6th July 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Virgin Mobile gives it up for charity

One per cent of profits for good causes

Virgin Mobile is considering channelling one per cent of its pre-tax profits into a charitable trust. The company would let employees decide which good causes the trust would support. The company is getting ready to float later this month. It is currently outlining its future strategy to institutional investors. The details of …

Mobile 6 Jul 2004, 08:08
BMG to punt cheap, no-frills CDs

German bid to extinguish home burning

From next month record company BMG will introduce cut-price and luxury versions of the same CDs in Germany in an attempt to boost record sales, CEO Maarten Steinkamp told Der Spiegel. The no-frills version, which Kleinkamp calls "an anti-piracy CD", will look identical to a home-burn CD, with just the title on the disc. …

Music and Media 6 Jul 2004, 08:31
Fujitsu unveils Wi-Fi PDA

Japanese version of the Pocket Loox 700?

Fujitsu today launched its latest Japanese Pocket Loox PDA, the v70, a machine which is likely to herald the arrival of the much-anticipated Pocket Loox 700 in the West. The v70 certainly offers a comparable feature set to the 700, in as much as it matches what has been suggested about the latter. The new machine sports an …

Mobile 6 Jul 2004, 08:59
Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro

Review ATI's mainstream chip arrives in retail-land

It's been over two months since I was in Toronto at the launch of the Radeon X800 platform, and during that time I've done a lot of testing and writing about the latest generation of graphics cards. However, it has taken this long for that announcement to turn into a tangible retail product, writes Riyad Emeran. Before me …

Reviews 6 Jul 2004, 09:45
Baltimore showdown underway

Shareholder vote

The future of Baltimore Technologies hangs in the balance, with a vote count underway to determine the company's future. At the former e-security firm's AGM on Monday, several resolutions were put to shareholders, including one initiated by rogue shareholder Acquisitor Holdings, which seeks to replace the entire board of …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 09:49
Internet set to bring down society

It was five years ago today... 6 July 1999

It may be difficult to imagine, but British Summers occasionally offer a sufficiently long period of continual sunshine for malodorous anarchopunks armed with dogs on string to form mobs and threaten western civilisation. Naturally, this kind of civil unrest takes a certain amount of organising, so these dreadlocked ne'er-do- …

Music and Media 6 Jul 2004, 09:50
Hey, where'd my porn go?

Letters Vodafone's filtering not a big hit with Reg readers

It is probably an understatement to say that content filtering is a contentious issue. With that in mind, Vodafone could claim it has been bold and brave, unilaterally introducing an adult content filter to its 3G service. Based on your correspondence, it seems that there have been a few teething problems in implementing the …

Letters 6 Jul 2004, 10:09
China disowns IPv9 hype

Mystery protocol isn't taking over China, after all

Evidence is growing that IPv9, hyped up the widely-adopted foundation of a next generation Internet infrastructure in China, is really a marginal project backed by few even in China. Reports from China this week about widespread adoption of the previously unheard of Internet protocol have created bewilderment and something …

Data Networking 6 Jul 2004, 10:37
IBM denies spiking fab cancer study

Editor cries foul as journal publisher drops report

IBM has denied attempting to block the publication of research examining the death rates of workers at its chip fabs. IBM is contesting legal action brought by families who claim relatives contracted cancer as a direct result of working at its East Fishkill, New York facility. The spiked study was an investigation of IBM …

IT Director 6 Jul 2004, 10:50
C&W launches VoIP for UK.biz

In brief Forecasts 25 per cent savings...

C&W will start offering Voice over Internet Protocol services and claims British businesses could cut a quarter off their phone bills by making the switch. According to C&W, British companies with more than 250 employees spend £3.25bn on telephone services, but they could save £800m by switching to VoIP, through lower call …

Telecoms 6 Jul 2004, 10:59
eBayers go ape for Reagan funeral accessories

Over $66,000 bid

The guy's only been dead a month, and already paraphernalia from Ronald Reagan's lying in state and funeral are driving bidders wild on eBay. On offer are photos, programmes, memorial cards, invitations, seating tickets, even recordings of the eulogies spoken after the 40th president's demise on 5 June 2004. So far, more than …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 11:01
Patriot 'Blue-on-Blue': the plot thickens

CBS indicates US military cover-up

CBS-11's Robert Riggs - the embedded journalist who witnessed first-hand the shambolic operations of the Patriot missile during the last Gulf War - has fuelled the continuing controversy surrounding the "Blue-on-Blue" incident, which saw the high-tech projectile bring down an RAF Tornado. Rigg's latest report suggests that the …

