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10th June 2004 Archive

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  • Crash test dummies get date for DARPA Robot Run II

    $2m prize inside

    DARPA has set a late 2005 date for the second running of its Grand Challenge robot race. Well over a hundred contestants are expected to give Grand Challenge II a go on Oct. 8 of next year. The event, like the first run this year, pits robot vehicles in a race across the Mojave Desert, forcing the vehicles to see and steer with …

    Science 10 Jun 2004, 00:22

  • Germany approves Nokia's Symbian plan

    Now the fun starts

    The Germany competition regular, the Bundeskartellamt, has approved Nokia's acquisition of Psion's stake in Symbian, which would double its share to 63.3 per cent of the company. Germany is the third country to give its approval to the deal. When Symbian was formed regulatory approval was sought because the three founding …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 08:02

  • BT saves Station X for exploitation

    It was five years ago today... 10 June 1999

    The recent 50th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing reminded us of a time when Milton Keynes District Council threatened to do to Bletchley Park, aka Station X, what the Luftwaffe never could - reduce it to rubble: BT saves Station X for exploitation By Tony Smith Published Thursday 10th June 1999 14:57 GMT Bletchley …

    Bootnotes 10 Jun 2004, 08:54

  • Lucent trade secret suspect goes on the run

    US Marshals hunt fugitive

    A former Lucent scientist suspected of stealing trade secrets was declared a fugitive from justice by US authorities yesterday. Hai Lin, who allegedly conspired with two fellow Lucent workers to commit industrial espionage against their employer and other US hi-tech companies, has failed to satisfy his bail conditions. …

    Data Networking 10 Jun 2004, 09:28

  • SIA: 2004 will be chip biz's best yet

    Sales beat 2000's record

    2004 will be the best year ever for chip revenues, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) which last night issued a bullish forecast, revising figures upwards. Europe-traded Intel and AMD stock rose on the news, with Intel up seven cents to $28.47 and AMD up eight cents to $15.59 in early trading in Germany …

    Channel 10 Jun 2004, 09:30

  • 'Official' Pocket Loox 700 Wi-Fi PDA pic appears on web

    Shipping in August, apparently

    Fujitsu-Siemens has given tacit confirmation that it plans to update its Pocket Loox line of PocketPC PDAs with a Wi-Fi model which will also sport a 480 x 640 display. An image of the machine - the Pocket Loox 700 - appeared on the company's website this week, though the pictures have now been removed. Fan site FirstLoox was …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 10:11

  • AOL unveils IM for business

    Type, talk and share files

    Monster ISP - America Online - has unveiled details of a new pay-as-you-go instant messaging service aimed at business users. Using its existing IM service, corporate users will be able to share online presentations and files while chatting to colleagues using a conference call facility. According to Reuters, AOL has hooked up …

    Hardware 10 Jun 2004, 10:14

  • Beware the rogue access points

    Wireless security headaches

    Wireless LANs will continue to be a major security headache for businesses over the next few years, despite the introduction of improved security standards. Inadequate policies and poor installation, rather than inherent security weaknesses, are the main problem. The misconfiguration of WLAN access points and client software …

    Wireless 10 Jun 2004, 10:25

  • SIA wants more money for nano-electronics

    Institutionalised thinking

    The US needs to invest an additional $1.5bn per year in semiconductor and nanoelectronics research, or risk falling behind in the global IT industry, according to IBM's Dr John Kelly. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has called for the creation of a Nanoelectronics Research Institute to coordinate a massive nanotech …

    Science 10 Jun 2004, 10:37

  • Bluetooth group preps 2.1Mbps spec

    Same packet rate, bigger payloads

    Bluetooth communications are set to get rather faster with a new version of the specification that takes its data throughput 2.1Mbps in the offing. The new version, Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), is offered as a "prototype specification" by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The technology increases data …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 10:38

  • Desktop Dothans 'will not replace Prescott'

    Not good for HyperThreading

    Intel's upcoming Pentium M-based desktop processor, possibly codenamed Conroe, will not support the company's HyperThreading technology, it has emerged. And Intel's Prescott Pentium 4 line-up will survive the arrival of Conroe, an unnamed company marketing rep revealed this week. According to Geek.com, which cites said Intel …

    Channel 10 Jun 2004, 11:16

  • IBM chases HP and Sun with i5

    Battle plans

    According to the top brass in the iSeries division, IBM will be pushing on several fronts to grow the OS/400 server business and pump up the OS/400 ecosystem on which it depends. Timothy Prickett Morgan examines IBM's new strategy... Both Al Zollar, general manager of IBM's iSeries line, and Cecelia Marrese, vice president of …

    Servers 10 Jun 2004, 11:22

  • Aperto WMAN deals in France and Ireland

    Lepping and Leaping

    Aperto Networks has picked up two major new contracts for implementation of Wireless Broadband in Europe using its Packetwave system which are committed to move towards the emerging WiMAX IEEE802.16 standard for wireless metropolitan area networks. Aperto is one of Intel’s approved partners and was an early backer of WiMAX and …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 13:12

  • US punters face higher phone charges

    World+Dog comment on latest FCC development

    Consumers and businesses in the US have been warned that they could face higher phone charges in the future after the Solicitor General said he would not seek to challenge a recent ruling by the Appeals Court. In August last year the Federal Communication Commission FCC ruled that the four major regional phone companies - …

