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16th June 2004 Archive

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  • EMC measures ADIC for tape rescue

    StorageTek laughs off lack of culture

    EMC caused a stir last week when it agreed to resell tape libraries from ADIC. First and foremost, there was some industry shock to see EMC pick up tape in such full force after all these years extolling the virtue of disk. Secondly, EMC drew harsh words from ADIC's tape rival StorageTek. Next month, EMC will begin selling ADIC …

    Storage 16 Jun 2004, 08:17

  • Energis dials up first profit

    Congrats

    Energis has posted its first profit, a nice turnaround for the UK alternative telco which had to be rescued by the banks when it went titsup two years ago. Although turnover for the year ended March dipped from £770m to £745m, the telco racked up earnings before interest and tax of £4m - a massive improvement on the £369m loss …

    Financial News 16 Jun 2004, 08:25

  • UK firm patents software downloads

    BTG in talks 'with several firms'

    A British company with a history of taking on larger rivals says it owns six patents affecting software downloads. The claim comes from British Technology Group (BTG), which is in the business of turning inventors' ideas into commercial products. If true, it could mean that dozens of software firms that use the Web to deliver …

    Developer 16 Jun 2004, 08:47

  • BT cocks up email storage upgrade

    Your limit is minus 2GB

    BT bodged its email storage upgrade yesterday after punters received emails warning them that they are exceeding their Yahoo! Mail storage quota by a "very large amount" and that their accounts had been "temporarily disabled from receiving new messages". Yesterday, the UK's dominant fixed line telco announced it had "beefed up …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 2004, 09:16

  • Open Source: just another licensing model

    In the end, it's all about lucre

    Let's be clear about this. There are four different reasons for choosing an open source solution. First, because you want to play around with the code; second, because you have ethical concerns over the extent to which proprietary vendors should be allowed to profit from their products; third, because you think the product is …

    Applications 16 Jun 2004, 09:40

  • Nokia makes all the right noises

    Clamshell concessions at Nokia Connection 2004

    Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila has outlined a multi-pronged attack incorporating more clamshell phones, greater operator customization, better penetration into the mid-range, and faster reactions to handset fashions. Although Mr Ollila made a good argument for putting Nokia's recent woes behind it, the true efficacy of these choices is …

    Mobile 16 Jun 2004, 09:41

  • Amadeus takes control of Opodo

    Online travel world gets ever smaller...

    Amadeus is paying €62m for a majority stake in struggling online travel agent Opodo. Amadeus is a major supplier to the travel industry offering ticket distribution and inventory systems. It gets a 55 per cent stake in Opodo which will continue to operate independently. Amadeus leaves in place a €49m loan made to Opodo last …

    Financial News 16 Jun 2004, 09:45

  • Feds reject anti-spam registry

    Spammers will use it against us

    The Federal Trade Commission has decided not to set up an anti-spam register. Congress originally mooted the idea of a National Do Not Email register but the FTC voted unanimously to reject the idea. The regulators believe that such a register "would fail to reduce the amount of spam consumers receive, might increase it, and …

    Spam 16 Jun 2004, 09:47

  • Americans lost $2.4bn to net fraudsters in 2003

    Phishing fastest growing online crime

    US consumers lost $2.4bn last year to online scammers and phishing attacks. Most fraud was carried out by people gaining access to account numbers and passwords. The average loss for the victims was $1,200. Gartner surveyed 5,000 US Internet users which led to the estimate that just under 2m US citizens were hit by some form of …

    Music and Media 16 Jun 2004, 09:58

  • IT manager fired for lunchtime Web surfing

    It was five years ago today... 16 June 1999

    The moral of today's blast from the past is this: if you do have a couple of spare minutes at work between fielding phone and mobile calls, answering SMSes or responding to the 10,000 or so emails each and every one of us receives every day, then don't spend them surfing the Net: IT manager fired for lunchtime Web surfing By …

    IT Director 16 Jun 2004, 09:59

  • Bono rides into Silicon Valley

    Roving rock pundit turns venture capitalist

    International roving rock pundit and all-round good guy Bono has stuck one of his many, many fingers into the Silicon Valley pie. The busy Irishman has apparently taken time off from chinwagging with the Pope and lecturing hapless world leaders on how to run their countries to join Elevation Partners, a venture capital outfit …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 2004, 10:22

