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1st September 2006 Archive

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  • Chinese giant to buy Irish Upstart

    Technology exchange

    Irish mobile games developer Upstart Games is to be acquired by Sun TV Shop (STVS), the online and mobile arm of China's second largest privately held media firm. Upstart, headed by former Rondomondo chief executive Barry O'Neill, was founded in 2002. The company currently employs 30 people in its offices in Dublin, Cork, New …

    Business 1 Sep 2006, 07:02

  • Oracle plays campaign funding by the book

    The best politicians money can buy

    Four years after landing in hot water over for controversially funding US state politicians, Oracle is taking steps to ensure its executives stay squeaky-clean. The company has admitted it is helping executive officers comply with reporting obligations under federal, state and local law over their personal donations to …

    Financial News 1 Sep 2006, 07:17

  • Sun gives hint of things to come in Studio

    Takes feedback

    Sun Microsystems hopes to whet the appetite of developers for its tools with a preview program providing early access to its next Sun Studio suite. The Sun Studio Express Program is giving C, C++ and Fortran developers early access to features in future releases of Sun Studio while also taking feedback from partners and …

    Developer 1 Sep 2006, 07:26

  • Multinationals test small town Indians

    Economic necessity begets equality

    The Indian IT industry has started scouring the provinces for graduates to fill the burgeoning number of vacancies in the sector. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), India's IT trade association, this month begins testing graduates in "tier-two cities" to vet them for employment in …

    IT Director 1 Sep 2006, 07:49

  • Bragg makes MySpace admission

    'We'd never actually read the Ts and Cs'

    Billy Bragg had never read the rules for MySpace before hosting his music there, the singer has admitted. Bragg made the admission after convincing the site to alter its terms and conditions to safeguard the intellectual property rights of musicians. Bragg said that sites such as MySpace could help young musicians rewrite the …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 2006, 08:21

  • Scotland's emergency care summary springs to life

    Health e-record

    Scotland has gone live with its Emergency Care Summary (ECS) for every patient. All 14 NHS boards went live with the system run by Atos Origin this summer following a successful pilot, Scottish health minister Andy Kerr has announced. He said the ECS will contain important basic information such as name, date of birth, …

    Public Sector 1 Sep 2006, 08:30

  • Another way of tackling integration

    The purpose of repurposing

    Of course, there are a variety of different types of integration and there are a range of different things that you can do with data integration. I am not here to suggest that there is another way of tackling data integration in general. However, there are specific aspects of data integration (and in this context I am talking …

    Developer 1 Sep 2006, 08:41

  • Blu-ray Disc launch line-up revealed to Europeans

    IFA 06 The usual suspects - but not the movie of the same name...

    The Blu-ray Disc next-generation optical disc format will launch in Europe this coming Christmas backed by a raft of content from the major studios, the Blu-ray Disc Association said yesterday. Take 20th Century Fox. It's releasing Ice Age 2, Behind Enemy Lines, Fantastic Four, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Kiss of …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 08:56

  • IBM maps the future with ODIS

    Making what could happen less of a guess

    In broad terms there are three key elements to consider in the development of any new application – or any new product, for that matter. The obvious one, certainly from a software point of view, is the technology to be used – the language, the target platform and operating system, and the rest. But this is largely a set of …

    Developer 1 Sep 2006, 09:18

  • Animatronic Skype phones get lippy

    Meet the Verballs

    Dired of dull-looking USB-connected internet phones? Then UK company Aardvark Innovation thinks you may be interested in the Verballs, its new family of "personality" Skype-friendly VoIP phones. There are five to choose from but they all wave their arms and light up their horns when you get a Skype call or receive an …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 09:20

  • The rights, wrongs and Rights of digital images

    Illustrating a point

    Fancy a thousand dollar bill? You could get one, if you run a blog, and use an internet image. The bill in question isn't spendable; it's an invoice, as we call them in the UK, and it's not from the photographer, or the artist. No, it's from a firm of lawyers who scrape the web for pictures. This, you fondly imagine, doesn't …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 2006, 09:27

  • Sony preps widescreen sat nav units

    IFA 06 Irate drivers to favour new Nav-U's gesture control?

    Sony will update its Nav-U GPS-based route-planning product in November, the consumer electronics giant said today. It promised the upcoming widescreen NV-U80 and NV-U81T gadgets will deliver better-than-the-rest accuracy for speed and location. Sony called its system Position Plus. Essentially, it's a series of back-up …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 09:47

  • Cameron prepares to do Blair on India

    Foreigners, give us your business...please

    Conservative leader David Cameron will be visiting India next week with a clutch of Blairite policies on globalisation and immigration. He'll be taking with him a policy brief, published this week by John Redwood and Next CEO Simon Wolfson (called India: An Opportunity not a Threat) that neatly sums up New Labour policy over …

    Financial News 1 Sep 2006, 09:52

  • Foxconn retreats from reporter witch hunt

    Apple does the right thing?

