The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

16th April 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Users fawn over Ubuntu's feisty Linux release

    VMware plugged

    Always colorful with its names, Canonical has birthed the server, desktop and education versions of its "Feisty Fawn" Ubuntu Linux. In its blasé form, the new version of Linux ships on April 19 as Ubuntu 7.04 Server Edition, Desktop Edition and Edubuntu. The OS falls under Canonical's short-term, 18-month maintenance program …

    Servers 16 Apr 2007, 04:02

  • Intel to build WiMAX into laptops in 2008

    IDF 'Montevina' Centrino details revealed

    Intel has spilled the beans on 'Montevina', the next-but-one generation of its Centrino mobile platform, due to appear during H1 2008, a year on from 'Santa Rosa', the Centrino update coming next month. Montevina will centre on a 45nm version of the mobile Core 2 Duo chip, based on Intel's 'Penryn' microarchitecture. It will …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 04:56

  • Intel to take on Quad FX with 3GHz gaming CPU

    IDF Quick update for Core 2 Extreme line

    Intel's gaming-oriented four-core Core 2 Extreme QX6800 was expected to appear in Q3 but launched last week. So what will happen in Q3? The chip giant will release a faster version, the QX6850, according to motherboard-maker moles. That, at least, is what they've told Chinese-language site HKEPC. They claim the QX6850 will …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 05:32

  • Intel targets '09 for Geneseo

    IDF Acceleration: The long road

    Intel has flagged late 2009 for the likely delivery of its revamped take on PCI Express code-named Geneseo. Geneseo, originated by Intel and IBM, basically consists of extensions to the popular PCI Express technology or more specifically to PCI Express 2.0 due out this year. Vendors backing Geneseo, including Nvidia, QLogic, …

    Servers 16 Apr 2007, 05:35

  • Intel to evolve 'Bearlake' with 'Eaglelake'

    IDF Tweaks rather than radical changes

    Even as Intel's 'Bearlake' chipsets - to ship as the P35, G35, X38 and so on - near release, details have emerged of their successors, codenamed 'Eaglelake' and targeting the chip giant's 45nm dual- and quad-core desktop CPUs. According to leaked presentation slides, the chipsets' specifications are a small step forward from …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 05:39

  • iRiver slims second-gen Clix

    iRiver's Clix 2 super-skinny digital media player - it's just 1.3cm thick in the middle, and even less at the edges - has come to the UK. The player sports a 2.2in, 320 x 240 OLED screen mounted on top of the control switches, so pushing the display itself triggers actions. The Clix 2 provides all the media playback …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 05:40

  • Intel restyles laptop as wireless fashion accessory

    IDF Cable-less connectivity, charging

    Say hello to Intel's latest portable PC concept: the "metro notebook", an ultra-thin, ultra-light laptop for the ladies. Designed to be carried over the shoulder, the sub-0.7in thick, 1kg device sports an always-on secondary display for fast info updates. The Core 2 Duo-based machine's small screen is a colour non-volatile …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 06:27

  • Intel confirms gaming Core 2 chip for notebooks

    IDF Clock not locked

    Intel will ship a clock-unlocked gamer-friendly Core 2 Duo mobile processor in the second-half of the year, the company has revealed. Next month's new Core 2 Duos will auto-overclock, it added. But while Quad-core laptop CPUs are coming too, Intel didn't say when. The overclockable Core 2 Duo is the anticipated Core 2 Extreme …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 06:46

  • Ofcom chief on phone rip-offs, Virgin, and Web 2.0

    Interview Here's the evidence

    Luke Gibbs, co-founder of the Ofcomwatch blog, conducted an in-depth interview with Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards last month. You can read the full interview here. Do you think people are clear what they pay when they make phone calls in the UK? Well, not always and that's why we have made and are continuing to make …

    Networks 16 Apr 2007, 07:02

  • FastScale weans admins off golden images with speed

    Pops out little bundles

    This will be hard to believe. Another software company has the cure-all for installing software across a large number of servers. FastScale Technology has come gushing out of stealth mode with its Composer Suite software. The code promises to make installing applications across hundreds or even thousands of servers a real …

