5th March 2007 Archive

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CapGemini plans layoffs to win £40m renewal

Matalan offered Rightshored[tm] services

Capgemini has offered to shift UK jobs overseas in a bid to retain its £40m contract to provide IT services for the retail chain Matalan, The Register has learned. Capgemini had intended to renegotiate its Matalan contract within two years of its expiry, our sources say. The computer services firm signed the current £40m, seven …

IT Director 5 Mar 2007, 07:02
Reg Hardware £1,250 Daily Draw: five Nokia E65 phones to be won

Competition It's Friday - your last chance to win

Nokia's brand new E65 handset. You can read Register Hardware's review of this mobile phone here, but why not try and win one too? We've got five of these bad boys to give away... one every day this week. The E65 features a slide mechanism that at first touch feels durable. The screen has a 240 x 320 resolution, and the …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 08:02
SME broadband demand may slow: Analysys

Telcos must focus on managed services

European telecommunications firms must up their game to keep hold of their smaller business customers, according to market analysts. A new report issued by Analysys on Friday has urged broadband providers in particular to focus on managed services in order to sustain interest from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in …

Networks 5 Mar 2007, 09:54
Guy Goma, YouTube and the BBC

Column How copyright has to leak

Meejatarts, as my old friend Rupert calls us, will do almost anything for exposure. We're publicity whores. It's how we earn our daily crust. If you understand this simple truth about the meeja it will help you follow an awful lot about digital rights management which otherwise would be utterly baffling. For example, it will …

Law 5 Mar 2007, 10:02
MS readies 512MB Xbox 360 memory card

Triples Xbox Live Arcade game size too

Microsoft will next month offer Xbox 360 gamers a 512MB memory module, a handy boost for owners of the hard drive-less incarnation's of the games console - they're currently limited to 64MB. The move is part of Microsoft's attempt to push Xbox Live Arcade. Not only does the 512MB memory card provide more space for …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 10:28
iSoft in critical condition as NHS trusts seek alternatives

Updated Upgrade waiting list just too long

The government's vision of an integrated computer system for the NHS is coming apart at the seams as NHS trusts are to start looking for alternative IT suppliers, The Guardian reports. iSoft is the main software partner in the not-so-much-loved National Programme for IT (NPfIT), but delays are now so long and managers under …

Public Sector 5 Mar 2007, 10:55
How CIOs can win back the hearts and minds of users

Run Book Automation is the answer

Run Book is what IT data centre managers understand as the Application Run Book. This is the IT department "to do" list of problems to fix and the projects to deliver. This is a long and complex list, and keeping everything in sync, well co-ordinated, and efficiently using IT resources is a nightmare. Over 80 per cent of IT- …

Business 5 Mar 2007, 11:06
Shuttle launches performance flagship

Quad-core and overclocking goodness

Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome Shuttle's newest flagship quad-core small form-factor PC, the SD39P2, ready to tempt European gamers and lovers of high-speed computing with four-core fun. The SD39P2's based on Intel's 975X chipset, so it'll take any desktop Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme or Core 2 Quad processor, …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 11:08
Big brother gets Web 2.0 makeover

Comment Information sharing for the people

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - nothing more and nothing less". - Humpty Dumpty in Wonderland A British web evangelist has been commissioned to consider how the government might intervene in independent web communities. The Cabinet Office has commissioned Tom Steinberg, the web advocate who runs …

Law 5 Mar 2007, 11:10
Register Books tackles Ruby on Rails

A treasure trove of titles

Ruby is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. Taking elements inspired by Perl, Small talk, Python and LISP (among others) Ruby has grown from its 1993 conception to become a much-used interpreted scripting language for Object-Oriented Programming. Ruby on Rails provides an …

Site News 5 Mar 2007, 11:22
Wii to win next-gen console war - just

Nintendo broadening gaming's appeal

And the winner of the next-generation console war is... Nintendo's Wii - at least according to market watcher IDC. In the short term, at least. It reckons Wii will "outship and outsell" the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation throughout this year and next. But don't expect the Nintendo box to do so by a significant margin. IDC said …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 11:29
Transcend aims pearl-handled Flash drive

