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26th July 2007 Archive

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  • French court slaps poor man's YouTube

    Dailymotion guilty of copyright infringement

    France's answer to YouTube has been found guilty of copyright infringement. As the Google-owned YouTube faces a U.S. lawsuit from movie and TV behemoth Viacom, a French high court has ruled against the Paris-based video-sharing site Dailymotion, holding it liable for a copyrighted film posted by its users. Earlier this summer, …

    Music and Media 26 Jul 2007, 00:57

  • Symantec sales up, but profits drop

    Norton suite secures revenue

    Symantec's profits for its first fiscal quarter slumped 5.3 per cent, but the company managed to beat analyst expectations with increased sales of its Norton security software. The company's income dropped to $95.2m, compared to $100.5m a year earlier. Symantec said the results were impacted by a $19m restructuring charge …

    Security 26 Jul 2007, 01:01

  • Judge questions theft claims of Facebook rival

    Put up or shut up

    A federal judge said he needed more information concerning allegations that the founder of Facebook stole software code and business plans from the creators of a rival social networking site. US District Judge Douglas Woodlock told attorneys for ConnectU founders they needed to substantiate claims that Mark Zuckerberg …

    Law 26 Jul 2007, 01:08

  • NAO recommends one stop regulation database

    Reducing the burden on SMEs

    The National Audit Office has urged the government to consolidate its three databases of regulatory information into one system. The NAO makes the recommendation in a wider report into the drive to reduce the administrative burdens on business in complying with regulations. It says the move would help to demystify and …

    Small Biz 26 Jul 2007, 08:53

  • DWP loses £2.5bn to fraud and errors

    IT fails to alleviate loss

    About £2.5bn was lost to fraud and error in benefit payments over the last year, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). The figure is down from £2.7bn over the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) previous financial year, but was still deemed too high for the NAO. Consequently, the watchdog refused to sign off the …

    Public Sector 26 Jul 2007, 09:00

  • Cat senses impending death

    Biochemical explanation for nursing home bedside vigils?

    A cat in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, appears to sense when one of the elderly residents is about to die, Reuters reports. Oscar has been at Steere House for two years, during which he's settled down beside 25 old timers shortly before they passed away. Dr Joan Teno, a professor of …

    Biology 26 Jul 2007, 09:05

  • Microsoft in ads deal with Digg.com

    Goodbye Google ads

    Microsoft and news sharing site Digg have signed a three-year deal that will see the software giant manage advertising on Digg.com. The text-based Google advertising that currently appears on Digg is due to be replaced in the coming weeks. Digg says it gets over 17 million unique monthly visitors. "As the Digg audience …

    Financial News 26 Jul 2007, 09:27

  • Eircom warned over 'discriminatory' conduct

    Breaches own regulations

    Eircom has got a slap on the wrists from ComReg after the regulator found that the operator was favouring its own retail business over other operators. The warning came after a ComReg investigation found that the incumbent operator was favouring its retail division when it came to customers moving premises but retaining their …

    Networks 26 Jul 2007, 09:38

  • Mobile developers target Nokia platform

    And N-Gage gets developer support

    Nokia is the most targeted platform around the world, according to a survey of mobile developers. The research, from Evans Data, a specialist in analysis of developer trends, says the situation is slightly different in the US where the focus is on Motorola. The dominance of Nokia in Europe is no surprise, but the company's …

    Mobile 26 Jul 2007, 10:15

  • BMC throws open developer network

    OSCON Projects go BSD

    BMC Software has kicked off a formal open source strategy by launching a developer network and promising to license projects under BSD. The veteran systems management vendor Wednesday launched the BMC Developer Network (BMCDN) featuring development centers, forums, open source updates and projects. The site is starting small …

    Software 26 Jul 2007, 10:19

  • Web contract changes are just not cricket

    US appeals court silences Talk America

    A company cannot change its contract with consumers simply by posting revised conditions on its website, a US appeals court has ruled (pdf). The position is similar in the UK, according to an e-commerce legal expert. A customer of Talk America has won a court ruling over a consumer contract which was amended online without …

    Law 26 Jul 2007, 10:23

  • EC cuts replacement deal with US on passenger data

    Data kept for 15 years

    The European Commission and US security authorities have agreed a new deal on the handover of airline passenger information. Data will now be kept for 15 years, far longer than the three-and-a-half year limit in an earlier agreement. Passenger Name Records (PNR) are transferred to US authorities by every commercial airline …

    ID 26 Jul 2007, 10:41

  • GPL whiz Moglen nails Web 2.0 O'Reilly on 'frivolous' charges

    Comment Blow to OSCON propaganda

    Tim O'Reilly is like a Burger King sandwich in that he likes things his way. O'Reilly invited Free Software Foundation lawyer Eben Moglen to participate in a discussion about "licensing in the Web 2.0 era" at this week's OSCON. The conference organizers did their best to fix the conversation. Even though everyone laughs at O' …

