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6th December 2005 Archive

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  • Who owns your Wikipedia bio?

    Web's favourite RPG hits the headlines

    Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, made another rare public relations concession as he took to the cable news networks today. Once again, it's Wikipedia that's giving the web a bad name. Wales says the venture will tighten up its rules, preventing anonymous users from creating articles. However anonymous edits to existing …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2005, 04:57

  • At last, Sun unveils UltraSPARC revival

    Erie and Ontario refreshed by Niagara

    Sun Microsystems has decided to admit that it does sell the Sun Fire T2000 and T1000 servers, ending months of denials. El Reg first uncovered these systems back in September. Both boxes run on Sun's new eight-core UltraSPARC T1 - aka Niagara - processor and are aimed at handling web and application server software. The T2000 …

    Servers 6 Dec 2005, 05:02

  • Xen 3.0 ready to be hammered

    Have at it, boys

    Xen has gone communal with Version 3.0 of the server slicing software hitting the internet in its mostly final form. XenSource - the main company behind the open source software - handled the official launch of the "community release." This beta contains a final list of the new features that will be found in Xen 3.0 when it's …

    Servers 6 Dec 2005, 09:36

  • Tesco unwraps musical Xmas sandwich

    Oh good, singing lunch

    Those readers who love Xmas and the traditional, relentless, three-month orgy of capitalism which precedes it will be delighted to learn that they can now celebrate the season of goodwill to all men while sitting at their desks - thanks to the Tesco musical Xmas sandwich. Yup, the UK supermarket monolith has ignored the …

    Bootnotes 6 Dec 2005, 09:51

  • Real rhapsodises over the net

    Real Deal

    In a move designed to win a larger slice of the digital music market, Real Networks is to make its music library available to any user with a web browser. Previously Real Networks had required users to download a special software application in order to access its music, but now anyone will be able to browse its one million …

    Financial News 6 Dec 2005, 09:59

  • MP3 players could destroy planet: official

    Xmas data apocalypse risk

    We at Vulture Central have been sitting nervously for a couple of weeks now awaiting the first in an inevitable stream of press releases tenuously linking new technology, data security and Xmas. In fact, we were going to have an award on Xmas Eve for the release which most spectacularly bolts a Yule data apocalypse alert onto a …

    Bootnotes 6 Dec 2005, 10:32

  • Future of AOL to be decided soon

    Oh yes it will, oh no it won't

    The ongoing saga over the future of AOL could be nearing a conclusion. Last month, AOL's parent Time Warner confirmed that it was holding "exploratory" talks with a number of operators over the future of its AOL internet division concerning a "range of potential strategic relationships and transactions". This merely confirmed …

    Financial News 6 Dec 2005, 10:43

  • Fujitsu preps carbon nanotube heat-sink

    Mobile phone base-station chips to run faster, cooler

    Fujitsu has figured out how to cool chips using carbon nanotubes, though it's going to a few years yet before the technology is ready for commercial usage, the company admitted. The cooling system is a heat-sink, created out of millions of 15µm-long nanotubes. The nanotubes are 'grown' on the wafer substrate using an iron …

    Science 6 Dec 2005, 10:46

  • Rhapsody 'preview' for Mac, Linux users

    Small carrot to tempt music subscribers

    RealNetworks is to extend its currently Windows-only Rhapsody music subscription service to Mac and Linux users next week, the company said last night. However, even then, they will not gain access to the full Rhapsody package. On Monday, Real's Rhapsody.com website will go live. It's currently in beta-testing mode, but once …

    Financial News 6 Dec 2005, 10:50

  • Bluetooth roadmap updated but UWB wars could scupper it

    Best survival plan, but ...

    The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which controls the development of the short range wireless standard, is shortly to publish an updated roadmap that defines plans up to the third quarter of 2007, with the focus on interoperability with UltraWideBand (UWB). UWB is certainly the best future survival plan for the more …

    Mobile 6 Dec 2005, 11:12

  • Intel Macs 'due 6 June'

    Early 2006 launch date dashed?

