15th December 2004 Archive

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It came from the vaults! Google seeks to open the library

Digitization project raises hopes and concerns

In what could be a historic move in the history of the internet, Google has announced arrangements with Harvard University, and a handful of public libraries, to digitize parts of their valuable collections and make them available over the public web. Yahoo!, Grokker and Microsoft are working on similar ventures. Google Print …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 09:25
RIM infringed NTP patents, appeal court rules

But RIM can continue selling product anyway

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that Lawsuits in Motion - aka Research in Motion - did indeed violate patents owned by intellectual property holding company NTP. However, the court nevertheless overturned a District Court ban on violating products, pending the District Court's re-appraisal of its original verdict. That ruling …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 10:08
Free data-wipe tools for *nix systems

Making data hygiene easy

We offer several free tools to make data hygiene more convenient on Unix and Unix-like systems. Download them here. The archive you'll want is called LinuxWipeTools.tar.gz. (But note that there are numerous other free security tools and resources for *nix and Windows systems listed on the page.) The purpose here is to simplify …

Enterprise Security 15 Dec 2004, 10:30
Apple iPod out of tune with Real's Harmony

But how come no one noticed until now?

Apple has made good its pledge to prevent iPods from playing songs downloaded from Real Networks' Rhapsody online music store. But the discovery, reported on a variety of online news sites, has left users puzzled: just when did Apple make the change? Real introduced its Harmony DRM conversion technology last July, drawing …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2004, 10:44
Five important fixes in MS December patch batch

Buffer overflow bugs, mostly

Microsoft's regular monthly patch delivery slipped into port yesterday carrying five new patches, each described by Redmond as "important". First up there's a flaw (MS04-041) in WordPad that potentially allows malicious code to be executed. All flavours of Windows (XP, 2000, 2003 and NT) need patching. A vulnerability (MS04-043 …

Enterprise Security 15 Dec 2004, 11:10
BT faces £4.5m NHS claim over broadband delays

Contract penalties

BT is facing a bill for £4.5m amid reports that it has failed to deliver high speed broadband links to a key NHS project on time. According to the Financial Times, BT is set to miss key targets set for April next year and, as a result, is being hit by the contract penalties. Even though the National Health Service (NHS) and BT …

Public Sector 15 Dec 2004, 11:21
Intel 'to cut' Celeron D, Grantsdale prices

Trimming here, trimming there

Intel will prune the prices of its Celeron D processors and 915-class chipsets next year, reports coming out of Taiwan claim. The Celeron D cuts will take place on Sunday, 20 February 2005, and see up to 13.6 per cent. The cuts target the 325, 330, 335, 340 and 345 chips, in both their regular forms and the 'J" variants with …

System Builder 15 Dec 2004, 11:41
Cryptography Research wants piracy speed bump on HD DVDs

Analysis The rush is on

Just about a year from today, if not sooner, if we believe the outpourings of both the DVD Forum and the Blu-Ray Disc Association, we will be able to go out to the shops and buy blue laser, high definition, high density DVDs in two completely different designs. We will also be able to buy the players and recorders by then, as …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2004, 11:49
Mainframe Catalogs: the untold story

Registries and catalogs - a comparison

On a Windows PC everything goes through the Registry: whenever you want to run an application the registry has to be referenced. This is, in simple terms, exactly what a catalog does under MVS or z/OS: all datasets are accessed via an ICF catalog. However, there are two big differences between a catalog and the Windows registry …

Applications 15 Dec 2004, 11:49
Q3 chip stockpile bigger than thought - researcher

Excess inventory topped $1.6bn

The value of all the unsold semiconductors sitting in the electronics supply chain during Q3 proved higher than expected, market watcher iSuppli said yesterday. The result: chip makers are cutting the number of wafers they put on their production lines and are reviewing capital expenditure plans going forward, the researcher …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 12:04
Europe kicks UK out of biometric passport club

Like we need compelling to fingerprint ourselves...

