The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

20th July 2005 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Intel overcomes 'weak' line-up during Q2

    Asia and laptops boom, US and servers bumble

    Intel proved once again that it's more regular than a Metamucil salesman by knocking out a solid second quarter. Intel watched Q2 revenue jump 15 per cent to $9.2bn - a company record for the period. Net income surged as well to $2bn - a 16 per cent year-over-year increase. As has been the case of late, strong mobile processor …

    Hardware 20 Jul 2005, 00:02

  • HP and Sony battle for domination of digital entertainment

    TechScape New battlefields, new enemies

    Our story begins like this: Sony’s product design and innovation credentials are unsurpassed. The Walkman changed our lives and how we listen to music. The Trinitron color TV became a status symbol in our living rooms, the Sony logo was omnipresent on our jogging suits and cars and the VAIO laptops went head-to-head with Apple’ …

    Personal 20 Jul 2005, 08:04

  • OnAir plans 'quiet times' of no voice calls in aircraft

    Plane speaking

    Following surveys - showing that airline passengers are nervous about the nuisance value of inflight phone calls by their neighbours - OnAir has revealed that its in-plane technology will be able to limit passengers to text-only for "quiet times" during flight. The company is also on course, it says, for a full launch in …

    Mobile 20 Jul 2005, 08:39

  • Oracle taken to task for time to fix vulnerabilities

    'Fell through the cracks'

    Claiming that Oracle has failed to fix six vulnerabilities despite having more than 650 days to issue a patch, researchers at security firm Red Database Security published details of the flaws on Tuesday. The flaws vary in severity with three of the six classified by the firm as high risk, potentially allowing a remote attacker …

    Applications 20 Jul 2005, 09:17

  • Bulldog thumped for misleading boxing ad

    Time to throw in the towel?

    Bulldog - the broadband company owned by telecoms giant Cable & Wireless that is facing growing discontent among customers - has received yet another bloody nose from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). This time the ad watchdog ruled that the ISP failed to reveal service restrictions for its broadband service when it …

    Telecoms 20 Jul 2005, 09:21

  • Google finds sense of humo(u)r on surface of Moon

    The Google has landed

    Space aficionados will know that today marks the anniversary of the first manned Moon landing on 20 July 1969. To celebrate this fact, Google has knocked up a quick Moon map showing the landing sites of all six US jaunts. In the process, Google has discovered something approaching a sense of humour. Click here and then zoom …

    Bootnotes 20 Jul 2005, 09:24

  • Freescale grows Q2 earnings on flat sales

    Stepping out of Motorola's shadow

    Freescale, the company still making G4-class PowerPC processors for Apple's notebook line-up, saw a big jump in income during its second fiscal quarter, despite an only marginal increase in sales, the firm said yesterday. Sales totalled $1.47bn, up 2.1 per cent from $1.44bn in Q1 FY2005 and up just under a single percentage …

    Financial News 20 Jul 2005, 09:46

  • Home delivery is the deal-breaker in ecommerce

    Return to sender

    The biggest challenge to ecommerce is delivery, according to Britain's ecommerce trade body, which is launching a new trust mark scheme to encourage merchants and transporters to give consumers more options. The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) says very few e-tailers are getting it right. The consumers don't buy …

    Small Biz 20 Jul 2005, 09:51

  • Intel ups capex as India plant talks 'wobble'

    $100m question

    Intel yesterday raised its forecast 2005 capital expenditure by $100m more than it had been expected to. The figure is, by an interesting coincidence, exactly what the chip giant is reported to have demanded from the Indian government if it's to build a chip testing plant in the sub-continent. Intel's India plant has been on …

    Financial News 20 Jul 2005, 09:57

  • UK regulator wants powers to stop the spammers

    'Inadequate and impractical'

    The Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO), enforcer of the UK's main anti-spam laws, has received around 600 spam complaints in the past 12 months. But it has taken no legal action, in part because its powers are inadequate and impractical. OUT-LAW spoke to Caroline Monk, Casework and Advice Manager with the ICO, …

    Spam 20 Jul 2005, 10:00

  • Like MUF diving? Call Clearswift

    A conference with a difference

    Let's face it, most IT conferences are dull affairs where jaded suits slump despairingly over briefing notes in front of worthy but dull Powerpoint-driven presentations concerning the likely Indonesian market for desktop Linux during Q2 2017 before dragging themselves towards the free bar with the vain hope that they won't run …

    Bootnotes 20 Jul 2005, 10:03

  • Intel preps Pentium D core update

    EM64T, single-core operation bugs fixed?

