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9th November 2006 Archive

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  • Allchin rallies the Windows Vista troops

    Once more unto the breach

    Jim Allchin, outgoing Windows general, has rallied his Windows Vista troops one last time, 10 weeks before the over-hyped operating system hits "general" availability. Allchin, the co-president of platforms and services, has sent an email to Microsoft employees, seen by The Register, sayin that he admired their …

    Operating Systems 9 Nov 2006, 01:40

  • EC slams roaming charges

    When in roam, do as the roamans do

    Roaming charges in the EU are such a rip-off, many cross-border travellers simply switch off their phones when abroad. These high charges are putting people off using their phones when away from home - and consumers want the EU to do something about it. So says a new EuroBarometer survey, which found that European mobile phone …

    Mobile 9 Nov 2006, 08:02

  • Fast24 domain name fall-out: more war stories

    Letters Bulk delivery

    Fast24, the broadband ISP and domain registrar missing in inaction, has created headaches for many users of its domain services. Yesterday Reg reader Jim Howes recounted how he regained control of his domains. Today, more readers weigh in with their advice. I recently went through a similar process when my old domain-name …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2006, 08:02

  • PC World can you fix it?

    Er, no we can't

    If you need your home computer to be fixed don't go to PC World's repair centre, a new report has warned. Consumer magazine Computing Which? carried out an undercover investigation of independent and major stores that offer a computer repair service. It targeted PC World because it's the only major store that offers to fix …

    Channel Register 9 Nov 2006, 10:02

  • BT revenues creep up

    As telco strikes Mickey Mouse deal

    BT results for the second quarter ended 30 September 2006 show a four per cent rise in revenues to £4.9bn and a 12 per cent growth in pre-tax profits to £655m. The telco trumpeted growth in what it calls "new wave revenue" - cash from networked services, broadband and mobile phones. New wave revenues now make up 35 per cent of …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 10:11

  • Solar 'scopes probe Mercury for sodium

    Little planet crosses big star

    Yesterday, Mercury passed between Earth and the Sun, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to study the planet's very tenuous atmosphere. By studying the sunlight as it is filtered through the atmosphere, and comparing the data to the Sun's known spectral signature, astronomers can determine the atmospheric composition. The …

    Space 9 Nov 2006, 10:18

  • HP names services chief

    McCain, you've done it again

    HP has named John W McCain as the new boss of its services arm. McCain, who has done time at EDS and Capgemini, becomes senior vice president and general manager of HP Services replacing Steve Smith who left for "personal reasons". He will report to HP Technology Solutions Group executive vice president Ann Livermore who was …

    Channel Register 9 Nov 2006, 10:40

  • The future of Oracle applications

    Reg Reader Panel Sanity checking the marketing line

    One of the IT vendors with a particularly active and creative marketing department is Oracle. This means that while the company is undoubtedly doing a lot of good stuff, it is sometimes difficult to tell what's real among all the positively spun positioning. An area in which the Oracle messaging machine has been in overdrive …

    Operating Systems 9 Nov 2006, 11:03

  • Cisco delivers profits windfall

    Firing on all cylinders in Q1

    Cisco posted quarterly results swollen by its Scientific Atlanta acquisition to a gurgling Wall Street yesterday. Investors sent the networking firm's shares as much as nine per cent higher in after hours trading on the back of a 27.5 per cent GAAP profit hike. Sales in Q1 2007 hit $8.2bn compared to $6.5bn for the same period …

    Data Networking 9 Nov 2006, 11:19

  • German music publishers demand YouTube royalties

    The hills are alive, with the sound of lawyers

    The German Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) is demanding royalties from YouTube. A spokesman for GEMA told Germany's Handelsblatt that the popular video service needs to delete all videos with non-licensed German music, or pay up. GEMA says it is currently holding talks with YouTube …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 11:41

  • Morse changes on track

    AGM today

    Morse said today that its new structure of two divisions - one for mobile services and one for its traditional consultancy business - is working well. The company told the London Stock Exchange that trading is in line with expectations. Morse chairman Richard Lapthorne said: "In our preliminary results of 30 August 2006 we …

    Channel Register 9 Nov 2006, 11:42

  • HP sues InkTec over patents infringment

    A right IP pen and ink

    HP is suing the German subsidiary of Korean firm InkTec for infringing its printer-ink patents. The company claims that ink found in the InkTec branded cartridge refill kits violates patents held by HP. In a statement, the company said it was pursuing the matter in Germany because that is where the refill kits are found. It …

    Reg Hardware 9 Nov 2006, 11:47

  • D-Day for Fast24 punters

    Final cut-off next Friday

    The sorry saga of vanished ISP Fast24 will conclude for customers next Friday when the firm's broadband suppliers Tiscali and NetServices finally pull the plug on connections. Fast24 customers are being offered the chance to "rescue" their connection by moving over to EzeeDSL, a brand of Leeds-based business ISP 186K. Tiscali …

