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9th March 2006 Archive

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  • Wall Street to McNealy: Book the cruise tickets

    Time to shove off

    Sun Microsystems is no stranger to free advice from Wall Street. After all, who could forget former Merrill Lynch luminary Steve Milunovich's urging Sun to "spin out" Java. So, chief executive Scott McNealy must be chortling at Caris & Company research analyst Mark Stahlman who is quoted in Forbes predicting McNealy will soon " …

    IT Director 9 Mar 2006, 01:27

  • Micron dishes out $680m bid for Lexar

    Lends a helping NAND

    Memory chip maker Micron has laid out close to $680m in stock to buy Lexar Media. The acquisition would give Micron a leg up in the NAND flash market and potentially improve Lexar's competitive position against SanDisk. Lexar investors appeared most receptive to the idea, sending shares up 22 per cent - just past the premium …

    Financial News 9 Mar 2006, 02:33

  • SCO spends $4m to make $30k in Q1

    Bad math bigger problem than IBM

    Say what you will about the SCO Group. The company is a model of consistency. During its first quarter, SCO turned in lower Unix revenue, fading SCOsource revenues and a statement reminding everyone that it's waiting for the IBM lawsuit to pay out. This ritual of disappointment occurs every three months with little variation on …

    Financial News 9 Mar 2006, 03:00

  • Google offers MS-style Seattlement for click fraud suit

    $90m in credits, no more questions

    Google will pay $90 million to settle a class action click fraud lawsuit. Any web site operator who was also a Google ad network partner who can show improper charges over the past four years will be eligible for damages. Google announced the news on a part of its site devoted to trivia, such as rating soft drinks. According to …

    Music and Media 9 Mar 2006, 08:01

  • Cheeky BT tries to poach 'displaced' C&W punters

    Helpline for 'anxious' SMEs

    Cheeky BT has set up a free helpline to poach customers given the elbow by Cable & Wireless (C&W). Last week, C&W announced a major restructuring of its business that will see up to 3,000 jobs axed as the number of customers is cut from around 30,000 to just 3,000. The alternative telco is turning its back on SMEs and instead …

    Small Biz 9 Mar 2006, 09:02

  • Number of premium rate complaints dip

    Still work to do to combat scammers

    There's been a "significant fall" in the number of people complaining about being ripped off by dodgy premium rate services, according to the latest figures from industry-funded regulator ICSTIS. ICSTIS received almost 27,000 complaints about premium rate services in 2005 - down 66 per cent compared to 2004. Much of this has …

    Networks 9 Mar 2006, 09:12

  • PHP project follows script

    Easier, simpler

    The first fruits have emerged in an industry-backed project designed to promote greater simplicity and consistency for developers scripting in PHP. The Zend Collaboration Project, announced last October with support from 14 major IT companies, has delivered the first two implementations of a framework that helps standardise …

    Developer 9 Mar 2006, 09:28

  • Work-at-home mum in net filth conviction

    From MommyJobs to JoeJobs

    A US housewife has confessed to spamvertising internet porn sites in her spare time. Jennifer Clason, 33, of Raymond, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to two offences under the US CAN-SPAM Act, and one count of criminal conspiracy, at a federal court hearing in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday. Clason, who's agreed to pay back the money …

    Spam 9 Mar 2006, 09:33

  • Foxconn calls for new benchmarks

    Industry needs to agree on a standard bench first

    Taiwanese PC parts giant Foxconn is haranguing the rest of the PC industry into backing a new benchmarking system for components. Foxconn said it was developing a set of performance measures that went beyond price to clock speed ratios. It expects to unveil these sometime in the third quarter, and said it would be relevant to …

    Channel Register 9 Mar 2006, 09:47

  • Benq intros GPS-enabled Wi-Fi smart phone

    CeBIT P50 updated for Siemens era

    BenQ Mobile has launched the follow-up to its long-touted yet only recently shipped P50 QWERTY keypad-equipped smart phone. Due to ship in July, the P51 adds GPS satellite navigation to the package and bumps the built-in WLAN support to 802.11g. The P51's spec largely matches that of the P50 with minor tweaks - it now has the …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 10:30

