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15th June 2007 Archive

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  • Joost everywhere, embedded in hardware

    'A year from now we will see Joost in the living room'

    This week, Joost started publicly talking about getting equipment manufacturers to embed its video-playing software in TV sets and other consumer hardware. That would help it solve two problems. First, the glitches it's currently running into when it tries to deliver high-quality video over internet connections that are too …

    Telecoms 15 Jun 2007, 08:02

  • Compuware makes Optimal delivery

    Keeping IT projects on track

    As businesses get bigger, the problems surrounding applications delivery get more complex, while the tools designed to service them aim to become more comprehensive and integrated. That is what has happened with Compuware's Optimal suite of tools, the latest release of which is now geared around a new delivery management …

    Developer 15 Jun 2007, 08:38

  • FTC eyeing Microsoft, Yahoo!

    Google-DoubleClick probe just the beginning

    Two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission opened an anti-trust investigation into Google’s proposed acquisition of online ad company DoubleClick, The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC plans to examine deals by Microsoft and Yahoo! as well. According to The Journal, the agency will scrutinize Microsoft’s proposed …

    Financial News 15 Jun 2007, 08:42

  • Oz boffins to polish perfect pair of balls

    Silicon quest for the ultimate kilogram standard

    Oz scientists and engineers are preparing to create the ultimate kilogram standard - a pair of polished balls lovingly crafted from a single crystal of silicon-28. According to Reuters, the team from Australia's National Measurement Institute will take more than 12 weeks to hone the spheres. They will weigh exactly one kilogram …

    Physics 15 Jun 2007, 08:47

  • Pluto demoted again

    Not even biggest dwarf planet

    Pluto has suffered a further humiliation following its 2006 ejection from the league of planets - official demotion to "second biggest dwarf planet" status. The bad news is that Pluto is actually smaller than recently-discovered Eris, Reuters reports. More exactly, Eris is 27 per cent more massive than the former planet, …

    Space 15 Jun 2007, 08:51

  • Rock star says piracy battle is lost

    'The horse has bolted'

    Major record labels are still fighting the piracy battles of 1997 according to a leading rock musician and digital rights activist. Blur drummer Dave Rowntree told OUT-LAW that they should have realised in 1997 that their battle was already lost. "If you turn back the clock when all this stuff was still on the horizon, the key …

    Music and Media 15 Jun 2007, 08:52

  • Eden laptop theft sparks ID theft fears

    Innocence lost

    There's trouble in paradise after a third-party supplier lost a laptop containing the personal details of hundreds of workers at Cornwall's Eden Project. The theft of the PC from the car of a worker for Moorepay, the firm that handles the project's payroll, has sparked ID theft fears. Information held on the PC included the …

    Enterprise Security 15 Jun 2007, 08:54

  • Ingram goes consumer with distributor buy

    DBL, you're money

    Ingram Micro is upping its consumer electronics business with the purchase of US distie DBL Distributing Inc. Ingram is paying $96m for DBL, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. It said the buy was evidence of two trends; convergence of business and consumer technologies and the increasing importance of retailers. DBL claims 30,000 …

    Channel Register 15 Jun 2007, 08:57

  • Lorenzo will come, health chief says

    iSoft problems 'will not prevent delivery'

    Richard Granger, director of NHS IT has assured MPs that a core information exchange system for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will be available to UK hospitals next year. Granger told a a Parliamentary Health Select Committee hearing on the programme that financial problems at iSoft, the company developing the Lorenzo …

    Public Sector 15 Jun 2007, 08:59

  • EC to help older people 'age well'

    Investing €1bn in research

    The European Commission has announced that it is to invest more than €1bn on research into new technologies that can improve the lives of older people. The commission said on Thursday that it had adopted a new action plan as part of its "Ageing Well in the Information Society" initiative. The main goals of the plan are to …

