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19th April 2007 Archive

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  • Student loan companies illegally use US database

    Education department shuts down access

    The US government has temporarily barred college loan firms accessing a database containing personal and financial details of nearly 60 million people after a Washington Post article reported it was being used illegally. The paper revealed that some lending companies with access to the National Student Loan Data System …

    ID 19 Apr 2007, 00:04

  • Which games console is most web 2.0-friendly?

    Surf's up for the Wii and the PS3

    Both Wii and PS3 have web browsers, but it's fair to say that web surfing is a secondary feature for both. It's all about the games really, with a side-order of Blu-Ray goodness in PS3's case. However, Web 2.0 will be a factor in both - for example, Sony's upcoming Home virtual world, and Nintendo's connected News Channel and …

    Applications 19 Apr 2007, 08:02

  • Samsung adds picture-in-picture to DMB phone

    Postage stamp 'o vision

    Not content with enabling South Koreans to watch TV anywhere, Samsung has decided its punters might want to check out what's on the other channel without missing a moment with picture-in-picture technology. The SCH-B710 features a rotating screen to display video in a proper ratio, and receives video broadcast over its DMB ( …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2007, 08:02

  • Quad-core won't make it big until 2009 - reseacher

    IDF Intel agrees

    How soon will we be merrily running our applications and games on four-core systems? Market watcher iSuppli reckons only a few will go quad-core this year, but by the end of 2009 - just over 18 months away - half of us will have takens that step. Around 16 per cent of the performance desktops that shipped were quad-core …

    Reg Hardware 19 Apr 2007, 09:02

  • Data theft replaces malware as top security concern

    Reality check

    Theft of information and regulatory compliance are beginning to replace malware infestation and hacking as the top security concerns, according to a poll of enterprise IT security chiefs. The second annual Cisco-sponsored poll of 100 infosec pros in large UK enterprises found that 38 per cent of respondents place theft of …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2007, 09:09

  • Copyright protection warning for Web 2.0 start ups

    Web 2.0 Expo Stand by your lawyer

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has given Web 2.0 media sharing start-ups some non-technical advice: run your ideas past a lawyer first to stay on the right side of copyright law. Execs and investors are exposing themselves to potential prosecution for violation of copyright from copyright owners under the Digital …

    Law 19 Apr 2007, 09:12

  • Phishing attack evades bank's two-factor authentication

    Man in the middle

    A two-factor authentication system operated by Dutch bank ABN Amro has been compromised and money stolen from the online accounts of customers who fell for a phishing scam. Two-factor authentication for online banking usually involves passwords and tokens which provide synchronised, constantly changing numbers to use as …

    Security 19 Apr 2007, 09:13

  • Oracle scoops up AppForge assets

    Mobile apps go west

    Oracle has purchased the intellectual property assets of mobile application specialist AppForge. The deal, which had been the subject of growing rumour, was confirmed by an Oracle spokesperson on Wednesday, but no further details were disclosed. The database giant was believed one of two companies in the running for Georgia- …

    Applications 19 Apr 2007, 09:16

  • Worker sacked on day before age law took effect is reinstated

    But deadline has passed for similar cases

    An NHS worker who was sacked the day before last year's new age discrimination laws came into effect has been reinstated along with 35 of her colleagues. A deadline has passed which means similar cases are unlikely to be successful. Ann Southcott was a clerical worker at Treliske Hospital in Cornwall and was sacked on 30 …

    Business 19 Apr 2007, 09:18

  • Microsoft to fork out $180m to Iowa

    Anti-trust settlement

    Microsoft is paying Iowans $180m to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company abused its monopoly position to overcharge PC shoppers. The deal covers consumers who purchased Microsoft's PC software between 1994 and 2006, and who, prosecutors said, spent $453m more than they should have. Under the agreement, …

