The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

28th February 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Telcos complain about lack of Openreach staff

    Openreach promises to recruit more account managers

    BT Openreach has promised to recruit more staff to manage the accounts of phone companies and broadband providers following complaints from operators. Openreach chief exec Steve Robertson has given written assurances to Ofcom that more workers will be brought on board over the coming months to deal with the workload. The issue …

    Networks 28 Feb 2006, 09:42

  • C&W to axe half of UK jobs

    'Crappy' news from a 'crappy industry'

    Cable and Wireless (C&W) is axing half its UK workforce and ditching thousands of customers as part of its restructuring plans. C&W currently employs 5,500 people in the UK (including Energis, the telco it bought last year) but this number is to fall by between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four or five years, the firm …

    Networks 28 Feb 2006, 10:19

  • Microsoft to appeal South Korean anti-trust ruling

    Cites negative affect on consumers and innovation

    Microsoft is to appeal a ruling by the Korea Fair Trade Commission that it infringed anti-trust rules. In December, the competition regulator fined Microsoft around £15m and ordered the firm to unbundle its instant messaging and media player software from Windows. The watchdog has now released a written report, backing up its …

    Software 28 Feb 2006, 10:43

  • Surge in child porn complaints in Ireland

    As net use rises

    Analysts from the ISPAI have reported a marked increase in both the severity and amount of online child pornography content being reported to its hotline. According to authors of the third Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) report on unlawful online content, a shocking 60 per cent of the illegal …

    Music and Media 28 Feb 2006, 10:45

  • Small business 'victory' in Jersey tax dispute

    Step towards closing the loophole, SMBs say

    Owner-managers have claimed a victory over retail industry big guns in an argument about the exploitation of Jersey’s tax loophole. Goods worth less than £18 sold on Jersey are exempt from VAT, a fact that has tempted the likes of Tesco, HMV and Amazon to use the island as a sales base, distributing knockdown CDs, books and …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 10:54

  • Softbank gambles on Betfair

    And PartyGaming loses boss

    Betfair is selling almost a quarter of its shares to Japanese investment firm Softbank. The online gambling exchange will sell 23 per cent of its total shares. Although no value was officially put on the deal, the FT valued the firm at £1.5bn, making each Betfair share worth £13. Betfair's parent company the Sporting Exchange …

    Financial News 28 Feb 2006, 11:10

  • Public service reform unit axed

    What now of the reform agenda?

    A key Cabinet Office unit with responsibility for public sector reform is being quietly broken up. The government has disbanded the Office of Public Service Reform (OPSR) without making any formal announcement, Government Computing News can exclusively reveal. While no official statement has been made so far, a message posted …

    Public Sector 28 Feb 2006, 11:25

  • Application Replatforming

    Reg research highlights channel opportunity

    When larger organisations across the market were frantically implementing ERP and CRM applications in the second half of the 90s, the platform to underpin these systems was typically the high-end UNIX box. But things have moved on since those heady times of high demand and high margin. From the customer perspective, initial …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 11:27

  • 'Unfoolable' portable cocaine detector invented

    Hollywood cowers in fear

    A team at notorious 'party school' UC Santa Barbara in California has developed a portable cocaine sensor. Researchers worked on the technology with local high school students as part of a summer intern programme. The researchers say their DNA-based system bests current methods for detecting the drug, which involve lab work …

    Science 28 Feb 2006, 11:49

  • Locker room voyeur pic youth in court

    Bosnia - Perv's-a-gonna

    An enterprising 14-year-old Bosnian youth is set to be punished in juvenile court for hawking covert shower room pictures of the local women's basketball team for £1.50 a pop, Ananova reports. The peeping tom, who can't be named under Bosnian law, hid in a maintenance room above the showers. He distributed his camera phone …

    Bootnotes 28 Feb 2006, 11:51

  • Sony Ericsson unveils Cyber-shot camera phone

    Wiiiilllmmaaaaa

    Sony Ericsson today unveiled a long-awaited camera phone that leverages another key Sony brand: Cyber-shot. The mobile phone maker also launched an attempt to push that other borrowing from its parent company - the Walkman brand - further down-market with the first ever clamshell version. The K800 and K790 - respectively 3G …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 11:56

  • Amazon back in fashion

    Buys fashion retailer Shopbop

    Amazon.com is buying women's fashion retailer Shopbop.com for an undisclosed amount. Shopbop sells a wide variety of women's fashion - clothes, jewellery, handbags, shoes, and other accessories - which you can search by category, brand or designer. The site will continue to operate as a stand alone entity, rather than being …

    Financial News 28 Feb 2006, 12:00

  • UK.plc struggles to eradicate viral infection

    Malware remains top security nuisance

    Viral infection was the biggest single cause of security incidents over the last two years, according to a DTI-backed study published on Tuesday. The DTI's biennial Information Security Breaches survey found that viral infection caused roughly half of security incidents reported. Two in five viral infestations were said to have …

