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23rd August 2005 Archive

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  • BEA cuts down Plumtree for $200m

    Portal payout

    BEA shoved a big, fat thumb into the portal pie on Monday with the $200m buy of Plumtree software. The all-cash deal will see BEA plunk down $5.50 per share for Plumtree and assume the company's outstanding options. Should shareholders and regulators approve the purchase, it would likely close before year end. BEA - one of the …

    Financial News 23 Aug 2005, 01:12

  • Intel: Sensors are of mote

    IDF Gizmos nearing production

    Intel is winding down its sensor research, but that's a sign of its success, executives said today. "When research projects are successful, they should stop," the director of Intel Research Berkeley Eric Brewer said during a session at the Intel Developer Forum here. The East Bay lab has been examining issues with low power …

    Science 23 Aug 2005, 06:25

  • BEA gives up on dual-core pricing confusion

    Simplicity restored

    BEA has given up on charging a premium for software running on dual-core processors and decided instead to follow the per-socket models embraced by the likes of Microsoft and VMware. The software maker's move puts it in prime fighting position against Oracle and IBM, which have been slow to adjust their pricing models for new …

    Software 23 Aug 2005, 08:31

  • US puts $150m more behind mega science grid

    TeraGrid grows

    The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has put another $150m behind an extensive supercomputer network in the hopes of giving huge amounts of horsepower to more scientists. The fresh funds will go toward a five-year build out of the Extensible Terascale Facility (ETF) - or TeraGrid. This grid links powerful computers in …

    Science 23 Aug 2005, 08:42

  • NCSA edges away from Google-Yahoo! study

    Garbage in, garbage out

    A widely discredited report that cast doubt on claims made for Yahoo!'s search engine is in even more trouble. The study appears to have been disowned by the university that published it, although a history professor originally credited as a co-author is continuing to host the material. After Yahoo! boasted that it now used a …

    Financial News 23 Aug 2005, 08:44

  • Legal disassembly

    Black hat, white hat

    When security researcher and ISS employee Michael Lynn went to give a presentation at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, little did he know he would ignite a legal firestorm questioning whether even the act of looking for security vulnerabilities violates the law. A brief history Lynn, in his position with ISS, …

    Security 23 Aug 2005, 10:16

  • Violent internet porn to get new laws in the UK

    Ministers also examining Data Protection?

    The Government has said it will announce plans to strengthen laws applicable to violent internet pornography in the next few weeks. Such material is generally illegal to publish but legal to view in the UK under the current regime. The announcement follows a meeting earlier this year between Home Secretary Charles Clarke and …

    Media 23 Aug 2005, 10:44

  • Ministers confront reality of climate change

    Greenland conference 'a watershed'

    Ministers visiting Greenland on a climate change fact-finding mission have heard that the Ilulissat glacier, a UN heritage site, has shrunk by more than 10km in the last three years. The glacier had been relatively stable in size since the 1960's. Environmental scientists describe the diminishing glacier as "one of the most …

    Science 23 Aug 2005, 10:54

  • US tops poll of spyware purveyors

    Malware disties get Dirrty

    Spyware purveyors are expanding their distribution channels and adopting new tactics in a bid to cash-in by infesting more PCs with parasitic malware. The majority of spyware is coming from the US, with Poland coming in second and the Netherlands third, according to a study by anti-spyware software developer, Webroot Software. …

    Security 23 Aug 2005, 11:13

  • Intel expected to strike RIM deal

    Blackberries in the mix

    Intel and Research in Motion will announce their own personal love-in in San Francisco this week, according to reports. Reports yesterday said the chip giant and the Blackberry vendor will announced a joint development deal at the Intel Development Forum this week, which will see RIM use Intel’s power-saving silicon. In …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2005, 12:06

  • Satnav fingers bungling burglars

    System stored raided addresses

    In the great British tradition of "rob someone's house then leave your mobile at the scene", two London men have been jailed for burglary after the satnav system in the vehicle used for the blags stored the addresses of every house they hit. Ian Bansie, 33, used his work's motor to ferry 31-year-old accomplice Steve Warrington …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2005, 12:18