Science 6 Jul 2004, 11:03
Get MySQL Certified for less

Site Offer 30% off essential study guide

With more than 4 million active installations, MySQL is the world's most popular open-source database. Known for its speed, high reliability, and ease of use, MySQL is rapidly becoming a low-cost alternative to the more widely used database systems from Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. MySQL Certification Study Guide is the official …

Site News 6 Jul 2004, 11:10
Data federation and the police

Consolidation is not the answer

Last week's Bichard report into the mistakes made by various English police forces in the events leading up to the Soham murders focuses, at least in part, on the endemic deficiencies in data management procedures and policies. There were multiple databases in use, both within individual police forces, and across police forces …

Applications 6 Jul 2004, 12:21
Irish programmer lifts MSDN security crown

Snags $10,000 grand prize

Eamon O'Tuathail, an Irish software developer, has triumphed in the Microsoft Security Developer Championship, seeing off his rivals in the race for the $10,000 prize. Microsoft set up the contest to raise awareness of security issues within its developer community. In the opening rounds of the competition, held online, over 60 …

Security 6 Jul 2004, 12:24
Ofcom appoints Last Mile adjudicator

Local loop unbundling. Here we go again

Ofcom is appointing a regulator to watch over local loop unbundling - the process of disconnecting the last mile of BT's network from the exchange to the customer's home or office. Oftel, Ofcom's predecessor tried to encourage unbundling from 1999 - but with little success. According to Ofcom, unbundling will help speed …

Telecoms 6 Jul 2004, 12:30
We name new Dr Who intergalactic übervillain

Exclusive Terrifying robotic entity unveiled

We believe that we may have solved the mystery surrounding who will star as intergalactic übervillain in the forthcoming relaunch of Doctor Who. In the absence of the Daleks - who dismally failed to reach terms with the BBC and have since been spotted terrorising New York - writer Russell T Davies promised viewers that the …

Bootnotes 6 Jul 2004, 12:31
Deutsche Telekom to unite 'half the world's Wi-Fi hotspots'

But when?

Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems has pledged to unite half the world's hotspots in a bid to grab a major share of the emerging Wi-Fi roaming market. T-Systems is DT's IT&T infrastructure outsourcing operation. Earlier this year, it launched the T-Systems WLAN Roaming Platform (WRP) to enable wireless ISPs to provide their …

Wireless 6 Jul 2004, 13:02
Bagle source code unleashed

Tools for s'kiddies

Virus writers are distributing viral source code with the latest version of the Bagle virus series, Bagle-AD. Much like its 29 predecessors, Bagle-AD is a mass-mailing worm that is packed using UPX file compression. IT comes in the form of a password-protected .ZIP file, with the password included in the message body as plain …

Anti-Virus 6 Jul 2004, 13:22
Dell ships first Euro Linux business PCs

Indirectly

Dell's European operation launched its first Linux desktops today, offering an Optiplex 170L mini-tower system with the Linspire 4.5 distro pre-installed and the PC giant's tech support bundled. Well, sort of. Go to Dell's website and you won't be able to configure an Optiplex PC with anything other than Windows XP Pro or Win2k …

Channel 6 Jul 2004, 13:33
Putting the 'vision' in Macrovision

CEO Bill Krepick gives forth

This year's horizons for Macrovision, the highly valued content protection company, include a system to defeat file-sharing, a new, more effective, CD copy protection system and a shot at an interoperable Digital Rights Management system of its own. The first two of these systems are virtually ready to go and CEO Bill Krepick …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 14:24
Hatch's Induce Act comes under fire

Congressman Boucher weighs in, guns blazing

US Congressman Rick Boucher took up arms against the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act bill, being brought before Congress right now, in a website interview at Inside Digital Media this week. In answer to questions put by IDM's Phil Leigh, Boucher made it clear that he would fight tooth and claw to prevent the new bill …

Music and Media 6 Jul 2004, 14:25
Academy backs 'pirate-proof' tech for Oscar samplers

But will movie biz bite?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has sanctioned the use of 'pirate-proof' DVDs to allow Oscar voters to preview the movies they're supposed to have seen before choosing their favourite director, actor, gratuitous use of the word f**k in a serious screenplay, etc. If it wins the support of the studios, the move …

Music and Media 6 Jul 2004, 14:26
Cisco manual goes online for free

Self-publishing is go

Matt Basham teaches the Cisco Certified Engineers course so when he wrote a textbook he aproached Cisco to see if they were interested in publishing the book to help students doing the course. Cisco was not interested, so Basham decided to publish the book himself. Basham, who teaches at St Petersburg College, Clearwater, …

Data Networking 6 Jul 2004, 14:35
So why does Vodafone filter block Sky News?

