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19th September 2007 Archive

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  • XtremeData volunteers to serve as Intel's FPGA busboy

    IDF Altera Inside

    Co-processor specialist XtremeData has revealed a first quarter ship date for a new FPGA that will tap into the front side bus of Intel's Xeon chips. XtremeData stands as one of the initial companies to take Intel up on its open FSB offer. Intel first discussed plans to bring partners to the FSB last year. The chipmaker tapped …

    Servers 19 Sep 2007, 00:05

  • USB set to go to 3 for HD

    IDF Paves way for optical links

    The brains behind USB are to take the peripheral interconnect technology into the HD era with a new version, 3.0, due to be completed by the middle of 2008. USB 3.0 is set to deliver a data transfer rate of up to 4.8Gbps - ten times today's 480Mbps USB 2.0 data rate - and introduce optical interconnects to the bus. The goal, …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 00:10

  • Doomwatchers sound Windows and IE vuln alarm

    Reasons to believe in net insecurity (Part 94)

    Security researchers are warning of a newly discovered vulnerability in Windows operating systems that makes applications susceptible to remote attack if they rely on widely used application programming interfaces. It is one of at least three PC-based security flaws to be published in four days. The vulnerability resides in two …

    Enterprise Security 19 Sep 2007, 00:14

  • Intel chief waves wafer full of 'world's first' 32nm chips

    IDF One shiny 300mm disc looks much like another...

    Intel has proclaimed its 32nm process "on track" for the delivery of processors fabbed using the process in late 2009. As proof, it showed off a 300mm wafer comprising 32nm memory cells - the world's first 32nm chips, it claimed. Each memory chip die contains 1.9bn transistors - enough for 291Mb of storage capacity - but that …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 00:47

  • Brother unveils 'fastest' laser printer

    Brother claims that its latest office-grade printer is the fastest in the west... er... in its class. The DCP-9045CDN is a beast of a machine and has several key features built into its frame to make the chore of refilling the printer tray slightly more fun. The DCP-9045CDN: much more than mono-tone prints The printer …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 00:53

  • Business Nokia makes an entrance

    Would suit your three-button pin-stripe

    Nokia has launched a mobile phone for business users who never have enough time on their hands. The E51 handset sports most standard multimedia capabilities, but also includes dedicated short-cut buttons for key functions and connects up to corporate telephone networks. Nokia's E51: similar looks to many existing Nokia …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 00:59

  • Turkey stuffs YouTube (again)

    Much ado about Ataturk

    A Turkish court has banned YouTube access after someone complained that the world's most popular video sharer was hosting clips that insulted the country's founding father. And, yes, you've heard all this before. In response to a Turkish resident who stumbled onto YouTube videos badmouthing not only Mustafa Kemal Ataturk but …

    Law 19 Sep 2007, 04:54

  • Benioff launches pre-emptive A1S strike

    Dreamforce Tenants up the wazoo

    Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com's chief executive, today poured scorn on SAP for its temerity in planning on-demand business applications. At no time did he mention the company by name, but everyone recognised his target when he referred to software firms using dated architectures and hoodwinking customers. He said vendors …

    Developer 19 Sep 2007, 05:20

  • Intel slobbers over flash-based server storage

    IDF Pricey but fast

    Intel plans to shakeup the storage market in 2008 with the introduction of solid-state disks designed for data center hardware. SVP Pat Gelsinger revealed Intel's ambitions during a speech today here at the Intel Developer Forum. Ever excitable, Gelsinger gushed over the possibility of planting NAND flash memory-based drives in …

    Storage 19 Sep 2007, 05:49

  • Microsoft vs EC round-up

    The verdict and reaction...

