The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

19th June 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • AMD 'delays' Socket F Opterons, Taiwan moles claim

    Only a few weeks if rumours are to be believed

    AMD appears to have put back the release of Socket F Opteron processors, if word coming out of Taiwan's motherboard-maker community is anything to go by. The CPUs will now ship on 1 August, not 11 July, the moles maintain. The chip maker has, of course, never said publicly when Socket F parts will be provided, and the alleged …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 08:53

  • Laming: no excuse for bad IT

    Information mismanagement

    The leader of the Climbié Inquiry has called upon the criminal justice system (CJS) to embrace technology Lord Laming told delegates at the GovNet Modernising Justice Through IT conference on 15 June that failure to embrace change should not be the result of staff feeling anxious based on a fear based on "what will happen to my …

    Public Sector 19 Jun 2006, 08:53

  • Patent refused for Citibank's risk tool

    Mathematical method

    Citibank has failed to convince the High Court in England that it deserves a patent for a system that assures the integrity of data used to gauge financial risk. The application was rejected as being a mathematical method. The system helps derivatives traders in their analysis of market conditions so they can calculate the …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 09:02

  • Blockbuster escalates row over online rental patent

    If you sue me, I'll sue you

    Netflix used deceptive practices to obtain patents and monopolise the online rental business, Blockbuster claimed this week. Netflix is suing Blockbuster for alleged infringement of its business method patent. Blockbuster, which says the Netflix patents are unenforceable, filed anti-trust counterclaims in a federal court in San …

    Financial News 19 Jun 2006, 09:10

  • Microsoft loses Excel patent appeal

    That will be $65m, please

    The US district court has upheld a finding against Microsoft that it infringed on a patent in making its Excel spreadsheet. In June last year, a judge ruled Microsoft had infringed a patent owned by Guatemalan inventor Armando Amado. Vince Belusko, a partner at Amando's law firm Morrison & Foerster, said last week: "This …

    Applications 19 Jun 2006, 09:15

  • 'Energy-efficient' Athlons go on sale in Tokyo stores

    Sixty-five Watters

    The 65W "energy efficient" versions of AMD's Socket AM2-based Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and 4200+ have begun to appear in Japan's computing components stores, local reports reveal. The two processors, spotted by Japanese-language site Akiba PC Hotline, are priced at ¥38,980 ($339/£183) and ¥50,800 ($441/£238), respectively. Both …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 09:16

  • US government pressured Sweden over Pirate Bay

    My enemy's enemy

    US government officials put pressure on the Swedish government shortly before the raids on Pirate Bay took place. In April, officials from the US Department of Commerce, the State Department and the US trade representative's office met with officials from the Swedish Ministry of Justice, the Washington Post reports. They told …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 09:27

  • SCADA industry debates flaw disclosure

    Vendors and researchers face off

    The outing of a simple crash bug has caused public soul-searching in an industry that has historically been closed-mouthed about its vulnerabilities. The flaw, in a particular vendor's implementation of the Inter-Control Centre Communications Protocol (ICCP), could have allowed an attacker the ability to crash a server. Yet …

    Enterprise Security 19 Jun 2006, 09:33

  • Schwartz stays Sunny despite lay-offs

    Sun CEO's suit and tie policy

    Despite announcing a plan to shave up to $590m in annual costs with as many as 5,000 job cuts, Sun's new CEO Jonathan Schwartz remains upbeat about Sun Microsystems, the troubled server and software company, which has been in decline since the dotcom boom and bust of 2000. Schwartz (40) recently took over from Scott McNealy (51 …

    Servers 19 Jun 2006, 09:36

  • eBayer goes for bust in ashtray auction

    NSFW Mamtastic offer

    Ashtray vendors take note: one eBayer has discovered an excellent way of drumming up interest in what is hardly the most vibrant second-hand market. Our correspondent Glenn explains: "Look closely at the pic on this eBay listing, which was causing shockingly un-PC guffaws in Birmingham today..." Terrific. We're delighted to …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 09:44

