9th August 2005 Archive

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Microsoft trying to track down women engineers

Men are from IT, so women mustn't be

Microsoft has vowed to track how many women it has certified as engineers after its ignorance of candidates’ genders hampered an academic investigation of lady-friendly training methods. Open University researchers wanted to know how many women trained in the UK as Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE), how many took the …

Small Biz 9 Aug 2005, 06:02
UK distie to launch on LSE

Raising money for a shopping spree

Holding company Geneca Group is to list on the London Stock Exchange this October. The Group announced its intentions shortly after completing its acquisition of UK tech distributors, Valuelist and Answer GCi, and says the move is designed to support its growth-by-acquisition strategy. Brent Cutler, Geneca's managing director, …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 07:02
Microsoft execs reunite to save AOL

Analysis Or plump it up for the spin-off?

AOL's wireless business has been meandering without direction or purpose for a long time. So long, it seems, that "AOL Anywhere" sounds less like a mission statement and more like a cry for help. But today, in the biggest shake-up for five years, AOL has renewed its ambitions by creating a new Wireless Division. This is no …

Mobile 9 Aug 2005, 07:51
Korea mounts Intel antitrust probe

'Marketing and rebate programmes' under investigation

South Korean antitrust investigators are probing Intel's dealings with local PC makers, it has emerged. In June, Korea's Fair Trade Commission asked Intel to supply information regarding "marketing and rebate programmes" put in place by the chip giant's Korean subsidiary, Intel's latest filing with the US Securities and …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 09:03
ATI, Nvidia mobile, desktop chips near launch

Cavalcade of codenames win PCI Express certification

Nvidia is working on a mobile version of its GeForce 7800 GTX graphics chip, and has won a PCI Express compliance certificate for the part. ATI, too, has had a heap of high-end chips certified by the PCI Express bus' overseer, the PCI-SIG. The latest Nvidia part to be added to the organisation's certified-product list is the ' …

Peripherals 9 Aug 2005, 09:39
Greasemonkey wobbles but it doesn't fall down

Analysis Security issues, yes, but...

I have nothing but the greatest respect for Jon Udell. His "Strategic Developer" column is the first thing I read when my copy of InfoWorld magazine arrives in the mail, and his blog is one of the best if you're interested in the technical aspects of web development, standards, and practices. If blogging is enjoyable because it …

Enterprise Security 9 Aug 2005, 09:48
Flies swarm around MS Honeymonkey

Project sniffs out malicious code

Microsoft 's experimental Honeymonkey project has found almost 750 web pages that attempt to load malicious code onto visitors' computers and detected an attack using a vulnerability that had not been publicly disclosed, the software giant said in a paper released this month. Known more formally as the Strider Honeymonkey …

Security 9 Aug 2005, 10:01
Intel signals demise of low-end Celeron M chips

Farewell, 350J. Adios, 373

Intel has scheduled the 1.3GHz Celeron M 350J and the 1GHz ultra-low voltage Celeron M 373 for termination, company documents seen by The Register reveal. It's the usual story of demand shifting to higher-performance products. Last month, Intel introduced the 1.6GHz Celeron M 380, and cut the prices of the 370 and 360J. It was …

System Builder 9 Aug 2005, 10:19
How papyrus can safeguard nuclear waste

Clue: it isn't being used as wrapping paper

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has begun an £8bn project to dismantle 26 atomic reactors that had been used for research, and will bury the waste in concrete bunkers. The project managers have come up with an interesting way of making sure information about how to handle the waste is left for future generations. You …

Science 9 Aug 2005, 10:26
Oz legit downloads fail to deliver

Analysis part II Where'd the music go?