  • Shared services become hard to swallow

    Government force-feeding councils anyway

    Council IT bosses have raised concerns at being forced by government into consolidating services with neighbouring authorities, Computer Weekly reports. They say that while consolidation may seem a good idea from the dizzy heights of the Cabinet Office, it may not make sense from a local perspective. Government is attempting …

    Public Sector 9 Mar 2006, 10:36

  • Channel Warriors: it's survey time again

    Your chance to win a Reg goodie bag

    If you work in the channel and would like the chance to win a Reg goodie bag, we have a survey that wants completing and we're offering one lucky chap or chapess the chance to secure said kit. It's the usual drill: give us around 5-10 minutes of your valuable time to answers questions of pressing IT import, press the "Send …

    Channel Register 9 Mar 2006, 10:40

  • The ambassador's IT angst

    'Unfortunately, Prism has gone wrong'

    The Foreign Office's efforts to replace 30 different IT systems with a new information management service, known as Prism, is "substantially behind time" and causing "great dissastisfaction" in embassies and consulates around the world, according to a parliamentary report issued on 8 March 2006. MPs on Parliament's Foreign …

    Public Sector 9 Mar 2006, 11:07

  • Voda's top marketing man clears desk

    Toodle-oo

    Vodafone top marketing man Peter Bamford will be clearing his desk over the next couple of weeks following yesterday's announcement that he is to leave the mobile giant. The chief marketing officer and executive director will be out on 1 April, despite having made a "major contribution to [the] business over many years". Voda …

    Mobile 9 Mar 2006, 11:13

  • Industry goes mad for IPTV

    London forum feeding frenzy

    There was a queue at IPTV Forum in London last week, all the way back past the lifts and round into the bar area. That was the first statement about what should have been yet another unsurprising show about IPTV, that there is real main stream interest out there now and everyone wants to get in on the action. As the dazed …

    Networks 9 Mar 2006, 11:41

  • Global warming may kill ground-based astronomy

    Forecast for 2050: cloudy

    A Cambridge astronomer has claimed that global warming may do for ground-based astronomy by 2050 - due to a significant increase in cloud cover provoked by expanding aircraft condesation trails, New Scientist reports. Cambridge Uni star gazer Gerry Gilmore chaired a study to examine the effect of global warming on "contrails" …

    Science 9 Mar 2006, 11:49

  • Voda outlines timetable for HSDPA trial

    Testing, testing...

    Vodafone UK is to trial its souped-up 3G service next month ahead of a commercial launch of the service later this year. The HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) service has already been tested in Newbury, but now the mobile giant plans to enlist the help of 100 firms in central London to put the service through its paces …

    Mobile 9 Mar 2006, 12:06

  • ISPs must take lead in fighting spam

    ITU calls for action

    ISPs need to take the lead in the fight to curtail the nuisance caused by spam, according to a report by a UN agency this week. The influential International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says legal efforts to identify and prosecute spammers are all well and good, but can only hope to have a limited impact because they tie up …

    Spam 9 Mar 2006, 12:13

  • Galaxy-chasing nebula caught on camera

    Dramatic image of 'cometary globule'

    The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) has posted the 1000th image on its splendid gallery - a magnificent snap of the "cometary globule CG4" which appears to be about to consume spiral galaxy ESO 257-19: The image was captured by Travis Rector and Tim Abbott using a "64-megapixel Mosaic imaging camera on the …

    Science 9 Mar 2006, 12:14

  • PC World Business wins Catalist status

    Not much surprise here

    PC World Business (PCWB) is to be an approved reseller for the UK government's Catalist IT catalogue, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) announced today. It would have been a disaster if the outcome had been any different: PCWB already claims 56,000 public sector accounts and is an approved reseller to the state through …

