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24th October 2006 Archive

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  • Outsourced applications in vogue at OpenWorld

    Nothing too SaaSy

    Silicon Valley may be rife with talk of software delivered as a service (SaaS) but at Oracle's OpenWorld in San Francisco today, the buzz was all about the traditional application outsourcing model. Outsourcing specialist Infocrossing formally launched managed services for customers on Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 05:30

  • Asus GeForce 8800 GTX-based board details leak

    Nvidia's 'G80' to sport GigaThread, Quantum Effects technologies

    The specifications of an upcoming Asus graphics card, the EN8800GTX, have been posted online to give a pretty good idea what Nvidia's upcoming GeForce 8800 GTX chip - aka 'G80' - will offer, including DirectX 10 Shader Model 4.0 support and Nvidia's Quantum Effects Technology. The EN8800GTX is a two-slot card that requires a …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 07:54

  • Intel follows AMD with CPU price cuts

    New models too

    Intel this weekend pruned its processor prices, making a series of cuts to its Celeron lines and a handful of other CPUs, according to its public price list, which was updated yesterday - the same day in which arch-rival AMD also tweaked what it charges for chips. Intel's Celeron D adjustments saw 8-22 per cent knocked off …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 08:26

  • Satnav orders German into toilet

    RoTM Turn right, then drive up the stairs...

    An "overly obedient" German driver followed his car's satnav system's instructions to "Turn right now!" and duly exited the highway "about 30 metres before the crossing he was meant to take" before piling headlong into a portaloo, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Mind you, this is not simply a case of a moment's lapse in …

    Rise of the Machines 24 Oct 2006, 09:09

  • Colourful US computer company Liebermann re-appears

    L's bells, it's back

    We haven't heard from colourful computer company Liebermann since its founder, Miguel Liebermann, posted a 42-page PDF in April 2005 explaining why his company had not been a hoax despite announcing a raft of incredibly high-end systems and, more to the point, apparently going out of business in October 2004. We say ' …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 09:18

  • Scientists catch exotic new particles

    Bottom quark caught...stop sniggering...

    Researchers working at the FermiLab particle accelerator in the US have discovered two new kinds of particle, exotic relatives of the common-or-garden proton and neutron. Dr Todd Huffman of the University of Oxford, one of the UK scientists in Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), said although the particles have been predicted …

    Physics 24 Oct 2006, 09:26

  • HBOS to change website after security alert

    You've been framed

    HBOS is changing its Bank of Scotland internet banking website in response to a security company's claims that the site was vulnerable. But the bank says the supposed risk did not pose any dangers to customers. Information security company heise Security issued a report a month ago warning that many banking sites were …

    Security 24 Oct 2006, 09:33

  • ATI to launch Radeon X1650 XT next week?

    As AMD takeover goes through

    ATI will next week launch its 80nm RV560 chip as the Radeon X1650 XT, it has been claimed. By then, of course, the company will almost certainly be part of AMD and possibly no longer known by its original name. The 575MHz GPU - incidentally, the same speed Nvidia's upcoming GeForce 8800 GTX is alleged to have been set to - …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 09:33

  • Smouldering badger disrupts rail services

    '22 minutes late, flaming badger at Tonbridge'

    Reginald Perrin would love it: rail services near Tonbridge, Kent, were yesterday disrupted by "a smouldering badger on the line", the Daily Mirror reports. Said disruption was not, however, on the same apocalyptic scale as that commonly caused by the wrong kind of leaves on the line, as watch manager Peter Brown explained: " …

    Bootnotes 24 Oct 2006, 09:41

  • Inquiry into EU roaming probe begins

    O2 versus the EC

    The European Ombudsman has initiated an inquiry into complaints levied by mobile operator O2 against the European Commission. Ombusdman Nikiforos Diamandouros said the aim of the inquiry will be to ascertain whether there has been any maladministration by the commission when it handled an investigation into mobile phone roaming …

    Music and Media 24 Oct 2006, 09:48

  • Suspected thieves blow up house

    Nick gas piping at your peril...

