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2nd September 2004 Archive

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  • Philly goes Wi-Fi crazy

    Let them eat broadband

    The grand city of Philadelphia unveiled today an ambitious plan to coat the city with Wi-Fi, using a mix of public and private funds to provide the service. Dianah Neff, the city's CIO, has presented a proposal to mayor John Street that would see all of Philadelphia's 1.6m residents receive the wireless web by late 2005 or …

    Wireless 2 Sep 2004, 07:45

  • Cisco dominates declining router market

    Security, VoIP are big drivers

    An upswing in enterprise router sales in North America in Q204 failed to offset a slump in EMEA. Worldwide revenues were down 10 per cent, compared with a revenue uptick of eight per cent in Q104, according to Infonetics Research's quarterly survey. Cisco retained its strong lead in the enterprise router market, accounting for …

    Data Networking 2 Sep 2004, 07:57

  • Appeals court slams garage door DMCA claim

    Open and shut case

    A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the maker of a universal garage door remote did not violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, putting the brakes on one of the more adventuresome interpretations of the controversial copyright law. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unanimously upheld a …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 2004, 07:58

  • Microsoft listens to the music

    Download service to be iPod smasher?

    Microsoft is offering music for download in a move with more than an echo of Apple's iPod service. Subscribers to MSN Music can listen to streamed songs for as little as 1p per track or download them for 99p. Albums are available from £7.99. The service offers one million tracks from 3,000 record labels. The service is …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 08:00

  • Logica ups profits on falling revenues

    German jobs to go...

    Logica managed to increase profits despite seeing revenues fall just over five per cent in the first half of the year. For the six months ended 30 June 2004 LogicaCMG brought in revenues of £809.2m, down 5.1 per cent on the same period last year. Statutory operating profit was £34.2m compared to a loss of £52.7m for the first …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 08:26

  • Slack users blamed for virus longevity

    Update a-no-no

    The three month-old Zafi-B worm was the number one virus in August, indicating that to few users are bothering to update their antivirus software. According to Sophos, the top 10 reported viruses in August have all been in existence for months. The IT security firm notes that the Zafi-B virus continues to wreak havoc on global …

    Malware 2 Sep 2004, 08:27

  • MS Portable Media Centers to ship mid-Sept

    Creative Zen PMC arrives in US, coming to UK

    Creative Technology will today begin shipping its anticipated Zen Portable Media Center in the US, with a UK roll-out in the middle of the month. The £370 device sports a 20GB hard drive, 3.8in display, and a battery capable of driving video playback for seven hours and audio for 22 hours. Creative launched the Zen PMC earlier …

    Mobile 2 Sep 2004, 08:56

  • Merger mania continues for Sage resellers

    BDE picks up Object Group

    BDE Group is buying Sage reseller The Object Group Ltd. The merged company, which will trade as BDE, will have annualised turnover of £5.7m and employ 55 people in offices in Bristol, Clapham, Leeds and Worcester. John Linney, founder of The Object Group, will be managing director of the company. Peter Reynolds, previously MD …

    Channel Register 2 Sep 2004, 09:19

  • Amazing Inova X-5 at 25% off

    The Mother of all Torches at a bargain price

    Those readers who are interested top quality illumination at bargain prices should proceed immediately to our Cash'n'Carrion torch section where we are offering a limited number of the awesome Inova X5 blue LED flashlights in a titanium finish at an unrepeatable 25 per cent off. Yup, we've got less than fifty of these beauties …

    Site News 2 Sep 2004, 10:10

  • Irish take cover under Bluetooth umbrella

    I'm surfing in the rain...

    Next time you want to communicate electronically and it rains, just bring your Bluetooth-enabled umbrella. At least in Ireland, where a Trinity College project called Umbrella.net is exploring the idea of ad-hoc networks to connect people in urban space. The Irish researchers say they want to examine how unpredictable patterns …

    Mobile 2 Sep 2004, 10:18

  • Madge gets funding

    Token Ring king looking for new markets

    Madge Ltd has raised £2m in funding from Sigma Technology Management Ltd to develop wireless LAN products. Madge, the last big player for Token Ring kit, is looking to develop products and services for the enterprise wireless LAN market. Martin Malina, CEO of Madge, said: "'Demand for Enterprise Wireless LAN solutions is …

    Data Networking 2 Sep 2004, 10:20

  • Grocery shopping online getting better

    Not for Sainsbury's, though

    Food shopping online is a positive delight compared to a couple of years ago, according to those consumer guardians at Which?. In 2001, shopping online took longer than actually visting a supermarket and pushing a trolley around a supermarket yourself. Now, though, it seems doing the weekly shop on the net is a real breeze. The …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 10:23

  • Nokia steadies in booming phone market

    620 million phones this year

    Nokia's price cuts seem to have cauterized the company's catastrophic loss of market share, according to figures from Gartner. With over 46 million units shipped into the channel, Nokia took 29.7 per cent of the worldwide handset market in the second quarter of 2004, up from 28.4 per cent in the previous quarter, but down from …

    Mobile 2 Sep 2004, 10:26

  • Critical Kerberos bugs surface

    Action stations

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in version five of the widely-used Kerberos authentication protocol. The most serious could be exploited by crackers to gain root control to authentication servers. Exploits are yet to surface and patches are available. All releases of MIT Kerberos 5 up to and including krb5-1.3.4 are …

    Enterprise Security 2 Sep 2004, 10:31

  • WinXP SP2 = security placebo?

