7th September 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

'Competition' squeezes SCO's third quarter

Legal fees down

The SCO Group saw its business ebb away during the third quarter, as both revenue and sales continued their steady migration southwards. The Linux litigant recorded an increased net loss of $3.6m for the three months to July 31 compared to $2.2m, on total revenue that fell 20 per cent to $7.4m. SCO reported an increased loss …

Financial News 7 Sep 2006, 00:37
SGI slaps sell by date on MIPS/Irix gear

Glory days EOLed

Google's real estate agent SGI has announced that its MIPS-based IRIX boxes will disappear by year end. In a support notice, SGI said it will continue shipping Origin 3900 and 350 servers and the Fuel and Tezro workstations until Dec. 29, 2006. After that, SGI's once glorious Unix hardware line will be taken to the marsh …

Servers 7 Sep 2006, 01:34
AMD slashes prices and launches X2 5200+

Cheap as chips

AMD announced the launch of the latest member of its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 family yesterday, though information about the 5200+ was limited to the tray price – US$403 per 1,000 – with no mention of the clock speed, TDP, cache, socket and so on. Now that AMD has revised its website, two things have become clear. First, the X2 …

Reg Hardware 7 Sep 2006, 07:42
Zombies crawl over wiki exploits

Another type of wiki-fiddler

Hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in wiki software packages to establish networks of compromised computers. Software bugs in Pmwiki and Tikiwiki software applications are being actively used to create botnets, the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre reports. It reckons the exploits in Tikiwiki 1.9 (and below) and …

Enterprise Security 7 Sep 2006, 08:14
High-tech crime forum to fight phishing

Irish banks unite

Irish banks have responded to internet scams such as phishing by setting up a forum to share information on high-tech crime. Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland has issued a statement re-iterating its policy of not refunding the victims of phishing scams. The bank has said "customers personal log on information is their responsibility …

Enterprise Security 7 Sep 2006, 08:55
Fuel-cell problems ground Shuttle

Any bets on a Friday launch?

NASA has delayed launching the Shuttle Atlantis before Friday because of problems with one of the craft's fuel cells. It was initially put off until Thursday, but engineers said they need more time to work out how serious the problem is. When the mission managers switched the fuel cells on, one malfunction caused a voltage …

Space 7 Sep 2006, 09:11
Sun sinks its teeth further into open source

Bites into identity management

In July 2005, news emerged of Sun Microsystems' first foray into open source identity management with the Open Web Single Sign-On (OpenSSO) project. Now, more than a year later, the project has been formally launched. Sun has kept to its word with OpenSSO and is releasing source code for the significant chunks of its Java …

Developer 7 Sep 2006, 09:18
Mac Mini gets a speed boost

Minor makeover

Apple has given its two Mac Mini models a makeover. The £529 model now sports a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor, which is a speed bump from 1.66GHz. Meanwhile, its £399 baby brother uses a 1.66GHz Core Duo instead of a 1.5GHz Core Solo. Both models run the CPU on a 667MHz FSB with 512MB of DDR2 RAM and have AirPort Extreme and …

Reg Hardware 7 Sep 2006, 09:47
Speeding driver blames absence of goats

Swiss man enjoys Canada's goat-free highways

A Swiss driver caught with the pedal to the metal on a Canadian highway offered police the most creative excuse for speeding since aliens took the rap for a UK excess velocity outrage. According to the BBC, the perp was pulled doing 100mph in a 60mph zone in Ontario, but explained that his need for speed was provoked by a …

Music and Media 7 Sep 2006, 10:38
Pipex snaps up Toucan, Bulldog

Tripletastic

Pipex has indulged in a little zoological shopping spree, snapping up Toucan and Bulldog for £24m and £12m respectively. The company says the acquisitions take its customer base to 1.14m, and its number of broadband subscribers to 570,000. More importantly, they also mean the company has a so-called triple play offering, the …

Telecoms 7 Sep 2006, 10:39
Golden Palace Casino eats Britney sarnie

God preserve us

Online gambling outfit Golden Palace Casino has confirmed its status as the world's leading consumer of eBay tat by securing the half-eaten Britney Spears egg salad sandwich for a modest $520. The partially-consumed nosh was offered, along with a rare Kevin Federline corn dog collectible, by a waiter who'd been working the …

Entertainment 7 Sep 2006, 10:41
Red alert over London on credit card fraud map

London's burning

London is the UK capital of credit card fraud, according to a study by online fraud prevention firm Early Warning. Early Warning's latest figures for Cardholder Not Present (CNP) fraud show that Greater London clocked up largest number of fraudulent transactions in the past year, followed by Manchester and Kilmarnock. Early …

ID 7 Sep 2006, 11:18
Free iPods for Kent students

An apple a day?