    Two men suspected of attempting to steal copper pipe from a boarded-up house in West Bromwich got a nasty shock when they blew up the property, the Daily Mirror reports. One of the men was blown out of an upstairs window in the blast, which police believe was caused by the men sawing through a pipe or lighting a cigarette …

    Bootnotes 24 Oct 2006, 09:51

  • IPS stands ground on ID cards

    'We're already on the right track'

    The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is resisting some elements of the recommendations from MPs on the National Identity Card Programme It has responded to a number of criticisms and recommendations made in the report from Parliament's Science and Technology Committee, published in August, with rebuffs in some instances and …

    Public Sector 24 Oct 2006, 09:56

  • SanDisk to secure online sales with USB Flash drives

    Crypto on your keychain

    SanDisk will next year bring secure computing to its USB Flash drives in a bid to persuade online banks, auction houses and retailers to use them to minimise unauthorised and fraudulent transactions. The technology is called TrustedSignins and essentially embeds a "high performance" encryption engine into the Flash drive. …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 09:57

  • Gateway opens up to Sony battery recall plan

    Asks for 35,000 units to be returned

    Gateway has become the latest notebook computer supplier to recall Sony-made laptop batteries. It has asked for some 35,000 lithium-ion power packs to be returned. The batteries could, under "very rare circumstances" overheat and catch fire, Gateway said, though it claimed it has not heard of any instances of this happening with …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 10:14

  • Using the new web for lifeskilling

    Opinion Riding the Olympic wave of opportunity

    I recently sat in on a roundtable looking at how the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 can be used as a springboard for encouraging local unemployed groups to gain extra skills that would help them not only gain temporary employment for the period of the games, but also to empower them to gain permanent employment from then on. …

    IT Director 24 Oct 2006, 10:20

  • Microsoft dodges court in Belgian copyright battle

    Takes down links

    Microsoft has agreed to remove links to articles in Belgian newspapers from its search engines and news aggregators, rather than fight it out in court with Belgian publishers. Copiepresse, the industry body for French and German language newspaper publishers in Belgium, had sent the software giant a cease and desist letter, …

    Financial News 24 Oct 2006, 10:41

  • One fifth of Brits bullied at work

    Ethnic minorities and disabled suffer most

    One fifth of British workers have been bullied at work during the last two years, the BBC reports. Research by the the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) indicates the disabled are the most seriously affected, with 37 per cent claiming they'd been on the receiving end of unwelcome attention, while 29 per cent …

    IT Director 24 Oct 2006, 10:42

  • British boffins demo 150dpi bendy display

    Rollable SVGA screen, anyone?

    UK-based Cambridge University spin-off Plastic Logic has pledged to demo a 150dpi bendy active-matrix display system today. Fold it, roll it - crucially, you can still read it. The technology's based on E Ink's non-volatile display system, but also brings in Plastic Logic's own techniques for 'printing' electronic components …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 10:50

  • Pure predicts bright future

    Sparkling revenues prompt acquisition hunt

    Pure Telecom is on the acquisition trail after announcing a healthy revenue forecast on Monday. The Irish firm, which specialises in providing broadband and voice services to small business customers, announced it expects to record revenues of €8m for 2006. Pure recorded revenues of €6.4m last year; the 2006 forecast is an …

    VoIP 24 Oct 2006, 11:06

  • Off the Rails?

    Book review Calling all Rails developers that want to learn Ruby

    Billed as a possible Java-killer, the huge amount of interest in the Ruby programming language is in no small part due to the popularity of the Ruby On Rails framework. An application framework that implements the Model View Controller architecture, Ruby On Rails enables the creation of data-driven web applications with …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 11:17

  • ICSTIS finds luckiest man alive

    There can be only one

    A three time winner of a text entry competition attracted the attention of premium rate regulator the ICSTIS, which has dished out fines totalling £8,000 to the organisers of two lotteries, or possibly one, for misleading promotion. On the 11 July, Mr G Hazel not only won £250 on a draw at gr8prizes.com, but the same week he …

    Mobile 24 Oct 2006, 11:23

  • Hacking contactless credit cards made easy

    Carson attack no laughing matter

    US security researchers have demonstrated how easy it might be for crooks to read sensitive personal information from RFID-based credit and debit cards. Tom Heydt-Benjamin and Kevin Fu, a University of Massachusetts professor from the RFID Consortium for Security and Privacy (RFID-CUSP), have shown how crooks might be able to …

    ID 24 Oct 2006, 11:29

  • HELLO! HELLO! YES, I'M INFERTILE. NO, INFERTILE!

