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17th May 2006 Archive

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  • Govt messenger sacked for Kiwi LLU plan leak

    An 'abuse of trust'

    A messenger working in the Prime Minister's office in New Zealand has been sacked for leaking details of Government plans to shake-up the country's broadband industry. Following an investigation, the State Services Commissioner found that messenger Michael Ryan had passed a cabinet document to his friend, and Telecom employee, …

    Telecoms 17 May 2006, 03:02

  • First review: Sky's HD box

    Tech Digest Even Elton John looked good

    After months of waiting, HDTVUK finally got to have a proper look at Sky's HD box and programming at the company's HQ in west London. For the best part of an hour I played and poked the box and watched the new HD channels live. I get the system installed next week, so you'll find a fuller review here soon. Until then, here are …

    Entertainment 17 May 2006, 04:02

  • eBay anti-virus pirates sued

    US pirates ahoy...

    US anti-piracy group the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) filed lawsuits yesterday against three suspected pirates who use eBay to sell copies of anti-virus software. The cases were filed at the District Court, Central District of California. The three accused were selling copies of Symantec and McAfee …

    Channel Register 17 May 2006, 08:37

  • Sony pitches Blu-ray Vaio desktop for HD content creation

    RC204 to support 50GB BD-R/RE media

    Sony has followed yesterday's announcement of a Blu-ray Disc drive-equipped Vaio notebook by touting a desktop fitted with the same next-generation optical disc system capable of reading and writing 50GB dual-layer BDs. The Vaio RC204 also contains a 3.2GHz Pentium D 940, a Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB of graphics memory …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 08:42

  • Object databases - alive and kicking?

    Comment New open mindedness in data storage

    At a recent meeting with InterSystems (vendor of Caché and Ensemble) the company said it was seeing increased interest in object oriented databases. Now, I must qualify this by saying that, first, Caché is not merely (or only) an object oriented database and, secondly, that this interest was primarily in the United States and, …

    Developer 17 May 2006, 08:58

  • AMD unveils four dual-core Turion CPUs

    Digital Media XPress vs Intel's Digital Media Boost

    AMD has launched its dual-core Turion 64 X2 notebook-oriented microprocessor line, as expected. Today's introduction saw the arrival of four of the chips aggressively priced to match what AMD is already charging for its top-of-the-line single-core Turions. The four new CPUs - aka 'Taylor' - are the TL-50, TL-52, TL-56 and TL- …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 09:06

  • SOA Software adds pure-play string to its bow

    Strengthens armoury

    On Monday 8 May, SOA Software (formerly Digital Evolution) announced its fourth acquisition in the last 20 months. Blue Titan, which, like its new parent, is based in Los Angeles, is the latest and follows the earlier acquisitions of: Flamenco Networks, whose technology is the basis of SOA Software's XML VPN product Thought …

    Hardware 17 May 2006, 09:22

  • Rude councillor is appealing

    IT department not safe yet

    Suspended Chichester councillor "Taff" Davies is planning to appeal to the high court against a Standards Board decision to punish him for being rude to the council's IT department. The councillor, a retired Royal Navy Captain and software entrepreneur, claimed that his suspension was a punishment, engineered by Chichester …

    Public Sector 17 May 2006, 09:23

  • Segway inventor behind DARPA 'Baghdad skeet shoot'

    Applications of a dangerous mind

    Eagle-eyed Reg readers* have spotted that the first name on yesterday's DARPA patent application for a ludicrous man-firing chair on rails is one Dean Kamen. Yes, the very same Dean Kamen that spawned upon on the world Segway, the 'Human Transporter' beloved of donut-guzzling law enforcement lazybones, marauding campus geek …

    Bootnotes 17 May 2006, 09:29

  • ECS tips wink to ATI Radeon Xpress 1100

    Unannounced Socket AM2 chipset... announced

    Motherboard maker ECS - aka Elitegroup - has posted details of its first Socket AM2 mobo, a product based on ATI's as-yet-unannounced Radeon Xpress 1100 chipset. AMD is not expected to announced Socket AM2 until 23 May, when presumably ATI and Nvidia will unveil supporting chipsets. The ATI product comprises the company's …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 09:45

  • PC World slapped for wireless internet ad

    D'oh!