    Law 19 Apr 2007, 09:30

  • IDF Haier raises UMPC to new heights

    Chinese PC maker Haier previewed its X6 ultra-mobile PC this week, but while the handheld incorporates the 945GU chipset from chip giant Intel's new Ultra Mobile Platform (UMP), its processor is the more powerful Core 2 Duo. The X6 sports a 6.5in 800 x 480 display, 1GB of DDR 2 memory, a 30GB 5,400rpm hard drive, 802.11b/g …

    Reg Hardware 19 Apr 2007, 10:02

  • Breathe coughs to email upgrade bodge

    Nobody mention PlusNet

    Breathe Networks CEO Marcus East has apologised for problems with an email platform upgrade which meant ISP customers and other users of its servers were unable to access email for several days. Breathe has been implementing an upgrade from bog-standard UNIX servers to a managed ISP Plus platform, which was announced in …

    Telecoms 19 Apr 2007, 10:10

  • Scumbag malware authors exploit Virginia Tech tragedy

    Camera phone footage ruse leads to Trojan depository

    Pond-dwelling virus writers have crafted a malware attack that poses as camera phone footage of the shootings at Virginia Tech University that claimed 32 lives on Monday. Spam email messages carry a photograph of gunman Cho Seung-hui and claim to link to a Brazilian movie website carrying footage of the campus shootings. …

    Security 19 Apr 2007, 10:12

  • The politics of email in the workplace

    Mixing business with pleasure

    It's springtime in Washington, D.C. The cherry blossoms have bloomed, the tourists descended, and on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue a new "scandal" is erupting. In the Watergate era, there was the controversy about Rosemary Woods and the 18 ½ minute "gap" - a missing portion of a taped conversation of June 20, 1972. Now in …

    Business 19 Apr 2007, 10:13

  • Counter Strike firm in credit card hack claim

    Hacker, customers accuse Valve of coverup

    Valve Software, the company behind Counter Strike and Half Life, has been accused of covering up a hack of its servers which allegedly exposed the credit card details of thousands of customers. A hacker calling himself MaddoxX has trumpeted details of the claimed break-in on his website, and threatened to publish more credit …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2007, 11:09

  • Unions propose global action

    Merger eyes up multinationals

    IT union Amicus is discussing a merger with the United Steel Workers (USW) union to create a force able to take on multinational corporations. Along with the Transport and General Workers Union, with which Amicus has already agreed to merge in the UK, the combined force would number nearly 3 million members in Canada, Ireland, …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2007, 11:12

  • Boffins to test Star Trek space shield

    Set deflectors to maximum

    Star Trek's fantasy technology is proving to be an important inspiration for real-world scientists, as researchers in the UK start work on a magnetic deflector shield that could potentially protect astronauts from space radiation. Space, even the bits in between the planets in our little solar system, is awash with dangerous …

    Space 19 Apr 2007, 11:13

  • Tag dementia sufferers, says minister

    'Freedom to roam'

    Elderly people suffering from dementia could be electronically tagged. Science minister Malcolm Wicks suggested that such tagging technology, which is already used to track convicted criminals on early release from prison, could also help a family caring for an elderly relative. He told the BBC: "This is about dignity and …

    Government 19 Apr 2007, 11:15

  • Hi hon, I'm on d plane

    n flyt fons cum 1 step closer

    Qantas has been given permission to start testing in-flight mobile phone use, though for now usage will be restricted to data only and on just one aircraft. According to CNet, lucky passengers on the selected Boeing 767, flying between Australian cities over the next three months, will be able to send and receive 160-character …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2007, 11:15

  • Beeb extends download trial to Macs

    Apple DRM not helping

    The BBC is to extend its trial of downloadable content from 5,000 to 20,000 people. Anyone signing up for the trial will get access to TV and radio archive programmes, as well as scripts and programme notes. The original trial involved 1,500, which was increased to 5,000 in 2005. The final aim is to allow viewers to download …

    Music and Media 19 Apr 2007, 11:50

  • Did Herschel discover the rings around Uranus?