    Servers 16 Apr 2007, 07:21

  • Intel expects rapid 'Santa Rosa' ramp

    IDF Next-gen Centrino to sell big, fast, chip maker forecasts

    Almost 90 per cent of all the Centrino-branded laptops sold in Q4 will be based on the latest version of Intel's mobile platform, 'Santa Rosa', the chip giant believes. Santa Rosa debuts next month, though while some laptop manufacturers will announce models at that time, the big push will come two months later, Intel's …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 07:58

  • Asbo-breach octogenarian facing jail

    Made neighbours' life 'absolute hell', court hears

    An 81-year-old woman has been told she faces jail for harassing her neighbours and breaching the conditions of her Asbo, the BBC reports. Dorothy Evans, of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, will appear for sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court after being found guilty of a sustained campaign against next door neighbours Angela and …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 08:46

  • Oz teen copyright vigilante dupes YouTube

    ABC clips pulled following letter from 'employee'

    A 15-year-old Perth teenager persuaded YouTube to pull hundreds of clips by masquerading as an employee of state broadcasting outfit the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Reuters reports. The lad wrote a letter to Google's amateur video tentacle saying he represented ABC and would it mind removing clips of "popular …

    Law 16 Apr 2007, 08:47

  • Five Samsung i600 phones to be won

    Register Hardware daily draw Last chance to win with Register Hardware

    You can find out what we thought about Samsung's 3G-connected, Windows Mobile 5-based smart phone, the i600, by reading our review here. And now we've got five of these bad boys to give away... one every day this week. The i600's impressive feature set includes 3G (Third Generation) connectivity; 1.8MB high-speed downlink …

    Phones 16 Apr 2007, 08:53

  • Officer jailed for leaking police records to violent criminal

    Sentence increased to nine months on appeal

    A police officer who improperly accessed a police database and passed individuals' personal details on to a man with a violent criminal record has had his jail term increased to nine months. James Andrew Hardy was previously found guilty of misfeasance in a public office for improperly accessing the police database and was not …

    Law 16 Apr 2007, 09:11

  • When Flex met Apex

    Adobe and Salesforce.com announce Flex tool for Apex platform

    Following hard on heels of last week's move into content management, Salesforce.com has joined forces with Adobe to offer a Flex Tool kit for its Apex development platform. Launched today at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, the two vendors say the new toolkit enables developers to build so-called ‘rich Internet’ applications …

    Developer 16 Apr 2007, 09:19

  • Mobile phone threat to honeybees

    Radiation link to Colony Collapse Disorder?

    Experts have identified a possible contributory cause of the unexplained and drastic decline in honeybee numbers - mobile phone radiation. Beekeepers worldwide have reported increasing incidents of "Colony Collapse Disorder", a phenomenon normally evident between late summer and early spring as older bees die, "leaving behind …

    Science 16 Apr 2007, 09:22

  • UCD gears up for robot rugby

    Lego bots prepare for the scrum

    Faster, higher, more intuitive. It's not quite the Olympics, but the third annual Siemens Roborugby tournament promises a fresh approach to engineers' education. Held at University College Dublin (UCD), teams of students design robots to try and claim top honours and the table-top contest aims to show a practical and fun side …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 09:23

  • Human error to blame for demise of Mars orbiter

    So says NASA's report

    Human error was the most likely cause of the loss of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. That is the conclusion of NASA's preliminary investigation into the disappearance of the craft, which lapsed into radio silence late in 2006. The final communication with the craft was in November 2006, when mission managers …

    Science 16 Apr 2007, 09:42

  • Nokia's Qualcomm patent licence expires

    Still to agree on replacement deal

    A patent licensing agreement between Nokia and Qualcomm has expired without being renewed. The agreement is the subject of legal action in the US and Europe. The disputes centre on patents held by Qualcomm for technology used in chips in mobile devices such as telephones. Nokia has for some years paid a licensing fee to …

    Law 16 Apr 2007, 10:12

  • Belkin 802.11n hub to link up USB add-ons remotely

    Sync your iPod, connect storage wirelessly

    Belkin plans to make it even easier to access ordinary add-ons like iPods, printers, memory card readers, Flash keys and disk drives over wireless networks. This summer, it will release its Network USB Hub, a five-port box with an 802.11n connection. The low-rise black unit packs in two front-mounted USB 2.0 ports with the …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 10:20

