16th September 2004 Archive

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Feds say Lamo inspired other hackers

'Palpable fear'

The final act in the saga of Adrian Lamo's hacking adventures ended with a contrite message from the once brash cyber outlaw, and a grim denunciation from his prosecutor, who blamed the hacker for inspiring other computer intruders. In a hearing in New York last July, Lamo, 23, was sentenced to six months of house arrest …

Enterprise Security 16 Sep 2004, 07:20
On Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005

Analysis Smaller, cheaper and supported

The best feature about the upcoming Virtual Server 2005 product may be the fact that Microsoft supports it. The software, which should ship by 1 October, is Microsoft's response to clear server partitioning leader VMware - a unit of EMC. However, this arrives four years behind VMware, two years behind target and without most of …

Servers 16 Sep 2004, 07:30
IBM UK mulls pension cutbacks

The C-plan diet

IBM is back in hot water over pensions. Investments and Pensions Europe revealed that IBM is "considering options - including wind-up of the C-plan section of its pension scheme. The C-plan section, which closed to new joiners in 1997, is a contributory scheme which pays out on a defined benefit / final salary basis. Comments …

IT Director 16 Sep 2004, 08:47
Airbus offers MS a lift

Unexpected antitrust ally

Airbus has come to the support of Microsoft in its antitrust appeal against the European Commsision The Commission ruled in March that Microsoft was abusing a monopoly position and should pay a €497m fine and offer consumers a version of its Windows software without Media Player. Airbus has applied to the Court of First …

Operating Systems 16 Sep 2004, 08:50
DSL-to-go arrives in Berlin

Portable broadband

With the installation of the first base station in the Park Inn-Hotel at Alexanderplatz, Berlin now has DSL-to-go, a new service for road warriors who need broadband access wherever they are, without changing the provider and without reconfiguring the settings of their computer or PDA. DSL-to-go is developed by Airdata, a …

Wireless 16 Sep 2004, 09:08
NCR recalls inkjet refill kits

Danger to the kids

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling about 78,000 NCR inkjet refill kits. The Universal Inkjet Refill Kits do not have child-resistant packaging or warning labels. The ink contains ethylene glycol, which poses an "ingestion hazard to young children". The ink kits were sold at Big Lots and Walgreens between …

Peripherals 16 Sep 2004, 09:21
Why PCCW is laughing all the way to the bank

Letter TDD mode is not just data delivery

The article PCCW opens kimono (a little) on UK broadband wireless plans has a statement that is significantly misleading in it. In absence of anywhere else to send it I thought I'd send my comments to you. The article says "We say WiMAX class because initial intelligence on PCCW had it that its new Netvigator service will in …

Wireless 16 Sep 2004, 09:45
Orange admits crossed line fault with Vodafone

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

Orange is hopeful that an "intermittent" problem that causes crossed lines between its network and Vodafone will be sorted in the next day or so. Six weeks ago The Register reported how an "intermittent crossed line fault on the Orange UK network" was being blamed for some callers being able to listen in to other people's calls …

Mobile 16 Sep 2004, 09:47
Harry Potter IP claim pinned down on the beaches

Tour company shows Warner Brothers the Churchill spirit

First it threatened teenagers with legal action for having Harry Potter fan websites, then it threatened legal action against e-mail services for using the name "shire" (the Hobbits' home in Lord of the Rings), now Warner Brothers is threatening legal action against tour company British Tours for daring to point out that some of …

Music and Media 16 Sep 2004, 09:51
The quest for the IT Holy Grail

Opinion What's its secret? Productivity

The quest for productivity is perhaps one of the most fundamental aims of any business and, in fact, most governments. Higher productivity leads to rising company profits, rapid growth rates, low-inflation and increasing prosperity. Much has been made the difference between the productivity of American companies and Europe. …

IT Director 16 Sep 2004, 09:53
Intel gets cold shoulder from Orange delegates at Code Camp

Not ready for message

"This place is full of Java programmers. They don't care about optimising. Well, they do, but there's nothing they can do about it." Thus "Dr Dave" Layman, jokingly consoling himself (and Intel) for the empty classroom for his lessons in how to make Intel processors go faster by using co-processors. Intel's classroom empty? …

Mobile 16 Sep 2004, 10:04
Tapwave Zodiac 2

Reg Review The best handheld games console yet?