Europe's Council of Ministers has given the green light to mandatory biometrics on passports but, strangely enough, has refused to let biometric-mad Britain join in. This leaves the country that's keenest to tag the whole of its population as one of the few members of the EU that won't have to fingerprint all its citizens from …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2004, 12:44
Sony PSP takes off on schedule

First run sold out in a day

Although Sony's PlayStation Portable will sell this year in such small numbers, expected to be around 500,000 in total, and as such could have no real effect on Sony's numbers for 2004, the PSP still had the potential to adversely affect the company's share price. If no one had wanted the device in its native Japan, Sony would …

Consoles 15 Dec 2004, 13:40
Polyglot virus is Xmas party pooper

Zafi-D turns PCs into zombies

An email worm which poses as a Christmas greeting began spreading widely yesterday. Zafi-D comes as an infectious attachment to emails written in a variety of different languages, including English, Spanish, Russian, Swedish and Hungarian. Anti-virus firms believe the worm was created in Hungary. Typically infected emails have …

Anti-Virus 15 Dec 2004, 13:43
Businesses failing to recognise cybercrime dangers

IT security not a high enough priority

Small businesses are still failing to recognise the dangers of cybercrime, according to new research. A report, by Bibby Financial Services, reveals that small business owners are leaving themselves exposed to computer viruses and hackers, and risking major disruption to their daily operations. Despite the fact that small …

Small Biz 15 Dec 2004, 13:45
Dutch raid eDonkey sites, seize servers

No more mister nice guy

Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN, along with FIOD-ECD (Economic Inspection Service of the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service), has raided two popular sites in the Netherlands that offered links to allegedly copyright-infringing content. FIOD-ECD has arrested eight people and seized eleven servers. The two sites, …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2004, 13:55
Dell UK stung by bungled server sale

Customers are revolting

Dell UK is facing stinging criticism from customers after they accused the giant PC maker of bungling the sale of a heavily discounted server last week. Punters are angry that the giant PC outfit failed to keep them informed about the sale even when it was clear that it had been over-subscribed. Some buyers have told The …

Servers 15 Dec 2004, 14:02
Wireless broadband comes to South Korea

Fastest WAN in the Far East

South Korea this week launched a trial run of WiBro, a locally developed wireless technology standard with transmission speeds of around 1Mbps - several times faster than current wireless technologies. More importantly, mobile reception is possible at 60kph in the range of 2.3GHz frequency bandwidth, so passengers can watch TV …

Mobile 15 Dec 2004, 14:08
Ratty pilots worry sci-fi fans

Letters And cheap tinsel worries wifi fans

If volume of letters is a reliable guide (and we are not saying it is) then the most important story of the last two week was the discovery that neural cells from a rat could fly a fighter jet. Naturally this news has alarmed many of you. Judgment Day is upon us, and it has whiskers: Eh....hello....."Battlestar Galactica" …

Letters 15 Dec 2004, 14:09
Business PCs riddled with porn

Majority of companies discipline staff

Workplace porn in the UK is rife. More than 70 per cent of firms have disciplined staff in the last two years as a result of workers viewing pornographic images on company PCs, a survey published this week reveals. The study by computer image detection firm PixAlert in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and …

IT Director 15 Dec 2004, 14:14
Excite rises again like a turkey from the ashes

Will this be third time lucky for dotcom boom darling?

Remember Excite? With the logo where the X looks like a dancing bloke? Well, it is trying again, for the third time, to recapture its dotcom boom glory - this time with a Webmail service. "Get your old Excite-address back or register a new address with Inbox Excite," is Excite UK's fresh pitch. Excite Europe's business …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 14:15
NASA throws Deep Impact spacecraft at comet

Cosmic darts

NASA has is to send a probe on a collision course with a comet's nucleus to find out more about the composition and history of the bodies. The mission, dubbed "Deep Impact", launches from Florida on 12 January and will arrive at its destination, the comet Tempel 1, six months later, on 4 July. It will then deploy a probe - a …

Science 15 Dec 2004, 14:17
Atheros unveils 'world first' Wi-Fi access-point-on-a-chip

Cheaper base-stations ahoy

Access points for 802.11g wireless networks should become even cheaper next year after WLAN chip maker Atheros begins full-scale production of what it claims is the world's first 'base-station on a chip' product. The AR5006AP-G is pitched a both home- and enterprise-oriented wireless access points and gateways. It contains the …

Mobile 15 Dec 2004, 14:19
iRiver N10 512MB Flash MP3 player

Review Dedicated follower of fashion?

