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15th May 2007 Archive

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  • How Google translates without understanding

    Column Most of the right words, in mostly the right order

    After just a couple years of practice, Google can claim to produce the best computer-generated language translations in the world - in languages their boffin creators don't even understand. Last summer, Google took top honors at a bake-off competition sponsored by the American agency NIST between machine-translation engines, …

    Applications 15 May 2007, 00:23

  • NetApp offers de-dupes with less hoops

    Releases A-SIS as stand-alone offering

    Network Appliance will soon be offering its data de-duplication technology for corporate storage systems, regardless of the data management software being used. NetApp Advanced Single Instance Storage (A-SIS) software will allow block-level de-duplication for NearStore R200 and FAS storage systems. Previously A-SIS has only …

    Channel Register 15 May 2007, 00:41

  • No end in sight for Vista's Long Goodbye

    Looking for yet another reason to hold off buying Vista? Read on

    Seven weeks ago, when we first reported Vista was causing many machines to stall indefinitely while deleting, copying and moving files, we were sure the problem was caused by a bug that would be fixed relatively quickly. After all, Vista is Microsoft's flagship product. It's also an operating system. And everyone knows deleting …

    Operating Systems 15 May 2007, 00:49

  • Space Shuttle slated for early morning roll call

    Atlantis back on track

    NASA has nearly completed repairs to the space shuttle Atlantis' tank, which took a battering in a hailstorm earlier this year. Space Program managers are so pleased with the progress that they have decided to roll the shuttle back out in preparation for its eventual launch. All being well, the craft will start its journey at …

    Space 15 May 2007, 01:17

  • Info Commissioner audits HBOS

    Investigation into binned bank statements underway

    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is conducting an audit of Halifax Bank of Scotland's (HBOS) data security procedures after it was revealed that the bank was putting customers' financial documents in ordinary bins. The act, uncovered by the BBC's Watchdog programme, is in breach of an undertaking to the ICO signed by …

    Security 15 May 2007, 06:02

  • OGC claims e-auction success

    50% savings for councils and NHS trusts

    The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has reported that a group of councils and NHS trusts saved almost 50 per cent of the previous cost of IT hardware in an electronic auction. The 14 local authorities and six health trusts spent £6.9m on six lots benchmarked at £13.7m in an auction taking place on 10 May. It was the …

    Public Sector 15 May 2007, 07:02

  • Yes! It's the jellybean USB Flash drive

    Definitely an add-on to keep well away from young kids, it's the jelly bean USB Flash drive from Hong Kong-based Brando - though the company reckons its more like a pill than a sweetie. Available in a choice of red, yellow or green, the 2GB drive measures roughly 6.5 x 2 x 2cm. Brando wants $35 (£26/€18) a pill, so buying …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 07:47

  • Green issues overlooked in IT procurement, survey says

    Green evangelism not translating into action

    Most large companies ignore environmental issues when buying IT solutions, according to research. While 85 per cent of IT buyers say green factors are important in planning IT operations, only 25 per cent have written green criteria into their puchasing processes. The findings from Forrester Research are based on a survey of …

    IT Director 15 May 2007, 08:02

  • Surveillance state can't monitor itself, says US

    Chertoff questions legal traditions

    It would be impractical for the US to monitor how its border guards use the massive databases it is building on European citizens, US Homeland Security Security secretary Michael Chertoff told the European Parliament yesterday. Answering questions before an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil …

    Government 15 May 2007, 08:10

  • Acer turns to nature to inspire Aspire

    A gem of a machine?

    Acer yesterday parted the seas to reveal the first of a new line of "nature inspired" consumer-friendly laptops, the Aspire 5920 with its "gemstone" design, a curvy casing with a pebble-like shine. Under the hood, the 5920 range packs in Intel's 'Santa Rosa' Centrino Duo platform. The series includes a variety of Core 2 Duo …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 08:58

  • The Semantic Web comes to ApacheCon

    Column Themes du jour

    As the latest ApacheCon conference in Amsterdam fades into memory, I take a moment to ponder the themes discussed. As ever, there was a combination of tutorials, talks, social events, general discussion, and of course the Hackathon (which I was, alas, unable to attend). And, as always, the topics encompassed both techie areas …

    Developer 15 May 2007, 09:02

  • Dataupia: a utopian vision for databases?

