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1st August 2005 Archive

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  • HD DVD backers allege Blu-ray 'playability, reliability issues'

    Slams Fox's 'most secure format' claim too

    HD DVD supporters last week alleged Blu-ray Disc's chosen copy-protection scheme could introduce "playability and reliability issues for consumers". They also slammed movie studio Twentieth Century Fox's claim that Blu-ray Disc is the most secure of the two next-generation optical disc formats as "surprising and misleading". …

    Peripherals 1 Aug 2005, 09:28

  • Worm mocks convicted Sasser author

    Lame

    A new virus mocking the creator of the Sasser worm is spreading across the net. The Lebreat-D worm drops an image of recently convicted virus writer Sven Jaschan onto user's hard drives with the phrase "Bitch" superimposed on an image of the German teenager's face. Concealed inside the Lebreat-D worm's code is a lengthy …

    Malware 1 Aug 2005, 09:36

  • EU Commission promises alternative data retention plan

    But why is it needed?

    The European Commission says it will have a draft directive for data retention laws in Europe on the table by September, but early versions are already circulating among interested parties. Lobby group European Digital Rights (EDRi), says that according to a draft it has seen, companies will be required to retain telephone data …

    Music and Media 1 Aug 2005, 10:20

  • AMD takes knife to price list

    Kills off old chips, rolls out new parts

    AMD today slashed prices across the whole range of processors it offers. It also introduced a number of new products. So in come the dual-core Opteron 865 HE and 860 HE, at $2,649 and $2,149, respectively, with 265 HE and 260 HE variants priced at $1,299 and $1,051, respectively. They were joined by the dual-core 265, 270 and …

    PCs 1 Aug 2005, 10:30

  • Onetel hooks up to unbundled broadband

    Easynet secures another win

    Onetel is to ditch BT as its supplier of wholesale broadband following a deal with local loop unbundling (LLU) outfit Easynet. Part of the Centrica Group - which also operates under the British Gas and Scottish Gas brands - Onetel has some 70,000 broadband punters. Following the deal with Easynet some 20,000 punters look set to …

    Telecoms 1 Aug 2005, 10:36

  • Intel trims Centrino, Celeron prices

    Pre-empts Sempron shuffle

    Intel cut the prices of its Celeron D desktop processor line-up this weekend, knocking up to 13.6 per cent of the price of each part. The chip giant also formally added last week's Pentium M 780 and 778 mobile processors to its price list, prompting price cuts to the existing Pentium M family, and to the Centrino bundles that …

    PCs 1 Aug 2005, 10:39

  • Intel ships 'wideload' Itanic

    FSB, CPU clock tweaked

    Intel has quietly tweaked the clock speed of its two top Itanium processors, clocking the parts to 1.66GHz, and increasing their frontside bus speed to 667MHz. The two 64-bit mainframe chips incorporate 6MB and 9MB of L3 cache, respectively. Until the weekend, both were clocked at 1.6GHz and operated across a 400MHz FSB. Those …

    Servers 1 Aug 2005, 10:41

  • AMD Sempron 3400+ CPU

    Review With 64-bit and SSE 3 support, is it the best budget processor?

    The arrival of AMD's Sempron 3400+ will come as no great surprise to anyone who has heard the rumours about its imminent launch. When it comes to budget processors AMD doesn't normally make big announcements, so those who've not kept up to date with the latest processor developments might wonder what the all the fuss is about, …

    Reviews 1 Aug 2005, 10:50

  • Brits love Doctor Who - official

    Updated Time Lord tops SF fantasy league

    Doctor Who has topped a poll to find the best British fantasy show. The recently-revived science fiction drama beat comedy classic Red Dwarf into second place in a survey of 4,000 readers of SFX magazine. SFX magazine editor Dave Bradley told BBC online that Doctor Who was "a great British institution which has entertained …

    Bootnotes 1 Aug 2005, 11:01

  • Wanadoo 'flattered' by BT copycat move

    Dear Ben...

    Wanadoo has written to BT chief exec Ben Verwaayen poking fun at the company's decision to double the speed of its entry-level broadband service just hours after Wanadoo UK announced a similar offer. In an advert placed in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday, Wanadoo - the ISP that used to be called Freeserve and is set to be …

    Telecoms 1 Aug 2005, 11:10

  • Legend unveils VoIP product

    Blimey

    Legend Communications - formerly Business Serve PLC - has unveiled a new internet telephony product for homes and businesses. Punters who sign up to the PipeCall product can make unlimited calls to UK landlines from £4.99 a month for numbers with 01 and 02 prefixes. For £16.99 a month, punters can make unlimited UK and …

    VoIP 1 Aug 2005, 12:00

  • 802.11n rivals agree to merge

    Next-gen Wi-Fi avoids war

    The two major factions in the race to develop the standard for the next generation of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, have agreed to submit a unified proposal to the IEEE. The groups, TGn Sync and WWiSE, together with a third group, MITMOT, said late last month they will merge their respective proposals as a draft which will be sent to the …

    Mobile 1 Aug 2005, 12:12

  • Ministers want e-borders fast-tracked

    'Crucial' to fight terrorism

    UK ministers are looking into fast-tracking the e-borders scheme - electronic checks on passports at sea, rail and airports - in a bid to tighten port security after a suspect in the failed attacks on London managed to get out of the country on the Eurostar. According to The Observer, ministers are considering bringing the …

