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23rd June 2004 Archive

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  • Google demotes Coca Cola jingle

    Saving the world now hidden in IPO prospectus

    Larry Page's "Owner's Manual" for Google shareholders - his preface to the company's S1 document - has been quietly demoted in an amendment published on Monday. The letter defended the proposed company's 'dual class' ownership structure, which concentrates power not with ordinary shareholders but with the current management, and …

    Financial News 23 Jun 2004, 00:26

  • Microsoft, Apple snub consumer freedom coalition

    DRM as a competitive advantage

    A new coalition of citizens groups and representatives from the computer and telecommunications industry was launched today, with two big names absent. This new alliance, the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition has fairly modest goals - seeking to restore some fair use provisions that will be lost if DRM is accepted, such as …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 04:07

  • Vote for who should run the UK's Internet

    Nominet board elections underway

    Two spaces on the board of the UK's Internet registry are up for grabs - and three horses are in the running. Every year, two of Nominet's four non-executives on the six-person board are put up for election. The ballot papers have just gone out to all members and the deadline for returning them is the first day of its annual …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 08:01

  • Broadband gets FCC chairman hot

    SuperComm Get ready to consume

    FCC Chairman Michael Powell has a grand vision for 2005 - one that includes years of communications hype turning into fruitful reality. "I think the industry will be hot one year from now, and I mean that sincerely," he said, during a speech here at the SuperComm conference. "I think 04 is the year the match is lit, but I think …

    Broadband 23 Jun 2004, 08:04

  • Apple iTunes Europe shifts 0.8m songs in first week

    Over half in the UK

    Earlier this year, European digital music distributor OD2 announced that users of the service it sells via a variety of ISPs, high street music retailers and others had downloaded 1m songs in the first three months of the year. Apple today said that its European iTunes Music Store had sold almost that number in its first week …

    Financial News 23 Jun 2004, 08:56

  • Carlyle and Kyocera dig deep into DDI Pocket

    Handyphone investment

    Personal handyphone devleopment Private equity investor Carlyle should find plenty of opportunities to develop DDI Pocket, the personal handyphone system business in which it has agreed to buy a 60 per cent stake. The low-cost system has a lot of potential in developing countries and may also offer opportunities in the data …

    Mobile 23 Jun 2004, 08:56

  • Oracle - Microsoft sales battles revealed in court

    Bill and Larry go toe-to-toe...

    Oracle and Microsoft competed directly for contracts 94 times between 2002 and 2003, according to documents revealed in court yesterday. They went head-to-head at 94 different companies, eight of which were large companies, the New York Times reports. The evidence was revealed as part of Oracle's attempt to show that it already …

    Applications 23 Jun 2004, 09:04

  • Call centres 'bad for income and health'

    UNISON backs workers

    UNISON - the UK's biggest trade union with 1.3m members - reckons call centres are "bad for your income and bad for your health". North-west regional delegate Shirley Vickery told a conference this week that around 400,000 people work in call centres in the UK, and up to half of those jobs could be shunted overseas by 2008. …

    Management 23 Jun 2004, 09:12

  • Digital home group touts convergence spec

    Plug'n'Pray to come to hi-fis, DVD players etc.

    The Digital Home Working Group yesterday issued the first full version of its scheme for bringing the worlds of home entertainment systems and home computing together through wired and wireless links. And on the back of the launch, the convergence industry body re-named itself the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), the …

    Personal 23 Jun 2004, 09:31

  • eBay buys Indian auction site

    Shells out $50m for Baazee.com

    eBay is buying India's biggest auction site, Baazee.com, for $50m and some post-acquisition costs. Based in Mumbai, Baazee.com has one million registered users, who flog stuff just like they do on eBay. India lags far behind China in Internet numbers - just 17 million people are online, according to IDC. But it is a growth …

    Financial News 23 Jun 2004, 10:14

  • Mobile operators push next gen services

    You will learn to love picture messaging

    Disappointing take-up of new mobile services such picture messaging is behind the creation of a lobby group by the major mobile operators. DoCoMo, MMO2, Orange, Telefonica Mobiles, T-Mobile and Vodafone have all joined the organisation, called the Open Mobile Terminal Platform Alliance. They aim to work with handset …

    Mobile 23 Jun 2004, 10:17

  • Dixons profits up

    Euro expansion and 2,000 more jobs

    Dixons Group has increased turnover by 13 per cent to £6.5bn for the year ended 1 May 2004. Pre-tax profits for the period were up 11 per cent to £331.6m. The electronics retailer plans European expansion and will take on 2,000 more staff, 1,000 of these jobs will be in the UK. Dixons saw two per cent growth in the computing …

    Financial News 23 Jun 2004, 10:29

  • Iomega debuts PC card slot drive

    It was five years ago today... 23 June 1999

    It seems almost unthinkable now that we were once satisfied with transferring stuff on a 1.44MB floppy disk - or that 1.44MB was quite adequate for most everyday files. Pretty soon, our lust for bigger, faster, external storage provoked development of a whole basket of essential products: PC card slot drive debuted by Iomega …

    Peripherals 23 Jun 2004, 10:30

  • Network Associates CEO denies sale rumours

    A denial? Must be true then...

