The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

9th May 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Software 2007: Innovation is the new black

    Customer service? Who needs it!

    Innovative software is leading the high tech industry's recovery, according to Sand Hill Group, the San Francisco venture consultancy. And so, "Powered by Innovation" is the theme of the organization's conference this year, Software 2007. Opening the show today, Sand Hill Group managing director and show host M.R. Rangaswami …

    Channel Register 9 May 2007, 00:11

  • Man faces 10 years for fudging computer credentials

    Faux trial expert cops to perjury

    A former computer forensics expert hired to testify in court cases has pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges for falsifying his resume and lying in open court, presumably about his credentials. James Earl Edmiston pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury relating to testimony he gave in two separate criminal cases, both …

    Enterprise Security 9 May 2007, 01:09

  • Cisco Q3 profits leap 35 per cent

    Cashes in on bandwidth demands

    Cisco's fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 34 per cent on the back of increased demand for high bandwidth equipment from telephone and cable television companies. The networking equipment maker earned $1.9bn net income in the quarter ending April 28, compared with $1.4bn a year earlier. Revenue also saw a boost of 21 per …

    Data Networking 9 May 2007, 02:03

  • Union members blink in Capgemini face-off

    Nerds shy away from confrontation

    Staff at Capgemini UK have told their union to settle the next pay offer with bosses before it gets to another showdown over strike action. In a ballot of unionised staff working on the firm's flagship £8bn Aspire contract for HM Revenue & Customs, 82.5 per cent backed a below inflation pay offer negotiated under the threat …

    Channel Register 9 May 2007, 06:02

  • M&S in ID theft flap over stolen laptop

    Oops, it's happened again

    Marks & Spencer has become the latest large organisation embroiled in an identity theft-related security flap. A laptop containing salary details, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance and phone numbers of some 26,000 employees has been stolen from a printing firm, which was tasked with the job of writing to workers …

    ID 9 May 2007, 08:52

  • Sun plans 'consumer-friendly' Java SE

    JavaOne Shrink fit

    Sun Microsystems is introducing changes to Java, boosting speed and improving flexibility for deployment on PCs and consumer-facing devices. Java Standard Edition (Java SE) 7.0 will feature a special Consumer Java Runtime Environment for desktop Java applications to "start from cold very quickly", the company said Tuesday. …

    Developer 9 May 2007, 08:53

  • VMware follows paravirtualisation path

    Silly name, but a good idea

    VMware is joining the rush down the road of paravirtualisation already being trodden by the likes of Novell and Microsoft. It is introducing Paravirt-ops with the launch of VMware Workstation 6. This is the first commercially available system to support Paravirt-ops, an open interface implementation of paravirtualisation …

    Servers 9 May 2007, 09:02

  • Intel 'Santa Rosa' blooms into Centrino Duo, Pro

    Next-gen notebook platform debuts

    Intel has launched 'Santa Rosa', the latest generation of its Centrino laptop platform. This time round, the brand is being segmented: Centrino Pro for big business, Centrino Duo for the rest of us. Intel mobile Core 2 Duo processor Duo is the baseline. It's based around revised versions of the mobile Core 2 Duo processors …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 09:44

  • Icahn loses bid for seat on Moto's board

    But thinks he's made his point

    Despite his apparent failure to win a seat on the board of Motorola, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has declared victory. Preliminary estimates of the votes cast by shareholders at the handset manufacturer's annual meeting in Chicago on Monday indicate that Icahn will not be elected to Motorola's board, with the current board …

    Financial News 9 May 2007, 10:14

  • Sage profits slip in first half

    Buying spree over for time being

    Sage will spend the rest of the current financial year bedding down its latest crop of acquisitions after releasing first half results that showed revenues up but net profits down. The UK-based business software vendor turned in revenues of £574.4m for the six months ending March 31, up 26 per cent on the previous year. Or up …

    Channel Register 9 May 2007, 10:19

  • Sony Ericsson revamps P series smart phone

    Back to basics

    Sony Ericsson is to take its P series of Symbian-running smart phones right back to basics. Last night it launched the candybar, Wi-Fi enabled P1. The new handset brings the P series' look into line with Sony Ericsson's other top-of-the-range models. Once again, it uses the UIQ user interface, controled through the micro …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 10:27

