23rd February 2005 Archive

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Novell makes modest gains in Q1

Ignore the Microsoft infusion

Novell had a pretty lackluster first quarter if you ignore a stunning $448m one-time gain from settling an antitrust suit with Microsoft. The software maker reported revenue of $290m for the period, which compares to revenue of $267m in the same quarter last year. Favorable currency exchange rates gave Novell a $10m boost in …

Financial News 23 Feb 2005, 08:12
Beijing backs Windows

Snubs homegrown vendors

Beijing council has made a substantial purchase of Microsoft software, despite deciding late last year that it would buy products from local developers. The original £3.5m contract with Microsoft was so heavily criticised that the council cancelled it. New procurement rules were drawn up to encourage government bodies to buy …

Software 23 Feb 2005, 10:11
MS and security: good effort but no cigar

Issues remain

Last week I watched the webcast of Bill Gates speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco. He talked about Microsoft's plans to build upon the progress it's already made in security. These plans included better protection against spyware and spam. Gates also announced Microsoft's intention to release Internet Explorer 7, …

Software 23 Feb 2005, 10:42
Big savings on Cisco Press guides

Site offer 30% off info from the horse's mouth

Cisco Press is the Cisco Systems authorized book publisher of Cisco networking technology, Cisco certification self-study, and Cisco Networking Academy Program materials. Leading authorities from Cisco Systems and other industry innovators write and contribute to the various titles and series that make up the Cisco Press product …

Site News 23 Feb 2005, 10:45
HP sued for chipped cartridges

Switch themselves off whether empty or not...

HP is facing a class action suit in the US from a woman who claims the vendor's printer cartridges stop working at a predetermined date, rather than when they run out of ink. The suit claims the chips fitted to certain HP ink cartridges are programmed to stop working on a certain date. Printer manufacturers have been criticised …

Financial News 23 Feb 2005, 10:50
PlusNet doubles broadband numbers

Just like that

PlusNet doubled the number of broadband subscribers in 2004 as the Sheffield-based ISP notched up a "record" year. At the end of December it had 89,825 high speed net users - up from 45,364 12 months earlier. Seven in ten of PlusNet's new broadband sign-ups were first time customers suggesting that PlusNet's aggressive pricing …

Telecoms 23 Feb 2005, 11:08
Nokia denies Firefox rumours

All a misunderstanding

Nokia has denied reports that it is to migrate 55,000 desktops from Internet Explorer to the Firefox browser. Last year, the Finnish handset-maker invested money in the Mozilla Foundation, maker of Firefox, to fund the development of a phone-based browser. The friendly relationship between the two organisations lent some …

Applications 23 Feb 2005, 11:26
Speed camera clocks 81mph school bus terror run

Velocity-busting kit goes insane

Two drivers who found themselves facing a stern slap on the wrist for allegedly attempting to break the land speed record on the Queen's Highway will not after all face the full weight of the law. In both cases, the offenders were able to prove that the speed camera evidence was flawed. Ipswich school bus driver Trevor Martin …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 11:42
AA goes Blue

Picks IBM for £50m contract

The Automobile Association has chosen IBM to provide it with IT services. The AA was spun off from parent company Centrica in July last year. As part of the deal the AA has to provide its own IT services by September 2005; they were previously provided centrally by Centrica. Trevor Didcock, director of information systems at …

Channel Register 23 Feb 2005, 12:01
EU consults on RFID technology

Nothing too personal

The EU is developing privacy guidelines for the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. A European Commission advisory group, known as a Article 29 Working Party, is conducting a public consultation on the emerging technology. RFID tags are small microchips attached to an antenna which emit a unique serial …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 12:53
Students fall for potato PC scam

Salt and vinegar with your laptop, mate?

South London students are being warned of a scam in which they may end up parting with up to 200 quid of their hard-earned cash for nothing more than a laptop bag full of spuds. Police say two scoundrels have targeted Southwark unis and colleges, claiming to have a laptop or other mouth-watering piece of kit for sale at a knock …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 13:07
OASIS open standards not open enough

Big names in open-source go on the attack

Luminaries of the free-software and open-source movements have united to protest the new patent policy of OASIS, the web standards group. Larry Lessig and Richard Stallman are among the signatories of a petition calling on the open-source community to boycott OASIS' specifications. Earlier this month OASIS (Organization for the …

Applications 23 Feb 2005, 13:18
Ebbers was 'intimidating' boss

WorldCom fraud trial continues

Bernie Ebbers was as an "intimidating" boss with a temper, the jury in the WorldCom fraud trial heard yesterday. Taking the witness stand former WorldCom investor relations manager Scott Hamilton recalled one incident when he forwarded an offer to buy WorldCom from a "crazy" person to the company's lawyers rather than involving …

Financial News 23 Feb 2005, 13:21
Egg losses grow

Hit by cost of French oeuf load...

