23rd October 2007 Archive

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Real Media attacks real people via RealPlayer

Hackers twist ad network into Trojan network

Hackers have rooted into a server owned by internet advertising network 24/7 Real Media and used it to serve malware-laced banner ads that tried to circumvent security mechanisms on end users' machines, Symantec researchers said. The malware exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Real Player that was patched on Friday …

Security 23 Oct 00:40
AT&T asks king's ransom for Napster tunes

Targets 'price insensitive' kiddies

AT&T hopes to fool the youth of America into paying way too much for digital music. Today, the big-name telco announced that it will soon offer wireless access to Napster, the subscription-based digital music service. But it's ignoring the subscription bit. AT&T is giving certain cell phone owners the power to actually purchase …

Mobile 23 Oct 00:45
Proposed blogging law outrages Italian netizens

Gov backpedals after brouhaha prompts comparisons with Burma

Italian bloggers may be required to register with a national database, unless an ambiguously-worded new law is amended before it comes into force. Widespread outrage among bloggers and IT-savvy journalists has reached the mainstream press, and the government now appears to be keen to revise a draft law which has led politician …

Law 23 Oct 00:48
Dell to embed Xen hypervisor in PowerEdge servers

HP has moment of Xen as well

Citrix Systems has wrangled Dell as the first Tier 1 server vendor to embed the Xen hypervisor in its x86 servers. The announcement comes just one day after Citrix completed its $500m purchase of the open-source virtualization firm, XenSource. Beginning next year, Dell's PowerEdge server line will have the option of shipping …

Virtualization 23 Oct 04:45
Sun introduces first Intel workstation in two decades

Ultra 24 line enters Intel box fray

Common knowledge dictates that fashion comes in cycles. That rule applies inside Sun Microsystems, although one could argue they're spinning in their own separate mobius when it comes to workstations. Hey, remember Intel? Sun just did. Sun announced today it will release its first Intel-based workstation since the late 1980s …

Servers 23 Oct 04:49
IBM goes crazy with storage system updates

DS8000, DS4000, DS3000, TS2240, TS7520 please come to the red courtesy phone

IBM is releasing details on a lot of storage stuff today. We mean a lot. Like, three more than quite a bit. Plethora would not be conspicuous noun usage here. The announcement breaks down thusly: The DS8000 series is getting new functionality, so are the DS3000 and DS4000. IBM is adding a new Tape storage system to its SMB …

Storage 23 Oct 04:54
Open Season exposes the real price paid for Radiohead's new album

Radio Reg While Steve Ballmer threatens to buy O'Reilly's leftovers

Forget the entertainment hacks. It takes a bunch of open source pundits to figure out how much people really paid for Radiohead's new album. Well, in actual fact, it takes El Reg's own Andrew Orlowski who disclosed the Radiohead scoop on the latest installment of Open Season. To find out the real price people paid to download …

Open Season 23 Oct 05:16
Technology is root of all evil, says IMF

Proposals for tax on engineers, compulsory arts degrees

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has this month brought out its World Economic Outlook for 2007, and the various heavyweights of financial news have all had their bash at reporting on it. Normally, no vulture would stir on his/her perch over this type of thing - unless, perhaps, Paris Hilton had been implicated in some kind …

Financial News 23 Oct 08:39
Apple: 1.4m iPhones sold, 250,000 unlocked

Big demand for untethered handsets

More than a quarter of a million people have purchased Apple iPhones and unlocked them, the handset's manufacturer admitted last night. With total sales of the phone now topping 1.4m units, according to Apple, that's a staggering 18 per cent of buyers who've chosen not to tether themselves to AT&T's cellular network. It's no …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 08:45
Dot, squiggle, plop

Column Unencoding the web

My first response to the idea of a dot-sex web domain was: "Well, that's a rip-off". And when I heard about dot-tv and dot-euro I wasn't the only one to say: "Here we go again..." And I bet most of us were equally cynical about dot-asia. I mean, most people in Asia don't actually use the Roman alphabet and so (I sort of assumed …

