9th June 2006 Archive

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C&W sets sights on one million wholesale LLU lines

Blimey

Cable & Wireless (C&W) plans to supply one million unbundled broadband lines over the next couple of years as it changes tack to provide wholesale DSL. There are currently some 500,000 unbundled lines in the UK but that figure could hit more than two million this year according to some industry estimates. And while ISPs can …

Telecoms 9 Jun 2006, 06:02
Shuttle readies CrossFire XPC

Computex 2006 But only for Intel

Shuttle's new XPC SD37P2 with CrossFire support - the follow-up to last year's SLI-enabled XPC - was shown up and running at Computex this week. It’s built in the new P2 series of chassis. it’s based on the i975X chipset and it features dual x16 PCI Express slots. There are also four DIMM slots for DDR 2 memory, it’s Core 2 …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 07:02
MSI unveils 'posh' iPod Nano rival

Computex 2006 And it's not a bad looker

MSI isn't one of the world's best known purveyors of portable digital music products, but we were quite taken by its slimline P610 device, the company's alternative to Apple's iPod Nano. MSI also showed off its 1in hard disk-equipped P640 player. The P610 is one of the few Nano-like offerings we've seen that actually looks …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 07:02
Computex 2006 Asus unwraps HD DVD notebook duo

Asus this week demo'd two notebooks featuring integrated HD DVD drives. Unlike Acer, which showed off a 20.1in monster HD DVD notebook at Computex, Asus limited itself to laptops at the more portable 17in and 15.4in sizes. First, the 17in W2J. In addition to the next-generation optical drive, the machine features an …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 07:02
O2 preps basic phone for business users

Exclusive 'Jet' to focus on battery life not consumer-friendly fripperies?

O2 is believed to be preparing to bring to market a new handset, codenamed 'Jet', that will be pitched at the countless business users who want long battery life and solid telephony features without the fripperies used to entice consumers. Documentation seen by Reg Hardware suggests that what the UK carrier has in mind is a …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 08:02
Introduction to Developing Web Applications with AJAX - Part 1

There’s a better way of filling out web forms…

How often have you found yourself filling out a web form requiring umpteen fields to be specified which, when you submit the form, returns the message, “Invalid input” or “Field value not valid”? Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) provides a method for the completion and validation of web forms. It’s a web technique for …

Developer 9 Jun 2006, 08:04
Watching World Cup online could land you in court

Do you have a license for this football, sir?

Employees watching World Cup matches on the internet without a TV licence could for the first time land company directors in court as the TV Licensing Authority extends its World Cup clampdown to broadband and internet usage. The TV Licensing Authority, however, could find it hard to police the extension to broadband use since …

Music and Media 9 Jun 2006, 08:36
Skype accused of patent infringement

Point-to-point connection dispute

Internet telephony pioneer Net2Phone is suing the industry's most successful consumer internet telephony firm for patent infringement. IDT subsidiary Net2Phone is taking Skype to court, along with parent company eBay, over patent number 6,108,704, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) patent granted in the US which it says …

Music and Media 9 Jun 2006, 08:51
Grand Theft Auto maker settles with the Feds

Promises no more nooky..

Grand Theft Auto has settled with the Federal Trade Commission which was investigating the company over the "Hot Coffee" scandal - a hack which allowed players to view adult, animated content within the game. The US reacted with horror to the very idea of a pixelled nipple and several Senators demanded action. Although …

Music and Media 9 Jun 2006, 09:00
RM buys into Oz

A-Maze-zing acquisItion of CAZ

RM has bought Australian education management firm CAZ Software. The buy-out is expected to run to £1.2m, with CAZ becoming part of RM's Asia-Pacific tentacle, headquartered in Perth. CAZ turned over £1.8m last year, with a profit of £200,000. It makes and sells a product range called Maze and has an existing customer base of 2 …

Channel Register 9 Jun 2006, 09:37
MI5 helps pharma firms counter electronic threats

That'll be NISCC then

The UK pharmaceutical industry has been brought into the fold by British security services with the formation of a pharmaceutical information exchange. The group has been formed under the auspices of National infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC), the unit within MI5 which deals with threats to the UK’s critical …

Security 9 Jun 2006, 10:04
419er sets cops on eBayer

Lad from Lagos demands ecommerce justice

Here's a cautionary tale for all those eBayers among you: if a Nigerian contacts you claiming to have stumped up for a successful auction bid and demands that you ship goods forthwith to Lagos, you'd better jump to it. Otherwise, you might end up on the Metropolitan Police's "most wanted fugitives of the week" list, with your …

Music and Media 9 Jun 2006, 10:15
Cadbury blames IT for £12m profit dent

Life is like an ERP system...