    PC World has been ticked off for making misleading claims about laptops. Last November the computer store ran an ad which showed a shop assistant putting a Toshiba Qosmio F20 136 laptop through its paces. The PC World worker explained how the laptop had "Intel Centrino mobile technology...so you can connect to the internet …

    Channel Register 17 May 2006, 10:05

  • Protection from prying NSA eyes

    Comment A (Classified) proposal

    From the US Fourth Amendment, the Stored Communications Act and US wiretap laws to the Pen-register statute, Mark Rasch looks at legal protections available to the telecommunications companies and individual Americans in the wake of the NSA's massive spying program. Imagine being the head of a major telecommunications company …

    Music and Media 17 May 2006, 10:16

  • Samsung ships first HSDPA phone you can buy

    Only in Korea, for now

    Samsung has claimed to have shipped the world's first handset to support the HSDPA 'Super 3G' speed-boost technology, though for now the phone's only available in South Korea, where SK Telecom has just upgraded its CMDA2000 3G network to the new spec. In addition to allowing data to be downloaded at up to 1.8Mbps, the SCH- …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 10:17

  • Why the Supreme Court sided with eBay

    No 'automatic right to injunction'

    Patent owners do not have an automatic right to an injunction that could cripple the business of an infringer, according to the US Supreme Court. In a qualified victory for eBay, the Justices explained where two lower courts had gone wrong. Background A small company in Virginia called MercExchange sued eBay, claiming the …

    Music and Media 17 May 2006, 10:34

  • Banish those mislaid ex-offender blues with ID Card!

    Fixes broken governments, leaps tall buildings, dodges difficult questions...

    This week's absurd booster for ID cards came from this week's Home Secretary John Reid, in answer to a question from Ian Lucas MP (Lab, Wrexham) on Monday. "Is not the most fundamental issue relating to overseas prisoners the identification of those prisoners in the first place?" wittered Lucas. "At present, neither the police …

    Music and Media 17 May 2006, 10:34

  • Xbox 360 plus HD DVD drive to beat Blu-ray PS3 on price?

    So say some retailers

    Microsoft is reported to have been dropping hints it will price the Xbox 360 and the console's upcoming HD DVD drive to ensure the two packages together come in at less than Sony will charge for the PlayStation 3. According to GamesIndustry.biz, UK retail moles claim Microsoft has suggested it wants its offering to be the …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 10:36

  • Calyx buys Matrix integration business

    £40.5m to unpick Matrix

    Irish technology group Calyx is spending £40.5m to buy Matrix Communications Group’s integration business. Calyx will raise £17.5m through a share placing, and will use £11.5m of this to help fund the deal. The total initial cash payment will be £33.5m, with the balance of the total price coming from the issue of shares and a …

    Channel Register 17 May 2006, 10:39

  • Jessops lures Snapfish

    Boosting its online operation

    Jessops is hooking up with Snapfish - HP's online photo processing service - to create a new photo processing website later this summer. The new online venture - Jessopsphotos.com - will offer a stack of services such pressie ideas, photo manipulation and online photo albums. Exact details of the service have yet to be released …

    Financial News 17 May 2006, 11:02

  • Nuclear powered Blair drops radioactive bombshell

    Fall-out on atomic energy plans

    Tony Blair met with a hard rain of criticism this morning, after he appeared to come down in favour of nuclear power in a speech last night. In his speech at a CBI dinner last night, Blair said nuclear plants were back on the agenda “with a vengeance” in the bid to tackle climate change and dependence on unreliable fossil fuel …

    Physics 17 May 2006, 11:20

  • Google swallows Pot Noodle in battle of UK's brands

    Search monolith is Brits' fave

    International internet Axis of non-Evil Google has topped a poll of the UK's "most-loved" brands, beating supermarket monolith Tesco and mobile phone behemoth Nokia into second and third places, respectively. That's according to a probe of nearly 3,000 Brit consumers by marketing agency Joshua, which also revealed that eBay ( …

    Bootnotes 17 May 2006, 11:23

  • Killjoy Trojan deletes warez and smut

    Vigilante malware

    Virus writers have created a Trojan that deletes illicit files from compromised Windows PCs in addition to harvesting data from infected machines. Erazer-A is spreading (albeit modestly) across P2P networks, where it poses as useful program files, or through chat programs. If executed, the malware scours folders used for P2P …

    Malware 17 May 2006, 11:57

  • No flying car by 2010: official

    Deloitte crushes dream of millions

    Deloitte this morning unleashed on an unuspecting world a report entitled "Eye to the future" which outlines how technology will affect our everyday lives by 2010 and, well, blow me down, it appears that there will be more technology affecting our daily lives in ways which it does not currently affect our daily lives. The …

    Science 17 May 2006, 12:00

  • EC wants more ecommerce VAT

    To stop US etailers eating more European babies

    The European Commission has proposed extending the provisional ecommerce tax to give it more time to push through permanent legislation. Agreed in 2003 on the proviso that it would be "revisited" again by the end of June this year, the rules controversially imposed VAT on firms selling into the EU, but exempted European firms …

    Financial News 17 May 2006, 13:24

  • BT backs city-wide Wi-Fi

    Come on you Gooners!

