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8th March 2005 Archive

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  • Japan calls Intel to task over anti-AMD rebates

    What's it got to do with you anyway, Intel says

    Intel is facing demands that it changes the way it does business in Japan or face court action. Japan's Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has ruled that the company deliberately tried to limit AMD's market share, by imposing restrictions on five of Japan's biggest PC makers, which collectively account for 77 per cent of PC sales in …

    System Builder 8 Mar 2005, 09:18

  • ISP sues Dutch gov for snooping costs

    Who pays: industry or investigators?

    An Internet Service Provider is suing the Dutch government to recover the costs of making its network accessible to law enforcement. Under Dutch law ISPs are entitled to claim for the administrative cost of each individual wiretap, but not for the cost of equipment which makes such snooping possible. XS4ALL is claiming €500, …

    Security 8 Mar 2005, 09:36

  • VIA unveils ultra-compact media chip

    Eden N and CN400 North Bridge re-packaged

    VIA has integrated its Eden N embedded x86 processor and its CN400 North Bridge into a single package the better to push its products into consumer electronics kit, such as LCD TVs. The combo chip, known by its codename Luke, joins VIA's CoreFusion line-up. It is clocked at up to 1GHz, at which speed it consumes 7W of power - …

    System Builder 8 Mar 2005, 10:03

  • Broadcom buys Bluetooth headphones chip maker

    Snaps up Zeevo

    Broadcom is buying Zeevo, a privately held Bluetooth headset system-on-a-chip developer for $32m - $29.4m in cash, the rest in shares. Zeevo pitches its products at makers of mobile phones, PCs, MP3 players and consumer electronics kit. It specialises in enabling high-quality audio over Bluetooth, a wireless technology known …

    Mobile 8 Mar 2005, 10:13

  • Kazaa Oz lawsuit wows the crowd

    Entertaining legal shenanigans

    The Earth is flat, the Moon landing never happened, the world will end next week and Ashlee Simpson is one of the great recording artists of her generation. It's funny how misinformation can enter the marketplace and get reported as the truth. It's also funny how the misinformation gets reported so widely. As we already know, …

    Media 8 Mar 2005, 10:53

  • Samsung shows 82in monster TV

    LCD for HDTV

    Having shown off the world's largest plasma display panel late last year, Samsung this week claims the world's biggest LCD TV. The monster display measures 82in (2.1m) in the diagonal, just short of the plasma panel's 102in (2.6m) size. It is designed for HDTV. The screen will be the first to be offered by the S-LCD joint …

    Personal 8 Mar 2005, 10:56

  • TI cuts Q1 sales forecast

    Decling DLP demand

    Texas Instruments has cut its Q1 FY2005 upper revenue forecast on the back for falling demand for its Digital Light Processing (DLP) display technology. Previously pegged at $2.90-3.14bn, Q1's revenue will come in at $2.91-3.03bn, TI said yesterday. Earnings are now expected to range from 22 to 24 cents a share, down from TI's …

    Financial News 8 Mar 2005, 11:05

  • Mixed blessings for Informix users

    Comment Some good news, some bad

    There is both good news and bad news for Informix users. The good news is that Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 10, which represents a major new release of the database, is now available. The bad news is that future versions of SAP (with NetWeaver) will no longer be available on the Informix platform, with this support to be phased …

    Developer 8 Mar 2005, 11:06

  • Nuclear cyber security debate hots up

    US regulations 'premature', says supplier

    Two companies that make digital systems for nuclear power plants have come out against a government proposal that would attach cyber security standards to plant safety systems. The 15-page proposal, introduced last December by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), would rewrite the commission's "Criteria for Use of …

    Security 8 Mar 2005, 11:07

  • MMS virus discovered

    'No to braindeads'

    The first mobile phone virus capable of replicating via MMS messages has been discovered. Commwarrior-A, which targets Symbian Series 60 phones, is not spreading, but its ability to propagate via Multimedia Messaging Service messages (MMS) worries some experts. To date. Phone viruses have spread over Bluetooth - so they are …

    Security 8 Mar 2005, 11:09

  • Big company, crap security

    Choicepoint, T-Mobile - oh dear, oh dear

    I'll tell you a secret. If you're looking for a security consultant during the day and he's not in the office, you might find him in a neighborhood coffee shop consuming large doses of caffeine, and using a laptop with wireless net access. It's nice to people watch, catch up on the news, review technical articles and yes, even …

    Security 8 Mar 2005, 11:10

  • Leaked Doctor Who episode available for download

    Pesky filesharers...