    Software 26 Jul 2007, 10:44

  • Masturbating lag cops 60 days' extra porridge

    'Indecent exposure' rap for five-knuckle shuffle

    A Miami lag who decided to crack one off without hiding his modesty beneath a blanket was sentenced to 60 days' extra porridge on an indecent exposure rap, the Miami Herald reports. Terry Lee Alexander, 20, was caught on camera by a female Broward Sheriff's detention deputy who saw him indulging in an uninhibited five-knuckle …

    Crime 26 Jul 2007, 10:48

  • Data loss blights US military, Aussie bank, and Fox network

    Butterfingers all round

    After a spate of data losses traced to the use of Winny filesharing software in various sensitive Japanese environments (military warships, hospitals, police departments), it has been reported that a Japanese police officer has been sacked over a disclosure where several thousand sensitive police records went missing from his …

    ID 26 Jul 2007, 10:52

  • Channel keeps its head above flood waters and is awash with money

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

    The UK may well have been dealing with its worst floods since 1947, but the only thing flowing through the IT industry was cash - and plenty of it. First, sat nav company Tom Tom made a €1.8bn cash offer for Tele Atlas, the company that supplies map data to the sat nav firm's 10 million GPS devices. Then HP announced it was …

    Channel Register 26 Jul 2007, 11:20

  • US price cut for Xbox 360 HD DVD player

    European gamers hard done by yet again

    US gamers will again be the first to benefit from a Microsoft retail strategy. The Seattle-based software behemoth today announced plans to reduce the US price of its Xbox 360 HD DVD player by $20 (£9/€14), but failed to mention any similar cut for its European gamers. The price drop, announced at the Comic-Con event in San …

    Reg Hardware 26 Jul 2007, 11:24

  • Sony results boosted by flagging Yen

    Games division still losing cash

    Sony has doubled its profit in Q1, thanks to a boost from overseas sales. The firm reported net income of ¥66.5bn ($552m) for the period ending 30 June, against ¥32.2bn a year earlier. Sales revenue as a whole was up 13 per cent at ¥1.98 trillion. The revenue figures were broadly in line with analysts' expectations, but the …

    Hardware 26 Jul 2007, 11:44

  • Virgin pulls the plug on mobile video

    Updated: Screens to go dark in January

    Virgin is to switch off its mobile broadcast video service early next year. The announcement comes less than 10 months after the service was launched, and is a result of BT Movio (the bandwidth provider) cancelling its contract with GCap Media, which owns the frequency. The only handset ever equipped to receive the service was …

    Networks 26 Jul 2007, 11:47

  • Firm finds danger in dangling pointers

    New buffer overflow threat

    In December 2005, technology consultant Inge Henriksen announced he had found a flaw in Microsoft's flagship web server platform, Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.1. Yet, because the vulnerability appeared impossible to exploit, Microsoft put off patching the issue. The programming problem represented a fairly common …

    Security 26 Jul 2007, 11:48

  • Oz convict ancestor database goes online

    Russell Crowe, Germaine Greer could be genetic lags

    A UK-based genealogy website gained massive ink yesterday as it offered its users access to a complete database of convicts shipped to Australia from 1788 to 1868. Ancestry.co.uk says two million Brits and four million Aussies "are of convict descent". If the analysts are right, and CIA world factbook population figures are …

    Bootnotes 26 Jul 2007, 11:49

  • Cut-price laptops coming forth

    Updated Spare some change for a computer?

    If the now well-known $100 One Laptop per Child project appeals for its cheap-as-chips price, but you're not taken by the garish colour or crank-up handle, then you might consider the Medison Celebrity laptop, which retails for just $50 more. The Celebrity doesn’t pretend to be an Alienware-esque ultimate gaming machine, …

    Reg Hardware 26 Jul 2007, 11:52

  • HMRC loses landmark tax ruling

    Taxman fails to keep up with the Joneses

    A husband and wife team has beaten the taxman in a landmark ruling that could put a smile on the faces of small business owners throughout the UK. Arctic Systems' long-running legal battle came to an end yesterday, following the House of Lords' decision to reject an appeal from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which had been …

    Small Biz 26 Jul 2007, 12:57

  • A handy guide to growing your own spaceship

    Column Terran life-forms need not apply

    If you were one of the SETI at home crowd - three million PC owners worldwide, all trying to scan radio signals from space to find alien transmissions - you may have missed the news that gives us (yes, I was one!) hope of really reaching the stars. I'm thinking of building a living starship. The news came from a report on The …

    Space 26 Jul 2007, 13:19

  • Gmail: a short, sharp rant

    First person Not evil, just arrogant

    Is arrogance a job requirement when trying to join Google? This story starts with me being furious. "I was bloody furious when my email provider suddenly, and without warning, started bouncing incoming messages." You would be, wouldn't you? Call me fussy, but I've been told this is the sort of thing which can give a small, …

