19th August 2003 Archive

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The GPL will win, claims law prof.

Why SCO's latest tactic would fail a Law School exam

Eben Moglen, Professor of Law at Columbia University and the FSF's pro bono general counsel for the past decade, says that there's nothing to fear from the GPL (General Public Licence) being tested in a US Court. He also expressed astonishment to describe SCO's latest legal tactic to reject the validity of the GPL. SCO is suing …

Software 19 Aug 2003, 08:17
Kingston invests $50m in Elpida

To boost DDR, DDR II output

Kingston Technology has paid Elpida ¥6 billion ($50.24 million) in exchange for non-voting stock, though neither company would say how much of a stake Kingston now has in the memory chip maker. As per the $100 million Intel invested in Elpida earlier this year, the Kingston cash injection will be used, in part, to boost DDR II …

Channel 19 Aug 2003, 08:30
SiS graphics spin-off to drop Xabre brand

Wants something stronger to help it battle ATI, Nvidia

SiS' recently spun off graphics chip operation, XGI, will drop the Xabre brand that gave it its name when it launches its first product next month. The company's first graphics chip was expected to be called the Xabre II, the successor to SiS' Xabre 400 and Xabre 600 parts. XGI hasn't said what it will call the chip, which it …

Channel 19 Aug 2003, 08:55
AMD preps Appalbred as Duron heir

Not ignoring Celeron market

AMD will shortly ship a new low-end processor, codenamed 'Appalbred', the successor to the Duron. So claims Eastern European web site AMD.com.ua, citing "reliable sources in AMD" as the basis for its report. Appalbred will initially ship in three forms: 1400, 1600 and 1800, priced at $32, $39 and $47, respectively. AMD.com.ua …

Channel 19 Aug 2003, 09:22
Ireland to trial broadband over power cables

Socket to 'em

Ireland's electricity company, ESB, is to see whether it can deliver broadband over electric cables as part of a €50 million ($55.76 million) project part-funded by the Irish government. News of the trial for Tuam, County Galway, was announced yesterday by Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources …

Telecoms 19 Aug 2003, 09:28
Intel pencils Pentium M price cuts for October

Mobile P4 prices to be reduced too

Intel will cut its Pentium M processor prices by up to 33 per cent on 5 October, sources within Taiwan's notebook manufacturer community have claimed. The sources, cited by DigiTimes, also claim Intel will discontinue the 1.3GHz Pentium M on that date. Other mobile processor prices will be cut later in the month, on the 26th, …

Channel 19 Aug 2003, 09:38
Blaster variant offers ‘fix’ for pox-ridden PCs

Do-gooder bug poses its own problems

A new variant of the infamous Blaster worm which claims to fix infected systems is circulating on the Net. The Welchia worm exploit the same Remote Procedure Call (RPC) DCOM vulnerability used by Blaster to load itself onto unpatched Windows machines. Welchia (AKA MSblast-D, Nachi and LovSan-D) also exploits the WebDav …

Anti-Virus 19 Aug 2003, 10:03
Missing eBay DVD claims ‘exaggerated’, says trader

Zippymilk speaks out

Zippymilk, the elusive trader who's left hundreds of people waiting weeks for the arrival of DVDs they've paid for after winning auctions on eBay, has denied any wrongdoing. As first reported on The Register earlier this month, patience is wearing thin among the estimated 800 customers of zippymilk (aka Adrian Bailey, 33, of …

Music and Media 19 Aug 2003, 11:12
Sony Ericsson P800 successor appears on web

Official launch any day now?

