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14th August 2006 Archive

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  • Covert channel tool hides data in IPv6

    But VoodooNet not new magic

    An independent security researcher showed off an early version of a tool for creating covert channels that, he claims, can pass undetected through most firewalls and intrusion detection systems. The tool, dubbed VoodooNet or v00d00n3t, uses the ability of most computers to encapsulate next-generation network traffic, known as …

    Enterprise Security 14 Aug 2006, 08:19

  • Tiscali bets a bundle on Homechoice

    If anyone says triple-play again, I'll slap them

    European ISP Tiscali has bought Homechoice, which offers broadband and video-on-demand to customers in London and Stevenage. Tiscali will start offering its UK subscribers TV services by the end of the year. Services will then begin in Italy and other territories. Video Networks, the parent of Homechoice, gets an 11.5 per cent …

    Telecoms 14 Aug 2006, 08:48

  • ITIL - it's really important, like...

    But what is it?

    In the last two years, systems management and helpdesk vendors have bandied around a term as if it will be the saving grace of organisations for the future - Itil. Trouble is, not that many organisations have a clue what Itil is or what it can do for them - and yet we're seeing that it has become one of the big "tick marks" on …

    Developer 14 Aug 2006, 08:57

  • MS to offer Xbox 360 programming tool for amateurs

    Starting up a shareware community?

    Microsoft today pledged to bring Xbox 360 programming to the masses, but ordinary folk will have to wait until the end of this month to get their hands on the tools they'll need to get coding for the console. Professionals will get a version in Spring 2007, the software giant said. Microsoft will ship a pre-release beta …

    Operating Systems 14 Aug 2006, 09:13

  • Vodafone looks to reverse mobile-only strategy

    Arcor key pawn in cellco's convergence play

    It seems increasingly likely that Vodafone Germany's wireline unit, Arcor, is no longer up for sale but will instead be incorporated into the giant cellco's first major experiment with fixed mobile convergence (FMC) - one that could be a blueprint for other territories. Vodafone, in its recent reorganisation, made it clear that …

    Mobile 14 Aug 2006, 09:19

  • MVNO bubble about to burst in the US?

    New wave firms 'failed to learn lessons': analyst

    The much hyped bubble in MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) in the US is close to bursting, according to new research from Strategy Analytics. It has found that many of the best funded MVNOs have misunderstood their core target markets, and that, while the better established, youth oriented outfits like Virgin Mobile, …

    Mobile 14 Aug 2006, 09:32

  • Murdoch offers film/TV downloads

    X-Men coming to a PC screen near you

    Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will start selling films and TV episodes via download from October. The service will initially offer content from sister company Twentieth Century Fox. A film will cost $19.99 and a TV episode $1.99. Films will be available from the day of the DVD release and TV shows will go online 24 hours after …

    Financial News 14 Aug 2006, 10:14

  • HTC readies second-gen GPS PDA phone

    After 'Galaxy', 'Artemis'

    Handset maker HTC is preparing the successor to 'Galaxy', the company's PDA phone with a built-in GPS receiver. The new model, dubbed 'Artemis', improves on the older device with a slicker look, a quad-band, EDGE-capable cellular radio and a two megapixel digicam. So claims a Navigadget report filed recently. The site's list …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 10:16

  • US vendor ships mobile-ready hotline rotary phone

    Perfect companion for the Nuclear War USB hub?

    With tech-tastes turning to everything retro, and ye olde analogue mobile phone brick-like handsets commanding high prices on eBay, how about going back more than a decade or two for the acme of old-style telephony: the rotary dial. That's what US-based Spark Fun Electronics is offering: a classic desktop dial-phone, kitted …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 10:40

  • Branson's text-a-guru unlikely to fly

    Comment And the 'science' of SMS analysis

    How much "style" do you have, when you send a text? The answer to this hangs all the tedium of a trans-Atlantic flight. It would seem that in the future all we will be allowed to do in a plane is either get stinking drunk, or twiddle our thumbs. The thumb-twiddling idea is the brainchild of that nice Mr Branson of Virgin, …

    Mobile 14 Aug 2006, 10:42

  • eMusic intros UK MP3 download service

    Untethered subscription package

    US digital music supplier eMusic has launched its MP3 DRM-free download subscription service in the UK, and its attempting to tempt would-be buyers with a free two-week trial and 25 free downloads. Over here, eMusic currently has some 1m tracks on offer, most of them from independent music labels. Songs are not available as …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 11:04

  • Aussie regulator forces Telstra to cut access charge

    Strewth mate, what about the dividends?

