6th July 2007 Archive

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eBay goes after itself

Craiglist owner launches Craigslist rival

eBay has challenged itself to a duel in the web classifieds market. Last week, the company that owns a 25 per cent share in Craigslist launched a Craigslist rival, unveiling a U.S. version of Kijiji, the classifieds site it's been running in various other parts of the world since early 2005. eBay purchased a 25 per cent stake …

Applications 6 Jul 2007, 00:16
Red ring of Xbox death costs Microsoft $1bn

Hot money hole

Microsoft is taking a $1bn hit to fix Xbox 360s, conceding residual hardware faults in its games console are causing users frustration and an "unacceptable number of repairs." The software giant said Thursday it's extending the Xbox 360's current one-year warranty to three years from date of purchase to cover a hardware crash …

Financial News 6 Jul 2007, 00:49
Showdown persists over '100% undetectable' rootkit

Slight disagreement to the tune of $412,000

The public feud over the effectiveness of a proof-of-concept rootkit said to be completely undetectable continued on Thursday, as a researcher once again challenged those claims. In a blog entry on ZDNet, researcher Thomas Ptacek took another swipe at the so-called Blue Pill, a prototype rootkit that turned heads when it was …

Enterprise Security 6 Jul 2007, 01:10
Heathrow to trial RFID tags

No more lost luggage?

In September, Heathrow Airport will become the largest in Europe to trial RFID-based tags for tracking passenger luggage, comparing accuracy and read rates against their existing barcode-based systems. Radio Frequency Identification tags are a throw-away technology which can be embedded in the labels attached to luggage on …

Enterprise Security 6 Jul 2007, 08:28
Police hunt renegade cow sex youth

Warning: no IT angle Nocturnal bovine botherer caught in the act

North Yorkshire police are on a state of high alert after a youth was spotted coupling with an English longhorn cow at a specialist breeder's farm in Skipwith, The Sun reports. The lad was clocked at 4.30am, dressed only in black briefs, by a "shocked" passer-by who interruped proceedings by shouting at the nocturnal bovine …

Bootnotes 6 Jul 2007, 08:29
Skin cancer claims sun bed 'addict'

Tragic end for 29-year-old mum

A 29-year-old Salford mother of two has died of skin cancer thought to have been caused by excessive sun bed use, the Manchester Evening News reports. Zita Farrelly's two-sessions-per-day "addiction" started at 14. She kicked the habit at 21, but by then it was "too late". Last August, she discovered a mole which turned out to …

Biology 6 Jul 2007, 08:31
BT opens wallet for Brightview

Customer service experts brought in

BT has coughed £15.8m cash for Brightview, the ISP group behind internet access from Waitrose, Madasafish, and Global. The Brightview ISP brands, which have a total of 62,000 broadband customers, regularly buck market trends to top customer satisfaction surveys. Established in 2001, the firm was last sold in 2004, for £25m, …

Telecoms 6 Jul 2007, 09:02
Oracle sends bloke cardboard laptop

Why? God alone knows

Long-term readers may recall the strange case of Microsoft's "rock-in-a-box" anti-piracy campaign, apparently exhorting honest citizens to stone to death those involved in disseminating illicit copies of Redmond apps. Well, it appears Oracle's marketing department has acquired some of the same nose Ajax which fuelled MS's …

Applications 6 Jul 2007, 09:02
Dawn mission hiding out after lightning threat

Brief Well, slightly postponed

The threat of lightning has forced NASA to postpone the launch of the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt by 24 hours. The warning came as engineers were preparing to fuel the Delta II rocket that will carry the probe into orbit and beyond. The temperature of the rocket's second stage had also risen too high to allow fuelling to …

Space 6 Jul 2007, 09:04
Nintendo launches face training game

Pull faces, look younger

Nintendo's creative department must be in overdrive as the Japanese console giant is poised to release software aimed at making users look younger. The games package, called Otona no DS Kao Training, is being released along with a new camera for the Nintendo DS portable console. The camera video records a user's face as they …

