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15th July 2004 Archive

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  • UK IT recruitment hits two-year high

    Dust off your CV and get on your bike

    IT recruitment is looking better than at any time in the last two years, with two thirds of companies looking to recruit more staff in the next three months. The figures were gleaned by Reed Recruitment, which surveyed almost 1,500 organisations across the UK. Overall, 94 per cent of organisations expect to recruit IT staff in …

    IT Director 15 Jul 2004, 08:11

  • id Software RTMs Doom 3

    Straight to Hell

    Doom 3 has hit the CD pressing plants and will hit the shops on 2 August. id Software, the developer, modestly describes its creation as a "sci-fi horror masterpiece... Doom 3's dramatic storyline, pulse-pounding action, incredible graphics and ground-breaking technology combine to draw you into the most frightening and …

    Consoles 15 Jul 2004, 09:42

  • Gates stumps up $45m to fight TB

    Combating killer of the HIV-positive

    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has stumped up $44.7m to fund research into tackling tuberculosis (TB) - the leading cause of death among HIV-positive people. The cash will be used to formulate strategies to control TB in areas of high HIV infection rates. Foundation director Dr Helene Gayle - speaking at the 15th …

    Science 15 Jul 2004, 09:43

  • Gov.uk launches anti-fraud website

    One-stop shop for ID protection

    Mariam Abacha in Lagos The government has announced a new online "one-stop shop" to help prevent ID fraud. Home Office minister Des Browne today heralded the birth of www.identity-theft.org.uk, noting: "Having your identity stolen is very traumatic - it can take some victims up to 300 hours to put their records and their lives …

    ID 15 Jul 2004, 10:27

  • Swiss telco fined £50K for UK rogue dialling action

    Ordered to pay redress

    ICSTIS has fined a Swiss telco £50,000 for installing premium rate diallers for an Internet-based adult service onto the PCs of British members of the public, without their knowledge. DDD Com AG was also barred from offering premium rate services in the UK for six months and to offer redress to all complainants. Opera Telecom …

    Music and Media 15 Jul 2004, 11:02

  • Beckham penalty outrage ball lands on eBay

    €3,500 and rising

    The ball which David "Goldennads" Beckham thundered over the bar during the Euro 2004 penalty shoot-out against Portugal has landed on eBay. Of course, we all know that it was a combination of the heat/tiredness/the Swiss referee/the atmospheric pressure/Wayne Rooney's injury/the penalty spot/the "Roteiro" ball which saw …

    Bootnotes 15 Jul 2004, 11:19

  • Sony Ericsson debuts keyboard smart phone

    P910 to succeed P900

    Sony Ericsson today upgraded its P900 smart phone, adding a Blackberry-style QWERTY micro-keyboard to the handset in a bid to grab a bigger share of customers moving from PDAs. The phone maker also unveiled a more mainstream handset for the yoof market, including a new system to download music and other content to phones. The …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2004, 11:44

  • Sony Ericsson carries on making money

    Getting to be habit-forming

    This is getting to be a bit of a habit. Sony Ericsson has posted a quarterly profit, its fourth in a row. As the profit in question is for its fiscal Q2, it's a bit early yet for the mobile phone maker to uncork the champagne for a full financial year in the black. But indications are promising. The Japanese-Swedish mobile …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2004, 11:50

  • Forensic computing uncloaks industrial espionage

    Damning evidence wins case

    Forensic computing techniques proved decisive in winning a recent High Court action involving underhand dealings and industrial espionage in Britain's automotive tools industry. Computer forensics firm Vogon International was called in to help investigate the alleged theft of electronic copies of vital engineering drawings by a …

    Enterprise Security 15 Jul 2004, 11:58

  • Feds slap cuffs on US college eBay blaggers

    Sold stolen goods to fund education

    Five US students from Washington have had their collars felt after selling stolen goods on eBay to fund their way through college. The net closed on the quintet of Dillingers from Edmonds Community College and WSU after police were alerted to deliveries of electronic goods bought on stolen credit cards to addresses in …

    Music and Media 15 Jul 2004, 11:58

  • Guilty until proven innocent - DRM the mobile phone way

    Trying, but probably failing, to make phones pigopolist-friendly

    Digital Rights Management on mobile phones hasn't so far been much of an issue, but with highly capable multimedia devices and mobile music download services starting to appear, that is going to change. And the bad news for the consumer is that the phone industry appears to have learned from the PC business, where DRM can still …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2004, 12:18

  • The Great Utility Bill Swindle

    Average UK direct debit customer £125 in credit

    Given the obstreperous tone of letters from the UK's utility companies should you owe them more than around £2.50, direct debit customers may be surprised to learn that they are on average £125 in credit on their gas and electricity bills - 20 per cent of the annual mean spend. So claims Energyhelpline.com, an "independent …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2004, 12:43

  • Nvidia said to be working on GeForce 6800 LE

    Low-end version of top-end chip in pipeline?

