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16th January 2006 Archive

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  • Tory and Lib peers aim to ice ID cards until Blair's overthrow

    Costings look ball-crushingly tight, apparently...

    Tory and Liberal opposition peers will unite in the House of Lords today in an attempt to have the UK identity card scheme shelved pending an investigation of costs and benefits. Their amendment is intended, according to Tory Home Affairs spokesman David Davis to force the Government to produce proper costings of the scheme, but …

    Media 16 Jan 2006, 00:03

  • Cutting choice to get more choice

    Comment Standard platforms move choice to the right place

    These days, experienced IT systems users looking to create an agile business environment have to make a simple but fundamental change in approach. A good analogy to that change might be their view of the pen, where they have to stop concerning themselves about issues such as `ink delivery technologies’ and instead get interested …

    Servers 16 Jan 2006, 09:32

  • Cisco gets into consumer electronics

    Or consumer electronics get Cisco'd

    Cisco sees a growing percentage of its future business coming from consumer electronics. The networking giant believes increasing demand for networked devices will allow it to compete with the likes of Sony and Samsung. In an interview with the Financial Times Charles Giancarlo, chief development officer at Cisco, said that …

    Data Networking 16 Jan 2006, 09:36

  • UK gov calls for online gambling summit

    Let's have a heated debate...

    The British government is calling for an international summit to discuss the benefits and problems of online gambling. The UK government is one of the few to have taken an interest in collecting tax from online gambling sites - last year's Gambling Act is one of the few to cover "remote gambling". Tessa Jowell, culture …

    Financial News 16 Jan 2006, 10:17

  • Rambus sues Micron

    Opens second front in Northern California

    Rambus has accused Micron of patent infringement, alleging the US memory maker has sold products containing its DDR 2, GDDR 2, GDDR 3 and other "advanced" memory technologies without permission. Rambus is already battling Micron in the Delaware District Court, but the new filing, made late last week, opens a new front in the …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 10:20

  • HP readying compact Wi-Fi PDA phone?

    Signs Quanta to make version of O2 XDA Atom, apparently

    HP may be preparing to launch an own-brand, updated version of O2's XDA Atom compact wireless PDA phone. According to Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Quanta, which is building the device for HP, will begin volume shipments of the product some time in H1 2006. The report …

    Phones 16 Jan 2006, 10:35

  • NTL ups bid for Virgin

    They're chatting again

    NTL's buy-out is back on again - well, for the time being at least. Late on Friday NTL - which has already been cleared to swallow the UK's number two cableco Telewest - upped its offer for the mobile business in a deal reported to be worth £930m. According to reports, NTL is prepared to cough up 372p a share to Virgin Mobile's …

    Financial News 16 Jan 2006, 10:46

  • Asus moots Lamborghini-branded phones

    Wants to take the marque beyond laptops

    Asus' next Lamborghini-labelled hardware is likely to be a mobile phone, company moles have claimed. So said DigiTimes tersely today, providing no further details beyond Asus' alleged desire to take the Lamborghini brand into the consumer electronics arena. Almost two weeks ago, Asus announced plans to produce a pair of …

    Phones 16 Jan 2006, 10:48

  • Scottish beach in radium contamination probe

    Dumped luminous aircraft dials suspected

    Scientists say radioactive contamination on a beach in Scotland's Fife headland probably comes from wartime aircraft luminous dials* which were burned then dumped during the 1950s, the BBC reports. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is stumping up £50,000 to discover the levels of radium contamination and any associated …

    Science 16 Jan 2006, 10:53

  • The Freedom of Information Act, one year on

    Picking over 12 months of dirty laundry

    OUT-LAW News, 13/01/2006 The Freedom of Information Act came into force 12 months ago and most public authorities say it is helping to create a culture of greater openness. But the Act's regulator has had over 2,300 complaints about the public sector improperly refusing to release information. According to the Information …

    Media 16 Jan 2006, 11:03

  • Intel readies 65nm 'Yonah'-based Celeron M 4xx series

    Exclusive Ultra-low voltage Core Duo part too

    Intel is preparing to launch a 2.33GHz Core Duo chip, the T2700, The Register has learned. The chip giant's product pipeline also includes faster Core Solo chips, speedier low-voltage Core Duos and the introduction of an ultra-low voltage Core Duo, the 1.06GHz U2500. Intel's roadmap also calls for the introduction of Celeron M …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 11:23

  • Stardust floats gently to Earth

    Comet-sample capsule successfully recovered

    Scientists worldwide are toasting the successful return to Earth of NASA's Stardust mission - a seven-year jaunt during which the vehicle captured samples from comet Wild 2's tail and, the team hopes, some interstellar dust. The 46kg sample capsule hit the Earth's atmosphere just before 10:00 GMT yesterday, having separated …