Trendy, apparently

Don't know what a mother-of-pearl coated USB Flash drive should be "trendy", but manufacturer Transcend reckons it is. The slimline - 4.8mm thick - drive has 2GB of storage on board and includes software to let you use your apps on someone else's computer without leaving any files behind. All well and good, but will Transcend …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 11:42
Putting the graphic artist in the loop

Microsoft's WPF isn't the only game in town

One of the exciting ideas just now is Microsoft's WPF, formally Avalon. Oversimplifying somewhat, this introduces a layered approach to UI design, separating the business logic from the UI design, so graphic artists can design the look-and-feel of your applications without worrying about the code implementing the business logic …

Developer 5 Mar 2007, 12:13
Cruise missile streaks across Google Earth

Utah flying munition caught on camera?

Once in a while, something really interesting pops up on Google Earth, and we're obliged today to reader Christopher Wagner for pointing us the direction of this spendid find in the skies above Utah: Impressive stuff indeed. Here's a closer look: Well, we at first thought this particular beast might be a Tomahawk cruise …

Bootnotes 5 Mar 2007, 12:14
Vista keygen hoax exposed

As other attacks surface

Doubts have arisen about the effectiveness of a Windows key generator package that allegedly offered a means to circumvent Microsoft's anti-piracy protection. Activation codes for Vista were said to have been obtained by brute force using key generator software that randomly tries a variety of 25-digit codes until it finds …

Operating Systems 5 Mar 2007, 12:27
Euro boffins warn of mass fish (etc) migration

The water 'round here's not what it used to be

The European Science Foundation has warned that climate change is already having a significant impact on marine life. Warmer seas and changing salinity levels are leading to unprecedented movements of species, threatening the stability of the marine ecosystem as a whole. A new report predicts that the temperature of the …

Biology 5 Mar 2007, 12:31
Public toilet database features McDonald's worldwide

Someone taking the piss?

We're delighted to announce a new online initiative aimed at providing at-your-fingertips data on public toilet facilities worldwide. Welcome indeed to www.publictoilets.org, where users can submit their own recommendations as to where to find relief across the globe. The press release explains: You can search for public …

Bootnotes 5 Mar 2007, 12:32
Wife's breasts entice German down pole

Topless snap ends high altitude protest

A German man who'd spent 10 days atop a 72-foot pole in protest at a conviction for fraud finally descended from his temporary eyrie after his missus sent up a topless snap of herself, Reuters reports. Fred Gregor, 45, installed himself in a small cubicle on the converted TV mast in a bid to get a new trial. His wife Suzanne, …

Bootnotes 5 Mar 2007, 13:53
Secure messaging firm touts encrypted comms

As mobiles move higher up fraudsters' hit list

A British company, due to float on the Alternative Investment Market tomorrow, reckons it has the secret to secure mobile transactions. Broca owns the patent for a Java-based form of encrypted messaging. The service requires phone users to download a small Java programme which can then be used to send and receive encrypted …

ID 5 Mar 2007, 14:19
EC to re-examine Sony-BMG merger

Launches in-depth investigation

The European Commission (EC) has launched an in-depth investigation into the merger of Sony and Bertelsman AG, despite having given the deal its blessing back in July of 2004. The deal was given the go-ahead largely because, even post-merger, Sony-BMG did not knock Universal off the market number one spot. However, the EC was …

Law 5 Mar 2007, 14:41
Striking staff harry Fujitsu

As talks break down again

Fujitsu Services has walked away from talks with striking UK staff for a second time after they refused to postpone industrial action while a compromise was being hammered out. Fujitsu last agreed to talks after staff at its Manchester office went on strike in November. According to the union, the talks were getting nowhere, …

