7th October 2005 Archive
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Ex-PeopleSoft CEO lands on Salesforce.com's board
We'll get you, Larry - this time!
Salesforce.com has turned its boardroom into a tool for poking and prodding the egos at Oracle. The CRM company today added former PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway to its director list. Yes, Conway has turned on his old staffers apparently with revenge in mind. Like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Conway once served under Oracle CEO …
Business 7 Oct 2005, 02:26
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Six Things you need to know about Bubble 2.0
Web 2.0 We follow the money
Techno utopian types love their earthy metaphors. The web is a new planet that's being "terraformed" before our eyes, one advertising consultant likes to say. Or the "web is a garden", if you believe Sun Microsystem's director of research. Even my overgrown garden doesn't have something like this lurking in the corner, and I …
Music and Media 7 Oct 2005, 02:38
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Malware turns PSP into expensive brick
Trojan warez
PSP users are being urged to beware of a Trojan which, once executed, turns their games gizmo into little more than an expensive book weight. The (PlayStation Portable) PSP Brick Trojan poses as a utility that allows gamers to run homebrew apps or pirated games. The latest version 2.0 of the PSP firmware stops the execution of …
Malware 7 Oct 2005, 08:50
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Astronomers probe mystery of short GRBs
That's Gamma Ray Bursts, to you
Astronomers have for the first time observed the visible afterglow of an elusive short-lived gamma ray burst (GRB). Long-lived bursts have been seen in the optical spectrum before, but the short bursts are so short that no telescope has ever been able to respond to one quickly enough to catch it in the act. By definition, the …
Science 7 Oct 2005, 09:03
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Are you a bored web techie? Join al-Qaeda
Ossie places internet small ad
You won't find the ads down at your local job centre, but al-Qaeda is recruiting web techies for its fast-growing international internet propaganda operation. According to Reuters, the fun-loving organisation has published web adverts "asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages", or more …
Bootnotes 7 Oct 2005, 09:35
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Microsoft reveals Xbox 360 line-up
Is that all there is?
Microsoft has announced details of the games that will be available for its Xbox 360 console, but only a few titles are likely to be on sale by the launch date. Around 200 Xbox 360 games are currently in development, but only a handful of these will be available in shops when the console goes on sale in Europe in early December …
Consoles 7 Oct 2005, 10:02
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China purges spam SMS
'Hidden dirt' for the off
China has ordered telcos to purge spam SMSes of smut and other "unhealthy" influences, including "superstitious content" like fortune telling. The Ministry of Information Industry made the pronouncement today on its website which declared: "Recently, there has been a lot of dirt hidden in the telecommunication networks. The …
Spam 7 Oct 2005, 10:06
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Shuttle Endeavour ends two-year hibernation
Powered up
NASA has completed a swathe of modifications to the Space Shuttle Endeavour to bring the craft up to the new safety standards required by the Return to Flight recommendations. The shuttle was powered up at the Kennedy Space Center, yesterday, for the first time in two years. Endeavour was commissioned in the aftermath of the …
Science 7 Oct 2005, 10:10
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C&W hammered as UK revenues fall
In a right old spin
Shares in Cable & Wireless (C&W) took a hammering in early trading this morning after the UK telco warned sales had slipped in the first half. Total revenue in the UK dropped 6 per cent from £810m in the first half of last year to £765m in H1 2005 following a 13 per cent slump in revenues from its retail business, the company …
Financial News 7 Oct 2005, 10:37
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Eminem sues over ringtones
Er, can you hear the difference?