Entertainment 6 Jul 2007, 09:11
Google: Our data retention is not data protection watchdogs' business

It ain't your field

The retention of search engine query data is a security matter and not one for Europe's data protection officials, according to Google's global privacy chief. Peter Fleischer said that its retention of user search data was "just not their field". Speaking to weekly technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio, Fleischer said it is …

Law 6 Jul 2007, 09:26
Dinner party guest makes gruesome discovery

Host's wife and son in freezer

A dinner party guest in Verviers, eastern Belgium, made a hasty exit from her host's house after discovering the bodies of his wife and son in the freezer. The "helpful" invitee had been washing the dishes and nipped down to the basement to stick the leftovers in the freezer, where she was confronted with the corpses of Chantal …

Bootnotes 6 Jul 2007, 09:32
Apple 8GB iPhone components 'cost $220'

Does the remaining $400 cover software development etc?

Apple's 4GB iPhone costs $200 in components to make. The 8GB model's parts total just $20 more. So claims US market watcher and device stripper-down Portelligent. Of course, Portelligent's numbers - relayed by BusinessWeek - only cover the parts, not the cost off putting them together, shipping the finished product, marketing …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 09:53
Helium balloon Brit breaks distance record

3,434km across the Atlantic

Intrepid Brit adventurer David Hempleman-Adams this morning broke the distance record for a AA-06 (37,000 cu ft) helium balloon, having by 4am travelled 3,434km across the Atlantic, thereby claiming the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) crown. Hempleman-Adams, 50, set off from St John's, Newfoundland, at 00:00 GMT on …

Science 6 Jul 2007, 10:19
Intel said to have released G31, P31 entry-level chipsets

Dual-core Pentium friendly

Intel has begun sending P31 and G31 entry-level desktop chipsets out to motherboard makers, it has been claimed. As yet, the chip giant has posted no details on the chipsets on its website, but Taiwanese sources told DigiTimes the parts formally started leaving Intel's warehouses on 4 July. The G31 supports up to 8GB of DDR …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 10:24
Dell delays filing fiscal reports...again

Likely to miss SEC deadline, could de-listing follow?

Dell will once again hold back filing its 2007 financial statements to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because it is yet to complete an internal investigation into its accounting practices. The direct computer giant, which earlier this week confirmed that the SEC had set a mid-July deadline for it to file its …

Channel Register 6 Jul 2007, 10:36
UK firm preps iPhone unlocking software

Walls come tumbling down

A UK firm that specialises in unlocking mobile phones reckons it's close to developing an application that would allow iPhone owners to use the device with carriers other than America's AT&T. John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, told IDG that his software engineers were working "around the clock" in order to bypass Apple …

Applications 6 Jul 2007, 10:37
Microsoft tells GPLv3 to talk to the hand

Nothing to do with us

We were all wondering what Microsoft would do about GPLv3. Turns out the firm wants nothing to do with it, and has issued a statement outlining exactly how it plans to ignore the new license. It also rejects any suggestion that the GPLv3 will have any effect on its patent immunity deal with Novell. In a statement, the firm …

Developer 6 Jul 2007, 10:44
BOFH: Computer room deluge

Episode 23 If you mix water and wires...

"Water!" the PFY gasps, entering Mission Control from the computer room. "Where?" I ask, to which the PFY responds with an urgent wave to his entry point. "F%**" I say moments later as I survey the steady stream of water coming down the computer room wall. "Where's it coming from?" "Dunno," the PFY says, shaking his head …

BOFH 6 Jul 2007, 11:02
Trojan creates bogus webmail accounts to punt drugs

Hotmail and Yahoo! captchas defeated?