Channel Register 5 Mar 2007, 15:24
Month of PHP bugs project launches

Script down to the core

Security researchers have begun a month-long project to highlight security flaws in PHP, the popular scripting language. The "Month of PHP Bugs", which began last Thursday, promises a bug a day for the month of March from the folks behind the Hardened-PHP Project. Unlike the earlier Month of Browser Bugs and Month of Apple …

Enterprise Security 5 Mar 2007, 15:36
123-Reg apologises again

It can be the hardest word

Registration and web hosting company 123-Reg has again apologised to customers hit by hardware problems which meant some customers' websites fell offline. Several irritated customers contacted us to complain that their websites had "disappeared". The sites reappeared again, but 123-Reg decided to use an old back-up. The …

Telecoms 5 Mar 2007, 15:43
MS faces lawsuit over alleged Xbox 360 disc damage

Euro gamers complain

A European lawyer has threatened to initiate legal action against Microsoft in the light of complaints from 800 Xbox 360 customers that their discs have been scratched by the console's DVD drive. Dutch lawyer Richard de Lange of De Lange, Peeters & Langereis Lawyers told Register Hardware: "I'll represent one dissatisfied …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 16:01
UK gov wants to fingerprint kids

An eleven plus for all

Home Office minister Liam Byrne told ITV1 television's The Sunday Edition that the Identity and Passport Service wanted to fingerprint all children over the age of 11 and keep their particulars on a database. The reason, he said, is because it is currently possible get a 10 year passport without biometrics while a child and …

Public Sector 5 Mar 2007, 16:06
Nuke boffin touts miracle wiper cloth

Loves the jobs you hate?

If you've ever been confronted with a spill of beryllium particles (and let's face it, who hasn't, from time to time) you'll know that sweeping the little blighters up is tricky work. Good news, then, that a nuclear boffin has developed a new kind of wipe (patent pending) capable of picking up things even as tiny as beryllium …

Physics 5 Mar 2007, 16:09
Big Blue searches BBC for Teletubbies

Updated: Cleaning up the Higgledy House

Big Blue and the BBC are teaming up to offer decent video searching of kids' content from CBeebies and CBBC. The two are working on various projects, but the first will use IBM's Marvel technology to search video content from children's TV channels. According to the BBC press release, IBM's Marvel can categorise images and …

Applications 5 Mar 2007, 16:11
Red Hat frees Exadel

More SOA and Web 2.0 tools to play with

Red Hat announced today that it is making Exadel's Eclipse-based tool set available as open source through its JBoss division. The move brings open source developers a tried-and tested, industrial-strength development kit integrated with JBoss's Enterprise Middleware and Red Hat's Linux platform. The Exadel Studio Pro and …

Developer 5 Mar 2007, 16:28
Intel 'hacker' clears his name

12 year fight ends in victory for 'white hat' password cracker

A former Intel contractor has succeeded in crushing charges that he hacked into the chip giant's systems after a legal fight that lasted over a decade. The conviction against Randal L. Schwartz was "set aside" at the beginning of February by an Oregon court, clearing his name after 12 years. Schwartz had worked as a security …

Security 5 Mar 2007, 16:45
Jedi denounce UK sabre ban plan

Duel of the fates

The UK's Jedi community today expressed concerns that government plans to ban Samurai swords could hinder their freedom to wield lightsabres in public. The UK's Home Office today issued a consultation paper ahead of legislation intended to ban Samurai blades by the end of the year. In a bid to "protect the public", replica …

Bootnotes 5 Mar 2007, 16:51
Panasonic packs Wi-Fi Skype phone with travel router

Panasonic has become the latest cordless-phone maker to offer a Skype-friendly Wi-Fi model. All the usual VoIP facilities are present and correct, but the KX-WP1050 also comes - all in a natty case - with a travel router. The handset supports the WPA wireless security system and prioritises VoIP traffic over the wireless …

Reg Hardware 5 Mar 2007, 17:02
AMD to miss Q1 sales target

CEO faces Wall Street

AMD today smacked investors with a sales warning. The chip maker no longer expects to hit a first quarter revenue target between $1.6bn and $1.7bn. CEO Hector Ruiz will explain AMD's revenue miss at a financial analyst conference later today. Hopefully, he has already found a pound of flesh that can be spared. AMD announced …

