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4th February 2005 Archive

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  • Why Napster will be a fully-integrated flop

    Comment To Go away

    Napster today graced the world with a "revolutionary new way to enjoy music" by starting something called the Napster To Go service. As we all know, revolutions often deliver unintended consequences. So let's have a look at where Napster's service may lead. On the surface, the To Go model looks like a great replacement for …

    Music and Media 4 Feb 2005, 00:11

  • Municipal Wi-Fi access schemes unjust - report

    Everybody pays, few benefit

    Government run, city-wide hotspots will unfairly tax residents for a service that only a handful will use, according to Steven Titch, co-author of a recent report denouncing the ambitions of Philadelphia, Las Vegas, New York, and others to become Wi-Fi Meccas. "Whose internet does muni[cipal] wireless subsidize?" Titch asked …

    Wireless 4 Feb 2005, 09:28

  • Maxtor to axe more US jobs

    Loss widens

    Maxtor's recently announced decision to abandon its 2.5in notebook hard drive project helped keep the company in the red, to the tune of $70m (28 cents a share) during its fourth quarter. The three months to 25 December 2004 yielded revenue of $1.03bn, down 11.9 per cent on Q4 2003's $1.17bn . Expect more losses: the hard-drive …

    Storage 4 Feb 2005, 10:25

  • Guinea-pigs terrorise motorists with cans of link spam

    Letters Are they in league with the machines?

    Mobile phones really are determined to rub our species from the face of the Earth. If they aren't giving us tumours, they are making us drive like we are drunk, or like we are very, very old. But can we trust the research that tells us these things? Is this a problem, or are we all just getting paranoid. In ten years, will we be …

    Letters 4 Feb 2005, 10:28

  • Elpida licenses 'DVD on a chip' memory tech

    Faster than Flash, more permanent than DRAM

    Elpida has licensed a technology that applies the same technique used in rewriteable optical discs to non-volatile memory chips. Developed by Ovonyx, the system, dubbed Ovonic Universal Memory (OUM), uses a thin film of chalcogenide alloy, a material similar to the substance used in DVD- and CD-RW discs. In the optical world, …

    Storage 4 Feb 2005, 11:00

  • WorldCom directors $54m lawsuit deal unravels

    Class action goes ahead

    A deal by ten former directors of WorldCom top to cough up $18m (£9.5m) of their own cash to help settle a class action lawsuit following the collapse of the telecoms company in 2002 appears to have unravelled. Last month the ten former directors - who weren't directly involved in the WorldCom accounting scandal but were named …

    IT Director 4 Feb 2005, 11:24

  • Gov.uk web sites get thumbs up for usability

    But reply to emails, ok?

    A new analysis of government websites has found a "demonstrable" improvement in usability in many sites. Overall, design and navigability are improving, and a more consistent approach between sites is emerging. But older sites are not well maintained, and email response times are unacceptably slow. The Department of Health …

    Public Sector 4 Feb 2005, 11:28

  • Casino brands eBay cleavage woman

    Corporate assets out for the lads

    Online gambling outfit Golden Palace yesterday took temporary charge of the substantial assets which it recently secured for £422 on a eBay auction, viz; the legally-displayable portion of 27-year-old Angel Brammer’s 42GG breasts. For fifteen days the Glaswegian lass will proudly display Golden Palace's temporary tattoo - …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2005, 11:30

  • MSN Messenger worm seeds zombie networks

    Roast chicken with a bikini tan line

    A worm spreading via MSN Messenger is turning infected Windows PCs into zombie drones. The Bropia-F worm spreads by offering "sexy image files" to IM contacts of infected users. Instead of racy documents, users who accept and open infected files get a comical photo of a roasted chicken with a bikini tan line. In the background …

    Malware 4 Feb 2005, 11:32

  • HP iPaq smart phone pics leaked

    More-detailed specs too

    Fewer than 24 hours have passed since we wrote about HP's iPaq Mobile Messenger smart phone - and already pictures and a tentative model number of the machine have leaked out. Website iPaqAbilities has the shots of the hw6500, along with some further details of the specification. As we reported yesterday, the HP device will …

    Mobile 4 Feb 2005, 11:35

  • Is UML past its sell-by date?