  • Wikipedia bot-swarm foretells snooker result

    Self-editing Borg collective takes control of hive mind

    The online hive-mind jumbleshop Wikipedia continues to amaze. The Web 2.0 consensus reality has now begun to edit itself without human input - indeed has gone so far as to allow automated bots to overrule humans. Perhaps coincidentally, it has also begun to make predictions about the future. Most amazing of all, it now seeks to …

    Bootnotes 9 May 2007, 10:28

  • Government project reviews are not FOI exempt, says tribunal

    Backs ICO's order that reports be made public

    Crucial reviews of large, ongoing Government IT projects are not exempt from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, the Information Tribunal has ruled (pdf). The tribunal has backed the Information Commissioner's order that the reports become public. Two requests were made for the release of reports on the Government's identity …

    Government 9 May 2007, 10:28

  • Downing Street rejects Vista petition

    Price controls aren't us

    A petition on Downing Street's e-petition website which called for fairer pricing of Microsoft's Vista operating system has been rejected. The petition called on the PM to "bring pressure on Microsoft to stop them overcharging the UK for its Vista Operating System". The petition noted that a fully-fledged version of Vista …

    Operating Systems 9 May 2007, 10:30

  • Vodafone completes acquisition of Essar

    Indian government approval finally arrives

    Vodafone has announced that its expansion into India will go ahead with the acquisition of Essar from Hutchison, confirming reports that the Indian finance minister gave clearance for the deal at the end of last week. Vodafone will pay £5.5bn in cash to Hutchison Telecommunications International. The deal was announced in …

    Mobile 9 May 2007, 10:39

  • Sony Ericsson phones slim for spring

    Sony Ericsson's spring handset launch - out of which sprang the revamped P series smart phone and the "nature inspired" S500 fashion phone - also the launch of a pair of lesser models.   Sony Ericsson T250 First, the T250, a low-end handset with high-end looks inspired by the new T650. The basic model is a dual-band phone …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 10:52

  • NetServices sells out to 186K

    Never saw that coming

    NetServices, the broadband wholesaler which invoked widespread anger over a series of disputes with resellers last year, has cut and run from its consumer broadband business. In a move which will surprise few in the industry, it has sold the custom of 174 consumer broadband ISPs to its Leeds-based favourite 186K for £1.085m. …

    Telecoms 9 May 2007, 10:52

  • Sun may never set on British Empire's pint

    UK metric-system selling to be indefinitely deferred

    Campaigners and Conservative politicos claim to have won an indefinite reprieve for the traditional British pound, inch, foot and - perhaps most importantly - pint. The BBC reports that the planned 2009 deadline for all UK/European sales to be conducted using the metric system has now been put in limbo, perhaps forever. The …

    Law 9 May 2007, 11:10

  • Seven flaws lanced in MS patch batch

    All bugs are critical but some are more equal than other

    Microsoft released seven critical patches on Tuesday as part of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle. The various security bugs in Excel, Word, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Exchange, BizTalk Server, and Windows DNS Server all earned Microsoft's most severe rating. All the vulnerabilities allow hackers to …

    Security 9 May 2007, 11:12

  • Samsung sends usable UMPC to USA

    Samsung has launched its second-generation UMPC, the Q1 Ultra, in the US - two months after the device was unveiled at the CeBIT show in Germany. This time, Samsung was able to confirm the machine is based on Intel's 'Stealy' processor, a version of the old 'Dothan' Pentium M dusted off for use in UMPCs. At the Q1 Ultra's …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 11:18

  • AMD details 65nm laptop chip line-up

    AMD has updated the announcement it made more than a week ago about 65nm dual-core Turion 64 X2 mobile processors with some solid details about the new chip family's speeds and feeds. Leading the line-up is the 2.3GHz TL-66 - as previously forecast - a 35W part sporting twin 512KB L2 caches. It's joined by the TL-62, TL-60, …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 11:34

  • Don't let Paris Hilton do bird

    At least not in the slammer, gov

    It's a well-known fact that Paris Whitney Hilton sure knows how to drum up publicity on the internet. No surprise then that in the blink of a false eyelash, over 11,000 people have already signed a petition to save the reality TV star, hotel heiress, and now convicted drunk-driver from serving 45 days in a Californian slammer …

    Entertainment 9 May 2007, 11:35

  • Palm preps antenna-less 3G Palm OS Treo

    750 / 680 = 755p

    Palm has shown off its latest Palm OS based Treo smartphone, a US-oriented version of the 3G-connected Treo 750 it launched in the UK in September 2006.   The Treo 755p uses the same design as the 750 and, indeed, the 2.5G 680. Initially offered through the Sprint network, the handset has a dual-band CDMA 2000 EvDO radio on …