Australian lawyer, academic researcher and music industry commentator Alex Malik presents the second of a two-part look at the Australian market for digital downloads. His research has found that while IFPI are spinning the success of authorised downloads, the reality shows that at least in Australia, there are substantial gaps …

Music and Media 9 Aug 2005, 10:31
ID theft automated using keylogger Trojan

Spy on the wire

Anti-spyware researchers have uncovered a massive identity theft ring linked to keylogging software. The malware was discovered by Patrick Jordan of Sunbelt Software while doing research on the infamous CoolWebSearch application but the key logger itself is not CWS. It's far nastier. During the course of infecting a machine, …

ID 9 Aug 2005, 10:33
E*Trade blows $700m on rival

Splendid

E*Trade - the online broker and e-bank - is splashing out $700m in cash to buy Canada-based rival Harrisdirect. The transaction, which still needs the usual regulatory rubber stamps, is expected to close by October. Harrisdirect - which is owned by BMO Financial Group - has around 430,000 active accounts with an average …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 10:44
Creative unveils Sound Blaster X-Fi boards

Even better than the real thing, apparently

Creative will this month ship its latest Sound Blaster audio cards: the new-generation X-Fi range, based on technology the company believes will "completely replace the old hi-fi equipment in the home". The line-up comprises a quartet of add-in cards: the X-Fi Elite Pro, the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, the X-Fi Platinum, and the X-Fi …

Peripherals 9 Aug 2005, 10:59
Your Comms boss rubbishes Carphone takeover rumours

Deep breath...and...relax

Hats off to Hugh Logan. "Hugh who?", you say. You know, Hugh Logan, the boss of B2B telco Your Communications. Last week United Utilities (UU) - which owns Your Communications - was forced to respond to a press report that the telco was about to be bought by the Carphone Warehouse for £200m. Keen to dampen down any rumours and …

Telecoms 9 Aug 2005, 11:11
In-flight Wi-Fi rivals pitch phone plans

Regulators permitting...

Boeing's Connexion and Airbus' OnAir this week both announced partnerships with mobile phone specialists to pave the way for in-flight GSM and CDMA device usage. Connexion's partner is Qualcomm, and the pair said yesterday they have been testing cabin-fitted GSM and CDMA 2000 base-stations, which beam calls from the aircraft to …

Mobile 9 Aug 2005, 11:52
Palm's Hawkins points to 'secret' product line

Analysis Or does he just mean the LifeDrive?

So what is Palm's next big product going to be? Well, there's the Windows Mobile-based Treo, the 670, images and videos of which are now doing the rounds on a number of rumour sites, but that's just an extension of the company's smart phone programme. Then there's this, mentioned in an interview between Palm co-founder and R&D …

Mobile 9 Aug 2005, 11:56
Tunnelling Brazilian blaggers lift $63m

Old school heist hits bank hard

Those readers who lament the inexorable rise of hands-off cybercrime - Nigerian 419 fraud, phishing scams, ID theft, etc etc - at the expense of old school blags where blokes called Ronnie cosh the driver of the London-Glasgow mail train and leg it with £2.6m hotly pursued by geezers named Jack driving Ford Granadas who answer …

Bootnotes 9 Aug 2005, 11:58
Former 'Spam King' pays MS $7m to settle lawsuit

Going straight

Former 'Spam King' Scott Richter has agreed to pay Microsoft $7m to settle an anti-spam lawsuit. The settlement to a December 2003 lawsuit comes a month after Richter - long ranked one of the world's top three spammers - was removed from the Register of Known Spam Operators maintained by the Spamhaus Project. Richter was dropped …

Spam 9 Aug 2005, 12:42
Touchdown! Shuttle has landed

Big sighs of relief all round

The Space Shuttle Discovery has touched down safe and sound - much to the relief of NASA engineers and space fans everywhere. Mission control congratulated commander Eileen Collins and her crew on the successful test flight, and welcomed them home. Anything orbiting the Earth de-orbits by slowing down, and in the backwards and …

Science 9 Aug 2005, 12:46
HP wins Gateway PC import ban

But not for six months

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) yesterday ruled that Gateway had indeed violated a pair of patents held by HP, and ordered the company not to import PCs containing the disputed technology. However, the ban does not take effect until February 2006, giving Gateway plenty of time to appeal against the decision - and to …

