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15th February 2006 Archive

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  • Sun hopes open equals interest with GPLed chip

    Give us your tired, poor and SPARCless masses

    Sun Microsystems has published specifications for its UltraSPARC T1 processor, open sourcing its latest chip, while issuing a challenge to IBM and Intel. Sun on Tuesday released the specifications for the UltraSPARC processor architecture 2005 and its HyperVisor API under the General Public License (GPL) 2.0. The architecture …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 00:40

  • XenSource clears mind of CEO

    Ex-Veritas man steps in as new master

    Start-up XenSource has experienced its first growing pains in the form of a CEO swap and a few layoffs. The open source virtualization software maker has waved goodbye to Nick Gault and hired Veritas veteran Peter Levine as CEO and president. Levine gives XenSource some big software company experience, having served as …

    Servers 15 Feb 2006, 05:50

  • Linus: read-up on your GPL 3.0

    When is a derivative not a derivative?

    Linus may have it wrong on digital rights management (DRM), but it's the vague wording and confusing concepts - like what is meant by a "derivative work" - that is causing the real headaches over the next General Public License (GPL). A representative of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), leading the effort around GPL 3.0, …

    Software 15 Feb 2006, 09:48

  • Apple posts Mac OS X 10.4.5 update

    Intel and PowerPC versions tweaked

    Apple has updated Mac OS X for both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, bumping its operating system up to version 10.4.5. The patch incorporates a number of fixes and improvements for the OS itself, along with a number of compatibility tweaks for third-party and Apple-branded applications. It also includes Apple's most recent …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 10:09

  • E-government whitewash continues

    Comment It's all so spiffing, says Soctim

    Local government techies are prancing about like dogs with new toys. Once neglected backyard pets, they have for the last five years been lavished with £675m funding from the ODPM and inflated with responsibility for popular projects like Freedom of Information and websites that do something useful for citizens. The list of …

    Policy 15 Feb 2006, 10:09

  • Nokia and Sanyo team up for CDMA

    3GSM A problem spun-out is a problem solved?

    Nokia is to create a joint venture with Sanyo to produce CDMA handsets. Financial details remain murky, but the new company will be a jointly-owned spin-out, on the model of Sony Ericsson. The new company will focus on cdma2000, and both parents' GSM and W-CDMA operations will remain inhouse. The JV begins life with around 20 …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2006, 10:15

  • DCA outlines local election pilots

    Electoral modernisation

    The government has chosen 16 local authorities to experiment with new ways of voting in the forthcoming local elections. Constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer this week announced a series of pilots as part of the government’s ongoing efforts to modernise the electoral system. Falconer said the emphasis of the pilots …

    Policy 15 Feb 2006, 11:06

  • AMD slashes Opteron prices by over 50%

    Way paved for DDR 2-supporting successors

    AMD has taken the axe to prices across its desktop, mobile and server processor line-ups with particular emphasis on the Opteron range: server chip prices were this week cut by up to 54.2 per cent, some older models were dropped and new dual-core 2xx and 8xx series parts added to the range. Among the chips added to AMD's …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 11:10

  • Skype goes 3G

    3GSM Star-VoIP and Hutch

    Skype has clinched a deal with Hutchinson that paves the way for cheaper VoIP calls to be offered on the Hutchison 3G networks. Limited trials, which have begun in Sweden, are expected to precede a wider launch in Austria, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden, the UK and Italy by the end of the year. In an effort to scope user demand …

    VoIP 15 Feb 2006, 11:14

  • Climate change gets SETI-style simulations

    Global warming begins at home

    Oxford University has launched a SETI@home-like joint project with the BBC to harness processing power from home computers to model climate change. Lead scientist Myles Allen told Reuters: “If 10,000 people join in, you are already bigger than the world's biggest supercomputer.” The program will take an average home PC around …

    Science 15 Feb 2006, 11:28

  • Intel looks to SIM cards for universal wireless access

    Diplomatically ignores WiMAX in 3G-oriented press statement

    Intel has backed an initiative to equip future notebooks with a SIM card slot, the better to integrate support for 3G mobile phone network connectivity into the machines. The scheme, launched this week by the GSM Association (GSMA), has the goal of making GSM, GPRS and 3G connectivity as ubiquitous in tomorrow's laptops as Wi-Fi …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 11:30

  • Privacy and anonymity

    Just how far does Big Brother's eye see?

    Privacy and anonymity on the internet are as important as they are difficult to achieve. Here are some of the the current issues we face, along with a few suggestions on how to be more anonymous. Online privacy issues are in the news every week now. This is good for us, because when it's newsworthy and notable it means people …

    Security 15 Feb 2006, 11:43

  • ATI R590 said to ship next month

    Pre-CeBIT debut?