    1797 vs 1977

    A British scientist wants to re-write history and attribute the discovery of the ring around Uranus (no sniggering at the back) to Sir William Herschel. Officially, Uranus' rings were identified in 1977. Herschel, who discovered the planet in 1781, was long dead by then, having shuffled off this mortal coil in 1822. But Dr …

    Space 19 Apr 2007, 11:56

  • Canadian seal hunters trapped in ice

    100-boat ice jam delays cull

    Canada's annual seal hunt yesterday suffered an unscheduled delay as 100 small boats bearing hunters were trapped by thick ice off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, Reuters reports. An icebreaker was deployed to free the vessels, at least one of which had to be abandoned. CBC television reported that some boats were running …

    Biology 19 Apr 2007, 12:01

  • A postcard from Intel in Lisbon

    Intel says 'parallel or perish'

    So you thought Intel was a hardware company? In fact, it's also a major supplier of software – compilers and developer tools. This was what the Think Parallel Intel EMEA Software Conference 2.0 in Lisbon was all about. I've only space to cover the main theme here (there was an interesting session I must return to, on Second …

    Developer 19 Apr 2007, 12:16

  • XP buried as users roll over, play dead for sex and choccy

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

    DoubleClick gives Google double whammy against Microsoft We begin this week with Google which managed to pull off the coup of pissing off Microsoft big time by stealing DoubleClick from under its nose with a $3.1bn offer. Serial anti-trust defendant Microsoft has got so wound up it's even urged US regulators to probe the …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2007, 13:01

  • PC shipments are buoyant, says analyst

    Troubled waters for Dell, though

    Worldwide PC shipments are up a healthy nine per cent compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary 2007 first quarter figures from technology analyst Gartner Inc. Dell remained in the number one position, but its performance was well below the industry standard, with shipments down by 7.8 per cent. Gartner …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2007, 13:02

  • Sky recruiting to fill Sky+ customisation gap

    New product due in 2008

    Sky is looking to enhance its Sky+ product with a new version in 2008. It also aims to increase personalisation and customer-profiling to aid content discovery, as well as real video-on-demand services. Sky+, the company's digital video recorder product (DVR), records programmes onto a hard disk for later viewing, but still …

    Telecoms 19 Apr 2007, 13:13

  • Google bugles death of Froogle

    Do no punning

    Google's punning department suffered a blow today, when the powers that be in Mountain View decided that Froogle, the giant's damp squib shopping comparison site, should have a less silly name. It'll henceforth be known by the more anodyne corporate monicker Google Product Search. Froogle launched in 2002, but the link from …

    Applications 19 Apr 2007, 13:16

  • MP plans Bob Mugabe body-blow

    Motion to strip tyrant of honorary degree

    Former Labour minister Nigel Griffiths has launched a Westminster campaign to bring Zimbabwean prez "laughing" Bob Mugabe to his knees - by stripping him of an Edinburgh University honorary degree, the BBC reports. Mugabe received the honour 23 years ago in recognition of his "services to education in Africa". Since then, he's …

    Government 19 Apr 2007, 13:16

  • US 'Land Warrior' wearable-computing headed to Iraq

    Despite programme cancellation, poor user reviews

    The US Army's wearable tech programme for soldiers, Land Warrior, is dead in the water. Despite well over a decade of work and hundreds of millions of dollars in development funding, there remain very significant problems with the kit and it has received poor reviews from soldiers in testing. The equipment was de-listed from …

    Science 19 Apr 2007, 13:53

  • Musteline menace tests Sheffield steel

    Badger orgy of destruction threatens city

    Residents in the Gleadless area of Sheffield are "at their wits' end" after seven years of relentless badger harrassment during which the animals have trashed gardens, felled trees, and held wild late-night orgies, the Evening Standard reports. The case of Richard Oldham is typical: first up, members of the 40-strong badger …