    Public Sector 15 Jun 2007, 09:12

  • Sony Ericsson intros 5Mp Cyber-shot phone

    HSDPA 3G on board too

    Sony Ericsson is to beef up its line of Cyber-shot camera phones with a new five-megapixel model, but you're going to have to wait until nearly Christmas to get your hands on it. Sony Ericsson's K850: 5Mp snapper The K850 is set to go on sale early in Q4 - October, basically. When it arrives, it will not only sport that …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 09:15

  • Police will share data across Europe

    Against privacy chief's advice

    European police forces will have easier access to each others' information on criminals and suspects after ministers agreed a new data swap system. But Europe's data protection chief told OUT-LAW that his concerns over the system had been sidelined. Two years ago some European countries signed a deal called the Prüm Treaty, …

    Law 15 Jun 2007, 09:23

  • UK border agency puts risk assessment on trial

    What are the chances you're a terrorist?

    The Home Office has started testing how it might pick potential terrorists and criminals out of immigration queues by using computers that which give them risk scores generated from their personal details. Ian Neill, deputy director of the Home Office's eBorders programme, said the trial of risk scoring was already under way in …

    Government 15 Jun 2007, 09:30

  • Indian trade body sets up data protection group

    DSCI founded to counter privacy criticism

    An IT industry trade body is setting up a data privacy watchdog in India. The Data Security Council of India will not have legal powers, but will certify companies' data security. Following a number of media exposes of data security breaches in India, IT industry trade body Nasscom is establishing the DSCI to counter criticism …

    Enterprise Security 15 Jun 2007, 09:31

  • Last of the Time Lords heads for GayPride

    Doctor Who dubbed most gay friendly show on telly

    Concerns that this month's GayPride festival might lose out because it clashes with the season finale of Doctor Who have led organisers to show the sci-fi favourite on giant screens in Trafalgar Square. Jason Pollock, chief executive of the Pride event, said: "We hit on the idea of screening Doctor Who at the end of our main …

    Entertainment 15 Jun 2007, 09:38

  • Hundreds of records unlawfully intercepted by FBI

    Complex interception laws confuse Feds and ISPs

    An internal audit has discovered that the FBI overstepped the mark in intercepting communication records at least 1,000 times since 2002. The figures - based on an analysis of 10 per cent of the bureau's national security investigations over the last five years - are far higher than estimates of 22 wiretap "mistakes" in a …

    Government 15 Jun 2007, 09:39

  • NATO, US gear up for cyberpunk warfare

    Operation Screaming Fist is go

    The threat of military cyber attack must be taken seriously, according to NATO: but the alliance isn't sure what to do about it. Meanwhile, the USA is preparing not only its cyber defences, but the ability to mount network assaults. In Brussels yesterday, NATO defence ministers agreed that firm and decisive action was …

    Enterprise Security 15 Jun 2007, 09:47

  • Mirapoint - the appliance of security?

    White rabbit

    Deploying solutions is difficult at the best of times, but what if you need to deploy a highly secured messaging server? The route taken by many would be to deploy software such as Microsoft Exchange Server and hope that it is as resilient as Microsoft says it will be. Of course, you need to source the hardware, software, and …

    Security 15 Jun 2007, 09:51

  • Psion founder: Britain needs R&D

    Financial services won't pay the rent

    Britain can't depend on the City of London alone for its future prosperity, veteran entrepreneur Sir David Potter warned this week. "To our credit we have a successful financial sector," he told The Register. "But then you have to ask how long that is durable. And you look at the very large current accounts deficit, and ask …

    Mobile 15 Jun 2007, 10:02

  • Old timer ices crazed squirrel with zimmer frame

    Bloody end to Bavarian sciurine rampage

    A battling German septuagenarian brought to a swift and bloody end a crazed squirrel rampage in Passau, Bavaria, by knocking the animal to the ground with his zimmer frame and squashing it, Ananova reports. The animal had already bitten and scratched a 70-year-old woman and a 33-year-old builder when it decided to have a poke …