    Intel is to upgrade the cores incorporated into its 'Smithfield' dual-core processors in October, The Register has learned. The chip maker will offer samples of the updated Pentium Extreme Edition 840 chip and the Pentium D 820, 830 and 840 processors on 5 August, Intel documents reveal, ahead of commercial product availability …

    PCs 20 Jul 2005, 10:08

  • Become a full-blown Linux god

    Site offer 30% off top reference guides

    To be truly productive with Linux, you need to thoroughly master the shells and the command line. Until now, you had to buy two books to gain that mastery: a tutorial on fundamental Linux concepts and techniques, plus a separate reference. Worse that that, most Linux references offer little more than prettied-up man pages. Now …

    Site News 20 Jul 2005, 10:09

  • R&D and skills crisis looms for Europe

    Black! Black! It's all black!

    Europe is facing a crisis in science and technology according to two new reports. The European Commission says its figures show a continuing decline in the amount European firms are increasing their spending on R&D. It warns that if the trend is not reversed, Europe will miss its target of boosting R&D spend to three per cent of …

    IT Director 20 Jul 2005, 10:16

  • Google Maps offers justice

    I swear to tell the Google, the whole Google and nothing but the Google...

    We knew that Google Maps does more than just directions - in the last few days it also found not only Jesus but Hitler too. But it has also brought justice to one lucky man who used the website to convice a judge to let him off a driving offence. In January of this year Edwin Soto was charged with running a red light. His case …

    Bootnotes 20 Jul 2005, 10:26

  • Hack attack left 'sexual grunts' on doctors' answering service

    Leave your message after the heavy breathing

    A businessman allegedly hacked into a doctors' answering service run by a competitor so that patients heard either a busy signal or sexual grunts when they tried to leave a message, according to a criminal complaint. Gerald Martin, 37, of Pawling in New York State, is also accused of making crank calls to his rival's staff, …

    Enterprise Security 20 Jul 2005, 10:39

  • Bulldog intros 'major' measures to combat complaints

    'Marked improvement' due shortly

    Bulldog has introduced what it describes as "a major package of measures" to help cope with complaints about its internet and phone service. The broadband ISP - owned by UK telco Cable & Wireless (C&W) - has been under fire for its poor customer service with punters up in arms at being left without phone and broadband. The …

    Telecoms 20 Jul 2005, 10:59

  • Shuttle: no launch this week, engineers still baffled

    Some optimism remains

    NASA says the Shuttle Discovery will not launch before 26 July, as the space agency's engineers continue their investigation into the misbehaving fuel gauge that grounded the Shuttle again, last week. The return to flight was cancelled after a liquid hydrogen low-level fuel sensor circuit failed a routine pre-launch test. It …

    Science 20 Jul 2005, 12:24

  • UK workers still circulating lewd and racist email

    Stuff the research, tell us more about MUF diving

    UK workers are continuing to abuse corporate email systems even though sending inappropriate emails is bad for their employer's reputation and potentially puts their own job at risk. A third (34 per cent) of 2,000 UK office workers quizzed in a YouGov survey have been sent sexually explicit or racist material by colleagues. …

    IT Director 20 Jul 2005, 12:30

  • 'Alien greeting' harbours Windows malware

    Plan 9 from cyberspace

    A message purporting to come from an alien is in reality, you've guessed it, the latest Windows PC-infecting computer virus. The Sundor-A worm displays a picture of an alien with the following message: "I'm the alien. Have a happy week. I liked your computer" upon infection. If you open an infected Word document you get the pox …

    Malware 20 Jul 2005, 13:09

  • No2ID restocks Clarke-busting t-shirt

    Cash'n'Carrion Chaz, you can shove your ID card

    Anti-ID card campaigning outfit No2ID recently reached its goal of getting 10,000 patriots to sign a pledge promising that they will refuse to register for ID cards in the now seemingly inevitable event that home secretary Charles Clarkes will bulldoze legislation through parliament in the wake of the London terror attacks. …

    Site News 20 Jul 2005, 13:30

  • Bubbly O2 reduces churn

    Bless 'em

    O2 is managing to hang on to its punters and stop them ditching the cellco for a rival. "The initiatives introduced to reduce churn [such as more competitive deals for punters] are demonstrating encouraging progress in both the pre-pay and contract markets," said O2 in a statement today. News that O2 is managing to cut churn …

    Mobile 20 Jul 2005, 13:33

  • Harry Potter hit by pesky pirates

    Or committed fans depending on your view

    The latest Harry Potter tome was not released as an ebook because of fears over piracy - a plan as cunning as any of Baldrick's. Unfortunately some committed fans/pesky pirates immediately scanned the book on its release last weekend and used optical recognition software to digitise the text. Copies were then proof-read, not …

    Music and Media 20 Jul 2005, 13:43

  • Antarcticans to live in blue, ski-mounted, caterpillar

    British design for Halley VI

    A British consortium, comprising Engineers Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects, has won a contract to build Halley VI, the new British Antarctic Survey base following an international competition. The base is to be built on a constantly moving shelf of ice, and without intervention, the existing base, Halley V, will …

    Science 20 Jul 2005, 13:51

  • Security deal for Northamber

    Unified Threat Management mmm...isn't it?

