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9th January 2007 Archive

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  • Flash firm campaigns to connect USB keys to TVs

    Flash drive as content delivery platform, anyone?

    CES 2007 SanDisk this week used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to launch up its latest industry consortium chartered with furthering demand for USB Flash disks. A couple of years ago, it was the U3 takeway-apps technology. This time it's the USB TV Forum, a body whose goal is to persuade TV makers to equip their products …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 00:52

  • Alice in Business

    Column A seasonal sketch, with a moral for our times

    I'm a developer. I spend my time sitting at a computer, working on our IT infrastructure. Contrary to stereotype, I have just a cheapo computer and no fancy gizmos. I take pride in the Apache hat I wear to write this column. But sometimes we need to take a step back, and look at the why of it. As we enter a new year, let's share …

    Developer 9 Jan 2007, 07:02

  • Fujitsu UK workers prepare strike banners

    Company accused of bullying union rep

    IT union Amicus expects up to 300 members working for Fujitsu in Central Park, Manchester to strike on Thursday and Friday this week, following a protracted dispute over pay and conditions. Fujitsu is also embroiled in a row with Amicus members over its decision to invoke disciplinary procedures against a union rep at the …

    Management 9 Jan 2007, 07:02

  • Brocade captures Silverback

    Fibre channel switch gorilla buys into iSCSI

    Storage switch vendor Brocade has bought privately-held network accelerator chip start-up Silverback Systems for an undisclosed sum. Silverback's gear is aimed at speeding up iSCSI storage area networks. The Massachusetts-based firm was founded in 1999 with venture capital and has offices in the UK and Netherlands. …

    Storage 9 Jan 2007, 10:24

  • EnterpriseDB: standing out from the crowd

    Opinion Plenty of potential to grow

    EnterpriseDB (which is the name of both the company and the product) is normally thought of, by those who have merely heard of it, as being yet another of the open source database vendors. However, this is not the case. As its name suggests, the company is focused on providing an enterprise-class relational database and it …

    Developer 9 Jan 2007, 10:27

  • Record sentence for VAT fraudster

    15 years

    The man behind a £54m VAT fraud gang has been sentenced to 15 years in prison - the longest ever UK sentence for such a crime. Emmanuel Hening, who has dual French and Belgian nationality, was found guilty on three counts of missing trader fraud at Worcester Crown Court. He was extradited from France in December 2005. The …

    The Channel 9 Jan 2007, 10:34

  • Systems Solutions acquires Medicom

    Merger 'will help drive development'

    Systems Solutions and Medicom are set to merge and form Ireland's largest indigenous provider of IT services to the healthcare industry. The companies announced on Monday that Systems Solutions will acquire a majority stake in Medicom. Together, the companies employ over 100 people and generate annual revenues of €10m. …

    The Channel 9 Jan 2007, 10:43

  • AT&T reluctantly adopts net neutrality

    For now

    The US's largest internet provider has enshrined the principle of internet neutrality in an agreement to treat all web traffic equally. The move has reignited the debate about net neutrality. AT&T's agreement comes as part of a merger deal with Bell South Communications (SBC). The agreement was a condition of the Federal …

    Networks 9 Jan 2007, 11:05

  • Nokia updates tablet, adds Skype support

    So it is a phone after all

    Nokia have announced an update to its internet tablet - the N770, and have equipped the newly-announced N800 with Skype support. The N800 adds support for miniSD cards (following the rest of the Nokia range in the move away for RS-MMC), greater processing power and more memory. It also gets an updated look, as well as an …

    VoIP 9 Jan 2007, 11:24

  • Government drops iris scan plan

    Fingerprints only

    Iris scans will not form part of the UK Government's planned identity card system the National Identity Register (NIR). The only biometric information to be held on ID cards will now be fingerprints, in contrast to previously stated plans. The Home Office's Strategic Action Plan for the National Identity Scheme, published in …

    Policy 9 Jan 2007, 11:33

  • Security vendors talk up VoIP threats

    Phantom menace?

    Security vendors are talking up the potential for attacks on IP telephony systems, reckoned to be the next major market for security defences. The number of business IP phones sold will grow from 9.9 million in 2006 to 45.8 million in 2010, according to market watchers InStat. Although VoIP systems are becoming increasingly …

    VoIP 9 Jan 2007, 11:43

  • Second Life dips a toe in open source

    And opens a can of flying penises?

