29th October 2004 Archive

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Belkin out on a limb with 802.11n?

Pre-N kit? Naughty, naughty

What exactly provoked the WiFi Alliance to threaten to withdraw its imprimatur from anybody who started announcing 802.11n technology? An obvious suspect has to be whoever it is who is offering "pre-N" technology, eh, Belkin? Well, it aint them. The proof? They say so. NewsWireless readers were fascinated to hear about the …

Wireless 29 Oct 2004, 08:32
US giants move to can spammers

Litigious alliance

The US's biggest internet companies have launched yet another crackdown against spammers as part of their latest efforts to protect net users from junk email. AOL, Earthlink, Microsoft and Yahoo! filed lawsuits against dozens of people yesterday in federal courts under US "Can-Spam" anti-spam legislation as part of their on- …

Spam 29 Oct 2004, 09:32
Data protection watchdog distributes email mailing list

Dutch DPA in Cc: cock-up

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA), which supervises the compliance with acts that regulate the use of personal data, was rather red-faced this week when it sent out a newsletter with all of the recipients in the Cc: field instead of the Bcc: field. DPA's news letter goes out to 4000 subscribers. The DPA, which …

ID 29 Oct 2004, 09:51
BOFH: When sorry seems to be the hardest word

Episode 37 Apologise? Moi?

Sigh. It seems that no matter what I do nor how helpful I try to be, there's always someone who's not happy. It seems that all the PFY and I get is negative feedback. It's enough to make a man question his career in technical support. Worse still, I know the Boss has received a complaint about my most recent efforts and has …

BOFH 29 Oct 2004, 10:05
US Secret Service busts 28 ID fraudsters

Updated International undercover op

A US-led operation targeting ID fraud crooks has led to the arrest of 28 people across seven countries this week. The arrests follow an undercover operation headed by US Secret Service agents that successful infiltrated gangs that traded sensitive personal information and tips on ID fraud and forgery through online groups …

ID 29 Oct 2004, 10:18
Nokia makes play for mobile content

Preminet reinvigorates Java

Java has suffered as a mobile content platform, compared to Qualcomm Brew, by having a fragmented channel and a confused economic proposition for developers. Nokia aims to change that with its new Preminet aggregation, download and billing framework. Although operators can brand the service themselves, reflecting the shift away …

Mobile 29 Oct 2004, 10:28
AMD launches PC 'for the rest of us world'

Wants half the planet online by 2015

AMD yesterday formally launched 'Emma' - its low-cost Internet access appliance - or the 'Personal Internet Communicator', as its now officially dubbed. As anticipated, the PIC is a compact Windows CE-based machine equipped with an AMD Geode GX500 processor, 128MB of DDR SDRAM, a 10GB hard drive, modem, four USB ports, and a …

PCs 29 Oct 2004, 10:46
Intel and Clearwire forge WiMAX alliance

802.16 networks play

Two of the most powerful forces behind WiMAX, Intel and Craig McCaw's Clearwire start-up, have formed a partnership aiming to accelerate development of 802.16 networks. The two companies will work together on technology development and network deployment, and Intel's venture capital arm has made a 'significant', though …

Wireless 29 Oct 2004, 11:08
Xmas party ends in explosive origami climax

Letters Alcohol-fuelled musings

Alcohol. The basis of several entire cultures. The Antipodeans have been known to sink a bevvy or two and let no one try to pretend the Americans are sober and well behaved. We’ve all watched Spring Break on MTV, y’know. But yet more research indicates that we Brits are a nation of drunken louts. All very useful, we’re sure: …

Letters 29 Oct 2004, 11:09
Sportingbet snaps up Paradise Poker

Bingo!

Sportingbet - the UK-listed internet betting outfit - is snapping up Paradise Poker for £169m ($297.5m) as part of its bid to become a monster online sports betting and gaming based entertainment business. Sportingbet is shelling out £105m ($193m) in cash and the rest in shares for Paradise, which is one of the four largest …

Financial News 29 Oct 2004, 11:35
Symantec drives security deep into enterprise

Information integrity

This week, Symantec has unveiled its new corporate positioning. Long regarded as one of the leaders in the security technology space, the vendor has been building out its portfolio of offerings to drive security deep into organisations, whilst maintaining the high levels of computer systems availability that companies need to …

Enterprise Security 29 Oct 2004, 11:43
VIA narrows Q3 loss on sales boost

Revenues up 25 per cent

A 20 per cent increase in desktop processor shipments during its third fiscal quarter helped VIA narrow its loss to TWD50m ($1.5m), the chip maker said today. That's less than a third of the TWD1.68bn ($50m) loss the company posted at the end of its second quarter. VIA's sales were up almost 25 per cent sequentially, from Q2's …