Chocolate maker Cadbury Schweppes blamed problems with its SAP inventory system for a £12m downturn in profits. The introduction of the system in the fourth quarter led to glut of Cadbury products. Coupled with weak sales in January - all those New Year Resolutions - the company was forced to heavily discount some chocolate …

IT Director 9 Jun 2006, 10:19
Music fans warned about buying gig tickets online

Let's be careful out there

A consumer watchdog is warning music fans to take care when buying tickets online for music festivals and other events. Consumer Direct, the government's consumer advice service run by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), says punters have fewer rights when they buy privately and getting their money back when things go wrong can …

Financial News 9 Jun 2006, 10:31
Intel pledges 60 per cent price cuts

Don't buy that PC just yet...

Intel says new technology will let it get chips to market faster, allowing it to cut prices by as much as 60 per cent. An Intel spokesman told Reuters: "We have a more aggressive product and manufacturing ramp, so those older Pentium products will move down faster. It's not like we're cutting prices for the sake of cutting …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 10:36
Students think mainframes are cool

Ad attracts ~~geeks~~ new industry blood

A personal ad going up in campuses around the world says: FIND LOVE AND STABILITY Tired of being continuously available? Not me! I'm the world's leading self-healing, self-configuring, self-protecting and self-optimising enterprise server. If you're interested in having a low-maintenance relationship with your critical …

IT Director 9 Jun 2006, 11:03
iSoft in intensive care

Health provider looks sickly

iSoft - one of the primary providers for the government's NHS IT project - saw its shares fall 38 per cent yesterday when it announced job cuts and changes to how it accounts for revenue. iSoft shares have fallen from over 400p a share last December to just 54p today. The changes to accounts mean its results will be delayed …

Public Sector 9 Jun 2006, 11:07
IBM acquires BuildForge

Rational development

IBM has announced it has acquired BuildForge Inc, a privately held software company based in Texas. As is now the rule for such acquisitions, no financial details of the deal were revealed. BuildForge specialises in software tools that help automate the build-and-release processes associated with application development and …

Developer 9 Jun 2006, 11:11
How the World Cup will destroy your business

Apocalypse alert The end is nigh

It has come to our attention that many UK companies have not, despite stark warnings of the possible consequences, taken adequate steps to prevent their infrastructure from World Cup-induced meltdown. Indeed, so great is the threat to the UK economy that it would not be an exaggeration to say that those companies which do not …

Small Biz 9 Jun 2006, 11:44
What lies within

Life in the human body

Also in this week's column: What's this 'scotomisation' in The Da Vinci Code? What happened to haemophiliacs before blood supplies were safe? Is the brain-sex theory founded in fact? What lies within The inside of the human body is alive with life - microscopic life of all kinds. There are at least 200 species of …

Biology 9 Jun 2006, 11:48
What happened to haemophiliacs before blood supplies were safe?

Dispelling myths

Also in this week's column: What's this 'scotomisation' in The Da Vinci Code? What lies within Is the brain-sex theory founded in fact? What happened to haemophiliacs before blood supplies were safe? Asked by Alicia Rauzok of Greensboro, North Carolina According to the National Haemophilia Foundation in New York City, …

Biology 9 Jun 2006, 11:48
Is the brain-sex theory founded in fact?

Hunt for evidence of the 'gay brain'

Also in this week's column: What's this 'scotomisation' in The Da Vinci Code? What lies within What happened to haemophiliacs before blood supplies were safe? Is the brain-sex theory founded in fact? Asked by Kath Kennedy of Liverpool, United Kingdom In the controversial area of brain-sex theory and the quest for proof …

Biology 9 Jun 2006, 11:48
BT confirms engineer visits to install broadband

Mum on price though

BT has confirmed that customers will be able to book an engineer to visit their homes and businesses to install their BT Broadband connection. As reported by The Register last month, the engineer visit service is currently being trialled and is due to be launched later this summer. As part of the Home IT Visit service, punters …

Small Biz 9 Jun 2006, 11:49
Microsoft's Patch Tuesday looks like a whopper

Security updates ahoy!