    Reg Review Feature richness defeats commonsense

    We evaluated the security features of Windows XP SP2 on a test machine, following a clean install of XP Pro with no configuration changes and no third-party software or drivers installed. We installed XP with the NTFS file system, choosing all of the factory defaults, then patched it with each recommended security update …

    Enterprise Security 2 Sep 2004, 10:48

  • Horizon bounces back

    Sun reseller claims market share gains

    Horizon Technology enjoyed a 17 per cent year-on-year revenue increase in the first half of 2004, citing to a healthy systems integration market and an increase in market share. The Irish-owned reseller posted turnover of €151m for the first six months of 2004 (H103: €129m). The company had a net profit of €2.1m (H103: €148,000 …

    Channel Register 2 Sep 2004, 11:56

  • Racing scandal hinges on Betfair records

    Traditional bookies unimpressed

    Champion jockey Kieren Fallon has been released without charge following his arrest yesterday in connection with alleged race fixing. Police arrested Fallon early yesterday morning and also removed computers from his home. A string of high-profile racing personalities were also taken into custody. Detectives are investigating …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 12:00

  • Easynet to wire up Surrey schools for broadband

    'puter ate me homework, Miss

    Easynet - an active unbundler of local loops - is to supply broadband to 135,000 children in Surrey in a four-year contract worth £10m. Easynet will provide all 418 primary and secondary schools in Surrey with a fully managed network, enabling internet access at a minimum of 2mbps for primary schools and 10mbps for secondary …

    Telecoms 2 Sep 2004, 12:04

  • XP SP2 glitches to trip up one in 10 upgrades - report

    SMEs hardest hit by compatibility bugs

    One in 10 corporate PC users will encounter difficulties in upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2, according to AssetMetrix. Smaller firms will be hit hardest by compatibility problems between their applications and the much anticipated update of Microsoft's flagship operating system, the Canadian asset management firm says. …

    Applications 2 Sep 2004, 12:16

  • Blunkett pilot to track offenders via satellite

    Pilot scheme for tagged ne'er-do-wells

    David Blunkett is set to launch a year-long pilot study of his plan to track offenders by satellite. The system will allow police to monitor the movements of the tagged person 24 hours a day, and will give their location to within just a few metres The scheme is designed for those who have served part of a custodial sentence …

    ID 2 Sep 2004, 12:34

  • Shopping without tears: a parents' guide

    Review Waitrose's QuickCheck scanner a real time-saver

    Quocirca's Jon Collins gets to grips with Waitrose's QuickCheck scanners - and finds them an amusing diversion for kids and a real time-saver for long-suffering parents. All parents knows that a supermarket is not the best place to take a child. Even the most un-material of infants lasts only half an hour before descending into …

    Data Networking 2 Sep 2004, 12:57

  • HP sues reseller for $8.6m

    Wants its discounts back

    HP is going to court in Tennessee to get back $8.6m in discounts given to a reseller. The filing alleges that Capital City Micro of Tennessee claimed it could sell HP and Compaq kit to P&E Distributing of Kentucky, but only if HP offered substantial discounts. HP claims the kit was then sold on to other companies "to whom …

    Channel Register 2 Sep 2004, 13:11

  • Napster unveils portable music service

    Janus DRM'd for personal stereos

    Napster has launched Napster To Go, a version of its online music subscription service based on Microsoft's latest DRM technology, 'Janus'. The announcement follows Microsoft's release of the latest Windows Media Player 10 beta, which incorporates Janus, and includes Napster and other Windows Media-using music services in WMP …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 2004, 13:35

  • Wi-Fi group updates security system

    WPA 2 takes in tougher encryption tech

    The Wi-Fi Alliance formally began issuing WPA 2 certificates yesterday, as eight products received the right to use the organisation's second-generation wireless security brand. WPA 2 is derived from 802.11i, the wireless security standard finally ratified by the IEEE in July. WPA 2 essentially mandates the use of the AES …

    Wireless 2 Sep 2004, 14:07

  • BT faces whopping fines over Wanadoo complaint (maybe)

    Who knows? Do you? Really?

