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11th April 2006 Archive

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  • BT drags heels over LLU

    'Unacceptable', says telecoms adjudicator

    What was it BT Wholesale chief exec Paul Reynolds said in May last year? "We are fully committed to seeing LLU a success. We are committed to continuing our work with the industry to improve the operational processes surrounding LLU." Ten months on from this heart-warming committment from BT, the UK's dominant fixed line telco …

    Telecoms 11 Apr 2006, 00:02

  • Former Sun exec eviscerates McNealy

    Shoemaker makes hay

    A former Sun Microsystems executive has dug into Sun Microsystems's leadership with an unrelenting critique of both CEO Scott McNealy and President Jonathan Schwartz. Retired server chief John Shoemaker let loose on Sun management in a piece written for Indiana University's business school magazine Business Horizons. The …

    Business 11 Apr 2006, 01:26

  • Fujitsu comes clean on pay

    Knowledge is power

    Fujitsu revealed its pay scales to some of its UK staff on Friday allowing them to check for the first time if they are being paid the going rate - but employees not signed up to union Amicus will have to keep guessing. Union staff can now see whether they are earning as much as anyone in a similar post. As managers in the IT …

    IT Director 11 Apr 2006, 08:41

  • Unilever offloads IT staff to Accenture

    There may be trouble ahead...

    Accenture has won a seven year, multi-million pound deal to run the IT of washing powder giant Unilever, as part of the company's controversial "One Unilever" cost-cutting programme. Accenture will provide application development, implementation, and support across Europe. Accenture will run Unilever's IT from six countries: …

    IT Director 11 Apr 2006, 08:55

  • End of HCI sends first dealer to the wall

    Brown's budget claims first victim

    Gordon Brown's Budget decision to end the Home Computing Initiative has claimed its first victim - RedPC is going into liquidation. RedPC - its strapline was "Tax free home computing" - described the Chancellor's decision as "a devasting blow". The London-based company was formed in 2002 and its directors wrote the guidelines …

    Public Sector 11 Apr 2006, 09:28

  • Intel to boost chipset production, bank claims

    Bad news for ATI and co?

    Intel is set to stop shipping motherboards based on third-party chipsets, or at the very least significantly reduce its dependency on other companies' products, investment bank Friedman Billings, Ramsey Group (FBRG) has claimed. According to EETimes, the institution has downgraded ATI as a result. The graphics chips maker has …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 09:28

  • Mars Orbiter sends colour snap of Red Planet

    Tasty HiRISE test image

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera has captured its first colour image* of the Red Planet, snapped as part of a series of test images to calibrate the camera: The image - a composite of green, red, and near-infrared - shows a "story of geologic change in the eastern …

    Space 11 Apr 2006, 09:30

  • Sage first half trading is on course

    In line with expectations

    Sage updated the Stock Exchange on its first half trading this morning, saying it was on track to fulfil expectations. For the six months ended 31 March 2006, Sage expects to bring in revenues of £444m and profits of £115m. It expects to make a pre-tax profit of £111m. This is the first period Sage will report under …

    Financial News 11 Apr 2006, 09:34

  • Carphone unveils 'free' broadband

    'Broadband a right, not a privilege'

    The Carphone Warehouse has fleshed out details of a new bundled broadband and phone service that is half the price of its nearest rival. The offer, which is being plugged as "free broadband forever" massively undercuts similar services from leading players such as AOL, BT, and cableco NTL:Telewest. To take up the offer punters …

    Telecoms 11 Apr 2006, 09:41

  • BenQ sells optical drive biz to Liteon IT

    Deal creates world's second largest CD, DVD drive maker

    BenQ is to sell its optical drive operation to fellow Taiwanese manufacturer LiteOn IT. This gets it closer to shedding the last of its component businesses and focus entirely on end-user products, including phones, notebooks and consumer electronics equipment. The deal sees BenQ take a 13 per cent stake in LiteOn after a new …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 09:54

  • Do dedicated security vendors have a future?

