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4th August 2005 Archive

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  • Napster pays plenty for modest growth in Q1

    Kitty eyes Japan

    As promised, Napster delivered modest first quarter growth while its costs swelled. In addition, the company today announced plans to launch a version of its music rental service in Japan. Napster brought in $21m during the first quarter. That's a a 167 per cent jump over the rather feeble $7.8m in revenue posted in the same …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 00:14

  • Hurricanes thriving on global warming

    Bigger, faster, more powerful

    An MIT Professor says that hurricanes have been getting more powerful over the last few decades, and warns that the trend is likely to continue. He says that global warming is a contributory factor. In a paper appearing in the online edition of the journal Nature Kerry Emmanuel, professor of meteorology in MIT's Department of …

    Science 4 Aug 2005, 06:02

  • PHP, Perl and Python on the wane?

    Done scripting

    A trio of open source scripting languages are waning in popularity among developers at precisely the time big-name IT companies are adding their support. The number of developers using PHP, Perl and Python has dropped substantially across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) from a peak of two years ago, according to …

    Developer 4 Aug 2005, 09:20

  • South Koreans clone dog

    Tasty

    South Korean scientists announced yesterday that they had created the world's first cloned dog - an Afghan hound called Snuppy - by the same somatic nuclear cell transfer method used to brew up Dolly the sheep. Lead boffin Woo-Suk Hwang of Seoul National University told a press conference: "Our research goal is to produce …

    Science 4 Aug 2005, 09:45

  • Mobile phone picture agency goes live

    Make £££s in your spare time

    Camera-phone toting commuters and tourists can now consider themselves the equal of Capa, Cartier-Bresson and Bailey, with a newly-launched online photo agency pledging to turn your pixels into pounds. Scoopt aims to take advantage of the huge proliferation of digital cameras and camera phones, to broker professional …

    Mobile 4 Aug 2005, 09:48

  • Hynix, Infineon winners as Q2 DRAM sales slide

    Rising megabit shipments, tumbling prices

    Hynix once again became the world's second most successful memory maker during Q2, pushing Micron into third place on market watcher iSuppli's chart. But it was a tough period for almost all the bigger DRAMurai, as the top eight companies recorded sequential drops in revenues of up to 24 per cent, according to the researcher's …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 09:54

  • 2m mobiles on the blink last year

    Says Which? survey

    One in seven mobile phone handsets goes wrong within a year, according to consumer watchdog Which?. If the survey of some 5,000 punters is anywhere near accurate, it means that at least two million of the 18 million phones sold in the UK last year could have developed faults. And the worst offender, according to Which?, is 3G …

    Mobile 4 Aug 2005, 09:57

  • Creative unveils portable video Vision

    Update Don't mention the war with Apple...

    Creative has finally launched its latest portable video player, the Zen Vision, after allowing the device to make a number of unscheduled appearances on the company's website and others. The Vision sports a 30GB hard drive and a 640 x 480, 262,000-colour, 3.7in display. It's got a radio, microphone, CompactFlash card slot for …

    Peripherals 4 Aug 2005, 10:02

  • Apple launches iTunes Japan

    Puts iPod into Japanese cars too

    Apple finally launched the Japanese version of its iTunes Music Store today, but less widely reported tie-ins with three major car makers will probably have a greater impact on the company's fortunes. ITMS Japan will offer listeners a choice of 1m songs, available at either ¥150 ($1.35/£0.76) or ¥200 ($1.80/£1.01). Apple has …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 10:57

  • Merged Symantec takes time out to harmonise licensing

    Twin track strategy

    Veritas and Symantec's sales teams will be kept seperate for at least 12 months following the recently completed merger between the two firms. Harmonising licensing policies between the two firms will only start after this time, giving the new Symantec time to sort out a new pricing structure to replace a model senior execs …

    Software 4 Aug 2005, 11:11

  • AOL continues to lose punters

    Revs dip too

    Almost a million subscribers deserted AOL over the last three months as the giant ISP continues to lose customers. As of the end of June, AOL had 20.8m punters in the US - down 917,000 on Q1 and a massive slump of 2.6m compared to the same period last year. In Europe, AOL also lost customers although not to the same extent as …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 11:22

  • Marketing dept to blame for website crashes: official

    Nice to be proven right, eh?

