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9th November 2004 Archive

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  • Major server vendors in giant, supercomputing cluster cluck

    Zippy kit for computer hungry

    The world's finest server makers mobilized their marketing armies on Monday, hoping to draw as much attention as possible to their latest supercomputing wares. Day one of the premier supercomputing conference - SC2004 - brought server cluster announcements from HP and Dell, new Itanium chips from Intel and a new high …

    Servers 9 Nov 2004, 02:01

  • Ex-Lucent boss could face bribe charges

    Three get SEC notices...

    Three ex-Lucent employees were warned yesterday that they could face civil charges over allegations that they paid bribes to secure contracts in Saudi Arabia. Former chief executive Richard McGinn and John Heindel, who ran operations in Saudi Arabia, were sent Wells notices by the Securities and Exchange Commission. A third ex- …

    IT Director 9 Nov 2004, 09:45

  • Toshiba takes Hynix to task in patent clash

    Lawsuits filed after licensing talks collapse

    Toshiba has accused Hynix of infringing its DRAM and Flash patents, and has begun legal proceedings against its South Korean rival in the US and Japanese courts. A lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court alleges Hynix wilfully infringed three of Toshiba's NAND Flash patents. The Japanese company wants the court to block the …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2004, 09:53

  • Pirated U2 album leaked online

    Weeks before official release

    Irish rockers U2 might bring forward the release date of their next album because pirate copies of it are turning up on peer-to-peer networks. The album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is due in the shops on 22 November. Earlier in the year a hard copy of the album disappeared from a photo shoot, leading to fears it would be …

    Music and Media 9 Nov 2004, 09:55

  • AMD signs foundry for 64-bit CPU production

    Chartered to punch out AMD64 parts in 2006

    AMD is to outsource AMD64 processor production - or at least a portion of it - the chip maker announced today. The move is one part of a larger deal struck with Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing which will also see AMD license elements of its process technology to the foundry. Crucially, Chartered will begin …

    PCs 9 Nov 2004, 10:16

  • Intel relaunches Itanic

    Just look at the size of that cache

    Intel launched its first Itanium 2 processor with 9MB of L3 cache yesterday, as anticipated. The new chip is clocked at 1.6GHz, as is a version with 6MB of cache. Intel also added a 4MB version, though that runs at 1.5GHz. All three processors operate across a 400MHz frontside bus and are pitched at multi-way systems. Intel …

    Servers 9 Nov 2004, 10:34

  • Dog eats phone

    The future was warm and squidgy

    A dog in Turkey has wolfed down a mobile phone. The owner of the phone only discovered it was inside the mutt when he rang the number and heard the dog's stomach ringing. The man, a petrol station attendant, initially thought the phone had been stolen by a motorist filling up with fuel, according to the Andolou news agency by …

    Bootnotes 9 Nov 2004, 10:56

  • P2Pers ask Supreme Court to reject RIAA ban request

    District Court, appeal court rulings clear enough

    StreamCast has formally asked the US Supreme Court to reject the request made by the Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) to revisit lower court decisions that confirm the legality of P2P software. The MPAA and RIAA petitioned the Supreme Court in October 2004, following the US …

    Music and Media 9 Nov 2004, 11:24

  • Boy (11) sues mum for not buying him PC

    A promise is a promise is a promise

    An 11 year-old in Xingzheng, Henan province has taken his mother to court for refusing to give him a PC. The schoolboy's mother promised him a computer if he got more than 94 per cent for his school work. He got 97 per cent: but his mother refused to fulfil her side of the bargain. Her excuse? Lack of money. The boy then took …

    Bootnotes 9 Nov 2004, 11:27

  • BT in VoIP giveaway

    Will do anything to flog broadband

    BT is bribing customers with free VoIP calls for a year if they sign up to one of its broadband services. The deal, the latest in a string of sign-up promo offers, runs until the end of December. Using BT's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product - BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger - punters can make free PC-to-PC calls …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2004, 11:39

  • Trojan infects PCs to generate SMS spam

    Junk text malware surfaces in Russia

    A Trojan which uses infected PCs to send spam messages to mobile phone users has been discovered. Delf-HA Trojan horse sends spam SMS messages by using the free "Send a text message" facility found on the websites of several Russian mobile network operators. Infected PCs download instructions on the content of junk SMS messages …

    Malware 9 Nov 2004, 11:42

  • The definitive guide to PHP Power Programming

    Site Offer Save 30% on 1000s of titles

    PHP and ASP/ASP.NET have emerged as the two primary application development frameworks for developing web applications. PHP is open source, and it is the most popular Apache module in use, by far. In PHP 5 Power Programming, PHP 5's co-creator and two leading PHP developers show you how to make the most of PHP 5's industrial- …

    Site News 9 Nov 2004, 11:51

  • MS - NHS tie up unsettles Reg readers

    Letters And a job offer for the brainiest woman

    Microsoft's recent big win in the NHS caused something of a stir, particularly as it emerged that Steve Ballmer himself had been involved in the sales negotiation. Interesting. What is Ballmer doing negotiating new contracts? Surely he has minions for such things. Is it that the loss of such a big contract would be a PR …

    Letters 9 Nov 2004, 11:51

  • CSR unveils 'lowest cost' Wi-Fi chip

    UniFi utilises MIMO, aimed at mobile phones, CE kit

    Bluetooth chip specialist Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) today extended its reach into the crowded Wi-Fi arena by launching a line of single-chip WLAN parts pitched at mobile phones and other handheld devices that is pledged are the "lowest cost" chips of their kind. Shipping under the UniFi brand, the new chips come in two …