PCs 9 Aug 2005, 12:55
Crimebusting cheerleaders bust hit-and-run perp

American justice - the musical

We Reg hacks from this side of the Pond have often wondered what earthly purpose cheerleaders serve, except when they appear in Playboy specials without so much as a conveniently-placed pom-pom to cover their modesty. This, it is now clear, is a gross injustice to the cheerleading community who are in the very front line of the …

Bootnotes 9 Aug 2005, 13:02
Apple pledges to refund punters hit by Canada iPod tax

Levy's 'illegality' confirmed

Apple Canada is to allow consumers who bought an iPod between December 2003 and December 2004 to claim a refund for a government tax on MP3 players. The announcement, made yesterday, follows a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that invalidated a levy placed on iPods to compensate the music industry for revenue lost to piracy and …

Mac Channel 9 Aug 2005, 13:06
MCI rings up profit

Profit? Whassat?

MCI - the US telco formerly known as WorldCom - returned to profitability in the three months to the end of June, generating net income of $64m. Announcing Q2 results today MCI reported that revenues had dipped from $5.2bn in Q2 04 to $4.7bn this year. It also turned around a net loss of $71m in Q2 04 into net income of $64m …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 13:47
Yahoo! now bigger than Google

Nah, nah-nee, nah, nah

The internet property and search engine Yahoo! said that its search index now includes some 20.8 billion web pages and images, nearly double that of Google. The true size of Yahoo!'s index has never officially been revealed, although most industry watchers pegged it at between six billion and eight billion, compared to more …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 14:59
ACECAD DigiMemo A501 digital notepad

Review Real paper, a real pen, linked to a computer

It's been given loads of different names, but my favourite is 'Gerard's syndrome', named after a chap I used to work with. This office-bound ailment is the pest of many an over-worked office type, who spends so much time in meetings, feverishly scribbling down notes, that they never have time to write them all up or action any …

Reviews 9 Aug 2005, 15:31
LLU problems persist, says regulator

While industry sorts out snags, punters cop it

The publication of the latest update concerning the progress of local loop unbundling (LLU) in the UK has done little to shed any light on the current troubles facing the industry. On Friday, the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) released its latest progress report on LLU confirming that the number of unbundled lines now …

Telecoms 9 Aug 2005, 15:35
Employees before administrators, says judge

Implications for Granville Technology?

A UK judge has ruled that when a company goes into administration, cash owed to employees must take priority over the administrators' fees and administration costs. The ruling could have implications for the administrators in cases like the collapse of Granville Technology Group, where companies make large-scale redundancies …

Small Biz 9 Aug 2005, 15:54
Fortinet loses anti-virus patent ruling

Stay of execution

The US International Trade Commission has passed an order blocking Fortinet from importing its FortiGate antivirus firewall products into the US pending resolution of a patent dispute with rival Trend Micro. The ruling upholds an earlier preliminary finding that Fortinet had infringed Trend Micro's patent covering server-based …

Anti-Virus 9 Aug 2005, 16:09
IBM woos the masses with Gluecode

Does internal march of the penguins

IBM is sacrificing revenues from WebSphere to win customers who only want light-weight application servers with its Gluecode open source product, acquired in May. IBM senior vice president and software group executive Steve Mills said Tuesday Gluecode would be sold to small businesses that don’t want features in WebSphere, like …

Applications 9 Aug 2005, 20:30
Copycat Novell opens SuSE development process

Call of the Mild

Novell is turning to the community to help develop the next version of the SuSE Linux distribution and drive uptake of Linux at the grass roots level. The company announced on Tuesday it had posted code for SuSE Linux 10 online at http://opensuse.org, for review and testing by community based developers. Announcing the SuSE …

Operating Systems 9 Aug 2005, 22:54
Steady, hungry Cisco closes 2005 with double-digit gains

Ready to buy again

Despite a flurry of acquisitions, Cisco maintained its poise during the fourth quarter and fiscal 2005 to post steady, double-digit gains in both periods. Cisco's net sales rose 11 per cent during the fourth quarter to hit $6.6bn - up from $5.9bn in the same period last year. Net income moved higher as well at $1.5bn versus $1. …

Financial News 9 Aug 2005, 23:00