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8th October 2004 Archive

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  • Windows Media Center survives in shrinkwrap purgatory

    Batteries not included, Sopranos not recordable

    Microsoft's Media Center has survived the New Year cull, but it now looks set to inhabit the strange zone of purgatory between being a fully-marketed product and the remaindered bin. Next year Redmond will make a shrinkwrap, software-only version of Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) available to the retail channel, so MCE …

    Operating Systems 8 Oct 2004, 01:02

  • GUGL TXTS U YR SRCH RSLTS

    Froogle, directories and search clippings by SMS

    Google has introduced a free texting service that taps into its existing Froogle, phone directory, business listings databases, and even refined "clippings" from the main search engine. There's no premium to be paid by the user, over and above what it costs to send a text message. Perhaps that's because premium text services are …

    Mobile 8 Oct 2004, 03:00

  • Apple colour-screen 'PhotoPod' said to be in production

    60GB iPod with iPhoto support, apparently

    The iPod looks set to make a further step into PDA territory if claims that Apple is preparing a 60GB model equipped with a 2in colour display and iPhoto synchronisation prove correct. "Highly reliable" sources cited by ThinkSecret claim that the new model is currently in production, presumably for a pre-Christmas introduction …

    Mobile 8 Oct 2004, 09:01

  • ATI Q4 sales, income rocket

    Rather better than anticipated

    ATI saw its income almost triple during its most recently completed fiscal quarter, Q4 2004, the company said yesterday after announcing record results. Revenues for the three months to 31 August 2004 totalled $572.2m, up 50.3 per cent on the same period last year and 16.4 per cent on Q3 2004. Gross margin for the period came …

    Financial News 8 Oct 2004, 09:25

  • AT&T culls another 7,400 staff

    'Significantly exceeds previously estimated workforce-reduction target'

    AT&T is to stop marketing traditional consumer services, resulting in the loss of another 7,400 staff. The the US telecoms giant had already planned to cull around 4,900 jobs during 2004 - a cut of around eight per cent of its workforce. But last night it warned that it would "significantly exceed its previously estimated …

    Telecoms 8 Oct 2004, 09:54

  • Romanian Jedi warm to El Reg

    Yay! am ajuns in Anglia!

    It's always flattering for a publication to see its musings translated into a foreign tongue, so it was with great delight that we recently spotted part of a ground-breaking Reg report in Romanian. Yup, our fearless exposé of the Romanian Jedi Academy has provoked a certain amount of comment among the members of that august …

    Bootnotes 8 Oct 2004, 09:59

  • House approves anti-spyware bill

    Criminalised

    The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed a bill that would make using spyware to snoop of the online activities of consumers a criminal offence. The Internet Spyware Prevention Act would allow the courts to send offenders who use spyware to commit other crimes such as stealing user's credit card details, or …

    Enterprise Security 8 Oct 2004, 10:06

  • Analyst lifts 2004 chip capex forecast...

    ...but knocks billions off 2005's total

    Chip makers will spend $45.7bn on new plant this year and a further $45.8bn in 2005, market watcher Gartner said this week. But while 2005's figure remains higher than 2004's, the company revealed it had lowered its growth forecast. In July, Gartner said 2005's capex would jump 13.4 per cent over 2004's total, then forecast at …

    Financial News 8 Oct 2004, 10:09

  • Shifting cyber threats menace factory floors

    Shocking lack of security

    The factory floor of a modern paper manufacturing plant is a ballet of heavy machinery and razor-sharp blades, pressing, dying, rolling, unrolling and cutting dead tree pulp by the ton. To James Cupps, it's something else, too: a target rich environment for cyber attacks. Cupps came to this perspective about three years ago, …

    Enterprise Security 8 Oct 2004, 10:19

  • BOFH: A ringside seat at the Boss-baiting pit

    Episode 34 Place your bets

    BOFH 2004 "And this is what again?" "The heatsink," the PFY responds calmly. "It fits on top of the processor." "And the fan sits on top of it!" the new Boss says happily. "Yes. No, not that fan, that's a case fan. The small fan screws into the heatsink." "Of course - it's obvious when you think about it!" "If you think …

    BOFH 8 Oct 2004, 10:21

  • Orange UK to squash techie jobs

    Efficiency drive

    Some 300 techie jobs could be axed by Orange in the UK as part of plans to make the mobilephoneco more efficient. Workers have been told that the company is looking at job cuts but Orange has so far declined to say how many face the chop. However, a PA report puts the number somewhere between 200 and 300 job losses. In a …

    Mobile 8 Oct 2004, 10:44

  • German fined for publishing neo-Nazi web links

    Freedom of information or inciting racial hatred?