    Linden Lab is to make some of the code which powers its online game Second Life available under the GPL. Linden Lab CTO Cory Ondrejka said: "Open sourcing is the most important decision we’ve made in seven years of Second Life development. While it is clearly a bold step for us to proactively decide to open source our code, …

    Software 9 Jan 2007, 13:28

  • Mysterious drop in fraud and spam

    Botnot?

    Spam levels suddenly dropped 30 per cent last week, according to managed security firm SoftScan, which attributes the let-up to a "broken" botnet. SoftScan is still investigating the possible cause of the significant drop in junk mail volumes it's recording but reckons the most likely explanation is that hackers have …

    Security 9 Jan 2007, 13:35

  • Dell's secret Linux fling

    A Chinese affair

    Dell's love affair with Linux is a clandestine affair these days, conducted in secret, away from disapproving eyes. But now the pair have been spotted in China. When Michael Dell first saw the web-footed beauty, he fell head over heels. Six years ago Dell pledged a series of strategic investments in Linux companies, including …

    Servers 9 Jan 2007, 13:54

  • Qualcomm and Nokia to seek relationship guidance

    Relate on standby

    Cross-licensing negotiations between Qualcomm and Nokia have broken down to the point that arbitration might be necessary to get the parties together before their current agreement expires in April. In an interview with Reuters, Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs said the idea of bringing in an arbitrator had been discussed …

    Financial News 9 Jan 2007, 14:03

  • China porks up for New Year

    Postage stamp taste sensation

    The Chinese postal service is releasing a special edition of sweet and sour pork flavoured stamps to celebrate the year of the pig, which begins February 18. The stamps feature a cutesy cartoon of a sow an her suckling piglets. Scratching and sniffing reveals what said piglets would smell like slow roasted and then covered in …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 14:06

  • 419ers check into Priory of Sion

    The Knights Templar of scammers

    It's good to see that, after a temporary lull in which the Lads from Lagos seems to have been suffering a creativity crisis, the inventive 419 email is back with a bang. Try this strange offering, courtesy of John Dudmesh: Dear Beneficiary, The Priory Of Sion Society of Edinburgh under the jurisdiction of the all Seeing Eye, …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 14:33

  • Taser plugs in the stun gun for everyone

    CES 2007 Shocking

    Stun gun manufacturer Taser International has electrified CES with a new "consumer friendly" version of its crippling high voltage weapon at the low, low price of $299. The firm's new ergonomic C2 comes in a range of jazzy colours for the style-conscious vigilante; Black Pearl, Titanium Silver, Electric Blue, and Metallic Pink …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 14:54

  • ICANN looking at porn again

    .xxx up for another round

    It may have been abandoned last year, but plans for the adult-only dot-xxx domain could be staging a comeback in 2007. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is considering revised proposals for the new top level domain (TLD) from ICM Registry, who will administer the domain, after the body promised …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 15:14

  • The ins and outs of a Second sex Life

    Column You call that Xciting?

    One of my girlfriends is so funny. She says to me, "I joined Second Life to admire the architecture, but I started cybering within twenty minutes of arriving. That was months ago, and I still haven't seen more than a handful of the buildings". Whatever brings you to SL, you'll soon find that sex is everywhere. You'll be …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 15:40

  • Fasthosts says sorry

    Hit by denial of service attack

    Hosting firm Fasthosts has apologized to customers who lost web servers held by the company because a denial of service attack. The company offers a range of website and email hosting and other server hosting services. In a statement sent to the Register Fasthosts said: "Just prior to 11:00am today we detected intermittent …

    Networks 9 Jan 2007, 15:44

  • Newton preps ExpressCard-sized mouse

    Penny-sized USB Bluetooth adaptor too

    CES 2007 Newton Peripherals, the company behind the MoGo Mouse, a wireless optical rodent skinny enough to fit inside a PC Card slot, has introduced a version for ExpressCard 54 bays. It also showed off the world's smallest USB Bluetooth dongle. The MoGo Mouse X54, like its predecessor, has a flip down stand that raises the …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 15:56

  • Readers pluto petulant Parisians

    Letters (The) hoi polloi strikes back

    As is traditional whenever I'm forced at gunpoint into the Vulture Central letters cupboard ("Don't come out until you've condensed readers' thoughts on matters of international import into 500 words or less"), today's insightful round-up contains at least one derisive attack on El Reg's ongoing and shameless destruction of the …

    Letters 9 Jan 2007, 15:56

  • HD DVD, Blu-ray backers trumpet formats' victory

    But which numbers really matter?

