19th May 2005 Archive

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Microsoft running late in virtualization

Hardware advantage to Linux?

Microsoft's Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), conceived originally as hardware-based Digital Rights Management (DRM) for Longhorn, is morphing into server virtualization, Gartner Group says. The analyst expects NGSCB to appear in a second release of the Longhorn client, which it thinks will ship between mid-to-end …

Servers 19 May 2005, 07:53
BEA: services up, licensing down

'Balanced'

BEA Systems kicked-off its new fiscal year in familiar style Wednesday, with a continued fall in new licensing from its core WebLogic business. It reported a 3.4 per cent drop in business from new licensing to $116m for the first fiscal quarter while services continued their quarterly ascent, jumping 16.2 per cent to $165.7m. …

Financial News 19 May 2005, 08:13
IBM and Google find each other in desktop search

Give Microsoft another 10 years

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, yesterday dismissed the notion that the company is competing head-to-head with Microsoft on the internet while launching a deal with IBM in Microsoft’s heartland of the desktop. According to Microsoft is a new entrant to internet-based services which will take 10-years to come-up to speed …

Applications 19 May 2005, 08:22
IT distributors have 'compelling valuations'

On which planet would that be?

It's tough being a IT distie - managing the drip-drip effect of margin squeeze, of reduced co-op marketing budgets, of vendor consolidation and seeing the month's profits wiped out by a collapsing customer. So it is nice to see that some disties are coping. In its latest channel checks, Banc of America writes: "We believe that …

Channel Register 19 May 2005, 08:46
Navicore launches UK GPS kit for Symbian

Smart-phone navigation

Finnish smart-phone route-planning software developer Navicore set up shop in the UK this week, pledging to shake up the consumer GPS market. Its £200 offering, which includes navigation software and street-level UK maps on a 256MB memory card, along with a "highly sensitive" Bluetooth-enabled SiRF GPS receiver, goes on sale on …

Mobile 19 May 2005, 08:57
Gateway founder Waitt quits

More time on the ranch

Ted Waitt, chairman of Gateway, the direct PC vendor with a folksy image, is leaving the company he started. Waitt handed the CEO's role to Wayne Inouye last year. Once head to toe with arch rival Dell, the decade hasn't been kind to Gateway. Last year the company shed around 4,000 staff - it employed over 20,000 just five …

Channel Register 19 May 2005, 09:44
Netscape launches version 8.0

'Hybrid' browser with emphasis on security

Netscape has officially launched the latest version of its browser, Netscape 8.0, according to reports. Although the browser is based on Firefox, it also supports the Internet Explorer engine, and so will be able to render more sites than will Firefox alone. The final version also comes with a heavy emphasis on security, with …

Applications 19 May 2005, 09:48
BT's new wave drives 'excellent' quarter

Revs up, profit up

BT appears to be coping with the loss of 100,000 phone punters a month by making giant strides in broadband and other "new wave" areas. The UK telco is weaning itself off its dependency on traditional phone services and instead turning to its "new wave" fix to keep the business moving forward. The UK's former phone monopoly saw …

Telecoms 19 May 2005, 10:02
ATI chooses 'CrossFire' for SLi-rival moniker?

Trademark application

ATI may have let slip the name of its upcoming multi-GPU rendering technology. On 5 May, it filed to have the phrase 'ATI CrossFire' and the word 'CrossFire' registered as trademarks. Of course, the registration could have nothing to do with ATI's answer to Nvidia's SLi, but the word it's attempting to trademark has a certain …

Peripherals 19 May 2005, 10:21
WD ships 300MBps SATA II drive

Preps fast consumer NAS, coloured case-modder drives too

Western Digital has begun shipping desktop hard drives supporting the Serial ATA II standard, the hard drive specialist said yesterday. It also launched a pair of external drives pitched at case-modders and consumers, respectively. The 250GB Caviar SE16 drive provides a burst data transfer rate of 300MBps - three times faster …

Storage 19 May 2005, 10:46
TSG buys another Scottish reseller

Sage brush

Technology Services Group has bought Edinburgh Microsystems Centre (EMC), a specialist Sage reseller with 150 customers, for an undisclosed sum. It takes on former MD Martin Booth and the six-strong team who will transfer to the firm’s Edinburgh office. And it says that the acquisition will give it a leading edge in Sage …

Storage 19 May 2005, 10:57
UK banks ignore security audit findings

Purely to satisfy regulations

Some UK corporates routinely ignore the findings of security audits treating them solely as a necessary step to satisfy corporate governance regulations, according to an experienced penetration tester. Tim Ecott, managing consultant at security integrator Integralis, explained that banks and other financial institutions are …

Enterprise Security 19 May 2005, 11:01
Xbox 360 retail price could be higher than expected

'Strong initial demand'

Goldman Sachs maintained an "outperform" rating on Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people) after meeting senior management late Tuesday. "Microsoft observed that the upcoming Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people) PS3 appears to be a powerful box similar to Xbox 360, but believes that [it] will have an important time-to-market …

