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30th June 2006 Archive

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  • Nokia backs away from CDMA

    Comment And steps up battle of wills with Qualcomm

    Just four months after announcing a CDMA handset joint venture with Sanyo, Nokia has cancelled the plan and its own R&D in the area, claiming the technology is "financially prohibitive", especially for emerging economies. While the Finnish giant has steered clear of the ultra-low cost handsets spearheaded by Motorola, citing …

    Mobile 30 Jun 2006, 05:02

  • Code Quality

    Book review An open source perspective

    With his first book, Code Reading, Diomidis Spinellis broke new ground. Here was a major book on the oft-neglected but important skill of reading source code. Given that software maintenance is a huge and ever-growing burden that all developers have to endure, it is surprising that the major emphasis in education and in the …

    Developer 30 Jun 2006, 06:02

  • Blair backs NPfIT

    Keeping the faith

    The prime minister has declared his faith in the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Tony Blair stated his support in response to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Richard Bacon. Bacon asked how much has been spent on the programme. The prime minister answered that, up to the end of March 2006, expenditure on …

    Public Sector 30 Jun 2006, 08:26

  • Leadership vacuum for Microsoft biz apps

    What follows Orlando?

    Microsoft's fledgling business applications unit remains bereft of clear leadership after Microsoft announced the group's current chief operating officer Orlando Ayala is moving over to target "emerging segments". Microsoft's Business Applications (MBS) covers enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship …

    Applications 30 Jun 2006, 08:31

  • MySQL gets cosy with Microsoft

    Joins VSIP

    MySQL, the open source database firm, is to receive Microsoft marketing support along with Visual Studio technical integration. The company has paid $3,000 to become a member of Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program in a move that will help cement the database's use on Windows. MySQL joins more than 240 …

    Applications 30 Jun 2006, 08:37

  • Microsoft hides under duvet

    As WGA blows up in its face

    Not since IBM invented a handwriting recognition system for banks, have I heard such cries of grief. To understand it, you have to know what WGA means. And if you've ever had a problem with Office, and been told by tech support "just install this patch" you'll know what it is: because it's the thing which, since September 2004, …

    Software 30 Jun 2006, 08:45

  • Apple updates iTunes, iPod code

    Security holes plugged, bugs patched, Nike+iPod gizmo supported

    Apple has not only updated its iTunes music jukebox software but made a number of tweaks to various iPods' firmware. Both updates are available now through Mac OS X's Software Update utility, or from Apple's website. iTunes 6.0.5 adds support for the Nike+iPod exercise feedback gadget Apple and Nike announced in May this year …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 09:00

  • Next generation BI

    Comment A user's wish list

    I was asked recently to consider what would be required for a next generation BI solution. Never one to shirk a challenge, here are some thoughts. The key is at the user level. First, accessing data and reports needs to be simpler: you and I may be au fait with making selections from hierarchies, but lots of people aren't. Tree …

    Developer 30 Jun 2006, 09:04

  • Scambaiter persuades 419er to carve Commodore 64 keyboard

    No, really

    Were there a World Cup of scambaiting - the process by which net vigilantes "enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources" - then the following example from 419 Eater would surely lift the trophy. It's the quite remarkable tale of how scambaiter "Shiver Metimbers" managed to persuade a …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 09:16

  • ATI sales dip during 'challenging' quarter

    But stay way above last year's numbers

    ATI saw its sales dip during the third-quarter despite a big year-on-year gain, the graphics chip company said yesterday. Sales for the three months to 31 May 2006 reached $652.3m and yielded a net income of $31.9m. Those figures represent sequential declines of 2.9 per cent and 6.5 per cent, respectively. Sales were up 23 …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 09:18

  • Rock rolls out dual-core Intel, AMD laptops

    UK PC maker Rock this week unveiled a pair of dual-core notebooks, one based on Intel technology, the other on an AMD processor. Both sport Nvidia's GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip and other refinements. The Pegasus 660 is the Intel machine. It's equipped the recently released 2.33GHz Core Duo T2700. The screen's a 15.4in 1,280 …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 09:40