    Bootnotes 15 Jun 2007, 10:02

  • Sony Ericsson shows shake-to-shuffle Walkman phone

    Symbian smart model too

    Sony Ericsson's been busy, busy, busy this week: in addition to announcing an upgraded Cyber-shot camera phone, it debuted a pair of new Walkman music phones - once controlled simply by shaking, rattling or rolling it. Sony Ericsson's W910: shake it up The W910 has the flick-of-the-wrist control. Select its Shake option, …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 10:08

  • Intel price cuts to pave the way for cheaper 'Santa Rosa' laptops

    Faster high-end mobile CPUs too

    Looking for a cheaper 'Santa Rosa' Centrino-branded laptop? Moles in Taiwan reckon you should wait a little while - they claim Intel will be pruning its mobile processor prices sometime during the third quarter. When in Q3 the cuts will come, the sources - cited by local newssite DigiTimes - couldn't say, but the claimed the …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 10:25

  • Chips are down, cooks feel the heat and security bods go camping

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

    Apple bobbing Steve Jobs went on Safari this week, bigging up the Apple browser and even launching a Windows beta version. For some outside of the US, however, it proved a less than satisfactory experience; perhaps the lions, or whatever other animal it is you expect to see on safari were sleeping at the time. We think you can …

    Business 15 Jun 2007, 10:48

  • UK mulls drink-drive limit cut

    'Don't drink and drive' message not getting through

    The government is considering cutting the UK's drink-drive limit under "mounting pressure...from road safety groups and also the British Medical Association", the Telegraph reports. Several police forces earlier this year expressed concern that drivers, especially younger ones, simply weren't taking on board the "don't drink …

    Law 15 Jun 2007, 10:49

  • Giant bird-lizard unearthed in China

    Was it a bird, was it a plane....?

    Paleontologists have unearthed a T-Rex-sized "bird dinosaur", dubbed Gigantoraptor erlianensis. The beast, which lived 65 million years ago, stood five metres tall, was eight metres long, and would have weighed in at around 1.5 tonnes. The fossils were dug out of the Gobi desert's Erlian basin by Xing Xu, a paleontologist with …

    Biology 15 Jun 2007, 10:51

  • Diamond out to wow with first 1GB Radeon HD X2900 card

    Manufacturer Diamond Multimedia is billing it as "the world's fastest graphics card" and while Nvidia fans may dispute that claim, there's no doubt the Viper HD2900XT is the first board to couple AMD's ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT chip with 1GB of GDDR 4 memory. Diamond Multimedia's Viper HD2900XT: the world's fastest graphics …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 10:52

  • IBM mainframe support takes a break

    Big Blue blames routine maintenance

    IBMLink, the place Big Blue's mainframe customers go for online support, suffered a weekend of downtime between 8 June and 11 June. Posters on a Google group called the problems "absurd", but a spokeswoman for IBM told the Reg it was planned maintenance and publicly announced. She wasn't sure quite where it was publicly …

    Channel Register 15 Jun 2007, 10:58

  • BOFH: Talking to tradesmen

    Episode 21 Sometimes it's wisest to pay up and shut up

    "You're stuffed," our friendly Sparky says, stepping back from our switchboard and putting his clamp meter away. "Stuffed - and that's a technical term?" the Boss asks sarcastically. "Yep!" the Sparky replies. "So what does it mean then?" the Boss continues. "It MEANS," the PFY says, "that there's no more capacity in the …

    BOFH 15 Jun 2007, 11:02

  • Business Systems Group gets back in the black

    Getting over contract losses

    Business Systems Group has dragged itself back into the black after the loss of a £2m contract hit the company hard. BSG lost a contract with Mapeley Estates in March 2006 and warned shareholders then that it would hit profits. Although it still made a loss of £276,000 in the year ended 31 March 2007 it did break even in the …

    Channel Register 15 Jun 2007, 11:19

  • Novell opens office for SMBs

    Pokes tongue out at Microsoft

    Novell is gunning for a chunk of the office market share from Microsoft with the release of its open workgroup suite for small businesses. The new software, which is based on Novell's Suse Linux distribution, has server and desktop components which include open source products. It comes with Groupwise for email and …

