The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

24th May 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • MSN Billing Phisher jailed for 21 months

    Small fry

    A US man has been jailed for 21 months for running a phishing web site even though it's unlikely he made any money through the scam. Jayson Harris, 23, of Davenport, Iowa, was convicted of sending bogus e-mail to MSN subscribers which attempted to trick them into handing over their credentials to an equally bogus website he ran …

    Spam 24 May 2006, 01:02

  • BEA takes JBoss and Sun to task on open source

    Doing it my way

    BEA Systems' chief executive has criticized former employer Sun Microsystems for open sourcing Solaris while signaling his intention to keep BEA's middleware stack closed. Alfred Chuang, speaking to press Tuesday, also dismissed rival JBoss for not doing "real" open source because contributions are regulated centrally. He also …

    Applications 24 May 2006, 08:42

  • PartyGaming founders quit board

    Cash in chips, throw in hands and leave the table

    Two of the founders of online poker site PartyGaming are leaving its board of directors. The techy brain behind the site, Anurag Dikshit, is leaving the board but will continue to develop new products as the new head of research and special projects. Group marketing director Vikrant Bhargava is also stepping down. He will …

    Financial News 24 May 2006, 08:46

  • Gates puts the hype into hypervisor

    WinHEC Microsoft shows off its server virtualisation platform

    Linux made a surprise appearance in Bill Gates' opening keynote presentation at WinHEC on Tuesday. Midway through his speech, Gates handed the spotlight over to Jeff Woolsey, lead programme manager for Microsoft's Windows Division, to demonstrate Microsoft's 64-bit server virtualisation software. After showing how the next …

    Servers 24 May 2006, 08:58

  • Apple, Nike partner to produce iPod pumps

    Trainers that talk back

    Apple has teamed up with wingéd Nike, the Ancient Greek personification of athletic footwear*, to offer an iPod Nano add-on that talks to your shoes. The package also contains a separate wireless dongle that fits inside the sole of one of your high-priced trainers and beams data to the iPod, which, using text-to-speech …

    Reg Hardware 24 May 2006, 09:04

  • Gates rolls out the Beta 2s

    WinHEC Bill's busy day in Seattle as he lays out his 2007 stalls

    Bill Gates kicked off the Microsoft Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) by announcing the second beta versions of Windows Vista, Windows Server (Longhorn) and Office 2007. Then, in what passed as a rock 'n' roll moment, he presented a slightly bemused customer with a framed edition of the betas on gold-coloured DVDs …

    Operating Systems 24 May 2006, 09:15

  • Dell holds nose and tries retail

    Dallas and New York get shops

    Dell, famous for sticking to its direct sales business model, is opening two stores in the US but stresses it is just an experiment. The stores will not carry inventory - orders will still go through Dell's website and existing fullfilment process. The two shops, with about 3,000 square feet of space, will carry about 36 …

    Channel Register 24 May 2006, 09:17

  • A Java - .NET 'welding' course

    Book review How to join the two leading environments

    Like it or not, (and there are plenty of zealots who don't), the Java and .NET worlds have to learn to live with one another nicely. In practice this means that applications have to be able to cross platform boundaries easily - no more hiding behind proprietary interfaces, no more trying to own the entire software stack, and no …

    Developer 24 May 2006, 09:40

  • Japanese boffins build breakthrough brain-machine interface

    Works without surgery, training

    Honda scientists have created a system that will translate thoughts into electrical signals that can be used to control machinery. The technique doesn't require the user to undergo surgery or extensive training - a major advance over past thought-controlled technologies, the company said. Researchers at the Honda Research …

    Reg Hardware 24 May 2006, 09:42

  • Securities trading desks adopt IM

    But prejudice could slow uptake

    Instant Messaging (IM) is becoming a presence on securities trading desks in the USA. And Pivot Solutions has developed IM Trader, an IM product for the trading desk. IM Trader enables customers to place securities orders for trading in a manner that complies with Securities and Exchange Commission rules by transforming instant …

    IT Director 24 May 2006, 09:53

  • Review: Ion USB Turntable

    Tech Digest Your vinyl collection goes digital

    Review from Tech Digest. Also check out our World Cup blog Who Ate All The Bratwurst? The digital music revolution seems to have affected all age groups - with your nan being as likely to listen to her iPod while she's gardening as your annoying nephew is to be rocking his Walkman 'phone at the back of the bus. A problem that …

    Entertainment 24 May 2006, 10:01

  • BT's 'honeymoon period' nearing end

    Patience running out

    BT has been warned that its "honeymoon period" is coming to an end after some telcos said they were still sceptical about changes designed to make the UK's telecoms sector more competitive and transparent. The warning was contained in that latest assessment of Openreach, BT's access services division created earlier this year …

    Telecoms 24 May 2006, 10:05

  • Tech Data profits evaporate

    Ouch...

