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9th February 2007 Archive

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  • BetonSports gives DOJ one fingered salute one more time

    Indictments are for pussies

    The American Government’s $4.5 billion question - just where did all that BetonSports.com money go? - is no closer to any kind of answer, despite months of legal wrangling. The saga began last summer with the arrest of then CEO David Carruthers in the Dallas airport on a variety of wire fraud and racketeering charges. …

    Law 9 Feb 2007, 00:33

  • Anatomy sheds new light on Storm Worm

    Unknown DDoS tool, predecessors

    A deluge of Trojan-laced spam that slyly tricked recipients by promising information about winter storms ravaging Northern Europe last month was even more crafty than we thought. Among the new revelations: The Storm Worm malware launched DDoS attacks on a host of websites related to spam, antispam and just about anything else …

    Spam 9 Feb 2007, 01:21

  • VeriSign builds $1bn internet security Titan

    RSA Thinks big

    Verisign will spend $1bn during the next three years beefing up its internet infrastructure following this week's high-profile root server attack. Verisign, the company managing .com and .net addresses, today announced Project Titan will drastically increase its server and bandwidth capacity to offset attacks as millions of …

    Enterprise Security 9 Feb 2007, 01:23

  • MySQL is the company's SQL now...

    So what must the world's nicest database do to drum up some enterprise sales?

    Let’s face it; MySQL is a fabulous database engine. Not only is it free, it’s small, powerful and easy to drive. It also runs happily on free operating systems and so it can be used to create incredibly cost-effective database servers. Of course, like all database engines, it polarizes those in the computing world. Some …

    Developer 9 Feb 2007, 07:02

  • UK PC disposal is rubbish

    PCs on council tips and other security no-nos

    Large UK businesses are crap at securely disposing old PCs and mobile devices. A survey by mobile security firm Pointsec found that less than half the 329 corporations quizzed use professional disposal companies to destroy their old computers. The rest flog PCs to secondhand dealers or sell them to staff, which often means …

    Small Biz 9 Feb 2007, 07:02

  • Nvidia preps sidekick for AMD's 'star' processors

    It's no great surprise to anyone that Nvidia's preparing a chipset that will work with AMD's upcoming HyperTransport 3 processors and Socket AM2+ bus, but according to the latest leak the part's codenamed MCP72 and it's a single-chip part. According to a Dailytech report, the third key feature is PCI Express 2.0 support - …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 08:02

  • US cyber chief talks tough on security

    RSA Quick and determined action

    The US's latest chief of cyber security has pledged quick and determined action to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from attack. Greg Garcia, the first assistant secretary for cyber security and telecommunications, said he will work "vigorously" with the private and public sectors to devise common practices and …

    Security 9 Feb 2007, 08:36

  • E-voting pilots don't make sense

    Comment Are we missing something?

    Last week, the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) made public the list of local authorities that will be piloting both supervised and remote electronic voting schemes in the May 2007 local elections, despite concerns over unproven technologies and the lack of an audit trail. The pilot was originally planned for May 2006 …

    Law 9 Feb 2007, 10:07

  • Apple apps not ready for Vista

    Not just iTunes

    How many of Apple's Windows-compatible applications are ready for Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista? According to the Mac maker's own tech support site... er... none of them are. Earlier this week it emerged that iTunes isn't yet ready to run on Vista, and neither is the iPod it seems. Apple's current advice is for …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 10:09

  • Web mobilises to honour Anna Nicole Smith

    'R.I.P. you sweet angel of my heart'

    The tragic news that the world is this morning poorer to the tune of one pair of 38DD breasts has moved netizens to honour Anna Nicole Smith in time-honoured web tradition. First up, try "The official Anna Nicole Smith dies website", which tearfully declares: "May angels guide u on ur path to heaven to see ur son and that old …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 2007, 10:11

  • Minister praises community sites

    Growing appetite for forums feeds public sector

    Cabinet Office minister Hilary Armstrong has emphasised the potential of independent web forums in supporting public services. Armstrong said sites such as rightsnet and netmums are democratising information and driving citizens' appetite for sharing advice and opinions in new ways. She was speaking after taking part in a …

    Public Sector 9 Feb 2007, 10:25

  • Psychic museum closes due to unforeseen circumstances

    Didn't see that coming

    York Psychic Museum has shut due to unforeseen circumstances, the York Press reports. Astrologer Jonathan Cainer, who opened the museum in 2003, admitted that he'd been welcoming just 100 people a week through the doors, and had accordingly decided to temporarily hang up his crystal ball. Cainer reckons he'll be back in …

    Entertainment 9 Feb 2007, 10:25

  • UK goes green with gassy offshore wind farm

    Environmental indigestion?

