators, according to a new study. Mobile phone-delivered services such as gaming, ringtones, video, and music will be worth just under €8bn in Western Europe in 2008, according to research from technology …

    Mobile 24 May 2004, 11:09

  • VoIP to transform telecoms market

    $32bn cash cow by 2009

    Internet telephony will make up 12 per cent of all telephony revenues in five years time, according to a study by analysts Juniper Research published last Friday, Juniper reckons the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) market will contribute $32bn, out of a total telephony market worth approximately $260bn, by 2009. Service …

    Data Networking 24 May 2004, 11:14

  • AMD brings performance ratings to Geode line

    Stresses performance and power consumption

    AMD has extended it performance rating-based chip numbering scheme to its Geode line of embedded processors. New Geodes will carry the new tags, and so will old ones as the chip maker renames existing parts. Dubbed the "Performance Power Rating (PPR)", the scheme is based on both the results of Synchromesh's embedded CPU …

    Channel 24 May 2004, 11:27

  • IBM UK in running for £50k innovation purse

    MacRoberts Award shortlist down to four

    The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced the shortlist for the MacRoberts Award, the UK's biggest innovation prize. The winning team, which gets a cheque for £50,000, will be announced in three weeks' time. Chairman of the judging panel Dr Robin Paul said it will be very hard to chose between the four finalists, as the …

    Science 24 May 2004, 11:37

  • Smile, you're online

    It was five years ago today... 24 May 1999

    With the benfit of hindsight, it's not difficult to imagine the public enthusiastically avoiding Net-enabled photobooths like the plague. It's not always a taken that the great unwashed masses will adopt a technology just because someone has spent a lot of money on it - the confused 3G roll-out and subsequent user apathy towards …

    Mobile 24 May 2004, 12:12

  • Allchin named, as proof of MS email destruction policy is sought

    In addition to the undeliberate policy...

    Evidence of a Microsoft corporate policy to destroy sensitive or incriminating emails is being sought by a US Court. Last week Judge Frederick Motz of Baltimore District Court ordered Microsoft to search backup tapes for evidence that in 2000 Jim Allchin instructed employees to destroy emails relating to the company's …

    Software 24 May 2004, 13:20

  • NetBenefit buys Easily for £2.5m

    Easily done

    NetBenefit has bought rival British domain name and webhosting outfit Easily Ltd for £2.5m in cash and shares. It says the acquisition will help it reduce costs by £300,000 in the first financial year. Established in 1999 and based in London, Easily has some 100,000 customers, drawn mostly from consumers and small and medium- …

    Financial News 24 May 2004, 13:38

  • Lucent buys VoIP firm

    More good news for Internet phones...

    Lucent has bought Telica, a privately-owned maker of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) equipment, for $295m and unspecified cash hand-outs to staff. Lucent is swapping 92.7m shares, and some cash, for all of Telica's equity. The deal should close in Lucent's fourth quarter, subject to the usual regulatory approvals. Costs may …

    Data Networking 24 May 2004, 13:42

  • ICANN grows up at last

    New attitude and a budget to match

    If you wondered what the price would be for a more professionally-run Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), you can see it now in black-and-white figures. The Internet-overseeing organisation has released its proposed budget (available here (PDF)) for 2004-5 and it is almost double taht of last year. …

    Financial News 24 May 2004, 13:54

  • Microsoft loses Lindows appeal

    Microsoft's claim to 'windows' questioned

    Microsoft has been refused permission to appeal its case against Lindows. The verdict means that the case will go before the district courts in Seattle in the second half of this year. The case should last about two weeks. Microsoft is taking Lindows to court in several countries claiming the Linux company is infringing its …

    Operating Systems 24 May 2004, 13:59

  • Abu Ghraib: US security fiasco

    Opinion Human rights trampled in rush for worthless intelligence

    If the human rights debacle at Abu Ghraib teaches us anything - besides the routinely-forgotten lesson that people with guns and uniforms tend to go sadistic and feral unless observed openly and controlled rigidly - it teaches us that the global battle against terrorism is being waged by incompetents and fools. The initial …

    Public Sector 24 May 2004, 14:01

  • Blunkett appoints development partner for ID card project

    PA Consulting gets the gig

    The Home Office today appointed PA Consulting as development partner for the projected UK national identity card scheme. PA's role will be to work on the "design, feasibility testing, business case and procurement" of the scheme, but will not be allowed to bid for any of the supplier contracts. David Blunkett, who has …

