18th March 2005 Archive

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UK and EU allies plan moves against terror websites

Europe's big five fast track data sharing

Closer co-operation between members of the G5 - a grouping of the five largest EU countries - will make it easier to close down websites supporting terrorism, according to UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke. Among a series of measures agreed at a G5 summit in Granada this week was the setting up of a technical group to "monitor …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2005, 08:14
Don't let etopians define net literacy

Comment OFCOM: fit the net to people, not the other way round

Politicians around the world have made good political capital through celebrating domestic uses of IT. The vision of broadband-enabled homes, in which shopping, working and learning co-exist around the home, is a pleasant one, and provides a neat way of reasserting family values for the twenty first century. But two things …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2005, 08:20
New Microsoft Longhorn chief is indigestion expert

Star hire has stomach for the job

Microsoft has a new star hire to head up its Longhorn project, Mike Sievert. And he brings a deeper and richer personal experience to the job than many of his marketing counterparts in the technology industry. Sievert took up the post of Corporate VP for Windows Product Management, to give him his full title, at the start of …

Operating Systems 18 Mar 2005, 09:56
3Com reports smaller loss as revenues shrink

Miniaturisation

3Com has reported a net loss of $53m on revenues of $161m for its third fiscal quarter ending 25 February. The revenue figure was down six per cent on last year's $171m, but the $53m loss is also smaller than the $85m shortfall reported a year ago. Revenue from enterprise products fell one per cent while connectivity products …

Data Networking 18 Mar 2005, 10:40
Fresh undercuts discounted easyMobile tariffs

Price war rages

New-kid-on-the-block no frills mobile phone outfit - easyMobile - has responded to jibes from Virgin Mobile by cutting or reducing a number of "hidden nasties" from its service. Virgin Mobile had pointed out "catches galore" with the easyMobile service including it being the "only operator that was audacious enough to charge …

Mobile 18 Mar 2005, 10:51
Anti-virus vulnerabilities strike again

McAfee follows Symantec, Trend et al on patch bandwagon

Users of McAfee’s anti-virus products were warned this week of a potentially serious security vulnerability. The bug - unearthed by security researchers at ISS - involves flaws in the processing of LHA files by an antivirus library that gives rise to possible stack overflow attacks. The flaw applies to McAfee AntiVirus Library …

Anti-Virus 18 Mar 2005, 11:07
Tokyo to enjoy city-wide WiMAX

Yozan MetroZone

Tokyo is going to get what will be the first major deployment of a WiMAX Metropolitan Area Network in the world. The Yozan MetroZone will deliver high speed IP connectivity, and support voice, video and broadband data services. Airspan Networks and partner YOZAN will commence trials in the second quarter of 2005 and commercial …

Wireless 18 Mar 2005, 11:10
UMC chiefs to answer China investment claims

Hejian case coming to court

UMC chairman Robert Tsao will be called to answer charges that he and other company executives broke Taiwan's law governing the investment in technology firms based on the Chinese mainland. Tsao will join UMC vice-chairman John Hsuan and 23 other defendants following an investigation into connections between the world's second …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 11:20
Where, oh where, is my Windows firewall?

Server lament

I have a problem: I can't seem to find a good host-based firewall for my Windows servers. In fact, people constantly ask me what I recommend and I find myself with no good answer. Even though most of my servers are already behind firewalls, I like having additional protection on the server itself. Sometimes I use remotely co- …

Data Networking 18 Mar 2005, 11:25
ISG Webb sold for £17m

Private equity-funded MBO

ISG Webb, the UK-based networking reseller, has been sold to its managers and Royal London Private Equity for £17m. The changing of the guard gives the founding shareholders an exit route, and it also brings some new money – amount unspecified – to the table, enabling the firm "to pursue strategic growth opportunities in the IT …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 11:30
Oracle CFO exits as fight for Retek heats up

A busy time at Oracle HQ

Oracle's CFO, Harry You, is leaving the company a mere two months after the database giant acquired Peoplesoft and just as its battle to acquire Retek is heating up. You, who had only worked for Oracle for eight months, is joining BearingPoint as CEO, replacing interim boss Rod McGeary. Oracle's co-president Safra Catz will pick …

Applications 18 Mar 2005, 11:55
Intel to ship 'Potomac' Xeon MP this month

64-bit, 8MB L3 cache monster joined by E8500 chipset

Intel will ship its 'Potomac' 64-bit Xeon MP processor on 29 March, bundling it with the 'Twin Castle' E8500 chipset into a server platform the company has codenamed 'Truland'. The chip maker announced mid-February that it would ship Potomac "within 90 days", but the more specific launch date comes courtesy of a Techworld …

Hardware 18 Mar 2005, 12:02
DQ liberalisation not good for punters

Ofcom should ring the changes

Former telecoms regulator Oftel made a hash of deregulating the UK's directory enquiries (DQ) service, the National Audit Office has found. Eighteen months after BT's 192 service was scrapped and the market opened up to competition consumers are paying more for a service they're using less. One senior MP has questioned whether …

Telecoms 18 Mar 2005, 12:25
IEEE rejects Nokia-backed next-gen Wi-Fi proposal

TGn Sync in, WWiSE out

A week after Nokia defected to the WWiSE 802.11n technology proposal group, and a day after a trio of telcos gave the organisation the thumbs up, an alternative proposal has won the support of the IEEE Task Group charged with investigating the next generation of Wi-Fi. The outcome of the ballot has not yet been formally made …

Wireless 18 Mar 2005, 12:34
Sobbing Frenchman recounts Renault Laguna terror ordeal

