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29th April 2005 Archive

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  • Microsoft does well in third quarter

    Promises to try harder, though

    Despite nearly doubling its third-quarter income Microsoft has cushioned the blow of missing revenue expectations by promising to do better next quarter. Microsoft expects revenue of between $10.1bn and $10.2bn for the fourth quarter, just topping Wall St's expectations of $10.1bn. Microsoft is the latest in a string of …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 01:15

  • MontaVista Linux phones heading for US and Europe

    From server to handsets - the struggle continues

    The first mobile handsets running MontaVista’s Linux operating system should hit the US and Europe within the next year, the embedded OS vendor said this week. MontaVista launched the first tailor-made version of its operating system for handsets on Wednesday and said it is working with providers in Asian markets and that these …

    Operating Systems 29 Apr 2005, 09:01

  • NCR's Q1 goes the way of the Hurd

    Gone but not forgotten

    NCR presented a familiar story in its first quarter of 2005 by showing a modest revenue gain and a much more dramatic rise in income. Such a quarterly formula was common during former CEO Mark Hurd's tenure. NCR's first quarter, ended 31 March, was the last to fall under Hurd's charge with him now at HP. NCR reported revenue of …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 09:10

  • PC dealer sues Apple over Tiger

    Alleges Mac OS X 10.4 brandname infringes trademark

    US reseller Tiger Direct has sued Apple, claiming the Mac maker's decision to name the latest version of the Mac OS after the same feline predator infringes its trademark. Worse, the plaintiff claims, by adopting the name Tiger, Apple has "overwhelmed the computer world with a sea of Tiger references", displacing the reseller …

    Mac Channel 29 Apr 2005, 10:20

  • Job fears haunt Marconi

    'Devastating blow'

    Thousands of jobs are at risk at Marconi after it failed to win a slice of a major £10bn network contract from BT. The UK telecoms equipment supplier had been tipped to win a chunk of business from BT when it announced its preferred suppliers for its ambitious 21st Century Network (21CN) project yesterday. But Marconi lost out …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 10:31

  • Trojan attack exploits Google typos

    Mind your language

    Hackers have set up malicious websites designed to infect the Windows boxes of surfers who mistype the name of popular search engine Google.com. If a user opens one of the malicious websites, such as googkle.com1, his PC box may be hijacked with malware including Trojan downloaders, backdoors and spyware. Finnish anti-virus …

    Malware 29 Apr 2005, 10:33

  • Intel kills 64-bit Pentium 4s

    Update Workstation and server parts EOL'd

    Intel will stop shipping seven 64-bit Pentium 4 processors next November, company documents seen by The Register reveal. The list of discontinued products includes chips released as recently as January. Actually, Intel tells us that the parts haven't been discontinued, mereley renamed. So wht not say that in the document? The …

    PCs 29 Apr 2005, 10:43

  • Flying car totals Basingstoke house

    Aerobatic BMW takes to the skies - briefly

    Two people have been hospitalised after a flying BMW inexplicably left the A30 in Basingstoke, Hants, and impacted with the first floor of a nearby house. The incident - described by a neighbour as "just absolutely incredible" - left a gaping hole in a bedroom wall of Joe and Joyce Harman's house but, as the couple were asleep …

    Bootnotes 29 Apr 2005, 10:48

  • BOFH: Let the games begin

    Episode 14 Heads will roll

    So it turns out that one of the company's financial traders was spending a little too much time (i.e. 100 per cent) playing minesweeper and not enough time (0 per cent) taking up some important share options that the company was counting on - resulting in a teensy bit of financial loss. Nothing that the company couldn't recover …

    BOFH 29 Apr 2005, 10:58

  • Google redraws world according to George Bush

    Sinister goings-on at UK map operation

    Here's something quite sinister for armchair conspiracy theorists: it appears that US prez George Bush has final approval on the the UK version of Google Maps and has decided to redesign the world in a way that more adequately reflects his own particular vision. As reader Mike Clark explains: If you visit http://maps.google. …

    Bootnotes 29 Apr 2005, 11:25

  • eBay's Whitman, Omidyar settle share spinning suit

    Flipping and spinning

    This story has expired from The Register's archive. You can now find it at its original location on the Forbes.com website: http://forbes.com/facesinthenews/2005/04/29/0429autofacescan01.html?partner=theregister.

