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16th June 2006 Archive

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  • Stem cell trigger pinpointed

    The protein that turns back time

    Stem cell scientists have pinpointed a molecule that confers the cells with amazing powers of self-renewal and maintains their ability to develop into any other type of cell in the body. The discovery could help pave the way for stem cells derived from adult tissues, giving ethical debates over the use of embryos a side-swerve …

    Biology 16 Jun 2006, 00:02

  • Boulder boffins reveal secret of gas giants' moons

    Neptune still a puzzle, though

    A computer model developed by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, sheds new light on the formation of many of the moons in the solar system. Up until now, according to the research team, it has been known that collectively, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus amount to a similar proportion …

    Space 16 Jun 2006, 02:02

  • Bring back Bichard

    Blair resists call to reconvene inquiry team

    The prime minister has fended off a call to reconvene the Bichard inquiry team – at least for now. The issue was raised by Eric Illsley, Labour MP for Barnsley Central, in a parliamentary question to Tony Blair yesterday. Illsley pointed out that it is two years since the Bichard Inquiry into the failings in information …

    Public Sector 16 Jun 2006, 04:02

  • NetSuite seeks ISVs

    Editors' Blog Your business, their problem

    So you've got this great piece of code, and you know it could make a great little product. It could even make your fortune if you get a business going around it. That last bit, however, is still the stumbling block; the grind of running the business is the part where most small companies stagger and fall, product ideas are dead …

    Developer 16 Jun 2006, 08:28

  • Mio launches C210 Sat Nav in Brussels

    And it's cheap, very cheap

    Belgian company Mio Technology has launched the C210 Sat Nav package, with a very reasonable retail price of £199. This SiRFstarIII GPS receiver combines a 400 MHz processor, a 2.7 inch screen and an SD slot for the map. It weighs 110g and runs on four AA batteries to provide over 4.5 hours of navigation on foot with the …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 08:32

  • Yahoo! worst in China

    You! can! censor! the! internet!

    Yahoo! restricts access to more websites than any other search engine in China. Lobby group Reporters without Borders tested Yahoo!, Google, MSN and baidu.com. It found that Yahoo! censors its results even more strictly than local portal baidu.com. The research also found that Microsoft, which claims not to censor its results …

    Music and Media 16 Jun 2006, 09:20

  • Boy George tries to squeeze into US patent shoes

    Opinion Osborne wants EU to be more like US

    European ministers have pinned their hopes on more targets to solve the riddle posed so sycophantically by shadow chancellor George Osborne this week in a speech to IT bigwigs in California: How come you Yanks are so big, bold and beautiful, while us Europeans are such wet and weedy sucklers of the great American teat? It is a …

    Business 16 Jun 2006, 09:27

  • France first in MS IPTV rollout

    Comment But will the long-awaited service impress?

    Right on schedule, T-Online France, trading as Club Internet, an ISP subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom operating in France, will deliver the first live Microsoft IPTV service in Europe later this month. The service not only offers full multicasting, but also comes as a hybrid including Digital Terrestrial TV, and a VoD library of …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 2006, 09:45

  • Nortel weakened by failure of Huawei venture

    Comment Has it missed the boat?

    Four months after announcing an important joint venture with China's Huawei, Nortel quietly announced in an SEC filing that the plan had been cancelled. This makes it more likely than ever that the struggling Canadian company will look for a partner – and perhaps an acquirer – to shore up its wireless infrastructure business, …

    Telecoms 16 Jun 2006, 09:48

  • Tiscali unveils VoIP service

    VoIPtastic

    Tiscali, which recently clocked up one million broadband lines in the UK, has unveiled details of a new VoIP service. Netphone, as it's called, is free to download and lets broadband users make free PC to PC phone calls. It can also be used to send and receive faxes, text messages and make calls to landlines. Calls to UK …

    VoIP 16 Jun 2006, 10:22

  • Oracle busts through own forecasts for Q4

    Can't they get software to predict this stuff properly?

    Oracle was full of itself yesterday after announcing it would exceed financial targets for its fourth quarter. The software giant said revenues were set to come in at $4.85bn, up 25 per cent. It had previously forecast 13 per cent to 17 per cent growth. This will deliver net income of $1.3bn, up 27 per cent, or $1.5bn non-GAAP …

    Financial News 16 Jun 2006, 10:43

  • What is a Chinese restaurant headache?