    Mobile phone use damages sperm numbers and quality

    Mobile phone use does have an impact on male fertility. Or at least it does if you use your phone for four or more hours a day. Which seems like a lot for a grown-up. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) looked at 364 men. It found both numbers of sperm and quality fell for those using mobile phones. Those …

    Mobile 24 Oct 2006, 11:36

  • T-Mobile inks tattoo'd RAZR deal

    Tattoo you, Moto

      It's all a bit Grand Theft Auto, but Motorola and T-Mobile USA clearly want to get hip to the 'hood with these tattoo-styled RAZR V3 handsets, which go on sale in the US on Monday. No vibrating needles, indellible inks, seedy parlours and pain were used, apparently, but the laser etching technique Apple uses to give iPods a …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 11:39

  • Giant elastic-powered aircraft fails to take off

    Disappointment for UK aviation pioneer

    A UK artist has dismally, albeit heroically, failed to get off the ground in a 20ft aircraft powered by a giant rubber band, the Daily Telegraph reports. Mark Clews attempt to reach 3,000ft in the oversized kids' toy ended with the aircraft travelling just six feet backwards at a "rain swept" Dunsfold Park airfield in Surrey. …

    Science 24 Oct 2006, 11:43

  • Google offers white label searches

    Pimp my Google!

    Google is offering a customisable version of its search engine for people to put on their own websites or blogs. The search giant has long offered a mini-version of itself for other sites to use, but the new version has more options. You can select what pages or websites the engine searches through or you can prioritise certain …

    Applications 24 Oct 2006, 11:47

  • Microsoft in 64-bit Vista lockdown

    RSA Europe Kernel ganders? cock-a-doodle-don't

    Microsoft will operate 64-bit versions of Windows Vista as a tabernacle, with the kernel as the holy of holies, where only its own high priests of security may venture. There's going to be a kybosh on naughty developers mucking about with the 64-bit kernel; patching will be banned. McAfee and others seem to have already …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 12:01

  • Brits spend more on HD DVD than Blu-ray

    Of course - there's no PS3 yet

    Brits favour HD DVD over Blu-ray Disc, it has been claimed. According to online retailer Play.com, UK consumers are spending more than twice as much on HD DVD players and content than they are on BD kit. The numbers are based on pre-orders made via the website. Hardware sales favour HD DVD 2:1, while content favours the …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 12:02

  • Calls to help desk = testing, survey finds

    Development oversight

    A survey of European IT execs conducted by Compuware has shown that 52 per cent believe there is a more than even chance that applications deployments will fail when they go live. The instant response at Vulture Central was "another statement of the blindingly obvious", which must be the result of our renowned levels of …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 12:34

  • Leaders vs bloggers and other meaningless fights

    Opinion It's all meeja, innit?

    A good leader writer - and I never was one of those! - has a vital function on a large newspaper or magazine. They tell the readers what the news stories are about. Well, that's all going to change, says a pundit. You'll have noticed, perhaps, that El Reg is not a newspaper. Nonetheless, the laws of writing leading articles …

    Music and Media 24 Oct 2006, 13:02

  • Irish e-voting emerges from the crypt

    On government life support

    After spending €52m on a computerised voting scheme that doesn't work reliably, and warehousing the kit at a cost of about €800,000 per year, the Irish government would like to revive the technology so that the country's reputation doesn't suffer. Ireland will be embarrassed without computerised balloting, Taoiseach Bertie …

    Music and Media 24 Oct 2006, 13:35

  • I work for MS but even I struggle to get a hot-fix

    Redmond man in online support purgatory

    Obtaining a hot-fix from Microsoft is far from easy, even if you work for the software giant. That's what Microsoft Developer Solutions group manager Josh Ledgard discovered when he tried to obtain a software patch for Visual Studio 2005 to correct performance problems he was experiencing. The subsequent trail of woe - …

    Software 24 Oct 2006, 14:00

  • FunkySexyCool gets funkier, sexier and cooler

    By joining forces with MTV

    Australian social networking site FunkySexyCool is adding MTV to the start of its name before its launch in Austria, Germany and Switzerland on Monday. The addition of the MTV moniker seems no more than that: both brands will endorse each other, but there's no talk of content provision in either direction. The service allows …

    Mobile 24 Oct 2006, 14:04

  • Apple MacBook Pros drop Core Duo for Core 2 Duo

    Power boost

    Apple has revamped its MacBook Pro line-up with 'Merom', Intel's Core 2 Duo mobile processor, the Mac maker has just announced. The update brings a performance jump of up to 39 per cent, Apple claimed. It also adds Firewire 800 to the 15in models. The 15.4in model is offered with a choice of 2.16GHz or 2.33GHz Core 2 chip, …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 14:20

  • Lik-Sang shuts shop, names PSP-purchasing senior Sony staffers

    Out with a bang?

