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22nd March 2007 Archive

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  • Liverpool Victoria blows £2m to become LV=

    LogoWatch 'A contemporary expression of our mutuality'

    The Strategy Boutiques have evidently been busy down at Liverpool Victoria, the UK's biggest friendly society, which has spunked £2m in triumphantly transforming itself into LV=. The redefined brand frontage "draws on our heritage and our new look aims to present us in a more modern and vibrant way", according to the admirably …

    Bootnotes 22 Mar 2007, 10:06

  • More dawn raids at Torex Retail

    Ex-chairman quits

    The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) raided two residential properties in Gloucestershire and Warwickshire and a business address in Banbury, where Oxfordshire-based software firm Torex Retail has its headquarters, as part of its investigation into the company. The simultaneous raids, carried out yesterday morning, did not lead to …

    Channel Register 22 Mar 2007, 10:08

  • Firefox update fixes compatibility snags

    Mozilla phases out 1.5 release

    Mozilla pushed out a minor update to its Firefox web browser on Wednesday, chiefly designed to address glitches with a more significant security update issued late last month. The latest update - Firefox 2.0.0.3 and Firefox 1.5.0.11 - also addresses a low-risk file transfer protocol (FTP) port-scanning security bug, as …

    Applications 22 Mar 2007, 10:10

  • White label broadband scores big for satisfaction

    Brightview ISPs dominate Watchdog survey

    A BBC satisfaction survey has fingered white label provider Brightview as the UK's most customer-friendly broadband outfit. Brightview is behind three of the top four ISPs in the Watchdog survey, which polled 50,000 viewers. More than 90 per cent of Waitrose and Madasafish customers were satisfied or very satisfied by their …

    Telecoms 22 Mar 2007, 10:25

  • ICANN speaks out for registrar reform

    Dr Twomey drops the dime

    As Registerfly fades into oblivion, ICANN has at last taken it upon itself to address many of the questions raised by the company's precipitous collapse. ICANN issued a statement on its website today detailing a variety of issues to be addressed at the upcoming ICANN conference in Lisbon. President and CEO of ICANN, Dr Paul …

    Law 22 Mar 2007, 10:31

  • Govt launches voucher scheme for R&D

    The great pre-election giveaway

    In another clue that the great pre-election giveaway is well underway, the government has launched a voucher scheme for firms to "become more innovative". Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin implemented a recommendation of the Small Business Forum in the guise of a €10m fund to assist smaller …

    Small Biz 22 Mar 2007, 10:32

  • Intel puts $1m concept PC contest shortlist to a public vote

    Can you spot the Mac Mini killer?

    Intel has called on the rest of us to pick the compact PC with the best chance of beating Apple's Mac Mini - and net its designer a cool $1m. Intel launched the contest in September 2006, asking computer designers to come up with a smart compact system based on the chip giant's Core 2 Duo processor and meet its Viiv platform …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 10:33

  • 'No evidence' of Xbox Live, Bungie.net hacks, MS claims

    Just don't hand out your account details, OK

    Microsoft has denied claims that its Xbox Live online gaming network has played host to fraudsters. Neither has Bungie.net, it added. The software giant's statement follows an investigation into allegations that some Xbox Live users had been locked out of their accounts by third-parties. Some users also reported cases of …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 10:59

  • Lyons calls for council tax overhaul

    'Let's end the stigma'

    A review into local government funding has said that council tax benefit should be renamed and the system fully automated. Launching the long awaited Lyons Inquiry report into the future role, function, and funding of local government, Sir Michael Lyons said: "Council tax benefit should be renamed as rebate" to end the stigma …

    Government 22 Mar 2007, 11:01

  • Doctor Who series four is go

    But who will play the Time Lord?

    There will be a fourth series of Doctor Who, writer/producer Russell T Davies has confirmed, although he refused to say whether David Tennant would continue in the lead role. Speaking at the London premiere of the third series, Davies declared: "Series four is officially existing. I'm very excited, but we have known for ages." …

    Entertainment 22 Mar 2007, 11:36

  • Motorola warns of quarterly loss

    Weak phone sales blamed

    Motorola has warned that it expects to see a first quarter loss after a downturn in sales of its mobile phones. It has scaled back its sales forecast by at least $1bn for the first quarter of 2007 with a new projection set at between $9.2bn and $9.3bn. The company also said it will accelerate its share buyback programme. …

