23rd March 2007 Archive

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Repetitive HP grabs another Flickr clone

Tabblo's photo cubes love pricey ink

HP has revealed plans to acquire Tabblo, proving it has an almost limitless cash stockpile to spend on start-ups that let customers fiddle with their photos online. Tabblo makes it easier for people to arrange their photos in a semi-professional manner. You can create photo albums with text, craft snazzy postcards and even make …

Financial News 23 Mar 2007, 06:35
Ideas behind computer games can be copied

UK's Court of Appeal ruling

General ideas and structures behind computer games and programs can be copied as long as the source code and graphics are not, the UK's Court of Appeal has ruled. The judgment upholds an earlier High Court ruling in a case involving three computer games simulating pool. Under UK copyright law and EU Directives, the court ruled …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 07:02
Ofcom learns lessons from Biscit fallout

Analysis New migration rules get first dunk

Ofcom's new broadband migration rules have been given their first run out in the last week with the collapse and carve up of failed ISP Biscit Internet. Well-placed industry sources tell the Reg that, compared to previous collapses, stranded Biscit punters were better serviced by the industry. In future collapses, they may not …

Telecoms 23 Mar 2007, 08:02
Ten battles the PS3 must fight to win the next-gen console war

It's the games, stupid

So, it's Friday and eager gamers are already out and about trying to pick up a PlayStation 3 - particularly after last night's one-shop only midnight launch. Here in Europe, at least, Friday is the proper starting gun for the next-generation console war, since PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 will all be available to buy. Can Sony hang …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 08:02
Geek Squad rides into town

Sultans of computing?

Carphone Warehouse has moved into the home PC support market with a version of Best Buy's Geek Squad service. The Geek Squad website sports a tagline that reads "in cahoots with Carphone Warehouse". However, a CWH spokesperson was reluctant to comment on the new service and told The Reg, "officially we haven't launched yet …

Channel Register 23 Mar 2007, 08:02
Commons to eye surveillance society

ID cards still in question

Government plans for identity cards will be re-examined by MPs as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into the surveillance society due to be announced by the House of Commons Select Committee next Tuesday. The Committee has not yet published its terms of reference for the inquiry, but it will question the government's use of …

Government 23 Mar 2007, 09:11
Premium-rate phone operators will soon need a lottery licence

It's a game of chance

Premium phone line operators will need lottery licences to operate from September, according to the Gambling Commission. The changes will affect many of the competitions that have attracted criticism in recent weeks. New gambling legislation passed in 2005 but due to take effect in September of this year will clear up a …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 09:50
Pundits rate Ajax, evaluate ALM incumbents

Comment Works in progress

BEA Systems' former chief technology officer Scott Dietzen caused a minor stir at Evans Data Corp's (EDC) recent developer conference. Dietzen founded open source messaging and collaboration start up Zimbra after leaving BEA. Importantly for us, Zimbra epitomizes Web 2.0 because it utilizes AJAX and mashups. So it was that …

Developer 23 Mar 2007, 09:52
University snubs RIAA

We're not doing your work for you

The University of Nebraska has complained that the Recording Industry Ass. of America wants it do its work of tracking down file sharers. The University IT system assigns a new Internet Protocol number to a computer everytime it is switched on. But it only stores this information for a month so. Although the RIAA can track …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 10:10
PS3 hits UK

Small turnout gets hugely rewarded

You may have waited patiently at the flagship Virgin Megastore on London's Oxford to collect your pre-ordered PS3, or you may have had to wait just a few hours longer as a result of last minute changes to the launch imposed by local police force and councils, as we reported on Wednesday... but now the wait is over. Sadly, the …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 10:13
Apple TV undressed on web

Parts exposed

Want to take a peek into the Apple TV? Computer repair company TechRestore laid down the best part of 300 bucks just to take the gadget home and... well... take it to bits, exposing the machine distinctly old-style Intel processor and Nvidia graphics chip. Here's a peek inside the casing: The big white unit is the internal …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 10:38
Account pretexters plague Xbox Live

Account thieves numerous and brazen

When Kevin Finisterre got his virtual guns handed to him in an online game of Halo 2 last Thursday, he called his opponents on their none-too-subtle hacks that skewed the game in their favour and turned the battle into a rout. His opponents - who rarely died while racking up nearly 100 kills on Finisterre's team - didn't take …

Security 23 Mar 2007, 10:38
Microsoft shutters video sharing site

Copyright problems? Who'd have thought?

