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30th October 2007 Archive

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  • Woman murdered after answering Craigslist ad

    24-year-old sought babysitting job

    A Minnesota woman was killed after answering a nanny job advertised on Craigslist. It is the first murder on the site, which offers free classified ads hawking just about anything you can imagine. Katherine Ann Olson, 24, was found dead in the trunk of her car late Friday night at a park about 15 miles south of Minneapolis. …

    Crime 30 Oct 2007, 00:10

  • Prince's anti-YouTube crusade halted by American mommy

    Let's all go crazy

    A Pennsylvania mother of two of has stood-up to the internet-battling escapades of the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. This summer, "mother, wife, writer, and editor" Stephanie Lenz filed a federal lawsuit against the artist's former record label, Universal Music Group, for ordering the removal of …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2007, 00:11

  • IBM rubs its junk for solar industry

    Refurbishes wafers for the silicon-starved

    IBM is transforming its scrap silicon wafers into profitable material used to produce solar panels. IBM describes the new silicon retrieval process as a "specialized pattern removal technique," although it bares a striking resemblance to just buffing a wafer with an abrasive pad. By stripping the etched layers of semiconductor …

    PCs & Chips 30 Oct 2007, 04:56

  • When antivirus products (and Internet Explorer) fail you

    Null hypothesis

    When Didier Stevens recently took a closer look at some Internet Explorer malware that he had found, something surprised him somewhat. He discovered that the IE-targeted malware had been obfuscated with null-bytes (0x00) and when run against VirusTotal, he found that fewer than half of the products identified the sample as …

    Enterprise Security 30 Oct 2007, 07:02

  • Sick Brit yobs graffiti dog

    Complete collapse of law and order imminent

    Further proof, were it needed, that Britain has degenerated from a fun-loving democratic paradise to a yob-ravaged land in which decorated war veterans collect their pensions in armoured vehicles for fear they might fall prey to alcopop-crazed happyslapping hoodies comes today from Fulham, where "sick yobs" found a novel way to …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2007, 09:45

  • DARPA looking to verify imported military chips

    Unscrewing the inscrutable

    DARPA*, the mad-as-a-bottle-of-crisps Pentagon warboffinry operation, has struck again - this time awarding a $13m contract to the University of Southern California to develop technology which will ensure that imported integrated circuits (ICs) used by the US military are trustworthy. It appears that there is already a scheme …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 09:57

  • Googlite explains PageRank tweak

    'Down with link sellers'

    Google has confirmed that the recent update to its "visible PageRank" system is an effort to crackdown on sites trying to rig this closely-watched web popularity contest. Over the weekend, Google search engine guru Matt Cutts told Search Engine Journal that the company is intent on punishing web publishers that attempt to sell …

    Applications 30 Oct 2007, 10:01

  • Battle of Britain pilots actually crap shots

    Kill/loss ratio 'unimpressive', historian claims

    A historian has claimed Fighter Command's finest - "The Few" who legendarily administered Goering's Luftwaffe a bloody nose during the Battle of Britain - were actually often woefully undertrained and incapable of hitting a barn door with a banjo. That's the opinion of Dr Andrew Cumming, who analysed National Archive documents …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2007, 10:02

  • UK.gov lambasted for ignoring peers' cybercrime report

    Either stupid or ignorant, fumes security researcher

    A leading security expert has criticised the UK government for ignoring recommendations on tackling cybercrime from peers. The House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee produced a five point plan for tackling cybercrime and safeguarding e-commerce after extensive consultations with experts in industry and academia. …

    Security 30 Oct 2007, 10:23

  • OLPC wants $200 for its $100 laptop, please

    And sells 100,000 units to Uruguay

    The $100 laptop, designed to save the children of developing countries from a world without technology, might have to be rebranded. The machine's price tag has now hit the $200 mark. Anyone feeling altruistic can purchase the machines in lots of 10,000 and say where they'd like them to be sent. Smaller donations can also be …