Financial News 29 Oct 2004, 12:12
RIAA targets 963 alleged file-traders

The farce that launched (almost) a thousand slips

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) this week filed almost 1000 lawsuits this week, all of them accusing individuals of sharing unauthorised copies of songs on P2P networks Some 750 people are unnamed, with 213 more citing alleged copyright infringers' names. The latter had all received demands to cease their …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 13:37
Bagle variant outstrips Google-bashing worm

More viral madness

A new variant of the Bagle email worm is spreading rapidly across the internet today. Email filtering firm BlackSpider Technologies reports that it was blocking 2000 copies of Bagle-AT an hour since its first appearance earlier this morning. Bagle-AT is one of three new variants of the long-running email worm series released …

Malware 29 Oct 2004, 13:40
Vodafone inks global deal with Sun

Java Enterprise System to be used with Vodafone ops

Sun Microsystems has concluded a global deal with Vodafone to provide Java enterprise and desktop software to the mobile phone network's operations across more than 26 countries. Sun's Java Enterprise System (JES) will be used to deliver core enterprise network services at Vodafone. The Java Desktop System is also included in …

Data Networking 29 Oct 2004, 13:45
Telewest tempts dial-up users to broadband

You know you want it

Telewest is looking to tempt dial-up users in its cable franchise areas with a "no brainer" offer designed to lure them onto broadband. From Monday, new punters (tough luck, existing users) will be able to subscribe to Telewest's 256Kbps broadband service for £14.99 a month - a similar price to what they might pay for unmetered …

Telecoms 29 Oct 2004, 13:48
Digital music firm demands big-name business boycott

Advertise on a P2P site and lose custom

Wippit, the UK-based digital music service, has called on the music industry to boycott major British and international firms, accusing them of fuelling "illegal" P2P services with advertising dollars. However, many of the companies concerned claimed their ads' appearance on P2P applications - in particular, eDonkey - was cock- …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 15:54
Gmail accounts 'wide open to exploit' - report

Cookie monster bites web mail service

Google's high profile webmail service, Gmail, is vulnerable to a security exploit that might allow hackers full access to a user's email account simply by knowing the user name, according to reports. The security flaw allows full access to users' accounts, with no need of a password, Israeli news site Nana says . Using a hex- …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 16:50
UK crawls up Euro BB league table

Heave Charlie mouse

The UK is slowly clawing its way up the league table of European broadband nations after recently overtaking Germany, according to stats from regulator Ofcom. Its latest quarterly report found that the UK had 7.5 connections per hundred population at the end of June compared to 6.1 in Spain, 6.3 in Italy, 6.4 in Portugal and 6. …

Telecoms 29 Oct 2004, 16:51
Turing honoured with bronze statue

University of Surrey pays homage

The Earl of Wessex unveiled a bronze statue of Alan Turing at Surrey University today. The statue, sculpted by John W. Mills, shows Turing walking across the campus with his books under his arm. It is on display in the campus' main piazza, in front of the computing department, Alan Turing was one of the Great Ones of …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 16:53
Retailers still not prepared for Chip and PIN

Give us more time

Thousands of retailers are calling for more time to adopt Chip and PIN guidelines, despite an extensive campaign by the government to boost awareness, a new report claims. The Forum of Private Business is hoping card issuers will take its concerns on board and extend the deadline given for businesses to install Chip and PIN …

Small Biz 29 Oct 2004, 16:55
Wireless access point triggers bomb scare

Wronged geek speaks

An Australian man whose wireless access point triggered a bomb scare has spoken of his shock at been treated like a potential terrorist. Student Bobby T, 20, set up a Dlink 2100AP wireless access point outside his home in the suburbs of Sydney to act as a node in a community wireless network. But the kit ("a Dlink 2100AP …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 17:00
UK.gov database 'rationalisation', the ID scheme way

One NIR to rule them all...

Among the Home Office "concessions" on ID cards hailed (with quite remarkable promptness) this week by Home Affairs Committee chairman John Denham MP (Lab) was "the rationalisation of current database proposals and the dropping of the Citizen Information Project." Denham appears however to have been in error in cheering the …

Music and Media 29 Oct 2004, 17:01
Boffins strive for the touchy-feely robot

Social skills classes for the awkward cyborg

A research group at the University of Hertfordshire has taught a robot to play pass the parcel in a bid to make electronic friends of the future seem more human. Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, project leader at Hertfordshire told The BBC that it is important that Robots be able to understand the human concept of personal space, …

Science 29 Oct 2004, 17:06