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1st February 2006 Archive

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  • SGI moves Bishop to avoid checkmate

    McKenna welcomed with shocker Q2

    With revenue disappearing at speed, SGI has nudged CEO Bob Bishop to the side and tapped a new chief - Dennis McKenna. SGI rolled out its new chairman, CEO and president just as it announced another bleak quarter. Revenue for the second quarter dipped to $144m from $223m in the same period last year. Product revenue almost …

    Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 00:36

  • Google shares clobbered after earnings miss

    Profits slide

    Google's stock fell 15 per cent in after-hours trading after it posted earnings that slumped below analyst expectations. At least it's in good company - Yahoo! and eBay have also been punished recently for posting what by any standards are healthy results. But Google's profits declined from the previous quarter, and that was …

    Financial News 1 Feb 2006, 00:38

  • First results in: People not happy with new dotcom contract

    Is it any more than an ICANN staff fudge?

    People's first thoughts on the revised contract for all dotcoms have started appearing and so far it's unanimous: they hate it. The first response on the ICANN public comment board appears to sum up most others' feelings: "Lipstick on a pig doesn't make me want to kiss it," said George Kirikos. The second poster clarified …

    Financial News 1 Feb 2006, 09:47

  • Microsoft changes China policy

    Calls for mass debate

    Microsoft yesterday outlined its policy for dealing with government requests to remove blogs from its MSN service and called for "broad dialogue" on how the industry should deal with government censorship of blogs. In future Microsoft will only pull content from MSN when it receives official legal notice that content breaks …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2006, 09:54

  • Visto claims Good done bad

    Lawsuit alleges patent infringement

    Visto has sued rival push email provider Good Technology, claiming its competitor infringed four of its patents, which relate to data synchronisation across a network. The lawsuit comes a month and a half after it sued Microsoft for the alleged violation of three of the four patents. Good is accused of incorporating …

    Mobile 1 Feb 2006, 10:44

  • Intel to add Enhanced SpeedStep to 65nm desktop chips

    Core upgrade due early April

    Intel is updating its 'Presler' and 'Cedar Mill' 65nm desktop cores to improve the part's power consumption by adding support for the chip maker's Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST). The upgrade affects the dual-core Pentium D 920, 930, 940 and 950, clocked at 2.8, 3.0, 3.2 and 3.4GHz, respectively. Sample of the …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 11:00

  • Borland Delphi 2006

    At last, another good version of the best RAD tool for Windows

    Rewind to 1992. Borland has Windows development sewn up, with the Turbo C++ 3.1 compiler, the excellent Object Windows class library, and even a Windows IDE. Microsoft by contrast has C++ 7.0, the inelegant Microsoft Foundation Classes, and a complex DOS IDE called Programmer’s Workbench that nobody uses. The following year …

    Developer 1 Feb 2006, 11:01

  • Chip price slide steepens, analyst says

    But demand still strong

    Chips and other electronic components will become 3.3 per cent cheaper by the end of March, making for the third consecutive quarter of accelerating average selling price reductions, market watcher iSuppli said yesterday. Last quarter, Q4 2005, electronic component average selling prices fell 2.2 per cent, after declining just …

    Channel Register 1 Feb 2006, 11:08

  • Intel to ditch half its Itanium 2 line-up

    Pruning some 130nm Xeon MPs too

    Intel has told customers it is discontinuing the production of eight Itanium 2 processors, all victims of demand for "higher performance" products. The chips marked for termination are the 1GHz and 1.4GHz dual-processor models, both with 1.5MB of L3 cache. The 1.4GHz/3MB DP-oriented Itanic 2 is out too, as are the 1.1GHz/4MB, 1. …

    Servers 1 Feb 2006, 11:19

  • Doomed from the start: considering development risk

    Comment Hell for a developer is ...

