29th October 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Apple's Leopard rejects latest version of Java

Forum overlords delete developer gripes

Apple faces yet more flack from the Mac faithful over the discovery that the operating system won't run the latest version of Java. It's one of several beefs relating to the OS X upgrade that is sparking vitriol among the normally docile crowd. Leopard may have 300 new features, but it is unable to run Java 1.6, even though …

Operating Systems 29 Oct 01:59
One day my mobile apps prince will come

Mobile Business Expo Soon, soon, soon

The mobile applications market is poised to take off with the emergence of devices like the iPhone, faster wireless networks and web services - but independent software vendors (ISVs) are asleep at the wheel. That was the consensus of a panel of Motorola, BlackBerry and AT&T executives at the Mobile Business Expo in New York …

Mobile 29 Oct 07:02
Boffins dredge up oldest living animal

405 years, unmolested by science

Scientists have dredged up the oldest known living creature and have called it Ming. According to reports, the 405-year-old clam (for it is that kind of mollusc) has not been named for the ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats, but for the Ming Dynasty which ruled China when it was young. The clam is so old that during its youth …

Biology 29 Oct 10:33
Vint Cerf set to part ways with ICANN

ICANN 2007 Los Angeles Vaya con dios, internet

The ICANN Los Angeles 2007 meeting begins Monday, and it is Vint Cerf's swan song as chairman of the ICANN board of directors. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk to the "father of the internet" about the future of the internet and of ICANN itself. Departing ICANN chairman Vint Cerf. ICANN has come quite a ways …

Telecoms 29 Oct 10:54
NBC, Fox target YouTube with Hulu dance

Big media bites back

US TV networks NBC and Fox have finally taken the dustsheets off Hulu.com, their belated response to YouTube. The site has launched in private beta today. It'll carry free ad-supported video clips from the two networks' shows - such as The Simpsons and Heroes - as well as content from MGM and Sony. Users will be allowed to …

Music and Media 29 Oct 11:01
Online scammers exploit California wildfire disaster

No smoke without liars

The California wildfire disaster, like so many other tragedies involving loss of life, has become the subject of an online scam. If the history of incidents like the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and Hurricane Katrina is anything to go by, fire-themed malware is likely to follow. Net security firm Websense reports that its …

Crime 29 Oct 11:09
Samsung confirms Blu-ray Disc player range reduced

Company dumps BD-P2400 model

Samsung has finally spoken up over rumours it may drop the BD-P2400 Blu-ray Disc player from its range, confirming that the machine will no longer make it to market. Samsung BD-UP5000: Blu-ray and HD DVD support The BD-P2400 was designed to sit in between the low-end Blu-ray only BD-1400 and high-end HD DVD and Blu-ray BD- …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 11:09
Shocked Shatner shunted from Star Trek XI

No Kirk cameo for septuagenarian thesp

William Shatner has expressed his shock and disappointment at not being invited to cameo in the forthcoming 11th celluloid outing for Star Trek - despite director J J Abrams apparently having said the ageing stacatto-delivery star "probably would have a part in the film". Shatner, 76, told AP: "I couldn't believe it. I'm not …

Entertainment 29 Oct 11:11
Join us for The Register's eSymposium on virtualization

Site news Online debates, heavyweight speakers, Ashlee Vance and so much more

Next week, the thousands of readers who contributed to The Register's recent virtualization research panel will have the opportunity to see the result, when we kick off the first in a series of free online debates. The Register's virtualization eSymposium, From the Data Center to the Desktop, will kick off at 8:30 PST, 16: …

Virtualization 29 Oct 11:32
Sage gets upclose to personnel with KCS buy

Spends £20m to increase SME market share

Acquisition-happy accounts software firm Sage has gobbled up UK-based finance and HR software supplier KCS Global Holdings for £20m. The cash-only deal is the latest in a series of buy-outs made by Newcastle-based Sage, which is the only British software firm listed on the FTSE 100. The firm said that by combining the KCS …

Small Biz 29 Oct 11:40
Snooping on users Facebook 'staff perk' - claim

See who's interested in whom, says Valleywag

Facebook staff can not only look at any profile on the site, they can also see which other profiles that user has been looking at. Snooping at other people's profiles is part of the joy of the site, but most of the joy was knowing you could do so in private. But according to Valleywag Facebook staff can easily see what you've …

