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11th May 2006 Archive

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  • Training with Team Three Pair

    Learning the finer points of presenting

    Many people think that presentation skills come naturally. For some lucky people this is true, but for the rest of us mere mortals presenting is a daunting minefield of rights and wrongs. To help us out with our lack of natural talent, the guys down at Microsoft UK organised for us to take part in a two day speaker training …

    Developer 11 May 2006, 01:02

  • Borland cuts hit overseas ops

    Losses narrow

    Borland Software has provided greater detail on where it expects the majority of its recently announced job cuts to fall, while announcing preliminary results for its first quarter. The tools company, trying to re-position itself purely as a provider of application lifecycle management (ALM) software, said most of the 300 jobs …

    Software 11 May 2006, 02:16

  • Google holds seminar for press on accurate story telling

    'So transparent - you can see right through us'

    Like a well-travelled jellyfish, Google is now more transparent and international. So a cavalcade of Google executives tried to convince reporters from all around the globe during an event held today at the Google Playground in Mountain View. The hacks arrived early in the morning, were shuttled from a nearby parking lot to the …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 02:35

  • Multimap launches space bank

    Updated Woolwich in Earth orbit

    Here's a bit of fun for those of you whiling away your time at work assembling an improbably long paper clip chain: imagine you're in London's Holborn and looking for ther nearest branch of Barclay's bank tentacle Woolwich. Pretty straight forward you might think, since this sort of information is readily available online. Don' …

    Bootnotes 11 May 2006, 04:02

  • Hackers slam McKinnon extradition ruling

    Pentagon systems are 'wide open'

    The prosecution of alleged Pentagon uber-hacker Gary McKinnon shows that the US is failing to take even basic precautions to protect its military systems, according to a reformed computer hacker accused of similar crimes 10 years ago. Mathew Bevan, whose hacker handle is Kuji, was accused of breaking into US military computer …

    Enterprise Security 11 May 2006, 04:02

  • Fujitsu-Siemens sheds sales jobs

    Large enterprise team feels the pinch

    Around 20 Fujitsu-Siemens staff face the chop in what the firm is calling a "repositioning" exercise. The Register's source said the jobs would go from the firm's large enterprise sales group at its Bracknell headquarters, and that they accounted for as much as 20 per cent of the department. A meeting yesterday heard that …

    Channel Register 11 May 2006, 05:02

  • Dell knocks out North Carolina taxpayers in court

    Lush package cleared

    Dell has won the first round of a legal slugfest disputing close to $300m in incentives awarded to the computer maker by North Carolina. Judge Robert Hobgood of the Wake County Superior Court today tossed out a lawsuit backed by the non-profit North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL). The organization has been …

    Financial News 11 May 2006, 07:53

  • Why do I get eye strain?

    Shedding light on tired eyes

    Maybe grandma wasn't right. Experts now contend that reading in the dark probably has no long-term damaging effects on the eyes. But eyes become more tired in poor light since they have to work harder to discriminate letters, colors, and objects. So it’s a good idea to work and play in plenty of light, especially as one gets …

    Biology 11 May 2006, 08:02

  • Sun software - more prestige than power?

    Java father

    I've said it before (four years ago, to be precise), and I'll say it again. Software is in the ascendant at Sun Microsystems. Last time I said it, the then up-and-coming Jonathan Schwartz had been appointed software executive vice president. Schwartz's recent confirmation as chief executive of a company famed for "systems" …

    Developer 11 May 2006, 08:05

  • French plans to regulate iTunes may soften

    Interoperability amendment

    The French Senate appears to be softening plans that would have forced Apple and others offering copy-protected music downloads to open up their services so that music can be made interoperable with other music players, Associated Press reports. Apple has always refused to share its digital rights management (DRM) software, …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 08:47

  • Glaxo wins injunction against extremists' threat

    Sell your shares, or else!