Telecoms 23 Oct 08:46
Gang attempted to pass £500,000 notes, court told

Do not collect £28bn, do not pass go

An Australian "lawyer" is part of a gang of six up before Southwark Crown Court accused of attempting to convince the Bank of England to honour a breathtaking £28bn ($64.83bn) in moody £1,000 and £500,000 notes, AFP reports. The cunning plan centred on an "avalanche" of fake £1k bills and 360 so-called "special issue" £500k …

Law 23 Oct 09:07
Transformers sets hi-def format sales record

But 300 still ahead on first-week sales

More than 100,000 copies of Transformers on HD DVD were sold on the title's first day of release, the movie's distributor, Paramount Home Entertainment, revealed last night. It went on to sell 90,000 more copies during its first week. Those numbers were more than enough to lift the disc to the top of the US high-def chart, …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 09:10
iSales prop up Apple results

Fruity one nears a billion in fiscal Q4

Apple is celebrating a strong fourth quarter with revenues of $6.22bn in the three months ending 29 September 2007, and a profit of $904m, or just over $1 a share. In the same period a year ago Apple made revenues of $4.84bn and profits of $542m. So for the fiscal year 2007 Apple made revenues of $24bn and a net profit of $3. …

Financial News 23 Oct 09:19
Paris Hilton heads for the cryogenic freezer

'It's so cool,' enthuses immortal heiress

There is some excellent news today for future generations who had until now been condemned to a bleak and meaningless existence without the entertaining presence of multi-talented former jailbird Paris Hilton, viz: the heiress intends to extend her life "by hundreds and thousands of years" in a cryogenic chamber. Hilton has …

Bootnotes 23 Oct 09:34
2012 Olympics to be 'car-free'

Except for Olympic officials

The London Olympics of 2012 will be the first to prohibit spectators arriving by car, according to reports. However, some 80,000 officials, athletes and accredited media will be provided with parking - and will have special Soviet-style VIP lanes on important London roads for a period of two months. The Times reports this …

Public Sector 23 Oct 10:08
EDS beagles blast 'absurd' BSkyB

Murdoch and the wizard's sleeve

Lawyers for outsourcing omnicorp EDS branded BSkyB's claim for £709m damages over a customer management system contract "absurd and extravagant" in the High Court yesterday. The deal, inked in 2000, was meant to cost the broadcaster £48m. The installation eventually took six years to complete and cost £265m. When the trial …

Channel Register 23 Oct 10:16
Google takes Docs on the road

Look, but don't touch, on a mobile phone

Google has slipped its Web 2.0 Docs application onto its mobile portal, allowing users to view documents, spreadsheets and presentations on their mobile phone browser. For the moment the service is read-only, but Google promises editing capability will come real soon now y'hear. While the applications-as-a-service model …

Applications 23 Oct 10:30
TV-Links man was arrested under trademark laws

Curiouser and curiouser

Gloucestershire police have confirmed that a 26-year-old Cheltenham man at the centre of an investigation into the website TV-Links was arrested under section 92 of the Trade Mark Act, on suspicion of supplying property with a registered trademark, without permission. The man was taken into custody on Thursday last week after …

Law 23 Oct 10:45
CSC announces another round of UK job cuts

Government unit targeted

CSC is shifting more UK jobs offshore in an effort to control costs. The latest round of redundancies will hit the Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) department. Initially, voluntary redundancies will be offered but compulsory job losses are likely if not enough volunteers are found. The company hopes to have the process …

Services 23 Oct 10:48
Greenpeace: iPhone crit makes for more headlines

And the bromine business fights back

Eco-oriented non-governmental organisation Greenpeace has tacitly admitted it's been focusing its criticism of the mobile phone industry on Apple's iPhone because it gets more headlines. Nothing wrong with that per se. As a campaigner, Greenpeace should be seeking the best opportunities to get its message across. Unless, as …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 10:52
Drunken Indian elephants take on electricity pole

Result? Fried pachyderm

A herd of 40 Indian elephants which quaffed rice wine, "went berserk" as a result and rampaged round a village looking for food, suffered six fatalities after toppling an electricity pole, the West Australian reports. According to state wildlife official Sunil Kumar, the drunken pachyderm electrocution incident took place last …