    Telecoms 9 May 2007, 12:02

  • Schoolboy scammer caught again

    Out on bail, but still scamming

    A schoolboy convicted of swindling some £250,000 through internet scams has been caught again despite being out on bail and banned from selling goods. The boy, who cannot be named, has been banged up until 21 May when he will be sentenced for more than 100 original offences. Two days after being released by Balham youth …

    Crime 9 May 2007, 12:58

  • Creative tunes up laptop-friendly X-Fi audio enhancer

    Creative is to bring its X-Fi audio enhancement technology to notebook computers - at least, notebook computers with an ExpressCard 54 slot on board. Dubbed the SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook, the add-in unit was announced today in Japan. The card has analogue and digital optical 3.5mm input and output ports, and a …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 13:01

  • US spy chief wants 'some control' over satellite imagery

    Government intervention isn't going away

    An American intelligence boss has hinted at curbs on commercial satellite imagery to prevent its use by enemies of the USA. "If there was a situation where any imagery products were being used by adversaries to kill Americans, I think we should act," vice Admiral Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence …

    Law 9 May 2007, 13:04

  • Virgin faces customer exodus over Sky battle

    Round one

    Virgin Media admitted today that its battle with Sky over TV rights made it suffer in the broader convergence war. During the firm's quarterly earnings call, chief executive Steve Burch told investors that although the impact of losing shows like 24, Lost, and The Simpsons was not big in the first quarter, he was expecting more …

    Networks 9 May 2007, 13:13

  • Dimension Data doubles profits

    But revenue growth will slow in second half

    IT services firm Dimension Data said that better than expected revenue growth in Africa and Europe contributed to a strong trading performance in the first half of 2007. The IT infrastructure provider announced its six month interim results today, for the period ended March 2007. It said that "the first half of FY2007 was a …

    Channel Register 9 May 2007, 13:49

  • Nvidia targets Turion with AMD-oriented IGPs

    Nvidia today launched three GeForce 7-class single-chip integrated chipsets, all of them aimed at AMD-based notebooks, Turion 64 X2-equipped machines in particular. Branded the GeForce 7000M, 7150M and 7190M, the GPUs are integrated into a single package that also contains, respectively, the nForce 610M, 630M and 640M …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 14:00

  • Sony turns to Centrino revamp for Blu-ray, HDMI laptop

    Hot on the heels of chip maker Intel's Centrino Duo notebook platform revamp come the laptops based upon it. One of the first: Sony's vaguely MacBook Pro-like Vaio FZ series. The line comprises eight models. The top-of-the-line unit packs in a Blu-ray Disc burner; 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor; 2GB of 800MHz DDR 2 memory …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 14:01

  • Nvidia takes GeForce 8M laptop GPUs on the road

    Drops the 'Go'

    Nvidia has rolled out a whopping 15 laptop-centric GPUs most, but not all, based on the chip maker's eighth-generation architecture and stretching from AMD-oriented budget systems through to Intel- and AMD-based high-end rigs. The key parts are the GeForce 8400M G, GS and GT, and the 8600M GS and GT. Moving along the line, …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 14:02

  • Compost your shredded bank statements today

    A more manure approach to avoiding ID theft

    Consumers concerned about both the environment and personal security should compost their shredded bank statements, a firm that manufactures shredders advises. In the UK, local councils frequently refuse to collect and recycle shredded waste. So consumers might feel torn between protecting the environment or their own …

    ID 9 May 2007, 14:04

  • Palm punts free satnav kit to tempt new Treo buyers

    Buy a Palm Treo 680, 750 or 750v between now and 30 June and the PDA pioneer will give you a free TomTom 6 satnav package to run on it. The freebie includes a memory card that contains the TomTom Navigator 6 software and maps for your country of choice. You'll also get a Bluetooth GPS receiver, and an in-car mount and …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 14:06

  • Subbuteo comes to mobile phones

    Let your fingers do the kicking

    Selatra Games has announced the availability of Subbuteo Mobile, bringing stretched felt and little plastic men to the mobile phone with a licensed implementation of the turn-based soccer game. For anyone whose youth didn't involve flicking little models of Martin Peters, while accidentally crushing Eddie Bovington under a …