    GlaxoSmithKline won an injunction last night against animal rights extremists to prevent them acting on threats to publish shareholders' personal details on the internet and to stop them further contacting or harassing its private shareholders. An animal rights extremist group had already written to shareholders of the …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 08:55

  • EDS's Air Force system should fly by 'weekend'

    Army, Navy wait to see if it bombs

    The RAF has declared it will have its stalled human resources computer systems fully operational by the end of the week, seven weeks after it went live. But the MOD still has to determine what the problem was before it can guarantee that the Joint Personnel Administration system (JPA) can be rolled out on schedule to the Army …

    Public Sector 11 May 2006, 09:08

  • AMD brings forward Socket S1, AM2 launches

    Back on track to ship this month

    AMD's Socket AM2 processors for desktops and its dual-core mobile Turion 64 CPUs will be announced this month after all, and not early June as previously expected. The Turion 64 X2s will be unveiled on 17 May, a week ahead of the Socket AM2 Athlons' debut on 23 May. So claim Taiwanese motherboard maker sources cited by …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 09:10

  • Wireless network use grows

    Almost a 'mass market phenomenon'

    One in five broadband users in the US and Europe is hooked up to a wireless network in their home, prompting analysts Strategy Analytics to suggest that Wi-Fi is emerging as a "mass market phenomenon". The report found that seven per cent of all households now have a wireless network. The US is the leading market with 8.4 per …

    Wireless 11 May 2006, 09:14

  • Vista bad news for anti-spyware market?

    Security firms may need to up their game

    The extra security features in Microsoft's upcoming Vista operating system could negatively affect smaller security firms, according to a new report. The report, from the Yankee Group, suggests that as Microsoft users get a welcome security boost when the new Vista operating system is finally available, aftermarkets for anti- …

    Security 11 May 2006, 09:17

  • TiVo ad service launches with 70 US advertisers

    Product Watch is about to hit your screens

    We knew that TiVo was on to something when it began the idea of opt-in, voluntary viewing of advertising two and a half years ago, when it said that 65 per cent of its audience had volunteered to watch an advert it had placed on its Digital Video Recorders, on behalf of Universal Pictures, to advertise the film Bruce Almighty. …

    Entertainment 11 May 2006, 09:33

  • Hitachi pips AMD to AM2 moniker

    Battery first, Socket second

    Hitachi has brought back the look of its original dry-cell alkaline AM2 battery after more than 40 years to celebrate its introduction of the technology in 1963, the year of the Kennedy assassination and the debut of Doctor Who. Its 'core' is set to operate at 1.5V. And here it is, the original AM2: The new models sport …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 09:33

  • MS, News Corp team up for pro gaming league

    Making video gamers national idols

    Microsoft and various divisions of News Corp made another major move this week to dominate gaming, with the announcement of a professional gaming league that will make cultural icons, rather like today's skateboarding, wrestling or basketball players from video game players. News Corp will aim the big guns of DirecTV, IGN …

    Entertainment 11 May 2006, 09:46

  • Sony, Panasonic partner on HD-on-DVD spec

    Updated Set to work with SD cards too

    Sony and Matsushita today launched a would-be standard for HD camcorders that used DVDs as their storage media. The two companies said they would promote the AVCHD specification on their own products - Matsushita doing so through its Panasonic brand - and encourage other camcorder vendors to do the same. The AVCHD …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 09:55

  • Copyright police train sniffer dogs to find DVDs

    Hounds still need to bone up on copyright law

    Piracy fighters at the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) have trained a pair of dogs to locate DVDs. As part of a project promoted by the Motion Picture Ass. of America, FACT instigated the training of two black Labradors named Lucky and Flo. After eight months, the two canines were trained to identify DVDs among other …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 10:11

  • Astronomers: gamma ray death from above 'unlikely'

    Don't panic

    A gamma-ray burst (GRB) in our galactic neighbourhood could decimate life, destroy the ozone layer and trigger drastic climate change. A new study of Hubble data, published in Nature, has found such a cosmic deathray scenario is less likely than previous doomsday predictions. The radiation the international team investigated …

    Space 11 May 2006, 10:14

  • IBM steams into fibre channel

    In brief SMB MOR FC

    IBM is to launch new 4Gb/s fibre channel mid-range storage kit. The announcement comes after EMC unveiled its own 4Gb/s Clariion updates on Monday. IBM says the new DS4700 Express offers SMBs front to backend 4Gb/s fibre channel support, lowering data backup, transfer, copying, and restoration costs. Storage VP Kristie Bell …

    Channel Register 11 May 2006, 10:16

  • eBayer flogs place in Big Brother gaff

    e-mughunters move in on golden ticket promotion

    We're increasingly convinced that eBay has become the online equivalent of a 19th-century dockside flash house - a dark and menacing lushery shrouded in London particular and packed to the gunwales with snide-pinching screevers, barker-bearing bludgers, tea-leaving toolers, strumpetrous dollymops and, naturally, griddling glocks …

    Entertainment 11 May 2006, 10:26

  • Sony plans 8GB NW-A1200 Walkman

    Getting AAC support too?