    Linking to neo-Nazi websites in Germany can cost you dear. The founder of a German online protest forum - http://censorship.odem.org/ - against web censorship was sentenced by the district court in Stuttgart today for linking to two neo-Nazi sites and a bad-taste website hosted in the US. Alvar Freude is not an advocate of neo- …

    Music and Media 8 Oct 2004, 10:50

  • Second chance scammers and the meaning of 'Va va voom'

    Letters Reg readers to the rescue

    It has been a big news week for eBay. It turned five, asked for a new trial over some patents, CEO Meg Whitman toppled Carly Fiorina from the top of the most powerful women in IT list, and fell victim to a new scam attack. Naturally, you had most to say about the scam: This is NOT a new scam! This has been going on for _years_ …

    Letters 8 Oct 2004, 10:55

  • ATI CEO confirms AMD PCI-E chipsets shipping

    Wating to get the volumes up before announcing product

    ATI has already begun shipping its AMD-oriented PCI Express chipsets, CEO Dave Orton revealed during the company's Q4 results conference call last night. Of course, ATI has yet to announce its Radeon Xpress chipsets formally, but Orton expressed the company's happiness with the interest its customers have shown in the products …

    System Builder 8 Oct 2004, 10:55

  • Intel delays Xeon E-0 core update to 29 October

    Will support WinXP SP2's 'no execute' feature

    Intel has rescheduled the release date for Xeon processors supporting what the chip maker calls Execution Disable Bit (EDB) technology - essentially the same code-disabling technology found in AMD, Transmeta and other CPUs, and used by Windows XP Service Pack 2 to render some viruses ineffective. Xeons that support an 800MHz …

    Servers 8 Oct 2004, 11:06

  • Porn filters have a field day on Horniman Museum

    Ooooh, matron!

    Regular readers will know that we at El Reg studiously avoid reporting the sort of linguistic mishaps which result in schoolboy-style snickering and utterances of "Ooooh, matron!" in the manner of Kenneth Williams. Indeed, just last week we managed to completely bypass the sorry tale of a UK couple who christened their baby " …

    Bootnotes 8 Oct 2004, 11:07

  • CA intros usage pricing for mainframes

    New model army

    It has been a busy few days at Computer Associates (CA) as the company first announced the acquisition of Netegrity and has now released details of a new licensing schema for its large portfolio of mainframe software. CA has actively promoted its FlexSelect licensing scheme for nearly two years. FlexSelect is designed to supply …

    Servers 8 Oct 2004, 11:23

  • Fighting the army of byte-eating zombies

    Internet Security Threat Report

    Being an intellectual dilettante, the fields of Systems Theory and Knowledge Management interest me greatly. One of the key principles of those fields is the DIKW Hierarchy first developed by Russell Ackoff, the idea that human minds (ideally) interact with the world and progress through what they find in a hierarchical process …

    Spam 8 Oct 2004, 11:31

  • Nintendo unveils DS launch titles

    Prices from $30

    Up to 12 titles will ship for Nintendo's DS in the 30 days after the console ships in the US on 21 November, with the total rising to between 20 and 25 by the end of March 2005, the company said yesterday. Nintendo will itself offer Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt. Activision will ship Spider-Man 2; EA …

    Consoles 8 Oct 2004, 12:02

  • Broadband is great, say business bosses

    Jolly good

    Broadband is the bee's knees, according to business bosses in Britain. More than eight in ten directors admit that investing in broadband has helped boost productivity while two thirds identified a direct link between high-speed net access and increased profits. While companies are well aware of what benefits broadband can …

    Telecoms 8 Oct 2004, 12:13

  • Prosecutor leaves crime files on dumped PC

    Thrashed over trash

    Dutch public prosecutor Joost Tonino was condemned yesterday for putting his old PC out with the trash. It contained sensitive information about criminal investigations in Amsterdam, and also his email address, credit card number, social security number and personal tax files. Tonino dumped the computer, which he hadn't used for …

    Security 8 Oct 2004, 12:25

  • Word open to exploit

    Unpatched vuln

    An unpatched security vulnerability in popular older versions of Microsoft Word poses a severe threat to users, security reporting firm Secunia warned yesterday. The flaw stems from an input validation error in Word. This creates a mechanism for creating malicious files capable of crashing Windows boxes providing a user can be …

    Enterprise Security 8 Oct 2004, 12:29

  • Tapwave Zodiac to ship 22 October

    Dixons exclusive

    Tapwave's Palm OS-based games console, Zodiac, will go on sale in the UK on 22 October 2004, the company said today, following its formal launch this past September. Availability will be limited to Dixons Stores Group outlets, including Dixons and PC World, with whom Tapwave has signed an exclusive contract. DSG stores will be …

    Mobile 8 Oct 2004, 13:23

  • Netherlands deports more 419ers

    Easier that way

    Amsterdam police yesterday arrested another 21 419 scammers from Nigeria and Sierra Leone, in an operation codenamed Spirit 9. The 21 men, all illegal immigrants, will be deported. The Dutch government is poised to crack down on illegal residence as the immigration service, IND, gains more manpower to track down and deport …