    As the UK becomes only the seventh nation to have more than two GigaWatts of electricity generated by wind farms, the government has given the green (no pun intended) light to the world's first offshore combined wind and gas energy scheme. Despite sounding like something that needs a cup of green tea to settle, we are assured …

    Science 9 Feb 2007, 10:49

  • Cisco buys into social networking

    MySpace for corporates?

    Router behemoth Cisco has bought social networking provider Five Across. Rather than create its own online communities, Five Across sells software to allow companies to add interactive and community features to their websites. The 11 person company, based in San Francisco, includes the National Hockey League and dailycomedy. …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 2007, 11:02

  • Asus debuts lacquer'n'leather luxury laptop

    LED-backlit display and Blu-ray Disc drive too

    Asus has formally announced its anticipated U1F 11.1in compact notebook, a luxury laptop run up in carbon fibre and magnesium-aluminium alloy, decorated with piano lacquer, and mounted with a made-to-measure leather palm rest. It even has a Blu-ray Disc drive. Those Asus U1F key features in full "The beauty of the notebook …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 11:06

  • Vista-effect credited with PC sales boost

    The Wow starts now...

    It might have had a mixed response from critics but Vista is being credited with a big jump in US retail computer sales. The launch of Microsoft's latest operating system apparently helped PC sales jump 173 per cent compared to the week before. According to market watcher Current Analysis, PC sales were up 67 per cent in the …

    Software 9 Feb 2007, 11:32

  • EMI set to drag majors into DRM-free future

    Steve Jobs: credit where very little credit's due

    EMI is close to removing rights management software from its digital music for good, in a move which would pile pressure on the rest of the recording industry to follow suit. According to the Wall Street Journal, the London-based label took a strategy to digital music retailers in December, which included a demand for a multi- …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2007, 11:39

  • MS plans 'dirty dozen' patch release

    Lots of fireworks

    Microsoft plans to release 12 patches next Tuesday (13 February) as part of its regular monthly security update cycle. These patches will include five security bulletins concerning Windows, at least one of which is critical, and two involving Office (of which one, at minimum, earns the dreaded critical rating). It remains to …

    Security 9 Feb 2007, 11:47

  • Abit launches 'pro' Fatal1ty mobo

    Gaming friendly

    Universal Abit this week rolled its latest Fatal1ty-branded mobo, this one based on Nvidia's Intel-oriented nForce 650i SLI chipset. It'll take an Core 2 desktop processor and run it on a 1,066MHz frontside bus speed. The Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI Professional incorporates a pair of x16 PCI Express graphics card slots, ready for …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 11:51

  • German model railways derailed by filth

    NSFW Nude figurines get down and dirty

    You know how it is: you've just spent five years lovingly crafting an HO-scale layout of Clapham Junction but can't help feeling there's a certain something missing which would lend your model railway an authentic urban edge. Well, fret not, because down at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, the Busch company recently …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 2007, 11:53

  • BOFH: The craptop

    Episode 6 A geek's gotta do what a geek's gotta do

    One of the stranger urban legends that people harbour about geeks is that we have a deep seated enthusiasm for all problems technical - that the thought of a non-booting PC is our equivalent of a three pipe problem and that we're silently chomping at the bit to discover some problem to pit our skills against. True, I enjoy a …

    BOFH 9 Feb 2007, 12:02

  • Vodafone gets YouTube

    Happy slappers are go!

    Erstwhile business mobile provider Vodafone is getting down with the kids by doing a deal with YouTube. Starting in the UK, Vodafone punters will be able to access YouTube through the portal Vodafone Live!. There will be a daily selection of videos, and customers can also upload their own content. YouTube has a similar deal …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2007, 12:14

  • Richard Clarke: cyberczar, prophet, terror tech porn king...

    Book Review Is there no beginning to the man's talents?