ID 29 Oct 11:45
Gatwick reduced to anarchy by 'computer glitch'

Airport clocks failed to go back on schedule

A "computer glitch" at Gatwick airport which lead to the clocks not going back on Sunday morning led to travel "chaos" as "arrivals and departures were advertised an hour late", provoking nonplussed passengers to besiege check-in desks. The system was supposed to automatically adjust clocks for the end of British Summer Time, …

IT Director 29 Oct 11:48
Astronauts complete spacewalk two

Discover dodgy metal shavings, too

The astronauts of the space shuttle Discovery have completed the second spacewalk of the two-week mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and are preparing for the third. During the spacewalk, one of the crew discovered metal shavings inside a rotary joint on a solar array. The joint is needed to allow the panels to …

Space 29 Oct 11:52
Sharp shows 'world's first' 1080p 22in LCD TV

Sharp has launched a pair of small-size LCD TVs that it claimed are the first of their kind to support 1080p 'full HD' resolution. Three screens are included in the roll-out, all of which will go on sale under Sharp's Aquos brand, part of the P series. In addition to the 22in and 26in models - they're the market leading models …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 11:58
MPs call for climate change minister

Central figure needed to coordinate policy

A parliamentary committee has recommended that the government appoint a minister specifically to deal with climate change, after its review of government policy revealed that departments are not coordinating properly to deal with the issue. The Environmental Audit Committee said there had been a "decade of failure" to tackle …

Science 29 Oct 12:05
Tool opens iPhone, iPod Touch via web

Look, ma, no PC/Mac

iPhone hackers have released a tool that allows owners of firmware 1.1.1 iPhones and iPod Touches to open up their devices to third-party apps - all without the need for a host Mac or PC. AppSnapp in action The utility's called AppSnapp, and it's launched via the devices' Safari web browser. The code uses a known …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 12:18
Honda offers FCX for '08, bitchslaps Google

Fukui on plug-in: 'Technically speaking it’s nonsense'

Honda has confounded green-motoring analysts by announcing that it will offer a hydrogen-powered car for general sale in 2008, years earlier than expected. The car in question - the third generation of Honda's FCX fuel-cell demonstrator platform - was always expected to debut next year, but until now the plan had been to lease …

Science 29 Oct 12:27
Intel 'Penryn' Core 2 Extreme QX9650

Review The world's first 45nm gaming CPU

Intel’s 45nm 'Penryn' update for its Core 2 microprocessor family has been an open secret for many months. It's first desktop incarnation, the Core 2 Extreme QX9650, is due to be formally introduced on 12 November, but today we can tell you how it will perform. Intel's 'Penryn' Core 2 Extreme Penryn uses the same LGA775 pin- …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 12:28
AMD confirms 19 November RV670 launch - analyst

Spider too?

AMD will indeed release its 'RV670' graphics chip on 19 November - as predicted - an analyst has claimed the company told him recently. As yet, however, RV670's go-to-market branding remains unknown - some pundits have suggested ATI Radeon HD 2950 Pro - but American Technology Research's Doug Freedman last week told investors …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 12:42
Consumer revenge site returns after DDoS attack

Updated Follow the money

UK-based consumer finance website MoneySavingExpert.com was forced to pull most of its services over the weekend as a result of an ongoing denial of service attack. The site was hit at 1700 on Friday hours before launching a high-profile campaign against insurance rip-offs. Services were largely restored by 1000 on Monday. …

Enterprise Security 29 Oct 12:43
UK small biz pleads with gov for more support

SME SOS

British small businesses want the government to cut regulation, reduce business taxes, and offer more support and advice. Some 60 per cent of new businesses are now started at home. Home-based businesses employ 28 per cent of the the total workforce and have combined turnover of £364bn, according to research from BT. In total …

Small Biz 29 Oct 12:46
US Army xBot programme halted by IP fracas

'He stole our robot'

A major American military push to get more combat robots into the field has ground to a halt following a bitter dispute between rival mechanoid makers. The xBot procurement programme, run by the US Army's Robotic Systems Joint Program Office, is intended to obtain as many as 3,000 new robots and to do so quickly in defence …