Next week's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft's monthly security update, will see the release of nine security updates, some of which are deemed critical. The updates will fix various known security holes and change the way Internet Explorer deals with ActiveX - used by web pages for multimedia functions. The changes to ActiveX are …

Security 9 Jun 2006, 11:50
What's this 'scotomisation' in The Da Vinci Code?

Seeing is not always believing

Also in this week's column: What lies within: Life in the human body What happened to haemophiliacs before blood supplies were safe? Is the brain-sex theory founded in fact? What's this "scotomisation" in the The Da Vinci Code? Asked by Rita Hamblyn of New York City In the current blockbuster film, The Da Vinci Code, …

Biology 9 Jun 2006, 11:51
Griffin TuneFlex in-car iPod Nano holder

Review Your flexible friend?

I like listening to my iPod in the car, but I've longed for a more sophisticated set-up than having the player tucked in a cup-holder with one cable dangling down from the cassette player and another coming from a power adaptor plugging into the ciggie lighter... There are good mounting kits on the market, but I'm not …

Reg Hardware 9 Jun 2006, 13:02
Microsoft HPC set to take over the world, allegedly

Comment And it's released in the UK first

If our English readers need an ego boost, Microsoft has just chosen the UK for the worldwide launch of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, its HPC (High Performance Computing) offering. This is because high performance and technical computing is a growth market in the UK and a lot of the basic work on it was done at places …

Operating Systems 9 Jun 2006, 13:12
AOL grabs for security blanket

Offers free download, premium service on way

AOL’s latest reinvention wheeze seems to be positioning itself as a security player. Reports say the ISP, which these days appears to be spending a lot of time pondering how to break itself up, is launching a security service called Total Care. According to BusinessWeek the firm will begin beta-ing the service within weeks. …

Malware 9 Jun 2006, 13:31
Double whammy for Cisco

Drag and drop application development

Networking behemoth Cisco has bought two companies - Metreos and Audium - to simplify making applications on its Unified Communications System. Metreos, which cost Cisco $28m, employs 19 people in Austin, Texas. It makes software to link business applications with IP communications. Audium, which employs 26 people in New York …

Data Networking 9 Jun 2006, 13:33
World Cup web meltdown

Geek TV But you can watch it on your ~~mobe~~ mobile

OK, what bright BBC spark decided to stream the World Cup live online? Experts now reckon the internet will go into meltdown, thanks to office-bound footie fans watching afternoon games while they should be pimping spreadsheets. Under normal circumstances, the nation's finest engineering minds would immediately fix the net. But …

Entertainment 9 Jun 2006, 14:26
Examples of good practice, or not...

Buyer beware?

It's always an issue, when publishing tutorials, as to how much care you take about "good practice" peripheral to the main tutorial subject. What's appropriate when knocking up a quick demo to illustrate the capabilities of a new technology isn't appropriate when the new technology might end up in a business production …

Developer 9 Jun 2006, 14:31
C&W moves to reassure wholesale resellers

Tear that letter up

Cable & Wireless (C&W) has apologised to some 200 reseller partners after sending out an email yesterday telling them that its Bulldog ISP would not be taking on any new residential or business customers. The email told of C&W's plans to pull out of residential broadband and instead concentrate on the provision of wholesale …

Telecoms 9 Jun 2006, 15:16
Net Neut nixed in Congress

On to the Senate

Congress has declined an opportunity to shackle US telecoms companies with restrictions on the services they offer. The Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE) act passed in the House yesterday by without the non-discrimination provisions campaigners wanted. An amendment sponsored by Rep.Edward Markey ( …

Networks 9 Jun 2006, 16:40
Intel yanks 'Tulsa' launch forward

Would like to sell a 4P chip or two

Intel has pulled forward the release of a server chip meant for four-socket servers, as it desperately tries to catch-up with rival AMD. Intel today revealed that "Tulsa" will arrive in the third quarter instead of the fourth quarter, as previously forecast. The chip will slot into Intel's MP - multiprocessor - systems that …

Servers 9 Jun 2006, 19:49
Whiney EFF and RIAA knocked by digital license go ahead

Comfort blanket

The US copyright office's proposal to simplify the nightmare of licensing digital music has been rubber stamped by a House committee - despite the objections of the RIAA and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The US copyright office agreed that services such as Napster and iTunes found mechanical copyright licensing a …

Music and Media 9 Jun 2006, 23:50