    Software 26 Jul 2007, 13:36

  • ESA seeks pricing for Mars rover

    Time for sums to be done on fag packets

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has asked Thales Alenia Space, the lead industrial partner on the ExoMars project, to put together a cost proposal for building a Mars Rover, according to reports. The agency says it wants to hear from the group in just 10 weeks time. The basic details of the design were hammered out by agency …

    Space 26 Jul 2007, 14:04

  • Fans left guessing over Samsung 'designer' phone

    Come on Korea, give us a hint

    A Samsung representative has confirmed to Register Hardware that online rumours about its creation of a designer touch-sensitive mobile phone are correct - but the bad news is that it won't be coming to the UK, at least for the time being. The news is more than a little disappointing, because images purporting themselves to …

    Reg Hardware 26 Jul 2007, 15:04

  • VoIP services must offer 999, says Ofcom

    Calls for regulatory framework

    Ofcom today proposed that all VoIP phone services allowing users to make calls to ordinary phone numbers must also offer access to make 999 emergency calls. In research carried out by the UK communications regulator, VoIP users were found to be very confused by what phone numbers they would be able to access in the event of an …

    VoIP 26 Jul 2007, 15:33

  • BT matches analysts' forecasts

    Gears up for 24Mb/sec ADSL launch in 2008

    UK telecoms firm BT has upped its revenue by three percent in its first quarter, in line with analysts' expectations. Revenues hit £5bn and earnings before deductions were £1.4bn also up 3 per cent. The results also show that networked IT services now make up 60 per cent of corporate revenue. Trials of the company's 24Mb/ …

    Networks 26 Jul 2007, 15:42

  • 'They threw my laptop into the atmosphere'

    And other wonderful lost property excuses from NASA

    Public spending watchdogs in the US have slammed NASA for having such terrible property control procedures that employees have "lost" $94m worth of kit in the last decade. It says the agency does not have "effective control" over the $35bn of property that it reports on in its financial statements. It cites one employee who …

    Space 26 Jul 2007, 15:45

  • Brit spooks: Yanks are frightful cowboys

    But we should still be chums with them

    The UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has released the results of its long-running investigation into involvement by the British secret services in "rendition" operations - the forcible moving of people, normally suspected terrorists, from one country to another without any judicial process such as …

    Government 26 Jul 2007, 16:00

  • Newcastle council credit card file lifted

    Up to 54,000 people affected in bureaucratic bungle

    Newcastle City Council has compromised private details of up to 54,000 people who made payments to it by credit or debit card between February 2006 and April 2007. The council said details were "inappropriately released" of transactions for "council tax, business rates, parking fines, and rent payments... other services, such …

    Security 26 Jul 2007, 16:04

  • Does HP have $1bn worth of Bull?

    Buying the Itanium ecosystem one vendor at a time

    If you're inclined to believe published reports, then HP's set to buy French computer maker Bull. Bull's shares jumped close to 8 per cent Thursday on speculation that HP will deliver a $1bn acquisition bid. The two companies are said to be in advanced talks, while Morgan Stanley and Freshfields help seal the deal to capture …

    Servers 26 Jul 2007, 16:06

  • Amnesia strikes at Symbain Symbian

    Can anyone remember what we're called?

    In the story originally posted here, your reporter suggested the Symbian corporate website had been misspelled. In fact, in a lapse of monumental, bog-brained stupidity, the reporter had merely managed to "prank" himself. We're sorry for suggesting that Symbian's web team didn't know how to spell Symbain Symbian, when no such …

    Business 26 Jul 2007, 16:16

  • 2007 looking good for Carphone Warehouse

    More money from more customers

    Results from Carphone Warehouse show the company taking advantage of a sector which is doing well overall; with both revenues and profits on the rise. Revenue from retail, for the quarter ended 30 June 2007, was £706m, up 11.7 per cent on the same period last year. Revenue from business and home calls was £345m, up 50 per cent …

    Mobile 26 Jul 2007, 16:32

  • McLaren accelerates away from fines and expulsion

    But not in the clear yet

    McLaren has escaped sanction following a hearing which found insufficient evidence that the current Formula One leaders had benefited from leaked Ferrari data. The International Automobile Federation (FIA), which met at its world motor sport council today, said in a statement that it could yet kick McLaren out of the F1 …

    Entertainment 26 Jul 2007, 16:34

  • Google juices Turing Award

    $250,000 could be yours

    Thanks to Google, there's extra riches in store for the next winner of computing's "Nobel Prize." Today, the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) announced that Google has joined Intel in funding its prestigious Turing Award, upping the accompanying cash prize from $100,000 to $250,000. It's no coincidence that the …

