14th October 2005 Archive

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Feds claim 'largest ever' CD piracy bust

Ricky Martin revival rumored

Counterfeit software from Symantec and Adobe Systems has been seized in an operation that netted the largest ever crop of illegal CD manufacturing equipment in the US. Pirated copies of Symantec Norton Antivirus 2005, Internet Security 2005, PC Anywhere and Adobe's Photoshop CS were among more than 325,000 CDs seized following …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2005, 00:50
Yahoo! targets! Stanford! students!

Have some music - the first hit is free

Geeks and overachievers at the prestigious Stanford University are to be offered access to more than one million online songs hosted by Yahoo! Music. But almost a quarter of the students are excluded, since the service doesn't work on Mac computers. A year-long pilot program will allow 18,000 graduates and undergrads to play …

Music and Media 14 Oct 2005, 02:03
Will you blother reading a bloring blook?

Emergent Literary Award in ambitious rebranding bid

Some press releases are so simply, staggeringly indescribable, we print them without comment. These are most often related to corporate makeovers or rebranding exercises, which is quite appropriate in this case. We've tried to be faithful to the original's unique typographical qualities where possible. And we'd better warn you …

Bootnotes 14 Oct 2005, 03:25
'Be' Broadband updates on 24 meg service

They're trying hard, honest

Broadband ISP "Be There" has issued an update on the progress it's made so far in providing unbundled broadband in London. While it recognises that some punters have experienced difficulties, the ISP has sought to keep customers up to date with some of the issues facing the local loop unbundling (LLU) operator. For instance, …

Telecoms 14 Oct 2005, 08:02
Adaptec slips SAS under the wire

Storage Expo, London Serial storage killers escape early

Adaptec's upcoming family of Serial Attached SCSI adapters is on show here, even though it doesn't formally launch until next week. Already on sale is the 48300, a basic eight-port card offering mirroring and striping (RAID 0/1) on a 64-bit 133MHz PCI interface. It has four 3Gbit/sec internal SAS ports and four external, and …

Storage 14 Oct 2005, 08:41
Pillar pops up in Europe

Storage Expo, London Do-it-all storage vendor

Pillar Data called its competitors "dumb" as it opened its European operations this week. The Larry Ellison-funded storage networking unstart-up is the latest to claim it will revolutionise the market with systems that do more than anyone else for less money. Its Axiom boxes can provide both file-based NAS services and block- …

Storage 14 Oct 2005, 09:03
Evesham pitches leaner NAS

Storage Expo, London Flash-based controller is a LeNA fit

Evesham Micro is jumping into the low end NAS business with a compact Windows fileserver based on Intel's LeNA reference design. Called SilverSTOR XS, the NAS box can have up to four hot-swap SATA drives for up to 1.6TB of capacity, and runs on an Intel XScale processor. "It has a Linux-based operating system stored in Flash …

Storage 14 Oct 2005, 09:07
Quantum taps DPM for low-end snapshots

But it's still pushing tape too

Storage Expo Quantum has enhanced Microsoft's DPM software to fill out its disk-based backup line with an appliance that comes in under its DX series of virtual tape libraries on price. It has taken DPM and added hardware data compression for doubled disk utilisation, plus software to offload data to tape - although the DPM5500 …

Storage 14 Oct 2005, 09:17
In Motorola vs Palmsource, who catches the OS?

We think Palm wants its baby home

Motorola was pipped at the post with its bid to acquire PalmSource, and isn't happy. It's suing the software company and seeking a termination fee. PalmSource announced it was being acquired by Japanese browser company Access for $324m on September 9 this year, or $18.50. In late September PalmSource disclosed it was the …

Mobile 14 Oct 2005, 09:26
UK broadband to get faster next year

BT expands trials of 8 meg ADSL

Broadband speed across the UK are set to jump to 8 meg if trials of BT's new "Max" service prove successful. Beginning next month BT Wholesale is due to begin market trials in some 53 exchanges dotted around Greater London, Cornwall, Strathclyde, Northern Ireland and South Glamorgan. "This trial phase is essential to ensure …

Telecoms 14 Oct 2005, 09:37
Claranet buys French hosting outfit

Artfully done

UK-based ISP Claranet has snapped up managed hosting outfit Artful for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 1997 Artful, which is based in Rennes, France, manages hosted applications covering databases, intranets, extranets, web sites and enterprise systems. "The acquisition of Artful is in line with our strategy of expanding our …

Financial News 14 Oct 2005, 10:18
Data retention compromise mooted by EU Ministers

Holding on, and on and on

European Justice Ministers have agreed not to immediately force through plans for an EU-wide data retention scheme, but opted to negotiate with the European Parliament instead. MEPs had objected to the proposal, claiming that it breaches civil rights laws. MEPs had even threatened to take the Council of Ministers to court if …

Public Sector 14 Oct 2005, 10:39
Space age scanners headed for airports?

