5th May 2004 Archive

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EC Oracle probe faces further delay

Mario Monti hits pause...

The European Commission probe into Oracle's takeover of rival Peoplesoft looks set for another delay, which could mean the database giant will face the US courts first. Oracle is due to meet the US Department of Justice in court on 7 June. In mid-April the EC called a halt to proceedings so Oracle could provide more information …

Applications 5 May 2004, 09:31
FCC chairman hails VoIP

Doomed, you're all doomed, I say...

FCC chairman Michael Powell has warned telcos in the US they face a serious, and life-threatening, challenge from VoIP (voice over IP protocol) telephony. Speaking at the National Cable and Telecommunications annual meeting, he said: "If you're a big incumbent and you've sort of enjoyed a competitive advantage . . . you, in my …

Data Networking 5 May 2004, 09:35
Qwest loses in first quarter

But losing more slowly...

Qwest has posted a $310m loss for the first quarter, ended 31 March, its eleventh consecutive quarterly loss. But the US telco thinks things are getting better. The company lost $310m on turnover of $3.48bn, down 3.9 per cent on the same period last year. It says that losses are levelling off after losing 5.6 per cent of …

Financial News 5 May 2004, 09:42
Russian 5c MP3 site 'unlicensed'

Analysis But protected by legal loopholes

For some time now we have been tracking the progress of a Russian MP3 site called Allofmp3.com. To recap, Allofmp3 is one of many Russian internet sites that are openly offering MP3 files from a central server. Other popular sites include club.mp3search.ru and www.mp3spy.ru. For either $14.95 a month (capped at 1000 tracks per …

Music and Media 5 May 2004, 09:45
European healthcare 'online by 2008'

Technology will make everything easier. No, really

The European Commission has launched the e-Health action plan, a campaign aimed at getting Europeans to use communication and information technologies to support healthcare services. The plan covers everything from electronic prescriptions and computerised health records to using new systems and services to cut waiting times …

Public Sector 5 May 2004, 10:03
VIA plans chipset price rises

Passing on higher fab costs

VIA is set to push up chipset prices in two months' time - its second price rise this year. According to company sources cited by DigiTimes, the price rise will kick in on 1 July and see increases of between six and ten per cent. VIA last upped chipset prices in March by 5-8 per cent. The upcoming increases will be applied …

Channel 5 May 2004, 10:03
AMD 130/90nm snippets slip onto Web

CPU IDs galore

French website x86 Secret has some interesting information regarding AMD's move to 90nm from 130nm. The 130nm Athlon 64 with 512KB of on-die L2 cache, 'Newcastle', has a 150mm 2 die size. Its 90nm equivalent, 'Winchester', is just 83mm 2, the site reveals thanks to a reader who glimpsed an AMD presentation on the subject. The …

Channel 5 May 2004, 10:42
London to get unbundled video-on-demand

HomeChoice relaunched

Video Networks is to relaunch its broadband and digital TV service next week after installing its kit in more than 80 London BT exchanges. Available to more than one million Londoners, Video Networks' HomeChoice service is to offer 1Mb broadband and more than 60 TV channels. The service also enables people to access TV …

Telecoms 5 May 2004, 10:58
France bans Intel-only IT contracts

Specific brands may not be included in tenders

France has moved to avoid European Commission anti-trust action by removing a stipulation that government IT hardware projects must be based on Intel-based kit. The measures follow a Commission investigation into the contract tendering policies of EU member states. At the end of the probe, the EC warned national governments to …

Servers 5 May 2004, 11:08
Corporate VoIP to challenge Skype

Europe in Brief Welcome Voipster

Amsterdam-based Voipster will introduce a corporate competitor to Skype, the popular free Voice over IP client, by next month. The Dutch company is targeting business users and will charge a monthly fee for unlimited calls, four way conference, voicemail and sharing documents. Some features will be free until further notice, …

Data Networking 5 May 2004, 11:17
Energis puts frighteners on UK biz

Security scare stories

UK businesses are so slapdash about IT security if they owned a brand new Ferrari they'd probably leave it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. And the door open. With a sign saying "nick me". So says alternative telco Energis, which reckons that UK businesses just aren't doing enough to protect themselves. Its study The …