Miscreants have created a strain of malware capable of setting up bogus Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts in order to send spam. The HotLan-A Trojan uses automatically-generated webmail accounts, suggesting that spammers have found a way to bypass the Captcha system (which typically means accounts can't be created until a user …

Security 6 Jul 2007, 11:27
Durex seeks hardened condom testers

200 positions must be filled Down Under

Durex Down Under is looking for Aussies over the age of 18 to fill 200 positions as condom testers, stuff.co.nz reports. Durex marketing manager Sam White explained that successful applicants would get a AU$60 selection of rubberwear, and would be "required to provide the company with honest feedback about the products' …

Bootnotes 6 Jul 2007, 11:29
Insuring iTunes: are your digital downloads covered?

Not all insurance policies will protect your music

Consumers building up extensive collections of digital music and movies should ensure their downloads are protected by their home insurance policy and will be replaced if the computers keeping them are damaged or stolen. Many insurers do not cover digital possessions, it has emerged. The days of popping down to your local …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 11:29
Verbatim buys into portable HDs

Media maker finally notices nobody uses floppies anymore

Media manufacturer Verbatim has bought SmartDisk, a US-based vendor of portable and external disk drives and flash readers. The deal was agreed last month and finalised yesterday. The acquisition includes physical assets, patents, trademarks and technology. Verbatim said it would also hire some SmartDisk engineering, operations …

Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 11:31
Sonnet Tempo SATA Express 34 ExpressCard eSATA adaptor

Review Add-in eSATA ports for laptop Macs

The External Serial ATA (eSATA) add-on interconnection standard is becoming more common on systems as users seek greater data transfer speeds. Macs are often among the first to get new technologies like these, but eSATA ports remain absent. For ExpressCard 34-equipped laptops at least, here's one answer. Sonnet's Tempo SATA …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 11:38
Intel schemes to confound online gaming cheats

FOGS of war

An Intel research project looks set to make good the maxim that a cheater never wins. It's developing specialist software and hardware to ensure that online gamers all play fairly. Gamers have cheated since the dawn of gaming, developing codes to give them better weaponry, infinite lives, invicibility and, in the case of …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 11:55
Rain fails to douse iPhone fever, bans and bombs

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Life not so sweet at Honeywell In a world where people share music electronically, it's not unknown for IT staff to set up a bit of space on a server for people to swap tunes in order to reduce bandwidth demands. Not a good idea, of course, and illegal. As engineering firm Honeywell found out this week when police and the BPI …

Business 6 Jul 2007, 12:00
ISPs face down Tories on file sharing

Cameron plan for internet police state rejected

ISPs have given David Cameron's call for them to block P2P music sharing short shrift, repeating their stance that they are not "the gatekeepers of the internet", as he insists. ISPA, the industry trade association, told The Register it would be writing to the Conservative leader to explain its position. In a speech to record …

Telecoms 6 Jul 2007, 12:04
University boffins squeeze 500GB onto a DVD

Aiming for a terabyte

The University of Berlin, with partners Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, has managed to work out how to store 500GB of data on a regular HD DVD or Blu-ray disc. The Microholas project developed a microholographic recording technique, using nanostructures inside …

Storage 6 Jul 2007, 12:05
EU's anti-fraud boss to be hauled before European Parliament

Olaf accused of irregularities and conflicts of interest

The EU's anti-fraud chief is to be brought before the European Parliament over allegations of conflicts of interest and operational irregularities at Olaf. Franz-Hermann Brüner is the head of Olaf, the European anti-fraud office set up eight years ago to combat fraud and corruption. According to today's Financial Times, the …

Government 6 Jul 2007, 12:13
Fujitsu-Siemens launches Esprimo 3G-linked laptops

Bland for business?

Fujitsu-Siemens (FS) is limbering up for the summer season with the unveiling of a three-model professional laptop range, dubbed Esprimo. Don't expect Vaio styling or an Alienware extravagance, because this line means business. The Esprimo range comprises of the U9200, the M9400 and the top-of-the-range D9500. The U9200 is …

Reg Hardware 6 Jul 2007, 12:38
Psst - wanna buy a pirate MPack toolkit?

