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14th March 2007 Archive

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  • Comcast usage triggers Kafka-esque abusage

    Secret bandwidth caps

    Promoters of Comcast Internet are fond of boasting their superiority over DSL and other types of connectivity, pointing to the cable service's "mindblowing speed" and "unlimited" usage plans. Here's what they won't tell you: Comcast has a secret cap on the amount of data users can download, and those going over the limit can …

    Telecoms 14 Mar 2007, 00:19

  • Don't Dodge this Viper

    Analysis IBM's DB2 gets native XML support

    On the 6th Feb 2007 IBM announced Viper. Yes, we know that it announced Viper in July 2006, but this is a different Viper, it just happens to have the same name. Really, it all makes perfect sense; you just have to think like IBM….. DB2, the company’s database engine, comes in three tangy, zesty flavours: DB2 for z/OS ( …

    Developer 14 Mar 2007, 02:10

  • House hunting? Beware the Grim Reaper

    Death stalks UK property website

    Anyone who's ever sold a house knows there are a few tricks designed to entice buyers to part with their cash. For one, first appearences count, so move that dismantled Ford Cortina from the front garden. Second up, most buying decisions are made by women*, so make sure the kitchen and bathroom are 100 per cent. Thirdly, work to …

    Bootnotes 14 Mar 2007, 08:45

  • Cassini spies titanic lake on Titan

    Bigger than Lake Superior

    NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed giant lakes on Saturn's moon Titan, one of which - at 39,000 square miles - is bigger than Lake Superior. The features were captured by Cassini's radar near Titan's north pole. Although scientists can't be certain they're actually liquid-filled, "their dark appearance in radar that …

    Space 14 Mar 2007, 08:49

  • Video game legend hopes to change mankind

    SXSW Wright gets instinctual

    Video game god Will Wright thinks his latest creation might do far more than entertain. It may just save the planet. The agenda laid out by Wright, creator of SimCity and the Sims, today at the SXSW technology, movie and music festival goes beyond ambitious. He's looking for the upcoming game Spore from Maxis/Electronic Arts to …

    Biology 14 Mar 2007, 09:24

  • German glues self to roof

    Sticky situation

    A nonagenarian German handyman has continued the time-honoured Teutonic tradition of getting stuck to roofs, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Last year, 59-year-old August Voegl of Jennersdorf, Austria, nailed himself to a roof through his wedding tackle. This appears to have provoked an unnamed 91-year-old from Magdeburg to …

    Bootnotes 14 Mar 2007, 09:24

  • Joss Stone pays price for Brits train crash

    'Ludicrous American drawl' hits album sales

    Joss Stone is apparently paying the price for her sensational appearance at this year's Brits, at which she adopted an inexplicable US accent and alienated just about everyone in the UK. According to Brit tabloid The Sun, this and other recent outrages have left her latest album Introducing Joss Stone wallowing at No 12 in the …

    Entertainment 14 Mar 2007, 09:37

  • Apple releases last pre-Leopard update for Mac OS X

    Tiger hits 10.4.9

    Apple has updated Mac OS X to version 10.4.9, offering patches for both Intel and PowerPC versions of the operating system, taking in its server and client forms. The company has also updated its iPhoto application, and beefed up the security of Mac OS X 10.3.9. The operating system updates apply fixes to a wide array of …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 10:02

  • Corporate matchmaking was not illegal financial aid

    High Court rules against Companies Act breach

    A corporate matchmaker whose introductions led to one company buying another is entitled to its fee, the High Court has ruled. The company's contract did not breach the "financial assistance" clause of the Companies Act, the Court said. Corporate Development Partners (CDP) is a consultancy which will introduce companies …

    Law 14 Mar 2007, 10:13

  • UK banks leaving customer info on the pavement

    Told to clean up their act

    The Information Commissioner has told 11 UK banks to stop dumping customers' statements in bins on the pavement outside branches. Consumer advocates complained to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) that identity thieves might be rifling through the rubbish bags for people's personal details. While a spokeswoman for …

    ID 14 Mar 2007, 10:18

  • UK patent rules to be overhauled

    Cut and polish

    The UK Patent Office has proposed a new set of rules (PDF) which it says will modernise its processes. The rules are open for consultation until June. The Patents Rules are the procedural and administrative guidelines to the working of the Patent Office, and the current set of rules was published in 1995. "We suggest that it …

