The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

31st March 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • IBM puts cash bounty on Exchange server converts

    Wanted: Migrated and alive

    The decade-old email battle between IBM and Microsoft has taken a fresh twist, with IBM offering partners a cash bounty to move users off Exchange Server. IBM is offering a limited-time deal of up to $20,000, or $20 per seat, to any of its partners who convince users to dump Microsoft's Exchange, which runs on Windows, for …

    The Channel 31 Mar 2006, 01:06

  • Cops launch handheld intelligence

    Local model of things to come

    Police on the streets of West Yorkshire went live yesterday with handheld computers that link them to a host of criminal and intelligence databases. After a pilot involving about 30 officers earned the all-clear, the BlackBerry handheld computers were issued to 2,500 officers. Paul Friday, director of information systems at …

    Mobile 31 Mar 2006, 07:02

  • Russian laser chap lights up US

    TechScape Valentin Gapontsev, come on down

    Valentin Gapontsev and his company IPG Photonics is a rising star in the laser industry. Approaching $100m in 2005 revenues and sporting investors such as Merrill Lynch, Apax Partners, TA Associates, and Robertson Stephens and Marconi (which invested $95m in 2000), IPG Photonics is one hot company. The future is very bright …

    Business 31 Mar 2006, 08:02

  • ILOG launches JRules 6

    New industrial revolution

    According to Pierre Haren, CEO of ILOG, we are at the start of a new “Industrial Revolution” - based on rules processing, an ILOG speciality, of course, together with Business Process Modelling. The Business Rule Management System (BRMS) an ILOG specialisation, along with optimisation and visualisation, and the recently- …

    Developer 31 Mar 2006, 08:04

  • NEC brings dual-core Xeon to Fault Tolerant crowd

    Up for anything

    NEC has freshened up one of its fault-tolerant servers with some new chips from Intel and an advanced management package for installing software on-the-fly. The NEC Express5800/320Ma Fault Tolerant server comes in three configurations. Customers can purchase the box with single-core 3.2GHz, 3.6GHz Xeon chips or 2.8GHz dual-core …

    Servers 31 Mar 2006, 08:42

  • Dr Who bandwagon starts to roll

    Geek TV New series starts 15 April

    Update your smartphones, Doctor Who fans: the timelord finally has a time slot. The new Tennant-hued Who starts ay 7pm on Easter Saturday (15 April), together with a new batch of Doctor Who Confidential documentaries on BBC Three. There are games to be played too. Meanwhile, slake your thirst with the first trailer, "early …

    Bootnotes 31 Mar 2006, 08:47

  • Apple, Beatles case hinges on out-moded agreement

    Apple vs Apple Firms' 1991 deal says they're both right

    Apple Comp. yesterday rejected arguments made by Apple Corp. lawyers that its iTunes Music Service goes beyond the terms of the two companies' 1991 trademark usage agreement, as the their legal confrontation in the English High Court moved into its second day. Quite the reverse, Apple Comp. advocate Anthony Grabiner QC said. …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 09:16

  • ATI reports record quarter

    But income down year on year

    ATI last night reported its highest quarterly sales yet. During the three months to 28 February 2006 - ATI's second quarter of fiscal 2006 - the graphics chip company realised revenues of $672m, up 13.7 per cent on the previous quarter and 10.5 per cent on Q2 FY2005's total. It wasn't all good news, though. While the quarter' …

    The Channel 31 Mar 2006, 09:33

  • Crackdown on corporate P2P users in Britain

    Software pirates beware: FAST will get you

    The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is about to take action against a number of companies in the UK that have been caught making illegal copies of software available for download from their networks – which may come as a complete surprise to the companies. The federation isn't naming the companies yet. Director general …

    Media 31 Mar 2006, 09:44

  • Falcon to fly for the Army

    £200m communications upgrade

    The Army is to get a new digital battlefield communications network. Named Falcon, it will be provided under a contract worth over £200m between the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte). Lord Drayson, the minister for defence procurement, announced the deal, saying Falcon …

    Policy 31 Mar 2006, 09:55

  • Nvidia unveils mobile Quadro FX trio

    Yes, the ones Dell's already announced...

