26th July 2004 Archive

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Sun's Opteron fleet finally goes on sale

Witness the x86 grandeur

Sun Microsystems has finally made the shift from key Opteron braggart to key Opteron vendor with the release of three new systems. At long last, Sun's four processor Sun Fire V40z server and W1100z and W2100z workstations have gone on sale. All of the systems run on AMD's latest Opteron chip and complement Sun's existing two …

Servers 26 Jul 2004, 05:41
Real to 'free' iPod from iTunes Music Store

Harmony tunes player into Rhapsody

Real Networks has effectively reverse engineered Apple's iTunes Music Store DRM system, FairPlay, having failed to persuade the Mac maker to license the technology. Real will this week issue a beta release of Harmony, a Rosetta Stone for DRM, that promises to allow users to convert one copy-protection mechanism to another. In …

Music and Media 26 Jul 2004, 09:08
UK newspapers hop on music download bandwagon

Buy copies, download free songs

UK national newspaper The Sun and London local rag the Evening Standard have hopped onto the digital music bandwagon through joint promos with two UK-based online music services. This weekend, the Sun began a summer-long deal with Napster, providing readers with 10,000,000 free songs. The Sun promises an "accompanying …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 09:37
HP boss hits 'short-sighted' analysts

Hung, drawn and quartered

Carly Fiorina, chief executive of HP, has criticised equity analysts for placing too much importance on quarterly figures. She said some analysts have unreasonable expectations of technology companies. "I think the market has emerged from Enron and Tyco and all those scandals. It is going back rapidly to 'a quarter is …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 09:57
Schwarzenegger virus terminated

Hasta la vista, malware

Virus writers have moved on from using Osama bin Laden's "suicide" as a lure to trying the same trick with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Last Friday VXers seeded multiple Usenet groups with messages saying Osama bin had killed himself, pointing users towards "photographs" illustrating the momentous news. In reality these images …

Malware 26 Jul 2004, 10:06
Hynix reports record profit

Strong sales and cost-cutting

Cost-cutting and strong demand from digital cameras and LCDs pushed Hynix to an all-time-high profit figure during its second fiscal quarter, the company reported today. Net profit for the three months to 30 June hit KRW620bn ($532m), the largest in the company's 21-year history. This is a 62 per cent jump over Q1's income of …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 10:07
Vodafone: thin in Japan

Tops forecasts elsewhere

Vodafone has had a good first quarter but is still suffering in Japan where lack of handsets and problems with 3G drove down sales and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Revenue for Vodafone Japan fell six per cent in the three months ended 30 June 2004. The Japanese subsidiary now has 13.2m subscribers and churn numbers are …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 10:09
Newbie ISP offers PAYG broadband

Slams 'Jack of all trades'

New-kid-on-the-block ISP Lixxus has unveiled a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) broadband package which charges customers based on how much they use their service. Charges range from a few pence to fractions of pennies per Mb, depending on how much the service is used. The important thing for subscribers is that the cost of the service is …

Telecoms 26 Jul 2004, 10:15
Goth sysadmins rage against Reg music machine

Letters Cradle of Filth

We're not yet sure whether or not our Mother of all Music Polls will confirm that developers prefer Megadeth to Mozart, but we have already been able to draw some interesting conclusions from the exercise. The most striking is that a taste for certain musical genres will erode the faculties which allow the average person to …

Letters 26 Jul 2004, 10:24
King Arthur and his Bytes of the Round Table

Exclusive A 13TB storage epic

Does anyone still say "The camera never lies?" Well, maybe it doesn't - but the film projector certainly does, which is why London post-production house Cinesite needed 14TB of top-of-the-line storage from Network Appliance for its work on King Arthur, the latest Hollywood historical epic. It's fascinating to see the sort of …

Storage 26 Jul 2004, 10:27
Intel mobile, desktop chips for the chop

EOLs 130nm parts

So farewell, 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz Northwood Pentium 4. Goodbye, 2.2GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz, 2.6GHz 2.8GHz, 3.06GHz and 3.2GHz Mobile Pentium 4. Cheerio, 1GHz Ultra-low Voltage Pentium M. Ta-ta, 2.2GHz, 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz Mobile Celeron. Clear off 1.2GHz Celeron M. You have all been given notice by Intel that you will be discontinued. …

