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20th September 2006 Archive

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  • Feds nail Supermicro for illegal Iran server sale

    Time to pay up

    Supermicro has found itself on the wrong end of a pricey server shipment after pleading guilty to sending gear to Iran. The US attorney's office in San Francisco slapped the server maker with a felony charge for exporting hardware to Iran, despite the presence of a US embargo. Supermicro agreed to plead guilty to the crime and …

    Servers 20 Sep 2006, 00:02

  • BEA thinks modular for lightweight SOA platform

    BEAWorld 2006 Three products, one architecture

    BEA Systems is making modules of its middleware, in a move to help developers build services oriented architectures (SOAs). BEA today opened the BEAWorld Conference in San Francisco, by announcing microServices Architecture (MSA), a Java- and XML-based architecture for WebLogic, AquaLogic and Tuxedo. But don't hold your breath …

    Developer 20 Sep 2006, 00:32

  • SGI to emerge from bankruptcy cocoon

    Like a crippled butterfly

    SGI is ready to become emergent all over again. A judge has okayed the company's reorganization plan, paving the way for it to come out of bankruptcy protection in October. The "new" SGI will be a trimmed down version of its former self with just 1,600 staff. In addition, it will have a new board of directors to complement new …

    Servers 20 Sep 2006, 08:57

  • Punctuation heroine launches website

    Eats, Shoots & Leaves author comes, online

    Militant punctuation campaigner Lynne Truss, author of the splendid Eats, Shoots & Leaves, is inviting concerned citizens to contribute outrages against the English language to her new website: www.lynnetruss.com. Truss's 2003 bestseller has done much to alert the world to the savage punctuational beating which careless writers …

    Media 20 Sep 2006, 08:59

  • Intel preps Pentium-branded 'Conroe' processors

    Old faithful brand shifting focus to embedded market?

    The Pentium is dead. Long live the Pentium. Yes, for all Intel's keenness on its new Core brand, the Pentium name will apparently survive beyond the current P4 and PD processors in the form of an upcoming 'Conroe'-based single-core CPU family due early next year. According to the latest Intel desktop roadmap leaks, January …

    Hardware 20 Sep 2006, 09:21

  • Disney 'very, very bullish' on early iTunes movie downloads

    Zip a dee do dah,

    It's only been a week since Disney plonked a load of movies on Apple's iTunes store, but already the studio is squeaking about how well it's all going. "We are very, very bullish on consumption of electronically delivered media," CEO Robert Iger told Wall Street analysts Tuesday. Disney said it has already flogged around 125, …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 09:33

  • Intel preps Pentium, Celeron price cuts

    Reductions due January, reports suggest

    Intel is set to cut the price of its Pentium D and Pentium 4 desktop processor lines in January 2007 as it pushes the Core 2 Duo family further downmarket. But that's not stopping the chip giant from releasing at least one more PD and a top-of-the-range Celeron D in the same month. A variety of reports coming out of Taiwan - …

    Hardware 20 Sep 2006, 09:39

  • People prefer iPods to biometric passports

    Anyone for an iDcard?

    The Home Office has tried to frighten people into taking its identity plans seriously by publishing a marketing survey it said proved their passports were easy targets for ruthless criminals. People care more about their iPods and mobile phones than their passports, according to an Identity and Passport Service (IPS) survey, …

    Policy 20 Sep 2006, 09:46

  • Monkeys will pay for Paris Hilton smut

    Celeb-hungry macaques in pay-per-view revelation

    It's official: monkeys are as obsessed with celebrity and pay-per-view porn as the next man. A team from Duke University Medical Centre, led by neurobiologist Dr Michael Platt, offered 12 thirsty adult male rhesus macaque monkeys a choice between their favourite drink (Juicy Juice cherry juice, ABC News notes), and the chance …

    Science 20 Sep 2006, 09:49

  • Japan to get Xbox HD DVD drive on 17 November

    Console to get 1080p support with software update

    Microsoft will ship the Xbox 360's eagerly anticipated external HD DVD drive to Japanese consumers on 17 November, the software giant revealed today at the Tokyo Games Show. The announcement paves the way for similar declarations concerning the peripheral's launch in the US and Europe. According to Microsoft Japan, the HD DVD …

    Games 20 Sep 2006, 10:04

  • RIM's enterprise dominance comes to an end

    Mobile Workshop Now head-to-head with Microsoft

    After dominating the enterprise mobile email space with the BlackBerry solution for so many years, RIM is no longer the only serious game in town. Despite a number of false starts, arch-rival Microsoft now appears to have closed the gap, at least in terms of forward looking commitment. In a recent Reg Reader poll, the number …

    Mobile 20 Sep 2006, 10:12

  • News Corp not in talks with Telecom Italia

    Talks, what talks?

