23rd November 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

CA eyes IBM software exec for CEO post

Swainson in waiting

A number of reports have fingered IBM executive John Swainson as the CEO-to-be at CA. Swainson joined IBM in 1978 and has held a variety of role in sales, marketing and product development. His career with IBM started in Canada, but Swainson spent most of his time overseeing parts of IBM's software business while working in the …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 02:19
Griffin, Froomkin join EFF board

New broom time (we can but hope)

The future of digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation looks faintly brighter today with the creation of an Advisory board, created to help the group form some effective long-term strategies. Amongst the 12 advisors named are the FSF's Eben Moglen, and Princeton professor Ed Felten. But we're pleased to see two …

Business 23 Nov 2004, 02:29
Register restores ad service

Site Notice Some rough figures

On Saturday, The Register suspended service by third party ad serving supplier, Falk, following security issues detailed here. Today we have restored the service, after satisfying ourselves that this problem is fixed. Falk's statement on what went wrong is here. Our thanks for all your emails. We appreciate the kind words and …

Site News 23 Nov 2004, 09:24
Google sued by smut peddler

Pornmeister complains of piracy

A Californian pornographer is suing Google for copyright infringement alleging the search engine's image search is giving people free peeks at its mucky pictures. The company also complains that Google links to sites offering fake passwords. In the lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles the company - Perfect 10 - asks for …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 09:54
Tech bubble banker banned for life

I'm sorry Mr Dell, but Frank can't come to the phone right now

Tech bubble banker Frank Quattrone, who in September was sentenced to 18 months jail time for obstructing a grand jury, obstructing federal regulators and witness tampering, won't be the go-to guy when he gets back. The industry's self-regulator, the NASD, imposed a lifetime ban on him yesterday, overturning an earlier ban and $ …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 09:56
Vodafone Ireland puts price tag on 3G

First 3G phones in Ireland

Vodafone Ireland yesterday announced pricing and content details of its consumer 3G service which it will launch at the end of November. The mobile operator will be the first in Ireland to launch a range of 3G services and handsets which will be released later this week. In a release yesterday, it outlined not only the prices …

Mobile 23 Nov 2004, 10:00
Apple shares hit four-year high

iPod sales accelerating PC-to-Mac switching, says analyst

Are iPod sales feeding demand for Apple's computing products? US investment bank Piper Jaffray seems to think so, after talking to a bunch of PC-using iPod owners. In a report issued yesterday, PJ analyst Gene Munster noted that 13 per cent of iPod users he spoke to claimed to be ex-PC users, with just under half of them having …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 10:06
'iPod Flash chip partner' hikes Q4 sales forecast

Big demand from leading MP3 player makers, says SigmaTel

SigmaTel, the company claimed to be supplying Apple with controller chips for the rumoured iPod Flash player, upped its Q4 sales forecast by $5-10m, allegedly on the back of said controller sales. The chip maker said it now expects quarterly revenues to fall between $60m and $65m, up from its previous forecast of $55-60m. If …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 10:22
Thomson takes 33% stake in MS-backed DRM developer

Vodafone selects Open Mobile Alliance's alternative

France's Thomson has taken 33 per cent a stake in ContentGuard, the 'universal' digital rights management technology provider backed by Microsoft and Time Warner. The deal will see Thomson licensing ContentGuard's DRM system for usage throughout the world. ContentGuard's technology, Extensible Rights Markup Language (XrML), is …

Mobile 23 Nov 2004, 11:06
Australian Idol fans directed to gay porn site

Poptastic ad gaffe

We're absolutely delighted to announce that Australian Idol - the Antipodean version of Pop Idol, the X-Factor and the sewerful of copycat music talent shows currently swilling across our TV screens - has been won by 16-year-old Casey Donovan. Vulture Central is not, however, as ecstatic as local telco Telstra's internet …

Bootnotes 23 Nov 2004, 11:10
JFK assassination game branded 'despicable'

'Docu-game' gets it in the neck

A computer game that lets players re-enact the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 has been branded "despicable" by his family. Glasgow-based software outfit Traffic launched the game this week to coincide with the 41st anniversary of JFK's murder in Dallas. The outfit behind JFK: Reloaded reckons this new "docu- …

Personal 23 Nov 2004, 11:14
PeopleSoft holds firm

Rejects Larry's offer again...

Oracle is asking the PeopleSoft board of directors to remove the poison pills which would scupper any attempted takeover. The database giant is calling on the board to take action before the courts do. Armed with the acceptance of 61 per cent of shareholders for its $24 a share tender offer, Oracle believes that it has a mandate …

Applications 23 Nov 2004, 11:20
Revolutionise your software development with UML

Save 30% on thousands of great books

The Unified Modeling Language is the industry-standard method of specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting object-oriented software systems development. The relative ease of additional development work that UML facilitates makes this standard increasingly popular. We've picked a selection of UML books, so …

Site News 23 Nov 2004, 11:21
Suicide pigs fly to support Blunkett's War on Terror

NotaScare sighted near Canary Wharf

In an amazing coincidence, news of a thwarted 911-style terror attack on the UK emerged just hours before the Government was due to unveil a legislative programme chock-full of security-related goodies. The strangely fact-free story, available from the Mail, ITN and The Scotsman, among others, is attributed to a "senior …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2004, 11:44
Kazaa signs up with Skype

File sharer offers VoIP

The latest version of file-sharing software Kazaa will let users make free phone calls anywhere in the world. Kazaa is including Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol software in version 3.0 of its software. According to Kazaa, 300m people have downloaded its software: it says it is the first peer-to-peer company to offer VoIP …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 11:49
Compliance costs UK.biz dear

How much are new regulations costing you?