    CES 2007 It's probably unwise for the companies behind the HD DVD next-generation optical disc format to talk to loudly about numbers. Last night, the HD DVD Promotion Group proudly claimed some 175,000 HD DVD players were sold in the US by 5 January this year. An impressive number for a totally new format, but one eclipsed by …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 16:01

  • French firm seduces DatingDirect

    Sold for £27m

    DatingDirect, the Brummie-based dating service, has been sold to French dating company Meetic for £27.3m. The company was started in 1999 by Darren Richards and Andrew Pike and now claims over 4.5 million members - 3.5 million of them in the UK - which makes it the UK's largest dating service. But as well as running its own …

    Financial News 9 Jan 2007, 16:06

  • Car snoop fear dominates PM petitions

    Right-on Britain also wants Ringo knighted

    British car lovers have told Prime Minister Tony Blair just how dearly they cling to the romantic idea that they can find freedom on an open road. A protest over Department of Transport plans to have all cars in Britain tracked by satellite has topped the e-petitions web site launched by the Prime Minister last November. A …

    Policy 9 Jan 2007, 16:10

  • MS and Ford team on in-car software

    Will it be crash-proof?

    Microsoft is to work with Ford to supply voice-activated software that will allow drivers to make mobile calls or play songs stored on digital music players without taking their hands off the wheel. The system, dubbed Sync, will be included in around a dozen 2008 models of Ford cars, including the Focus and Explorer, with …

    Operating Systems 9 Jan 2007, 16:14

  • iPhone a smash - because everyone else is stupid!

    Letters And we're in the hedge fund conspiracy

    Bill Ray's analysis of the economics of the handset market, and Apple's prospects of success, drew quite a crowd. Three dozen people spontaneously agreed that today's phone user interfaces are awful. (We agree - sometimes they are). But the sight unseen "iPhone" would be better. Good enough to succeed, though? Not a single of …

    Letters 9 Jan 2007, 16:16

  • CES' top ten weirdest gadgets

    Stair-climbing robots, singing Elvis busts, MP3 baby gyms - only in Vegas...

    CES 2007 This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has been quiet, very quiet. However the absence of mega announcements from Microsoft, Sony et al has left space open for some of the smaller, quirkier manufacturers to grab their share of their limelight. Here then, much more fun than an LG Blu-ray/HD DVD player, are …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 16:17

  • Post-mortem Saddam video hits the web

    Dead dictator on hospital stretcher

    An Iraqi news site has posted a 27-second clip of a post-execution Saddam Hussein apparently lying on a hospital stretcher, news agencies report. The footage was seemingly shot on a camera phone, and features one participant pulling back a white shroud covering the former dicatator to reveal his head and neck with the former " …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 16:31

  • Brazil's ISPs stuff YouTube

    Blocked, then unblocked, as sex vid rumpus continues

    A Brazilian judge has lifted an order which caused the country's ISPs to block access to YouTube following a ruling last week over a sex-romp video of footballer Ronaldo's former missus Daniela Cicarelli. According to local reports, confirmed by Register readers on the ground, Brasil Telecom and Telefonica responded with …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 16:42

  • Nokia revamps Internet Tablet as 'multimedia computer'

    N800 debuts alongside Razr-like N76

    CES 2007 Nokia has begun shipping the latest incarnation of its Internet Tablet line, this time rolling the product out as part of its N series of so-called "multimedia computers". Alongside the N800, Nokia also unveiled a more standard-sized N series machine, the Razr-esque N76. The Linux-based N800 provides the basic …

    Phones 9 Jan 2007, 17:08

  • Microsoft and AMD club together for space-flight ticket

    Vista hype already reaching for orbit

    Microsoft really wants to put a rocket up its users. The software giant, together with AMD, has launched a competition to promote Windows Vista, with the tag line “Most of you won’t figure this out” and the opportunity to win a sub-orbital flight with Spaceplane Limited. The details of the competition have been slipping …

