The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

3rd April 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • EC goes Apple hunting – reports

    One Union under iTunes

    Not afraid of a challenge, the European Commission has decided to take on Apple and the major record labels at the same time. According to reports, the EC spent the last week mailing out a handful of Statement of Objections to Apple and four as-yet-unnamed record companies. The letters document EC concerns over Apple's …

    Music and Media 3 Apr 2007, 00:16

  • Supreme Court rules on EPA's bad case of gas

    Massachusetts to become Waterworld

    Hippies have successfully harshed the US government's mellow by telling the Feds to get to work. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision today in Massachusetts v EPA rules the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to issue regulations aimed at reducing global climate change. The EPA was unsuccessful convincing the court such …

    Biology 3 Apr 2007, 01:33

  • Sun to fry NetApp with FISH

    Smells like NAS, dude

    Sun Microsystems has a near-term NetApp assault in store code-named 'FISHworks.' The FISH stands for “Fully Integrated Software and Hardware” and comes from work done by some of Sun's top software engineers over the past year. The first run of the technology will see Sun bundle Solaris, the ZFS file system, DTrace and a …

    Storage 3 Apr 2007, 02:05

  • New vulnerability strikes heart of Web 2.0

    More worries for the beta software fraternity

    Whatever you think of "Web 2.0" (it's really not mandatory to release everything in permanent beta) you probably thought that this generic approach to mashups, Ajax and all that good stuff didn't change the usual coding "good practice" rules much. Well, Brian Chess of Fortify Software says you're wrong. Although Web 2.0 style …

    Developer 3 Apr 2007, 06:02

  • Virgin TV launches Freeview box

    Sign of things to come, apparently

    Virgin Media has announced Virgin Free TV - basically a Freeview set-top box with a Virgin sticker on the front and a Virgin-branded electronic programme guide (EPG) inside. The box will be free to customers who get broadband and telephone services from Virgin, but live outside the cable coverage area. The reach of cable has …

    Music and Media 3 Apr 2007, 06:02

  • iPod case features replaceable clickwheel covers

    Accessory specialist Gear4's latest offering, this time for the second-gen iPod Nano, is the IceBox Rap. Daft name, perhaps, but the case has a novel feature: the clickwheel cover's replaceable so you can customise the look. The IceBox Rap is a clear, hard plastic case with a lanyard and attachment. Gear4's filled the …

    Reg Hardware 3 Apr 2007, 07:53

  • Transcend touts ExpressCard Flash disk

    Use for next-gen PCMCIA slot found at last

    Want to do something useful with that unused ExpressCard 34 slot sitting there in your laptop? How about turning it into a Flash-based solid-state disk? Enter Transcend's 16GB ExpressCard SSD, also available in 2, 4 and 8GB capacities. Slot it in, mount the drive and you're away. Unlike a USB 2.0 add-on, this is a drive you …

    Reg Hardware 3 Apr 2007, 08:33

  • NHS delivers on X-ray specs

    Reaches computer milestone

    Connecting for Health has chalked up a success in the roll-out of its £12.5bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Every hospital in London and the South areas of NPfIT has installed the Picture Archive and Communications System (PACS) made available under the programme. Connecting for Health (CfH) pushed the boat out to explain …

    Public Sector 3 Apr 2007, 09:01

  • BestTreatments.co.uk goes private

    Now charging for access to medical info

    The website recommended by nhs.uk is no longer free at point of delivery. BestTreatments, a website for patients linked to extensively by the NHS's core site, has imposed charges following the end of government funding. BestTreatments.co.uk, which is run by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), is charging users £14.99 plus VAT …

    Public Sector 3 Apr 2007, 09:16

  • iPod owners want radio in next player - survey

    More important than screen, size, capacity

    Size, it seems, no longer matters. Or rather it doesn't matter as much as a built-in radio. Yes, we're talking what consumers want from future iPods - at least what rock-centric radio station listeners demand, according to a new poll. US consultancy Jacobs Media placed polls on 69 radio stations' websites last month. Some 25, …

    Reg Hardware 3 Apr 2007, 09:16

  • Bill Gates's Corbis loses battle for corbis.net

    Fails to demonstrate bad faith

    Stock photography company Corbis has lost its battle to gain control of the domain corbis.net. The company's claims that the small web design firm that owns the name registered it in bad faith were rejected. The case was heard by a panellist of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which rules on domain name disputes. …

    Law 3 Apr 2007, 09:33

  • Griffin Elevator laptop lift

    Review Put your notebook screen on the right level

    Griffin calls the Elevator a "space-saving laptop stand". I'm not sure about "space-saving", but it's unquestionably something you might very well want to sit your notebook on, particularly if your neck's giving you grief. The elevator comprises a pair of U-shaped angular metal bars and a clear plastic base into which both …

    Reg Hardware 3 Apr 2007, 10:02

  • US to consider evoting reform

    Are you paying attention, Mr Blair?

