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31st August 2005 Archive

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  • RSS service developed for Salesforce.com

    Everything you can read

    A consulting start-up is RSS-enabling Salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) service, aggregating subscribers' data and helping users reduce information overload. Spanning Partners has launched Spanning Salesforce.com 2.0, a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) service that delivers sales information to subscribers …

    Applications 31 Aug 2005, 07:00

  • On blocking Chinese IP addresses

    Comment The Great Firewall of China

    In the 1980s, I was unbeatable in Trivial Pursuit, and to this day, I still possess a love of trivia. Here's some neat facts about the Great Wall of China. Did you know... The Great Wall sprawls more than 1500 miles in length. You can see the Great Wall from low orbit, but not from the Moon (urban legend!). With the …

    Enterprise Security 31 Aug 2005, 07:19

  • Disposable credit card? That'll do nicely

    More like a disposable debit card, really

    Permanent TSB and Visa are encouraging Irish shoppers to go online with the launch of a new disposable credit card voucher. About 67 per cent of Irish adults do not have a credit card, leaving them unable to book flights and tickets, buy music or shop online. However, the new credit card voucher from Permanent TSB is hoping to …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 07:33

  • Three spammers face obscenity and CAN-SPAM charges

    Graphic porn emails sent to tens of millions

    Three spammers were indicted in Phoenix last week for sending obscene spam in violation of US anti-spam regulations. The three were also charged with breaches of federal obscenity, money laundering and conspiracy laws. According to the US Justice Department, Jennifer Clason, 32, Jeffrey Kilbride, 39 and James Schaffer, 39, have …

    Spam 31 Aug 2005, 07:52

  • In search of shareware

    Koders does the business

    Software is an expensive commodity. This has been recognised by many companies and reusability is the order of the day. Rather than reusing your own software, another strategy is to use somebody else's. There is a lot of shareware software out there. When you start a new project it makes a lot of sense to see if part of the work …

    Developer 31 Aug 2005, 08:41

  • 60 jobs under threat at Thus

    India's more efficient, apparently

    Thus - the Scottish telco behind the Demon internet brand - could be about to axe 60 jobs at its Southend office and export the work to India. Staff were told of the proposals late yesterday afternoon as the telco - which recently made a failed bid to acquire rival Energis - continues to introduce measures to drive down costs …

    IT Director 31 Aug 2005, 09:04

  • Enceladus presents a puzzle for Cassini team

    Weird stuff afoot around Saturn

    Enceladus, a tiny moon orbiting Saturn, appears to be venting water into space from a series of fractures over its south pole. The water vapour is pouring out of the body through an anomalous hotspot centred over its south pole, in only the second extra-terrestrial observation of thermal activity in the solar system. …

    Science 31 Aug 2005, 09:21

  • NEC, Hitachi loosen Elpida ties

    Major share sale planned

    Elpida is to gain a measure of independence from co-founders NEC and Hitachi. By the end of September, its parents will have reduced their shareholdings to under 20 per cent and under 15 per cent, respectively. The scheme, announced yesterday, will see Elpida's formal fiscal connection with both parents severed. Its results …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 09:26

  • HTC smartens up bottom line

    Smart-phone sales rocket

    Taiwanese smart-phone manufacturer HTC today reported Q2 FY2005 net income of TWD2.49bn ($77m) on sales TWD15.44bn ($475m). Those figures amount to sequential gains of 16.5 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively. Year-on-year, HTC experienced income growth of 155 per cent on a 91 per cent jump in sales. For the first six …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 09:57

  • US develops hopping 'Lunar Penguin'

    Cruise missile tech coming soon to a Moon near you

    Despite recent military assertions to the contrary, it seems that the US is running a covert black op to militarise the Moon through deployment of a hopping, rocket-powered "Penguin" designed to cover vast lunar distances with a single bound. According to Reuters, Raytheon's "Lunar Penguin" - a 3ft-tall assemblage of rocket …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 10:01

  • MS swallows VoIP startup Teleo

    Redmond counters Skype with IP Telephony power play

    Microsoft has announced the acquisition of privately held internet telephony outfit Teleo in a deal that positions the software giant against Skype in the already crowded VoIP market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Redmond plans to use Teleo's technology to allow users to make phone calls from PCs to …

    VoIP 31 Aug 2005, 10:09

  • Apple, Moto, Cingular lined up to launch iTunes phone

    ROKR debut next week?