    Science 9 Jan 2007, 17:14

  • Photojournalism is dying - readers rejoice

    Letters The abundance of images

    Recently, we invited top UK photojournalist Sion Touhig to describe the grim economics facing photo journalists. His passionate essay prompted dozens of emails over the holidays. Sion's piece described the concentration of power in the photo business over the past twenty years, but it was unusual in one important way - it …

    Letters 9 Jan 2007, 17:49

  • AT&T reluctantly adopts net neutrality

    The sky hasn't fallen

    The US's largest internet provider has enshrined the principle of internet neutrality in an agreement to treat all web traffic equally. The move has reignited the debate about net neutrality. AT&T's agreement comes as part of a merger deal with Bell South Communications (SBC). The agreement was a condition of the Federal …

    VoIP 9 Jan 2007, 18:03

  • US admits privacy breach on airline data

    Information grab

    The US Government has admitted that it broke privacy laws in its domestic airline passenger data scheme. The Homeland Security Department has admitted that it gathered more information than it had said it would. The admission will be a boost to campaigners who want to derail a deal between the European Commission and the US on …

    Media 9 Jan 2007, 18:09

  • AMD launches PC sticker programme

    Better by (graphical) design

    CES 2007 AMD today launched its latest promotional programme, Better by Design, which, it said, will highlight "outstanding performance and superior technologies in desktop and notebook PCs designed by leading global OEMs". No explicit connection there to AMD products, you'll note, but we'll give the company the benefit of the …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 18:20

  • Microsoft previews Halo 3 at CES

    Video report The Master Chief's back (and front)

    Reg Hardware CES video reports All of CES - in five minutes! Bill Gates: a man and his music devices Honda unleashes stair-climbing 'droid HP demos touchy-feely, finger-friendly Vista media PC Windows Vista to connect to Xbox Live Xbox 360 to become internet telly Microsoft previews Halo 3 at CES Want to see more …

    Games 9 Jan 2007, 18:26

  • Xbox 360 to become internet TV

    Video report Bill Gates demos IPTV

    Reg Hardware CES video reports All of CES - in five minutes! Bill Gates: a man and his music devices Honda unleashes stair-climbing 'droid HP demos touchy-feely, finger-friendly Vista media PC Windows Vista to connect to Xbox Live Xbox 360 to become internet telly Microsoft previews Halo 3 at CES Want to see more …

    Games 9 Jan 2007, 18:36

  • Griffin Evolves wireless speakers

    Journi = boombox Ikea-style?

    CES 2007 It sounds like Ikea's latest dinning table, but Journi is in fact Griffin Technology's latest portable iPod speaker set, built into a slimline package and with a wrap-around cover that cleverly doubles as a stand. And for your lounge - or dinning room - how about Evolve, the company's new wireless speaker set? …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 21:02

  • Jobs unveils iPhone to 4,000 drooling fans

    Macworld Apple rings the changes

    Ending months of rampant speculation and anticipation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled plans for the iPhone, a svelte and sexy device that melds the features of an iPod, a smart phone and an internet communicator. Tuesday's announcement at the annual Macworld conference in San Francisco ends months of rumors and prognostication …

    Mobile 9 Jan 2007, 21:18

  • Apple iTunes Music Store sells 2bn songs

    Analysis As forecast here

    It's nice to be right once in a while. Apple today announced it has sold more than 2bn songs through its online iTunes music store - just as Reg Hardware forecast almost a year ago. To be fair, we said the two-billionth song would be sold "early 2007", so Apple's come in slightly ahead of our expectations. But it's close …

    Hardware 9 Jan 2007, 21:35

  • NSA field-tests Windows Vista for security

    War on Trojans

    National Security Agency (NSA) spooks have taken time out from eavesdropping on US citizens to field-test Microsoft's latest operating system. The intelligence unit, granted authority in the "War on Terror" to listen to the phone calls of American citizens, was brought in to keep hackers out of Windows Vista. According to …

    Operating Systems 9 Jan 2007, 22:45

  • Hey big spender! Waste your R&D on me

    Big Bucks does not equal big returns for Microsoft et al

    Microsoft out-gunned Google on R&D in 2005 in dollar terms but was out-innovated by its rival and got less value for its money, according to a new study. The Booz Allen Hamilton Global Innovation 1000 report places Microsoft in the top 10 of all R&D spenders, the company failed to make a list of 94 so-called "high leverage …

    Developer 9 Jan 2007, 23:00