    Apple's Intel-based Macs may not appear until June 2006, if claims made by sources at Taiwanese distributors are to be believed. According to the moles, cited by DigiTimes today, Intel-based Mac Minis, iBooks and iMacs have been scheduled to launch in Taiwan on 6 June. That's six months after most recent speculation has …

    Mac Channel 6 Dec 2005, 11:20

  • ITV swallows Friends Reunited

    Hello again

    Friends Reunited has been flogged. As widely expected, the reunion web site has been swallowed by ITV for £120m in cash and paper. A further £55m is payable if the operation hits certain numbers in 2009. For broadcaster ITV, the acquisition of Friends Reunited gives it the chance to generate content online which, in turn, will …

    Financial News 6 Dec 2005, 11:32

  • E-tailers must provide more information

    Taking stock

    Many small UK firms who have made the jump online are failing their customers by providing an inadequate amount of information about purchasing and delivery. New research from THUS suggests that while online retail is experiencing unprecedented growth, a large number of e-tailers are not doing it very well. More than three- …

    Small Biz 6 Dec 2005, 11:44

  • ATI unwraps first X1000-class mobile graphics chip

    Coming soon to a notebook near you

    ATI yesterday unveiled its latest mobile graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon X1600, the first notebook-oriented GPU to support the company's Avivo video capture and playback enhancement technology. The X1600 also incorporates the latest generation of ATI's power-conservation system, PowerPlay, the company said. PowerPlay 6.0 …

    Reg Hardware 6 Dec 2005, 11:47

  • Panasonic promos 50GB Blu-ray Disc production pilot

    Dual-layer player

    Matsushita's Panasonic subsidiary has retooled its US Blu-ray Disc (BD) production line to offer not only 25GB single-layer discs but also 50GB dual-layer media, the company said yesterday. Panasonic's plant, located in Torrance, California, is still in the pilot stage, but the company claimed it is already punching out BDs …

    Peripherals 6 Dec 2005, 11:51

  • Empire Online plays legal card in PartyGaming spat

    Lawyers spin wheel of fortune

    Empire Online confirmed today that it has launched legal proceedings against fellow online gaming outfit PartyGaming PLC, following the two firms’ abortive autumn mating dance. Empire Online said it is seeking “substantial damages and injunctive relief from PartyGaming”. A the same time, it said, Empire Online and PartyGaming …

    Financial News 6 Dec 2005, 12:25

  • Aussie Kazaa users told to stop using Kazaa

    Federal Court bans downloading it too, website says

    Australian Kazaa fans can now no longer use or download the P2P application. As an apparent deadline for the addition of copyright filtering technology came and went yesterday without such a change apparently being made, Kazaa owner Sharman Networks was forced to stop distributing its software to local users. Anyone accessing …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2005, 12:33

  • Sonnet iPod battery replacement pack

    Review How to revive a run-down iPod

    Sonnet isn't the only company to offer iPod battery upgrades, but it's the first to bundle a video installation guide. With printed instructions typically about as basic as it's possible to get, does Sonnet's approach make battery replacement an easier task for the non-techie? Opening the blister pack exposes the slimline 3.7V …

    Reviews 6 Dec 2005, 13:02

  • Apple to open Sheffield this Saturday

    The Full Mac Monty

    Apple has confirmed it will open its latest UK AppleStore this weekend, in Sheffield's Meadowhall Centre. The doors will open at 9.00am on Saturday, 10 December. The first 1,000 folk through the door will receive the obligatory free AppleStore opening T-shirt. Apple also said it was running a Grand Opening Sweepstake …

    Reg Hardware 6 Dec 2005, 13:26

  • Ericsson to babysit 3's UK phone network

    What's the hourly rate?

