14th June 2005 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

BMC asks for more time to get books SOX-ready

Patience, shareholders

Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) has claimed another scalp with BMC today saying it will delay the filing of its annual report in order to buy more time to live up to the Act's exacting standards. BMC will ask the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for a 15-day extension to file Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31. The …

Servers 14 Jun 2005, 00:54
BEA mauled by grumpy Bear

Analysts down on independence

BEA Systems last week begged Wall Street to believe in its future, but at least one financial analyst firm wasn't impressed with the sales pitch. Bear Stearns on Monday downgraded BEA to "underperform" from "peer form" in an unflattering research note titled "If it walks like a duck . . . " Most notably, the analyst firm didn't …

Hardware 14 Jun 2005, 05:08
Missing Dalek found on Glastonbury Tor

Early arrival for the FEST-TI-VAL?

A stolen Dalek has been recovered from Glastonbury Tor following its theft from a Somerset tourist attraction last week. Thieves left a "ransom" note demanding to speak to the Doctor, along with the Dalek's plunger arm, shortly after pinching the demented pepper pot from Wookey Hole Caves. Appeals for the safe return of the …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2005, 09:19
ATI GPU to be first X part

Diagonal interconnects = cheaper chips

ATI's fabrication partner, TSMC, has begun punching out graphics chips for the company that use 45° diagonal interconnections rather than the more common right-angled wiring pattern. A subtle distinction, certainly, but one the technique's supporters believe will boost any chip's performance while lowering its cost, power …

Peripherals 14 Jun 2005, 09:26
IBM sells itself big box

We're our own best customer...

IBM has flicked the switch on the world's most powerful privately-owned supercomputer. Nicknamed BGW it takes second place behind IBM's BlueGene machine at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. BGW, or the Watson Blue Gene system as it is more formally known, has a processing speed of 91.29 teraflops. It is half the size of …

Servers 14 Jun 2005, 09:30
Infineon posts DDR 3 prototype to Intel

Pre-standard version

Infineon has become the latest memory maker to produce a working DDR 3 device, even though the SDRAM specification has yet to be finalised. The German company said yesterday it had shipped chips to "leading PC industry developers", by which it apparently means Intel. Still it's early days yet. DDR 3 is not expected to be used …

PCs 14 Jun 2005, 09:46
Hong Kong to crack down on spam

In brief Whatever

Hong Kong is looking to crack down on spam, according to state media in China. New anti-spam laws are due to be introduced next year, reports Xinhua, as part of a crackdown on junk emails, faxes and automated telephone calls. Government officials are working with telecoms companies to draw up the new rules. According to …

Spam 14 Jun 2005, 09:47
Shred It!

Analysis What the Supremes really meant

The second worst thing you can do in the face of a government investigation is to destroy the documents relevant to that investigation. The worst thing you can do, of course, is to almost destroy these documents. There is an axiom in the world of electronic documents and records - "delete doesn't and restore won't." Indeed, …

IT Director 14 Jun 2005, 10:10
HTC 'Universal' 3G, Wi-Fi phone to ship 'late Q3'

T-Mobile MDA IV, Vodafone VPA IV, etc available soon after

HTC's eagerly anticipated clamshell 3G smart phone, 'Universal', will go into volume production by the end of September, the company's CEO said yesterday. That narrows the device's launch down somewhat from the "sometime in the second half of the year" timeframe HTC had previously given. It also ties in with guidance given by …

Mobile 14 Jun 2005, 10:22
Terrorist watch list incomplete and inaccurate

Oh, and the IT is poor...