Science 29 Oct 12:54
Acer boss predicts blow-out Q4 numbers

Despite hefty pay-out for Gateway

Computer maker Acer, which recently acquired US firm Gateway, has said it expects to be hit by a $30m restructuring charge in the fourth quarter. But the company predicts fourth quarter revenues will be up 10 per cent to 20 per cent on its Q3 figures. Acer's chairman J T Wang, whose firm's Q3 results were released last week, …

Channel Register 29 Oct 13:14
Europe grows more (and more) GM crops

As study shows organic health benefits

Just days after the European Commission gave its stamp of approval to four new GM plants, a report has revealed that the area of Europe's arable land devoted to genetically modified crops has risen by 77 per cent in the last year. The total area of GM cultivation is now 1,000 square kilometres*. The only widely planted GM crop …

Biology 29 Oct 13:17
T-Mobile slides Shadow IM phone out of the shadows

'Official' phone of fun, apparently

T-Mobile US has launched Shadow, a khaki-coloured sliderphone the carrier claimed was the... er... 'official phone of fun'. T-Mobile's Shadow: front and back Designed and made by Taiwan's HTC, the Shadow sports a 2.6in, 240 x 320, 65,536-colour screen. It's limited to quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge cellular connectivity, but at …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 13:28
Nvidia introduces 'G92'

Mainstream gaming targeted

Nvidia has taken the wraps off its 'G92' graphics chip, the foundation for the GeForce 8800 GT, as past reports revealed. G92 is a 65nm version of the 'G80' chip that has powered top-of-the-line GeForce 8 series graphics cards to date. Nvidia is likely to pitch the part against AMD's upcoming 'RV670', a 55nm chip it will …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 14:03
Icahn blasts BEA board as Oracle walks away

'This will hurt you more than it hurts me'

Oracle let its $17 per share offer for BEA lapse yesterday, but activist investor Carl Icahn has demanded the middleware firm put the offer to shareholders anyway. Icahn, BEA's biggest shareholder, said in an open letter: "I am sure that the BEA board would agree with me that it would be desirable not to have to put BEA …

Financial News 29 Oct 14:22
Aliens responsible for Italian machine uprising

RoTM Canneto di Caronia report fingers Lizard Alliance

Italian authorities have confirmed what we at the neoLuddite Resistance Army (NRA) have known all along - that the 2004 machine uprising in the Italian village of Canneto di Caronia was probably caused by aliens. For three weeks, locals battled against spontaneously-combusting TVs, fridges, cookers and mobile phones which …

Rise of the Machines 29 Oct 14:56
Carmack's X-Prize rocket explodes on pad

Aspirations doomed for another year

The sole remaining contender to win a prize for privately-built rocket lander systems exploded yesterday, ending hopes that the prize might be won this year. Following the 2004 victory of the famous SpaceShip One in the Ansari X-Prize race to build the first private suborbital craft, tech prizes have proliferated. Governments …

Space 29 Oct 15:01
DHS holds terror talks with UK Minister, then detains him

Interested in terror, check, politics, check, step over here sir...

The UK's first Muslim Minister has chalked up his second detention at the hands of the US Department of Homeland Security - with exquisite irony, at Dulles Airport in Washington DC on his way back from talks with, er, the DHS on tackling terrorism. Shahid Malik, who was also recently identified as Britain's most expensive MP, …

Government 29 Oct 15:25
3's Skype phone is go

Hello? I'm calling via the interweb! Nah, it's rubbish

Mmobile operator 3 finally released full details of its new Skype handset at an event in London today. Early adopters can expect free calls, but no guarantees of reliability. Skype was brought crashing down in August by a Windows update. Michael van Swaaij, who stepped in as acting CEO at Skype when founders Niklas Zennstrom …

Telecoms 29 Oct 15:37
TV-Links man: 'I'm no master criminal'

Website was 'just a hobby'

The man arrested as part of the investigation into the TV-Links website has spoken to his local newspaper about his arrest. In a story from thisisgloucestershire.co.uk, David Rock, a 26-year-old computer engineer from Cheltenham, says he didn't think what he was doing was illegal. Rock was arrested just over a week ago in …

Telecoms 29 Oct 15:44
Nvidia challenges Intel as PC GPU shipments boom

Record breaking Q3, says analyst

Graphics chip makers had a particularly successful third quarter, it emerged today, with shipments up on Q2 by a whopping 20.2 per cent - the highest quarter-on-quarter increase since 2002's 18.6 per cent, by a good margin. All the major vendors shared in this unit shipments growth - Nvidia in particular - while the smaller …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 15:54
Barracuda skydroid to make comeback?