With so many MP3 players available on the market, manufacturers now need to come up with ever more ingenious ways to entice you into choosing their players over the competition. For some, the temptation to be too wacky has become irresistible. An example: iRiver with the N10. But wackiness aside, does the player make the grade? …

Reviews 15 Dec 2004, 14:27
NEC licenses Honeywell LCD tech

Legal action yields first public result

Honeywell's legal action against 34 electronics and computing companies for allegedly infringing one of its LCD patents has yielded its first public licensing agreement. NEC's LCD division this week said it had acquired the right to use technology outlined in US patent number 5,280,371, which Honeywell filed in 1992. The …

Peripherals 15 Dec 2004, 14:41
Nvidia apes ATI to revive mid-1990s AGP feature

Separated at birth: TurboCache and HyperMemory

Nvidia today introduced its first graphics chip with TurboCache - the company's answer to ATI's HyperMemory technology, itself little more than feature taken from the original mid-1990s AGP specification. Nvidia's new chip is a version of its existing mainstream GeForce 6200 PCI Express chip that incorporates TurboCash. The …

System Builder 15 Dec 2004, 15:14
Nintendo preps DS media module

Add-on to bring PSP-like movie, music playback to console

Nintendo's DS looks certain to outsell Sony's PlayStation Portable, but Nintendo is clearly so worried about its rival that it is already announcing an upgrade that will bring PSP-style music and movie features to its own handheld console. Next February, Nintendo will ship an add-on module that provides music and video playback …

Consoles 15 Dec 2004, 15:37
Microsoft halted in phonetic domain crusade

Mocosoft a step too far in IP madness

Microsoft has been knocked back in its increasingly bizarre domain name grab by Spanish company Mocosoft. Domain arbitrator WIPO, meeting in Spain, has decided that Microsoft is not entitled to the domain "mocosoft.com" despite the fact that some of the same letters appear in both companies' names. The site hosts a long list of …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 17:11
Don't use Google desktop search in your business, warns Gartner

Well, hang on there, let's give them a chance

Gartner has warned that companies shouldn't use the new Google Desktop Search tool because of security concerns and a lack of features. In a three-page research document, the authors - Whit Andrews, Maurene Grey and David Smith - say the tool that was released in beta in October is "not the proper search tool for businesses …

Financial News 15 Dec 2004, 17:20
Nextel Sprints into mega merger

The wallflower of telecoms gets hitched

Sprint and Nextel confirmed that they'll merge today in a deal worth $35bn, scotching rumours of a last-minute bid by Verizon to take over its CDMA rival. Pending regulatory approval, the merger of equals will boast around 35m subscribers. The big three (including Cingular) boast nearly 130m customers between them, leaving T- …

Mobile 15 Dec 2004, 20:21
HP sends Itanic boat people to Intel

Marketing dollars over manpower

HP once celebrated the unique contributions it could make to the Itanium processor architecture. Such days will soon be over with HP trading its Itanium design team to Intel, sources tell us. The companies are expected to announce tomorrow that "hundreds" of HP's Itanium engineers located in Colorado will become Intel chattel. …

Servers 15 Dec 2004, 21:14
Blunkett hands in cards after prints found on visa

Clarke gets black spot

David Blunkett, UK Home Secretary and prime mover behind the British ID card scheme, resigned this evening after further revelations concerning the residency application of his lover's nanny. Emails seen by Sir Alan Budd's enquiry made it clear that - contrary to Home Office denials - the letter to the nanny warning of a …

Music and Media 15 Dec 2004, 23:11
Sun must acquire Red Hat or Novell - analyst

Analysis If it knows what's good for it

The sage analysts at Merrill Lynch are at it again. This time, they're demanding that Sun Microsystems acquire either Red Hat or Novell. Without such a buy, Sun will never be taken seriously in the Linux server market, and with Red Hat or Novell on its side, Sun could really take the Opteron server market by storm, they argue …

Channel 15 Dec 2004, 23:42