    ATI will launch its R590 chip early next month as the Radeon X1800 GTO with support for 256MB of graphics memory, according to internal roadmap information surreptitiously slipped to website DailyTech. The data suggests the part is an X1900 with a lower clock speed and an unknown set of features disabled. X1800 GTO boards …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2006, 11:48

  • Orange and Wanadoo spared job cuts in UK

    France Telecom confirms numbers will remain 'stable'

    Workers at Orange and Wanadoo in the UK are breathing a sigh of relief today following confirmation they will be spared from the 22,000 job cuts announced by France Telecom yesterday. The shake-up at France Telecom comes as the firm struggles to cut its whopping debt mountain while facing a cut in traditional revenues. The …

    Networks 15 Feb 2006, 11:51

  • China to Qualcomm: er, you and whose army?

    3GSM 3G IP royalty war heats up

    China's home-grown 3G standard TD-SCDMA is on course for a hard launch this year, and to prove it, its representative industry body the TD-SCDMA Forum showed off a range of handsets and vendors at 3GSM this week. The technology is being developed to 4G and beyond, and Chinese vendors are eyeing markets beyond Asia. The Forum's …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2006, 12:00

  • Microsoft testing 'Core Duo power drain bug' fix

    BIOS update and patch in the pipeline

    Microsoft has pledged to post a patch that will fix the power drain bug that has hit some Core Duo-based notebooks when they're connected to USB 2.0 devices. Separately, it has been claimed Intel has also finished a fix, though at this stage it remains unclear when one or both solutions will ship to users. The bug, which sees …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 12:45

  • Aramiska flickers back to life

    Service may be switched on soon

    Aramiska, the troubled satellite broadband network that pulled the plug on its service giving punters just a few hours notice of the shut down, could be back in business. No sooner had the firm cut off thousands of customers last month leaving them stranded without net access, than its website disappeared from screens. Late …

    Broadband 15 Feb 2006, 13:07

  • Patch posted to run Mac OS X 10.4.4 on 'generic PC'

    A work in progress

    A utility has been released that will allow the Intel-oriented version of Apple's Mac OS X operating systems to be run on machines other than the company's own iMac and MacBook Pro. However, the coder behind the patch, Maxxuss, warned that the software is a work in progress and that there's "still a lot of work to do". That …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 13:16

  • Ingram still straining for profit

    IT distributors risk hernia

    Ingram Micro managed to squeeze a drop more efficiency out of IT distribution in mature markets last year, but Asia and South America needed no persuassion to give. Profits for the year increased a mere $3m and came it at $216m overall. That was on a mind-blowing $28.81bn of sales. Overall, sales increased only a little over $ …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2006, 13:32

  • Bates back at Azlan

    Longtime coming

    Paul Bates has returned to base after ten years exploring the length and breadth of the IT industry. Bates has joined Azlan UK as UK general manager of enterprise sales. He left a place on Computer 2000's VAR business unit in 1995. He travelled the land putting in time at openPSL, Sybase, and Embarcadero Technologies. …

    The Channel 15 Feb 2006, 13:56

  • Second Freeview box signals alien invasion fleet

    Sinister transmissions continue

    The neoLuddite Resistance Army (NRA) is today on Defcon Laguna following the chilling news that a second Freeview box has been making pre-invasion broadcasts to the Lizard Army battle fleet. Regular readers will recall the recent case in Portsmouth when Freeview equipment sent out a distress signal strong enough to be picked …

    Science 15 Feb 2006, 13:59

  • Network Technology acquires Madge assets

    Becomes Lord of the Token Rings

    Network Technology PLC said today it has bought certain assets of Maidenhead, Berkshire, firm Madge Limited from the receivers. Network Technology said it has acquired the rights and copyright to Madge’s products, brand and website, as well as the remaining inventory. The assets will be absorbed by Network Technology subsidiary …

    Data Networking 15 Feb 2006, 14:37

  • Oracle eats Sleepycat

    In Brief Still hungry?

    Already engorged, Oracle has stuffed yet another software maker into its belly, gobbling up Sleepycat. Sleepycat produces the open source Berkeley DB database that gets embedded within applications. Its software has proved popular with relatively fixed function applications such as switches, routers and email servers. Oracle …

    Applications 15 Feb 2006, 15:13

  • Seven patches for St Valentine's patch Tuesday

    Say it with vulns

    Microsoft marked Valentine's Day with the release of seven patches - two critical and five important - as part of its regular monthly "Patch Tuesday" update cycle. The most serious security vulnerabilities involve flaws in Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. The IE patch (MS06-004) covers a cumulative update of security …

    Security 15 Feb 2006, 15:17

  • Wanadoo trails Tiscali for UK broadband numbers

    Race is on for magic million

    Wanadoo UK is slipping down the broadband league tables after revealing it has 904,000 broadband punters. And with news that Tiscali has 935,000 broadband users in the UK, it means Wanadoo has slipped into fourth place behind DSL providers BT and AOL, which both have more than a million users. Wanadoo - which used to be called …