    "Hell" for a developer is working on a project that is doomed to failure from the start. No matter how ill-conceived the business case and unreasonable the external constraints, the hapless developer still has a good chance of collecting the blame. And even if he escapes the massacre of the innocents (following on from the …

    Developer 1 Feb 2006, 11:32

  • ISPs ordered to reveal software file-sharers

    UK court rules on hunt for uploaders

    The English High Court has ordered 10 ISPs, including BT, Tiscali and Telewest, to reveal the identities of 150 file-swappers accused by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) of illegally uploading software to networks such as Kazaa. The ISPs have 14 days to comply. Once FAST receives the data (customer names and …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2006, 11:40

  • MPs hit out at Tax Credit Scheme

    IT system at the 'root' of the problem

    A new House of Commons Public Administration Committee report heaps further criticism on the much maligned Tax Credit Scheme. This report follows the one published by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration in June last year, which was critical of the administrative practices, which "marred" an otherwise well- …

    Public Sector 1 Feb 2006, 11:43

  • Thus agrees to buy Your Comms and Legend

    Someone had to

    Thus, the Scottish telco behind the Demon ISP, has finally confirmed plans to buy Your Communications (YC) and Legend Communications after being linked to both companies for months. Announcing a shake-up the telco says will bulk up the business and deliver cost savings, it also says it plans to flog its Demon Netherlands …

    Financial News 1 Feb 2006, 11:53

  • Turbocharge your desktop PC!

    Competition Win an Intel, PowerColor and Crucial upgrade bundle worth over £1475

    Give your desktop PC a New Year kick! Reg Hardware, Intel, PowerColor and Crucial Technology have teamed up to bring you the chance to win a desktop PC upgrade bundle worth more than £1475*. We've got an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 CPU, an Intel D955XBK motherboard, a PowerColor Radeon X1900XT 512MB graphics card and 1GB …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 11:59

  • MS seeks feedback on IE7 beta 2

    Public outing

    Microsoft has released a preview of its upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 web browser. IE7 beta 2 contains new features such as tabbed browsing, functions that make it easier to subscribe to RSS feeds, and a revamped interface with a streamlined toolbar, as explained in an animated tour here. The 11.2MB download also comes with …

    Developer 1 Feb 2006, 12:00

  • Cisco puts TiVo, Nintendo on shopping list?

    Who's next buy for networking giant?

    Cisco has made clear it is moving into consumer electronics, but could it really buy Nintendo or Tivo? The strategy has been well signposted - chief development officer Charles Giancarlo told the Financial Times earlier this month that home electronics devices were no longer standalone devices but would increasingly be …

    Financial News 1 Feb 2006, 12:27

  • Council mumbles Microsoft benefits

    Dubbed NetNazis, after snubbing open source

    Microsoft wheeled out a small council who had chosen its software over open source yesterday. South Gloucestershire unitary council completed a £1m installation of Microsoft software last year at two new data centres. Paul Appleton, head of IT at the unitary council, said he had considered using open source software and had …

    Public Sector 1 Feb 2006, 12:55

  • Virgin Mobile takeover talks with NTL 'ongoing'

    Unlimited talk plan

    Virgin Mobile says discussions with cableco NTL about a possible £900m takeover are "ongoing" and it hopes to make further announcements about the tie-up "in due course". This brief update came as the cellco announced its latest set of figures for the three months to December. According to the bean counters, service revenues …

    Financial News 1 Feb 2006, 12:58

  • Microsoft signs for NHS Wales

    £8.5m annual savings

    The Welsh NHS has negotiated a deal with Microsoft for desktop and mobile computing software which it hopes will save £8.5m. All trusts and local health boards throughout the NHS in Wales have been signed up to a three-year enterprise agreement. It covers operating and software licenses for 35,000 desktops. According to NHS …

    Public Sector 1 Feb 2006, 13:15

  • Kama Sutra worm crashes malware chart

    The return of the 'trash your PC' virus

    Virus authors were hard at work last month creating 2,312 new malware variants - a third higher than December, according to UK-based security firm Sophos. Most of these attacks were financially motivated and designed to steal sensitive information from compromised PCs. But it was the return of an old-school "trash your Windows …

    Malware 1 Feb 2006, 14:13

  • Sky VoD service signs up 52,000

    All about brand

    More than 70,000 movies have been downloaded from Sky's video-on-demand service since its launch three weeks ago, the pay TV outfit said today. Unveiled last month, "Sky by broadband" allows premium channel subscribers to download movies and Sky Sports highlights onto their PCs for free. Although some punters have complained …

    Telecoms 1 Feb 2006, 14:14

  • Symantec shares slip on poor results

    Misses targets

    Symantec saw its share price slide this morning as the markets reacted to its failure to meet targets for the quarter. For the third quarter of 2004, ended 30 December 2005, profits fell to $91m from $163.6m for the same period last year. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.22 instead of the $0.25 expected. The security …