    Law 14 Mar 2007, 10:29

  • SanDisk intros internal Flash drive for laptops

    Fast, quiet but expensive

    SanDisk has begun offering a 32GB solid-state drive to notebook makers less than a week after it was claimed Apple's rumoured sub-notebook will only contain Flash storage. The launch also comes two months after SanDisk unveiled a similar drive based on the 1.8in form-factor favoured by manufacturers of personal media …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 10:32

  • GPs unable to track phone services

    Lack of equipment leaves calls unmonitored

    Primary care trusts are not adequately monitoring out of hours telephone calls, according to a committee of MPs. Out of hours telephone services delivered by GP surgeries are not being monitored because of a lack of equipment, says a report from Parliament's Public Accounts Committee. The report, which examines the effects of …

    Public Sector 14 Mar 2007, 10:35

  • £15k model Vickers Valiant crashes and burns

    Expensive V Bomber mishap

    A 16 foot jet-powered replica of a Vickers Valiant which cost model-maker Simon Steggall £15k, two years' graft, and one wife, crashed and burned on its fourth flight, The Sun reports. Steggal, 45, of Manningtree, Essex, had already lost one missus to his "model planes obsession" when the second divorced him over the V Bomber …

    Bootnotes 14 Mar 2007, 10:37

  • GRISoft targets SMEs' security sweet spot

    Czech firm aims to maul Panda and other critters

    Czech anti-virus firm GRISoft is targeting the small and medium sized business market with revamped versions of its network security products. Versions of its AVG Small Business Server for Internet Security and Anti-Malware are designed to protect the file access and email servers of smaller firms from virus infestation and …

    Business 14 Mar 2007, 10:48

  • Business travel bugbears

    Technology can eliminate travel time

    "Meetings, bloody meetings" - somehow the 1970s John Cleese management video appears even more relevant to business life today. While most workers have many forms of communication available, with the phone and email now the primary means for remote communication, there's nothing quite like a meeting to get the full emotion, …

    Business 14 Mar 2007, 10:49

  • VIA launches 'most feature-rich' Nano-ITX mobo

    Media PC-friendly

    VIA will soon bring to the built-your-own PC community what it claims is its most feature-packed ultra-compact Nano-ITX motherboard yet: the 12 x 12cm EPIA NX. Designed to work with VIA's 1.5GHz C7 chip or its 1.2GHz Eden processor, the NX backs up the CPU with up to 1GB of 533MHz DDR 2 memory and VIA's own UniChrome Pro II …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 10:52

  • Dell, Alienware offer 1TB single-drive upgrade

    At a price...

    Dell and its Alienware subsidiary have begun offering buyers the chance to configure new gaming desktop PCs with Hitachi's 1TB hard drive - enough space to store an almost inconceivable quantity of digital stuff. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 - announced earlier this year - is available to install in new Dell XPS desktops, and …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 11:10

  • Sony Ericsson launches Walkman W660, plug-in speakers

    Personal stereo no longer personal

    Sony Ericsson's latest 3G Walkman phone will reach consumers next quarter, the handset company said today. So will a pair of clip-on speakers - a bid to appeal to all those kids who don't like keeping their music to themselves. The W660 sports a 2in, 176 x 220, 262,144-colour display, a two-megapixel main camera and a more …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 11:40

  • How to find stolen laptops

    The legal eye

    Mark Rasch discusses the legal issues behind the discovery and recovery of stolen laptops that use LoJack-style homing devices to announce their location, and the location of the thieves, anywhere in the world. Bad things happen online. Trade secrets are lost or stolen. Personal information is compromised. Copyrights and …

    Security 14 Mar 2007, 11:40

  • Sony Vaio VGN-UX1XN ultra-mobile PC

    Review Think of the smallest laptop you've ever seen, and this will be smaller

    The Sony UX1XN is quite possibly one of the smallest laptops ever. Think of the smallest laptop you've ever seen, and this will be smaller. Probably. Everything about it is dinky - it's barely bigger than a thick-ish paperback book, yet it packs a full Vista-touting PC inside its diddy dimensions. Sony's UX series has been …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 12:00