    PCs & Chips 30 Oct 2007, 10:45

  • Modest reform efforts mask tough issues in gTLD reform

    ICANN 2007 Los Angeles ICANN serves up waffles at workshop

    ICANN offered a workshop today intended to clarify the latest proposed application process for acquiring new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and to make the entire process more transparent. Unfortunately, the results were a disappointment, leaving as many contentious questions unanswered as answered. ICANN tried to spin this …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2007, 10:51

  • Second Life mounts assault on reality

    Aided, abetted and bedded

    The felchland Second Life refuses to stay out of our synapses despite some of our best efforts. This month we find the puerile game creeping into our courts and into popular prose. The Washington Post - the poked lady - brings us the tale of six virtual vendors suing New Yorker Thomas Simon for allegedly making off with their …

    Music and Media 30 Oct 2007, 10:55

  • Scottish decision threatens PFI contract secrecy

    NHS Lothian and Consort ordered to disclose deal details

    The Scottish Information Commissioner has ordered a health board to disclose the details of a private finance initiative (PFI) hospital deal worth ₤1.2bn. The decision could have far-reaching consequences, says a freedom of information law expert. Commissioner Kevin Dunion said NHS Lothian could not refuse May Docherty's …

    Public Sector 30 Oct 2007, 11:00

  • Rhys Jones 'killer' named on YouTube

    Silence broken

    The alleged killer of 11-year-old Rhys Jones has been named by commenters on YouTube. Rhys was shot dead in a pub car park in the Croxteth district on his way to football practice on August 22. Police say Rhys was caught in the crossfire between local teen gangs, but have not named a suspect. According to reports today, …

    Law 30 Oct 2007, 11:10

  • Samsung roadmaps 42in OLED TVs for 2010

    Plasma successor ramping rapidly

    Samsung's plan to roll out 14in OLED screens by 2010 - revealed last week - turns out to be merely the first step toward the release of 40in and 42in panels a year later. Samsung's display operation, Samsung SDI, has a roadmap that calls for 14-15.4in, 1280 x 800 (WXGA) OLEDs for laptops and TVs in the 2009 timeframe, along …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 11:15

  • Becks shows Scientology some rispek

    But Tom doesn't proselytise, insists Goldenballs

    David Beckham has admitted that while he respects the Scientological beliefs of new chums Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, they have not attempted to convert him and missus Posh to the word of L Ron Hubbard. That's according to an interview in the December issue of Arena, in which Goldenballs explains: "We respect their religion. …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2007, 11:16

  • Guardian blogborg takes aim at global warming

    Saves planet one lightbulb at a time

    For the second week in a row the Guardian has turned the power of the internet onto the problems of the planet - at this rate, it surely can't be long before we're all saved. Last week editor Alan Rusbridger unleashed 15 million readers on Africa; this week environment writer Leo Hickman is trying to shut down coal-fired power …

    Environment 30 Oct 2007, 11:21

  • Dogs blast hunter with shotgun

    Trigger-happy mutts do a Dick Cheney

    An Iowa man enjoyed a trip to hospital with 100 birdshot pellets in his calf after hunting dogs let him have it from less than a metre with some pheasant-busting ordnance, AFP reports. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resource, James Harris, 37, was out with some chums in Poweshiek county when they "shot a bird …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2007, 11:26

  • Bin charging back on as Brown gets dizzy

    Chip'n'bin misery for celebrity muckrakers foretold

    Reports this morning have it that government plans for bin charging are back on, after an apparent attack of cold feet by the Prime Minister last week. Measures which would allow local councils to levy charges on people throwing away amounts of rubbish deemed to be excessive - in order to encourage recycling - appeared to have …

    Public Sector 30 Oct 2007, 11:47

  • Data recovery firm sounds Mac hard drive damage alert

    Updated 'Critical' flaw with China-made HDDs?