    News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said he has not been in talks with Telecom Italia. Apparent negotiations were said to involve a possible deal with Sky Italia which would have further bolstered Telecom Italia's move into web content delivery. In a surprise move early last week, Telecom Italia announced a shift from its …

    Broadband 20 Sep 2006, 10:16

  • Murdoch to Yahoo, MSN: 'We don't need you'

    As Mrs M. launches MySpace in China

    Rupert Murdoch has defended his strategy of not making News Corp content available to portals. He told New York investors on Tuesday that he didn't need links from the likes of Yahoo and MSN news, saying: "We're not sure the portal model is the way of the future at all. We think people are going straight to the sites." …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 10:25

  • Fighting terrorism with mobiles

    Phone sensor could warn of chemical attack

    US mobile wireless sensor developer Gentag has been awarded a patent which covers the use of sensors in a phone, PDA, watch, or pager to detect noxious fumes and warn the user. The company does not expect the patent (7,109.859: Method and Apparatus for Wide Area Surveillance of a Terrorist or Personal Threat) to be used solely …

    Mobile 20 Sep 2006, 10:29

  • Nokia opens latest 3G slider phone

    Available in black and white

    Nokia today launched the 6288, its latest slider phone with 3G network connectivity. Available in black and white versions, the €325 ($412/£219) handset sports a 240 x 320, 262,144-colour display, a two megapixel main camera and a VGA cam for video calling. Nokia's bundling a 512MB memory card with the handset, which is due to …

    Mobile 20 Sep 2006, 10:42

  • US appoints cybersecurity chief

    After 14-month delay

    The US government has appointed a cybersecurity chief after a 14-month gap that left observers questioning the Government's commitment to the post. Filling the job will be ex-trade association executive Gregory Garcia. The decision was made over a year ago to appoint someone to a new post within the Department of Homeland …

    Management 20 Sep 2006, 11:04

  • Panasonic preps 'first' Blu-ray player and recorder

    Pre-recorded BDs? No problem

    Panasonic is gearing up to launch what it claims are the world's first Blu-ray Disc recorders capable of playing back pre-recorded BDs. The units - the Diga DMR-BW200 and DMR-BR100 - can burn content from their built-in hard drives to BD-R/RE discs at 4x speed, the company claimed. With almost all BD-R/RE drives currently …

    Hardware 20 Sep 2006, 11:09

  • High integrity software

    Book review Writing correct programs with little testing

    This book is the 2006 revision of the key guide to SPARK, a programming language founded on formal proof and static code analysis. This language happens to be implemented as an Ada dialect that makes use of formal comments to specify what the associated code is supposed to do, but it is not really Ada. Put simply, it is a …

    Developer 20 Sep 2006, 11:09

  • Firm fits standard rechargeable batteries with USB

    Computer connectable

    No, they're not the latest USB Flash drives in a fancy casing - Moixa's USB Cell products are real batteries, charged using a spare USB port. Which, if you think about it, is genius: no cables, no special adaptor just plug 'em into your computer every so often. When so connected, the AA-format, 1,300mAh batteries take about …

    Hardware 20 Sep 2006, 11:35

  • Asus unveils 'first' music streaming Skype phone

    Stream songs to your VoIP box

    Asus has launched what it reckons is the world's first wireless music Skype phone - a Wi-Fi enable handset that doubles up as a speaker for songs streamed from a PC. Dubbed the AiGuru S1, the handset connects to a PC running Skype across any local 802.11b/g wireless network. It supports all the usual Skype features - SkypeIn …

    Phones 20 Sep 2006, 11:59

  • Zimbabwe's internet grinds to a halt

    Intelsat cuts bandwidth over unpaid bill

    Zimbabwe's net infrastructure has all but ground to a halt after Intelsat cut the country's bandwidth over an unpaid $700,000 bill, Reuters reports. A spokesman for TelOne, which owns the country's principal satellite internet link, told the news agency: "The link is slow because they reduced the megabits on our satellite link …

