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13th July 2004 Archive

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  • Shock therapy not used in movie downloading study - official

    MPAA cooks the books

    "About one in four Internet users have downloaded a movie," begins a recent, much-publicized report on online file-trading. Thing is, the statement is not even almost true. Last week, the Online Testing Exchange (OTX) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) shocked the world with their "one in four" claim. The two …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 2004, 00:12

  • Apple 'close' to accord with indie labels

    iTunes may at last get White Stripes et al

    Apple is close to signing a deal with major players in the UK independent music label community, sources familiar with the talks' progress have claimed. According to the Times, an announcement that the iTunes Music Store will get access to key indie acts like the White Stripes and Basement Jaxx could come as early as today. …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 08:53

  • mmO2 hunts prepaids with German coffee chain

    JV with Tchibo

    mmO2 and coffee chain Tchibo are teaming up to establish a virtual mobile network in Germany. mmO2 claims 1.39m German customers already, but the Tchibo joint venture will target lower-spending pre-pay customers. In a brief statement mmO2 said: "Over the next 12 months, the Hamburg-based operation known as Tchibo Mobilfunk GmbH …

    Mobile 13 Jul 2004, 09:22

  • LA court demolishes Paris Hilton

    $30m invasion of privacy lawsuit dismissed

    A Los Angeles court has dismissed Paris Hilton's $30m invasion of privacy lawsuit against the Internet company which owns the rights to the infamous skin-flick of the hotel heiress getting down-and-dirty with her former squeeze. The reasons for the dismissal are unclear, Reuters reports. UK tabloid the Sun, however, reports …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 2004, 09:24

  • Developers' sneak peek at SQL Server 2005

    Site Offer Save 30% at the Reg Bookshop

    Few technologies have been as eagerly anticipated as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 ("Yukon"). A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers gives you the benefit of three SQL Server insiders, delivering a definitive hands-on and preview which is accurate, comprehensive and packed with examples. A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for …

    Site News 13 Jul 2004, 09:25

  • Have you downloaded movies from the Internet?

    Poll We give the MPAA a helping hand

    We at Vulture Central are completely shocked, nay flabbergasted, this morning by the revelation today that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been a little "creative" with its figures regarding illegal movie downloads. To summarise, the MPAA has declared that "About one in four Internet users has downloaded a …

    Bootnotes 13 Jul 2004, 09:27

  • Wall Street bears take a swipe at chip stocks

    Merrill Lynch downgrades industry

    Merrill Lynch (ML) has issued a bearish warning to holders of chip industry stocks: sell your shares or risk further declines in value. "Semiconductor equities offer no upside from current levels,'' the investment bank told clients. "Stock prices have declined, but we believe that they have the potential to decline further." …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 09:28

  • Chip-making kit vendors toast bumper year

    And reduced but still strong growth in 2005

    Chip-making equipment manufacturers together expect sales to grow 63 per cent to $36.2bn this year, from 2003's $22.2bn total, the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi) organisation, said yesterday. Growth will slow in 2005, with sales rising 24 per cent to $44.9bn, before contracting in 2006. Semi's …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 10:02

  • Egg flees France

    Oeuf sur le visage

    Egg, the UK e-bank, is fleeing France and 450 employees. The cost of extricating itself from this debacle is €170m. Prudential, the insurance firm and majority owner of Egg, has put the group up for sale, and US credit card firms and UK banks are said to be sniffing. But Egg is unwilling to pump in the money to turn round the …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 10:15

  • 8,000 bloggers born every day

    Of which 2,880 annoy family, and 960 get sued

    Weblog search engine Technorati says it is now tracking over three million weblogs, with 8,000-17,000 new blogs created every single day. That means that a new weblog is created somewhere in the world every 5.8 seconds. Of these, a reported 36 per cent irritate friends or family with their twitterings, while a staggering 12 per …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 2004, 10:19

  • Sony to unveil PlayStation 3 early '05

    Then hands-on demos at E3

    Sony will unveil the PlayStation 3 early next year shortly after its PlayStation Portable (PSP) goes on a sale in Japan and just before the handheld console ships in the US and Europe, the consumer electronics giant revealed yesterday. While most press reports have centred on Sony Computer Entertainment chief Ken Kutaragi's …

    Consoles 13 Jul 2004, 10:46

  • Help the Aged Data

    ILM - the new black

    ILM, or Information Lifecycle Management as it likes to be known formally, is employed in the areas of storage and storage management. At heart ILM is the management of tiered storage to provide cost effective, robust management of data as it ages. And it is becoming an increasingly popular TLA (three letter acronym). Why? As …

    Storage 13 Jul 2004, 10:53

  • Symantec buys anti-spam firm TurnTide

    In brief For the routing technology

    Symantec has bought TurnTide, an anti-spam start-up, for $28m cash. The acquisition comes on hot on the heels on Symantec's much larger deal to buy spam filtering firm Brightmail for $370m. TurnTide launched its first anti-spam router product in February. Its technology works by limiting the bandwidth available to machines …

