2nd December 2004 Archive

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Sun, MS just thrilled to be together

This one's forever, vow execs

Public displays of affection are frowned on in modern manners books - but try telling that to new best friends Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. The canoodling twosome can't keep their hands off each other, and they can't stop telling us how delighted they are to be a couple, either. "Nine months ago we were slashing each other's …

Software 2 Dec 2004, 01:21
Apple opens Canadian iTunes store

Only a few days behind schedule

Apple missed its own deadline by a day or two, but nonetheless Canadians yesterday will awake today to find their local iTunes Music Store up and running. Originally scheduled for a late November launch, ITMS Canada's absence yesterday prompted Apple to admit it had missed its slot. "We said that we would launch the iTunes …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 09:46
All terror attacks use false passports, claims Interpol chief

Please buy my international lost and stolen database

The 'terrorists use false ID' claim achieved a significant escalation yesterday as Interpol general secretary Ron Noble told a House of Lords Committee that all terrorist incidents involve a false passport. The UK Home Office has clearly been thinking small when it trots out the 'fact' that 35 per cent of terrorists use false …

Music and Media 2 Dec 2004, 10:04
IBM to Power China

Forms consortium to sell Cell, Linux

IBM this week pitched its Power processor family as a de facto standard for consumer electronics, cars, communications kit and computers by launching a consortium to promote the platform to Far Eastern manufacturers. Dubbed Power.org, the group comprises 15 firms, including Sony, Chartered Semiconductor, Red Hat, Novell, Bull, …

Servers 2 Dec 2004, 10:11
You dare to mock my prophet?

FoTW A divine being writes

This is truly bizarre. In January, we wrote about how the inquest into the deaths of Lady Diana and Dodi Al Fayed was likely to bring the conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork. Well, it did, but just a very long time later: You dare to mock my prophet? Sollog warned of 911 Look at the dates cretin Sollog warned of March …

Letters 2 Dec 2004, 10:40
Chips are down for Taiwan foundry giants

TSMC and UMC market shares slip

The world's two biggest chip foundries are slowly but surely losing market share to their smaller rivals, the latest figures from market watcher IC Insights reveals. But three years of continued growth will leave TSMC and UMC still doing very nicely, thank you, despite their declining share of the market. So will China's …

Channel Register 2 Dec 2004, 10:42
Europeans ditch TV for PC

Internet-driven migration

The internet is causing people in Europe to spend less time watching TV, according to new market research. In a report entitled "Evolution of Media Use in Europe - Web Impacting Consumption", JupiterResearch said that 27 per cent of web users in Europe are spending less time in front of the telly and are instead surfing the web …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 10:47
Cowboy computer glitch blamed for construction slump

Sorry Gov, that's gonna cost ya

The Government has coughed to yet another computer error that led to 66,500 building firms being wiped off official records used to compile key economic figures. The cowboy bodge led to a massive under-recording of output from the UK's construction sector at the beginning of 2003 suggesting that activity in the sector had …

Software 2 Dec 2004, 10:48
Cendant to buy ebookers for $415m - WSJ

In for the long haul

Cendant, the US travel giant, is to buy ebookers for $415m, the Wall Street Journal claims. This works out at around $6.17 (320p) per share, a modest premium on yesterday's closing price of 312p. ebookers, the UK's biggest online travel business, also has a big longhaul bricks and mortar travel business. It has grown through …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 11:21
ATI unveils Radeon X850 XT PE, X800 XL

Speeds 'n' feeds

ATI re-launched its Radeon X800 graphics chip family yesterday, to accompany the release of its latest top-end GPU, the Radeon X850. The launches came as the company began shipping the X800 XT Platinum Edition in volume - seven months after the chip was formally introduced. ATI launched three X850 configurations: the X850 Pro …

System Builder 2 Dec 2004, 11:22
Europe to fry in one long, hot summer

Boffins issue global warming alert

New research into the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment has concluded that human activity makes 2003-style heatwaves across Europe an ever-increasing likelihood, the Met Office reports. The 2003 scorcher - which is estimated to have caused 27,000 excess deaths across the continent - was the hottest for over 500 …

Science 2 Dec 2004, 11:22
US Homeland Security Czar resigns

Color-coded threat assessments won't be missed

Former Pennsylvania Governor and recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge has resigned his post as America's top counterterrorism strategist. Ridge, who is well liked personally by many, has had a controversial tenure in the post. For example, critics have ridiculed his use of a color-coded threat scale …

Public Sector 2 Dec 2004, 11:37
MS quashes infamous Bofra bug

IFRAME fix

Microsoft broke with its normal patching schedule yesterday to issue a fix for the notorious IFRAME vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Windows XP SP2 users were immune to the vulnerability, which was exploited by the Bofra worm. Surfers using Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers were not affected. But users of older versions of …

Anti-Virus 2 Dec 2004, 11:40
NTL flogs broadcast division for £1.27bn

Wants to 'maximise shareholder value'

NTL has agreed to flog its broadcast division to an Aussie consortium of companies led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG) for £1.27bn. The deal - which still needs regulatory approval - is expected to be completed by the end of March. NTL says it's still not sure what it will use the cash for although it …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 11:41
Sony selects 25 March 05 for Euro PSP launch

How close will it be to the DS debut?

