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29th March 2005 Archive

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  • Sony ordered to pay $90.7m in PS2 patent dispute

    US judge suspends death sentence

    Sony can continue to sell its Playstation2 games console in the United States, despite an injunction made by a California Court last week ordering it to stop. The judge, in a California court, upheld a ruling last September that Sony had infringed patents held by Immersion Technology on force feedback controllers. At the time, …

    Consoles 29 Mar 2005, 07:53

  • Silent tech majority invites Mickey Mouse to poison P2P

    Comment The killer app that killed innovation

    It happened years ago. The "KA" appeared, and everyone embraced it. They hugged that "KA" with all their might, hoping it might correct a collapsing technology scene. Then, when the "KA" grew a sore, they dumped it. The "KA" or killer app was Napster - and on a larger scale P2P software. P2P file-trading started to thrive …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 07:59

  • Oracle snaps up security firm

    Larry's shopping spree continues

    Database behemoth Oracle continued its shopping spree yesterday when it bought Oblix, a privately-owned security firm, for an undisclosed amount. Oblix provides companies with secure identity and Single Sign-On services. These are increasingly used by businesses to guarantee the identity of people accessing corporate networks …

    Software 29 Mar 2005, 09:27

  • iTunes.co.uk owner fights on against Apple

    Takes fight, and Nominet, to High Court

    Erstwhile teenage dotcom millionaire and porn prodigy Ben Cohen is in dispute with Apple over his ownership of itunes.co.uk. He is taking them to the High Court to try and overturn a ruling from Nominet - the UK's domain name registry - that he should give up the website. Cohen, the 22-year old founder of SoJewish.com, …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 10:03

  • First players based on Taiwan's FVD HD disc to ship next month

    Why wait for blue-laser discs?

    Taiwan's answer to HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was formally launched yesterday. The format's backers claim it offers comparable video quality to blue-laser media but at a fraction of the price. Announced almost a year ago, FVD (Forward Versatile Disc) is based on the same red-laser technology used in today's DVD and CD players. …

    System Builder 29 Mar 2005, 10:15

  • Space-walkers launch 'Nanosatellite'

    While the ISS goes a bit wobbly

    Astronauts on board the International Space Station released a mini-satellite and installed new communication antennae during a four-hour space walk yesterday. They finished their tasks just before the station's overloaded gyroscopes caused the station to drift and roll slightly. That station should have three gyros, but one …

    Science 29 Mar 2005, 10:24

  • Toshiba preps minute-charge 'miracle' battery

    Very short charge time, very long lifespan - and green, too

    Toshiba has developed a Lithium-Ion battery capable of being charged to 80 per cent of its full capacity in under 60 seconds. Filling it up takes just "a few more minutes", the company boasted today. That's considerably faster than today's Li-ion rechargeables which can take 1-4 hours to reach 80 per cent capacity, and even …

    Mobile 29 Mar 2005, 10:30

  • Cops warn of internet fraud

    Let's be careful out there etc

    Police are warning punters to be on their guard against internet scams after seeing a spike in complaints from victims ripped off by crooks. In particular, cops are concerned at the increasing number of people snared by "phishing" scams that appear to be genuine requests for personal and banking details from well known sites …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 10:36

  • Sungard goes private

    Crumbs! - biggest deal since Nabisco

    US security and continuity specialist Sungard has been bought by a group of private investors for $11.3bn - the largest such deal since Nabisco was bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1988 for $25bn. Sungard owns UK disaster recovery firm Guardian IT. The buyers include Bain Capital, the Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 10:37

  • Qwest sets MCI April 5 deadline

    Get on with it

    MCI has until next week to accept Qwest's $8.45bn offer - or the deal is off. So says Qwest's boss Richard Notebaert, who's written yet another letter to the board of MCI asking the US telco to reconsider its offer. MCI is currently being chased by two telcos eager to snap up the company formerly known as WorldCom. MCI has …

    Financial News 29 Mar 2005, 11:46

  • What value your security certification?

