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7th October 2004 Archive

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  • EMC adds triple-threat to replication software

    Virtual long distance

    EMC this week covered some serious ground on the software side of the house, announcing a slew of new tools for sending files between data centers and between storage systems made by different vendors. EMC is garnering attention from an upgrade to its Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) replication software. For the first …

    Storage 7 Oct 2004, 07:38

  • Email privacy strikeout suspended

    Wiretapping on demand

    Privacy groups have succeeded in persuading a First Circuit Appeals Court to reopen a case with some nasty unintended consequences for email users. A June ruling inadvertently opened the door for spooks and Feds to snoop on email without a court order, but that's now been suspended, pending the hearing in December. In US vs …

    Music and Media 7 Oct 2004, 07:42

  • 34 tech firms sued for alleged LCD patent theft

    Honeywell demands 'directional diffuser' dues

    Honeywell has issued lawsuits against 34 companies, including Dell, Apple, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba alleging LCD panels used in their products infringe a 1992 patent the company holds. The IP in question, patent number 5,280,371, was granted in January 1994. The application was made in July 1992. It …

    Peripherals 7 Oct 2004, 08:42

  • Peregrine execs charged by FBI

    'Multi-billion dollar securities fraud'

    Eight former executives of Peregrine Software have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. An external Arthur Andersen auditor and two business partners of Peregrine face the same charges. The eleven are accused of manipulating accounts between March 1999 and May 2002 and deceiving the public and investors about the true …

    Financial News 7 Oct 2004, 09:04

  • OK, so Ellison is not a sociopath...

    More like Genghis Khan

    Craig Conway, the ex-boss of PeopleSoft, admitted yesterday that he may have over-reacted to the attempted takeover of his firm by Oracle. He acknowledged that he described Oracle as a “sociopathic company” but denied describing Oracle’s boss Larry Ellison as a sociopath. He told a court in Delaware that he believed the bid was …

    Applications 7 Oct 2004, 09:10

  • Swansea IT workers return to work

    More strikes planned as dispute grows

    One hundred striking IT workers in Swansea have returned to work while both sides in the eight-week dispute continue to negotiate a settlement. Said a spokesman for Swansea Council: "We welcome the decision by IT staff to return to work. We always believed that this dispute would be resolved through negotiation with ACAS [ …

    IT Director 7 Oct 2004, 09:57

  • Man in satanic Renault terror ordeal

    The Rise of the Machines™ - on wheels

    A traumatised Frenchman is shaken but otherwise unharmed after his Renault Vel Satis kidnapped him on the A71 motorway in central France and subjected him to an hour-long 125mph terror ordeal. Hicham Dequiedt, 29, was overtaking a lorry on said highway when the car's automatic speed regulator stuck, AFP reports. Travelling at …

    Rise of the Machines 7 Oct 2004, 10:00

  • Monti: Courts must rule on MS anti-trust

    Europe moves to block DRM ambitions

    Mario Monti, the outgoing European competition commissioner, has told Microsoft that "the time for settlement has passed" on the anti-trust charges the company faces. He ruled out further negotiations on the terms of the court order imposed in March. This requires that the company pay a fine of €497m; offer a version of Windows …

    Operating Systems 7 Oct 2004, 10:03

  • UK record industry sues 28 file-sharers

    'Major filesharers and large-scale uploaders'

    The UK record industry is suing 28 people in an attempt to stop them sharing music files over the internet. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says the legal action is aimed at “major filesharers” and “large-scale uploaders”. More cases are expected to follow. The BPI will seek damages and injunctions to stop people …

    Music and Media 7 Oct 2004, 10:08

  • Quarky theory wins Nobel Prize

    That's asymptotic freedom, to you and me

    The 2004 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to three American scientists, David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek, for their explanation of the strong force, or how quarks combine to form protons and neutrons. The Nobel Jury said: "The discovery which is awarded this year's Nobel Prize is of decisive importance for …

    Science 7 Oct 2004, 11:27

  • Demon does entry-level DSL

    'Me too' broadband

    Demon is trying to break into the entry-level broadband market, with a new product that breaks the all-important important £20-a-month barrier. "Home 500" costs £19.99 a month and does not include download restrictions either. Demon, the ISP business of alternative telco Thus, reckons the un-capped service is spot on for home …

    Telecoms 7 Oct 2004, 11:30

  • Customer views from PeopleSoft Connect

    Do they want the takeover?

    At PeopleSoft’s European conference this week, the vendor’s senior executives were keen to point out the progress that the firm has made in the past year, including new services to make updates easier for customers. The main achievements of the past year being highlighted were improved customer satisfaction, an expanded presence …

    Applications 7 Oct 2004, 12:29

  • Broadband could ease traffic congestion

    It's good, but that good?

    Britain's traffic jams could be a little less sticky if more people used broadband instead of travelling. Working from home, using the internet for shopping and staggering trips to work could help cut the UK's chronic congestion, a report out today claims. The report Broadband: the role for communications in beating congestion …

    IT Director 7 Oct 2004, 12:31

  • Google founder ponders Irish R&D unit

    Google Ireland launched

    At an event that resembled an American-style 'pep rally' - and included several upbeat speeches and exuberant cheers from Google staff - founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, along with Tanaiste Mary Harney, officially opened Google Ireland on Barrow Street in Dublin yesterday. The facility, which is based in an unfinished …

    Financial News 7 Oct 2004, 12:32

  • Oracle vs Peoplesoft

    Round-up time

    Oracle's relentless pursuit of Peoplesoft is approaching end-game. The enterprise software maker has seen off the DoJ, it has seen off Craig Conway, the implacably hostile Peoplesoft CEO, who was fired last week; and noises coming out of the European Commission, suggest that it will wave through the bid. Now Oracle is in a …