Bootnotes 23 Oct 10:56
Government plots escape from renewable energy targets

As CO₂ build-up accelerates

Government ministers are trying to find a way to wriggle out of the Britain's commitment to derive a significant portion of its energy from renewable sources, according to The Guardian. The newspaper cites a "leaked report", which The Register has not seen, in which trade minister John Hutton advises the Prime Minister on how …

Science 23 Oct 11:01
BT tells staff to shape up in anti-cancer push

Fewer pies = fewer dies

BT has launched a campaign to encourage its workers to eat less crap, get some exercise, quit smoking, and go easy on the sunbathing. It's part of a six-week anti-cancer push at the firm. BT says 2,000 current employees have survived some form of the disease, but that another five are diagnosed every week. The telco is one of …

Telecoms 23 Oct 11:02
ODF calls time on da Vinci coding

Still seeking OASIS approval

The Open Document Foundation (ODF) has quietly ended all work on its da Vinci project after failing to secure approval from the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The da Vinci project was to develop a class of plug-ins that would allow users "to create and edit CDF (compound document …

Applications 23 Oct 11:09
Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot K850i camera phone

Review So cutting edge you could shave with it

So here it is, the new big boy on the block. Replacing the old K800i/K810i at the top of the Sony Ericsson cameraphone family tree, the K850i shoulders quite a burden of expectation. After all, as far as Sony Ericsson is concerned this is pretty much as good as it gets. Sony Ericsson's K850i We're not entirely sure if the …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 11:37
Microsoft opens Xbox 360 Arcade

Core dumped

Microsoft has taken the wraps off its latest and cheapest Xbox 360 console, dubbed the Arcade. The model replaces the Core edition, and is set to hit UK shops this week. MS' Xbox 360 Arcade: driveless The Arcade has an HDMI port and ships with one wireless controller and a 256MB memory card. It also comes with five full- …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 11:43
NASA lights blue touchpaper on Discovery

And China eyes the moon

Discovery waits for launch. Credit: NASA The space shuttle Discovery is set to blast off from Florida on its journey to the International Space Station later today, with the launch slated for 11:38am, Eastern Time. Weather forecasts don't look fantastic, with only a 40 per cent chance of acceptable conditions at the launch …

Space 23 Oct 11:46
Amazon leaks US Zune launch date

Microsoft forced to confirm

Microsoft has confirmed that its three new second-generation Zune portable media players will be released on 13 November in the US, following a shipping date leak by Amazon. MS' 2G Zune: available in the US from 13 November The Redmond-based company confirmed to news source Gizmodo that Amazon’s pre-order date was indeed …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 11:49
Gosling ready to kill-off lame duck J2ME

One Java to rule them all

James Gosling, godfather of the Java programming language, has expounded on the future of JavaFX Mobile, and it's a future which doesn't feature J2ME at all, as the micro edition is phased out over the next decade or so. Back in April Sun bought SavaJe, which had pretty much got J2SE (Standard Edition) running on a mobile …

Mobile 23 Oct 11:51
Sharp to show world's skinniest phone display

Sharp will tomorrow demo what it claims is the World's thinnest mobile phone display panel, a 0.68mm-thick unit with a 320 x 240 resolution. Sharp's 0.68mm LCD: waffer theen The 2.2in display has a contrast ratio of 2000:1, Sharp said, along with a 176° viewing angle amd an 8ms response time - stats at the forefront of …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 12:11
Cops crash invite-only BitTorrent network

A win for Media Defender?

