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10th October 2005 Archive

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  • Mercury suite talks BTO

    And we are not talking Bachman Turner Overdrive

    Mercury Interactive has launched Business Technology Optimisation (BTO) Enterprise, claimed to be the first suite to implement an integrated Enterprise BTO technology blueprint. This is accessed through the Mercury IT Governance Centre, on top of the Mercury Application Change Lifecycle with Mercury Quality Centre, Mercury …

    Developer 10 Oct 2005, 05:02

  • Ofcom waves through wholesale line rental

    Yeah, yeah, yeah...

    Ofcom is to approve a product that should enable rivals to compete with dominant fixed line telco BT. The regulator reckons Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) - which enables telcos to invoice customers for line rental and phone charges on the same bill, as opposed to having to pay for calls and line rental separately - should now be …

    Telecoms 10 Oct 2005, 06:02

  • Wales sold on online procurement

    Substantial savings

    Millions could be saved by Welsh councils following a successful first eAuction pilot by two local authorities in the Principality. Swansea and Neath Port Talbot councils secured potential savings of £650,000 over five years, equivalent to nine per cent of expenditure for the supply of tinned and dried foods for a contract …

    Public Sector 10 Oct 2005, 08:15

  • Anti-spam user authentication is 'worse than useless'

    Trivial to break

    Claims that user authentication schemes will reduce spam are not just wrong but "wrongheaded", a security researcher warned on Friday. User authentication schemes such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and Sender ID check if machines are allowed to send email from a claimed domain - a kind of caller line identification (more …

    Spam 10 Oct 2005, 08:30

  • Ericsson set to buy Marconi

    According to reports...

    Ericsson is in talks which could quickly lead to the takeover of Marconi, according to reports just about everywhere. The troubled equipment maker said in August that it was in talks leading to a possible sale. At the time Marconi was valued at around £600m and Chinese firm Huawei Technologies fingered as the likely suitor. …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 08:40

  • Porn and gore man arrested

    GI Jane man collared for 'obscenity'

    The American man behind the website which offered free porn in exchange for pictures of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan has been arrested for obscenity. Christopher Wilson, 27 from Lakeland, Florida, was charged with 300 counts of obscenity over 20 films and 80 still photographs - he is charged with possession, distribution …

    Music and Media 10 Oct 2005, 08:55

  • DDoS by mobile phone: is it a goer?

    SMS flurry worry

    Mobile phone networks could be swamped by text messages to phones in a denial of service attack by hackers, academics warn. A paper by Enck, Traynor, McDaniel, and La Porta of Pennsylvania State University explains that if too many text messages are sent to phones in the the same cell of a mobile network at the same time the …

    Mobile 10 Oct 2005, 09:01

  • Crack-crazed squirrels terrorise South London

    Be afraid

    Stop us if you've heard this one: crack-addicted squirrels are terrorising Brixton in Sarf London in a desperate search for a fix, eschewing their traditional nuts and digging up residents' front gardens in what appears to be a credible zoological threat to the Yardies' hard-drug hegemony. Yup, crack dealers and addicts have …

    Bootnotes 10 Oct 2005, 09:56

  • Oracle buys Finnish developer

    Larry's list still getting shorter...

    Database giant Oracle has made another acquisition - picking up a small Finnish open source developer. Oracle has bought InnoBase for an undislosed amount. The Finnish firm develops InnoDB which is distributed as part of MySQL.Oracle said it wants to continue developing the product and "expand our committment to open source …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 10:00

  • Oz investor swallows €400m slice of Eircom

    Crumbs

    There's speculation that Eircom could become the focus of a take-over bid after Australian investment outfit Babcock & Brown acquired a 12.5 per cent stake in the Irish incumbent. Babcock has shelled out around €400m for its slice of the dominant Irish telco which it believes it currently undervalued. Said Babcock exec Rex …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 10:16

  • Humans prime suspects in lynx extinction

    Should we bring back the wild cats?

