21st June 2004 Archive
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Nortel and Cisco chat prompts merger mania
Two plus two can equal five...
A little light conversation between the bosses of Cisco and Nortel was enough to send takeover rumour merchants into hyper-spin. A Nortel spokesman confirmed that Bill Owens, newly-appointed Nortel chief executive, and John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco, met last week after a telecoms conference in Canada in which both …
Data Networking 21 Jun 2004, 09:15
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Sony adds HDD to USB Flash drive line-up
Reg Kit Watch More capacious, but less compact
The mini hard drive is already challenging Flash in the MP3 player market, and it now looks like pursuing solid-state storage into the USB drive market too. Sony today launched a new member of its Pocket Bit USB storage product line that incorporates a 2GB micro hard drive. The Pocket Bit Pro USD-2G measures 7.3 x 5 x 1.3cm, …
Peripherals 21 Jun 2004, 09:19
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Bluetooth folding keyboard enters the wild
PDA cool - at a price
If you've been wondering when you'd be able to get a truly wireless keyboard for your PDA or smartphone, the wait is nearly over. However, neat as this latest Stowaway folding keyboard from Think Outside looks, it doesn't come cheap. Think Outside president Greg van der Dries was in london last week with samples: "Bluetooth …
Mobile 21 Jun 2004, 09:30
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AMD: no longer the also-ran
Long-term strategy for serious contender
Throughout the 1990s, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices battled to capture the imagination of computer buyers by offering ever-faster performance. More recently, the competition between the two companies has become more like a game of paper, scissors, stone, as each company attempts to surprise the market with unexpected new …
Servers 21 Jun 2004, 09:36
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Unisys pushes the ES7000 envelope
Performance up, cost down
Vendors get judged on peak performance of their biggest, baddest boxes, but they make their bread on more modest machines. This is why server maker Unisys, which has for three years been the staunchest supporters of Windows in the datacenter, recently spent big bucks to prove the ES7000 Wintel mainframes deliver the best bang …
Servers 21 Jun 2004, 09:48
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Universal to revive dead CD single format
Tiny discs to restore single market in turn
Universal Music's UK wing is to bring the 8cm CD back from the dead later this month, in a desperate bid to revive the singles market. The 'new' format will be called Pocket CD, but is essentially the compact CD developed in the mid-1980s as the format for CD singles. Alas, all but a handful of CD players were unable to cope …
Music and Media 21 Jun 2004, 09:58
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EMI, Warner Music renew 'pre-nup talks'
If Sony and BMG can wed, why not us?
EMI wants to woo Warner Music Group again with a view to marriage, in the wake of the anticipated merger between Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group. Unnamed sources cited by The Times claim the European Commission's approval of the Sony-BMG deal has given EMI and Warner executives renewed hope that they too will be allowed …
Music and Media 21 Jun 2004, 10:22
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SpaceShipOne ready for go
Next stop space for private craft
Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne is scheduled for launch today, in a bid to be the first privately-funded, manned craft to leave the Earth's atmosphere for a sub-orbital spaceflight. Last month, a group of amateur space enthusiasts managed to send an unmanned rocket up to the magic 100km mark: the height where space officially begins …
Science 21 Jun 2004, 10:28
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IBM overtakes HP in top of the teraflops
Supercomputer hit parade...
IBM has replaced HP as the hostest with the mostest fastest supercomputers. In the 23rd bi-annual survey of Top 500 supercomputer sites, IBM has 44.8 per cent of entrants and 50.12 per cent of the performance. HP is in second place with 28 per cent of systems and 18.5 per cent of installed performance. Pole position is held for …
Servers 21 Jun 2004, 10:28
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UK.biz complacent over virus threats
Blended attack? Whatever
UK small businesses are too complacent over the threat of sophisticated viruses, despite the financial losses caused by such attacks. So says ServGate Technologies, a US network security firm, which found that a third of companies took no action at all after a "blended" attack - a network assault which seeks to maximise damage …
Small Biz 21 Jun 2004, 10:42
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C&W moots more UK acquisitions
Wants to be major telco player
Cable & Wireless - the telco even the boss admits was regarded as "down and out" - has ambitions to be a major business telecoms player in the UK. Last month, C&W bought broadband outfit Bulldog for £19m. In an interview today with The Telegraph, chief exec Francesco Caio suggested there could be more acquisitions in the …
Financial News 21 Jun 2004, 10:55
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FriendsReunited buys Aussie site
Onwards and upwards for nostalgia / infidelity service
FriendsReunited has bought www.schoolfriends.com.au for an undisclosed sum - or £1m according to Aussie papers. The deal gives it access to one million Australian members. Aussie users will not see much difference yet. Branding will be changed once FriendsReunited has sorted out its new logo and design. This is FriendsReunited …
Financial News 21 Jun 2004, 11:29
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Linux alliance fights against Euro software patents
It was five years ago today... 21 June 1999
...that the campaign began against EU moves to extend patent law to software. For a little while last year the anti-software patent lobby looked like it had the upper hand, after the European Parliament voted for very strict guidlines on what could be patented. As we know now, this was not to last. The current form of the …
Developer 21 Jun 2004, 11:36
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Syrian surfer jailed
Downloaded material from banned website
A Syrian who downloaded and distributed material from a website banned by Syrian authorities has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Abdel Rahman al-Shaghouri, 32, who had been held since his arrest in February 2003 apparently without access to family or legal representation, was convicted of "publishing false news that saps …
Music and Media 21 Jun 2004, 11:42
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China urges ISPs to sign 'self-disciplinary' pact
Wants Net to be healthy
China's Internet industry is being urged to put its house in order to prevent the spread of anti-government information, porn and anything else that might threaten "national security (and) social stability". Chinese websites, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Internet-related organisations across the country are being …
Telecoms 21 Jun 2004, 11:45
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Sendo X S60 smartphone rollout finally starts
Hot in Europe this summer?