    Nvidia has formally rolled out three new workstation GPUs - the Quadro FX 350M, 1500M and 2500M - that Dell has announced will be used in its latest Precision high-end laptops. The three parts are essentially pitched on their power consumption: 15W, 45W and 100W - the latter higher then Nvidia's entry-level and mid-range …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 10:02

  • Giving birth to a new breed of SLA

    Marrying IT and business

    There has been much discussion over the last few years in IT concerning service management and service level management. Much of the dialogue has centred on creating SLAs (Service Level Agreements). In organisations large and small, a multitude of SLAs have been introduced between IT and its customers. It is fair to say that …

    Management 31 Mar 2006, 10:13

  • Toshiba HD DVD player ships in Japan

    Top of the range HD-XA1 goes on sale for around $935

    Toshiba may be delaying the debut of its HD DVD player in the US, but it went ahead today with its Japanese launch. The company said it was bundling the machine (for a limited time) - the first commercially available HD DVD player - with a pair of HD DVD discs. The HD-XA1 is the top-end model of the two Toshiba unveiled at …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 10:32

  • Sat TV restored to Kiwiland, Oz

    What's that Skippy? Sky blames yesterday's solar eclipse for the outage?

    The satellite outage that floored Sky TV services "down under" yesterday appears to have been resolved, although what caused thousands of people to be left twiddling their thumbs last night remains unclear. Sky spokesman Tony O'Brien told Radio New Zealand that the glitch was caused by yesterday's solar eclipse, which blocked …

    Broadband 31 Mar 2006, 10:33

  • Bush denies human-induced climate change

    Genius from the Crawford school of climatology

    George W Bush has indicated he doesn't believe human activity is causing climate change. The President made his latest dismissal of the scientific consenus to an Australian journalist at a Whitehouse press briefing. Question: There's a virtual consensus that the planet is warming...and I suppose I want to know, what is your …

    Science 31 Mar 2006, 10:35

  • Kingston Comms takeover talks end

    Shares slide

    Shares in Kingston Communications were on the slide this morning after it revealed that talks that could have led to the takeover of the Hull-based telco have collapsed. In a trading update today, the firm announced that the discussions "relating to an unsolicited potential offer for the company (which kicked off last autumn) …

    Broadband 31 Mar 2006, 10:45

  • Hackers use BBC story to bait IE exploit

    Auntie abused

    Hackers are using excerpts from BBC news stories as a lure to trick surfers into visiting a website that exploits a new, unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The spam emails contain excerpts from actual BBC news stories and offer a link to "Read More". Surfers who follow this link are taken to a spoof copy of the BBC …

    Security 31 Mar 2006, 10:46

  • Microsoft makes nice before the law

    It's all sweetness and light in Brussels

    Microsoft and the European Commission's competition police are getting on like a house of fire, apparently. They've been squabbling over some technical documentation that is supposed to tell people who write server software how to make it communicate with Microsoft's omnipresent operating system (OOS). The idea is that …

    Operating Systems 31 Mar 2006, 11:22

  • BOFH: Dumping old crap

    Episode 12 Your room, your responsibility!

    "Are we actually USING this office?" the Boss asks one morning, tapping on the door to the engineers room. "It's the engineers room!" I reply. "We don't have an engineer..." "True," the PFY says. "But why the interest?" "We're looking for somewhere to house the new Mopier thing. And the A1 plan printer." "Well we do use …

    BOFH 31 Mar 2006, 11:25

  • Rivals start to spin Blu-ray, HD DVD alternatives

    All the 'Versatile' disc technologies explained

    Suddenly, all sorts of small companies are crawling out into the sunlight to tout alternative optical media technologies that will support HD content without the need to move from the current red-laser technology to tomorrow's blue-wavelength lasers. In one corner is a consortium of well-known names such as Sprout CD (Ukraine …

    Storage 31 Mar 2006, 11:28

  • Man flogs wife's box on eBay

    NSFW Why? Too small...

