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17th July 2006 Archive

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  • Ruby on Rails Part 2

    Tutorial Here goes

    In the previous introductory Ruby on Rails article, we created an Oracle database table. In this article we shall develop a Model-View-Controller (MVC) CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete functionality) application using Ruby on Rails. Rails is a combination of the following sub-projects… Model: Active Record is an object …

    Developer 17 Jul 2006, 07:02

  • Shuttle, plus leak, set to land today

    Look out Florida, here comes Discovery

    The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land in Florida this afternoon, after completing an almost 13-day mission. The Shuttle was cleared for launch late last week, the widely feared catastrophe having (fortunately) failed to occur. Even though a few pieces of foam did fall from the tank during the launch, a careful in- …

    Space 17 Jul 2006, 08:42

  • Sony BMG ruling rocks European Commission

    'Watershed' decision

    The European Commission's arguments supporting the Sony/BMG merger in 2004 were not of "the requisite legal standard" and were marred by "a manifest error of assessment" according to Europe's second highest court. In overturning the commission's decision to allow the two record labels to merge, the Court of First Instance has …

    Music and Media 17 Jul 2006, 08:52

  • Police number plate cameras may breach RIPA - Commissioner

    Unauthorised surveillance. Of most of the population...

    Police use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras could 'break human rights law' according to some reports. Which, it would seem to us, is a novel way to categorise the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Act police procedures appear to break. This had not previously been thought to be a landmark of …

    Music and Media 17 Jul 2006, 08:55

  • High-tech chicanery worries Irish punters

    Consumer fear costing business

    Consumer fear of online identity theft could be costing Irish businesses up to €250m a year, according to a survey released on Friday. Research group Behaviour and Attitudes also reported that more than 15,000 Irish internet users may have had their identities stolen through sophisticated phishing scams, which entice surfers to …

    ID 17 Jul 2006, 09:02

  • Does Reid plan to punish businesses mean ID card for immigrants?

    Perhaps an ID card, but not as we know it...

    Company directors will be disqualified if their firms are caught employing illegal immigrants on two separate occasions, according to proposals to be put forward by Home Secretary John Reid. The move is apparently planned as a 'central plank' of Reid's master plan to deal with the immigration component of his "dysfunctional" …

    Music and Media 17 Jul 2006, 09:19

  • AMD reverse multi-threading tech 'does not exist'

    Someone misunderstood virtualisation?

    AMD is not working on technology to allow a multi-core processor to emulate a single-core chip, it has been claimed by reports citing sources close to the company. The claims contradict alternative allegations that maintain the chip company has been working on just such as system. Source cited by Xbit Labs and another by …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 09:25

  • Intel to add 3G connectivity to next-gen Centrino?

    Turbulent Windigo

    The next generation of Intel's Centrino platform, codenamed 'Santa Rosa', may well include 3G mobile phone network connectivity as well as the standard Wi-Fi, if allegedly leaked company roadmaps are to be believed. According to a posting on Chinese-language site HKEPC, the Santa Rosa specification includes 'Windigo', the …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 09:56

  • BT tops DSL league

    Fastest in the west, and the rest

    BT is the UK's best performing broadband provider, according to a survey from network speed testing firm Epitiro. BT came out on top overall and also provides the fastest service as a percentage of its theoretical maximum. Virgin was in second place followed by Demon, AOL and Orange. Virgin, BT and AOL were fastest to connect …

    Telecoms 17 Jul 2006, 10:06

  • BlueTrek Serenity

    Review Never forget your mobile again, apparently

    Always forgetting your keys, or leaving your phone behind? BlueTrek's Serenity claims to be able to help, not through a programme of concentration-enhancing exercises, or by stapling the offending keys to the back of your hand, but through the application of wireless technology... The Serenity consists of three boxes about …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 10:26

  • Intel plans 3 September Celeron M update

    Core Duo LV, ULV lines to be tweaked too

    Intel will extend its Celeron M low-cost mobile processor line-up on 3 September - the day that will see the debut of the anticipated low-voltage Core Duo L2500. The new arrivals will push down the prices of existing models. The new Celeron Ms are the 440 and 450, clocked at 1.86GHz and 2GHz, respectively. The 65nm single- …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 10:30

  • VoIP goes wireless

    Chucks out the PC in favour of mobiles

    Innovative Jajah uses PCs for internet phone calls - but only to set up the calls. They then connect two landline or mobile phones together to chat over the IP network. Now, the company has revealed it's going one step further, and will use a Java applet on the phone itself to set up the call. According to the company's CEO …

    VoIP 17 Jul 2006, 10:42

  • HP reveals tiny, tiny wireless chip

    A recipe for silicon risotto

    Some of HP’s biggest brains have created what the company claims is the world’s tiniest wireless data chip. The vendor’s Memory Spot technology, developed at its labs in Bristol, currently squeezes 256Kb to 4Mb of memory and an antenna into a device between 2mm and 4mm square. Or, as HP phrases it for those of us only able to …