    The first episode of the new series of Doctor Who has mysteriously appeared on the internet. The 45-minute episode is called Rose - after the Doctor's new assistant, played by Billie Piper. It is unclear whether the show was leaked accidentally or as part of a devilish viral marketing campaign. The press launch for the series is …

    Media 8 Mar 2005, 11:11

  • UK LLU improving says Telecoms Adjudicator

    'Bout bloody time too

    BT is showing signs that it is beginning to co-operate with rival operators as they look to provide broadband services direct to end users. The latest update from the Telecommunications Adjudicator shows that BT has pulled up its socks and stopped dragging its feet quite so much over local loop unbundling (LLU) - the process …

    Broadband 8 Mar 2005, 12:01

  • AMD 'Athlon 64 4200+' benchmarks surface

    Release imminent?

    Has AMD begun shipping its Athlon 64 4200+ to OEMs? Apparently so, if leaked processor specification screengrabs posted on a Chinese web forum are genuine. The shots, initially posted on Digital-Info and re-published on XtremeSystems, purport to show the 4200+ up and running. Unfortunately, the test utility CPU-Z reports the …

    System Builder 8 Mar 2005, 12:10

  • Atop chief accused of selling stolen AMD chips

    Remarking saga continues

    AMD has accused the chairman of Atop, a Taiwanese electronics firm, of masterminding the theft and re-sale of 60,000 dud chips earlier this year, according to police sources cited by local media. Atop chairman Chen Yue-han denies the allegations, Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times reports, by way of DigiTimes. The …

    System Builder 8 Mar 2005, 12:10

  • Student in High School zombie terror threat

    Wannabe Papa Doc Duvalier cuffed

    An 18-year-old US student is today behind bars after police uncovered his plot to raise a zombie army and attack his high school. The wannabe Papa Doc Duvalier's chilling plan was uncovered after the youth's grandparents discovered his written proposal for the outrage in Winchester, Kentucky, lex18.com reports. Mercifully, …

    Bootnotes 8 Mar 2005, 12:14

  • Updata inks LLU deal with Dorset

    Luvverly

    Local loop operators Updata has won yet another public sector contract to provide unbundled high speed services to the public sector. The Reigate-based company struck a £4.7m deal with Dorset County Council to provide a managed DSL broadband service for up to 29 of Dorset's 75 exchanges. The five-year contract will provide …

    Broadband 8 Mar 2005, 12:34

  • Zeus Technology raises £3m

    'Period of rapid growth'

    Zeus Technology has raised £3m in third round funding from Scottish Equity Partners and Cazenove Private Equity. The money will be spent on sales and marketing activities for Zeus's Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) product. ZXTM launched April last year to help manage and optimise traffic around busy websites. Cazenove …

    Financial News 8 Mar 2005, 12:36

  • Britain talks tough on stem cell research

    Will vote against UN cloning ban

    The UK will today vote against a UN general assembly committee proposal to ban all forms of human cloning. British stem cell research advocates recently slammed the "political" vote which carried the nonbinding statement, and intends to walk it like it talks it at the full UN general assembly. The Government today said: "The UN …

    Science 8 Mar 2005, 13:36

  • High Definition and the future of viewing

    Analysis Disk and broadcast systems battle it out

    Over the past 20 years, the potential of high definition (HD) has seen development in a number of interlinked fields - broadcasting, consumer electronics and pre-packaged content. Although definitions vary, the term HD itself generally refers to a television screen offering at least double the resolution of the highest …

    Peripherals 8 Mar 2005, 13:57

  • Sony preps iPod Shuffle 'killer'

    Slimline 1GB Flash jobs with 50 hours' playback

    Sony will next month ship its 'iPod Shuffle killer', a compact Flash-based music player with up to 1GB of storage. What distinguishes the Sony product - apart from the distinctly disposable lighter styling - is the integration of an OLED read-out into the player's casing. The device doesn't have a screen as such - track details …