Sendo has finally started shipping its Sendo X Series 60 handset, its bid to establish itself as a 'name' brand in the high-spec smartphone market. The X was subject to one of Sendo's mysterious false starts towards the end of last year, but although late it is probably still in time to turn heads provided Sendo can achieve the …
Mobile 21 Jun 2004, 11:47
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'Spit with Totti' - the online challenge
Euro 2004 footie fun
Readers looking for a bit of tension-busting light relief ahead of tonight's clash between England and Croatia should have a shufti at the Italian website offering fans a chance to Spit with Totti. The Flash game celebrates Francesco Totti's inphlegmmatory outburst during last week's clash with Denmark during which the volatile …
Bootnotes 21 Jun 2004, 11:48
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Dell launches i915, i925 systems
XPS desktops for gamers, Dimensions for everyone else
Dell has launched a series of desktops based on Intel's new i915 and i925 chipsets, better known as Grantsdale and Alderwood, respectively. The i925X forms the basis of the Dell Dimension 8400 and XPS desktops. Both are offered with a choice of Pentium 4 processors. The XPS can be configured with a 3.6GHz P4 560 or a 3.4GHz P4 …
Channel 21 Jun 2004, 12:46
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Met Office bags shiny new supercomputer
Cray twins out of the forecasting business
The Meterological Office, the hub of the UK's weather forecasting, has opened a new supercomputing centre in Exeter as part of the celebrations of its 150th anniversary. It has ditched its two old Crays, and bought itself a brand new shiny NEC supercomputer: a multi-nodal SX-6, no less. This, it says, has upped the computing …
Servers 21 Jun 2004, 13:27
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Glasgow vandals cut 5,000 phone lines
Cables get snipped
Some 2,500 phone lines are still on the blink in Glasgow after telephone cables were cut by vandals over the weekend. The perpetrators struck on Saturday afternoon after they lifted a manhole cover and snipped eight copper cables and a fibre optic cable. A BT spokesman said it was an act of "wanton vandalism". Around 5,000 …
Telecoms 21 Jun 2004, 13:44
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Workers get into email trouble
Adults treated like adults act like adults...
UK employers are more likely to discipline staff for abusing email than for inappropriate Internet use. A survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reveals that nearly half of all respondents have disciplined staff for excessive use of email and a quarter have disciplined staff for inappropriate email …
IT Director 21 Jun 2004, 13:47
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Symantec hits counterfeit biz for $3.2m
Personal damages too
Symantec has won damages of $3.2m against a company selling fake versions of its anti-virus software. The owner of the business, Richard Mastrogiovanni, must personally pay $25,000 damages to Symantec. Mastrogiovanni's company, Papa B Enterprises, sold counterfeit software on auction websites. A US federal court imposed a …
Applications 21 Jun 2004, 14:11
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Bahrain mobile number: yours for $13k
Eye-catching numerals demand high price
Fool, money, parted: those are the words which come to mind at the news that a Bahrain mobile and and licence plate dealer is offering "eye-catching" mobe number 9111119 for a cool 5,000 dinars - around $13,200 dollars. The good burghers of Bahrain are obsessed with such numbers, and willing to shell out huge sums to secure the …
Bootnotes 21 Jun 2004, 14:12
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Dell UK slashes Dimension to just £53,000
A 'build-your-own' online bargain
Cash-strapped readers looking for an online bargain could do worse than pop into Dell UK's store and have a look at the Dimension XPS It's going out at a very reasonable £1,204 inc VAT and shipping. Alternatively, you can sign up for the finance deal and pay just £35 per month. For your bucks you get the usual bangs: Dimension …
Bootnotes 21 Jun 2004, 14:50
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North Americans confused about VoIP
It's the cheap calls, stupid
US Net users are confused about VoIP and what it can do. More than half admit that they haven't a clue about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). And six in ten of those who have heard of VoIP are confused about how the Internet-based telephone service really works. It's a similar picture in Canada, where only one in four Net …
Data Networking 21 Jun 2004, 15:26
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Oracle waves goodbye to NetSuite
Preps its own small biz suite
Oracle has cancelled Netsuite's rights to resell its software, in advance of a widely-expected sales push to smaller businesses. But Netsuite customers will be unaffected, Zach Nelson, chief executive of NetSuite, told The Register: "In the first week of July customers will turn on their machines to see a new logo but it is …
Applications 21 Jun 2004, 15:27
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GorillaPark emerges as GP Ventures
Tech incubator battles on
GorillaPark, the largest privately-held tech incubator and business accelerator in Europe and once a bellwether of the now-burst technology bubble, is no longer. The company was declared bankrupt last week, although it managed to pay its creditors - including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Fortis Bank - at least $6m, former …
Financial News 21 Jun 2004, 15:34
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Hewitt takes HRO lead with Exult acquisition
That's human resources outsourcing to you
Hewitt's acquisition of Exult for $691m sees it taking the lead in the nascent human resources outsourcing sector. The deal will put Hewitt ahead of traditional IT services giants such as IBM Global Services, Accenture, Affiliated Computer Services, and EDS, which are rapidly moving into the HRO sector. The takeover is a …
Hardware 21 Jun 2004, 19:20
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Nortel stock rallies on talk of Cisco bid
All mouth and no trousers
Nortel Networks stock rose strongly towards the end of last week following speculation that Cisco Systems is considering a bid for the company. The timing looks good for Cisco to acquire its smaller rival, but it is rarely interested in such large acquisitions. Cisco CEO John Chambers fired up rumors of a potential acquisition …
Data Networking 21 Jun 2004, 19:21