    Monday saw the long-awaited verdict to Microsoft's appeal of European anti-trust action. On all major points Microsoft lost its appeal, although the commission's imposition of a monitoring trustee has been overturned. It's not necessarily the end of the road - if Microsoft can find a legal basis it could appeal to the final …

    Software 19 Sep 2007, 07:02

  • Fresh Xeon to rough up twittering Opteron

    IDF War breaks out between imaginary chips

    Intel has given up on anything resembling restraint with its latest round of AMD bashing. During the Intel Developer Forum, executives pounded away on AMD's new four-core Opteron (Barcelona) chip. Intel plans to beat Barcelona on every benchmark with the release of its four-core Xeon (Harpertown) in the fourth quarter. And by " …

    Servers 19 Sep 2007, 07:22

  • Maddy: TV torture for the ADD generation

    Column 'This is awful. I can't stop watching'

    Following the first Gulf War of 1991, the French social theorist Jean Baudrillard made the famous statement that "the Gulf War did not take place". It was seized on by academics, journalists, and pub intellectuals in the English-speaking world as a prime example of the absurdity and irresponsibility of French philosophy. When he …

    Music and Media 19 Sep 2007, 09:02

  • New competition minister makes broadband rallying cry

    Calls for public sector buy-in

    Competitiveness minister Stephen Timms has called for a road map to push forward the UK's move to super fast broadband. In his first major speech as competitiveness minister, Stephen Timms said the UK is in urgent need of setting out a clear route for its move to super fast broadband and warned that other countries are already …

    Public Sector 19 Sep 2007, 09:02

  • Ethics body calls for DNA safeguards

    More controls to protect the innocent

    An independent medical body has warned that more controls are needed to protect the innocent against unjustified DNA profiling. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which examines ethical issues raised by new developments in medicine, has sounded the warning in a new report titled The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical …

    ID 19 Sep 2007, 09:23

  • Irish firm launches 'global' mobile phone

    'All global calls should be local calls'

    Irish start-up firm Cubic Telecom has launched what it claims is the first "truly global" mobile phone at a major industry exhibition in California. The Cubic Mobile phone was launched Monday at the prestigious TechCrunch 40 trade show in San Francisco, where Cubic was the only Irish exhibitor of the 40 companies in attendance …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2007, 09:26

  • New GPS sats to lack Selective Availability

    Availability will still be selective though

    The US military announced yesterday that it will no longer procure Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites with the capability for worldwide civil sat nav degradation. In a release dated yesterday, the Pentagon confirmed that "this capability, known as Selective Availability (SA), will no longer be present in the next …

    Government 19 Sep 2007, 09:59

  • New York Times and Murdoch gunning for more clicks

    Gray lady lifts her skirts

    The trend towards coughing up free online news continued apace yesterday following the New York Times's decision to drop charges on its website. Rupert Murdoch also waded into the debate, perhaps looking to grab a few column inches and clicks for the Wall Street Journal which will fall into the News Corp boss's lap once his $ …

    Music and Media 19 Sep 2007, 10:49

  • Bioethics group raises DNA database concerns

    Analysis 'There has to be a limit to police powers'

    The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has condemned the retention of "innocent" DNA on the National Database as unjustifed and unethical with "overtones of a police state". The council - a group of clinicians, lawyers, philosophers, scientists, and theologians - was established in 1991 to examine ethical issues raised by new …

    Law 19 Sep 2007, 11:20

  • Time Warner mulls flogging AOL US dial-up biz (again)

    Aged Operator Leftovers

    The boss of media omnicorp Time Warner said yesterday he is considering selling off the AOL dial-up business Stateside. It's not the first time the idea has been floated, and chief exec Richard Parsons told the Goldman Communacopia* conference the firm would be taking an especially hard look at it over the next 12 to 18 months …

    Telecoms 19 Sep 2007, 11:32

  • Battling iPod docks take to the battlefield

    Headphones at the ready

    If you don’t have a docking station for your iPod, then you may be depriving it of a decent place to work, charge and play. But which model should you choose? Is it best to shell out for a top of the line one? Or are all versions pretty much the same? Are those with built in speakers best? Or should you opt for one that connects …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 12:15

  • The iPhone arrives, but is O2 being taken for a ride?