  • Internet scams dominate UK card fraud losses

    Displacement effect

    Card fraud in the UK fell three per cent from £439.4m in 2005 to £428m last year, according to figures from payment association APACS released Wednesday. Overall, card fraud has dropped £80m from a record high of £504.8m in 2004. The decrease in overall fraud, attributed to the introduction of Chip and PIN transaction …

    Enterprise Security 14 Mar 2007, 12:08

  • French succumb to Franglais

    English impregnates la langue française

    Our chums across the Channel are currently marking "French language week", but apparently have little to celebrate as English loanwords continue to pollute their beloved mother tongue, the Daily Telegraph reports. Indeed, according to Xavier North (whose job is to "guarantee the primacy of French on national territory" and to …

    Bootnotes 14 Mar 2007, 12:33

  • South Korea to field gun-cam robots on DMZ

    Stationary droids forced to sacrifice own lives for human overlords

    Technological colossus South Korea is pressing ahead with efforts to join Israel and America in the white-hot field of killer robots. Korean sources have announced that Samsung, a company better known for its consumer goods, is manufacturing the SGR-A1 sentry unit for deployment on the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between South and …

    Security 14 Mar 2007, 12:34

  • Vodafone won't recognise union

    Row goes to arbitration

    Vodafone is still refusing to officially recognise the Connect union, which is so keen to represent its members it has taken Vodafone to the government's Central Arbitration Committee to force recognition. Over half the 200 people working at Vodafone's "Technology: Regional Operations North" office are already members of …

    Telecoms 14 Mar 2007, 14:16

  • AXA grabs ink with business crime league table

    Crime against individuals over-hyped, says exec

    Insurance company Axa yesterday released an intriguing survey of business claims by region, which has been widely reported. According to the survey, the UK's arson capital is Glasgow, accounting for nearly 11 per cent of all small and medium enterprise (SME) arson claims, while Edinburgh reportedly leads the nation in malicious …

    Music and Media 14 Mar 2007, 14:24

  • Apple megapatch fixes multiple flaws

    Fruity

    Apple has released a security update to its Mac OS X operating systems to plug multiple security holes. Bugs in third-party components have also been addressed by the security update. The availability of Mac OS X 10.4.9 and Security Update 2007-003 on Tuesday follows a month in which the security of the OS was put under the …

    Enterprise Security 14 Mar 2007, 14:35

  • Testing web transactions

    Old tool gets new lease of life

    Generating comprehensive test data sets is always a pain - especially with transaction-based applications. Today's web-based applications are subject to widely-varied live transaction volumes where server traffic can go from one transaction an hour to 1,000 a second in the blink of an eye. So if you want to test them properly …

    Developer 14 Mar 2007, 14:38

  • EMC and FSC extend their engagement

    CeBIT It's pretty clear which one is wearing the trousers

    EMC and Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) have expanded and extended their 10 year old strategic alliance. The two will work together on advanced data centre architectures, while FSC will also provide services for the EMC midrange storage that it sells in Europe. "FSC is our largest partner in Europe, and our second largest …

    Storage 14 Mar 2007, 15:10

  • Baseball legend slaps 'raging buy' on Intel

    Its, er, wireless biz (at Marvell) will surge

    Do you want to take stock picking advice from a baseball player? Mmm, probably not. So beware of Lenny Dykstra's raging buy on Intel. Since retiring from the big leagues, Dykstra has turned into an entrepreneur of sorts, owning car washes, real estate operations, and a variety of other smaller businesses. Dykstra also manages …

    Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 15:31

  • Happy Pi Day

    Gather round the Pi Shrine, folks

    Happy Pi Day to the Maths geeks of America. For today is March 14 or 3.14 in US date format. If you are in San Francisco, swing by the Exploratorium, join the school kids and "gather around the Pi Shrine to perform pi-related rites and eat ritual food - will it be apple pie or pizza pie or just pie in the sky? - in honor of …

    Science 14 Mar 2007, 16:11

  • Blue Peter fakes phoneline winner

    Here's one we made up earlier

    Another bastion of British innocence and decency crumbled today as beloved BBC Children's TV programme Blue Peter was implicated in a phone-in competition scandal. This particular scam wasn't quite as egregious as some, but is still a tale of shame. Last November, Blue Peter held a phone-in competition. The calls cost 10p, a …

