The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

19th April 2005 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Game Group takeover talks end

    Shares fall

    Game Group, the UK computer games retailer, yesterday said takeover talks with a mystery suitor had ended. Shares slumped by a quarter on the news. Shareholder speculation about a bid flushed out a statement by Game Group on 31 confirming talks. The company refused to say who and why, but unnamed sources quoted by Reuters, say …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 07:35

  • Microsoft overcharging case thrown out of court

    Californian class action sent back to school

    A Californian judge has thrown out a class action suit brought against Microsoft. A group of public bodies in the state were seeking compensation for being overcharged for Windows software. The judge ruled that some of the claims were invalid because they happened too long ago and some were invalid because the plaintiffs are …

    Software 19 Apr 2005, 08:07

  • Microsoft UK hires director of customer & partner experience

    Feedback loop

    Microsoft has promoted Alison Dodd to be director of customer and partner experience. Dodd, an Australian, will "focus on understanding the needs and feedback of customers and partners across Microsoft". Which kinda makes sense, given her job title. You can read more about her here. ®

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2005, 08:23

  • CA boss admits long road to recovery

    Four years to regain trust

    John Swainson, chief exec of CA, has admitted it will take the company four years to regain customers' trust after clearing up its accounting scandals. Swainson told the FT: "We have a long slog ahead of us." But he said the company should have its new structure in place within 18 months. He also said CA was planning more …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 08:29

  • TI meets lowered Q1 forecast

    DLP and wireless chip sales decline

    Texas Instruments yesterday posted Q1 FY2005 results in line with the revised forecast it issued last month. For the three months to 31 March 2005, the company reported revenues of $2.97bn, down 5.7 per cent on the previous quarter's $3.15bn but up fractionally on the year-ago quarter's $2.94bn. Net income for the period …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 09:41

  • Celtic boss leaves rant on wrong phone

    Own goal forces public apology

    Celtic chairman Brian Quinn has been forced to publicly apologise after leaving an angry voicemail message on the wrong phone during an ongoing row with manager Martin O'Neill. Quinn risked inflaming a dispute with O'Neill over player's wages after leaving his rant on a mobile belonging to 18-year-old Kayley Elkington from the …

    Music and Media 19 Apr 2005, 09:55

  • ATI to update AMD, Intel chipsets 'in June'

    Dual-core focused parts too

    ATI will ship its next-generation AMD and Intel-oriented chipsets before the end of the quarter, according to the latest claims coming out of Taiwan. The new parts, codenamed RS482 and RC410, targeting AMD and Intel processors respectively, will debut in June, bringing support for HD audio in the South Bridge, Taiwanese mobo- …

    PCs 19 Apr 2005, 10:06

  • Computacenter signs up for BladeLogic

    Data centre gig

    BladeLogic has signed up Computacenter to resell and install its data automation software throughout Europe. Computacenter says the BladeLogic software will help clients reduce operational costs significantly and increase efficiencies in their data centre operations. Press release? Here. ® Related stories Computacenter wins …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2005, 10:06

  • Scientists brew up 'missing link' isotope

    Doubly magic nickel-78

    Scientists at Michigan State University have succeeded in recreating an isotope of nickel they say is a "missing link" in the process by which precious metals are formed in supernovae. German and US boffins working at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) fired atoms of a stable isotpe of krypton at a …

    Science 19 Apr 2005, 10:12

  • AMD dual-core Opteron pricing slips out

    Pricier than single-core parts. Golly

    AMD's dual-core Opteron processors, due to be launched on Thursday, will cost more than their single-core equivalents. So claim Taiwanese motherboard maker sources cited by DigiTimes. It's no great surprise, perhaps, given the greater performance the dualies offer. According to said report, the bottom-of-the-range four-way …

    PCs 19 Apr 2005, 10:26

  • Adobe and Macromedia: bad news for online tools

    Comment Conservative dictates

    In the early 90s I attended a Seybold-sponsored debate between Adobe co-founder John Warnock and Yuri Rubinsky, principal of SGML and HTML tools company SoftQuad. Acrobat and its associated Portable Document Format (PDF) had recently been launched and were still little known or understood. The good-natured Rubinsky argued …

    Developer 19 Apr 2005, 10:29

  • Sober worm shakes Windows security

    It's tin-foil hat time again

    A new variant of the Sober email worm series is spreading rapidly across the net. Like previous variants, Sober-N spreads as an infected ZIP attachment to messages written in either German or English. Infected emails pose as a message from a net user who claims to have received the intended victim's email in error in a bid to …

    Malware 19 Apr 2005, 10:54

  • Gizmondo to offer diskless 'PVR'

    Transfer DVDs to SDs

    Handheld games console maker Gizmondo is apparently planning to offer a pocket MPEG 4 recorder in a bid to make it easier for owners to get video content onto their gadgets. The Register can reveal that the unit is the same Taiwan-made module recently launched by MP3 player vendor Neuros in the US. The box can take SD and …

    Consoles 19 Apr 2005, 11:18

  • Microsoft stripping Windows for thin clients

    Allegedly...

