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13th January 2006 Archive

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  • SEC goes formal with IBM probe

    A more polite look at options issue

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gussied up and gone formal with its IBM probe. IBM today revealed that the SEC had upgraded from "informal" to "formal" its investigation into how IBM disclosed its expensing of stock options. The informal probe arrived last June, as the government examined an unusually large …

    Financial News 13 Jan 2006, 01:11

  • Oracle wraps up SOA goodies

    'tis the season for SOA

    Oracle has bundled a set of its web-service-enabled middleware to help customers deploy the infrastructure needed for service-oriented architectures (SOAs). The company's SOA Suite consists of Oracle's Fusion Middleware and is designed to support IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic and JBoss application servers and messaging buses in …

    Applications 13 Jan 2006, 08:57

  • Compel buys Peoplesoft house

    Bolsters Oracle practice

    Compel has bought Allinity Limited, a specialist Peoplesoft consultancy, for a down-payment of £1m in cash and shares. Allinity shareholders will also get 70 per cent of the pre-tax profit above an unspecified threshold level for the year ended 30 June 2006. They are locked into the share element, today worth £400,000, for one …

    Financial News 13 Jan 2006, 09:29

  • Phoenix IT survives EDS takeover at DWP

    Less money, more years

    Phoenix IT has emerged from contract negotiations with EDS Global Field Services to supply desktop maintenance and support at Department of Work and Pension with an £8m plum. That's what the Northampton-based computer services firm reckons the volume-prices gig will be worth this year. Unfortunately, the deal used to be worth £ …

    Policy 13 Jan 2006, 09:58

  • MS ends Mac media player development

    Company's 'commitment' to Mac users doesn't go that far

    Microsoft hasn't updated the Mac version of Windows Media Player since 28 November 2003, and it doesn't look like it's going to do so ever again - despite the software giant's plan, stated this week, to continue developing Office:Mac for the next five years or more. "We have no plans to provide future updates or product support …

    Hardware 13 Jan 2006, 10:10

  • RIM reveals free Mac Blackberry sync software

    Licenses PocketMac

    Research in Motion (RIM) has licensed third-party utility PocketMac for Blackberry and will provide the $30 software to Mac-based Blackberry owners free of charge. Neither RIM nor Information Appliance Associates (IAA), the developer of PocketMac, disclosed the terms and conditions underpinning the agreement. However, while RIM …

    Phones 13 Jan 2006, 10:28

  • American casts long shadow on Google Earth

    California reader caught on camera

    A couple of weeks back we ran an amusing little ditty about a couple of UK college ne'er-do-wells who had been captured on Google Earth lounging about in a sunny back garden swilling gin. Not to be outdone, try this from reader Joshua Englehart in Saratoga, California: That rummy collegiate isn't the only one who is …

    Bootnotes 13 Jan 2006, 10:50

  • World mobile phone market growth to stall

    Revenues will not reach 2005's peak until 2009, researcher warns

    Mobile phone shipments may rise this year, but manufacturers are going to see revenues fall as the momentum driving the market over the past few years stalls. That's market watcher iSuppli's forecast, at any rate. This week it predicted that global factory revenue will fall 4.7 per cent from $115.1bn in 2005 to $109.7bn this …

    Phones 13 Jan 2006, 10:56

  • Fujitsu to raise 1.8in HDD ceiling with Cornice

    Unveils hard disk product strategy

    Fujitsu today said it plans to break into the 1.8in hard disk drive market, part of a strategy to double the company's unit sales by 2009 and grab third place in the HDD market in the same timeframe. The move will be made in partnership with US-based small form-factor drive maker Cornice, which will work on product development …

    Hardware 13 Jan 2006, 11:41

  • FTC backs consumer security quiz

    OnGuard

    US consumer watchdogs have put together a quiz designed to educate Joe Public to be on guard online. Consumers can test their knowledge about safeguarding their personal information and remediation steps they might want to take if their ID is purloined here. The brain teaser, put together by by the Financial Trade Commission ( …

    Security 13 Jan 2006, 11:50

  • Fujitsu-Siemens looks to ship Wi-Fi smart phones in Q3

    List of Blackberry clones grows

    Fujitsu-Siemens is apparently gearing up to hop on the Blackberry-clone bandwagon, following Motorola's Q, Nokia's E61, HP's iPaq hw6500 series and Palm's Treo family with a keyboard-equipped smart phone of its own in Q3. According to a report on Dutch-language website PocketInfo, the company's Pocket Loox T830 and T810 will …

    Phones 13 Jan 2006, 12:10

  • Zero-day WMF flaw underscores patch problems

    Countdown to what?

