28th January 2005 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

NCC and eGov launch IT accreditation scheme

But will it do any good?

The National Computing Centre and the eGovernment Unit are launching a IT accreditation body to help public sector organisations comply with the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). e-GIF sets out the policies and standards for e-government and e-service development and delivery. All public sector systems used to …

Public Sector 28 Jan 2005, 09:17
Real sees revenues up, losses narrow

More sideswipes at Redmond

Real Networks saw losses narrow to $2m in its most recent quarter, despite an increase in costs related to antitrust litigation. Q4 FY2004 income was $72.5m, up 34 per cent year-on-year. Without the antitrust litigation, which cost Real almost $3m, the company would have been in the black. Real has 1.55 million paying …

Financial News 28 Jan 2005, 09:20
US telcos scramble for spectrum

Roll up, roll up

An FCC auction of spectrum suitable for mobile phone services has brought in over $1.3bn in bids. That's much less than the scramble in 2001 when bids totalled $16.8bn, but enough to make the major players pull out the stops. Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile and the budget metropolitan CDMA carrier MetroPCS were among the players …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 09:22
Gartner, Meta deal in need of analysis - report

Customers told to duck and cover

Knowledge Capital Group (KCG) has pulled a fast one on the Meta Group and Gartner by using their own analyst logic against them. The advisory firm has warned customers to be very wary of Gartner's proposed $162m buy of Meta, saying the companies have not done a good job of communicating what will happen should the acquisition go …

Hardware 28 Jan 2005, 09:25
Woman rents cleavage in eBay auction

Bosom buddies seek corporate endorsement

A Scottish woman is giving companies the chance to "rent her cleavage" to advertise their logo, web site or slogan. More-than-ample Angel Brammer, 27, from Greenock in Scotland, got the idea after a US man touted his forehead on eBay earlier this month as a suitable place for a temporary tattoo. Says Angel in her eBay listing …

Bootnotes 28 Jan 2005, 10:21
Outsourcing: Reg readers unconcerned

Reg Reader Studies Low pressure reading on the jobs barometer

With a UK general election widely expect to take place in May of this year, the political parties are casting around for ideas that might appeal to voters. What about that old chestnut – job security? It was an issue early on the US Presidential campaign last year, might it work over here? According to readers of The Register …

Business 28 Jan 2005, 10:26
Brit plumber to visit ISS

Dodgy oxygen generator? Sorted

There is some welcome news today for International Space Station residents Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao who have been gamely battling for some time to fix the ISS's cantakerous Elektron oxygen generator. They will shortly be favoured by a visit from a British plumber who, according to a recommendation from one of Sharipov's …

Bootnotes 28 Jan 2005, 10:46
Gateway Q4 loss shrinks

Falling restructure costs

PC vendor Gateway yesterday announced fourth-quarter sales of $1.03bn, up 12.5 per cent from $915m in the previous quarter and 17.6 per cent from $875m this time last year, although that figure doesn't include a contribution from eMachines, which it acquired in March 2004. Gateway sold 1.2m PCs in Q4, up 29 per cent on Q3 and …

Financial News 28 Jan 2005, 10:49
TSMC Q4 decline mirrors chip market

Record year, weak second half

TSMC, the world's largest chip foundry, yesterday posted full-year and fourth-quarter figures that reflect the up-and-down nature of the world chip market in 2004. Even so, the company revealed it plans to increase spending on new plant during 2005. For the year as a whole, TSMC reported record revenues: TWD255.59bn ($8.03bn …

Financial News 28 Jan 2005, 11:22
Toxic gas leak at TSMC fab hospitalises 21

Plant still running despite Arsine emission

TSMC, the world's biggest contract chip maker, did not feel the need to shut down its Fab 7 facility yesterday, despite a potentially lethal gas leak that hospitalised 21 employees. The 200mm fab, located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, experienced the leak just after 2PM local time. As per company procedures, the 21 workers in the …

Channel Register 28 Jan 2005, 11:24
All at sea, Microsoft axes flying car project

Norway, Estonia in shock

It's official: Microsoft's flying car project is in peril, the company's US PR agency Waggener Edstrom told us today. The mysterious vehicle that's thrilled so many readers this week now faces the axe. The good news is that we finally have official confirmation of these strange sightings of amphibious craft making sometimes …