    Nvidia is preparing a lesser version of its GeForce 6800 chip, the latest version of the company's drivers are reported to reveal. According to Chinese-language web site GZeasy, version 62.01 of Nvidia's drivers, which leaked out of the company recently, lists the GeForce 6800 LE among the supported GPUs. As yet, the part's …

    Channel 15 Jul 2004, 12:55

  • Bush to sign anti-phishing bill

    Mandatory minumum sentences for ID theft

    President Bush is poised to sign today a bill designed to combat the burgeoning crime of ID theft, particularly phishing scams. The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act (ITPEA) establishes "punishment guidelines for anyone who possesses someone else's identification-related information with intent to commit a crime", CNET …

    ID 15 Jul 2004, 13:21

  • Archos ships 'DVR to go' handheld video recorder

    Reg Kit Watch But more expensive than many laptops

    French portable media player specialist Archos has announced its latest video device aimed at consumers who want to record TV shows and watch them on the move. The AV400 series offers either 20GB or 80GB of storage for audio, video and still photography. There's the usual broad array of supported formats: MP3, WMA and WAV for …

    Mobile 15 Jul 2004, 13:37

  • The Great Enterprise IM love-in

    AOL, Yahoo! and MSN open up to businesses

    The three great public instant message suppliers are to open up their networks - but only for businesses. AOL, MSN and Yahoo! are backing an "unprecedented collaborative effort" to support Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. Using the software, companies can reach customers etc. through all the major IM networks …

    Hardware 15 Jul 2004, 13:53

  • Star Trek flat: yours for $1m

    Set phasers to stunned

    One ambitious Star Trek aficionado is offering his one-bedroom flat in Hinckley, Leicestershire for a cool $1m. This, however, is a pad with a difference - it's a complete Trekkie environment offering "LCARS, Ops units, voice activated lighting, back-lit panelling, various lighting effects, Transporter Pads and a full scale …

    Bootnotes 15 Jul 2004, 14:11

  • netReplay is watching you

    CCTV for the computer network

    UK firm Chronicle Solutions has launched netReplay, a content capturing product, which it describes as a CCTV for computer networks. NetReply is designed for easier storage and extraction of electronic communications, assists businesses in meeting requirements under new corporate governance rules. The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, …

    Storage 15 Jul 2004, 14:36

  • Man Utd enters free ISP race

    It was five years ago today... 15 July 1999

    Today's slurp from the stagnant pool of yesteryear is especially for El Reg hack John "Lips" Leyden, who is noted for being a bit of a Manchester United FC fan. That's the Manchester United who failed to take last season's Premiership title, in case readers had forgotten: Man Utd enters free ISP race By Sean Fleming …

    Business 15 Jul 2004, 14:37

  • SyChip gains Palm OK for Wi-Fi modules

    More WLAN-enabled Palm OS PDAs on the way?

    Wi-Fi module developer SyChip has joined PalmSource's Palm OS Ready programme in a bid to get its WLAN products built into more Palm-based handhelds. The Palm OS Ready scheme lists suppliers whose products can be quickly incorporated into Palm OS-based devices. Essentially, the OS has the drivers it needs to access the features …

    Wireless 15 Jul 2004, 14:42

  • Who conducts the crappiest polls?

    Poll MPAA versus El Reg: the Mother of all Polls

    Our recent poll to determine how many people actually download movies illegally from the Internet - as opposed to how many the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reckons are involved in this nefarious activity - caused a bit of a rumpus among Reg readers. The MPAA says that a quarter of Net users download films via …

    Bootnotes 15 Jul 2004, 15:25

  • History repeated as Apple slams CPU supplier

    G4... G5... Groundhog Day?

    In 1999 Apple complained that its chip supplier wasn't able to supply enough CPUs, forcing it to delay the introduction of a 500MHz Power Mac G4. Then, the supplier in question was Motorola. Yesterday, Apple made much the same complaint about its other chip supplier, IBM, claiming that its decision to delay the introduction of …

    Mac Channel 15 Jul 2004, 15:31

  • Judge will not dismiss 'Napster investor' suit

    Bertelsmann and Hummer Winblad have questions to answer

    A lawsuit brought against erstwhile Napster investors Bertelsmann and venture capitalist Hummer Winblad will not be dismissed, the action's judge has ruled. US District Court Judge Marilyn Patel said that the music industry had a case that Napster's one-time backers had to answer. Essentially, major labels EMI and Universal …

    Music and Media 15 Jul 2004, 16:00

  • Sun staff give birth to 64-bit Solaris on Opteron

    Java will work one day . . .

    "It's alive!" was the cry issued this week by the Solaris grunts at Sun Microsystems. For the first time, the engineers managed to get a true 64-bit kernel up and running on an Opteron box. This is a key milestone in Sun's ambitious plan to make Solaris a preferred operating system in the x86 world. The Solaris staffers sent …

    Servers 15 Jul 2004, 17:30

  • Hardware drives IBM in Q2

    Weak dollar dance

    It was business as usual for IBM in the second quarter, as the company posted modest gains and benefitted from a weak US dollar. IBM's services, storage and server businesses helped offset an underachieving software business, resulting in total revenue of $23.2bn. This is a 7 percent rise - or just 4 percent in constant …

    Financial News 15 Jul 2004, 22:30