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18th October 2007 Archive

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  • We'll beat Microsoft and Sun, says Adobe's chief software architect

    AIR time

    And so to Barcelona for Adobe Max 2007 Europe, the company's developer conference, where we caught up with chief software architect Kevin Lynch. We asked him to explain Adobe's platform ambitions. He was happy to oblige. “The Rich Internet Application movement was something that we were working on back in 2001. We coined the …

    Developer 18 Oct 2007, 00:17

  • Adobe: friend or enemy of open source, open standards?

    Treading a fine line

    I’m sitting in a session at Adobe Max Europe listening to Senior Product Manager Laurel Reitman talking about what a great open platform Adobe is creating. She refers to the open sourcing of the Flex SDK; the open bug database for Flex; the ISO standardization programme for PDF; the donation of source code to Tamarin, the …

    Developer 18 Oct 2007, 00:19

  • US court demands stronger copyright filters for Morpheus

    Grist to the Viacom-YouTube mill?

    A permanent injunction has been imposed on the distributor of the Morpheus file-sharing software. A US court ruled yesterday that StreamCast Inc. must use "the most effective means available to reduce the infringing capabilities of the system." The ruling comes less than a week after Google announced the launch of its own …

    Law 18 Oct 2007, 01:31

  • Teen accused of hacking emergency 911 system

    Bogus call sends SWAT team to home of unsuspecting family

    A 19-year-old Washington state man is due in court on Monday to face accusations he hacked into emergency 911 systems and faked a call that a sent SWAT team to the home of a sleeping family 750 miles away. Police allege Randall Ellis of Mukilteo, Washington, illegally accessed a phone system in Orange County, California and …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 01:34

  • Sun tries to flex R&D muscle with homegrown package manager

    Like Linux code but better - grr

    By the end of this month Sun Microsystems will release the first developer version of OpenSolaris in its "Project Indiana" incarnation. Up to this point, customers have had to work for Sun's open source Unix operating system by being forced to download the code and then build the OS. With Project Indiana, Sun wants to dish out …

    Operating Systems 18 Oct 2007, 03:19

  • Fujitsu punts Fibre storage arrays to SMBs

    SNW Eternus line hits lower limits

    Fujitsu Computer Systems is shrinking their Fibre Channel storage systems to woo the all-elusive SMB market. The de-bigulation was announced at Storage Networking World in Dallas. The new Fujitsu Eternus 2000 series includes two new systems - the Model100 and Model200 system, which will slot into the low-end of the company's …

    Storage 18 Oct 2007, 03:43

  • Cantec to click with Irish tech fans?

    Retailer rebrands as Click.ie

    Irish computer chain Cantec Computerstore is embarking on an ambitious expansion programme, rebranding as Click.ie and creating 100 jobs over three years. The independent retailer, which sells home media and IT products, plans to invest €3.5m in opening 14 new stores, creating 100 new jobs in the process. By 2010, the company …

    The Channel 18 Oct 2007, 04:22

  • Sun clarifies client-side Java strategy (sort of)

    'Filthy rich internet applications'

    Sun has given the world a (slightly) better idea of what's on the way from client-side Java. This evening, in the lead-up to a dev-tastic cocktail party in downtown San Francisco, James Gosling and other Sun insiders talked up several new pieces of the Java puzzle, and though most of the chat was a rehash of previous …

    Developer 18 Oct 2007, 08:56

  • PIN patterns go mobile

    Though shoulder surfing is less of an issue

    GrIDsure has teamed up with secure communications firm Masabi to create a mobile version of the pattern technology that's touted as a replacement to PIN-based identity systems. This will take on the hardware tokens used by companies such as RSA Security for remote identification. Secure tokens are generally keyfob-style …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 08:59

  • Avoiding x86 cuts iSCSI cost and watts

    iStor claims speed record for single-chip iSCSI controller

    An iSCSI developer said it has bucked the trend towards using standard servers to power storage appliances, instead using specialist chips that it designed itself. The company, called iStor, claims that as a result, its latest iS512 subsystems not only out-perform rivals such as EMC, EqualLogic, Intransa and LeftHand, but they …

    Storage 18 Oct 2007, 09:02

  • Slotload DVD drives and half-size discs

    Q&A

    I bought an acer aspire L320, and it's one of those PC's that has no DVD drawer: you offer the disc and it just slides in. I have a webcam I need to install but the software is on a mini disc. Will the machine take it in and spit it out when I'm done?

