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26th January 2005 Archive

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  • OpenSolaris makes Sun top donor of open source code

    We're #1! In the second quarter!

    Sun Microsystems today officially made the open source Solaris moves that had been widely predicted earlier this week. It released a tool in Solaris 10 called DTrace under its new Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). It confirmed that all of Solaris 10 will be open sourced under the same license in the second …

    Operating Systems 26 Jan 2005, 00:09

  • UK tech jobs jump in Q4

    Especially in Wales

    The number of IT jobs advertised jumped 21 per cent in Q4 2004. December is normally a quiet period in recruitment, but this is the fourth consecutive quarter that IT vacancies have risen, according to CWJobs, the IT jobs site. Overall, demand for permanent staff rose by 24 per cent, while the number of companies seeking …

    IT Director 26 Jan 2005, 08:33

  • Inland Revenue predicts bumper year for online filing

    Demand is peaking

    With just four and a half days to go until the tax return deadline, the Inland Revenue is expecting a bumper year in terms of people completing their self assessment forms online. As of 17 January, the Revenue has had 895,000 forms completed via its website - it passed last year's total about three weeks ago. However, The …

    Small Biz 26 Jan 2005, 08:36

  • FBI backs transatlantic anti-spam summit

    Links fight against viruses with war on spam

    A delegation of British MPs heads over to Washington next month to discuss information security with US politicians. During their three-day trip to Washington, the MPs aim to help set the agenda for international policy on internet security issues, including spam, viruses, zombie computers, rogue diallers and denial of service …

    Spam 26 Jan 2005, 08:49

  • Europe wants cheaper storage and lots of it

    SATA to score at last, with space-hungry apps on the way

    Which came first - lower-cost, high-capacity hard disks, or applications that generate huge amounts of data and need cheap storage? Storage spending is on the up across Europe, but there may not be so much joy in it for the makers of big storage boxes, according to an IDC survey. The market research company predicts that much …

    Storage 26 Jan 2005, 08:50

  • Watch out for bogus health and safety invoices

    Another day, another scam

    Safety chiefs are warning businesses about a scam in which bosses are charged hundreds of pounds from a bogus health and safety organisation. The Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) says businesses should ignore emails and letters from a group calling itself the 'Health and Safety Registration Enforcement Division'. The HSE first …

    Small Biz 26 Jan 2005, 08:52

  • CA re-organises management

    BUMs on seats

    Computer Associates doubled profits for fiscal Q3 and is changing its senior management structure to make it more like IBM. John Swainson, who takes over as CEO next month, is dividing CA into business units rather than product-based divisions. Swainson did 26 years at IBM and credits the business unit structure with Big Blue's …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 09:22

  • Yahoo! bets on Betfair

    Gambling for UK and Ireland

    Betfair and Yahoo! are to build a Yahoo!-branded version of Betfair's gambling exchanges for UK and Ireland. The joint venture is due to launch in March. Exchanges work by facilitating bets between punters. Rather than offering odds and taking bets themselves Betfair charges commission on all winning bets. The site claims 70, …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 09:25

  • P2P radio wins big money

    Webcasting in a box

    P2P webcasting company Mercora has won a vote of confidence from investors, snagging $5m from VC company Norwest Venture Partners. Mercora was formally launched in May 2003 and began to gather a following last summer. The 'IM Radio' service allows you to crossplay your music collection to anyone else on the network, legally. …

    Music and Media 26 Jan 2005, 09:30

  • Microsoft flying car spotted over Fishguard

    We're going nowhere - but we're getting there fast

    Word of Microsoft's secret flying car project spreads - with a convincing sighting of the amphibious vehicle over parts of south of Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Reg reader Chris Lawrence was trying to get from Swansea to Birmingham in Autoroute 2002 when he found himself mysteriously borne aloft by a vehicle which took …

    Bootnotes 26 Jan 2005, 09:31

  • Earthlink wins cash from spammers

    Oh Mama, it's the Alabama spammer

    Two members of the Alabama Spam Ring, really, have paid undisclosed damages to Earthlink and signed a court order promising to never send another spam email. Earthlink began legal action in February 2004 against the Alabama Spammers - so called because of their use of phone lines around Birmingham, Alabama. The Alabama Spam …