Consoles 19 May 2005, 11:03
Californian boffins plot piracy-proof DVD players

(RFIDs + biometrics) - privacy = Hollywood * $$$

Piracy was abolished back in the 21st Century, my children, when the world's DVD players learned to rat on their owners. That, at least, is one possible outcome of a University of California, Los Angeles campus research project to equip DVDs with RFID tags that prevent purchases lending discs to chums. According to a Wired …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 11:07
eBay comes to cable TV

Comment All the thrills of QVC, if you're in Austin

The consumer electronics and computer industries could have saved themselves many billions of dollars if they'd remembered why people watch TV. Panicked by apocalyptic warnings of attention-deficit computer types, they threw their energies into making TV more "interactive" - with predictable for program quality and usability. …

Financial News 19 May 2005, 11:34
eBay sitting on the old Gumtree.com

Flying his wings for all to see

eBay has is expanding its international classifieds business with the acquisition of UK-based Gumtree.com for an undisclosed sum. The deal was transacted through Kijiji, eBay's international classifieds business. Founded in 2000 at the height of the dotcom boom, Gumtree.com offers city-based online communities with loads of …

Financial News 19 May 2005, 11:38
Samsung prototype promises super-skinny TVs

Forty-inch OLED screen - tasty

Samsung is gearing up to show off a prototype 40-inch, single-sheet, organic light emitting diode (OLED) screen, paving the way for super-skinny TV sets just over an inch thick. According to CNet, the prototype screen has a 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution and a maximum brightness of 600 NITs, a non-standard measurement of …

Science 19 May 2005, 12:15
FTC wants to tweak CAN-SPAM Act

Seeks clarification on opt-out

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is consulting on proposed changes to the CAN-SPAM Act. These clarify the steps by which a recipient can opt-out of receiving spam, and reduce the time limit for honouring an opt-out request. The CAN-SPAM Act, also known as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and …

Spam 19 May 2005, 12:24
TDK touts 100GB recordable Blu-ray Disc

Princess layer

There's an Onion article we rather liked a while back that neatly lampooned the shaver business, in which Gilette, frustrated by Wilkinson Sword's move to three-blade razors, promptly shouts: "F**k 'em - we're going to five blades." A similar war - real this time - appears to be breaking out between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD …

Storage 19 May 2005, 12:33
China hits net gambling hard

1,300 detained

More than 1,300 people have been detained in Shanghai after Chinese authorities continued to clampdown on internet gambling. Two of those arrested on Tuesday were on a national list of "most wanted" and collared in connection with running online gambling services. Net cafes, night-clubs and homes were raided as part of the …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 12:35
FA cries foul over internet streaming pirates

Think of the broadcast rights

Premier League bosses have blown the whistle on fans who stream live footage from games without permission. Football chiefs are considering whether to take sites to court in a bid to clamp down on the practice. Overseas broadcasts of live games are been relayed through the net in a move which potentially erodes the value of …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 14:38
Campaigners quiz Google on China play

Search results censored or not?

Reporters without borders - aka Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF) - has taken Google to task for its baby steps towards setting up business in China. The organisation, which campaigns across the globe for the freedom of the press, and "denounces violations of the human rights", has written to Google's founders, Larry Page and …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 14:46
Orange postpones Wildfire closure

Just for a month though

Orange has been forced to delay the scrapping of its Wildfire voice recognition system by four weeks after being rocked by criticism from unhappy punters. The mobilephoneco had blamed "declining numbers" for its decision to ditch Wildfire at the end of May. But after much public criticism of its decision - especially from blind …

Mobile 19 May 2005, 15:49
Joe Public cools to eGov projects

'Failure to engage citizens'

Investment in e-government doesn't seem to have had the desired effect, if a new MORI poll is to be believed. Although the £2.5bn invested in improving access to information and services has undoubtedly transformed the way some local authorities do business, overall satisfaction with local authorities was found to have dropped …

Public Sector 19 May 2005, 16:08
Broadcom broadsides Qualcomm with wireless chip IP lawsuit

10 patents on trial

Broadcom has slapped Qualcomm with a lawsuit, alleging that its rival infringed on 10 patents tied to processing wired and wireless communications. There were two complaints filed Wednesday by Broadcom in the US District Court for the Central District of California and another complaint filed today with the United States …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 18:06
Fujitsu pumps Solaris servers with speedy new Sparc

Still waiting on Itanium sales

Fujitsu has added some muscle to its PrimePower server line by outfitting systems with a 2.08GHz version of its Sparc64 V chip. Fujitsu will include the new chip in five of its PrimePower models, including the 128-processor, big daddy PrimerPower 2500. Previous systems were running on Sparc64s that ranged from 1.35GHz to 1. …

Servers 19 May 2005, 19:26
Wal-Mart cedes DVD rental biz to Netflix for a plug

Dot-com conquers retail giant

Super, hyper, global, mega store Wal-Mart has given up on renting DVDs via the mail, deciding instead to form a partnership with upstart Netflix. Wal-Mart will turn over its DVD rental customers to Netflix. In exchange, Netflix will plug DVDs that Wal-Mart has put up for sale on its web site. Existing Wal-Mart customers can …

Music and Media 19 May 2005, 21:10