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7th December 2005 Archive

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  • .eu domains are go, go, go!

    Trademark owners get first dips after five years

    It may have taken over five years getting there, but at 10am today, the first .eu domains will go on sale - and it's going to be a landrush. At least it will be for trademark holders, because only those holding a valid European Union trademark will be entitled to apply from now until 7 February 2006 - and only on the exact …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 08:16

  • Google makes US brand top three

    Almost as good as Coke, say Americans

    Google has stormed an annual poll measuring public reputations and perceptions of the "most valuable" companies in US corporate culture. The sprawling provider of search and Web 2.0 infrastructure services came third out of 60 household names in Harris Interactive's annual Reputation Quotation. This is the first time in its …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 08:18

  • All I want for Christmas is ...

    David Norfolk puts on his Santa virtualisation suit...

    So, what is the good little developer getting for Christmas? If you didn't overflow any buffers this year (well, not many anyway) and followed all the “best practices” that nice Mr Gates told you about and didn't play about with nasty little ragamuffins like Linus, then you might get a nice shiny new workstation in your stocking …

    Servers 7 Dec 2005, 08:35

  • Apple sells 3m video downloads

    Run-rate rising, too

    Apple has sold more than 3m video downloads since it began offering them through its iTunes Music Store some 55 days ago, the company revealed yesterday. That translates into over 54,545 downloads a day, a 3.6 per cent gain on the 52,632 downloads a day average Apple established during the 19 days from 12 October it took to …

    Hardware 7 Dec 2005, 10:16

  • UK pumps €108m into Mars mission

    ExoMars to probe Red Planet

    The UK has whipped out its cheque book and pumped €108m into the European Space Agency's "Aurora" robotic space exploration programme which will culminate in a Mars exploration mission (ExoMars) due to touch down on the Red Planet in 2013. ExoMars will account for most of the cash, while €7.1m is earmarked for preparations for a …

    Science 7 Dec 2005, 10:26

  • AMD, IBM 'stress' silicon for 65nm chips

    Technique boosts transistor performance 40 per cent

    AMD and IBM yesterday claimed their take on the 'strained silicon' technique had yielded a 40 per cent boost to transistor performance. The two chip-making partners will introduce the technology into their 65nm fabrication process, which in AMD's case is expected to go into volume production next year. 'Strained silicon' is …

    Hardware 7 Dec 2005, 10:38

  • Fibernet reports 'solid' quarter

    Which is nice

    Fibernet - the UK-based outfit that provides telecoms services to large organisations as well as other telcos and ISPs - reports that its performance during Q1 has been "solid". In a trading update published today Fibernet said service contract revenues increased to £11.6m for the three months to September, up £200,000 on the …

    Broadband 7 Dec 2005, 10:47

  • Intel, Qinetiq tout quantum well transistor breakthrough

    0.5V, 300GHz CPU, anyone?

    Intel's partnership with UK R&D company Qinetiq has borne further fruit: the pair this week said they had made a quantum-well transistor with a gate length of 85nm. Quantum-well transistors are also known as high electron-mobility transistors, and they excite companies like Intel because of their ability to operate …

    Hardware 7 Dec 2005, 11:03

  • Game sleuths close eBay Xbox 360 auction

    Seller not a Game store manager

    The auction of eight Xbox 360 bundles on eBay by someone claiming to be a store manager for retailer Game has been pulled. The original auction had claimed: "I have 8 units for sale, these were obtained from a store of which I am the manager, receipt will be supplied for your guarantee, just return to any branch of 'game'." But …

    Consoles 7 Dec 2005, 11:06

  • Podcast named 'Word of the Year'

    In the US, we hasten to add

    The rather unpleasant "podcast" has been named as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, according to the Beeb. The wordsmiths define podcast as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player" and will add it to their …

    Bootnotes 7 Dec 2005, 11:08

  • SanDisk to appeal STMicro patent clash win

    First, a second IP violation claim

    SanDisk has again sued STMicro, once more alleging the European chip maker has violated its intellectual property rights. The move follows SanDisk's failure to persuade the US International Trade Commission that STMicro's NAND Flash chips infringe another SanDisk patent. The new lawsuit, filed with the US District of Northern …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 11:18

  • Korean FTC hits Microsoft

    Redmond appealing, but won't pull

    Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has ordered Microsoft to decouple its instant messaging and media player software from Windows and pay a $32m fine following a long-running investigation into the software giant. Microsoft said it would appeal the decision, but doesn’t appear keen to follow through on earlier threats to pull its …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 11:48

  • So who is funding the CFIT and why?