    Microsoft is readying two stripped-down versions of Windows for thin client computers. The idea is that people will use the new versions to resurrect older PCs, according to reports. The software is apparently based on XP and aims to give the benefits of thin client computing along with Microsoft management tools. The two " …

    Operating Systems 19 Apr 2005, 11:22

  • Romanian hides stolen mobe in vagina

    Police call phone... You know the rest

    A couple of years ago we reported on the Jamaican mobile phone thief who got herself into a bit of a sticky situation in Negril when "a cellular phone which was stolen from a female shopper was found after it rang from within another shopper's vagina". Yup, the criminal mastermind had "tamponed" the phone but a quick call to …

    Bootnotes 19 Apr 2005, 12:09

  • Happy = healthy: official

    Cheer up and live forever

    It may seem pretty obvious, but scientists have confirmed that happy, smiley people are generally healthier and less at risk from dropping down dead than their miserable counterparts. This, as New Scientist reports, is because those with a spring in their step have "healthier levels of key body chemicals" which may cut the risk …

    Science 19 Apr 2005, 12:14

  • Opera Software ships version 8 of its browser

    Linux and Windows, with Mac to follow

    Opera Software moved back into the limelight today with the release of the final version of Opera 8 for Windows and Linux, and a beta of 8 for Mac also available. Version 8 is described by Opera as a substantial upgrade, with quite a bit of tidying of the UI and menu structure, voice control, extra security features and …

    Applications 19 Apr 2005, 12:18

  • Sony PSP UK release slips to August?

    Dixons thinks so

    Amazon.co.uk still lists the UK debut of the Sony PlayStation as 24 June 2005, but that date was called into question today. If High Street retailer Dixons' PSP pre-order service is anything to go by, the eagerly anticipated handheld console will not appear here until August. The Dixons service, launched today, is offering up …

    Consoles 19 Apr 2005, 12:26

  • Unholy trio menace Firefox

    Critical update for Mozilla and Firefox

    The Mozilla Foundation has released updated versions of its popular Firefox (version 1.0.3) and Mozilla (version 1.7.7) web browsers to correct a number of recently discovered security flaws. The updates fix a trio of critical vulnerabilities, two of which have become the subject of proof-of-concept hacker exploits. A bug that …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2005, 13:05

  • Academics call for UWB licensing

    'Cross people in both camps'

    Leading academics and researchers have called for the licensing of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) to be given the green light as soon as possible, warning that the UK could miss out on huge economic gains if it continues to drag its feet. Speaking at the Open Future of Wireless conference at the University of Cambridge today, Professor …

    Wireless 19 Apr 2005, 13:17

  • Motorola confirms MPx cull

    Windows Mobile clamshell closed for good, apparently

    Motorola has knocked its MPx Windows Mobile-based handset on the head, a company spokesman has confirmed. Reports published last week that the company had cancelled orders with its Asian manufacturing partners suggested that the MPx wasn't long for this world, but there was the possibility that Motorola would produce the device …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2005, 13:20

  • UK's tax computers go back to the future

    Inland Revenue demands tax returns for 2019

    Britain's Inland Revenue has a remarkable number of powers but until this week no-one suspected they included time-travel. The organisation's struggling computer system, this time failing to deal with the sudden rush of end-of-year employee pay and tax details, has started sending out automated reminders asking for employers' …

    IT Director 19 Apr 2005, 13:47

  • Big boys turn backs on offshoring

    One in four bringing services back in-house

    Many of the world's largest organisations are turning their backs on outsourcing and one in four are actively bringing services back in-house. A survey from Deloitte Consulting reveals that 70 per cent of respondents have had significant negative experiences with outsourced projects. Just under half, 44 per cent, did not see …

    IT Director 19 Apr 2005, 14:01

  • Brits have bought 5.26 million music downloads this year

    More than they did in all of 2004

    More than five and a quarter million songs have been downloaded from legal online music services in the UK so far this year, it emerged this week. The announcement follows the launch this weekend of the first official singles chart that combines sales of both physical media and downloads. At a stroke, the move almost doubled …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 14:11

  • Fujitsu Siemens unveils PRIMEQUEST

    Up to 32 CPUs housed

    Some companies have a knack for generating headlines, whilst others go about their business with an astonishing lack of noise but with an abundance of quality. Over the years, Fujitsu Siemens has quietly managed to build itself a reputation for constructing excellent Enterprise servers, particularly with the PRIMEPOWER Sparc64 …

    Servers 19 Apr 2005, 14:21

  • Teenagers want computer security lessons

    'But don't talk down to us'