    Sony is preparing to update its NW-A1000 line of hard drive-based Walkman digital music players with an 8GB model, Reg Hardware has learned. The new version will ship with the SonicStage CP jukebox software the company announced yesterday. The NW-A1000 players currently contain a 6GB hard drive. The NW-A1200 bumps the storage …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 10:28

  • Intel primes Flash standardisation push

    Industry body formed to define common interface

    Intel, Hynix, Micron, Sony and others have founded the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) working group which will develop a specification that may make it easier to incorporate Flash memory in notebooks to shorten start-up times and boost battery life. The chip giant announced the formation of ONFI at its Developer Forum in …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 11:33

  • PS3s offer 'identical' functionality, Sony exec claims

    Well, sort of...

    Sony has claimed that the 20GB version of its upcoming PlayStation 3 console will offer "identical functionality" to the 60GB model. However, it remains unclear whether the lower-capacity machine will sport an HDMI port. Indeed, comments from the company suggest it won't. Speaking to the BBC, Phil Harrison, president of Sony …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 11:34

  • UK Govt website keels under weight of terror bomb report

    Plus ça change...

    At last, the long-awaited Intelligence & Security Committee report on the London 7 July 2005 bomb attacks is here, and out chunters the release via gnn.gov.uk. The release, issued on behalf of the Cabinet Office, tells us that the report is available at the ISC's "web site", and directs us here, which at time of writing housed a …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 11:40

  • ICANN chokes off .xxx porn registry

    Want to know why?

    Plans for an area of the internet dedicated to pornography were killed last night in a vote by overseeing organisation ICANN. In a split 9-5 board decision, the organisation acted ruthlessly, against its own previous position, in order to put an end to an increasingly difficult and controversial issue - the approval of a .xxx …

    Music and Media 11 May 2006, 11:49

  • 419ers open flat rental agency

    Luxury London pad - yours for £350 a month

    We're obliged today to reader Alexander Livingstone who has just alerted us to the fact that the Lads from Lagos - or the Lass in this case - have moved into the London property rental business. A female friend of Alexander's was simply checking out some rental prices and was rather surprised to receive the following email …

    Bootnotes 11 May 2006, 12:02

  • Prefactoring

    Book review Getting it right first time

    The title of this book should have been "Pre-refactoring", and for a suitable subtitle, "Getting It Right First Time" would have been a bit more informative than "Extreme Abstraction, Extreme Separation, Extreme Readability", which is a bit extreme on the extremes. Refactoring, for those unfamiliar with the phrase, was coined …

    Developer 11 May 2006, 12:25

  • EU regulators back wholesale route to cut roaming charges

    At odds with EC

    Europe's telecoms regulators have supported plans to cut roaming charges but believe this should be done by cutting the cost of wholesale charges rather than retail prices. The European Commission (EC) has already announced plans to regulate the amount cellcos can charge punters while using their phone overseas. Four weeks ago …

    Mobile 11 May 2006, 12:28

  • Half the music on iPods stolen, alleges Real boss

    Music biz needs to get behind DRM interoperability

    Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser has tacitly alleged that iPod owners are music thieves, a claim that echoes the words of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Both companies compete directly with Apple's iTunes Music Store. Back in October 2004, Ballmer was reported to have said: "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'." …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 12:32

  • Keeping management up to speed with IT

    If you don't, the vendors will

    From time to time, reports emerge suggesting that senior business people, such as the financial director (FD), are becoming more IT savvy and more involved in IT decision making. True though this might be, it's important not to get carried away with what it means in practice. Are we seriously expecting FDs to be grilling …

    Hardware 11 May 2006, 12:48

  • DRAM makers to pay $160m to settle civil suits

    Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, plaintiffs in accord

    Samsung, Hynix and Infineon have agreed to cough up $160m to a collection of small companies who sued the memory giants after the US Department of Justice launched a probe into DRAM price-fixing claims. The three DRAMurai later admitted they had taken part in a cartel to control DRAM prices in the States between April 1999 …

    Channel Register 11 May 2006, 13:05

  • Two practical opinions of Microsoft Team System

    Some practical opinions from an early adopter and a potential customer.

