20th February 2002 Archive

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Be Inc sues Microsoft

Beast scuttled IPO price, Compaq deal - claim

Be Inc is suing Microsoft for the destruction of its business. A damages figure isn't enumerated, but Be points out that at one stage the company was valued at over $1 billion. The company is now a shell, with the assets including BeOS and BeIA, and some 46 staff, having been transferred to Palm Inc in the Fall for $11 million …

Business 20 Feb 2002, 00:50
‘Penetrate and patch’ e-business security is grim

@stake survey

Application security flaws introduced early in the design life cycle are giving rise to easily exploitable defects that can readily be prevented. That's the main conclusion of an evaluation of 45 e-business applications by security consultancy @stake. It says the current state of application security is "grim". @stake found …

Security 20 Feb 2002, 09:42
BT urged to slash wholesale DSL prices by £10 a month

Go on now

PlusNet has called on BT to cut the cost of its wholesale DSL service by £10 a month when the telco's CEO honours his pledge to make a "substantial cut in the cost of wholesale broadband services". BT's Arsenal-supporting boss, Ben Verwaayen, made his promise a fortnight ago. He said he would return in a couple of weeks to …

Telecoms 20 Feb 2002, 14:36
Mobile phone theft is far worse than we thought

1.3m stolen handsets and 600,000 dropped down the toilet

Far more mobile people have had their phone stolen in the last year than reported crime figures suggest. That's one of the main findings of a study by market research firm Continental Research which reckons 1.3 million Britons had their phone pinched in the last year, with teenagers in particular falling prey to theft. The …

Personal 20 Feb 2002, 14:38
AltaVista cans Web mail service

How the mighty have fallen

AltaVista is pulling the plug on its free Web-based email service at the end of March. The move comes as the once-great Internet portal retreats from non-core activities and focuses on its search engine business. In a statement the company said: "AltaVista Company is discontinuing its free Web-based consumer e-mail service... …

Music and Media 20 Feb 2002, 14:39
BSA informant gets £1000s for piracy tip-off

Baines & Ernst uses unlicensed MS software

An industry snitch has received a tip-off fee running into thousands of pounds after informing on Baines & Ernst Financial Management for using unlicensed software. In an out of court settlement, Baines & Ernst agreed to pay the Business Software Alliance "a substantial five-figure sum" for using more than 400 copies of …

Software 20 Feb 2002, 14:41
Oftel acts to cut UK Net access charges

BT resists

Oftel has published proposals that could see the cost of unmetered dial-up access fall in the UK. The telecoms regulator today announced plans to impose the cut on BT claiming that it now had sufficient data to make an accurate calculation of BT's costs and, therefore, the appropriate wholesale price. Up until now the cost for …

Music and Media 20 Feb 2002, 14:43
VeriSign seeks to become Web services security plumbing

Getting into embed

VeriSign Inc yesterday outlined how it hopes its digital security services will become an integral part of internet business's evolution into a web services-based architecture, unveiling a toolkit and framework for helping application developers more easily build security into web services, Kevin Murphy writes. As part of …

Security 20 Feb 2002, 14:50
Toshiba and MIPS partner for next-Generation RISC

Amethyst

Toshiba Corp and MIPS Technologies Inc are teaming up to jointly develop a new 64-bit RISC chip designed to offer the highest available performance for 64-bit embedded microprocessor products. The new TX99 processor will be based on an enhanced MIPS core, codenamed Amethyst, and the initial product is expected to be …

Channel 20 Feb 2002, 14:56