  • Toshiba heads toward HD DVD launch

    Wedding off

    Clear some extra space on the video shelf. The backers of Blu-ray and HD DVD are pushing ahead with product launches after failing to reach an agreement on merging the two next generation DVD formats. Both camps had been discussing how to produce a single standard since earlier this year, with discussions punctuated by regular …

    Peripherals 23 Aug 2005, 12:55

  • Doctor Who transmats onto mobiles

    Cult TV goes mobile with Rimmer and Spock too

    Episodes of BBC cult classics Red Dwarf and Doctor Who are to be made available for fans to buy and view on their mobile phone. Select episodes of the two series will be offered on multi-media memory cards following a licensing deal between ROK Player and BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm. If the thought of staring at a …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2005, 13:00

  • Brits demand 99p coin

    Could save a fortune

    We'd never really considered this, but a third of Brits want a 99p coin to tackle the menace of the £XX.99 pricing strategy, which a Virgin Money poll says wastes £11m a month in discarded 1p pieces. Although around 50 per cent of thrifty citizens save their 1 and 2p coins - traditionally in a huge whiskey bottle having drunk …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2005, 13:55

  • US boffins breed cloned wildcats

    Hope for endangered species

    American scientists have pulled off a breeding first by producing two litters of African wildcat kittens from cloned parents. Although the species is not at risk, the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species team reckons the technique could one day save other animals from extinction. Eight kittens from two litters was …

    Science 23 Aug 2005, 13:56

  • Phones4U seeking buyer?

    Analysts think so

    The founder of high-street phone retailer Phones4U has reportedly called in financial advisers to find a buyer for the company. Phones4U has so far refused to comment on the speculation, but according to The Telegraph John Caudwell has appointed investment bankers NM Rothschild to look into a sale. A spokesman for Phones4U …

    Financial News 23 Aug 2005, 13:58

  • DC Comics takes big stick to gay Batman

    Kerpow!

    DC Comics has taken exception to watercolours of Batman and Robin snogging and generally getting it on and has ordered the Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts gallery in New York to take down Mark Chamberlain's provocative representations or face the legal consequences. Also at the receiving end of DC's wrath is art website Artnet, which …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2005, 14:02

  • Swedish library lends out gay Muslim gypsy

    Innovative scheme to combat prejudice

    Sweden's Malmö public library has taken an unusual step to combat peoples' preconceptions about Muslims, homosexuals, gypsies, animals rights activists and, naturally, journalists. The "Living Library" project lets punters borrow real people for a 45-minute chinwag in the cafe. Ulla Brohed told AFP: "The Living Library project …

    Bootnotes 23 Aug 2005, 14:23

  • On civil liberties, video violence and hanging offences

    Letters Reg readers address the burning questions of the day

    A survey of around 1,000 Brits revealed firstly that as a nation, we are apparently quite at home with the idea of our civil liberties being eroded in exchange for a warm fuzzy feeling of security that comes with reactionary legislation. You thought it also showed that if you ask people very specific questions about big issues …

    Letters 23 Aug 2005, 15:40

  • Intel promises Windows Vista on handhelds

    IDF Conroe and Merom to boost 'performance per watt'

    Intel CEO Paul Otellini today pledged to permit handheld users to run Windows Vista on their palmtops by the end of the decade. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may be none be too happy that his Wintel colleague is setting out to rid the world of Windows Mobile but that's the way it goes. And anyway, Steve Jobs is a customer too, …

    PCs 23 Aug 2005, 16:28

  • Local gov romps toward online targets

    Sort of

    The government reckons local authorities are well on track to meet the 2005 deadline of having all their services "electronically enabled". Local e-Government minister Jim Fitzpatrick (good to know we have one) notes that in March 2002, the average council reported that just 26 per cent of its services were e-enabled, as the …

    Policy 23 Aug 2005, 16:30

  • CA patches security flaws in multiple products

    In brief Stuck in the middle

    Computer Associates [CA] has issued patches to fix security flaws involving its Message Queuing software that affect many of its products. A trio of security bugs with the middleware leave a wide range of security and systems management suites from CA open to a variety of denial of service attacks, security clearing house …

