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10th October 2006 Archive

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  • Practices of an Agile Developer

    Book review A practical Agile book

    If nothing else, the Agile development movement has hit on a good brand. Agile has so many positive connotations – fast, graceful, dynamic. Come on, who doesn’t want to be Agile? Besides, the alternatives don’t have a handy label to grab on to. Formal methodologies? The Unified Process? Arthritic programming… Nope, Agile wins …

    Developer 10 Oct 2006, 01:26

  • Ray Noorda is dead

    Suffered Alzheimer's for many years

    Ray Noorda, the almost-founder of Novell, is dead at 82, following a long battle with Alzheimer's. Noorda joined Novell, Provo, Utah in 1983 when it had just 17 employees. He presided over enormous growth at the company, helped by Netware, its enormously successful network operating system. By the time he left in 1995, the …

    Software 10 Oct 2006, 02:21

  • O2 Jet talk-targeted frill-free phone flies in

    Ten-hour talk time, anyone?

    UK carrier O2 has launched Jet, the business-oriented, voice-centric handset Reg Hardware exclusively revealed in June this year. The new phone's key feature? A talk time just shy of ten hours, the cellco claimed. As anticipated, Jet is camera-free. It has a quad-band GSM/GPRS radio for networking and Bluetooth 2.0 for …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 08:31

  • Intel EOLs Pentium D 805

    Low-end CPU marked for termination

    Intel has officially marked the Pentium D 805 processor for termination, company documents reveal. The chip giant will take no further orders for the part - either boxed product or tray-mounted batches - after 9 February 2007. The 805 was only introduced in July this year. It's the only Pentium D chip that operates on a …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 08:46

  • Info guardian to investigate call centre data leaks

    TV expose´ prompts ICO security probe

    The Information Commissioner is launching an investigation into outsourced data centres after a television programme exposed security breaches at Indian call centres. Channel 4's Dispatches was offered individuals' banking details for as little as £8 by criminal networks in India. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) …

    ID 10 Oct 2006, 08:52

  • New telescope leaves 'killer' asteroids nowhere to hide

    UK boffins will hunt them down

    Astronomers from around the world have joined forces to use a revolutionary new telescope to map the universe, probe the secrets of dark matter, and hunt down earth-threatening asteroids. The agreement involves researchers from the Max Planck Society in Germany, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Las Cumbres …

    Space 10 Oct 2006, 09:02

  • Sun chief wants to blog his news to financial markets

    Makes plea to SEC chairman

    The chief executive of Sun Microsystems wants to be able to announce the $11bn company's results on his blog. Jonathan Schwarz has written to the chairman of US financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission to request a rule change. The SEC tightly controls how publicly quoted companies can announce information …

    Business 10 Oct 2006, 09:06

  • BOFH-friendly billfold relives dot-matrix days

    I remember when...

    Stuck for the perfect present to give to the sys admin in your life? New York-based Dynomighty may have the answer: the dot-matrix wallet. It's a US-style three-panel cash stash cunningly contrived to look like a section of printout, complete with sprocket holes, from the days before lasers. And to add a further geek-friendly …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 09:06

  • Vodafone's Kiwi buy points to change in strategy

    Embraces NZ telco and ISP

    Vodafone has paid £14.5m for New Zealand broadband provider ihug. ihug is New Zealand's third largest ISP and was put up for sale by its Australian parent in July. Although the mobile giant has agreements with many ISPs, it is believed to be the first time it has bought such a firm. Vodafone UK has been criticised for not …

    Networks 10 Oct 2006, 09:13

  • Mandelson mulls WTO piracy case against China

    IP 'not respected enough'

    European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has threatened to take China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over patent infringements. Mandelson says he "reserves the right to take a case to the WTO" over patent piracy. Amidst a battle over physical goods currently centred on cheap shoe imports, Mandelson is opening …

    Music and Media 10 Oct 2006, 09:18

  • Chaos Computer Club condemns e-voting machine

    Flaws detected

    The German Computer Chaos Club, Europe's largest hacker group, has called for a ban on the Nedap ES3B voting machine and similar computers after a Dutch citizens group found flaws in the dated e-voting machine. The computer is used in elections in the Netherlands, Germany and France, and marketed in the United States by Liberty …

    ID 10 Oct 2006, 09:20

  • Market watcher forecasts bumper year for smart phones

    PDAs not selling so shabbily, either

    World+dog will buy 81m smart phones this year, market watcher Gartner has forecast. The 2006 total represents a 66 per cent increase on the number of such devices that shipped last year. Some 16m PDAs will ship this year, a more modest year-on-year increase of 6.3 per cent, it added. Gartner based its prediction on string …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 09:29