    Quocirca's changing channels Security crowns

    McAfee proudly proclaims itself "the largest dedicated [IT] security company in the world". Based on revenues this is a fair claim - it is some way ahead of closest rivals Check Point and Trend Micro for that crown. But is a dedicated security company really the best thing to be in 2006 and beyond? Until late 2004 the " …

    Channel Register 11 Apr 2006, 10:02

  • QinetiQ to steer UK cybercrime policy group

    In brief Brains trust

    Qinetiq, the former Ministry of Defence research lab, has been given chairmanship of a UK group designed to develop government security policy. The committee, which comprises government officials, academics, and other experts, will help inform UK government policy on issues such as the introduction of biometric-based identity …

    Security 11 Apr 2006, 10:07

  • NASA to crash probe into Moon

    Hunt for water ice hots up

    NASA has announced its intention to crash a probe into the surface of the Moon to analyse the resulting plume of material for possible water ice. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is part of the agency's raft of planned robotic missions slated for 2008 to 2016, dedicated to studying the lunar surface as a …

    Space 11 Apr 2006, 10:11

  • Fujitsu unveils Blu-ray 37in HD PC-TV

    Four tuners for endless viewing and recording pleasure

    Fujitsu will this month ship a monster high-definition PC-TV hybrid that incorporates not only four TV tuners - two for digital and two for analogue broadcasts - but also twin 300GB hard drives and a dual-layer enabled Blu-ray Disc recorder. The FMV Deskpower TX series builds a full PC into a 37in, 1,920 x 1,080 LCD TV. The …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 10:35

  • Mac vs Windows: the Boot Camp revolution

    Letters Cage rattled, response elicited

    We've got lots of lovely mail for you today - although most of it is about IT industry vet Cormac O'Reilly's corporate view of Apple's Boot Camp announcement. For the record, we're staying out of this one. Our opinion on the matter of Win v Mac must, for reasons of national security, remain a closely-guarded secret: Great, so …

    Letters 11 Apr 2006, 10:45

  • Tearful Gene Pitney fans hit eBay in force

    'Ghoulish' sale of memorabilia

    Fans of the late Gene Pitney - who died last week of heart disease shortly after a gig in Cardiff - have been branded "money-grabbing" and "ghoulish" for expressing their dismay at the singer's demise in the traditional way - by offering any artifact they can get their hands on on eBay. That's the verdict of UK tabloid the Sun …

    Entertainment 11 Apr 2006, 10:48

  • Argentina extradites Spanish hacker

    Cyber-thief suspect faces possible 40 years in jail

    A hacker who's suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of euros from online bank accounts has been extradited from Argentina to Spain. José Manuel García Rodríguez, 24, dubbed (rather uncharitably) by the Argentinians as "the fat Spaniard", faces up to 40 years imprisonment if convicted of various cybercrime offences. …

    Enterprise Security 11 Apr 2006, 10:59

  • Carphone bosses get a soaking

    Key conference evacuated

    A faulty sprinkler led to a group of Carphone Warehouse managers getting a soaking yesterday as the firm announced its major new broadband strategy to hundreds of senior staff. The firm was holding its twice yearly managers' conference in a London hotel yesterday when El Reg received the following text from someone attending …

    Mobile 11 Apr 2006, 11:01

  • VMware throws next punch in virtualisation battle

    Comment Opens up file format

    VMware has announced it is making its virtual machine file format freely available, with no license or royalties. Despite the company's claim that "it is committed to supporting any other open virtual machine disk formats broadly adopted by customers and working toward converging on open standards in this area", this …

    Storage 11 Apr 2006, 11:19

  • Fujitsu unveils world's third HD DVD laptop

    Not shipping until June, mind you

    Fujitsu has announced the world's third notebook to incorporate an HD DVD drive, following the lead set by Toshiba and, more recently, Acer. However, the 17in machine is not expected to appear until June. The FMV-Biblio Loox NX 95S/D - a notebook that curiously shares the same model number as Fujitsu's Blu-ray Disc-equipped …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 11:22

  • Should AT&T have to divest its broadband wireless holdings?

