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4th November 2005 Archive

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  • Tandem, NUMA vets unveil server start-up

    Hitting Unix with x86

    Enterprise server start-ups have been a rare sight in recent years, but an 80-man company in Mountain View thinks it can succeed where so many hopefuls have failed. Fabric 7 will use Opteron processors to target mid-range and eventually high-end Unix hardware. That's at a space at one time occupied by Sequent and in its later …

    Servers 4 Nov 2005, 00:59

  • US researchers tout HIV test-on-a-chip

    Very useful in the field

    A group of US researchers has developed an HIV test-on-a-chip that will mean doctors working in the field will be able to diagnose the disease in a matter of minutes. The chip could make it far easier for doctors working in remote regions of sub-Saharan Africa to diagnose patients with HIV and begin to treat them. It could be …

    Science 4 Nov 2005, 01:02

  • Sun commits to 4,6 and 8 core 'green' Niagara

    Exclusive Cool, hot box coming

    Sun Microsystems will soon launch its Niagara processor with four-, six- and eight-core versions of the chip and bill the product as a green computing wonder, according to documents obtained by The Register. In early September, we revealed that Niagara would be sold as the UltraSPARC T1 and slot into servers called the Sun Fire …

    Servers 4 Nov 2005, 01:22

  • Suspected bot master busted

    First America

    In what prosecutors have labeled the first case of its kind in the nation, a federal grand jury charged Jeanson James Ancheta with 17 counts of conspiracy and computer crime stemming from his alleged profitable use of bot nets. Over nearly a year, Ancheta allegedly used automated software to infect Windows systems, advertised …

    Spam 4 Nov 2005, 08:59

  • iPod Nano - the new furry dice?

    Tech Digest Gadgets galore

    Tech Digest for the Register Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay and Propellerhead answers your PC queries. iPod car clip Move over fuzzy dice; not content to have the music player market - the iPod now …

    Personal 4 Nov 2005, 09:05

  • Linspire will replace Windows with crippled Linux - cheap

    You're in good hands

    If Microsoft makes good on its self-destructive threat to pull Windows from the South Korean market rather than accede to local demands to un-bundle its proprietary media and IM apps, there's a safe harbour waiting in the form of blanket, country-wide licenses for the OS formerly known as Lindows. Noting that South Korea blows …

    Operating Systems 4 Nov 2005, 09:22

  • World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit

    Rootkit beets spyware

    Want to cheat in your online game and not get caught? Just buy a Sony BMG copy protected CD. World of Warcraft hackers have confirmed that the hiding capabilities of Sony BMG's content protection software can make tools made for cheating in the online world impossible to detect. The software - deemed a "rootkit" by many …

    Malware 4 Nov 2005, 10:23

  • Nintendo readies Euro Wi-Fi gamezone

    Free online play for DS owners

    Nintendo will launch a free, UK-wide wireless gaming service for owners of its DS handheld console on 25 November. The scheme, dubbed the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, comes courtesy of deals struck with Wi-Fi hotspot companies The Cloud and BT Openzone, and will ensure any DS owner within range of a participating hotspot can …

    Wireless 4 Nov 2005, 10:26

  • Movie download services quietly working on licensing

    Just how much is not enough

    A report landed on our desk last week from a respected European research company, that said that European movie downloads would reach £60m ($106m) by 2010. There is so much wrong with this prediction it’s difficult to know where to start. This was supposed to be encouraging for the film industry and make them invest in online …

    Financial News 4 Nov 2005, 10:58

  • AMD expands initial Socket M2 line-up

    Readies dual-core Athlon FX-62, too

    AMD is gearing up to make a big push to support dual-channel DDR 2 SDRAM with new desktop processors and a new interconnect, the 940-pin Socket M2, in Q2 2006, the latest leaked company roadmap reveals. During that quarter, AMD will ship four M2-enabled dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processors numbered from 4200+ to 5000+, an …

    Channel Register 4 Nov 2005, 11:09

  • Online family trees in Sweden illegal?

    Reverse racism

    Online family trees in Sweden may be illegal, according to the Swedish Board of Data Inspection (DI). The DI last week sent a letter to the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies, demanding certain data be removed from their web site immediately. The website contains several forum sections headed 'Crime and punishment' …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 11:15

  • Disney to target kids mobile services in Europe

    Tinkerbell ringtones

    Disney, which has already announced two separate MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) deals in the US (one using the Disney brand and one using its ESPN sports network brand), is widely anticipated to repeat the move in Europe, with announcements due in the next few weeks. Leaks to the UK Times and the French Les Echos point …

    Mobile 4 Nov 2005, 11:27

  • Lizard Army fuses woman with black helicopter

    neoLuddite Resistance Army at Defcon 'Warwick'

    Fellow members of the neoLuddite Resistance Army (NRA) who have written to express their concern at an apparent lack of recent activity in our Montana command bunker should rest assured that - contrary to popular belief - we have not spent the entire summer taking drunken potshots at Renault Lagunas with pulse plasma laser …

