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3rd August 2004 Archive

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  • DARPA figures out how to run a $2m robot race

    Grand Improvement with revised rules

    Hoping to make the $2m Grand Challenge live up to its name, DARPA officials have proposed a much more thorough set of qualification procedures and rules for the second running of the race. DARPA on Monday released its outline for the Grand Challenge II robot race to be held in October of next year. Prospective contestants have …

    Science 3 Aug 2004, 02:06

  • SMEs slap hard cash on the IT table

    But who wants to take it?

    While IT spending at the top end of the market has stalled in the last four years as enterprises attempt to drive greater efficiencies out of the infrastructure they acquired in the late 1990s, SMEs have continued to invest in technology and related services at a steady rate. The small and medium-sized enterprise sector has …

    Small Biz 3 Aug 2004, 07:56

  • Learning to use the C word

    Site Offer Programming in C at 30 per cent off

    The C programming language is the father of most modern structured programming languages, with descendants such as Java, C++, and C#. It's currently enjoying a new life among small device programmers and game programmers, where its simple elegance makes it the ideal choice for small fast programs. Stephen Kochan' revised …

    Site News 3 Aug 2004, 08:17

  • Intel backs in-flight Wi-Fi initiative

    Chocks away for the mile-high wireless club

    An initiative supported by Intel is in the final stages of outlining a method to disable the radio transmitters of handheld devices during aircraft takeoff and landing. The development should help pave the way to greater freedom to use wireless-enabled mobile devices while in the air. The work has been carried out by RTCA, a …

    Wireless 3 Aug 2004, 08:44

  • Consumers want widescreen notebooks - analyst

    US sales of 15.4in laptops rocket

    The 15in widescreen-format display has emerged as the consumer's ideal notebook screen size, according to market watcher Current Analysis' latest stats from the US. The company's figures show increasing sales of 15.4in widescreen notebooks through the first half of 2004, apart from a slight dip in May. That month was also a …

    Channel 3 Aug 2004, 09:01

  • June world chip sales top $17.8bn

    Up, up and away... except in Europe

    Global chip sales more than maintained their momentum during June, rising 2.8 per cent on the previous month and 40.3 per cent on June 2003's sales to $17.8bn, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), has revealed. During Q2, some $53.5bn worth of semiconductors were sold around the world, up 9.5 per cent on Q1's $48.8bn …

    Channel 3 Aug 2004, 09:20

  • Pru pulls out of great Egg race

    Cans plans to sell Internet bank

    The Prudential has canned plans to flog its stake in UK Internet bank Egg claiming that it makes better financial sense to hang on to it. Today's announcement ends months of speculation that the Pru would cash in on its 79 per cent stake in Egg. A number of companies - including US investment bank, JP Morgan, MBNA, Capital One …

    Financial News 3 Aug 2004, 09:24

  • Mercury mission blasts into solar orbit

    Messenger probe safely en route

    The Messenger probe - headed for a rendevous with Mercury - lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida this morning on board a three-stage Boeing Delta II rocket. The craft was placed into a solar orbit just 57 minutes after launch, and at this point it automatically deployed its solar panels and began sending …

    Science 3 Aug 2004, 09:43

  • One man and his dog and his laptop

    Review Voice recognition in the field

    Quocirca's man in the field, Jon Collins, takes a hands-on look at voice recognition. Armed with nothing more than a laptop in a rucksack and a dog, he gamely battles to bring you the following: This is an attempt to dictate a document using voice recognition. I am doing this slightly differently to how I would normally. For a …

    PCs 3 Aug 2004, 10:02

  • Mozilla to pay bounty on bugs

    Wanted: Dead or alive

    Users who identify and report serious security vulnerabilities involving Mozilla are to be rewarded for finding bugs in the open source Web browser software. The Mozilla Security Bug Bounty Program, launched yesterday, promises a reward of $500 to anyone who finds a "critical" security bug in Mozilla. What constitutes critical …

    Enterprise Security 3 Aug 2004, 10:06

  • Tyan samples 64-bit Xeon mobos

    Tower, 1U versions on offer

    Tyan has followed the arrival of Intel's 'Nocona' 64-bit capable Xeon DP chips with four motherboards geared up to support the new processor. Two products - the Thunder i7520 and Thunder i7520R - are based on Intel's 'Lindenhurst' E7520 chipset and are aimed at tower and 1U rackmount form factors, respectively. Both provide …