    Heady issues

    Also in this week's column: Do lie detector tests really work? Is long life related to where you live? What cultures don't share Western economic values? What is a Chinese restaurant headache? This is the unfortunate name for one of the symptoms of the allergic reaction to monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG can induce a …

    Biology 16 Jun 2006, 10:45

  • Is long life related to where you live?

    A recipe for longevity

    Also in this week's column: Do lie detector tests really work? What is a Chinese restaurant headache? What cultures don't share Western economic values? Is long life related to where you live? It is a myth that it is common to live to be 120 or more in some parts of the world. The facts do not support stories of …

    Biology 16 Jun 2006, 10:45

  • What cultures don't share Western economic values?

    Alternative ideals

    Also in this week's column: Do lie detector tests really work? What is a Chinese restaurant headache? Is long life related to where you live? What cultures don't share Western economic values? Asked by Kelly O'Connor of Hartford, Connecticut There are many traditional cultures where people do not share the Western …

    Biology 16 Jun 2006, 10:46

  • Do lie detector tests really work?

    Polygraph probe

    Also in this week's column: What is a Chinese restaurant headache? Is long life related to where you live? What cultures don't share Western economic values? Do lie detector tests really work? Asked by Lisa Burnham of East London A lie-detector test or machine is a popular, but inaccurate term for the instrument that …

    Biology 16 Jun 2006, 10:48

  • BOFH: Dr Bastard's lab challenge

    Episode 20 Mickey Mouse inventions

    So it's time for the annual challenge between the PFY and I to create the ultimate item for Doctor Bastard's lab. I've been looking forward to this for some time as I have a couple of items that I've been perfecting that are bound to be of use to my fellow bastards in years to come. "Are we ready?" the PFY asks, cheerfully …

    BOFH 16 Jun 2006, 11:02

  • Hacking your vacuum cleaner

    Turn a Roomba into, well, anything

    What's the difference between a dishwasher and a robot that washes dishes? Pay enough for your dishwasher and it will use fuzzy logic to decide how much water to use given the number of plates you put in. iRobot CEO Colin Angle agrees that's robotic technology, but he wants more. "The right thing to happen with my dishes is …

    Developer 16 Jun 2006, 11:08

  • JVC Alneo XA-F57 'basic' MP3 player

    Review Low in features, but not in price

    JVC isn't the first company that springs to mind when shopping for an MP3 player, although I'd happily consider many of its other products. The Alneo range of players consists of two models, the XA-F57 at 512Mb and the XA-F107 at 1GB. It's seems strange to launch such low capacity players when the company's competitors are …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 11:44

  • A lesson in spyware

    Simple concept?

    I use a computer of course, but only for fun. I'm certainly not a guru. So when people started talking about "spyware" I was a little confused. It sounded like a virus, but it clearly wasn't. No problem, I visited a site that I trust (Microsoft.com) and found a very nice lady there (in a video, of course) who told me all about …

    Malware 16 Jun 2006, 12:04

  • Welsh email filterer can use 'spam' in trademark

    Hormel grip on pork meat slips

    Swansea email filter firm NetBop Technologies has become the first to register a text trademark containing the word "spam". It has settled an 18-month dispute with US foodstuffer Hormel over the right to use the popular term for unsolicited email in naming its product Bopspam. Hormel lawyers discovered they were not as likely …

    Channel Register 16 Jun 2006, 12:19

  • NHS IT cost doubled to £12.4bn

    'But it's not over budget'

    The £6.2bn National Programme for IT will henceforward be known as the £12.4bn National Programme for IT, after a long-awaited National Audit Office report into the ambitious NHS IT scheme revealed the full extent of its costs to date. But the Department of Health always knew it was going to cost as much as £12.5bn, it said …

    Public Sector 16 Jun 2006, 12:44

  • Acer MP-500 breaks cover in Germany

    Waiting game may be over, but was it worth it?