    For four days in January, network administrators and security-savvy home users had a choice: download and install an unofficial open-source fix for the critical flaw in the Windows Meta File (WMF) format, or wait an estimated week for an official patch from Microsoft. With security experts warning about the spread of exploits …

    Security 13 Jan 2006, 12:24

  • Firms 'fail to capitalise online'

    Just a quarter online

    Despite a bumper year for internet retailers, more than three-quarters of the UK's small businesses are still failing to take advantage of a widening online customer base, new research shows. A study by BT and the Institute of Directors (IoD) found that just 24 per cent of companies provide a website through which their …

    Financial News 13 Jan 2006, 12:26

  • Pipex speeds up LLU investment plans

    BB users on the up

    Pipex is looking to accelerate its investment in broadband this year by installing its kit in about 100 exchanges over the next 12 months. When the ISP first announced last summer that it planned to invest in local loop unbundling (LLU) it said that about 60 exchanges would be unbundled in 2006. Now, though, it's set its …

    Broadband 13 Jan 2006, 12:28

  • BOFH: The Way of the Hammer

    Episode 2 Engineers are great!

    "And if I just >tap< move this >tap< >tap< a fraction of an inch over >tap< I'll be able to >tap< put it >tap< >tap< >Crunch!<..." "...into the dustbin?" the PFY finishes helpfully. "Bugger. It almost went, though. It's probably just not made very robustly." "Yes," the PFY adds thoughtfully. "When will motherboard …

    BOFH 13 Jan 2006, 12:32

  • Sci-Fi channel to show new Doctor Who in US

    'I'm the Doctor. Run for your life!'

    The BBC has sold last year's season of the revived Doctor Who to the Sci-Fi Channel, paving the way for the Dotor's new adventures to be broadcast in the US. According to the two media organisations, the show's first 13-episode run will air Friday nights at 9pm next March, a year after they were shown in the UK and around the …

    Bootnotes 13 Jan 2006, 12:35

  • Detroit spammer faces slammer

    Two years plus for penis pill merchant

    A US spammer likely faces at least two years in jail next week after he admitted using networks of compromised PCs to distribute junk mail messages. Daniel Lin, of West Broomfield, Detroit, is expected to plead guilty next Tuesday (17 January) at a court hearing after he admitted using virus-infected corporate computers to …

    Security 13 Jan 2006, 12:42

  • NTL ready to up bid for Virgin Mobile

    Just get on with it

    NTL is getting ready to make another formal bid for Virgin Mobile, reports the Independent after its £817m bid (323p a share) for the mobile operator was rejected by the board of Virgin Mobile in December. Earlier this week reports suggested that some investors were holding out for 400p a share although the Independent reports …

    Financial News 13 Jan 2006, 12:58

  • The year of the Legal Film Download starts CES video frenzy

    And she's hooked to the tiny screen...

    This year's CSE saw big names committing to the video file download cause. But how realistic is watching films over the internet? One of the underlying themes of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week was the idea of consumers watching films over the internet. We all know that's not possible right? Right. Not in …

    Networks 13 Jan 2006, 13:21

  • Trusted computing? Nothing to do with us, says UK IT

    Lack of support for conference reveals an awful truth...

    How interested is the computer industry in trusted computing? Not as much as you might think, suggests Eddie Bleasdale of netproject. "They've nothing to sell in this area," he told The Register, "so they're not interested." Bleasdale is mounting a reprise of netrproject's successful 2002 Trusted Computing conference at the end …

    Media 13 Jan 2006, 13:25

  • Anti-spyware group defines detection guidelines

    Who's bad

    The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC), an alliance of software companies, security firms and consumer organisations, has agreed a set of guidelines on detecting invasive finalised spyware. The final draft of the ASC's "risk-modeling description" aims to give an objective criteria on whether a program is malign. A draft of this …

    Security 13 Jan 2006, 13:35

  • Operations Development

    Interesting lunch with Dave Clarke, a pre-sales manager at HP yesterday. We were talking about designing systems for manageability - I think that Dave's POV was that you used a subset of the team that was good at such things to build a (J2EE, say) framework using ITIL good practice as the basis for a "software factory". This …

    Developer 13 Jan 2006, 14:34

  • News Corp throws everything but kitchen sink at 'digital home'

    Fox on the run

    News Corp’s Fox Entertainment has cut a deal with sister company DirecTV to put FX and Fox Broadcasting content over a broadband line to its new DirecTV Plus DVR, designed by NDS. The system will become available in March and deliver primetime hits from up to two days before they show on TV, for a payment of $2.99 each. Later …

    Financial News 13 Jan 2006, 14:40

  • Reader demands fluorescent dog

    Letters Plus aquahotels, body scanners and Sith revenge

    Today is Friday 13th, so what better day* to conclude our correspondence on WW2 british bombers, and specifically, the Google Earth Lancaster as featured in Tuesday's letters: Regarding comments made by Tom and Mike Henderson in the letters page about the Lanc in Google earth... 1/ A Lancaster's wingspan is 102 ft (31+ M) and …

    Letters 13 Jan 2006, 14:48

  • Friday the 13th: what's the worst that could happen?