  • UK kids' table manners a national disgrace

    Shock decline in standards threatens society

    It's official: the UK's children are ill-mannered and ill-disciplined brats with a shocking disregard for proper table manners, The Telegraph reports. According to a Pizza Express poll published today, which asked 1,140 people how kids should conduct themselves, "the notion of good table manners has changed". Although 80 per …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 10:22

  • Missing the PowerPoint of public speaking

    Column Sliding into submission

    The oxymoron "interesting PowerPoint presentation" was offered as a small witticism a few months back. I thought it was good, and shared it with a friend, who reacted angrily: "Blame the workman, not the tools," he said. Frankly, (I told him) I disagree. Powerpoint inherently ruins a presentation in 95 per cent of cases. We' …

    Small Biz 16 Apr 2007, 10:34

  • PNY pre-announces Nvidia GeForce 8600

    Launch tomorrow, apparently

    Graphics card maker PNY has confirmed that Nvidia is about to launch the GeForce 8600 GT graphics chip, pledging today to ship a card based on the not-yet-official GPU tomorrow. PNY's board, dubbed the 8600GTS, packs on 256MB of GDDR 3 memory. The company didn't provde any other details about the product, which it will be …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 10:37

  • Is the relational database now a commodity?

    Reg Reader Workshop Your thoughts on the past and present

    For those of us who were around in the industry during the mid to late 80s, it is interesting to think back to a time when vendors of relational database management systems (RDBMS) were struggling to be taken seriously. The line up then was DB2, Ingres, Informix, Oracle and Sybase, and back in those days RDBMS specialists …

    Business 16 Apr 2007, 10:46

  • Neuromancing the law

    Column Regulating the techno-regulators

    According to the Information Commissioner we are now waking up to find ourselves in a surveillance society. But what is a surveillance society? We can all see the cameras, so now everyone's chattering about CCTV. But what about the vast array of other technologies being sewn into the fabric of society? Who is controlling them …

    Policy 16 Apr 2007, 10:55

  • Ravenous LogLogic ready to eat all your data

    'Let us at it'

    Congratulations go out to LogLogic for continuing to put as exciting a spin as possible on one of an administrator's most mundane tasks – log management. The start-up has shipped a new version of its flagship software that should provide customers with more centralized control over their logs, while also giving them fresh ways …

    Servers 16 Apr 2007, 11:02

  • Notes on Vista forensics

    Part two: Digesting the differences

    In part one of this series we looked at the different editions of Vista available and discussed the various encryption and backup features which might be of interest to forensic examiners. In this article we will look at the user and system features of Vista which may (or may not) present new challenges for investigators and …

    Security 16 Apr 2007, 11:12

  • Grange Hill TV firm's website exposes CV details

    Flippin' 'eck Tucker!!!

    Lime Pictures, the television production company behind teen dramas Hollyoaks and Grange Hill is currently displaying a prospective employee's personal details on its website. A Reg reader spotted the error last Friday while browsing the job section of the Lime Pictures website after he clicked on a link that should have opened …

    Management 16 Apr 2007, 12:14

  • Go green with a double-glazing mortgage, say Lib Dems

    Carbon cutting proposals unveiled

    The Liberal Democrats have outlined their plans for so called energy mortgages: special loans for home owners that would help pay for improvements to make their homes more energy efficient. Under the scheme, the loans would be tied to the house, so any subsequent owner would take over the repayments with the house purchase. The …

    Policy 16 Apr 2007, 12:15

  • Adobe talks up next media player

    And Microsoft does the same

    Adobe says the next version of its media player will allow users to watch video stored on their machines as well as that streamed online. Sites such as YouTube use Adobe's Flash technology to stream video. But the Adobe Media Player will let you watch videos offline as well. It promises better quality playback and a …

    Applications 16 Apr 2007, 12:17

  • Evesham plugs NetApp into storage gaps

    Claims cost savings

    Channel reseller Evesham has hopped on board NetApp's partner program in a bid to fill holes in its storage offering. The distributor is claiming big cost savings on NetApp network attached storage kit for its customers. NetApp channel sales manager Pete Rawden said: "NetApp's Partner Program is vital to our growth and …

