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25th February 2005 Archive

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  • Disk drive shortage cramps EMC style

    Low fibre diet

    A widespread disk drive shortage continues to cramp EMC's style, with the vendor saying its financial results could be affected because of the lack of hardware. EMC's CEO Joe Tucci this week warned financial analysts not to expect much near-term drive supply improvement. Companies such as EMC and IBM have complained of …

    Storage 25 Feb 2005, 08:09

  • VoIP carriers launch international peering network

    Kick off with 100m numbers

    Internet calls to landlines could get even cheaper, following yesterday's launch of an international peering network of VoIP providers. Fourteen companies have signed up to the free-of-charge interconnection service including Callme.se (Sweden), e-fon.ch (Switzerland), Magrathea Telecommunications (Great Britain), Musimi.dk ( …

    Data Networking 25 Feb 2005, 09:50

  • VIA unveils Turion chipset

    Thin'n'light

    VIA today launched its first chipset pitched at AMD's Turion thin'n'light notebook platform, days after it said it had shipped more than 100m chipsets for AMD processors. Its latest offering, the K8N800A, is Turion-ready, VIA said, even though AMD has yet to say just what that Turion encompasses. As we noted last week when ATI …

    System Builder 25 Feb 2005, 10:36

  • Nvidia ships 'world's fastest' notebook graphics chip

    Core clock tweak

    Nvidia today extended its notebook-oriented graphics chip range, adding what it claims is the "world's fastest mobile GPU" to the line-up. The GeForce Go 6800 Ultra builds on the already-available GeForce Go 6800 by upping the core clock speed. Nvidia didn't put a figure to the core's clock frequency, but it did say the 6800 …

    System Builder 25 Feb 2005, 10:44

  • New Labour ex-hooker's shady IBM past revealed

    'Nothing to be ashamed of'

    Here's one to conjure with. Christine Wheatley has just been dropped from the Labour Party's shortlist of candidates for Copeland, Cumbria after she revealed a colourful past as a Paris hooker. But immediately before that she says she'd been working for IBM. "I had just finished working for IBM in Brussels and wanted to take a …

    Bootnotes 25 Feb 2005, 10:51

  • Captain McBride and the SCO Titanic

    Comment Iceberg ahoy!

    What's the difference between Edward John Smith, the Captain of the Titanic and Darl McBride, CEO and President of SCO. Well, for one thing, Captain Smith didn't steer his doomed ship towards the iceberg, he hit it by accident. The prospects for SCO now appear to be not much better than they were for the Titanic as it …

    Operating Systems 25 Feb 2005, 10:57

  • NI heralds 100% broadband coverage

    Alright then, 98.5%

    The final nine telephone exchanges in Northern Ireland have now been enabled with ADSL technology giving broadband availability to 98.5 per cent of the region. The announcement was made by BT Northern Ireland in association with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) and the Building Sustainable Prosperity …

    Telecoms 25 Feb 2005, 11:17

  • Ebbers in the dark over accounting scandal - witness

    WorldCom trial continues

    Bernie Ebbers was not aware of the $11bn (£5.8bn) accounting fraud that torpedoed the telecoms giant in 2002, a court heard yesterday. At the WorldCom fraud trial in New York yesterday, Bert Roberts, honorary chairman of the company at the time, recalled a conversation he had with CFO Scott Sullivan when details of the …

    Telecoms 25 Feb 2005, 11:22

  • Woolworths targets digital music rivals with price cut

    For a limited time only...

    UK retail giant Woolworths today put pressure on rival - and better known - online digital music services like Napster and Apple's iTunes by offering sales tax-free downloads, bringing the per-track price down to 67p. Albums are similarly reduced, to £6.80 from £7.99. There's a catch, of course: the new price is only available …

    Financial News 25 Feb 2005, 11:33

  • EU and Asia unite against spammers

    No hiding place for junk mail scumbags

    European and Asian countries agreed to unite in the fight against spam at the conclusion of an ecommerce conference in London this week. Government participants attending an Asia-Europe (ASEM) conference on ecommerce issued a joint statement pledging to tackle the junk mail menace. ASEM’s 25 European and 13 Asian member …

    Spam 25 Feb 2005, 11:43

  • Europe probes 'rip off' Apple iTunes pricing

    Songs more expensive in UK than France, Germany etc.

