1st September 2005 Archive

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Offline shops 'miss out'

Act local, not parochial

Britain's local businesses are missing out on a share of £1.5bn by failing to sell their products online, a new study reveals. A survey of shoppers by online search directory Touch Local shows over two thirds would like to buy products from their local shops but convenience is still their top predilection. Overwhelmingly, …

Small Biz 1 Sep 2005, 06:02
Rollable displays at IFA 2005

Not in the shops

Philips will demonstrate rollable displays for use in the mobile devices at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, which opens tomorrow. The Readius is the world's first prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. With four grey …

Peripherals 1 Sep 2005, 06:02
IBM gets own facts out for Linux v Windows

Calculators at 50 paces

IBM is kicking some total cost of ownership (TCO) dirt in Microsoft's face, releasing a numbers survey that claims Linux is cheaper to deploy and manage than Windows. An IBM-sponsored Robert Frances Group study found it is 40 per cent cheaper to buy, implement and run an application server on an x86 server running Linux than on …

Servers 1 Sep 2005, 06:43
E-casino 888 to float

Could raise £700m

888 - the online gambling outfit - is to float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) it announced today. The IPO of the Gibraltar-based business values the operation at around £700m. The revenue generated from the float will help execs build the business and improve the firm's "profile and credibility". 888 - which includes …

Financial News 1 Sep 2005, 09:08
ABN AMRO cuts 1,500 jobs

Outsourcers move in

ABN AMRO is slashing its IT headcount from 5,000 to 1,800 after signing a raft of outsourcing deals worth €1.8bn over five years. The Dutch banking giant has struck deals with Infosys, IBM, Accenture, Tata Consultancy, and Patni. While the consultants move in, internal IT staff will be moving out. Around 2,000 staff will shift …

IT Director 1 Sep 2005, 10:05
New Orleans to enjoy free Wi-Fi access

Wireless hope amid the carnage

There is some welcome relief today for those people left wading through the remains of New Orleans - T-Mobile has announced it will offer free Wi-Fi access across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama until the end of the week, and "possibly beyond that if the situation warrants it". That's how eWeek.com puts it, under the …

Bootnotes 1 Sep 2005, 10:37
Albatron readies 'SLi-enabled' Intel-based mobo

Nvidia opening up?

Albatron will next month ship an Intel-oriented mobo that incorporates Nvidia's multi-GPU technology, SLi. The motherboard, the PX945P is based on Intel's 945P chipset for LGA775 Pentium processors, including the dual-core Pentium D, operating across a 1066MHz frontside bus. The board supports 667MHz DDR 2 SDRAM in dual-channel …

System Builder 1 Sep 2005, 10:40
The Java Programming Language

Site offer Explained and unravelled at 30% off

Direct from the creators of the Java™ programming language, the completely revised fourth edition of The Java™ Programming Language is an indispensable resource for novice and advanced programmers alike. Developers around the world have used previous editions to quickly gain a deep understanding of the Java programming language …

Site News 1 Sep 2005, 10:41
Apple stalls Mac Mini test-drive offer

PR you couldn't pay for

Apple has apparently pulled the plug on a scheme to allow would-be Mac Mini buyers to try the diminutive computer for a month, free of charge. The offer appeared on Apple's website yesterday. The company did request money up front - trial participants still have to pay for the Mini - but at the end of a 30-day period, Apple …

Mac Channel 1 Sep 2005, 10:44
Wanted: seasoned w**nkers for online ejaculation pole

No IT angle, NSFW, may cause blindness

Yes, we know: we shouldn't be giving the following story the time of day. Worse still, we should in fact be expressing our righteous indignation that sex toy e-outfit LoveHoney.co.uk (purveyor of the popular backless thong) is running an online poll to determine exactly how long it takes the average male onanist to achieve …

Bootnotes 1 Sep 2005, 10:48
MyTob and NetSky-P dominate August viral charts

Zotob shut out of league of shame

Despite all the publicity about the Zotob the NetSky-P virus continued to dominate anti-virus charts in August. Zotob exploited a recently discovered Microsoft Plug and Play vulnerability to infect several media organisations last month. A number of other worms (such as Bozori and IRCBot) exploited the same vulnerability but …

Malware 1 Sep 2005, 10:55
ECS ships dual AMD-Intel mobo

Mix'n'match rival processors

Here's an interesting plan. Elitegroup (ECS) has announced a mobo capable of supporting both AMD and Intel processors. The board, the PF88, uses an old technique: the daughtercard. Out of the box, the motherboard sports an LGA775 socket ready for an Intel Pentium of Celeron D processor, be they single- or dual-core. The board …

System Builder 1 Sep 2005, 11:01
UK Online unveils 24 meg service

They're all at it now

UK Online - the ISP that's part of local loop unbundling (LLU) outfit EasyNet - has confirmed it too is to offer 24 meg broadband. The ISP launched an 8 meg service ten months ago and is now planning to build on that with the release of a 24 meg product from next month. Although prices have yet to be confirmed the company said …

Telecoms 1 Sep 2005, 11:43
Creative touts tiny video player in Asia

Squint-tastic

Creative is pitching a tiny portable video player at Asian customers, though Western consumers may baulk at its diminutive display and slimline storage capacity. The compact, 6.6 x 3.2 x 1.6cm MuVo Vidz ships with either 1GB or 512MB of Flash memory, and presents JPEG photos and MPEG 4 video on a 1.18in 65536-colour OLED screen …