    Foxconn has backed down in its pursuit of the two Chinese journalists who claimed terrible working conditions in its Longhua iPod factory. It seems someone at Apple has had a quiet word in Foxconn's ear. Wang You and Weng Bao of the China Business News were being chased by the Apple contractor for 30m Yuan (about £2m) in …

    Financial News 1 Sep 2006, 10:04

  • Apple settles iTunes UI patent spat

    Agreement reached out of court

    Apple has settled a lawsuit alleging the company ripped off another firm's design when it coded its iTunes software's user interface. Terms of the deal reached with the plaintiff were not made public, but the case is now closed. The lawsuit was filed in June 2005 by David Contois of Contois Music and Technology. Contois …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 10:05

  • Pretec unwraps 8GB SD card

    IFA 06 FAT32-formatted whopper

    Solid-state memory specialist Pretec has unveiled what it claims is the highest capacity SD card in the universe. Beyond that, who can say? We can be clear, however, on one point: the card contains 8GB of raw, information data storage capacity. It's no great surprise to learn the 8GB card is based on version 2.0 of the SD …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 10:26

  • LG shows off skinny HSDPA clamshell

    IFA 06 Out by Xmas

    LG has presented its upcoming 'super 3G' clamshell handset - a slimline phone that may ship as part of the company's Chocolate line - at a sneak peek event it the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The U830 is a very thin clamshell model with HSDPA support. It may well be Chocolate-branded by the time it arrives in …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 10:44

  • Banning things, thought crimes, and dangerous guitarring

    Letters And the new airport etiquette

    We've got a bumper letters bag today, covering an almost ludicrously diverse range of topics. We've got renegade planets, flaming guitars, pornography legislation and literal pontification. So, get a cup of tea, settle down and enjoy. We'll start with the very popular news that the record industry has decided that tabulature …

    Letters 1 Sep 2006, 10:54

  • Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 unleashed

    Edging towards release

    Mozilla released a second beta version of its upcoming Firefox 2.0 browser on Thursday. The release is targeted at developers and intended to generate more feedback while also incorporating a number of bug fixes contained in the Beta 1 version of the code, released in July. Project deadlines for Firefox 2.0 continue to slip …

    Applications 1 Sep 2006, 10:57

  • BOFH: Out on the lash

    Episode 29 Smooth operators

    And so it is - as circumstance would have it - that the PFY and I find ourselves single and bored on a Friday afternoon. "Pub?" the PFY asks as the clock approaches 4pm. "To prime ourselves in expectation of the Friday evening female advertising executive onslaught?" I ask. "I like the way you think!" "DENNY CRANE!" the PFY …

    BOFH 1 Sep 2006, 11:02

  • Samsung readies rival digital music service to iTunes

    IFA 06 K5 player due next month

    Samsung is to take the digital music fight to Apple by launching its own song download service in the UK, France and Germany, the South Korean giant revealed today. Details of the service remain scarce, but we can say it will be operated by digital music distributor MusicNet, which also powers Virgin Digital, HMV, Yahoo!, iMesh …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 11:07

  • Philips calls up PC-free Skype phone

    IFA 06 DECT for VoIP

    Philips today broke the connection between Skype and computers by launching a DECT cordless handset capable of hooking up to the internet and initiating VoIP calls in its own right. Dubbed the VOIP841, the handset is expected to ship before Christmas, though Philips didn't say what it plans to charge for the device. The …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 11:28

  • HP, EMC slug it out for storage number 1

    'Where shall we store the cash?'

    EMC and HP were near-tied for number one in storage last quarter, with around 20 per cent of the market a piece, according to figures from IDC. It's HP that's making the running though, with double-digit factory revenue growth compared to EMC's 3 per cent. IBM held on to third with 13.2 per cent, with Hitachi, Dell and Sun in a …

    Storage 1 Sep 2006, 11:44

  • IFA 06 Pioneer to ship dual-layer Blu-ray burner next year

    Pioneer will follow up the release of its... er... pioneering Blu-ray Disc recorder with an updated model that supports dual-layer media, it has emerged. The new drive, the BDR-102 will also support CD-R/RW discs, another disc format missing from the company's current product, the BDR-101. The BDR-102 is due to ship early …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 11:53

  • Linksys ships Wi-Fi VoIP phone in Europe

    IFA 06 WIP330 crosses the pond

    Linksys has at last launched its WIP330 802.11b/g Wi-Fi-connected VoIP phone in Europe - the company's first wireless handset to made available to buyers over here - after announcing the device at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin this morning. The WIP330 is the successor to the Cisco subsidiary's WIP300 handset - …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 12:25

  • Tomkitten's first poop immortalised

    A work of art

    Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (aka TomKat) have kept 19-week-old daughter Suri well out of the public eye, but the world was given an unusual preview of the much-speculated over sprog with a bronze cast commemorating her first poop popping up on eBay. The life-size replica poop, a work of Daniel Edwards, the same artist that …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 2006, 12:43

  • Intelligent dustbins and Google will save us from aliens

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

    Yes, it's official, aliens are indeed in the custody of the US authorities at Roswell, New Mexico. But don't pack up the station wagon and head for the hills. Not yet anyway. It just seems that even the faceless men at Area 51 can come unstuck when it comes to working out who should, and shouldn't be given the privilege of …