  • In praise of FPGAs

    Building an active data warehouse appliance

    All data warehouse appliances have a massively parallel architecture in which there are multiple nodes that put processing as close as possible to the disk drives. In Netezza's Performance Server these nodes are known as Snippet Processing Units (SPUs: pronounced, incidentally, to rhyme with Gnu rather than being a homonym for …

    Storage 10 Oct 2006, 09:30

  • Nokia shows off Aeon 'wearable' concept phone

    Take it apart, fix modules to your shirt

    Nokia has unveiled its latest concept phone, designed to highlight the company's focus on products that allow users to more readily stamp their personality on their gadgets. The concept phone, dubbed Aeon, combines two touch-sensitive panels mounted on a fuel-cell power pack. The handset's connectivity and electronics are …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 10:05

  • Sunlight scuppers Nintendo Wii sensor?

    Overwhelmed by solar radiance

    What's the key to gaming success on Nintendo's upcoming Wii console? Keeping the curtains closed, it seems. According to a poster on the videogames pioneer's website, the new machine's sensor bar can't cope with sunlight. Reporting on a Wii demo in the US last week, forum poster Ombrenoir17 wrote: "For about an hour or so, …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 10:23

  • O2 coughs up new Ts and Cs to customers

    Next bill to clarify data collection changes

    O2 is adding an insert into its next bill to customers to make them aware of recent changes to its terms and conditions. These changes extend the information O2 is allowed to gather and archive to include the location, length, and times of calls. O2 had previously posted this information on its website, but some punters were …

    Mobile 10 Oct 2006, 10:26

  • IE7 to debut in October

    Ready or not?

    Microsoft has confirmed that IE7 will be released as an optional download later this month. The long-awaited next version of Microsoft's browser software will be pushed out as an automatic update a "few weeks" later, probably as part of Microsoft's regular Patch Tuesday update cycle in either November or December. Firms not …

    Applications 10 Oct 2006, 10:31

  • Belkin touts weather-proof iPod remote

    Rain won't stop play

    Can't be without your iPod even when you're halfway up a mountain and facing blizzard conditions? Then accessory maker Belkin has a weather-resillient wireless remote control just for you. Dubbed the SportCommand, the limb-lashable controller is covered in fabric to protect its electronics from the elements and to allow it to …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 10:41

  • 'I didn't get where I am today without being spanked'

    Top US execs offer tips for business success

    Top US execs have revealed the secret of their success: regular thrashings as children which taught them "important lessons, essential on the road to success", as the Evening Standard puts it. That's according to a new study by sociologist Eve Tahmincioglu - entitled Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top - which says that " …

    IT Director 10 Oct 2006, 10:51

  • AMD 65nm dual-core Turion laptop CPUs due Q2 2007?

    Smaller Mobile Semprons too

    AMD will take its main mobile microprocessor families into the 65nm era during Q2 2007, it has been claimed. The so-called 'Revision G' update will see the addition of 800MHz DDR 2 memory support to the CPUs' on-board memory controller. According to a DigiTimes report citing Taiwanese laptop-maker sources, the first 65nm …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 11:08

  • EVGA touts 'fastest' GeForce 7950 GT-based board yet

    HDCP support built in

    Graphics card maker EVGA has announced what it claims is the fastest board around that's based on Nvidia's GeForce 7950 GT-based product. It also incorporates support for the HDCP copy-protection system beloved of high-definition content providers. EVGA's e-GeForce 7950GT KO Superclocked card runs the GPU at 600MHz and the …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 11:47

  • Hubble confirms planets are made from dust

    Don't tell Kim 'n' Aggie

    Immanuel Kant was right: planets are formed from disks of dusty debris swirling around stars. NASA says images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope finally confirm Kant's prediction, made over 200 years ago. The images, captured by Hubble back in 2000, show a planet orbiting in the same plane as its star's disk of dust. Over 200 …

    Space 10 Oct 2006, 12:42

  • Monster boss quits cos SEC investigation too tiring

    After 39 years he's had enough

    Monster Worldwide chairman and chief executive Andrew J McKelvey is quitting the company blaming the long hours required by a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into alleged backdating of share options. He will be replaced by William M Pastore as CEO. McKelvey, 71, will stay on the board of the company, which is …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2006, 12:48