Microsoft has closed its video sharing website to new users while it wrestles with how to ensure material on the site obeys copyright laws. Visitors to the site this morning saw the following message: Dear Soapbox users, Thanks for helping us test the Soapbox on MSN Video beta – we've really appreciated the feedback we've …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2007, 10:53
3Com quarterly loss narrows

Consolidation helps revenue rise

3Com Corp said yesterday that its third quarter loss narrowed as revenue rose with the help of its two operating segments, SCN and Huawei-3Com. The networking hardware and software provider also confirmed that China had given its final approval on the $882m acquisition of Huawei Technologies' 49 per cent stake in H3C. The deal …

Data Networking 23 Mar 2007, 10:58
Intel EOLs mobile Core, Celeron CPUs

Prunes past-their-prime processors

Intel has scheduled a raft of mobile Core Solo, Core Duo and Celeron M processors for termination as it prepares to bring more advanced models to market in the coming months. Company documents seen by Register Hardware list the Core Solo T1300 and T1400, the low-voltage Core Duo LV L2300, and the Celeron M 410 and 420 as the …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 11:09
AMD to axe prices in April?

Market watcher forecasts cuts

AMD will cut the prices of entry-level 90nm processors on 9 April by between 30 and 35 per cent, a US investment bank has claimed. San Francisco-based Thomas Weisel Partners (TWP) recently told investors AMD's inventory levels of these chips remains high, suggesting to TWP analysts a further round of price cuts is in the …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 11:27
US company offers Wi-Fi-proof paint

Tinfoil-hat brigade rejoices

An American company says it has successfully tested wireless-blocking paint. EM-SEC Technologies, in a release last week, said its "Coating Solution", applied to a test facility, had successfully protected "wireless devices and other electronic equipment". According to the company, "a one-time application of the coating …

Enterprise Security 23 Mar 2007, 12:00
Nokia attempts to patent rotating numeric pad

Dial A for Any Angle

Nokia has filed for a US patent for a mobile phone with a rotating numeric keyboard. No, we don't mean an old-style dial lookalike, but a numeric pad that can turn round to retain the correct orientation when the handset it flipped into landscape mode. The application details what looks like a standard candybar handset. The …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 12:05
BOFH: The PFY punts for smut

Episode 11 Isn't that the only purpose of podcasts?

"We should get a server for podcasts," the Boss announces, breezing into Mission Control under the influence of a new idea. "What for?" the PFY asks. "So we can deliver podcasts and video to our staff and customers." "What podcasts?" "Podcasts about what's happening in the company." "Where are these podcasts at the moment …

BOFH 23 Mar 2007, 12:06
Sumo insurgents menace US forces in Iraq

Fox News picture shocker

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for US forces in Iraq, Fox News bring chilling pictoral evidence of a new heavyweight weapon deployed by the fun-loving insurgents of that sun-kissed land astride the Tigris: Crikey. Against this kind of attack, even the most heavily-armoured Hawaiian wrestler is pretty well …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2007, 12:10
East Midland's crook tagging shambles exposed

Dodgy kit allows offenders to go walkabout

Technology and procedural shortcomings left tagged offenders released into the community on license unmonitored for weeks, an undercover investigation by the BBC has discovered. Group Four Securicor (G4S), the firm responsible for tagging and tracking more than 1,000 people across the East Midlands, has suspended five people …

Enterprise Security 23 Mar 2007, 12:13
New criminal investigation into Ohio elections

Those voting machines, what a hoot

A criminal investigation is to be launched into the way the November 2006 elections were run in Cleveland, Ohio, according to reports. The new probe has been sparked by a report compiled by election board public monitor CSU's Candice Hoke. County Prosecutor Bill Mason read the report and said there were several "worrying" …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 12:37
Booze worse than Speed or Acid shocker

Lancet calls for drugs reclassification

Research from today's Lancet magazine suggests a better way to categorise drugs based on the harm they do to the user and to society more widely. Drugs in the UK are classified as A, B or C, and punishment, as well as treatment, varies accordingly. The researchers looked at 20 drugs and asked two separate groups of experts to …

Biology 23 Mar 2007, 12:53
War Museum to stage camouflage expo

It's just over...where'd it go?