    MPP offering could give vendors no place to hide

    Over the course of the last few months I have written a couple of times speculating on the development of appliances that might be more generally deployed than the very specific products we have seen to date. In particular, in my last article on this subject I discussed the scope for improving the performance of merchant …

    Servers 15 May 2007, 09:13

  • Intel to revamp Core 2 Duo processors on 22 July?

    Price cuts on same the day, it seems

    Intel's next big round of desktop price cuts will come on 22 July, a day that will see the debut of revamped Core 2 Duo processors and a faster four-core Core 2 Quad, it has been claimed. A report on Chinese-language site HKEPC, citing motherboard-maker sources, claims the 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700 will go on sale on 22 July …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 09:24

  • PePWave links LANs to city Wi-Fi

    Extending the reach of public wireless mesh nets

    Hong Kong-based Wi-Fi developer PePWave claims that its two new pieces of hardware will enable service providers to cover areas they couldn't cover before because of access control and cost issues. The first is Mesh Connector - a Wi-Fi repeater system which extends the coverage of a public mesh but is cheaper than doing it …

    Telecoms 15 May 2007, 09:39

  • Cluster spies reformed shock wave

    Straightened up, and flying right

    Twenty years ago, physicist Vladimir Krasnoselskikh predicted that the Earth's bow shock wave, formed by the solar wind building up against our magnetosphere, would break and reform, just as waves on the ocean do. Now, researchers using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Cluster constellation think they have seen the phenomenon …

    Space 15 May 2007, 09:43

  • Walruses shake off Danish migrant-watchers

    Plucky creatures escape satnav tags implanted 'for their own good'

    A plan to monitor Atlantic walruses using satnav bugs shot into their hides from crossbows or CO2 guns has run into trouble. A Danish research team fired tags into 10 walruses off the Greenland coast just over a month ago. Dr Erik Born, leader of the walrus-tagging team, said the project was intended to monitor the animals' …

    Biology 15 May 2007, 09:45

  • Fujitsu roadmaps slimline laptop HDD

    Fujitsu will bring to market an slimline 250GB hard drive for notebooks sometime in July, August or September, it announced today. What counts as slim? According to Fujitsu, something that's 9.5mm thick. The hard drive maker already offers 2.5in products - the standard form-factor for laptop drives - that are that thick but …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 09:50

  • Devon villagers chip in for mobile coverage platform

    'Hello, I'm on the pedestal'

    Community leaders in a south Devon village are planning to build a concrete platform so those wanting to use their mobile phones can climb up and use it to pick up a network signal. The 200 residents of East Prawle can't get coverage from any of the mobile phone networks. But after a holidaymaker discovered that an Orange …

    Mobile 15 May 2007, 10:24

  • Spammers stuff PlusNet email accounts (again)

    New email platform fails to stop the rot

    Gaffe-prone ISP PlusNet has had its email database stolen and its users' accounts bombarded by spammers. The attack first surfaced yesterday, when PlusNet punters reported that previously spam-free email addresses were being filled with unsolicited discount pharmacy marketing. Some forum posters report that a few of their …

    Enterprise Security 15 May 2007, 10:38

  • Gone in 120 seconds: cracking Wi-Fi security

    Interview WEP is dead

    WEP is dead - and here's the proof. Cracking the Wi-Fi security protocol WEP is a probability game. The number of packets required to successfully decrypt the key depends on various factors, luck included. When WEP was compromised in 2001, the attack needed more than five million packets to succeed. During the summer of 2004 …

    Security 15 May 2007, 10:48

  • Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB external hard drive

    Review As capacious as an elephant's scrotum - and as visually appealing?

    You can go too far to be consumer friendly. Making a device straightforward to set up and get running with some clear, simple guidance is all very well, but it's easy to overdo it and come across chirpy and brainless. Seagate has come perilously close with its FreeAgent Pro external hard drive. Seagate clearly believes …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 11:02

  • Immigrant data protected from EU police

    World's largest biometric database on the off

    The European Parliament voted last night to build the world's largest biometric database, but only after ensuring that the police would not have free access to it. The Visa Information System (VIS), which the European Commission has already started building, is expected to record the fingerprints and mugshots of 20 million visa …

    Government 15 May 2007, 11:23

  • Software piracy rates remain stubbornly stuck

    BSA calls for bigger stick to beat pirates

    Use of unlicensed software by UK businesses remains stuck at around 27 per cent, according to the latest study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Worldwide piracy rates are also steady at a higher rate of 35 per cent. UK figures have remained the same for the last three years prompting the BSA to call for tougher …