    Channel 3 Aug 2004, 10:11

  • Intel preps chip to link 3G, Wi-Fi networks

    Roaming from cells to hotspots

    Intel is preparing a wireless chip capable of talking to both Wi-Fi and 3G mobile phone networks, the company has revealed, and is gearing up for a major announcement on Wi-Fi and cellular roaming in the coming months. The chip giant has also said it will ship a joint 802.11a/g product this autumn. The Wi-Fi/3G part emerged on …

    Mobile 3 Aug 2004, 10:40

  • Reg reader tackles Kodak digital print booth

    Letter Blow-by-blow account of man/machine interface

    Earlier this month we ran a short piece on UK pharmacy chain Boots' plan to deploy Kodak digital print booths in 1,000 of its stores across the UK. This provoked a flurry of correspondence questioning whether or not they they actually worked and/or represented good value for money. We're obliged, then, to reader Simon …

    Letters 3 Aug 2004, 11:11

  • Small.biz faces higher broadband charges

    Not exactly the way to attract customers

    SMEs will have to pay more for their ADSL after BT increased the wholesale cost of its business class broadband products. In a circular to ISPs yesterday, picked up by the most excellent ADSL Guide, BT said the increase to its BT IPStream Office and BT IPStream S products would come into effect on 1 September. The wholesale …

    Small Biz 3 Aug 2004, 11:26

  • Tories say yah-boo-sucks to speed cameras

    Pledge to scrap some, if elected

    In a shameless piece of electioneering, the Tory party has launched a new assault on speed cameras by pledging to scrap all those shown not to reduce accidents - if it wins the next general election. The party says that the speed traps are merely cash generators, not life-savers, and accuses the government of "waging a war on …

    Bootnotes 3 Aug 2004, 11:34

  • Wi-Fi 'sniper rifle' debuts at DEFCON

    Putting the war back into war driving

    Conventional Wi-Fi aerials are all well and good but they don't really cut it if you want to impress fellow hackers and scare the general populace. Forget a modified Pringles can - what you really need at somewhere like last weekend's DEFCON shindig is something that looks like an M-16 but with its firing mechanism replaced by …

    Bootnotes 3 Aug 2004, 11:43

  • IBM gives code to Apache open sourcerers

    Half a million lines of Cloudbase

    IBM is donating half a million lines of code from its Cloudscape database to the open source community, care of the Apache Software Foundation. IBM said the move would spur the development of Java applications, The FT reports, acknowledging the contribution open source developers can make to corporate strategy. The move also …

    Developer 3 Aug 2004, 11:51

  • Treat yourself to a big plate of Java servlets

    Register Training Comprehensive new course

    This month's featured new course on the Register's Training Site is a comprehensive examination of Java servlets. Our training operatives have sent the following explanatory blurb: The Servlet API was developed to leverage the advantages of the Java platform to solve the issues of CGI and proprietary APIs. It's a simple API …

    Site News 3 Aug 2004, 12:20

  • AMD Opteron noses into Euro x86 server sales

    The effect of big-name vendors?

    Opteron-based servers are finally starting to chip away at Intel's market share in Europe, market watcher Context has revealed, though the numbers are unlikely to cause a panic among the chip giant's employees. During Q2, Opteron kit took 0.45 per cent of x86-based server shipments made through resellers in Europe's seven …

    Servers 3 Aug 2004, 12:31

  • ATI unveils top-end AGP FireGL card

    Powerful... and pricey

    ATI will ship its latest workstation-class graphics card, the FireGL X3-256, later this month, the company said today. The successor to the X2-256T, the X3-256 provides the same 256-bit memory bus, connected to 256MB of GDDR 3 memory. The new GPU provides 12 pixel pipelines fed by six geometry engines, up from its predecessor's …

    Channel 3 Aug 2004, 13:55

  • Ofcom to crack down on premium rate scamsters

    'Bout time too

    Ofcom is to crack down on premium-rate phone thieves who rip off punters by conning them into racking up costly phone calls. The communications regulator's decision to beef up protection for consumers follows a surge in complaints from punters who've been tricked into connecting to dodgy premium-rate services. Announcing a …