    Dunno... Nuclear apocalypse?

    It's Friday the 13th - day of ill omen and inauspicious portent. It's also a really bad day to take your kids walking on a beach next to one of the UK's nuclear power stations. Click here to find out why. <short pause for cup of camomile tea /> Well, you have to hand it to Greenpeace - its members don't beat around the bush, …

    Science 13 Jan 2006, 14:54

  • CCTV Peeping Toms jailed

    Merseyside pair spied on woman's flat

    Two members of a trio of municipal "Peeping Toms" from Merseyside have been jailed for training a street safety CCTV camera on a woman's flat in Liverpool's Bootle district in November 2004. Over several hours, the BBC reports, she was filmed from the Sefton CCTV centre - which controls 70 such cameras - "cuddling her boyfriend …

    Media 13 Jan 2006, 15:19

  • Yahoo! loses! Nazi! lawsuit!

    Lip service

    Yahoo! has lost a lawsuit in which it claimed a French court violated its right to sell Nazi trinkets. Yahoo! became a darling for free speech campaigners when, back in 2000, the search giant was sued by French concentration camp survivors following a French court's ruling that the dotcom giant was violating local law which …

    Media 13 Jan 2006, 15:22

  • Union website hits back at Verizon pension freeze

    'A chilling signal' for all workers

    Workers at Verizon are being urged to visit a newly created website as part of a campaign to get the US telco to overturn its decision to freeze pensions for thousands of employees. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), along with the Pension Rights Center, is hoping workers affected by Verizon's decision will use the …

    Management 13 Jan 2006, 15:26

  • UK LLU about to make 'breakthrough'

    Even despite the doubts

    The UK is on the verge of achieving a "breakthrough" in LLU as the number of unbundled lines passes 200,000 and the proportion of cock-ups falls. According to the latest update from the Telecoms Adjudicator, there are now some 210,000 LLU lines in the UK, with numbers growing at a rate "significantly greater" that the 5,000 a …

    Networks 13 Jan 2006, 16:41

  • Griffin pitches iPod Nano clear case, bendy car dock

    Accessory heaven

    Another day, another iPod accessory from Griffin Technology. Today's is the iClear a transparent polycarbonate shell developed to keep your iPod Nano safe from scratches. The two-part case has strategically cut holes to provide easy access to the MP3 player's controls, dock connector, Hold slider and earphone socket. Griffin …

    Peripherals 13 Jan 2006, 16:51

  • DCA goes all bashful on ID card voting linkage

    Odd, considering the obvious answer was 'none'

    Despite rumours to the contrary, the Government has as yet not announced plans to harvest the UK's electoral rolls for ID card defaulters, or to make voting dependent on having an ID card. But an answer to a parliamentary question given by the Department of Constitutional Affairs earlier this week makes it reasonable to suspect …

    Media 13 Jan 2006, 17:19

  • You don't write as well as Google finds!

    FoTW Lack of comments let you be stupid

    Some flames have it all. Gobs of questionable spelling, heaps of distressing capitalization and a general incoherence that makes them works of art. This Flame of the Week doesn't quite meet all of our traditional, exacting standards. It does, however, have a phenomenal accusatory streak beyond any other letter received in recent …

    Letters 13 Jan 2006, 17:51

  • Investors fan Sun shares higher, knock AMD

    Hot and heavy speculation

    Shares of Sun Microsystems surged Friday on heavy trading, countering a drop earlier in the week. In an unusual jump, Sun's stock rose 10 per cent - at the time of this report - to $4.84. SUNW is typically one of the most heavily traded stocks and moved today at an even more vigorous clip with more than 100m shares trading …

    Servers 13 Jan 2006, 19:19

  • Penguin steals HP, Compaq, DEC, Tandem vet

    Make our clusters strong

    Little Penguin Computing has nabbed one of HP's major hardware executives, announcing that Pauline Nist will officially join the company next week. Nist most recently served as VP of quality for HP's massive enterprise storage and servers division. More importantly, perhaps, the executive used to head up the NonStop server …

    Servers 13 Jan 2006, 20:45

  • Aussie coppers crushed to discover Segways are illegal

    Keep walking. Nothing to scoot here

    Some Australian police officers hoping to embarrass themselves by riding around on Segways have run into a problem - the law. Police in Victoria looked to prop their squadrons up on the Segway scooters. The over-hyped device has become a favorite mode of transport for coppers here in the US, as it opens up a whole new realm of …

    Bootnotes 13 Jan 2006, 21:43

  • Google, PDPs and OpenSolaris put readers to the test

    Letters Can you make it to the end?

    Call this our attention span test. The quantity of e-mail received this week - in conjunction with leftovers from CES - has made individual "letters" efforts on our Google Video, a PDP history site and OpenSolaris for Power chips stories impossible. So, we're putting the burden of dealing with this mess on you. First, we'll …

    Letters 13 Jan 2006, 23:49