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 09:24

  • Government denies road charging 'blackmail'

    Rubbishes 'stalking horse' claims

    The government has rejected suggestions by MPs on the Transport Committee that it is "blackmailing" local authorities into introducing congestion charging schemes. It said that it will not support charging unless there is a robust investigation to show that it will be beneficial. The comments are made in the government's …

    Government 18 Oct 2007, 09:32

  • Home Office minister invites DNA database debate

    As records hit four million

    Home Office minister Meg Hillier has insisted on the need to debate the future of the National DNA Database. Responding to parliamentary questions from two Conservative MPs, Hillier said the growth of the database, which now holds records of more than four million people, has made a debate on its future development necessary …

    Government 18 Oct 2007, 09:41

  • Ryanair ad banned for slating Lastminute.com

    Cartoon robber apprehended

    An advert for budget airline Ryanair has been banned by the UK's advertising watchdog after it made misleading and unfair comparisons with online travel agent Lastminute.com. The advert broke rules on truthfulness and comparative advertising. The ad appeared in the national press, headlined "Robbed by Lastminute.com?" It showed …

    Law 18 Oct 2007, 09:44

  • Sony, Toshiba to form JV to fab PS3 chips

    Cell, RSX production transferred

    Sony is to sell the chip manufacturing plant it currently uses to produce Cell processors for the PlayStation 3 games console to Toshiba, part of a scheme that will see the two Japanese giants create an ¥100m ($858,000) chip-making joint-venture. The new company's name has yet to be set, but it will take over production of …

    Games 18 Oct 2007, 09:54

  • Fire service may charge for shifting fat people

    Lancashire moots obesity levy

    Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has announced it may introduce a fee for shifting fat people, after a sharp rise in the number of heavyweight call-outs. According to the Telegraph, the service was last year summoned eight times to "assist other services in lifting obese patients" - double the 2004 figure. One crew had to …

    Bootnotes 18 Oct 2007, 09:54

  • Skype rings up a loss for eBay

    Price cuts ahead

    eBay made a loss of $938m in the three months ended 30 September 2007, despite increasing turnover by 30 per cent to $1.89bn compared to last year. The large loss was blamed on writing off part of the cost of Skype. Earlier this month eBay told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was taking a charge of $1.4bn …

    Financial News 18 Oct 2007, 09:58

  • Facebook flotation 'years out', says Zuckerberg

    Keep your $15bn, suckers

    Child-boss Mark Zuckerberg has told Silicon Valley's biggest web 2.0 circle-jerk that the imagined Facebook flotation they've been creaming over for months is still years away. "I'm not saying it's never going to happen. But it's definitely years out," he told a packed house at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. …

    Financial News 18 Oct 2007, 10:04

  • Museum drops Watson talk in race row

    Remarks 'beyond acceptable debate'

    The science museum has cancelled a talk by Nobel prize winner James Watson after the scientist, who won the gong for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, said that black people are less intelligent than white people. The museum said that it does not shy away from discussing difficult topics, but that "James Watson's …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 10:17

  • No-humping 20mph limit for London

    Wireless enforcement/revenue panopticon expansion

    Immediately following this week's demands by safety lobbyists fearing for their jobs that the UK adopt a default 20mph speed limit in urban areas, London Mayor Ken Livingstone popped up aboard the bandwagon (this happened so quickly, indeed, that one might suspect he was aboard in advance). Mayor Ken - the cheeky chappie's …

    Law 18 Oct 2007, 10:21

  • Chris Pine steps into Kirk's shoes

    Major roles filled for 11th Star Trek celluloid outing

    Chris Pine will play Kirk in the forthcoming Star Trek outing, chronicling how the Enterprise crew met at Starfleet Academy and subesequently set forth on their first mission. He's joined by Lord of the Rings actor Karl Urban as Leonard "Bones" McCoy, as well as previously-confirmed Eric Bana as villain Nero, John Cho as Sulu, …

    Bootnotes 18 Oct 2007, 10:24

  • Nokia slides latest Linux tablet onto market

    Internet device gets a keyboard

    Nokia took a direct pop at Apple yesterday as it unveiled the latest addition to its internet tablet range. The Nokia N810: it can definitely handle pink The Linux-based N810 finally adds a real keyboard to the Nokia tablet range, instead of asking customers to rely on a full screen touch keyboard. This might go some way …

    Phones 18 Oct 2007, 10:27

  • Intel readies budget dual-core Celerons

    End of the road for single-core CPUs?