    Meet Rob Hall, Canada's Mr Internet

    Every delegate at the last week's ICANN conference in Vancouver was handed a free bag with an enormous sponsorship logo for an organisation called CFIT. CFIT also featured in ICANN delegates' lives every morning when they picked up the free newspaper left outside their hotel room. It came wrapped in a CFIT plastic bag. Inside …

    Media 7 Dec 2005, 12:19

  • Mobiles for dogs and other gadget goodies

    The latest dispatch from Gizmoville

    Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries. Mobile phone for dogs So Fido is getting a little too frisky with the bitches in another postcode and is missing out on his din- …

    Peripherals 7 Dec 2005, 12:46

  • Inmarsat fires up satellite broadband service

    In the BGANing...

    Inmarsat has flicked the switch on a new satellite service that gives users access to broadband services almost anywhere in the world. Six years in development, the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service enables the transmission of voice and broadband data using lightweight satellite terminals - the smallest of which is …

    Broadband 7 Dec 2005, 12:49

  • Japan triumphs with MP3 toilet seat

    The Apricot - now with bogcasting

    Japanese sanitary ware outfit Toto has produced what must be the last word in toilet seats - the Apricot - which, besides all the usual features the Japanese consumer expects (bum-warming facility, bidet action, automated lid, etc, etc), boasts an MP3 player with detachable remote. As far as we can make out, the MP3s are …

    Bootnotes 7 Dec 2005, 13:01

  • Xmas parties: avoid sex, drugs and booze

    Plus photocopiers, mistletoe and Bernard Manning

    Around 80 per cent of British bosses will not organise an office party this Christmas, in part due to legal hangovers from fighting and flirting at past events. The finding that Christmas is cancelled comes from a survey of 3,500 businesses by Peninsula Business Services Ltd which also found that 89 per cent of employers have …

    Management 7 Dec 2005, 13:44

  • Sony opens up over another CD security hole

    Gropes for stop button on content-protected CDs

    Sony has again been outed for including questionable software on its music CDs, after it emerged a security vulnerability in content protection software shipped on some of its disks could allow consumers’ PCs to be hijacked The consumer electronics and media giant, together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said today …

    Security 7 Dec 2005, 14:52

  • Creative unveils Vision:M video iPod killer

    Zen kit

    Creative is about to launch its alternative to Apple's video-enabled fifth-generation iPod. Creative is expected to announce the player tomorrow, but the company's Japanese division appears to have jumped the gun and detailed the machine today. Dubbed the Zen Vision:M, the skinny player combines music and video playback with …

    Peripherals 7 Dec 2005, 14:57

  • MS to pump $1.7bn into India

    More cash, more jobs

    Microsoft will pump $1.7bn into India over the next four years, in the process creating 3,000 new jobs. Most of the cash will, according to Bill Gates, go towards improving the software giant's research and development capabilities. Gates told a forum of Indian business leaders in New Delhi: "This amount is to be deployed …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 14:59

  • Sony Ericsson Walkman W900 3G music phone

    Review Latest and greatest?

    The W900 is billed as the latest and greatest in the 3G Walkman phone series. Spotted at the launch in October in black and in white, the latest news is that only the white version will be released in the UK. And for the first three months, the W900 will only be available in the UK on the Vodafone network. As with the W550 …

    Phones 7 Dec 2005, 15:07

  • MEPs urged to reject data retention plan

    'Irreversibly shift European civil liberties'

    Privacy International and European Digital Rights (EDRi) are calling on MEPs to reject a proposed Directive on data retention when it comes before the European Parliament next week following an agreement reached by EU Ministers on Friday. In an open letter to the Parliament yesterday, the groups argue that, if approved, the …

    Media 7 Dec 2005, 15:45

  • IBM information management

    Comment Whither DB2?

    This is the third of my articles derived from IBM’s Software Group analyst conference, in this case focused on the Information Management part of the IBM software portfolio, which is my main interest. The Information Management group is the only part of the Software Group that is not known by its brand name. It is, of course, …

    Developer 7 Dec 2005, 16:00

  • Euro-publisher chief slates 'parasitic' search firms

    Can't find common ground with Google

    The head of the European Publishers Council gave Google and other search vendors a savaging this week, warning they could not expect to “help themselves” to producers’ content for free and forever. The Associated Press reports that Francisco Pinto Balsemao told a conference in Brussels that Google and others were attempting to …

    Media 7 Dec 2005, 16:03

  • Samsung sues Matsushita

    Panasonic plasma panel patent clash claim

    Samsung has accused Matsushita's Panasonic subsidiary of violating nine plasma display panel patents it holds, and today filed lawsuits with the US District Court in Los Angeles and Pennsylvania, South Korean news sources report. Samsung's PDP division, Samsung SDI, said it had held talks with Matsushita on nine separate …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 16:06