London's Imperial War Museum (IWM) opens a major exhibition titled "Camouflage" today, which will run until November. According to curators, this will be "the first major exhibition to explore the story of the development of military camouflage and its adoption into popular culture from the First World War to the present day …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2007, 12:58
HP's Neoview appliance – think fridge

Warehouse soup to nuts in a (big) box

One of the most interesting factoids about Neoview, the data warehousing platform sort of announced by HP last year, is that it really is a "platform", a box which takes the notion of plug'n'play to new levels. It is, of course, based on the NonStop high availability O/S which now runs native on HP's Itanium-based Integrity …

Storage 23 Mar 2007, 13:37
Tinfoil bag blaggers lift women's panties

Security sensors thwarted in bold Jersey City heist

New Jersey law enforcement operatives are hot on the trail of three shoplifters who used a tinfoil-lined "booster bag" to thwart security sensors and make off with $12,000 in women's underwear, ABC News reports. The trio of two men and one woman targeted Victoria's Secret in Newport Center Mall with their high-tech device. They …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2007, 13:42
Apple TV does work with (some) SD TVs

Updated Myth shattered

Apple's Apple TV set-top box will indeed connect to a standard-definition CRT TV of the entirely old-style non-widescreen, 4:3 ratio variety, it has emerged. Apple's online forums are full of questions from would-be buyers about this, but the first categorical statement that the Apple TV does work with old TVs comes from …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 14:00
Carling Weekend festival goers get the blues

Thousands of online ticket orders cancelled

Live music giant Mean Fiddler has said it may review its relationship with ticketing system websites after a booking mix-up led to thousands of music festival orders being rejected. More than 3,000 music fans received emails confirming they had secured tickets for the Reading and Leeds Carling weekend festivals only to later …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2007, 14:17
US nuke boffins rubbish polygraph testing

Lie-detectors the biggest lie of all

Lie detectors might work in the movies, but a US congressional report says that when it comes to screening nuclear scientists, you might as well reinstitute the ducking stool. The US Congressional Research Service last month updated a report looking into the use of polygraphs or "lie detectors" in the US government. The report …

Science 23 Mar 2007, 14:26
Mother Superior: MySpace or school, your choice

We predict smaller class sizes

The principal at St Hugo of the Hills Catholic School in Bloomfield Hills has banned her students from having MySpace pages. According to reports, Sister Margaret Van Velzen has sent out an edict instructing students to take down their pages or face suspension from school. Families are expected to support the school's policy, …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2007, 14:38
Sony PlayStation 3

2007's Top Products It's arrived. Finally. Was it worth the wait?

No one could have missed the recent mass of media attention surrounding the impending UK, European and Australian launch of Sony's PlayStation 3. And after months of prolonged waiting, it has arrived. We conduct an in-depth review of this eagerly-awaited games console and discover what all the fuss was about. The newest …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 14:43
Spamhaus nemesis e360 Insight sued over junk mail

Twist of fate

e360 Insight, the Illinois-based mass mailer suing Spamhaus for calling it a spammer, is being sued in California for spamming. David Linhardt, individually, and his firm e360 Insight are among the defendants in a lawsuit brought by William Silverstein, an aggrieved spam recipient. Bargaindepot.net, a firm which shares offices …

Spam 23 Mar 2007, 14:50
PS3 in the UK: complete coverage

It's all here

Review Sony PlayStation 3 The stories PS3 hits UK Ten battles the PS3 must fight to win the next-gen console war UK cops clamp down on midnight PS3 launch Italian consumers taking PS3s home already Sony details Euro PS3 old games compatibility Folding@home comes to the PS3 Sony to bring 'PS2-less' PS3 to US, Japan? …

Reg Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 15:00
Gordon Brown's exploding balls delight Chinese zombies

