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27th April 2007 Archive

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  • AMD and Intel take potshots in dueling court complaints

    Oh no you didn't!

    AMD's anti-trust trial against Intel hasn't even started yet, and the companies are already pinching, scratching and pulling hair. When we last left off, Intel was in the process of piecing together millions of emails the company had lost which AMD claims are relevant to the lawsuit. On Tuesday, Intel filed a report with the …

    PCs & Chips 27 Apr 2007, 00:17

  • $1bn lawsuit takes novel approach in fighting spam

    Harvesters of sorrow targeted

    A group opposed to spam is taking a novel approach to fighting the scourge by using a mountain of data and a $1bn lawsuit to go after email harvesters who make possible all those penis-enlargement solicitations in the first place. The complaint, filed by Project Honey Pot on behalf of tens of thousands of members in more than …

    Spam 27 Apr 2007, 00:30

  • MPAA chairman promises legal DVD copying, interoperable DRM

    The Invisible Hand

    With all the debate about whether or not music actually requires the use of any Digital Rights Management at all, it's worth getting the collective opinion of the Motion Pictures Association of America on the subject. And if we believe the word of MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman this week, DRM is definitely here to stay when …

    Music and Media 27 Apr 2007, 00:46

  • IAB raises touchy subject of internet audience measurement

    Measuring sticks and stones

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau this week sent letters to the two major Internet audience measurement services, comScore and Nielsen NetRatings, asking them to submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes. The IAB didn’t spell out what the consequences of NOT agreeing to a third party audit would be, but they …

    Music and Media 27 Apr 2007, 00:54

  • Congress may loosen noose on internet radio

    Bill seeks to reverse Copyright Royalty Board decision

    A bill introduced in Congress today could nullify the new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) which advocates say would put webcasters out of business. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL) have headed the "Internet Radio Equality Act," which aims to stop the controversial March 2 decision which puts …

    Music and Media 27 Apr 2007, 01:14

  • Rackable's margins enter witness protection program

    Rivals hold MS, Yahoo, Amazon and Q1 profits hostage

    Rackable Systems' start-up glory days have officially ended courtesy of some shockable first quarter results. The little server maker that could - didn't. Rackable's first quarter revenue tumbled 15 per cent year-on-year to $72m. The company also swapped out last year's $6m profit for a $10m loss. And, in the most ominous …

    Servers 27 Apr 2007, 01:53

  • Payroll specialist fails to pay staff

    Mission critical, you say?

    Payroll specialist Northgate has failed to pay its staff. An apology email was sent to all staff worldwide, which said: Many staff will already be aware that salary payments have not been credited to bank accounts today. A review has been commissioned to understand how the error occurred and why it was not identified as part …

    Channel Register 27 Apr 2007, 06:02

  • MPAA veteran Jack Valenti dead at 85

    Champion of free speech, and DRM

    Former Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Chairman Jack Valenti is dead following complications of a stroke suffered in March. The voice of the MPAA for nearly 40 years, Valenti's public career began during the Johnson administration, when he served as an advisor and confidant to the late President. Valenti is best …

    Music and Media 27 Apr 2007, 06:41

  • Nominet board election is go

    The runners and riders

    The candidates in this year's Nominet elections have published their manifestos on what they would do with a seat on the board. The company will be hoping to avoid a repeat of 2006's voting fiasco, which meant the winners had to be reinstated after calls for a revote. Nominet is a not-for-profit firm with a turnover of about £ …

    Law 27 Apr 2007, 08:02

  • Dell finally switches on PC network in Glasgow schools

    177 schools left without computers for weeks

    Dell has finished a managed education service piped to schools in Glasgow a mere four weeks after it was due. The PC firm's tardiness left children in 177 primary schools without computers for nearly two weeks. According to a spokeswoman at Glasgow City Council, schools were expecting to be using their shiny new Dell …

    Public Sector 27 Apr 2007, 08:37

  • Rep. Barney Frank takes a gamble on online wagering

    House of Cards Sticks it to the UIGEA

    It's official- outspoken Massachusetts representative Barney Frank unveiled sweeping legislation yesterday that would not only repeal the unpopular Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) but also provide clear-cut regulation for an industry that has been expanding rapidly outside of the United States or gone …