    George Samenuk, chairman and chief executive officer of Network Associates, has sent an email to all staff reassuring them that rumours of an imminent takeover by Microsoft are simply not true. Network Associates makes McAfee anti-virus and security products. The story on CRN.com on Monday said simply: "Network Associates is …

    Security 23 Jun 2004, 10:32

  • Moore shows hi-fi styled 'home cinema' PC

    Reg Kit Watch Audiophile orientation

    UK media PC developer Moore Innovations has launched its first system, Medio, pitching the machine at home cinema enthusiasts and audiophiles. Medio comes in two versions, one for the digital TV era, the other to take advantage of today's analog transmissions. The former is equipped with a Freeview receiver, courtesy of the …

    Channel 23 Jun 2004, 11:14

  • Beastie Boys CD installs virus

    Exploits autorun 'feature'

    A new Beastie Boys' CD called "To the Five Boroughs" (Capitol Records), is raising hackles around the Web for reputedly infecting computers with a virus. According to a recent thread at BugTraq, an executable file is automatically and silently installed on the user's machine when the CD is loaded. The file is said to be a …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 11:18

  • PCs throw nine sickies a year

    'I won't be in today - I got spammed last night'

    British PCs are taking an average of nine sick days a year due to spam and viral attack, Yahoo! claims. This is two more days than the typical Brit spends at home as a result of illness/injury/Euro 2004-induced hangover. Interestingly, six of these silicon sickies are due to spam, with just three days attributable to viruses. …

    Security 23 Jun 2004, 11:20

  • Biometric DRM? You're kidding, right?

    Letters RIAA master plan not a big hit

    A couple of weeks ago Andrew Orlowski reported on the RIAA's suggestion that music players ought to be biometrically locked. Orlowski asked if you thought the idea would catch on. We've taken some time sifting through the letters, for there were many, (many, many), and the consensus of opinion can be summed up roughly as: "Erm …

    Letters 23 Jun 2004, 11:29

  • RIAA sues 482 more unnamed file-sharers

    Settlement rate under 17.5 per cent

    The Recording Industry Ass. of America's assault on copyright infringers continued this week as 482 more North American computer users were accused of sharing music files without authorisation. The RIAA doesn't know who any of these folk are - the organisation's lawsuits target unnamed defendants - but 213 are believed to live …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 11:32

  • Make BT more transparent, say rival telcos

    No need to break up BT - yet

    UK telecoms trade group - UKCTA - has called for a new "regulatory model" to be adopted by communications regulator, Ofcom, that would help curb BT's market dominance and lead to greater competition in the industry. It claimed that its "Transactional Transparency" (TT) model would, if implemented, give rival operators greater …

    Broadband 23 Jun 2004, 11:33

  • Telewest plagued by intermittent email probs

    Hard to nail down

    Telewest has admitted that it's still suffering ongoing email problems. Two weeks ago around 40,000 Telewest punters were left without email after a cock-up with overnight maintenance work. Although email was restored to all users, many of those hit were unable to access their old emails or address lists. Telewest says those …

    Broadband 23 Jun 2004, 11:34

  • UK.gov stuck in 'old economy' mindset

    Time to wake up and smell coffee, says Intellect

    The government is stuck in an "old economy" mindset and is using the wrong tests to check on the health of UK Plc, according to IT trade body, Intellect. The organisation has warned that continued measurement of the wrong indicators will lead to the wrong policies being written, and says because of this, the country is treading …

    Policy 23 Jun 2004, 11:40

  • Open sourcerers slam licensing slur

    Letters And where's my Tiffany MP3?

    Ah, open source. Is there a topic more likely to spark an animated discussion among geeks of a certain type? [Yes, plenty: DRM, IP, patents, ID cards, biometrics, etc, etc - Ed] More to the point, is there a middle ground on this? Are there any people out there who can discuss it with anything less than a passionate, even …

    Letters 23 Jun 2004, 13:09

  • Big six unite to can spam

    Holy alliance issues statement of intent

    Some of the world's largest ISPs and email providers are joining forces to fight spam by using existing technology and best practice rather than just looking for future technical solutions. Founder members include AOL, BT, Comcast, EarthLink, Microsoft and Yahoo!. They have released a statement of intent outlining best practice …

    Security 23 Jun 2004, 13:13

  • SBC plans über-network

    Fibre optic 'super-high-speed broadband'

    SBC Communications is to spend between $4bn and $6bn on a fibre optic network to offer "super-high-speed broadband" to residential and small business customers. Bandwidth would be great enough for high definition IP-based switched TV services. The company is starting trials with Microsoft's IPTV later this year. The …