    BT is pressing ahead with plans to wire up six cities with wireless broadband access. It's already started in Cardiff, where BT Openzone hotspots have been installed in locations in the city centre, while in London's Westminster, BT has decided to expand an existing wireless network. Other cities on BT's "to do" list are …

    Wireless 17 May 2006, 13:29

  • Merrill Lynch rehires world's greatest hardware guru

    Hedge trimmed from under The Loon

    Steve Milunovich - the world's greatest hardware guru - has denied the heart palpitating life of a hedge fund manager and returned to Merrill Lynch, The Register can reveal. Well, to be fair, it seems the hedge fund world denied Milunovich more than he denied it. Miloonovich set out last August to start a new "digital economy" …

    Financial News 17 May 2006, 13:58

  • Shure E3g sound-isolating earphones

    Review A word in your ear...

    Where other headphone makers have pushed noise cancellation, using electronics to generate a sound wave that erases background noises, Shure has focused on the more basic approach of simply blocking out external sound, not to cancel noise but to isolate you and your music from it... Shure reckons this technique makes for …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 14:05

  • Blue Security calls it quits after attack by renegade spammer

    Folds spam fighting operation

    Anti-spam firm Blue Security is to scrap its spam-fighting effort after deciding its escalating conflict with a renegade spammer was placing the internet as a whole in jeopardy. Blue Security established a ‘Do Not Intrude Registry’ (akin to the Do Not Call Registry for telemarketing) with around 450,000 members. Participants …

    Spam 17 May 2006, 14:07

  • Norway besieged by bear army

    Crab submariner division too

    Not content with having brutally murdered a defenceless monkey, Europe's bears continue their relentless march toward supremacy. The fall of the iron curtain has been a boon for Russia's own bear insurgency*, allowing them to expand into defenceless Norway. The advancing brown bears on the formerly fortified border are reaping …

    Biology 17 May 2006, 14:27

  • ATI unveils Radeon Xpress 1100 mobile chipset

    Faster graphics than the Xpress 200M

    ATI today announced its Radeon Xpress 1100 chipset family, pitching the part at notebook PCs designed around AMD's new dual-core Turion 64 X2 mobile processor and promising a 33 per cent performance boost over the chipset's predecessor, the Radeon Xpress 200M. The chipset supports pretty much any of AMD'S 64-bit mobile …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 14:29

  • Mitsubishi presses play on iPod-inspired auto

    Hard drive?

    First the iMac, then the iPod now the iCar, a glossy white motor produced by Mitsubishi for the Japanese market and entirely compatible with the iconic digital music player - well, with the iPod Nano, at any rate. Yes, the central portion of the i car's dashboard features a handly horizontally aligned slot with a dock …

    Reg Hardware 17 May 2006, 14:55

  • Big Blue claims channel targets

    Aims channel at small biz, and HP

    IBM says it is making good progress in recruiting new resellers to its revamped channel programme and will soon be adding services to its hardware offerings. In February, IBM announced plans to double the number of partners it works with and focus more resources on the small and medium enterprise market - companies with between …

    Channel Register 17 May 2006, 15:02

  • Intel will carve off flash and communications units - analysts

    AMD here to stay

    Top chip analysts expect Intel to cleave off its flash memory and communications businesses in the coming months as the company tries to cut costs and compete better against AMD. Despite these moves, however, Intel will never regain the astonishing market dominance it once enjoyed. Intel CEO Paul Otellini warned last month …

    Servers 17 May 2006, 15:17

  • Apple yanks key x86 Mac OS X open source code

    Compile-your-own kernels a PowerPC-only affair

    Apple has pulled the source code the underpins key components of the x86 version of Mac OS X's 'Darwin' foundation. The PowerPC versions are still available for download from the Mac maker's open source software website. News of the shift was broken by Infoworld columnist Tom Yager, who revealed this week that Darwin's …

    Developer 17 May 2006, 15:43

  • Japanese power plant secrets leaked by virus

    Mystery malware and file sharing linked to third breach

    Sensitive information about Japanese power plants has leaked online from a virus-infected computer for the second time in less than four months. Data regarding security arrangements at a thermoelectric power plant run by the Chubu Electric Power in Owase, Mie Prefecture in central Japan spilled online this week as a result of an …

    Malware 17 May 2006, 16:06

  • PA Semi heads to 16 cores on back of $50m boost

    Processor Forum TI to fab?

    Chip start-up PA Semi has broadened its product roadmap to make room for a 16-core chip and more low-power products. Comprised of a host of DEC veterans, PA Semi has yet to start shipping its first product – a dual-core Power processor that will run at 2GHz and consume only about 7 watts. That, however, hasn't stopped the well- …

    Storage 17 May 2006, 18:12

  • Schwartz spells out Sun's vision thing

    JavaOne 'Services' is the hardest word to say

    Jonathan Schwartz has come closer to outlining his strategy three weeks after taking over from Scott McNealy as Sun Microsystems' chief executive. Having shaken up Sun's systems and storage management earlier this week, Schwartz on Wednesday pointed to a vision - of sorts - around partnerships, innovation in areas including …

    Applications 17 May 2006, 22:54