    Science 16 Jan 2006, 11:29

  • Intel 'Santa Rosa' Centrino to sport 800MHz FSB

    Roadmap 802.11n WLAN support in the mix too

    Intel's fourth-generation Centrino notebook platform, 'Santa Rosa', will take the hardware's frontside bus speed to 800MHz when it ships, provisionally sometime in H1 2007. So suggests roadmap information seen by Japanese-language website PCWatch. Santa Rosa will be based on the upcoming 'Merom' mobile CPU, the first of Intel's …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 11:40

  • Etailer bounces back after oil depot fire

    Insurance covers loss

    A fashion etailer whose warehouse went up in flames five weeks ago following the massive explosion at the Buncefield oil depot is once again open for business. Asos.com - an online fashion and beauty retailer with some 750,000 registered users - was forced to suspend its business before Christmas following the oil blaze at the …

    Financial News 16 Jan 2006, 11:43

  • US tests e-Passports

    Singapore and Australia get in on the act

    The US government has started testing electronic passports which contain an RFID chip holding information and a digital photo of the passport's carrier. The tests started yesterday at San Francisco airport, Changi Airport in Singapore and Sydney Airport in Australia. Singapore Airlines crew, some US diplomats and some citizens …

    Security 16 Jan 2006, 11:51

  • Forget global warming - think boiling oceans

    The end is nigh, says Gaia scientist James Lovelock

    Humankind will be nearly extinct by the end of the century and there is little we can do but prepare for the worst, says James Lovelock, the scientist famed for his Gaia hypothesis of earth science. "Before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where …

    Science 16 Jan 2006, 11:59

  • Intel readies 65nm Celeron D CPUs

    Exclusive Faster Presler and Cedar Mills, too

    Intel's first 65nm desktop Celeron D chips will be the 352 and 356, The Register has learned. Based on 'Cedar Mill', the 65nm single-core chip that's the basis for the newly launched Pentium 4 6x1 series, the new Celerons will provide 512KB of L2 cache, double that of current Celeron D family members. However, like the existing …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 12:01

  • Nokia readies Bluetooth 2.0 clamshell phone

    Quad-band Nokia 6125 pitched a Europeans

    Nokia will ship it latest clamshell handset next quarter, pitching the mid-range product at European buyers. The Nokia 6125 provides quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) network access with EDGE for worldwide coverage, and there's Bluetooth 2.0 on board for data synchronisation and headset support - including wireless stereo …

    Phones 16 Jan 2006, 12:48

  • Selfridges to sell pricey iPod lessons

    They're free round the corner at the Apple shop

    Posh London department store Selfridges is to begin charging punters £65 for a 40-minute one-on-one iPod tutorial later this month - almost as much as it costs to buy the cheapest iPod. According to an Agence France-Presse report, the store's "iPod Survival" lessons can be taken at home or in the store. The session covers basic …

    Peripherals 16 Jan 2006, 13:11

  • BT hires kids' favourites for IPTV service

    Can Bob the Builder fix it for BT?

    BT has signed up kiddies' favourites Bob the Builder and Pingu to help plug its yet to be launched on-demand broadband TV service. HIT Entertainment (behind Bob, Pingu and Thomas the Tank Engine, to name but a few), Nelvana (Beyblade) and the National Geographic Channel are the latest firms to ink content deals with BT ahead of …

    Networks 16 Jan 2006, 13:21

  • Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth stereo headphones

    Review Unwired for sound?

    Since the dawn of time three questions have preoccupied mankind. Is there a God? Are we alone in the Universe? And, how do I wear headphones without getting tangled up in the cord? OK, so that last one has only been around since the late-1970s when people first started to limp around with a Japanese-built electronic brick in …

    Broadband 16 Jan 2006, 13:46

  • The Reg reaches 4m people a month

    Site news And that's a fact

    November 2005 was a milestone for The Register, with more than four million people visiting us in a single month for the first time. Our traffic figures, audited by ABCe, show that 4,122,526 unique individuals accounted for 28,287,472 page impressions during the month. This is a comfortable increase over November 2004, when …

    The Company 16 Jan 2006, 13:58

  • Reasons to be cheerful about Office 12?

