16th August 2004 Archive

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LTO-3 bounces in ahead of schedule

Could it be third time lucky for Certance?

It's tape drive leapfrog again today, as Certance says it will ship LTO Ultrium 3 this autumn, ahead of its technology partners HP and IBM. The former Seagate subsidiary is also giving a boost to the current LTO-2 format, announcing a cheaper half-height drive aimed at the 'value' market. This should make up for Certance being …

Storage 16 Aug 2004, 08:25
Intel restrains Radio Free vision

Deployment schedule slows

It is almost two years since Intel’s chief technology officer, Pat Gelsinger, first coined the slogan ‘Radio Free Intel’ for his vision of a world where wireless connectivity is in every device down to the wristwatch and where these devices run on adaptive radios that move intelligently between available networks according to …

Wireless 16 Aug 2004, 08:57
Sluggish movement on power grid cyber security

'Doesn't go far enough'

One year after the worst blackout in US history drew attention to the fragility of the North American power grid, progress on protecting the grid from computer intrusions has been slow in coming. This week the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) - the not-for-profit industry group responsible for keeping …

Enterprise Security 16 Aug 2004, 09:31
Apple files 'chameleon' computer case patent

Glows in whatever colour you like

Apple has attempted to patent the concept of the chameleonic computer - a machine whose shell changes colour at the user's whim. The patent, number 20040156192 was filed in February 2004 and updated on 12 August. Describing an "active enclosure for computing device [sic]", the patent covers "a computing device [which] includes …

Mac Channel 16 Aug 2004, 10:02
AMD Athlon 64 sales forecast to rise 50% in H2

More, cheaper chips coming off AMD's production lines

Reduced prices and improving yields will boost AMD's Athlon 64 sales by 50 per cent during the second half of 2004. So claim sources from among Taiwan's motherboard and chipset developer communities, cited by DigiTimes. They also claim that Athlon 64-oriented mobos accounted for just five per cent of motherboards shipped …

Channel 16 Aug 2004, 10:24
China jails woman in porn crackdown

'Lewd' shows a no-no

A Chinese woman has been jailed for four years for running an online strip joint. Wang Yanli is believed to be the first woman to be banged up behind bars following China's tough new stand against Internet pornography. According to newswire reports, some 110 people had coughed up 600 yuan (£40) a year to watch Wang's "lewd" …

Music and Media 16 Aug 2004, 10:38
Taiwan ODMs signal notebook sales slowdown

Weak demand in H2

The sales slowdown reported by European notebook market watchers is being echoed by Taiwanese manufacturer Compal, which last week admitted that key vendors have been cutting back on the scale of their orders. The world's second-largest notebook ODM has consequently cut its forecast for the number of notebooks shipped overall …

Channel 16 Aug 2004, 11:05
AMD could ship a quad-core Opteron on 2007

Analyst bullish on chipmaker's dual-core confidence

AMD may "potentially" ship its first four-core Opteron processor in 2007, bullish Goldman Sachs analyst Andrew Root has claimed. The chipmaker has to get its dual-core parts out of the door first, of course, and that's not scheduled to take place until H2 2005, once it's ramped up its 90nm yields sufficiently to support the …

Servers 16 Aug 2004, 11:28
MS invokes DMCA to stop SP2 file sharing demo

Tilting at windmills?

Legal threats have stopped P2P activist group Downhill Battle from continuing to offer Windows XP Service Pack 2 through BitTorrent. Downhill Battle set up the SP2Torrent.com site to illustrate how file sharing technology can help distribute large files as an alternative to centralised distribution. It offered the 272MB file …

Music and Media 16 Aug 2004, 11:36
Ebookers ups revs, narrows losses

'Encouraging' signs

Ebookers reckons that the prospects for the online travel market look "encouraging", following the slow travel market in June caused, in part, because of holidaymakers staying at home and watching the Euro 2004 football championships. Trading so far in Q3 has improved and is now "in line with our expectations", the company said …

Financial News 16 Aug 2004, 11:40
HK feds bust illegal cricket fighting ring

Cops KO giant battling insects

Hong Kong punters with a penchant for the unusual will have to get their gambling jollies without the participation of giant insects after local police busted an illegal cricket fighting syndicate. Feds slapped the cuffs on 115 miscreants at what was apparently a sort of entomological Fight Club between belligerent crickets …

Bootnotes 16 Aug 2004, 11:55
Dell drops out of China's low-end PC market

Beaten at own game?