    BT faces monster fines if it is found to have breached competition laws concerning its early provision of broadband in the UK. Yesterday, telecoms regulator Ofcom effectively ruled that the UK's dominant fixed line telco had "infringed Section 18 of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty in relation to the …

    Telecoms 2 Sep 2004, 14:27

  • Oracle fraud suit returns from the dead

    Insider trading claims

    A federal court has reinstated a fraud case against Larry Ellison and two other senior Oracle executives alleging accounting irregularities and suspicious share sales. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided that there was enough evidence for the case to go to court, despite it being dismissed on three previous occasions. …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 14:40

  • Blanket Wi-Fi smothers Amsterdam

    European hotspot capital

    Amsterdam is going to be the first European capital where Wi-Fi will be available almost everywhere, not just in hotels or cafes. Startup Hotspot Amsterdam launched a cheap wireless service this week and plans to cover all of Amsterdam with just 125 base stations. The first seven base stations are up and running. The first …

    Wireless 2 Sep 2004, 14:44

  • Nokia ships 1m N-Gage consoles

    Some way off original forecasts

    Nokia has shipped over one million N-Gage phone-cum-consoles, the handset manufacturer said today. It's no surprise, perhaps, that Nokia attributes reaching this milestone to the "enthusiastic consumer response" to the device's second incarnation, the N-Gage QD, which shipped last May, following its April introduction. That …

    Consoles 2 Sep 2004, 14:48

  • IT skills ain't what they used to be

    Think of the kids...

    IT training it the UK must change fundamentally if it is to remain relevant to British business. Falling numbers of students taking computing A levels and increasing use of offshoring means there are fewer entry-level jobs and less people to fill them. According to software firm Mercury Interactive, this will lead to division …

    IT Director 2 Sep 2004, 15:12

  • SETI has not found ET: official

    Move along, nothing to see here

    Astronomers at the SETI@Home project have spoken up to dismiss suggestions that the project intercepted signals from an alien civilisation. Reports spread across the net yesterday and today after New Scientist said that an "interesting" signal had been picked up by the huge radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The magazine …

    Science 2 Sep 2004, 15:34

  • MessageLabs taps Brightmail in war on spam

    Rage against the junk mail tsunami

    Email filtering firm MessageLabs yesterday announced a deal to incorporate Symantec's Brightmail anti-spam technology into its own anti-spam service. MessageLabs expects to deliver the new joint anti-spam service to market in Q4 2004. Mark Sunner, chief technology officer of MessageLabs, said that by combining Symantec's anti- …

    Spam 2 Sep 2004, 15:55

  • Archos ships video, audio, gaming handheld

    Mobile game console market becoming crowded

    Archos has begun shipping its Gmini400 personal multimedia device, taking the French company into the increasingly crowded mobile gaming market. Pitched primarily as a portable media player, the 400 sports a 2.2in, 18-bit colour screen backed by 20GB of hard drive storage and a CompactFlash slot for content storage. But with a …

    Consoles 2 Sep 2004, 16:10

  • Orange UK launches corporate push-to-talk

    SME and consumer offerings later this year

    Orange has launched Talk Now, its commercial "push-to-talk" service, following nine months of customer trials across Europe. The service - a kind of voice-based, mobile instant messenger - is available to enterprise customers now, and will be rolled out to smaller companies and consumers later in the year. This is the first …

    Mobile 2 Sep 2004, 16:32

  • 3am Labs feels the love with free remote access tool

    ET VPN home

    3am Labs has stepped up its attack against Citrix Systems' GoToMyPC remote access software by releasing its own access software for free. In close to two weeks time, LogMeIn will be offered up at no charge, replacing a previous policy that allowed only a two-week trial. This software - beta site here - lets customers tap into …

    Applications 2 Sep 2004, 17:15

  • Blunkett's satellite tagging: the tripe behind the hype

    Home Office redefines statistical invalidity

    Today's announcement of the Home Office's satellite tracking pilot is a classic of its genre. As is the case with so many Blair government initiatives the earth was noisily promised in the run-up, and continued to be promised by government spokesmen this morning, but the pilot itself is so spectacularly modest, so largely low- …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 2004, 17:24

  • Oracle's first monthly patch batch fails to placate critics

    Behind MS on security, says top bug hunter

    Oracle this week released a multitude of security fixes in a long-awaited and extensive series of patches that constitute its first monthly security update. In January and February, UK-based security tools firm Next Generation Security Software (NGSSoftware) notified Oracle of 34 security vulnerabilities affecting various …

    Enterprise Security 2 Sep 2004, 17:40

  • Intel disappoints investors with lowered Q3 outlook

    Chip and flash sales fall

    Intel has pulled back its third quarter revenue guidance, pointing to a slowdown in chip and flash memory sales as reasons for the move. Intel is now looking for third quarter revenue to come in between $8.3bn and $8.6bn. The chipmaker has previously advised analysts and investors that revenue for the period would be between $8 …

    Financial News 2 Sep 2004, 21:19

  • Apple faithful's apathy to blame for Napsterized schools

    Opinion Impotent with iPod pride

    Apple users have this nasty habit of dishing out vicious assaults when you don't want to hear them and staying awfully quiet when you'd like them to chirp up. No where is this pattern more evident than at the universities who have signed up for Napster's music rental service. These schools have run right over the famous Apple …

    Music and Media 2 Sep 2004, 23:19