Tapwave's Palm OS-based mobile games console, Zodiac, has been on sale in the US for ten months now, and the company feels it's time to take the handheld family to new customers in new territories. Europe's first on the list, and Tapwave popped over this month to give local hacks a look at the device. The Register has been …

Reviews 16 Sep 2004, 10:17
Torvalds wins Economic Innovation Award

Gong from The Economist

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is being honoured at The Economist's Third Annual Innovations Awards. The event is held in San Francisco and awards innovators in six categories: bioscience, computing, energy and the environment, communications, "no boundaries" and social and economic innovation. Entries were nominated by …

Operating Systems 16 Sep 2004, 10:21
Academia battles forces of IT anarchy

Unending security headaches

Academic institutions who have to add, manage, and secure thousands of new users within a period of just a few days face political and social issues on top of the immense technical ones, suggests Scott Granneman . I really enjoy traveling about the country speaking to various groups about security, technology, and other issues …

Enterprise Security 16 Sep 2004, 10:24
Brits apathetic? Apoplectic, more like

Letters Vive la revolution!

There is a distinctly revolutionary flavour to this letters bag. It is stuffed with consumer rights campaigning, anti-capitalist fervour, Brazilian cyber-crime, and DRM bashing. We Brits faced allegations of apathy and uselessness. Not a nice thing to wake up to on a Wednesday afternoon, let us tell you. This hideous insult to …

Letters 16 Sep 2004, 10:34
Hynix pumps up 2004 capex

Non-memory sale to go ahead next month

Buoyed by booming sales, Hynix is set to increase its spending on new chip-making equipment by 29 per cent this year, the company's CEO, Woo Eui-Je, said today. Cited by Korean business newspaper Joong Ang Daily, Woo said this year's capex budget will rise from KRW1.4tr ($1.2bn) to KRW1.8tr ($1.6bn). The announcement follows a …

Channel 16 Sep 2004, 11:05
The Darkness opens digital song service

Permission to download

Rock band The Darkness have begun selling their own digital downloads, courtesy of online music and merchandise partner recordstore.co.uk. The group this week began offering the 11 songs from their album Permission to Land, plus assorted b-sides, for 99p a pop. The whole album can be downloaded for £9.49. Encoded in Windows …

Music and Media 16 Sep 2004, 11:40
BT buys Belfast computer dealer for £17m

Convergence story

BT Northern Ireland is buying B.I.C Systems Group, a local computer dealership, for £17m. BT says the acquisition catapults it to the head of the IT services sector in Northern Ireleand two years ahead of schedule. Bill Murphy, chief executive of BT Northern Ireland, described the deal as "one of the most exciting developments …

Channel 16 Sep 2004, 12:21
ACAS to mediate in Swansea IT strike

Temperature rising

Swansea Council has asked ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) to intervene in the increasingly bitter IT strike which could potentially spread to the whole of the council. One hundred IT staff are in the fifth week of industrial action against proposals to privatise the council's IT department as part of a £ …

IT Director 16 Sep 2004, 12:25
Chip and PIN intro fuels ‘mini-boom’ in card crime

Return to fraudster

The mass replacement of credit and debit cards with the UK roll-out of Chip and PIN is fuelling a 'mini-boom' in card crime, The Guardian reports. Crooks are intercepting replacement cards in the post and using them to commit fraudulent transactions. Often, bank cards users are not expecting to receive new cards, so they won't …

ID 16 Sep 2004, 12:34
Triumphant return of the big Reg logo t-shirt

Cash'n'Carrion Cue trumpets, etc

It's been a while, but we have finally pulled out our fingers and produced an all-new, all-singing, all-dancing big Reg logo t-shirt. The improved model features a large-scale vulture logo in red and white printed on the usual 100 per cent cotton premium t-shirt. Naturally, it also sports the Reg url on the left sleeve, and is …

Site News 16 Sep 2004, 12:35
Canadian develops nose-driven mouse

Why? God alone nose

There is apparently some good news today for all those readers who enjoy surfing web porn but would prefer to use their right hand for something other than operating a mouse - a Canadian visionary from Ottawa's Institute of Information Technology has developed a nose-operated mouse which looks set to redefine the human-computer …

PCs 16 Sep 2004, 12:40
Microsoft tells music biz to 'back lock-down CD standard'

Gives three weeks to make up mind...