    Enterprise Security 15 May 2007, 11:26

  • Sacred blogging bovine turns camgirl in sympathy push

    Desperate measures to avoid DEFRA death warrant

    Hindu monks campaigning to save a sacred bull from being slaughtered under animal health regulations have ramped their media push up a notch. "Shambo", a temple bull residing at the Skanda Vale Monastery in Carmarthenshire, now has his own webcam, dubbed "MooTube". This joins an online petition and a sort of bovine blog, in …

    Biology 15 May 2007, 11:30

  • Gloves come off in George Bush buttplug rumpus

    NSFW Litigation likely in anal copyright scrap

    There's nothing our American cousins like more than a bit of light litigation, and it appears that two US websites are about to unleash the lawyers in an unholy scrap over copyright on a rubber George Bush figurine which disgruntled Democrats can stick where the sun don't shine. Indeed, those among you who might think there's a …

    Bootnotes 15 May 2007, 11:33

  • Shaken student recounts geese mugging ordeal

    Relieved of mobile by anserine ne'er-do-wells

    A traumatised law student has joined the swelling ranks of those mugged for their mobiles after being relieved of his phone in a mob-handed anserine attack, The Sun reports. Four geese set about Sam Rozati, 23, as he walked past their nest in Colchester. During the brutal attack they "pecked so hard he dropped his phone", …

    Biology 15 May 2007, 12:53

  • Pipex to shutter UK Bulldog call centres

    Updated: More customer service cutbacks

    Struggling ISP Pipex is closing UK call centres serving subscribers to Bulldog, the broadband provider it bought from Cable and Wireless last year. Staff at Bulldog's UK outsourcers were told last week their services will no longer be needed in 90 days' time. Last month, we revealed that Pipex would be cutting back its in-house …

    Telecoms 15 May 2007, 12:56

  • BBC culls Jam staff

    Suspended education portal expels 200

    The BBC will cut all staff posts at its suspended online education portal, BBC Jam. Around 200 job slots will disappear. The free-at-point-of-use service, which had an annual budget of £150m, was suspended in March after unidentified private education providers complained to the EU that the Beeb was damaging their market. At …

    Financial News 15 May 2007, 13:04

  • Amazon.com snaps up Dpreview.com

    Digital photography site joins ecommerce giant

    Ecommerce behemoth Amazon.com went shopping itself on Monday with the acquisition of UK-based digital photography review site dpreview.com for an undisclosed amount. Dpreview.com, founded in 1998 by Phil Askey, offers unbiased, technical reviews of digital cameras and accessories alongside discussion forums, buyers' guides, a …

    Financial News 15 May 2007, 13:07

  • Scottish coppers ask bosses to drop trousers

    New strides are pants, claim disgruntled officers

    Scottish police officers are not best pleased with their new "uncomfortable" and "ill-fitting" crime-busting trousers, The Scotsman reports. The offending "cargo-style" strides have been deployed across Caledonia as part of a "multi-million pound deal...signed with a Leicestershire company to supply around 30,000 pairs of …

    Bootnotes 15 May 2007, 13:09

  • Bloggers are crap, declares Blooker Prize judge

    Winner 'a tiny island of talent in foam-flecked sea'

    The Blooker Prize for books which began life as online ramblings has been won by My War: Killing Time in Iraq, by Colby Buzzell. Buzzell began blogging during a 2004 combat tour in Iraq with the US Army, which he had joined at 26 after tiring of "doing data entry for twelve bucks an hour" and living on pot noodles. Life as a …

    Music and Media 15 May 2007, 13:23

  • BBC flashes Kylie Minogue's minge at innocent kiddies

    Aussie superstar genitalia outrage

    We're obliged today to the concerned Reg readers* who alerted us to the latest example of why licence-fee-driven TV is nothing more than a vehicle to punt pornography to impressionable minds who might otherwise be out riding their bikes and playing conkers: For the record, this scandalous renaming of Oz's highly-talented …

    Music and Media 15 May 2007, 13:27

  • Alcatel looks forward to retro-styled 'vintage' slider

    Alcatel Mobile Phones' latest offering may not appeal to phone fans looking for the latest technology, but it looks a solid enough handset for consumers with more modest needs. Dubbed the OT-C825 Vintage Slider, it's anything but old fashioned: the handset has dedicated music playback keys; a 176 x200, 262,144-colour …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 13:34

  • Useless government IT adds self-nomination features

    And all shall have prizes...