    Intel's Celeron line of budget processors will go dual-core in the new year, a prelude to a plan that will see the chip giant phase out single-core products, it has been claimed. The first low-cost desktop chip will be branded Celeron Dual-Core, as per this year's Pentium Dual-Core releases. The first of the line will be the …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 10:30

  • US phishermen trawl UK waters

    Phishing forecast sees front moving away from eBay

    The biggest source of attempts to steal personal bank details via email originates in the US, according to stats from UK anti-spam firm ClearMyMail. ClearMyMail has compiled a rogues gallery of the top 10 countries guilty of trying to steal domestic bank account information. According to ClearMyMail, more than half of all …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 10:32

  • MySpace opens up to developers

    Belated move to counter Facebook

    MySpace will open up to third party developers within the next few months. Facebook opened up its APIs in May this year and has been rewarded with a flood of applications written by third parties for the site. Although MySpace still claims the number one social networking spot, Facebook has seen fast growth this year as it …

    Software 18 Oct 2007, 10:36

  • Restored Vulcan takes to the skies

    Updated First test flight for XH558

    Vulcan bomber XH558 today took to the skies for the first of three test flights following years of fundraising and a painstaking £6.5m restoration by the Vulcan to the Sky trust. The Civil Aviation Authority cleared XH558 for take-off, weather permitting, from Bruntingthorpe airfield in Leicestershire. Chief of the Vulcan Crew …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 10:39

  • UK.gov makes bizarre threat to throw self off internet

    Curtains if sites not accessible by 2009

    The UK Government has given itself until the end of next year to get its act together on accessibility, after which any .gov.uk site failing to achieve the minimum, Level Double-A of the W3C Guidelines will have its domain withdrawn. This brave, nay, foolhardy commitment could conceivably result in carnage across national, local …

    Government 18 Oct 2007, 10:48

  • Post Office strikes with broadband delivery

    Hush hush ISP push

    The Post Office has quietly opened the doors on its aggressively-priced broadband service. The packages are supplied and run by BT's white label managed services unit. Four ADSL products are available. For £15.95 you get the usual up to 8Mbit/s downstream BT service, with a 5GB monthly usage cap and a fixed line modem. For £20 …

    Broadband 18 Oct 2007, 10:56

  • Scottish? You're drinking too much

    One million sozzled Caledonians at risk

    Over one million Scots are drinking at "potentially harmful levels", according to Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap) which reckons the real figure could be even higher. Shaap based its calculations on a 2003 survey which found that "63 per cent of male drinkers said they had consumed more than four units on …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 11:22

  • Oz censor bans Soldier Of Fortune: Payback

    Bodies blown apart too much it seems

    Australian gamers looking forward to a fix of blood, guts and gore in Soldier Of Fortune: Payback will be disappointed - the country’s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has banned the game. The game, the third in the Soldier of Fortune series from publisher Activision, was due to appear in Australia for …

    Games 18 Oct 2007, 11:24

  • Fasthosts customer? Change your password now

    Updated Police called to major hack

    Fasthosts, "the UK's number 1 web host", has fired off emergency emails telling customers to change all their passwords after police were called in to investigate a major data breach. The Gloucester-based firm contacted The Reg this morning with a statement. It said: "As the breach could relate to Fasthosts customer data... …

    Networks 18 Oct 2007, 11:26

  • Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38-based mobo

    Review Maximus or minimus?

    Intel’s new X38 chipset sweeps aside the elderly 975X and storms to the front of the queue as the natural choice for anyone building or upgrading a Core 2 Duo, Quad or Extreme PC. In essence, the X38 is a souped-up P35 with added support for the next-gen 1600MHz frontside bus (FSB) as well as Intel’s 45nm 'Penryn'. As things …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 11:48

  • Developer to demo 400Mbps powerline Ethernet

    Double today's LAN-over-mains bandwidth

    DS2, the Spanish chip maker behind one of the two rival ethernet-over-mains-wiring technologies, will next month demo a next-gen version of powerline that runs at up to 400Mbps - double today's top speed. It may be ready to show the technology working, but it's some way from releasing chips that can be incorporated into …

    Broadband 18 Oct 2007, 12:35

  • Sony slashes US 80GB PS3 price by $100

    Announces 40GB model too

    Sony has cut the price of the US 80GB PlayStation 3 to $499 (£245/€352), a prelude to the launch next month of the 40GB version, already announced in Europe and Japan. Sony launched the 80GB PS3 in the US in July, a month before it went on sale for $599. The 40GB model will cost $399 (£196/€281) and will go on sale Stateside …

    Games 18 Oct 2007, 13:02

  • Mobile phones soon to be allowed on aircraft

    Hiya, I'm on the plane

    Mobile phones will soon be heard on commercial aircraft, subject to regulatory approval. UK communications regulator Ofcom published a proposal (pdf) today that would license the right for passengers to make calls above an altitude of 3,000 metres. However, Ofcom points out that its remit is limited to the regulation of …

