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20th March 2007 Archive

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  • Events dear boy, events

    Event management short cut – we think

    Without wishing to be rude about the company, the following could be something or nothing, but as developers and architects start to cover the same ground both parties could well be interested in it. In what……? Well, this is a new product announcement that I spotted from a Brisbane, Australia-based company called Event Zero, …

    Developer 20 Mar 2007, 00:34

  • Utah backs calls to boot porn from Port 80

    PC blockade

    Utah's governor and state legislature has lent its weight to efforts to persuade Congress to pass laws requiring adult content providers to stay off port 80, which generally carries HTTP web surfing traffic. Governor Jon Huntsman last week backed a resolution from the state's parliament calling for the net to be split into " …

    Law 20 Mar 2007, 00:36

  • Dell perfects HP blade copy for Fall performance

    Exclusive Exec poaching pays

    Dell looks set to copy rival HP with a new blade chassis due out this Fall, The Register has learned. According to our sources, Dell will hit consumers with a 10U chassis that holds two layers of blades. Each layer should fit eight servers, leaving the whole chassis with 16 systems. The upcoming chassis, due in the late third …

    Servers 20 Mar 2007, 00:36

  • Rambus gains breathing space in FTC ding-dong

    Behaving like royalty

    Rambus is keeping its license to print money from fast memory patents for just a little longer. The US memory chip designer today told the world that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stayed some of its remedy order against the company - so long as Rambus files its appeal in a "timely" manner. The FTC charges Rambus with …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 01:18

  • NetApp takes crack at energy consumption

    Getting storage heat off the hot seat

    Storage tech firms have their part to play in tackling computer power consumption, NetApp said today. More than half (59 per cent) of NetApp customers are thinking hard about green computing, and forty six per cent have invested to slow down the spin of the electric meter, according to a company survey released today. NetApp …

    Storage 20 Mar 2007, 01:40

  • Microsoft's search excels in spreading malware

    Easily beats out Google and Yahoo!

    Everybody knows that Windows Live Search, Microsoft's little search engine that could, lags far behind Google and Yahoo! in the race to capture eyeballs. Here's one place where the software juggernaut's offering leads the pack: referrals for sites that actively try to infect end users' machines with some of the vilest malware …

    Security 20 Mar 2007, 03:32

  • Taking your first steps with SCA

    Part 2 Actually using Service Component Architecture

    In the first part of this two part series we introduced the Service Component Architecture (or SCA). SCA aims to make the construction of services simpler and less dependent on detailed knowledge of a range of different specifications within a Service Oriented Architecture (or SOA). The previous column outlined the aims of …

    Developer 20 Mar 2007, 07:02

  • British Lords applaud Chinese on civil liberties

    Peers back HK stance on child fingerprinting

    The UK government faced questions on school fingerprinting in the House of Lords yesterday, led by the accusation that they had a worse track record on civil liberties in this regard than the Chinese. Baroness Joan Walmsley, Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said the government should look at the Chinese example "The …

    Law 20 Mar 2007, 07:02

  • US team creates malaria-resistant mosquito

    With fluorescent eyes, naturally

    US scientists have created a malaria-resistant, genetically-modified (GM) mosquito which they hope might displace its infectious counterpart if introduced into the wild. According to the BBC, the transgenic Anopheles mozzie - which boasts a gene that resists infection by the Plasmodium malaria parasite - is "better able to …

    Science 20 Mar 2007, 09:34

  • NPfIT delays plunge NHS trusts into the red

    Financial health prognosis 'poor'

    Delays in the implementation of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) have helped plunge some NHS trusts into the red, the public accounts committee report has revealed. The Financial Management in the NHS report says 14 trusts are still waiting for "contributions to costs incurred" as a result of delays to the programme from …

    Policy 20 Mar 2007, 09:52

  • Sony Micro Vault Tiny capacity now not so tiny

    Sony has bulked up its skinny Micro Vault Tiny USB memory key family with a beefy 4GB model. The Flash drive is still thin enough to fit inside a computer's USB port. We say the drive is 4GB, but Sony said it's pre-loading compression software onto each unit - Windows only, alas - that can increase the storage capacity …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 10:03

  • Blair pushes for citizen-centric services

    Public sector not hitting the mark yet

    Prime Minister Tony Blair is urging central and local government to take public sector reform 'a stage further'. Launching the Building on progress: public services policy paper, Blair says people want services tailored to their needs, with more choice and a "greater diversity of providers". Although progress has been made, …