    Spam 13 Jul 2004, 10:54

  • Cisco wins jumbo VoIP contract

    In brief Boeing signs up for IP phones

    Cisco will provide VoIP equipment to create a unified voice, video and data networks for Boeing. The US aircraft maker has run a VoIP trial since 2001 using 4,500 Cisco IP phones in Missouri, Texas, Utah and Washington. It expects make significant maintenance savings with the converged network, but no value was put on the …

    Data Networking 13 Jul 2004, 11:22

  • 419 closure upsets Reg reader

    Letters: Not as much as software patents do, though

    Let's kick off with a 419 letter. We reported on the closure of the online front of a UK-based 419 advance fee fraud gang, following our investigation of a scam recently run by the group. Not everyone was happy to see them go: 'Tis a shame sites like this have to be shut down... surely it is perfect justice that anyone stupid …

    Letters 13 Jul 2004, 11:23

  • IBM offshores 500 UK jobs to India

    Exclusive Contractors jobs sub-contracted

    IBM is to move 500 UK jobs to India as part of a reorganisation of its outsourcing business, according to internal memos seen by The Register. According to the IBM memo, the consultation on the reorganisation involves 6,100 people. "We believe that between 1,000 and 1,500 people may have to consider taking IBM Standard Mobility …

    IT Director 13 Jul 2004, 11:30

  • Google to list on NASDAQ

    Tweedledee. No, Tweedledum

    Google is to trade its shares on NASDAQ, ending months of speculation. Some had favoured the New York Stock Exchange, which has redoubled efforts in recent years to lure big technology companies seeking to avoid associations with new economy rivals and the tech sector in general, which was tarnished by the downturn. Google, one …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 11:46

  • BT broadband users can't find Geocities

    Mysterious outage

    BT broadband customers are unable to access Geocities websites. The sites have been inaccessible for several days, according to BT Openworld customers who have written to The Register. Customers using dial-up accounts can access the site as normal. One Reg reader wrote: "I been unable to access any geocities websites these past …

    Telecoms 13 Jul 2004, 12:09

  • Sony to launch e-money scheme

    It was five years ago today... 13 July 1999

    In the heady days of the infancy of e-commerce, the fate of the well-worn leather wallet bearing fivers seemed sealed. Cash? Soon to be a thing of the past: Sony to launch e-money scheme By Tony Smith Published Tuesday 13th July 1999 14:51 GMT Sony is hoping to become a key e-commerce player when it launches a digital …

    Public Sector 13 Jul 2004, 12:10

  • Sony sued in digicam patent clash

    Not by Kodak, for a change

    Sony was slapped with a patent infringement lawsuit and application to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of its PDAs and digital cameras. The lawsuit and import ban request come from technology development and licensing company Ampex. It claims Sony's PDAs and digicams violate its patents for the …

    Peripherals 13 Jul 2004, 12:39

  • Sharp turns to Symbian

    Looking for overseas sales boost

    Sharp will begin shipping Symbian-based handsets next year in a bid to grow its share of the mobile phone market outside Japan. Sharp currently uses its own phone OS, Itron, and incorporates it into handsets sold domestically by NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone. According to Sharp Communications Systems president Masafumi Matsumoto, 70 …

    Mobile 13 Jul 2004, 13:04

  • Barclaycard dumps Mac users

    All very mysterious

    Anyone trying to pay a Barclaycard bill from an Apple Mac in the last six weeks or so, has run into a small problem. The site won't take their money. A frustrated journalistic comrade-in-arms, and long time Mac fan contacted El Reg with the news. During his conversations with customer services he discovered that 'less than' 100 …

    Mac Channel 13 Jul 2004, 13:45

  • Red Hat restates results

    It's all about subscriptions

    Red Hat is changing the way it accounts for revenue from software subscriptions. The Linux specialist's new accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers, objected to the way it counted subscriptions on a monthly basis. From now on it will recognise such revenue on a daily basis. And it will restate its accounts for the financial year …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 13:48

  • Japan orders Microsoft to change OEM licenses

    MS may appeal

    Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered Microsoft to remove restrictive clauses from OEM contracts with PC vendors and to ensure that it does not add such restrictive clauses again. But it is not fining the software giant, which has until 26 July to appeal the decision One would think that Microsoft would take this one …

    Channel 13 Jul 2004, 14:04

  • Reg hack instructed to 'get a life'

    FoTW Brevity often best

    Flames, like all works of art, are very personal things. Sometimes a flame will bear all the neccessary attributes of its genre, and yet it leaves the reader cold, and wondering why they even bothered trying to stir things up in the first place. On other occassions, you'll have no idea what the person is ranting about, and yet …

    Letters 13 Jul 2004, 14:05

  • AMD loses Euro mobile market share to Celeron

    Low-end notebooks in demand

    AMD's notebook CPUs have taken a hammering in Europe this year, market watcher Context revealed today. During the first five months of 2004, AMD's share of notebook PCs sold through resellers - rather than direct from vendors to end users - fell from 16.7 per cent in January to 10.7 per cent in May. That leaves Intel with just …

