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22nd July 2004 Archive

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  • Novell nets Salmon

    In brief Consultancy room

    Novell has bought Salmon, the Watford, UK IT consultancy firm, to beef up its European enterprise consulting and services operations. Terms of today's transaction were not disclosed. According to a joint statement, Salmon's expertise in delivering web-based technology projects to enterprises will add to Novell’s existing …

    Applications 22 Jul 2004, 08:38

  • Cottage shop games pirate, spammer and pornographer jailed

    Three for the price of one

    A prolific counterfeiter was sentenced to three-and-a-half year’s imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court this week, after he was caught with an estimated quarter of a million pounds worth of pirated merchandise. John Lamb, 45, of Llanharan near Bridgend, South Wales pleaded guilty to 22 counts of Trade Mark offences and five Video …

    Channel 22 Jul 2004, 08:41

  • Lucent raises sales outlook

    A little momentum

    Lucent Technologies has posted an increase in revenues and raised its sales outlook for the year on the back of strong demand for its wireless services. The US-based telecoms equipment manufacturer recorded an 11.4 per cent rise in revenues in fiscal Q3 2004, to $2.19bn, (Q3 2003: $1.96bn). This figure was a little below …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 08:58

  • Mio launches MS smartphone in UK

    On paper - no hardware for '3-4' weeks...

    Newly formed Mitac subsidiary Mio Technologies launched its first smart phone in the UK last night, but its not yet clear when or how buyers will be able to get their hands on the handset. The Mio 8390 is based on Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphones, running on a 200MHz Intel XScale PXA255 processor backed by 32MB of …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2004, 09:02

  • Digital storage and archiving = digital decay?

    The quantity challenge

    Commercial enterprises invariably store information and records, which may be required for a range on external demands, primarily legal and regulatory. The rationale is that huge quantities of data and records can be stored, retained on a more cost effective, efficient basis and accessed on a timely basis. There is a similar …

    Storage 22 Jul 2004, 09:08

  • Reg reader in Intel Shroud epiphany

    Jesus really is inside

    The revelation yesterday that one UK church had swiped Intel's "intel inside" concept and turned it to the service of the Lord provoked a veritable mass exodus of emails from El Reg readers. Most were pointing out that the "jesus inside" gag had been around since, well, let's put it this way: Methuselah himself probably wore a …

    Bootnotes 22 Jul 2004, 09:10

  • The mainframe is back

    So it went away, then?

    So much for the "dinosaur" label. Sales of IBM's mainframe, now referred to as the zSeries, are growing at remarkable rate, not experienced since its heyday - indeed if current mainframe growth continues, then the mainframe is emerging like a phoenix from the flames. In its latest earnings report, IBM showed mainframe revenue …

    Servers 22 Jul 2004, 09:24

  • Wall Street slaps eBay for missing 04 target

    You naughty ecommerce company

    Share in online auctioneers eBay took a tumble yesterday after the company warned that earnings would not meet Wall Street expectations for 2004. Market confidence was dented despite a quarter of growth which beat eBay’s own, and Wall Street’s expectations. eBay said its earnings for 2004 would reach $3.185bn. Wall Street was …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 09:26

  • Consumers go crazy for MP3 players

    Will buy 10.8m of them this year

    Apple's iPod will have grabbed a commanding quarter share of the portable digital music player market by the end of the year as consumers binge on the Flash and hard drive-based devices. So claims UK market watcher Informa Media, which yesterday claimed consumers will buy 10.8m players this year. That represents a doubling of …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2004, 09:41

  • STMicro Q2 sales up despite shipment problems

    Strong year-on-year growth

    Europe's biggest chip maker, STMicroelectronics, said sales had grown seven per cent between its first and second quarters, but 27.6 per cent over the same period last year. For Q2 2004 STMicro reported revenues of $2.17bn, up from Q1's $2.03bn and Q2 2003's $1.70bn. The company had expected Q2 2004's figure to be higher, but " …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 09:58

  • BT on child porn stats

    Replies to ISPA's concerns

    BT insists that any attempt to identify the number of people accessing illegal content on the Internet is "pure speculation". Its response follows calls for independent analysis of its Cleanfeed Web filtering system because of concerns that the data might be giving a misleading picture of the scale of Internet child abuse. …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2004, 10:45

  • Samsung chases Intel with 80% sales growth

    Top Ten chip makers revealed

    Intel remains at the top of the chip making totem pole, but it's taking a smaller share of new business than some of its very much smaller rivals, the latest ranking from market watcher IC Insights reveals. The figures, for H1 2004, show the likes of Samsung, Texas Instruments, TSMC and Infineon making big year-on-year revenue …

    Channel 22 Jul 2004, 10:47

  • Semprons to match Athlon XP performance...