    Music and Media 14 Mar 2007, 16:14

  • MS quietly releases Win 2003 SP2

    Second update enjoys stealthy debut

    Microsoft has released a major update to Windows Server 2003 to make the enterprise software package more stable and easier to manage. The low-key debut of Win 2003 SP2 on Monday, which took some sys admins by surprise, contrasts with the high profile launch of Win XP SP2 in August 2004. So stealthy was the release that it's …

    Enterprise Security 14 Mar 2007, 16:28

  • Bruce Sterling gives blogs 10 years to live

    SXSW Engage life support

    Science fiction writer and professional pundit Bruce Sterling has cracked bloggers with the extinction stick, saying the plebs will crawl back into their ooze by 2017. "There are 55 million blogs and some of them have got to be good," Sterling said, during a speech here at the SXSW conference in reference to the slogan on blog …

    Music and Media 14 Mar 2007, 16:38

  • George Bush fingered as terrorist by US feds ...

    Well, maybe

    A Texas-based software company is offering a free tool allowing web users to check the likelihood of a particular name being flagged up by US government's Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), the body which operates the infamous "No Fly" list. Lists of terrorist names have circulated widely in recent months, and it has …

    ID 14 Mar 2007, 17:22

  • Microsoft plays Show me, Tellme

    Buys speech recognition firms

    Microsoft is amping up its voice recognition capability, with the acquisition of Tellme Networks, a 320-man firm based in Mountain View, Calif. Terms are undisclosed, but Microsoft is said to be paying more than $800m, making Tellme its biggest buy since 2002, Bloomberg reports. Tellme supplies voice-activated services for …

    Financial News 14 Mar 2007, 17:47

  • US judges to learn computer forensics

    CSI.net

    A national computer forensics lab for the US has been established in Alabama. The facility, developed by the US Secret Service and partially funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division, will serve as a national cyber crimes training facility for prosecutors and judges as well as law …

    Crime 14 Mar 2007, 17:55

  • Viacom's YouTube lawsuit could test limits of DMCA

    Analysis Safe Harbor or storm?

    Viacom has launched a $1bn lawsuit against YouTube and its owners Google over copyright infringing videos hosted by the site. The case could test the limits of the 'safe harbor' protections for ISPs and influence other user-generated content sites. The entertainment giant said that its clips have been viewed more than 1.5 …

    Law 14 Mar 2007, 18:20

  • Red Hat aims higher with RHEL 5

    CeBIT With large enterprises in its sights, Red Hat talks platforms and partnerships

    Red Hat today announced version 5 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), its server operating system - but at the European launch in CeBIT the talk was not of all the technology inside, such as Xen virtualisation and JBoss middleware. Instead it was all about partnerships, packaging and support. In particular, Red Hat will now work …

    Operating Systems 14 Mar 2007, 19:34

  • Microsoft goes a bundle with Lenovo PCs

    The force feeding continues

    Microsoft's flagging search engine is getting a boost, thanks to an agreement that will make Live.com the default service on PCs sold by Lenovo. The pact, which will also see machines outfitted with the Live toolbar, is the latest to be forged in an ongoing campaign to clutter new machines with software that users are often …

    Reg Hardware 14 Mar 2007, 19:55

  • Adaptec unifies serial RAID

    CeBIT Take two serial disk connects into the shower? Not me!

    System builders no longer need to choose between Serial ATA and Serial Attached SCSI when it comes to RAID, claimed Adaptec as it announced a family of five unified serial RAID controllers which support both SATA for capacity and SAS for performance. The PCI-Express (PCIe) cards make use of the fact that SAS is backwards- …

    Storage 14 Mar 2007, 20:33

  • GigaStor to hunt zero-day breaches

    CeBIT Network Instruments runs history through an IDS

    Your intrusion detection system (IDS) may have just downloaded a new security rule, but you have no way of knowing if your network has already been hit by the exploit in a zero-day attack, says Network Instruments. The company claims the latest update of its GigaStor network traffic recorder could help you find out, however, …

    Enterprise Security 14 Mar 2007, 20:49

  • Charges dropped against former HP chairman

    Charges to be dropped against three others

    A California state judge has dropped all criminal charges against former Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn and paved the way to clearing three others caught up in the spying scandal, which was initiated to discover the source of leaks to the media. In October, the four were charged with four felony counts each for …

    Law 14 Mar 2007, 22:30