    The European Commission (EC) has confirmed it is looking into allegations that Apple's iTunes Music Store discriminates against UK consumers by charging them more to download the same song than it charges other European music buyers. Some British iTunes users have slammed the differential pricing as yet another example of "rip- …

    Financial News 25 Feb 2005, 11:49

  • US Navy downs dummy ballistic missile

    Successful test for Aegis defence system

    The US has successfully downed a dummy ballistic missile in a test of the sea-based element of its Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) programme. The cruiser Lake Erie used a Standard Missile (SM)-3 to intercept the mock warhead fired from the US Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, Kauai. The SM-3 was guided by …

    Science 25 Feb 2005, 12:05

  • Intel to buy digital TV chip maker

    Intel Inside... your telly?

    Intel is to buy Oplus Technologies, a digital TV processor maker, the chip giant said yesterday. Neither company would say how much Intel was paying for Oplus, a privately held firm based in Yokneam, Israel. The 100-strong workforce will continue to operate and sell products under its own name. Oplus currently designs chips …

    System Builder 25 Feb 2005, 12:20

  • XP deloaded? MS tightens screws on loose product keys

    But effects will be limited

    Microsoft is tightening the screws further on pirate copies of Windows by disabling Internet activation of XP product keys for software distributed by all of the large OEMs. The move however doesn't take the company anywhere close to universal compliance, and seems more intended to reduce casual copying and leakage from the PC …

    Operating Systems 25 Feb 2005, 12:26

  • Bomb disposal disarms napalm-making teen

    Fire in the hole!

    British Army bomb disposal experts have disarmed a Suffolk teenager who brought home-made "napalm" into school, the Daily Telegraph reports. The unnamed 14 or 15-year-old apparently got instructions on how to knock up the concoction from a website, and rather splendidly decided to spend the half term holiday producing the …

    Bootnotes 25 Feb 2005, 14:15

  • Scottish Parliament lines up against ID scheme

    Can't block them, but can complain

    The Scottish Parliament yesterday condemned the UK ID Cards Bill as flawed and an unacceptable threat to civil liberties, leaving the legal position of the ID scheme largely unchanged but positioning it as a live election issue north of the border. The vote suggests that the Scottish Executive's 'kinder, gentler ID' policy may …

    Music and Media 25 Feb 2005, 14:24

  • Irate students peel Reg hack

    Letters Grant cheque outrage

    Our report this week into the potato PC scam which left south London students clutching a very expensive laptop bag full of spuds provoked an angry response from some cash-strapped young 'uns. The outrage was caused by our reference to "grant cheque" - a term fondly remembered by we "old timers" who need to "get with the …

    Letters 25 Feb 2005, 14:32

  • BT has until June to resolve 'equal access' issues

    Otherwise...

    A full-scale Enterprise Act investigation that could lead to the eventual break-up of BT will kick-off in June should efforts to introduce greater competition and transparency at the giant telco fail. The June deadline was set by regulator Ofcom which is studying proposals by BT to open up the former monopoly to greater …

    Telecoms 25 Feb 2005, 14:41

  • Trend Micro archive bug unearthed

    ARJybargy

    Trend Micro is urging users of its anti-virus products to apply security updates following the discovery of a potentially serious security vulnerability in 29 of its products. The security bug - discovered by security researchers at ISS - involves flaws in the processing of ARJ archive files by an antivirus library that give …

    Malware 25 Feb 2005, 14:45

  • Jubologist links breast type to personality

    Fruitful research into female assets

    An Italian sexologist has claimed that he can tell a woman's personality from the size and shape of her breasts, and his research has revealed some interesting and previously unknown facts about human females. Piero Lorenzoni this week expounded his mammicular theory to German tabloid Bild. Shortly thereafter UK jub enthusiasts …

    Bootnotes 25 Feb 2005, 14:51

  • BOFH: Goin' underground

    Episode 7 It's quicker by Tube

    "Okay, so we just need you to run a cable across the street then!" the Boss says, pointing to the new set of offices across the road that the company has leased. "Do we just sling a cable across the street to them?" Sigh. "To run a service across the street you obtain a consent from the local council outlining what the service …

    BOFH 25 Feb 2005, 14:59

  • China favours EVD over DVD

    Local spec preferred to international tech

    China has formally declared its Enhanced Video Disc (EVD) format the national standard for digital video discs, its Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said this week. Work began on EVD in 1999, with funding from China's State Trade and Economic Commission and MII, with a view to creating an alternative to DVD. Crucially, …

    Personal 25 Feb 2005, 15:03

  • MP calls for action over menacing 'silent' calls

    Simply 'unacceptable'

    Communications regulator Ofcom isn't doing enough to protect people from the menace of "silent" phone calls made by companies trying to flog their goods and services. BT receives more than 112,000 complaints a month from people worried that they've received a "silent" call. These calls are generated by computers in call …

    Music and Media 25 Feb 2005, 15:10

  • Orange next-gen smart phone details leak

    SPV C550 to target music fans?