    Wireless 9 Nov 2004, 11:55

  • Mio 8390 smart phone

    Reg review Windows Mobile 2003 in a clamshell

    While the likes of Motorola and HTC have become well-known for their Windows Mobile-based smart phones, Mio has kept a lower profile. The reason lies in its decision to focus on building a channel of specialist retailers and distributors rather than try to sell through the mobile networks, from whom the vast majority of Western …

    Reviews 9 Nov 2004, 12:00

  • China homespun 3G unravels in trials

    Testing times

    The future of Chinese 3G technology and how it is licensed by the government is in doubt today after it failed a five-month trial. Chinese next generation phone networks are to be based on the home-grown TD-SCDMA technology. But a five-month government trial has concluded the technology is not ready for commercial use. Problems …

    Mobile 9 Nov 2004, 12:18

  • Qualcomm seeks markets with bold TV network move

    Acts to take role over WiMAX

    Qualcomm has always been a company of extreme audacity. Having taken on the prevailing GSM mobile phone world to establish its own de facto standard with CDMA. As a result it has created a business around its vast store of intellectual property that, if its new results are anything to go by, has far more life left in it than …

    Mobile 9 Nov 2004, 12:56

  • IT hardware makers back EU patent directive

    But Poland will oppose it

    EICTA, the European Information and Communication Technology Association, has stepped up its campaign in support of patents for computer-implemented inventions with a new site, Patents4Innovation.org. This aims to persuade people that the current form of the Directive on computer implemented inventions will boost innovation. …

    Developer 9 Nov 2004, 13:25

  • BT: Nation's broadband investment in Ofcom's hands

    Let us make a proper return - or else

    Investment in the UK's information economy could be torpedoed if telecoms regulator Ofcom bungles it soon-to-be-published telecoms review. BT boss Ben Verwaayen today said that the UK needed sustained investment in its national broadband network to ensure that the "entrepreneurial new world that runs on digital knowledge and …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2004, 13:29

  • Stealing movies: Why the MPAA can afford to relax

    Analysis Spinning the exploitation cycle

    Another great hullabaloo has been going on this week over the fact that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) plans to start the same kind of debilitating legal actions against illegal file sharing of movies, that the recording industry has been filing for the past year. Online music file sharing is measured in …

    Music and Media 9 Nov 2004, 13:37

  • Redbus suffers another power cut

    Punters - and kit - left in the dark

    Redbus Interhouse has suffered yet another power cut at its Harbour Exchange Square location in London last night knocking its customers offline. The scale of the outage is not yet known, but it's understood to have hit two floors of Redbus' colocation facility and lasted for between 20 and 40 minutes. A number of customers …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2004, 15:58

  • Cap Gemini cuts jobs

    Consultants downsized

    Cap Gemini is cutting 1,500 jobs, or 2.5 per cent of its workforce, as it continues to try and cut costs. Redundancies will cost the firm €140m but should cut annual costs by €110m. The consulting firm maintained its prediction of 10 per cent growth over the course of next year. Paul Hermelin, chief executive at Cap Gemini, …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2004, 15:59

  • Boom times ahead for IT security profession

    Big bucks for fighting bad guys

    Boom times are ahead for security pros. The information security workforce will expand by an estimated 13.7 per cent annually to reach 2.1m workers by 2008. Approximately 680,000 of this expanded workforce will work in Europe. The (ISC)2 2004 Global Information Security Workforce Study found the wider use of internet …

    Enterprise Security 9 Nov 2004, 16:10

  • UK.gov meets and greets anti-patent lobby

    Come over to my place

    The Patent Office is to hold a meeting, this December, with anti-software patent activists to try to persuade them of the merits of the European directive on computer implemented inventions. Lord Sainsbury, minister for science and innovation, contacted everyone who wrote to their MP about the bill; more than 300 people, in …

    Developer 9 Nov 2004, 16:19

  • BT coughs to email snag

    500 SMEs hit

    BT estimates that some 500 business customers have been unable to send email for more than 24 hours following a glitch at BT Connect - the telco's ISP for SMEs. In a statement the telco said: "A small number of our customers who are using their own domain names to send email may experience difficulties when attempting to send …

    Small Biz 9 Nov 2004, 17:05

  • Dell gets meagre $240m package for North Carolina plant

    How will it ever manage?

    It took more than old-fashioned southern hospitality to convince Dell to build a new computer manufacturing plant in North Carolina. In fact, it took about $240m in tax incentives and loads of wrangling to put Dell in the Tar Heel State. Dell, an obvious candidate for copious amounts of government aid, will put up its third US …

    PCs 9 Nov 2004, 18:06

  • Hands off VoIP, Feds tell states

    FCC blasted for whistling away worries

    Individual states don't have the power to regulate Voice over IP telephony, the US federal communications regulator decided today. Minnesota's public utilities commission had asked Vonage, a VoIP provider, to abide by the same requirements as a regular telephone company. But the FCC today decided state requirements were " …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2004, 20:22

  • Cisco's solid Q1 gains leave investors unmoved

    Sitting pretty on $17 billion cash

    Despite pulling in a healthy $6.0bn in revenue, Cisco Systems didn't do enough during its first quarter to please investors. Cisco's first quarter results came in just as analysts had expected with the company posting earnings per share of $0.21. Ciscos' gains came on the back of the 17 per cent year-over-year rise in revenue …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2004, 23:12