  • Telewest says sorry for World Cup blackout

    Geek TV Compensation on the cards for disgrunted England fans

    From the team that brings you Tech Digest, Shiny Shiny and Who Ate All The Bratwurst? Bristol staggered to a standstill last Sunday teatime, when 100,000 of the area's Telewest subscribers lost their TV signal for all of Songs of Praise, Last of the Summer Wine and some Ecuadorians playing football. Rumours that the 375 …

    Entertainment 30 Jun 2006, 10:01

  • China targets blogs

    Wants to 'purify' the net

    China has launched yet another crackdown on the country's net users after officials said that blogs and search engines would "undergo strict supervision of the government". State media reports that China has already taken measures to "purify the environment of internet and mobile communication network" and plans to have this " …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 10:02

  • AMD Live! coming to a home entertainment centre near you

    'Milestone' PC

    This week, AMD announced its next milestone in digital entertainment with the AMD Live! PC, a media-centre PC designed to enable consumers to organise, distribute, share, and enjoy its content. OEMs participating in the programme include Acer, Alienware, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Gateway, HP, Sahara, and Tsinghua Tongfang. …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 10:15

  • Microsoft confirms another slip for Office

    As evangelist reaches for Gospel according to Google

    The wheels worked a little looser at Microsoft today as it revealed the next version of Office will be delayed and another exec flew the coop to Google. And the company also announced it will slash 200 sales jobs at its North American operation – though that could be simply to free up more chairs for the inevitable furniture …

    Small Biz 30 Jun 2006, 10:32

  • Apple, CA investigate share option grants

    Back pedalling over backdating

    Apple and CA are both investigating mishandling of the choice stock options dished out to top executives. Both companies said yesterday that potential irregularities which could have tainted the firms' accounts had been discovered by auditors. A statement from Apple said: "One of the grants in question was to CEO Steve Jobs, …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2006, 10:58

  • CSA: The most broken system of all?

    They were told, but did they listen?

    The equivalent of two thirds of the money collected by the Child Support Agency (CSA) from absent parents for the care of their children is wasted on administration because of a crap computer system and poor management. For every £1 collected from an absent parent in 04/05, it cost 70 pence to run the administration system, …

    Public Sector 30 Jun 2006, 11:30

  • Symantec squares up to the IRS over $1bn tax demand

    Bit of bother

    Symantec says it will battle in the courts to avoid paying the more than $1bn in tax and penalties the IRS is demanding from it. The dispute dates back to a tax audit of recent acquisition Veritas in 2000 and 2001. The IRS says Veritas lowered its tax bill by claiming too much credit in the US for technology developed by its …

    Storage 30 Jun 2006, 11:33

  • Shadowcrew mastermind caged

    Carding supremo jailed for 32 months

    The co-founder of a carding website that prosecutors describe as one of the biggest online forums for identity theft has been jailed for two years and eight months. Andrew Mantovani, 24, of Scottsdale, Arizona was also fined $5,000 at a hearing before US District Judge William J Martini on Thursday, after pleading guilty last …

    ID 30 Jun 2006, 11:35

  • AOL UK chalks up 100k LLU lines

    Kit installed in 200 exchanges

    AOL has unbundled more than 100,000 broadband lines since it kicked off investment in local loop unbundling (LLU) earlier this year. So far the ISP - which is the subject of much media speculation concerning the possible sale of its access business - has installed its kit in around 200 BT exchanges and migrated more than 100, …

    Telecoms 30 Jun 2006, 11:38

  • Palm posts 'record' full-year figures

    Not entirely due to kit sales, though

    Palm saw its sales rise both sequentially and year on year, the PDA pioneer said yesterday. Revenues for the three months to 2 June 2006 - the company's fourth quarter - came to $403.1m, up 20 per cent on the year-ago quarter and up 3.8 per cent on the previous one. Net income totalled $27.2m (25 cents a share), down from the …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 11:56

  • Nokia N70 3G phone

    Review Nokia's best smart phone yet?

