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12th December 2006 Archive

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  • SGI dishes out super simple storage box

    Plug and RAID

    SGI has popped out a new low-end storage system that it bills as its "easiest-to-deploy" "plug-and-play" box to date. Don't let the USB drive lingo fool you, SGI is in fact talking about a basic RAID array. The InfiniteStorage 220 plays to both the Fibre Channel and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) networking camps and uses SAS and …

    Channel Register 12 Dec 2006, 00:39

  • Online gambling poised to pull $528bn

    US shuns cash cow

    Internet gaming is now the fastest growing segment of internet commerce, according to a report from Gamingpublic.com, an industry trade publication. Revenue in the sector is growing at a rate of 22 per cent per year. Gamingpublic.com cited a Merrill Lynch study that concluded the global internet gaming market could reach – wait …

    Financial News 12 Dec 2006, 01:41

  • Tesco in customer receipt security breach

    Airing customers' smalls

    An administrative blunder left thousands of customers of UK supermarket chain Tesco open to identity fraud. Store receipts - containing names and full credit card details - have been found carelessly discarded in a south-east England depot where they'd been taken to be destroyed. The haul would have made a big payday for bin …

    Security 12 Dec 2006, 09:27

  • Packeteer offers free WAN evals

    Fighting the app-independent tide with video plug-ins

    WAN optimisation specialist Packeteer is offering free WAN application performance evaluations, plus software to track video usage over the network. The evaluation service involves plugging one of the company's PacketShaper appliances into an organisation's WAN connection to automatically discover which applications are running …

    Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 09:58

  • Husband's online revenge nipped in the bud

    Celebrity adulterers have human rights too

    A wronged husband bent on revenge who threatened to reveal the identity of his wife's celebrity lover on the internet has been barred from doing so. An interim injunction has been served on human rights grounds. In a case which could have serious repercussions for online and offline media law the High Court has ruled that the …

    Music and Media 12 Dec 2006, 10:11

  • IT presence in the UK faces extinction as students shun the sector

    Off-shoring continues to take its toll

    This month has seen the UK's aspiring Prime Minister recycling his views in his Budget Report on the requirements and funding for enhancing the training opportunities and skills to compete globally as a prelude to announcing greater investment in higher education. Some people and organisations, “speaking on behalf of the UK IT …

    IT Director 12 Dec 2006, 10:33

  • Online dragnet catches missing child abusers

    'No place to hide'

    Police are hailing the early success of the recently launched "most wanted" child abusers website after a third convicted paedophile was caught in northern France yesterday. Paul Francis Turner, aged 57, was spotted by members of the public who had seen his photograph and details on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection …

    Music and Media 12 Dec 2006, 10:38

  • Layman's legalese sends online libel case to court

    Offer of amends 'confusing'

    Every element of a process designed to avoid expensive defamation trials must be followed otherwise it cannot take effect, the High Court has ruled. The ruling may result in a case of internet message board libel going to court. The Defamation Act contains a process called the 'offer of amends' which is designed to encourage …

    Music and Media 12 Dec 2006, 10:45

  • Apple a-quiver over iPod vibrator copyright clash

    Buzz off, says sex toy supplier

    Apple has set the lawyers on the makers of the iBuzz iPod-driven vibrator. The company claims the UK website established to promote the stimulatory accessory violates its copyright. Specifically, what LoveLabs describes as an "animation showing silhouettes of girls diddling themselves silly" is, in the words of Apple legal …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 10:46

  • Plan for European patent court may fail, says EU Commissioner

    Bickering over details to blame

    The EU Internal Markets Commissioner has warned that Europe is about to miss out on a chance to forge a pan-European patent disputes forum because of long-standing international bickering on what a system might look like. Following further fruitless discussions between European countries this week, Charlie McCreevy has warned …

