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5th May 2005 Archive

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  • BEA going beyond Java

    Project Freeflow

    BEA Systems is reaching outside its traditional Java customer base using new products and making acquisitions in a strategy the company hopes will triple revenue during the next three years. BEA's Project Freeflow, details of which are starting to emerge online, will combine development, management and security tools for …

    Developer 5 May 2005, 07:04

  • Microsoft releasing IP to start-ups

    Beware geeks bearing gifts?

    Microsoft is releasing 20 early-stage technologies to start-ups on terms that would allow its software to be picked-up by the open source community. Microsoft is releasing the technologies to small businesses under the IP Ventures Program, which enables ISVs to modify code for use in commercial products. David Kaefer, …

    Developer 5 May 2005, 07:07

  • Microsoft competitive chief pragmatic on Linux

    Blurring the lines

    Microsoft's new spirit of acceptance of Linux and open source seems to be filtering through the ranks, with its GM of competition taking a pragmatic stance. Martin Taylor, general manager of competitive strategy, has told developers it is no-longer an "either, or" debate between Linux and Windows as customers are running both …

    Developer 5 May 2005, 07:11

  • Library use an open book as Pat Act renewals loom

    Welcome to the FBI reading room

    Provisions in the so-called "Patriot" Act allowing federal agents to obtain library and bookshop records without a search warrant should be allowed to sunset at the end of this year as scheduled, American Library Association (ALA) President Carol Brey-Casiano said during a Washington press conference earlier this week. It has …

    Music and Media 5 May 2005, 09:16

  • New guidelines complicate US stem cell research

    Rules out many existing lines

    Newly recommended ethical guidelines for human embryo stem cell research in the US could rule out further research using several of the existing, and approved lines, according to reports. The National Academy of Sciences issued the voluntary guidelines last week (see the press release here). They recommend gaining full and …

    Science 5 May 2005, 09:30

  • Intel partner sues... Intel (and AMD too)

    Acacia waves the patents

    Intel and AMD were this week both accused of patent infringement, joining VIA in the list of chip makers claimed to have used without permission technology owned by Acacia Research. Intel's role is particularly interesting: it is already being sued by another of Acacia's subsidiaries, and it's also partnering with a third …

    Servers 5 May 2005, 09:44

  • GUS buys LowerMyBills.com for $330m

    US bolt-on for Experian

    Experian - the consumer information outfit owned by UK retailing giant GUS plc - has shelled out $330m to acquire US online business LowerMyBills.com. It could also spend up to $50m in performance-related pay-outs over the next two years. Created in 1999 and based in Santa Monica, California, LowerMyBills.com provides customers …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 09:50

  • OMA washes its hands of MPEG LA licensing arrangements

    We're not playing any more

    The Open Mobile Alliance is so busy ducking for cover over the proposed licensing terms of its digital rights management standard, that it has put out a statement distancing itself from the process. If it had known that not working with the existing patent holders for most of the DRM patents was going to cause it this much …

    Mobile 5 May 2005, 10:43

  • DRAM price plunge hammers Hynix

    Q1 revenues, profits slide

    Weak DRAM prices and a strong US dollar dragged down Hynix's Q1 revenues, the South Korean memory maker reported today. Sales for the three months to 31 March 2005 reached KRW1284bn ($1.29bn), down four per cent on the previous quarter. Consolidated revenue came to KRW1270 ($1.27bn), down 12 per cent on Q4 FY2004's KRW1450bn ($ …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 10:46

  • RealNetworks sneaks a profit

    Large lawyers bill doesn’t help

    RealNetworks made a profit of $800,000 on turnover of $76.6m for the three months ended 31 March 2005, just under half a cent per share. The profit compared to a loss of $10.4m in the first quarter of 2004, revenues were up 27 per cent on last year. Lawyers bills for Real’s marathon litigation against Microsoft accounted for $ …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 10:48

  • Apple mega-patch fixes 19 flaws

    The fix is in

    Apple this week posted security updates to fix 19 security vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system. Both client and server versions of a widely used version of its software - Mac OS X v10.3.9 - need patching. The mega patch (a service pack in all but name) covers a variety of security problems some of which create a …

    Security 5 May 2005, 10:49

  • IDC cuts worldwide 2005 PC forecasts

    'Worsening economic conditions

    Analyst house IDC has cut its forecasts for PC sales for the year - it now expects the market to grow by four per cent in Western Europe, five per cent in the US and just one per cent in Japan. Stephen Minton, vice president of worldwide IT markets at IDC, said the first quarter was mainly stable and some vendors performed …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 10:51

  • More mergers in the telecom industry?

