5th November 2004 Archive

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eBay paper Vulcan hits £1m

Aviation bidding madness

For those aviation enthusiasts who would like to own an Avro Vulcan but feel that they simply do not have a sufficiently large garage in which to hangar the beast, there is a more manageable alternative currently available on eBay for the modest sum of £1m+. It's fair to say that even the most space-starved plane-spotter will …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 09:47
F-16 strafes New Jersey school

Shock and Awe

In a night time attack, a bomber has shelled a New Jersey school - only two days after the re-election of George W Bush as US president. But warbloggers, put down your wikis. It's not the French, and not, it seems, even a foreign airforce. The US Air Force has admitted that it made the attack, and confirmed that it was an F-16 …

Bootnotes 5 Nov 2004, 10:00
The case for women in the technology business

Interview IBM's Rebecca George fights her corner

Last month, the British Computer Society announced the first winners of its Women in IT award, set up to recognise of organisations that have done the most to encourage women into technology and engineering roles. In the end, two companies shared the prize: IBM UK, and Pfizer. Rebecca George, chair of the Women in IT Forum, and …

IT Director 5 Nov 2004, 10:32
Apple kit rated five out of five by... er... Apple

AppleStore buyers' ratings scheme limited to non-Apple products

It's no use telling Apple how good its kit is, it already knows - and has granted each and every one of them five out of five on the AppleStore's new ratings system. The online shop has just added a system that allows punters to rate the products they've bought, the better to prevent others from picking a dud. But here's the …

Mac Channel 5 Nov 2004, 10:33
Oslo cops shut down 'Kill Bush' website

Rap trio get knuckles rapped

Norwegian police have shut down the satirical anti-Bush website killhim.nu (Kill Him Now) by Norwegian rap trio Gatas Parlament, daily newspaper Aftenposten reports. The site urged Norwegians to put a bounty on the head of president Bush. Norwegian police removed the site's content and replaced it with a fax notification of the …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 10:46
Nvidia beats Street with Q3 sales hike

Best quarter in (almost) two years

After its miserable Q2, Nvidia was all smiles again yesterday after the company posted its best quarterly results in almost two years for the third quarter of fiscal 2005. For the three months to 24 October 2004, Nvidia recorded revenues of $515.6m, up 13 per cent on the previous quarter and six per cent on Q3 FY2004. The …

Financial News 5 Nov 2004, 11:02
Intel's Barrett looks for chip sales growth in '05

So does market watcher iSuppli

Intel CEO Craig Barrett believes the current inventory correction being experienced by the chip industry does not herald a slowdown and has said he takes forecasts of flat sale growth through 2005 "with a grain of salt". Speaking at a Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) meeting this week, Barrett said: "I don't think the …

Channel Register 5 Nov 2004, 11:03
LG, Matsushita trade lawsuits in PDP patent clash

You infringe our IP! No, you infringe ours!

Japan's Matsushita and South Korean combine LG Electronics have both issued lawsuits against each other after both companies accused the other of patent infringement. Matsushita was first. It claims LG's plasma display panels use technology it owns governing the way heat can be dispersed from the screens. It asked the Tokyo …

Channel Register 5 Nov 2004, 11:31
Hard times for London bulk email outfit

£10 off 4.6m email addresses, while stocks last

Times must be tough for the bulk email outfit operating via a forwarding address in a west London business services centre, since it has just knocked a tenner off their "Unbelievable Secrets" email address CD containing 4.6m addies and some bulk mailer software. This once-in-a-lifetime offer was previously £29.95, now suitably …

Spam 5 Nov 2004, 11:34
419ers recruit asylum-seeking mortician

Liz Toon's citzenship woes

Anyone who is currently reading El Reg in the rec room of an illegal immigrants' secure facility in the Home Counties in the hope that it might contain more useful pointers as to how to forge a UK ID card will certainly sympathise with the plight of poor old Liz Toon - Senegalese mortician on the edge: From: elizabeth_toon@ …

Bootnotes 5 Nov 2004, 11:51
cahoot fixes customer security cock-up

Upgrade snafu

Customers of cahoot, the UK internet bank, were able to view other people's accounts after an upgrade to the service went awry. The service, taken down for 10 hours yesterday to resolve the security breach, is now back up and running. cahoot said the problem is fixed and lessons have been learned. The glitch meant cahoot users …

Enterprise Security 5 Nov 2004, 11:55
MCI upbeat despite $3.4bn loss

Which is nice

Only six months out of bankruptcy, MCI has reported net losses of $3.4bn for Q3, due to falling revenues and a write down of the value of its network. The company had revenues of $5.08bn to the end of September, down from $5.97bn for the same quarter of 2003. But the main cause of the loss was the charge of $2.77bn that the …

Financial News 5 Nov 2004, 12:37
Did electronic voting pass the test?

Paper trails, anyone?