Questions. Questions

Vodafone's new mobile content filtering system, designed to stop children accessing Web nasties with their mobiles, raises more questions than it answers. In January, the major UK operators agreed to implement a content filtering system, with an independent body in place to rate content, by the end of the year. Vodafone has …

Mobile 6 Jul 2004, 14:56
Veritas lowers Q2 forecast. Investors lower Veritas

Unpatriotic blame cast on US

Weak sales in the US have forced Veritas to lower its second quarter earnings forecast today - a move poorly received on Wall Street, where investors pummeled Veritas shares. Veritas is now looking for second quarter revenue to come in between $475m and $485m. This is a serious drop from the $490m -$505m range provided by …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 15:03
IT services vendors bask in sunny quarter

Recovery continues in Q2 2004

The IT services sector continued its steady recovery in the second quarter of 2004, with significant growth in the value of major contracts announced during the period. ComputerWire tracked a total of 416 IT services contracts announced during the quarter, worth a combined total of $44.1bn. These included all disclosed IT and …

Hardware 6 Jul 2004, 15:04
Brits fear online shopping

Don't fear the Web, it is your friend...

British consumers are scared of shopping online, even those who do shop online say etailers could do more to make them feel safer. Of those who shop online 69 per cent think etailers could do more to make them feel safer. One in five Internet users have never bought anything online. Half of those who had never shopped online …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 15:08
UK train firm rolls out Wi-Fi to all travellers

Wireless Internet no longer a First Class privilege

UK rail company GNER today granted its Second Class passengers access to its train-wide Wi-Fi network. To date, wireless Internet access has been the privilege of First Class ticket holders. First Class passengers will continue to be offered the service free of charge, as part of their ticket. However, Second Class travellers …

Wireless 6 Jul 2004, 15:56
Acquisitor takes control of Baltimore

Coup d'etat

Bermuda-based Acquisitor Holdings has finally ousted the board of former e-security company Baltimore Technologies after months of acrimonious debate. Following a combined extraordinary general meeting (EGM) and annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday, six Baltimore directors were replaced by Acquisitor senior management. The …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 16:24
HP moots handheld PC comeback

Tide turning towards portable form factor?

Notebook-style mobile devices based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system could make a return to the mass market courtesy of Hewlett-Packard. Speaking with ComputerWire on a recent visit to HP's Office of Strategy and Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, center director Niklas Johnsson said it was possible that HP would re- …

Mobile 6 Jul 2004, 16:25
Astronomers probe star wrapped in comets

Tau Ceti dubbed 'Asteroid Alley'

A group of professional UK star gazers says that huge numbers of comets and asteroids encircle our nearest sun-like star, Tau Ceti, making it extremely unlikely that life has had a chance to evolve on any planets in the system. Tau Ceti is a mere 12 light years away - the astronomical equivalent of just round the corner.. It is …

Science 6 Jul 2004, 16:26
BOFH: Addressing the Computer Usage Policy

Episode 22 Shredders at the ready

BOFH 2004 Sometimes, the urge to strangle someone is so strong it's almost as if there's a higher power calling you to follow your instincts… Take today, for instance. A normal, ordinary day at Mission Control. The usual bunch of what the PFY and I refer to as idiot calls, but nothing untoward or out of the ordinary. A day …

BOFH 6 Jul 2004, 16:32
An IT director's lot is not a happy one

Tense, nervous headache

IT security is becoming a major cause of executive stress, according to a brace of surveys out today. Nearly a third (30 per cent) of IT directors polled by Hitachi Data Systems admitted that data security issues were likely to keep them awake at night. This figure was up by 10 per cent since the same survey question was asked …

IT Director 6 Jul 2004, 16:57
Open source miracle horse stuns MS Japan

It's an immaculate OpenOffice gestation

Microsoft can roll out countless studies that point out how proprietary software is cheaper and more practical than open source code. But how can Microsoft counter open source software's ability to make a Japanese woman give birth to a horse in a convenience store? That's the question being raised by Japanese software pioneer …

Applications 6 Jul 2004, 19:54
The CD roars back from the dead

Analysis Funny that, it never went away

The decision by the Bertelsmann Music Group to slash CD prices in Germany only marks the latest stage in the comeback of a supposedly outmoded medium. The CD is alive and well after all, it seems. In truth, it never really went away. CD sales have rocketed in 2004 - they topped 300 million units in in the first six months, up …

Financial News 6 Jul 2004, 21:50