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The long Gordbye Gordon Brown's final budget as Chancellor inevitably drew the most attention in the UK press this week. His last gasp income tax-slashing theatrics were matched by rises elsewhere, though extending R&D tax relief to small and medium-sized firms with up to 500 employees should cheer a few tech firms, who'll also …

Business 23 Mar 2007, 15:06
Web 2.0 firms lobby for £100m gravy train

Analysis They play - you pay

Is the Web 2.0 hype running out of steam? If so, a healthy injection of public funds should kick it back into life. New media companies in the UK are lobbying for the establishment of an institution which could spend what critics call a £100m "jackpot" of public money each year. The new agency, which Ofcom calls a "Public …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2007, 15:15
Vigilante attack sheep guard British village

Ruthless 'pack' trained and ready to kill

Anyone among you thinking of paying a visit to the Gloucestershire village of Leighterton with the intention of burgling the good burghers of that little piece of rural England might want to pick another target, The Sun suggests. That's because Leighterton is protected by 60-year-old retired farmworker Keith Clifford and his …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2007, 15:26
The SANs of Mars

Imaging the Red Planet at 2GB a time

Networked storage has proved a boon for US scientists studying high-res images of Mars, which can have file sizes in excess of 2GB. The US Geological Survey (USGS) is using a clustered storage system from Isilon IQ to store thousands of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, currently circling the Red Planet. Aboard …

Storage 23 Mar 2007, 16:17
British man in webcam 'suicide'

Chatroom users witness hanging

Police are investigating the unexplained death of a man who appeared to commit suicide in front of an audience of webcam chatroom users. Kevin Neil Whitrick, 42, from Wellington in Shropshire, was found at about 11.15pm on Wednesday by officers who went to his home following a report from a fellow chatroom user. Kevin …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 16:23
Relisys back in administration

Further details pending...

Monitor maker Relisys Digital has gone into administration for the second time in just over year. Any customer attempting to contact the firm, which supplies products including plasma screens and LCD TVs, is currently met with an answer machine message: "Please be advised that the company has gone into administration. You …

Channel Register 23 Mar 2007, 16:44
Rocket launch scares pirated nipples onto sheep

Letters RIAA plans to sewe

CD-Wow lost its battle to be allowed to import discs that were not intended for sale in the UK. A group of record labels pursued the retailer to the high court over the issue. CD-Wow was found to have infringed copyright and been in contempt of court over an earlier order. The spanking handed down by the judge (verbal or …

Letters 23 Mar 2007, 17:01
Feds claim VoIP for their own

Silicon Justice For the time being, anyway . . .

VoIP just got another leg up on traditional telecoms. A US appellate court ruled this week that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acted correctly in pulling the rug out from under state regulators in their attempts to establish rules for VoIP providers in individual state markets. This decision is bound to help VoIP …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 17:21
Mac OS X 10.5 delayed to ensure Vista compatibility?

Analysis No good reason for Apple to do so

Has Apple delayed Mac OS X 10.5 - aka Leopard - to October? That's certainly what some unnamed industry sources have claimed, suggesting the delay has been made to allow the company's coders to get the OS' Boot Camp utility compatible with Windows Vista. That claim was made today by Taiwanese newssite DigiTimes. Interestingly …

Operating Systems 23 Mar 2007, 17:26
Mitac buys Tyan

Server merger

Mitac, the Taiwanese computer hardware firm, is acquiring Tyan Computer. The company currently has a 35 per cent stake in Tyan which builds servers for the value-added reseller and system integration markets. Mitac is an OEM for the top five server brands. Billy Ho, president of Mitac, said there would be no conflict between …

Servers 23 Mar 2007, 17:28
Fancy three: the Brits get the latest PlayStation

Register Hardware The week's hottest personal technology stories

Register Hardware - it's just like The Register, only harder - brings you the hottest personal technology news and reviews every day. The gadgets that grabbed the headlines this week: PS3, Apple TV, HD DVD, and gaming chippery from Intel and AMD. Glee for PS3 Some Brits may actually at long last have got their hands on a …

Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 17:31
Ireland pounces on school fingerprinters