    Although the New Statesman magazine's annual New Media Awards (NMA) don't quite match up to the EFF's annual Nepotism Award - nothing quite does - they're still a rich source of humour and embarrassment. Getting an NMA is the equivalent of getting an orange at half time from the coach of your village football team, just for …

    Government 15 May 2007, 13:47

  • Making Java Groovy

    It's Ruby, and then some

    It is increasingly important to differentiate between Java the programming language and Java the platform. While there have long been other languages that have targeted the platform, the best known being Jython – a version of the Python language that compiled down to Java byte code to be executed by the Java Virtual Machine ( …

    Developer 15 May 2007, 13:59

  • Apple tweaks MacBook specs

    802.11n now a feature not an upgrade

    Apple has updated its MacBook line of consumer computers, upping the processor specifications, setting the base-line memory configuration to 1GB and making 802.11n wireless networking a feature rather than an upgrade. As before, there are three models: two white and one black. All three sport a 13.3in, 1280 x 800 glossy …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 14:16

  • Wacom out to plant Bamboo on consumers' desktops

    Tablets aren't just for digital artists and graphics pros, you know. So tablet maker Wacom would have us believe, and it's made Bamboo just to show us. Priced at a mere £70, Bamboo comes in a stylish black look and combines the traditional pad and 512-pressure level stylus with a set of custom-function keys for quick access …

    Reg Hardware 15 May 2007, 14:46

  • UK gov mulls prison for those employing illegal immigrants

    And biometric checks a possibility

    The UK government is considering increasing fines and introducing prison sentences to encourage employers to act as immigration police on their own staff. The Home Office published a consultation paper (21 page pdf) on its plans today, inviting comment on its proposed system of penalties. The penalties were attached to a …

    Law 15 May 2007, 15:02

  • NASA moon-dirt robodigger compo ends in chaos

    'Regolith simulant' defeats all contenders

    A NASA competition between robots designed to shovel up moon dirt has ended in failure. The "Regolith Excavation Challenge" is intended to "promote the development of new technologies to excavate lunar regolith" - that is, to dig moon dirt. The California Space Authority, which ran the competition for NASA, said: "Excavation …

    Space 15 May 2007, 15:39

  • Captain Cyborg pushes kid chipping via Maddy abduction case

    'It would not be difficult'

    It is with heavy heart and grim sense of inevitability that The Register and its long-time readers note the attachment of the Captain Cyborg agenda to the McCann abduction investigation. Under the headline "Would an implanted chip help to keep my child safe?", The Times reports that laughable Reading University Professor Kevin …

    Bootnotes 15 May 2007, 15:54

  • Amazon 'misled Congress' over 1-Click patent

    Kept Mum about vital rejection

    When Amazon.com's chief lobbyist testified before Congress in June last year, he made a bold claim. Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for global public policy, was presenting evidence to the House subcommittee that looks at internet law, and the subject was something Amazon should know something about: "patent trolls". Pre …

    Law 15 May 2007, 16:06

  • Hewitt ditches online job applications for doctors

    Stethoscopes raised in joy across the land

    Widely loved and respected health secretary Patricia Hewitt has been forced to ditch the online job application system for junior doctors, the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). Hewitt said that the first round of applications made through the system will stand - job offers should be out to candidates in the next few …

    Government 15 May 2007, 16:17

  • Former Oracle VP pays $200K to settle insider dealing rap

    Pillow Talk

    A former Oracle vice-president has stumped up $200,000 to settle insider trading charges. Christopher Balkenhol, 40, of San Mateo, California, allegedly learned about secret merger negotiations from his wife, the lead executive assistant to Oracle chief exec Larry Ellison and two co-presidents, before buying stocks in Oracle …

    Channel Register 15 May 2007, 17:02

  • Sun warns Microsoft - 'You'd be wise to listen to your customers'

    Lessons learned the hard way

    Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has blunted whatever public niceties existed between his company and Microsoft with a revealing attack on Redmond's lawsuit threats around open source software. In his post, Schwartz recounts struggles to deal with defectors from Sun's Solaris operating system to the open source Linux. " …