    Hong Kong-based gaming hardware online retailer Lik-Sang.com has closed its doors, and it's firmly blaming Sony for its woes - even though many of the company's senior staffers have used its grey import service, the company alleged. No more orders will be taken from today, the retailer said. Existing orders will be cancelled …

    Reg Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 14:51

  • Rainy day? Blame cosmic rays

    Particle accelerators show us how

    Scientists have speculated for some time that cosmic rays could have an effect on the weather, and now the experiment designed to test the idea has begun collecting data. The CLOUD experiment (which contrives to be short for Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) kicked off on Thursday last week, with a prototype detector in a …

    Space 24 Oct 2006, 14:58

  • Dynamic developments in Java

    Java goes OSS and gets another language

    In his review of a “Ruby For Rails” book today, Pan Pantziarka comments that the new language Ruby is now being “billed as a possible Java-killer”. Well, it seems that Sun may think so too, as its JRuby team (Sun hired key Ruby developers Thomas Enebo and Charles Nutter, back in September) has just released JRuby 0.9.1 for …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 15:04

  • Double your money ATM sparks Bristol street party

    We're in the money

    Students and workers queued for three hours in Bristol on Saturday after a malfunctioning cash point started handing out twice the amount of money people requested. News of the fault spread like wildfire and within minutes people were queuing around the block for a chance to "double their money” at the faulty Royal Bank of …

    Financial News 24 Oct 2006, 15:10

  • Microsoft plays ditch a distie

    Narrow target for broad-liners

    Microsoft is changing its UK channel structure and increasing the number of disties from six to 10. But it's not all good news - the three broad-line distributors Bell Microproducts, C2K and Ingram Micro - face an X-Factor style competition which will see one of them dropped. While all three keep their Microsoft contracts …

    Channel Register 24 Oct 2006, 15:15

  • SGI smacks ATI with graphics lawsuit

    And vows 'there's more to come'

    When SGI's boss Dennis McKenna vowed to get serious about the bankrupt company's IP portfolio this summer, he wasn't kidding. "We have a hell of a lot of IP left," he told The Register at the time. A day after it returned to NASDAQ (under a new stock ticker) SGI has filed suit against ATI claiming patent infringement. SGI …

    Servers 24 Oct 2006, 15:48

  • Arkansas settles anti-trust dispute with Microsoft

    Vouchers for all

    Microsoft is paying $37.8m to the State of Arkansas to settle anti-trust action. Any Arkansas resident or business who bought a Microsoft product between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2004 for use in the state is entitled to a voucher. The state says Microsoft violated Arkansas laws pertaining to anti-trust, consumer …

    Financial News 24 Oct 2006, 15:54

  • Vista kernel fix 'worse than useless'

    MS irks security researcher (part 411)

    Microsoft has modified Windows Vista to prevent a high-profile exploit demonstrated at security conferences this summer but the fix creates as many problems as it solves, according to the security researcher who identified the original problem. The bug, demonstrated by Joanna Rutkowska of security firm Coseinc, created a …

    Operating Systems 24 Oct 2006, 15:57

  • RSA looks to dodge EMC's integration record

    ...with more acquisitions

    EMC's job cull, announced last week, was precipitated by a failure to fully exploit its lengthy acquisition roster. "A lot of lack in integration," was to blame for the cuts, Dennis Hoffman, VP of enterprise solutions for recent buy RSA said. The new security division of EMC will escape any cuts, but the firm has moved swiftly …

    Hardware 24 Oct 2006, 16:09

  • Trolls seek to copyright quarky badger rail

    Letters Or have we misheard?

