14th June 2002 Archive

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IBM readies entry and workgroup Power4 Servers

New Iron for Unix customers

The word on the street is that Big Blue is getting ready to take its Power4 RISC processors to small machines, and that it may do so sooner rather than later, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. While the details are sketchy, IBM is said to be preparing to brief its sales team and pSeries resellers on the new entry and …

Servers 14 Jun 2002, 08:50
Peregrine gets $50m loan, sells e-commerce ops

Is it enough?

Peregrine Systems Inc's new CEO Gary Greenfield has moved swiftly to try to stabilize the company by negotiating a $50m loan and agreeing to sell off its e-commerce operations. Ableco Finance LLC will provide finance for the scandal-engulfed company with a secured loan that has to be paid off next year. At the same time, …

e-Business 14 Jun 2002, 08:53
Entercept hardens anti-hacker blockades

Beyond the firewall

Server and operating system security house Entercept Security Technologies has bolstered its intrusion-prevention software to provide protection against the latest hacking techniques, putting a stop to the Return into Libc buffer overflow exploit that hackers use to gain root access to machines. The software works by …

Security 14 Jun 2002, 08:56
Fibre Channel grows in storage slump

Konichiwa SAN

The market for external RAID storage shrank heavily last year, but that didn't stop spending on SAN network components from growing by a healthy margin. According to Gartner Dataquest, spending on Fibre Channel SAN networking equipment grew by 13% last year. The researcher has yet to issue detailed figures, but said this …

Hardware 14 Jun 2002, 08:56
First JPEG virus not a threat

Low risk, in captivity

Anti-virus firms have discovered a Windows virus that infects JPEG image files, though the chances of it causing a major security risk any time soon are close to zero. W32/Perrun, as Networks Associates Inc named the virus, was assessed as low risk, and has not been found in the wild. "It is believed to be the first of its …

Anti-Virus 14 Jun 2002, 08:57
Who is on EMC's shopping list?

The software challenge

The stock markets of the world are still suffering as the majority of technology related share prices continue to trade at extremely low values. However, there are still organisations around who have cash sitting in the bank, and with interest rates for savings at near record lows, speculation is rife that this summer will …

Hardware 14 Jun 2002, 09:23
Time guns for business market

Hires RM sales director

Time Group has hired RM sales director Geoff Smith to run the system builder's non-consumer businesss. Smith will head up the new corporate division which brings together Tiny Professional and Time Education, and which will develop Net services to customers in tandem with Internexus, the web hosting firm which shares common …

Channel 14 Jun 2002, 10:05
Site throws light on teen text argot

gud idea f U' Ovr 30

It's long been accepted at Vulture Central that the English language is going to the dogs. Indeed, many Reg hacks have made significant contribution to this process of decay with their "fluid" spelling and grammatical skills. But it is the nation's youth who must shoulder much of the blame. Armed with their favoured weapon of …

Bootnotes 14 Jun 2002, 10:33
Cisco qualifications ain't what they used to be

US salaries 'plummet'

On June 5, Cisco changed the format for its certification exams. The company made an announcement (PDF) - "effective immediately" - on its web site The new tests incorporate flash-based designed to "approximate real-world networking scenarios on the exam to test a candidate's "hands-on" skill and understanding." The syllabus …

Data Networking 14 Jun 2002, 11:16
KPNQwest's Ebone to shut at 4.45pm today

Exhausted volunteers say time is running out

Volunteers who've been manning KPNQwest's pan-European Ebone broadband network for the last eight days say they will shut it down today if no buyer is found. The ultimatum was delivered in an email last night after exhausted workers said enough was enough. Around 100 unpaid former KPNQwest employees have been keeping the …

Music and Media 14 Jun 2002, 11:35
Battle of the Buses? Not really

Server Briefing InfiniBand, HyperTransport, RapidIO, PCI-Express

The bottom line: today's servers need more system bandwidth - a lot more bandwidth. Faster processors need to be pumped with instructions and data if they're to process information efficiently. Increasingly, that information comes from multiple sources within the box and outside of it. And the processed data has to be passed on …

Servers 14 Jun 2002, 12:46
Govt freezes e-tax filing

Security breach

Oh dear. The Inland Revenue suspended its online tax-self assessment service yesterday after users complained that they could see the tax returns of other people when they logged on to the site. The IR doesn't know when the supposedly password-protected service will be back up and running. The software used for online tax self- …

e-Business 14 Jun 2002, 12:58
ISPs mull BT broadband court battle

Industry unhappy with BT's dominant position

Some of the UK's leading Internet operators are considering seeking a judicial review to examine what they describe as BT's alleged abuse of its dominant market position for broadband. Discussions are currently underway as to the exact nature of the challenge but it's understood that it would focus on allegations of unfair …

Telecoms 14 Jun 2002, 14:19
Time closes in on French market

Confirms talks with Continental Edison

Time Group today confirmed that it was in talks to buy Consolidated Edison, a big French PC maker, to the extent of entering due diligence. Here is the statement in full: "We are currently investigating many opportunities available to us, with many companies throughout Europe. We see further consolidation because of the tough …

Channel 14 Jun 2002, 15:53
BBC faces Net techie walkout

Got the 'ump

Dear oh dear oh dear - what is going on at BBC? The Unix guys who work for BBC Technology in Kingswood Warren, Surrey, and are responsible for making the Internet work for the Beeb's online ventures have been told today they're relocating to Maidenhead, where Streaming Media Services, bought last year by the BBC, is based. …

Business 14 Jun 2002, 15:58
Opinion Why Nvidia's Cg won't work

Andrew Richards, founder of Codeplay, the London based designer cutting-edge computer and console games development tools responds to yesterday's Nvidia Cg - 'C for graphics' - launch. Nvidia produces capable graphics hardware which, since the introduction of the GeForce 3, contains a degree of programmability. It is …

Personal 14 Jun 2002, 16:27
Wal-Mart shipping PCs with Lindows preinstalled

Robertson coup

In a move that appears to be a coup for Michael Robertson et al, Wal-Mart's online store is offering eight different Microtel PCs with LindowsOS included. The computers sell for USD$299 to $599 and ship in one to seven days. NewsForge originally reviewed Wal-Mart's OS-less PCs, a dramatic move away from the standard Windows- …

Software 14 Jun 2002, 16:39
Mobilix whups Astérix

We think

According to what we can decipher from Babelfish, which is notorious for butchering German, we're fairly confident that German mobile Unix developer Mobilix has beaten "Astérix et Obélix" publisher Editions Albert René in a trademark suit. The offended publisher apparently believed that Mobilix was so close in look and sound to …

Software 14 Jun 2002, 17:00
Lights still on at KPNQwest

Another day, another deadline

The liquidators of bust KPNQwest are to keep the service running until the end of June, after striking a deal with unpaid, 'exhausted' volunteers manning the Brussels network centre Ebone, its European internet backbone operation. The 100 or so staff who had been working round the clock for eight days had threatened to walk out …

Music and Media 14 Jun 2002, 17:22
MS distributes Nimda to Korean .NET developers

Commie plot

Somehow or other the Nimda worm has found its way into a file which Microsoft is distributing to developers in Korea. "The Nimda virus has been detected within one of the compressed help files included in the Korean language version of Application Center Test (ACT). ACT is a component of the Korean language versions of the …

Software 14 Jun 2002, 17:34