    Expect a flurry of deals

    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/intelligentinfrastructure/2005/05/04/cx_de_0404telecom.html?partner=theregister.

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 10:53

  • AMD dual-core 1xx Opterons 'to go Socket 939'

    Cheaper-server plan?

    AMD's upcoming dual-core Opteron 1xx chips for one-way servers and workstations will use the chip maker's Socket 939 interconnect rather than the more usual Socket 940 system. So claim Taiwanese motherboard vendors sources cited by DigiTimes. Dual-core Opteron 165, 170 and 175 processors are expected to ship in Q3 after being …

    Servers 5 May 2005, 10:55

  • Scientists build shopping robot for the blind

    Navigates by RFID

    US computer scientists have built a robot that uses RFID tags to navigate. They say it could help guide blind people around large buildings or shops, where RFID tags could also identify products on a shopping list. The robot also has a laser range finder to stop it from crashing into things. The robot is the brainchild of Utah …

    Science 5 May 2005, 10:58

  • AOL subscribers go AWOL

    2.3m disappear in a year

    AOL continues to bleed subscribers, the internet arm of giant media outfit Time Warner confirmed yesterday. It shed 2.3m customers in the year to the end of March taking its total subscriber base to 21.7m. Or to put it another way, it lost 549,000 punters in the first three months of the year. In Europe, the ISP added an extra …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 11:04

  • Dutch Customs exposes UK chip carousel fraud

    Fraud 'worth $600,000'

    Fraud investigators of the Dutch Economic Inspection Service of the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) have discovered a large carousel fraud with 2,000 PC components destined for the UK at Schiphol Airport. The seized component were exported to the US from the UK and would be re-introduced to the UK via the …

    Channel Register 5 May 2005, 12:26

  • Smudgy blur is an exoplanet

    Cool

    Astronomers have confirmed that a candidate extra-solar planet in orbit around a brown dwarf is indeed what it appears to be: the first directly imaged planet outside our solar system. Known as 2M1207b, the planet is approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, and is located around 200 light years from Earth in the Southern …

    Science 5 May 2005, 12:27

  • Sending data by email: a govt licence to print money

    VAT demands

    Now here's a nice wrinkle of the laws governing this place that Tony Blair wanted to be "the best place for ecommerce anywhere in the world". If you send commercial data by email or over the Web, it's liable for VAT (17.5 per cent value-added tax, imposed in the UK on services) on the value of the data. Which of course with …

    Small Biz 5 May 2005, 12:52

  • Small firms surfing web to non-local markets

    Casting the net wide

    In the age of internet commerce and long-distance transactions, a growing number of small businesses feel less a part of their local communities, according to a new survey. Research from NatWest shows that a fifth of UK small firms say they concentrate their business beyond their local community. Nearly three-quarters of small …

    Small Biz 5 May 2005, 12:54

  • Councils not generating interest in local elections

    Should be more info online, says survey

    County councils are failing to use their web pages to translate interest in the general election into interest in the local polls also taking place today. Of the 34 county council websites surveyed by Socitm Insight (the Society of Information Technology Managers magazine), only four rated as "very good" for the amount of …

    Public Sector 5 May 2005, 13:13

  • GSM Association rejects revised phone DRM rates

    'Think again, MPEG Licensing Authority'

    Revised DRM licensing terms offered by the MPEG Licensing Authority (LA) remain "unacceptable", the mobile phone networks' club said yesterday. The GSM Association, which represents more than 660 networks which handle more than a billion mobile phone users worldwide - said it had "met with dismay" the revised royalty regime. …

    Mobile 5 May 2005, 13:51

  • Spring into PHP with El Reg

    Site offer 30% off this top title

    So...you've been asked to pitch in on a PHP project... starting now. Or maybe one's on the horizon. Or maybe you need to get real PHP skills onto your résumé. You've done web stuff. Maybe used other scripting languages. Now you want to get productive with PHP, fast. Spring Into PHP 5 is just for you. We'll leverage what you …