    Telecoms 3 Aug 2004, 14:22

  • UK.gov deploys IT early warning system

    Updated Faster alerts on security threats

    The National Information Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC) - the UK government body that provides security advice to organisations responsible for critical services - is to team up with NGS Software in producing early warning notices about pending IT security problems. Information about security problems, along with …

    Security 3 Aug 2004, 14:28

  • Wanadoo seals distie deal with Time

    Software appearing on a PC near you soon

    Wanadoo UK - which changed its name from Freeserve in April - has signed a major distie deal with PC outfit Time Group. Sources claim Wanadoo UK edged out Tiscali and BT to win the dial-up and broadband gig although no one at the ISP was prepared to comment on the industry whispers. Neither was the ISP prepared to reveal the …

    Channel 3 Aug 2004, 14:42

  • Shackling the email content beast

    Integrated solutions to smut, spam and other nasties

    Email is such an essential tool that it is no longer sufficient to merely treat it as a means of communication. Instead, it is the lifeblood of an organisation - it is where our orders and complaints come in, and one of the main means by which we communicate our messages and business results to the outside world. Spammers know …

    Enterprise Security 3 Aug 2004, 14:55

  • Trojan poses as Berg video footage

    Sick claim used to peddle malware

    Virus writers have moved on from using Osama bin Laden's or Arnold Schwarzenegger's supposed suicides as a lure to trying a similar trick involving "footage" of slain American captive Nick Berg. VXers have seeded multiple Usenet groups with messages claiming Berg is alive and well in Iraq and pointing users towards supposed …

    Malware 3 Aug 2004, 14:57

  • US terror alert becomes political football

    Update Crying wolf at great public expense

    As we reported recently, the latest ratcheting up of the terror threat level in the United States was based on captured documents dating back some time. In that article, we observed that it was "not clear whether any of the information recently obtained relates to current or future schemes." We can now address that question …

    Music and Media 3 Aug 2004, 15:15

  • UK councils failing to meet e-services deadline

    Culture shock main impediment to CRM deployment

    A survey of local authorities in the UK has revealed that more than half have yet to install any kind of customer relationship management (CRM) system as part of their efforts to meet the 2005 deadline for offering their services electronically. System integrators NDL, found that one of the main impediments reported was that …

    Public Sector 3 Aug 2004, 15:26

  • Freelancers fret over tangle of EU red tape

    Employment rules could hurt IT contractors

    The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) is worried that the UK's contractors could get tied up in a tangle of red tape if the Government signs up to proposed employment rules which would extend full employment rights to temporary workers. Under the proposed European Agency Workers Directive, temporary workers would benefit …

    Small Biz 3 Aug 2004, 16:06

  • Flash cards also invulnerable to Segway attack

    Letters Oh, and we are insensitive clods...

    We've never shied away from controversy, so, in keeping with the spirit of the fightin' Reg, let's kick off letters with a scoot through Segwayville, and see what you lot made of the Segway poll: You missed out; Toy for sad people with more money than sense. Usually bought by people who have a iMac, iPod, and think that they …

    Letters 3 Aug 2004, 16:25

  • The Merry Bloggers set out on 'Segway across America' trek

    4,300 miles, two testicles and an iPod

    Back in the good old days, strong men such as Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey went screaming across the great American highways with heads hopped full of sour mash and benzedrine. They performed lewd acts, taunted the police, harassed the stiffs and produced great art. These days we're left with four twenty-something …

    Bootnotes 3 Aug 2004, 18:14

  • Internet addicts sent home from Finnish military

    Too depressed to shoot anything

    It used to take a bum leg or a penchant for same sex love to get out of the army. These days, however, young Fins are using Internet addiction as a means of avoiding required military service. Finnish "packet poppers" sent off for service have exhibited painful longing for their PCs - a longing so profound that military doctors …

    Music and Media 3 Aug 2004, 20:15

  • US looks to be master of Aussie IP

    iPod ban part of free trade?

    Australia has edged closer to embracing some of the least favorable aspects of US intellectual property law, including the DMCA, by agreeing to a trade agreement between the two countries. Aussie Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush today promoted the free trade pact that will remove tariffs on a number of …

    Music and Media 3 Aug 2004, 22:45