    Law 27 Apr 2007, 08:39

  • Man snaps up Sea Harrier on eBay

    A piece of Falklands history for £10k

    A Somerset man has picked up a Falklands war vintage Sea Harrier for a bargain £10,000, the Mirror reports. Neil Banwell, 39, said: "I was 14 when the war broke out and used to watch them flying out on the news every night. I was so disappointed when they stopped flying them last year - but I couldn't believe it when I saw one …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2007, 08:59

  • US Army to fund Stanford-led supercomputing team

    Plastic tanks, trouser-launched flying spy bots

    The US Army is to fund a five-year, $105m supercomputing initiative led by Stanford University. The Army High-Performance Computing Research Center will also include teams of engineers and scientists at Morgan State University in Maryland, New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, the University of Texas at El Paso and NASA. …

    Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 09:06

  • Survey: young Brits ready to embrace evoting

    The over 55s, not so much

    As Britain braces for its latest foray into the world of electronic, remote and even internet voting, a survey has found that almost half of us think we'd be more likely to vote if we could do it online. The YouGov poll of almost 2,300 people, carried out on behalf of NTL:Telewest's business unit, found that younger voters were …

    Public Sector 27 Apr 2007, 09:09

  • MPs warned about e-health records

    Government 'pressuring' patients to not opt out

    The government has been accused of ignoring concerns about the privacy of the NHS e-care record. Contributors to a hearing of Parliament's Health Select Committee on 26 April 2007 claimed the government is pressuring patients for their information to be included on the Care Record Service. One claimed that the Department of …

    Public Sector 27 Apr 2007, 09:12

  • PlayStation pioneer hangs up his joypad

    Exit comes as Sony projects $2bn loss

    It's sayonara to Ken 'Father of the PlayStation' Kutaragi, who has announced he will stop working for Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), at least on a day-to-day basis, from 19 June. A jump or a push? Sony's spin suggests the move was one Kutaragi had been "considering... for some time". Since December, we'd say, when he …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 09:40

  • From managed chaos to coherent infrastructure

    Reg Reader Workshop Poll results: The management information journey

    Over the past few weeks, we have been exploring various aspects of business intelligence delivery through a series of workshops and polls. For the last poll in our series, we pulled it all together and asked where you are now and where you want to get to in terms of infrastructure and solutions. Taking the last of these first …

    Business 27 Apr 2007, 09:59

  • Nintendo pledges to pour out more Wiis

    Admits demand-anticipation failure

    Nintendo has admitted it hasn't punched out sufficient Wii games consoles to meet demand. But it pledged to pull its finger out and start producing more and "fix this abnormal lack of stock". So said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata in Japan today, after confessing the company had "not been able to properly foresee demand. " …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 10:01

  • 'As I watch England turn into a quivering pile of dung'

    FoTW Reasoned analysis of Iranian nuke claim

    There's nothing quite like a bit of reasoned analysis to set one up nicely for the weekend. Accordingly, we're obliged to Bill (who we suspect might be American) for his take on the revelation that Iran is not, in fact, about two weeks away from nuking Israel, but rather eight years off having any kind of operational nuclear …

    Letters 27 Apr 2007, 10:38

  • Sony snapper to see further with 6x optical zoom

    Sony will next month upscale the optics of its Cyber-shot S series of digital cameras - 'S' for 'solid', if ours is anything to go by - with a 6x optical zoom lens. Compact cameras typically offer only a 3x optical zoom, relying instead on tweaking the image digitally for higher levels of magnification. The DSC-S800 still …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 10:43

  • 'Traffic Taliban' moots speed cameras in cats' eyes

    Richard Brunstrom's latest cunning plan

    North Wales Police's anti-speeding campaigner Richard Brunstrom - aka the "Traffic Taliban" to those who oppose his zero-tolerance approach to excess velocity - has suggested the possibility of deploying miniature speed cameras in cats' eyes, the BBC reports. Brunstrom used a debate road safety at St Asaph Business Park, …

    Public Sector 27 Apr 2007, 10:45

  • Canada announces monster solar plant

    40MW from one million panels

    Canada has announced it will build North America's biggest solar power plant - a 40MW project covering 365 hectares with around one million solar panels, Reuters reports. The monster installation, slated to go operational in 2010 near Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, will provide juice for up to 24,000 homes. Ontario energy …