    High-school students have a message for their parents: Trust us with technology. Security and privacy? We have it covered. A panel of teenagers speaking at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference told attendees on Friday that they are far more in tune with technology than their parents and have come to understand the …

    Music and Media 19 Apr 2005, 14:30

  • Bruce Willis still on Armageddon alert

    Revised Torino Scale menaces civilisation

    After dismally failing to deliver the much-anticipated apocalypse provoked by the impact of a giant meteorite/asteroid/comet upon our fragile sphere, scientists have decided to "tone down" the wording of the original ten-step Torino Scale - designed to assign a appropriate threat level to any approaching galactic body of death …

    Science 19 Apr 2005, 14:35

  • London's NHS IT boss suspended

    Move follows 'certain allegations'

    The boss of London's NHS IT programme has been suspended from his job while an investigation into "certain allegations" is carried out. David Kwo, chief information officer and regional implementation director for the NHS Connecting for Health London cluster, was suspended last Thursday. He will remain at home until the …

    IT Director 19 Apr 2005, 14:52

  • Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder

    Review Make movies for your mobile device

    I was so disappointed when I first tried Neuros' MPEG 4 Recorder (NMR). I knew this amazingly compact PVR's size came at the cost of a hard drive, dropped in favour of memory cards, but I figured I could easily copy the files to a computer for archiving. Then I saw the picture quality. I should have known better: MPEG 4 was …

    Peripherals 19 Apr 2005, 14:53

  • Green Power! WEEE-compliant PSUs

    Low on hazardous substances

    FSP Group is prepping for the EU's upcoming recycling regime, with Green Power. The Taiwanese vendor says the power supply unit is lighter and more energy-efficient than traditional rivals and it is low on hazardous substances. The internal lay-out has been redesigned and use of lighter higher-end components has enabled the …

    System Builder 19 Apr 2005, 15:01

  • Webroot Software looks to CA for UK channel manager

    Ambitious goals

    Webroot, the anti-spyware software firm, has hired a Computer Associates staffer as its first UK channel manager. Step forward Rachel Taylor, who specialised in channel relationships during her seven years at CA, most recently as distribution account manager. Taylor has ambitious goals for her new employer. Webroot already has …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2005, 15:16

  • ARM ups profits

    IP company makes lolly

    Chipmaker ARM Holdings has rustled up a profit for the quarter, thanks in part at least to Apple's iPod. For the first quarter, ended 31 March 2005, ARM brought in revenues of £55m, an increase of 23 per cent on the same period last year. ARM's intellectual property is included on chips used in Apple's iPod. Income before tax …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 15:26

  • Cisco goes virtual with monster router

    Well hallo, Big Boy

    Cisco Tuesday announced the introduction of a new series of routers, the XR 12000, geared towards helping service providers deliver more secure, reliable and faster services to their customers. The monster routers run Cisco IOS XR, a specialised flavour of Cisco's core internetworking operating system, which brings …

    Data Networking 19 Apr 2005, 15:38

  • Right of Reply: LexisNexis

    Response to our recent article on database breaches

    It's official: ChoicePoint, LexisNexis rooted many times Washington Correspondent Thomas Greene's recent story, "It's official: ChoicePoint, LexisNexis rooted many times" (April 13, 2005) alleges that LexisNexis "covered up" previous database breaches because there was as yet no law requiring that individuals be notified. The …

    Letters 19 Apr 2005, 15:51

  • UK court orders ISPs to unmask 33 filesharers

    UK record labels quantify damage

    A British judge today ordered five ISPs to name another 33 music file sharers. The individuals concerned had uploaded more than 72,000 music files to the internet, according to a statement by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), which sought the court order as part of its broader legal offensive against illegal downloading …

    Music and Media 19 Apr 2005, 17:14

  • EMC delivers again with strong Q1

    Software rising

    EMC secured double-digit revenue growth in its first quarter on the back of strong software sales and well above average hardware shipments. The storage giant, which has been on a two-year long software acquisition spree, has outpaced rivals with steady gains. The first quarter was no exception to this trend with EMC reporting …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 17:31

  • Reg NewsAlerts delivered to your desktop

    Site news The latest news as it breaks

    Today we launch Reg NewsAlerts, a small free desktop application that pops up from the start bar with our latest news as it breaks. You may be familiar with the technology already - our partner Skinkers also supplies all the software for BBC Online's news alerts. You can sign up for Reg NewsAlerts here. All you have to do is …

    Site News 19 Apr 2005, 18:47

  • Intel rides mobile express to strong Q1

    Premium performance

    Intel rumbled to a strong first quarter, posting a surge in revenue on higher than expected mobile processor sales, the company said today. Intel flashed investors with first quarter revenue of $9.4bn - a 17 per cent rise year-over-year. This revenue total came in at the high-end of Intel's mid-quarter forecast delivered in …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2005, 23:15