    3 is to hand over control of its 3G phone network in the UK to Ericsson as part of a massive seven-year managed services deal. More than 1,000 staff from 3 are to be transferred to Ericsson as part of the deal, although the giant operator has confirmed that no redundancies will be made as part of the move. Financial details …

    Mobile 6 Dec 2005, 13:31

  • Taiwanese firm to open UFO research base

    Probing tree-felling alien visitation claims

    An unnamed Taiwanese company is to build a UFO research facility in China's Guizhou Province. The plan, reported by the Chinese-language China Daily, follows - albeit slowly - claims made more than ten years ago by locals who said they were visited by tree-felling aliens. According to the paper, on 30 November 2004 some 27 …

    Science 6 Dec 2005, 13:34

  • UK vs US as vendors race to ship first dual-core laptop

    The Widow versus the Rock

    The race to be the first company ship the first notebook equipped with a dual-core processor is now on. In blue-and-black livery, we have US-based WidowPC, which last week touted its Sting 917X2. Facing it, already saddled up, is the UK's Rock Direct, which announced its dual-core Xtreme 64 a little while ago. When we reported …

    Reg Hardware 6 Dec 2005, 13:53

  • EFF volunteers to lose important suit over Sony 'rootkit'

    Opinion Still securing precedents for the other side

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is renowned for its impeccable taste in the battles it fights on behalf of consumers, and for its uncanny ability to stuff every case up in ways that lead to permanent injury for everyone except the entities they oppose. So it's with some trepidation that we report their latest foray …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2005, 14:07

  • Xbox 360 vs PS3

    It's going to be all about the discs

    Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries. Blu-Ray and PS3, Xbox 360 and DVD – the real battleground for the next generation of consoles from Games Digest So the launch of …

    Consoles 6 Dec 2005, 14:25

  • Anatomy of a failed virus attack

    Analysis It happened to me

    Here follows a short story of a failed virus attack on me and my company, and why e-mail from strangers, hostile or otherwise is not a problem for us. I would like to draw your attention to two major points about security and e-mail, but which are also applicable to any other Internet protocol in this brief essay. 1. You need …

    Spam 6 Dec 2005, 14:36

  • Celine Dion fights mutant rats on Xbox 360

    Letters Plus chavs - legitimate news?

    Ah, the Xbox 360: what on earth did we have to discuss before the recent release of MS's long-awaited games console? Damned if we can remember... I cannot believe such a blatant sales leaflet as the Microsoft Xbox 360 review can make it to your front page. Biased is not the word; everything glowed. Brick sized power pack: …

    Letters 6 Dec 2005, 14:46

  • Hibernate Object Relational Mapping (Part 2)

    Second in a two-part series by Java Guru John Hunt

    Hibernate Object Relational Mapping (Part 1) is here. Unlike some frameworks, you do not need to do anything special to your objects to allow them to persist via Hibernate. They can be Plain Old Java Objects (or POJO) objects. These objects can follow the JavaBeans conventions and provide setters and getters. Hibernate will …

    Developer 6 Dec 2005, 15:11

  • Ofcom fingers Capgemini for IS deal

    Legacy systems-tastic

    Ofcom has chosen Capgemini to come up with a new information system to replace those it inherited from previous regulators. Capgemini is due to begin its five-year £25m contract from the beginning of February. As part of the deal it will replace some 50 separate IT applications with new integrated processes. No Ofcom jobs will …

    IT Director 6 Dec 2005, 15:29

  • Al-Qaeda probes enemy on Google Earth

    So claims US Marine

    Amid all the kerfuffle of late regarding Google Earth and its possible threat to the national security of several jittery nations comes an interesting snippet from an email purporting to be from a US Marine who served in Iraq. In it, he suggests that al-Qaeda is using Google Earth as a intelligence tool in its fight against the …

    Bootnotes 6 Dec 2005, 15:52

  • Telewest coughs to email gremlins

    Keen to catch the blighters

    Telewest - the cableco merging with NTL - is trying to track down some email gremlins that appear to be hitting its broadband service at peak times. Punters started experiencing problems a few days ago and a fix is expected to be in place later this week. The firm says the problems are intermittent and only affect a "small …