Security 5 May 2004, 11:20
Biometric recognition gets right in your face

3D imaging technology

Telling people apart by the contours of their face has become the latest biometric recognition technology to be brought to market. 3D facial imaging technology from A4Vision (Applications for Vision) will underpin a range of physical and network access security products, following a deal with software developer ISL Biometrics …

ID 5 May 2004, 11:28
Healthcare IT spend on the up-and-up

2004 European budgets set to rise

Spending on IT is set to rise is 2004, with one third of healthcare organisations in Western Europe planning to increase their budgets, according to research firm IDC. IDC highlights national IT modernisation plans in the UK, regional initiatives in Italy and Spain, and medium-term investment in the French hospital system as …

Hardware 5 May 2004, 11:31
419ers crack cold fusion

Unlimited energy yours for $10k

Since they already have a man in space, it should come as no surprise that our old mates from Lagos have pulled off an even more impressive feat - cold fusion. Well, it was actually the brilliant Nigerian physicist Koffi Abacha, who sadly died in the obligatory mysterious plane crash. However, his work looks promising, and for …

Bootnotes 5 May 2004, 11:53
DRM 'will be cracked' says iTunes hacker

Nothing is geek-proof

According to the Australian researcher who cracked the authentication used by Apple's iTunes software, current-generation Digital Rights Management (DRM) will never work. David Hammerton, a 20-year-old Arts-Science student, reverse-engineered iTunes' authentication measures last week, allowing non-iTunes clients to connect to …

Music and Media 5 May 2004, 12:13
Glitches in ID card kit frustrate Blunkett's pod people

Broken? Already?

The pilot for the UK national ID card scheme ran into technical problems earlier this year, cutting the period of the trial from six to three months, Parliament's Home Affairs Committee was told yesterday. Home Secretary David Blunkett was himself giving evidence, and told the Committee that people would be "queueing round the …

ID 5 May 2004, 12:20
Irish punters enjoy online betting

Tax-free flutter

Betting firm Victor Chandler has launched tax-free online betting services in Ireland and plans to create 50 jobs in the Republic over the next 18 months. Along with creating the new .ie domain presence, the Gibraltar-headquartered firm also plans to offer Web-based gaming. The firm is also to make a "significant" bricks and …

Financial News 5 May 2004, 12:31
Boffins synthesise Bucky's baby brother

Carbon-50 made solid

A group of physical chemists have made carbon-50 molecules in a solid state for the first time. Previous attempts to synthesise the molecule have been successful, but only in the gaseous phase. The researchers describe it as the long-sought-after little brother of Carbon-60. Carbon-50 is an interesting molecule because it is a …

Science 5 May 2004, 12:35
Ofcom BT standard rate ruling delayed

'Urgent' investigation drags on

Ofcom has delayed by up to "a week to ten days" the publication of an "urgent" investigation into allegations that BT's new phone tariffs are anti-competitive. In March, the UK's dominant fixed-line telco announced plans to scrap its "standard rate" in a move it said would simplify its tariff structure and make its service even …

Telecoms 5 May 2004, 12:38
MS opens Hotmail to bulk mailers

Pay $20k bond, behave yourself, reach millions

Microsoft said yesterday it had introduced a white list scheme to allow well-behaved email marketing firms to reach its customers without falling foul of its spam filters. Marketing firms who post a cash bond of up to $20,000 through IronPort's "Bonded Sender Programme" will get guarantees that their message will be delivered …

Spam 5 May 2004, 12:50
Google's public-auction IPO: smart move?

Unusual stock issue

One of the most unusual elements of the proposed Google IPO is the use of the public auction system via the Internet. Some view it as a laudable move to enable its vast number of individual or retail investors, though in fact they are confined to its subscriber base. In other words individuals (and institutions one must presume …

Financial News 5 May 2004, 13:11
Sasser creates European pandemonium

Various countries hit hard

There may have been no major outages for UK businesses as a result of the Sasser worm, according to Microsoft UK, but it caused significant problems in continental Europe. According to Finnish news reports the worm infected thousands of Finnish computers both at homes and offices. The Sampo Bank had to shut down all its 130 …