  • BBC outsource deal includes staff black list

    Buy an IT dept, get free list of P45 candidates

    The BBC's decision to outsource its technology department was bound to be controversial but its decision to give bidders for the contract a hit-list of planned job cuts is even less popular. The document, code-named Project Leo, was drawn up last year in a last-ditch effort to hit budget targets by cutting costs and staff. When …

    IT Director 16 Jun 2004, 10:23

  • Wheels come off DVD royalty-dodging ruse

    Cunning Dutch plan hit by hardware crash

    A Dutch company's cunning plan to deliver DVD movies to customers' TV sets digitally without having to pay additional performance rights has already run into trouble. Dvdstream's partner Homelink - the Danish manufacturer of the Palmbutler 600 set-top box - has gone into receivership and may not be able to deliver the hardware …

    Music and Media 16 Jun 2004, 10:24

  • FCC posts GSM, Wi-Fi iPaq specs

    Details confirmed

    Full details of HP's iPaq h6300 PocketPC phone have been posted on the Federal Communications Commission's web site. The specs listed in the provisional user manual, submitted to the FCC for approval, pretty much match those that leaked last February to Australian website M-Tekk. The Texas Instruments OMAP 1510-based PDA will …

    Mobile 16 Jun 2004, 11:25

  • SurfControl distributes email mailing list

    To recipients of data confidentiality report

    SurfControl yesterday issued an exciting press release outlining "the dangers facing businesses who do not protect their e-mail communications against confidential data loss". As is the local custom, the release was sent by email to a long list of eager recipients. Sadly, the operative responsible has clearly never considered …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 2004, 11:29

  • EMC ups storage software market share

    But no home storage product yet

    EMC Corporation has extended its storage software lead in Q4 to 30.1 per cent revenue share, according to data released by IDC this week. On a year-over-year basis, EMC continued to outpace the worldwide storage software market with 35.4 per cent revenue growth and gained more revenue share than any other major vendor. EMC isn’ …

    Storage 16 Jun 2004, 11:29

  • Elpida, Micron ask Japan to take Hynix to task

    More illegal state subsidy allegations

    Memory makers Elpida and Micron have asked Japan's Ministry of Finance to impose punitive duties on rival manufacturer Hynix. Hynix said Japan's investigation is "particularly unreasonable and unwarranted at this time, when the world DRAM market has been showing a continued strong performance since 2003, and when the WTO is …

    Channel 16 Jun 2004, 11:41

  • Reg Reader Studies: the results are in

    Free research downloads

    Mobile Security and Responsibility Taking the right attitude to secure mobile technology Published: Jan 2006 When companies extend their business IT operations to mobile employees, their risks are increased as valuable software, data and devices are taken out of the protected perimeter of the office, and placed in the pockets …

    Tech Panel 16 Jun 2004, 11:42

  • Redbus Interhouse suffers power outage

    Lights out at colocation centre

    There are red faces at Redbus Interhouse this morning after a power failure forced many of its customers offline late yesterday afternoon. Harbour Exchange Square suffered a power outage on the eighth floor between 16.57 and 17.38 although many customers had to wait a lot longer before their systems were restored. One …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 2004, 11:47

  • Astronomers weigh ultra-cool brown dwarf

    He ain't heavy

    An international team of astronomers have been able to measure the mass of an ultra-cool brown dwarf "star", and its binary companion, directly, for the first time. Just over 60 times the mass of Jupiter, the brown dwarf was first detected in 2000 when Hubble spotted it orbiting the poetically named 2MASSW J0746425+2000321. …

    Science 16 Jun 2004, 11:51

  • Intel 'delays' Centrino 2 chipset

    Alviso said to be pushed back to Q1 2005

    Intel has put back the release of Centrino 2 to 2005, unnamed sources from Taiwan's notebook manufacturing community have alleged. The second generation of the chip giant's thin'n'light notebook platform, codenamed 'Sonoma', was expected to ship this coming autumn, though Intel has never publicly narrowed the schedule beyond H2 …

    Channel 16 Jun 2004, 13:26

  • BOFH: The Complete Package

    Cash'n'Carrion Shirt, cap, mug and more...