    Channel 13 Jul 2004, 14:10

  • LaCie pumps up 1.6TB enormo-drive

    Sacre bleu

    French hard drive maker LaCie last week announced the latest in its line of colossal external drives: a 1.6TB (1600GB) monster. The enormous Bigger Disk Extreme (BDE) can transfer data at up to 85MBps and is being pitched at video professionals. To get that kind of performance you'll need a rig with a Firewire 800 800Mbps port …

    Storage 13 Jul 2004, 14:37

  • NHS squares EDS over nixed email deal

    C&W picks up the reins

    EDS and the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) have reached an "amicable" settlement over the termination of the IT services giant's contract to manage email for the 1m NHS staff. Cable & Wireless is to take over the contract. Under the terms of the settlement, EDS is to retain responsibility fthroughout the hand-over, so …

    Public Sector 13 Jul 2004, 15:54

  • UK military bans iPods - some places

    Updated In the line of fire

    The UK's Ministry of Defence has banned Apple iPod music player as a security risk, Reuters reports. It thinks the high-capacity devices could be used to steal sensitive data. The digital music player is a number of devices the MoD will no longer allow into its offices in the UK or abroad. But hold on: the MoD is telling the …

    Enterprise Security 13 Jul 2004, 16:02

  • Data glitch halts satellite launch

    Ariane 5 back to the shed for repairs

    The launch of the Telesat Anik F2 satellite has been postponed, apparently due to an anomalous data check. Arianespace has not yet announced a new launch date. The satellite was to provide Broadband connectivity to much of the North American continent, including distance learning and e-health services. It was due to take off …

    Science 13 Jul 2004, 16:03

  • IBM gives Unix servers a Power5 injection

    Sun and HP under the gun

    IBM's already strong Unix server line just got stronger today with the announcement of a new line of Power5 processor-based systems. By the end of August, IBM will deliver three new Power5 servers that stretch from the low-end to midrange. The p5 520 will ship with two processors and be followed by the four-processor p5 550 and …

    Servers 13 Jul 2004, 16:31

  • Google and Yahoo! go shopping

    Photos and feeds on tap

    Google and Yahoo! have spiced up their search and portal operations via acquisition. Google has purchased Picasa - a digital photo management company. Earlier this year, Google tapped Picasa's technology for its Blogger service, hoping to make it easier for users to put up their photos. Secretive as ever, Google has yet to say …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 18:37

  • Microsoft preps Marketplace

    Toronto Psst! Need an approved dealer?

    Microsoft is to build an online marketplace to help customers find approved vendors of hardware and software. When it first launches, Windows Marketplace will concentrate on packaged hardware and software, and downloadable software. The site will initially be limited to the US, expanding to other countries later on. In due …

    Channel 13 Jul 2004, 19:04

  • DNS changes to take minutes (instead of hours)

    Atlas shrugged

    VeriSign is to rapidly update Domain Name System (DNS) records every few minutes instead of only twice a day. From 8 September changes in the .com and .net zones will take an estimated five minutes to propagate across all 13 .com/.net authoritative name servers. The old systems will remain there for those who don't want to make …

    Data Networking 13 Jul 2004, 19:08

  • Ballmer has seen the future, and it’s Danish

    Toronto Microsoft gees up the channel

    Steve Ballmer has seen the future, and it’s Danish. At least, he’d like it to be. It’s not Denmark’s bacon, or its viking-hatted football fans the Microsoft CEO admires, but the Danes’ matchless appetite for Microsoft Business Solutions. Talking at Microsoft’s World Wide Partner Conference in Toronto, he explained how Denmark …

    Applications 13 Jul 2004, 20:04

  • Companies adapt to a zero day world

    Patchy record

    Financial institutions with critical systems and cash on the line are reorganizing to deal with the closing gap between the hole and the patch. Zero day exploits are upon us. Case in point, the 25 June Russian attacks that turned IIS servers into delivery platforms for identity-thieving Trojan keystroke loggers. The attacks …

    Enterprise Security 13 Jul 2004, 21:06

  • Intel flashes investors with Q2 revenue jump

    Smooth sailing

    Motherboards and flash memory sales drove Intel to a strong second quarter, as total revenue jumped 18 per cent year-over-year, the company reported today. Intel reported revenue of $8.05bn, which compares to $6.8bn posted in the same quarter a year ago. Intel's net income also surged, rising 96 per cent to $1.8bn in this year' …

    Financial News 13 Jul 2004, 21:07

  • Lucent scores $5bn Verizon Wireless contract

    Network upgrades for mobile computing

    US telecoms equipment maker Lucent Technologies has signed a $5bn contract to supply Verizon Wireless with equipment, network management software, and services, the companies announced today. The contract renews a 2001 deal between the two. Lucent shares rose nine cents to $3.47 in mid-day trading on the news. The deal is …

    Mobile 13 Jul 2004, 21:18