    Site News 5 May 2005, 13:52

  • CD Wow! enters download biz

    UK cut-price CD retailer signs Loudeye

    CD Wow!, the UK online music retailer is to start selling digital music downloads, courtesy of distributor Loudeye, the pair announced today. Details are sketchy - the company did not respond to our request for more information. But CD Wow! pitches itself as a low-cost retailer, with many of the CDs it offers priced below the £ …

    Financial News 5 May 2005, 13:59

  • IBM refuses to say where jobs axe will fall

    Fears grow over Greenock's future

    The future of thousands of IBM jobs remains uncertain following yesterdays confirmation that it plans to axe up to 13,000 from its organisation. It was hoped that a briefing today by IBM's CFO Mark Loughridge would shed some light on where IBM intends to make cuts. Instead, Loughridge dodged the issue except to say that Europe …

    IT Director 5 May 2005, 14:13

  • Users untouched by mobile viruses despite hype

    Phantom menace

    The mobile phone virus threat is been wildly over-hyped, according to a support firm which says calls about infections by mobile malware are almost unknown. WDSGlobal handles around 100,000 specialist data support calls every month on behalf of Nokia, T-Mobile, Orange, Sony-Ericsson, HP and other operators and manufacturers. …

    Mobile 5 May 2005, 14:16

  • Maxtor narrows loss

    First quarter 'better than expected'

    Hard drive maker Maxtor's losing streak continued into Q1 FY2005. For the three months to 2 April 2005, the company recorded revenue of $1.07bn, up 3.9 per cent from Q4 FY2004's $1.03bn and 4.9 per cent up on the year-ago quarter's $1.02bn. Last time around, Maxtor posted a net income of $8.9m (three cents a share), rather …

    Storage 5 May 2005, 14:21

  • Vonage bows to 911 pressure

    Promises full access to emergency services

    US VoIP outfit Vonage has agreed to roll out a fully-functioning 911 service for its users. The deal - in association with Verizon - comes after presssure on the company to provide unrestricted access to the emergency services. Vonage is currently at the receiving end of pending lawsuits in Connecticut, Michigan and Texas …

    Music and Media 5 May 2005, 15:23

  • GPS drives Euro PDA shipments

    But smart phones still the most popular devices

    Europeans continue to buy PDAs, despite growing interest in smart phones, and there's one clear reason why, market watcher IDC said today: GPS. Yes, satellite navigation systems are continuing to keep the pureplay PDA market buoyant, as more and more vendors follow the example set by Germany's Medion over a year ago and begin …

    Personal 5 May 2005, 15:33

  • ATI 512MB Radeon X800 XL

    Review More buffer, gentlemen?

    ATI launched its first consumer 512MB graphics board this week, and we've been evaluating it for the past few days. Nvidia announced a 512MB part not so long ago, with a 6800 Ultra variant based on the Quadro FX 4400 hardware they've had in the professional space for a wee while. ATI's new product has no immediate pro-level …

    Reviews 5 May 2005, 15:45

  • Hong Kong scouts gain IP proficiency badge

    Contest Dib dib dib, MPA style

    No group cares more about nurturing the moral fibers of Hong Kong youth than the Motion Picture Association (MPA). That much is obvious after the Hollywood trade group announced a deal with the Hong Kong Scout Association to kick off "the world's first Scout merit badge program focused on respect for and protection of …

    Music and Media 5 May 2005, 15:48

  • Missing link dino unearthed in Utah

    Feet for meat, veggie teeth

    A new species of feathered dinosaur, discovered in a mass dinosaur grave in Utah, could help scientists understand how some members of the raptor family became herbivorous. The dinosaur has been described as the missing link between small-bodied predators and the highly specialised, and very bizarre, plant-eating therizinosaurus …

    Science 5 May 2005, 17:27

  • Cisco preps Wi-Fi tracking kit

    Keeping tabs on workers and wheelchairs

    Cisco has announced a wireless tracking appliance designed to allow organisations to monitor the location of devices - or people - within a wireless local area network. The Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance, scheduled to ship in June 2005, uses technology acquired when Cisco bought wireless switch start-up Airespace …

    Wireless 5 May 2005, 17:55

  • Supermicro abandons Intel-only stance, embraces Opteron

    Dell all alone now

    Longtime Intel-only hardware shop Supermicro has stepped up its production of Opteron-based motherboards due to an influx of customer demand. With Supermicro now joining the AMD camp in full force, Dell is left as the last, great all-Intel shop. "The samples are out there, and we are getting ready to ship in quantity," …

    Servers 5 May 2005, 18:43