    Mobile 9 May 2007, 14:19

  • Verizon pulls sponsorship from dirty dancing singer

    Bad choice of dance partner

    US mobile operator Verizon has had a fit of moral outrage and cut sponsorship of a tour featuring R'n'B artist Akon after he dry humped a 15-year-old girl - the daughter of a preacher - on stage. Verizon had signed on to pony up for the North American lollop of bequiffed pop strumpet Gwen Stefani's world tour, where Akon was …

    Mobile 9 May 2007, 14:30

  • India acts to unravel yoga patents

    5,000 years of prior art

    The Indian government has set up a task force to create a database of yoga techniques in order to stop others from patenting the poses. The US Patent Office has granted 150 yoga-related copyrights and 2,315 yoga trademarks. The Indian government is getting old Sanskrit and Tamil texts translated and is also cataloguing …

    Law 9 May 2007, 14:35

  • Souvenir coin sparked nano spy alert

    "We haven't seen anything like it before, Jim..."

    A commemorative Canadian 25 cent coin was responsible for a US Defence Department security alert that soured relations between the US and its closest neighbour. Concerned US contractors reported that a sinister new technology had been found embedded in the coin, which were apparently of Canadian origin. One filed a report …

    Malware 9 May 2007, 14:36

  • BFG water-cools, overclocks Nvidia 8800 GTS card

    Gaming PC parts provider BFG Technologies has released a 16 per cent overclocked, water-cooled graphics card based on Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTS chip. The GPU and the 640MB of GDDR 3 memory sit under a copper heatblock through which the water is pumped from a separate piping system. The liquid provides sufficient cooling for …

    Reg Hardware 9 May 2007, 14:53

  • IBM brings Amazon to heel in patent spat

    Big Blue turns over Big Book

    IBM has buried the hatchet in its patent spat with Amazon in exchange for a wodge of cash and a cross license agreement. Big Blue kicked off the case last October, accusing the online warehouse of "willfully" violating IBM patents covering "such services as allowing users to order items from an electronic catalog and …

    Law 9 May 2007, 15:08

  • Essex University offers online degrees

    Students can stay in bed forever

    Merely missing lectures is no longer enough. From next year some students at the University of Essex will be able to graduate without ever getting out of their pyjamas - the university is offering the first complete online degree. Students will be able to join the course at several times throughout the year, and the course …

    Applications 9 May 2007, 15:15

  • UN waffles furiously on biofuels

    Bureaucrats wedge themselves on well-oiled fence

    The United Nations has produced a comprehensive report into the future of biofuels which, despite being the result of much research and consultation with all 30 of its agencies, doesn't come to a conclusion about whether biofuels will be a good thing or not. A few sample quotes from the 64-page document (pdf): "Critical …

    Science 9 May 2007, 15:21

  • Woman smuggles live budgie into Irish prison

    Going inside. Really inside

    Hard-core gangland types locked up in a maximum security Irish prison appear to have enlisted an innocent budgie smuggled snuggled in a woman visitor's, er, internal bits. According to a report on breakingnews.ie, the small live parrot was found during a routine search for smuggled goods carried out by officers at Portlaoise …

    Bootnotes 9 May 2007, 15:24

  • eBay bids for recommendation site

    Might win StumbleUpon

    eBay is close to buying recommendation website StumbleUpon.com. The site recommends websites, or rather its users do. You can browse by category or see other sites given the thumbs up by individuals. The deal is still some weeks away from completion, but a price of $75m is likely, according to Reuters. The site has plenty of …

    Financial News 9 May 2007, 15:43

  • Sun makes Hynix DRAM cartel lawsuit deadline

    Back to court we go

    Sun has made good on its promise to slap DRAM manufacturer Hynix with another price fixing lawsuit, which it made in April when a federal judge dismissed a joint complaint with Unisys. Judge Phyllis Hamilton threw out that case, ordering Sun to come up with more evidence by 4 May or quit its whinging. The IT giant went back to …

    Financial News 9 May 2007, 15:44

  • Greens demand boycott of Lockheed Martin census trial

    Births, deaths and munitions

    The Green Party has called for a boycott of the UK's 2007 census pilot because it is being run by US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Writing in the New Statesman yesterday, Green Party spokeswoman Sian Berry relayed her alarm that Lockheed, "biggest defence contractor in the world; manufacturer of land mines, depleted …