    US Senator Bill Nelson met yesterday with election supervisors to discuss his new election reform bill, the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" and look for funding for his plan. Also known as HR 811, the Act is an amendment to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, and proposes that a voter-verified ballot paper should …

    Government 3 Apr 2007, 10:06

  • Aaardman signs three year deal with Sony

    Fully recovered from Dreamworks split

    Aaardman Features has signed a three year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment which will bring together "Aardman's unique and hugely successful animation expertise and SPE's global production, marketing and distribution operation", the company has announced. The new relationship comes in the wake of Aardman's January divorce …

    Entertainment 3 Apr 2007, 10:08

  • Intelligent machines expert heads for the hills

    Utopia in the Highlands?

    A senior lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems is conducting an experiment to see how, and if, humanity will survive once the oil runs out. Dr Dylan Evans, formerly at the University of the West of England, is heading to the Highlands of Scotland for his Utopia project, where he will build a self-sufficient community …

    Science 3 Apr 2007, 10:12

  • McKinnon loses fight against extradition

    Updated Faces US trial on Pentagon hack allegations

    Gary McKinnon, the alleged Pentagon hacker, has lost his appeal against extradition to the US on hacking charges. McKinnon, 41, failed to convince Appeal Court judges on Tuesday to overturn a 2006 ruling by Home Secretary John Reid that his extradition should go ahead. The Scot now faces a US trial of breaking into and …

    Enterprise Security 3 Apr 2007, 10:36

  • French claim fastest train title

    TGV hits 574.8km/h

    The French today claimed the world's fastest "train on rails" title by accelerating a modified TGV to a white-knuckle 574.8km/h (356mph), the BBC reports. The previous record of 515km/h (320mph) was set in 1990, although a Japanese Maglev managed to reach a cool 581km/h (361mph) back in 2003. The high-speed dash was made at …

    Science 3 Apr 2007, 10:55

  • Plusnet servers stuffed by spam

    Hiccups ahead of email migration

    Plusnet's servers are spluttering again, with many of the BT-owned ISP's subscribers unable to access their email since yesterday morning. The whole system had to be taken down for about an hour on Monday after "a couple of hundred" mail accounts with particularly large inboxes were putting too much strain on it. Plusnet …

    Telecoms 3 Apr 2007, 11:26

  • US Navy ponders robot carrier planes

    Maverick and Goose for the breadline

    The killer-robot takeover in the American military continues to gather pace with news over the weekend that the US Navy has received concrete proposals for unmanned carrier planes. This story isn't an April Fool; the billion-dollar Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) competition has been brewing for some time. But …

    Science 3 Apr 2007, 11:42

  • Google primes DoubleClick bum rush

    $2.6bn Microsoft spoiler

    Google is preparing a spoiler to slap down Microsoft's bid to acquire online advertising broker DoubleClick, according to reports. Tuesday's Wall Street Journal cites the trusty "people familiar with" the sell-off talks, and links Google with a $2bn-plus swoop on the private equity-owned outfit. Google has been competing with …

    Financial News 3 Apr 2007, 12:23

  • China reveals nuclear lunar rover

    Heading for the moon in 2012

    China is planning to send a nuclear powered rover to the moon in 2012 on its first unmanned mission to our natural satellite. Several technology institutes across the country are competing to develop the vehicle, although there is no word on when the official selection will be made. In what seems to be a bid to get the edge on …

    Space 3 Apr 2007, 12:34

  • Make your own mobile network

    US start-up offers MVNO DIY

    Ever dreamed of setting up your own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)? US start-up Sonopia is offering just that. The company says it takes just 10 minutes to set up your own MVNO, and you receive about five per cent of the revenue your customers generate. MVNOs set up through Sonopia are carried on Verizon's network, and …

    Mobile 3 Apr 2007, 13:05

  • Serenity beats Star Wars in sci-fi movie poll

    Aiming to misbehave

    Serenity has outstripped Star Wars as the best sci-fi movie of all time in a poll of 3,000 fans by SFX magazine. The 2005 movie spin-off of acclaimed but cancelled series Firefly picked up 61 per cent of the vote, relegating George Lucas's magnum opus to second place (with 28 per cent of votes). Blade Runner picked up third …

    Entertainment 3 Apr 2007, 13:07

  • Computacenter reels in Allnet

    Immaterial benefit

    Box shifting behemoth Computacenter PLC has acquired Allnet Ltd, the in-premises cabling division of Cable and Wireless. Computacenter said the acquisition would have no "financial impact" on the firm's turnover, but instead it is hoped the buy-out will lead to steady business growth in converged IP-based networks. Allnet, …

    Channel Register 3 Apr 2007, 13:29

  • Free music has never looked so cheap

    Analysis DRM's gone. Now the problems begin...