    Comment Pundit laments GIAC shake-up

    It was with great dismay that I read of the recent changes to the GIAC certifications. There is now no longer a requirement to write a practical portion to the GIAC, which has recently become purely exam-based. This practical portion requirement was, until now, the one distinguishing feature that separated the GIAC …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 12:00

  • Oz boffins grow stem cells from nose

    Catholic Church-funded research

    Australian scientists have used a grant from the Catholic Church to grow human stem cells from tissue harvested from the nose. The procedure neatly sidesteps the moral issues surrounding obtaining stem cells from human embryos. The cloning of human embryos for stem cell research is banned in Australia, although researchers can …

    Science 29 Mar 2005, 12:24

  • Quantum crypto comes to Blighty

    Yay!

    UK reseller NOW Wireless has signed a deal to distribute MagiQtech's quantum cryptography solution, MagiQ QPN Security Gateway, in the UK. Launched in the US in 2004, MagiqTech's two-box solution, provides secure quantum key exchange between two dedicated sites up to 120km apart. Once secure keys are exchanged, data can be …

    Enterprise Security 29 Mar 2005, 12:27

  • Mitnick sequel fails to hack it

    Book review The Art of Intrusion

    Sequels are hard. Just ask John Travolta, currently being panned by the critics for his efforts in Be Cool, the would-be follow-up to the tremendously successful film Get Shorty. In books, as in films and music, following instant success is often harder than achieving it, because the former may be the labour of years but the …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 12:41

  • VeriSign wins back .net registry

    Of course it never doubted it in the first place

    VeriSign has won the battle over the .net registry, reclaiming the five million Internet domains as its own. The decision announced late last night by ICANN will see it and the monster company "promptly enter negotiations... to reach a mutually acceptable registry agreement". The approval follows an independent evaluation by …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 13:02

  • Creative MuVo V200

    Review More than a me-too iPod?

    Thanks to Apple, white is the new black, and Flash may well be the new hard disk, a least as far as MP3 players go. Hence, in part, the launch of a slick new Creative MuVo, the V200, not so long ago, clad in a shiny white iPod-style carapace. Of course, with the arrival of Apple's iPod Shuffle at round about the same time, the …

    Reviews 29 Mar 2005, 13:32

  • BT tells industry to 'get on with life'

    Verwaayen speaks

    BT boss Ben Verwaayen has told the rest of the UK's telecoms sector to "get on with life". Speaking to the Financial Times the Dutch chief exec of the UK's dominant fixed line telco once again told anyone who would listen just how much BT has done to "become a service company that does interesting things". According to …

    Financial News 29 Mar 2005, 14:36

  • Hynix ring-fences $342m against antitrust fines

    Under the mattress for a rainy day

    Hynix has put by KRW347bn ($341m) in case the US government finds it guilty of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour, it has emerged. The fine fund's existence was spotted in a footnote to the memory chip maker's FY2004 results report, a story in Korean paper Joong Ang Daily reveals. The move follows the launch in 2002 of an …

    Financial News 29 Mar 2005, 14:45

  • ISPs share hacker info

    Big name backing for security network

    Telcos, Internet Service Providers, equipment makers, universities and hosting companies are joining forces to exchange information about attempted hack attacks. The "Fingerprint Sharing Alliance" doesn't actually share fingerprints but rather profiles of attacks. Arbor Networks will collect the information automatically. For …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 14:47

  • EC sees tiny increase in women in science jobs

    But not in its own projects

    The number of women in top positions in science, both in academia and industry, has risen, but not by much, according to the latest figures from the European Commission (EC). In a report on gender equality in science, the European Commission has outlined its ongoing work to encourage more women to stay in science, once they …

    Science 29 Mar 2005, 15:06

  • Barclays ATM network takes Sunday off

    No Bank Holiday beer for Barclays customers...

    Barclays Bank is still investigating what went wrong over the Bank Holiday weekend to cause its network of cash points or ATMs to crash over the weekend. Barclays customers could not get cash out until 5.00pm Sunday. The problem hit 1,500 machines in southern England. Telephone and internet banking were also affected Some …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 15:09

  • A case for software benchmarking

    Comment Wheat and chaff

    I do not normally hold much truck with benchmarking, at least for such public tests as TPC-C (the standard for transaction processing) and TPC-H (for data warehousing). These are typically marketing figures – the tests are artificial, limited, and vendors with big bucks can throw enough money at the tests to ensure that they do …

    Applications 29 Mar 2005, 15:33

  • 200 IT workers face O2 axe

    Best get yer coat

    O2 could axe as many as 200 jobs from its IT division following the announcement last week it will cut 500 positions from the mobile phone business. Insiders claim the compulsory job losses will be split evenly between O2 employees and contract staff. Last week O2 announced plans to restructure its business by elbowing 500 back …