    IT Director 29 Apr 2005, 11:53

  • Ingram goes mooney over June quarter

    Asia boosts solid Q1

    Ingram Micro reported its first quarter results yesterday and took a rosier than expected view of the second quarter. The giant US distributor giant reported revenues of $7.05bn, compared to $6.28bn last year. The top line was boosted by strengthening European currencies as well as the Tech Pacific operation it acquired last …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 12:06

  • Intel's Eastern focus prompts concern in English channel

    ISS Don't forget us

    Intel's renewed focus on emerging markets has prompted concern that the chip maker doesn't have a coherent plan for western Europe. At the beginning of the year, Intel reorganised itself into five customer facing groups. Bill Siu, formerly in charge of all things PC and desktop related, takes the helm in the channel platform …

    PCs 29 Apr 2005, 12:27

  • BT completes Radianz buy-out

    Nuff said

    BT has completed its acquisition of financial services network operator Radianz from Reuters, the UK's dominant fixed-line telco announced today. The $175m deal - which was first announced last month - went ahead after the US and EU competition authorities gave the green light for acquisition. The transfer of shares and funds …

    Data Networking 29 Apr 2005, 12:29

  • 'You are racist chavscum' bellows irate reader

    FoTW Ooh dear, oh dear, oh dear

    Oh dear. We really need to have a think about cobbling together some more sensitive humour detectors for some of you lot, our beloved readers, to download. This week, we wrote about a Bristol, England-based IT consultancy, Cholo Consultancy. Most likely unbeknownst to the founders of same, the word Cholo is, we reported, …

    Bootnotes 29 Apr 2005, 12:37

  • Fortinet settles GPL violation lawsuit

    Latest in a long line of settlements

    The UK subsidiary of security software firm Fortinet has settled an action brought against it because it was allegedly not complying with the terms of the General Public Licence (GPL), which underpins the distribution of most open source software. Harald Welte, founder of the gpl-violations.org project, announced earlier this …

    Developer 29 Apr 2005, 12:49

  • INM sells stake in iTouch for €100m

    'Very attractive' return on investment

    Independent News & Media has announced that it has agreed to sell its entire shareholding in the mobile application vendor iTouch for €100m. For-side.com, a Japanese-based provider of mobile phone content, is to buy all of Independent News and Media's (INM) 152,840,212 iTouch shares at €0.65 cents per share. INM's shareholding …

    Mobile 29 Apr 2005, 13:41

  • Monarch triumphs over anarchy

    Extracting individual facts

    The traditional way to provide end-users with appropriate business intelligence is, to begin with, through the standard reports that are produced by ERP and other corporate applications. However, the information that is in these reports is static, or 'frozen', on the printed page. Additionally, data required for a particular …

    Developer 29 Apr 2005, 13:51

  • Florida Uni on brown alert after hack attack

    IT hits the fan

    Students and staff at Florida International University (FIU) were warned they are at risk of identity fraud this week after techies discovered hackers had broken into college systems. A file found on a compromised computer showed that an unknown hacker had access to the username and password for 165 computers at the University, …

    Security 29 Apr 2005, 14:02

  • Porn-surfing Norwegians awarded $40k

    Unfairly dismissed, court rules

    We are seriously considering relocating the entire Vulture Central editorial staff to occasionally-sunny Norway after learning that two workers sacked for hunting net smut at work have been awarded 250,000 Kroner ($40,000) a head for unfair dismissal, Aftenposten Norway reports. The former Conoco Phillips employees - given the …

    Music and Media 29 Apr 2005, 14:17

  • e-ad spend on the up

    'Firing on all cylinders' apparently

    Spending on interactive advertising jumped by a third last year racking up a record $9.6bn, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Half of the cash splashed out on e-ads was spent by consumer advertisers while the computing and telecoms sectors made up almost a …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 14:18

  • Beer makes you clever: official

    Grain brain gain

    We already know that beer doesn't actually make you fat but rather fights cancer while promoting world peace and understanding and a brighter future for all our children. It's no surprise then that we can now confirm what the super-intelligent if somehat wobbly hacks at Vulture Central have known for years: alcohol makes you …

    Science 29 Apr 2005, 14:23

  • ATI HyperMemory vs Nvidia TurboCache

    Review Mano a mano

    R.I.P.