    Business 15 Jun 2007, 11:21

  • Archos revamps Wi-Fi media players

    Archos has updated its 600-series digital media player line, building on last summer's 604 with a new model that offers a bigger display and more storage. Archos's 605 WiFi: wireless PMP When the Archos 605 WiFi goes on sale this coming August, it'll be offered with a choice of 30, 80 or 160GB of hard drive music and movie …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 11:53

  • UK government tunes out debate on DNA database

    Pressure mounts on records of innocents

    The government has responded to an e-petition on the burgeoning DNA database but rebuffed its main complaint that the world's largest criminological genetic store has been built "by stealth" and without Parliamentary and public consent. 750 people had endorsed the e-petition, "StopDNAbystealth", which complained that DNA policy …

    Government 15 Jun 2007, 11:55

  • UK MoD reveals Watchkeeper spy-drone numbers

    Exclusive Refreshing burst of candour in Whitehall

    The UK's MoD, after a sustained campaign of nagging by the Reg defence desk, has revealed how many robot surveillance planes the UK forces will receive under the Watchkeeper programme. The original MoD position was that the number couldn't be released "for operational reasons", and indeed the project webpage is still sticking …

    Government 15 Jun 2007, 12:00

  • Rufus, Mok and Lai urinate on mean customers' baggage

    Comments Pain in the butts beware

    Another Friday, and another batch of comments, some of which almost have an IT angle. Let's get stuck in. A Lancashire lad got into trouble with plod for doing 140mph on the M65. Kids today, eh? Most of you did not approve: Lets hope the little prick gets a jail sentence. The speed is one thing, but I'm surprised he didn't …

    Letters 15 Jun 2007, 12:26

  • Why is Hotmail so bad at spam?

    Column Tell me why, I don't like Hotmail...

    I'm trying very hard to be sympathetic towards Hotmail, and I'm failing, badly. It's not the Microsoft connection that makes me fed up, it's just Hotmail. Here's today's inbox: From my contacts: 2 (2) Marquita@viagra.com RE: Online Canadian Pharma... admin@speedtrader.co... RE: Daily News If you believe I have a …

    Spam 15 Jun 2007, 12:46

  • Canon Ixus 950 IS compact digital camera

    Review If anyone can...

    The new Ixus 950 IS from Canon is an example of a quality, eight-megapixel compact digital camera comfortably sitting at the top end of the mid-range. Known as the SD850 IS across the Pond, it features a 4x zoom lens, with 2.5in LCD display, red-eye correction and a sensitivity of 1600 ISO with auto ISO shift. Despite being …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 12:51

  • Steve Jobs: struggling to redefine the TV paradigm

    Comment The devil is in the detail for Apple TV

    Getting into the mind of Steve Jobs isn't all that simple, and sometimes you just have to wait until he tells you what went through his mind in order to explain the latest Apple phenomena. But the picture around Apple TV is starting to clear with some rumours and snippets revealed this week. The first is a rumour only, that …

    Music and Media 15 Jun 2007, 13:02

  • Exams, contracts, and nuclear research: stupid, stupid, stupid

    Letters GCSE physics scandal shakes mailbag

    A secondary school physics teacher sent an open letter to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the AQA exam board. He accused the board of putting forward a paper which contained questions that were vague, stupid, insultingly easy, political, and non-scientific. Your thoughts: In two years time, this generation …

    Letters 15 Jun 2007, 13:02

  • Fossil, Sony restyle Bluetooth watch line for the mainstream

    Sony Ericsson's partnership with watch-maker Fossil has again proved fruitful, this time yielding a trio of timepieces in the new MBW-150 series, successors to the MBW-100, which the two companies lift the cuff on in September 2006. Sony Ericsson and Fossil's MBW-150: the 'classic' look The new models have a more …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 13:35

  • Winning the (propaganda) war on cancer

    Where do you bury the survivors?