At about the time that Senator John Kerry had accepted defeat and phoned President Bush to congratulate him, stories were circulating on the Internet claiming that the electronic voting machines in Florida and Ohio and some other states might have been rigged for a Bush victory. The claim stems from the fact that exit polls …

Public Sector 5 Nov 2004, 12:38
BT's broadband share slides below key target

Squeezed by competition

BT's slice of the UK's broadband market is sliding so fast it has missed a key market share target it set just eight months ago. Yesterday, the company published "record" broadband numbers in a bid to counter negative reports about its recent performance. Yet the move has backfired because the figures also reveal that its …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2004, 12:42
Treo 650 delayed till February

Won't have Cobalt even next year?

Disappointment seems certain for fans of PalmOne who were looking forward to seeing the new 'Cobalt' operating system in new Palm handhelds, as president Ed Colligan told analysts in London yesterday that he "would not commit" to upgrading his hardware even next year. The Treo 650, launched last month in the US, turns out to be …

Mobile 5 Nov 2004, 12:53
BOFH: A little Ray of sunshine

Episode 38 Happy thoughts in the comms room

"It's a work of art," the PFY sighs. "Beautiful!" I concur. "You've done a fantastic job - as usual." "Thanks," says Ray, our cabling contractor. "I'm well pleased with it myself. No problems or mods before I send the bill in?" "No thanks - and add a little bonus in for yourself for, I dunno, design consultation." "Thanks …

BOFH 5 Nov 2004, 12:58
Blunkett-bashing t-shirt remans the barricades

Cash'n'Carrion NO2ID restock coincides with e-Petition

We're delighted to announce that the NO2ID t-shirt is back in stock as of right now - very timely given the group behind the campaigning apparel - NO2ID.net - has just launched its NO2ID e-Petition to be presented to Downing Street in time for the Queen's Speech. According to NO2ID.net, this bit of e-lobbying is essential …

Site News 5 Nov 2004, 12:59
UK.biz in the dark over broadband jargon

More than half of businesses baffled

UK small businesses are becoming increasingly baffled by telecoms terminology, a new survey has found. The survey, by Tiscali business services, revealed that over half of 250 businesses polled are confused by jargon and acronyms used to market telecom systems. Almost two thirds found it difficult to compare various broadband …

Small Biz 5 Nov 2004, 13:00
Gizmondo creator touts smart phone scheme

Acquires enterprise app firm to tackle RIM

It's only just started shipping its Gizmondo handheld games console but Tiger Telematics has already said it plans to challenge the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, HTC, PalmOne and Research in Motion with a smart phone product. Dubbed 'Bizmondo', the unit is essentially an enterprise-oriented version of the Gizmondo, …

Mobile 5 Nov 2004, 13:01
Intel readies 'East Fork' digital home PC platform

Think Centrino for the living room

Intel is gearing up to create a Centrino-style brand and platform for 'digital home'-oriented PCs, it has emerged. Codenamed 'East Fork' - after the Ohio state park, apparently - the platform centres on 'Smithfield', the upcoming dual-core Pentium 4 CPU, and 'Lakeport', Intel's next-generation desktop chipset. Like Centrino, …

System Builder 5 Nov 2004, 13:01
Readers embrace Welsh language tool

Letters Courting controversy with every word

Let's start with the really important stuff: it is Friday after all. The BBC's new Welsh translation tool has gone down a storm: This technology could be used by El Reg... for acronyms! Every day I find myself reading an interesting story, but I get stuck by not knowing what "WXYZ" stands for. Keep up the good work. Mark …

Letters 5 Nov 2004, 13:38
Email worm poses as Osama videogram

Famus for 15 minutes

Emails claiming to contain video clips of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden are likely to be example of a new computer worm. The Famus-F worm normally arrives in the form of a bilingual English and Spanish email, with the subject line "More terrorism this year". The message body states: "Last speech from Bin Laden. Please …

Anti-Virus 5 Nov 2004, 13:42
Australia blamed for bin Laden panto appearance

FoTW Inability to follow a story by reason of anger, part 73

Something of a rarity: a double flame. Well, one is a flame, the other is just another example of how to mis-understand an article. Still. Onwards: We featured news this week that a caricature of Osama bin Laden made himself rather unpopular when he burst into a rendition of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York during a panto in …

Letters 5 Nov 2004, 13:43
Dell sued for alleged global sales patent abuse

Tiny firm claims ownership of international ecommerce

Dell has become the first company to be targeted by the owner of a broad-brush patent that covers international ecommerce. The patent in question, 6,460,020, covers a "universal shopping center for international operation". It describes a system that allows buyers to order goods online, and have their international delivery …