    Mobile 18 Oct 2007, 13:19

  • WD claims highest hard drive density crown

    640GB-per-platter drives now possible

    Western Digital has claimed to have created the world's highest density hard drive platter, a unit that packs in 520Gb per inch squared - more than double the highest density products on the market today. They typically offer an data density of 200Gbpi² - just not enough to yield the 640GB-per-platter storage capacity needed …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 13:28

  • Boeing trumpets 'relevant battlefield laser' raygun

    Copes easily with aggressive sitting ducks, barrels of fish

    Monster US arms'n'aerospace outfit Boeing is pleased as punch this week to announce that it has "successfully demonstrated" its new Humvee-mounted raygun, the Laser Avenger - intended to prove "that directed energy weapons are relevant to today's battlefield, and ready to be fielded". Holy crap, one might think. Energy …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 13:40

  • iRiver rolls out portable DAB

    B20 DAB Radio MP3 Player

    iRiver hasn't deviated far from the popular Clix design with its latest B20 DAB radio-cum-MP3 player. However, the unit’s extendable external aerial gives it a cute retro feel alongside modern MP3 and video features. iRiver's B20: has a retro feel The B20's 2.4in 320 x 240 LCD screen displays 260,000 colours. The external …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 13:40

  • Tibco middleware in zero-day security flap

    Multicasting migraine

    Security researchers have identified multiple unpatched vulnerabilities in a widely-used content distribution package. Tibco's SmartPGM FX multicasting software is prone to multiple remote vulnerabilities, including four stack-based buffer-overflow flaws, a format-string issue, and a potential denial of service bug. Hackers …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 13:44

  • PC sales boosted by Europe's laptops

    Steady growth

    Worldwide PC sales grew by 15.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2007 boosted by increased demand in Europe for laptops. Figures from IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker reveal US shipments of desktop machines continued to decline while laptop growth remained strong. HP was most improved of the big vendors, with growth of 17 per cent …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 13:44

  • Supersized stellar blackhole prompts model rewrite

    Boffins go back to the drawing board

    Researchers have located the most massive stellar black hole ever discovered, just three million light-years away in a nearby galaxy. The stellar remnant is in a binary system known as M33, orbiting a huge companion star. The researchers say the find is "intriguing", because of what it suggests about stellar evolution. …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 13:48

  • Pump-and-dump scammers debut MP3 spam

    Duff note

    Stock spammers have abandoned PDF files and image spam with a new campaign featuring MP3 files. The audio files pose as music from stars such as Elvis Presley and Fergie, but actually contain a monotone voice encouraging punters to invest in an obscure Canadian company. The MP3 files are being widely spammed in emails that …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 13:50

  • North American cities go green under LED street lights

    Cutting costs and CO2

    A city near Detroit is replacing all the bulbs in its street lighting with LEDs, following similar moves by a town in North Carolina and even Toronto. The move will bring in savings of $100,000 per year, Ann Arbour city officials said, meaning the investment will pay itself off inside four years. Mayor John Hieftje told the …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 13:53

  • Small biz needs to get safe online

    Be careful out there people

    Symantec is backing a scheme run by the UK government and police to get small and medium sized businesses to take online security and safety more seriously. The "Get Safe Online" campaign aims to provide one source of security information and advice for small businesses. The website covers online fraud, virus protection, and …

    Small Biz 18 Oct 2007, 14:18

  • PC World feels the Vista pinch (again)

    Profits warning at DSG

    Slow adoption of Microsoft Vista has hamstrung profits again at DSG, the retail group that owns PC World. In a statement to the stock exchange today, it warned that overall group profit margins for the 24 weeks to 13 October will be down 0.6 per cent "largely driven by slower Vista-related hardware sales". PC World has been …

    The Channel 18 Oct 2007, 14:28

  • Bubbly billygoat-bursting boffinry brouhaha at MoD

    Caprine-fizzing experiment moratorium outrage

    The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has finally been challenged by animal-rights groups over a long-running programme of experimentation in which goats - among other animals - have been deliberately given the bends in decompression chambers. Rather than a malevolent hatred of cloven-hoofed creatures, the tests in question were …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 14:32

  • Trouserless car-breaker fingers leprechaun

    Cincinnati man offers novel defence

    A Cincinnati man who broke into a car, crashed out, and was subsequently discovered by the owner having a trouserless kip claimed his presence in the vehicle was due to a leprechaun who had obligingly let him in. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Nicholas Donohue found Kim Joseph LeBlanc, 36, "naked from waist down", and …

