12th October 2007 Archive

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After months of denial, Microsoft cops to IE vulnerability

URI handling lockdown coming soon

Microsoft has finally accepted responsibility for its role in a security weakness that allows malicious websites to run harmful code on an end user's machine. The acknowledgment of the vulnerability in Internet Explorer comes after three months of saying the burden lay with third-party software makers whose programs actually …

Enterprise Security 12 Oct 00:31
Onetime Google nemesis cranks click-fraud crusade

Among other things

Advanced Internet Technologies once took Google to court over click fraud. But that was small potatoes. Now, the Fayetteville, North Carolina web hoster is locked in litigious combat with a net-happy local newspaper that allegedly hit the company with a click scam from inside its own data center. And alleged click fraud is …

Law 12 Oct 01:39
MPs slam criminal assets recovery IT 'mess'

A lesson in limited investment

The agency set up to recoup the ill-gotten gains of criminals lacked the appropriate information systems, according to a group of MPs. A failure to invest in IT left the Assets Recovery Agency unable to manage either its case load or staff resources adequately. The claim is made in a report from Parliament's committee of public …

Public Sector 12 Oct 09:02
CoPilot 7 satnav kit finds its way to the UK

ALK Technologies will finally launch the latest release of its CoPilot Live satellite navigation software across Europe this month. Version 7.0 will arrive - coincidentally - seven months after it was originally promised. CoPilot Live 7: testing caused some 'delays' ALK originally planned to release version seven at the …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 09:24
Mobile broadband to dominate in 2011

HSDPA to grab lion's share of subscribers

Mobile broadband is expected to become the dominant broadband platform worldwide in 2011, according to a new report. The research, which was carried out by Informa Telecoms & Media, indicates there will be more than one billion broadband subscribers worldwide in 2011, with the majority using mobile rather than fixed systems. …

Networks 12 Oct 09:34
Corporate computing going thin to go green?

Recycling old arguments

MP Alan Whitehead reckons it is not unfair to compare the computer industry to the airline business: all efforts are focused on the end user experience, he argues, without heed being paid to the effect the business has on the planet. Planes get faster and more comfortable (we can only assume he is travelling first class, …

Hardware 12 Oct 09:40
Russian spammer murder hoax exposed

Thick Skin yarn punctured

A yarn that a prolific Russian spammer was whacked by Russian hit-men is increasingly looking like a hoax. The supposed assassination of one "Alexey Tolstokozhev" in Moscow, was first reported on a website run by "Alex Loonov". Loonov's account (at loonov.com/russian-viagra-and-penis-enlargement-spammer-murdered.htm) seemed …

Spam 12 Oct 09:42
Asian manufacturers race to ready iPhone-alikes

Touch sensitive

Guess what? Taiwanese handset makers are scrambling to ready iPhone-like communications gadgets and could have them out the door before July 2008. Surprise, surprise. The iPhone is certainly the best known - and most hyped; though the two factors are directly related - of the new breed of touch-operated handsets, but it's by …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 10:03
Ballmer: Google is winning online

Dr Watson paging Sherlock...

Steve "on the" Ballmer is telling anyone who'll listen about how Microsoft is taking a pasting from Google in the search advertising racket. In a speech in Orlando this week, the Microsoft boss said: "In world search and advertising, Google is the leader, we're an aspirant [shouldn't that be perspirant?]. We have a lot of …

Applications 12 Oct 10:14
AMD Catalyst update promises big gains for gamers

AMD has posted the latest release of its Catalyst graphics chip drivers, claiming the software yields "significant performance gains" in a stack of games - DirectX 10 supporting titles in particular. The latter include BioShock, World in Conflict, Lost Planet, Call of Juarez and Company of Heroes, all of which gain framerate …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 10:22
Cassini team ties icy jets to tiger stripes

It could only happen on Enceladus

The tiger stripes at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus are indeed responsible for the powerful jets emerging from the body. Enceladus' jets. Credit: NASA The imaging team on the Cassini mission to the Saturn system have spent two years poring over pictures of Enceladus, trying to determine the source of the icy jets …

Science 12 Oct 10:37
TV for those who enjoy massacres

Analysis Medium cool for heat ray guns

In 1991, Bad: Or the Dumbing of America was published. Written by Paul Fussell, a man with experience of war, it pessimistically ran through all that was execrable in the United States with the realisation things were only going to get worse. Under bad magazines, scorn was reserved for the successful Soldier of Fortune, a …

Science 12 Oct 10:41
Intel X48 chipset to ditch DDR 2?