  • Internet Rangers take to the plains

    PFYs in waiting

    It's national Family Learning Week, and to celebrate that fact BT is relaunching its Internet Rangers website to encourage more youngsters to help us old codgers to understand this new internet thing. Apparently, we need all the help we can get. BT reckons that almost a third of parents and grandparents have been taught or …

    Networks 10 Oct 2006, 13:00

  • Spamhaus fights US court domain threat

    Black hole for blacklist 'unlikely'

    Spamhaus is at risk of losing its domain because of court action by a firm it has labelled as a spammer. The threat comes after the anti-spam organisation refused to comply with a September ruling by a US court requiring it to pay $11.7m in compensation to e360 Insight, pull the organisation's listing, and post a notice stating …

    Spam 10 Oct 2006, 14:31

  • Swiss gov 'mulls' spyware to tap VoIP calls

    Paging Superintendent Trojan

    The Swiss government is "considering" the use of a spyware application called Superintendent Trojan to eavesdrop on IP telephony conversation, Heise Security reports. Swiss firm ERA IT Solutions said it hopes to supply the Superintendent Trojan only to government agencies, a policy it hopes will leave it off malware blacklists …

    VoIP 10 Oct 2006, 14:35

  • US using more mobiles than landlines

    And VoIP take-up forecast to take off

    Mobile phones have eclipsed landlines as communication methods of choice for Americans, according to an online survey by Harris Interactive. The survey found 58 per cent of people had a landline, while 74 per cent of people owned a mobile phone. It also predicted that use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones is likely …

    VoIP 10 Oct 2006, 14:39

  • SpikeSource - an OSS innovation?

    Open source software is growing up....

    Does SpikeSource represent the next stage in the evolution of open source software as a serious business tool? It hopes so, and it has some significant names to call on: Kim Polese, its CEO and co-founder, once co-founder of Marimba; Ray Lane, co-founder of SpikeSource and former president of Oracle; Bill Joy, SpikeSource …

    Developer 10 Oct 2006, 14:55

  • 'Painful' job losses likely at Airbus

    A380 delays provoke 'cost-cutting measures'

    Airbus's new boss Louis Gallois has warned the company faces "painful" job losses as a result of delays to the A380 "Superjumbo" programme, the BBC reports. Gallois, who today replaced Christian Streiff as top gun after the latter managed just three months in the big seat, said "cost-cutting measures would be evenly split …

    Science 10 Oct 2006, 14:57

  • Sooloos sings praises of high-end lossless music system

    Multi-terabyte, RAID-protected song storage, anyone?

    Tired of the limited sound quality of lossy audio compression formats? Want to move up to lossless but don't have the storage capacity for all your albums? If you're sufficiently well-heeled, New York-based Sooloos may just have the music system for you: a 1-3TB, RAID-protected multi-room rig that does away with the computer …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 15:16

  • Gartner predicts biggest change in PCs for a generation

    Well, for 20 years....

    Analysts at Gartner are predicting the next few months will see the biggest technology changes to PCs for 20 years. Because of this they say decisions made now will have an impact on operations for a decade. The changes are in hardware, software, and in how technology is managed, the company has been telling delegates at its …

    Virtualization 10 Oct 2006, 15:27

  • CfH eyes NPfIT supplier catalogue

    Somewhere to go when things go wrong

    Connecting for Health (CfH) is to create a catalogue of suppliers for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Intellect, the UK trade association for IT suppliers, said it welcomed the move to set up a catalogue which will enable CfH to draw on extra capacity to help deliver the £6bn programme. However, he warned the use of a …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 2006, 15:34

  • 'Moronic' video deal buys Google legal woes?

    Analysis So Sue Me

    Google's $1.6bn purchase of YouTube is "moronic", says entrepreneur Mark Cuban. And he should know. In 1999, Cuban's streaming media company Broadcast.com was bought by Yahoo! for $5.7bn. Back then, Broadcast.com was also losing money, but with a rather sounder business strategy than YouTube today. His conclusion is not for the …

    Financial News 10 Oct 2006, 15:36

  • Force10 spreads the 10Gig goodness

    But is nice technology enough to beat Cisco?