Online bank egg saw losses grow last year as it rid itself of its French business. Group loss before tax was £107m, up from £34m in 2003. The cost of getting out of France was £113m. The firm also suffered from uncertainty of ownership - parent company Prudential was threatening to sell its majority stake. In the UK things …

Financial News 23 Feb 2005, 14:16
Vendors agree vulnerability scoring system

RSA 2005 Bug marks

Leading IT suppliers are banding together to standardise the rating of security vulnerabilities. The scheme, called the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), is designed to replace vendor-specific ratings and make it easier for users to prioritise security remediation work. Announced last week at the RSA Conference in San …

Security 23 Feb 2005, 14:21
New 0871 rogue dialler scam spotted

Few cases at the moment

Operators of rogue dialler services that rack up large bills for unwary net users are changing the way they rip off consumers. Instead of using premium rate numbers that charge up to £1.50 a minute to defraud innocent punters, they're now turning to international numbers to ring up profits and dodge detection. And in recent …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 15:31
Astronomers spot first ever dark galaxy

More cocoa than a regular galaxy

An international team of astronomers has discovered what appears to be a galaxy composed entirely of dark matter. The galaxy, "visible" to radio telescopes, was first spotted by stargazers using the University of Manchester's Lovell telescope, and later confirmed by observers at the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. The …

Science 23 Feb 2005, 15:47
WTO backs Korea in DRAM duty dispute

US expected to drop Hynix duty

The World Trade Organization has come down on the side of South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor in its long-running countervailing duty spat with the US Department of Commerce. The Geneva-based organisation published the full text of its ruling on the case yesterday, in which it told the US to rethink the 44.7% counterveiling …

Channel Register 23 Feb 2005, 16:01
Telstra rebate amounts to a 'parking fine'

Primus kicks off

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) decision to order Telstra to repay AUS$6.5m (£2.7m) to rival broadband operators over allegations of anti-competitive behaviour has been described as little more than a "parking fine". Primus Telecom - Australia's fourth largest fixed-line telecoms carrier - scoffed at …

Telecoms 23 Feb 2005, 16:09
Guilty! New Labour could arrest self under new terror law

But are we not all, in a sense, guilty? Yes, it says here...

Tony Blair and the bulk of the Parliamentary Labour Party could (well OK, should) find themselves qualifying as subjects for control orders, under the sweeping powers Home Secretary Charles Clarke and, er, Tony Blair are currently asking them to rush through Parliament. Their offence? Involvement in "terrorism-related activity" …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 17:00
Sony Drops Clie

Palms off PDA line

Sony has called time on its dalliance with the PDA market, with the announcement that it will no longer sell its Clie range in Japan. According to the AP, a Sony spokesman confirmed the firm will stop selling the Clie in the country from July. The electronics giant had dropped the PalmOS-powered device in the rest of the world …

Mobile 23 Feb 2005, 17:03
Frozen sea on Mars hints at alien life

Pack-ice in pictures

Mars Express, the European Space Agency's Mars orbiter, has sent back images of a frozen sea just below the surface of Mars. Three dimensional images of pack ice were captured by the orbiter's high resolution camera, and provides the first evidence that there was still liquid water on Mars relatively recently, according to the …

Science 23 Feb 2005, 17:26
Apple revs iPod, cuts prices

More color, bigger Mini

Apple has refreshed its iPod range of music players, cutting the price of the popular yuppie accessory. Tacitly acknowledging that the color iPod Photo was overpriced, Apple lopped $150 off the price of the high end 60GB model, which is now $449 (UK:£309), and replaced the $499 40GB iPod Photo with a 30GB version that's also $ …

Mac Channel 23 Feb 2005, 17:30
Fighting computer crooks the Las Vegas way

RSA 2005 We know where you live

Computing techniques used to identify cheaters in Las Vegas are being applied to wider computer security and fraud detection problems. SRD, a Las Vegas software developer which was acquired by IBM last month, is taking its identity resolution software from the gaming tables into corporate boardrooms. SRD's business intelligence …

Applications 23 Feb 2005, 17:38
Dell 'bait and switch' alleged

Californians sue

Two Dell customers in California have sued the computer company in a class action suit. The plaintiffs allege that Dell didn't deliver the systems promised, and the suit also names CIT Bank, which handles credit agreements for Dell Financing, as well as Dell Financing itself. One plaintiff alleges that a laptop advertised for $ …

PCs 23 Feb 2005, 17:43
Dell rejects idea of AMD defection

'Yes' turns to 'No'

Dell will not pick up AMD as a second chip supplier despite increased chatter in recent months that such a move could be in the works. Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins today told a group of financial analysts that Intel appears to have corrected numerous problems affecting its chip product over the past year. The close Dell partner has …

Servers 23 Feb 2005, 18:40
FCC 'crosses the line' with broadcast flag - court

Overreaches with DRM order, judge says

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overstepped its authority by requiring devices capable of receiving digital TV broadcasts to recognize data called a 'broadcast flag' that can prevent copying, a federal judge has said. US Circuit Judge Harry Edwards told the FCC that it had "crossed the line" when it required DRM …

Music and Media 23 Feb 2005, 21:48
Feds square off with organized cyber crime

RSA 2005 Those were the days

Computer intruders are learning to play well with others, and that's bad news for the Internet, according to a panel of law enforcement officials and legal experts speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week. Christopher Painter, deputy director of the Justice Department's computer crime section, spoke almost …

Enterprise Security 23 Feb 2005, 22:08
Bars hold iPod nights for iDrunk DJs

iFad ignored by iDell

Most of the Mormons we know aren't terribly fond of the sauce, but someone needs to buy Dell CEO Kevin Rollins a beer before it's too late. Rollins recently dubbed Apple's iPod a "fad," and he may well miss out on the iParty if he doesn't get down to the iBar quick. Pubs and clubs around the globe have started holding iPod …

Mobile 23 Feb 2005, 22:21