  • BBC issues Belfast storm warning

    Extreme weather menaces city

    Our Belfast readers can award themselves a day off tomorrow, courtesy of the BBC. The reason? Well, our man on the spot, Wil Hadden, has noticed that the city is set for some fairly extravagant weather: Blimey. Wil notes: "Looks like I might not be in work on Tuesday" - a pretty reasonable assumption given that the whole …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 09:49

  • BenQ jogs out outdoor-folk phone

    iMac-esque blue-and-white styling

    BenQ Mobile last week unveiled its first sporty phone, kitting the handset out in blue and white water-resistant rubber and plastic, and equipping it with a scratch-retardant screen to protect the 132 x 176, 262,144-colour display. Pitched at outdoors folks, the BenQ-Siemens M81 ships with navigation software - Jentro's …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 09:50

  • Unwanted exposure for new Excel flaw

    MS says 'be careful'

    A new vulnerability in Microsoft's Excel has been exposed and exploited in a targeted attack, according to reports. Microsoft's security blog says at least one customer has been affected. The software giant says for the exploit to work a user must open a malicious Excel document, and reminds its customers to "be very careful …

    Channel Register 19 Jun 2006, 10:06

  • Gates becomes a higher power

    Comment Step down really a step up

    "People think of me as this technical guy," Bill Gates once told me. "In fact, the important point to remember about my background is the fact that I was brought up to be a lawyer. My family are all corporate lawyers, and the conversation at every breakfast was always over the latest legal developments in the business space. You …

    Software 19 Jun 2006, 10:06

  • Nokia announces 'affordable' 3G phone

    Favours fast downloads rather than video calling

    Nokia today unveiled the phone it hopes will bring 3G to the masses: a cut-price candybar handset that it reckons will retail SIM-free for a mere €240 (£164/$304) when it goes on sale in the third-quarter. The Nokia 6151 uses 3G for fast downloads rather than video calls - there's no front-mounted camera, for instance. It …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 10:08

  • DSG could offload The Link - report

    Sale rumours surface again

    DSG International could be about to offload its troubled mobile phone business to cellco O2. The Link is a joint venture between DSG (60 per cent) and O2 (40 per cent) and has been dogged by speculation about its future for months. The Guardian reports that an announcement could be made as early as this week when DSG - which …

    Mobile 19 Jun 2006, 10:10

  • Nokia and Siemens merge phone biz

    Ringing up synergies/job losses

    Nokia and Siemens are merging their phone network businesses. The new company, dubbed Nokia Siemens Networks, is a 50-50 joint venture that will cover both fixed line and mobile networks. If the company had existed in 2005 it potentially would have brought in revenues of €15.8bn. Based on current market share it will be second …

    Mobile 19 Jun 2006, 10:29

  • Nokia tries to take a bite out of LG's Chocolate

    Unveils ultra-cheap handset too

    Nokia rounded out today's phone roll-out with a bid to take on LG's popular Chocolate handset and a second phone aimed at buyers on very tight budgets - it is expected to retail for around €45 (£31/$57) before sales tax. The cheap handset is the Nokia 1110i, a pared-back 80g phone with a claimed five-hour talk time and a …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 10:43

  • 1,000 Aussies caught in NAB phishing attack

    Reminder to keep patches up to date

    A phishing email claiming that The National Australia Bank (NAB) is bankrupt has caught more than 1,000 of the bank's customers in its net. The email warns the bank's customers that NAB might be bankrupt. It claims the bank's ATMs are not working and that people are starting panic withdrawals. It invites them to click on a link …

    Malware 19 Jun 2006, 10:45

  • Sony Ericsson reveals 3G i-mode handset

    Faster mobile internet

    Sony Ericsson has unveiled its first 3G phone capable of supporting i-mode, the internet-on-your-phone service pioneered by Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and offered over here in the UK by the O2 network. The K610im is a classic Sony Ericsson handset design - it's cased in black and there's a landscape-oriented two-megapixel, 2 …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 11:11