    Motorola's highly-anticipated iTunes-equipped mobile phone is expected to make its eagerly awaited debut in seven days' time. Apple will host a major music-related media event scheduled on 7 September in San Francisco's Moscone Center, and a variety of industry sources are claiming the gig will see the launch of the delayed …

    Mobile 31 Aug 2005, 10:18

  • Be pilots 24 meg broadband

    London gets the nod

    Londoners are being offered the chance to hook up to superfast broadband for just £20 a month as part of a trial for local loop unbundling (LLU) by operator Be. The ISP wants "as many people as possible" to sign up to the trial ahead of a commercial launch later in the month. The service - based on ADSL2+ technology - is able …

    Telecoms 31 Aug 2005, 10:33

  • Man flogs bottled Welsh air

    walesinabottle.com

    An enterprising Welsh businessman will tomorrow launch an invaluable service for expats yearning for a bit of their fragrant motherland - bottled Welsh air at 24 quid a pop. John Gronow's walesinabottle.com guarantees the absolute purity and authenticity of the air by way of a certificate nicely couched in a special, velveteen …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 10:38

  • Virgin, HMV to launch UK music downloads

    Arch retail rivals face off

    Virgin looks set to beat arch retail rival HMV by a nose when it launches a revitalised UK music download service this week. Virgin Digital UK will go live on Friday, 2 September, the company said yesterday. HMV's rival service, HMV Digital, opens its virtual doors on Monday, 5 September. Ironically, both ventures are founded …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 10:52

  • This year's ozone hole set to be a whopper

    Penguins rush to buy suncream

    The hole in the Ozone layer over Antarctica this year is shaping up to be one of the biggest ever, satellite images from the European Space Agency (ESA) suggest. The area of depletion, as the scientists call it, already covers ten million square kilometres, is still expanding, and won't reach its maximum until some time in …

    Science 31 Aug 2005, 11:00

  • T-Mobile to ship 3G/ Wi-Fi phone Friday

    HTC's Windows Mobile 5 clamshell arrives at last

    T-Mobile will launch the MDA Pro - better known as the HTC Universal - on Friday, the mobile phone carrier's German operation said today. The device, originally dubbed the MDA IV, was actually announced last February, but T-Mobile was soon forced to put back the launch until later in the year. The clamshell form-factor device …

    Mobile 31 Aug 2005, 11:02

  • Cisco adds 'self-healing' tech to Cat 6500

    Switched on

    Cisco is rejig the software on its flagship enterprise switch, the Catalyst 6500, to support patching and updating of sub-sections of the switch's operating system without having to schedule downtime. IOS Software Modularity features for Cat 6500-series switches mean that service providers and business will be able to apply …

    Data Networking 31 Aug 2005, 11:08

  • Gaming addicts do time for neglecting kids

    Techno-lunacy

    The parents of four kids have been sentenced to three months in jail for neglect, after becoming addicted to internet gaming. It emerged in court that both parents had become utterly engrossed in the online gaming world - the 28-year-old father spent all his waking hours playing online, the BBC reports. Neighbours spotted two …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 11:09

  • NY subway perv busted by mobe snap

    Police hunt flashing internet star

    New York's finest are currently hunting a "smirking sicko" who, having exposed himself on the city's subway to a 22-year-old web developer, found himself exposed across cyberspace and the NY Daily News after the quick-thinking victim snapped him on her mobe's* camera. On 19 August, Thao Nguyen was at the receiving end of the …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 12:28

  • Analysts trash rumoured Vonage IPO

    Universal damnation

    We’re not quite sure which publication to attribute the leak/rumor to, but news organizations are awash with the idea that Vonage is about to apply for an IPO, hoping to raise $600m. Perhaps the Wall Street Journal, which is cited by many sources, was the origin of the story. Already, before the company has gone public with the …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 12:37

  • Nokia makes the case for mobile TV

    The punters want it - really

    Nokia says that data from one of the world's first commercial mobile TV pilots in Helsinki, Finland shows that 41 per cent of pilot participants would be willing to purchase mobile TV services, and that a monthly fee of €10 ($12) is a reasonable price to pay. Over half (58 per cent) said that they believed broadcast mobile TV …

    Mobile 31 Aug 2005, 12:39

  • TechScape: Vint Cerf on the InterPlanet

    Interview To Mars and beyond...

    In the second of TechScape’s three exclusive interviews with Vint Cerf, Bill Robinson investigates the story of the InterPlanet (or Interplanetary Internet as it is sometimes called). The first time I met Vint Cerf was about five years ago when he was speaking at Cambridge University. Being a Yank over here, I decided I …

    Data Networking 31 Aug 2005, 13:01

  • Sat nav suite plots course for Gizmondo

    Lost, boys?

    Tiger Telematics is re-pitching its Gizmondo handheld games console as a satellite navigation system, the company revealed this week. Based on ALK Technologies' CoPilot route-planning software, Gizmondo Navigator 2006 uses the console's integrated GPS chip to help motorists steer their way along the quickest, least congested, …

    Mobile 31 Aug 2005, 13:02

  • Telecoms spending on the up

    Says Ofcom and the OECD

    Spending on telecoms services such as mobile and broadband continues to climb, according to the latest figures from regulator Ofcom. Total UK retail revenues in the 12 months to March were £36.6bn - 5 per cent higher than a year ago. Although spending on traditional fixed line services continued to slide, mobile revenues …

    Networks 31 Aug 2005, 13:29

  • South Korea throws strop at Google Earth

    Military installations laid bare

    The South Korean government is to take the US to task over Google Earth on the grounds that the globetrotting online service shows sensitive military installations laid bare in a way which might benefit North Korea. Presidential spokesman Kim Man-soo said earlier this week the powers that be were planning on "raising concerns …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 13:46

  • Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 500GB HDD

    Review As fast as it's big?