    Mobile 8 Mar 2005, 13:58

  • Siemens to cut phone biz costs by €1bn

    Sell-off or shut-down still under consideration

    Siemens will reduce costs at its loss-making mobile phone division by €1bn ($1.3bn) to bring the unit back to profitability. The German giant had already announced plans to cut up to €600m ($793m) during the company's current fiscal year, which ends in September. But today the company's communications division chief, Lothar …

    Mobile 8 Mar 2005, 14:04

  • C&W axes 480 more jobs

    Cutting overheads

    Cable and Wireless (C&W) is to axe 480 jobs in the UK to help trim overheads. The job losses are on top of those announced by the UK telco in November when 600 jobs were earmarked for the chop in the UK and Europe. Many of those jobs were zapped as part of C&W's decision to close its head office in London and relocate to …

    Management 8 Mar 2005, 14:27

  • UK card fraud hits £505m

    Online losses swell 24 per cent

    the banking industry hopes that losses in future will be contained by schemes such as Chip and PIN. UK losses to credit card fraud soared last year to £504m, up 20 per cent on 2003, according to the annual report by banking organisation APACS. Card-not-present fraud (CNP) continues to be the biggest single type of fraud tup by …

    Small Biz 8 Mar 2005, 14:46

  • German ISP told to cough up customer's details

    No court order required

    German ISPs may have to provide customer data to law enforcement agencies without a court order. The latest issue of the German specialist journal New Law Weekly cites a ruling by the District Court in Stuttgart, in which telecom giant T-Online was asked to hand over details of an unknown customer who was suspected of trading …

    Media 8 Mar 2005, 15:02

  • Domain seller leaves thousands in limbo

    Updated Trading status of Firevision is unclear

    Thousands of UK domain owners have been left in limbo by the actions of Cambridge-based registrar Firevision. Customers have been flooding internet message boards complaining that attempts to buy, move, update and renew domains names through Firevision have been faced with a brick wall. The owner, 27-year-old Graham Briggs, has …

    Financial News 8 Mar 2005, 15:55

  • Olympus Camedia C-370 Zoom

    Review The ideal digicam for technophobes?

    The C-370 is about as easy to use as a digital camera can be without taking the shots for you. Its very basic specification makes this is an ideal camera for technophobes. Priced at a remarkable - for a three megapixel camera, anyway - £120 this camera looks almost too good to be true, writes Doug Harman. Special menus explain …

    Reviews 8 Mar 2005, 15:58

  • Battling teen crushes roboarm menace

    Arm-wrestle this, lizard spawn

    Just as we at the neoLuddite Resistance Army were putting the final touches to a truly chilling round-up of the inexorable Rise of the Machines™, (due for publication this Friday - prepare your spines for X-rated tingling), we received news that a 17-year-old high school student has crushed a fledgling uprising of arm-wresting …

    Science 8 Mar 2005, 15:59

  • DNS cache poisoning bugs hits Symantec shops

    Spyware served up by fiendish, widespread attack

    Crackers are using a security vulnerability in Symantec's enterprise products to redirect surfers to websites hosting malicious code. The main vector of the DNS cache poisoning attack, detected by the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre on 4 March, has been traced back to a vulnerability affecting Symantec firewalls with DNS …

    Security 8 Mar 2005, 16:33

  • Arizona tags naughty file-trader

    Think about what you've done

    An Arizona youngster has earned the dubious distinction of being the first person convicted under state laws for pulling copyrighted songs and films off P2P networks. The Feds tend to dominate copyright cases, but in the case of of Parvin Dhaliwal, Arizona stepped in to charge the boy with a crime. The University of Arizona …

    Media 8 Mar 2005, 22:13

  • Oracle puts $525m between SAP and Retek

    Not so fast

    Oracle continues to prove its passion for acquisition and annoyance. It announced an offer today for software maker Retek that beats out an earlier bid from rival SAP. Oracle said it will make a tender offer on Wednesday for Retek of $9 per share in cash or close to $525m. That's considerably more than the $8.50 per share - or …

    Software 8 Mar 2005, 23:01