    Broadband 23 Jun 2004, 13:16

  • Fine Telstra AUS$100m, rival ISP demands

    And beat it with a stick for broadband price nobble

    Telstra - Australia's incumbent telco - should be fined more than AUS$100m (£38m) for its anti-comptetitive broadband pricing, according to the boss of a rival ISP. In February, Telstra cut the cost of its retail broadband service undercutting what it charged other operators for wholesale broadband. Rivals said this was unfair …

    Broadband 23 Jun 2004, 13:22

  • 'Son of Patriot' hits Basildon

    Essex welcomes Javelin missile plant

    The news that the UK has today opened a new high-tech assembly facility for the Javelin shoulder-launched missile in Basildon, Essex, certainly raised a few eyebrows down here at Vulture Central. It's not that we don't consider Basildon the perfect location for such a venture - after all, the warring tribes of East London's …

    Bootnotes 23 Jun 2004, 13:55

  • Dutch e-voting software goes open source

    Public scrutiny

    The source code of the software that is used for online e-voting in the Netherlands has been made public by OSOSS, a Dutch association that promotes the use of open source software in government. Electronic voting in the Netherlands was made permissible by an amendment to the Elections Act back in 1965. Mechanical voting …

    Policy 23 Jun 2004, 14:44

  • Virgin Digital sets US, UK debut dates

    August and September, respectively

    Virgin Digital, Richard Branson's move on the digital music market, will launch in the UK next September, a month after the service's US debut, The Register has learned. According to industry sources familiar with Virgin's plans, the company is assembling a range of offerings the music service will offer with a view to those …

    Financial News 23 Jun 2004, 14:48

  • How safe is your medical record?

    Decide for yourselves, says UK.gov IT supremo

    Richard Granger, director general of the National Programme for IT, has sought to allay security fears citizens may have about the computerisation of many familiar NHS services. Speaking at the Government Computing conference in London, Granger said that the NHS is on the cusp of introducing electronic referrals, and electronic …

    Policy 23 Jun 2004, 14:59

  • Domain names come of age

    DNS is 21 years old

    We are still in the Bronze Age of the Internet, according to the man who created the Domain Name System 21 years ago. Dr Paul Mockapetris created the system of .com, .org and .gov which end Internet addresses in 1983 while at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. Jon Postel shares the …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 15:01

  • Hotmail bins email accounts on hearsay

    Delete first, ask no questions whatsoever

    Hotmail has been caught closing down email accounts accused of spamming without carrying out proper checks first. An investigation by Israeli news site NRG Maariv found that all it takes to close down a hotmail account is a report - be it true or not - to Hotmail's abuse team that a Hotmail account has been used for spam. Even …

    Security 23 Jun 2004, 15:05

  • Oracle eyes Business Objects from afar

    Acquisition of hit-list target a remote possibility

    Following the revelations over Microsoft's merger discussions with SAP, speculation is rife about over the next wave of M&A activity in the enterprise applications software field. Business Objects was among those named on Oracle's potential takeover list, though an acquisition by the Californian firm in the near future is …

    Applications 23 Jun 2004, 16:09

  • Spanish police smash €35m dialer scam

    Huge Internet fraud

    Spanish police have arrested five men in connection with what appears to be the biggest Internet dialler fraud in history. More than 45,000 victims lost a stunning €35m to the scam, Spanish newspapers report. The five scammers operated out of Madrid and Pontevedra in Galicia. The team, all men, and most in their mid-thirties, …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 16:26

  • Guantanamo Bay loses 'least worst place' status - Navy

    Photoshop chop

    On a scale of worst, how worst can worst get? Back in 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took a crack at solving this riddle, dubbing Guantanamo Bay "the least worst place" to store evil-doers. But now, with the torture scandal unfolding, the Navy has declared that Guantanamo Bay is not "the least worst place" at all. The …

    Media 23 Jun 2004, 20:46

  • Comdex canned

    And nobody notices

    The ailing Comdex show in Las Vegas is off. The promoter which owns the rights, and which also puts on the JavaOne, Networld+Interop and Seybold events, has decided that the old albatross isn't worth feeding this year. However Media International insists that this is merely a US postponement in 2004 and that Comdex will take …

    Business 23 Jun 2004, 22:22

  • Seagate gets litigious with small hard drive rival

    Calls Cornice to court

    Less than ten days after it rolled out a series of small hard disc drives, Seagate has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against tiny drive maker Cornice. Seagate claims that six of its patents have been violated in "several areas of disc drive technology." The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for Delaware, seeks …

    Storage 23 Jun 2004, 23:01

  • HP's OpenView set for identity showdown

    TruLogica baked in

    HP has made good on at least one of its recent acquisitions, rolling out a new identity management software packaged based on purchased technology. The new HP OpenView Select Identity software is a retooled version of the code HP acquired in its March acquisition of TruLogica. The identity product lets administrators automate …

    Business 23 Jun 2004, 23:01