Eminem’s publishers on Tuesday filed a complaint against five ringtone firms, alleging that they are using the rap star’s songs as mobile phone ringtones without permission, according to the Associated Press. Publishing firms Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated are seeking an injunction from the US District Court in Detroit …
Mobile 7 Oct 2005, 10:47
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MCI take-over gets thumbs-up
The shareholders, they say 'yes'
MCI stockholders have given the thumbs-up to the merger with Verizon with 88 per cent of the votes in favour of the tie-up. "This vote of support by our shareholders represents a key milestone in the merger approval process," said MCI boss Michael Capellas in a statement. The deal is expected to close in late 2005 or early …
Financial News 7 Oct 2005, 11:17
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New flight control problem for Japan's asteroid probe
All a question of attitude
Doubts were raised yesterday over the future of Japan's asteroid sample and return mission, as the spacecraft lost another part of its attitude control system. The news has prompted concern that the craft won't be able to make its planned landing on an asteroid next month. The Hayabusa spacecraft, specifically designed to …
Science 7 Oct 2005, 11:20
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VeriSign buys Weblogs.com for $2.3m
Premium services planned
A main piece of the blogging infrastructure - ping service Weblogs.com - has been bought by the Net's largest company, VeriSign, for $2.3m. The deal will see VeriSign continue to run the basic ping service for free but add charged-for services, including a blog filter, in coming months. Explaining his decision to sell the site …
Financial News 7 Oct 2005, 11:27
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Ingram Micro loves mobility, true
Get Mobile, Stay Connected
If you wanna know where disties make their pitiable margin, just follow the co-op marketing budget. IOf Ingram Micro is anything to go by, there is still some money available from wireless and data to pony up for spiffs, special offers and advertising campaigns. The distie giant this week launched in Europe what it calls a " …
Channel Register 7 Oct 2005, 12:01
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Third party sniffing round NTL/Telewest - WSJ
Right-o
No sooner have NTL and Telewest finally agreed to merge, than it seems someone else might be interested in buying the enlarged UK cableco. So reports the WSJ, which says a group of private-equity firms are mulling an $11bn bid for the pair. It goes on to say that nothing is certain and an offer may or may not be forthcoming. …
Financial News 7 Oct 2005, 12:33
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Artificial dog's testicle wins Ig Nobel Prize
Scientific bo**ocks honoured
Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri has secured this year's Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine for his artificial replacement testicles for dogs - aka "Neuticles" - which are "available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness". Sadly, the laureat was unable to travel to last night's awards ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theatre …
Bootnotes 7 Oct 2005, 12:39
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Info Commissioner to crack down on FOI shirkers
Commissioner limbers up for July review
Britain's Information Commissioner is examining the open government credentials of over 100,000 public sector organisations as it prepares to strike a tougher line on enforcing freedom of information laws. After an initial learning period for both the IC and the public sector, the IC is now seeking to ensure public sector …
Public Sector 7 Oct 2005, 13:39
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Gizmoville acquires taste for pizza-flavoured laptops
Tech Digest Delicious
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, while Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay. Shiny has also just launched two new blogs: HDTVUK – the first high definition TV news site for the UK - and PopJunkie. From Frank Sinatra’s odd concept album from …
Peripherals 7 Oct 2005, 13:52
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AOL and MSN 'chatting again'
It's OK to talk
Time Warner and Microsoft are once again round the table chin-wagging about ways to hook up their two internet divisions. The WSJ reports that the giants are looking to knit together AOL's content with MSN's search engine although tying together other parts of the business could also be on the cards. If a deal is to be done it …
Financial News 7 Oct 2005, 14:00
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Aussies launch SMS Bible
'In da Bginnin God cre8d...'
The Bible Society in Australia has taken the bold step of translating the entire Bible into txt-talk which mobile-savvy believers can disseminate via SMS in 31,173 bite-sized verses. Bible Society in Australia spokesman, Michael Chant, enthused: "The old days when the Bible was only available within a sombre black cover with a …
Bootnotes 7 Oct 2005, 14:40
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Telkom Kenya unhappy about disappearing cables
Copper-hungry vandals blamed
Telkom Kenya lost "a colossal" 400m shillings (£3m) last year after vandals nicked a load of copper wire. Thieves looking to make a few quid have been ripping out the incumbent's copper cables from overhead and undeground lines and it's costing the business a fortune. The east African telco is so hacked off about its …
Bootnotes 7 Oct 2005, 15:07
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FSC signs up channel vets for enterprise push
SPARC plugs
Fujitsu Siemens Computers has signed up Mike Maughan and Steven Longden, two veterans of the Sun distie channel, to bulk up UK enterprise reseller sales. Maughan and Longden worked together at Tplc and at Clarity. They have now set up their own distribution business called Partner Support Services, which was set up solely to …
Channel Register 7 Oct 2005, 15:25
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Clippy to help with weather forecasts?