    Telstra has taken a slap from the Aussie competition regulator and been told to cut access fees for a rival operator using its network. Reports over the weekend suggested the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would force the incumbent to cut its access fees for one rival to AUS$17.70, or around $14. Telstra's most …

    Telecoms 14 Aug 2006, 11:11

  • Shatner to return as Kirk

    Set phasers to fun!!!

    TJ Hooker star William Shatner will once again play overweight promiscuous space maverick James T Kirk as a new videogame based on the Star Trek franchise is coughed up this October. Fans of the dead horse have had little to cheer about since Paramount gave up flogging it by canning Star Trek: Enterprise - the one with the …

    Entertainment 14 Aug 2006, 11:22

  • Pluto faces expulsion from planetary league

    Astronomers to rule on body's status

    The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has gathered in Prague to finally settle a matter of galactic import: whether Pluto is in fact a planet or should be relegated to the second division of Kuiper Belt Objects and similar detritus. Astonomers have to date failed dismally to agree what exactly constitutes a planet, as …

    Space 14 Aug 2006, 11:52

  • Vigilante targets mobile-abusing drivers

    Police investigate slashed tyres

    Hampshire police are investigating a spate of "vigilante" attacks on cars whose drivers were apparently seen chatting away on their mobiles while on the move, The Telegraph reports. The "mobile slasher" is believed to make a note of an offender's registration, and then "somehow" tracks the vehicle to the owner's address before …

    Mobile 14 Aug 2006, 11:53

  • Intel ships G965-based mobo

    Intel has unveiled an own-brand desktop motherboard based on its G965 integrated chipset pitched at a range of processors including the chip giant's latest Core 2 Duo dualies. The Desktop Board DG965RY Classic Series has an LGA775 processor mounting and four DDR 2 SDRAM DIMM slots. Up to 8GB of 800MHz memory are supported. …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 12:52

  • Amazon 'plans world's biggest personal data stash'

    And tries to patent it too

    Amazon.com is investing in IP to create the largest database of personal information ever gathered by an online retailer, according to a report in its local paper. The database would, the Seattle Post Intelligencer suggests, mingle information on sexual orientation and race, as well as purchasing habits. And to prove it's …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 13:03

  • German attempts world's most tenuous acronym

    Why? BECAUSE, that's why

    Aficionados of tenuous acronyms - in which great effort has been expended in forming a real word, often at the expense of linguistic common decency (try Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, for example) - will certainly want to raise their …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 13:07

  • Boffins look to technology to thwart airline hijacks

    What do you think you're doing, Dave?

    Aircraft designers are looking to technology to combat onboard threats. Moves to develop technology in planes designed to foil hijacking began after the 11 September terrorist attacks. Last week's arrests over a plot to destroy aircraft flying between the UK and US with chemical explosives establishes a new attack scenario. …

    Security 14 Aug 2006, 13:07

  • Industry fights back in Big Brother voting row

    'The buck doesn't stop here'

    The premium rate industry has hit out at regulators' investigation of iTouch UK and Minick Ltd, the providers of Big Brother's SMS and phone lines. ICSTIS said Friday it would be probing 2,700 complaints against the show, following the reintroduction of a contestant who viewers had previously voted to evict. The watchdog will …

    Telecoms 14 Aug 2006, 13:09

  • LloydsTSB website falls over

    Online banking goes offline

    LloydsTSB's website went down this morning and is still struggling to its feet. We were contacted by an annoyed customer this morning at 9.30am who was unable to get on to the site for "quite some time". At the time of writing, 2.30 pm, the site was still unavailable. A spokeswoman for LloydsTSB told us: "We're having …

    Financial News 14 Aug 2006, 13:47

  • Wal-Mart cashier foils cellphone terror plot

    Employee of the month

    An eagle-eyed Wal-Mart clerk in Caro, Michigan may have foiled a dastardly terrorist plot simply by alerting police to a suspicious purchase made by three men of Middle-Eastern descent, the Associated Press reports. Police are holding the men on terror charges because they bought 80 pre-paid cell phones in violation of Wal-Mart …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 13:48

  • Vodafone Mobile Connect 'super 3G' data card

    Review HSDPA for the masses?