    Telecoms 10 Jun 2004, 13:31

  • Unpatched IE vuln exploited by adware

    More windows security woes

    Detailed information on a brace of unpatched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer has been posted onto a dull disclosure mailing list. The flaws involve a cross-zone scripting vuln and a bug in IE's Local Resource Access and pose an "extremely critical" risk to Windows users, according to security firm Secunia. The …

    Enterprise Security 10 Jun 2004, 13:52

  • Copy protection to extend to multiple but limited burns

    Bracing for America

    The two most prominent suppliers of copy protection for music compact disks, are set to come back to the market with rethought offerings whereby CD copying is allowed, but limited to a set number. This strategy, dictated by the record labels as “where they are trying to get,” will emerge in new offerings from market leader …

    Personal 10 Jun 2004, 13:53

  • MS boffins build real-time stereocam

    Look at me when I'm talking to you

    Computer science boffins at Microsoft's research labs in Cambridge have developed i2i, a stereo camera for use with instant messaging technology that automatically frames and tracks its subject. This makes it seem that the user is looking at the camera, even he is actually looking at his PC screen: so video communication is more …

    Peripherals 10 Jun 2004, 14:02

  • Opera launches 250% go-faster for mobile phone browser

    Proxy-based accelerator

    Opera has launched a go-faster service for mobile phone browsing, claiming the system cuts bills and increases rendering speed on mobile devices by up to 250 per cent. The Opera Mobile Accelerator is a proxy-based system available for Sony-Ericsson P800/P900 and all Series 60 handsets, including Nokia, Siemens and Sendo X (it …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 14:19

  • Ask Jeeves if it's just bought Tukaroo

    Spot on

    Internet search outfit Ask Jeeves Inc has acquired US-based desktop search outfit Tukaroo. Financial details were not disclosed. Ask Jeeves is keen to wrap Tukaroo's technology with its own to enable Net users to search their PCs for all their bibs and bobs. For, as computers get stuffed to the gunnels with all sorts of files …

    Financial News 10 Jun 2004, 15:56

  • MP slams failed online university

    'Shameful waste' of public money

    An online university that cost the government £62m to set up has been closed down having failed to attract enough students. Dr Ian Gibson, Labour MP and chair of science and technology committee at the Commons has condemned the scheme, UKeU, as a "shameful waste" of public money, and an "absolute disaster". Speaking on BBC …

    Financial News 10 Jun 2004, 15:59

  • Orange users suffer tech fault

    The future might be bright - but what about my phone?

    Orange UK has confirmed that a "small number" of its customers have been unable to use their mobile phones over the last couple of days because of a technical fault. The victims appear to be punters upgrading their phones or switching between contract and pay as you go (PAYG) services. Orange told us: "We can confirm that on …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 16:01

  • Mobile porn is a 'time bomb'

    Shouldn't that be sex bomb?

    European mobile phone firms must act to ensure that adult content reaches only adults, a research company warns. Mobile operators face a backlash over adult content if they are unable to balance lucrative revenues with legitimate parental anxieties, according to a report from research company Current Analysis. The warning comes …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2004, 16:09

  • Mysterious Phoebe: Cassini's next fly-by

    Pictures from space

    Tomorrow, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will fly past Phoebe, one of Saturn's many moons and one of the most mysterious bodies in the solar system. The craft will send back pictures 1000 times more detailed than those produced last time Phoebe was photographed, when Voyager 2 swung past in 1981. The pictures below, sent back …

    Science 10 Jun 2004, 16:51

  • IBM breathes life into Itanium ecosystem

    At POWERful cost?

    The Itanium processor has a dirty secret, and it's buried in Armonk. The one Itanium vendor with the most to lose from the processor's existence is showing the most dramatic growth in Itanium server sales. In the first quarter, IBM set a company record for Itanium server sales, shipping 1,113 systems, according to Gartner. That …

    Servers 10 Jun 2004, 19:43

  • Windows HPC edition in the works

    Needs to be cheap as chips

    Although Microsoft has refused to confirm the many reports that say so, it appears the company is working on a version of its Windows Server platform specifically tailored for the high performance computing market... That Microsoft would branch off from Windows 2003 Server to create an HPC Edition makes perfect sense for a …

    Operating Systems 10 Jun 2004, 20:08

  • EMC puts voodoo in new software biz

    Pokes Veritas full of holes

    It's fitting that in a week in which Ronald Reagan and his voodoo economics passed, EMC has stepped up with a voodoo data protection plan. "We have to beat Veritas, and we are," David De Walt, an EVP at EMC, told CRN. "I've already been sticking pins in my (Veritas CEO) Gary Bloom doll." The voodoo tactic is just one part of a …

    Storage 10 Jun 2004, 21:09

  • Accenture accensured for offshore tax haven

    Dell dismay as Congress scuppers winning bid

    A bid led by consulting giant Accenture to administer the IT project that tracks foreigners has been halted in the United States Congress because Accenture is a foreign company that uses Bermuda as a tax haven. So says an important Congressional committee which has voted to strip the company of a lucrative contract. Accenture, …

    Public Sector 10 Jun 2004, 22:09