News

Data centre hardware

February 28, 2006 28 Feb'06
UK grid tackles climate change assessment

Oxford University, the Met Office and several other universities have developed a huge grid computer for the BBC to predict climate change up to 2080.
February 28, 2006 28 Feb'06
HP Labs celebrates 40th anniversary

HP Labs, which developed the first commercially available LED in 1968, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
February 27, 2006 27 Feb'06
US Blackberry users given stay of execution

Blackberry users in the US still have a service after a US judge decided not to immediately turn off the company’s push e-mail service as a result of a patent dispute.
February 23, 2006 23 Feb'06
Hewlett-Packard leads on server shipment but IBM tops market share

Worldwide server shipments increased 12.7% over the past year, with Hewlett-Packard the leading supplier by market share, research from industry analyst Gartner reveals.

February 22, 2006 22 Feb'06
Courts reject US government’s Blackberry appeal

The US courts have turned down a request from the Justice Department for additional hearings to protect US government users if legal action forces a shut-down of the Blackberry network.
February 22, 2006 22 Feb'06
Google responds to enterprise fears

Google has responded to criticisms of its Desktop 3 Beta software after its filesharing feature was branded an “unacceptable security risk”.
February 21, 2006 21 Feb'06
Blackberry is still the sweetest, says Forrester

Corporate users are still buying Research In Motion's Blackberry service in massive numbers, despite widespread prior awareness of Microsoft and Vodafone's plans to launch a rival push e-mail service early this year.
February 21, 2006 21 Feb'06
Lessons of council's out of control project

The Audit Commission report into hard-pressed London Borough of Haringey provides an object lesson in how not to run an IT modernisation project.
February 21, 2006 21 Feb'06
Handhelds help wood company log instant quotations

Sales staff at wood products manufacturer Norbord are saving an average of two hours a week each after the firm switched to handheld devices linked to its dedicated quotation engine.
February 21, 2006 21 Feb'06
RSA cuts two-factor cost

RSA Security is poised to offer businesses a range of lower-cost alternatives to traditional two-factor authentication tokens, in a move that could accelerate the replacement of passwords with more secure authentication.

February 20, 2006 20 Feb'06
Your shout: broadband, security and planning

Have your say at Computer Weely.com
February 17, 2006 17 Feb'06
Grid project hits one gigabyte a second

A grid computing project supporting research into the origins of the universe has succeeded in pumping physics data across a worldwide grid at speeds of up to one gigabyte a second.
February 16, 2006 16 Feb'06
Mozilla releases Camino 1.0 for the Mac

The Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0 of its Camino browser, which is built for the Mac operating system.
February 16, 2006 16 Feb'06
AMD slashes prices on dual-core server chips

AMD has slashed prices on a range of its dual-core Opteron server processors as it prepares to launch new chip technology.
February 15, 2006 15 Feb'06
Brown drums up support for biometrics

Chancellor Gordon Brown has been praising the use of biometric technology for cross-border control, anti-terrorist activity and to combat identity theft.
February 15, 2006 15 Feb'06
IDC predicts future surge for IT virtualisation

At its annual Virtualisation Forum, IDS has predicted huge demand for IT virtualisation products and services.
February 15, 2006 15 Feb'06
Eli Lilly's formula for IT overhaul

Pharmaceuticals company Eli Lilly has signed a £30m, five-year deal with Capgemini to overhaul and support its IT infrastructure in 48 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
February 14, 2006 14 Feb'06
IBM launching faster servers

IBM plans to announce the launch of several new Unix-based servers this week, including one with faster Power5+ processors.
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
Blackberry sidesteps patent row

Research In Motion has produced a workaround for systems covered by the patents it is disputing in the US.
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
QoS added to network certificates

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has expanded its certification programme to include quality of service parameters in network kit.
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
Virtualisation is added to Novell SuSE servers

Novell is adding virtualisation technology from Virtual Iron Software to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. Virtual Iron's datacentre virtualisation and management platform will be pre-configured into the kernel that ships with the server.
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
Salaries and prospects: Consultants sitting pretty

Systems consultants are in the money with big pay rises contrasting with steady growth elsewhere. Nicholas Enticknap analyses the latest SSL/ Computer Weekly salary survey to discover the roles, skills and areas that offer the richest pickings
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
Police improve lead sharing

Police forces are now able to check whether another force holds information on an individual they are investigating.
February 13, 2006 13 Feb'06
HP splits handheld business to boost sales

Hewlett-Packard is splitting its handheld business away from the laptop business, in an attempt to become more focused and boost its sales in the flagging handheld market.
February 10, 2006 10 Feb'06
Virgin promises Wi-Fi to overcome connectivity problems

Virgin Trains is planning to roll out Wi-Fi services on its trains, despite many users of mobile data cards and even mobile phone users complaining of difficulties in getting an adequate connection on existing services.
February 09, 2006 09 Feb'06
IBM develops blade server-based on “cell” technology