    ...with slower, cooler cores

    Details of AMD's upcoming 32-bit microprocessor line, Sempron, have emerged courtesy of motherboard maker Jetway. AMD has said officially that the first Semprons will ship in H2 2004, so any time from now on, in other words. However, it's believed that the company has an August ship-date in mind. The first Semprons are …

    Channel 22 Jul 2004, 11:06

  • Roll up for the UKUUG Linux Technical Conference

    Reader offer Reg readers get £10 off Leeds bash

    Between 5 and 8 August 2004 the fair city of Leeds will host the annual UKUUG Linux Technical Conference, described as “a great way to broaden your knowledge and keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the world of Linux”. We’re sure that it will be, and doubtless a “great way to take large quantities of real ale with fellow …

    Developer 22 Jul 2004, 11:19

  • IT revolution threatened for US health service

    Electronic records, the works

    The US department of Heath and Human Services (HSS) has published an 10-year plan to revamp the healthcare system. The great news for Americans is that the plans include the introduction of electronic health records (long-touted in the UK as the solution to everything that is wrong with the NHS); a network linking all these …

    Public Sector 22 Jul 2004, 11:27

  • 'Frivolous' workers fritter away time online

    Beats working

    British office workers are spending almost half their day surfing the Net and sending emails, according to employment law firm Peninsula. Its nationwide survey found that the problem is getting worse, with workers spending, on average, three hours a day online, compared to two hours in 2003. The legal firm reckons this " …

    Small Biz 22 Jul 2004, 11:42

  • EDGE reaches treble figures

    3G ramping 'faster than GSM'

    The long wait for 3G to mature has resulted in a boom for upgrades to "2.75G" that few predicted eighteen months ago. The GSM vendors' trade association says that carrier upgrades to EDGE have topped three figures. 103 carriers have committed to upgrade to EDGE in 64 countries, and 27 are already providing commercial services, …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2004, 11:53

  • Toshiba touts Qosmio notebook as media centre

    Laptops for living rooms

    Toshiba today launched its assault on consumer's living rooms with a notebook family it hopes will wrest the emerging digital convergence market away from Media Center desktops. Jointly announced in Japan, the Far East, Europe and the US, the Qosmio provides what Toshiba calls the "four-in-one" entertainment experience: it's a …

    Channel 22 Jul 2004, 12:00

  • Kyocera offers iPod Mini-matching digicams

    Cash-in opportunity ahoy!

    Kyocera is preparing to cash in on demand for Apple's iPod Mini digital music player with a range of digital cameras that will ship in similar metallic pastel shades as the hard-to-get-hold of MP3 machine. The Japanese company today unveiled the Finecam SL400R family in its home market, and said they cameras will only be made …

    Mac Channel 22 Jul 2004, 12:18

  • Egg still hasn't got a buyer

    Lower losses

    Seven months on the block and Egg still hasn't found a buyer. The British e-bank-cum-credit card outfit today announced a better set of interims, bringing the haemorrhaging French arm under control, more or less, to come in at a loss of £4m for the half year. Same period last year, it lost £23m. But a quick look at the share …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 12:57

  • German dealer jailed for MS packaging fraud

    Reboxed academic versions

    A German software dealer has been sentenced for five-and-a-half years for repackaging cut-price Microsoft software intended for schools and reselling them as full versions. The fraud, which saw Ralph Blasek repackage 32,000 units of software, cost Microsoft an estimated €4.5m. Blasek resold the boxes through his dealership, …

    Channel 22 Jul 2004, 14:23

  • BBC Tech staff to vote again for strike action

    Revised offer

    Workers at BBC Technology are to be balloted again on strike action after Siemens, the company fingered to take over the operation on September 1, offered a new set of assurances for staff facing privatisation. Staff had already voted overwhelmingly to strike following an earlier ballot this month over concerns about terms, …