    Biology 19 Apr 2007, 14:05

  • Cigarette break saves US woman's life

    Warning: Trees falling on your house can kill

    The pro-smoking lobby got a small boost on Monday after a South Carolina woman cheated death by nipping outside the house for a cigarette. Brenda Comer, of Rock Hill, had just finished washing the dishes at around 11am when she popped out for a gasper. At that moment, The Seattle Times dramatically recalls, "an 80-foot-tall oak …

    Bootnotes 19 Apr 2007, 14:06

  • Robot spacecraft in zero-gee pumping shocker

    DARPA, Boeing claim 'autonomous servicing' now a reality

    Two unmanned space platforms have autonomously come together 300 miles above the earth, carrying out a "pump fluid transfer" in a milestone for robot sex automated satellite servicing. A Boeing Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) vehicle and a NextSat serviceable-satellite demonstrator were launched together …

    Space 19 Apr 2007, 14:12

  • FSA lumps £81m appendage on Fujitsu

    52 staff outsourced

    The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has got rid of about a quarter of its IT department by outsourcing it to Fujitsu and Xansa. The firm will be giving 41 staff to Fujitsu and paying them £80.8m over 10 years to do infrastructure management. Xansa will be taking on 11 staff and getting £5.1m to do application development and …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2007, 14:14

  • Vodafone explains N95 crippling

    It's for your own good, apparently

    Vodafone has finally provided an explanation for the removal of VoIP features from the Nokia N95, and apparently it's all for our own good. A Vodafone statement says the mobile operator doesn't offer its own VoIP service because it doesn't believe it's a mature technology. It goes on to say it require "in-depth testing, a …

    Mobile 19 Apr 2007, 14:42

  • Ubuntu launch marred by website woes

    Open then shut

    Ubuntu's website has been flaking out on and off throughout today as its users attempt to download the latest free, open source desktop, laptop, client, and server Linux distribution. Version 7.04 was supposed to be available for download from the Ubuntu website today. However, users would have been hardpressed to actually …

    Software 19 Apr 2007, 14:46

  • Yahoo! China! sued! in! US!

    Human rights case

    The wife of the Chinese dissident jailed with the help of Yahoo! is suing the company in the US courts. The World Organisation for Human Rights is backing the case. Wang Xiaoning was given a 10 year sentence for postings he made to a Yahoo! group. Chinese authorities asked Yahoo! for information to identify the man. Wang …

    Law 19 Apr 2007, 15:07

  • Thunderbird 2 is go

    Scrubbed up version takes flight

    An updated version of the open source email client Thunderbird was released today. The Mozilla Foundation said Thunderbird 2 would improve users' email experience. It claims better security and spam filtering and improved phishing filters and search. Mozilla's Firefox browser and Thunderbird client have both won a lot of …

    Applications 19 Apr 2007, 15:10

  • European e-crime portal scheme floated

    Lending Voice to cybercrime victims

    British academics and information security experts are teaming up in plans to develop a cybercrime reporting portal for Europe. The project, still at the blueprint stage, aims to get a more accurate idea of the true levels of cybercrime in Europe, an area currently clouded in doubt, Infoworld reports. The scheme is part of …

    Security 19 Apr 2007, 15:40

  • Operation Ore: evidence of massive credit card fraud

    Innocent until accused of paedophilia

    There are few subjects as emotive as child pornography, and few accusations that can so quickly and permanently tar a reputation. Merely to be accused of a child pornography offence is to be convicted in the public consciousness. But now it seems that Operation Ore, which saw some 7,272 British residents targeted on suspicion …

    Law 19 Apr 2007, 15:49

  • US State department rooted by 0-day Word attack

    An accident waiting to happen

    A virus attack aimed at US State Department computers last May penetrated government networks after a worker in Asia opened a contaminated email. The malware inside exploited an unpatched Microsoft Word vulnerability to spread. Some weeks later government investigators discovered multiple instances of infection, informed …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2007, 17:54