    Broadband 15 Feb 2006, 15:28

  • California ordered to improve its execution experience

    Customer comfort paramount

    A US federal judge has ordered the state of California to make its lethal injections a less potentially uncomfortable experience for customers - or he will stop the planned execution next week of convicted rapist and murderer Michael Morales. Specifically, the BBC reports, judge Jeremy Fogel is demanding "new measures to ensure …

    Bootnotes 15 Feb 2006, 15:29

  • Mobile content - it’s not just porn you know

    3GSM Mainly porn admittedly…

    Content on mobiles is what most mobile companies hope and believe will offset falling revenues from voice calls. The great hopes for mobile content are sport, games and what the industry calls "erotica", and you would call porn. So we talked to some content providers at 3GSM about what people are actually consuming now. Evgeny …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2006, 15:34

  • Varsavsky's Folly: the precedents ain't good

    One man's blog-beatified Wi-Fi adventure

    Is Fon, the utopian Wi-Fi project from Argentine dot com billionaire Martin Varsavsky, for real? Or is it a tax write-off? Fon may be giddy with revolutionary rhetoric, and its advisory board packed with Berkman bloggers, but the precedents aren't good. Readers with far sharper memories than us remind us that the idea has been …

    Broadband 15 Feb 2006, 15:56

  • Racial abuse silences BBC sports message board

    It's just not cricket

    A BBC cricket message board has been temporarily pulled after banter between Indian and Pakistani fans degenerated into out-and-out abuse, Reuters reports. Insults hurled included references to 9/11 and Hitler and general Hindu and Muslim bashing. The BBC said the board had been more lively of late due to the current one-day …

    Bootnotes 15 Feb 2006, 15:58

  • HSDPA puts 3G on steroids

    3GSM Mobile operators feel the need for speed

    Mobile operators across Europe are looking to supercharge mobile data access speeds with technology that puts 3G on steroids. Orange, T-Mobile and Telecom Italia have all outlined plans to launch services based on High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology that offer download speeds of anywhere between 1-2Mbps up to a …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2006, 16:44

  • Aramiska network up and running again

    Okay, so what happened?

    Ouranos Networks - the outfit that says it's taken over the activities of broadband satellite network operator Aramiska - reports that the service is up and running again. According to an email circulated this afternoon, all punters need to do is reboot their connection to get started again. Said the email: "OURANOS NETWORKS …

    Broadband 15 Feb 2006, 16:50

  • Higgs Boson a-go-go

    Successful test drive for particle physics mega-grid

    Physicists have trialed an international computing grid that will help probe the moments following the Big Bang. The Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid will manage data from a huge particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland, which it is hoped will answer mysteries in particle physics. These include whether the hypothetical …

    Servers 15 Feb 2006, 17:02

  • US tops download charts

    3GSM They just love their ringtones…

    M:metrics’ first comparison of German, UK and US use of mobile content shows that US consumers are far from being the mobile laggards they are often portrayed as. In the last quarter of 2005 9.7 per cent of US mobile subscribers downloaded a ringtone compared to 7.1 per cent of Brits and 7 per cent of Germans. But 4.1 per cent …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2006, 17:06

  • Apple pushes MacBook Pro ship dates back to March

    Exclusive Shipping slipping?

    Apple's decision to ship faster processors with its first MacBook Pro models will certainly please its customers, but the move may mean many of them don't get their machines quite as quickly as they might have hoped. After announcing yesterday that it will this week begin shipping the new Intel-based notebooks, Apple quietly …

    Hardware 15 Feb 2006, 17:17

  • Stars discovered flashing

    Lab RRATs

    Astronomers at the the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory have led an international team to discovering a new type of star, Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs). They are set to publish their findings in this week's edition of Nature. A survey of the Milky Way for pulsars, using the Parkes Radio Telescope in …

    Science 15 Feb 2006, 18:02

  • Microsoft prolongs row over EC manuals

    Pity the poor bureaucrat who has to check them

    Microsoft has made an official response to a European Commission demand that it justify its failure to meet obligations imposed under a 2004 anti-trust ruling. But its response appears to have been something akin to "up yours". The firm not only said in a statement this afternoon that its software documentation was good enough …

    Software 15 Feb 2006, 19:30

  • 'Pentagon hacker' wants to see Bush's John Hancock

    Nothing less will do

    Alleged Pentagon Hacker Gary McKinnon was told in court today that the US Embassy would write a letter to help him avoid the full wrath of presidential anti-terror laws, if he were extradited for prosecution. McKinnon (aka Solo) was facing extradition proceedings in Bow Street Magistrates Court this morning so that he could be …

    Policy 15 Feb 2006, 21:46

  • Open source ISVs must side with SAP to survive - SAP

    That or be bought by Oracle

    SAP has been pitching open source start-ups on the merits of its vision and strategy for doing business with enterprises, while knocking software rivals. The giant told ISVs the enterprise software market is facing an imminent period of consolidation as companies reduce their costs, and said providing open source and Linux …

    Applications 15 Feb 2006, 21:57