    Analysis 'You want... how much?'

    Yesterday Apple announced that O2 would have the exclusive rights to their iPhone in the UK, with punters paying £279 for the phone and signing up to an 18-month contract. But how much is O2 paying for its five-year exclusive, and can it really make any money out of it? Estimates of how much O2 is going to share with Apple …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2007, 12:34

  • Nobel-winning boffin slams ISS, manned spaceflight

    'Infantile fixation on putting people into space'

    A Nobel laureate physicist has poured scorn on human space exploration, saying "the whole manned spaceflight programme, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value". Professor Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas at Austin, co-recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics, was speaking at a …

    Space 19 Sep 2007, 13:30

  • LG unwraps HD DVD and Blu-ray combi drive PC

    High Def format detente in Korea

    LG has announced a desktop PC that supports both high definition (HD) formats. The LX97WH has been unveiled in Korea and packs a combi drive allowing users to read discs in both the HD DVD and Blu-ray format. LG's LX97WH: One happy customer? The PC itself, thought to be called the LX97WH, has got an Intel Core 2 Duo 2. …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 13:42

  • easyJet's cheapo astroturfing campaign downs charity servers

    Apology landed, donation en route, marbles lost in a spam storm

    easyJet has quickly apologised to a charity that makes it easier for people to contact their MP, after the airline overloaded servers by ignoring anti-spam guidelines. The budget airline fired off an email to subscribers to its newsletter, which normally provides details of special offers and new flight rules, at about 8.30am …

    Servers 19 Sep 2007, 14:05

  • How to create a sensible telephone strategy

    Mobile Clinic To VoIP or not to VoIP

    In this our penultimate mobile clinic piece, The Register's group of experts return to provide their opinions on your questions. This week the team are tackling how to best create a sensible telephone strategy, and as usual you can have your say via our comments section at the bottom of the article. Question How do we …

    Workshop 19 Sep 2007, 14:59

  • Lenovo debuts world's highest res 22in monitor

    Crisp, sharp and desktop

    It seems a little extraordinary, but until now we've been living in a world without any 1920 x 1200 resolution 22in desktop monitors. Thankfully, Lenovo has come to the rescue with the L220x to do just that and more, including full 1080p HD support. Lenovo's L220x: the world's first 22in, 1920 x 1200 monitor? The WUXGA …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 15:01

  • Doggers dogged over the dog and bone

    Text alert service digs itself a hole

    A text alert service for doggers has been fined £20,000 by regulator ICSTIS for breaches of the premium-rate code, including signing up punters without their knowledge and failing to respond to "stop" messages. The "Dogger" service was run by Zamano Ltd and provided vital information for those wanting to watch, or be watched, …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2007, 15:02

  • Internet gambling apparently no problem after all

    UK gov survey debunks media hysteria

    The UK National Centre for Social Research today released the long awaited results of the UK Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 and, contrary to hysterical media speculation, there has been no significant change in UK gambling habits since the last survey in 1999. Many had speculated that the prevalence of internet gambling since …

    Government 19 Sep 2007, 15:05

  • Hypersonic plane project confirmed by DARPA

    Retro 60s tech unlikely to melt much tinfoil

    The US Air Force (USAF) has inked a deal with DARPA* - the famously luncheoning-elsewhere Pentagon boffinry outfit - to collaborate on a "combined cycle hypersonic vehicle that could take off and land like a plane", according to reports. Rumours and whispers of a secret American hypersonic aircraft have, of course, been …

    Science 19 Sep 2007, 15:08

  • First Intel quad-core mobile CPU due Q3 08

    IDF Not Montevina friendly?

    Intel's first four-core processors for notebooks will debut in Q3 2008, it has been claimed. That narrows the release window down from the previous forecast: sometime in the second half of the year. Motherboard-maker moles spilled the beans to DigiTimes, confirming what we've heard before: the 45nm chips will contain 12MB of …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 15:09

  • T-Mobile wins iPhone for Germany

    Who will be next?