    In a bid to tackle piracy, the MPAA has helped design a copyright badge for the Los Angeles Scouts. As well as learning five kinds of copyrighted material, and three kinds of infringement, prospective badge wearers might even get to go on a field trip to a movie studio to learn about the evils of piracy. Some of you decided to …

    Letters 24 Oct 2006, 16:17

  • Net refuseniks getting more stubborn

    Half of UK not interested

    Almost half the nation's households don't have net access - and most of them aren't going to sign up. In what will be unwelcome news for ISPs, ecommerce providers, and the government, a survey of UK households suggests internet hold-outs are getting more stubborn. The availability of cheap broadband has eroded the refusenik …

    Telecoms 24 Oct 2006, 16:37

  • Red Hat makes Xen GUI in Fedora Core 6

    Mac crowd massaged

    Red Hat has put Fedora Core 6 up for grabs. Xen fans and Mac fans have been asked to rejoice. Red Hat has been toying with Xen in past Fedora versions, but Core 6 brings with it a fancy new management tool. Those who loathe the command line can now fire up a GUI and control their Xen virtual servers from a convenient console. …

    Operating Systems 24 Oct 2006, 18:19

  • Hurd: HP can do better

    OpenWorld IBM, Dell, Carly all get it

    Rivals and predecessors were in Hewlett-Packard Co boss Mark Hurd's crosshairs as he paced the stage during a Tuesday morning keynote at Oracle's OpenWorld. First, though, there was a little humble pie for breakfast. Hurd warmed up the crowd with pointed references to the spying scandal that blasted company executives across …

    Servers 24 Oct 2006, 18:24

  • Oracle threatens to make workers more expressive

    OpenWorld It's like Web 2.0, for the enterprise

    Oracle has become the latest big-ticket software vendor offering cube-farm dwellers improved social interaction through social networking. The database giant has unveiled Oracle WebCenter Suite, promising a portal-based mash-up of business applications like PeopleSoft with RSS feeds and wikis. WebCenter Suite will "break …

    Applications 24 Oct 2006, 21:20

  • Creating a Report with JasperReports

    Creating presentation-quality PDF and Excel Reports with an OSS product.

    Preparing presentation-quality reports is an everyday occurrence, so any tool that makes the job easier is worth a look. For developers working with Java, one such is JasperSoft’s JasperReports, which is capable of producing a range of outputs, including HTML, PDF, Excel XLS, CSV and XML file formats. The tool can build dynamic …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 21:28

  • Vivendi accuses T-Mobile of racketeering

    Handbags at 20 paces

    The long-running spat between Vivendi and T-Mobile over ownership of Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), the Polish network operator, took a surreal turn when Vivendi filed a charge that T-Mobile acquired their shares in the company though a process of fraud and racketeering. But rather than Poland, Austria or Germany, Vivendi have …

    Mobile 24 Oct 2006, 21:46

  • US publishers say Child Online Protection Act should be struck down

    COPA non grata

    A group of US online publishers and a lobby group is taking the Government to court to challenge an eight-year-old law which it says amounts to censorship of the internet. The challenge is to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which became law in 1998. Designed to protect children from viewing pornographic and harmful …

    Music and Media 24 Oct 2006, 22:43

  • Oracle pencils in next-gen BI suite

    OpenWorld Financial reporting meets web

    Oracle's next Business Intelligence suite will see deeper integration with Oracle's Fusion middleware and applications plus support for online reporting. Announced today, Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3 will see integration with Oracle Database 10g's OLAP, Oracle Identity Management and a new …

    Developer 24 Oct 2006, 22:54

  • Playboy gambler says Feds can't stop his online empire

    Interview Calvin Ayre goes Down Under

    What the hell does internet gambling have to do with port security? American gaming enthusiasts have been asking themselves that very question, after Republicans in Congress recently amended the Safe Port Act (H.R. 4954) to prohibit financial transactions between American financial institutions, such as banks and credit card …

    Financial News 24 Oct 2006, 23:26

  • Florida 'botmaster' charged with Akamai DDOS attack

    Internet bombardment

    A Florida man was in federal court today, accused of launching a DDOS attack on Akamai which brought much of the internet to its knees - for a few hours. John Bombard, 32, of Seminole is charged with hacking into two computer systems as part of a scheme to build a botnet of "zombie" PCs to attack Akamai. According to the FBI, …

    Enterprise Security 24 Oct 2006, 23:52