    Mobile 17 Jul 2006, 10:48

  • Naomi Campbell in yacht trash rumpus

    WSA Italian cuisine provokes £30k 'rampage'

    Supermodel Naomi Campbell allegedly caused £30k worth of damage to her lover's £1.5m yacht after an Italian chef's "romantic meal" for the two nautical lovebirds failed to float her boat. According to The Sun, 36-year-old Campbell and Dubai-born prince Badr Jafar had moored the 100-ft "Nasma" in Viareggio on the Tuscan Riviera …

    Entertainment 17 Jul 2006, 10:50

  • Firefox fans offered name check

    Compilation

    Firefox fans are being offered the chance of "geek immortality". Users who successfully persuade a friend to switch to the open source browser before 15 September will earn a name check for both themselves and their amigo within a display accesssible from Firefox 2.0, the next version of the software. That's right folks, …

    Applications 17 Jul 2006, 10:51

  • Daily flaws ratchet up debate

    To disclose or not to disclose...

    HD Moore is used to polarising the vulnerability-research community. As the creator of the Metasploit Project, an open-source tool for automating the exploitation of vulnerabilities, Moore has had his share of contentious debates with other security professionals. However, his latest endeavour - releasing a browser bug every …

    Security 17 Jul 2006, 11:05

  • Intel 'Merom' due 23 July?

    Mobile Core 2 Duo prices leak out too

    Intel's pricing plan for 'Merom', its next-generation architecture mobile Core 2 Duo processor, has leaked out ahead of the chip family's debut - now apparently scheduled for 23 July. According to a Week 28 roadmap update slide posted by Chinese-language site HKEPC, the two 2MB L2 Core 2 Duos - the T5500 and T5600 - will cost …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 11:08

  • Bogus clicks undermine online advertising

    The curse of the phantom shoppers

    More than one in ten clicks on internet ads are fraudulent, according to new data released on Monday. The health of internet search engines' lucrative ad-based business models has been questioned with the release of a survey by Click Forensics. Based on responses from 1,300 online marketing experts, 14.1 per cent of recorded …

    Small Biz 17 Jul 2006, 11:14

  • Get your very own Channel9 Guy

    Imagine Cup Three Pair giveaway

    While we were in the sunny US we headed over to see those fine chaps at Channel9, for an interview about the Imagine Cup. Unlike the Bill Gates demo, we did no prep for this, we didn't even know what to expect. So we went up to Charles's office, the guy who does Channel9's Going Deep Show; among others. He grabbed a camera, …

    Developer 17 Jul 2006, 12:16

  • Eclipse: We don’t have a relationship with Sun

    Sun brings no sign of a thaw

    Prospects of a thaw between Sun and the Eclipse Foundation seem as slim as ever, judging by remarks made to The Register by Eclipse executive director Mike Milinkovich. Sun owns the Java standard, while the Eclipse Foundation produces the most popular set of Java development tools. According to a December 2005 survey by BZ …

    Developer 17 Jul 2006, 12:17

  • Unmasking Novell's identity plans

    Bandit country

    Identity systems such as Higgins and InfoCard give us new ways of storing and exchanging information about users; good news for users and developers. The other half of the picture is managing and auditing those identities and the roles they correspond to, so you can use identities for role-based access control; the features …

    Developer 17 Jul 2006, 12:58

  • Orange reveals upcoming smart phones

    SPV trio plus Samsung's i320

    Orange's upcoming smart phones got an airing this weekend, revealing the carrier will be bringing Samsung's QWERTY keyboard-equipped, 3G-connected Windows Mobile 5.0 device, the i320, on board. Joining the i320 will be the SPV C100, a quad-band candybar phone, again running Windows Mobile 5.0 with push email support. It's …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 13:02

  • Wanted: Protector of the (easy) faith

    Easy peasy IP squeezy

    easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou shows few signs of abandoning his megalomaniacal campaign to own all things prefixed "easy". In the FT last Wednesday, the hyperactive entrepreneur advertised for a managing director to run easyGroup IP (eGIP), his private company. The job is worth between £120K and £150K a year, and the …

    Small Biz 17 Jul 2006, 13:11

  • Freescale serves up alternative to flash

    Comment mmm-mmm-MRAM

    When Freescale recently announced a four megabit memory chip, my immediate reaction was to laugh. Magneto-resistive RAM - a technology which several aspirant companies have abandoned - has been announced in commercial form by Freescale, which is prepared to sell you a four megabit memory chip. It's been described as "an …

    Mobile 17 Jul 2006, 13:12

  • How to fry an egg... on an Apple MacBook

    MacBook -> CookBook?