IBM has developed a blade server based on its Cell Broadband Engine, a microprocessor that will power Sony’s Playstation 3, due out later this year.
February 09, 2006 09 Feb'06
Google adds to Desktop search software

Google is today expected to release new features in its free desktop search program.
February 09, 2006 09 Feb'06
French bank accounts targeted by Russian virus gangs

Russian criminal gangs have used sophisticated virus programs to steal more than £600,000 from personal bank accounts across France.
February 08, 2006 08 Feb'06
HP water-cooled rack system aims to boost efficiency of blade farms

Hewlett-Packard has launched a water cooling system that could address the problem of overheating blade servers and cut datacentre running costs.
February 07, 2006 07 Feb'06
BT offers firms cheaper mobile calls with Fusion

BT has made its BT Fusion fixed mobile convergence (FMC) platform available to businesses, with the promise of cheaper mobile phone costs.
February 07, 2006 07 Feb'06
Intel continues reduced power consumption drive

Intel is working on two new manufacturing and design processes to improve transistor power efficiency and reduce motherboard power consumption.
February 07, 2006 07 Feb'06
IT 'not to blame' for Kinnect flop

Lloyd's of London should not blame technology for the failure of its electronic trading platform, according to law firm Barlow Lyde and Gilbert. The exchange pulled the plug on the £70m Kinnect system last week.
February 06, 2006 06 Feb'06
News in brief

Brief takes on the week's news
February 06, 2006 06 Feb'06
NEC unveils new fault-tolerant server range

NEC is introducing a range of fault-tolerant servers that use Intel’s dual-core Xeon processors.
February 03, 2006 03 Feb'06
Firefox browser patched for eight security holes

The open source Mozilla Foundation has patched its Firefox 1.5 browser to fix eight potential security vulnerabilities.
February 03, 2006 03 Feb'06
Apple sued over iPod hearing loss

A Louisiana man has filed a class action suit against Apple, claiming the company has failed to take adequate steps in preventing hearing loss among its growing army of iPod digital music player customers.
February 02, 2006 02 Feb'06
Itanium cited as offering success for servers

A new IDC study has found that technologies such as Linux and Itanium will gain in popularity in the business critical solutions arena.
February 02, 2006 02 Feb'06
Government gets tough on computer crime

The government has proposed sharply increasing penalties for computer crime, taking the maximum penalty for unauthorised modification of a computer from five to 10 years.
February 01, 2006 01 Feb'06
Google continues sales and profits growth

Google has continued its sales and profits growth by reporting an 86% increase in sales for the fourth quarter ended 31 December, but the shares fell as the search engine giant missed analyst’s expectations.
February 01, 2006 01 Feb'06
New ThinkPads bundled with Vodafone

Lenovo is the second laptop manufacturer to announce that it will incorporate Vodafone’s 3G mobile data technology into its machines.
February 01, 2006 01 Feb'06
Israeli Trojan espionage writers extradited for trial

A London-based Israeli couple at the centre of one of the world's largest industrial espionage and computer hacking scandals have been extradited to Israel to face trial.
January 31, 2006 31 Jan'06
IBM plans launch of next generation blades

IBM is believed to be planning the launch of its next generation of blade servers next week, as it attempts to stay number one in the market ahead of Hewlett-Packard.
January 31, 2006 31 Jan'06
HP launches new datacentre cooling system

Hewlett-Packard plans to start selling water cooling systems next week to address power and heat problems caused by ever-more-powerful servers in datacentres.
January 31, 2006 31 Jan'06
Firms warned of stealth virus risk

Businesses are at risk from a new generation of targeted stealth viruses as organised criminal groups exploit weaknesses in corporate systems to steal sensitive data for profit, security experts have warned.
January 31, 2006 31 Jan'06
Reforms to Computer Misuse Act close gaps and increase penalties

The government has announced legislation to toughen the Computer Misuse Act by increasing the maximum jail sentence for hackers and strengthening legal protection against denial of service attacks.
January 30, 2006 30 Jan'06
BT VoIP service hit by outage

Thousands of BT’s broadband voice over IP subscribers were cut off from the service last week.
January 30, 2006 30 Jan'06
Government to change VAT law in reponse to IT fraud

The government is seeking to change the way the business supply chain charges for VAT, partly in response to fraud in the IT components industry.
January 27, 2006 27 Jan'06
Itanium gets another $10bn funding

The Itanium high-end server processor project has squeezed out another $10bn (£5.9bn) from its main backers towards development and to encourage major software companies to produce programs for it.
January 26, 2006 26 Jan'06
Sun-Fujitsu servers beset by delays

Sun Microsystems’ server collaboration with Fujitsu has run into delays, meaning some promised products may now not appear until next year.
January 26, 2006 26 Jan'06
Government IT efficiency gains in doubt