Inspired by bats, naturally

A scanning system inspired by bats could spell the end of airport metal detectors, according to the European Space Agency. It is based on the principles of echolocation, the technique bats use to hunt in the dark. Named Tadar, after the Brazilian Tadarida bat, it uses millimetre waves to scan for concealed weapons, and can …

Science 14 Oct 2005, 10:48
Start-up buys Solid State Solutions

Storage roll-up

Magnos Holdings, a new company set up to buy enterprise storage resellers, has made its first acquisition: Solid State Solutions (S3). Terms are undisclosed. S3 is based in Hampshire and its founder-owners, Roger and Lorraine Smith, are to retire from the business. But they will stay on for now as consultants to ensure a smooth …

Channel Register 14 Oct 2005, 11:05
Oz Swiftel case settled in a shroud of secrecy

So, what happened? No ... really ... what happened?

The long running Australian Swiftel case was settled today. All the important issues and players were involved in this case – ISPs, alleged BitTorrent and P2P users … film, music and other content holders. There were also allegations of large-scale internet-based copyright infringement. The case was supposed to represent another …

Financial News 14 Oct 2005, 11:09
ID card pricing announced

Home Office claims support of 75% of the public

The cost of a new stand-alone ID card has been set at £30, it was revealed yesterday. The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke made the announcement in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Martin Salter MP. The stand-alone card will be valid for 10 years and the current estimated cost for a passport and ID card package is …

Public Sector 14 Oct 2005, 11:21
PlusNet buys into LLU

Hooks up with Easynet

PlusNet has become the latest operator to sign up to Easynet's unbundled broadband service enabling the Sheffield-based ISP to cut its dependency on BT for high speed net access. LLUStream was launched ten months ago and gives ISPs the chance to source wholesale broadband from another telco other than BT without having to …

Telecoms 14 Oct 2005, 11:47
Researchers name gene suspected in Tourette's syndrome

Picked out of a line up

US researchers said yesterday they had identified a gene that could be involved in Tourette's syndrome. Scientists at Yale University's school of medicine, writing in the journal Science said that although other genes and other factors probably also come into play, they had good evidence that a gene called SLITRK1 is at least …

Science 14 Oct 2005, 11:48
LLU falters in UK

'Cause for concern'

There's yet more bad news for telecoms operators keen to invest in providing their own broadband services direct to end users. The Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) has flagged up yet more problems with local loop unbundling (LLU) in the UK. The situation is so bad the OTA is now "disappointed" with the progress that's …

Telecoms 14 Oct 2005, 14:34
Compressed air could help bridge digital divide

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind

BT is looking to wire up remote areas with broadband services by blowing fibre optic cables between existing telephone poles. The lightweight cables - no thicker than a human hair - can be used to provide a high speed private circuit to businesses in rural areas. What's different, is that BT is using a lightweight tube through …

Telecoms 14 Oct 2005, 14:35
Turkey new hotspot for holidays and viruses

Letters A politically flavoured bag of letters

The postbag was positively groaning this week. But we shall ignore almost everything you've said in favour of a fabulous photo story. We got a note from a reader (thank you, you know who you are) that one William Gates III was holidaying in Turkey. And Lo! CNet has the confirmation. Sadly, the esteemed news site was unable to …

Letters 14 Oct 2005, 15:17
Google Earth: the black helicopters have landed

Competition results Hundreds of 'em

It's taken our photo interpretation bureau the best part of two weeks to sift through the hundred of entries we had for our "Spot the Black Helicopter" competition - giving readers a chance to win one of our lovely Black Helicopter t-shirts. Well, the results are in, but before announcing the winners, we thought it would be a …

Bootnotes 14 Oct 2005, 15:55
US firms get more for their IT bucks

Better managed than UK counterparts

Businesses that invest in IT reap significant productivity gains, according to researchers at the London School of Economics, but how the technology is used, and how the business is organised is just as important. The researchers evaluated data from more than 7,500 companies in the UK. They found that US-owned firms in the UK …

IT Director 14 Oct 2005, 16:19