2nd August 2004 Archive

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Apple's Jobs undergoes cancer surgery

Like the iMac, back to work in September

Apple CEO Steve Jobs went under the knife this weekend, undergoing a medical operation to remove a cancer tumour from his pancreas. In post-op email to employees, Jobs said that though the operation been successful, he would be away from Apple throughout August for recuperation. In his stead, he leaves worldwide sales and ops …

Mac Channel 2 Aug 2004, 07:04
Tropical storm delays Mercury mission

Take-off put back 24 hours

The launch of the Mercury Messenger probe, the first mission to study Mercury in more than 30 years, has been put back by 24 hours, mission controllers said today. The spacecraft was due to launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre at 6:16 this morning, but the launch was scrubbed when Tropical Storm Alex got a little close for …

Science 2 Aug 2004, 09:30
Lycos Inc. flogged for $105m

Korean portal in charge now

Korea's top portal - Daum Communications - is to buy Lycos Inc. for $105m (£57m) as part of a move to break into the US Internet market. Said Daum in a statement by way of The Korea Times: "Through the acquisition, we plan to establish our presence in the US, one of the fastest growing Internet markets in the world, and set the …

Telecoms 2 Aug 2004, 10:02
Long-awaited IE patch (finally) arrives

Praise be!

Microsoft released an unscheduled security patch on Friday designed to fix a trio of serious security problems affecting users of its ubiquitous Internet Explorer Web browser. All three of the security vulnerabilities might be exploited to take control of vulnerable systems, so patching is a necessity. The flaws involve: an …

Security 2 Aug 2004, 10:08
Etailers face tough times

It's about price

Internet retailers are still facing an uphill struggle to convince punters that shopping online isn't just about picking up a bargain. According to the latest research from Mintel, the single most important reason for consumers to shop online is price. The importance of stuff like reputation and brand comes way down the list. …

Small Biz 2 Aug 2004, 10:37
Net vigilantes target 419 sites

48-hour flash mob protest

Artists Against 419 (AA419) has organised a 48-hour online protest against advanced fee fraud, otherwise known as the 419 scam. The protest is an organised version of the SlashDot effect – whereby a huge number of visitors turn up at a site, overwhelming its bandwidth allocation. The virtual flash mob began at midnight on 1 …

Music and Media 2 Aug 2004, 10:47
Anti-spam spamvertisers agree to quit

Cynical pop-up campaign squashed

A Californian company last week promised to stop promoting its ad-blocking software using Internet pop-up ads. San Diego-based D Squared Solutions reportedly used the Messenger function built into Windows to spamvertise its "anti-spam" services. Its cynical marketing tactics caught the attention of regulators the Federal Trade …

Spam 2 Aug 2004, 11:56
Siemens touts Blackberry-based business phone

SK65 sports rotate-out QWERTY keyboard

Siemens today launched the world's first handset to fully integrate RIM's Blackberry message and personal information application suite, targeting the phone straight at the enterprise. With email users in mind, the SK65 sports a novel rotate-out QWERTY keypad. Unlike the Nokia 6820, the Siemens model doesn't rely on the …

Mobile 2 Aug 2004, 12:26
Rio pitches Carbon player at iPod Mini

Diamond, graphite or buckyball?

Rio will take the fight to Apple's iPod Mini this month when it ships its latest hard drive-based MP3 player, Carbon. The new machine uses Seagate's recently announced 1in ST1 hard disk, which offers 5GB of storage, 1GB more than the iPod Mini. To date, Rio has partnered with Cornice for micro hard drives. Cornice is now the …

Mobile 2 Aug 2004, 12:45
It's OK to boil your memory card: official

But don't crucify it, it'll break

If you ever want to destroy a digital camera’s memory card, don’t bother putting it through the wash or hitting it with a sledgehammer as neither will guarantee destruction. According to a Digital Camera Shopper magazine investigation cited on The Beeb, five of the main memory card formats - CompactFlash, Secure Digital, xD, …

Peripherals 2 Aug 2004, 13:32
ADSL migration made easier

AOL, BT, Wanadoo etc co-operate

Swapping broadband providers should be a lot easier following the introduction of a new migration process backed by BT Wholesale and the industry's major players. The Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) process should mean that punters can sign-up to new providers with the minimum of hassle. Up until now, punters have often …

Telecoms 2 Aug 2004, 13:48
Beckham penalty outrage ball to tour UK

Goooooal! for charity

England fans may get a chance to take a spot kick with the same ball David Beckham hoofed over the bar during disastrous England's penalty shoot out against Portugal this summer. Canadian casino site GoldenPalace.com recently bought the ball used in Beckham's infamous penalty kick for €28,050 (£18,500) after it was up for sale …

Bootnotes 2 Aug 2004, 14:30
China terminates 700 sites in porn crackdown

220 people arrested too

China's crackdown on pornograhy is gathering pace following reports that 700 Web sites have been shut down and 220 people arrested as authorities try to censor XXX sites. Last month China announced plans to crack down on adult websites with officials claiming that the "rampant" increase in online porn is damaging the moral …

Music and Media 2 Aug 2004, 14:44
IBM eFuse to yield self-repairing, self-regulating CPUs

Mighty Morphin' PowerPCs

IBM's Power 5 processor cores will be able automatically to repair and remodel themselves - albeit in a limited way - to improve their performance and power consumption characteristics. So claims Big Blue, which this weekend said Power 5 and other upcoming processors will feature what it calls a "breakthrough chip morphing …

Servers 2 Aug 2004, 14:52
Captain Cyborg to risk all for science

Heroic sacrifice to advance humanity

The release of the film I, Robot has given mainstream media another opportunity to wheel out Prof. Kevin Warwick, aka Captain Cyborg. Warwick, who UK tabloid The Sun breathlessly describes as: “the first person in the world to have a computer chip implanted successfully into his body”, now says that he will have a chip …

Bootnotes 2 Aug 2004, 15:20
Al-Qaeda cyber terrorist panics US

Weapons of mass inconvenience

It is likely that New York City, Newark, New Jersey, and Washington, DC have been put on Orange Alert, the second highest of the Department of Homeland Security's confusing color codes, on the basis of information gathered during the arrest of a reputed al-Qaeda computer engineer in Pakistan on 13 July. Captive Muhammad Naeem …

Business 2 Aug 2004, 15:36
Sun turns WSJ into Novell buy spin machine

Schwartz plays the press

You have to give credit to Sun Microsystems' President Jonathan Schwartz. He knows how to play the media well. And one of his finest press goading moments since becoming Prez has come in the form of a non-story about Sun potentially acquiring Novell. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal captured some astonishing stuff coming out …

Software 2 Aug 2004, 17:31
Veritas makes Linux as strong as Solaris

LinuxWorld Carly Fiorina's birthday port

While best known as a Solaris bedfellow, Veritas Software continues to make strides deeper into the Linux camp, announcing today several new products for the open source operating system, a Unix to Linux porting tool and its membership in the OSDL (Open Source Development Lab). Most notably, Veritas has now brought its Storage …

Storage 2 Aug 2004, 20:49