    T-Mobile has won exclusive rights to sell the Apple iPhone in Germany. The Deutsche Telekom-owned subsidiary will launch the handset on 9 November, the same day that hordes of Brits are expected to flock to Carphone Warehouse, Apple or O2 UK stores for their Jesus phones. T-Mobile announces its exclusive iPhone deal to …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 15:14

  • German web host to go carbon neutral

    Trusty old diesel engine at hand if renewable energy cocks up

    Web hosting firm Strato has pulled on its hemp-woven strides and made an ambitious proclamation that it will be completely carbon-free by January 2008. The German-based company's CEO Damien Schmidt told The Register that while people may be more aware of reducing their individual carbon footprint, it was also important for …

    Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 15:14

  • Ever wanted to see the game from the football's PoV?

    Designer unveils kickable, throwable camera

    If you’ve ever been frustrated enough to consider throwing your digicam across the room, then you’ll be pleased to know that you now can. A designer has created a concept camera that’s actually designed to be used while being flung around, suspended or even kicked. Triops: turns point and shoot camera onto their heads …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 15:27

  • Brussels deploys Galileo rescue plan

    Farmers won't miss €2.2bn, say officials

    The European Union (EU) central bureaucracy has today announced its plan to save Galileo, the troubled European sat nav project. Brussels officials believe that no additional taxpayer cash would be required on top of existing EU plans, saying that funds could be reassigned from other areas. According to AP, Transport …

    Space 19 Sep 2007, 16:04

  • Google says go-go-Gadget Ads

    The joy of web app advertising...sob

    Google is rolling out yet another way of pumping advertising onto the web with Gadget Ads, and this time it reckons it can trick you into thinking it's real "content", whatever that is. According to the PR bumpf: "Gadget Ads are designed to feel more like original content than a typical ad." The system openly lets developers …

    Applications 19 Sep 2007, 16:09

  • IBM hopes open office is Symphony to your key-tapping fingers

    Targets rival Microsoft

    IBM has joined the growing group of tech companies punting alternatives to Microsoft's omnipresent Office suite. Its new Lotus Symphony package, which launched yesterday, includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs and is available free of charge to Windows and Linux users. The software uses the …

    Software 19 Sep 2007, 16:20

  • Intel pledges ultra-low power web gadget chip - again

    IDF More on 'Moorestown'

    Intel today re-iterated its plan to squeeze an entire handheld web tablet's system chippery into a single slab of silicon, but it make a fresh pledge: to cut the chip's idle power consumption to a tenth of what it expects next year's multi-chip platform to use. The SoC is 'Moorestown', which Intel announced six months ago at …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 17:41

  • IDF Nvidia readies SLI for Intel's X38?

    Intel will formally launch its awaited gaming-oriented chipset, the X38, on 10 October, the chip maker said yesterday after touting the product's overclocking credentials. It also hinted Nvidia may enable SLI on the chipset. The X38 supports a pair of PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots - certainly good for SLI set-ups. It supports a …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 17:52

  • 787 unsafe, claims former Boeing engineer

    Dreamliner crash and burn?

    A former Boeing engineer claims the 787 Dreamliner is unsafe, and that in the event of a crash its innovative composite material fuselage would "shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes", the Seattle Times reports. Vince Weldon was sacked in July 2006 from his post as senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works …

    Science 19 Sep 2007, 18:38

  • Smiley celebrates 25th birthday

    Big * and 25x@>--->--- for :-)

    The "digital smiley" - a cunning series of keystrokes which gave rise to the ubiquitous emoticon - is today celebrating its 25th birthday. That's according to Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, who says that at 11:44 am on 19 September 1982, during an electronic bulletin board discussion about "the limits of …

    Bootnotes 19 Sep 2007, 18:40

  • Microsoft counters VMware insanity with optimistic frown

    Analysis Our time will come

    I used to enjoy covering VMware. In the good old days, CEO Diane Greene would stop by the office to chat about everything, including point upgrades to ESX Server, GSX Server - remember that - or Workstation. She never tried to oversell the products. She embraced a humble, intelligent approach to discussing VMware's products and …