    Operating Systems 15 May 2007, 17:03

  • Fox releases hounds over O.J. Simpsons spoof

    Fair use defence

    Fox has cried foul at a parody of The Simpsons that stars acquitted murder suspect O.J. instead of loveable lazybones Homer. The O.J. Simpsons puts the sometime star of the Naked Gun series as a character in a series of three animated clips published by Broadcaster.com. Fox has released its legal hounds to get the clips pulled …

    Law 15 May 2007, 17:46

  • SAP and Novell cosy up on support

    Mutual assistance

    SAP and Novell have expanded their relationship in a deal expected to benefit both companies attract and retain cost-conscious enterprise customers. The companies have signed a support and development agreement in a move that sees Novell subsidiary SUSE provide priority support for SAP users through the SAP Solution Manager …

    Applications 15 May 2007, 18:06

  • Force10 barks at Cisco's Cat 4500

    New midrange chassis offers Cat 6500 performance at Cat 4500 price

    Force10 Networks has introduced a midrange chassis switch, called the C300, which it is pitching against Cisco's popular Catalyst 4500. The C300 is in effect a cut-down version of Force10's high-end Terascale E-series, but with many of the same high reliability features, such as the same modular FTOS operating system and the …

    Data Networking 15 May 2007, 18:07

  • SF Wi-Fi plan with Google and Earthlink shelved until July

    Analysis Concerns over quality and privacy not going away

    San Francisco's plan to tap the resources of Google and EarthLink to blanket the city with free, sluggish Wi-Fi has faced another delay, as members of the Budget and Finance Committee voted to postpone proceedings until July 11. Since it was finalized in January, the plan has sharply divided San Francisco's elected officials. …

    Telecoms 15 May 2007, 18:10

  • Vista goes gangbusters

    40 mil and counting

    Windows Vista is out-shipping Windows XP, with 40 million copies hitting the streets so far, Bill Gates told hardware engineers today. Opening Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference (WinHEC) extravaganza in Los Angeles, Gates claimed Windows Vista is shipping twice as fast as Windows XP, the operating …

    Channel Register 15 May 2007, 18:45

  • Start-up piggybacks on flat panel TVs for solar sell

    Cheap energy, less brain rot

    Thanks to Al Gore's blow hard proficiency and government subsidies purchasing the raw materials needed to harness solar power proves more expensive than buying black market kidneys. So, a Silicon Valley start-up has stepped in hoping to reduce the cost of solar energy by tapping the manufacturing know-how behind flat panel TVs …

    PCs & Chips 15 May 2007, 19:48

  • US seeks to criminalize 'attempted' piracy

    You don't have to be good at it to be a criminal

    The US Department of Justice is proposing stiffer penalties for software copyright violators, such as the criminalization of "attempted" piracy and foregoing the necessity of patent registration before prosecution. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales submitted the "Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007" to the coalition …

    Law 15 May 2007, 20:37

  • Half of stored files will never be accessed

    Waste of space

    Research released Tuesday by email archiving firm Waterford Technologies has shown that over 50 per cent of files stored by companies are never accessed again. The figures highlight the growing - and often unnecessary - cost of storage for firms, according to Gary Cosgrave, sales director of Waterford Technologies, a provider …

    Storage 15 May 2007, 20:41

  • IBM courier crashes. Sensitive tapes go AWOL

    Can we have them back, please

    Add IBM to the growing list of ostensibly tech-savvy organizations that has been bitten by its failure to encrypt sensitive information. A company spokesman has confirmed that computer tapes containing personal information on former employees has gone missing. An outside vendor was transporting them from one IBM facility to …

    Enterprise Security 15 May 2007, 21:56

  • Torvalds weighs in on Microsoft's patent dance

    Nyaah, nyaah, nyaah

    Linus Torvalds has reportedly piled into Microsoft after its senior legal eagle after claimed the Linux operating system violates hundreds of the company's patents. Torvalds, the Linux trademark holder, told InformationWeek's Charlie Babcock it's more likely Microsoft is a violator of patents given most work on operating …

    Operating Systems 15 May 2007, 23:28

  • Alcatel-Lucent wants more Microsoft money

    $1.5bn is so two years ago

    Alcatel-Lucent is not satisfied with the $1.5bn Microsoft has been ordered to pay for violating two MP3 patents, and is seeking additional damages. Alcatel-Lucent claims damages awarded by a San Diego US District Court in February only cover the bill for patent infringements through November 2005. The company seeks a recount …

    Channel Register 15 May 2007, 23:41