    For the major record labels, yesterday's deal between EMI and Apple doesn't herald a new beginning, but the beginning of the end. From next month, EMI will distribute much of its repertoire without DRM through Apple's iTunes store. Independent labels have been distributing DRM-free songs for three years, avoiding the lock-ins …

    Music and Media 3 Apr 2007, 13:39

  • Sony US cuts PSP Core Pack price

    15 per cent off

    Sony has formally announced its plan to knock $30 off the price of the basic PlayStation Portable package in the US. The PSP Core Pack will now retail for $170. Sony said it had been able to "engineer savings for the consumer at this stage of PSP's lifecycle", but the now cheaper-to-make handheld games console hasn't resulted …

    Reg Hardware 3 Apr 2007, 14:06

  • Robot Cop ends tense Massachusetts siege

    Motorised go-kart plod saves the day

    The long-anticipated robot police are in action at last. Old-fashioned fleshy cops in Hingham, Massachusetts, were forced to call in mechanised assistance on Saturday as a tense siege situation spiralled out of control. "A five-hour standoff between police and a 23-year-old Hingham man barricaded inside an apartment ended... …

    Crime 3 Apr 2007, 14:26

  • EU needles Apple, EMI

    Banging the DRM

    A day can be like a lifetime in politics and perhaps the same adage can also be extended to the man with a penchant for black roll-neck sweaters, Apple boss Steve Jobs. In the space of 24 hours Apple has gone from announcing an all-singing, all-dancing DRM-free deal with EMI, to facing the possibility of being slapped by EU …

    Financial News 3 Apr 2007, 14:52

  • Magnet supports give way at LHC

    Ian McKellen has an alibi

    A routine test of the almost-complete Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN ended in near disaster last week when the structure supporting the particle accelerator's key magnets failed. The so-called magnet assembly was made by FermiLab, the US department of energy's particle accelerator lab and chief rival to CERN in the hunt …

    Physics 3 Apr 2007, 15:04

  • Microsoft hits Middle East pirates

    Student copies mis-sold

    Microsoft is taking legal action against several companies it accuses of selling academic copies of Office to ordinary punters. Schools and colleges can get cut-price software from Microsoft, but Microsoft says some resellers, in Jordan and elsewhere, have been selling the software on to companies and consumers in the US. …

    Channel Register 3 Apr 2007, 15:10

  • Giant pirate dumps cartoon lover on MySpace

    Letters Be afraid

    We recently went to a party thrown by a typography firm. It was great, there was a limitless supply of barbecued beef and everything, so we won't hear a word against the industry. We were therefore very upset to learn that small businesses are harbouring pirated fonts, we even cried hot, inky tears. You were less sympathetic …

    Letters 3 Apr 2007, 15:22

  • JavaScript hijacking - a new exploit, or not?

    Have you heard it all before?

    I've had an email comment on my JavaScript Hijacking piece to the effect that everyone knows that you do your input validation on the server and that data you send down in JavaScript or in HTML is unsafe - so this really isn't a new exploit. Well, that first part is true enough, but I disagree with the second. However, Brian …

    Developer 3 Apr 2007, 15:24

  • Xerox makes $1.5bn document management buy

    Inking into the channel

    Printing and copying giant Xerox has announced its intention to run off 1.5 billion crisp dollar bills to buy document management firm Global Imaging Systems (GIS). The deal is expected to close in mid-May and values GIS at $29 per share. Xerox is aiming to use GIS' 4,500-strong workforce to double its small business …

    Small Biz 3 Apr 2007, 15:25

  • Expansys set to float

    Updated: Share sale ahoy

    Gadget website Expansys is gearing up to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The company aims to raise £25m by selling shares on the London exchange. Some £10m of this will fund further expansion, the the Manchester Evening News reports. The Manchester based company, founded in 1999, said it had talked to …

    Channel Register 3 Apr 2007, 15:36

  • HP ProCurve recruits allies for war on Cisco

    RebelProCurve Alliance promises interoperability testing and joint promos

    HP ProCurve has announced an alliance scheme to take on Cisco, and signed up its first four allies, namely Mitel, AirWave Wireless, DVTel and ShoreTel. The companies will work together to test and promote each others' gear, said ProCurve's EMEA solutions boss Gejs Zantvoort. He said that while it's not joint sales, it will …