    Broadband 20 Sep 2006, 12:00

  • Rattled SAP bites back at Ellison

    Executive handbags

    A slanging match has erupted between Oracle and SAP as the Silicon Valley giant tries to burnish its business apps credentials. Oracle chief executive and founder Larry Ellison used the company's positive financial results report Tuesday to pile PR pressure on its market-leading German rival. He said Oracle had "leapfrogged" …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 12:13

  • ASA backs Razr-wielding designers

    'Highly stylised', darling, not violent

    Readers of what you might still loosely term as broadsheets - you know the type, posh newspapers with lots and lots of cricket coverage - are capable of making informed decisions, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). So an advert for Motorola's Motorazr V3i mobile phone featuring fashion designers Dolce and …

    Mobile 20 Sep 2006, 12:24

  • MSI P965 Neo-F Core 2 Duo mobo

    Review Budget board

    Following on from the abundance of features served up by the Asus P5B Deluxe we reviewed t'other week, I've an inkling that MSI's P965 Neo is going to look a little primitive in comparison. It should be remembered, however, that the Neo is MSI's less glamorous offering, with the P965 Platinum edition catering to those with …

    Hardware 20 Sep 2006, 12:48

  • Adaptec plays Snap with low-end filers

    Yes to Active Directory, no thanks to Windows

    Adaptec aims to sort out confusion in its NAS product line with new low-end filers that run the same software as its larger models, and can therefore integrate with Microsoft's Active Directory. The new devices are the single-disk SnapServer 110 and the dual-disk SnapServer 210, both of which are free-standing and non- …

    Storage 20 Sep 2006, 12:48

  • Hezbollah cracks Israeli radio code

    Hopping mad

    Hezbollah fighters reportedly used Iranian-supplied technology to tap Israeli radio comms during last month's war in southern Lebanon. The intelligence gleaned from these intercepts helped frustrate Israeli tank attacks, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials. Military radio transmissions typically use frequency-hopping …

    Security 20 Sep 2006, 13:06

  • LG engineers book-reading phone for the blind

    Voice controlled

    LG has demo'd the world's first ebook reading mobile phone, pitching the product at the visually impaired. The LF1300 is entirely operable, the company said, using voice commands relayed through a bundled Bluetooth headset. The 16mm-thick handset's audiobook facility takes text files - some 300 of which will be made available …

    Phones 20 Sep 2006, 13:07

  • The cat peed on my laptop...

    and other bizarre data recovery disasters

    It's not only IT Help Desks that get strange queries and requests. Data recovery specialists at UK-based firm Disklabs have compiled an illuminating list of the oddest requests for assistance it receives from the 50,000 cases a year it deals with involving people needing to get their data recovered. Disklabs said that recovery …

    Storage 20 Sep 2006, 13:09

  • Looking for a one night stand?

    Text 4 luvin

    Those looking for a quick shag are more likely to use text to set up dates, according to a survey of 1,000 people carried out by online dating service Parship.co.uk. Sixty per cent of casual daters set up their first dates by text, while those looking for love were more likely to make a voice call. Sixteen per cent of those …

    Mobile 20 Sep 2006, 14:21

  • PC thief steals court PC during trial

    Double jeopardy

    A light-fingered California crook has been convicted of stealing computers from a courthouse while on trial for computer theft. Jon Houston Eipp, 39, of Novato, pleaded guilty on Monday to the computer theft crimes along with various burglary, theft, and drug possession offences. He faces up to five years in jail. "It just …

    Media 20 Sep 2006, 14:32

  • HP's snowballing shame

    Buggin' hell

    And the hits just keep on coming. The latest embarrassments for HP include claims of bugging its own chief executive, attempting to install a trojan on a reporter's computer, and the forthcoming spectacle of their ousted chairwoman hauled before a congressional committee. Patricia Dunn, who was allowed to quietly shuffle away …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 14:48

  • Internet safety talks for UK kids

    Digital playground monitors

    The government has announced plans for an internet safety campaign for secondary school children across Britain in a move that is hoped to crack down on child sex abuse. Initially, one million children will be involved in internet awareness talks with a mixed group of police, teachers, and child protection staff. The …

