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14th June 2007 Archive

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  • Blog calls for Google boycott

    More than 50 people obey

    Yesterday, Michael VandeMar tried to go eighteen hours without visiting the big five search engines. Taking up a challenge from search engine guru Charles Knight, he’d resolved to avoid Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com, and AOL from 6am to midnight. By 9:53, he’d given up. “Bah!” he wrote to Knight’s Alt Search Engines blog. “I blew …

    Applications 14 Jun 2007, 00:44

  • Linspire invites dirty uncle Microsoft over for patent party

    Let Lindows be Lindows

    When not threatening to sue Linux makers, Microsoft can't help itself from partnering with them. Redmond today announced a buddy-buddy deal with desktop Linux maker Linspire. We'd call it a stretch to say that anyone cares about the technical details behind the Microsoft-Linspire tie-up, but that would send a handful of …

    Operating Systems 14 Jun 2007, 06:24

  • OGCbs launches IT legal service contract

    Aims for savings and greater accessibility

    OGCbuying.solutions has set up a legal services framework for IT business. It announced the new arrangement as part of a wider framework of legal services. It projected that the categories would be worth £240m over their four year lifetime. The categories were developed by OGCbs and the Treasury Solicitors Department and are …

    Public Sector 14 Jun 2007, 08:59

  • Red hair bullying cases could end up in court

    'Gingerism' the grounds for constructive dismissal

    Gingerism in the workplace could form the basis of formal grievances or constructive dismissal cases, an employment lawyer has warned. The news comes in the wake of one Newcastle family having to move house because of abuse about its members' red hair. The Chapman family has moved home three times in three years in the …

    Business 14 Jun 2007, 09:03

  • Jet-powered go-kart roars onto eBay

    MOT, tax, afterburner, one careful owner

    Those of you with a need for speed may be interested in this eBay auction which is offering "for the price of a sports motorcycle" a jet-powered go-kart guaranteed to attract all the right kind of attention: UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY - A GAS TURBINE (JET ENGINE) POWERED GO KART WITH AFTERBURNER/REHEAT. This kart is the result of …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2007, 09:05

  • Boffin retracts martian water claims

    No puddles on Mars, after all

    Gosh darn it, there are no puddles on Mars after all. The researcher responsible for announcing the discovery of standing water on the Martian surface has retracted his claims (see full piece on New Scientist's news blog), after readers of the August publication pointed out that the spot the "water" was standing on was not flat …

    Space 14 Jun 2007, 09:06

  • Sony shows 17-in-1 memory card reader

    Got lots of memory cards you need to connect to your computer? Sony's new MRW62E S1/171 - what a mouthful - lets you plug in 17 different types of memory card, including all of its Memory Stick varieties. Sony's 17-in-1 card reader: small box, many formats The unit's ready to use: just plug in into a spare USB 2.0 port and …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 09:10

  • Intel 45nm Core 2 Extreme roadmapped

    Intel's next Core 2 Extreme quad-core gaming processor, the QX6850, may be expected to make its entrance in Q3, but the chip giant's roadmap has apparently begun showing the new product's 45nm successor. Details remain scarce, but since the upcoming QX6850 is set to run at 3GHz on a 1333MHz frontside bus and pack in a total …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 09:24

  • Free ads site could help fraudsters recruit middlemen

    Saddling up money mules

    Popular UK-based free ads website Adzooks is inadvertently helping fraudsters by failing to properly screen job offers for obvious cons, anti-fraud activists have warned. Ads which offer easy money working from home are often actually attempts to recruiting phishing mules, says Early Warning. Typically, the fraudsters behind …

    Security 14 Jun 2007, 09:32

  • Qualcomm appeals phone ban in patent spat

    ITC blocks import of 'patent infringing' chips

    Chipmaker Qualcomm has appealed against a ban that could block over four million phones from entering the US market. The ban was announced by the International Trade Commission (ITC) and is the result of a long running patent dispute. The ITC said it was banning the import of phones which use Qualcomm chips that it said …

    Law 14 Jun 2007, 09:34

  • ExpressCard 34 digital TV tuners debut in Japan

    Travelling to Japan with your ExpressCard-equipped notebook? Then you may care to sample the delights of the nation's bizarre - by Western standards - telly programming with local supplier Sanwa's new ExpressCard 34 digital TV tuners. Sanwa's ExpressCard Japanese TV tuners for Mac (left) and Windows Sanwa today launched …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 09:51

  • Data retention laws do not cover Google searches

    Directive does not apply to search engines

    Google is not bound by the Data Retention Directive when it comes to search engine logs, Europe's data protection committee has said. Google has used the Directive to justify keeping data, but OUT-LAW has learned that the law does not apply. Google has come under increasing pressure in Europe to anonymise its server data, but …

    Law 14 Jun 2007, 10:02

  • SOA - dead or alive?