    Spam 26 Jan 2005, 09:57

  • Rambus sues four for GDDR 'infringement'

    Fresh lawsuits for Hynix, Infineon, Nanya and Inotera

    Litigiously inclined memory technology developer Rambus has filed four more lawsuits against memory chip makers it claims used its intellectual property without permission. Hynix and Infineon are already being sued by Rambus, but Nanya and Inotera represent new targets for the company's very busy legal team. In all four cases …

    Channel Register 26 Jan 2005, 10:11

  • Hynix execs arrested on bribery charges - report

    Prosecutors allege dodgy share deals

    South Korean law enforcement authorities have arrested two Hynix executives, charging them with bribery, local reports claim. Details remain sketchy, but one of the two executives is alleged to have bought KRW70m ($67,908) worth of shares from a Hynix sub-contractor for just KRW30m ($29,104), according to a Yonhap report. In …

    Channel Register 26 Jan 2005, 10:25

  • Vodafone hits 150m customers

    Punters up, ARPU down

    Vodafone gained 5.4m customers in the last quarter of 2004 ended 31 December. The mobile giant now has 151.8m customers across the world. It gained 3.9m Vodafone live! customers, giving a global total of 28.3m. In a trading updated today, Arun Sarin, Vodafone chief executive, trumpeted "another impressive quarter for customer …

    Mobile 26 Jan 2005, 10:38

  • VIA 2GHz C7 CPU to debut Q4

    Slower Esthers to meet earlier H1 2005 deadline?

    VIA's next-generation x86-compatible processor, 'Esther', which has been designed to take the chip family beyond 2GHz, will ship in Q4, online reports suggest. That's two quarters later than anticipated. The company announced Esther some time ago, most recently - September 2004 - saying the chip would ship as the C7, when both …

    System Builder 26 Jan 2005, 10:44

  • TI Q4 earnings slide as sales fall

    Freezes 2005 capex

    Texas Instruments saw earnings slide during the fourth quarter of FY2004 on a small sequential dip in sales, the company reported yesterday. And with the prospect of even lower sales in the current quarter, the chip maker said it would not increase its spending on new plant this year. TI's sales for the three months to 31 …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 11:08

  • Nvidia chisels away at ATI market share

    Catching up

    ATI's Q3 2004 lead over arch-rival Nvidia was eroded during Q4, the latest figures from market watcher Mercury Research suggest. During the quarter, Nvidia added three percentage points to its share of the overall graphics chip market, taking it to 18 per cent, while ATI stuck at 27 per cent, its share in Q3, as did all the …

    PCs 26 Jan 2005, 11:38

  • Intel to bring 64-bit to P4, Celerons in Q2

    Roadmap EM64T coming to value, mainstream desktops too

    Intel plans to upgrade its current LGA-775 Pentium 4 line-up with its AMD64-like EM64T 64-bit addressing technology next quarter, the company's latest roadmap update reveals. Intel also plans to add the technology to its top-end Celeron processors. According to a report on the usually accurate Japanese site PCWatch, Q2 2005 …

    PCs 26 Jan 2005, 12:12

  • Gloves off in Ebbers WorldCom fraud trial

    Defence and prosecution exchange blows

    The fraud trial of ex-WorldCom chief exec Bernie Ebbers kicked off yesterday with the man at the centre of the case accused of telling "lie after lie after lie". The opening of the most eagerly awaited fraud trial in years saw Ebbers portrayed as the driving force behind the $11bn (£5.8bn) collapse of telco WorldCom in 2002. …

    Business 26 Jan 2005, 12:16

  • Lawyers demand hard time for Blaster teen

    37 months in federal jail

    Federal prosecutors are calling for the author of a variant of the infamous Blaster worm to be jailed for 37 months - ahead of a sentencing hearing due later this week. Jeffrey Lee Parson pleaded guilty last August to releasing a modified version of the Blaster worm. Under a plea agreement signed last year, Parson will be …