    Comment Industry mulls impact of 2.3GHz spectrum

    With the regulatory review of the proposed AT&T/BellSouth merger looming, one issue is whether the combined company would be able to hold on to its 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz spectrum holdings. Some lobbyists have picked on the wrong argument from the start, however, claiming that because broadband wireless in these bands would compete …

    Mobile 11 Apr 2006, 11:38

  • ATI rebrands Xpress chipsets

    'Radeon' out, 'CrossFire' in

    ATI has formally renamed its Radeon Xpress 200 chipset to CrossFire Xpress 1600, the company's website reveals. Such a move had been anticipated - a number of motherboard makers have already begun cutting and pasting the new name into existing product documentation. The Xpress 1600 supports a pair of 8x PCI slots for co- …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 11:47

  • Senior figures call for NHS IT audit

    Mushroom strategy questioned...

    A group of IT academics have sent an open letter to the House of Commons Health Select Committee asking them to set up an independent audit of how the programme to modernise IT within the health service is going. The letter was sent to Computer Weekly and eventually put on its website here and here. The strongly worded letter …

    Public Sector 11 Apr 2006, 11:51

  • US tells China to tackle pollution

    Pot/kettle/black

    The US has told China to get its environmental act togther ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, saying that "the world was watching its environmental protection efforts" in the run-up to the sportsfest. That's according to US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson who, Reuters reports, told it like it was …

    Science 11 Apr 2006, 11:52

  • ATI readies Radeon X1900 GT

    Nvidia's GeForce 7900 GT targeted

    ATI is preparing to release a cut-down version of its Radeon X1900 XT and XTX GPUs, reducing the chip's pixel shader complement from 48 to 36 and knocking back its clock speed. The part will ship as the Radeon X1900 GT, it has been claimed. A DailyTech story has the details, but to summarise, the GT will sport a 575MHz core …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 12:01

  • EU domain registry hijacked, claims GoDaddy

    Hundreds of shell domain registering companies bent system

    Europe's brand new .eu top level domain has been hijacked, according to one of the internet's leading registrars. GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons has laid into .eu registry owner EURid for approving hundreds of what he calls "phantom" registrars who have walked away with the bulk of the 1.4m .eu domains registered since the domain was …

    Financial News 11 Apr 2006, 12:28

  • Venus Express clears biggest hurdle

    Ready to probe hell planet

    The Venus Express orbiter successfully completed its voyage to our inner neighbour this morning with a handbrake turn. Engineers fired up rockets to slow it down so that Venus' gravity could capture the European Space Agency probe. The burn was a tense affair for the team at ESA's mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. …

    Space 11 Apr 2006, 12:32

  • US team explains near death experiences

    'REM intrusion' fingered

    A team of US scientists has come up with a plausible explanation for "near death" events, wherein individuals experience out-of-body sensations or an aura of clear white light - and it has nothing to do with ascending toward the pearly gates. Rather, it's all down to "REM intrusion" where "the same parts of the brain are …

    Biology 11 Apr 2006, 12:55

  • Sonos slims wireless music playback box

    Multi-room digital music rig gets cheaper too

    Sonos will this month cut the price of its multi-room digital music system. Its latest ZonePlayer wireless playback device, the ZP80, provides the same core functionality as Sonos' ZP100. However, to get the price - and the size - down, Sonos has stripped out the integrated amplifier used to drive speakers directly from the …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 13:13

  • NY subway perv 'really is a w*nker'

    NSFW Flashing net celeb laments fate

    The NY subway pervert who exposed his meat to a 22-year-old web developer - only to be caught mid-five-knuckle-shuffle on her mobile's camera and subsequently splashed across the net - has revealed his true colours in an astounding interview with New York Magazine. The perpetrator was quickly fingered as 43-year-old Dan Hoyt, …