    Music and Media 1 Aug 2005, 12:18

  • Nokia names Ollila's successor

    Will occupy CEO's big chair in June 2006

    Nokia has reshuffled its senior management, though the effects will not really be felt for ten months. CEO Jorma Ollila, who has been running Nokia since 1992, will become the company's non-executive Chairman. His place will be taken by the current head of the Nokia's mobile phones business, Olli-Pekka Kalasvuo. However, he's …

    Mobile 1 Aug 2005, 13:53

  • BT cuts wholesale cost of SDSL

    Bid to spark demand

    BT is cutting the cost of its wholesale symmetrical digital subscriber line (SDSL) products in a bid to spark demand. From November 1, the standard connection charge for BT IPstream and Datastream Symmetric will fall from £450 to £315, while the annual rental charges for IPstream products will fall from £1,380 to £966. It's …

    Telecoms 1 Aug 2005, 13:59

  • Cisco details Black Hat vuln fix

    Side issue

    Cisco last week urged users of its networking kit to upgrade their software following the discovery of a vulnerability that might be exploited to launch denial of service attacks. The networking giant warned that malicious insiders could crash vulnerable systems running its Internetwork Operating System (IOS) software using …

    Enterprise Security 1 Aug 2005, 14:03

  • Brent Cross to enjoy Apple store

    Number six in UK

    Apple is to open a second London store, following last November's Regent Street opening with a location in the Brent Cross shopping centre "later this year". The store will be Apple's sixth UK retail site. In April, it opened its second store, in Birmingham's rebuilt Bullring Centre. Last month, saw store three open, in Kent's …

    Mac Channel 1 Aug 2005, 14:08

  • Business slowly warms to VoIP

    Quocirca's changing channels Gathering momentum

    Persuading businesses to switch their telephony requirements from dedicated analogue networks to voice over IP (VoIP) has turned out to be a slower than many hoped. But it is happening and some household names are now making the switch. This includes a couple of the UK’s biggest banks. The big financial driver behind the …

    Channel Register 1 Aug 2005, 14:12

  • Intel to build DRAM units into desktop, mobile CPUs?

    Researcher's numbers suggest as much

    Intel is to follow AMD's lead an integrate memory controllers into its microprocessors, market watcher In-Stat has forecast. By 2009, it reckons, 70 per cent of all x86 processors shipping will have their own memory controller, it said. Right now, the number's under 20 per cent, each one an AMD chip. Indeed, that figure roughly …

    Channel Register 1 Aug 2005, 14:19

  • Workers reject O2's 'insulting' pay offer

    Strike action looms

    Workers at O2 have told bosses to stuff their "insulting" pay offer after voting overwhelmingly to reject the deal. The mobile company and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have been locked in an increasingly bitter pay dispute that last week spilled over into O2's AGM. Today the CWU announced that workers rejected a …

    Mobile 1 Aug 2005, 14:52

  • Scots offered £100 for IT training

    You lucky, lucky people

    Every adult in Scotland is to be offered up to £100 to splash out on IT training in a bid to improve their computer skills. The Scottish Executive announced the funding today to help develop skills among people regardless of their status or income. Announcing the cash offer minister Allan Wilson said: "We have chosen ICT …

    Public Sector 1 Aug 2005, 15:43

  • Xena: Planet X or big lump of rock?

    Ah, scientific debate

    Astronomers in the US reckon they've identified a tenth planet orbiting our sun. The body is around between 2,600km and 3,000km across, and inhabits a region three times as far from the sun as does Pluto, averaging a distance of nine billion miles from our star. A single orbit takes the world 560 earth-years. Officially …

    Science 1 Aug 2005, 15:51

  • NCR pilfers CEO figurehead from Symbol

    Sometimes you feel like a Nuti

    NCR felt like a Nuti and managed to hire one away from Symbol Technologies as its new CEO. Bill Nuti has assumed the roles of president and CEO at NCR, filling the positions left open when Mark Hurd went running to HP. This move follows NCR's decision last week to tap Jim Ringler as Chairman, allowing longtime NCRer Lars Nyberg …

    Servers 1 Aug 2005, 16:11

  • Man fingers daughter in Elvis eBay cock-up

    Buys King's car for $245k - by mistake

    In what must be considered the adult, e-commerce equivalent of "the dog ate my homework", a New York man has fingered his own daughter for accidently buying on eBay a 1969 Mercedes once owned by Elvis Presley for a cool $245,000. Jason Shepherd used eBay's "Buy it Now!" facility to secure the automobile, or rather, he didn't, …

    Bootnotes 1 Aug 2005, 16:14

  • Microsoft man wins WWW (World's Worst Writer) fiction award

    It was a dark and sultry, mildewed, shirtless night

    A Microsoft employee has won the Oscar of bad prose - and no, he isn't even a weblogger. Every year the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest honors the best attempts to parody bad fiction. It's judged by Professor Scott Rice at San Jose State University in California, and is now in its 22nd year. It's an impressive achievement, as …

    Music and Media 1 Aug 2005, 22:06