    Public Sector 9 May 2007, 15:52

  • Six in California indicted for online bank fraud

    Criminal enterprise allegedly earned $383,000 in 8 months

    Six California men accused of breaking in to online bank accounts and funneling out the proceeds have been indicted for bank and wire fraud and money laundering. The 53-count indictment could carry a sentence of as much as 30 years in prison and a fine of $1m. The defendants, all from Fresno, allegedly netted $383,000 in the …

    Crime 9 May 2007, 17:45

  • SAP snaps up OutlookSoft

    BI- bolt-on

    SAP AG is to acquire the American business intelligence software maker OutlookSoft Corporation for an undisclosed sum. Connecticut-based OutlookSoft provides financial software that includes integrated planning, budgeting, forecasting and consolidation applications to a global client-base of 700 customers. SAP will integrate …

    Applications 9 May 2007, 18:31

  • Red Hat close mouthed about open desktop service

    Summit The Vaguing Game

    Red Hat, it seems, is all about open source and closed answers. A pair of cagey executives today kicked off the company's user conference here with plenty of religious rhetoric but precious few details on product plans. The Red Hat brass – CEO Matt Szulik and CTO Brian Stevens – proved most vague around the questions of a …

    PCs & Chips 9 May 2007, 18:56

  • DRM pinches Motorola's stream

    Software 2007 And Apple dries it up

    Motorola is champing at the bit to run with mobile media, but the stables must be shoveled out first. "The technology is there," Motorola CEO Ed Zander said today, "but what has to get figured out first is DRM, security and monetization." In his keynote speech at the Software 2007 conference in Santa Clara, Zander spoke of the …

    Mobile 9 May 2007, 19:03

  • Mobilise those old applications

    Data2go's Rapport makes move to mobile easy

    Turning old business applications into shiny new mobile ones just got easier, according to Data2go, a UK software tools builder. Its Rapport development environment, which received full Microsoft product certification last week, enables developers to re-cast existing business applications for the mobile age. "The main …

    Developer 9 May 2007, 19:32

  • Red Hat crafts new OS for the small and poor

    Summit It's Global in a non-global sense

    Between 9 a.m. and noon, Red Hat developed a new desktop operating system strategy. CEO Matthew Szulik and CTO Brain Stevens spent much of their morning time in front of Red Hat Summit attendees here dropping vague hints about a new desktop OS. The executives, however, refused to answer any specific questions. Instead, they …

    Operating Systems 9 May 2007, 20:44

  • Death of a toasted sandwich salesman

    Quiznos takes on franchisee gripe site

    A federal judge in Denver, Colorado last week upheld a temporary injunction against American sandwich chain Quiznos, thereby allowing the case to proceed to trial, the Denver Post has reported. Quiznos had sought to strip eight franchisees of their franchises after a franchisee gripe site posted the suicide note of a Quiznos …

    Law 9 May 2007, 21:09

  • Oracle talks open source unto Java

    JavaOne All for one

    Oracle has played up its open source credentials with technologies to simplify Java development. It is also making ommunity donations to advance its middleware and tools for online services. The database giant today announced a set of 80-plus AJAX components that provide data binding between Java and things like IM, email, …

    Developer 9 May 2007, 21:16

  • Supermicro grunts out solid Q3

    Falling margins, rising profit

    Supermicro bucked some of the doom and gloom surrounding the low-cost server market by turning in a solid third quarter. Fresh off a March IPO, Supermicro revealed Q3 revenue of $106m – a 39 per cent rise over the same period last year. The company's net income came in at $4.1m, which compares to $3.6m during last year's …

    Channel Register 9 May 2007, 21:47

  • Microsoft takes stake in CareerBuilder

    Job Fare

    Microsoft has bougth a four per cent stake in CareerBuilder, the US online job site, but it isn't saying how much, if anything, it is paying. In return, Microsoft is extending CareerBuilder's tenure at MSN, making it the exclusive supplier for the US jobs channel until 2013. Microsoft will also start rolling out CareerBuilder- …

    Financial News 9 May 2007, 22:30

  • Red Hat CEO deaf to VMware's giant sucking sound

    Summit They make how much money?

    Red Hat's CEO Matt Szulik bombed us into a state of confusion today with some curious statements around the server virtualization market. First off, Szulik admitted to keeping a not so watchful eye on server virtualization leader VMware. During an interview session with reporters, we pointed out that VMware brings in more money …

    Servers 9 May 2007, 23:48