Financial News 5 Mar 2007, 17:17
Hackers plant backdoor in blogging software

Stop the WordPress

Bloging software organisation WordPress has warned that hackers posted compromised versions of its open source software after breaking into one of the servers behind its website. Backdoor code was planted in version 2.1.1 as a result of the attack, WordPress warned on Friday. The organisation said it has recovered from the …

Enterprise Security 5 Mar 2007, 17:34
Microsoft's OneCare flunks anti-virus test

Least among equals

Microsoft's Live OneCare placed last in a test on the effectiveness of anti-virus security packages by Austrian researchers. AV Comparatives put 17 security packages through their paces to see how well they recognised a battery of nearly half a million items of malware. Winner G Data Security's AntiVirusKit (AVK) identified …

Anti-Virus 5 Mar 2007, 17:58
PlusNet boss stands down

Team confident they can manage without him

PlusNet CEO Lee Strafford has stood down about three months after the firm was sold to BT for £67m. In a statement, PlusNet said: "Today we announced to staff that Lee Strafford, our CEO, is no longer with PlusNet." Strafford had grown the firm from a small ISP into a nationally recognised brand, the statement added. Neil …

Telecoms 5 Mar 2007, 19:36
Cisco double drops with second social network buy

Burning cash festival

Cisco tossed the market another curve ball over the weekend, when it swooped on Utah Street Networks, the San Francisco-based outfit behind soap dodger-friendly social network Tribe.net. The deal has baffled many. The New York Times broke the "curious" story on Saturday. Tribe.net is not one of Cisco's "select" cuts which, …

Financial News 5 Mar 2007, 19:46
Doubts raised over Motorola, Apple AIDS charity campaign

$82m in the Red

The enormous marketing assault mounted by companies involved in the celebrity-backed Red campaign against AIDS has raised questions over whether it is effort best spent. According to Advertising Age, as much as $100m splurged on advertising Red products by Gap, Motorola and Apple has returned just $18m to the Global Fund. …

iPod 5 Mar 2007, 20:31
Fickle AMD rocked as channel gets revenge

Loved and lost

AMD's obsession with top server and PC makers has proved costly. The chip maker claims to have focused on so-called Tier 1 OEMs at the expense of its longtime channel partners and now blames declining channel sales for its expected first quarter revenue miss. Earlier today, AMD warned that Q1 revenue will likely come in well …

Channel Register 5 Mar 2007, 20:35
WorldCom CEO loses Supreme Court appeal bid

25 years in the pokey

Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers lost his bid to get the US Supreme Court to hear the appeal of his conviction for presiding over the most spectacular accounting fraud in American history. Ebbers argued the trial judge in his case erred by refusing to grant immunity to several prospective defense witnesses. That denial …

Law 5 Mar 2007, 20:57
Options probe forces RIM restatement

Chairman dethroned

Research in Motion will restate three years of earnings following an internal stock options probe, the company said today. The aggregate effect of the revisions will lop $250m off RIM's historic earnings. As another consequence of the options probe co-CEO Jim Balsille, who unusually, shares the role with RIM founder Mike …

Financial News 5 Mar 2007, 21:51
Webcasters face doubling of royalties

Bad Moon Rising on the rise

The Library of Congress' copyright board, which sets the royalty rates for statutory licenses, proposes doubling the amount webcasters pay for their statutory license in the next the few years. The copyright office has yet to make the details public, but released the proposed schedule to negotiators late on Friday. Statutory …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2007, 22:46
Hacker steals crucial data from French Prez candidate

Le Pen, Le Cracked

A cyber crook has stolen sensitive data from Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right contender for president of France. The breach may kill his chances of being able to run for the office. The hacker used an internet site designed to break login credentials to gain access to a list of French officials who had tentatively agreed to back …

Crime 5 Mar 2007, 22:51