    God box maker Astaro has done a distribution deal with Northamber. God boxes are also known, less snappily, as unified threat management appliances. They're firewalls, VPNs, intrusion protection, anti-virus and spam filters and content checkers all in one. Astaro's channel manager Andre Scheffknecht said: "There has been great …

    Channel Register 20 Jul 2005, 14:14

  • Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager

    Review Something more than a PDA?

    So what exactly is a Mobile Manager? To Palm, it's an entirely new category of portable device, but it's hard to conclude that it's anything more than a PDA with more storage. Palm needs to create a new device type, of course. Despite more than half a decade of Palm trying to convince consumers that a PDA is more than an …

    Reviews 20 Jul 2005, 14:14

  • Crazy Frog battered in net orgy of violence

    Baseball bat + amphibian = joy

    We're going to cut to the chase on this one. Do you fancy taking a baseball bat to Crazy Frog in a mindless orgy of violence? Yes? Well, you're in luck. Here's what the frog-battering wag down at Something Wrong - motto: "Someone has way too much time on their hands and I think it's you" - has to say about his Flashtastic …

    Bootnotes 20 Jul 2005, 14:20

  • Redundant EDSers threaten legal action

    Livingston closure causes 'near riot'

    Workers at EDS's Livingston facility have known for some months that they were losing their jobs but that didn't stop a "near riot" breaking out when they were told the terms and conditions of their redundancy. A source told El Reg that EDS staff received their redundancy quotations on Friday and feelings ran so high that …

    Financial News 20 Jul 2005, 15:09

  • Brits want to vote online, dammit

    But can we trust them?

    Cisco reckons that online voting is the way to get people to take part in elections. Survey firm YouGov, quizzed 2,136 UK adults about their voting habits, on Cisco's behalf. They found that 66 per cent of those who didn't vote in the last election reckoned they'd be more likely to join in on polling day if they could vote …

    Public Sector 20 Jul 2005, 15:18

  • Kodak culls 10,000 more jobs

    Not a pretty picture

    Kodak is axing a further 10,000 workers as it continues to refocus its business to cope in the digital world. The job cuts announced today are on top of the 15,000 job cuts announced in January 2004 when the company announced its original restructuring plans. The camera company blamed a "faster-than-expected decline in …

    Financial News 20 Jul 2005, 15:28

  • Spam king surrenders his ignoble crown

    Richter taken off ROKSO

    Scott Richter - the self-styled Spam King1 - has been dropped from an authorative list of known spammers after cleaning up his act. Richter and his OptInRealBig option were a fixture in Spamhaus's Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) for years. Only hard-core spammers who become the subject of repeated complaints feature …

    Spam 20 Jul 2005, 15:42

  • Firefox's Greasemonkey slippery on security

    Full file exposure

    A severe security hole in Firefox's Greasemonkey extension has been uncovered that exposes any file on a user's local hard drive to a hacker. The vulnerability affects PCs and Macs and means a hacker does not need to know an exact file name before diving into a system. According to one online posting, typing something such as " …

    Enterprise Security 20 Jul 2005, 16:43

  • Fans petition to open source OS/2

    Please release us, let OS go

    Die-hard OS/2 supporters are calling for IBM to release the source code of the venerable operating system so that it might prosper after it's put out to pasture. Earlier this month, IBM reaffirmed its decision to cease marketing OS/2 at the end of next year. Free - but not paid - support of OS/2 from IBM will also cease at the …

    Hardware 20 Jul 2005, 17:14

  • Onshore coders' salaries rise along with Offshore fears

    More pay for better work

    So much for US legislators' concerns about the damaging impact of outsourcing on domestic tech-workers' employment and pay prospects. IT workers are experiencing a minor uptick in their salaries as employers slowly realize that sending jobs to low-wage economies creates more difficulties than it solves. That's according to two …

    Software 20 Jul 2005, 18:18

  • Cingular's indigestion could be worse

    Churn down below

    The cost of swallowing AT&T Wireless dulled the results of the United States' largest mobile network Cingular. Profits fell to $147m for 2Q FY2005, a loss of $93m over the first six months of this year. Revenue for the quarter was $8.61bn. Merger costs were $204m in the period. But at least the indigestion doesn't signal food …

    Telecoms 20 Jul 2005, 19:36

  • IBM preps big iron fiesta

    Raising the high-end

    IBM will try to breath life into its languishing mainframe business during an event next week, if its CFO and marketing material are to be believed. Big Blue's CFO Mark Loughridge used an earnings conference call this week to declare "the end of what has been a long (zSeries) product cycle" with new gear being displayed next …

    Hardware 20 Jul 2005, 21:32

  • MS buys FrontBridge, buys into Finjan

    Serious about acquiring security

    Microsoft dug deeper into computer security on Wednesday, purchasing FrontBridge Technologies to help customers reach regulatory compliance, while also signing an investment and patent licensing deal with Finjan Software. The FrontBridge acquisition will see Microsoft deliver a set of services to enforce compliance through …

    Software 20 Jul 2005, 23:06