    Bootnotes 11 Apr 2006, 13:34

  • Samsung unveils Korean card phone

    Just 9mm thick

    Samsung has shown off a mobile phone that's little bigger than a credit card. The ultra-slim handset - dubbed the Platinum Cardphone but more labelled with the more prosaic model number SCH-V870 - measures just 8.7 x 5.4 x 0.9cm and weighs 81g. The handset still manages to squeeze in a 1.3 megapixel camera. We're not sure …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 13:56

  • Carphone's 'free' broadband just a 'marketing ploy'

    War of words begins

    BT has brushed off Carphone Warehouse's "free" broadband offer calling it a "clever marketing ploy from a clever marketing team". Earlier today, Carphone released details of a new phone and broadband combo, which it says is up to 60 per cent cheaper than similar packages offered by the UK's leading telcos and ISPs. For £21 a …

    Telecoms 11 Apr 2006, 14:22

  • Cross-platform virus poses little risk

    Windows and Linux malware swings both ways

    Security watchers have uncovered proof-of-concept (POC) malware that's capable (at least theoretically) of infecting either Windows or Linux PCs. Linux-Bi-A/Win-Bi-A is written in assembler so it is capable of infecting either Linux ELF binaries or Windows exe files. The virus only infects files in a user's current directory …

    Malware 11 Apr 2006, 14:24

  • Bird flu panic swan was teutonic flotsam

    Waterfowl-up!

    Government vets say the swan found to have died of bird flu in Scotland may have just washed up there from the continent. The genetic signature of the swan's infection matches that of an outbreak in northern Germany. It's been identified as a whooper swan. Although they winter here, the lack of any other cases has caused …

    Biology 11 Apr 2006, 15:08

  • West African owlseller contacts El Reg

    Laptop-hunting 419er suffers dictionary crisis

    This just in: our Reg Hardware tentacle has earned its spurs by attracting the following 419 email regarding, well, read on: From: OKIKI [mailto:okiki4real007@yahoo.com] Sent: 10 April 2006 15:38 To: Lars-Göran Nilsson Subject: Reg reader comment: Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1536 I AM OKIKIOLA BY NAME, I AM A OWLSELLER IN THE …

    Bootnotes 11 Apr 2006, 15:10

  • Ricoh GR Digital 8.1Mp camera

    Review A classic camera revived for the digital era

    In October 1996, the Ricoh GR series of 35mm film cameras was born. They were some of the company's first compact cameras aimed at the enthusiast and pro snapper where image quality and the resolving power of the lens were the paramount considerations, and not just a tiny package. A digital GR that aims to follow those …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 15:11

  • 'Yonah' Celeron M 420, 430 ship in Japan

    Intel's as-yet-unannounced Celeron M 4xx series - the first budget-priced processors derived from the chip maker's 'Yonah' core - have gone on sale in Japan, according to local news sources. As Reg Hardware exclusively revealed in January, Intel is preparing a trio of single-core Yonah-based Celeron Ms: the 410, 420 and 430, …

    Reg Hardware 11 Apr 2006, 15:35

  • DJ typing style used to securely distribute music

    Making a fist of DRM

    A technique used by Bletchley Park cryptographers to identify operators is being applied to distribute musical recordings to DJs securely using the internet. During World War II, code breakers found that they could identify particular German Enigma operators by their particular style of typing code or Fist. SRI International …

    ID 11 Apr 2006, 16:17

  • Salesforce.com goes wireless with Sendia buy

    Exports democracy to devices

    Salesforce.com is launching a hosted service bringing enterprise applications to wireless devices following its $15m acquisition of partner Sendia, announced on Tuesday. The hosted customer relationship management (CRM) vendor has announced AppExchange Mobile, which it said would allow more than 60 applications on the company's …

    Applications 11 Apr 2006, 18:48

  • Pundit responds to 'troubling' Reg attack

    Letter Check your facts

    Mr. Vance: I was deeply troubled by your column in the Register titled “Sun zinged by rent-a-quote analyst”. It is perhaps Ironic that this is all happening as while I’m working with the New York Times “Looking at the Free Market, and Seeing Red" to help defend Lenovo from a similar unfounded, and under researched attack. …

    Letters 11 Apr 2006, 23:02