    Comment Can it deliver on its promises?

    Service oriented architectures, or SOAs, have been positioned as the great leap forwards in how IT will finally come to be the major facilitator to the business. However, uptake around the world remains mixed, and the levels of understanding that Quocirca finds in organisations as to what constitutes an SOA remains relatively …

    Applications 14 Jun 2007, 10:23

  • Europa heralds total Eclipse

    Mass Eclipse release on 29 June

    The deadline for the biggest ever synchronised release of open software is looming. On 29 June, the long-awaited Europarelease from the Eclipse Foundation will see updates in 20 categories of Eclipse open software. The unprecedented release covers around 30 separate components - with several making their public début. At the …

    Developer 14 Jun 2007, 10:29

  • Chinese net addict murders mother

    Refused cash for cybercafe

    A southern Chinese teenager killed his mother with a kitchen knife after being refused cash to go to a net cafe, Reuters reports. The youth, named only as Wang and described as "heavily addicted" to the internet, stabbed his mother during "a heated argument" in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, according to the Beijing …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2007, 10:30

  • Fat chips reduced to small fries

    Semiconductor biz feels the pinch as growth falls

    Chipmakers have fired off a warning that they expect to see the semiconductor industry slow with a predicted sales growth of less than two per cent this year. The grave assessment issued by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has been pushed down from an original forecast of 10 per cent microchip sales growth for 2007 …

    Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 10:46

  • Space boffins fire up plasma engine

    Four hour run for experimental tech

    Costa Rica-based scientists from the Ad Astra Rocket Company have run a Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine continuously for over four hours, thereby setting a new record for the tech. The company, headed by Costa Rica-born former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, told Reuters yesterday it hopes the …

    Space 14 Jun 2007, 10:49

  • Biostar debuts double-the-memory GeForce 8600 GTS card

    Updated World first, firm claims

    Mobo maker Biostar has launched what it claims is the first Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS-based graphics cards fitted with 512MB of GDDR 3 memory. Interesting, particularly since Nvidia states the 8600 GTS only supports 256MB of memory... Biostar's Sigma Gate V8604TS51: double the memory of other 8600 GTS-based cards Biostar's …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 11:03

  • Headless zombie wanders San Francisco

    Street View decapitation shocker

    Since western businesses have already lost an estimated five billion working hours to Google Maps' Street View facility, as employees eschew their duties to scour the US's highways and byways for hot Las Vegas babes and fag-puffing lawyers, it should come as no surprise that it didn't take them long to find the first evidence of …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2007, 11:18

  • NSF launches oceanic zest test

    Buoy to monitor CO2 absorption

    The first ever system designed specifically to measure the acid levels in the oceans was launched this week. The project, funded by the US's National Science Foundation (NSF), aims to determine how much CO2 the Pacific Ocean absorbs each year. Steven Emerson of the University of Washington, the project's lead scientist, …

    Biology 14 Jun 2007, 11:20

  • Orange goes green for festival phone-fuelling

    Wind-powered charger prototyped

    Eco-warriors planning to head down to the Glastonbury mud festival - sorry, music festival - later this month will be able to re-charge their mobile phones in an almost entirely carbon-neutral fashion. Orange's wind-powered phone charger: UK climate friendly Orange today launched a prototype wind-powered charger capable …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 11:28

  • Acer outlook not so sunny after all

    Fingers lack of Vista demand

    Acer has scaled back its expectations in the PC market after an optimistic forecast earlier this year. It blamed Microsoft for failing to push up demand for its latest operating system, Vista. Acer, which was recently ranked by Gartner as the third largest PC vendor behind Hewlett Packard and Dell, said it now expects sales …

    Channel Register 14 Jun 2007, 12:12

  • MusicStation's on-demand radio goes live

    World+dog gangs up on Apple

    MusicStation, the service that aims to give unlimited mobile access to music worldwide for a small weekly fee, finally went live today. The success of the venture, from British start-up Omnifone, will tell us a lot about whether punters are prepared to pay for digital music, rather than scoop it up for free. MusicStation is a …

    Mobile 14 Jun 2007, 12:16

  • Plazes launches location-based blather

    Share where you are, as well as what you're doing

    The Twitter generation can now go beyond telling the world what they're doing, and can now tell the world where they're doing it - though whether the world cares is open to question. Plazes provides the kind of short-message updates familiar to Twitter users, but also links them to a specific place, allowing other Plazes users …