    It's been more than three years since the UK got its first 3G mobile phone network but a little less than two years since cellco Vodafone allowed its customers access to the technology. It's not hard to see why it waited: the early hype about mobile broadband quickly proved unjustified. But a last we're coming to the end of a …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 14:01

  • Logitech launches wireless Skype phone

    Array-mic speakerphone too

    Mouse maker Logitech has hopped on the VoIP bandwagon with a phone-style cordless handset capable of connecting to its host computer from almost anywhere in the house. It's got a colour display and it's set to work with Skype. The company also unveiled today a PC-connected speakerphone and a Bluetooth headset for phones. …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 14:30

  • Worm feasts on latest Windows vuln

    Ooh Betty, it's happening again

    Virus writers have adapted an existing family of worms to exploit a recently patched, high-profile Windows security vulnerability. Corporate admins are being are urged to redouble their efforts to roll out security patches as quickly as possible. The Cuebot-L and Cuebot-M worms spread via AOL instant messenger, exploiting the …

    Malware 14 Aug 2006, 14:35

  • Child porn employee cites 4th Amendment

    Court rejects 'unreasonable searches and seizures' claim

    A US federal appeals court has rejected the claim of a Montana man who used his work computer to access child pornography that a probe of his machine breached his Fourth Amendment rights against "unreasonable searches and seizures", Reuters reports. The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Jeffrey Ziegler …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 14:39

  • Mathematical approaches to managing defects

    Radical new approaches toward software testing needed?

    Software testing is still a controversial subject – everybody agrees that it is a "good thing", but it is frequently the first bit of the process to get cut when deadlines bite. After all, those sneaky testers are really responsible for the bugs, aren't they? Our software is just fine until strangers start poking around …

    Developer 14 Aug 2006, 14:49

  • Segway punts new breed of pogo stick with wheels

    Let's offroad

    Segway has unleashed a new generation of its futurtopian personal transport vehicles. The two new models look set to at last render legs entirely useless, with one for urban scooting, and for the first time an off road model called the x2. The x2 may a big step towards Segway inventor Dean Kamen's stated vision of US special …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 14:59

  • Brit bank details for sale in Lagos

    Wipe those hard drives

    Account details from thousands of British citizens are being sold in Nigeria, fuelling the 419 scam and ID theft trade in the African country. According to a BBC television programme due to be shown tonight, you can pick up a set of UK bank account details in Lagos for £20. Nigerian fraudsters are getting the information from …

    ID 14 Aug 2006, 15:13

  • BA aborts flight over ringing mobile phone

    Laptops allowed back - but leave the milk at home

    A British Airways flight from London to New York turned back on Sunday after an apparently ownerless mobile phone began to ring at the back of the aircraft, CNN reports. One of the passengers aboard flight BA 179 told the BBC: "When the plane took off a mobile phone started ringing." This provoked a security risk assessment by …

    Music and Media 14 Aug 2006, 15:41

  • Europeans bought more GPS devices last quarter than at Xmas

    Sat nav boom continues

    Demand for GPS devices continues unabated, market watcher Canalys has claimed. Its latest figures show more European consumers splashed out on handheld navigation gadgets in Q2 2006 than they did in Q4 2005, last year's Christmas quarter. Canalys' statistics record shipments of devices with integrated GPS receivers. Vendors …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 15:41

  • We only use above average programmers here...

    Floating point and legacy

    A number of people have commented that "nobody" uses Floating Point in financial calculations, for all the reasons Dan Clarke went into in his recent article on Floating Point and rounding issues. But it seems to me that this misses the point. Yes, I'm old enough to remember when IBM mainframes, and its COBOL, supported BCD ( …

    Developer 14 Aug 2006, 15:54

  • Dell recalls 4.1m laptop batteries

    This fire is under control

    Dell's customer satisfaction flameout has started to reach record levels. The company today issued a recall for 4.1m laptop batteries out of fear that they could catch fire. The product recall stands as the largest ever for the US consumer electronics industry. Over the past two months, numerous stories have appeared …

    Reg Hardware 14 Aug 2006, 23:25