Supports DDR 3 memory only

Intel's X48 high-end gaming-oriented chipset, the anticipated successor to the only-just-released X38 chipset, is set to debut in Q1 2008 - supporting DDR 3 memory only, it has emerged. According to leaked Intel presentation slides posted by Chinese-language site HKPEC, the X48 will not support DDR 2 memory, though it will up …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 10:48
BOFH: A tragic accident

Episode 35 Workplace safety just ain't what it used to be

It's an exceptionally quiet morning at Mission Control and the PFY and I are killing time by rifling through the director's PA's drawers to see if she left anything good behind when she departed the company. "Ah... excuse me?" a voice asks haltingly from behind the partition. "Yep?" the PFY asks, always willing to help out …

BOFH 12 Oct 11:02
Apple iPod Touch

2007's Top Products Finger-flicking good?

Apple may be keen to tout the Touch's 3.5in display, but the first thing you notice about the new iPod is how thin it is. Front to back it measures 8mm - on paper not as thin as the 6.5mm thick iPod Nano, but you'd never really know unless you measured them both. The point is, the Touch is supremely skinny. It's hard to …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 11:02
Sony Ericsson releases Walkman, Cyber-shot phones

Sony Ericsson’s announced availability of two previously unveiled music-oriented handsets and the broader availability of an erstwhile Vodafone exclusive. The W910 and K850 were both announced back in June, while the K630 is essentially a rebadged Vodafone V640i. Sony Ericsson's Walkman 910 The W910 has a cool shake …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 11:04
Evesham left debts of £6.8m

No surplus funds for unsecured creditors

Defunct British PC maker Evesham Technology went bust owing creditors nearly £7m, the firm's administrators have revealed. However, unsecured creditors can forget any chance of a payout because there are no "surplus funds" available. In a creditors report covering Evesham Technology, Evesham Technology Holdings and Mertec …

Channel Register 12 Oct 11:33
Giants carve up broadband punters

The UK's ISP oligopoly

Rapid consolidation in the UK broadband market means it's now dominated by just six operators, who divvy up 94 per cent of home internet users between them. Analyst house Point Topic's superleague comprises BT, Virgin Media, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali, Orange, and Sky. Ofcom's attempt to increase competition with the creation …

Telecoms 12 Oct 11:36
Moto punts Pebl-like music phone

Motorola has launched the Pebl-inspired U9 music phone that was forecast way back in July. The compact curvacious sliderphone sports a bright 1.5in OLED external display to give it that MP3 player feel. Motorola's U9: open and shut As a phone, the U9 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge devices. Opening the clamshell case - …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 11:39
EMI 'goes indie'

Comment When financiers do A&R

A memo from EMI's new owner has got the music digerati very excited. In recent years they've been hoping some of the lovely lolly that's been lubricating the City of London would flow their way. Now their wish is coming true - and it might not be what they wanted after all. Guy Hands, whose private capital investment company …

Music and Media 12 Oct 11:46
Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Will sit nicely next to the Oscar

He might have made a couple of mistakes in his Inconvenient Truth documentary, but we suspect Al Gore will consider his shiny new Nobel Peace Prize a winning blow in the PR war on climate change. Gore is to share the gong with the IPCC, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate …

Science 12 Oct 11:47
Rebranding earthquake shakes seismic tech outfit

LogoWatch Shedding electrons to the sound of whalesong

Those of us who view the inexorable spread of rebranding madness with a certain dread and not a small amount of horror had, until now, assumed that it was only Web 0.2 solutions providers, telcos, or self-important chip outfits with more money than sense who allowed themselves to succumb to the sound of whalesong and the pungent …

Bootnotes 12 Oct 11:54
Motorola cuts a dash with 24-carat gold Razr 2

Old smoothy

Motorola's no stranger to gilt-y pleasures. It's already offered Oriental buyers a lady-aimed gold-clad Krzr K1 and now here's a Razr 2 that's apparently been "re-imagined and reconfigured in the most luxurious materials... bathed in gold and clothed in snake-like skin". Cleopatra's perfect phone, in other words. You bet your …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 12:23
YouTube gatecrashers trash 16th birthday bash

Dad punched in face, son hospitalised

A quiet birthday party in Chippenham, Wiltshire turned into a near-riot after details were posted on YouTube prompting over 100 uninvited teenagers to gatecrash the bash, Reuters reports. During the ensuing fracas, engineer David Worthy, 53, was punched in the face "when he tried to turn away a group of youths", his son Stephen …

Bootnotes 12 Oct 12:34
Simon Pegg to play Scotty

Shaun of the Dead thespo boldly goes...

