18th August 2005 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Xbox 360 price goes back to future

No more discounts

After two years playing nip-and-tuck with Sony, Microsoft is upping the price of its Xbox and introducing 'basic' and 'premium' editions of its next game terminal. Microsoft said Wednesday its Xbox 360 will come in two flavors: Xbox Core Package, starting at $300, £210 in the UK and €300 in the Euro-zone. The full Xbox 360 is …

Consoles 18 Aug 2005, 07:47
RSS 'repositioned' by Microsoft

A loving embrace

Microsoft is re-branding its implementation of the increasingly popular Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in the next version of Internet Explorer (IE). In a move likely to unsettle many outside Microsoft, the company said it is actively exploring the right name to use for RSS feeds, with the current working term being "web feeds …

Developer 18 Aug 2005, 07:49
Software sales increase for BEA

Hello, growth

BEA Systems has broken its five-quarter streak of declining revenue from software sales and returned to growth - just. BEA's chief executive Alfred Chuang on Wednesday announced a 1.7 per cent year-on-year increase in software licensing revenue to $118.3m for the second quarter. It was BEA's first increase since the close of …

Financial News 18 Aug 2005, 07:53
US iBook riot: a survivor's story

Eyewitness account of laptop stampede

Our piece yesterday on the shocking iBook riot in Richmond, Virginia, which saw grown adults storming a $50 laptop sale like Somalis at an aid truck shocked and dismayed many readers. And with good reason. Here's an eyewitness account of what is now known as "The Richmond International Raceway Apple Stampede", courtesy of Susan …

Letters 18 Aug 2005, 07:55
Man logs into dabs.com customer account shocker

The shocker is, it wasn't his

Blind chance has helped to expose a password security issue at dabs.com over the way it and many other online retailers deal with forgotten passwords. Reg reader Dave (not his real name) recently received emails from dabs.com about an order he'd supposedly placed for a digital camera. He received a receipt and despatch …

Enterprise Security 18 Aug 2005, 08:02
Symbian toasts threefold leap in handset shipments

Cracks open the bubbly with Nokia

Smart-phone operating system developer Symbian today lauded figures that indicate a big jump in demand for devices based on its software. But the company signalled a need to drive sales in the wider handset market if it is to continue to deliver strong growth. Some 7.8m Symbian-based handsets shipped in Q2 FY2005, the three …

Mobile 18 Aug 2005, 09:32
Fewer students than ever studying physics

Exam entries down 2% on last year

The numbers of students applying to take the A-level physics exam fell again this year, research has found. In 2005, 579 fewer physics students were entered than in 2004, a decline of around two per cent. The numbers studying chemistry and biology, meanwhile, have been enjoying a steady rise. The Institute of Physics (IoP) …

Science 18 Aug 2005, 09:48
AMD rejects request to send Intel case to California

AMD vs Intel Doesn't want to be part of class-action cases, either

AMD has formally requested its legal battle with Intel not be bundled up with a series of consumer class actions against the chip giant, court documents seen by The Register reveal. Separately, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has ordered a hearing to be held on 29 September to consider the requests …

Financial News 18 Aug 2005, 10:29
Worm War II

Competing PnP worms vie for control of vulnerable PCs

Separate groups of hackers are releasing a barrage of worms in a battle to seize control of Windows PCs that remain vulnerable to the now infamous Windows Plug-and-Play vulnerability. The Bozori worm attempts to remove infections by earlier versions of the Zotob worm and other malware, so it can take control of a compromised …

Anti-Virus 18 Aug 2005, 10:44
Nasscom bemoans media 'entrapment' in Aussie ID case

Says IT theft a worldwide issue

Indian IT body Nasscom has hit back at the furore in Australia over the alleged sale of confidential information by Indian call centre staff. Australia is the latest country to go Bangalore Bonkers after the state broadcaster ran an expose claiming it was offered confidential information on Aussie citizens culled from call …

ID 18 Aug 2005, 11:30
Infinium puts ex-Xbox exec in charge

Analysis But can Bacchus overcome financial worries?

Kevin Bacchus, one of the team of four who founded Microsoft's Xbox division, has become CEO of Infinium Labs, the company developing the Phantom console and games service. No, don't laugh. It could actually be happening this time. Indeed, according to Tim Roberts, Infinium's founder and former CEO - he's staying on the board …

Consoles 18 Aug 2005, 11:57
AOL techie jailed for selling email database to spammers

Hard time for 'dumb' crime

A former AOL engineer was sent to jail for 15 months yesterday after he confessed to stealing 92m screen names and email addresses belonging to an estimated 30m AOL members and selling them to spammers. Jason Smathers, 25, was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty in February to conspiracy and theft charges and to …

Spam 18 Aug 2005, 12:02
Sony counters iPod Shuffle with the Bean

Is it a runner?