Students at South Kent College in Dover are being offered free iPod Nanos to help them keep up with work. The college has forked out £25,000 for the kit which it says will be issued only to students with a full attendance record, and who have completed all their assignments. But the college also says that the plan is to …

Public Sector 7 Sep 2006, 11:29
Manipulate 3D objects with P3dO Explorer!

Ahem...

It's a tricky one: you've developed some software for "showing and managing digital pictures and 3D Objects with a simple, intuitive, and complete interface", but now it's time to give it a snappy, eye-catching name guaranteed to attract all the right sort of attention. Hmmm.... PhotoSqueeze? LiteMagic? ImageBox? No, wait, let' …

Applications 7 Sep 2006, 11:31
HTC's much-awaited handsets unveiled

Four new models get the green light

Four HTC Windows Mobile 5.0 handsets were unveiled today, following months of speculation and various leaks. First up is the P3300, HTC's first dedicated navigation PDA. The handset comes with in-built GPS and TomTom NAVIGATOR 6. You browse the 2D and 3D maps using HTC's RollR (Trackball and Track Wheel) and can expect to …

Reg Hardware 7 Sep 2006, 12:48
Sprint streams full-length movies to mobiles

Only in the US!

Sprint has added full length pay-per-view films to its subscription streaming video service, which has been in operation since last year. The service, which went live yesterday, launches with 45 films, from distributors including Buena Vista, Sony Pictures, and Universal. The films on offer range from 1980s self-realisation …

Mobile 7 Sep 2006, 13:28
UK outfit offers mobile Voip hook-up

Just need a PC and Bluetooth...

UK-based ROK Mobile Communications has developed a VoIP application that uses your mobile telephone like a Bluetooth headset to connect to the company's network. Once downloaded onto a Windows computer, the ROK Viper client also installs onto a compatible phone handset and, when run, copies the contact list from the phone to …

Mobile 7 Sep 2006, 13:33
Schools can fingerprint children without parental consent

DfES qualifies its stance

Parents cannot prevent schools from taking their children's fingerprints, according to the Department for Education and Skills and the Information Commissioner. But parents who have campaigned against school fingerprinting might still be able to bring individual complaints against schools under the Data Protection Act (DPA …

Public Sector 7 Sep 2006, 13:47
Controller spec means cheaper disk arrays

But it's all a Dell plot, say high-end rivals.

The Storage Bridge Bay (SBB) working group (www.sbbwg.org) is to release version one of the SBB spec next week. This defines standard electromechanics for the controller modules that go into stuff such as disk arrays. In theory at least, it means that you could build an array from different manufacturers' electronics, much like …

Storage 7 Sep 2006, 13:55
Mars rover closing in on Victoria crater

Opportunity knocks...

Opportunity, the Mars rover, is edging ever closer to the edge of the Victoria crater, which has been its goal for more than half its time on the red planet. NASA says the view from the edge of the crater will be the "grandest" yet, and that exploring the crater will yield a rich scientific trove. NASA says it expects the …

Space 7 Sep 2006, 14:05
Pearl of the BlackBerry ocean?

8100 candybar to rival Samsung's new offering

Here we are, spouting off about Samsung having a potential BlackBerry killer in the SGH-i600 and all along RIM has a smartphone in the works. Who'd have thought it? The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is a candybar that measures 107 x 50 x 14mm (HxWxD)and weighs a mere 89g. The 240 x 260 screen dimensions aren't given, but it looks …

Reg Hardware 7 Sep 2006, 14:12
Another UK internet gaming exec nicked in US

Maybe not the best holiday destination...

The chairman of UK-based gambling firm Sportingbet is due to appear in court on Thursday after he was detained by US authorities. The arrest of Peter Dicks, 64, follows the July detention of David Carruthers on racketeering charges. Curruthers was then chief exec of rival online gambling firm BetOnSports. US authorities regard …

Music and Media 7 Sep 2006, 14:22
BlackBerry spawns mobile phone

Not just a push email company...Really!