    Malware 26 Jan 2005, 12:23

  • MS updates: real Windows users only need apply

    Authentication program

    Microsoft is to stop providing updates to non-genuine versions of its Windows XP operating system as part of its anti-piracy campaign. The company also says it is changing the way some of its Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) are matched during activation. This is because "a significant number" of COAs are stolen from …

    Operating Systems 26 Jan 2005, 12:26

  • Telewest spanked for broadband ad

    Misleading claims continue unabated

    UK consumers continue to be misled by broadband ISPs who compare their own services to rivals. With some 60,000 people a week signing up to speedy net services, the advertising watchdog continues to intervene in squabbles between rival providers over whose service is faster or cheaper. The latest pronouncement by the …

    Telecoms 26 Jan 2005, 13:18

  • US to tighten nuclear cyber security

    Added computer security standards

    Federal regulators are proposing to add computer security standards to their criteria for installing new computerized safety systems in nuclear power plants. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) quietly launched a public comment period late last month on a proposed 15-page update to its regulatory guide "Criteria for Use …

    Enterprise Security 26 Jan 2005, 13:19

  • ARM income, revenues rise

    Q4 figures posted

    ARM's growth trend continued unabated during the last three months of 2004, with revenues and income up sequentially and year on year. Q4 revenues totalled £41.5m, up five per cent on the previous quarter's £39.4m and 22 per cent higher than the year-ago quarter's total, £34m. ARM's key licensing and royalty streams grew to £ …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 13:56

  • EA sales, profits slide

    US buyers favoured other publishers' games

    Electronic Arts saw revenues and income fall during the Christmas quarter, as growing demand in Europe and Asia failed to compensate for a big dip in US sales. The three months to 31 December, the third quarter if EA's fiscal year, yielded sales totalling $1.43bn, down 3.2 per cent on Q3 FY2003's $1.48bn. Sales were up nine …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 14:21

  • Lite-on ships 'fastest' DVD rewriter

    Internal unit does dual-layer recording too

    Lite-on today announced what it claims is the fastest DVD rewriter yet. The SOHW-1673S internal drive provides 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW rewriting speeds, the company said. The drive also handles DVD-R and DVD+R at 16x, and dual-layer DVD+R at 4x. The unit connects over an Atapi/E-IDE interface, and incorporates a 2MB data …

    System Builder 26 Jan 2005, 14:42

  • BT customer signed up for five years - without his consent

    BT apology

    BT has apologised to a small business punter after signing him up to a five-year telecoms contract without his consent. Scott Allison - the boss of Glasgow-based Freedom Mobiles Ltd - was contacted by BT approved reseller Glasgow Telecom before Christmas. Glasgow Telecom is one of BT's army of 82 BT Local Businesses across the …

    Small Biz 26 Jan 2005, 15:36

  • Energis all smiles amid whispers of sliding revenues

    Everything's fine, honest

    Alternative telco Energis has secured major contracts worth more than £500m, the company bragged today. A string of deals with the Financial Times, DHL and the RAC among others over the last six months has helped the telco rack up double-digit growth in its core corporate market. Said Energis CEO John Pluthero: "We're seeing …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 15:40

  • China bans The Sims

    And 49 other games that might corrupt the nation's youth

    China has banned 50 computer games - to create "a good environment" for Chinese children. Games given the thumbs-down include The Sims 2, Manhunt, FIFA 2005, Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, Age of Mythology: The Titans, Battlefield Vietnam, Conflict Vietnam, Vietcong: Fist Alpha and Devastation, local news agency Xinhuanet …

    Music and Media 26 Jan 2005, 15:44

  • Sony PSP outships Nintendo DS

    One week's figures, in one territory

    Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) is beginning to outsell the Nintendo DS, Japanese weekly sales charts reveal. According to the latest sales figures, for the week commencing 16 January, some 64,600 PSPs were shipped to retailers in Japan, over 10,000 more than the 53,500 DS consoles shipped in the same period. Of course, Sony …

    Consoles 26 Jan 2005, 15:45

  • Fans rage as U2 ticket sales site falls over

    Sorry, says Ticketmaster

    Thousands of U2 fans are up in arms after the website handling the advanced ticket sale of the band's 2005 Vertigo tour fell over U2 fans - who had forked out $40 (£21) for the privilege of joining U2.com enabling them to snap up tickets to gigs before they went on general sale - had received a six-digit code which they could …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 16:00

  • Are Microsoft's licences unfair to open-sourcerers?