Letters And everything you read online is true
Welcome to letters, the surest sign that it is Friday and that the pain of your week is almost certainly coming to an end, very soon. This week's haul is particularly wide ranging, and the following contains your deepest and most interesting thoughts on any number of subjects. From PDFs to sci-fi parodies, with a good bit of …
Letters 7 Oct 2005, 15:42
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For God's sake don't say 'rabbit'
Curse of the Were-Underground-Mutton hits Portland screens
A nice bit of Friday silliness: the BBC reports that posters for the forthcoming Wallace and Gromit spectacular The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on the south-coast island of Portland will not contain the word "rabbit" out of respect for local tradition which has it that the mere utterance of the word causes quarries to collapse …
Bootnotes 7 Oct 2005, 15:45
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Great white shark's oceanic adventure
From Cape Town to Oz, and back again
A great white shark has stunned conservationists by going on a marathon journey, probably in search of a mate. Originally tagged off the coast of South Africa, the shark was tracked by GPS on a journey all the way across the Indian Ocean to Australia and back again. The research team thinks journeys like this must be pretty …
Science 7 Oct 2005, 15:59
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IBM touts information as as service
Comment It's a data management thing
The IBM Information Management group has been taken over by Ambuj Goyal following the retirement (actually she's not gone yet but will be doing so shortly) of Janet Perna. As a result, he and his team have been busy briefing analysts as to the company's plans, particularly at a recent event in Boston. The overall strategy that …
Developer 7 Oct 2005, 16:02
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Pair jailed over virus plot
Worm conspiracy
Two hackers were jailed at Newcastle Crown Court today after admitting their role in creating a computer worm. Andrew Harvey, 24, of Sherburn Village, Durham, and Jordan Bradley, 22, of Darlington, admitted to conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent, between December 31, 2001 and February 7, 2003 …
Malware 7 Oct 2005, 16:17
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AMD welcomes new Irish procurement rules
Ireland and Austria fall into line with EU ruling
New guidelines for the procurement of IT equipment for Ireland's public sector have levelled the playing field for technology manufacturers. The updated guidelines prohibit specific requests for brand names or trademarked technologies. The move by Ireland's Department of Finance is in response to new European Union procurement …
Channel Register 7 Oct 2005, 16:24
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ISP should not identify blogger - court
Victory for free speech on the internet - for Americans
In a victory for free speech on the internet, the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court ruling that a council official, suing over remarks posted online by an unknown blogger, could force the blogger’s ISP to reveal his identity. The official first had to prove that the remarks were capable of a defamatory …
Music and Media 7 Oct 2005, 18:56
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Reg readers take the Dell 'Open-source PC' challenge
Freedom is just another word for nothing to buy
Once upon a time, Michael Dell heard about this thing called Linux. The open-source operating system promised to sweep across PCs all over the world. Ever the low-cost, high-volume guy, Mikey figured he could sell a heck of lot of systems with Linux, and set to work pumping companies such as Red Hat and Eazel with money from …
Operating Systems 7 Oct 2005, 20:10
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Dutch smash 100,000-strong zombie army
DDoS attacks and Paypal fraud
Dutch police have arrested three people for building a worldwide zombie network of more than 100,000 PCs used to launch internet attacks on companies and to hack into bank and Paypal accounts. The main suspect, a 19 year-old man, and his alleged accomplices, a 22 year-old and a 27 year-old, were collared in raids on their homes …
Enterprise Security 7 Oct 2005, 20:30