    Tests on lynx bones found in a cave in North Yorkshire in the 19th century have overturned the widely held belief that the wild cat went extinct in the UK 4,000 years ago. Radio carbon dating has shown the bones to be a mere 1,500 years old. The findings indicate that the lynx went extinct as a consequence of hunting, or the …

    Science 10 Oct 2005, 10:24

  • Japanese supersonic airliner is go

    Successful test

    Japan this morning successfully tested an 11.5m-long propotype of its Next Generation Supersonic Transport (SST) at Australia's Woomera range. The SST was carried to around 59,000 feet strapped under a rocket after which it separated and flew for 15 minutes at Mach 1.9-2 before parachuting back to earth. A Japanese space …

    Science 10 Oct 2005, 10:34

  • Apple and Samsung could face Korea flash memory probe

    Flash prices...

    Korean regulators could investigate whether Apple broke competition laws by buying memory from Samsung at below market rates. Samsung is widely thought to be Apple's key memory supplier, a lucrative deal given the recent launch of the flash-based iPod Nano. The Korean Fair Trade Commission chairman Kang Chul-kyu said he was …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 10:43

  • Stanford wins the DARPA challenge

    Better result than last year

    Stanford University has won the second $2m DARPA grand challenge, in which robot cars have just ten hours to steer themselves across a 150-odd mile obstacle course in the Mojave desert. Stanford's entry, which is based on a diesel Volkswagen Touareg R5 and is known as Stanley, crossed the line 11 minutes ahead of its nearest …

    Science 10 Oct 2005, 11:54

  • MS security bundling plan causes waves

    Symantec assists EU 'reconnaissance probe'

    European anti-trust regulators have begun investigating Microsoft's plans to market consumer security software. Symantec has been asked to provide information about Microsoft's plans for OneCare - an all-in-one PC health check service targeted at consumers - in order to help investigators decide whether Microsoft might have …

    Security 10 Oct 2005, 12:04

  • We're just getting revved up, Ballmer tells Irish

    Dublin jolly for jovial Steve

    As the launch of the Xbox 360 nears, Steve Ballmer told Irish journalists that Microsoft is "poised for leadership in the next generation console market". The Microsoft boss was in Dublin on Friday as part of a tour of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region. In jovial mood, Ballmer said that the software firm had a rich …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 12:08

  • Ex-subscriber accuses PlusNet of 'paranoia'

    Legal exchange over 'email database' claims

    A Reading man says he "didn't know whether to laugh or cry" when he received an email from PlusNet's lawyers instructing him to hand over a database containing email addresses of 95,000 PlusNet customers. Snag is, Simon Chapman says he doesn't possess a database of PlusNet's customers. Nor does he have any intention of …

    Telecoms 10 Oct 2005, 13:06

  • Airstrike rocks Smurf village

    Death from the skies in Unicef advert

    Here's a poser for you: you're trying to knock together a TV ad highlighting the effects of war on children. What's the plan? Well, you could go down the traditional route of earnest voice-over accompanying footage of said kids miserably awaiting a better life or, on the other hand, you could arm up a squadron of attack …

    Bootnotes 10 Oct 2005, 13:15

  • Shanghai takes big stick to net slang

    No more 'konglong' for you, sunshine

    The powers that be in Shanghai have taken a seat alongside the French on the linguistic shoreline waiting to order back the tide of lexicographical barbarisms which threaten their native tongues, official Chinese news reports confirm. Of course, the French have been at it for years, reserving particular outrage for English …

    Bootnotes 10 Oct 2005, 13:28

  • Google Sun (Office) not a threat, says MS

    'Just download the software'

    The Microsoft exec in charge of Office has dismissed last week's tie-up between Sun and Google as illusion rather than substance. "That announcement didn't have anything," Chris Capossela, corporate vice president,Information Worker Product Management Group of Microsoft, told a crowd of Dutch reporters last week. "It had …

    Applications 10 Oct 2005, 14:02

  • Wanted: new chairman of incumbent telco

    Please apply in confidence to BT

    BT is sniffing around for a new chairman, according to a report by The Observer. The monster telco has put out "informal feelers" for someone to replace Sir Christopher Bland who is due to step down from the company in 2007. However, reports the Sunday newspaper, if the right person could be found to take over sooner then …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 14:08

  • SMS kettle: best invention ever?