    Virtualization 19 Sep 2007, 18:58

  • Web host breach may have exposed passwords for 6,000 clients

    Names, addresses and phone numbers also at risk

    Layered Technologies has been targeted by malicious hackers who may have stolen passwords and other personal details on as many as 6,000 of its clients, the Texas-based web host provider warned. It is advising customers to change login credentials for all host details submitted in the past two years. The Monday evening breach …

    Security 19 Sep 2007, 19:06

  • ICANN dukes it out with the USSR in cold war rematch smackdown

    Living in the zombie domain, keeping the net safe for the free world

    The Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Names and Numbers - that's ICANN to you, Boris - has had enough, and decided to stick it to those godless pinko commie automatons once and for all, nukes be damned. For those readers who thought the cold war had vanished in rhetorical smoke years ago, Reuters has news for you. …

    Law 19 Sep 2007, 20:01

  • NASA trolls web for wannabe astronauts

    Position requires 'extensive travel'

    In its search for new astronauts, NASA has turned to the web. For the first time in almost thirty years, the cash-strapped, Google-loving bureaucrats are looking for men and women to ride into space on a U.S. craft other than the Shuttle - so they've posted a notice to Usajobs.com, "your one-stop source for federal jobs and …

    Space 19 Sep 2007, 20:07

  • Sorting through Intel's SoC drawer

    IDF 'Canmore' and 'Tolapai' - compare and contrast

    Intel launched its first foray into the world of system-on-a-chip (SoC) products for consumer electronics kit in April this year. Then, at its Spring IDF conference, it launched the CE2110, an ARM-based CPU with a built-in graphics engine, memory controller and more. At the time, Intel's Digital Home Group chief, Eric Kim, …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 20:19

  • Argos admits selling Halo 3 early

    Cock-up not conspiracy

    Argos has admitted breaking the official release date for Halo 3. The UK high street retailer coughed to the goof after lucky gamers reported getting their mitts on copies of the game before the scheduled release date next week. Microsoft's Halo 3: tipped to be a Christmas smash Argos quickly apologised for its actions and …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 20:53

  • Supermicro debuts super quiet server blade

    IDF Shhh, do you want to wake the baby?

    Supermicro is showing off a new ultra quiet and low energy server blade at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week. Uncharacteristically lacking a "super" prefix in its name, the OfficeBlade is designed for offices, departmental computing and — we venture this category is a bit more narrow — personal supercomputing …

    Servers 19 Sep 2007, 21:21

  • Yes! It's the Intel 'Penryn' codename decoder

    IDF Which 45nm chip is which

    Intel's 45nm 'Penryn' processor comes in many forms, all derived from this tweaked version of the chip giant's Core 2 microarchitecture and targeting different segments of the market. Here's our guide to the many personalities of Penryn and their codenames. Wolfdale DP Dual-core Xeon server chips with 6MB of L2 cache. Again …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 21:48

  • TerraTec Noxon 2 net radio and iPod dock

    Review Tune into a wealth of internet radio content

    No sooner does DAB establish itself as the radio format of the future, than internet radio begins tapping it on the shoulder and trying to muscle its way past. Once upon a time, DAB was a genuine mainstream proposition as long as internet radio remained tied to PCs and Macs. Those days are over - products like the Noxon look …

    Reg Hardware 19 Sep 2007, 23:31

  • Kaspersky: Maxtor markets password-pilfering Dutch disk drives

    Buy now and get free malware

    Security mavens from Kaspersky say they have discovered a nasty virus that came pre-installed on Maxtor external hard drives sold in the Netherlands. The virus, dubbed Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ah, was found on the Maxtor 3200 Personal Storage, according to this press release from Kaspersky (translated from Dutch to English courtesy …

    Storage 19 Sep 2007, 23:43