    Applications 7 Oct 2004, 12:34

  • T-Mobile brings Wi-Fi to Borders' UK stores

    Thumb through the book - then buy a clean copy from Amazon

    T-Mobile is to roll out Wi-Fi access within Borders bookshops throughout the UK, the company said today. The US chain maintains some 25 Borders shops over here following its acquisition of the Books Etc. chain in the mid-1990s. Some 36 stores maintain the original Books Etc. branding. It's the larger, Borders-branded shops …

    Wireless 7 Oct 2004, 12:59

  • Love DRM or my family starves: why Steve Ballmer doesn't Get It

    Ballmer digs pit, inserts whole MS strategy, keeps digging

    Last Sunday Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off this week's European tour by sitting down with a small group* of British journalists and dispensing pearls of wisdom, notably on the future of Apple in home networking (it has none, natch, says Steve). He also did at least one interview, with the Financial Times (published in …

    Software 7 Oct 2004, 13:02

  • Dell Axim X30 Wi-Fi PocketPC

    Review Consumer IR and Bluetooth, too

    This may be a somewhat negative way to start a review of a good product, but it seems to me that PDAs are a dying breed. It can't be a good sign that Toshiba has stopped selling its Pocket PCs in the US, while Sony has pulled its Clié everywhere but Japan. It seems that the flexibility of the PDA hasn't served it as well as the …

    Reviews 7 Oct 2004, 13:29

  • Fraud warning for UK resellers

    Watch out, watch out there's a scammer about...

    A scammer is attempting to defraud UK resellers by passing themselves off as Nascent Technologies. The firm is warning that it has been contacted by several people who received orders apparently from Nascent Technologies and were about to send out kit. The police have been informed and are investigating. The faxed order form …

    Channel Register 7 Oct 2004, 13:56

  • CE giants 'readying Blu-ray camcorders'

    HD-oriented handhelds to use new, 8cm disc

    Sony, Sharp and Matsushita plan to offer camcorders based on a cut-down version of the Blu-ray Disc, and could announce product as early as next year. According to Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the three companies are working on an 8cm rewriteable disc, reducing the size from the more common CD/DVD-sized 12cm …

    Storage 7 Oct 2004, 14:00

  • Unisys to shed 1,400 workers

    Got a tax refund too

    Unisys is waving goodbye to 1,400 workers and getting rid of unused facilities, to save $70m a year by the end of 2005. The computer services firm will take a one-time $63m charge to earnings for the actions, the equivalent of 19 cents per share in Q3, and estimates the moves will need $85m in cash during 2005. Separately, the …

    Financial News 7 Oct 2004, 14:11

  • Lycos cleaner bins thousands of emails

    Dutch inboxes junked, employee canned

    Lycos Netherlands has accidentally deleted thousands of active mailboxes during a clean-up operation. The internet portal wanted to close most of its inactive mail accounts, but included many active ones as well. Since no back-ups were made, it is impossible to recover any lost mail messages, the company says. Dutch online …

    Telecoms 7 Oct 2004, 14:28

  • X-ray fireworks could signal supernovae

    Trio of flashes fuel gamma ray debate

    NASA astronomers last month detected two X-ray blasts and an almost-gamma ray burst that could be signs of imminent supernovae. The X-ray flashes came on 12 and 16 September, followed on 24 September by something the scientists describe as being "on the cusp" of being a gamma ray burst. The three events were detected in …

    Science 7 Oct 2004, 14:58

  • Intel preaches gospel of mobile diversity

    Analysis Standardised phones? Pah!

    Get your head around this one, if you can: Intel is building a reference platform for mobile phones with Symbian and with Nokia. Does this mean all phones will, really, be the same thing? Not at all! - Erik Anderson preaches a gospel of diversity. The announcement was confusingly banal: SYMBIAN EXPO, London, Oct. 5, 2004 - …

    Mobile 7 Oct 2004, 15:51

  • Republicans put $1.5m behind internet push

    Attacking Kerry's Mormon love is not cheap

    The Republican party's internet ambitions are proving very profitable for a small Tennessee hosting company. The GOP appears to have dolled out $1.5m over the past two years to keep George W. Bush's web site up and running and to send out massive amounts of political spam. Smartech Corp. has received a steady stream of payments …

    Music and Media 7 Oct 2004, 18:33

  • Sun settles Java spat with Kodak for $92m

    Doesn't admit or deny patent problems

    Kodak and Sun Microsystems have settled their Java battle out of court to the tune of $92m. Kodak last week won the first round of its legal confrontation with Sun over disputed software patents when a jury sided with the imaging specialist. Kodak planned to seek more than $1bn in damages from Sun. The companies, however, …

    Developer 7 Oct 2004, 21:11

  • Sun: MS truce clears way to open source Solaris

    LinuxWorld If that's selling out, we want to sell out more often

    A senior Sun Microsystems strategist today defended Sun's decision to make peace with Microsoft in April as being beneficial to the open source community. Simon Phipps, chief technology evangelist at Sun, said that any suggestion that Sun had 'sold out' to Redmond in settling a range of patent and anti-trust disputes was well …

    Developer 7 Oct 2004, 21:25

  • AMD turns profit on strong 64-bit chip sales

    Flash disappoints

    AMD's 64-bit processor line has carried the company from red to black ink in the third quarter. AMD today posted $1.2bn in revenue and income of $44m for the period. Sales increased 30 percent over last year's third quarter when AMD reported a $31m loss on $954m in revenue. "Our third quarter net income improvement was largely …

    Financial News 7 Oct 2004, 23:10