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5th September 2005 Archive

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  • DVD-RAM backers promote rival format

    Analysis DVD+RW explicitly named on drives, not DVD-RAM

    Backers of the DVD-RAM re-writeable DVD format have a problem: how can they persuade PC users and consumers that their format is the best one to adopt? But in their efforts to promote the optical disc technology they could be their own worst enemy. The Recordable DVD Council (RDVDC), which oversees the standard, is quick to …

    Peripherals 5 Sep 2005, 00:02

  • Councils face huge workflow challenge

    Deadline looms

    Only one in seven councils has so far fully implemented enterprise workflow within their eGovernment programmes, meaning that to a Whitehall target, most will have to rush through this crucial work at break-neck speed. Such is the outlook from new data compiled from the latest eGovernment progress reports supplied by councils …

    Policy 5 Sep 2005, 08:02

  • Sony pulls the curtains at IFA 2005

    Digital TV, musical phones abound

    Rumours that Sony wouldn't be present at this year's Consumer Electronics show IFA in Berlin due to its shaky financial condition turned out to be dead wrong. But while the company occupied Hall 18 of Messe Berlin, next door to its big rival Samsung, its stand wasn't filled with dozens of sales people trying to impress …

    Peripherals 5 Sep 2005, 09:31

  • Sportingbet in acquisition talks

    Building its 'Empire'

    Sportingbet - the UK-listed betting site - has confirmed it is holding talks concerning the possible acquisition of Empire Online, the gaming outfit which helps promote gambling sites. On Friday Empire announced that it had "received an approach from an [unnamed] party interested in merging its business with that of Empire …

    Financial News 5 Sep 2005, 09:36

  • Germans to get iTunes phone for Christmas

    In brief IFA hears lots of noise on music phones

    T-Mobile said that it plans to sell Motorola's iTunes mobile phone in Germany by Christmas. Apple and Motorola are expected to announce the long-awaited phone this Wednesday. The many music phones on display at the ISF show in Berlin this week include the first models to be fitted with a built-in miniature hard drive. They are …

    Mobile 5 Sep 2005, 09:40

  • Gamers give it up for Katrina comrades

    Donate via Everquest II

    Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is hoping to mobilise players of Everquest II to support their New Orleans comrades and has activated a new command line to enable direct donations to the Red Cross, the BBC reports. Furthermore, SOE has suspended around 13,000 accounts from the distater area until gamers log in again. They won't …

    Bootnotes 5 Sep 2005, 09:42

  • Stem cell hype could trigger backlash

    A warning from Professor Winston

    A leading fertility expert in the UK believes that the benefits of stem cells have been overhyped by some scientists, and will warn of a backlash from the 'right-to-life' movement when reality does not measure up to expectations. Professor Robert Winston, professor of fertility at Imperial College, is set to call for …

    Science 5 Sep 2005, 09:57

  • World chip sales flat in July

    Shipments up, prices down

    Worldwide semiconductor sales growth effectively stalled in July, the US-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) admitted on Friday. The month's sales totalled fractionally over $18bn, compared to just under that number in June. July 2005's tally was near enough the same as the figure the SIA published this time last …

    Financial News 5 Sep 2005, 10:01

  • Drone aircraft to search for Big Easy survivors

    Unmanned seek, locate and rescue initiative

    Five unmanned, remote-controlled drone aircraft, intended to seek out survivors of Hurricane Katrina, are on their way to Baton Rouge after a US congressman took it upon himself to "obtain" the vehicles from a private company. Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon rather impressively bypassed government bureacracy to secure …

    Bootnotes 5 Sep 2005, 10:04

  • ATI to mass-produce R520 'by late Q3'

    Launch sooner?