    We've never done a review of a single hard disk before, but this Hitachi drive justifies the attention. It's the first 500GB disk drive to hit the shelves - Hitachi has got its drive to market ahead of the likes of Maxtor and Seagate, who have announced drives but not yet shipped them. Half a terabyte in a single drive. Blimey! …

    Reviews 31 Aug 2005, 14:04

  • Chinese mobe sellers bundle smut to boost sales

    Lewd = lucrative

    Enterprising mobile resellers in eastern China's Anhui Province are bundling free porno clips in order to boost sales of the latest multimedia handsets. Xinhua, China's official news agency, reports that one of its staffers was offered mucky clips as a purchase incentive when he asked for a demo of the video playing feature of a …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 14:19

  • IBM wins £10m deal from Kent County Council

    Five years, all the hardware you can eat

    IBM has won a five year, £10m deal to supply IT infrastructure and services to Kent County Council. The move is part of Kent's efforts to make its services more directly accessible for its residents. Under the terms of the deal, IBM will retain ownership of all the hardware it provides, and will be responsible for regular …

    IT Director 31 Aug 2005, 14:22

  • LogicaCMG racks up revs, profit gains

    Told you the merger was a good idea

    LogicaCMG claims its just-released preliminary results prove the merger which created the firm is showing long term benefits – almost three years down the line. The services group's revenues for the six months ending 30 June were up 10.9 per cent on the year to £891.7m. This generated operating profit up 23.3 per cent to £40.8m …

    Financial News 31 Aug 2005, 14:37

  • Perkins get Azlan

    Distie round-up Also Gem, ComputerLinks

    Computer 2000 - as Tech Data is called in the UK - has promoted Lee Perkins to run Azlan in the UK. Former Azlan boss Simon Hill was purged last month in the a re-org which saw the loss of 60 jobs. Azlan UK now incorporates C2000's former networking solutions group - which Perkins ran - and its midrange hardware and software …

    Channel Register 31 Aug 2005, 15:04

  • Computer in poolside rescue drama

    Anything Pamela Anderson can do...

    A computer system has saved a ten-year-old girl from drowning in a swimming pool in Wales, by alerting lifeguards when she got into trouble. The system, called Poseidon, costs around £65,000. It uses cameras both above and below the surface to monitor people in the pool. Alarms go off if someone is motionless at the bottom of …

    Bootnotes 31 Aug 2005, 15:11

  • HP warns over OpenView flaw

    W-w-w-workaround

    Enterprise users are been urged to apply workarounds following the discovery of a potentially troublesome vulnerability involving a component of HP's widely used network management suite, HP OpenView. A security bug in Network Node Manager opens the door to possible hacker attack, according to work by security researchers at …

    Enterprise Security 31 Aug 2005, 15:25

  • Bulldog lining up 20 meg broadband

    Blimey

    Bulldog is on the verge of offering a 20 meg broadband service, El Reg has learnt. The local loop unbundling (LLU) outfit is currently battling to restore its reputation after a torrent of complaints from customers. But it's also keen to extend its broadband offering, according to a reader who contacted the ISP to cancel his …

    Telecoms 31 Aug 2005, 15:26

  • Develop 'super-human' like powers... fast!

    Spammers target the superhero in us all

    Spammers are capitalizing on Hollywood's love affair with superhero flicks to lure gullible email readers with offers of phenomenal superhuman powers. Clearswift's latest monthly spam index has found spammers are making tall offers for software they claim would "automatically motivate, empower and re-educate your mind to …

    Spam 31 Aug 2005, 22:20

  • Boffins build cancer-spotting nanobelts

    Slinky, and quasi-one-dimensional

    Research scientists at Georgia Tech have built nano-scale detectors so sensitive that they will be capable of spotting individual cancer cells. The detectors are based on a new kind of quasi-one dimensional nano material, dubbed nanobelts or nanoribbons, which can be made from a variety of materials, like zinc or tin oxides. …

    Science 31 Aug 2005, 22:23

  • Hidden-code flaw in Windows renews worries over stealthy malware

    Rootin' tootin' cowboys

    Last week, the Internet Storm Center, a group of security professionals that track threats on the Net, flagged a flaw in how a common Microsoft Windows utility and several anti-spyware utilities detect system changes made by malicious software. By using long names for registry keys, spyware programs could, in a simple way, hide …

    Malware 31 Aug 2005, 23:05