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9th July 2004 Archive

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  • Newspaper discovers moderately happy Wi-Fi user

    Sponsors on a Train

    The New York Times, in its easily-disposable Circuits section, returns to the wonderful world of Wi-Fi. With last year's Wi-Fi bubble well and truly popped, reporting about the technology no longer has the gushing tone of a fundamentalist facing up to The Rapture. The wireless technology continues to spread, we're delighted to …

    Bootnotes 9 Jul 2004, 02:03

  • US Defense Dept tech crisis leaves Our Boys unpaid

    Cheney unbilled

    They say that slow and steady wins the race, but that's clearly not the case at the US Department of Defense (DoD) where years of big funding and bigger talk have done nothing to cure a computing crisis. A report from the General Accounting Office has chided the DoD for being big, slow, dumb and negligent - just not in such …

    Public Sector 9 Jul 2004, 02:26

  • Nextel vexes Verizon with $5bn spectrum swap

    Safety first

    In what the FCC chairman Michael Powell described as "the most difficult, complex and challenging issue" he's faced since taking the job seven years ago, Nextel has agreed to relocate its service onto new spectrum. The issue of interference in Nextel's 800 MHz band has alarmed the emergency services for several years. But the …

    Mobile 9 Jul 2004, 08:24

  • Patients, GPs to have a say on care record plans

    Mama, we're all stakeholders now

    The Department of Health (DoH) has set up a body to represent the interest of patients in the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Health Minister John Hutton said the Care Record Development Board (CRDB) "will ensure the NHS develops patient-centred care processes that are supported by the IT being delivered by the National …

    Public Sector 9 Jul 2004, 08:35

  • Intel preps autumn Pentium M price cuts

    Laying the ground for 533MHz FSB versions

    Intel will pare the prices of its Pentium M family in October, Taiwanese mobo-maker sources have claimed. The cuts will accompany the anticipated arrival of 90nm 'Dothan' PMs that can operate across a 533MHz frontside bus. Current PMs only support a 400MHz FSB. That in turn suggests Intel's 'Alviso' mobile chipset will ship in …

    Channel 9 Jul 2004, 08:58

  • Intel grows Socket T Celeron line-up

    Cheaper CPUs to push Grantsdale further into more price-points

    Intel is planning to offer more 775-pin Celeron D processors that originally thought, according to reports today. DigiTimes cites sources from among Taiwan's motherboard manufacturers, that the anticipated Socket T Celeron D 335 and 340 will now be joined by the 325 and 330. Intel's move to offer 775-pin 90nm Celerons was …

    Channel 9 Jul 2004, 09:15

  • CA misses sales target

    Holds steady on profits

    A weak performance from its services business dragged CA Q1 revenues below guidance. The software vendor now expects revenues for Q1, fiscal 2005 ended June 30 to come in at 830m to $850m, against earlier forecasts of $865m to $885m. Also contributing to revenue shortfall was higher mix of maintenance in the indirect business " …

    Financial News 9 Jul 2004, 10:59

  • Daleks, details and a downed Tornado

    Letters: Reg readers demonstrate aptitude for stamp collecting

    This week, you have mostly been bothered by Daleks. The news that the BBC is resurrecting the Time Lord, Dr. Who, has brought the faithful out in their thousands. Naturally, the tiniest detail of every scrap or sliver of news that makes its way into the press is to be picked up, savoured, and dissected for flaws. Ah yes: the …

    Letters 9 Jul 2004, 11:11

  • Vatican Library adopts RFID

    Mass movement

    The Vatican Library in Rome, home of nearly two million books, manuscripts and other items, has adopted radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to identify and manage a big chunk of its large collection. Systems integrator Seret s.r.l. has tagged more than 50,000 of the Vatican Library's 120,000 volumes in its public reading …

    Wireless 9 Jul 2004, 11:31

  • Mozilla bug rears its head

    Safe haven invaded, patch issued, calm restored

    A popular browser for Windows is subject to a security hole that creates a means for hackers to run malicious code on vulnerable machines. But this time, the vulnerability involves Mozilla and Firefox browsers - not Internet Explorer. Security researchers have discovered that users could be attacked by hackers using a bug in …

    Enterprise Security 9 Jul 2004, 11:32

  • EC to probe 3G content shutout

    Old media won't play ball

    EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti is to investigate if new media firms are being shut out from delivering valuable content to users. In comments delivered in Brussels at a workshop on access to quality audiovisual content in new media, Monti said the European Commission would keep a close eye on developments. The move …

    Mobile 9 Jul 2004, 11:59

  • Vodafone defends buggy content filter

    Brand protection or child protection?

    Vodafone UK has defended the early introduction of adult content filters for its mobile phone users, saying that the system is necessary to protect children. The operator launched the filters with great fanfare last week, five months ahead of the mobile phone industry's self-imposed deadline. However, aside from a smattering of …

    Mobile 9 Jul 2004, 12:13

  • Oi, Saddo, show us your home page!

    You want self-esteem? We'll give you self-esteem

    Got your own homepage? Then you are probably shy, sensitive to criticism and suffering from low self esteem. Chances are, you are male too. So says the psychologists of the Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT) in Germany, who interviewed more than 300 webpage owners. Some say that personal home pages are futile products of …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 13:04

  • Anatomy of a 419 scam

    Exclusive One victim's first-hand account of advance fee fraud

    Regular readers will be familiar with our ongoing coverage of variations on the 419 advance fee fraud scam. Occasionally, we report on people who have been suckered by the promise of riches beyond the wildest dreams of avarice - and duly fleeced for their trouble. Two oft-posed question from readers are "how could they be so …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 13:06

  • Toshiba bows out of PocketPC arena?