Anti-Virus 5 May 2004, 13:28
UK police arrest 12 phishing mule suspects

Dirty dozen

The UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) today arrested six men and six women from Eastern Europe suspected of laundering funds from bank accounts seized through phishing scams. Assisted by officers from the National Crime Squad, the FBI and the US Secret Service, search warrants were executed at addresses in London ( …

Spam 5 May 2004, 13:41
NTL ups broadband numbers

Improves financial figures

NTL has increased revenues for the first three months of the year after signing up more than 360,000 new broadband punters. The increase in high-speed Net users takes the total number of NTL broadband users to 1.03m. Overall, the cable TV, telephone and Internet company has 2.9m customers - up 7.7 per cent compared to Q1 2003, …

Telecoms 5 May 2004, 14:52
Phoenix launches reseller reward programme

Channel round-up Plus distie deals and much more

Sales of laser printers in France fell four per cent in February compared to January. But the market has grown 14 per cent compared to February last year. Colour laser printers grew 25 per cent compared with a year ago while monochrome printers grew by 13 per cent. The research, from Context SalesWatch, also revealed that the …

Channel 5 May 2004, 15:08
Pfizer sues online pharmacies

US patent infringement allegations

Pfizer has filed lawsuits against five online pharmacies for selling an unapproved copy of Pfizer's top-selling cholesterol medicine - Lipitor - the company says in a statement. The suits were filed in US district courts in Delaware and Connecticut against Generic Lipitors, Online Rx DrugStore, WorldMedsRX, B. M. International …

Financial News 5 May 2004, 15:37
Offshore to New Zealand, say Kiwis

Safe destination for UK data

IT vendors in New Zealand have joined forces to form Outsource2NewZealand, which as the name suggests, hopes to attract some of the UK's IT projects to the land that gave us Gollum. The idea is that UK companies that are interested in outsourcing, but worried about handing their sensitive data to countries with less robust …

Servers 5 May 2004, 15:56
UK pub quiz text cheat scandal

Most certainly not cricket

As predicted by El Reg, quiz cheats are clogging mobile information services with requests for trivia, as Britain stoops to new lows in the search for a free pint. The pub quiz is something of an institution here is the UK: you show up at your favourite watering hole with a few friends. You have a few drinks and try to answer …

Bootnotes 5 May 2004, 16:54
Veritas gratifies itself, users and Sun with new product

Veritas Vision i3, services and Solaris x86

Veritas bounded into the second day of its user conference, dangling a wide range of new goods in front of customers and signing an "extend the love" pact with Sun Microsystems. On the product front, Veritas was quick to lay out a roadmap for the i3 products it acquired in the Precise buy, saying a new beta version of the …

Storage 5 May 2004, 17:01
Fear of phishing hits e-commerce

US consumer confidence slumps

Concerns about falling victim to phishing scams are eroding US consumer confidence in online banking and e-commerce. A survey out yesterday points to fears about online fraud based on widespread misconceptions about the minimal impact of phishing in overall fraud losses. Almost three in four online account holders (74 per cent …

Financial News 5 May 2004, 17:09
Veritas cluster roadmap raises the ceiling

Veritas Vision 256 mixed nodes and beyond

Veritas has mapped out a bold future for its clustering products, including a significant change in the way future clustering software will be sold and in the ways it can be used. The Register managed to find its way into a clustering session here at the Veritas Vision conference in which two executives plotted out the future …

Servers 5 May 2004, 20:14
Intel's Whitefield goes Banias in 2006

Exclusive Mobile chip for low-power servers

The Register has learned more details about Intel's future Xeon processor code-named "Whitefield", the company's first all-Indian design, that we first revealed last week. Whitefield is a low-power multicore Xeon processer that places four mobile Banias cores around a shared Level 2 cache. The chip will arrive sooner than we …

Servers 5 May 2004, 20:30
Everything you never wanted to know about the UK ID card

A pub bore's guide Name, rank, serial number...

Do you know how the UK's projected compulsory ID card will work, and what it will entail? If you do, you're significantly in advance of David Blunkett and the Home Office, because although a draft bill and consultation document was published at the end of April, these really only provide signposts to what the powers that be …

Music and Media 5 May 2004, 20:47