Dell has quit the highly competitive low-end PC market in China, focusing instead on higher-end kit and servers. The company's move, revealed by its Asia-Pacific chief, Bill Amelio, during an interview with Reuters, isn't entirely surprising. Western PC companies entered China's nascent PC market in the 1990s on the back of …

Channel 16 Aug 2004, 12:25
OFT fingers Bristol man over misleading data protection ad

SMEs beware

A Bristol businessman has been fingered by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for misleading small businesses over data protection legislation. Peter Hardy - who was involved with an outfit called "Data Protection Registration Department" based in Emersons Green, Bristol - has given written assurances to the OFT that he will no …

Small Biz 16 Aug 2004, 12:40
Data watchdog slams ID card plans

Docile Brits too ready to accept Big Brother surveillance

Britain is at risk “sleepwalking into a surveillance society” because of David Blunkett’s identity card scheme and other UK government plans, according to the UK's Information Commissioner. Richard Thomas also cited plans for a population register by the Office for National Statistics and a database on children, in warning of a …

Music and Media 16 Aug 2004, 14:05
IT staff strike 'indefinitely' in Swansea

Workers demand guarantees

One hundred IT staff at Swansea Council have begun industrial action today over plans to outsource the local authority's IT department to a private firm. All IT support has been suspended "indefinitely" - apart from the Child Protection Register, which will continue to be maintained by a special team. As a result, 20 other …

IT Director 16 Aug 2004, 14:16
On the Beastie Boys 'virus' CD

Review Does not attempt world domination

Widely-circulated claims that the Beastie Boys' new album To the 5 Boroughs exhibits virus-like copy-control behaviour are unfounded, according to tests. EMI's statement regarding these claims, however, is incorrect, since the album does install software if played on a Windows PC. The tests also show that the copy control system …

Music and Media 16 Aug 2004, 14:54
Net porn good for you: official

Ground-breaking Australian study

A government-funded study into porn consumption Down Under has concluded that a little of what you fancy might do you good - and may even make users "more relaxed about their sexuality" and lead to healthier marriages, news.com.au reports. The survey - nicely entitled "Understanding Pornography in Australia" and carried out by …

Music and Media 16 Aug 2004, 14:56
Infected PCs spew MyDoom variant

Business as usual

The MyDoom worm saga continued today with the release of yet another variant of the noxious email worm. The latest variant - MyDoom-S (AKA MyDoom-Q or MyDoom-R) - poses as a funny photographs in order to dupe users into opening an infectious attachment called photos_arc.exe. MyDoom-S runs when a Windoze user (Linux or Mac users …

Anti-Virus 16 Aug 2004, 15:02
Cut-down Windows will boost piracy - Gartner

XP Lite is a few spanners short

The Gartner Group has warned users to avoid Windows XP Starter Edition, the cut-price, feature-light version aimed at Asian markets. Analysts Dion Wiggins and Martin Gilliland don't think home users will miss LAN and file and print sharing features, but warn that users will dip back into the black market because they don't have …

Operating Systems 16 Aug 2004, 15:05
HP unveils Unix roadmaps

HP World Free Alpha upgrades to stem defections

HP will be a pitching a story of Unix harmony and advancement at its HP World user conference here this week. The harmony comes from better aligned processor and operating system support for HP-UX, and the advancement comes in the form of upgraded partitioning and clustering tools. Most of the new technology, however, will take …

Servers 16 Aug 2004, 16:35
McAfee buys Foundstone for $86m

In brief Risk management play

Security firm McAfee today announced a deal to acquire vulnerability management company Foundstone for $86m cash. Foundstone's services and technology help customers to relate IT security risks to the operation of their businesses by correlating assets with vulnerabilities and current IT security threats. Foundstone competes …

Financial News 16 Aug 2004, 17:44
Newham and Microsoft sign 10-yr deal

Its all official, right down to IE

Microsoft and the Newham Council have signed a ten year agreement - worth at least £5m - making Microsoft the council's software provider of choice. This is the concluding chapter in a long-running battle between the Redmond based software giant and the open source software community for pride of place in the London borough's …

Operating Systems 16 Aug 2004, 17:54
EC mulls MS DRM monopoly trawl

ContentGuard decision due next week

The EC has postponed by another week whether or not to examine the monopoly implications of Microsoft and TimeWarner's control of DRM company ContentGuard. With Microsoft already judged to be a monopoly in Europe, and Time Warner's enormous media holdings, the two joint owners of the company have enormous market clout. The two …

Financial News 16 Aug 2004, 17:57
HP preps little EVA starter box

HP World A software bundle

In a bid to boost its lagging storage business, HP today announced a new "starter kit" system in its EVA line that can scale up to 16TB. The EVA3000 starter system is meant to help customers roll out low-end to midrange-sized SANs (storage area networks). It arrives as a SAN array with 2Gb Fibre Channel and bundled management …

Storage 16 Aug 2004, 19:22
HP's Livermore opts for 'content free' content

HP World Booth intro steals show

HP's David Booth stole the show during the opening keynote today at HP World. The problem is - he wasn't meant to. Booth, vice president of sales in HP's Customer Solutions Group (CSG), introduced bigger fish Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group, at the event here. As it turned out, Booth's …

Servers 16 Aug 2004, 20:33