    Government 20 Mar 2007, 10:17

  • Charities urged to exploit the web

    Keep up in the third sector

    The Charity Commission is to urge charities to make like an Arctic Monkey and harness the power of the net in their fundraising efforts. The commission hosted a one day conference in London yesterday to discuss how charities can benefit from emerging media, such as blogs, social networking sites, and so on. Charity Commission …

    Policy 20 Mar 2007, 10:21

  • Google goes to Africa

    Kenya and Rwanda get Google Apps

    Google has done a deal to offer students in Kenya and Rwanda access to Google Apps - its online selection of products including Gmail. Lecturers and students at Rwanda's National University, the Kigali Institute for Education, and Kigali Institute for Science and Technology will all get access to Google's online applications …

    Applications 20 Mar 2007, 10:28

  • 'Bloody foreigners' is racist taunt, say Lords

    Mobility scooter rampage ends in conviction

    It can be racist to make reference to "bloody foreigners" even if the insult is no more specific than that, the House of Lords has ruled. The decision was made in a case where a man's abusive words and behaviour were judged to have been racially aggravated. A Mr Rogers was on his way home from the pub in the mobility scooter …

    Law 20 Mar 2007, 10:34

  • Apple to revamp iMac as HD TV?

    Slimmer, big-screen version on way, moles claim

    Apple is preparing a slimmer, sexier iMac - if the latest rumours are to be believed. The new line-up is also said to comprise just two, Core 2 Duo-based models with, respectively, widescreen 20in and 24in displays. So AppleInsider's sources claim - they're pitching the revamp as a change to match the shift from the original …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 10:36

  • Vodafone.net email goes belly up

    Undeliverable

    Vodafone's email service has been down since mid-morning yesterday, leaving users cut adrift from their mail. The company thinks the system might be up and running later today, but isn't making any promises. Anyone hoping to access their Vodafone.net email accounts are currently being greeted by a static webpage (http:// …

    Mobile 20 Mar 2007, 11:01

  • Denise Van Outen ordered to get Joss Stoned

    Lose the Brit accent, say US TV bosses

    US TV bosses have instructed Denise Van Outen to do a Joss Stone and lose her Brit accent - because audiences over the pond have not warmed to her chirpy Essex twang. Van Outen, 32, was signed to present Grease, "a reality show which is aiming to find a new cast to play the characters from the hit Seventies movie", the Evening …

    Bootnotes 20 Mar 2007, 11:02

  • AMD next-gen chipset roadmap leaked?

    HyperTransport 3 and PCI Express 2 goodness

    AMD's plan to introduce HyperTransport 3-equipped processors - the so-called 'star' line, thanks to their astronomy-inspired codenames - in the second half of this year is well known. So it should come as no surprise that the company is readying HT3 chipsets to the same schedule. According to alleged roadmap information, …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 11:08

  • Arming techies with business nous

    Management skills for IT managers

    My colleague Joyce Becknell and I recently had a very interesting conversation with Martin Griss, dean of education at Carnegie Mellon College in Silicon Valley. Over the last few years the school has launched a number of programmes designed to develop new management skills in experienced IT professionals, including a Masters …

    Business 20 Mar 2007, 11:08

  • Stats office updates shopping basket

    Spring clean

    DAB radios, satnav systems, and flat-panel tellies are being added to the basket of typical shopping checked by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS creates a list of goods which it then uses to create the Consumer Price and Retail Price Indexes. It checks the prices of these goods every month to create the indexes …

    Financial News 20 Mar 2007, 11:37

  • China jails writer for six years

    Latest victim of crackdown on online democracy

    A Chinese writer who published essays questioning the Beijing regime online has been sentenced to six years imprisonment. Zhang Jianhong, who wrote under the pen name Li Hong, was arrested and charged with "incitement to subvert state power" last September in a crackdown on cyber-dissidents. The punishment was handed down on …

    Law 20 Mar 2007, 11:39

  • Fujitsu Siemens readies autumn HSUPA laptop

    3G upload speed-boost tech on board

    Fujitsu Siemens (FS) will bring the next-but-one generation of 3G network connectivity - HSUPA - to its Lifebook laptop line-up this coming Autumn, making for faster internet access on the move. FS' slimline Lifebook P7230 is due to go on sale next month with HSDPA built in alongside Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. However, the company …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 12:13

  • Aussies fume over 'frozen' LG digital TVs

    Fix coming, manufacturer pledges

    Pity poor Australian owners of certain LG LCD and plasma tellies - their big flat screens have begun freezing up during certain digital broadcasts from TV station the Nine Network. LG told local media it expects to have a solution to hand tomorrow, but for now troubled punters can simply turn the affected telly off, wait 2-3 …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 12:50