  • UK Customs denies pressing banks to pull out of mobile sector

    Money-laundering moves

    "We have chosen to end the banking relationship between your company and HSBC." With these words, over 150 mobile phone dealers in the UK have suddenly found themselves treated as money-launderers - and HM Revenue and Customs is said to be behind it. Some dealers say the Revenue is instructing banks to dump its mobile customers …

    The Channel 7 Dec 2005, 16:11

  • Bookham axes 150 UK jobs

    Quick switch to China

    Bookham Inc - the fiber optic company that used to be based in the UK before upping sticks and settling in the US - is axing 150 jobs at its factory in Paignton, Devon. Instead, the jobs are to be transferred to Bookham's factory in China as part of the firm's efforts to cut costs. The job losses are expected to be completed …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 16:12

  • Microsoft Discovers Branch Office

    Went to a useful workshop on Windows Server 2003 R2 for its launch yesterday (Tues 6th Dec). No, it's not WS 2005, it's an enterprise-friendly step release with no kernel changes but some new functionality. Looks good - much was made of it clever replication capability using the RDC (Remote Differential Compression) protocol. …

    Developer 7 Dec 2005, 16:37

  • Go Virtual to become Agile

    Getting just what you need from a virtual pot

    The bigger the IT user, the more likely they are to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous server under-utilisation. Most of the major research companies have, at some time or another, studied the use of server resources in a production environment and found it low. A typical server – you know the type of beast: dual Xeons, …

    Management 7 Dec 2005, 17:17

  • CollabNet adds IP checker to software

    Code scan on aisle six, please

    Developers working on CollabNet's hosted collaboration service can now verify the intellectual property (IP) terms of their code to remain on the right side of the law. IP start-up Palamida's IP Amplifier has been integrated into CollabNet's Application Lifecycle Manager enabling developers working in distributed projects to …

    Developer 7 Dec 2005, 19:27

  • Microsoft vows to fight South Korean antitrust ruling

    Give me bundling or give me death

    Microsoft will fight a South Korean government ruling ordering it to separate its IM software and Media Player from Windows and pay a $32m fine for violating antitrust laws. "We intend to appeal this decision because it is inconsistent with Korean law," Microsoft said in a statement. Microsoft added it would "continue …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 21:12

  • Sun will be seeing double with Niagara II

    Exclusive 64 threads and counting

    Sun Microsystems has at last delivered its first batch of Niagara-based servers, and you've no doubt read plenty about the boxes here or elsewhere. What you haven't read much about is Niagara II. We're here to help. On the record, Sun has stated that Niagara II will have close to twice the performance of Niagara I - aka …

    Servers 7 Dec 2005, 21:30

  • Consumers improving security, but gaps remain

    Not quite as crap as before, in other words

    Spyware and viruses have infected fewer home PCs than a year ago, but the large majority of computer users still lack a critical software defense, such as spyware protection, up-to-date antivirus or a properly configured firewall, according to a study of Internet users released on Wednesday. The Online Safety Study, conducted …

    Security 7 Dec 2005, 22:39

  • Security threats soar in 2005

    Malchicks beget malware

    Nearly 16,000 new viruses, worms and Trojans have appeared in 2005, but criminals are moving their focus to niche targeted groups with specially customised malware to steal data and cash. The huge increase in the number of malware programs stems from the activities of criminal gangs intent on using trojans, worms and viruses to …

    Security 7 Dec 2005, 22:46

  • Songwriters challenge UK online royalty rate

    More, more, more. How do you like it ...

    Composers and songwriters on Friday set out their case for an increased royalty rate for the sale of music downloads and challenged record companies to disclose the monies they make from the sale of internet downloads. The musicians were responding to a legal action filed by record label trade group the British Phonographic …

    Financial News 7 Dec 2005, 22:54

  • Small.biz grabs more UK public sector deals

    What the government wants ...

    The number of government contracts being won by small businesses has increased, according to official figures. Data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) shows out of the £4.7bn worth of contracts up for grabs this year, £1bn worth was awarded to small businesses, representing 22 per cent of the total value. The …

    Policy 7 Dec 2005, 23:01

  • SQL Server 2005 Management Tools

    Good management tools are key to the effective use of a database in the enterprise.

    Microsoft, of course, provides some DBA management tools but there are also 3rd. party tools available (for both modelling and management) from companies such as Embarcadero and BMC. ® Return to Page 1 of main article here - otherwise use "back" button.

    Developer 7 Dec 2005, 23:23