Issues guidance

The Irish Information Commissioner's Office has come down on the notion of school fingerprinting and taken early action to prevent the technology being deployed arbitrarily. It has told the first handful of Irish schools known to be establishing biometric systems that they ought to have a good reason for doing so and has said …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 17:45
SCA and SDO go to OASIS

OSOA spec’s now ready to be standards

Two specifications that may have some impact on rationalising the practical realities of service development and building within SOA have now reached the point where they are to go forward to OASIS, the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, as the first step towards becoming accepted standards …

Developer 23 Mar 2007, 17:46
Canadian killed by poison pills bought on the net

Anti-anxiety drugs laced with Uranium

A 57-year-old Canadian has died a month after she consumed tainted pills bought on the net. Marcia Bergeron died of poisoning after taking drugs labelled as anti-anxiety and sedative pills, bought from a site featuring fake endorsements from medical agencies. Analysis revealed that the pills were contaminated with traces of …

Crime 23 Mar 2007, 18:26
BT foxed by Chicago area code change

Cut off customers Illinoyed

A long-planned area code change for Chicago has left BT customers in the UK unable to call the southern part of the Windy City. The new code came into force on February 17, although BT said its customers have had a week of disruption since March 17. A Register reader wrote to say his attempts report his frustration had been …

Telecoms 23 Mar 2007, 18:26
Vista feature helps VXers trick surfers

Insecure by design

Microsoft's trustworthy computing initiative is five years-old but the software giant is still making bone-headed design decisions that favour usability over basic security. A good example comes from the folks at F-Secure who noticed that Vista continues to hide extensions for known file types by default, just like older …

Enterprise Security 23 Mar 2007, 18:48
Tim Berners Lee goes postal on spam

The Greatest Living Briton explodes

So there we were. In a room devoted to Engineering, the man voted the Greatest Living Briton had exploded in front of me. Sir Tim Berners Lee, co-inventor of the World Wide Web, was at Southampton University to deliver an inaugural lecture for School of Electronics and Computer Science, and promote his latest initiative. …

Telecoms 23 Mar 2007, 19:21
Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World

Book review Are you scared yet?

The World Trade Centre was still smoking when US lawmakers hastily passed the PATRIOT Act; in the UK, it wasn't much longer before Parliament enacted the comparable Anti-Terrorism, Crime, and Security Act) Objections to the PATRIOT Act are legion, and they have been well documented. Less well documented – until now – is how the …

ID 23 Mar 2007, 19:27
Postcard from QCON

An agile conference

It was interesting to compare this QCon conference with Microsoft's Architect Insight conference. Without denigrating an interesting Microsoft conference, QCon ran longer and had a wider scope (it wasn't just for architects; neither for just one platform) and a more mature architectural content (the people responsible for …

Developer 23 Mar 2007, 20:07
Appliances not the enemy

The `fridge’ won’t take your job

When HP CTO Russ Daniels blithely talks about the Neoview data warehouse appliance being the size of a big fridge not toaster it is easy to miss the point in the dismissive quip. In essence, what he is talking about is some fiercesomely complex data management software being shipped in on a pallet and dumped in an appropriate …

Developer 23 Mar 2007, 20:16
All hail the Java-based x86 emulator

Secure and flexible

Researchers at Oxford have built an x86 emulator that runs purely on Java, making it ideal for security researchers who want to analyze and archive viruses, host honeypots and defend themselves against buggy or malicious software without hosing their machines. The JPC also emulates a host of other environments, giving …

Security 23 Mar 2007, 20:54
Only you can prevent airline battery fires

US Department of Transportation: battery safety is fun!

The U.S. Department of Transportation continues its war against laptop battery terror in the skies, warning passengers to take precautions while flying with a laptop or cell phone. Any suspicious lithium-ion battery behavior should be reported. A safety advisory released Thursday was prompted by recent on-board fires ignited …

Hardware 23 Mar 2007, 21:23
SAP disses Oracle grand scale theft claims

See you in court

SAP today hit back at a lawsuit filed Thursday by rival Oracle alleging SAP employees stole proprietary Oracle support material online by posing as Oracle customers. The German software giant is not taking calls, but is waving this statement in the air: "SAP will not comment other than to make it clear to our customers, …

Law 23 Mar 2007, 22:58