Police raids in the North East of England and the Netherlands today have shut down invitation-only BitTorrent music sharing operation OiNK.cd. Cameras were invited to witness the arrest of a 24-year-old IT worker from Middlesbrough, who is accused of being behind what police branded a "piracy scam". As part of the same Interpol …

Law 23 Oct 13:26
US Border Patrol laughs off spyplane prang wristslap

Burgeoning drone flotilla to meet huddled-mass threat

The US border patrol will press ahead with plans to enlarge its fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft, despite embarrassing revelations about the programme which have emerged following a crash last year. At the moment US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), operates two …

Science 23 Oct 13:41
Darling won't move over gains tax

Small biz is heard, but ignored

UK business leaders met Chancellor Alistair Darling yesterday to detail their objections to his proposed changes to how capital gains tax is charged. Darling announced the end of taper relief for capital gains in his pre-Budget report two weeks ago. Small and medium businesses reacted with horror to the changes. The British …

Small Biz 23 Oct 14:12
Sonos brings wireless to multi-room music rigs

Multi-room digital music streaming specialist Sonos has finally gone completely wireless. Today, it rolled out the ZoneBridge BR100, a WLAN add-on for the company's ZonePlayer units that replaces the system's last wired link. Sonos' ZoneBridge BR100: wireless adaptor You'll need one BR100 to connect to your broadband …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 14:17
Hitachi presses shut-down on PC line

So how many companies are still making PCs?

Hitachi pulled the plug on its home computer business today, becoming the latest casualty of the fast consolidating PC market. The Japanese giant said it really couldn't be bothered updating its Prius line of PCs for the end of year shopping season, Reuters reports. Instead, it will concentrate on high-end boxes for the …

Channel Register 23 Oct 14:18
Europe considers blue card for immigrants

Like a green card but it's...you get the idea

European justice commissioner Franco Frattini is expected to back a commission proposal for "blue cards" for immigrants to the EU from countries outside the community. The commission is worried that by 2050 Europe will have two working people supporting, through taxes, every retired person rather than four working people …

Government 23 Oct 14:22
Fight malware by upgrading to Vista, urges MS

Really fighting fire with fire

Microsoft is pushing improved malware defences as a reason to shift over to Vista. Systems running Microsoft’s latest operating system recorded 60 per cent less malware infections than XP, according to figures obtained using Microsoft’s malicious software removal tool. Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development for …

Enterprise Security 23 Oct 14:26
KPN completes Getronics takeover

~~Purge~~ rationalisations and synergies expected

Netherlands telco KPN has completed its takeover of Getronics, following successful public offers for the Dutch service provider's ordinary shares and convertible bonds. KPN also announced a new Getronics management lineup. Erik van der Meijden will hold the position of CEO of Getronics and Steven van Schilfgaarde the …

Channel Register 23 Oct 14:40
Acme unveils 'ideal' mobile gaming PC

Most people seeking a portable gaming system are happy with a Sony PSP. But in the US, where everything’s larger, one company has developed a PC-in-a-box product that unpacks into a three-screen display. Acme's LPG370TS: fold-out three-screen display Two of the Acme’s LPG370TS' 17in non-widescreen LCDs unfold outwards to …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 14:43
Austria OKs terror snooping Trojan plan

Silly idea gains steam

Austria has become one of the first countries to officially sanction the use of Trojan Horse malware as a tactic for monitoring the PCs of suspected terrorists and criminals. The measures were reportedly discussed in an Austrian cabinet meeting last week and turned over to a group of legal and technical experts to thrash out …

Crime 23 Oct 14:46
El Reg goes virtual with e-Symposium on virtualization

Site News VMware impressed

Upon discovering a respirator at his father's retirement home, Homer Simpson let out a natural reaction. "And here I am using my own lungs like a sucker." This message - oddly enough - carries over to the world of virtualization software where many of you have been using your own legs like suckers to attend meetings and trade …

Virtualization 23 Oct 14:50
Jailed terror student 'hid' files in the wrong Windows folder

And 'provided terror instructions' via web links

Careless use of Windows folders cost a Scottish student a lengthy prison stretch today, as an Edinburgh High Court Judge sentenced Mohammed Atif Siddique to eight years for possession of terrorism-related items. During his trial the jury had been told by Michael Dickson, a forensics analyst for the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, …

Law 23 Oct 15:25
Pentagon hacker wins right to UK appeal

Law Lords agrees to hear his appeal

Gary McKinnon, the self-described "bumbling amateur" who allegedly got access to US government and military computers while researching space aliens, has been given leave to appeal his case in the UK. McKinnon was due to be extradicted to the US to face charges but took his final appeal to the House of Lords. They decided 11 …