Sony will launch the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in Europe on 25 March 2005, according to the company's own retailer-oriented sales and marketing documentation. So notes UK website Spong, which claims to have seen said "official" information. That Sony has been planning to ship PSP over here by the end of Q1 2005 is no great …

Consoles 2 Dec 2004, 11:42
Investment bank sues Infinium

Console maker accused of fraud, accuses bank of misrepresentation

Phantom console maker Infinium Labs has been accused of fraud and breach of contract by investment bank SBI-USA - a claim it is backing with legal action against the videogame company. Infinium immediately blasted SBI-USA's allegations as "frivolous, without merit and intended to interfere with Infinium's business and …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 12:11
UK.gov IT: it's broke, how can we fix it?

Letters Readers debate how we lost our way

This week's analysis Building disaster into the network: how UK.gov does IT drew a hearteningly substantial and thoughtful mailbag. It's always nice to be agreed with, but my point that the British Government in particular is designing failure into its IT projects and infrastructure clearly caught the mood of the team. Various …

Letters 2 Dec 2004, 12:22
Don't waste money on 3G - Which?

Teething problems

Consumer magazine Which? is advising UK consumers not to waste their money on fancy 3G kit in the run-up to Xmas. It cites limited network coverage and "problems accessing 3G services successfully and consistently" as solid reasons to stick with 2G. Not one 3G phone merited a Which? best buy billing. Network issues and bulky …

Mobile 2 Dec 2004, 12:24
Europe pauses Microsoft DRM probe

Ponders options as ContentGuard gains third owner

The European Commission has halted its investigation into Microsoft's attempt to control DRM software company ContentGuard after it emerged that Thomson is also to take a share in the anti-piracy technology provider. Thomson's purchase was announced last week. It is to buy 33 per cent of ContentGuard, until now owned almost 50: …

Music and Media 2 Dec 2004, 12:39
UK's biggest spammer in court

Series of charges

Peter Francis-Macrae, the 22-year-old who is allegedly the UK's biggest spammer, has appeared in court on a variety of charges ranging from threats to kill to obscene phonecalls. A warrant for Francis-Macrae's arrest was issued this week, after he failed to attend an earlier hearing. In a separate court hearing, Nominet, the …

Spam 2 Dec 2004, 12:47
Two regional broadband bodies fold

Overtaken by events

Two of the Government's regional bodies for aggregating public sector demand for broadband have confirmed that they have shut down. Adit is the Government's operating name for its regional aggregation bodies (RABs). They were set up a year ago to pool public sector demand for broadband to help entice operators to invest in …

Music and Media 2 Dec 2004, 13:02
Bust-hungry Oz beach perv busted

Snapped topless Sheilas on mobe

An Australian man who was captured on a beach by an enraged mob after snapping topless women on his mobile has become the first man to be prosecuted in New South Wales for the offence. Peter Mackenzie, 25, admitted offensive behaviour in a public place and was duly fined A$500 by Waverley Local Court, Australian IT reports. The …

Mobile 2 Dec 2004, 13:48
MS moves to can more spammers

Seven John Does get litigated

Microsoft announced today that it has filed seven lawsuits against spammers who failed to label their junk mail as sexually explicit - in contravention of the US's CAN-SPAM law. The unknown defendants - subject of "John Doe" suits filed yesterday in Washington State Superior Court in King County - allegedly used zombie PCs …

Spam 2 Dec 2004, 14:50
UK police fingerprint system collapses

Software glitch fingered

Computer problems have left police forces in England and Wales unable to run national fingerprint checks for more than a week. All 43 forces in England and Wales, including London's Metropolitan Police, were affected by a software bug, which disrupted connections to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System ( …

ID 2 Dec 2004, 14:58
MSN Spaces debuts

Along with betas of Messenger and Hotmail

MSN yesterday introduced a beta version of MSN Spaces, a new web logging service. It also released a beta version of MSN Messenger 7.0 and updates to MSN Hotmail. These services will be integrated, the company says. MSN Spaces offers three levels of control over who may access their Space. It allows users to display their …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 14:59
ICANN works Harry Potter magic on net