The government’s claims of efficiency savings from the use of IT are unclear and could be inaccurate, the House of Commons Treasury select committee has said.
January 26, 2006 26 Jan'06
Lloyd's pulls plug on £53m compliance system

Lloyd’s of London is closing down a £53m-plus electronic platform after only signing up a handful of insurance underwriters and brokers to use it.
January 25, 2006 25 Jan'06
Vodafone gets Dell to build in high-speed mobile data

Vodafone has signed a deal with Dell to provide built-in, high-speed mobile data access in its laptops, for users subscribing to itss new High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network.
January 24, 2006 24 Jan'06
Google personalises the news

Google has enhanced its news site with reader personalisation features.
January 24, 2006 24 Jan'06
US Blackberry network moves closer to shutdown

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear Blackberry manufacturer RIM’s appeal against a previous court ruling that said it infringed NTP’s patents for push e-mail technology, meaning the US Blackberry network is moving even closer to a complete ...
January 24, 2006 24 Jan'06
AMD cuts chip prices for dual-core processing

AMD has cut the wholesale price of its dual-core desktop and laptop processors to better compete with Intel on the market.
January 24, 2006 24 Jan'06
Lords back CW on ID card secrecy

Repeated refusals by the government to publish the results of Gateway reviews into the ID cards scheme were criticised during a parliamentary debate last week.
January 23, 2006 23 Jan'06
Prime minister comes under fire over government IT programmes

The prime minister faced questions in the House of Commons last week on two of the government's major IT-related programmes.
January 23, 2006 23 Jan'06
Downtime: Be hip and get in with the IT out crowd

IT is finally having its day in the sitcom sun with Channel 4’s latest Friday night offering, called The IT Crowd.
January 23, 2006 23 Jan'06
Adobe Acrobat goes 3D

Adobe Systems has created a three-dimensional version of its Acrobat document design and management system to boost sales in the manufacturing sector.
January 23, 2006 23 Jan'06
Better-value driving servers

Better value for money the dominant factor influencing selection of a primary server vendor.
January 20, 2006 20 Jan'06
Apple's Intel laptops may not meet demand

Apple Computer admits it may not be able to meet demand for its new Intel-driven laptops next month.
January 20, 2006 20 Jan'06
eBay optimises site for 02's i-mode

eBay is the latest company to optimise its website for UK users of O2’s mobile i-mode service.
January 19, 2006 19 Jan'06
NTP to give 30 day's notice of Blackberry network shutdown

NTP, the company suing Blackberry maker RIM for patent infringements, is proposing to give customers a 30-day cut-off period before shutting down RIM’s US Blackberry push e-mail network.
January 19, 2006 19 Jan'06
European PC market outstrips North America

European PC sales were larger than those in North America, last year, according to analyst Gartner.
January 18, 2006 18 Jan'06
CA buys IT automation company

CA has bought Control-F1 Corporation, a provider of support automation solutions
January 16, 2006 16 Jan'06
CA to add self-healing capabilities

CA plans to add self-healing capabilities to its Unicenter systems management products, following its acquisition of Control-F1, a firm that develops IT support software that can automatically prevent, detect, and repair end-user computer problems ...
January 16, 2006 16 Jan'06
New Mac Firefox users wait for native support

The Mozilla Foundation aims to have a version of its open-source Firefox web browser that will run on Apple’s new Intel-based PCs available in March.
January 16, 2006 16 Jan'06
Fujitsu ramps up hard disc business to address new markets

Fujitsu is ramping up its hard disc manufacturing business and moving into different markets to keep up with demand for changing formats.
January 16, 2006 16 Jan'06
Google allows mobile users to get personal

Google is allowing mobile users to easily view their personal Google home pages on their mobile devices.
January 13, 2006 13 Jan'06
Semiconductor allies pal up again

IBM, Sony and Toshiba have created a new five-year technology alliance to bring new semiconductor solutions more quickly to market.
January 13, 2006 13 Jan'06
British Library puts Mozart on the web

The British Library has published an online edition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's catalogue of works.
January 13, 2006 13 Jan'06
Professionalism drive targets suppliers

IT trade body Intellect has published a roadmap for its ongoing strategy to raise professional standards in the industry.
January 13, 2006 13 Jan'06
Apple's QuickTime update bites users

A security update to Apple Computer’s widely used QuickTime media player is being blamed for a variety of computing problems for both Mac OS X and Windows users.
January 12, 2006 12 Jan'06
Another US bank loses customer data

In the latest identity theft scare to hit corporate America, a computer tape containing the personal data of 90,000 banking customers has been lost in transit.
January 12, 2006 12 Jan'06
Windows flaw could have enterprise-wide ramifications