British financial institutions are spending wildly different amounts on ensuring their IT systems are compliant with new business regulations. A survey by Enterprise Ireland of 35 leading institutions found spending varied between different institutions. High Street Banks are typically spending half their compliance budget on …

IT Director 23 Nov 2004, 11:54
BMA tells doctors: avoid NPfIT's flagship project

Patient data still at risk

The British Medical Association has warned doctors away from trialing electronic appointment booking over fears that the system could compromise patient confidentiality. The Choose and Book system is supposed to give patients more control over when and where they are treated. However, the BMA says the software behind it is …

Public Sector 23 Nov 2004, 11:55
Firefox.de in adware rumpus

Verboten

An "adware function" in the German version of Firefox has been dropped following user protests. Fans of the open source browser cried foul after they realised its eBay search function went through an affiliated site www.webtip.ch, run by Swiss firm Metaspinner, instead of calling up eBay Germany directly. Firefox markets itself …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 12:25
Motorola e1000 3G phone

Review After the A1000, can Moto get it right this time?

Motorola's latest 3G phone, the e1000, is a completely different beast to the A1000 it launched on the same day. In a Jekyll and Hyde moment, Motorola has managed to produce a completely different, more positive result with this multimedia phone, writes Stuart Miles. It seems that the combination of poor integration of services …

Mobile 23 Nov 2004, 12:32
Broadband prices fall in Europe

Fascinating

The cost of broadband in Europe has fallen by almost a quarter since the beginning of the year, according to London-based consultancy Broad Group. Its European Broadband Pricing Report surveyed 109 operators peddling 455 tariff packages in 36 countries. The average monthly price for 512k and 1Mb services fell 23 per cent since …

Telecoms 23 Nov 2004, 12:32
Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft's 'enemy within'?

Alien browser spotted in PR shots

Does the popularity of Mozilla Firefox know no bounds? Publicity doing the rounds to support stories about Microsoft's MSN Search seems to include screenshots of something that looks strangely like Firefox. Ido Kenan of Israeli site NRG Maariv has investigated the strange case of a PR shot of this combination labeled "AP Photo/ …

Bootnotes 23 Nov 2004, 13:04
Microsoft, Dell win $500m US Air Force contract

One Air Force, One Network

Microsoft has won a $500m contract to supply software and maintenance to the US Air Force. The six-year contract covers 525,000 Microsoft desktop Windows and Office software licenses which will be supplied through Dell. Microsoft will provide licenses and support for Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and SharePoint …

Software 23 Nov 2004, 13:09
eCasino snaps up Virgin Mary cheese sarnie

Praise be

A ten-year old grilled cheese sarnie - yes, that one - which supposedly bears the image of the Virgin Mary has been bought by online casino Golden Palace.com for $28,000 (£15,000). Peckish Diana Duyser made the sandwich a decade ago, but after taking a bite out of it, she noticed the Virgin Mary's face staring back at her. …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 13:24
UK.biz prefers pets to backup systems

And who can blame them?

British business is suffering big losses from technology downtime but is still not taking the problem seriously. A survey of 450 businesses found 66 per cent had suffered downtime in the last two years - two thirds of those suffered at least every three months. Despite 88 per cent of business viewing their IT system as crucial …

Storage 23 Nov 2004, 14:07
AMD ships Mobile Sempron 3000+

Targets thin'n'light laptops

AMD today extended its Sempron budget CPU family, adding a part rated at 3000+ to its thin'n'light-oriented Mobile line-up. Clocked at 1.8GHz, the new part contains just 128KB of L2 cache, paving the way for a 256KB L2 3200+ in the not-too-distant future. Like other Mobile Semprons for slimline notebooks, the 3000+ sports a 754 …

System Builder 23 Nov 2004, 14:10
ATI to spend $10m on Korean R&D plant

Exploring PDA 'transmission technologies', apparently

ATI is to create an R&D centre on South Korea geared toward digital TV and mobile phone multimedia technologies. The centre is expected to cost ATI $10m over the next five years, though it will also receive a number of grants from the South Korean government and regional administrations, according to a Joong Ang Daily report. …

Mobile 23 Nov 2004, 14:13
Linus and friends lead charge against software patents

On, on, you noblest coders

Three of the big names in Open Source have publicly appealed for the EU Council to ditch the European directive on computer implemented inventions. Linus Torvalds, Michael Widenius and Rasmus Lerdorf (creative forces behind Linux, MySQL and PHP, respectively), have slammed the current draft of the directive as "deceptive, …