    Science 27 Apr 2007, 10:55

  • Sky+ Anytime, but not last time

    Upgrade deletes recorded shows from some Sky+ boxes

    A software upgrade sent out to Sky+ boxes to support the new Sky Anytime service has left some punters bereft of all their recorded TV programmes. Sky Anytime is a service which automatically records TV shows and films overnight onto an unused - and unavailable to customers - part of the Sky+ DVR hard drive. The shows are …

    Music and Media 27 Apr 2007, 11:01

  • iSymphony tunes up Bluetooth wireless hi-fi

    Will you please welcome iSymphony's latest music centre, a wall-mounted or shelf-stacked - the choice is yours - hi-fi that can connect to any Bluetooth device capable of streaming stereo sound wirelessly. The V1BLUEe packs in a CD player, an RDS-equipped FM tuner, a pair of 10W front-facing speakers and a 25W sub-woofer …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 11:01

  • UK airline pilots spot giant UFO

    'Mile wide' mystery object hovers off Channel Islands

    Two experienced airline pilots at the controls of separate flights have reported seeing a mystery object "up to a mile wide" hovering off the coast of Alderney on Monday, This is Guernsey reports. Captain Ray Bowyer, 50, of local airline Aurigny, spotted a "bright-yellow light" 10 miles west of Alderney at about 3pm during a …

    Science 27 Apr 2007, 11:33

  • Engineers write defence against aliens manual

    NASA consultants advocate sci-fi mujahideen tactics, call Sagan 'total jerk'

    A group of American aerospace engineers have written a book on how to defend the earth against alien invasion. Travis Shane Taylor, Bob Boan, Charles Anding and T Conley Powell hold a variety of PhDs and other degrees in hard sciences and technology. All have worked on weapons and aerospace programmes for defence contractors, …

    Space 27 Apr 2007, 11:55

  • Apple TV hackers called to create open source set-top

    You have nothing to lose but your CableCards

    Neuros Technology has called on Apple TV hackers to join it and develop a next-generation open source set-top box to prevent IPTV falling into the hands of the Man. Neuros launched its Linux-based OSD last autumn. It's a media centre that can digitise video content to connected storage - either a locally fitted USB drive or …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 11:55

  • Japan wants levitating trains by 2025

    Feel the force

    Japan says it is going to roll out (or possibly levitate out) a network of "maglev" trains by 2025. It will be the first commercial magnetic levitation line anywhere in the world outside of China, which has one line running in its Shanghai province. The trains will have a top speed of 310mph and will run between Tokyo and …

    Physics 27 Apr 2007, 12:03

  • Nominet gets academic on abuse

    Boffins take aim at scammers

    UK top level domain registry Nominet has tapped boffins at Oxford Brookes University to help it tackle spam and data theft aimed at .uk domains. The partnership is being funded by government cash from the Department of Trade and Industry, and will create two new anti-abuse jobs at Nominet. The University's researchers will …

    Security 27 Apr 2007, 12:12

  • Spectrums and Sea Harriers: ah, those were the days

    To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

    Betting on a gambling ban The controversy over online gambling just won't go away. This week saw Greece ignoring recent European legal decisions and arresting three internet cafe owners who allowed gambling on their machines. Six customers were also arrested. Meanwhile in the US, congressman Barney Frank is set to introduce …

    Business 27 Apr 2007, 12:32

  • BOFH: Fishbowl this

    Episode 14 Glug glug glug

    "You want to WHAT?!?!" the PFY gasps, beating me to the draw by microseconds. "Move the computer room?" the Boss responds, surprised that there's any objection to his latest brainwave. "You've got to be kidding!" "Not at all," the Boss asks, still not aware of the enormous upheaval he's proposing. "I've been talking with …

    BOFH 27 Apr 2007, 12:35

  • Fujitsu threaten one redundancy

    Union baffled and baited

    The amicable resolution of a long-running dispute between Fujitsu Services and employees at its Manchester office could be in jeopardy after the firm threatened to make one employee redundant. To make matters worse, Amicus, the union leading a dispute over pay, redundancy rights and union recognition at Fujitsu, said the …

    Business 27 Apr 2007, 12:37

  • Sage chairman leaves after seven months

    Horn-Smith gives himself the chop

    The chairman of UK-based accountancy software group Sage has quit, citing irreconcilable differences with the board. Sir Julian Horn-Smith joined the firm from Vodafone in September, where he had risen to Deputy Chief Executive over 20 years at the operator. This morning he told the Stock Exchange his tenure at Sage would be …