    Free software advocates think so

    Lawyers acting for the Free Software Foundation have accused the software giant of making it impossible for open source software developers to take part in its protocol licencing scheme. Microsoft was ordered to begin licencing its protocols by the European Union in its anti-trust ruling. This requires the company to make the …

    Developer 26 Jan 2005, 16:07

  • Nintendo's Q3 income falls 43%

    Not selling enough GameCubes and DS games

    Nintendo's earnings slumped during the Christmas quarter, the videogame pioneer revealed today, despite a small year-on-year increase in sales. For the three months to 31 December - Nintendo's third quarter of FY2005 - the company's sales reached ¥231.4bn ($2.22bn), up 1.4 per cent on the year-ago quarter's figure, ¥228.2bn ($2 …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 16:11

  • Dell joins domain name hall of shame (again)

    Comment No, Mr Dell, website designer, you can't have www.dellwebsites.com

    Dell has joined the domain name hall of shame, alongside such notables as Microsoft, the Easy Group and BAA, for its flagrantly unjustified hounding of website www.dellwebsites.com. According to Dell's laywers - old hands at this sort of thing - the owner of Dellwebsites is committing "an act of parasitism" and "creating a risk …

    Music and Media 26 Jan 2005, 16:12

  • Mattel Juice Box kids' portable media player

    Review How to keep the little mites' mitts off your iPod

    No matter what people say, gadgets are expensive, especially the latest ones. It's no surprise then that a face of horror would come over your face if you saw a small child toying with your newly acquired, £400 portable media centre. These things are supposed to be robust, but who are we kidding, we know kids mangle their own …

    Reviews 26 Jan 2005, 16:38

  • SAP Q4 profits up 29%

    Europe flat, US strong

    SAP net profit for Q4 2004 was up 29 per cent to €542m (Q4 03: €420m), a little lower than consensus analyst forecasts of €548m. Revenues were € 2.4bn (Q4 03:€2.2bn). New software sales advanced eight per cent in the quarter to €1bn, with a 26 per cent jump in the Americas, compensating for flat sales in Europe. For the full …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 16:48

  • Postcard arrives from Europe's lunar probe

    Lots of craters, not many locals

    The first pictures from the SMART-1 lunar probe, the first European spacecraft to have reached lunar orbit, have arrived on Earth. The images were snapped from altitudes of between 5000km and 1000km above the lunar surface during a test of the craft's instruments. This picture shows two large craters. The largest is called …

    Science 26 Jan 2005, 17:12

  • Fathers 4 Justice slams ‘support’ virus

    Not our style, says campaign group

    Campaign group Fathers 4 Justice has distanced itself from the release of mass mailing viruses (Mirsa-A and Mirsa-B), which featured messages supporting the group. "This is nothing to do with us, and we're upset our name has been misused in this way. It's not a style of message we would use," Fathers 4 Justice activist Andrew …

    Malware 26 Jan 2005, 17:57

  • Oracle finds an extra penny to boost 2005

    Investors waffle

    Oracle today planted a bold, fiscal stake in the ground, saying 2005 earnings will likely come in one penny ahead of analyst estimates. It then went one step further, boasting that 2006 figures will crush Wall Street forecasts. Oracle is looking to show per share growth of 24 per cent in 2005, posting earnings per share of 62 …

    Financial News 26 Jan 2005, 18:40

  • EMC aims 'switcher' campaign at Veritas users

    Dantz in its pants

    The moment EMC bought Dantz, you knew it was coming - a big time marketing attack against Veritas. EMC will officially let the hounds loose tomorrow when it announces something called the "Safe Switch" program. Marketing materials being distributed to the press show that this program will center on convincing customers to shift …

    Storage 26 Jan 2005, 23:26