    IT Director 22 Jul 2004, 14:26

  • Spammer charged in huge Acxiom personal data theft

    Hack to spam indictment

    A Florida man has been charged with stealing a vast quantity of personal information from Acxiom, one of the world's largest database companies. Scott Levine, 45, of Boca Raton, Florida, was this week indicted for 144 offences in connection with the alleged attack including "conspiracy, unauthorized access of a protected …

    Spam 22 Jul 2004, 14:33

  • P2Pers: we can make file-sharing secure and outsell iTunes

    New Heart waxing yields 2000 song sales

    In a bid to persuade the music industry that P2P networks can encourage legal file-sharing, P2P companies today claimed that more people have bought tracks from Heart's new album, 'Jupiter's Darling', via the likes of Grokster, Morpheus and Kazaa than through Apple's iTunes Music Store. So far, the album's 16 songs have yielded …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2004, 14:34

  • CE firms drawn to magnets for wireless MP3 players

    Exclusive Non-radio stereo audio comms chips

    Creative Technologies is preparing a wireless digital music player, the company behind the technology has revealed. We're not talking Bluetooth or Wi-Fi here, but a short-range personal area system that doesn't use radio and is as near free from interference as makes no odds. Instead of the 2.4GHz radio spectrum, fabless …

    Mobile 22 Jul 2004, 15:24

  • BCS tells techies to pull up socks

    Professional standards will boost public confidence

    The British Computer Society has widened its membership criteria in a bid to promote professional standards in IT, and boost public confidence in IT systems. The BCS said that the image of the profession was in dire need of an overhaul, following numerous high-profile IT failures. A recent BCS report, The Challenges of IT …

    IT Director 22 Jul 2004, 15:58

  • OpenOffice.org learns Welsh

    Mewngofnodi!

    OpenOffice.org, Sun’s open source office software package, is now available in Welsh from Meddal.com. The package includes a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing and presentations package, and a Welsh language spell checker. A group of Welsh language enthusiasts has joined forces to do the bulk of the translation in their spare …

    Applications 22 Jul 2004, 16:00

  • BT cuts cost of SDSL

    Tries to tempt SMEs

    BT is to cut the wholesale cost of its symmetric business broadband products in a bid to kick-start demand for SDSL. From 21 October, the wholesale connection charge for BT IPStream Symmetric and BT DataStream Symmetric products will be cut from £450 to £225 for orders completed by 24 February, 2005. SDSL (Symmetric Digital …

    Small Biz 22 Jul 2004, 16:05

  • Judge hands paedophile 10-year Net ban

    Plus two-and-a-half years' jail

    A convicted paedophile was banned from Internet chat rooms for ten years yesterday after pleading guilty to possessing images of child abuse involving boys as young as 18 months old. Christopher Dunkley, 36, from Great Yarmouth, was also jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting 19 charges of making and six charges of …

    Music and Media 22 Jul 2004, 16:09

  • Qualcomm stops whingeing, reaps WCDMA goldmine

    Minting it

    WCDMA, the rival flavor of 3G that Qualcomm has for so long disparaged, helped the company to bumper profits in the last quarter. Before tax, Qualcomm grossed a profit of $668m on revenue of $1.34bn in the third quarter of fiscal year 2004. That's a net income ten per cent higher than the preceding quarter, and 71 per cent …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 16:23

  • Verizon launches VoiceWing™ Net phones

    WingedPigs™ to fly soon?

    Verizon today announced the introduction of Internet phone calls in 134 area codes in the US. The VoiceWing VoIP service will be priced at $39.95 and requires a broadband data connection. But fear not, Verizon will happily sell you one of those through its DSL division, in which case you'll qualify for five bucks off the monthly …

    Telecoms 22 Jul 2004, 18:22

  • SAP hits the numbers

    Gaining ground

    SAP, Europe's biggest software firm, has seen profits rise as it continues to gain ground on rivals. Net profits jumped by 14 per cent year-on-year in Q2 to €249m, or €0.80 per share, broadly in line with forecasts. The was partly driven by a nine per cent increase in sales to €1.78bn. Market watchers were cheered by a 15 per …

    Financial News 22 Jul 2004, 22:57