  • Back to Front

    Imagine Cup blog The move from back to front-end design

    The majority of the work we've done in the past revolves purely around the back end of a system. Lately however there's been a shift from Back to Front-end design. Using Expressions and Windows Presentation Foundation we've been trying, "trying" being the operative word, to get the Digital Recovery Environment to look "Nice." It …

    Developer 19 Jun 2006, 11:33

  • ATI said to have signed UMC to fab 80nm chips

    Foundry joins TSMC

    ATI is said to have selected UMC to punch out 80nm GPUs later this year. The graphics chip company has already chosen TSMC to fab its 80nm products from September before moving to 65nm sometime next year. ATI revealed the TSMC deal last week, and while there's no official word on other manufacturing partners, Taiwanese moles …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 11:58

  • VAT fraudster gets six years

    Massive mobile missing trader fraud

    A man was jailed for six years on Friday for his part in VAT-avoiding carousel fraud. Mark Selby pleaded guilty to missing trader offences between May 2002 and May 2003. During that time Selby's company sold mobile phones worth £326.5m to 12 UK companies. He also sold phones to Spanish companies which supplied the same 12 UK …

    Small Biz 19 Jun 2006, 12:04

  • Dutch MP3 search engine ruled illegal

    Thou shall not link

    Dutch anti piracy foundation BREIN has won its case against Mp3 search engine Zoekmp3.nl. Dutch company Techno Design was ordered on Friday by the Dutch Court of Appeals to shut down the search engine, which was no longer online, but at one time featured tens of thousands of links and attracted over 50,000 visitors a day. The …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 12:13

  • China: moon landing planned for 2024

    Absolute lunarcy

    The deputy head of China's space programme says the country will put a man on the moon by 2024. Long Lehao, deputy chief architect of the lunar probing project, told Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po that the country "possesses the technology, materials and the economic strength" to put a man on the moon. In earlier reports, …

    Science 19 Jun 2006, 12:14

  • Of clustering patterns and JBoss

    Editors' Blog Cache help is at hand...

    It sometimes seems that everything lives in cache these days and I worry about the complexity of interacting cached systems built on hardware clusters. It could be all too easy to optimise throughput for a particular job mix and hardware configuration; such that if any of the assumptions changes slightly, throughput drops …

    Developer 19 Jun 2006, 12:18

  • Broadband numbers grow at Demon

    Devil in the detail

    Demon, the internet brand of Scottish telco Thus, saw the number of broadband subscribers jump 20 per cent over the last year to 110,000, helping to boost broadband revenues. Slap on a further 16,500 broadband punters adopted when Thus bought Your Communications and Legend Communications earlier this year, and Demon's broadband …

    Telecoms 19 Jun 2006, 12:46

  • Trojan forwards details of Oregon taxpayers

    Porn-seeking clerk compromises beavers

    Workers at Oregon’s department of revenue have been banned from using their PCs for “non-business” purposes after a porn-hunting employee accidentally downloaded a Trojan which spirited away personal details of over 2,000 taxpayers. The department is in the process of informing some 2,200 residents that their names, addresses …

    Malware 19 Jun 2006, 13:54

  • DVLA makes £6.5m selling addresses

    Keen to 'look after' ID card database...