  • Maths boffins solve 248 dimensional problem

    Ticked off 'great mysteries' list

    Physicists working to unify the mutually contradictory theories of quantum mechanics and gravity could have a new tool at their disposal, thanks to a group of mathematicians who met at the American Institute of Mathematics. The researchers have mapped a thing called the E8 Lie Group (pronounced Lee, after mathematician Sophus …

    Science 20 Mar 2007, 12:52

  • Science minister names new Patent Office chief

    Ian Fletcher, this is your life

    Ian Fletcher has been appointed as the new chief executive of the UK Patent Office. Fletcher, currently serving at the International Directorate in UK Trade and Investment (IDUTI), will succeed Ron Marchant, the incumbent, when he retires at the end of March. Marchant said he is confident Fletcher will take the office "forward …

    Policy 20 Mar 2007, 13:17

  • Nokia pounces on Qualcomm in Euro courts

    More suits than Armani

    No sooner has Qualcomm tied up a briefcase full of patent litigation with Broadcom, than Nokia has weighed in with a raft of European suits against the CDMA vendor. Qualcomm and Nokia already have outstanding Qualcomm-initiated litigation working its way through the courts. Now the Finnish mobile giant has upped the ante by …

    Financial News 20 Mar 2007, 13:21

  • World Cup internet charges - just not cricket

    Heavyweight expense sheets in the West Indies

    Some saw it coming, others didn't. When the first world media decamps to the developing world the last expression you expect to hear is "value for money". However, the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies is something of a record breaker for charging heavily for things that fail to work quite as expected. Former England …

    Broadband 20 Mar 2007, 13:30

  • Orange SPV E600 email phone

    Review Is this mish-mash mobile masterful at all?

    It's always nice to have a little look-see at the newest hardware, but the E600 isn't actually new as such - it's the reincarnation of several previous models, including T-Mobile's Dash and MDA Mail - as the Dash is called over here - and manufacturer HTC's own S620. Orange's incarnation, like the others, weighs in at 160g …

    Phones 20 Mar 2007, 13:35

  • Sony details Euro PS3 old games compatibility

    Lists PS2, PSone titles that will still play

    Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has begun to tell would-be PlayStation 3 owners just how many PS2 games they'll be able to play on the next-generation console: well over half of the hundreds of titles listed. The snag, however, is that users will require the latest release of the PS3 firmware, version 1.6, completed too …

    Games 20 Mar 2007, 14:12

  • Yahoo! search! goes! mobile!

    So! do! adverts!

    Yahoo! is extending its search service to US mobile phone users. Called Yahoo! oneSearch the service claims to be easier and quicker for consumers to use. The press release uses the example of searching for a film title which should give consumers a link to the official site, a user rating for the film, and links to local …

    Mobile 20 Mar 2007, 14:42

  • Gateway up on Acer bid talk

    Cows ripe for milking

    Gateway's shares have lifted eight per cent over the past few days as word spreads of a possible takeover bid from Taiwan's Acer. ThinkEquity analysts spoke of strong indications Gateway is to be targeted after JT Wang, chairman and chief executive of Acer, said last week the company was "hoping to make an acquisition this …

    The Channel 20 Mar 2007, 15:40

  • Biscit carcass ready for the scrapheap

    Administrators sign O-Bit-uary

    Administrators for Biscit Internet said today they have almost finished picking over the bones of the ISP, after selling a few scraps to Buckinghamshire outfit O-Bit Telecom last night. Lead administrator Tony Thompson, of Surrey-based insolvency specialists Piper Thompson, said "there isn't a lot more to sell", but that a date …

    Broadband 20 Mar 2007, 15:57

  • Copy-protection flummoxes German punters

    Support calls sap profits for Musicload

    A leading German music download service has criticised the music industry's attachment to DRM after reporting that problems associated with the controversial copy-protection technology are responsible for three in four of its support calls. Deutsche Telekom's Musicload said its customers frequently have problems getting DRM …

    Media 20 Mar 2007, 16:01

  • Bush team takes heat over global warming science

    Accusations of meddling

    The Bush administration has been meddling in climate research in a bid to downplay the importance of global warming, according to a memo released by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The committee held its second hearing on federal interference in climate change science on Monday this week. In his …

    Science 20 Mar 2007, 16:09

  • UK gov says broken passport system justifies ID cards

    No it doesn't, say opposition

    Rough fraud figures published by the Identity and Passport Service today have become the government's latest justification for its identity card plans. The Home Office estimated that 10,000 fraudulent passport applications were approved in the 11 months to October 2006. But its figures were only partial and the Home Office …

