3rd April 2003 Archive

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HP's will to invent ebbing?

Itanium dependency augurs "world of hurt" - report

A report by an analyst company casts a shadow on the sincerity of HP's corporate logo: Invent. The R&D tradition represented by the "Invent" is precious to HP - it appears on all product packaging and promotional material. But in a damning note, Illuminata concludes that HP is risking its reputation on some big gambles, in …

Servers 3 Apr 2003, 01:27
Cleaner, lighter Mozilla vowed

Bloat overboard as Phoenix takes flight

The Mozilla project, largely sponsored by AOL-TimeWarner, has taken a dramatic turn. Team leaders have advised Mozilla developers to abandon the "swiss army knife" approach for smaller and lighter applications, according to a statement posted on the mozilla.org site today. In the statement, team leaders Brenden Eich and David …

Music and Media 3 Apr 2003, 02:52
SARS freezes tech travel, threatens supplies

Virus news

Intel and Sun Microsystems became the latest tech companies to cancel major industry events in China, fearing SARS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome has claimed 46 lives in the PRC, and over 1,000 people have contracted the illness, according to the Beijing authorities, with the World Health Organization reporting over 2,200 …

Business 3 Apr 2003, 03:37
Skullcandy links iPod to phone to ears

Reg Kit Watch Uninterrupted listening; a revolutionary notebook dock; and new HP consumer systems

Mobile Bizarrely named Skullcandy has launched Link, a headphone set with a standard 2.5mm jack - handy for your iPod or Discman - and a cellphone connector so you can listen to music, and make and take calls all at the same time. Skullcandy supports Nokia, Samsung and Ericsson connector formats, plus a standard 2.5mm jack, for …

Personal 3 Apr 2003, 08:34
Cut software piracy and jumpstart ‘stagnant’ economies

If only...

Clamping down on software piracy could help "jumpstart the world's stagnant and struggling economies" by creating new jobs and business opportunities. So says a major new economic impact study of 57 countries by IDC on behalf of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) which found 40 per cent of all software breaches copyright. …

Software 3 Apr 2003, 09:10
ATI to expand TSMC's production role in 2H

Just when 0.13 micron demand will outstrip supply

Nvidia may have turned to IBM to share production of its GeForce FX chips with TSMC, but rival graphics chip maker ATI is quite happy with the Taiwanese foundry, thank you very much. So said ATI CEO K Y Ho in a conference call with Far Eastern media this week, according to DigiTimes. The company expects to "significantly …

Channel 3 Apr 2003, 09:14
AMD plan to offer 400MHz FSB Athlon XP slips out

Abit pre-announces Barton 3200+ support

AMD will indeed release a version of its Athlon XP with a 400MHz frontside bus, mobo maker Abit announced this morning. AMD has yet to announce such a part itself. However, Abit's press release, issued today and headed "Abit engineered motherboards support the new AMD Athlon XP 333 and 400MHz Barton CPUs", says the company has …

Channel 3 Apr 2003, 09:33
One Luddite, one web site = AUS$4m

A little over-budget

The world's biggest Luddite strikes again! Australian folk hero Senator Richard Alston's ministry, The Department of Communications, IT and the Arts (DCITA), spent AUS$4 million on its web site, a mere $3.4 million over budget. You wanna see what AUS$4m gets you? Take a gander. It's very nice, worth every penny, no? Well done …

Music and Media 3 Apr 2003, 09:57
BT confirms ADSL price cuts

Fails to cut the spin

BT today confirmed that it is to cut the wholesale cost of its ADSL service. As reported yesterday by The Register, the wholesale cost of the service is to fall by up to £2 per person per month for BT's standard consumer product. The monster telco also confirmed that other back-end wholesale prices for ISPs would rise but …

Telecoms 3 Apr 2003, 10:12
Intel v. Hamidi case tests Net freedoms

Chipzilla vs. free speech (and comparative shopping)

California's Supreme Court this week began hearing a case that will test the legitimacy of using bulk mail as a protest tactic. The hearing comes after two lower courts ruled that Intel was within its rights in taking legal action against a worker who protested against his dismissal by the company by spamming his former …

Music and Media 3 Apr 2003, 12:04
Tiscali blasts BT's ‘anti-competitive’ ADSL price cuts

Freeserve critical too

Tiscali UK has launched a savage attack against BT's price cuts, accusing the dominant telco of "anti-competitive" behaviour following today's announcement of wholesale price cuts for its ADSL service. The ISP claims that the cuts discriminate against operators with rival networks including those involved in opening up the …

Telecoms 3 Apr 2003, 12:11
Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed … in 42 days

Blog Power!