    The government has promised to have another look at regulations which allowed the DVLA to make almost £6.5m last year by selling drivers' addresses. The figure emerged thanks to a Parliamentary answer which revealed the agency made £6.36m from April 2005 to March 2006 by selling drivers' addresses for £2.50 each. Which means …

    Public Sector 19 Jun 2006, 13:58

  • Trend Micro to create over 100 jobs in Cork

    Sings praise of Irish workforce

    Security firm Trend Micro has announced it is to double the number of staff employed at its EMEA headquarters in Cork. The firm, which provides software, hardware and services to the secure content and threat management solutions sector, is to expand its Cork facility, a move it said will bring the number of staff based in its …

    Channel Register 19 Jun 2006, 14:01

  • Verizon sues Vonage in VoIP patent spat

    Vonage 'to vigorously defend the lawsuit'

    US telecoms giant Verizon is suing Vonage over alleged patent infringements, the broadband telephony service confirmed today. Vonage Holdings Corp and its subsidiary Vonage America were served with the lawsuit, which relates to seven patents, by Verizon Services Corp and Verizon Laboratories. In a statement, Vonage said it " …

    VoIP 19 Jun 2006, 14:06

  • Hacking students will need background checks

    Only the legit need apply

    Applicants to the University of Abertay's new Ethical Hacking course will be subject to stringent background checks before being offered a place, to make sure they are not likely to abuse the knowledge they will gain. The four-year degree "Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures" will be on offer from this September, and is …

    Security 19 Jun 2006, 14:13

  • Another HMRC computer glitch

    National insurance this time

    More problems with computer systems at HM Revenue & Customs have left at least 500,000 people with gaps in their national insurance records and might prevent them from claiming their full pensions and other benefits. The Guardian reported today that a senior civil servant had been told on the eve of his retirement that computer …

    Public Sector 19 Jun 2006, 14:21

  • New tidal generator could mean cheaper electricity

    On the shelves in five years?

    Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a new kind of marine generator they say could substantially reduce the cost of electricity generated from tidal power. Dr Steve Turnock said the design was a new take on tidal energy generation: "This is a compact design that does away with many of the moving parts …

    Physics 19 Jun 2006, 14:30

  • EC changes data rules for air passengers

    Same content, different legal basis

    The European Commission has adopted two changes to the way it gives information about plane passengers to US authorities. The Transfer of Passenger Name Records and allows for US authorities to get access to information about airline passengers. At the end of May the European court ruled that existing procedures were illegal …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 14:33

  • Blue Peter launches junior ID card scheme

    Sticky back plastic

    Blue Peter presenters will announce the restoration of privileges for the shows' badge holders on this afternoon's programme - as long as they submit to an under-age ID card scheme. Naughty kids had been "defrauding the system" by selling their Blue Peter badges over the internet, it emerged in March. BBC producers declared a …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 2006, 14:48

  • PowerColor X1900 GT ATI-based graphics card

    Review Plenty of performance for under £200

    Competition is meant to be good for the consumer and one market where this seems to be more true than anywhere else is if course computer components. There is a never-ending price war between the various manufacturers, but this has never been as apparent as it currently is when it comes to graphics cards. As long as ATI and …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 14:48

  • Top 10 storage tips

    Storage survey summer surprise

    Disk server firm DataCore Software has unleashed the results of its global roundtable sessions with storage chiefs. DataCore CEO George Teixeira said: "The knowledge that we have derived by these is revealing and we feel that it is important to share this with the data storage community at large to help further best practices …

    Storage 19 Jun 2006, 15:19

  • Retailers wake up to Intel Macs' WinXP capability

    UK chain targets switchers?

    The ability of Apple's new Intel-based desktops and notebooks to run Windows XP clearly has an appeal beyond Mac enthusiasts keen to see how far they can push their machines. UK retailers too are leaping at the chance to tout the platform's multiple operating system support to sell Macs to one-time PC buyers. Well, superstore …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 2006, 16:12

  • EMC gets ProActiv(ity)

    Business process software buy

    EMC has bought ProActivity Software Solutions Ltd, a privately held business software firm for an undisclosed amount. Headquartered in Massachusetts, with R&D labs in Israel, ProActivity specialises in what is called business analysis optimisation. Apparently, its software is really good at generating flow charts on the fly. …

    Financial News 19 Jun 2006, 16:31