    Telecoms 9 Nov 2006, 12:06

  • Firefox update aims to lance security bugs

    Peace in our time

    Mozilla issued an update on Wednesday to address several vulnerabilities with older, but still widely used, versions of its web browser that create a possible means for hackers to attack vulnerable PCs. Related flaws also prompted an update to the SeaMonkey application suite. Users are advised to upgrade to Mozilla Firefox 1.5 …

    Applications 9 Nov 2006, 12:07

  • Germans begin probe into BenQ Mobile collapse

    'Whole staff been lied to'

    German public prosecutors are looking into the bankruptcy of German mobile phone manufacturer BenQ Mobile. Chief senior public prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld told the southern German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that it has started an investigation into the bankruptcy of BenQ Mobile, but declined to discuss details. …

    Mobile 9 Nov 2006, 13:05

  • A Letter from TechEd in Barcelona

    Well, someone has to be there...

    Well, while I was digesting my meal here last night – and trying to make sense of the fire hose of information that has just washed over me – Windows Vista was released to manufacturing. So it is finished at last, which is good news. Take a look at the Vista blog here for some real enthusiastic responses. Although it occurs to …

    Developer 9 Nov 2006, 13:20

  • Piracy losses fabricated - Aussie study

    Lies, damned lies, and statistics

    A draft study commissioned by the Australian Attorney General's office finds that the music and software industries attributes sales losses to piracy without any evidence to back their claims, The Australian reports. According to a draft report by the Australian Institute of Criminology, the music industry can't explain how it …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 13:27

  • ESA boffins meet to plot gravity field plotting

    Mission slated for 2007 launch

    Over 150 scientists met in Italy this week for the third international GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) workshop. The ESA mission is scheduled to launch next year and is the first in a series of Living Planet missions planned by the European Space Agency (ESA). It will spend 20 months gathering …

    Space 9 Nov 2006, 13:45

  • US govt may appeal in AT&T wiretap case

    EFFed up again

    The US government and AT&T have been granted an opportunity to argue for dismissal of their case concerning the mass wiretapping of phone and email traffic, Reuters reports. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the defendants' motion for dismissal, originally rejected by US District Court Judge Vaughn …

    Music and Media 9 Nov 2006, 14:33

  • Google posts Kama Sutra worm

    Embarrassing position

    Google has admitted that three posts on the Google Video group blog on Tuesday evening were contaminated with the Kama Sutra (AKA Kapster-A) worm. The offending posts have now been deleted. It's unclear how many subscribers to the 50,000 member list became infected as a result of the SNAFU. Google advises concerned subscribers …

    Malware 9 Nov 2006, 14:34

  • Storage forensics – it's CSI:Disk array

    Red ports don't write, says WiebeTech

    Forensic storage developer WiebeTech has developed a pair of write-blocked PCIe adapter cards that connect to devices such as disk drives or arrays, but prevent the host computer from writing to them. The RedPort cards allow an investigator to study or copy stored data without the risk of accidentally altering it, according to …

    Storage 9 Nov 2006, 14:39

  • BBC's Horizon gets serious - we have pictures

    Letters The show is over, but the malady lingers on

    You're still appalled, and amazed, that the BBC recently handed over its flagship TV science show to cranks and New Age nutballs. This week's show was even worse - if that's possible. But here are more of your letters: Just read your letters page. Did BBC's horizon really claim that a computer equal to the human brain might …

    Letters 9 Nov 2006, 14:56

  • Cable & Wireless hails recovery

    Swings and roundabouts...

    Cable & Wireless said results for the six months ended 30 September 2006 showed the company turnaround was on track. Revenues grew by £237m to £1.7bn mainly because of the takeover of Energis. But total operating costs grew by £217m to £1.5bn. This left group Ebitda with a 10 per cent increase to £221m. Pre-tax profit was £ …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 15:02

  • Pope warns against alarmist science

    Don't scare the huddled masses

    Pope Benedict XVI has warned scientists to beware of making alarming predictions without having the proper science to back them up. His remarks are widely being interpreted as a swipe at last week's forecast that by 2050 the world would have all but depleted its fish stocks. Speaking at this week's plenary session of the …

    Science 9 Nov 2006, 15:50

  • Stealth train uncloaks on Google Earth

    High-speed rail link X project

    Those of us who've been wondering where all of that cash the government poured into improving the UK's rail network actually went can take heart in the fact that, instead of squandering it on improved signalling and new track, Britain's rail operators actually used the money to develop the world's first stealth train: …

    Science 9 Nov 2006, 15:52

  • Broadcom lands Lenovo Wi-Fi n deal for notebooks

    Gamble pays off

    Broadcom said it has landed the supply of 802.11n advanced Wi-Fi chips to Chinese PC maker Lenovo, one of the largest PC makers in the world, which took over the IBM PC operations at the end of 2004. The Broadcom Intensi-fi chips, which meet the n standard that is still in draft will go into Lenovo's new N100 widescreen …