An internal audit of the US' Terrorist Screening Center has found that the terrorist watch list used to screen travellers and visa applicants is based on incomplete and inaccurate information. The facility, run by the FBI, was also criticised for poor management of its IT, and failure to recruit and retain sufficiently …

IT Director 14 Jun 2005, 10:35
Samsung countersues Rambus

Revives old misdeed allegations

Samsung has countersued Rambus, and has asked the courts to strip the memory technology developer of four patents it holds. The complaint followed Rambus' own move to sue Samsung over alleged intellectual property infringement. Rambus also tore up a DDR SDRAM licensing agreement it had previously signed with Samsung, though the …

PCs 14 Jun 2005, 10:36
Boycott eBay, says Saint Bob

...as Live 8 tickets appear on auction site

Bob Geldof has called on people to boycott eBay because the auction site is being used to flog tickets to the Live 8 concert. He's hopping mad that people who won the free tickets as part of a massive text lottery are now cashing in on their luck. Calling for a week-long boycott of the auction site he said: "What eBay are …

Financial News 14 Jun 2005, 10:56
PeopleSoft founder helps out victims of Oracle takeover

Post-merger redundancies get golden parachute

The founder of PeopleSoft is reportedly putting his own cash into a fund to help out PeopleSoft workers laid off as a result of the firm's takeover by Oracle. Oracle fought a bitter 18 month battle to buy PeopleSoft. The deal finally closed in December last year and Oracle warned it would cut up to 5,000 jobs. David Duffield, …

Financial News 14 Jun 2005, 11:02
VXers love Britney Spears - official

Jacko lags bin Laden in celebrity virus chart

Spanish anti-virus firm Panda Software has produced a ranking of the famous people most often used to spread viruses on the internet. The listing follows the recent distribution of a Trojan horse malware using spam messages posing as information about a supposed suicide attempt by Michael Jackson. Exploiting society's …

Anti-Virus 14 Jun 2005, 11:06
Mitel finds Crane

Disty deal

Mitel has signed up Crane to distribute its products in the UK. The Canadian company sells converged voice, video and data products. Andrew Saunders, divisional managing director at Crane, told El Reg it was an important deal for both sides. He said: "The total size of Mitel's channel has been static for the last few years but …

Channel Register 14 Jun 2005, 11:53
'Disgust' as Microsoft censors Chinese blogs

Press freedom outfit speaks out

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) - the press freedom outfit - is "disgusted" that Microsoft is censoring its MSN blog service in China. The software giant has bowed to Beijing's political censors banning the use of the words "freedom" and "democracy" on some areas of its Chinese internet portal, along with a host of other …

Music and Media 14 Jun 2005, 12:20
Snocap opens P2P music tracker to all

Sign up and protect your shared content

Snocap, Napster founder Shawn Fanning's attempt to turn P2P into a legitimate sales channel, has opened its content-monitoring registry to a wider range of content providers. It's a major step not only in establishing Snocap as a key tool in preventing online copyright infringement but also in building up the company as a …

Financial News 14 Jun 2005, 12:38
Norwegians fume over Netcom outage

Numbers meltdown

Norwegians are up in arms over a cell phone outage that lasted a couple of days. At least 20 per cent of Netcom's 1.2 million customers were not able to place calls or send text messages. NetCom fixed the problem late Monday, after days of unpredictable service, according to daily newspaper Aftenposten, which itself was …

Mobile 14 Jun 2005, 13:08
Linux distro daddy goes to Redmond

More management?

Microsoft has recruited the father of a popular Linux distribution, under a continuing mission to further understand - some would argue "extinguish" - the open source operating system. Daniel Robbins, founder and chief architect of the Gentoo distribution, is moving to Redmond to help Microsoft "understand open source and …

Operating Systems 14 Jun 2005, 14:26
Microsoft mulls music subscriptions

MSN goes after Apple, Real Networks et al

MSN is considering introducing subscriptions to its music download site which currently offers songs for sale on an individual basis. Microsoft is talking to copyright holders and record labels about the new service which will include more community features and playlist sharing. According to Cnet, which broke the story, …

Financial News 14 Jun 2005, 14:28
From stem cell to brain cell in a petri dish

Bit of a breakthrough

Researchers in Florida have grown brain cells to maturity in the lab for the first time ever. The researchers identified and harvested stem cells from the brains of adult mice and encouraged them to grow by mimicking the way the brain naturally regenerates. The work opens the possibility of new treatments for degenerative brain …