Developer 23 Nov 2004, 14:38
Battered mail-order bride awarded $430k

Ukrainian internet wife in the money

A US jury has awarded a mail-order bride $434,000 in damages against the internet introduction agency which matched the Ukrainian to the US husband accused of beating her. Nataliya Fox sued Encounters International for fraud and negligence after her marriage to James Fox broke down following a spate of violence on his part …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2004, 14:50
T-Online spends, spends, spends to win customers

Short term pain for long term gain

T-Online, Europe's biggest ISP, is to launch a number of new products such as internet telephony next year in a aggressive move to win more customers. The Deutsche Telekom-owned company will introduce a DSL resale product and a Voice over IP (VoIP) service in Germany - and plans to go large on mass market entertainment, the …

Telecoms 23 Nov 2004, 15:22
15,000 shareholders hire 630 lawyers to sue Deutsche Telekom

They do things differently in Germany

The case will go down in legal history as the biggest of its kind: more than 15,000 shareholders are suing Deutsche Telekom in 2,200 separate cases. They accuse the telco of inflating the value of assets before it was privatised. Investors feel there were misled about the value of Telekom's real estate holdings: some 35,000 …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 15:29
BT preps pre-fab digital music store service

Hop on the download bandwagon with ease

UK telco BT today said it wants to become the foundation for artists' and labels' own entries into the digital music market. The service is essentially an expanded site hosting gig, extended into the areas of content management and DRM through a partnership with UK media technology consultancy Blueprint. Blueprint favours …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2004, 15:29
Enterprise software faces 50 per cent price hike

Gartner says talk to vendors now...

Underlying technology trends could push software licenses for enterprise applications through the roof, according to Gartner. The analysts say that licensing models used by IBM, Oracle, Sybase and other vendors which are based on hardware will increase by at least 50 per cent by 2006 unless they are renegotiated quickly. …

Servers 23 Nov 2004, 15:30
Google sues website over click fraud

We want our money back. And more ...

Google is taking a small website to court for attempting to fiddle its AdSense program. The program provides publishers with advertising based on keywords. When someone clicks on an advert Google pays the publisher for delivering the viewer to their site. So called "click fraud" is an increasing problem as pay-per-click …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 16:19
Chicago's bits and pieces to be sold on eBay

Auctioning for art

Next month the city of Chicago will go up for sale on eBay. Okay, the whole city won't be up for grabs, but parts of Chicago's past and present will be auctioned off during a first of its kind event. City officials have teamed with eBay to sell items such as an original Playboy Bunny costume (The Register's Chicago office is …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 16:20
Reg readers stick it to big tech

Letters And just how long is a piece of string?

Bill Gates got a big thumbs up from the business community this week, when CEOs voted him most respected business leader, or some similar flattery. This, we were stunned to discover, did not go down a bundle with the average Reg reader: Hello John, If you want to do a really useful poll, ask business leaders if they trust …

Letters 23 Nov 2004, 16:36
Spanish eBayers in open revolt

International agitators join mass protest

Pity if you will poor old eBay, which has of late been taking some heavy flack about various aspects of its lucrative operation, not least the small matter of buyers being fleeced by dodgy vendors. And it gets worse. Since 11 November, Spanish eBay users have been fomenting a strike aimed at attracting the company's attention. …

Financial News 23 Nov 2004, 16:37
Biofuels key to UK farming future

More handouts, please

Biofuels could provide a major income for Britain's arable farmers - but success will depend on the level of government support. The independent Cereal Industry Review, published yesterday, also pressed for the grains industry to promote alternative fuel sources. "Without doubt, biofuels will be a key priority area for grains …

Science 23 Nov 2004, 16:51
CA finds Big Blue exec for CEO role

Inherit the sin

CA has tapped a top software executive from one of its rivals - IBM - as its next CEO and is hoping the outsider can pull the company out of its most turbulent period to date. CA today named 26-year IBM veteran John Swainson as its new chief. Swainson started work at the software maker this week but won't officially become CEO …

IT Director 23 Nov 2004, 17:37
Microsoft sees bespoke Windows everywhere

Analysis Premium hand-tuning service available

Hidden in Microsoft's deal to supply over half a million client desktops at the US department of defense is one of the year's most intriguing stories. The services and other agencies under the Pentagon will receive a bespoke version of Windows: a sign that Redmond is preparing to counter slower growth in its license revenues by …

Operating Systems 23 Nov 2004, 23:29
We're not so inEFFectual

Letters Just you try battling the pigopolists, mate

Re: Griffin, Froomkin join EFF board "They like to lose - they feed on the indignation," thunders one reader, who characterizes the EFF as "a bumbling third-rate ACLU with high-tech airs. They're mucking about with some important cases, and every time they lose, we lose." Nice journalistic technique -- putting your best …

Letters 23 Nov 2004, 23:54