    Malware 28 Feb 2006, 12:12

  • Sheet metal Messiah for sale on eBay

    Steel simulacrum yours for $2k+

    We've had Jesus in a Romanian wardrobe door and Jesus in a Sussex hawthorn, but ye of little faith prepare to marvel at the ultimate Jesus simulacrum collectible: Jesus in a 22 gauge sheet of steel: Praise be! Of course, we're sure some of you are as sceptical as we were when we read the accompanying blurb: Image Of Jesus …

    Bootnotes 28 Feb 2006, 12:14

  • VIP makes another buy

    Etailer Techfever joins the club

    UK distie VIP Computer Centre has bought Techfever - an online seller of IT products aimed at techies and small businesses for an undisclosed amount. Techfever, which was only started in 2004, was one of the first companies to pilot VIP's XML Services. The press release says the firm "services a modest customer base of SMEs, …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 12:24

  • Sony Ericsson eyes up low-end camera phones

    Launches three pay-as-you-goes

    Sony Ericsson will next quarter round out its camera-phone line-up with a trio of low-end models pitched at the growing market for phones that offer a basic array of functions but don't sport a feature list as long as your arm. The K310, for example, is a candybar handset with a mere sub-megapixel camera, 15MB of memory - …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 12:31

  • Hubble spies Pinwheel galaxy in pin-sharp detail

    Galactic gallery released

    Images released today from the Hubble Space Telescope show the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy in unprecedented detail. Regions where stars are born are clearly visible in the set. The spectacular super-high definition main portrait (pictured right) is actually a composite of 51 individual exposures. The Pinwheel sits face-on 25m …

    Science 28 Feb 2006, 12:35

  • Vodafone mobile-dispensing machine: an apology

    Fantastic piece of kit wins top award!

    You know how it is: it's Friday afternoon and you get a press release from Vodafone banging on about some mobile-dispensing machine in Manchester and you think "hold on a minute, we did something on this in October last year" and sure enough, it's more-or-less the same press release... Well, not quite. Tucked in there somewhere …

    Mobile 28 Feb 2006, 12:43

  • Blu-ray to hit US in May

    Well, eight movies and one player...

    Blu-ray Disc will go on sale in the US on 23 May, according to Sony's home video division, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment and Samsung. The South Korean giant will ship its BD-P1000 hardware on that date, ready to play the eight - count 'em - films the two content companies will release on the same day …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 13:08

  • Old PCs for new uses

    Computer Aid bridges the Digital Divide

    Last year it was time for The Register to move offices. Lying in a small box-room were half a dozen or so redundant computers, unused since our previous move. We decided to get rid of them, but a colleague, John Leyden, had a better idea: he contacted Computer Aid International, the UK's biggest computer recycling charity, which …

    Business 28 Feb 2006, 13:12

  • Vodafone Japan unveils 'unprecedented' 3G handset

    Crikey

    The boffins at Vodafone Japan have announced a brace of whacked-out innovations for a new 3G handset, the Sharp Vodafone 904SH. First up will be the introduction of a face-recognition security function. The feature will utilise the phone's camera and middleware from Oki Electric Industry Ltd, to recognise customers by sensing …

    Mobile 28 Feb 2006, 13:40

  • Fujitsu Siemens preps 'piano lacquer' laptop

    Limited edition, naturally

    Fujitsu Siemens (FS) today unveiled what it claims is "the world's most desirable laptop" - so desirable, in point of fact, that the company is making the €4,000-plus ($4,743/£2,724) product available in "limited quantities only". Among its appealing features: it's 2cm thick and is decked out in a "black piano lacquer" finish …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 13:47

  • Big six dominate expanding mobile phone market

    Get big, get niche or get...

    Mobile phone sales totalled 816.6m units in 2005, a 21 per cent increase from 2004. The big six mobile vendors - Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Siemens - increased their share as a group during the year to control 79.4 per cent of the market at the expense of smaller suppliers, according to market analyst firm …

    Mobile 28 Feb 2006, 13:49

  • Car-molesting radar menaces Norfolk

    Black helicopters hover over East Anglia

    Around 18 months go we carried the chilling report of Eglin Air Force base in Florida and its Motorola garage door jamming system - a radio set-up which locked said portals, much to the chagrin of local residents. Of course, this being the US, the Air Force denied all responsibility and presumably sent out some unmarked black …

    Science 28 Feb 2006, 13:51

  • Kent blag cash fenced on eBay

    Updated '£50m in used notes - quick sale'

    Reader Rob Griggs-Taylor reckons the following eBay auction won't be up for long*, but describes it as "pure class". We agree on both counts: Nicely done, especially the blurb which reads: "Recently aquired [sic] collection of used bank notes. Ideal for collector who doesn't ask too many questions. If you catch my drift." We …

    Financial News 28 Feb 2006, 14:06

  • Asono touts designer MP3 player

    Norway's Play

    Want an MP3 player that doesn't look like an MP3 player? Norway's Asono may have the answer: the Play, a low-cost version of its Mica device. iPod Shuffle-like in its simplicity, the Play has no screen and a single joystick for control. It even clips into its own design-integrated neck lanyard. According to the vendor, the …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 14:11

  • Tul hints at ATI Theater TV chip upgrade

    Theater 650 Pro succeed 550 Pro?