Developer 5 Nov 2004, 14:25
World's cleverest woman needs a job

An IQ of 200 is a sorry thing to waste

A qualified industrial engineer with an IQ of 200, five masters degrees wants a job in the UK after spending two years on the dole in Bulgaria. According to Press Association reports, Daniela Simidchieva is struggling to find gainful employment, even as a cleaning woman, despite being listed by Mensa as the "world's cleverest …

Business 5 Nov 2004, 14:58
Canada offers refuge to distraught Democrats

Gay, pot-loving, gun-free singles take the oath

Those US citizens who are as we speak packing their bags in a state of near panic following the re-election of George W Bush in the certain knowledge that waves of gun-toting, bible-waving, gay-bashing rednecks will shortly be coming to pop a cap in their pinko, Kerry-loving liberal asses should know that help is at hand - in …

Bootnotes 5 Nov 2004, 14:59
37 arrested in net gun swoop

More than 100 weapons seized

Thirty-seven people have been arrested after the Metropolitan Police seized more than 100 firearms in a crackdown on weapons traded online. Some 700 addresses have been raided over the last four days as officers mounted the UK-wide operation. In all, 86 handguns, ten rifles, three machine guns, seven shotguns, 13 stun guns and …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 15:02
Counting the cost of security training

To invest or not to invest

It has been said before that the cost of IT training for those of us in the computer security industry is really quite high. After all, there is not only the cost of the course itself, but also the associated costs of hotels, food, and rental vehicles if the course is out of town. This quickly adds up to a rather tidy sum for …

Security 5 Nov 2004, 15:32
Graphics patent holder sues Sony, MS, Nintendo

Initiatiator of mass IP lawsuit filing revealed

The massive programme of legal action against alleged infringers of a series of patents covering graphics and other computing techniques has been extended to console hardware vendors Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The news follows yesterday's revelation that 18 PC hardware companies had also been targeted, alongside 12 games …

Financial News 5 Nov 2004, 15:40
Microsoft extends MSN music sales into Europe

Stores for eight more nations added

Microsoft has expanded its MSN music store to eight European countries in a bid to beat Apple's iTunes Music Store. The move is enabled by MSN's existing digital music partners. The Spanish, Dutch, Austrian and Swiss stores, for example, are operated by Loudeye's European subsidiary, OD2, which is the foundation for MSN's …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 15:50
Windows for Warships safe for Royal Navy, says MoD

Getting your blue on blue in early...

Windows 2000 represents the "lowest risk choice of operating system" for Royal Navy destroyer Combat Management, and "any residual risks associated with reliability [are] well understood by the contractor", Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told the Commons yesterday. Responding to a question from Michael Fabricant MP, Ingram …

Operating Systems 5 Nov 2004, 16:36
ISPA bigwig resigns over support for UKIF

Trade group rift claims casualty

A senior member of the UK's leading internet trade body resigned today after losing the confidence of fellow board members. Stephen Dyer, chairman of Mailbox Internet Ltd and until today one of ten directors on the board of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), said he was forced out of the job because of his …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2004, 16:42
BSA raises grass ceiling to £20K

That's Christmas sorted, then

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has doubled the bounty it will pay to people who shop their employers for using illegally pirated software, taking the upper limit to £20,000 until the end of the year. Historically, the organisation has paid 10 per cent of the value of recovered software to the person who tipped them off, …

Applications 5 Nov 2004, 16:49
Nerd party needed to replace 'left-wing' Democrats, says area man

Election 2004 Point and click

A newspaper columnist has called for the old-fashioned, "left wing" Democratic Party to be replaced by a new, emergent party of computer nerds. Free-marketeer Dan Gillmor of Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury urges the Democrats to abandon "old, discredited politics", while an "increasingly radical middle" needs a new party with …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 17:20
How organized religion, not net religion, won it for Bush

Election 2004 Not even a gay, blogging Jesus could help

Technophobes and luddites won the election for George W Bush in 2004, not technology-toting bloggers, by turning out the vote. The giant, self-congratulatory humpfest that is the blogger nation really didn't do much at all for the Democrats, despite Joe Trippi telling anyone who'll listen that the internet transformed politics. …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2004, 17:21
MS debuts 'forthcoming attractions' pre-alert alert

Alert Thursday joins patch Tuesday in BoFH calendars

Microsoft is to give users three working days notice about upcoming security patches. Starting this month the software giant will provide a general summary of upcoming updates just before it releases patches, an event that normally takes place on the second Tuesday of every month. This information - the number and severity of …

Enterprise Security 5 Nov 2004, 19:32
Novell fires counterblast at Ballmer Linux summary

This is my truth, tell me yours

Novell has responded to Microsoft's attempts to portray Windows as a safer proposition than Linux in the enterprise with a counteroffensive of its own. In response to Microsoft's 'Get the Facts' campaign, Novell has launched a site designed to "unbending the truth" about Linux. The move comes after Microsoft chief exec Steve …

Operating Systems 5 Nov 2004, 19:39