Blackberry attempted to shake off its reputation as a maker of rather dull email devices by the launch of a real telephone, or at least, a close approximation thereof. The Blackberry Pearl was launched today and comes with a digital camera (1.3 mega pixel), an MP3 player, and can even play back MPEG4 video files. While keen to …

Mobile 7 Sep 2006, 14:48
LaCie expands SAFE drives

Capacity push

LaCie has expanded its range of biometric hard drives to offer a greater choice of capacities. The ranges are 40-120GB for the Mobile Edition and 160-500GB for the Desktop Edition. All the models use a USB 2.0 interface and are compatible with both Windows and Mac OS, and of course they all have the biometric feature that …

Reg Hardware 7 Sep 2006, 15:03
Mobile Workshop survey

Quick Poll Tell us what's really going on with mobile data and services...

Respected readers we need your help. Give us two minutes of your time and push forward the sum of human knowledge. Doesn't sound too bad does it? Just answer the questions below. Thanking you in advance. This survey is now closed. What would you regard as your strategic platform for mobile email moving forwards? RIM …

Mobile 7 Sep 2006, 15:05
Get ready to hack your disk arrays

I'm sorry Dave, I can't delete that

Storage arrays are getting too clever for their own good, and users may need to hack into them to get through the layers of obscuring software, according to storage guru Jon Toigo, speaking at Storage Networking World in Frankfurt. The problem, he said, lies in virtualisation, which he argued "produces unpredictable results - …

Storage 7 Sep 2006, 15:34
Astronomers pave way for black hole census

How many live at home, are practising Jedis, etc

Russian astronomers have begun work that will allow them to work out how many black holes there are in the Universe. The research team at the Space Research Institute in Moscow is using the European Space Agency's (ESA) gamma ray observatory, Integral, to measure the X-ray and gamma ray background radiation that permeates the …

Space 7 Sep 2006, 15:43
Users protest over 'creepy' Facebook update

Stalks you, sir

The introduction of new features on social network site Facebook has sparked a backlash from users. Design changes to the site violate user privacy and ought to be scrapped, according to disgruntled users who have launched a series of impromptu protests. One protest site is calling for users to boycott Facebook on 13 September …

Music and Media 7 Sep 2006, 16:34
Solaris ships across IBM's x86 server line

Just don't ask Sun or IBM for it

Sun Microystems and IBM have failed to reach a board agreement around shipping Solaris x86 on IBM's Xeon- and Opteron-based servers. So, a much smaller company has stepped in to help out customers. Electronic Business Solutions (EBS) today announced that it has received the go ahead to outfit IBM's entire x86 server line with …

Servers 7 Sep 2006, 16:41
HP's Itanium boxes finally go dual-core

Patient customers cheer

HP is about to find out just how big of a gamble this Itanium thing really was. At the end of October, customers can start purchasing HP's Integrity servers with Intel's new dual-core "Montecito" chip inside. The chip refresh covers the vast majority of HP's Itanium-based server line and even extends to two new low-end systems …

Servers 7 Sep 2006, 18:10
Palm revenue blip causes worries

Needs those new models, sharpish

Palm says its most recent quarter's earnings will come in lower than it hoped. The company said revenue for 1H 2007, which it previously stated would come in between $380m and $385m, will fall short, between $354m and $364m. The smartphone business is booming, but Palm is trending in the wrong direction - Q4 2006, which ended …

Financial News 7 Sep 2006, 21:48
Microsoft rattles EC cage on Vista delay

More of the same

Microsoft has warned European PC users face an even longer wait for Windows Vista if EU antitrust regulators mandate further changes for the delayed operating system. The company said it's awaiting the Commission's response to answers it provided regarding officials' concerns about planned features in Windows Vista. Microsoft …

Music and Media 7 Sep 2006, 21:52
Apple patents convergent handheld ... thing

Er. That's it

Apple has filed to protect an invention it calls a "multi-functional hand-held device," a device with a user-interface that changes according to function. We'd love to give you more details, but that's all there is. The patent application discloses no invention at all, if you define "invention" (as Mirriam Webster's does) to …

Mobile 7 Sep 2006, 23:20