    Mobile 14 Jun 2007, 12:18

  • AMD workstation market share plunges

    Pressure on to get 'Barcelona' out

    Intel has recaptured all the market share it lost to AMD last year during the two rival chip makers' battle for supremacy in the Windows workstation arena, the latest market stats show. According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), AMD's share of the two-socket workstation market slid to just eight per cent during Q1 2007, leaving …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 12:54

  • IT's green dilemma: plant trees or chill your cheeks

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

    We start this week in a green frame mind. Some people - Kermit the Frog, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra think "it's not easy being green" - but the computer industry is doing its best to get us all involved. Intel and Google unveiled the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and got a wide range of hardware and software vendors …

    Channel Register 14 Jun 2007, 13:18

  • BBC, ITV, Channel 4 plot single broadband TV player

    Project Kangaroo is go

    The UK's terrestrial broadcasters are reportedly in talks to establish a single platform for on-demand TV to broadband devices. The BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 are said to be aiming to create a "one-stop shop", open to other channels too, which would allow legal broadband viewing from one programme. According to The Guardian, the …

    Music and Media 14 Jun 2007, 13:42

  • Toxic caterpillars invade London

    Oaks attacked by wannabe procession moths

    Caterpillars of the oak procession moth are attempting to gain a foothold in London, the Telegraph reports. As we recently reported, the Belgian army is battling a horde of the Thaumetopoea processionea caterpillars in the country's eastern province of Limburg. The species has spread in recent years from its origins in central …

    Biology 14 Jun 2007, 13:46

  • Pfizer worker data leaked via P2P

    Privacy cock-up for Viagra makers

    Casual use of file sharing by the spouse of an unnamed Pfizer worker has been blamed for leaking personal information on more than 17,000 current and former employees at the pharmaceutical giant. Unauthorised installation of a P2P package on a company laptop led to the exposure of worker data, presumably after a directory …

    Enterprise Security 14 Jun 2007, 13:48

  • Coming soon: the PC-powered paper shredder

    We're not sure how many important documents with fit into the 12.3cm maw of Hong Kong-based Brando's latest USB gadget, a handheld electric paper shredder, but it'll do fold magazine covers if a video on the firm's website is anything to go by. Brando USB shredder: slice of life However, there's something appealing about …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 13:57

  • O2 unwraps Cocoon music phone

    Updated Silky smooth

    Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome the O2 Cocoon, the mobile phone network's latest 3G media phone with a stylish white clamshell casing that manages to look cool without aping the iPod. Closed, the 114g Cocoon has a set of music playback controls running down its blacked-shaded side ready to set it pumping out …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 14:23

  • Specsavers opens eyes to open source

    Is the bottom line better with or without? With or without?

    Specsavers, the retail chain of opticians, is putting the finishing touches to an IT refit of its UK operation that has seen it move a third of its applications to open source software. The group is making the same transition across all eight countries in which it operates in order to save money and hassle. Key to the move is …

    IT Director 14 Jun 2007, 14:31

  • Computer crash causes bad attitude on ISS

    Altitude control also offline

    The International Space Station (ISS) has an attitude problem. A computer system wipe-out means the space station is currently depending on the docked space shuttle Atlantis to keep it pointing in the right direction. More worryingly, in the long term, the dead computers also control the station's altitude, oxygen, and water …

    Space 14 Jun 2007, 14:34

  • Samsung makes big noise about skinny music player

    Samsung has launched a skinny, stick-like digital music player that squeezes in touch-sensitive controls, 128 x 64 OLED screen and a retractable slimline USB connector. Samsung's U3: bubblegum pop preferred? Dubbed the U3, the player contains up to 4GB of song storage, though there's an FM radio on board if you tire of …

    Reg Hardware 14 Jun 2007, 15:01

  • iSoft takeover likely in days, not weeks

    CSC considers its options

    The takeover of iSoft by Aussie firm IBA Health is likely to go ahead. IBA Health today released a Scheme of Arrangement detailing how the takeover would happen. Richard Granger, chief executive of Connecting for Health, the government body responsible for the National Programme for IT, reckons the deal could go through …

    Channel Register 14 Jun 2007, 15:02

  • Louisiana town outlaws 'sagging pants'

    Flash underwear, cop fine

    A Louisiana town council has unanimously passed an ordinance aimed at tackling the public decency menace of low-slung trousers. Delcambre Mayor Carol Broussard, earlier this week confirmed he will sign the proposal "to make wearing saggy trousers an act of indecent exposure", the BBC reports. He said: "If you expose your …