This year marks the 100th anniversary of George Orwell's birth, and the writer who best explained the power of language on politics would be amazed what can be done with the Internet. On February 17 a front page news analysis in the New York Times bylined by Patrick Tyler described the global anti-war protests as the emergence …

Music and Media 3 Apr 2003, 12:12
Dell stands firm on revenue outlook

Double digit growth

Despite tough conditions for corporate IT spending, Dell said its Q1 outlook has not weakened, with revenue still expected to rise 18 per cent to USD9.5 billion. The company is meeting analysts in New York on Thursday but held a press conference on Wednesday where it re-iterated its guidance. Dell President Kevin Rollins said …

Business 3 Apr 2003, 13:02
MS smartphones: Pope Juha marshalls his divisions

Who may have their own plans about which way to face...

Microsoft Mobile Devices Division VP Juha Christensen, it has to be said, currently has a similar number of divisions to the Pope; so deploying them this week at the Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference in Paris* was something of a challenge. Although there are now several operators in the MS smartphone camp, the only one …

Mobile 3 Apr 2003, 13:16
Whitehall dips toes into open source purchasing

First among sequels?

The government today announced the successful roll-out of an open source-based online purchasing system. Called Purchase & Pay, the Linux-based system is used by civil servants in the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) for the purchase of printed forms and stationery. The government hopea to extend the role of the system to …

Software 3 Apr 2003, 13:20
AOL UK won't pass on BT ADSL price cuts

'Nothing new to pass on'

AOL UK says it has no plans to pass on today's wholesale ADSL price cuts because it claims there is "nothing new to pass on". According to AOL, today's "price cut" is merely a re-packaging of a £25-off wholesale promo offer which ran for the first three months of the year. In that instance, the promo sliced money off the up- …

Telecoms 3 Apr 2003, 13:51
Govt cool on BT's advances

Not tonight darling, I've got a headache

The Government has given a lukewarm response to BT's suggestion that closer ties could help boost broadband Britain. Earlier today the dominant telco said that the purchasing power of the public sector could "drive demand even faster" by contributing to its scheme to convert exchanges to ADSL once they chalked up enough demand …

Telecoms 3 Apr 2003, 16:21
Swings and roundabout in mobile phone price changes

Is this what Oftel meant by 'price reductions'?

Pay as you go pricing plans from Orange and T-Mobile are to change from the start of next month following tough action by regulators earlier this year. Vodafone's similarly-induced changes kicked in on April 1. Although the regulations are intended to reduce certain mobile charges some people may actually end up paying more …

Mobile 3 Apr 2003, 19:12
HP cuts Unix server prices

Mid-range moves in line with Sun, IBM

HP has cut the prices on some systems in its Unix server line, as it battles to maintain supremacy in the mid-range market. The price reductions come as a result of lower CPU, memory and supports costs. Customers should see HP's mid-range server systems drop in cost by close to 20 per cent on the rp8400, rp7410 and rp7405 …

Servers 3 Apr 2003, 20:50
IBM's DB2 blamed for Danish banking crisis

Kroners in the wind

Danske Bank is pointing fingers at IBM's DB2 database as the culprit for a massive outage that caused the Danish bank's trading desks, currency exchange and communications with other banks to shut down. The problems first started on March 10 when IBM's technical division staff came in to replace a defective power unit in an IBM …

Hardware 3 Apr 2003, 20:52
US info sharing centers not sharing so much

Frayed patchwork

The private-sector information sharing centers once envisioned as the keystone of a national US cyber security program aren't doing much sharing with the government, according to a year-long review conducted by the General Accounting Office, released Wednesday. The GAO, Congress' investigative arm, looked at the Information …

Security 3 Apr 2003, 21:23