    Software 27 Apr 2007, 13:01

  • Free BBC HD satellite TV service given green light

    Sky alternative to launch 2008

    The BBC has been given the go-ahead to partner with ITV to launch a free-to-view digital TV service transmitted by satellite. The service will include HD programming. The BBC currently sends out all its channels via satellite in an unencrypted form. Satellite broadcaster Sky offers more than a hundred other channels free of …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 13:29

  • A hosted 'Web 2.0' requirements management experience

    Xeau-eee

    I make no secret of the fact that I think requirements management and analysis are just about the most important parts of the development process. If you understand the business requirements, producing a system that can be shown to satisfy them (or miss some out) is comparatively trivial. In fact, it’s programmable – the process …

    Developer 27 Apr 2007, 13:58

  • IBM touts complete IPTV systems

    You want it really, you know you do...

    IBM aims to kick some life back into the sputtering market for IPTV by making it easier for European ISPs - desperate as they are to differentiate themselves from their rivals - to buy and build Internet video services. The company claims that service providers are keen to add TV, but don't have time or expertise to do it …

    Data Networking 27 Apr 2007, 14:00

  • Hawking amazed by weightlessness

    Next stop, space

    Stephen Hawking is back on solid ground after completing eight "zero gravity" plunges aboard the vomit comet. In total, the professor spent around four minutes weightless. On his return, he described the experience as "amazing", proving that even a genius can have his vocabulary humbled by free-fall. "The zero-G part was …

    Space 27 Apr 2007, 14:04

  • Wal-Mart denies cheap HD DVD deal

    Scheme simply hadn't got that far?

    Wal-Mart has denied it is working with a Chinese manufacturer to build millions of budget HD DVD players, a move that could prove decisive in the battle with rival next-gen optical disc format Blu-ray Disc. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman yesterday claimed that a Chinese-language report indicating the retail giant had ordered $300m …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 14:12

  • Nokia N93i camera phone

    Review It's a phone. It's a camcorder. It's a robot. Well, maybe not a robot...

    The Nokia N93i isn't quite sure if it's a phone, a camcorder, or something in between. Flip it one way and it appears all phone-like, but swivel the display around and it feels like you're holding a mini-camcorder. Like the Nokia N93 before it, the N93i is an attempt to bridge both worlds - leaving you with one less device …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 14:21

  • Firm offers Indian maths graduates by VoIP

    All-the-the-boffin-you-can-take at a flat rate price

    The chairman of an online-tutoring startup connecting Indian graduates to Western schoolchildren by VoIP says he is not engaged in outsourcing education. "This is about how you can get what is available to the rich, available to the common man," Krishnan Ganesh told the Guardian yesterday. Ganesh's service, Tutorvista, …

    VoIP 27 Apr 2007, 14:23

  • Man demonstrates extreme geekiness, reviews 105 PSUs

    Magnum opus

    How do you tell a real hardware geek from a crowd of dilettantes? The genuine article will be found reading a review of over a hundred PC power supply units. As for the true hardware geek, he's the guy that wrote it... Step forward then, Belgian Stephane Charpentier, who's just published an evaluation of 105 PSUs (in French …

    Reg Hardware 27 Apr 2007, 14:36

  • Virgin lays down case against Sky

    While ITV buy-up referred to Competition Commission

    Virgin Media has submitted documents to the High Court accusing Sky of abusing its monopoly position, despite that monopoly only being in Pay-TV - an area not previously considered an industry in its own right. According to reports in The Guardian the 33-page complaint accuses Sky of engineering the breakdown in negotiations …

    Telecoms 27 Apr 2007, 14:46

  • Fungus fingered in US honeybee wipeout

    Possible cause of Colony Collapse Disorder?