    Useful as a lowest common denominator

    UML started life as a notation. Back in the days of CASE there were dozens of different approaches to modelling: Rumbaugh, LSDM, Schlaer-Mellor, Booch, Information Engineering, Bachman, Coad/Yourdan, Merise and a bunch of others. All of these espoused a different approach and all of them used different notations with different …

    Developer 4 Feb 2005, 11:59

  • Sony names US PSP launch date, price

    Console continues to outsell Nintendo DS in Japan

    Sony has at last come clean and said when it will ship the PlayStation Portable in the North America. Yes, 24 March will be PSP Day. There's still no official word on the European debut, but the day after, the 25th, has in the past been singled out for attention in documents sent by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to local …

    Consoles 4 Feb 2005, 12:00

  • Ireland faces €50m e-voting write-off

    No bangs, lots of bucks

    A lack of public confidence in e-voting means that Ireland may be forced into writing off its €50m investment in electronic ballot systems. Michael Noonan, chairman of the Dail Public Accounts Committee, expressed doubts that the current system will ever be introduced, after last year's debacle where plans to initiate e-voting …

    Public Sector 4 Feb 2005, 12:16

  • Qwest courts MCI for telecoms take-over

    You dancing? You asking?

    MCI - the telco formerly known as WorldCom which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April last year following its damaging$11bn (£5.8bn) accounting scandal - could be the target for a take-over. Reports from the US claim Qwest Communications International Inc. is considering splashing out $6.3bn (£3.3bn) for the …

    Financial News 4 Feb 2005, 12:18

  • So what is a technical effect? Find out at UK Patent Office workshop

    Register by 18 February

    The Patent Office is to hold a series of workshops that will discuss the definition of what constitutes a technical effect; a major point of conflict in the debate about software patenting in Europe. Lord Sainsbury, under-secretary of state for science and innovation, promised the workshops after a meeting with anti-software- …

    Developer 4 Feb 2005, 12:22

  • Motorola damns WiMAX with faint praise

    Comment Proprietary backhaul play

    The real question about Canopy Wireless, now launched - 30 months late - in Europe, is not merely "what took you so long?" but "Why are you singing from Intel's song book about regulation, but not about WiMAX?" Regulation is what has held up Canopy. It's a proprietary solution for providing wireless alternatives to expensive …

    Wireless 4 Feb 2005, 12:23

  • JK Rowling warns of Harry Potter phishing scam

    Be a Muggle, not a mug

    Author JK Rowling this week warned fans of the likelihood of further scams after an offer to sell an e-book version of the next installment of the Harry Potter saga was exposed as a con. A site called www.harrybooks.info (since closed) touted a purported e-book version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is released …

    Spam 4 Feb 2005, 13:01

  • Bulldog unveils PAYG unbundled broadband

    PlusNet in new offer too

    Bulldog has launched a hybrid subscription-cum-PAYG broadband service which it claims will suit net users who only want to pay for the time they spend online. Bulldog - owned by UK telco Cable & Wireless and big into local loop unbundling (LLU) - reckons the service will give the broadband market an extra boost. Not that it …

    Small Biz 4 Feb 2005, 13:02

  • BOFH: When desk lamps attack

    Episode 4 Defending admin rights

    "Yeah, I was just ringing because I can't install an application on my machine." "Really?" I ask. "What application?" "Oh that's not important, but what is important is that I don't seem to have Administrator access to my machine." "Yes, that's right, no-one does. Well, that's not completely true, myself and my assistant do, …

    BOFH 4 Feb 2005, 13:23

  • Ask Jeeves profit rise leaves market cold

    Analysts unimpressed by performance

    Ask Jeeves has posted a steep increase in revenue in Q4, boosted by better advertising sales, and the acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings. It reported revenue of $86.1m for the quarter ending 31 December, up 170 per cent on the same period a year ago. Profits rose too, reaching $17.1m (on a GAAP basis), or 25c per share …

    Financial News 4 Feb 2005, 13:43

  • Dyslexic drivers slow to react, claim boffins

    Impairment equivalent to 'moderate drinking session'

    Dyslexic drivers are slower to react to traffic signs, a study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim has shown. The researchers report that dyslexia impairs a driver's reaction times "as much as a moderate drinking session", according to a New Scientist report. Lead boffin Hermundur Sigmundsson …

    Science 4 Feb 2005, 14:03

  • Buy our products, Sanyo tells employees

    Execs expected to cough up $20,000 each

    Troubled Japanese conglomerate Sanyo has asked its own employees to open their wallets and buy the company's products, CNET reports. Sanyo this week reported a $170m loss for Q4 2004 and is still smarting from an October earthquake which forced closure of its chip facilities. Accordingly, it wants execs to shell out a cool $20, …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2005, 14:34

  • E-gov to cost Europe €4bn+

    The cost of 'modern online public services' in 2008

    This year will see rapid growth in government spend on IT across Europe, according to research from IDC, as the deadlines for the eEurope Action Plan approach. For the public sector, the 2005 objective is that Europe should have "modern online public services". In 2003, around 12 per cent of total spend on IT in government went …

    Public Sector 4 Feb 2005, 15:18

  • ViewSonic NextVision N3000w 30in LCD HDTV

    Review The high def future today?