    Now we know why Apple's notebooks run hot - the company wants you to own a computer you can cook your breakfast on. Well, maybe not, but hasn't stopped one enterprising user claiming to have done so. He's even gone as far as to put the laptop's AC adaptor into service as a coffee warmer. He's even got a movie apparently …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 13:23

  • Home Office defends DNA practice

    They're keeping your data but not using it...honest

    The Home Office has insisted that details from the National DNA Database are not being misused by commercial companies. This follows a report in The Observer that LGC, a company that analyses DNA samples to help populate the database, has been retaining the details. This includes names, ages, skin colour and address. In …

    Public Sector 17 Jul 2006, 13:23

  • Trojan downloader uses Zidane lure

    A different kind of viral email

    Nefarious virus writers are using continued interest in Zinedine Zidane's infamous headbutt in the World Cup final to distribute malware via a malicious website (screen shot here) that poses as an official FIFA World Cup 2006 website. Surfers straying on the site are exposed to a Trojan horse downloader, which uses Windows …

    Malware 17 Jul 2006, 13:28

  • Intel 'Tulsa' 65nm Xeon MPs to ship 27 August?

    Conroe-based Xeon 3000s coming a month later

    Intel appears set to introduce a new line of dual-core Xeon MP server chips on 27 August, bringing the family into the 65nm era and once again equipping its top-of-the-line x86 server chips with L3 cache. The new line-up is currently best known by its codename, 'Tulsa', but it will ship as the Xeon MP 7100 series. Unlike, the …

    Servers 17 Jul 2006, 13:55

  • Senate to debate stem cell research

    Politics before science?

    The eternally thorny issue of stem cell research comes before the US Senate today, in a debate that is as much about politics as science. The US lawmakers will consider three bills on stem cells: one of which would overturn restrictions on research funding put in place by Bush in 2001, and would pave the way for federal funding …

    Biology 17 Jul 2006, 14:16

  • UK betting boss held in US

    Trans-Atlantic pinch sends markets down

    David Carruthers, chief executive of online betting site Betonsports.com, has been detained by Federal agents while changing planes in the US. It is not clear whether he has been detained because his website accepts bets from US gamblers or if he fell foul of other US border rules - which are many and various. Since last year …

    Music and Media 17 Jul 2006, 14:54

  • Baseball blacks-out online

    Comment From first to wurst

    You won't find a more un-American business than Major League Baseball's online arm - MLB Advanced Media. There. We said it. The refined version of capitalism crafted here in the good, old US of A tends to demand that you release a product at a given price and then make that product better and cheaper over time. This formula …

    Entertainment 17 Jul 2006, 15:02

  • Vodafone chases Telecom Italia for $666m

    Accuses Italian rival of database devilry

    Vodafone is demanding $666m from Telecom Italia after accusing the rival telco of beastly market abuses, it has emerged. Reports this weekend said the UK mobile operator has accused the Italian firm of using its fixed line dominance to underpin its TMI wireless operation. It claims that Telecom Italia has used information on …

    Mobile 17 Jul 2006, 15:31

  • Dell, Acer tout 802.11n wireless laptops

    Will they be compatible?

    Dell and Acer both announced today notebook-oriented add-in cards equipped with a pre-standard version of the 802.11n next-generation Wi-Fi specification. The company's cards provide data transfer rates of up to 270Mbps and 300Mbps, the two firms claimed respectively. Dell's Wireless 1500 is available now for all XPS and …

    Reg Hardware 17 Jul 2006, 15:32

  • NASA: checking out the sun in Stereo

    New solar observatory ready for August launch

    Next month, NASA is to launch a new solar observatory that will make it possible for scientists to observe the sun in three dimensions for the first time. This should lead to better forecasting of space weather and a clearer understanding of the processes at work in our local star. The Stereo mission (Solar TErrestrial …

    Space 17 Jul 2006, 15:49

  • 'Skype clone' surfaces in China

    Stealth firm plays reversi with VoIP code

    Chinese software developers have reportedly reverse engineered Skype's internet telephony software to develop a clone. The unnamed company has developed a software client using the same protocol and encryption technology used by Skype. This software, which is still in the early stages of development, was used to call Charlie …

    Mobile 17 Jul 2006, 15:53

  • When PowerPoint presentations attack

    Trojan assault latches onto unpatched vuln

    Virus writers have seized upon an unpatched PowerPoint vulnerability to launch targeted attacks. The assault relies on tricking users into opening an infected PowerPoint document. Anti-virus vendors have updated signature definition files to add detection for infected documents. Microsoft is working on fixing the underlying …

    Enterprise Security 17 Jul 2006, 16:31

  • How 'Saving The Net' may kill it

    Interview The engineer's case against Net Neutrality

    If you've followed the occasionally surreal, and often hysterical debate around 'Net Neutrality' on US blogs and discussion forums, you may have encountered Richard Bennett. The veteran engineer played a role in the design of the internet we use today, and helped shaped Wi-Fi. He's also been blogging for a decade. And he doesn't …

    Music and Media 17 Jul 2006, 17:49

  • AMD's Geode exiles float to new Fort Collins center

    Making chips in US's top city

    There's a new game sweeping through AMD's engineering ranks called the "Colorado Shuffle." The company has revealed plans to relocate about 75 of the workers affected by the closure of its Longmont office to a new design center in Fort Collins. Ultimately, the Fort Collins outpost will employ more than 200 people. AMD's …

    IT Director 17 Jul 2006, 23:22