    It is as you have always suspected: the marketing department is responsible for around a quarter of the overloads and crashes your poor company website suffers. Website testing firm, SciVisum, spoke to marketing types in 100 UK-based companies, and found that 26 per cent don't ever mention planned online promotions to the guys …

    IT Director 4 Aug 2005, 11:25

  • Government admits overselling ID cards

    But won't back down

    The government had admitted that it has oversold its identity card plans, and now admits the card won't solve every problem facing the country, from fraud to terrorism, via illegal immigration. Despite this, it has pledged to push on with the idea, saying it will still "help" in situations where fraud and identity abuse are …

    Music and Media 4 Aug 2005, 12:15

  • US firm to market breast milk

    Making money from mammaries

    A US firm has announced that it wants to buy breast milk and then flog it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies. LA-based Prolacta Bioscience has set its sights on stocks at independent milk banks which it will pasteurise and supply for the treatment of underweight rugrats, the BBC reports. Naturally, Prolacta's primary …

    Bootnotes 4 Aug 2005, 12:27

  • EDS delivers Q2 jam, much more to come

    Contract signings slip

    Electronic Data Systems gave its investors some good news for a change when it reported second quarter figures at the top end of estimates yesterday and forecast 2006 earnings well above analyst’s forecasts. However, it also revealed a big drop in second quarter contract signings from last year’s $4bn to $2.8bn this year. It …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 12:30

  • Developing alien technology? MS can help

    Black helicopter alert Secrecy is paramount. Prepare to redact

    You know how it is - you're out in Nevada developing a hypersonic stealth vehicle based on alien technology and you've written the whole thing down in a Word document and you're about to release the astounding news to a gobsmacked world when you realise that the document contains sensitive information about how Microsoft has …

    Bootnotes 4 Aug 2005, 12:44

  • Hasta la Vista, baby

    Austrian VXer tears through Microsoft script

    Virus writers have created proof of concept viruses targeting the scripting language behind prototype versions of Vista, the next version of Windows. An Austrian virus writer has published five simple viruses targeting Microsoft Command Shell (MSH), the command line interface and scripting language, in a virus writing magazine. …

    Malware 4 Aug 2005, 13:06

  • Skip the border guard, fast-track the IT - security, UK style

    Analysis Hold the terror crisis while we design our response

    Well, well, well. On 5th July The Register noted that the only passport control for travellers exiting the UK via Waterloo Eurostar terminal was operated by the French, and observed: "No doubt they're telling us how many of our terrorists are leaving the country." Or not, apparently - bomb suspect Osman Hussain, arrested in Rome …

    Music and Media 4 Aug 2005, 13:51

  • easyMobile 'pleased' with 15k users

    Okey-dokey

    Easymobile - the no-frills, discount mobile outfit - has managed to sign up 15,000 punters since it launched the service back in March. Boss Frank Rasmussen said he was "pleased with the results" adding that the mobile outfit had "successfully made an impact on the UK mobile market". "By the end of June we passed the 15,000 …

    Mobile 4 Aug 2005, 14:45

  • Apple Mighty Mouse

    First UK review Re-inventing the wheel... er... ball

    Apple has insisted that mice need only one button for so long that its stance has become an article of faith for many in the Mac community. What a shock then that this week it should release a mouse with essentially not one but four buttons. And some of you thought the shift to Intel was bad... Truth is, Mac OS X has had multi- …

    Reviews 4 Aug 2005, 16:34

  • CAN SPAM case upholds email filtering rights

    UT can block online dating spam

    US appeals court judges have upheld the right of a University to filter unsolicited emails even if they conform to the CAN SPAM Act. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the University of Texas was within it rights to block emails from White Buffalo Ventures, which operates dating site LonghornSingles.com, irrespective …

    Spam 4 Aug 2005, 17:29

  • Investors bury Brocade on dismal Q3

    4Gbit hell

    Shares of storage switch maker Brocade were pounded this week after a troubling third quarter revenue drop rattled investors' nerves. Brocade revealed preliminary third quarter results of revenue between $121m and $122m. That's a shocking miss from a previous forecast issued in May of revenue between $140m and $145m. Investors …

    Financial News 4 Aug 2005, 19:28

  • Microsoft develops new 'Super' language

    Acronyms made easy

    When Microsoft's recently appointed chief financial officer Chris Liddell told Wall St his job’s biggest challenge is learning a whole new language, he wasn't kidding. According to Liddell, former CFO for International Paper Co, Microsoft has 230 official acronyms that he suggested analysts should take the time to learn and use …

    Bootnotes 4 Aug 2005, 19:59

  • Is the web's love affair with PHP over?

    LAMP going limp

    If Evans Data Corp (EDC) is to believed, then some big names in enterprise systems have been rash in their support for open source scripting language PHP. This last eight months saw Intel, SAP, Oracle and IBM all support PHP, with investments or product backing through partnerships with PHP king Zend Technologies. However, …

    Developer 4 Aug 2005, 22:39

  • Microsoft shops for new COO at Wal-Mart

    Sam's Club to Bill's Club

    Microsoft has reached outside of IT and into the cut-throat world of retail shopping to appoint its next chief operating officer. Kevin Turner was on Thursday named COO, having joined Microsoft from Wal-Mart, a company accused of killing local business and famed for its non-unionized workforce. Turner, a 20-year Wal-Mart …

    IT Director 4 Aug 2005, 22:57