    Data Networking 3 Apr 2007, 15:57

  • Homeland Security grabs for net's master keys

    All your DNS lookups are belong to US

    The US Department of Homeland Security is pushing to get hold of the master keys for a proposed revision of the internet's domain name system. The shortcomings of the present DNS have been known for years but difficulties in devising a system that offers backward compatability while scaling to millions of nodes on the net …

    Enterprise Security 3 Apr 2007, 16:03

  • Renting elastic servers

    Strange name, interesting idea

    So, it seems that the early adopters of the move towards rentable hosted services are not the bleeding edge, state-of-the-art businesses that the likes of Sun Microsystems had hoped to target with its Grid computing service. Instead, it has been applications developers that have latched on to the technology, particularly as a …

    Servers 3 Apr 2007, 17:18

  • Trash-talking Texas sues RadioShack

    'Exposed victims to dumpster-diving' ID thieves

    RadioShack is being sued in Texas for allegedly exposing its customers to ID theft. The lawsuit follows allegations that it carelessly discarded sensitive records outside one of its stores. The electronics retailer allegedly tossed papers containing customers' addresses, credit-card numbers, social security numbers and other …

    Channel Register 3 Apr 2007, 17:22

  • Slammed by the WTO, slammed at home

    Analysis Is Gonzo moralism at the DOJ on the way out at last?

    As Alberto Gonzalez, loyal Bushie par excellence, stares up at his own sword of Damocles, his record of mediocrity has sharpened into focus. Memos advocating what the civilized peoples of the world consider torture, a misplaced priority on public morals prosecutions at home, suspension of habeas corpus rights, FBI investigations …

    Law 3 Apr 2007, 18:03

  • Informatica wins $25m, maybe more, from Business Objects

    Will judge give 'willful' BO a triple-kicking?

    Business Objects may have to shell out at least $25m to data integration specialist Informatica, after losing a long-running patent infringement battle. A San Francisco, California, federal jury found Business Objects' Data Integrator product "willfully" infringed two Informatica patents, and awarded Informatica $25m. The " …

    Law 3 Apr 2007, 18:24

  • XenSource caters to Windows 2000 laggards

    Fresh release for aging OS

    Like a titanium-wired bra, XenSource has become more supportive. The software maker this week patted itself on the back for releasing Version 3.2 of XenEnterprise. The software adds support for Windows 2000 guests. So, stragglers can now run the OS alongside the already supported Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Users of …

    Servers 3 Apr 2007, 18:35

  • Imagine, it's Cup time

    Go to Hull, and win (again)

    Here’s a question, what do they put in the water in Hull that makes the students there keep winning the UK heat of Microsoft’s annual Imagine Cup? Last year it was Team Three Pair from Hull University that took the honours, and this year – the fifth outing for the global competition – it was a team called The Seedlings that …

    Developer 3 Apr 2007, 19:10

  • Windows Vista license change tackles virtualization

    Thin client, not so fat wallet

    Microsoft has updated Windows Vista licensing for centralized and thin-client computing, as virtualization offers users a chance to cut their software and hardware costs. Customers using Windows Vista Enterprise Edition, and paying through Microsoft’s Software Assurance (SA) maintenance program, now have two new license options …

    Operating Systems 3 Apr 2007, 20:18

  • Napster purrs over Q4 sales

    More downloads tethered than expected

    Napster has warmed the hearts of investors by upping its fourth quarter revenue forecast. The song renter sees Q4 sales reaching $28m – a $2m hike over a previous forecast dished out in February. Those looking for any profit guidance were disappointed as Napster remained tight-lipped on that front. It reported a $10m loss in …

    Financial News 3 Apr 2007, 20:19

  • Data Domain readies de-duping IPO

    Rival Quantum hopes to cash in

    Storage start-up Data Domain filed a registration statement with the SEC for an initial public offering late Friday. Data Domain listed a proposed maximum offering of $100m but has not revealed a target share price or share number. It will seek a Nasdaq listing under the ticker DDUP. The company has found a niche in the …

    Storage 3 Apr 2007, 21:40

  • Marvell gets [SIC] on Sun's NIC

    Licensee located on Neptune

    Sun Microsystems's new chip unit has wasted no time picking up a customer. The company today revealed that Marvell will craft a set of products built around one of Sun's networking chip designs. The Sun product in question is the infamous [SIC] NIC – aka the the Sun x8 Express Dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber XFP Low Profile – …

    Data Networking 3 Apr 2007, 23:01

  • Cisco инвестирует в России

    Opens wallet for Russia's Amazon.com

    Cisco announced today the launch of a venture capital initiative aimed at Russia's burgeoning tech industry. The first to grab Cisco's rubles is e-tailer Ozon.ru, Russia's largest online retailer. The site is the most highly-trafficked Russian-language online store, specializing in books, music, movies and electronics. Cisco …

    Data Networking 3 Apr 2007, 23:04