    A couple of years ago, the American Cancer Society gaily reported that cancer survival rates have been improving dramatically and steadily. A few weeks ago, Cancer Research UK announced a similarly sunny prognosis for the public at large: UK survival rates have doubled in 30 years. Yes, we are all "surviving" longer with cancer …

    Biology 15 Jun 2007, 14:02

  • Outrage over 'sponsor a boob job' website

    Plastic surgeons slam 'degrading' circus

    The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS)* has administered a righteous shoeing to a website offering girls the chance to pitch for a boob job and chaps the opportunity of sponsoring the enhancements. The offending site, myfreeimplants.com, asks the ladies: "Have you ever wanted bigger breasts? But couldn't …

    Bootnotes 15 Jun 2007, 14:02

  • Sony ponders PS3 price cut

    Hurry up, Howard

    The chairman and chief executive of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer, has said the company was attempting to "refine" how much it could afford to reduce the price of the PS3 console by, and has been quoted as saying there was "no question" consumers wanted the price to be lower. Duh. In an interview with the Financial Times, …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 14:20

  • US PS3 sales hold up as Wii, Xbox 360 numbers dip

    PSP demand rises too

    Nintendo's Wii may be outselling Sony's PS3 by an increasing margin in Japan, but the gap's narrowing in the US, the latest North American market figures show. Not that there's much in it, mind... Market watcher NPD this week said some 338,000 Wiis were sold in the US in May. Microsoft sold 155,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold …

    Reg Hardware 15 Jun 2007, 14:38

  • 3 adds video to the Groove

    Over the air delivery of sound and vision

    3 UK has added 1000 music videos to its online shop, which is powered by Groove Mobile, enabling customers to download videos from the four big labels onto their phone, and PC, for £1.49 each. Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG are all providing content, with 3 hoping to rapidly increase the number of videos available. Videos …

    Mobile 15 Jun 2007, 15:02

  • Britney's new album title - can you help?

    Highly-talented chanteuse seeks fan input

    Britney Spears is seeking help in selecting a title for her forthcoming album. Her website says the highly-talented chanteuse is "asking her most die-hard fans for some assistance". The options on offer are: Omg is Like Lindsay Lohan Like Okay Like What if the Joke is on You Down boy Integrity Dignity Pah. We're sure …

    Entertainment 15 Jun 2007, 15:48

  • Azul bullies Java with 768 core machine

    Im in ur base processing ur Java

    Azul Systems is rolling out a new generation of Java-crunching appliances armed with the ability to spread its workload across a total of 768 processing cores in a single box. The new 7240 and 7280 models eat up 14U of rack space, and like their predecessors, are aimed at large businesses looking to offload demanding Java …

    Servers 15 Jun 2007, 18:43

  • Yahoo! fixes bug that gave free rein to user accounts

    All hail the power of the XSS error!

    Yahoo! has plugged a site-wide coding error that made it possible for miscreants to gain complete access to a user's account simply by convincing the holder to click on a booby-trapped link. The security defect is the latest to affect a large website, which consumers and businesses are increasingly entrusting with a plethora …

    Security 15 Jun 2007, 20:33

  • Are you staying Rational?

    We experience IBM's new message for developers

    I have to confess that I was feeling a little jaded when I got my invitation to attend the 10th anniversary IBM Rational Software Development Conference (June 10th - 14th in Orlando) - this being the fourth year in a row that I’ve covered it. Let me explain. The previous years’ ‘taglines’ safely hovered around the same old …

    Developer 15 Jun 2007, 22:10

  • FTC aQuantive probe is 'routine', Microsoft says

    Addled marketplace

    Microsoft has acknowledged that the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing its proposed $6bn acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company. "As part of the normal regulatory review process, the FTC has opened a routine, 30-day review period following the filing we submitted on the aQuantive acquisition," a Microsoft …

    Financial News 15 Jun 2007, 22:18