Piscine killbot may not be sunk after all

The German and Spanish killbot industries, struggling to recover from the loss of the "Barracuda" demonstrator plane, which crashed last year, might be saved by the German government. Reports suggest that German defence authorities may offer "assistance in kind" for the building of a new Barracuda. The original Barracuda was …

Physics 29 Oct 16:01
Oz 'Family First' candidate sacked for todger-flash email

Humiliation for 'Australia's smallest loser'

A Sydney candidate for the Family First Party was sacked at the weekend after an email addressed to a number of student organisations' mailing lists, with attachments showing him apparently flashing his penis, popped up on gay websites and subsequently escaped into the wild. Andrew Quah, 21, has been dubbed "Australia's …

Bootnotes 29 Oct 16:11
BBC readies global web and TV expansion

US iPlayer in the works

Just as the BBC is slashing jobs at home, its commercial tentacle is ramping up efforts to squeeze money from its programming and web content abroad. As well as 30 new channels in overseas territories, BBC Worldwide is planning an advertising-backed version of its on-demand internet service iPlayer, the Guardian reports. The …

Music and Media 29 Oct 16:14
Italian court rules against HP on pre-installed Windows

Orders computer giant to cough up refund

An Italian judge ruled in favour of a Hewlett Packard (HP) customer who asked for a refund because the Compaq notebook he had bought came pre-loaded with Microsoft's Windows XP and Works 8. The customer complained to HP that he had no choice but to buy the laptop with the software giant's omnipresent operating system and …

Channel Register 29 Oct 16:34
Asus prices up Eee PC sub-sub-notebook for US

Cheap as chips

Asus' diminutive Eee PC will go on sale in the US on 1 November for $300-400, depending on configuration, it has emerged. Information supplied by Asus to its resellers appears to have found its way to NotebookReview.com, which this weekend revealed that US buyers will get to choose from three configurations: the 2G Surf, 4G …

Reg Hardware 29 Oct 16:37
NATO ministers get to grips with cyber defence

'Hmm, I wonder what's for lunch...?'

NATO defence ministers last week spent at least minutes on the question of cyber defence ahead of the Bucharest summit meetings planned for next year. The "informal Defence Ministers meeting" took place in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on Wednesday and Thursday last week. The planned agenda had issues of cyber warfare to be …

Crime 29 Oct 16:46
Brazil keeps Cisco execs in big house

Blame it on a reseller

A Brazilian judge has ruled that six people connected with Cisco must stay in temporary custody while tax fraud allegations against the networking giant are investigated. Three other people have also been imprisoned, according to the FT. Police raids in mid-October saw 40 people arrested following police and tax raids; these …

Channel Register 29 Oct 16:55
UK mobile security still useless

Clueless workers roam free

UK mobile workers are often "left to their own devices" when it comes to security, according to a new survey. A survey by YouGov of 1,200 British workers who use PCs at work found that over a third (35 per cent) say responsibility for IT security is left up to the individual employee when they are outside the workplace. That's …

Enterprise Security 29 Oct 17:05
Designing software for testability

You know it makes sense

The subject of testing seems to be in the air at the moment - Matt Stephens recently discussed it in his "Agile" column entitled "Don't unit test GUIs". This month in the Java column we are also going to look at testing, but this time from the viewpoint of design. Software design, in some ways, is a particularly strange art. …

Developer 29 Oct 17:19
VoIP is Dead. It's just another feature, now

Analysis How Hutch called Skype's bluff

Business-wise, Skype is a basketcase. But that's just one of the things that makes it one of the most emblematic companies of our time - a real, Ur-Web 2.0 company. Like so many internet companies, Skype has millions and millions of users. Like these internet companies, too, it can't make very much money off all these users. …

Telecoms 29 Oct 17:23
Verizon bags slow-tracked wireless battle

Google chuffed

Verizon has abandoned its legal attack on new rules that would allow US consumers to attach any device and any application to a prime portion of the country's wireless spectrum. Less than two months ago, the uber-telco filed a "petition for review" with the US Court of Appeals, urging it to overhaul Federal Communication …

Wireless 29 Oct 17:50
Hyperic charges after disgruntled Ubuntu upgraders

Comment When will Bill Gates fix my Vista box?