    Security 1 Feb 2006, 14:20

  • Mainframe system z9 zIIP to launch this year

    DB2 platform of choice

    When the mainframe first began to be used in business it quickly became the platform on which many business applications were run. It has managed to maintain its place at the heart of mission critical systems and last week's announcement of new developments by IBM will ensure that not only will the System z9 platform maintain …

    Servers 1 Feb 2006, 15:15

  • Replicating CA's MDB database

    HVR is the answer

    Management Database (MDB) lives at the heart of Computer Associates' strategy for on-demand computing, which it refers to as Enterprise IT Management (EITM). This integrates more than 25 of the company's products, such as Unicenter, eTrust, and so on. In the middle of EITM is MDB, which is used to store and manage the …

    Developer 1 Feb 2006, 15:27

  • Bulldog to launch 20Mb broadband

    Spring launch date set

    Bulldog is to begin offering broadband at speeds of around 20Mbps from spring once it has completed trials of its ADSL2+ service. The broadband operator, which provides services direct to end users by installing its kit in BT exchanges (aka local loop unbundling or LLU), has been carrying out trials of the service since …

    Telecoms 1 Feb 2006, 15:27

  • Public procurement rules change today

    Bidders gain right to challenge decisions

    New public procurement and utilities regulations come into force today that could make e-procurement more attractive to contracting authorities, but could also make it easier for private sector bidders to challenge wrongful award decisions. The public contracts regulations implement the European Commission's consolidated …

    Public Sector 1 Feb 2006, 15:32

  • Old media wants new deal with search engines

    'You looking at my headlines?'

    A group of newspaper publishers and other media companies are joining forces to go after search engines and news aggregators which they accuse of unfairly exploiting their work. The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has formed a task force to look at ways to "improve the relationships between content creators/producers and …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2006, 15:51

  • Neuros MPEG 4 Recorder 2

    Review The no-frills PVR is revamped for the PSP and iPod

    The first incarnation of Neuros' MPEG 4 Recorder proved a handy tool for getting video onto a PDA without having to leave your computer on overnight while it churned through complex re-encoding algorithms. However, it didn't quite hack it as a no-frills PVR, lacking support for the higher resolutions you need for decent playback …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 16:10

  • Sony, Toshiba, NEC partner on 45nm chip tech

    Pooling development teams

    Cell processor partners Sony and Toshiba, along with fellow Japanese chip maker NEC, today said they plan to work together to develop 45nm chip fabrication process technologies. The deal appears to be a pooling of resources. Sony and Toshiba first said they were co-operating on 45nm technologies in February 2004. Toshiba …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 16:23

  • Apple prunes iMac G5 pricing

    Only the 20in model; the 17in price remains unchanged

    Apple has knocked $200 off the price of its iMac G5 in the US, while reducing the UK price by £150. The machine now costs $1499 and £1049 in the two territories. The price of the 17in model remains unchanged at $1299 and £899, respectively. The 20in iMac G5 contains a 2.1GHz G5 CPU, 512MB of 533MHz DDR 2 SDRAM, a 250GB hard …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 16:46

  • AT&T sued over NSA warrantless wiretapping

    Sneakers

    US telco AT&T is being sued over allegations it helped the National Security Agency (NSA) in its "massive and illegal program" to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. A class-action lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) alleges AT&T collaborated with with ultra-secretive communications agency in …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2006, 16:59

  • Apple to 'drop 1GB iPod Shuffle'

    Red 1GB Nano on the way?

    Apple's failure to match pre-Macworld speculation and announce a revised iPod Shuffle could have sounded the screen-less music player's death knell. Its replacement, suggests UBS Investment Research analyst Ben Reitzes, will be a 1GB iPod Nano. Suggestions that Apple is pondering a 1GB Nano were made in December 2005 as 1GB …

    Reg Hardware 1 Feb 2006, 17:09

  • Indie PC makers unite!

    Whizzer and Chips

    The UK PC Association has bucked the trend of industry decline and doubled its membership over the last year. Indigenous PC assemblers have in recent years been dropping like flies, and multinational PC firms - particularly Dell - have been gaining at their expense. Local assemblers saw a decline of two per cent in 2004 against …

    Channel Register 1 Feb 2006, 17:34

  • IRS buys computer to handle Bill G's tax load

    Audit Tuesday

    The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a dedicated server for handling calculations related to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates's massive cash horde. At least, that's what chairman Bill is telling the Portuguese. "My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can't deal …

    Servers 1 Feb 2006, 21:17