    Ask Nokia and it will tell you its N series handsets are the acme of mobile phones. So much so that we're not even supposed to think of them as telephony devices but as "multimedia computers" that are "the next leap forward in personal computing"... Meanwhile, back in the real world, Reg Hardware finds itself with an N70 3G …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 12:25

  • German experts want search engines to be monitored

    Google too powerful?

    German experts at a Berlin seminar this week argued that search engines need to be more regulated. They want companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to exercise editorial control over their search results and filter out sites with x-rated content or that glorify aggression. "Mechanisms have to be developed to deal with …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 12:45

  • Judge guts SCO claims

    Put up or shut up

    A Utah magistrate judge this week threw out many of SCO's claims of intellectual property violation by IBM. Judge Wells castigated SCO for its vagueness, and decided the vagueness was prejudicial to IBM. SCO had failed to make specific references to source code to back up its public claims that IBM had polluted its IP, Wells …

    Operating Systems 30 Jun 2006, 12:54

  • Wazzocks?!? WTF is a wazzock?

    Letters All is revealed and much, much more

    A Texas woman has filed a $30m lawsuit against MySpace.com after her 14-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by someone she met through the site, we reported earlier this week. My, my, you are a suspicious lot: Quote from the article: "MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online." Sounds …

    Letters 30 Jun 2006, 13:13

  • Official Sony UK PS3 website lists 20GB model

    Proof the low-end box is coming to Britain?

    Sony will indeed offer both the 20GB and 60GB versions of the PlayStation 3 in the UK, it appears. Despite earlier claims only the pricey 60GB model will be made available over here, Amazon.co.uk has begun listing the 20GB veraion too, though it's giving away no pricing or availability details. And the official Sony Computer …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 13:13

  • Highs, lows and sickos

    ICANN Marrakech The unspoken side of the Morroccan meeting

    ICANN Marrakech is over, save the board meeting. And this fact was - as it always is - sufficient reason for everyone to head to the bar and mull things over while consuming (un)healthy quantities of booze. What was the upshot of this week-long meeting in Morocco? Well, the general consensus was that not much had happened. …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 13:38

  • MS releases third beta for IE7

    Compatibility and security tweaks

    Microsoft has released a third beta of the next version of its browser. Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 for Windows XP contains some feature changes in addition to reliability, compatibility, and security improvements over the second beta version of the software. IE 7 Beta 2 was "feature complete" when it was released in April, …

    Security 30 Jun 2006, 13:46

  • Thus pips BT to £70m Scottish broadband project

    'Preferred bidder'

    Scottish telco Thus has beaten BT in a race to be picked as the preferred bidder for a £70m project to wire up schools, libraries and other council buildings with speedier broadband services. The Highlands and Islands Pathfinder Broadband Procurement Project - which will deliver "a very high speed broadband services to more …

    Telecoms 30 Jun 2006, 14:04

  • Sun installs new storage equipment

    In brief Appoints new storage VP

    Sun has promoted tape management group VP Nigel Dessau to VP for the whole of storage marketing and business operations. The move continues the march of a new guard at Sun, following the departure of lifer Scott McNealy as CEO. Dessau will report to another of new CEO Jonathan Schwartz' appointments - data management group EVP …

    Storage 30 Jun 2006, 14:21

  • Can you get Tetanus from a rusty nail?

    A look at lockjaw

    Also in this week's column: Why do babies blink less often than adults? Can a corpse burp? Can you get Tetanus from a rusty nail? Asked by Belinda Smith of Columbus, Ohio Whether it is rusty or not, any object that punctures or damages the skin can lead to tetanus. According to Dr Andrew Lloyd, an infectious disease …

    Biology 30 Jun 2006, 15:05

  • Why do babies blink less often than adults?