    ATI appears to be preparing an update to its Theater graphics chip family, if an announcement by Taiwanese card maker Tul is anything to go by. Tul recently revealed what it would be showing at next month's CeBIT show. Among them a product based on "ATI's latest Theatre chipset". According to ATI, that's the Theater 550 Pro. …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 15:10

  • Goat sex man in caprine shotgun wedding

    NSFW You've touched the goods, now pay the dowry

    A Sudanese goat-fancier has been forced to walk down the aisle with his four-legged victim after the animal's owner caught him in flagrante delicto, the Juba Post via Ananova reports. The matter is, however, not one of honour but of hard cash. The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, described how he heard a noise outside his house and …

    Bootnotes 28 Feb 2006, 15:17

  • C&W backs Bulldog in restructuring

    No one-way trip to the vet for this mutt

    Bulldog is to remain a part of the Cable & Wireless (C&W) business despite earlier speculation that the telco might pull the plug on the business and focus instead on the provision of wholesale broadband. Speaking today, C&W UK boss John Pluthero gave his full backing to Bulldog and said he was "really happy" with it's …

    Telecoms 28 Feb 2006, 15:18

  • Open source ID management puts users in control

    Higgins, at your service

    An open source project that aims to give people more control over how their personal information is used online has secured the backing of IBM and Novell. The Higgins Project, managed by the Eclipse open source foundation, aims to develop so-called 'user-centric' identity management. Rather than big corportions managing …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 15:36

  • iLoad to link iPod Nano to mobile phone music stores

    DRM difficulties to overcome first

    We're not quite sure why you'd want to download tracks to your iPod Nano from an expensive mobile phone operator-run music store rather than the cheaper, iPod-friendly iTunes Music Store, but US start-up Wingspan Investment Partners says it will let you do so this Summer for a mere $199. Its iLoad-c will fit onto the back of …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 16:10

  • 'Solar activity' interrupts John Pluthero's flow

    Water, water eveywhere...

    Hats off to John Pluthero. The man in charge of "an underperforming business in a crappy industry" stood in front of analysts today for 15 minutes short of three hours outlining Cable & Wireless's (C&W) plans to turn around the business. Throughout his presentation he sipped water from at least two bottles and not once left the …

    Bootnotes 28 Feb 2006, 16:23

  • Trojan targets basic Java phones

    From Russia without love

    Ne'er-do-wells have created a Trojan that can infect mobiles phones running Java applications. RedBrowser-A infects not only smart phones, but any mobile phone capable of running Java (J2ME) applications, according to Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The mobile malware poses as a program called RedBrowser that …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 16:39

  • Kensington dangles iPod Shuffle dock dongle

    Access a world of accessories

    Last week we told you about a neat new adaptor that allows iPod Nano users to connect a host of older iPod accessories to their slimline music player. Now, thanks to Kensington - better known for its ubiquitous notebook lock port - so too can Shuffle owners. Yes, Kensington's appropriately named Shuffle Accessory Adapter …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 16:48

  • Zend cosies up to Oracle

    No, not like that

    Zend Technologies, the subject of Oracle acquisition rumors, has updated its implementation of the PHP development language for the giant's database family. The Zend Core for Oracle has been updated to support Oracle's free database, Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) along with the Oracle Database 10g …

    Developer 28 Feb 2006, 20:22

  • Can Sun get posh with Bechs?

    Analysis Time to end the waiting game

    Like us, you might find it tough to take a company with "sharing" as its motto too seriously. Sun Microsystems, however, put on a very serious scowl at a Media Summit held at its Menlo Park offices last week. "Grrrr" was the message doled out by Sun staffers in between servings of lunch and birthday cake. Summits often …

    Channel Register 28 Feb 2006, 20:57

  • 'Fun' is a warm piece of hardware for Apple

    Is that an iPod Hi-Fi in your pocket...

    A third Intel-powered Mac, the pint-sized Mini, and a portable sound system for iPods are apparently what passes for fun on Apple's campus these days. CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday took the wraps off two Mac Minis based, respectively, on Intel Core Solo and Duo chips, said to be four times faster than their predecessors, plus a …

    Reg Hardware 28 Feb 2006, 22:02

  • Shy HP Superdomes arrive without the full Monte

    Let's talk chipsets

    Intel has put HP in the rather awkward position of launching its new line of high-end Itanium servers without the new chip they were designed to accommodate. HP will begin hawking a fresh set of Superdome Unix boxes in March. At first, this gear will ship with the new HP designed chipset - code-named Arches - and Intel's …

    Servers 28 Feb 2006, 22:16

  • Google CFO crushes investors' dreams of limitless growth

    Lookin' for cash in all the new places

    Shares of Google took a dive Tuesday, as the company's CFO told investors what they wanted to hear least. The growth - she is a-slowin'. In a rare confrontation with the public, Google's CFO George Reyes dropped a doozie. "Most of what is left is just organic growth," he said on a Merrill Lynch webcast, according to Reuters. " …

    Financial News 28 Feb 2006, 23:07