    We've been waiting for Acer's MP-500 PMP for some time now and, if a product page on Acer's German website is anything to go by, it seems that the launch day may be very close. The MP-500's key features are a 3.5 inch QVGA screen with 320 x 240 resolution, a 20GB 1.8 inch hard drive for storage along with an SD slot, …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 13:28

  • Consumers to flock to VoIP

    All change

    The traditional home phone number could become a thing of the past as more and more people opt for fixed-mobile services and VoIP. That's according to analysts at Jupiter Research, who say location will cease to be important for either making or receiving telephone calls. Indeed, its research has found that three in ten …

    VoIP 16 Jun 2006, 13:34

  • Sky viewers show Motty the red button

    Tech Digest Footie fans go interactive

    There's much excitement in Geek TV's plush suite over a Sky press release that fails to mention the World Cup. We can't even find any puns about "kicking off" or "two halves" in the missive, which alerts us to the upcoming high-def live broadcast of a Robbie Williams concert. September's HD airing will also feature some …

    Entertainment 16 Jun 2006, 13:43

  • CMDB standards wrangle

    'Big Six' shun top down approach

    CMDB? That's Configuration Management Database in long-hand, and it is the tool through which IT managements can keep a handle on the increasing complex melange of applications, tools, utilities and the rest that go to make up the operational IT infrastructure of a business or organisation. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) …

    Developer 16 Jun 2006, 13:56

  • Powergen pulls plug on Indian call centres

    Responds to customer complaints

    Powergen is pulling the plug on its Indian call centres following complaints from customers. The energy giant announced yesterday that it plans to withdraw all inbound call handling from India and create 1,000 new jobs in the UK instead. "Offshore call centres may have their place for certain industries," Powergen managing …

    Channel Register 16 Jun 2006, 14:17

  • VIA socket-479 CPU appears in Japan

    Works with Intel chipsets

    VIA has been very quiet recently, especially in the UK. Although it had a stand at Computex this year, there was really very little in terms of new products on display. Then, out of nowhere, this socket-479 processor appears on a Japanese website, without any mention of it from VIA. Admittedly, VIA seems to have been …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 14:19

  • Developing world malware writers throw a sickie

    Letters As seen on Google Earth

    Does sending PCs to the developing world fuel malware? That's what Eugene Kaspersky said recently. We reckoned the potential benefits outweighed the dangers, but here are your thoughts: PCs to developing world 'fuel malware'. Perhaps, but Software Industry's dirty secret is that many top people learnt their trade in secret …

    Letters 16 Jun 2006, 14:43

  • What's Boomtube? Yup, speakers in a tube

    Go on, annoy people who are lazing in the park

    Think Outside's Boomtube portable speakers are housed in an aluminium tube with ends that twist off that reveal stereo satellite speakers. The central section accommodates a pair of 56mm/2 inch drivers, so that's four drivers, with a total rating of 40Watts RMS. It also accommodates a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that is claimed …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 14:57

  • ATI denies 80nm problems

    No news is good news

    When Windows Vista hits the shops at the turn of the New Year it will include DirectX 10 which supports Shader Model with unified Shaders, as opposed to dedicated Pixel, Vertex and Geometry Shaders. This is a significant change for ATI and Nvidia and it means that the next chips will be taking a much greater step than a …

    Reg Hardware 16 Jun 2006, 15:24

  • Register Weekly

    To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

    Gates bolts The big news of this week was the departure of Bill Gates from Microsoft. Like all the best news stories, you might have heard this one before. Gates stepped down from day-to-day management of Microsoft in 2000 when Steve Ballmer took over as chief executive. But now he wants to work full-time on his foundation and …

    Business 16 Jun 2006, 16:33

  • Mealy-mouthed NAO pampers NHS IT

    Avoids key questions

    The £12.4bn National Programme for IT might not be delivering value for money, according to the National Audit Office report into the ambitious NHS IT scheme. But the auditors cannot be too sure because no proper cost/benefit analysis has been done. The NAO report was meant to tell us. It's brief included deciding whether …

    Public Sector 16 Jun 2006, 16:59

  • The US soccer team will always stink

    And ninthly Thomas Friedman's mustache knows it

    One might also say: Surely the owner of the visual room would have to be the same kind of thing as it is; but he is not to be found in it, and there is no outside - Ludwig Wittgenstein If Thomas Friedman's mustache understands so damned much, then why is America's soccer program such an embarrassment? This question has plagued …

    Bootnotes 16 Jun 2006, 23:16