23rd August 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Tapwave Zodiac console to launch in UK next month

Palm OS-based handheld Europe-bound

Tapwave will begin selling its Zodiac Palm OS-based handheld games console in the UK "in a few months" sources close to the company told The Register late last week. The move was confirmed by David Wenning, Tapwave's VP of global sales, when he told a New England Palm User Group meeting that the console would ship in Europe …

Mobile 23 Aug 2004, 08:47
Rambus stock falls 13% on appeal failure

Court of Appeal backs lower court verdict

Rambus must provide Infineon with certain documents it had held close to its corporate chest, the US Court of Appeals ruled last week. The ruling confirms an earlier US District Court of Virginia judgement made in Infineon's favour. Rambus appealed against the initial ruling on the grounds that it believes the documents in …

Financial News 23 Aug 2004, 09:16
TSMC asks US to ban SMIC chip imports

Widens patent clash claim

TSMC has accused rival chip foundry SMIC of infringing even more of its patents and has asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the importation of SMIC product into the States. TSMC's moves were revealed this week in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. TSMC first sued SMIC in December 2003. The lawsuit, filed in …

Channel 23 Aug 2004, 09:56
US punters warned of 'pump and dump' phone scam

Hot share tip hits answerphones

Punters in the US are being warned not to be hoodwinked by a dodgy answerphone message that's sweeping the nation. The "breezy, intimate messages" sound as if a woman caller believes she has mistakenly dialled a girlfriend and is confiding inside information she has learned from "that hot stock exchange guy I'm dating". The …

Financial News 23 Aug 2004, 10:15
Intel takes axe to Pentium 4 prices

Including 64-bit Prescotts

Intel yesterday knocked up to 35 per cent of the prices of its Pentium 4 processors, in both their mobile and desktop forms - not to mention the 64-bit versions aimed at workstations and servers - as anticipated. The chip giant also reduced the pricing of some Socket 478 Celeron chips ahead of the anticipated roll-out of 775- …

Channel 23 Aug 2004, 10:31
Intel Itanic prices chopped

Up to 32 per cent off

Intel's Pentium 4 price cuts, applied yesterday, will probably garner the most headlines, but the chip giant also reduced what it charges for selected Itanium 2 processors. Itantic 2 prices fell by up to 32 per cent. However, the two fastest chips in terms of clock frequency, saw their price-tags remain unchanged. Intel …

Channel 23 Aug 2004, 10:42
IBM dissects the DNA of spam

Feng shui and genetics fight junk mail

IBM is applying ideas developed in sequencing DNA molecules to the detection of spam. Spammers have taken to inserting streams of gobbledegook or deliberately misspelling words in their spam messages in order the throw off anti-spam filters that rely on Bayesian statistical analysis alone. In response, IBM is developing more …

Spam 23 Aug 2004, 10:55
Global particle accelerator gets the big chill

Scientists go with superconducting technology

Scientists at an international symposium in Beijing have recommended that a new global particle accelerator should be based on "cold" or superconducting technology, bringing the construction of the multi-billion dollar facility one step closer to reality. A team of 12 scientists from institutions across the world made the …

Science 23 Aug 2004, 11:02
Tiscali flogs South African ISP

Concentrating on Europe

Tiscali has agreed to flog its South African ISP as part of its strategic plan to downsize its overal operation and focus on its core European businesses. South African ISP, MWEB, has agreed to buy Tiscali's ISP for €40m (£27m) although the all-cash deal still needs the thumbs-up from the South African competition authority. …

Telecoms 23 Aug 2004, 11:05
iPass extends Wi-Fi coverage to stratosphere

Connects Connexion

Remote access provider iPass is to add Boeing's Connexion in-flight Wi-Fi service to its list of aggregated hotspots, the company said today. Of course, the various airborne hotspots maintained by Connexion will not be added to iPass' network immediately. They will first have to undergo the provider's certification process, …

Wireless 23 Aug 2004, 11:58
Florida researchers promise plastic circuits

Good for solar power, apparently

Research into how charge is stored in polymer molecule chains could pave the way for "molecular wires" that would replace silicon circuitry. Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Florida say the results could have particular application in the solar energy industry. …

Science 23 Aug 2004, 12:26
Next EC antitrust czar was Bill Gates fan

Awarded honorary degree to Sir Bill

The successor to Mario Monti as the European Commission's competition commissioner once gave an honorary degree to Bill Gates. As president of of Nijenrode University, Neelie Kroes gave Gates the award in 1996. Once she takes up the post in November, she'll be responsible for enforcing the controversial settlement. On Friday …