    Reports stack up

    Toshiba is gearing up to quit the PDA market, if reports citing a number of the company's European sales representatives are anything to go by. According to a report at Msmobiles.com, Toshiba representatives in Belgium told site correspondents who tried to by PocketPCs that the company will exit the PDA market by Q4. The site …

    Mobile 9 Jul 2004, 13:41

  • UK firm offers to double Wi-Fi range for a tenner

    Flat-pack 'Flatenna' to the fore

    Want to double the range of your Wi-Fi access point without resorting to pricey high-gain antenna upgrades or proprietary tweaks to the 802.11 standard? Then UK start-up Tritium reckons it has the answer. Enter the Flatenna, a DIY parabolic reflector which when punched out of its cardboard surround, assembled, mounted on your …

    Wireless 9 Jul 2004, 14:15

  • Japanese to tag schoolkids

    My first RFID

    Japanese primary school kids' bags will be tagged with RFID so that little darlings can be monitored on their way to and from school. The telecoms ministry has announced that a primary school in Tabe, Wakayama Prefecture, will test the scheme which will log when kids pass through the gates and warn the school when they stray …

    Wireless 9 Jul 2004, 14:53

  • Pink pound flexes muscle online

    It was five years ago today... 9 July 1999

    Our original intro to this 1999 outing of the power of the pink pound was "We're playing this one straight - honest". And so we did: Pink pound flexes muscle online By Tim Richardson Published Friday 9th July 1999 16:42 GMT E-tailers are being warned that they could miss out on a significant share of e-shopping revenue if …

    Financial News 9 Jul 2004, 14:54

  • Free Software Foundation Europe wants your money

    Putting the price tag on free software

    The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has launched a new fundraising campaign, following an EC decision not to award the group public monies. The group needs around €10,000 per month to keep going at its current level, and wants to double this budget so that it can expand its activities. It also wants to put down roots and …

    Operating Systems 9 Jul 2004, 15:02

  • Strategy Boutiques invade Japan

    LogoWatch Seeing red in Yokohama

    It's been a while since any company of note was suddenly gripped by the need to redefine the corporate identity paradigm, but the terrifying pestilence of rebranding madness has struck to shocking effect in Japan. The evidence suggests that Eudyna Devices Inc's Yokohama HQ must have recently suffered a visit from one or more …

    Bootnotes 9 Jul 2004, 15:08

  • Building bugs in double-quick time

    Never mind the quality, feel the speed

    The first bug was a small insect caught in an early 1940s computer. Today bugs are very different in their nature, and fixing and removing defects in computer systems has become a long and labor-intensive process. Software development project teams do little to help themselves, it seems. All too often, the focus of a software …

    Developer 9 Jul 2004, 15:19

  • Thus shares hit by profit warning

    Company blames broadband revolution

    Shares in Thus, the telco and ISP, hit the skids today after the group issued a full-year profit warning. Thus blamed the news on the British public's enthusiastic embrace of broadband, and ongoing problems in its other businesses. The news has come as something of a surprise, following recent positive spin on the same trend. …

    Telecoms 9 Jul 2004, 16:06

  • Archive.org suffers Fahrenheit 911 memory loss

    Opinion Online fire extinguished

    You don't often think about libraries in terms of strength. Few mayors tout the large sack of the local book depository or put it up against a massive skyscraper during PR stunts. Libraries are pretty passive creatures that receive some credit for the quantity of volumes they hold but not much credit these days for being …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 16:13

  • Iraq domain owner convicted

    Bayan Elashi and his four brothers face 10 years in US jail

    The current owner of Iraq's .iq domain has been found guilty along with his four brothers, of illegally shipping computer parts from the US to Libya and Syria. Bayan, Basman, Ghassan, Hazim and Ihsan Elashi have yet to be sentenced but face 10 years apiece. On top of this, all five of them will face a further trial in September …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 17:05

  • Nominet board results in

    Fresh blood at top of the UK registrar

    The results of the board elections for the .uk domain registrar are in - and it's out with the old and in with the new. Former member of its Public Advisory Board, Gordon Dick has been elevated to the six-strong deciding unit of Nominet, alongside existing board member Fay Howard. Unfortunately that means Stephen Dyer has been …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 17:13

  • Computer Security: a handbook for the ordinary user

    Book review Empowering Harry Homeowner

    It may seem a little self-referential to review a book by a colleague but Thomas C. Greene's Computer Security for the Home and Small Office is a well-written manual on computer security and online-privacy that's well worthy of your attention. Written with home users in mind, the book aims to demystify computer security and help …

    Enterprise Security 9 Jul 2004, 17:26

  • George Michael in negative chat room scandal!!

    Media-like anger triggers ego shutdown

    Blaming the media and the end of all that is good, George Michael decided this week to shut down the chat section of his website. Nasty comments about Michael looking tubby, old and tired also played a role in the decision, but Michael stressed that it was the media and the end of all that is good that were mostly to blame for …

    Music and Media 9 Jul 2004, 19:09