Sony has launched a curvy, palm-sized portable music player dubbed, not inappropriately, the Bean. We'll resist the opportunity to suggest the Japanese giant's move is somewhat half-baked. Instead, we'll point out that the design is certainly more Mister Bean than Sean Bean. More formally monikered the NW-E205, the 512MB Flash …

Peripherals 18 Aug 2005, 12:05
Mac OS X security fix breaks 64-bit code

Update Patch patched

Apple's most recent Mac OS X Security Update, released on Monday, causes 64-bit applications to malfunction, it has emerged. However, the Mac maker today issued a fix for the problem, posting Security Update 2005-007 version 1.1 via its Software Update tool. Software developer Wolfram Research, which was one of the first …

Operating Systems 18 Aug 2005, 12:19
Hitler better leader than Blair: official

Businessmen tell it like it is

As Tony Blair celebrates 11 years at the head of the Labour Party he will doubtless be delighted to learn that he has been beaten by Adolf Hitler in a poll of "most impressive" leaders through history. The poll, conducted (we think) by PR and marketing outfit Taylor Herring in advance of its 2005 "Leaders in London 2005" beano …

Bootnotes 18 Aug 2005, 12:44
Nokia to put iTunes on N91?

Claims there's no deal with Apple

Nokia today denied claims that it has done a deal with Apple to put iTunes on its N91 media phone. According to Finnish newspaper Taloussanomat, today Nokia is to embrace Apple's online music service. "I've seen already a phone like that," said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's multimedia chief, the paper reports. His comment was …

Mobile 18 Aug 2005, 12:48
Face of Jesus appears in Sussex hawthorn

GoldenPalace.com preps epiphany chainsaw black op

A simulacrum of Jesus's face discovered by a non-practicing Hindu in a Burgess Hill hawthorn tree looks set to become a focus of pilgrimage after a local pastor declared it "a revelation from God". Sewdutt Maunick told the BBC how he was inexorably drawn to the divine shrub, explaining: "Something was actually urging me to come …

Bootnotes 18 Aug 2005, 13:24
Cisco speaks up for the deaf

Sign language call centre to debut

British Sign Language (BSL) users will soon have a better way of communicating with their local authorities. In September, Significan't (a UK company) will launch a specialist call centre which will give deaf people access to sign language interpreters to help them resolve queries with their local authorities. The company …

Networks 18 Aug 2005, 15:43
Germans hail Berners-Lee 'second-greatest' scientist

After Einstein, naturlich

Tim Berners-Lee has been named the second most important scientist of the 20th century by the organisers of Germany's Quadriga award, in recognition of the invention of the web. The organisers said only Einstein was more important. Sir Tim, who was knighted in 2003 in recognition of his achievements, invented the web while he …

Science 18 Aug 2005, 16:00
Mind your back-up

Veritas tells the hole truth

Symantec has warned of a security flaw in its Veritas Backup Exec and NetBackup software products which might be exploited to bypass security restrictions. Hackers are actively exploiting the vulnerability, US-CERT warns. The vulnerability arises due to the use of a static password when authenticating to a remote agent. This in …

Enterprise Security 18 Aug 2005, 16:27
Product delays do little to slow NetApp in Q1

Double-digit dandy

Network Appliance pumped out double-digit growth again during the first quarter and reported results in line with earlier guidance. The storage maker brought in $448m during the period - a 25 per cent rise over $358m reported one year earlier. Net income hit $60m in this year's first quarter versus $47m last year. Earlier this …

Storage 18 Aug 2005, 18:26
RSS moving to third release

Microsoft fiddles

With a debate unfolding over what Microsoft plans to call its first implementation of RSS, the industry has moved a step closer to a third, full XML version of the popular web publishing technology. The first public draft of the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 3 Lite specification was released for review and comment on Thursday …

Applications 18 Aug 2005, 20:16
Orion decouples 30 per cent of staff

Personal cluster maker gets personal

Orion Multisystems - the dominant player in the desktop cluster market - has gone through its first major round of layoffs, as the company tries to tighten its bottom line. Orion has cut up to 30 per cent of its staff, CEO Colin Hunter told The Register. Hunter declined to say exactly how many people were let go, but Orion …

Servers 18 Aug 2005, 21:08
Sun opens open source office

Chief evangelist gets sourced

Sun Microsystems is coordinating all of its open source activity, consisting of more than 20 projects, through a centralized office to help drive best practices. Sun has created an Open Source Office (OSO) under chief open source officer Simon Phipps to bring greater consistency to the company's growing open source workload. …

Applications 18 Aug 2005, 23:20