    Financial News 22 Mar 2007, 11:48

  • Malaysian pirates slap bounty on DVD-sniffing mutts

    Lucky and Flo on syndicate deathlist

    Malaysian DVD pirates have slapped a bounty on the heads of sniffer dogs which earlier this week helped seize around $3m* in fake DVDs, Reuters reports. According to The New Straits Times, "syndicate bosses" are none too happy about the olfactory abilities of black Labradors Lucky and Flo, who on Tuesday were involved in the …

    Software 22 Mar 2007, 11:52

  • ESA and Russia cosy up in space race

    Collaboration is the name of the game

    European and Russian space agencies have confirmed they will be working more closely together in their exploration of our solar system. After a meeting in Moscow yesterday, the two sides said the future would hold more collaboration on missions and on development of new technologies, as well as a greater sharing of research …

    Space 22 Mar 2007, 11:54

  • El Reg announces 'Black Cocks' headline awards

    Nominate your faves to win goodie bag

    It was a bit quiet yesterday lunchtime down at Vulture Central, so we retired en masse to the local boozer to verify Aberdeen University's Gaussian probability distribution darts theory. During the course of our essential scientific research, a certain amount of beer was taken and, as a result, someone rather brilliantly …

    Bootnotes 22 Mar 2007, 12:12

  • Philips to glitz up gadgets with Swarovski sparklies

    You bet your glass

    So what do women really want from technology? That it should be easy to use? That it should work straight out of the box? That it should be, dare I say it, useful? Not at all, says Philips, we want it to sparkle. Yes, it's partnering with glass-blower Swarovski to bring a little luxury - and I stress the word 'little' - to a …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 12:17

  • 'Oxygen candle' caused sub explosion

    Submarine vindicated, this time

    Yesterday's accident in which two sailors were killed aboard the Royal Navy submarine Tireless did not involve any of the submarine's machinery or installed systems, it has emerged. According to US and British naval sources, the explosion instead involved an oxygen candle. Some news sources have said oxygen candles are " …

    Science 22 Mar 2007, 12:22

  • JOnAS gets clustered

    High availability for Bullish users

    The OW2 Consortium - formed in January 2007 from the merger of the ObjectWeb and OrientWare open source communities - has added comprehensive, dynamic clustering support and a new batch of administration tools to support distributed applications in the latest version of its JOnAS application server, Version 4.8 Enterprise …

    Developer 22 Mar 2007, 12:26

  • All new Reg t-shirts hit the streets

    Cash'n'Carrion Buy apparel, earn rispek

    It's been a while, but we're delighted to announce today the immediate availability of some all-new, geek-magnet El Reg apparel. The new line-up does, we confess, include a reissue of our "Warhol" montage classic (left) - back through popular demand and now inexplicably renamed "Who's a Pretty Boy then". Next up, we have …

    Site News 22 Mar 2007, 12:44

  • Gov tries to halt carousel but still thrills a-plenty in the IT circus

    To subscribe to Channel Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of channel news in a single hit - click here.

    Stop the merry-go-round "Riding along on a carousel, trying to catch up to you, riding along on a carousel, will I catch up to you?" sang The Hollies way back when. Now the government is doing its best to catch up to those trying to use computer chips and mobile phones for carousel fraud. To combat the practice, which Her …

    Channel Register 22 Mar 2007, 12:56

  • Yahoo! and Google act on click fraud

    Fake clicks targeted

    Yahoo! and Google are taking action to counter click fraud. Yahoo! is appointing a click-fraud Czar and Google is trialing changes to its AdWords scheme. Click fraud occurs when someone deliberately hits adverts on a website to rack up charges for a rival company. It is not clear how big the problem is, but many companies …

    Financial News 22 Mar 2007, 13:11

  • IBM touts novel chip-cooling technique - again

    Thermal pastiche?

    IBM likes the novel technqiue it's come up with for cooling chips so much that it's announced the breakthrough twice: back in October 2006 and, almost five months to the day, in March 2007. As we reported last year, Big Blue boffins at the company's Zurich Research Lab discovered that if the upper surface of a chip's ceramic …

    PCs & Chips 22 Mar 2007, 13:27

  • Paul McCartney signs for Starbucks

    Yeah, I'll have a double Mocha and Macca to go

    The music label tentacle of coffee house monolith Starbucks has signed Paul McCartney as its first major artist, the BBC reports. Hear Music, which has to date punted "albums of licensed songs", last week announced that it would seek out original material from new and established artists, and appears to have pulled off a …