    Rise of the Machines 4 Nov 2005, 11:37

  • NTL trims losses

    Revenues slip ahead of Telewest deal

    NTL - which is to merge with the UK's other cableco Telewest - managed to trim its third quarter losses even after a dip in revenues, the UK cableco reported yesterday. Takings for the three months to September were £482.7m - down 3.2 per cent compared to the same period last year - thanks to a fall in revenues at the cableco's …

    Financial News 4 Nov 2005, 11:44

  • Microsoft to digitise 100,000 books

    Partnership with the British Library

    Microsoft and the British Library have come together to make 100,000 of the institution's titles available online. The deal covers some 25 million pages which will be made available as part of Microsoft's book search service, next year. This is the software giant's second foray into digital archiving: it is already working with …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 2005, 11:46

  • Google discovers true meaning of 'titsup'

    More word verification silliness

    Hot on the heels of our recent piece of silliness which showed how Google word verification threw up the delicious "minge", we can now report that the search monolith has discovered the true meaning of Vulture Central fave "titsup". Reader Adrian J. St. Vaughan explains: I was just playing with Google Print, and found new …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 11:48

  • Nokia Linux-based web tablet on sale at last

    Wireless browsing, yes. Telephony, no.

    Nokia has begun shipping its Linux-based Nokia 770, the so-called "Internet tablet", according to the Finnish giant's direct-sales website. It's a little late. When it was launched last May, the 770 was scheduled to ship in Q3. The device lacks the usual Nokia mobile phone technology, relying instead on Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and …

    PCs 4 Nov 2005, 11:56

  • France and China share open source middleware love

    It's an ObjectWeb thing

    A French consortium has reached an agreement with government representatives in China to develop a middleware stack using open source software from ObjectWeb. ObjectWeb, a Europe-based federation of open source middleware projects, and China's Orientware will build a common open source platform that integrates code from each …

    Applications 4 Nov 2005, 12:02

  • Websense makes hash of MS classification

    Mistook downloads for doobies

    Microsoft's software download site was briefly categorised as a marijuana-related site and blocked by censorware outfit Websense on Monday. Websense blamed human error for the slip-up (or should that be splif-up), which it was able to quickly correct. Here is the news - Bong "For a brief period of time on Monday, the …

    Enterprise Security 4 Nov 2005, 12:38

  • T-Mobile offers own-brand HTC Wizard in UK

    Satellite navigation pack optional

    T-Mobile has become the first carrier to offer HTC's Wizard Wi-Fi-equipped Windows Mobile 5.0 handset in the UK. Its version of the device is called the MDA Vario, but it provides the usual messaging and browsing features standard to all versions of the device. The unit contains 128MB of memory, expandable using MiniSD cards, …

    Mobile 4 Nov 2005, 12:42

  • German IT outfit bans whining

    One more moan and you're out

    German IT outfit Nutzwerk Ltd has come up with the perfect solution to whining in the workplace - it's made cheerfulness a contractual obligation. What's more, Manager Thomas Kuwatsch has declared that those who don't measure up to the prescribed level of jollity in the morning should stay at home until they cheer up, Ananova …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 12:55

  • Solitary patch for MS Nov Patch Tuesday

    It's all so quiet

    Microsoft plans to release a single, critical patch next Tuesday, 8 November, as part of its regular monthly patching schedule. According to minimalist details from an advance bulletin notification from Redmond issued Thursday, the fix is designed to address a serious Windows vulnerability. Redmond also plans to release an …

    Security 4 Nov 2005, 12:57

  • Local loop unbundling 'showing signs of improvement'

    Might be a blip, might not

    Behind-the-scenes problems that have dogged the UK's local loop unbundling (LLU) industry appear to be showing signs of improvement. So says the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA), which is responsible for overseeing the development of the LLU sector in the UK. Last month the OTA flagged up problems warning …

    Telecoms 4 Nov 2005, 13:45

  • Doctor Who set to return on Xmas Day

    Tardis to land during Children in Need too

    The Doctor Who Christmas Special, provisionally titled The Christmas Invasion, will be broadcast on Christmas Day, the BBC has said. The hour-long one-off show will mark the first full adventure for tenth Doctor David Tennant after his brief appearance in the ultimate episode of the 2005 season, The Parting of the Ways, when …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 13:52

  • Dutch dentist amputates own finger

    No IT angle, but definitely digital

    A Dutch dentist who amputated his own finger and attempted to convince insurers that it had been severed in a car crash was fined €25,000 yesterday for the failed fraud, Reuters reports. The unnamed 50-year-old snipped off his pinkie before piling his car into a tree in Belgium. He claimed €1.8m from insurers, saying the finger …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 13:55

  • TechScape: Of RIM, NTP and BlackBerry Squash

    Rant Patently obvious

    The other day in the FT, there was a small item about RIM (Research in Motion) the Blackberry’s manufacturer. Its headline blared, “RIM Faces Higher Payouts on Patents.” Turns out, RIM “may have to pay-out $550m more than the $450m it has set aside to settle claims that its Blackberry email device infringes the patents of …