    Bootnotes 14 Jun 2007, 15:08

  • French-led continental stealth-bomber robot firms up

    No German input: could need a surrender button

    The killer-robot revolution, that 21st-century military phenomenon*, has so far been centred mainly in America, with other industrial nations like the UK trailing behind. But continental Europe is determined not to be left out, and the French-led flying-killbot demonstrator project has just passed an important milestone. Two …

    Science 14 Jun 2007, 15:49

  • London gains lead in transatlantic battle for Wi-Fi supremacy

    Overtakes NYC as headache capital of the world

    London's economic frothiness has won it the title of Wi-Fi capital of the world, in news which is sure to terrify Notting Hill's designer tinfoil hat Earth mother brigade. For the first time, London has overtaken New York for hotspot numbers, according to RSA's annual survey. The UK capital clocked up 7,130 Wi-Fi networks in …

    Wireless 14 Jun 2007, 15:54

  • HP injects blade PCs with fresh Athlons

    The un-PC dream lives

    HP has delivered a much needed refresh to its blade PC product line, upgrading the hardware and graphics performance of the systems. HP released its last batch of Consolidated Client Infrastructure (CCI) gear way back in Nov. of 2005. The big transition taking place then was a shift from Transmeta-based systems to Athlon-based …

    Channel Register 14 Jun 2007, 15:57

  • Data modelling layers: do you wanna get logical or physical

    Interview An introduction to data models

    In the bad old days we used to progress from "current physical" to "current logical" models. We then used to transform the "current logical" to the "new logical" – and about then the deadline cut in and we scurried about hacking the code for the new system which is about as "new physical" as you can get. No wonder the agile …

    Developer 14 Jun 2007, 16:06

  • London out paces NY as global Wi-Fi hub

    Don't WEP for me Argentina

    Wireless networks almost trebled in London over the last 12 months with more, but not all organisations, realizing the importance of running secure networks. Wi-Fi networks in London have increased by 160 per cent from 2006, out pacing the rate of increase in other financial centres such as New York (49 per cent) and Paris (44 …

    Wireless 14 Jun 2007, 16:19

  • US prof plans to send message back in time

    Unaccountably fails to get DARPA funding

    A West Coast scientist who believes it may be possible to transmit information backwards through time has been funded by individual donations after established mad-scientist groups refused to cough up. John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington, reckons that "quantum retrocausality" could "involve signalling, or …

    Physics 14 Jun 2007, 16:41

  • IBM taunts SMBs with new blade box

    Put it on your desk. We dare you

    IBM later this year plans to dish out a "desktop" blade box for small- to medium-sized businesses. The BladeCenter S chassis eats up 7U of rack space and only has room for six blade servers. That compares to IBM's big business package of 14 blades in a 9U chassis. As mentioned, however, the Blade Center S box doesn't demand a …

    Servers 14 Jun 2007, 18:53

  • Google cancels anti-eBay bash

    Tail between legs as rival yanks ads

    Tonight in Boston, home to eBay's annual seller conference, revolutionary-minded Google employees had planned on throwing an alcohol-fueled anti-eBay bash at a location sure to raise eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic. eBay refuses to adopt Google Checkout – a PayPal-like online payment service – and in protest, Google …

    Applications 14 Jun 2007, 19:03

  • Intel's many-core version of Itanium to skip 45nm

    And then comes Kittson

    Intel will apparently keep selling the Itanium processor through at least four more code-names. Yes, world, the company today revealed the follow-on chip to Montvale, Tukwila and Poulson. Say hello to Kittson. How many cores will Kittson have? When will it arrive? Will it be made of fish or fowl? Intel refuses to say. It's …

    Servers 14 Jun 2007, 20:05

  • Apple plugs holes in new Safari beta

    Windows browser not 'secure from day one'

    Three days after unleashing a bug-infested beta version of its Safari browser on Windows users, Apple has released an update plugging three serious holes that could allow miscreants to commandeer a user's machine. The fixes are available by downloading Safari 3.0.1 Public Beta for Windows or by using the "Apple Software …

    Security 14 Jun 2007, 20:14

  • YouTube, CNN invite cats falling out of trees to US Prez debates

    Voters ask questions via low-quality video

    A tip for all you Yanks reading El Reg: This summer, during two U.S. presidential debates scheduled to air on CNN, candidates will answer questions submitted via YouTube by web-cam-wielding Net freaks. A Democratic debate is slated for the night of July 23, with a Republican version to follow on September 17. The CNN/YouTube …

    Music and Media 14 Jun 2007, 22:24