Channel 26 Jul 2004, 10:29
Microsoft makes $2.69bn in Q4

Not quite good enough for Wall Street

Microsoft made a profit of $2.69bn for the fourth quarter ended 30 June 2004, on sales of $9.29bn - up 15 per cent on the same period last year. But shares fell three per cent in late trading, because profit per share was 28 cents, missing analysts' expectations of 29 cents. Revenue from "Server and Tools" grew 20 per cent …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 11:30
WAT makes websites accessible

Web Adaptation Technology for elderly and disabled

IBM has developed a service called Web Adaptation Technology (WAT), which allows disabled users to make standard web pages (including those that are not W3C compliant) more accessible without having to delve into their desktop operating systems. Users access standard websites via a host system and a small program downloaded to …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 11:32
BayStar sets lawyers on SCO

It ain't over, till it's over

SCO's attempts to rescue its relationship with BayStar Capital, its biggest backer, have come to naught. On Friday morning, Eastern time, SCO announced that the stock buyback deal it agreed with the unhappy investment firm had closed. Two hours and five minutes later, Baystar issued a statement saying that a) no it hadn't and b …

Applications 26 Jul 2004, 11:35
Eclipse stars with BT's Wi-Fi network

Lunar hotspots

Eclipse Internet is to resell BT's public Wi-Fi service, offering customers the chance to use their broadband on the move. Eclipse is the first ISP to hook up with BT to use its Openzone Wi-Fi access points. The service is due to be made available in September, but Eclipse is still finalising details. Subscribers will have to …

Wireless 26 Jul 2004, 11:56
Skype preps pre-pay service for the world

Anytime, anyplace, anywhere....

Voice over IP specialist Skype has signed carrier agreements with four companies as the first stage in offering VoIP calls from any computer, with Skype software, to any landline in the world. The pre-pay service, called SkypeOut, will allow broadband customer to make calls which are mostly routed over cheaper Internet …

Data Networking 26 Jul 2004, 12:15
Sage co-founder goes to Glasgow

Wylie picks up another reseller, and a chief exec

The co-founder of Sage, Graham Wylie, is continuing his shopping spree for UK resellers who target small and medium-sized businesses. Wylie, and his Technology Services Group (TSG), bought Geordie Sage reseller Joynson in October 2003 and in June 2004 he bought Edinburgh-based Nordic Data. In total, the firm has made six …

Channel 26 Jul 2004, 12:35
IBM 'readying dual-core G5'

PowerPC 970MP could get Apple to 3GHz at last...

IBM is preparing a dual-core version of its 90nm PowerPC 970FX processor - aka the G5. Codenamed Antares, the chip will be delivered - likely in sample form - to Apple later this summer. So claim "well-placed" but unnamed sources cited by Think Secret. In fact, the content of the story comes from a series of posts on the …

Mac Channel 26 Jul 2004, 12:58
AMD knocks up to 30% off Athlon 64 prices

But FX and XP prices rise

AMD adjusted its desktop processor pricing today, cutting what it charges for Athlon 64 processor by up to 30.9 per cent while increasing the cost of its Athlon 64 FX chip and some Athlon XP parts to compensate. The chip maker also took the axe to a stack of lower-end Athlon XP parts presumably to make room for August's …

Channel 26 Jul 2004, 13:30
dabs.com owner goes on TV

Atherton broadcasts to the nation...

David Atherton, the founder of dabs.com, is launching his own interactive shopping channel on digital TV. Technology TV goes live from 18 October on the Sky platform. The station claims an equal divide between editorial and interactive sales programmes. It hopes to tempt viewers looking to learn about new technology and …

Channel 26 Jul 2004, 13:52
Vegas braces for DEFCON

Preview Showtime

The bill has been finalised for DEFCON, the largest hacker gathering in the world, which kicks off this weekend. In between frightening the locals, strong-arming the one-arm bandits and defacing each other's websites conference delegates can look forward to an interesting array of talks. Highlights include a session on quantum …