Peripherals 1 Sep 2005, 11:45
Job cuts loom for Barclays IT staff

Up to 200 jobs could go

Barclays Bank is to cut as many as 200 jobs from its IT staff, according to reports. The company confirmed that redundancies are in the pipeline, but declined to discuss specific numbers. The bank, which has recently appointed a new head of IT, also confirmed that it would be "reviewing the structure and nature" of its £350m …

IT Director 1 Sep 2005, 11:52
Creative MP3 players ship with virus

Infectious music

Creative Labs has instituted a partial product recall after discovering that it accidentally shipped approximately 3,700 MP3 players contaminated with a Windows virus. Filesystems of affected 5GB Zen Neeons players contain a file infected with the Wullik-B (AKA Rays-A) email worm. The worm won't infect PCs unless the user …

Malware 1 Sep 2005, 12:49
Sony PSP in 'popular' shock

Brits queue round block; Aussies more casual

Sony's PlayStation Portable arrived - officially, at least - in the UK last night to cries of joy from the hundreds of would-be buyers who had queued up buy one. The handheld console also launched in Australia today, though punters down under will have got their hands on the machine many hours ahead of their British …

Consoles 1 Sep 2005, 12:55
Toshiba hints at HD DVD launch delay

Knocked back into 2006?

Toshiba may not launch HD DVD products until 2006, breaking its previously stated deadline for the introduction of the technology. Toshiba and other HD DVD backers have for some time pegged late 2005 as the launch point for the next-generation, blue-laser optical disc format in the US and Japan. However, a spokeswoman at the …

Peripherals 1 Sep 2005, 13:07
Logica bypassing India, heading to Philippines

Cheaper, further

LogicCMG said yesterday that plans to expand its outsourcing business could include setting up an operation in the Philippines, noting that skilled labour there is even cheaper than in India. The company said it will also build on its facilities in India, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, The Telegraph reports. Outsourcing is …

Financial News 1 Sep 2005, 13:46
Heroic New Orleans hosting outfit battles on

No surrender for directNIC.com

We're obliged to reader Paul Hatch to alerting us to the heroic struggle of web hosting outfit directNIC.com - owned by Intercosmos Media Group - which is currently continuing to operate from a 10th-floor datacenter in New Orleans' Business district. The company's website states: Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. wants to thank …

Bootnotes 1 Sep 2005, 13:55
Sage opens up on integration

Third parties welcomed to party

Sage will open up its software to third parties under an integration program designed to get all its apps talking to one another. The accountancy specialist’s Application Integration Services technology will underpin links between its UK mid-market and small business accounting and CRM packages. This means, for example, that …

Applications 1 Sep 2005, 14:22
Lights out in Massachusetts for Microsoft

Commonwealth goes open source

The state of Massachusetts is set to follow in the footsteps of a number of European cities by ditching Microsoft in favour of open source software. In a move that could have serious repercussions for the Redmond-based software giant, the state has proposed that all its employees should use open formats for electronic documents …

Software 1 Sep 2005, 14:58
US-only trials for MS anti-phishing toolbar

Hey, there's plenty of fraud over here too

Microsoft released a test version of an anti-phishing toolbar on Wednesday. Europeans need not apply because the software is only available to US users. That's not because Microsoft reckons scam emails that form the basis of phishing attacks are a US-only problem but because the code is still only in beta, a Microsoft …

ID 1 Sep 2005, 15:04
Value added reselling is dead - Morse chief

Hard cheese for hardware

Value added reselling based on computer hardware "is dead", according to Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Morse Group, the corporate reseller. In a webcast yesterday accompanying full year results, Mcintyre said that commoditisation of computer hardware was a permanent fixture. But he sees “significant opportunities” in his own business …

Channel Register 1 Sep 2005, 15:05
Argos pulls 49p TV deal

No free lunch either

Thousands of disgruntled Argos customers are to receive refunds of 49 pence each after the retailer said “No, we’re not going to sell you a TV and DVD for less than ten bob”. <p A “genuine internal error” meant the UK retail giant advertised the TV/DVD bundle at just 49p on its website, instead of the usual £350. The price was …

Bootnotes 1 Sep 2005, 15:57
LogicLibrary applies smarts to SOA work

Joins OASIS, does the math

A cross-industry project to develop blueprints for developers building service oriented architectures (SOAs) is getting an added infusion of expertise. LogicLibrary is taking a seat on OASIS’s SOA Adoption Blueprints Technical Committee, formed in August, having announced Wednesday it is formally joining the Organization for …

Developer 1 Sep 2005, 17:21
Darknets to eclipse bandwidth management

Crypto traffic conundrum challenges ISPs

Encrypted P2P networks will soon make bandwidth management based on deep packet inspection obsolete, says Staselog, a Finnish appliance outfit. Around 80 per cent of all traffic in the Internet is already P2P. This traffic will increase 1,000-fold in the next five years and most of it will be encrypted P2P, according to a study …

Telecoms 1 Sep 2005, 20:26
IBM closes data hub deal

Sets your data free

IBM has put another brick of its Information on Demand strategy in place with the closure of its DWL acquisition, announced in August. Financial terms were not disclosed. DWL is a self-styled data hub specialist and prides itself on providing Java-based software that can delivers a single customer view of data drawn from …

Applications 1 Sep 2005, 20:38