    Policy 20 Mar 2007, 16:35

  • IBM and Cisco say 'call us for emergency service'

    Send in the six-wheel trucks

    IBM and Cisco Systems have teamed up to offer government and corporate customers an emergency network and communications service aimed at preventing disruption after system failures. The IBM Management for Crisis Response solution has been designed to be integrated into daily operations with a package that will bring together …

    The Channel 20 Mar 2007, 16:37

  • Elton John blags counterfeit Windows

    Letters After receiving liposuction

    Computer games continued down the bad press highway this week with the news that car racing games tend to make men more dangerous drivers in the real world. Or they could. Or maybe not. Unfortunately the study of "Racing games increase real world crashes" is somewhat flawed by the testing being done by giving the participants …

    Letters 20 Mar 2007, 16:57

  • MySpace to be co-opted into Month of Bugs

    But who's actually being played?

    An unknown duo is promising to devote the entire month of April to disclosing bugs on MySpace, a preferred networking site for teens and the hackers and pedophiles who scam them. The pair - who go by the names Müstaschio and Mondo Armando - plan to begin posting their findings on April 1 in what may be an attempt to lampoon a …

    Security 20 Mar 2007, 17:43

  • Brocade option backdating dismissal denied

    Path cleared for more indictments

    A judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges against two former Brocade Communications executives indicted for backdating stock option grants. The ruling gives the green light for the government to pursue future cases of executives profiting from backdated options. More than 150 companies have begun internal investigations or …

    Storage 20 Mar 2007, 18:07

  • Toshiba slashes HD DVD player prices

    PS3 counter attack

    Toshiba's HD DVD players are set to become cheaper to buy in the US next month. On 1 April, its will apparently cut the price of its three-machine line-up by up to $200. The high-end HDX-A2, mid-range HD-A20 and bottom-of-the-line HD-A2 currently retail for $1000, $600 and $500, respectively. But according to a recently …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 18:12

  • Microsoft invades BrainShare

    The new new best friends

    Novell unveiled upgrades to its enterprise Linux and management software at its annual BrainShare conference in Utah this week. Makeovers for its Linux distribution, including a thin-client product, the open beta of Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 and updates to its security and identity management, were among the main …

    Operating Systems 20 Mar 2007, 19:20

  • Nemesis looms over TPC-C benchmark

    Expensive and oudated

    TPC-C - that venerable server-come-database benchmark from the Transaction Performance Processing Council - looks set to be pensioned off at last with the recent announcement of a new OLTP (OnLine Transaction Processing) benchmark specification, TPC-E. The new benchmark is aimed at moving the touchstone of database and server …

    Servers 20 Mar 2007, 19:50

  • AOL debuts AIM location finder

    Skyhook-up

    AOL has introduced a free location plug-in for its AIM instant messaging service, enabling users to see where their AIM buddies are physically located, so long as they are connected via a wireless network. Relax, it's not a tool for stalkers: AIM Location is optional and the information is shared only with members of an AOL …

    Broadband 20 Mar 2007, 22:01

  • Google snubs Net Neutrality debate

    UK pols, yawn, move on

    The first significant Net Neutrality debate to take place in the UK was held today at Westminster. Chaired by former trade minister Alun Michael and the Conservative shadow trade minister Charles Hendry, the event attracted the chief Telecoms regulator and ministry policy chief, a clutch of industry representatives, and a …

    Broadband 20 Mar 2007, 22:33

  • Michael Dell slams India's PC taxes

    Sez tariffs prevent expansion

    Dell Computers wants to expand its PC market in India, but insists that the country's high tariffs on PCs must go. Chairman and CEO Michael Dell met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top officials while at the Confederation of Indian Industry's CEO forum in hopes to push the government to see it his way. Dell …

    Financial News 20 Mar 2007, 22:48

  • Microsoft joins OpenAjax party

    No solo player

    Microsoft today threw in its lot with the OpenAjax Alliance to push interoperability in Web 2.0. The group now counts more than 70 members, up from 15 in February 2006. In a statement, Microsoft's Kevin Smith - arguably owner of the most challenging job title in IT as core web platform and tools to UX web/client platform and …

    Developer 20 Mar 2007, 23:11

  • Intel's lab crew makes case for 80-core world

    Exclusive CSI: It's optical

    I have seen the future. It's full of Agilent testing equipment, clunky Nvidia drivers and enthusiastic, well-educated men. The future didn't always look this way - at least not at Intel, where "GHz=God" wallpaper used to cover cubicle walls. The chip maker once indoctrinated workers with the religion of speed and did …

    Hardware 20 Mar 2007, 23:33