Automobile satanique

We really do wish the French would pay rather more attention to the mounting evidence that their entire car industry - notably Citroen and Renault - is now nothing more than a supplier of quality satanic automobiles to the Lizard Alliance. In July last year we reported that a mephistopholean Renault Vel Satis attempted to do …

Rise of the Machines 18 Mar 2005, 12:48
DVD Jon: buy DRM-less tracks from Apple iTunes

DeCSS creator at it again

If you're happy to pay for your iTunes Music Store song downloads, but could live without that pesky DRM stuff the recording companies insist Apple inserts into each file, you'll be pleased to know that notorious hacker Jon Lech Johansen, he of DVD Content Scrambling System de-coding fame, has figured out how to do just that. ' …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 13:44
IBM and Novell grease Linux development wheels

ISVs get a helping hand

IBM and Novell have launched a program to accelerate the development and certification of Novell's SUSE Linux on IBM's eServer and middleware platforms. IBM hopes the scheme will help double the number of Linux apps independent developers make for its servers within the next two years. The scheme will give independent software …

Operating Systems 18 Mar 2005, 13:59
Intel Japan antitrust verdict response deadline delayed

Needs longer to read the ruling

Japanese anti-trust officials have extended Intel's deadline for appealing against charges that it abused its market leadership position to hinder arch-rival AMD. Intel Japan now has until 1 April to respond to the ruling. It was to have done so today, but was given more time to give the judgement a thorough reading, a company …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 14:09
BOFH and the hydrogen-based explosive device

Episode 10 More power to your laptop

"...and so I need another battery for my laptop," the PR geek whines, thus ending a 15-minute monologue on how important his work is, what he does, where he goes, who he talks to, what his presentation is like, how it's delivered, how long it take TO deliver, how he processes customer's queries, what he does on his holidays, …

BOFH 18 Mar 2005, 14:19
EC raps MS over interoperability - again

Not keeping its promises

The European Commission (EC) has accused Microsoft of not properly complying with the sanctions laid out as part of its anti-trust ruling in 2004, particularly on the question of interoperability. It says the software giant is not making it easy enough for companies who want to take a licence for Microsoft's data protocols to …

Operating Systems 18 Mar 2005, 14:23
PalmOne posts mixed Q3

Gains forecast

PalmOne's third-quarter sales dipped sequentially but were up year on year, the PDA maker said yesterday. For the three months to 25 February, PalmOne received $285.3m in revenue, down on Q2 FY2005's $376.2m but up 18 per cent on the year-ago quarter's $242.5m. The post-Christmas quarter is traditionally a weaker one for the …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 14:29
Carphone slips in 'stealth' price rise

Now it's even dearer to TalkTalk

Carphone Warehouse (CW) - which has more than 760,000 TalkTalk phone customers - has been accused of sneaking in a "stealth" price rise by making early morning calls more expensive. Copying a similar move by BT last month, peak rate charges for CW's TalkTalk landline service now kick in at 6am rather than 8am. A statement …

Mobile 18 Mar 2005, 14:53
UK games industry seeks big hug

Wants government recognition

The UK's video games industry has called for the government to recognise the contribution it makes to Britain's economy before a subsidised bloc of Nordic and Central and European producers hits the indigenous industry where it hurts. According to a Screen Digest report - published on behalf of the Entertainment and Leisure …

Consoles 18 Mar 2005, 15:01
Enterprise falls in love with wireless networking

IDC figures

Sales of wireless networking equipment destined for the enterprise showed healthy growth in the last quarter, outstripping the pace of growth in the residential sector, according to new figures from IDC. Shipments of wireless routers/gateways that are primarily for the residential market grew by two per cent from Q3 to Q4 2004, …

Data Networking 18 Mar 2005, 15:13
British adults support child porn crackdown

Natch

The British public stands four-square behind ISPs over moves to curb the availability of images of child abuse on the net. In a MORI poll of 1,00O UK adults, 89 per cent said they would support ISPs if they tracked those visiting child porn websites and 93 per cent said that ISPs should report this information to the police. …

Music and Media 18 Mar 2005, 15:18
Down with Chip 'n PIN, mini-black holes and cyber humans

Letters Technophobes R us

Ah, chip and PIN. Was there ever a topic more beloved by any readership? We ran a comment piece this week that took a look at the pros and (mainly, in the view of the writer) cons of the new system. We had a whole sackful of letters on this one. Here are the best, and most coherent: "But why cannot online systems ask for the …

Letters 18 Mar 2005, 16:52
VIA NET.WORKS faces liquidity crisis

Financing, sell-off considered

VIA NET.WORKS, Inc. - the business-focused telco in Europe and the US - has called in PricewaterhouseCoopers to help it secure new financing to address an "urgent liquidity problem". Netherlands-based VIA NET.WORKS has given itself until the end of March to either find new investment or flog all or part of the business. In a …

Financial News 18 Mar 2005, 16:56
Dundee goes nuts over space lander research

Where the cake's from

Dundee University officially opened its Space Technology Centre today, where researchers will work on planetary lander simulators, and develop support technology for space missions. The centre encompasses the Natural Environment Research Council Satellite Receiving Station in Dundee. Spacecraft can encounter a huge number of …

Science 18 Mar 2005, 17:20
Click here to win a Gizmondo

Competition Two up for grabs, courtesy of Rackspace

Tomorrow marks the launch of the eagerly-awaited, all-singing, all-dancing Gizmondo - and we at El Reg have got together with our web hosting partner Rackspace to offer readers the chance to win one of two hot-off-the-production-line examples. For those readers who have not the foggiest idea what a Gizmondo is or why it should …

Site News 18 Mar 2005, 18:10