Intriguing attendees list

Internet overseeing organisation ICANN has a difficult task ahead persuading people to let it run the whole network when its contract ends in 2006. And it is willing to try anything to get there - including, it would seem, magic. CEO Paul Twomey gave a brief rundown on what meetings were taking place at its four-day conference …

Bootnotes 2 Dec 2004, 15:15
Senior Republican charged in phone jamming plot

Bushwhacker

A former Bush campaign official has been charged with plotting to jam the phone networks of political opponents during the November 2002 election. James Tobin, 44, of Bangor, Maine, the former regional director of the Republican National Committee in New England, faces charges of conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and …

Security 2 Dec 2004, 15:24
Local government IT is great, says local government

A picture of optimism

Most local authority IT managers reckon e-government programmes will translate into real benefits for citizens, by creating multi-channel access to better quality council services, according to the Society of IT Managers' annual survey of its members. However, some councils report that the focus on national e-government is …

Public Sector 2 Dec 2004, 15:27
Speeding motorist says aliens to blame

Going too fast? Finger ET

The Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership, aka "Safe speed for life" has just published its top 10 excuses for geting nobbled by a speed, sorry, safety camera. Top of the list is alien-induced trance, closely followed by blaming excessive velocity on a passing aircraft. The list is culled from the letters received by fixed- …

Bootnotes 2 Dec 2004, 15:28
Corporate PCs 'riddled with spyware'

Now we're all 0wn3d

Corporate systems are riddled with spyware, according to a study by an anti-spyware firm. Companies voluntarily using Webroot's Corporate SpyAudit tool had an average of 20 nasties per PC, Webroot reports. Most of the items found were harmless cookies. But average five per cent of the PCs scanned had system monitors and 5.5 per …

Enterprise Security 2 Dec 2004, 17:23
Huygens: the countdown to splashdown

Or squelchdown, possibly

The Huygens probe has travelled 789 million miles to the Saturnian system tethered to the Cassini spacecraft. In less than a month's time, it will separate from the mothership and begin its final journey to the surface of the moon, Titan. The probe's journey has taken it more than seven years, but once it enters the atmosphere …

Science 2 Dec 2004, 17:50
French bail out Bull with $690m

Mouth to wallet

French server maker Bull is being bailed out again. The European Commission has given the go ahead for the French government to toss Bull an impressive €517m ($690m) subject to a few terms and conditions. In addition, Bull announced today that it has tapped ex-IBMer Didier Lamouche to be its next chairman, starting 1 Feb. All …

Servers 2 Dec 2004, 18:14
Americas lead booming mobile phone biz

Samsung, LG on the up

Mobile phone sales grew 26 per cent in the third quarter of the year, according to Gartner, with over 167m sold. North America saw its strongest growth, with 22.6 per cent growth over the same period last year. Thanks to Brazil and Mexico, the rest of the Americas also turned in a record quarter with sales 66 per cent higher …

Mobile 2 Dec 2004, 19:13
HP laughs off Tru64 promises, welcomes Veritas

Roadmap reversal

HP has given up on trying to bring key parts of Compaq/DEC's Tru64 operating system over to HP-UX and decided instead to buy similar technology from Veritas. In a move that is simultaneously bizarre and predictable, HP has reneged on its promise to port the TruCluster and Advanced File System technology from Tru64 to HP-UX. HP …

Storage 2 Dec 2004, 20:01
Oracle already eyeing other software makers

Inspired by PeopleSoft debacle

If you thought Oracle's attempt to acquire PeopleSoft has been fun, then hang on for a series of wild rides. Oracle is in a buying kind of mood, according to its president. "We have said all along that there are multiple acquisition possibilities," Oracle's co-president Charles Phillips told Reuters in an interview. "We are …

Software 2 Dec 2004, 21:31
Intel bumps Q4 forecast higher

Shares edge past AMD's

Intel today doled out a much needed dollop of good news to investors by hiking its fourth quarter revenue forecast. Intel is now looking for fourth quarter revenue to come in between $9.3bn and $9.5bn. This is substantially higher than a previous range provided by Intel of revenue between $8.6bn and $9.2bn. Intel gave little …

Financial News 2 Dec 2004, 22:03
Four Infineon execs heading to jail on price-fixing charges

Martha says 'Hello'

Four Infineon executives will serve jail time after pleading guilty to being part of an "international conspiracy" to fix the price of computer memory, the US Department of Justice announced today. Heinrich Florian, Günter Hefner, Peter Schaefer, and T. Rudd Corwin will serve between four and six months in the clink and pay $ …

Channel Register 2 Dec 2004, 23:35