    Music and Media 12 Dec 2006, 11:00

  • Fujitsu 'first' to announce 300GB laptop SATA HDD

    Second-generation perpendicular recording tech

    Fujitsu has unveiled what it claims is the world's first 2.5in, notebook-oriented SATA hard drive with a "second-generation perpendicular recording"-boosted capacity of 300GB. The part's called the MHX2300BT and will also be offered with a 250GB storage capacity. Fujitsu claimed the drives a not only "exceptionally quiet" but …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 11:06

  • Dell takes orders for Blu-ray laptop

    Gamer-friendly XPS M1710 gets next-gen optical format

    Dell has brought the Blu-ray Disc next-generation optical disc format to its XPS M1710 gamer-friendly notebook offering. The PC giant is now allowing buyers to configure the machine with a dual-layer, 50GB BD-R burner. The company is also offering a standard-configuration M1710 with the Blu-ray drive built in. It's equipped …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 11:26

  • Intel EOLs Pentium D 820

    Clearing the decks for Core

    Intel has formally sounded the death knell for its dual-core Pentium D 820 processor, documents sent by the chip giant to its customers reveal. Come 2 February 2007, orders for the part will no longer be available for cancellation and shipped product can't be sent back. In August this year, Taiwanese moles signalled Intel's …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 11:38

  • O2 offers to scratch mobile phones

    Free engraving at Oxford-Street drop-in centre

    O2 are offering free etching of logos and pictures onto mobile phone handsets, at the Blue Room in their flagship store at 368 Oxford Street (London). O2 customers are invited in to take a break from the horrors of Christmas shopping and enjoy a back massage and some free internet access too. A selection of logos are available …

    Mobile 12 Dec 2006, 11:59

  • Nvidia specs up single-chip Intel integrated chipsets

    MCP73 to be followed by DirectX 10-capable MCP79, apparently

    Analyst claims that Nvidia is close to releasing low-cost chipsets targeting Intel processors gained weight this week when Far Eastern moles detailed the single-chip products' - said to be codenamed 'MCP73' and 'MCP79' - specifications. The MCP73 is said to support a 1,066MHz frontside bus and can host a single-channel 667MHz …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 12:06

  • Cambridge Soundworks readies iPod-friendly speakers

    Version for Creative Zen players ships today

    Creative Technology subsidiary Cambridge Soundworks will next month ship a version of its PlayDock speaker set for Apple's iPod. The company began shipping a version of the product for Creative's Zen digital music players today. Creative is the company that famously declared war on the iPod. Nowadays, if you can't beat 'em, …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 12:43

  • MS ships 'free' Xbox 360 coding kit for amateurs

    To share your toys you'll need to pay up

    Microsoft has released its anticipated PC-hosted Xbox 360 games development package, XNA Game Studio Express, in the hope it can turn game players into game makers. And make some money out of them: it's charging would-be coders $99 a year for access to sample software, support and such. The software giant announced XNA Game …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 13:03

  • Re-enact great Jedi, Sith battles with... a Nintendo Wii Remote

    Impressive... most impressive

    Remember MacSaber, the fun utility that used a MacBook or MacBook Pro's hard drive movement sensor to trigger Jedi lightsabre sounds? Well, now you can do the same thing with the much more sword hilt-like Nintendo Wii Remote. The new app, WiiSaber, comes from Isnoop, the guy who developed MacSaber earlier this year. It's …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 13:27

  • Memory conference considers the future of our pasts

    Technology meets ethics

    Academics, writers, biographers and computer scientists came together in London today to discuss how and whether technology can and should be used to supplement and augment human memory. The stage for the meeting: the British Library, where the University of Southampton is hosting the Memories for Life Colloquium. The …

    Science 12 Dec 2006, 13:56

  • Nintendo Wii launch breaks UK record

    Demand and supply levels still not matched

    Nintendo has sold more than 105,000 Wiis in the UK since the games console went on sale over here first thing last Friday morning. According to the videogames pioneer, punters took possession of 50,000 Wiis during the first 12 hours it was available. ChartTrack statistics cited by GamesIndustry.biz show more than double that …