    Public Sector 9 Mar 2006, 12:17

  • Panasonic points to Autumn Euro Blu-ray debut

    CeBIT Makes blank BD media pitch too

    Panasonic will ship its first Blu-ray Disc player in Europe in the Autumn, the consumer electronics giant said today, providing a timeframe for the next-generation optical disc format's roll-out in the Old World. It also announced single- and dual-layer recordable and rewriteable blank BD media, all designed to work with 2x …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 12:21

  • Ancient cosmic signal decoded

    It's from near the dawn of time, man

    Scientists are still pondering the effects of a rather special gamnma ray burst they detected using NASA's Swift satellite in September, as reported at the time by The Reg. While they remain something of a mystery, fluctuating levels in gamma rays have been linked to genetic mutations in the earth's species and levels of …

    Science 9 Mar 2006, 12:35

  • Panasonic preps 4GB SD HC card

    CeBIT Based on SD 2.0 spec

    Panasonic will this Summer ship a 4GB SD card which will meet the SD High Capacity (SDHC) specification - also known as the SD 2.0 standard - which paves the way for cards capable of holding up to 32GB of information. You can already get 4GB SD cards based on the 1.1 spec, of course, but for the new version it's a start. SD 2 …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 12:43

  • Vodafone ends cross-border roaming charges

    Ireland now one island

    Vodafone has announced the end of roaming charges for its Republic of Ireland customers, while travelling to Northern Ireland and Britain, following O2's lead. The new arrangement kicks off in mid-March and follows an announcement by rival O2 in early February, when it unveiled its all-island tariff and said that its customers …

    Mobile 9 Mar 2006, 13:09

  • Fujitsu Siemens dangles wireless lappy for €1

    CeBIT Strings attached, naturally

    T-Mobile has teamed with Fujitsu Siemens to sell a UMTS/HSDPA notebook for €1 for customers prepared to tie themselves into a two-year data plan. The service is initially restricted to Germany, though the companies are pondering a wider rollout, and Fujitsu is talking to other potential partners, including Vodafone in the UK …

    Mobile 9 Mar 2006, 13:15

  • Fujitsu Siemens sets massive growth target

    CeBIT They must be really high

    Fujitsu Siemens stuck its neck out today when it set itself the target of hitting €10bn turnover by 2008. CEO Bernd Bischof set the ambitious goal as he unveiled preliminary results for the fiscal year ending March 2006. The company expects turnover to come in at €6.7bn, with pre tax profit of €120m. The fastest growth rates …

    Financial News 9 Mar 2006, 13:16

  • Samsung readies 10mp, satellite TV phone

    CeBIT SCh-B600 does it all

    Samsung today unveiled its first ten megapixel camera phone, pledging to ship the handset in Q2 - in plenty of time to pick up World Cup broadcasts on the device's built-in digital satellite TV tuner. The SCH-B600's hi-res camera is augmented with 3x optical zoom and a flash - a spec akin to many compact digital cameras. …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 13:34

  • Logitech Cordless Desktop S530 for Mac

    First UK Review Something for your Mini, sir?

    It's been some years since I used a desktop Mac so as a PowerBook user, I've grown accustomed to working on a flat keyboard without the benefits of a numeric pad and a full array of function keys. Having used Logitech's new wireless S530 keyboard and mouse combo, however, which not only granted me the freedom to sit back from …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 14:02

  • Mum's a junkie whore and dad got devoured

    419 email classic

    What do Nigeria and Manchester have in common - apart from war-ravaged areas where armed gangs battle for control of the local resources*? Well, according to the latest email to pop into the Vulture Central advance fee fraud inbox, it's a very tenuous command of the English language: I am Tony Fred Williams I am 14 years old I …

    Bootnotes 9 Mar 2006, 14:12

  • Entrepreneurs hail launch of IP centre

    Opportunities abound for start-ups

    The British Library’s new intellectual property and business centre was officially opened to the public last night at an event attended by over 500 guests. Among those present were top entrepreneurs Doug Richard of Dragons’ Den fame, bookstore mogul Tim Waterstone and Tony Lit of Sunrise Radio. The entrepreneurs took part in a …

    Small Biz 9 Mar 2006, 14:33

  • Professional .Net 2.0 Generics

    Cash'n'Carrion And many more books with a 34% discount!

