13th December 2005 Archive

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Dutch church bids for sex.eu

Seconds too late

A Dutch Full Gospel Church was seconds too late to bid on sex.eu, the most sought after domain name using the European Union's own top level domain. The church Volle Evangelie Gemeente Rehoboth in Eersel, close to the Belgian border, was one of the first applicants for the domain name, according to the database of EURid, the …

Bootnotes 13 Dec 2005, 09:54
Real revives radio-style Euro music service

RadioPass extended with video, ringtones, band demos

RealNetworks will today step up its efforts to win a share of European music fans' listening time - not to mention their spending power - by relaunching its RadioPass subscription service as RealMusic. The new offering is pitched at listeners looking to discover new music. In addition to more than 300 ad-free radio streams, …

Financial News 13 Dec 2005, 10:30
Users inundated with pop-ups

Configure me out

There are many examples where users are now being inundated with pop-up messages asking them to respond to things they don't know about or don't understand, and it leads to weaker security overall. Context and knowledge is everything. With it, the strangest things can make sense; without it, the strangest things sound, well, …

Security 13 Dec 2005, 11:00
Intel to sell $1.4bn debt

Cash may be spent buying back shares

Intel is to raise $1.4bn in a special bond issue, the company said yesterday. The privately transacted offer will be made only to institutional investors since it centres on bonds, called debentures, that are not secured with company assets. Intel will sell the debentures now then buy them back in 2035 on terms to be negotiated …

Financial News 13 Dec 2005, 11:01
Telewest tops JD Power broadband ISP chart

NTL, BT flop

Telewest has topped a list of the UK's six leading broadband ISPs while NTL - the cableco that is currently in the process of buying Telewest - came last in the 2005 UK Residential Broadband Internet Service Providers Satisfaction Study by JD Power and Associates. According to the survey of some 935 broadband users, Telewest ( …

Telecoms 13 Dec 2005, 11:07
Xbox 360 file system de-coded

Console-cracking efforts continue

The Xbox 360's DVD file system has been exposed, a coding group calling itself Pi, has claimed. The group said it has posted source code for a utility that allows discs' files to be extracted and displayed as raw data. The group admits there's not much that can be done with it beyond explore the file-system structure, if anyone …

Consoles 13 Dec 2005, 11:18
Firms count the cost of security threats

More threats, more security officers

Security threats soared during 2005, along with the risk of financial losses, but a new report shows that companies still aren't heeding the warnings. According to the State of Information Security 2005 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and CIO Magazine, not only are security-related events up 22.4 percent on last year's …

Security 13 Dec 2005, 11:37
Hackers topple Kremlin-sponsored broadcaster

Putin TV station put out of service

Malicious hackers succeeded in forcing a Russian government-run TV station off the air on Monday just two days after its launch. Russia Today broadcasts in English and is designed to counterbalance what the Kremlin perceives is unfair treatment of Russia by foreign broadcasters. Early reports on a new parliament in Chechnya and …

Enterprise Security 13 Dec 2005, 11:41
Mio unveils GPS-equipped PocketPC

Turn right onto the A201...

Mio has launched its latest PocketPC with integrated GPS. The DigiWalker A201 is the slightly chunkier follow-up to the Mio 168, this time boasting a GPS receiver that not only folds up from the back of the device but can swivel to allow the unit to be used in landscape mode. Rotating the antenna automatically reformats the …

Mobile 13 Dec 2005, 12:22
BT shunts broadband support to India - 886 jobs at risk

'Merry Christmas'

Up to 886 jobs in the UK could be axed after BT awarded a major broadband tech support contract to an outsourcing firm in India. Staff at ClientLogic - who have manned BT's broadband technical helpdesk for all consumer and business customers for the last five years - were told yesterday that the IT services company had failed …

Telecoms 13 Dec 2005, 12:31
Warehouse appliances: boom or bust?

Comment And the winner is ...

From the number of vendors entering the market as suppliers of data warehouse appliances you would think that this was a major growth area. It probably is. And you would also think it was easy. It isn't. Here is a list of the companies that, over the last few years, have attempted to move into this market: Netezza, DATAllegro, …

Developer 13 Dec 2005, 12:32
Ingram Micro cosies up to Overstock.com

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of unwanted PCs

Overstock.com, America's favourite online retailer, has struck a deal to sell Ingram Micro's excess US inventory - i.e. - stuff that would otherwise rot on the shelves. As a broadline distributor, Ingram Micro will pride itself on its efficiency. But even the world's biggest IT distie will get it wrong from time to time But …

Channel Register 13 Dec 2005, 12:57
Toshiba may delay HD DVD launch - again

We're just waiting on AACS, claims vendor

Toshiba today blamed the brains behind the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) for any delay it may experience shipping HD DVD drives and players into the Japanese market this year. According to the company, it has "completed the design of HD DVD players for the US and Japanese markets and are ready for volume production at …

Reg Hardware 13 Dec 2005, 12:59
Supreme Court sides with SanDisk in Flash clash

Defendants must answer allegations

Ritek, Memorex and Pretec must go back to court and face up to SanDisk's allegations that they infringed one of its Flash memory card patents, the US Supreme Court has ruled. The trio were sued by SanDisk in October 2001 for allegedly infringing its patent, number 5,602,987. Three years later, they successfully persuaded the …

Financial News 13 Dec 2005, 13:34
Virtual war is worrying

Hu, yeah, what is it good for?