    Applications 23 Aug 2005, 16:32

  • Merom, Conroe, Woodcrest lose HyperThreading

    IDF Intel's next-gen microarchitecture 'disambiguated'

    Intel's unnamed next-generation microarchitecture (NGMA) will combine the Pentium 4's bus, the Pentium M's power optimisations and some "new innovations", Intel said today. However, one of those features will not be HyperThreading, at least not in the NGMA's initial versions, the chip giant admitted. At NGMA's heart is a 14- …

    PCs 23 Aug 2005, 18:17

  • Intel answers AMD's dual-core chip challenge with French joke

    IDF Otellini's foot in mouth disease

    AMD today challenged Intel to a dual-core processor benchmarking duel, and Intel responded by mocking the French. AMD pumped a few major US newspapers with ads, begging Intel to accept the dual-core challenge. The competition would see AMD put its best performing dual-core Opteron up against a comparable Xeon processor from …

    Servers 23 Aug 2005, 18:59

  • Intel intros 1.25GHz XScale

    IDF Next-gen mobile graphics chip too

    Intel today introduced 'Monahans', the gigahertz-class successor to 'Bulverde', the current XScale PXA27x family. The 90nm part is due to be formally launched in Q4 2005, Sean Maloney, VP and General Manager of Intel's Mobility Group, said today at Intel Developer Forum. Describing the chip as "another step ahead in …

    Mobile 23 Aug 2005, 19:44

  • Otellini stakes low-power future on strained silicon

    IDF Chipset 'shortage' too

    Intel's strained silicon process will stand it in good stead through the next four generations of the chip giant's processor products, Intel CEO Paul Otellini claimed today. He also signalled the end to the current capacity constraints affecting the company's chipset production. Speaking to reporters after his Intel Developer …

    PCs 23 Aug 2005, 20:01

  • Intel tweaks EM64T for full AMD64 compatibility

    IDF Adds missing instructions to Pentium 4 core

    Intel is preparing to update its Pentium 4 core, the better make its 64-bit processors more compatible with AMD's 64-bit processors, company documents seen by The Register reveal. The new core, dubbed 'G-1', will replace the current 'E-0' core in Q4. According to a note sent to Intel customers, samples of the updated processors …

    PCs 23 Aug 2005, 21:04

  • Intel, Cisco team to boost business WLANs

    IDF Roaming, VoIP enhancements on the way

    Intel and Cisco today announced they will co-develop a proprietary set of enterprise-oriented WLAN enhancements. The scheme, which builds on the two firms' existing wireless alliance, will improve VoIP call quality and access point selection for Centrino notebooks connected to Cisco base-stations. The VoIP component …

    Broadband 23 Aug 2005, 21:20

  • Intel to bring Lakeport graphics to Napa

    IDF 'Centrino 3' gets enhanced graphics, wireless

    'Callistoga', Intel's upcoming 'Centrino 3' chipset, has a new name: the 945 Express. The chip giant also said today that 'Golan', its next-generation Wi-Fi adaptor, will ship as the ProWireless 3945ABG. The 945 will feature Intel's GMA 950 graphics core, which it introduced earlier this year in its desktop-oriented 945G …

    PCs 23 Aug 2005, 22:14

  • Sony BMG blesses P2P music swapping network

    The shape of things to come?

    In one of the most significant digital music announcements of the year, Sony BMG has partnered with British digital music outfit Playlouder MSP to make its music catalog available online. Subscribers will be able to exchange licensed music freely, in any bitrate they want, since a portion of the subscription fee goes to a …

    Media 23 Aug 2005, 22:39

  • Intel confirms Yonah, Sossaman will offer virtualisation

    IDF More beans spilled

    Intel today confirmed that 'Yonah', its 65nm dual-core mobile processor and the basis for the 'Sossaman' low-power Xeon chip, will support Virtualisation Technology. The chip will also feature a dynamically allocated 'smart' L2 cache shared between the two processing cores. Dubbed 'Smart Cache', the system gives both cores …

    Servers 23 Aug 2005, 23:03