    Financial News 29 Mar 2005, 16:00

  • Cop 'downloaded nude snaps' from suspect's mobile phone

    Body of evidence resurfaces on PDA

    A Houston police officer has been taken off the streets for allegedly downloading sexually explicit pictures from a female suspect's confiscated mobe to his PDA and sharing them with colleagues, the Houston Chronicle reports. Christopher Green arrested the unnamed 24-year-old Chinese student on 24 November 2004 on suspicion of …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 16:03

  • HP sues printer-cartridge refillers

    Stink over ink

    HP has sued a pair of printer cartridge refillers in a bid to protect its consumables business. Yesterday, HP filed a complaint with the US District Court of Northern California against RhinoTek, accusing the refiller of false advertising - it maintains RhinoTek's "packaging and promotional materials are calculated to give …

    Channel Register 29 Mar 2005, 16:13

  • Whiskery stem cells grow skin, muscles and neurons

    Fairly bristling with ideas

    It is not just Australian nose tissue that provides a source of stem cells; according to new research from the US, hair follicles will do it too. Scientists at AntiCancer Inc and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered that stem cells harvested from mouse-whisker follicles will grow into all kinds of useful …

    Science 29 Mar 2005, 16:25

  • Verizon finds $1bn more for MCI

    Still can't match Qwest

    MCI likes the look of a new $7.6bn acquisition bid from Verizon even though the deal is almost $1bn less than the more flirtatious Qwest Communications has offered. Verizon hiked the amount of cash it will pay MCI shareholders and added in provisions to its bid that would protect investors against a drop in Verizon's stock. The …

    Financial News 29 Mar 2005, 16:38

  • Passenger screening gimmick stuck at the gate

    'CAPPS-3' not ready for takeoff

    The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is behind schedule in developing a new terrorist-busting database system called Secure Flight, a report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) says. After confronting the obvious defects in the old pre-9/11 CAPPS (computer-assisted passenger pre-screening system), which …

    Public Sector 29 Mar 2005, 18:13

  • IBM server breaks time - marketing continuum to tie Dell to market

    Reg ordered to fix the past

    IBM has pulled off a minor marketing miracle by delivering a four-processor 64-bit Xeon server well ahead of schedule. IBM today officially started selling the highly touted x366 server. This is the first system to use IBM's new Hurricane chipset. It's also one of the first boxes from a major vendor to ship with Intel's 64-bit …

    Servers 29 Mar 2005, 18:20

  • HP bets on the Hurd mentality for CEO

    Cash register stud to the rescue

    NCR CEO Mark Hurd has risen from the "shortlist" of HP CEO candidates right on up to the CEO post. HP today announced that Hurd, 48, will succeed Carly Fiorina, who was ousted last month by HP's board. The former NCR chief had been named yesterday as the likely HP CEO candidate by BusinessWeek. In the story, sources described …

    Hardware 29 Mar 2005, 18:33

  • Supremes leery of P2P ban

    Hollywood vs P2P Scalia, Breyer weigh chilling effects

    Two Supreme Court justices expressed concern today that outlawing P2P software would have deleterious consequences for the Republic. The Court is weighing an appeal by Hollywood to hold the makers of P2P software responsible for the widespread copyright infringement that takes place on the P2P networks. The Court needs to …

    Music and Media 29 Mar 2005, 20:14

  • Never Hurd of the new HP boss?

    Profile Don't worry! We've read him for you

    There's a theory that British Prime Ministers, and England football managers, alternate between being bishops and bookmakers. A risk-taking rascal is succeeded by a dull, safe pair of hands, until the public clamor for the rascal once again. By replacing the high-profile Carly Fiorina with the low-impact Mark Hurd from NCR, …

    IT Director 29 Mar 2005, 22:38

  • IBM plans storage blitz on EMC's turf

    New GM's sales pep

    If there were such a sport as "Relentless Storage Virtualization Strategy Launching," IBM would be the alpha athlete of the competition. The Register has learned that IBM plans to hold yet another storage virtualization event tomorrow in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Close storage observers will be getting that déjà vu sensation …

    Storage 29 Mar 2005, 22:49