    Our lovely range of BOFH merchandising is now pretty well stocked with everthing the covert sysadmins needs, from t-shirts to mugs to BOFH rubber accessories... We have, however, decided to make these goodies even more tempting by offering the whole kit and caboodle as a BOFH Complete Package. So, for just £29.99 (£32.99 inc …

    Site News 16 Jun 2004, 13:35

  • Sony to ship new PSX models on 1 July

    PlayStation PVR updated

    Sony will update its PSX personal video recorder/Playstation 2 combo device family on 1 July following the company's move to suspend production of the original models earlier this year. The new models, the DESR-5100 and DESR-7100, offer the same storage capacity - 160GB and 250GB, respectively - as their predecessors, the DESR- …

    Consoles 16 Jun 2004, 13:59

  • Apple resellers are revolting

    Disgruntled US dealers get litigious

    A group of deeply disgruntled ex-Apple resellers in the US have filed their fourth amended complaint against the computer giant in the Superior Court of Santa Clara. They will be back in court on the 22nd of June when a trial date should be set. The group claim that Apple is unfairly favouring its own Apple Stores over …

    Mac Channel 16 Jun 2004, 14:09

  • Printer majors rally around ISO toner lifespan standard

    But what about print quality?

    As the debate over the price of toner and ink continues to bubble over, printer makers Epson, HP, Canon and Lexmark have attempted to show their noses are clean by jointly announcing they will support the ISO's new laser printer toner cartridge yield benchmark. The standard, ISO/IEC 19752, defines a universal measure of …

    Channel 16 Jun 2004, 14:25

  • XFX GeForce 6800 Ultra

    Review Nvidia's top-end chip hits retail

    It's finally here, the first retail GeForce 6800 Ultra card and it hasn't come from one of the usual board partner suspects. That said, supplier XFX isn't a new company. It's backed by the Pine group which has been around for a good few years, but never really made a big noise. The card itself is based entirely on the Nvidia …

    Channel 16 Jun 2004, 14:57

  • Penguins come to Wimbledon

    IBM serves up tennis treat

    When the prestige Wimbledon tennis tournament kicks off next Monday, IBM will be providing the technology for the fifteenth consecutive year. Big Blue will be depending on a grid computer of Linux machines to keep the tournament website up and running. It will also deploy a Wi-Fi network to keep assorted hacks and photographers …

    Operating Systems 16 Jun 2004, 15:12

  • CMI launches search for the Future of Comms

    Democracy is at the edge of the network

    The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) has launched a new initiative - the Communications Innovation Institute (CII) - established to understand the things that help new technology take hold, and the things that hinder it. CII will be a multi-disciplinary effort, funding academic research in partnership with industry. The team will …

    Data Networking 16 Jun 2004, 15:15

  • Red Planet serves up blueberries

    Martian pebbles point to water flow

    Martian blueberries, marble-shaped pebbles known as haematite concretions, could be another indication that water once flowed on the surface of the red planet, according to researchers in the US. In a study published tomorrow (17 June), geologists from the University of Utah describe how blueberries are formed in groundwater on …

    Science 16 Jun 2004, 18:02

  • Spammer prosecutions waste time and money

    Spammed if you do and spammed if you don't

    The recent US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on the futility of establishing a national 'do not email' registry contains a number of interesting observations related to spam control and to the so-called CAN-SPAM Act. In a nutshell, the FTC rejects the registry because it would become a weapon that spammers could use to …

    Spam 16 Jun 2004, 18:20

  • CollabNet revamp makes offshorers happy

    MS Project hits the bin

    Gone are the days when CollabNet graced the hypertext pages of every online news site. Gone are the days when the company could ride founder Brian Behlendorf's image as Apache co-creator to open-source software icon status at every turn. And, yet, despite CollabNet's current low profile, the company is probably more interesting …

    Developer 16 Jun 2004, 20:53

  • Oracle finds more app server staff off H-101

    Collaxa coming on board

    Oracle has turned to acquisition once again to strengthen its application server product, according to a report. The database maker is set to announce its purchase of startup Collaxa at Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference later this month. Oracle hopes to make use of Collaxa's business processes management tools in Oracle …

    Applications 16 Jun 2004, 22:23