Bootnotes 28 Jan 2005, 11:38
Philips predicts mobile TV dominance

Phones to overtake televisions 'within a decade'

Phones will overtake televisions within a decade, says Philips Interest in television services over cellular or broadband wireless networks is intensifying as operators seek a new, high margin application. If the boom materializes, it will also be a major boost for chipmakers. We have already seen Qualcomm unveiling its FLO …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 11:42
TI delivers on single-chip promise

Nokia signs up for 'revolutionary silicon'

Texas Instruments has delivered on its 2002 promise to create a single-chip mobile phone, and Nokia will be the first customer, incorporating the revolutionary silicon in some low cost models. Such highly compact architectures will be crucial for developing very price sensitive models for developing economies, which will provide …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 11:49
Siemens delays decision on handset biz fate

Plegdes to provide 'road map' for loss-making... sometime

Siemens yesterday reported that there was nothing to report, stating that no decision had yet been made concerning the future of the engineering giant's loss-making mobile phone business. The phone wing lost €143m ($186.4m) during its most recently completed quarter, Q1 FY2005. Quarterly sales fell year on year from €1.49bn ($1 …

Financial News 28 Jan 2005, 11:53
German rogue dialler suspects cuffed

Two arrested, two on the run

German rogue dialler companies which defraud consumers by secretly changing their computer settings so they can call a premium rate phone line, are increasingly facing the heavy hand of the law. German police this week arrested two suspects in Paderborn and Riga in another €20m dialler scam. Several other suspects are still on …

Music and Media 28 Jan 2005, 11:55
RIAA sues 717 alleged copyright cheaters

No sign of slowdown to anti-P2P programme

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) has sued another 717 Americans for allegely distributing music illegally on P2P networks. The 717 lawsuits include 68 directed at unnamed people at US universities. The latest bout of legal action brings the total number of individuals sued for allegedly sharing music illegally to …

Music and Media 28 Jan 2005, 12:03
Area 51 'hacker' charges dropped

Black helicopters return to base

Federal prosecutors formally dropped charges this month against an amateur astronomer who exposed a buried surveillance network surrounding the Air Force's mysterious "Area 51" air base in Nevada. Chuck Clark, 58, was charged in 2003 with a single count of malicious interference with a communications system used for the …

Enterprise Security 28 Jan 2005, 12:07
Mobile virus epidemics: don't panic

Low risk

Every time I lose my mobile phone, which happens far too often, I'm given the opportunity to check out the latest and greatest phone technologies available. This is great stuff. They have zoom lenses for pictures and Quicktime videos, they have high resolution color screens, wireless data access for my laptop, they play MP3s, …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 12:18
Freescale licenses PowerVR MBX graphics core

Ex-Moto chip biz opts for Dreamcast video chip successor

Freescale, Motorola's former chip division, has licensed Imagination Technologies' PowerVR MBX Lite graphics core. The deal was struck through ARM, which entered into a sub-licensing agreement with Imagination in April 2002. It's been a useful arrangement for Imagination, since ARM carries far more industry clout and is able to …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 12:22
Kids' blogs a 'paedophile's dream'

Expert highlights possible threat

Children's blogs are "a paedophile's dream", because of the insight they give into a child's life, habits and movements, forensic psychologist Rachel O'Connell warns. Giving evidence before Scotland's Justice 1 Committee, she said: "This [blogging culture] is just a paedophile's dream because you have children uploading …

Music and Media 28 Jan 2005, 12:34
Ebbers knew of financial fiddling

Then said 'sorry', witness claims

Bernie Ebbers has been linked to the $11bn (£5.8bn) WorldCom fraud by one of his former employees. Former WorldCom financial controller David Myers took the stand yesterday and testified that Ebbers apologised to him in 2000 after he was ordered to doctor the company's expenses. Recalling a conversation he had with Ebbers, …

Business 28 Jan 2005, 12:40
MySQL worm attacks Windows servers

Batten down the hatches

A worm exploiting vulnerable installations of MySQL to take over Windows servers began spreading across the net yesterday. The MySpooler worm takes advantage of weak administrative passwords to log onto target systems before using the MySQL UDF Dynamic Library exploit to upload malicious code (a backdoor program called Wootbot …