    Mobile phone network Orange's next smart phone has made its web debut in the form of an allegedly leaked pic of the handset. The SPV C550, as it's being dubbed, appears to be the successor to the current SPV C500, made by Taiwan's HTC, which calls it the Typhoon. The C550 also appears to be an HTC product, an updated version of …

    Mobile 25 Feb 2005, 15:16

  • Qwest sweetens MCI offer

    As expected

    Qwest has sweetened its offer for MCI although it stopped short of increasing the $8bn (£4.23bn) bid currently on the table. The improved offer comes with certain additional assurances including guaranteeing the value of stock in the cash and paper deal. In a letter Qwest chairman and chief exec Richard Notebaert called on the …

    Financial News 25 Feb 2005, 15:27

  • Small-minded Mozilla mocked by wider world

    Firefox disables IDNs

    An exuberant Mozilla Foundation has been brought back down to earth with a bang by the world's internet organisations. Flushed with the success of its Firefox browser, the Foundation has clearly come to believe it is an important voice in the internet community. But following a hasty decision regarding the resolving of …

    Security 25 Feb 2005, 15:50

  • Currency effects boost Ingram Q4

    Revs up on swings and roundabouts

    The weakened dollar helped Ingram Micro boost its margins in the fourth quarter, the distributor’s latest results show. Ingram’s sales in the fourth quarter were $7.45bn, 10.2% up on the same period the year before. The figures included $400m from the Tech Pacific operation it acquired in November last year. European sales …

    Financial News 25 Feb 2005, 16:48

  • Firefox dusted down with security upgrade

    Makeover

    Mozilla yesterday released an updated version of its popular Firefox browser, version 1.0.1. The release includes several fixes to guard against spoofing and arbitrary code execution and changes designed to boost the stability of the browser. The update addresses a recent security flaw involving download dialogue boxes and a …

    Applications 25 Feb 2005, 16:55

  • McAfee looks ahead after mediocre Q4

    Targets growth after selling units

    Security firm McAfee yesterday reported reduced fourth quarter revenues but predicted rosier times ahead following its decision to sell off two flagging division last year. For the quarter ending 31 December 2004, McAfee reported revenues of $244m down from $272m in Q4 2003. Pre-tax quarterly earnings came out at $24m (the firm …

    Financial News 25 Feb 2005, 17:24

  • McData seesaws through Q4

    Win some, lose some

    Switch maker McData had some serious ups and downs during its fourth quarter. On the plus side, McData reported a breakeven quarter, which beat out a net loss of $7.5m in the same period a year ago. McData, however, saw revenue fall during its most recent quarter. It posted revenue of $106m in Q4 - down 7 per cent from last …

    Storage 25 Feb 2005, 17:40

  • Doonesbury savages Pepperland's copyright utopians

    It's a revolution, dudes!

    As anyone involved with the original Apple Newton project knows only too well, when Garry Trudeau's satirical eye engages a target, there's only one winner. The Doonesbury cartoonist has a gift for holding up a mirror to bad ideas so they collapse under the weight of their own absurdities. This week[*] Trudeau has turned his …

    Music and Media 25 Feb 2005, 18:50

  • Loki puts donations toward $1m MPAA payoff

    Opinion How the feeble have fallen

    Give the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) credit for a huge win against P2P file-trading technology. A recent settlement has exposed the scaly underbelly of some P2P site operators. In particular, the MPAA has outed Edward Webber - the owner of BitTorrent hub LokiTorrent. When the MPAA filed a round of lawsuits at …

    Music and Media 25 Feb 2005, 19:42

  • Is IBM shutting down its Itanium shop?

    Chipset snub says, 'maybe'

    Will IBM keep selling Itanium servers down the road? No one knows. It won't say. IBM is keeping the press in the dark about its Itanium plans, after CNET broke a story revealing that its latest chipset does not support Intel's 64-bit processor. Unlike its predecessor, the "Hurricane" chipset - due out in 90 days - will only …

    Servers 25 Feb 2005, 21:14