Microsoft is attempting to force a last-minute pact with record labels over the future of copy-protected CDs, according to a letter seen by MusicAlly. The allegedly leaked document is purportedly from Alain Levy and David Munns of EMI via Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Records, who was asked "to reach out to the independent sector …

Music and Media 16 Sep 2004, 13:14
Croatian telco workers KO Kylie gig

Brief We should be so lucky

Organisers have pulled the plug on a forthcoming Kylie Minogue gig in Zagreb after complaints by the concert sponsor's employees. The axe fell not as a result - sadly - of pure good taste, but rather after enraged Croatian Telecom workers took to the streets to protest about the telco piling money into the warbling Aussie's …

Bootnotes 16 Sep 2004, 13:24
Freegate is not Trojan horse, says Symantec

Relabels China censor-busting utility

Symantec is to stop classifying a software utility that enables Chinese surfers to view blocked websites as a Trojan horse. The reassessment follows stories earlier this week questioning the designation of the widely-used Freegate programas malicious code. Freegate has 200,000 users, Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT), its …

Anti-Virus 16 Sep 2004, 13:28
Misery loves company. And Nortel

Still no accounts, now a profit warning too...

Nortel Networks today warned that turnover for the third quarter of 2004 is likely to be lower than previously anticipated. The data networking equipment maker expects revenues to be lower than unaudited figures for the second quarter of 2004 and that revenue growth for 2004 compared with 2003 will be "in the mid single digits …

Financial News 16 Sep 2004, 13:33
Protect us from smut, whimper trembling workers

Bosses must fight email lewdness

UK workers are delicate flowers, to be sure. According to a survey by antivirus outfit Sophos, more than half of 1,000 shocked employees polled reckon their bosses must take responsibility in ensuring that "violent, pornographic and other offensive content" does not reach their inboxes. This spam tsunami not only unsettles the …

Small Biz 16 Sep 2004, 13:57
Vodafone to bring Blackberry 'Charm' to Europe

7100v to ship next month

Research in Motion has confirmed web reports that Vodafone is to offer its mobile phone form-factor Blackberry 7100 - aka 'Charm' - in Europe. The 7100v is a modified version of the 7100t RIM launched in the US last week, dropping the latter's curves and for a more angular design. However, the core features remain the same, in …

Mobile 16 Sep 2004, 14:41
VIA's 90nm CPU to be branded C7

Esther to appear H1 2005

VIA's next-generation x86-compatible processor will ship as the C7, the Taiwanese chip maker said today. Better known by its codename, 'Esther', the part will debut in the first half of 2005 in two forms: the desktop-oriented C7 and the mobile C7-M. To date, the core's official classification has been the C5J. The mobile and …

System Builder 16 Sep 2004, 14:56
HP tries to right storage wrongs with smart cells

The StorageWorks Grid is a'comin

HP's storage business has taken a beating of late, but it looks like the company is laying a solid foundation for future products courtesy of something called "smart cell" technology. The basic concept of a smart cell is pretty simple. You take some processors, disks, networking components and software and wrap them all …

Storage 16 Sep 2004, 22:08
Five lose jobs over nuke lab security debacle

Land of the Redundant

Los Alamos National Laboratory has fired four workers and another employee is to resign over a security scandal that resulted in the top secret lab suspending classified work. The fired workers were among 23 suspended in July after two disks containing classified information went missing and an intern was injured in an accident …

Business 16 Sep 2004, 22:12