Somewhere in the world right now, someone is getting killed in a war. Probably in Iraq, I suspect. As the casualty list grows higher every day, the death of many soldiers - and many Iraqi fighters - is reduced to an ever-diminishing footnote by Western administrations and news conduits. As I sit comfortably in my living room, …

Consoles 13 Dec 2005, 13:52
ID fraudsters target job centre staff

Tax credit portal scam may hit 13,000

Crooks may have defrauded the UK tax credit system out of millions after exploiting a lack of safeguards in an internet site designed to service claimants. HM Revenue & Customs shut down its tax credit portal website at the start of December after uncovering an attempt to defraud the system using the identities of Department of …

ID 13 Dec 2005, 14:02
Wanted: Reg reviewer to test cool kit

Situations Vacant Have you got what it takes?

The position has now been filled, and we are no longer accepting applications. The Register is looking for a hardware specialist to join the team on our personal technology channel. We need a PC expert who's up to speed on the latest CPUs, GPUs, DRAM, Flash and HDDs, but won't be put out if asked to play with PDAs, smart-phones …

Site News 13 Dec 2005, 14:04
TDK samples 'cartridge-free' Blu-ray Disc

Recordable and rewriteable

TDK has begun sampling recordable and rewriteable Blu-ray Discs that don't need to be kept in cartridges, the company said today. Four discs types are going out to TDK's customers, it said: BD-Rs and BD-REs in single-layer, 25GB and dual-layer, 50GB forms. All of them are rated for 2x recording speed, TDK claimed. TDK also …

Peripherals 13 Dec 2005, 14:07
Sony BMG shortlisted for 'internet villain' gong

Russia and EC also nominated

Sony BMG, the European Commission (EC) and Russia have all been nominated for this year's "internet villain" award. The annual awards - run by UK trade group ISPA - are supposed to "reflect those individuals or organisations that have either helped or hampered the interests of the Internet industry in the past year". Past …

Music and Media 13 Dec 2005, 14:32
iPass to buy GoRemote

Erstwhile remote-access rivals merge as telcos circle

Enterprise-oriented remote-access connectivity provider iPass is to acquire its erstwhile arch-rival GoRemote - aka Gric - for $76.5m in cash, the pair announced last night. If the proposed merger goes ahead, iPass will pay $1.71 for every outstanding GoRemote common share and $3.37 for its not-so-common shares. GoRemote's …

Mobile 13 Dec 2005, 15:32
MSN and MCI do VoIP

'You'll have to speak up, I'm on the PC'

The increasingly crowded internet telephony market just got a little more squished after Microsoft announced it is hooking up with MCI to offer PC-to-phone calling. The new service - MCI Web Calling - is to be part of Windows Live Messenger, which is due to succeed Microsoft's MSN Messenger service. MCI and Microsoft are …

VoIP 13 Dec 2005, 15:39
PeopleSoft becomes one with Oracle Fusion

Certifiable

The PeopleSoft enterprise suite has been certified to run on Java and web services implementations from database giant Oracle. Oracle said Tuesday PeopleSoft has been tested and certified with its Fusion 10g Release 2 middleware. The fusion middleware spans a number of Oracle web services, service oriented architecture (SOA), …

Applications 13 Dec 2005, 16:02
Disney tempts kids with cartoons for calories

Wireless downloads for fat clients

Fast food, DRM-laced kids cartoons and constant whinging. Yes, parents have a bright future to look forward to should Disney get its way with a US patent proposal. Patent application 20050252958 looks harmless enough at first blush. "System and method for wireless transfer of data content to a portable device." That can't be …

Music and Media 13 Dec 2005, 16:15
Voda gobbles Turkey cellco

Serves up $4.55bn

Vodafone is splashing out $4.55bn (£2.57bn) on Turkey's second biggest mobile operator as part of plans to enter one of Europe's biggest markets. Vodafone won an auction for Telsim run by the Turkish Savings Deposit and Investment Fund. Telsim has some nine million punters but in a country where just over half of the 72m …

Financial News 13 Dec 2005, 16:25
MTV gets the Urge to download music

Service to debut next year

MTV Networks is to launch a digital music service next year. Dubbed Urge, it will provide some 2m songs - par for the course, these days - and use Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format and DRM technology. There'll be exclusive content, too - again, just as you'd expect from anyone attempting to be a major-league player. Urge …

Financial News 13 Dec 2005, 16:27
Sun pours Niagara II all over Great Lakes

Exclusive Huron and Michigan revealed

It's all a gush in Sun Microsystems' low-end SPARC server business with code-names flowing toward El Reg at speed. Last week, we brought you the details on Niagara II, and this week we bring you Michigan and Huron. It only took a hack who spent some time in Chicago to figure out the naming scheme for Sun's upcoming line of …

Servers 13 Dec 2005, 19:34
MySQL goes a bundle with Business Objects

Challenging Microsoft on BI-database price

MySQL and BusinessObjects are to flog three business intelligence (BI) bundles combining products from both companies. The small, medium and large customer bundles wrap up the open source MySQL database with Business Objects' Crystal Reports and BusinessObjects Data Integrator, for the generation of reports and for data …

Developer 13 Dec 2005, 22:11
Apache database slips out with Sun

Derby goes to Solaris stack

Sun Microsystems is to ship an open source edition of an IBM database with its Solaris stack to reinforce its credentials as a database distributor. The recently announced Solaris Enterprise System (SES) will feature open Java DB - Sun's own implementation of the Apache Software Foundation's (ASF's) Derby. ASF Derby is the open …

Developer 13 Dec 2005, 22:15