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap

The adage about no honour among thieves also applies to hackers, it would seem. Pirates are flogging knocked-off copies of the MPack hacker toolkit at a discount of up to 85 per cent, according to anti-virus experts at net security firm Symantec. MPack is a web browser exploit toolkit, sold online by its original authors to …

Security 6 Jul 2007, 12:46
Turing test challenges spam filters

Fuzzy PDF menace

Spammers have turned a widely-used anti-spam trick - fuzzy text that computers cannot recognise - to their own advantage, according to the head of an anti-spam software developer. The distorted text images are arriving in PDF files touting German penny stocks, in yet another iteration of the pump-and-dump scam that's been …

Spam 6 Jul 2007, 12:52
Eckoh fined £150K over Richard & Judy quiz

'Reckless disregard for viewers'

The premium-rate regulator, ICSTIS, has completed its investigation into allegations against the quiz "You say, we pay", and concluded that Eckoh, which ran the competition, should pay a £150,000 fine for their "reckless disregard for viewers". Punters were encouraged to call up, at a quid a time, in the hope of being selected …

Law 6 Jul 2007, 14:13
Another day, another iPhone rumour

UK deal not past the round-of-golf stage

Speculation was rife this week that O2 was about to sign a deal for UK distribution of the hypefest which is the Apple iPhone, though on Monday it seemed that Vodafone would be getting the deal, and prior to that those in the know were saying Carphone Warehouse was a dead cert. Make no mistake; Apple will be talking to all …

Mobile 6 Jul 2007, 15:31
Security flaw marketplace lays out its wares

Get yer luverly 0day IE exploits 'ere

An online marketplace where researchers and vendors can trade in security vulnerabilities has been created by a Swiss research lab. WSLabi said its eBay-style marketplace will create a more open and transparent market for security flaws, enabling researchers to strike a fairer bargain for their work. The international …

Security 6 Jul 2007, 16:29
AMD blasts $7.5m right into Transmeta

Impressed by ~~lawsuit against Intel~~ low power IP

The cash-starved, collapsed superstar of my enemy is still my friend, according to AMD, which has injected Transmeta with $7.5m. Transmeta announced the infusion in the briefest of statements, saying that AMD will receive preferred stock in exchange for its fat wallet. We'll leave it to you to debate how much stock in …

PCs & Chips 6 Jul 2007, 17:28
Shy IBM storage spin-off tries to erase itself

Will store your info, just not its own

IBM's Almaden Research Center appears to be getting ready to launch its first spin-off, but something is amiss. Yesterday, we reported on the clues that lead us to conclude Almaden is spinning out a video storage specialist called Seval Systems in the near future. Besides what we heard from people unwilling to reveal …

Storage 6 Jul 2007, 19:12
Microsoft boots Savvis from data centers

So UnGooglerific

Think Microsoft trails Google in the "wow" department by a country mile? You're right. Google likes to impress with $600m data centers scattered around the heartland. Meanwhile, Microsoft picks up sloppy seconds from companies such as hosting services provider Savvis. Redmond late last month agreed to take over a pair of Savvis …

Servers 6 Jul 2007, 20:00
Brit fumes over Wikipedia, lava lamps

Updated Drops the C word

Is Wikipedia running a censorship board? John Barberio thinks so. After more than two years as an active contributor to the free online encyclopedia, the 27-year-old Oxfordshire man recently left the project over the behavior of its "OTRS volunteers," unpaid administrators who act on reader complaints about the site's content …

Music and Media 6 Jul 2007, 21:40
Alex Tatham leaves Bell Micro

Brief Off to pastures new

Alex Tatham is leaving Bell Micro after 10 years. Mr Tatham achieved fame in the channel after his appearance on Blind Date. He chose Sue, who later became his wife, in the first Blind Date wedding. Tatham is keeping schtum on where he's going next. Maybe Cilla knows. There's more on CRN here. Or there's more from the Reg …

Servers 6 Jul 2007, 23:03