    ATI's next-generation 5xx series of desktop graphics chips will enter volume production by the end of Q3, the company has allegedly told its customers. So claims a source close to Taiwan's graphics card manufacturer community, according to a DigiTimes report today. Named GPUs include the R520, RV530, RV515 and RV505, all due …

    System Builder 5 Sep 2005, 10:30

  • Intel's 65nm Pentium Extreme Edition to get '1066MHz FSB'

    Presler + HyperThreading = PEE 955, apparently

    Intel's dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition will gain support for the chip maker's 1066MHz frontside bus when it enters the 65nm era, if a company roadmap slide leaked onto the Web is to be believed. The chip, apparently dubbed the Extreme Edition 955, is based on 'Presler, the upcoming 65nm dual-core Pentium D part. Like the …

    System Builder 5 Sep 2005, 10:59

  • Hi-tech no panacea for ID theft woes

    Look elsewhere for silver bullet, says boffin

    Attempts to thwart identity theft and fraud through technology advances are likely to prove counterproductive, a British academic warns. Dr Emily Finch, of the University of East Anglia, said the introduction of Chip and PIN on credit cards and UK government plans to introduce identity card schemes will only encourage crooks to …

    Security 5 Sep 2005, 11:10

  • iPod Mini to 'drop hard drive, gain colour display'

    Flash storage instead, and plenty of it

    Apple's iPod Mini is to gain a colour display but lose its hard drive in a major, post-ROKR shake-up of the Mac maker's music player line-up. So claims website Think Secret citing a variety of moles. Like the iPod Shuffle, the Mini will gain Flash storage in place of the hard drive, though its capacity will not be reduced. …

    Peripherals 5 Sep 2005, 11:14

  • Microsoft's Ballmer: Chair-tossing potty-mouth

    From monkey dancing to chair chucking...

    Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer threw a chair across his office and threatened to "fucking kill Google" when told a key employee was leaving to join the search giant. According to legal documents filed late last week Ballmer reacted with fury when told Mark Lukovsky was joining Google. Lukovsky's statement said: Prior to …

    Software 5 Sep 2005, 11:24

  • Telewest duets with Virgin Digital

    Rock 'n' roll ain't noise pollution apparently

    Telewest has paired up with Virgin Digital to plug its new music download service. The UK cableco has signed a two-year deal to become a preferred ISP for Virgin Digital's new download service which was launched last week. A spokeswoman for Telewest told us that no cash was changing hands as part of the tie-up and that it was …

    Broadband 5 Sep 2005, 12:03

  • Napster UK touts subscriber numbers

    As major music retailers launch rival services

    Napster UK's 750,000 users have downloaded or streamed 55m tracks since the service launched in May 2004, the digital music provider said today. The announcement comes on the day High Street music retailer HMV opened the virtual doors on its own digital download and subscription service. Virgin Digital went live in the UK this …

    Financial News 5 Sep 2005, 12:12

  • Scientists tout civilian laser-fusion plans

    Asking the EU for funds

    A group of European scientists has put forward a proposal for a £500m facility to research new approaches to laser fusion that could potentially be built in the UK. The facility, provisionally called HiPER, would be civilian-run, and as well as pursuing research into fast-ignition laser fusion, would also be available for other …

    Science 5 Sep 2005, 12:20

  • Rules of Thumb (sometimes) considered harmful

    Comment On software testing

    We all like rules of thumb - operational, design or coding shortcuts that don't need any tedious evaluation of alternatives. Effectively, they represent re-use of experience, which is a Good Thing. But, there is a risk. When I worked for DBA, I used to meet people using rules of thumb that optimised memory utilisation by a DBMS …

    Developer 5 Sep 2005, 12:52

  • Kazaa owners, users infringe copyright - judge

    Orders use of 'non-optional' filtering technology

    Australian Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox has ruled that Kazaa owner Sharman Networks and its principals are guilty of copyright infringement. Judge Wilcox declared that Sharman Networks Ltd, LEF Interactive Pty Ltd, Altnet Inc, Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc, Nicola Anne Hemming and Kevin Glen Bermeister "have …

    Media 5 Sep 2005, 13:18

  • No Jobs keynote at Apple Expo Paris

    Attention turns to 7 September announcement

    If Apple CEO Steve Jobs was to have given a keynote at this month's Apple Expo Paris, he certainly isn't now. According to the event's official website, the show "will not feature a formal keynote presentation". Jobs last appeared at Apple Expo Paris two years ago. In 2004, he was recuperating after undergoing treatment for …

    Mobile 5 Sep 2005, 13:35

  • DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-D mobo

    Review Good for gamers and overclockers?