    Entertainment 22 Mar 2007, 13:31

  • Site News All-new Hard Wear T-shirts hit the streets

    It's been a while, but we're delighted to announce today the immediate availability of some all-new, geek-magnet El Reg apparel, including the splendid Hard Wear line, presented in three choices of colour on black. Pick from: Hot Pink, Lime Green, and Silver-Grey. The new line-up does, we confess, incluse a reissue of our ' …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 13:39

  • NASA: hail damage means no launch yet for Atlantis

    Insulating foam causing problems again

    NASA says it will not set a date for the next Shuttle launch until it has properly assessed the damage to the fuel tank. The shuttle Atlantis was supposed to blast off last week, but the fuel tank's foam covering was damaged by "golf ball sized" hailstones as it sat on the launch pad during a storm in late February. NASA says …

    Space 22 Mar 2007, 13:47

  • Fujitsu Services drops IPO plan

    Downgrades its valuation

    Japanese technology giant Fujitsu Limited has told its UK-based subsidiary Fujitsu Services that it must drop its long-stated ambition to spin out on the stock exchange. The services arm will instead become the "pillar" of a global services business, the firm said this week. After the dotcom bust, Fujitsu Services retrenched …

    Channel Register 22 Mar 2007, 13:55

  • VoIP phreakers establish thriving black market

    Sneakers

    Telephone systems hackers have established a thriving black market in reselling stolen VoIP minutes. Hackers are breaking into gateway servers used to connect a carrier's phone network to the internet and reselling this access to smaller, unscrupulous operators, sometimes via web-based wholesale minutes markets. Wholesale …

    VoIP 22 Mar 2007, 13:59

  • US Marines spoofed drone to cover up murder, court told

    Thermal-imagery pantomime

    US Marines in Iraq staged an elaborate fake gunfight to foil an overhead surveillance drone and cover up a murder, according to court testimony. Wired reports that the Marines successfully spoofed infrared imagery, producing the appearance of a legitimate combat engagement. Only a surprise confession by a Navy medic (or " …

    Crime 22 Mar 2007, 14:05

  • Intel exec confirms 45nm UMPC CPU plan

    'Tolapai' rather than 'Steeley'?

    Intel's upcoming ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) processor will be fabbed at 45nm and should power portable systems later this year, a company executive revealed this week. Intel CEO Paul Otellini first promised a processor capable of running Windows Vista on a handheld device back in August 2005. Then, he said the chip would ship by …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 14:15

  • Microsoft opens XBox Live to the PC platform

    Now gamers can all play together

    Microsoft this week extended the Xbox Live network to the Windows PC platform, as it launched a Windows Vista version of the Halo 2 game. Microsoft plans in June to launch Shadowrun, which is the first game that will allow Windows gamers and Xbox 360 players to get involved in cross-platform match-ups and play each other …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 14:21

  • Microsoft leads internet industry bid to fill up white space

    Comment US heavyweights eye spectrum gaps for mobile internet

    One of the most dramatic battles in the war over the mobile internet could arise in the US from current lobbying over future use of the "white space" spectrum (the idle channels between the TV bands between 54MHz and 862MHz, set up to avoid interference, but now possibly to be used for internet access). A coalition led by …

    Mobile 22 Mar 2007, 15:03

  • All-female species goes 100 million years without a shag

    No, not Anne Widdecombe

    A microscopic animal has shown its ability to evolve without reproduction, thereby refuting "the idea that sex is necessary for diversification into evolutionary species', the Times reports. That's according to an international team of researchers, including experts from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, and …

    Biology 22 Mar 2007, 15:32

  • Sex with dead deer is illegal, US man finds

    Probation for Bambi molester

    The 20-year-old Wisconsin man last year charged with having sex with a dead deer has been sentenced to probation and evaluation as a sex offender, Yahoo! reports. Bryan James Hathaway was cuffed on a "a misdemeanour charge of sexual gratification with an animal". The court case raised some interesting legal issues, since …

    Bootnotes 22 Mar 2007, 15:33

  • EC leaves personal use out of criminal IP laws

    Goes after 'incitement' instead

    Criminal sanctions for copyright infringement moved a step closer to reality in Europe this week, as the European Commission's committee for legal affairs voted to pass a draft of a directive affectionally known as IPRED 2. The directive, being herded through the legislative process by socialist MEP Nicola Zingaretti, is …

    Software 22 Mar 2007, 16:21

  • Sophos to bar Second Life on work computers

    Lonely deviants may have to use own machines

    Security firm Sophos will offer sysadmins the ability to block users from online virtual world Second Life from next month. The application control features of Sophos Anti-virus 6 will also be expanded to block Everquest, Lineage, Runescape, and Station Launch Pad from 3 April. Sophos software already allows harassed network …