    EDS has been testing Team System since its early betas, and now has three live projects on the system. What does it like? “The integration aspect, the fact that there’s less context-switching between applications is very important. The extensibility is very important, either through third-parties or by doing our own stuff. …

    Developer 11 May 2006, 13:09

  • Snoop Dogg cautioned over Heathrow affray

    Back in UK to answer bail

    Gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg has been cautioned for affray under Section 4 of the Public Order Act for "use of threatening words or behaviour" during an incident last month at Heathrow airport, the BBC reports. Dogg and five of his entourage spent a night in the cells after allegedly taking exception to an airline staff's refusal …

    Entertainment 11 May 2006, 13:52

  • Intel talks up 'Centrino 4' for SFF PC makers

    'Santa Rosa' not just for notebooks

    Taiwanese manufacturers of small form-factor PCs have re-iterated Intel's scheme to pitch 'Santa Rosa', the next version of the chip maker's Centrino platform, as the basis for future compact desktop and living room PCs. According to a DigiTimes report, Intel has of late been pushing Santa Rosa's suitability for SFF PCs. …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 14:16

  • Intel, AMD face off in codename clash

    Claws out over Santa Rosa?

    Intel and AMD may be bitter rivals, but they will both be pushing products they have codenamed 'Santa Rosa' in the coming months, it seems. Fortunately, they two are unlikely to clash: one's pitched at notebooks, the other at heavy-duty servers. AMD first, since its 'Santa Rosa' looks set to make it to market ahead of the …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 14:42

  • IBM throws sharper blades at SMBs

    Networking, financing, servicing. Ker-ching

    IBM has concocted a new recipe for making blade servers more attractive to small- to medium-sized business. Take some networking, add a dash of services and then wrap the whole package in sweetened financing. Blade servers have primarily been aimed at larger customers with racks and racks full of servers. IBM, however, hopes to …

    Servers 11 May 2006, 14:47

  • T-Mobile UK confirms VoIP ban

    But it may change its mind on IM

    T-Mobile UK believes VoIP isn't sufficiently consistent or capable of providing calls of a high enough quality calls to be allowed into its mobile phone network, the carrier said to day in response to revelations it has effectively banned the technology from its latest data-oriented airtime package. However, the company did …

    Mobile 11 May 2006, 15:07

  • MS tries to rain on PS3 parade with $200 Wii forecast

    Exec predicts cut-price Nintendo box

    Microsoft has claimed Nintendo's Wii console will cost $200 when its ships. Well, sort of. In a dig at Sony, Microsoft VP Peter Moore said consumers will be able to buy an Xbox 360 and a Wii for the price of a $599 PlayStation 3, according to Reuters. Since an Xbox 360 costs around $399, that leaves just $200 for the Nintendo …

    Reg Hardware 11 May 2006, 15:33

  • D-Link settles dispute with 'time geek'

    Time to kiss and make up

    Networking manufacturer D-Link has settled a dispute with a Danish administrator Poul-Henning Kamp over the way its kit queries internet time servers. Critics claim the way D-link equipment polls NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers is impairing their operations, leaving operators to carry unsustainable excess bandwidth charges …

    Data Networking 11 May 2006, 15:48

  • Prudes finger naked E3 Expo strumpets

    Booth babes must cover up - or else

    The Entertainment Software Association has effectively ruined the best chance that the average gamer will ever get of seeing a authentic expanse of female flesh by ordering "booth babes" at the E3 Expo in LA to put it away - or face the consequences. ESA President Douglas Lowenstein explained earlier this week: "Last year there …

    Bootnotes 11 May 2006, 16:00

  • NASA denies Japanese SST talks

    'No discussion at this time' on SuperConcorde

    A NASA spokeswoman has denied that the agency plans to hold talks with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) over the development of the latter's Next Generation Supersonic Transport (SST). NASA's Melissa Mathews shot down the claims on Tuesday with: "It's my understanding there is no discussion on that at this time …

    Physics 11 May 2006, 16:02

  • Chip and PIN fraud hits Lloyds TSB

    Foreign ATM fraud loophole exposed by crooks

    Lloyds TSB has admitted that flaws in the new Chip and PIN system recently introduced for debits cards in the UK open up the system to fraud. Conventional fraud may be down because of the system but crooks are still able to use cloned debit or credit cards in foreign ATMS. Instead of authorising debit card transactions by …

    ID 11 May 2006, 16:26