Law 23 Oct 15:59
UK gov advisor proposes 'licence to smoke'

Obligatory £200 addict permit

A government advisor has suggested that the problem of Brits continuing to smoke themselves to death might be tackled by requiring nicotine addicts to obtain a £200 annual licence, the Telegraph reports. Professor Julian le Grand, a "former advisor to Tony Blair" who is a lecturer in social policy at the London School of …

Biology 23 Oct 16:06
Microsoft to reach out and take control

...of Windows Mobile devices, at least

This evening Mr Ballmer is to announce Microsoft's "System Center Mobile Device Management 2008", which will compete with Nokia's better-named Intellisync to remotely manage mobile devices in the enterprise. The to-be-announced software will integrate with Microsoft's System Center, and require a client application to be …

Mobile 23 Oct 16:08
IT majors forge SAFECode alliance

QA group exits quiet phase

Leading IT vendors have clubbed together to form a new organisation geared to increasing trust in IT products and services through software assurance. The clunkily-monikered Software Assurance Forum for Excellence in Code (SAFECode)* has signed up EMC, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, SAP and Symantec as founder members. The non- …

Software 23 Oct 16:16
Microsoft sharpens Visual Studio with functions

Academic respectability from a version of a CAML?

How do you get the advantages of scripting languages, strong typing, a simple efficient testing regime and a object-oriented development environment? According to Microsoft you plug into one of its esoteric research projects - coming to a Visual Studio near you some time soon. The project is a functional programming language …

Developer 23 Oct 17:14
Vinyl lives! And why the net isn't (entirely) killing music

In The City And the tyranny of Radio 2

Manchester's In The City music conference this year was the first without the presence of co-founder Tony Wilson, who died two months ago. But the local music network - and some parts of the London business - rallied to bring the event back to its roots. Unlike the endless circuit of "Future Of Music" talking shops, the panels …

Music and Media 23 Oct 17:54
Space shuttle Discovery launched

New International Space Station module in tow

The space shuttle Discovery was successfully launched today, despite zero-hour concerns about a chunk of ice on the fuel tank. The crew of seven blasted off at 11:38 a.m. EST, on a 14-day mission to begin the refurbishment of the $100bn International Space Station which will house Europe's first permanent laboratory in orbit …

Space 23 Oct 20:27
Cisco borgs Navini Networks

All-devouring switch firm makes its WiMAX move

Cisco is buying a plot in the WiMAX space with the $330m cash purchase of Navini Networks. Navini brings a portfolio of "Smart WiMAX" products and technologies, such as subscriber modems, base stations, adaptive antenna arrays and management systems. WiMAX is a wireless-internet technology with a far greater range than Wi-Fi …

Data Networking 23 Oct 20:28
Hands on with MDX

Dimension and measures (yes, but can it handle cubic furlongs?)

Following our introduction to MDX (to be found here) this follow-up article is a get-you-started guide to using this powerful language to manipulate multi-dimensional data. The basics Relational databases store data in two-dimensional tables, a familiar concept that mimics grids of data on paper. Multi-dimensional data is …

Developer 23 Oct 20:51
Considering Microsoft’s 'rift with the web'

But .Net is not where the problem lies, says Tim Anderson

I enjoy the SmoothSpan blog but I’m not convinced by this article on Microsoft’s rift with the web. Bob Warfield says: Ever since their spat with Sun over Java, Microsoft has been on an increasingly proprietary path called .NET. I am not sure why .NET is "increasingly" proprietary. Why is it more proprietary now than it …

Developer 23 Oct 21:04
Facebook bug dishes out notes designated private

Company reps keep the flaw secret

Facebook users who type sensitive information into a site feature known as Notes may be interested in knowing that it is currently experiencing a bug that allows documents designated as private to be read anyway. A Facebook customer service representative privately confirmed the bug to a user who complained that notes he …

Security 23 Oct 21:14