    Computer 2000's parent, Tech Data saw its shares rise slightly yesterday, despite the company posting a big fall in first quarter profits. The distie watched turnover fall by 2.4 per cent to $4.9bn for the first quarter of 2007, ended 31 April 2006. Profits also fell sharply - from $33.5m in the first quarter of 2005 to $12. …

    Channel Register 24 May 2006, 10:19

  • Indian government moves to protect vultures

    Thank you so much

    A drug that has caused the catastrophic crash of 97 per cent of the south Asian vulture population has been restricted by the Indian government. Firms have three months to stop flogging anti-inflammatory diclofenac to farmers. The drug is given to cattle for lameness and as a painkiller. It had been thought harmless - it is …

    Biology 24 May 2006, 10:21

  • Fine phone slammers, says TSI

    Industry told to 'clean up its act'

    The head of the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) has called for "strong penalties" to combat mis-selling by telecoms companies. TSI chief exec Ron Gainsford said he is "concerned at the growing problem of telecoms mis-selling and would like to see strong penalties for misleading sales behaviour". His comments come on the …

    Telecoms 24 May 2006, 10:22

  • Digital fever sweeps UK as World Cup looms

    Britain tops Converging Media index

    Britain bounced into number one spot as Europe's most digital market on Tuesday, largely due to digital TV spending ahead of the World Cup. The latest research from Informa Telecoms and Media ranks the UK as the most digital state in western Europe based on the research firm's quarterly Converging Media (CM) index. The final …

    Mobile 24 May 2006, 10:24

  • O2 readies 'Super 3G' XDA Trion PDA phone

    i-mate to offer it as the JasJam too?

    O2 Germany has posted details of a PDA phone it's calling the XDA Trion but is better known as HTC's 'Hermes' design. Hermes is also set to ship as the i-mate JasJam, if a posting on a US retail website is anything to go by. The Trion is based on a 400MHz Samsung-made processor and ships with 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flah ROM …

    Reg Hardware 24 May 2006, 10:46

  • BI tools - certainly not commoditised

    Comment An about turn in BI

    Given that we have had decision support systems, enterprise information systems, and now business intelligence for the better part of two decades, you would think that the market would be showing some signs of maturity or, at least, that it was consolidating and moving towards some sort of commoditisation. From the number of new …

    Developer 24 May 2006, 11:00

  • Reg Hardware's Critical Mass

    Review Round-up

    This week's no-holds barred product assessments from around the web focuses on the big announcement of the last few days: AMD's Socket AM2 processors and Nvidia's nForce 500 chipset series... "So far Socket AM2 seems to bring a bit of an increase in performance, and clearly that is helped by higher clocked 1066MHz DDR 2 …

    Reg Hardware 24 May 2006, 11:26

  • First pictures of the $100 laptop

    In a range of colours...

    Available in fetching orange and yellow, or shades of blue and green, here's the $100 laptop, which was unveiled at the Seven Countries Task Force Meeting yesterday. Almost immediately, pictures of the machine hit the net. Nicholas Negroponte heads up the One Laptop Per Child organisation which hopes to get massive orders …

    Mobile 24 May 2006, 11:29

  • BT creates 1,300 new jobs

    Upgrading the network

    BT is looking to fill more than 1,300 new jobs as part of a £1bn upgrade to the UK's phone network. The new engineers will work on phone and internet connections to homes and businesses as part of BT Openreach, the telco's new access and services division. Around £100m is planned to be invested in each of 10 UK regions during …

    Telecoms 24 May 2006, 11:40

  • Qualcomm sues Nokia - again

    This time in the English High Court

    Qualcomm has brought the patent infringement allegations it has made against mobile phone giant Nokia to the UK. The US company has asked the English High Court to ban certain Nokia products and to force the Finnish firm to cough up damages. Qualcomm's complaint cites two UK patents that Nokia is alleged to have infringed - …

    Mobile 24 May 2006, 12:00

  • Home Office to cull Criminal Record Bureau agents

    Outsourcing blame after ID snafus

    The Home Office has fingered 3,000 organisations for expulsion from the list of groups or firms authorised to query the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) database of people with past convictions. The move follows concerns that thousands of people have been incorrectly identified as criminals when prospective employers or other …

    Public Sector 24 May 2006, 12:13

  • MS advises users to play safe with Word

    Duck and cover

    Attacks targeting an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003 have prompted Microsoft to tell users they should run the application in "safe mode". The workaround does not address the underlying vulnerability, but running Word in safe mode will thwart current attacks based on the vulnerability, Microsoft advises …

    Enterprise Security 24 May 2006, 12:39

  • Firms punt Mac-friendly TV, PVR boxes

    Oddly, analogue only

    Two companies this week launched products designed to turn Macs - the Mini in particular - into PVRs. Miglia's TVMax is the most Mini-friendly of the two, but I-O Data's GV-1394TV/M3 connects to a Firewire port - handy for folk with USB 1.1-era computers. The TVMax, by contrast, requires a free USB 2.0 port. It's styled to …

    Reg Hardware 24 May 2006, 12:48

  • Evolution Broadband pulls service

    'No longer accepting new customers'

    London-based broadband ISP - Evolution Broadband Ltd - has decided to "stop providing ADSL service entirely" from next month. In an email to customers yesterday the firm urged customers to "migrate immediately" and warned that it could not "guarantee that service will be continued past 6th June 2006". The firm has already …

    Telecoms 24 May 2006, 13:04

  • Ballmer lets slip Vista slip

    Slip of tongue or schedule?

    Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said the launch of operating system Windows Vista could slip back even further. Vista was originally due for release in late 2002 or 2003, under the Longhorn name. It was then delayed until Christmas 2005, another deadline that slipped past. In March this year, Microsoft said the software would not …

    Operating Systems 24 May 2006, 13:44

  • Accenture denies responsibility for payments failure

    'Component in the jigsaw, but not the whole picture'

    The consultancy and technology firm told MPs that it was not responsible for the failure of the Rural Payments Agency to deliver subsidies to farmers on time. Less than half of the £1.5bn subsidies owed to farmers under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) had been paid by the April deadline. In a three hour grilling by the …

    IT Director 24 May 2006, 14:19

  • Vonage shares hit the NYSE

    Trading down...

    Voice over Internet Protocol company Vonage sold its shares on the NYSE for the first time today. The offering was a little unusual because only 20 per cent of company shares were sold and 13.5 per cent of shares are reserved for Vonage customers. To qualify you must be a US citizen, live in the US, and have opened a Vonage …

    VoIP 24 May 2006, 14:29

  • Email problems snag Legend Internet

    Hardware failure blamed

    Legend Internet is blaming a hardware failure for leaving customers without email since the weekend. Legend, which was acquired by Scottish telco Thus earlier this year, has already warned customers that "because of the nature of the mail server failure, delivery of mail sent prior to this time cannot be guaranteed before …

    Telecoms 24 May 2006, 14:37

  • Are 3500 German eDonkey file sharers really facing criminal prosecution?

    Should you be scared?

    The German state prosecutor this week claimed it has searched 130 homes all over Germany and identified 3,500 suspects who have been offering up to 8,000 music files through P2P network eDonkey. These individuals now face fines of up to €15,000 or prison sentences of up to three years, according to the German Public Prosecution …

    Music and Media 24 May 2006, 15:28

  • BT gives police mobile access to databases

    'ello, 'ello, 'ello

    BT is predicting more Bobbies on the street with its service that enables police equipped with PDAs to check national databases and electoral rolls while on the beat. The BT Police Data Mobility Solution was demonstrated at the ACPO-APA Exhibition, and is already in use by the Met and by police in Merseyside and Sussex. The …

    Mobile 24 May 2006, 15:40

  • Skype bug lets 'buddies' swipe files

    A Windows special

    Skype has warned of a flaw in its popular VoIP client software that creates a means for hackers to swipe files from their "buddies". The flaw can be exploited via a malicious constructed Skype URL which initiates the transfer of a single named file to another Skype user. The security bug stems from an error within the parsing …

    Enterprise Security 24 May 2006, 17:07

  • Microsoft puts on mobile SideShow

    WinHEC An LCD pipe to your precious data

    In a staged performance at the WinHEC show, a small picture frame passed almost unnoticed as Mika Krammer, director of Microsoft's Windows division, acted out life after Vista. The frame was running SideShow, a well-named technology because it will sneak into your life without the usual fanfare from Microsoft. The wireless- …

    Mobile 24 May 2006, 18:07

  • Ofcom proposes first come first served spectrum sale

    We'll never run out of this stuff

    Ofcom has detailed its plans to sell off two spectrum bands for fixed wireless broadband services in the UK. Rather than auction off the 71-76GHz and 81-86GHz bands, the regulator proposes to offload them on a first come first served basis. Neither are in use right now, but Ofcom reckons they could do very nicely for …

    Wireless 24 May 2006, 18:35

  • Sun stuns server market in Q1 with sales spike

    IBM and HP hold, while Dell drops

    The server market was slapped and dropped on its head during the first quarter of 2006. We haven't seen anything quite like it since 2000. What's the big shocker? Well, Sun Microsystems actually enjoyed one of the stronger runs during the first quarter by most metrics, while Dell proved one of the worst performers. Beyond the …

    Servers 24 May 2006, 18:55

  • Carders scam spammers

    Philching

    Fraudsters who deal in stolen credit card data have devised a means to extract money from sponsors of junk mail campaigns. Carders have signed up as affiliates to spam campaigns, but instead of sending out junk mail themselves they are using stolen credit card data to make purchases from the sponsors of spam campaigns, such as …

    Spam 24 May 2006, 21:02

  • Six startups from the Web 2.0 swamp

    Mistah Kurtz - he's alive!

    Last night, in a trendy San Francisco wine bar where you slide Java cards into dispensers to get a drink, Bite Communications hosted an event which allowed the press to swoon over its Web 2.0 clients. As we suspected, many of these start-ups proved unnervingly full of real-time, socially engineered, text messaging fluff. …

    Music and Media 24 May 2006, 23:38