    Mobile 4 Nov 2005, 15:08

  • Autonomy coughs up $500m for Verity

    And that's the truth

    Autonomy is to hoover up rival search and process management vendor Verity Inc for $500m, the two firms announced early today. The deal will see Autonomy's CEO and joint founder Mike Lynch become CEO of the combined company, with Verity CEO Anthony Bettencourt becoming CEO of the US operation. Lynch said the deal will “extend …

    Financial News 4 Nov 2005, 15:21

  • 186k buying another company

    Receives financial backing too

    186k - the Leeds-based ISP headed by Internet entrepreneur Dominic Marrocco - has received a stack of cash to help it buy up more companies. As part of the deal Bank of Scotland Corporate effectively becomes a "sleeping partner" in the business until such times as "certain conditions" are met and BoS decides to invest further …

    Telecoms 4 Nov 2005, 15:26

  • Dutch drop €3.28 per gig levy on MP3 players

    Latest 'iPod' tax not much better

    A controversial proposed tax in the Netherlands on MP3 players of as much as € 3.28 ($4.30) per gigabyte has been revised, though still not enough to please the electronics industry. A new proposal by the Foundation Onderhandeling Thuiskopievergoeding (SONT), which negotiates between hardware manufacturers and the collecting …

    Peripherals 4 Nov 2005, 15:38

  • UK online sales rocket

    In brief Must be all those Reg t-shirts...

    Online sales in the UK are booming, according to the latest government stats. Brits spent a whopping £71.1bn online last year - up 81 per cent on 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Much of this online spending was conducted by businesses. Even so, e-spending by households rose from £10.8bn in 2003 to …

    Financial News 4 Nov 2005, 15:39

  • PETA protests SCO's cruelty to vocabulary

    Letters And you spend time getting back to your rootkits

    Jumping straight in to the post bag, we can report that Sony's DRM rootkit has not made any of you happy bunnies this week: Hmm, so Daniel Cuthbert is convicted of a CMA offence for typing a URL containing "../../.." into his web browser, but Sony Music is entitled to install replacement operating system libraries on my …

    Letters 4 Nov 2005, 15:58

  • Hilary Duff World promises hot, hot extras

    New kids' site with added woof

    Teen queen Hilary Duff set the internet world alight earlier today when she hinted that her new "Hilary Duff World" - slated to burst onto AOL's kiddies service KOL next Monday - might contain some rather unexpected material. The 18-year-old star declared: "I'm going to do a lot of things that feel more personal with the kids. …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 16:18

  • Say hello to the virtual weatherman

    METman

    Emboldened by the BBC's move from traditional flat weather maps to a so-called "virtual reality weather maps", tech boffins are scheming to replace flesh and blood presenters with animated images. Televirtual, a firm based in Norwich, the fictional home of naff presenter Alan Partridge, have developed CGI figures called METman …

    Bootnotes 4 Nov 2005, 16:28

  • US man seeks movie plotline patent

    Audacious plan for zombie script

    Moviemakers could sleepwalk into patent infringement if the US Patent Office grants an application that it published yesterday for a “storyline patent.” It is a groundbreaking attempt to protect a fictional storyline with a patent, rather than relying on copyright protection. Andrew Knight, a rocket engine inventor and …

    Music and Media 4 Nov 2005, 16:37

  • Microsoft’s brand calls to US workers eyeing India return

    Into the Valley Google gets the scraps

    In the battle to lure top talent back to India from Silicon Valley, Microsoft would appear to have a major edge over flashier darling of the moment Google and stalwarts such as Intel, Oracle and Dell. At a recruiting event hosted here by Silicon India last night, workers stood in a line at times 30-people long, looking to …

    IT Director 4 Nov 2005, 16:54

  • Sun employs scout to do dirty work on Rock chips

    Niagara gets TCP/IP speed up

    As part of a painfully slow and vague striptease, Sun Microsystems has started to describe a couple of techniques it will use to improve processor performance in its soon to be released Niagara chip and future Rock processor line. Despite hinting a couple of years back that Niagara would have special technology for handling TCP …

    Servers 4 Nov 2005, 17:28

  • Overstock's customer service line hangs up on consumers

    Call centers go dead for the holidays

    A week after Overstock.com blamed a bad software rollout for its swelling third quarter loss, the company continues to suffer from massive technology problems. Overstock's customer service line hangs up on consumers who try to navigate their way through the painful menus. Once customers press a button to reach a service …

    Financial News 4 Nov 2005, 19:11

  • Geeks agree - 'We need to dress better'

    Stern response Thanks, Otto

    I've been so pleased with the reaction to my piece last month entitled CEOs should follow NBA and make geeks wear real clothes. It's very rewarding to have your public justify insightful positions by heaping praise. I'll admit that not everyone saw the raw genius in my proposal, and in the spirit of open dialogue, I'll print …

    Letters 4 Nov 2005, 20:34