Bootnotes 23 Aug 2004, 13:12
Macrovision: iPod support for lock-in CDs in Q4

'If' it will support Fairplay upgraded to 'when'

Copy protection provider Macrovision is sufficiently confident that it will be able to incorporate FairPlay support into its CDS-300 copy control that is has begun telling customers that it will add iTunes and iPod support to its software in Q4. According to mailings sent out with the company's CDS-300 version 7 beta release, " …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2004, 13:58
Swansea IT strikers reject 'sabotage' claim

Reply with attempted hacking accusation

IT workers striking in Swansea have reacted angrily to a newspaper report that the council's IT systems were "sabotaged" before they walked out last Monday. Claims that some parts of the council's IT department were tampered with follows a statement by the authority which confirmed it had asked external auditors "to investigate …

IT Director 23 Aug 2004, 14:16
Meet the Peeping Tom worm

Spy on the wire

A worm capable of using webcams to spy on users is circulating across the Net. Rbot-GR, the latest variant in the prolific worm series, spreads via network shares, exploiting a number of Microsoft security vulnerabilities to drop a backdoor Trojan horse program on vulnerable machines as it spreads. Once a backdoor program is …

Enterprise Security 23 Aug 2004, 14:56
Google slammed for corporate sleaze

SEC to investigate as space cadets return to earth

Google's eleventh hour price adjustment might have saved it some red-faces when it finally floated last week, but it's back to earth with a bump this week. The Securities and Exchange commission has confirmed that it will investigate Google's chaotic allocation of buddy shares in the year preceding the flotation. Google had …

Financial News 23 Aug 2004, 15:02
Tesco Mobile cuts tariffs

Talk is cheap

Tesco Mobile is cutting the price of cross network calls from tomorrow and is more than doubling the number of handsets it sells as the giant supermrket chain readies itself for the busy Christmas period. From tomorrow, Tesco Mobile punters who nominate three numbers can get those calls and texts at half price. Said Andy …

Telecoms 23 Aug 2004, 15:05
Record biz hammers 'ostrich' downloaders

Ignore those writs at your peril

The music industry in the US is making great strides in its campaign against people it says have illegally downloaded music, with courts awarding huge settlements in many cases. A man in California was hit with an $11,000 fine, and has had to re-mortgage his house in order to pay it. He explained that the record companies would …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2004, 15:20
UK music downloads up 200% since 1 June

2m songs acquired legally online this year

UK music fans have purchased and downloaded over 2m songs since 1 January, according to the latest figures from the UK's answer to the Recording Industry Ass. of America, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). But contrary to past dire warnings of a P2P-driven market collapse, physical singles and album sales grew in value …

Financial News 23 Aug 2004, 16:09
Hangovers give UK biz a headache

29m days a year lost to drink

Hangovers cost British businesses an estimated £2.8bn as companies lose out on an estimated 29m days from workers throwing sickies - and throwing up. The research from employment outfit Reed found that ten million working days are lost each year as workers fail to turn up to work because of a hangover. An extra 19m days a year …

Small Biz 23 Aug 2004, 16:54
BBC Weather goes 3D

Realistic raindrops indoors and out

The BBC is set to use gaming technology to spice up its weather bulletins. Just in case we poor Brits forget what rain looks like, Auntie Beeb is going to generate rain drops in three dimensions to better illustrate precipitation in its forecasts. The news organisation said it would use a version of 3D software Weatherscape XT …

Science 23 Aug 2004, 16:57
After blog experiment, Illinois village 'vanishes'

Abduction feared. Can you help?

Concerns are rising over the fate of a peaceful Mid-West town. Skokie, Illinois numbers around 60,000 residents, but has disappeared from the Internet after an intervention by techno-utopian webloggers. Our thanks go out to old Reg friend Dan Gillmor for alerting us to this. In a posting on his own weblog yesterday, Dan, the …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2004, 17:04
Interex cowers behind HP omerta

No news is good news

HP's largest user group has decided to withhold key information from reporters and analysts in an effort not to upset the company with the damaging data, The Register has learned. At the HP World conference last week, Interex allowed a small portion of its 7,000 HP customer-strong survey to sneak out during an event session. …

Servers 23 Aug 2004, 18:29