    Low-cost intelligence for the masses

    One of the “opportunities” that awaits resellers in 2006 is the release of Microsoft Office 12 (O12); that’s if Microsoft’s timescales don’t go haywire (so no promises). Is there anything to get excited about or this going to be just another expensive upgrade with all the menu options moved around and plenty of new features you …

    Developer 16 Jan 2006, 14:20

  • Tax man asks to appeal Arctic decision

    Mom and Pop IT biz goes back to court over tax

    Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is asking the House of Lords for permission to appeal a decision which could mean lower tax bills for thousands of companies. The decision will affect people who run their own businesses and are mainly paid in dividends rather than salary. HMRC took Arctic Systems to court because it was …

    Business 16 Jan 2006, 14:27

  • Fujitsu loses £500m Walsall Council deal

    Thanks for all your ideas - we can handle it from here

    Walsall Council pulled the plug on a £500m outsourcing deal with Fujitsu after proving that it can improve its shoddy services without help from the private sector. The deal would have seen over 1,500 council staff sold off to Fujitsu and subcontractors Vertex under the direction of a strategy dubbed "Putting the Citizen First …

    Policy 16 Jan 2006, 14:43

  • BT Phone Book to be printed in Spain

    180 UK jobs at risk

    Some 180 jobs are at risk at a printers in Essex following BT's decision to shunt the printing of its phone book to Spain. The Independent reports that Colchester-based Benhamgoodheadprint (BGP) - which has printed 22m copies a year of The Phone Book since 1998 - was unable to compete on price. The printing firm cannot rule …

    Networks 16 Jan 2006, 15:00

  • Unipalm ups security range

    Patch management

    Unipalm is to distribute products from PatchLink - the security and patch management company. The distie said it believed patch management would be a big opportunity for resellers this year and that the agreement would provide synergy with other partners such as Check Point and ISS. PatchLink said regulatory compliance is …

    The Channel 16 Jan 2006, 15:27

  • Unequal equivalence

    Column When is a number not a number?

    In my previous column I put the contract for object equality under the microscope in most detail for Object.equals in Java but also with a brief look at Object.Equals in C#. The idea that equality can also be assessed by relational comparison between two objects was also examined, looking again in most detail at the contract …

    Developer 16 Jan 2006, 16:02

  • Galileo satellite gives forth

    First signals received

    Last Thursday marked a major milestone in the Galileo satellite project when the Giove-A "demonstrator" began to broadcast the first validation signals which will enable the European satnav initiative to claim its frequencies. The satellite's designers, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), confirmed to the BBC that the …

    Science 16 Jan 2006, 16:08

  • Northern Ireland boasts blanket broadband coverage

    The full monty, 100 per cent, the lot...

    Every home and business in Northern Ireland can now access a broadband service after millions of pounds were invested improving internet access. Speaking today, Enterprise Minister, Angela Smith, said: "This is a significant achievement for Northern Ireland to lead Europe in broadband availability. Every household, business, …

    Broadband 16 Jan 2006, 16:36

  • UK lifts lid on unmanned stealth aircraft

    'Corax' surveillance vehicle poses for press

    The UK has proved that there's a little fight left in its military aerospace industry by unveiling the "Corax" unmanned stealth surveillance aircraft: According to the BBC, the BAE systems project looks a bit like "a cancelled US military spy plane called DarkStar" (judge for yourselves here), while Jane's International …

    Science 16 Jan 2006, 16:38

  • Intel Core Duo T2700 to bring VT to Centrino?

    Exclusive Chip maker keeps mum on mobile virtualisation support

    Intel's Virtualisation Technology (VT) may not come to the mobile market until the chip giant releases the Core Duo 2700, The Register has learned. According to recent internal retail-oriented documentation seen by The Register, details for the T2300, T2400, T2500 and T2600 Core Duos have VT support listed as TBD - 'To Be …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 16:55

  • Napster rejects restructure reports

    Not up for sale, either, company claims

    Napster has denied claims the digital music company is on the verge of a major shake-up that could see large numbers of employees lose their jobs. It also rejected allegations that Napster's bosses are planning to sell the business - or shut it down. The charges were made this weekend by sources, said a report at website …

    Hardware 16 Jan 2006, 17:21

  • BT hangs up on internet payphone

    Not so engaging

    BT has pulled the plug on an ambitious scheme to replace 28,000 red phone boxes with all-singing, all-dancing internet-enabled payphones. The Sunday Times reported that just 1,300 of the Marconi-built e-payphones - which offer internet access, email and text messaging, along with traditional voice services - have been installed …

    Broadband 16 Jan 2006, 17:22

  • Union woos IBM with love hearts

    Militants spread love not spittle

    Union organisers have asked IBM employees to mock the firm with love letters in retaliation for its recent decision to freeze their pensions. That is about as much as the union, the Communication Workers of America, can do in their defence. With just a handful of members and a mere 6,000 loosely affiliated supporters among …

    Management 16 Jan 2006, 18:24

  • Researcher: Sony BMG rootkit still widespread

    'The global scope is the big mystery here'

    WASHINGTON D.C. Hundreds of thousands of networks across the globe, including many military and government networks, appear to still contain PCs with the controversial copy-protection software installed by music discs sold by media giant Sony BMG, a security researcher told attendees at the ShmooCon hacking conference this …

    Security 16 Jan 2006, 18:35