    Business 1 Sep 2006, 13:05

  • Hitachi spins up DVR-friendly perpendicular HDD

    IFA 06 Consumer electronics oriented

    Hitachi's Global Storage Technologies (HGST) subsidiary today launched its first consumer electronics-oriented hard drive that uses perpendicular recording techniques to boost its storage capacity to 160GB. The 1.5Gbps SATA-connected CinemaStar C5K160 is based on HHGST's 2.5in notebook drive the Travelstar 5K160. It spins at …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 13:12

  • Airport crackdown means mountain of unclaimed mobiles

    Travellers apathetic about lost kit

    Two in five mobile devices left at UK airports this summer will never be reclaimed, according to a new survey by mobile security specialists Pointsec. Many travellers wound up returning from their holiday this summer without their mobile phone or laptop because they lost it while traveling at a busy British airport. However, …

    ID 1 Sep 2006, 13:51

  • What is the purpose of tickling?

    Stop it, I love it

    Also in this week's column: Why do your hands turn white when you wash the dishes? Why do you sometimes shiver when you wee? What is a confessing Sam? What is the purpose of tickling? Asked by Lou Portman of Los Altos, California, USA As every child knows, tickling is the act of touching a part of the body so as to cause …

    Biology 1 Sep 2006, 14:19

  • Why do your hands turn white when you wash the dishes?

    Shrivelling skin

    Also in this week's column: What is a Confessing Sam? What is the purpose of tickling? Why do you sometimes shiver when you wee? Why do your hands turn white when you wash the dishes? Asked by Erin West of Oyster Bay, New South Wales, Australia</small Human skin is made up of three layers. The outer layer is called the …

    Biology 1 Sep 2006, 14:19

  • Why do you sometimes shiver when you wee?

    Shiver wee timbers!

    Also in this week's column: What is a Confessing Sam? What is the purpose of tickling? Why do your hands turn white when you wash the dishes? Why do you sometimes shiver when you wee? Asked by John Rae of Clapham, United Kingdom Shiver wee? This is not to be confused with chivalry (the valorous qualities of a knight or …

    Biology 1 Sep 2006, 14:20

  • What is a Confessing Sam?

    Guilty until proven innocent

    Also in this week's column: What is the purpose of tickling? Why do your hands turn white when you wash the dishes? Why do you sometimes shiver when you wee? What is a confessing Sam? Asked by Casey Filocamo of Edmonton, Alberta "Confessing Sam" is the term in criminal psychology for a person who makes a false confession …

    Biology 1 Sep 2006, 14:24

  • SanDisk to ship low-end colour-screen MP3 player in October

    IFA 06 Sansa c200 series unveiled

    SanDisk today followed up last week's launch of its 8GB Sansa e280 music player with the debut today of the c200 series. The line-up comprises a pair of models: the 1GB c240 and the 2GB c250. Both players feature a 1.4in, 128 x 98 colour display that's set up for song data and photo shows but not for video. The machines each …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 14:29

  • Dell laptop detonates in UK home

    Went up 'like fireworks', family claims

    A Leicestershire family was this left in shock after their Dell laptop exploded "like fireworks" and set light to their living room furniture, it was reported this week - just before news broke of Sony's decision to appoint a battery safety officer. According to a story in the Leicester Mercury, the Allen family of Eskdale …

    Reg Hardware 1 Sep 2006, 15:19

  • Zimbabwe debates 'oppressive' bugging laws

    If you thought RIPA was bad...

    Proposed telecoms interception laws in Zimbabwe have created a furore with the government apparently awarding itself unlimited snooping powers. The Interception of Communications Bill, the topic of hearings before the African country's Parliament on Wednesday, allows for email and phone interception warrants against targeted …

    Music and Media 1 Sep 2006, 15:21

  • Gateway board dismisses eMachines founder's buy-back offer

    Not good for shareholders

    Gateway's board of directors has rejected eMachines' founder Lap Shun Hui's offer to buy its retail business for $450m, claiming the offer is "not in the best interest of shareholders". Why it's not, they didn't say, but the board maintained it had arrived at this conclusion after carefully pondering the matter and taking …

    Channel Register 1 Sep 2006, 15:28

  • Internet DNA test kits could land you three years

    Analysis Unless you work for UK.gov

    The UK government granted us ownership of our own DNA yesterday with the launch of the new Human Tissue Act. Well, sort of. The spin being put on the new Act is that it's all about consent. For example, it gives doctors the new power to apply to overrule bereaved families who do not want their relative's organs used for …

    Biology 1 Sep 2006, 15:50

  • 'Video-hams' tap into insecure surveillance cams

    i-Spy

    Surveillance cameras outfitted with internet technology are open to tampering and interception, security experts warn. IP cameras, widely available from around £70 and not to be confused with web-cams that connect directly into PCs, connect into corporate computer network or domestic broadband systems and are capable of …

    Enterprise Security 1 Sep 2006, 15:57