    You know how it is: you've got a 30-inch cock but your wife's box is only six inches. The only intelligent solution is to offer the box for sale on eBay, as this Wisconsin vendor attempted to do: Naturally, eBay pulled the auction this morning, according to our correspondent Martin B. We suspect the following may have had …

    Bootnotes 31 Mar 2006, 11:34

  • All hail Grannemanus - Emperor of Security!

    Letters Benign dictator gets the popular vote

    Scott Granneman of SecurityFocus this week elected himself Emperor of Security, and promptly issued some edicts by which his cowering citizens might lead more secure lives. And the result? All hail Grannemanus! Well, more or less: Your view of the history of the Roman Empire is a bit skewed, IMO. You refer to the empire being …

    Letters 31 Mar 2006, 11:43

  • Intel unveils 'juggernaut' computer for rural India

    Heat and dust proof?

    Intel this week unveiled its entry into the low-cost developing-world computer stakes, and it's a whopper. Designed for India, the tower-on-its-side system is dubbed 'Jaagruti - which means 'awakening' in the local lingo - though 'juggernaut' might be a better choice given its size. Intel is pitching the machine as a system …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 12:25

  • LG sues Samsung for slander

    Alleges advertising dirty tricks

    LG is suing rival South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung for slander over a series of adverts which, it alleged, make false and defamatory claims about one of its top-of-the-range digital TV products. LG maintains Samsung's ads were designed to disrupt sales of a plasma TV with a built-in hard disk drive and PVR …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 12:47

  • Naomi Campbell on mobile phone assault rap

    For the love of God, what model?

    Battling UK supermodel Naomi Campell is in trouble again for allegedly assaulting a member of her staff with an electronic device. Back in 2005, press reports suggested she'd battered one of her personal assistants with a BlackBerry during a jaunt to Rio de Janeiro - something the multi-talented Ms Campbell strongly denied. …

    Bootnotes 31 Mar 2006, 13:21

  • PowerColor X1900 XT 512MB

    Review PowerColour brings a price-competitive ATI Radeon X1900 XT to the market

    It's generally a waste of a lot of money to go for a top-of-the-range card from any manufacturer. Unless you really, really need that extra little bit of performance, it makes more financial sense to go for the next card down. This is especially the case with ATI's X1900 XT and X1900 XTX - the XTX's performance advantage over …

    Hardware 31 Mar 2006, 13:21

  • Tiscali UK on verge of 1m broadband punters

    Who cares, it's Friday...

    Tiscali UK is on the verge of signing up one million broadband punters. Publishing draft consolidated results for the whole Tiscali group, it emerged that the UK operation is a mainstay for the European ISP. For the year to the end of December the number of Tiscali UK broadband lines grew 141 per cent (547,000) to 934,000 at a …

    Broadband 31 Mar 2006, 13:28

  • Doctor Who stars sign for Season Three

    David Tennant and Billie Piper to return

    The second season of the new, revamped Doctor Who isn't even underway - they've not even completed filming - but tenth Doctor David Tennant and umpteenth companion Billie Piper have both been hired for series three. The Doctor Who production team got the go-ahead to produce a second and third season way back before the first …

    Bootnotes 31 Mar 2006, 13:39

  • 'Tag all the foreigners' - possible ID card sales pitch emerges

    Comment Why settle for oppressed illegal workers when you can have oppressed legal ones instead?

    The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggestion that the UK's illegal immigrant population should be offered amnesty (full report here) does not on the surface look entirely helpful to the Government. Could it be that one of the top Blairite think tanks has joined those sinking their fangs into Mr Tony? Perhaps - but …

    Media 31 Mar 2006, 13:46

  • Phoenix profits better than expected

    What, no ashes pun?

