1st December 2004 Archive

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US netizens: white, wealthy and full of it - shock!

Thanks, but no thanks

"The Internet is becoming more and more widespread and will increasingly represent a scientific random sample of the population," claims ICANN's newest board member, Joi Ito. Quite what scientific experiments he will wish to perform, once the desired sample size has been reached, remains a mystery. But like many people who spend …

Business 1 Dec 2004, 00:34
Creative unveils 'smallest' MuVo MP3 player

Gigabyte capacity

Creative has launched its latest MuVo Flash-based players in the UK: the Micro N200 and V200. Both are available in capacities of 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB, but while the V200 follows the usual two-part MuVo design pattern - allowing you to connect it to a host PC as you would a USB Flash drive - the Micro N200 is a one-part …

Peripherals 1 Dec 2004, 09:54
0wn3d in 200 seconds

Honeypots don't stay clean for long

An unprotected Windows XP machine was breached within four minutes, and became a zombie in less than ten hours, tests conducted by USA Today show. The paper set up six honeypot PCs and monitored the results. An XP PC running SP1 was breached by an intruder through a hole that the Sasser worm used, only four minutes into the …

Enterprise Security 1 Dec 2004, 09:54
Sony extends native MP3 support to Vaio Pocket

Firmware update to fix bugs too

Sony's move to support the MP3 audio format natively on its hard drive-based music players will be extended to the recently released Vaio Pocket device, The Register can confirm. According to the Japanese giant, it will ship a firmware update later this month that will not only enable native MP3 playback, saving the need to …

Peripherals 1 Dec 2004, 10:18
Microsoft opens India research labs

Bangalore bound

Microsoft's research arm is opening a lab in India - it's third centre outside the US. The facility will investigate computer science and the social context of technology. It will carry out long-term basic and applied research and improve Microsoft's links to academic and scientific communities. The lab will start by looking at …

Science 1 Dec 2004, 10:49
Cabir added to payload of Symbian mobile Trojan

More skullduggery

Virus writers have packaged the Skulls mobile Trojan with Cabir to create a more potent threat against Symbian Series 60 smart phones. Vulnerable phones include those from manufacturers such as Nokia, Siemens, Panasonic and Sendo. Skulls-A began infecting users after copies of the malware were posted on some Symbian shareware …

Mobile 1 Dec 2004, 10:54
Kingston Comms buys Omnetica for £169m

Uh huh

Hull-based telco Kingston Communications is splash out £169m in cash and shares to acquire rival telco Omnetica to help boost its voice and data service to large organisations. The deal - £99m in cash and the rest in shares - will create a converged communications outfit with a customer base made up of a number of blue chip …

Telecoms 1 Dec 2004, 11:02
DoCoMo looks abroad for handsets

Hello Moto, terve Nokia

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile firm, is looking overseas for new handsets - traditionally the operator has relied on local, Japanese handset makers such as Fujitsu, NEC and Matsushita. Masao Nakamura, chief executive of DoCoMo, told the Financial Times his company is to buy a high-end phone from Motorola aimed at business users …

Mobile 1 Dec 2004, 11:07
Goodmans readies portable video player

Low-cost CE firm challenges iRiver, Creative

UK budget consumer electronics maker Goodmans is set to launch an updated portable video player early next year. As its name suggests, the new model, the GPDR40, packs in a 40GB hard drive ready to store music, movies and photos. The unit sports a 3.6in, 320 x 240 16-bit LCD on which all this content can be viewed, though it …

Peripherals 1 Dec 2004, 11:14
Apple iTunes adds Band Aid 20 - for 79p

Update Half the price rival services are charging

Apple has posted Band Aid 20's single, Do They Know it's Christmas? on its UK iTunes Music Store (ITMS). But it has managed to secure the track at its standard price of 79p, and not the £1.49 that the song's owner, charity the Band Aid Trust, wanted the company to sell it for - and the price at which all the online music store' …

Financial News 1 Dec 2004, 11:16
Sybase partners with IBM

Strange bedfellows

Sybase has just announced a partnership with IBM to market the former's database on the latter's hardware. If that doesn't make you sit up and take notice then nothing will. Why would IBM, with more than enough databases of its own (at least seven) want to encourage Sybase, of all people? Well, first we need a little clarity. …

Applications 1 Dec 2004, 11:38
Cingular signs for 3G

Ericsson and Lucent among the winners

Cingular, the largest mobile operator in the US, has signed Ericsson, Lucent and Siemens to build a 3G network. Beginning next year the telco will build networks in "a number of major urban and suburban markets". Cingular has reached agreement with Nokia to improve its existing GSM/GPRS/EDGE network and "possibly support the …

Mobile 1 Dec 2004, 11:42
World's Biggest Luddite set for London job

Strewth!

