27th December 2006 Archive

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Forensics reaches into the future

How far should we let the DNA database go?

We began researching this piece long before the recent murders in Suffolk. That horror has served to remind us that forensic technologies are now often the first thought in any criminal investigation. The shiny power of DNA technology is in no doubt, but are we in danger of being dazzled by it? The state of the art The …

Applications 27 Dec 2006, 07:02
Software's unfinished business for 2007

2006 in review Tooling up for the new year

2006 was an important year for enterprise software and developer tools. The computing old guard trudged on with product updates, marketing hype, and the spinning of political schemes. New challengers, meanwhile, gained traction and credibility. We identify the big events and trends of 2006 that will reverberate for the next year …

Applications 27 Dec 2006, 08:02
Scottish youths pelt Santa with mince pies

Hard hat for Saint Nick

Health and Safety officials in a Scottish shopping centre were forced to issue their Santa with a hard hat after youths pelted the poor old boy with mince pies, the Daily Telegraph reports. The attack came from the upper levels of the Paisley Centre in Renfrewshire as Saint Nick was "handing out treats to customers" below. …

Odds and Sods 27 Dec 2006, 10:10
Taiwan earthquake shakes internet

Undersea cable damage

An undersea earthquake off the coast of Taiwan on Boxing day severely disrupted communications across east Asia by damaging cables. The tremor struck at 12.26 GMT yesterday, and was measured at 7.1 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey. Warnings of a one metre high tsunami headed for the Philippines were issued, but …

Networks 27 Dec 2006, 10:13
Oz military to battle cane toads

Last-ditch defence of Darwin

An Australian environmental group has asked the military to intervene in a last-ditch attempt to stop the inexorable advance of the cane toad on Darwin, Reuters reports. The introduction of the cane toad to Oz in 1935 - designed to combat native cane beetles - provoked an environmental disaster. Their numbers have rocketed to …

Biology 27 Dec 2006, 10:25
Woman felled by dolphin attack

RZSL NZ mammal leapt on board boat

A woman aboard a small pleasure cruiser was seriously injured yesterday by a dolphin which leapt into the craft off the coast of New Zealand. The 27-year-old was watching the mammals near Slipper Island in the North Island's eastern Bay of Plenty when the attack was made. The dolphin smashed through the boat's windscreen and …

Biology 27 Dec 2006, 10:29
Sharon Stone stuffed in 2006 movie turkey list

The Wicker Man also roasted

Sharon Stone's legendary charms failed to wow the movie crowds during 2006, with Basic Instinct 2 taking just $5m at the domestic box office, Variety reports. Given that the movie cost $70m to make, it rated as the biggest flop of the year. Also included in the magazine's list of celluloid shame are All the King's Men ($7m …

Entertainment 27 Dec 2006, 10:58
Windows DRM is the 'longest suicide note in history'

The bitterest pill

Copy-protection features in Windows Vista make the operating system more bloated while giving few benefits to end users, according to a new security paper. Peter Gutmann, a medical imaging specialist, argues in the paper that Microsoft's cumbersome approach to DRM is doomed to fail and will only succeed in pushing users …

Security 27 Dec 2006, 11:29
Xmas malware frenzy

Security gets stuffed

Hackers are shamelessly exploiting the festive season to spread malware. A Christmas-themed jigsaw puzzle game called Christmas_Puzzle.exe doing the rounds is actually a Trojan (Ardamax-E) that uses rootkit technology to hide its presence on compromised systems. Meanwhile a PowerPoint file named Christmas+Blessing-4.ppt uses …

Security 27 Dec 2006, 11:48
BLOG - RTFM - and why not?

It's a cold Xmas chez Norfolk...

My central heating chose to pack up on Xmas Eve, as it does, and this nice man from British Gas came round to fix it. [As an aside, even in Midwinter, you don't actually need central heating, especially these days when winters aren't so cold - we're not actually freezing. Which is worth remembering, since central heating is …

Developer 27 Dec 2006, 11:57
Enemies dig in for WiMAX-on-cell phone trench war

Column Can standards committee redeem its reputation?

As the WiMax hype machine moves into high gear ahead of next month's 802.20 working group meeting in London, UK, workers on the various wireless standards are anxious to calm down negative reports about the problems they might have on making this family of wireless work in true mobile fashion. One of the problems facing WiMax …

Mobile 27 Dec 2006, 12:36
Apple fixes first-gen iPod Shuffle DRM playback glitch?

Fairplay for all

Apple has updated a software repair tool for its first-generation iPod Shuffle that is said to now allow the Flash-based music player to work correctly with songs downloaded from the company's own online music shop. Apple quietly posted iPod Shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 just before Christmas, but it's only just begun to be …

Reg Hardware 27 Dec 2006, 15:08
AMD to ship Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 'next quarter'

Moles claim FX-76 out in Q2, too

AMD will ship the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and release the single-core Athlon 64 4000+ next quarter, it has been claimed. Both with be the last current-generation chips, allowing AMD to focus on its next-generation architecture, due to launch in Q3. According to Asian hardware manufacturer sources cited by Chinese-language site …

Reg Hardware 27 Dec 2006, 15:31
Samsung launches HSDPA slider phone... again

Ultra Edition 13.8 arrives in Europe

Samsung has launched its ultra-thin 'super 3G' slider phone in Europe for the second time this year, having first touted the 13.8mm thick handset back in August this year. It's Samsung's first phone with Google search and Mail pre-installed. The SGH-Z720 - aka Ultra Edition 13.8 - incoporates a 1.8Mbps-capable HSDPA radio …

Reg Hardware 27 Dec 2006, 15:52