Brit thespo Simon Pegg, who's previously entertained the crowds in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, will play a young Scotty in the next celluloid Star Trek outing, Reuters reports. Pegg joins Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, John Cho as Sulu and Zachary Quinto as Spock in the film which reportedly, and logically …

Entertainment 12 Oct 12:53
Microsoft, McDonald's and flying cars

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Fries with that? McDonald's in the UK is to start offering free Wi-Fi with its clown meat sandwiches by the end the of the year. McDs already offers free wireless web access in most of its US stores. The chain is currently aiming to move upmarket and presumably hopes the deal will help attract besuited road warriors back to its …

Business 12 Oct 13:02
US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

If you're not on the list, you're not getting on

Under new rules proposed by the Transport Security Administration (TSA) (pdf), all airline passengers would need advance permission before flying into, through, or over the United States regardless of citizenship or the airline's national origin. Currently, the Advanced Passenger Information System, operated by the Customs and …

Law 12 Oct 13:18
BEA rejects Oracle bid

Updated Business software is just so hot right now

Oracle has made a surprise $6.7bn bid for middleware developer BEA Systems. The database giant has tabled $17 per share in an all-cash bid, a 25 per cent premium on yesterday's closing price. It comes just days after Oracle's bitter German rival SAP said it would lay down $6.7bn for Business Objects. BEA has become something …

Applications 12 Oct 13:55
Allen telescope array begins alien hunt

MS founder says he'll get the first call

The first section of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) has been powered up and is embarking on its mission to listen to a million stars. The array, funded in part by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, will eventually include 350 individual six-metre radio telescopes, all searching the skies for signs of alien life. "For SETI, the …

Security 12 Oct 13:56
Hackers unlock iPhone - again

Walls come tumbling down

Hackers have struck back against an iPhone software update from Apple that disabled unlocked phones. The iPhone Development Project has developed a method to install third-party apps and use upgraded iPhones on GSM networks other than AT&Ts, The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports. The latest hack allows users who've already …

Security 12 Oct 14:05
El Reg deploys (extra) comment icons

Your guide to use and abuse

The commentators among you will have noticed that El Reg recently deployed a set of 11 "comment icons" (now expanded to 23) allowing you, our beloved readers, to flag your two bits' worth with a suitable image. However, it seems there's a bit of confusion as to what pic should accompany which sort of outburst, so here are our …

Site News 12 Oct 14:29
Nintendo updates Wii

Nintendo updates Wii's Internet Channel

Nintendo has announced several changes to the Wii games console’s Internet Channel, urging gamers to become more web-savvy with their Wii. Wii's on-screen keyboard: not the only option now Its Wii System Update 3.1 allows the console to support USB keyboards, meaning gamers are no longer limited to an on-screen keyboard, …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 14:47
Red Hat, Novell sued for patent infringment

Ballmer predictions spookily true...

Just days after Steve Ballmer again raised the spectre of patent lawsuits being filed against Linux companies, Red Hat is being sued for patent infringement. Ballmer told developers in London that anyone using Red Hat software effectively owed him money. Ballmer said: "People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our …

Software 12 Oct 14:52
Moon-like Bluetooth speaker is out of this world

Sony Ericsson's MBS-100

Crater-face is usually a term reserved for pre-pubescent teens and South American generalissimos. But Sony Ericson’s MBS-100 Bluetooth speaker also looks set for some name-calling if its lunar-like design's anything to go by. Sony Ericsson's MBS-100: good mooning We’ve no idea what inspired the moon-like looko, but the …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 14:58
Medion finds a place on Sainsbury's shelves

Supermarket giant to sell more Medion laptops

Sainsbury’s clearly thinks it’s onto a nice little earner with Medion notebooks, so it’s stocking up for Christmas. Medion's MD 96480: don't expect a BOGOF offer on this The 15.4in display laptop’s based on a 1.5GHz Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo CPU and, possibly because it runs on Vista Home Premium, ships with 2GB of DDR 2 …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 15:05
Branson: saviour of Northern Rock

Billionaire balloonist to tackle UK property bubble

Tiresome action-billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin group is in talks to take the helm of listing mortgage outfit Northern Rock, it's been revealed today. Northern Rock is on the block after it had to be bailed out by the Bank of England last month. The fallout from the sub-prime crisis spanked its ability to raise finance. …

Financial News 12 Oct 15:20
American betting exchange craps out after four months