    Scientists may have fingered a possible major contributory cause to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - the hitherto unexplained disappearance of millions of honeybees in Europe, the US and seemingly Taiwan. According to the Los Angeles Times, researchers have identified the single-celled fungus Nosema ceranae in dead bees from …

    Biology 27 Apr 2007, 14:52

  • Enraged AC Milan fan eBays goalie Dida

    €71 top bid for blundering Brazilian

    A disgruntled AC Milan fan attempted to eBay the team's Brazilian goalkeeper following the poor bloke's series of blunders which saw Manchester United celebrate a 3-2 win in the first leg of the Champions League semis, Reuters reports. Thirty-three-year-old netminder Dida has been taking a bit of stick of late over a "series of …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2007, 14:55

  • BT slammed in broadband cut off battle

    'Victory for consumers', claims mortgage firm

    BT was rapped by a County Court judge this week after it failed to overturn an injunction taken out by a mortgage company which had been left without internet access by a bodged engineering job. Independent broker Capital Fortune took out the emergency injunction against BT last Friday after workers accidentally cut off …

    Small Biz 27 Apr 2007, 15:09

  • Schools ban iPod cheaters

    Broke the first rule of Cheat Club

    A school in Meridian, Idaho, is banning students from taking Apple iPods into exams because two kids were overheard discussing how to use them to cheat. iPods, or other MP3 players, can, in theory, be loaded with recordings of possible exam answers or written notes can be included as lyric files. Kids at some Californian …

    Public Sector 27 Apr 2007, 15:32

  • Virtual overdoses of chocolate Wi-Fi

    Letters As well as trains, drunks and exoskeletons

    Let us begin by addressing one of the subjects that caught your attention this week: killer Wi-Fi. Is being bathed in a sea of wireless data whizzing around from computer to computer going to kill us, or is it all dark mutterings that have no scientific back up? Either way, we argued, we should find out for sure rather than …

    Letters 27 Apr 2007, 15:41

  • IBM servers get 10 Gig boost

    TCP offloaders aim to sharpen BladeCenter

    10 Gig Ethernet specialists Chelsio and NetXen are targeting IBM servers - and in particular IBM's BladeCenter systems - for network acceleration and virtualisation. Both companies sell triple-function cards able to off-load TCP/IP networking, iSCSI storage and RDMA clustering traffic. IBM will now offer the NetXen 10 Gig SR …

    Servers 27 Apr 2007, 16:55

  • Thai insurgents move to keyless-entry bombs

    Cellphone devices blocked by security forces

    Insurgents in southern Thailand have begun using keyless-entry systems from cars to trigger bomb explosions after authorities took to blocking mobile-phone signals. The Bangkok Post reports that Thai police found a Daihatsu RF key near a blast site in Yala on April 13. It is thought the bomber dropped it while fleeing the scene …

    Security 27 Apr 2007, 16:59

  • Acer acquisition will be bigger than a breadbox, smaller than Gateway

    Oh, you tease ...

    Acer still won't say which PC vendor it plans to acquire, but it will give us a few hints. When chief executive JT Wang said last month that Acer was looking at acquiring a company as a part of its plan to overtake Lenovo, professional speculators first bet on Gateway computers. The news sent Gateway shares up 18 per cent from …

    PCs & Chips 27 Apr 2007, 18:25

  • Cause of global warming found

    Discovery revealed in letter to editor

    A particularly astute individual has put two and two together to gain a major new insight into the cause of one of mankind's most pressing crises. Remarking that last month was the hottest March since the beginning of last century, the resident of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was quick to pinpoint the cause in a letter published by …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2007, 18:45

  • HP: 'IT, as we know it, is over'

    Analysis Ships same new products to prove it

    HP this week put an end to information technology. You're now meant to slot all things IT under the Business Technology (BT) umbrella. HP's declaration does little for The Register's slogan. Thanks a lot. So what's all this BT fuss about? Well, you wouldn't really know from the products HP released to back up the marketing. …

    Servers 27 Apr 2007, 21:27

  • Reg readers total 3,238 years against cancer

    The final score as grid.org closes shop

    After almost seven years of harnessing volunteers' unused CPU cycles to find a cure for cancer, Grid.org is shutting down operations. The organization said today it has completed its mission to demonstrate the viability and benefits of large-scale internet-based grid computing and will retire from service. Grid.org was the …

    Storage 27 Apr 2007, 21:49

  • Apple releases MacBook battery update

    Rest easy, not the explosion-preventing kind

    Apple is recommending an update be installed on all MacBook and MacBook Pro computers and extra batteries purchased between February 2006 and April 2007. Users can download the patch from Software Update or here if that's your bag. According to Apple, there are factors causing performance issues in the batteries which do not …

    PCs & Chips 27 Apr 2007, 23:36