The "World's Biggest Luddite" could be getting a cushy job in the UK amid reports that Richard Alston has been fingered for the Aussie post of high commissioner to London. Although the appointment hasn't been confirmed, reports from Down Under suggest he's being lined up for the job. One colleague described him as a "great guy …

Bootnotes 1 Dec 2004, 11:51
MOM grows up as DSI takes off

Microsoft strides towards manageability

It is fair to say that for the first decade or more of its existence, Microsoft paid comparatively little attention to the manageability of its increasingly diverse range of offerings. Indeed, as the company's products grew in their capabilities they became ever more widely deployed in almost every area of business. However, …

Developer 1 Dec 2004, 11:53
Intel next-gen Centrino chipset ships

Small volumes arrive ahead of January launch

Intel has begun shipping limited quantities of its 'Alviso' Pentium M notebook chipset ahead of full-scale production on 18 January 2005. So claim Taiwanese laptop manufacturer sources cited by DigiTimes. Alviso brings the feature set from the chip giant's i915 desktop chipset family - aka 'Grantsdale' - to its Centrino …

System Builder 1 Dec 2004, 11:55
Thales secures broadband access for government

Plug and play

Thales has launched a hardware-based encryption device for broadband connections. The new IP version of its SafeDial+ encryptor PC card is certified by GCHQ to protect information up to the CONFIDENTIAL level. It will enable UK government employees to use broadband out of the office to access sensitive information. The product …

Enterprise Security 1 Dec 2004, 12:14
Police cuff 28 in £10m counterfeit haul

Operation Vendura sweeps Scotland

Scottish police have arrested 28 in a five-day operation which netted an estimated £10m in counterfeit goods. The dragnet has been hailed as the most successful in Scottish history. The final tally of "Operation Vendura" included 4000 CDs, 3000 DVDs, PCs, CD and DVD burners and labelling equipment siezed during raids on 28 …

Channel Register 1 Dec 2004, 12:16
PCCW cautious in UK broadband wireless rollout

Will launch a fixed wireless service in a 'major city' next year

One of the key lessons learned from the failure of many broadband wireless services around 2000 was that providers need to avoid the big bang approach. Companies like Winstar and Teligent built far reaching and expensive networks and waited for the customers to turn up, rather than adopting the step-by-step approach favored by …

Telecoms 1 Dec 2004, 12:32
Merrill Lynch looks to 'killer' Apple home media server

The Mac maker a likely winner in the digital living room

Apple's next "killer" product could be a home entertainment system, investment house Merrill Lynch has claimed. In a report issued to investors earlier this week, the company announces its belief that it's just too early in the game to forecast a winner on the digital living room fight. However, one thing of which ML is certain …

Mac Channel 1 Dec 2004, 13:01
MS sues resellers for counterfeit certificates

Eight US firms named...

Microsoft is taking action against US resellers who are using dodgy Certificates of Authenticity (COA) to pass off counterfeit software as the real deal. Eight companies are facing legal action after a year-long investigation by Microsoft. The software giant bought hundreds of computer systems and packaged software. It was …

Channel Register 1 Dec 2004, 13:32
AMD took bigger slice of x86 server market in Q3

High-value chip focus pays off?

AMD saw its processor market share rise to its highest level in almost three years during Q3, market watcher IDC said this week. The chip maker took 9.9 per cent of the revenue the x86 processor industry took from customers during Q3, up from 8.5 per cent in Q2, with its average processor price rising ten per cent quarter on …

Servers 1 Dec 2004, 13:37
SkillSoft to cut 120 Dublin jobs

Also 13 jobs in Nashua, New Hampshire

US e-learning company SkillSoft is to cut 120 jobs in Dublin in an outsourcing move. People working in content R&D, localisation, curriculum development, content development and learning design will lose their jobs as part of the scheme. After the redundancies in Dublin, SkillSoft will employ about 60 people in Ireland. The job …

Financial News 1 Dec 2004, 13:40
'Dial 9' email (still) a hoax, says watchdog

Just bin it

Net users are being urged to bin an email doing the rounds (yet again) warning them of a premium-rate phone scam. Telephone watchdog, ICSTIS, says its received dozens of calls in the last few days from people concerned that they could be ripped off if they fall for the con. The emails claim people could be hit with a bill for £ …

Music and Media 1 Dec 2004, 13:40
ISP finds pubic hair in keyboard

A novel way to sell 8Mb broadband

A probe into the the nutritional content of the average keyboard has discovered that it contains an unhealthy balance of bread crumbs, crisp fragments, meat, sugar, salt and jam. Worse still, this inadequate diet is supplemented with toe and fingernail clippings, grit, glue and pubic hair. That is the result of Brit ISP UK …

Bootnotes 1 Dec 2004, 13:41
ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition

Review Just as ATI's X800 XT PE ships, along comes the next board

Way back in May I looked at the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition graphics card. This was ATI's next generation graphics solution, and it took graphics performance to the next level. However, even though the X800 XT PE was a great card, it soon became apparent that no one could buy one. As the days, weeks and months ticked by …

System Builder 1 Dec 2004, 14:05
Liquid lenses for camera phones

Clever stuff from France

Camera phones will soon have lenses made from nothing more substantial that a couple of drops of oil and water, but will still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects. So says Etienne Paillard, CEO of French start-up Varioptic. The company was founded two years ago to exploit two core technology patents …

Mobile 1 Dec 2004, 14:37
3G kicks off in Norway

Telenor opens for business

Telenor Mobil today turned on Norway to 3G. The cellco claims launch-day coverage for its UMTS network in "70 cities and densely populated areas", reaching half of Norway's population. It aims to delive full coverage to all areas with more than 200 people by 2007. Telenor is supporting the launch with some limited time price …

Mobile 1 Dec 2004, 15:09
BCS says skills beat outsourcing

Every cloud...

The British Computer Society says offshoring is now a fact of life but represents an opportunity for UK IT professionals as well as a threat. A report from a BCS working party chaired by Elizabeth Sparrow found that at least 12 per cent of UK IT jobs will have gone offshore by 2010. The report predicts offshoring will continue …

IT Director 1 Dec 2004, 15:10
Commuting is stressful: official

Really? Good Lord!

An HP survey - the actual point of which remains unclear - has deduced that commuting is stressful and therefore bad for you, Making Money reports. Stress levels of guinea pigs* whose blood pressure and heart rate were monitored as they faced the daily scrum, and found to be higher than those "experienced by fighter pilots …

Bootnotes 1 Dec 2004, 15:34
Visa 'fast track' row threatens to engulf Blunkett

The personal collides with the public

David Blunkett's private and public lives collided spectacularly over the weekend, putting his future ministerial career in peril at just about the worst possible moment. Security legislation from Blunkett's Home Office forms the centrepiece of the Government's programme for next year, and will be the central plank of its …

Music and Media 1 Dec 2004, 15:40
Hackers nobble Lycos anti-spam plan

Vigilantes bash vigilantes

Lycos's vigilante attack on spammers has been hit by a vigilante attack. Spammers are suspected. Lycos is offering a screensaver which, once downloaded, would launch a Distributed Denial of Service attack against spam websites. A DDoS attack makes constant requests to a specific part of a website until it gets overloaded and …

Spam 1 Dec 2004, 16:03
RIM ships Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.0

Device management tweaks and more

Research in Motion (RIM) has released version 4.0 of its enterprise-oriented server push email software. Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.0 focus on improving IT departments' ability to manage and monitor mobile device assets, primarily through centralised application installation and data-push controls. RIM also touted BES 4's …

Data Networking 1 Dec 2004, 16:18
Populace asked: Do you like ID cards?

Say yes, or the puppy gets it

David Blunkett has written to around half a million British voters, canvassing their opinions on the introduction of a national identity card . Well, sort of. He's certainly written to the voters, but we're not sure he's actually trying to find out what people think. It looks more like another attempt to get some nice stats to …

ID 1 Dec 2004, 16:22
Nintendo lauds 500,000 first-week DS sales

Shifts 90% of inital handheld console allocation

Nintendo today ebulliently confirmed reports that the console company has sold more than half a million Nintendo DS handhelds in the US last week. The spending spree saw all but ten per cent of the 550,000-odd $150 machines sent into Nintendo's US retail channels snapped up by buyers. That statistic was enough for the company …

Consoles 1 Dec 2004, 16:36
Home Office defends ID card plans (again)

Anti-democratic? Nah

The UK government today renewed its attack against critics of its ID card proposals. Home Office minister Des Browne MP said opponents are campaigning on a false prospectus based on "myths and misinformation" about its scheme to require every UK resident to have a biometric ID card within eight years or so. At one time or …

ID 1 Dec 2004, 16:51
Itanium inventor bobs to surface as chip's savior?

Exclusive Secure64 to the rescue

Some start-ups are comprised of wide-eyed wheelers and dealers with little technical expertise. Others have a decent mix of business types and technology talents. Then there are start-ups like Secure64 Software Corp. that have nothing but the richest pedigree of pure, unadulterated genius running through their giddy veins. …

Servers 1 Dec 2004, 18:22
Philly sells Pennsylvania to Verizon

Big city's WLAN okay. Little towns not so lucky

When Philadelphia begs, Verizon listens. The telco has given Philly permission to build out a citywide wireless network. However, the deal indirectly blocks other Pennsylvania towns from coming to a similar arrangement. Smaller cities and towns will have to do more than get down on their knees if they want cheap broadband …

Music and Media 1 Dec 2004, 21:41