Enterprise Security 28 Jan 2005, 12:44
World chip inventory fell 38% in Q4

Still $1bn worth of unsold products to clear

Chip makers' stockpiles of unsold or unused semiconductors in the electronics supply chain shrank 38.3 per cent during the last three months of 2004, market watcher iSuppli has claimed. That marks a big drop on Q3 and comes in below the figure iSuppli had forecast previously. During the third quarter of 2004, inventory …

Channel Register 28 Jan 2005, 13:05
BOFH: Driller Killer

Episode 3 X-rated data cabling shocker

"So we'd just like you to move these data points from here to over there," the head beancounter says, pointing to a window. "It's a window," I say. "Yes, will that be a problem?" "It's a glass wall.." "Yes." "And there's no underfloor data cabling..." "Mmm." "So how do the cables get across there?" "I... Through the …

BOFH 28 Jan 2005, 13:09
Unholy trio pose DDoS risk for Cisco kit

Malformed protocols flummox routers

The software in many large networks needs to be updated following the discovery of multiple flaws in routers and switches running Cisco's IOS software. Three security bugs, each involving the way Cisco's software processes particular protocols, could be used to reload affected devices. Repeating the trick would enable crackers …

Enterprise Security 28 Jan 2005, 14:06
Mobile phones shipments up 38% in Q4

Record breaker

More mobile phones shipped in the last three months of 2004 than in any other quarter in history. Gosh. Thanks, Strategy Analytics, for that breathless statistic. How many is more? The market watcher puts the total at 200m, which took 2004's grand total to a similarly Guinness-worrying 684m units - 32.3 per cent more than the …

Mobile 28 Jan 2005, 14:31
Friday 11 March is Euro Nintendo DS day

One week or two before Sony's PSP arrives?

Nintendo will launch its DS handheld console in Europe on Friday, 11 March, the company has revealed. Priced at £100 in the UK and €149 on the continent, the console debuts alongside 15 games priced between £20 and £30. In the US, the headline price is $150 - the difference is largely accounted for by the inclusion of import …

Consoles 28 Jan 2005, 14:50
Cyber-stalker faces sentencing today

Three-year hate campaign by spurned lover

A woman is due to be sentenced today at Leicester Crown Court after she waged a three-year campaign of harassment against a man with whom she had a one-night stand. She also admitted five computer-related offences and perverting the course of justice. This is a stalking case with added technology. Cyber-bunnyboiler Anita …

Music and Media 28 Jan 2005, 16:08
BT faces 'bogeyman' if it fails to open market

Change, or else...

Ofcom has once again warned that BT's failure to restructure its business and open up its market to genuine competition would make an enforced structural split of the company a "real possibility". In November, Ofcom rejected calls to break up BT and instead urged the telco to make "substantive behavioural and organisational …

Telecoms 28 Jan 2005, 16:43
Intel baffles with latest trademarks

Slogan's run...

Intel has added a pair of trademarks to its large roster of protected names: 'Intel Inside VIIV' and 'Intel VIIV'. Not surprisingly, there's a considerable amount of head-scratching going on in web-based Intel-watching circles as to what the chip giant is thinking. The speculation isn't helped by Intel's refusal to comment, …

PCs 28 Jan 2005, 17:02
MIT boffins moot space leotard

Dress appropriately for Mars, dress like The Darkness

Researchers at MIT are working on a super-spacesuit that will allow future interplanetary explorers far more flexibility and freedom of movement than the bulky designs of today. Big, heavy suits might be OK for space walks off the International Space Station, but add a little gravity to the environment, and the need for a …

Science 28 Jan 2005, 17:24
Tablet PC bug 'fills computer with ink'

Er, Redmond - we have a memory leak

A major bug in the Tablet PC version of Windows eats up all the memory in your computer until it crashes. Redmond has yet to acknowledge the problem with a public disclosure about the issue - or even offer a feeble blogshrug [*]. The culprit is the application Tabtip.exe, the site Tablet PC Talk confirms - "The program Tabtip. …

PCs 28 Jan 2005, 20:49