    Media 20 Sep 2006, 14:58

  • Widow paid $14,000 renting ancient phone

    Rotary rip-off

    Now here's a subscription scheme that works. A widow in Ohio, USA, rented a rotary phone for more than 40 years, clocking up a bill of $14,000 in the process. Now 82, Ester Strogen began leasing two rotary phones from AT&T in the 1960s, paying $29.95 a quarter. After the anti-trust decision forced a break up of the monopolist …

    Broadband 20 Sep 2006, 15:00

  • Right set-up vital for virtual teams

    It's all in the media

    Virtual teams need to choose their communications tools carefully if they want to be effective, new research has revealed. According to a new study commissioned by Cisco Systems, virtual teams - i.e. project teams that are working in multiple locations and communicate electronically - can work as well as, if not better than, co …

    Data Networking 20 Sep 2006, 15:31

  • Floating point numbers - what else can be done?

    Column Avoiding errors

    In a recent article here in The Register we saw some of the problems that result when floating point numbers are misused or chosen inappropriately. Many people wrote in to say they had seen first hand some of the voodoo techniques we decried, so clearly we're in the midst of a numerical calculation crisis and, if we don't do …

    Developer 20 Sep 2006, 15:46

  • NASA brushes off space dandruff

    Atlantis cleared for landing

    Mystery pieces of space debris which had shuttle mission controllers worried will not prevent a landing attempt Thursday, NASA said today. A further three bits of dross were spotted during a close inspection today. The original fragment had prompted fears something might have come unstuck from outside Atlantis during its …

    Science 20 Sep 2006, 16:03

  • Gonzales calls for ISP data retention laws

    How else to catch child porn viewers?

    The US Attorney General has asked senators to pass a data retention law for telcos and ISPs. Alberto Gonzales told a Senate panel that such a law would help to prosecute child pornographers. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller have discussed the proposal with ISPs who have considered lengthening their current retention …

    Broadband 20 Sep 2006, 17:04

  • HP: How not to manage a crisis

    Comment Not so Agile Business

    HP grows leakier by the hour: today's Pretexting Scandal episode, brought to you by an unnamed source of the NY Times reveals that the company "conducted feasibility studies on planting spies in news bureaus of [CNET and The Wall Street Journal] as part of an investigation of leaks from its board". Check out those janitors, …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 20:01

  • Intel's Grove 'sad' to see HP CEO promoted

    Poor power play

    Intel third horseman Andy Grove has chastised HP for its recent management shakeup. The printing, imaging and spying company should not have elevated CEO Mark Hurd to the Chairmanship, according to Intel's ex-top dog. "Every time I see that a company that has departed from the ... combined chairman-chief executive role go back …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 20:07

  • Free anonymous browsing

    Surf's up for privacy

    A modified version of Mozilla Firefox that lets users browse the web anonymously has been released. The Torpark browser can be stored on and run from a flash USB memory stick, which can effectively turn a PC into an anonymous terminal. Hacktivismo - an eclectic bunch of lawyers, artists, hackers and human rights activists - …

    Media 20 Sep 2006, 21:48

  • Dumb customers and dumber software standards

    BEAWorld 2006 Speak out, or face the consequences

    A senior Citigroup techie today called on customers to make their voices heard in the debates over software standards - or else. Skip Snow, enterprise architect at the financial services giant, warned that unless more customers get actively involved "we don't stand a chance against the vendors". "For the standards process to …

    Developer 20 Sep 2006, 22:15

  • Dell Q3 already in ruin – analyst

    Danger, Kevin Rollins!

    Dell's moves to lower prices, hire more understandable customer service reps and stop product fires do not appear to be helping its immediate fortunes. Think Equity analyst Eric Ross warned today that channel checks in Asia show Dell's PC sales "declining rapidly below expectations". Dell will likely struggle to correct the …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 23:27

  • Filing delay lands Novell with $600m debt default notice

    And NASDAQ delisting threat

    Novell's tardiness in doing its paper work for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has triggered nastygrams from NASDAQ and Wells Fargo, trustee of $600m in Novell debt. Novell is late in filing a Form 10-Q with the SEC for the period ended 31 July because it is still auditing the timing of stock option grants. So …

    Financial News 20 Sep 2006, 23:33