Canonical's release of a fresh version of Ubuntu has been met with plenty of grumbles. And now we find some other open source players trying to cash in on Ubuntu's issues. Your reporter shifted from 7.04 to 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) right when the new OS became available. Well, by "right when," I mean after a 26 hour download. I …

Servers 29 Oct 17:56
Putin tightens his grip on Russia's internet

ICANN 2007 Los Angeles Will political forces split the internet root?

The Washington Post reported unwelcome news yesterday for our internet overlords - as internet penetration in Russia grows exponentially, the story claims, Vladimir Putin's allies are increasingly focused on strong-arming blogs and internet news sources in Russia to get their message across, efforts which may extend to the …

Telecoms 29 Oct 18:24
The secret to Web 2.0 success

Fat fees

The funny thing about those telling developers it's a new way of thinking and to "give everything away" or to "build it and they shall come" are often those making their cash using tried and tested ways of working. That includes book publishers and events organizers, media giants fiercely protective of royalties and copyrights …

Developer 29 Oct 19:13
Is desktop virtualization important?

What do you think?

According to The Register's latest Tech Panel research, around one in four of the IT professionals that took part think there is a clear rationale for virtualizing the desktop. But for another significantly larger group of readers there's still a lack of clarity around the rationale of such an approach. Clearly this is one …

Virtualization 29 Oct 19:52
Sun sues NetApp, California style

Six patents topped with a slice of avocado

Sun Microsystems has spanked Network Appliance with another lawsuit, as relations between the two vendor continue to deteriorate at speed. Just last week, Sun revealed a counter-suit to NetApp's Sept. lawsuit against Sun. NetApp thinks that Sun's Zettabyte File System (ZFS) infringes its patents, while Sun contends that most of …

Storage 29 Oct 19:58
NetApp vends $3k iSCSI storage array

Ditches Fibre for price point

NetApp is launching a smaller iSCSI storage box for its StoreVault line. The S300 flirts with the "S" side of the SMB (small and medium business)-oriented StoreVault line. The new gear lacks the scale and some features of its older sister, the StoreVault S500 — but it's a cheaper date. Starting at $3,000, the S300 scales to …

Channel Register 29 Oct 20:35
Print beats net for fraud

Scammers still prefer old-world means, FTC study shows

With Nigerian 419 scams, phishing attempts and other dubious spam flooding your inbox, you may be tempted to think the net is the epicenter for today's shysters. But it turns out print advertising beat out the internet as the most common means for spreading fraudulent pitches, according to a US consumer survey released Monday by …

Crime 29 Oct 20:39
Charmed by own tune, Egenera sells PAN to rivals

More virtualization, less cloven hooves

Egenera has confirmed that it plans to create a separate software business by reselling its server management code. We've long heard rumors that Egenera planned to go this route, and the move makes sense. Customers seem impressed with the blade server specialist's PAN Manager product, so why keep it locked away on Egenera's …

Virtualization 29 Oct 21:57
Seagate to close Northern Ireland plant

927 employees laid off

Seagate is closing one of two manufacturing plants in Northern Ireland, axing 768 permanent and 159 temporary employees. The 10-year-old plant at Limavady in County Londonderry manufactures nickel plated aluminum substrates — the base platter on which magnetic materials are deposited for making hard drives. "We have made …

Channel Register 29 Oct 22:40
World's most gullible supermarket chain falls victim to online scam

Trying to get back $10m wired to bogus accounts

Red-faced accountants from one of the biggest supermarket chains in the US are frantically trying to regain control of more than $10m lost after falling victim to online fraudsters. Evidently, no one at Minnesota-based Supervalu bothered to confirm the authenticity of emails sent in late February. Purporting to come from two …

Crime 29 Oct 22:45