    Bootnotes 18 Oct 2007, 14:33

  • Big media gangs up on pirates, file sharers

    Copyright cabal ahead

    A large group of media giants is poised to announce a new system for copyrighting content on t'internet. The US edition of the Wall Street Journal reports CBS, Microsoft, News Corp's Fox and MySpace units, NBC, Viacom, and Walt Disney are all part of the group. Reuters has more here. Reuters says: "The agreed principles …

    Law 18 Oct 2007, 14:34

  • Microsoft throws a party for MUC as AC/DC chucks filth off its website

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

    Microsoft was in good spirits this week at the launch of its long-awaited "Microsoft unified communications software" in San Francisco, officially announced by chairman Bill Gates, business division president Jeff Raikes, and a guitarist in a red velvet jacket. Now that's rock and roll, especially as the guitarist was playing …

    The Channel 18 Oct 2007, 14:45

  • Sony's pitches photo storage pod

    You'd better get snapping

    If you faint with terror at the prospect of organising a few family photos, how does the thought of arranging 50,000 into a digital "super album" strike you? Sony’s HDMS-S1D accepts photos from various sources, tracks them and enables slideshow displays on your HD TV. Sony's HDMS-S1D: stylish, living room-friendly look …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 15:16

  • Nokia delivers huge profits hike

    Flogging cheap mobiles is easy

    Nokia's swallowed an estimated 39 per cent of the global mobile phone market in its third quarter, sending profits rocketing 85 per cent. Net income hit £1.09bn, compared to £590.3m for the same period a year ago. A gold star goes to Nokia's Enterprise Solutions division, which boosted its revenues 105 per cent. Overall, sales …

    Mobile 18 Oct 2007, 16:52

  • Absolute Poker probed for insider cheating

    Player named Potripper received invaluable intel from part-owner

    Absolute Poker is being audited by an Indian gaming commission in Canada following reports of an internal data leak that appears to confirm that an insider with the online poker site used real-time access to a recent tournament to engage in cheating. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has hired the auditing firm Gaming Associates …

    Law 18 Oct 2007, 18:36

  • Cafe Latte attack steals credentials from Wi-Fi clients

    Would you like a corporate login with that espresso?

    Hackers have refined a new technique for breaking into Wi-Fi networks protected by the aging Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). The so-called 'Cafe Latte' attack aims to retrieve the WEP keys from the PCs of road warriors. The approach concentrates its attack on wireless clients, as opposed to earlier attacks that cracked the key …

    Security 18 Oct 2007, 18:40

  • Erratic fleshies sabotage, wreck innocent flying robot

    Human pilots too dangerous to tolerate any longer?

    American air-safety authorities have issued a lengthy list of new recommendations regarding the operation of flying robots in US airspace, following the crash of a Predator drone on border-patrol duties last year. The wrecked sky-droid was a Predator B, a large high-flying turboprop with a 65-foot wingspan which is known as the …

    Science 18 Oct 2007, 18:43

  • China hijacks Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! traffic?

    'You will use Baidu'

    It looks like China is hijacking web traffic from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!. This morning, TechCrunch reported that at least one China-based visitor to Google Blog Search was redirected to Baidu, a search engine born and bred in the Far East, and the Silicon Valley uber-blog soon tossed up a second post that said much the …

    Applications 18 Oct 2007, 19:37

  • Citrix preaches 'second mover advantage' over VMware

    Analysis Far enough behind to succeed

    Pop quiz. You’re a $7bn software company that has all the sex appeal of a shy potato. What do you do? Buy XenSource, of course. In August, Citrix dug deep and found $500m to acquire XenSource – a company expected to bring in all of $8m this year, according to our sources. In an instant, this deal transformed Citrix from a …

    Servers 18 Oct 2007, 19:45

  • How to get colour composite-video from an Apple TV

    Updated Got a standard def 16:9 telly? Now you too can use an Apple TV

    I've been playing with Apple's Apple TV set-top box this week, and I have to say I like it. But Apple's missing a trick by not allowing those of us - me included - without HD TVs to make the most of the device. No matter: a simple hardware trick solves the problem. I've found Apple TV to be a great way of getting content not …

    Hardware 18 Oct 2007, 20:07

  • Video-sharing pact leaves Google out in the cold

    Viacom wants cash

    Some of the world's biggest media companies have announced a copyright protection pact with a group of video-happy net businesses that doesn't include Google and YouTube. Earlier today, we dutifully reported that this announcement was on the way, and now it's here. Video-sharers Dailymotion, Microsoft, MySpace, and Veoh have …

    Media 18 Oct 2007, 23:21