    Er, probably not

    Do you ever find yourself gasping for a cup of tea, but you just can't summon the strength to switch the kettle on? Does it all seem too much? Is all hope for the afternoon tea break fading away? Fear not, for PG Tips have invented the SMS kettle. You can now put the water on to boil at the flick of a switch.,..oh, sorry, touch …

    Bootnotes 10 Oct 2005, 14:15

  • Chip and PIN gets loved up

    UK preps for Valentine's Day sign over

    UK credit and debit card holders will have to remember their PIN in order to be sure of being able to pay by plastic after Valentine's Day 2006, the banking industry announced Monday. If shoppers don’t use a PIN, their Chip and PIN card may be declined and the option of signing will no longer be guaranteed except for cards that …

    Enterprise Security 10 Oct 2005, 14:22

  • NO2ID: the big t-shirt restock

    Cash'n'Carrion Battle the ID card with cotton apparel

    Battling anti-ID-card outfit No2ID, recently seen causing a bit of a kerfuffle at a government ID card roadshow and getting themselves ejected from the Gateshead Metro Centre for their trouble, have just restocked all of their campaigning shirts in all sizes. Accordingly, there's no excuse for those readers opposed to Chaz " …

    Site News 10 Oct 2005, 14:53

  • Governments make net grab - Podcast Exclusive

    WSIS all about

    Who should have control of the Internet? Last month's United Nations meeting in Geneva saw the United States pitched against the EU as well as old foes China, Iran and Cuba in a fight for overall control of the Internet. Stalking the corridors in Geneva last month, Kieren McCarthy collared the great and good at the heart of the …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 15:26

  • Ballmer to bid for GOO61E licence plate?

    Yes, and then beat f**king Eric Schmidt with it

    Here's the perfect gift for the man who has everything, except Google: the GOO61E licence plate currently up for grabs on eBay for a cool £20,000. Described as the "only 'GOOGLE' Plate possible", it's being punted as "ideal for anyone associated with 'Google' or the computing industry". That'd be Steve "Ballistic" Ballmer we …

    Bootnotes 10 Oct 2005, 15:30

  • Mobile phone insurance 'waste of money'

    Night follows day shock

    Forking out for mobile phone insurance could be a waste of money according to industry group BIBA. It's warned consumers that the small print on some policies means that insurers won't pay out even if phones are nicked. It also points out that with premiums of more than £100 a year, punters should consider pocketing the cash …

    Mobile 10 Oct 2005, 15:31

  • We'll index the world by 2310, says Google

    Uhuh...

    Good news for people who like making lists: Google's Eric Schmidt says that it will take another three hundred years before all the information in the world is neatly indexed and searchable. Schmidt was speaking at the US' Association of National Advertisers' annual conference in Phoenix when a member of the audience asked how …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 15:42

  • RIM refused rehearing in BlackBerry case

    No, says Court of Appeals

    A US Federal Court of Appeals on Friday refused to rehear an appeal by RIM in respect of a dispute over the BlackBerry-maker's alleged infringements of patents relating to radio frequency wireless communications in email systems. RIM had been hoping that a 12-judge panel would rehear the case, after an August ruling by three …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 15:49

  • IXEurope buys German datacentre

    Too much excitement for one day

    IXEurope has snapped up its third datacentre in Germany, the firm announced today. And although the datacentre specialist was happy to disclose that the centre is north of Frankfurt and cost "in excess of €14m", it refused to name the company that sold the site. Instead, IXEurope said that the deal includes "two existing …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2005, 15:51

  • Supermicro begins 'Ask, Don't Tell' Opteron drive

    Out of the closet with friends

    AMD has dragged supplier Supermicro kicking and screaming out of the Opteron processor closet. The chip maker today put out a press release on Supermicro's behalf, announcing that three suppliers have picked up Supermicro's AMD-based gear. Long an Intel-only shop, Supermicro remains shy about its Opteron ambitions. So it took …

    Servers 10 Oct 2005, 18:40

  • Intel emerges from innovation sabbatical with a case of Paxville

    Dual-cores and a Hot Carl

    Nothing says, "Please forgive me" like a Hot Carl. Er, sorry, a Carl Reiner. Yes, Intel pulled out the old Carl for its launch today of the "Paxville DP" processor - aka Intel's first real dual-core server chip - aka its long-awaited answer to AMD's Opteron. Intel picked the comic legend to appear at a San Francisco launch …

    Servers 10 Oct 2005, 21:46