Science 14 Jun 2005, 14:32
Jacko searches soar

Beat It

UK searches for news on Michael Jackson soared in the run-up to the conclusion of the star's high profile trial on Monday. For the week ending 11 June, online searches relating to Michael Jackson reached their highest point since the trial began in February. More than one in 9,000 searches were for the term ‘michael jackson’, a …

Music and Media 14 Jun 2005, 14:36
$2m raised to combat spit

Leaves a nasty taste in the mouth

Kayote Networks - the Israel-based internet telephony outfit - has drummed up $2m to fund its work into combating SPIT - aka VoIP spam. According to security experts, SPIT (Spam over internet telephony) is set to become the next pervasive medium for spammers to peddle their penis pills, herbal cures and other tat. For while …

Security 14 Jun 2005, 14:43
Computers for girls get patronising gov programme

Cos the lady loves IT

The government is extending a pilot after-schools programme which aims to keep more young women interested in a career in the IT industry. The "Computer Club for Girls" is run by e-skills UK. It aims to use fashion, music and celebrities to keep the attention of girls and improve their skills. The service is targeted at girls …

IT Director 14 Jun 2005, 14:56
Granny was a monkey

Letters And we're going to burn in hell

And God said: "Let monkey turn into man". Or perhaps not. This very question has vexed many of you, this week. It all kicked off when the National Academy of Sciences decided to launch a portal providing access to recent scientific research on evolution. The site was intended to provide resources for teachers, and to be a direct …

Letters 14 Jun 2005, 15:52
Novell's Microsoft antitrust action OK'd

Just don't use the "monopoly" word

Novell is being allowed to sue Microsoft for allegedly withholding technical information on the inner workings of Windows to harm Novell's erstwhile desktop productivity software. However, Novell cannot claim that Microsoft Office is a monopoly, even though the productivity suite dominates the vast majority of the world's home …

Applications 14 Jun 2005, 15:56
3dom and demokracy rule in cyberspace

Letters Lessons in international spelling

In non-evolutionary news this week, people have been getting upset about a whole range of things, from eBay selling Live8 tickets, Microsoft's co-operation with Beijing in silencing freedom-loving bloggers, Air France, and Cat Stevens. What wondrous variety. Let's kick off with Saint Bob, who got very angry about people …

Letters 14 Jun 2005, 16:02
Sysadmins urged to shop child abuse downloaders

Wipe It Out

Sysadmins are urged to shop staff who download child pornography at work under a campaign due to host a free half-day conference in London on Wednesday (15 June). The 'Wipe it Out' event, backed by the Home Office and organised by the Internet Watch Foundation, aims to address the "practical, legal, ethical and corporate social …

IT Director 14 Jun 2005, 16:06
Larry Ellison's storage toy goes after EMC and NetApp

Pillar breathes at last

When is a storage start-up not really a start-up? When it has 325 workers, $150m in funding and a well-dressed, yacht-happy, billionaire playboy as its owner. Enter Pillar Data Systems - the Unstart-up. Pillar began this month hawking its NAS (network attached storage) systems in earnest. As you might expect, the company claims …

Storage 14 Jun 2005, 16:20
Sun details server management, DRM goals with Microsoft

Hi ho, hi ho...

Collaboration on systems management and digital rights management (DRM) are the next milestones in the Microsoft and Sun Microsystems joint technology deal. The companies are working to provide a greater level of management between Microsoft’s software and Sun systems running on Opteron, and for Sun's family of products …

Servers 14 Jun 2005, 22:02
Sun coughs up an OpenSolaris kernel

Whole bag still not popped

The Sun Microsystems OpenSolaris endurance test reached a critical stage today, as the operating system's kernel and networking stack were turned over to developers. Solaris fans can now examine and play with more than 5m lines of code - mostly the stuff at the heart of the OS. This code dump follows the release in January of …

Servers 14 Jun 2005, 22:11