    The Channel 16 Apr 2007, 12:18

  • Broadband Britain risks life in slow lane - report

    'Buck up, Ofcom'

    A year long study into Britain's broadband has warned that the country risks falling behind the rest of the world. The UK is currently in the top tier for broadband reach and access, but this happy situation may not last. The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), in a major report, says Ofcom has two years to stimulate investment …

    Broadband 16 Apr 2007, 12:24

  • Zombies infiltrate US military networks

    Behind the lines

    Security researchers have traced spam-sending botnet clients back to networks run by the US military. Support Intelligence, the firm whose research on honeynets revealed that the networks of at least 28 Fortune 1000 companies contained malware-infected spam-spewing PCs, has found evidence of bots running behind military …

    Security 16 Apr 2007, 12:26

  • Self-combusting toilets menace Japan

    RoTM Lizard Alliance fires up electric bidet accessory

    We're not sure if "Japan's leading toilet manufacturer" Toto builds city centre cyberloos for the UK market, but its domestic products have evidently fallen under the control of the Lizard Alliance. According to the BBC, the company is offering free repairs to no less than 180,000 Z-series bogs after some of them spontaneously …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 12:27

  • From on-premises to on-demand

    Quocirca's changing channels Pinning down the impact of hosted apps

    It can be hard to gauge the true take up of on-demand application services, an alternative way to take delivery of business applications whereby they are accessed online rather than installed and managed on-premises. One reason for this is that research into what businesses are doing in any area tends to seek black and white …

    Applications 16 Apr 2007, 12:44

  • Savastore becomes, er, Saverstore

    Second coming...

    UK-based Savastore.com has quietly re-opened its doors with a slightly different blink-and-you'll-miss-it name of Saverstore.com. Watford Electronics, which ran Savastore.com, was acquired by Globally Ltd in February this year, at which point the website closed down with a message promising customers that service would be …

    The Channel 16 Apr 2007, 13:07

  • Short measures cost UK boozers £481m

    The annual cost of the sub-pint pint

    The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) today released sobering figures showing that a quarter of all pints served in the UK contain less than 95 per cent of a full measure - at an estimated annual cost of £481m to punters. The campaigning organisation's "The Full Pints" survey used figures from a sample group of 25 local authorities …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 13:27

  • Aperture brings back capacity planning

    Hard numbers to help IT plan for the future

    Data centre managers can now forecast not only their future need for power, space, and cooling, but what effect hardware swaps and changes will have, claimed Aperture Technologies as it added a capacity planning app to its Vista infrastructure management suite. "Our software manages the physical infrastructure of the data …

    Servers 16 Apr 2007, 14:02

  • Boltblue exits broadband for ringtone market

    Bolts come off ISP business

    Shrinking ISP Boltblue has told its remaining customers it will hightail out of broadband to concentrate on selling ringtones and other "mobile entertainment products". As of 31 May, the remaining 1,000 Boltblue broadband punters will be forced to look elsewhere for intenet access in a market where choice is an increasingly …

    Networks 16 Apr 2007, 14:19

  • Skype IM malware smut surfaces

    Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more

    Skype's Instant messaging client has once again been misused as a vector to spread malware. The Pykse-A worm is spreading via Skype instant messages, posing as a chat message linking to a website featuring racy picture of a young, scantily-clad woman. Clicking on these messages does display pics of a model wearing black …

    Security 16 Apr 2007, 14:52

  • EMI and Warner tout camera phone software

    But who got there first?

    EMI Music and Atlantic Records UK (a division of Warner Music) have teamed up with mobile content provider ShoZu, in separate deals, to enable some artists to instantly upload live video footage and photographs from their phones onto social networking websites. In the Atlantic corner, bands including the likes of Hard-Fi and …

    Media 16 Apr 2007, 14:59

  • Hormonally challenged teens refrain from abstinence

    Billion-dollar sex education a total waste of time

    Teenagers will not refrain from having sex, even if you spend a billion dollars trying to persuade them to keep their trousers zipped and chastity belts locked. This is the conclusion from a six year study by Mathematica Policy Research into the sexual behaviour of more than 2,000 teenagers across four states, and a variety of …