    Music and Media 24 May 2004, 14:03

  • Final report on Beagle 2

    UK space agency and public cash required

    Professor Colin Pillinger has called on the government to set up a UK space agency so that failures like Beagle 2 can be avoided. Speaking at a press conference in London this morning, Prof Pillinger said he though Beagle 2 had most likely crashed. The data showed the Martian atmosphere was thinner than the team had anticipated …

    Science 24 May 2004, 14:15

  • TippingPoint launches European offensive

    Intrusion prevention vendor comes to London

    Intrusion Prevention (IPS) specialist TippingPoint launched a major European expansion programme today with plans to open up offices in London and Scandinavia this month. TippingPoint launched its first European office in Amsterdam at the start of the year and a sales office in Stuttgart last month. TippingPoint sells direct to …

    Enterprise Security 24 May 2004, 14:20

  • Dell's Rollins turns on ink-dealing HP

    Evil trade in world's most expensive liquid

    Dell chief operating officer and CEO-in-waiting, Kevin Rollins has been telling the San Francisco Chronicle what he thinks of HP's business model. Rollins told the paper that HP was selling computers at a loss just to get punters hooked on its evil ink cartridge refills. Rollins believes HP is selling computers at a loss …

    Channel 24 May 2004, 14:29

  • Munich faces RFID-controlled congestion charge

    Green traffic plan

    The German Green Party intends to designate the centre of Munich as a tolled zone to significantly reduce the amount of traffic on its streets, and has suggested using RFID tags for car registration. Every vehicle would have to carry a RFID transponder card emitting a unique registration code. The number plates of unregistered …

    Music and Media 24 May 2004, 14:46

  • Iomega ships 160GB back-up hard drive

    Hot plug'n'play and auto back-up

    Iomega has begun shipping its 160GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, touting the unit's automatic back-up software option. The HDD 160GB ships with the company's "touchless" back up software - so called because users don't have to remember to "push a button" to activate the process. Data is archived automatically, and the archives …

    Storage 24 May 2004, 15:02

  • Text scammers fined £450,000

    'Justice has been done' says UK e-minister

    ICSTIS, the premium rate watchdog, has dished out fines totalling £450,000 after getting tough on text spammers and scammers. Six overseas companies - Vertical Media Ltd, Fast Way Holdings Ltd, Litmus Ltd, Indiano Communications, Greenbay Ltd and Quartel Ltd - have each been slapped with fines of £75,000. They were singled out …

    Business 24 May 2004, 15:10

  • Happy Birthday to Cisco

    Twenty years young

    In 1984 William Gibson used the term "cyberspace" in his novel Neuromancer and Cisco had two employees. Twenty years on, Cisco employs 34,466 people and turns over almost $19bn. Cisco, named for San Francisco, was started by Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner after they met at Stanford University. They worked on how to get different …

    Data Networking 24 May 2004, 15:11

  • Beware of 'IBM laptop order' email

    Spam leads to fake website and waiting Trojan

    Hackers tried to trick users into visiting a maliciously-constructed website using a blizzard of spam emails last week. The assault attempted to exploit a previously unknown vulnerability with Internet Explorer to seize control of the maximum number of Windows PCs. The malicious emails - normally a fake order confirmation for …

    Spam 24 May 2004, 15:46

  • Public-sector IT closes salary gap

    Catching commercial sector

    The pay gap between public and private sector IT staff is closing, according to a report from the Society of IT Management (Socitm). The survey, conducted by Computer Economics Ltd, (CEL), found that local government IT pay packets are now 86 per cent of their private sector equivalents, up from 60 per cent in previous years. …

    IT Director 24 May 2004, 15:53

  • Intel's next-gen Xeon chipsets to support 1066MHz

    Exclusive Montvale, Blackford and Greencreek appear

    Intel has peppered its server processor line with hints of confusion after announcing a recent shift in strategy, and we hope to do the company one better by revealing a new Itanium processor and the next-generation of Xeon chipsets. A presentation by one Herbert Cornelius, technical marketing manager at Intel EMEA, briefly …

    Servers 24 May 2004, 20:29

  • Sun to share 3-D stash with developers

    Looking Glass late for date

    Software developers will soon have their chance to smoke what Sun Microsystems is rolling. At the JavaOne conference next month, Sun will release a developer kit for its Project Looking Glass 3-D software. This will be the first time Sun has let anyone outside of the company fiddle with the dadaist code, and the move confirms …

    PCs 24 May 2004, 23:39