    IT Director 22 Mar 2007, 16:24

  • Microsoft still dominating the market, commissioner says

    Abusers - they never change

    European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes believes Microsoft is still benefiting from abusing its dominant position in workgroup servers. Kroes told the European Parliament that Microsoft was continuing to gain market share despite being found guilty by the European Court three years ago. Kroes said: "Microsoft is …

    Software 22 Mar 2007, 16:37

  • Hitachi cuts jobs, flees Mexico

    Road to success is a hard drive

    Hitachi is shutting its hard drive plant in Mexico and is to delete 4,500 jobs. The plant in Guadalajara will be purged by the middle of next year with production transfered to plants in the Philippines, China and Thailand. Hitachi expects to save $300m in costs with the division reformat. The restructure will reduce Hitachi …

    Storage 22 Mar 2007, 18:58

  • Dell deal made North Carolinians look like rubes

    Google ready to fool state twice

    You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately …

    Financial News 22 Mar 2007, 19:08

  • Feds mandate 'secure' Windows set-up

    One registry setting to rule them all

    Changes in US government purchasing policies due to come into effect this summer could have a huge effect on computer security, particularly for Windows desktops. A White House directive to federal chief information officers issued this week calls for all new Windows PC acquisitions, beginning 30 June, to use a common "secure …

    Enterprise Security 22 Mar 2007, 20:03

  • Judge restores Americans' right to online smut

    COPAcetic

    A US judge has sided with online publishers and other lobbyists by ruling a controversial law designed to shield children from internet porn unconstitutional. District Judge Lowell Reed has permanently blocked prosecutors from enforcing the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), saying it violates Americans' first-amendment right …

    Law 22 Mar 2007, 20:24

  • NBC and News Corp. prime YouTube, Google stuffer

    If they DRM it, will they come?

    YouTube has a fight on its hands with News Corp. and NBC today announcing plans to create a premium online video distribution site well-backed by major media players. The yet-unnamed service has initial content suppliers, MSN, Yahoo!, Time Warner/AOL and Myspace on its side of the ring, all itching for a piece of the pie …

    Music and Media 22 Mar 2007, 21:02

  • Laptops drive PC market

    Desktop growth restricted to emerging markets

    Proof that notebooks are the future comes in a new IDC forecast which predicts that laptops will surpass desktops to become the most popular type of PC by 2011. According to IDC, bulky beige boxes are out and slick, shiny new notebooks are in as far as consumers are concerned, and it's a trend that's likely to continue to grow …

    reghardware 22 Mar 2007, 21:42

  • Rackable finds a sales chief

    Handy to have

    Server and storage maker Rackable Systems has picked up a hardware veteran as its new chief of sales. The company this week announced Carl Boisvert, former CEO of bladed PC maker ClearCube, as its new EVP in charge of sales and worldwide marketing. Boisvert replaces Thomas Gallivan, who resigned with little explanation in …

    Servers 22 Mar 2007, 21:52

  • Cisco nabs 'Nipple Czar' for board post

    Ex-FCC chief Powell borged

    Cisco picked up a convenient free agent on Thursday, hiring former US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) chief Michael Powell for its board. Powell will make time for Cisco, when he can get away from current gigs as advisor to Providence Equity Partners, chairman of his eponymous MK Powell Group consulting firm and …

    Business 22 Mar 2007, 23:05

  • Cisco slugs FTC-addled McData

    Brocade confused

    Cisco Systems appears to have made the most out of FTC scrutiny surrounding the union between Brocade and McData. Data released by market analysts at Dell'Oro Group shows Cisco gaining steady ground in the storage area network switch market over the last year and sales of McData, a recent acquisition of SAN switch market leader …

    Storage 22 Mar 2007, 23:12

  • Oracle sues SAP for website espionage

    10,000 downloads and still counting

    Oracle sued SAP, alleging employees with the German firm passed themselves off as Oracle customers so they could engage in the wholesale theft of proprietary Oracle support materials. Over a five-month period starting last September, the employees allegedly gained access to Oracle's password-protected support site by using the …

    Law 22 Mar 2007, 23:18

  • Sociable geeks wanted for networking

    Join a club that wants you as a member

    Ecademy - the MySpace 'for professionals' - wants more software developers to build on its Web 2.0 platform. Coinciding with the recent launch of a bunch of new member tools and services, Ecademy's chief technical officer Julian Bond told Reg Developer that he was keen to see development 'on the edge' of the Ecademy platform …

    Business 22 Mar 2007, 23:40