    Science 16 Apr 2007, 15:01

  • 500 dead in Hungarian motorway lapine bloodbath

    Thousands involved in high-speed accident

    Motorists travelling on the Hungarian M1 motorway between Budapest and Vienna have been diverted onto alternative routes after a high-speed crash claimed the lives of 500 rabbits, The Telegraph reports. The tragedy occurred when a lorry carrying thousands of rabbits in plastic crates overturned at high speed. The survivors of …

    Bootnotes 16 Apr 2007, 15:02

  • Evesham plugs 26in LCD HDTV into Alqemi range

    Evesham is continuing to advance its popular range of High Definition TVs with the addition of a new 26in LCD to its existing Alqemi selection. It comes with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 and is ready for 720p HD video. Evesham claims it has a response time of 8 mili-seconds, which should ease image smearing, or ‘ …

    Hardware 16 Apr 2007, 15:13

  • Vonage admits it can't avoid Verizon patents

    US VoIP providers hold collective breath

    Vonage has admitted that it has no technical work-around to avoid infringing Verizon's patents on key VoIP techniques, putting the future of the company, and other VoIP providers in the US, in doubt. The VoIP industry is a minefield of patents, but those granted to Verizon are so broad it's not clear if any VoIP company could …

    VoIP 16 Apr 2007, 15:27

  • Microsoft unhappy with Google DoubleClick marriage

    Jilted lover labels deal anti-competitive

    Microsoft is calling for regulator action to stop Google and DoubleClick merging, saying the deal would be anti-competitive if it went through. The software giant's general counsel Brad Smith, who has acted for Microsoft in various anti-competition cases, told Reuters: "This proposed acquisition raises serious competition and …

    Financial News 16 Apr 2007, 15:29

  • Electronic voting under legal scrutiny in the US

    Lawsuits and judicial reviews ago-go

    Voting activists have been given the go ahead to proceed with a legal challenge to the certification of the touch-screen voting machines used in 57 of Pennsylvania's counties. Pennsylvania's Department of State had been opposing the suit, but its objections were dismissed by a Commonwealth Court on Friday last week. The state …

    Government 16 Apr 2007, 15:36

  • US teen jailed for school's daylight-saving cock-up

    12 days' chokey for bomb threat log error

    A Pennsylvania student was held in jail for 12 days after a bomb threat recorded by a school hot line service was wrongly attributed to him, Fox News reports. Fifteen-year-old Cody Webb, of Greensburg, "called a school district hot line to listen to a recorded message about school delays at 3:12am EDT on 11 March", his mobile …

    Software 16 Apr 2007, 15:38

  • Europe wants to civilise US terror war

    Brussels goes to Washington

    Emissaries from the European Parliament arrived in Washington today with a message of restraint and fairplay for US crusaders in the "war on terror". Worried the US zeal to hunt down terrorists is trampling over the rights of European citizens, members of the European Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs will …

    Government 16 Apr 2007, 15:49

  • CA mulls suing co-founder Wang over accounting fraud

    Biting the hand that nurtured it

    CA may pursue its co-founder, Charles Wang, for damages resulting from a $2.2bn accounting scandal following the publication of internal report that alleges Wang "directed and participated" in a scheme to artificially inflate the software firm's stock price. The report, by a committee of outside directors at CA, advises that …

    Financial News 16 Apr 2007, 16:14

  • NASA appeals to science nuts, dancehall ravers

    Yuri's Night report

    Maybe it was a shared love of science that lit the faces of those attending the NASA party commemorating the first human spaceflight. But maybe it was just the alcohol and freaky-deeky psychedelic light shows. It's hard to tell when you're blotto. On Friday, NASA opened up a hanger at the Ames Research Center in Mountain View …

    Science 16 Apr 2007, 22:16

  • Nokia seeks lost Marble widgets

    Comment Fiddling Finns need a wake-up call

    If you heard an unearthly groan coming from your IT department today, the following news may be responsible. Nokia today revealed that it was bringing the security and stability of Web 2.0 to its mobile handsets. Yes, the class of PC bloatware known as "Widgets" are to run on Nokia's S60 handsets, and the formal announcement …

    Mobile 16 Apr 2007, 22:23