    Reviews 29 Apr 2005, 14:34

  • Microsoft sharpens Longhorn for SMEs

    This time we really mean it

    Microsoft has admitted its products have neglected the unique needs of small businesses in the past but claims this will all change with the release of Longhorn. However, the vendor also admits it still needs to do a lot of work to educate its channel, as well as users, before it can expect to tap into the almost legendary …

    Operating Systems 29 Apr 2005, 15:02

  • Head teachers fingered in email snooping row

    Information Commissioner asked to investigate

    The Information Commissioner has been asked to investigate alleged email snooping at the offices of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT). Amicus - the trade union that represents 1.2 million workers - claims one of its members was suspended from the NAHT following the interception of a "private email" between two …

    IT Director 29 Apr 2005, 15:10

  • Fusing the desktop with non standard kgs

    Letters Science special

    Desktop fusion. Hmm. Could be anything really, couldn't it? A new design paradigm from Apple; a local sandwich service for busy desk jockeys...or a small tub of stuff that makes neutrons. Hey you guys are SO behind with the News. I mean EVERYBODY knows that the discovery by Seth Putterman's UCLA team of the lithium tantalate …

    Letters 29 Apr 2005, 15:46

  • Shuttle grounded until July

    Nagging worries about debris

    NASA has confirmed that the Space Shuttle's return to flight has been bumped again, this time right out of its original launch window and into July. The craft will no longer launch between 22 May and 3 June. Instead engineers decided to postpone the take-off until July, amid lingering safety concerns. The space agency says that …

    Science 29 Apr 2005, 15:56

  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    Review Mostly harmless

    The radio series, that became a book, that became a TV series, has finally made it to the silver screen. The film version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is faithful to author Douglas Adams' legacy. The trouble is it's simply not especially funny. The film contains additions not found in previous incarnations of the …

    Site News 29 Apr 2005, 16:01

  • eXpansys swallows MobilePlanet

    US expansion

    UK-based eXpansys Group has acquired MobilePlanet Inc, a leading US multi-channel reseller of mobile computing and wireless products. MobilePlanet posted revenues of $21m in 2004 and will continue operations under its own brand name and as a separate company. It will however contribute to a predicted turnover of $200m for …

    Channel Register 29 Apr 2005, 16:06

  • Backup tapes are backdoor for ID thieves

    Tales from the encrypt

    Large companies are reconsidering their security and backup policies after a handful of financial and information-technology companies have admitted that tapes holding unencrypted customer data have gone missing. Last week, trading firm Ameritrade acknowledged that the company that handles its backup data had lost a tape …

    Storage 29 Apr 2005, 17:52

  • Sun shares surge on 'joke' that firm will go private

    Hedge-fund hilarity

    Shares of Sun Microsystems shot up more than 10 percent Friday and then held some of the gains on speculation that management is looking to take the company private. CEO Scott McNealy told one organ that such rumors were much closer to fiction than truth. In a gossip column, BusinessWeek cited a "hedge-fund manager close to …

    Financial News 29 Apr 2005, 18:22

  • Dell ready to go on India hiring binge

    Mike Dehli shows offshore love

    Dell's India staff will swell to more than 10,000 workers by year end, as the company fills out call center and software development roles. To hit the 10,000 mark, Delli will need to hire between 2,000 and 3,000 workers over the next 8 months, CEO Kevin Rollins told reporters in Bangalore, according to numerous media reports. …

    IT Director 29 Apr 2005, 19:51