    Bright eyes

    Also in this week's column: Can you get Tetanus from a rusty nail? Can a corpse burp? Why do babies blink less often than adults? Asked by Cade Stevens of Nashville, Tennessee Babies blink less often than adults. In normal circumstances, newborns blink at the rate of less than two times per minute. In childhood, the blink …

    Biology 30 Jun 2006, 15:05

  • Can a corpse burp?

    Excuse me?

    Also in this week's column: Can you get Tetanus from a rusty nail? Why do babies blink less often than adults? Can a corpse burp? CAN A CORPSE BURP? Asked by Gail Akami of Birmingham, United Kingdom No, if one means "burp" in the usual sense of the belch of a living human. "Corpse burping" confusion may come from one of …

    Biology 30 Jun 2006, 15:07

  • Transcend hops to swirly MP3 player

    Groovy

    US memory specialist Transcend has extended its fancy-looking T.sonic MP3 player range with its first colour-screen model. It also sports a cute curvy design with a stand-out swirly pattern on the front. The Flash-based T.sonic 530 is available in 512MB and 1GB versions. Both come with an FM radio and a battery that …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jun 2006, 15:31

  • NHS IT looks distinctly parrot-like as MS gets in a flap

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

    NHS IT sickly Attacking government IT projects is an easy game, but that's no reason not to do it. Especially when the project in question is squeezing billions of pounds from an under-funded and much-loved institution like the NHS - ignoring little points like what a great opportunity the National Project for IT is to improve …

    Business 30 Jun 2006, 16:12

  • Laptop with veterans' data recovered intact

    ID theft fears ease for ex-servicemen

    A purloined laptop containing the personal details of up to 26.5m US veterans has been recovered. Details of how the stolen laptop came to be handed in to investigators remain sketchy. A preliminary investigation by FBI officials suggests that data has not been accessed since the laptop was stolen, easing fears that the exposed …

    ID 30 Jun 2006, 16:22

  • Tragic death sparks new internet foundation

    Liz Dengate-Thrush remembered.

    A new foundation has been created to honour the memory of internet pioneer Liz Dengate-Thrush who died last week in a tragic traffic accident. The Liz Dengate Thrush Internet Entrepreneurship Foundation was announced in an emotional speech in Marrakech yesterday at the tri-annual meeting of internet overseeing organisation …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 18:07

  • Wyse targets TVs, PCs and phones with 'thin-client-on-a-chip'

    Thin client hype extends to new markets

    Wyse Technology has gathered the courage to direct the thin client industry through yet another "rebirth." Next month, the company will unveil something it's calling a "thin client-on-a-chip." This product will be able to turn just about everything from TVs, monitors and printers into true thin clients. Perhaps more importantly …

    Servers 30 Jun 2006, 20:06

  • Zut! France drops iTunes bombshell

    Knotty DRM problem just got knottier

    French legislation designed to give consumers greater interoperability for their copy-protected digital downloads is now set for the statute book. But the loophole designed to soften its impact looks set to send shockwaves throughout the industry. Known colloquially as the 'iTunes Law' - even though it doesn't mention Apple - …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 20:12

  • .xxx probes US government interference

    Files another Freedom of Information request.

    The company behind the unsuccessful .xxx bid has filed a third freedom of information act (FOIA) request against the US Department of Commerce in its ongoing bid to discover what pressure was exerted by the US government on internet organisation ICANN to turn the top-level domain down. The new FOIA request from ICM Registry, …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2006, 21:54

  • The New Paranoid style in American politics

    Analysis After Net Neutrality

    The most interesting thing to emerge from the so-called 'Net Neutrality' bid had nothing to do with telecomms technology or policy. It's the startling and, at the same time, banal fact that paranoia has become the default flavour of politics on the net. Phantoms fight phantoms, here. When the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote …

    Music and Media 30 Jun 2006, 23:01