    Richard Clarke, the world's most famous security expert, has a new book entitled Breakpoint. A techno-thriller, it takes its place among its equivalents, romance fictions for American men, a genre for combining combat action porn with loving trademarked descriptions of weapons. The men in this story get hard over firearms, …

    Science 9 Feb 2007, 12:21

  • eBay trashes English language in sex doll shocker

    NSFW Boasts '100% honorable person's entire meat skin nature'

    Foreigners looking to offload products on eBay UK would do well to think twice before availing themselves of the tat bazaar's translation service. Try this description of the delightful "beautiful young girl overall person" sex doll. Lovers of the English language are advised to pour themselves the usual stiff brandy before …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 2007, 12:48

  • Dell saves nation from bird flu

    Don't panic!

    It's been a difficult week in the UK - a letter bomber with no staying power, alleged terrorists arrested, strange white stuff falling from the sky and destroying rail and tube networks, and the arrival of the dreaded bird 'flu on a turkey farm in Suffolk. Fortunately, help is at hand. We received the following round-robin …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 2007, 12:54

  • Space telescope mirrors ready for polishing

    James Webb's eye is lookin' good

    After a rather difficult week, some good news for NASA: its engineers have just finished making the mirror that will be the eye of its next space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). All that remains is for it to be ground and polished. The telescope will be used, as Hubble was and still is, to examine the …

    Space 9 Feb 2007, 12:56

  • Nvidia's 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS goes on sale

    UK suppliers listing it, at least

    UK resellers have begun to confirm that Nvidia is indeed preparing a 320MB version of the GeForce 8800 GTS graphics chip, as was rumoured early last month. As expected, the part matches the GPU specs of the 640MB 8800 GTS: 500MHz core clock frequency, 96 unified shaders running at 1.2GHz and memory set to 1.6GHz effective. …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 14:02

  • Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows Vista

    Review Does exactly what it says on the box

    As the name implies, Belkin's Easy Transfer Cable for Windows Vista allows you to transfer your files to Windows Vista, easily. It'll help you to copy over all your files and settings from your shattered old XP PC to your shiny new Vista box. In the pack you get a two-headed USB cable with a soap-on-a-rope bulge in the …

    Reg Hardware 9 Feb 2007, 14:13

  • Acer gears up for SMB server push

    Just not in UK

    Acer will pile into the SMB server business in Europe this year, but UK companies will have to wait until September before they see the benefit of the renewed drive. For the last few years the PC vendor has focused on its laptop range, and, to a lesser extent desktops PCs as it looked to ramp up its market share across Europe. …

    Small Biz 9 Feb 2007, 14:16

  • 'World first' quantum computer set to debut next week

    Landmark or footnote?

    A Canadian start-up says it will demonstrate a working commercial quantum computer in Mountain View next week, years ahead of many experts' predictions. Venture capital-funded to the tune of $20m, Vancouver-based D-Wave says it has built a quantum computer with 16 qubits - the quantum world's version of a digital bit, but …

    Servers 9 Feb 2007, 14:22

  • Seasonal and space unrest while Apple and Apple settle down

    To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

    Weather woes wither websites Snow – just a few centimetres and the UK flaps around and falls over within minutes of its mention. A few weeks ago it was Southern Railway's website that stalled when more people tried to get travel information than servers could cope with. This week it was the Met Office, home of all weather data …

    Business 9 Feb 2007, 14:30

  • EU to criminalise environmental badness

    Time in chokey for perps

    The EU is to refer environmental offences away from the civil courts and over to the criminal courts, according to the BBC. The BBC cites a leaked proposal, which The Register has not seen, which it says outlines specific environmental offences that would be punishable by fines and jail time. In explaining the need for the …

    Small Biz 9 Feb 2007, 14:37

  • 3 goes for small biz

    Small firms, lots of minutes

    Mobile network 3 is offering a range of bundled services to tempt more small businesses to sign up to its services. The "Office Share Plans" include Windows Messenger, voicemail, and free calls to other 3 subscribers. There are various packages for differing numbers of handsets - from five to 20. The four packages include …

    Small Biz 9 Feb 2007, 14:40

  • PlusNet forums blown wide open by a letter bomb

    Letters That was sent by a stalking astronaut

    It's a full to bursting letters bag this week, set to explode like a letter bomb. And boy, oh boy, the UK government was certainly top of the hit-list - whether ID cards, IT systems, or fingerprinting kids, you had a LOT to say about our incumbents. Take cover. Low flying missiles to follow: First up, the news that managing …