    Phoenix IT Group said it had enjoyed “another successful year” in a trading statement issued yesterday. The services firm said it expects profits to slightly exceed expectations. It said it had continued to develop its core Phoenix business while its acquisition, NDR, had continued to perform strongly. It also pointed to …

    The Channel 31 Mar 2006, 13:55

  • Why phishing reels punters in

    User stupidity, natch

    To tech savvy punters most phishing sites are obviously bogus. But a recent study by academics at Harvard and Berkeley reveal that 23 per cent of users only look at the content of sites when deciding whether they are legitimate or not. The presence or absence of SSL certificates and the url of sites doesn't enter into the …

    Security 31 Mar 2006, 14:04

  • Demon 'forgets' to bill customer for four years

    Admits cock-up, then sends in debt collectors

    Demon Internet has launched an urgent investigation into how it failed to charge one of its customers a single penny for their broadband service for four years. Even though Colin Walls from Cheshire gave all the necessary credit card details to Demon, the ISP failed to activate the billing for his account. Four years on, the …

    Broadband 31 Mar 2006, 14:13

  • Beginning ASP.NET 1.1 Ecommerce

    Cash'n'Carrion And many more

    This book follows the ecommerce site creation process through from design to deployment, demonstrating proven approaches to building. The power of this book is this complete approach from the beginning right to the end of the project. The ecommerce site in the book is built in phases, showing website developers how to make use …

    Site News 31 Mar 2006, 14:37

  • Infineon DRAM biz to spin off as Qimonda

    IPO at some point, presumably

    Infineon's memory division will become a separate entity - named Qimonda - on 1 May, the company said today. Based in Munich, Qimonda will remain an Infineon subsidiary until it's IPO'd - though the parent company gave no indication when that may happen. Infineon CEO Wolfgang Ziebert described the move as a "strategic …

    The Channel 31 Mar 2006, 14:41

  • Click here for your custom-built Reg

    April Fool Pick the content you want - the way you want it

    You, the readers, demanded it and now you've got it: as of today, you can customise The Register to suit your needs - from blocking ads, to selecting the kind of stories you really want to read. The "Pix'n'Mix Reg" is the result of 18 months' reader surveying and back-room coding during which we identified the things which …

    Site News 31 Mar 2006, 15:02

  • Unions to test Siemens' mettle

    Civil service decamps to India

    Siemens has become the new face on the dart board of the union movement after trying to outsource more jobs to India. Nine unions joined forces this week to launch their "Public Services Not Private Profit" campaign, which asserts that when private companies run public services they do it for the benefit of their shareholders, …

    Policy 31 Mar 2006, 15:38

  • The mystery of the vanishing neutrinos

    Massive...but tiny

    Physicists have confirmed enigmatic sub-atomic neutrino particles do indeed have mass. Seemingly paradoxially, the MINOS experiment at the huge underground Fermilab accelerator in Illinois corroborated the fact by showing that they disappear. The multinational team sent a high-intensity beam of neutrinos from Fermilab through …

    Science 31 Mar 2006, 15:40

  • AOL UK boss get Europe promotion

    Onwards and upwards

    UK AOL chairman and chief executive Karen Thomson is to be promoted to the role of president of AOL Europe. She replaces Philip Rowley who has accepted the role of AOL Europe chairman. The appointees are due to take their new seats from the end of May. At this stage it's not known who will replace Thomson as boss of AOL UK. …

    Financial News 31 Mar 2006, 15:40

  • Apple 'iPhone' coming tomorrow/delayed to 2007*

    Comment *Take your pick

    Apple will tomorrow announce it is to enter the crowded mobile phone market. Or maybe it won't - it depends on who you talk to. Some say it's planning such a move, others that it's already well on its way to an announcement. Alternative voices claim it has had to delay its scheme for the time being. The logic behind the move …

    Phones 31 Mar 2006, 15:54