    DFI's popularity has risen steadily ever since it launched its Lanparty range of motherboards a couple of years ago. Since then the Lanparty family has grown with the introduction of a 'lite' version in the shape of the Lanparty UT, writes Lars-Goran Nilsson. DFI hasn't stripped out all of the features of the Lanparty boards …

    Reviews 5 Sep 2005, 14:15

  • British spooks hit AQ bulletin boards

    Are you sure about this jihad thing chaps?

    British spooks plotted to use the internet to help promote two separate messages to the Muslim world - one of the engagement which we hear openly from politicians and diplomats and a darker, secret, message to groups of "more radicalised constituencies". A letter from William Ehrman, director-general of defence and intelligence …

    Media 5 Sep 2005, 14:34

  • Russian phone retailers bypass distributors

    Crackdown on smugglers

    Russia's two largest phone retailers Yevroset and Dixis will no longer buy electronic goods from Russian distributors in an attempt to crack down on smugglers. According to Russian news reports, the country is swamped with illegally imported cell phones, which avoid a customs tax of 5 per cent. The International Confederation …

    Mobile 5 Sep 2005, 14:36

  • Enraged Brit trashes Bulgarian karaoke

    Locals murder Queen classic, get slapped

    An enraged Brit spent 24 hours in jail and was fined 60 quid for terminating a Bulgarian karaoke with his fists - a small price to pay for bringing to an end a tuneless rendition of Queen's We are the Champions belted out by a couple of melodicidal locals. Having assaulted the two men responsible for the outrage, 40-year-old …

    Bootnotes 5 Sep 2005, 14:41

  • Fire disrupts UK DVD rental service

    No man is a Video Island

    Online DVD service Video Island is battling to restore normal operations after a fire in its west London warehouse last week. Video Island runs the DVD rental businesses for Tesco, ITV, MSN and easyGroup, as well as its own direct consumer brand, Screenselect.co.uk. The 150,000 combined subscribers to these services are warned …

    Financial News 5 Sep 2005, 14:51

  • Computer crash threatens Martian photo-op

    Reboot! Reboot!

    NASA has been forced to switch off the scientific instruments on board its Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, just a week before the photo opportunity of a lifetime. Mission managers are hoping to get the craft up and running again in time for a fly by of the suspected crash site of the Mars Polar Lander, a US mission to …

    Science 5 Sep 2005, 15:35

  • Skype signs VoIP JV in China

    Global empire grows

    Skype is looking to make inroads into the potentially lucrative Chinese market after inking a joint venture (JV) agreement with wireless internet operator TOM Online. The two companies are already buddies having forged an agreement to develop a simplified Chinese version of Skype's internet telephony software. Ten months on and …

    VoIP 5 Sep 2005, 15:50

  • 'Islamic Trojan' disrupts smut surfing

    Enough to put you off your stroke

    Virus writers have created a Trojan horse which tries to disrupt visits the pornographic websites by displaying messages from the Koran. The low-risk Yusufali-A Trojan horse monitors the websites Windows users are visiting. If the malware sees one of a set of trigger words (such as "teen", "sex" or "penis") in the url it …

    Security 5 Sep 2005, 16:08

  • Steve Ballmer: the ultimate online poll

    Poll What is this beast they call the Ballmer? You must decide

    Steve Ballmer - an engima wrapped within a riddle printed on an MS licence agreement. Or is he? You must decide... Here, for the first time in cyberspace, we at Vulture Central have compiled an online poll to delve into the source code driving one of the 21st century's great industrialists - a man so rich that if his entire …

    Bootnotes 5 Sep 2005, 16:17