    Reg Hardware 9 Nov 2006, 15:59

  • Verimatrix integrates DRM with Motorola HD box

    Up, up and away

    IPTV DRM specialist Verimatrix said at the TelcoTV show in Texas this week that it has landed a deal with Motorola to put its Video Content Authority System (VCAS) on Motorola IP set-top boxes. Motorola, of course, has all its own encryption services for the cable TV industry, but these don't translate directly across to IPTV …

    Reg Hardware 9 Nov 2006, 16:14

  • Wikipedia Chicken attacked

    What a hen flap

    A reprehensible, juvenile prank is diverting valuable time from cultivating "the future of human knowledge" - Wikipedia. Ryan North says he wants to save the project by focusing vandals' energy on just one topic: chickens. And it's causing quite a hen flap. "Screw Britannica and their 2.92 errors per article. Together we can …

    Bootnotes 9 Nov 2006, 16:20

  • Halt to school fingerprinting

    China strikes blow for privacy

    The Hong Kong privacy commissioner has ordered a school to stop fingerprinting children before it becomes a runaway trend that is too late to stop. The school, in the Kowloon District, installed the system last year but, under the order of the Hong Kong Privacy Commission, has ripped it out and destroyed all the fingerprint …

    Music and Media 9 Nov 2006, 16:24

  • Microsoft drops Xbox update clanger

    We broke your console? $139 please

    Microsoft's Autumn Xbox 360 update is causing consoles to freeze at random intervals during play. The snafu apparently affects all games. The update was bugled on the Xbox community site as "another 85 reasons why 360 rocks". Microsoft sent us this statement: We’re aware that a very small number of Xbox 360 customers have …

    Reg Hardware 9 Nov 2006, 16:26

  • Lenovo disappoints with poor Q2 performance

    US markets tough to crack

    Lenovo Group has filed disappointing Q2 results, with net profit down 16 per cent to $38m from a year ago when it was at $45.4m. Revenue for the period was flat at $3.7bn, just one percent up on the year before. The company said it was still absorbing IBM's PC division, and said "unusually aggressive pricing" by its US …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 16:54

  • Intel tools around with HPC geeks

    SC06 Cluster compilation

    High performance computing (HPC) geeks will be pleased to find a new set of programming tools from Intel. The chipmaker this week announced Cluster Toolkit 3.0 and Cluster OpenMP for Intel compilers. Both products should help developers write parallel applications that can be spread across the server clusters that dominate the …

    Servers 9 Nov 2006, 17:36

  • Red Hat and VMware make a bundle

    Friends for the foreseeable future

    Red Hat has a friend after all. The Linux maker this week announced a bundling exercise with server virtualization specialist VMware. The companies' deal will see them pair Red Hat's version of the Linux operating system with VMware's flagship server slicing product. The upshot of the agreement – and it’s a minor one – is that …

    Servers 9 Nov 2006, 19:14

  • Zeus adds virtual traffic management

    And plans ahead for self-adjusting virtual clusters

    As if virtualisation wasn't complicated enough - what with virtual servers, virtual storage and virtual networks - you can now have a virtual load balancer for your virtual machines as well. However, Zeus Technology argues that running its Zeus eXtensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) on top of VMware ESX Server can actually simplify …

    Data Networking 9 Nov 2006, 19:36

  • Social Security phishing scam surfaces

    Hook, line and stinker

    Phishers are going directly after one of the prime targets of ID thieves, US citizens' social security numbers. Scam emails purporting to come from the US Social Security Administration give bogus warning that recipients risk having their social security account suspended unless they update their personal information on a site …

    Spam 9 Nov 2006, 19:41

  • Looney Zunes: What does UMG want from Microsoft?

    Strangest deal of the year

    It's a historic deal - and the most talked-about tie-up in the music industry today. As Microsoft gets ready to launch its iPod-rival Zune next week, it's agreed to pay Universal Music Group a fee - believed to be a dollar per device - to compensate Universal artists. It's an unprecedented arrangement, for device manufacturers …

    Financial News 9 Nov 2006, 20:05

  • Nvidia goes gangbusters in Q3

    Nvidia has had a cracking third quarter, pulling a record $826.6m revenues for the September quarter(Q3 2005: $583.4m) and net income of $106.5m (Q3'05: $86.75m). The graphics chip firm claims growth in market share, citing Mercury Research figures which put the company as the largest supplier of standalone GPUs in Q3 with 55 …

    Reg Hardware 9 Nov 2006, 22:10

  • Oracle buys Stellent. Can we close the gap now?

    Comment Getting it

    In the film The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood go into a bar. “What kind of music do you play?” one of them asks. “We got both kinds,” says the lady behind the bar, “Country and Western.” While this might be quite a limited perspective on music, information technologists have often been even more myopic. There are two kinds …

    Developer 9 Nov 2006, 22:25