    The power and elegance of generic types have long been acknowledged. Generics allow developers to parameterise data types much like you would parameterise a method. This brings a new dimension of reusability to your types without compromising expressiveness, type-safety, or efficiency. Now .NET generics makes this power …

    Developer 9 Mar 2006, 14:54

  • UK supermarket trials fingerprint payment tech

    Just put your dabs here, love

    A UK supermarket chain is offering shoppers the option of authorising payment for their groceries using their fingerprints. Three Co-op stores in the Oxford area are trialling "Pay by Touch" in what's said to be the first European use of the technology. The scheme, which is free to use, means supermarket customers can avoid …

    ID 9 Mar 2006, 15:09

  • Not CeBIT

    Tech Digest Sod the techie stuff - the iPod shower system is fun!

    Not fussed about the CeBIT techfest? Well, here are some fluffy and friendly gadgets - courtesy of Shiny - that you may well not see in Hannover: Fido Robot Luggage We've all experienced the joys of hauling luggage across busy streets/tube stations/airports. It's enough to put you off the whole holidaying experience (if it …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 15:27

  • BT spooks SMEs over mis-selling fears

    Let's be careful out there

    Six in ten small businesses (SMEs) have been the victim of telecoms mis-selling, according to BT, while four in ten small firms say they are badgered by dodgy operators every other day. The UK's dominant fixed line telco says there's been a 13 per cent jump in attempted mis-selling over the last seven months making telecoms " …

    Small Biz 9 Mar 2006, 15:33

  • Boffins produce plasma at two billion kelvins

    Very hot stuff from the Z machine

    Scientists at the Sandia National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory have produced plasma at a sizzling two billion kelvins - hotter than a star's interior - although they're not quite sure how they did it. The "unexpectedly hot output", as the Sandia blurb puts it, is the spawn of the mighty Z machine (seen firing …

    Science 9 Mar 2006, 15:37

  • Plug pulled on Mac hacking challenge

    OS X security debate rages on

    A University sysadmin in the US who set up a Mac hacking challenge reckons the project established the security credentials of the operating system despite having to pull the plug on the contest before its scheduled end. Dave Schroeder, a senior systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, set up his challenge in an …

    Enterprise Security 9 Mar 2006, 16:40

  • NASA finds a gusher on Saturn moon

    Water and life on tap

    A small, frigid moon orbiting Saturn may have vast stores of liquid water that could sustain life, NASA revealed today. The Cassini spacecraft has sent back images that show "Yellowstone-like geysers" on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Researchers have seen "icy jets and towering plumes" of particles being ejected from the moon's …

    Science 9 Mar 2006, 18:40

  • Panasonic adds Skype to DECT cordless phone

    CeBIT Landline or VoIP - it's your choice

    Panasonic today brought a new twist to the old-fashioned cordless phone market by announcing it will ship a set of Skype-compatible handsets in the second half of the year. The phones will connect through regular DECT base-stations into the public phone service and via a broadband internet link to Skype's P2P network. The KX- …

    Reg Hardware 9 Mar 2006, 21:37

  • Apple TV: wait and sue

    Analysis Why bother with work?

    For worse, the online media market continues to fracture into the haves and the have nots - those that have partnered with Apple and those that have not. Media companies baffling the public with their ineptitude is nothing new. Apple had to drag the labels kicking and screaming to iTunes. Now, Apple has had to show the mogul …

    Music and Media 9 Mar 2006, 21:41