Sony Ericsson is preparing a follow-up to its popular P800 smartphone and will go public on the new handset next month. So claims Spanish web site Unofficial Club Sony Ericsson, citing "unofficial yet accurate sources". The smartphone is essentially an updated P800 offering a smaller, thinner, lighter and more stylish casing. …

Mobile 19 Aug 2003, 11:55
VCs prefer healthcare to IT

Software sector still attractive though

Venture capitalists are forking out less and less dosh to back communications and networking investments. So says a survey by Ernst & Young/VentureOne which found that venture investment in Europe was flat in Q2 at €709 million ($791 million). Although there was a "sharp decline" in comms and networking investment, the survey …

Channel 19 Aug 2003, 11:57
Symantec pays $62.5m to settle patent lawsuit

In-transit scanning

Symantec yesterday paid $62.5 million to settle a long-running patent lawsuit with Michigan-based security firm Hilgraeve. As part of the settlement for a patent involving in-transit scanning for malicious code (US Patent Number 5,319,776), Symantec also received licences to the remaining patents in Hilgraeve's portfolio, …

Anti-Virus 19 Aug 2003, 12:07
Insiders, channel point to PowerBook updates

Sometime this week, apparently

Apple is on the verge of releasing updates across its PowerBook line - possibly as early as later today - including the long-awaited aluminium-cased 15in models. Reliable sources cited by O'Grady's PowerPage effectively confirm an earlier Think Secret story that Apple wrapped up development of new aluminium 15in PowerBooks - …

Mac Channel 19 Aug 2003, 13:19
Palm Wi-Fi PDA gets Aegis security

Cisco LEAP support for corporate mobile workers

Palm's Tungsten C Wi-Fi PDA is now backed by Meetinghouse's Aegis enterprise-oriented WLAN access authentication software, the network security specialist said today. Aegis is often touted as a key corporate security component. It's based on the 802.1x security standard, and it features Cisco's Lightweight Extensible …

Security 19 Aug 2003, 15:02
Post Blaster, MS floats default auto updates for Windows

It's an ill Win... d'oh

Never happier than when making things compulsory, Microsoft is floating the notion of making home versions of Windows download and install software updates automatically by default. You'll be able to switch it off, of course (for a while), but the joy of shipping things to home users is that most of them leave the system's …

Software 19 Aug 2003, 15:07
Borland picks 1990s PC game star for CTO

Blake Stone swaps killing for code management

Borland has appointed a mid-1990s first-person perspective shoot-'em-up hero as its new CTO. According to the software company, it has appointed Blake Stone to the position of CTO. In his new role, Stone will "help to further the Borland vision for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), helping organisations to align business …

Bootnotes 19 Aug 2003, 15:41
Nokia to sell over 200m units in 2004

Set to surpass 40% market share mark

Next year, Nokia will surpass the 40 per cent market share mark and the overall mobile phone sector will experience 11 per cent growth, a new report has claimed. Strategy Analytics, which released details of its research into the mobile phone market on Tuesday, said it is confident that growth in the mobile market will reach …

Mobile 19 Aug 2003, 15:46
Smartphones will kill off PDAs – IDC

Punters want email on the move

By the end of this year, the plain, vanilla PDA market will have shrunk by nearly ten per cent. Instead, users are demanding "converged" devices, says a survey by research company IDC. And at last, the market seems to be getting the design right. The shrinking of the PDA business isn't a new trend, either. It will come as small …

Mobile 19 Aug 2003, 15:48
Email worm joins Blaster attack on Windows

Shot by both sides

A new variant of the Sobig worm is spreading rapidly across the Internet this afternoon. Sobig-F, like its predecessors, can spread via either email or (less commonly) network shares. Infectious emails come with a variety of subject lines (eg. 'Your details', 'Re: Approved', 'Re: Your application', 'Re: Wicked screensaver', ' …

Anti-Virus 19 Aug 2003, 16:36
Police grab Wang in covert Segway opp

Felony scooter pushing

The first known Segway sting operation has gone down in New York with a 24-year-old student being arrested on felony scooter theft charges. Yili Wang entered a Starbucks in Queens, hoping a Segway expert he met on the Internet could help get the gizmo going, according to court papers unearthed by The Smoking Gun. Wang …

Bootnotes 19 Aug 2003, 19:48
HP stays humble in Q3

PCs, servers at a loss

HP's CEO Carly Fiorina took on a somber tone in describing the company's disappointing third quarter, saying 5 percent revenue growth was acceptable but not good enough. HP brought in $17.35 billion in revenue for the period ended July 31. This compares to $16.54 billion posted in the same quarter a year ago. The company …

Business 19 Aug 2003, 22:46