    Spam 8 Oct 2004, 13:35

  • UK gov ignoring ICT potential - Intellect

    Let's get productive in here

    Government attempts to improve productivity will fail if it continues to ignore the potential of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) to contribute to the country's performance. This warning comes from Intellect, the UK's trade association for ICT companies, following the publication of a government report on key …

    Public Sector 8 Oct 2004, 13:52

  • Tatung debuts own-brand servers in UK

    Signs Microtronica

    Tatung is to start flogging servers under its own name in the UK. It's set up a company, Tatung Server Ltd, and it has hired Microtronica to act as its first distie in the UK. It expects to sign two more broadliners for the line by the end of the year. Tatung has big plans for its PC, storage area network and blade server lines …

    Servers 8 Oct 2004, 14:23

  • KPMG settles with L&H investors

    Stumps up $115m

    KPMG has agreed to pay $115m to settle lawsuits brought against it by investors in the now-bankrupt software firm Lernout & Hauspie. The lawsuit claimed that Lernout & Hauspie and its top executives used deceptive accounting practices to artificially inflate the company's reported revenues by 64 per cent over a two-and-a-half- …

    Financial News 8 Oct 2004, 14:26

  • Dell recalls 4.4m notebook power adaptors

    Update Overheating, fire and electric shock threat

    Dell today asked 4.4m notebook users to return their power adaptors after it admitted these peripherals pose both a fire and electric shock hazard. The potentially faulty parts may overheat. if they do, they could catch fire or split open, exposing live electric connections. Dell asked users affected by the problem to cease …

    PCs 8 Oct 2004, 14:35

  • PalmOne chops PDA prices

    But better Tungsten T3 deal coming

    PalmOne today trimmed the price of its Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 PDAs in the UK, but buyers keen to take advantage of the T3 offer may prefer to wait. From today, the Tungsten T3 will retail for around £249 inc. VAT, down from £289, a fall of 13.8 per cent. At the same time, PalmOne cut the Zire 72's price from £219 to £179 - …

    Mobile 8 Oct 2004, 14:53

  • Dodgy UK websites terminated

    The OFT chop of death for scamsters

    Eight UK websites have been forced to shut down following an investigation into low-life scam operations that make claims that prove to be "too good to be true". A further 27 UK sites have been ordered to change the content on their sites while 40 are still under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The clampdown …

    Music and Media 8 Oct 2004, 14:55

  • Dracula's descendant sets Reg straight

    Letter Transylvania: the spine-tingling truth

    We can think of no better way* to end the week than with an entertaining reply to our Romanian Jedi warm to El Reg piece. Take it away, Dracula's descendant: Heh good one;) I am actually from Transylvania (Brasov or Kronstadt (DE) or Brassoi (HU)), quite close to the castle known as Dracula's Castle (which is actually Bran …

    Letters 8 Oct 2004, 14:56

  • Mars awash with evidence of water

    Spirit team drowning in data

    NASA has announced further evidence of a watery history on Mars, from both its rovers. On one side of the planet, a flat rock, dubbed Escher because of its patterned surface, shows signs that the surrounding area has seen water come and go more than once. On the other side, attempts to find a rock unaltered by water have been …

    Science 8 Oct 2004, 15:59

  • iPod owners very honest, not thieves at all, says MS

    Handbrake turns R US

    How swiftly thought evolves in the wonderful world of Ballmer! First, iPods are full of "stolen" music, next he forgets what he said, but suggests that it might be anything that isn't a Windows Media Player that's full of stolen music, and now iPod owners turn out to be the most law-abiding people in the world. We're sure iPod …

    Software 8 Oct 2004, 16:59

  • IBM proclaims open blade spec a success

    Surprise news

    Like a good little server maker, IBM has provided an update on how the new BladeCenter specification program is going. Funny enough, it's a smashing success. IBM today announced that 49 companies have "received" the BladeCenter open specification. IBM and Intel said back in September that they would open up parts of their …

    Servers 8 Oct 2004, 17:08

  • £147.5m boost for British particle accelerators

    Research engines

    Science and innovation minister Lord Sainsbury today announced £147.5m funding for two particle accelerators. They will be used to aid research in areas including medical and computer research, and clean energy technology. The two devices - ISIS and Diamond Light source - produce high-energy light beams and particles which …

    Science 8 Oct 2004, 18:21

  • Feds seize Indymedia servers

    Dissent-busting dragnet

    The FBI yesterday seized a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, after serving a subpoena in the US on Indymedia's hosting firm, Rackspace. Why or how remains unclear. Rackspace UK complied with a legal order and handed over hard disks without first notifying Indymedia. It's unclear if …

    Music and Media 8 Oct 2004, 18:44