An attack on Windows-based systems may cause more concern for IT directors than was first realised.
January 11, 2006 11 Jan'06
Jeans company parades iPod-compatible denim

Levi Strauss has designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player.
January 10, 2006 10 Jan'06
Cost and privacy concerns erode doctors' confidence in NHS plan

Survey reveals growing number of clinicians worried about roll-out of national IT systems
January 10, 2006 10 Jan'06
Watmore will retain ties to e-government

Ian Watmore, who this week left his post as government CIO to head the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, will keep a close eye on e-government in his new role.
January 09, 2006 09 Jan'06
Bodies link to reduce net frequency clashes

Wireless networking trade groups are joining forces to improve data networking speeds and reduce interference between technologies.
January 09, 2006 09 Jan'06
Portsmouth University studies remote working

Portsmouth University is set to engage in a major study on the effectiveness of remote working in the UK.
January 09, 2006 09 Jan'06
Ten reasons to date a geek

The wife of Microsoft's top blogger Robert Scoble has published a list of ten reasons why geeks make the ideal partners.
January 05, 2006 05 Jan'06
Windows flaw spells unhappy new year

If there’s one thing that should have been relied upon during the holiday season it was that electronic attackers would stop their work while most offices stopped theirs.
January 04, 2006 04 Jan'06
Think tank calls for government Office of IT

The right-wing Adam Smith Institute has called on the government to establish an Office of IT headed by a cabinet minister to improve the UK’s e-government strategy.
January 04, 2006 04 Jan'06
Microsoft to issue critical security patch next week as infections rise

Microsoft plans to issue a critical security patch next Tuesday that is designed to fix a graphics Windows flaw that came to light over the Christmas period.
January 04, 2006 04 Jan'06
Blackberry users warned of malicious attachments

BlackBerry maker RIM has warned users that opening certain malicious attachments on there push e-mail devices could stop them opening legitimate ones.
January 03, 2006 03 Jan'06
Tokyo Stock Exchange to build improved trading system

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is planning to build a new computer system in 2008 that will have stronger back-up functions to cope with system failures.
January 03, 2006 03 Jan'06
New Wi-Fi hotspots to support four million users

Wi-Fi operator The Cloud is creating widespread wireless hotspots in a clutch of UK towns and cities.
January 03, 2006 03 Jan'06
Intel drops 'Intel Inside' tag in rebranding campaign

Intel is dropping its “Intel Inside” PC marketing logo and replacing it with the “Leap ahead” tag. The company is also planning to unveil a newly designed Intel logo later today.
January 03, 2006 03 Jan'06
Opera partners with Google in mobile space

Opera Software has chosen Google as a technology partner for its mobile internet browsers. Opera said Google would be the default search partner for its mobile browsers, which are aimed at mobile phones and other mobile devices.
December 19, 2005 19 Dec'05
Dell recalls faulty batteries

PC supplier, Dell is recalling batteries from selected notebook computers, after receiving reports that some are at risk of over heating, and could pose a fire risk.
December 19, 2005 19 Dec'05
Global Services Company cuts datacentre's servers

Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a global provider of HR and financial services, has gone live with a state-of-the-art European data centre at an ex-Ministry of Defence site 40 miles north of London.
December 19, 2005 19 Dec'05
IBM names server blade magnificent seven

There are seven big advantages of deploying blade servers, says IBM’s BladeCenter and xSeries Servers division.
December 14, 2005 14 Dec'05
Another PC maker joins £60 laptop project

One of the world’s biggest laptop PC manufacturers has signed up to the $100 (£60) laptop project to give computing access to the poor in developing countries.
December 14, 2005 14 Dec'05
Oil disaster crashes public sector systems

Hosted police and council IT systems have been crippled by the oil depot fire at Buncefield.
December 13, 2005 13 Dec'05
Wireless groups work together to improve performance

Several wireless networking trade groups are joining forces to improve data networking speeds and reduce interference between their technologies.
December 12, 2005 12 Dec'05
Companies spend big on small servers

IT managers continued to spend significant amounts of their IT budgets on hardware, with server and desktop sales remaining strong in 2005.
December 12, 2005 12 Dec'05
The Revenue announces new era of openness

HM Revenue and Customs has announced a new era of being "open and honest" about its IT and other problems, after a Computer Weekly campaign to improve the tax system by promoting transparency and accountability.
December 12, 2005 12 Dec'05
Greenpeace protesters target HP

Greenpeace held protests outside Hewlett-Packard's California headquarters and Beijing offices last week over its use of toxic chemicals in the production of PCs and printers.
December 12, 2005 12 Dec'05
China overtakes US in ICT exports market

China has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest supplier of information and communication technology (ICT).
December 07, 2005 07 Dec'05
Intel to unveil new faster transistor design

Intel and UK-based Qinetiq plan to reveal a new transistor prototype this week that is designed to keep Moore’s Law on track.