  • Imation buys TDK's recording media biz

    And they can prove it: they've got the whole thing on tape

    TDK is to sell its recording media business to Imation for $300m in stock and cash. The deal is expected to close in calendar third quarter 2007. TDK will receive about $280m in Imation stock and $20m in cash. An additional $70m may flow into TDK coffers based on future financial performance. Under the agreement, Imation …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2007, 18:22

  • Sun injects NetBeans into Ubuntu

    Spreading the word

    Sun has hitched its open source and Java developer fortunes to Ubuntu by inserting NetBeans into the latest version of the fast-growing distribution. Ubuntu 7.04 features Sun’s NetBeans IDE version 5.5 along with key components of Sun’s open source middleware stack – the GlassFish Java application server, Java Platform …

    Developer 19 Apr 2007, 18:42

  • Microsoft debuts Windows for the Poor

    $3 suite for students in developing countries

    Microsoft is to sell a Windows bundle for $3 targeting students in emerging markets. The Student Innovation Suite will feature Windows XP Starter Edition, Office Home and Student, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Office and Windows Live Mail, and will be available in selected countries where governments pay for …

    Operating Systems 19 Apr 2007, 19:07

  • Survey: Storage users seek interoperability

    Want products more interoperablebleblerer

    The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) End User Council (EUC) announced today the results of its third end user survey (ATtRoiTEUS). The survey, titled Storage Interoperability: So What's the Problem? examines issues facing storage and networking customers regarding multi-vendor systems. The Problem which SNIA …

    Storage 19 Apr 2007, 19:51

  • US backs whistleblower suits against HP, Sun and Accenture

    Kickback Rodeo

    The Department of Justice has joined three whistleblower suits accusing HP, Accenture and Sun Microsystems of raiding IT contracts with US government agencies to fund kickbacks for channel partners. The nub of the complaint is that the accused, all members of Accenture's Global Alliance program, received discounts from and …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2007, 21:32

  • Ads surge secures Google earnings

    CEO 'ecstatic'

    Google has delivered Wall Street a pleasant Q1 surprise, blowing past expected results while reconciling its move into new partnerships and offline markets. Chief executive Eric Schmidt declared himself "ecstatic" with the quarter's results, as Google reported a 69 per cent increase in income to $1bn on revenue that jumped 62.5 …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2007, 21:53

  • AMD swings to $611m loss

    800-pound gorilla Intel provides the vine

    AMD is reporting today a first-quarter loss of $611m amid a price-war to hold market share won back from rival Intel. The loss is larger than analysts expected, and AMD chief financial officer Robert Rivet calls the performance "disappointing and unacceptable". The net $611m loss compares with a Q1 '06 profit of $185m. AMD …

    Financial News 19 Apr 2007, 22:32

  • Apple plugs 25 security holes

    Patch despatch

    Brief Apple today fixed 25 vulnerabilities in the Mac OS X 10.4.9 operating system, courtesy of a 16MB patch for download. Apple's list of vulns is long and far too tedious for us to rewrite, so check out the company's security update for yourself and get patching. ®

    PCs & Chips 19 Apr 2007, 22:52

  • Embedded devices a cinch to pwn

    CanSecWest The weak link in the chain

    Cell phones, modems, routers and similar devices are a lot easier to hack than most people think, making them an opportune target for criminals looking for an easy way to pierce a network, a researcher from Juniper networks says. Speaking at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, Barnaby Jack demonstrated how a …

    Enterprise Security 19 Apr 2007, 23:10

  • Lenovo sheds jobs to increase profit

    Do these 1,400 employees make me look fat?

    Lenovo plans to reduce its global workforce by five per cent, in what the company calls a "resource reduction" of approximately 1,400 jobs in the US and Asia. Out of the number targeted, 750 positions (including contractors) will be moved into markets closer to Lenovo supplier and manufacturing operations and 650 positions …

    Channel Register 19 Apr 2007, 23:51