    Reg Hardware 12 Dec 2006, 14:21

  • Films fail to pull in the on-line punters

    Shorter is better on the web

    A survey of US internet users shows that while video content is popular, films are not. Only 5% of those who regularly watch video content on the internet have sat through a whole film sitting at their desk. Amongst the sample of 1, 725 interviewed by API Research nearly 70% of those polled use internet video to watch short- …

    Telecoms 12 Dec 2006, 15:23

  • 186K swallows EFH broadband

    Aggressive manoeuvres in the dark

    Aggressive Leeds-based business ISP 186K has bought up EFH broadband. The EFH brand will now become the main focus of 186K's consumer operaton. Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed. 186K says service will be undisrupted as EFH customers join its network. 186K will be familiar to Register readers as the …

    Telecoms 12 Dec 2006, 17:39

  • Giant willies take on Doomed DRM

    Letters It is a fight to the death

    We've gone all musical this week, thanks largely to the Gower review of the future of copyright, followed by the news that you can get enough of Apple's iTunes afterall. A broad theme emerges in your letters, you will not be surprised to learn. Later, we'll wander through your thoughts on the carbon footprint of the average …

    Letters 12 Dec 2006, 18:31

  • Some thoughts on the mod_security acquisition

    Column And its consequences for Apache

    First, a public service announcement. The next European ApacheCon event will be held in Amsterdam, in the first week of May. The Call for Papers is now open at http://apachecon.com/. There will be a US ApacheCon in November. Now to the column. Many products are moving from commercial closed-source to open or part-open source …

    Developer 12 Dec 2006, 18:34

  • Inside a cyber-crook's Xmas wish list

    Trojan flea market thrives online

    Most people will be looking forward to receiving digital cameras, games and the like - as well as the inevitable pair of socks - this Christmas. But cybercrooks can take the opportunity to splash out, angling for things such as credit card numbers and their corresponding PINs, the trade in which is booming online. Some items …

    Malware 12 Dec 2006, 18:36

  • Pentagon hacker appeals US extradition

    Last best chance for McKinnon

    Gary McKinnon, the Pentagon hacker, faces what might be his last appeal hearing against extradition on 13 February next year at London's Court of Appeal. McKinnon, 40, faces possible trial under US anti-terror laws over alleged attacks on military and NASA systems between 2001 and 2002. The Scot lost his first appeal against …

    Enterprise Security 12 Dec 2006, 18:44

  • NY Times rattles IT industry with analyst ban

    Pay, no play

    On Nov. 10, the New York Times declared a radical change in its editorial policy. The paper ceased quoting technology analysts in stories, if the analysts do business with the vendors mentioned in the articles. The policy shift has proved so radical that the Times has failed to adhere to it. The Times needed only 121 words to …

    IT Director 12 Dec 2006, 18:48

  • With a blanket license, will CDs get cheaper?

    Or dearer. Or disappear?

    So last year's " Future of Music™", the DRM-encumbered digital downloads model pioneered by Apple, has stalled. What now? After reading our take on it, Sava Zxivanovich has a very good question. "Does blanket licensing mean that CDs and DVDs will be cheaper? We buy them a lot." A blanket license for digital music, now being …

    Financial News 12 Dec 2006, 20:00

  • US students lack hunger - official

    Soft and slow

    Complacency and incompetence continue to plague a US education system that has fallen well behind other nations, according US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Spellings, speaking today at Microsoft's Silicon Valley headquarters, warned that US students have become soft, particularly when compared against youngsters …

    Business 12 Dec 2006, 23:21

  • McCain wants child porn rules for US message boards

    Social networking sites too

    Social networking sites and message boards face the same regulatory burden as internet service providers (ISPs) in a new bill proposed by ex-US presidential candidate John McCain. McCain wants sites to report all child pornography to authorities. Currently only ISPs have a duty to report suspected child pornography-related …

    Music and Media 12 Dec 2006, 23:39