Enterprise Security 26 Jul 2004, 13:54
IT industry warned over wasted money

UK biz not happy

Four in ten of the UK's bosses reckon they've wasted money on new technology. Although a third admit that were to blame for a dodgy purchase, a quarter blame the IT industry for selling them duff kit. So says the Sage Business Heartbeat Survey, which also found that many company bosses rely on friends, family or colleagues for …

Small Biz 26 Jul 2004, 13:55
Seagate extends HDD warranties to five years

Mainstream drives now match enterprise products

Hard disk maker Seagate has upped the duration of key product warranties to five years. The company already offers five-year warranties for enterprise drives, but in a bid to differentiate its products and cope with the price war that has hit all the major vendors, Seagate today extends this to all internal HDDs for desktop and …

Channel 26 Jul 2004, 13:59
Asteroid named after Dill Faulkes

Contribution to boffin cultivation

Dill Faulkes, a British entrepreneur, has had a minor planet named after him in recognition of his contribution to science education. The asteroid 1999 PY, which orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, has officially been dubbed "47144 Faulkes". It was discovered on 7 August 1999 by Jana Tichá and …

Science 26 Jul 2004, 14:54
Google prices IPO, names ticker

All a GOOG

Google has set the pricing for its public flotation. Trading under the stock-ticker GOOG, the company will make 24.6 million shares available for between $108 and $135 a share, of which $14m represents new equity. This represents nine per cent of the company, a stake worth $2.6bn and $3.32bn, which values the company at a …

Financial News 26 Jul 2004, 15:00
3 signs up Argos

Mail order giant gets 3G jiggy

Catalogue shop Argos is to start selling pre-pay video mobile phones from 3. With 550 shops across the UK Argos claims to be within ten miles of 95 per cent of the British population. Handsets from NEC and LG are available. 3 phones will also be included in the Argos catalogue, which the company says can be found in two thirds …

Mobile 26 Jul 2004, 15:01
IBM wins Bradford IT gig

£100m up for grabs but the staff are revolting

IBM and IT Net are the preferred bidders for a massive contract for Bradford council. The consortium beat off competition from Atos KPMG. About 135 council workers will move jobs as part of the outsourcing contract. The City's IT staff were threatening strike action to prevent job losses but trade union Unison and the council …

IT Director 26 Jul 2004, 15:04
US Wi-Fi operators inch towards roaming

SBC, Sprint strike deal

US public WLAN operators are beginning to lose their fear of co-operation, and strike roaming agreements with rivals. Sprint and SBC Wi-Fi users will be able to access hotspots from either network, although Sprint only has twelve of these nationwide, and SBC around 1,800. Roaming is essential if public WLAN is to move beyond …

Wireless 26 Jul 2004, 15:07
Macrovision preps '99% effective' CD lock-in tech

Supports burning - if the labels allow it

Copy protection software developer Macrovision is set to roll out an updated version of its CDS 300 system that it claims can beat attempts to bypass Windows' auto-run feature but goes some way to balance that by allowing users to burn copies of the CD for personal use. CDS 300 was launched earlier this year and like older …

Music and Media 26 Jul 2004, 15:47
Microsoft touts AMD, snubs Intel with Yukon beta

SQL Server 2005 comes to the masses

Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 database has reached the plebs in the form of a beta 2 release that includes, among other things, support for AMD's Opteron processor but not for Intel's similar 64-bit Xeon chip. The upcoming database - code-named Yukon - is now available to some 500,000 MSDN subscribers here. Close to 3,000 select …

Applications 26 Jul 2004, 17:51
EC accuses Vodafone, O2 of overcharging

Roaming far and wide

The European Commission has accused Vodafone and O2 of overcharging overseas operators for roaming services. Vodafone and O2, two of the largest UK-based mobile network operators (MNOs), have been sent "statements of objections" by the European Commission in relation to the wholesale rates they have charged other MNOs for …

Mobile 26 Jul 2004, 20:15
Google goes gimpy from MyDoom infection

Worm variant triggers search paralysis

A variant of the MyDoom worm this morning triggered an unfortunate mini denial of service attack on a number of search engines - most notably Google. User reports have poured in to The Register noting that numerous searches have turned up nothing but error messages. Google is blaming MyDoom.O for the problem, saying the worm is …

Malware 26 Jul 2004, 20:23