    You may have read about HDTV in the news, but just to fill you in, broadcast High Definition TV is only a year away in the UK. Well that's not entirely true, as a Belgian company has already set up a European service known as HD1 which is available now but only to those that don't mind realigning their older dishes to point to …

    Reviews 4 Feb 2005, 15:18

  • AOL loses two million punters

    Where'd they go?

    America Online (AOL) - the internet division of media giant Time Warner - lost two million subscribers in the US last year as it continues to face increased competition from rivals. At the end of December AOL had 22.2m US subscribers down 464,000 on the previous quarter and two million fewer than a year ago. In Europe, the …

    Telecoms 4 Feb 2005, 15:25

  • Indian teen kidnaps self to buy Nokia mobe

    Crim mastermind collared by Caller ID

    A 15-year-old from Lucknow, India, who faked his own kidnapping because he wanted cash to buy a mobile phone is safely under lock and key after police traced his menacing calls home using Caller ID, Lucknow Newsline reports. The unnamed criminal mastermind reportedly wanted a Nokia mobe costing 30,000 rupees (roughly £370). …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2005, 15:25

  • Fake tsunami appeal website terminated

    Police probe continues

    A bogus website masquerading as that of the Disasters Emergency Committee has been taken down. The enforcement action follows warnings yesterday (3 February) that the site, decuk.org, which claimed to be collecting funds to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster was not to be trusted. The site, which looked like an …

    Music and Media 4 Feb 2005, 16:04

  • Aigo P750 20GB MP3 Player

    Review As classy as its manufacturer thinks?

    Aigo, a relative newcomer to the MP3 player market, clearly wants us to think its P750 is a classy product. It's packed in a heavy-stock cardboard box held shut with a magnetic clasp. Within, the player lies nestled inside a mock-velvet cushion looking not unlike a jewellery box. It comes with a leather carry-case. The P750 …

    Reviews 4 Feb 2005, 16:20

  • eBayers go mental for Burberry-clad Chavmobile

    You lookin' at me motor, me chavvy?

    Those readers looking for a new set of wheels with a bit of Chav street cred need look no further than the current eBay auction for a Burberry-branded Chavmobile - the "original (one ‘n’ only) Goldie Lookin Chain Chavalier", as the suitably chavesque blurb puts it. We make no apologies to non-Blighty Reg readers who have not …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2005, 16:31

  • Verity Stob - programming's funniest memoir

    Review DOS was hell. Then came Windows

    As anyone who's ever done it professionally knows, programming computers isn't as glamorous as they make out in the movies. Take for example, Independence Day, where the hero lashes together a program in 30 minutes and conjures up a piece of code that saves the world. Have you ever seen anyone do in that real life? And did you …

    Bootnotes 4 Feb 2005, 16:47

  • Flamers roast Stalkers for 'timebomb' shut-down

    Plug pulled, punters disgruntled

    Mail server software firm Stalkers has come under fire from some of its own users over a license enforcement action that left scores of admins scrambling to restore services. As the clock rolled over on 1 February 2005, flagship Stalkers CommuniGate Pro mail server software executed a worldwide "timebomb" shutdown, designed to …

    Data Networking 4 Feb 2005, 17:52

  • Reboot daily, Tablet users advised

    It's official

    Microsoft has publicly acknowledged the Tablet PC bug that eats up the computer's memory until the machine crashes. The out of control memory leak remains unchecked while Redmond's Red Adairs grapple to put a lid on the blow-out. But there's no word yet of exactly when a fix will be issued. "Progress is being made and there'll …

    PCs 4 Feb 2005, 20:22

  • WebEx sues Citrix for cybersquatting

    Turning around an embarrassing lapse

    Online conferencing company WebEx is suing Citrix for cybersquatting. It has filed a suit in the Northern District Court of California claiming trademark infringement, cybersquatting and unfair competition thanks to Citrix buying a number of domain names virtually identical to WebEx's latest service. It's been a long while …

    IT Director 4 Feb 2005, 20:55