Louisiana busts lead to Washington lawsuit

The state of Louisiana has apparently had enough of Betcha.com, a peer-to-peer betting exchange similar to Intrade or Betfair but based in Seattle, the Seattle Times reports. The raid on the company's offices was conducted by Washington authorities at the behest of the state of Louisiana after law enforcement officers there …

Financial News 12 Oct 15:25
Digital downloads get pop-tastic applause

Musical deathmatch with Queen of Pop as ring master

Unless you've been living under a rock recently you'll have noticed that the digital music industry has been flip-flopping all over the place this week. First up, music licensing company Snocap today confirmed that it had reduced its staff headcount by 60 per cent. The San Francisco-based firm, which had been the latest e- …

Music and Media 12 Oct 15:33
Zend crafts application server PHP implant

Performance bridge

Zend Technologies is turning to application server vendors in the next phase of its work fine-tuning PHP for enterprise development. Self-appointed PHP steward Zend has had talks with unnamed middleware partners with a view to improving the performance of its favorite scripting language on their application servers, by putting …

Software 12 Oct 18:02
Compellent IPO a driving force?

What goes up must...

The storage biz has once again birthed a surprisingly successful IPO — but how will adolescence treat it? SAN specialist Compellent made the public leap earlier this week, offering shares at $13.50 under the symbol CML. From there, shares leaped to $24 at closing, almost double the initial price. Honeymoon trading didn't last, …

Servers 12 Oct 19:50
Ruling allows US tech firms to dodge an immigration bullet

Feds still have plenty of ammo, though

Technology firms in the US just won a last-minute reprieve from a fusillade of new, and potentially devastating, immigration rules. But the government is almost certain to reload and try again in a higher court. Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday that put …

Government 12 Oct 20:23
Security vuln auction site pulls in research

Alternative market attracts 150 listings

A controversial marketplace for security exploits and vulnerabilities said it has exceeded expectations with the submission of more than 150 vulnerabilities in its first two months of operations. WabiSabiLabi encourages security researchers to sell their findings to vetted buyers. Herman Zampariolo, chief exec of WSLabi which …

Enterprise Security 12 Oct 20:32
AP sues Moreover over aggravated aggregation

Now is the autumn of our online discontent

News agency Associated Press (AP) is suing Verisign over that company's unlicensed use of AP news stories. The suit relates to Verisign-owned news aggregation site Moreover. Moreover is a news publishing service designed to bring news to users very quickly after the news is published. It operates free to use and subscription …

Music and Media 12 Oct 21:03
CDW's flight into private equity is complete

Adios, NASDAQ!

CDW, America's biggest computer dealer, left NASDAQ today, on completion of its takeover by a couple of private equity firms. They are called Madison Dearborn Partners and Providence Equity Partners, in case you're interested. Now for a canned quote from Glenn Creamer, senior managing firector of Providence Equity. "Since its …

Channel Register 12 Oct 22:03
Tons of free music ... and other global injustices

Real Mail RIAA vs P2P

Ah, let's hear it for "consensus". These days, consensus is a splendid, many-sided thing that can mean anything you want it to mean - and whatever it is, you'll find the supporting evidence on the internet. Which is great news for hacks, who love to be soothsayers to the nation - and tell us what we're really thinking. This …

Music and Media 12 Oct 22:10
Universal recruits enemies for Total war on iTunes

My enemies' enemy is an even bigger enemy, which makes my enemies my friends

Universal Music chief Doug Morris is reportedly aiming to join forces with Sony BMG and Warner to topple the iTunes store. OK, we've heard this war chant end in wails of disappointment before — its practically a blueprint for epic failure — but can Apple keep the barbarians at the gate forever? It's no secret the labels are …

Music and Media 12 Oct 22:21
Watchdog chucks life raft to White House backup tapes

5 million missing messages. And counting...

A government watchdog group that alleges the Bush Administration has illegally failed to maintain more than 5 million emails has filed a temporary restraining order that would require administrators to preserve all remaining backup tapes. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the motion on …

Government 12 Oct 23:34
EA aquires Bioware and Pandemic

Mass Effect XIV scheduled for December then?

Gaming megapublisher and dev sweat shop operator Electronic Arts plans to buy VG Holding Corp, owner of BioWare and Pandemic Studios, for $860m. The sum will give EA ownership of both BioWare's and Pandemic's IPs, including Jade Empire, Mass Effect Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate. EA will pay $620m in cash to stockholders, as …

Financial News 12 Oct 23:59