    Telecoms 6 Dec 2005, 15:54

  • Hosting firm cuts off VMT Scientific website

    Press releases mirrored by hype-spam

    A Nevada company's website was suspended by its hosting provider last week after its stock was widely advertised by spam and across weblogs. Spam fighters are convinced the hyped stock is yet another example of a "pump and dump" scheme, also known as "hype and dump manipulation", where fraudsters buy up stock in a firm, pump up …

    Spam 6 Dec 2005, 15:58

  • Philips legend dies at 100

    Influential

    Frits Philips, the only son of Anton Philips, the founder of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, died yesterday in Eindhoven at the age of 100. Under his leadership great progress was made in the worldwide expansion of the company's industrial and commercial activities. Philips is now one of Europe's leading electronics …

    Business 6 Dec 2005, 16:00

  • eBay UK takes down pirate software sales

    Microsoft cracks the whip

    Microsoft and eBay are working together to stop the sale of pirate software on the online auction site. According to Microsoft, more than 21,000 suspect software sales were removed from the UK eBay site between August and October this year. Over half (52 per cent) were sales of counterfeit Microsoft Windows, while 36 oer cent …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2005, 17:04

  • More on IBM and SOA

    Comment Biggest change since client-server

    Further to my previous article resulting from IBM’s annual analyst Software Group conference, here are some more thoughts on what IBM was talking about. One of the things that struck me, and which I am not sure that I have seen discussed anywhere, is that an SOA (service oriented architecture) solution is topologically …

    Developer 6 Dec 2005, 18:29

  • Novell hails pipsqueaking NHS deal

    On a Linux promise

    Novell has won a £21.8m contract to supply software across the National Health Service. This is good for the British taxpayer - as NHS Connecting for Health, the snappily-named IT arm of the health service, reckons it could save us up to £75m over three years compared with previous arrangements. Novell's existing contracts with …

    Operating Systems 6 Dec 2005, 18:51

  • Unix support and licensing focus for 'minor' Windows release

    No need for Linux

    Microsoft is touting interoperability with Unix and a licensing offer for Virtual Server 2005 to promote a minor release of Windows that targets branch office users. Windows Server 2003 R2, released to manufacturing Tuesday, features a built-in Unix subsystem, database and NFS connectivity, and the Identity Management for Unix …

    Operating Systems 6 Dec 2005, 19:25

  • Sun opens Niagara chip design to world+dog

    Forces Oracle pricing refactorization

    Sun Microsystems today complemented the release of two new servers with some potentially significant changes to its processor architecture licensing policy and the way in which Oracle will price its database for the fresh gear. We covered the Sun Fire T2000 and T1000 servers earlier today. What's important about the boxes in …

    Servers 6 Dec 2005, 20:28

  • Red Hat designs rubber stamp for open source stacks

    Takes services to the service providers

    Red Hat will certify open source applications running on its Linux distribution with three subscription-based services that potentially challenge start-ups. The Linux distributor will certify and support a catalogue of open source software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), grouped into three buckets called the web application …

    Applications 6 Dec 2005, 21:39

  • Brocade ends 2005 with a wheeze

    Next year more promising

    Brocade today delivered moderately disappointing fourth quarter results, which stand as an improvement over painful revenue totals turned in last quarter. The storage switch maker reported revenue of $146m. That total marks a six per cent decline from the $156m reported in the same period last year. For the full year, Brocade …

    Storage 6 Dec 2005, 23:17

  • Hollywood bets on biometric DRM + P2P

    Exclusive Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

    Some of you may recall the quixotic crusade of inventor Gary Brant, who we interviewed last year. Gary proposed integrating biometric DRM into a portable MP3 player, and was unabashed when several hundred Register readers wrote in to say what a bad idea it was. Not one reader, in fact, endorsed the idea. But Brant's …

    Music and Media 6 Dec 2005, 23:48