    Letters 9 Feb 2007, 16:03

  • Google - this internet won't scale

    And can't pay its way

    Google's TV chief has admitted the internet is crap for TV. Speaking to the Cable Europe Congress in Amsterdam, Vincent Dureau told attendees: "The web infrastructure, and even Google's [infrastructure]...doesn't scale. It's not going to offer the quality of service that consumers expect." Dureau, is head of TV technology at …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 2007, 16:42

  • Carrots are not the only fruit

    Letters Carnivorous complaints

    Before Steve Jobs indulged in a bit of halo-polishing this week, we noted how he'd personified his long and tedious feud with Bill Gates. Normally, you'd expect a piece about Joan Baez-ex to draw an angry response from Mac fans. Not this time, but one line caught the attention of several readers. Good read, except fruitarians …

    Letters 9 Feb 2007, 16:43

  • The slow death of DRM

    Column It's bad for business

    The DRM walls are crumbling. Earlier this week, Steve Jobs called on the major record labels to allow online music sales unfettered by digital rights management restrictions. Today, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that EMI is in negotiations with several digital music services to sell unprotected MP3s of its catalogue. Jobs …

    Music and Media 9 Feb 2007, 16:45

  • Watford Electronics left debts of £3.5m

    Administrators hang on to stock

    Watford Electronics’s stock remains in the hands of administrators, giving unsecured creditors hope of seeing some of the £3.5m they were owed when the firm collapsed earlier this week. Watford's cards had been marked since November when it released a troubling set of accounts and trade insurers started putting the squeeze on …

    Channel Register 9 Feb 2007, 18:17

  • Sophos changes tack with mobile anti-virus launch

    U-turn

    Sophos, the UK anti-virus developer, launched an anti-virus product for Windows mobiles yesterday. After years of saying the threat of viruses infecting mobile devices is over-hyped, Sophos now maintains the protection against a "growing number of malware attacks" aimed at Windows Mobile is necessary. In a recent Sophos web …

    Malware 9 Feb 2007, 18:27

  • The age of the femtocell?

    Column Ubiquisys gets set to startle the market

    There's nothing quite as hard for a venture capitalist as not gloating. When they "execute" on their exit strategy (sell off a company they launched) it seems they just can't help telling someone how clever they were - and from such a boast, it seems, comes the strong rumour that a new technology has hit centre stage. The new …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2007, 18:48

  • HMRC guides UK eBay traders on income tax

    Garage sale or dealer?

    A new guide has been released which tells occasional online sellers if they should be paying income tax on their profits. The guide is designed to differentiate between online traders and people who "are just clearing low value items from the attic". The phenomenal success of auction sites such as eBay means that a huge …

    Small Biz 9 Feb 2007, 19:00

  • SIPphone community goes bananas over Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0

    3GSM Cat out of the bag

    Windows Mobile 6.0 is out! Well, at the least, the secret of WM 6 is out. Microsoft was today frantically trying to deny its heroic efforts to keep the next generation Windows smartphone hidden from NewsWireless - but the cat was out of the bag even before the Tribune newspaper blew the embargo, because of the enthusiasm in VoIP …

    Mobile 9 Feb 2007, 19:42

  • Cisco lets slip NAC code to open source

    Nick-NAC

    Cisco is to release the source code of its networks access control (NAC) client to the open source community. This comes on the back of Cisco's security portfolio revamp, announced this week at the RSA conference in San Francisco. Cisco Trust Agent (CTA) software doesn't fit in with the new strategy, which places less …

    Telecoms 9 Feb 2007, 21:12

  • Remembering Anna Nicole Smith and her impact on the American Dream

    And ninthly China - she'll never measure up

    I once thought about spawning with Anna Nicole Smith. Offers were made. But, in the end, a $400m baby seemed like too much of a burden for such a simple man with such simple tastes. Decency - that's what I'm all about. That's what I preach - Tales of Lord Astor and other Great Valentine's Day Gifts, Julio Stantore It was easy …

    Bootnotes 9 Feb 2007, 21:43

  • Fear and Loafing at RSA

    Comment The outsourcing of security

    It's the end of yet another RSA security conference, and we're tempted to trade our PCs for an abacus and hole up in the basement while the nightmarish robot invasion on mankind plays out. Malware, we were repeatedly told over the past five days, is lurking everywhere - in PCs, phones and online bazaars - and is waiting for the …

    Enterprise Security 9 Feb 2007, 23:43