    PCs & Chips 26 Jul 2007, 17:38

  • 'Predator' Microsoft applies to give itself cancer

    OSCON Adds tumor.com to website

    Microsoft realizes it has a schizophrenic relationship with open source software but can't seem to find any meds capable of correcting the situation. During a speech today at OSCON, Microsoft's open source chief Bill Hilf revealed that Microsoft will submit its Shared Source License to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for …

    Servers 26 Jul 2007, 18:35

  • US law firm cleared of robots.txt DMCA hacking charge

    Analysis Wayback Machine just screwed up, court says

    Sometimes plaintiffs just don't know when to quit. After losing a trademark infringement suit against a competitor, Healthcare Advocates - a patient advocacy organization based out of Philadelphia - sued the intellectual property law firm that represented the defendant in the trademark action, alleging that the firm had "hacked …

    Law 26 Jul 2007, 18:37

  • Sun preps 2048-thread monster

    Exclusive 256-thread minis in the meantime

    Sun's latest Niagara and Rock details have reached El Reg, and they confirm that the hardware maker is up to some very ambitious stuff. First off, Sun looks set for the imminent release of its first Niagara II-based servers – the T5120 and T5220 systems. Customers will see 1U and 2U boxes, respectively, each with one of the " …

    Servers 26 Jul 2007, 19:44

  • NASHA ashtronauts too fly to drunk

    What's the problem here? *hick*

    What gives an astronaut the steely nerve and heroic confidence to ride on a burning canister of rocket-fuel beyond our earthly confines and into the great unknown? According to Aviation Week, the same thing that gives anyone else courage; booze. The publication claims NASA is set to release a study on astronaut health …

    Space 26 Jul 2007, 19:53

  • Ballmer: Microsoft to become ads and devices powerhouse

    'Bold bets' on the way

    Steve Ballmer has committed Microsoft to becoming an advertising and consumer device powerhouse, intent on sustaining growth via software sales and diversification into online services. Ballmer told Wall Street it had "no choice" but to accept "big bets" on software plus services as a way of sustaining growth and the industry's …

    Financial News 26 Jul 2007, 20:44

  • Microsoft challenges Google with uber search center

    Dreams the impossible dream

    Microsoft has realized that efforts to rig its online search traffic can only go so far. After using bribes to boost queries on its Live Search engine, the Redmond outfit has decided that it's also a good idea to beef up the engine's architecture, announcing a brand new research center dedicated entirely to search and ad …

    Music and Media 26 Jul 2007, 20:47

  • Rackable's margins still in witness protection program

    Q2 turns red

    Rackable's new CEO suffered through a tough first 90 days on the job, as gross margins continued to vanish. Rackable today reported second quarter revenue of $82m – a 14 per cent year-over-year rise. It also posted a $40m net loss during the period versus a $5.3m profit in the same period last year. The profit disappeared as …

    Financial News 26 Jul 2007, 21:08

  • FBI asks Congress for phone record slush fund

    Gonzo savors new, zestier 4th Amendment

    National Public Radio reported this week that the FBI has requested $5.3m from Congress to pay telecommunications companies for customer data, funding a massive database that would provide agents with convenient access to customer phone and email records. Just in case. The request provides the legal coda to the controversial …

    Government 26 Jul 2007, 22:05

  • AMD: We're not dead yet

    Says Barcelona outperforms Intel Xeon

    AMD executives have tried to assure the world that the company's future is sunny, despite a few gray clouds of late, presenting the first ever benchmarks for its highly anticipated Barcelona chip, announcing plans for two new core designs, and saying that next-generation manufacturing technologies are proceeding on schedule. …

    Servers 26 Jul 2007, 22:54

  • QLogic Q1 profit slips

    Silicon banana peel

    Storage firm QLogic posted a profit slump today for its first fiscal quarter, citing a major drop in sales of its non-core silicon products. The company's income for the quarter was at $19m, a 9 per cent fall from $21.1m for the first quarter of 2006. Revenue for the quarter was $139.8m, a tepid 2 per cent increase from $136. …

    Financial News 26 Jul 2007, 23:01

  • EU files anti-trust charges against Intel

    Six-year probe bares litigation

    After years of investigation, the European Commission has issued formal charges against Intel today, for alleged anti-competitive business practices against rival AMD. "I can confirm the statement of objections has been sent," EC spokesman Ton Van Lierop told Reuters. The EU has been sniffing around Intel's business …

    Law 26 Jul 2007, 23:06

  • Windows Vista unreadiness revealed

    Analysts laugh at surface computing

    Microsoft has finally outlined the extent to which Windows Vista was unfit for the marketplace when it launched six months ago. A mere 650 applications were certified for Vista when it launched, compared to 2,000 now. Seventy "critical" enterprise applications from corporate mainstays such as Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, …

    Operating Systems 26 Jul 2007, 23:35