    10Gig Ethernet specialist Force10 Networks has introduced two 1/10Gig switches as it attempts to break out of its data centre ghetto into the wider business world. Force10's non-blocking Gig and 10Gig core switch/router technology has won it a number of high profile accounts, including CERN and several internet exchanges, but …

    Data Networking 10 Oct 2006, 15:37

  • Vista-inspired Windows Mobile 6 spied on web

    'Crossbow' screenshots leaked

    Some nice-looking screenshots of Microsoft's next version of Windows Mobile - codenamed 'Crossbow' - have popped up on the web to show the upcoming operating system's swankier graphics. The images come courtesy of MSMobileNews, which has a selection of shots on offer. Meanwhile, the similarly names MSMobiles has a smaller pic …

    reghardware 10 Oct 2006, 15:42

  • Alcatel fingers Eye-box

    Eye-eye for SMB servers

    Alcatel has fingered specialist distributor Eye-box Centre to flog its small and medium-sized business servers. The various bits of kit cater for firms with 25 to 300 employees. Eye-box will hawk the boxes direct, as well as farming the task out to resellers, which Alcatel says will benefit from reduced lead times under the new …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 2006, 16:11

  • Bugged comets and forgetting your teeth

    Letters What bugged you, this week

    Never let it be said that El Reg is not a fount of useful information. This week, we all learned that it is legal to put a bug in an office. Now we can add to that knowledge: it is almost certainly not legal to listen to the bug, or do anything with the information you record with it: If you obtain personal data through the …

    Letters 10 Oct 2006, 16:16

  • MS revokes 'adware' distributor's community award

    Disavowed

    Microsoft has pulled a developer award to a programmer linked to adware distribution one week after granting the accolade. Cyril Paciullo, the developer of Messenger Plus and Messenger Plus Live, lost his Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) endorsement after critics pointed out that the software had been used to distribute an ad …

    Malware 10 Oct 2006, 16:31

  • Big Blue goes Big Green for cooler datacentres

    Let's have a heating debate

    The data centre of the future will use power more efficiently, and face fewer heat-related reliability problems, if IBM gets its way. The company has set up a 500-msn group to help clients build or renovate data centres so they can cope more effectively with new high-density technology, such as blade servers, said IBM Site and …

    Data Networking 10 Oct 2006, 18:01

  • Blogging 'un-Christian' - shock

    The Confusion of Tongues

    Blathering on blogs is un-Christian, an Evangelical church has warned. "Blogging has become a socially accepted practice - just as are dating seriously too young, underage drinking and general misbehaving," notes the monthly of the Reformed Church of God, Ambassador Youth. Blogging "often makes the blogger feel good or makes …

    Music and Media 10 Oct 2006, 18:05

  • US and EU stitch up airline passenger data deal

    And data protection law

    European data protection authorities are choking on their baguettes after seeing the detail of the data-sharing agreement the EU signed with the US on Friday. The passenger name record (PNR) agreement was presented as a formality that had been passed by the respective administrations without so much as a hiccup. But it's proving …

    Music and Media 10 Oct 2006, 19:19

  • Endeca blends BI into search

    Making sense of your search hits

    Endeca has updated its analytical search software, claiming that the new version is even better at discovering the relationships in both structured and unstructured data. The Endeca Information Access Platform (IAP) is a cross between a search engine and business intelligence (BI) software, according to Jeff Boehm, the …

    Developer 10 Oct 2006, 21:32

  • One Petabyte in a single volume

    Now that's what I call an archive!

    Isilon has updated its OneFS distributed file system, and added snapshot and load balancing software. OneFS can now manage one Petabyte of capacity, Isilon claims, where the previous version topped out at 250TB. OneFS is part of Isilon's IQ software suite for clustered storage. The new version, OneFS 4.5, allows up to 1PB of …

    Storage 10 Oct 2006, 21:33

  • FTC issues competition guidelines for Muni Wi-Fi

    Judge and Executioner

    The Federal Trade Commission today mapped out the terrain for American municipalities considering rolling out their own Wi-Fi Networks. Chief among the regulator's concerns is to ensure that local authorities do not torpedo the competition. But its report "Municipal Provision of Wireless Internet,” is less a series of dos and …

    Wireless 10 Oct 2006, 22:18

  • Ballmer sees PC future in web services world

    Rottweiler with bone

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today delivered a defense of PC-based computing in the face of a growing trend to deliver software as a service over the internet. He says the market is changing to a point where applications will run as easily as websites, but software will continue to rely on local processing power - a fact that …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 2006, 22:26

  • PeopleSoft whistleblower lands $17.3m jackpot

    Former employee exposed price gouging

    A whistleblower who exposed price gouging of federal customers by his former employer, Peoplesoft, will get $17.3m for his troubles. This is James A Hicks's share of the $98.5m returned to the US government today by Oracle, Peoplesoft's owner, to settle allegations of sharp practice. The case was filed under the False Claims …

    Public Sector 10 Oct 2006, 23:17