    Data recovery company Retrodata has challenged Apple to come clean about what it claims is a "critical manufacturing flaw" affecting some hard drives used in MacBook laptops and desktops like the Mac Mini - an issue that could result in data loss. According to Retrodata, its customers have sent in a much higher number of …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 11:52

  • Hundreds for chop as Tiscali launches Pipex jobs purge

    Hoff offed

    Tiscali will slash hundreds of customer care jobs at recent acquisition Pipex broadband and voice, staff were told yesterday afternoon. According to Reg sources at the firm, technical support will be provided by Tiscali call centres in North Africa and India from January 18. Tiscali refused to answer any questions* about the …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2007, 12:06

  • Nintendo to fire Wii Zapper into Europe for Xmas

    Take aim...

    Nintendo’s Wii Zapper will be available across Europe in time for Christmas, the company said today. The white, double-handed, machine gun peripheral will ship on 7 December, bundled with the Link’s Crossbow Training game. Additional titles are promised, including Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Nintendo's Wii Zapper …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 12:11

  • US airforce checked out for synthi-fuel by 2011

    What will you do after the war, skipper?

    The US Air Force (USAF) is already well known for its wish to be free of dependence on oil imported from suspect overseas dictatorships. Ultimately, the plan appears to be for the USAF's mighty aerial armadas to run on fungus or algae-based biofuels, but in the nearer future the Yankee airmen would be happy with any kind of …

    Science 30 Oct 2007, 12:31

  • Europe delays accidental ban on MRI scans

    Rethinking electromagnetic exposure limits

    The European Commission has suggested that it should delay implementing legislation that would have imposed serious limits on when and where MRI scans could be used. The draft legislation covering workers' exposure to electromagnetic fields will now be sent back to the drawing board for a further four years. Meanwhile, the …

    Law 30 Oct 2007, 12:33

  • Brussels politicos: More cash for Galileo, pronto

    'Indispensable strategic tool'

    Galileo, the rolling European satnav project fracas, has hit the headlines again as parliamentarians in Brussels demand extra funds for the coming year. Thus far, Galileo consists of little more than an orbiting placeholder, thrown up hastily to hold onto critical spectrum. However, it is planned to become a world-girdling …

    Public Sector 30 Oct 2007, 12:35

  • Toshiba spits out tasty H1 profit

    Despite 'sluggish' HDD and mobile phone sales

    Japanese electronics giant Toshiba yesterday reported a hike in first half profits, buoyed by strong demand for the firm's memory chips as well as steady growth in the computer arm of its business. The company said revenue was up to 3.69 trillion yen ($32bn) an increase of 17 per cent in the period April to September 2007. Net …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 12:48

  • Pentax Optio Z10 digital camera

    Review Perfect Pentax - or Optio gone awry?

    Talk about too much choice: we're drowning in digital cameras. These days, everyone, their tennis partner and their dog seem to be launching an eight-megapixel compact with a large screen. So, in this over-crowded environment can Pentax's Optio Z10 stand out from the crowd? Ever heard the expression 'little things can make a …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 13:08

  • Morse signals stability in current year

    Trading in line with expectations

    Morse told its annual meeting today that trading is running in line with expectations. In a statement to the AGM, outgoing chairman Richard Lapthorne said that “stabilization of revenue has continued into the new financial year.” He said that the management has set a target of operating margin of 7.2 per cent, and absolute …

    Channel Register 30 Oct 2007, 13:16

  • Sony: we'll have sold 132m PS2s by 31 March 08

    Console still a contender?

    Sony expects to have sold 132m PlayStation 2s worldwide by the end of March 2008, boosting the console’s current seven-year sales figures by 12m within five months. Sony's PS2: still a contender The company claims it's already sold 120m PS2s worldwide, since unveiling the gaming unit in the US on 26 October 2000. Of course, …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 13:30

  • Leopard on a PC?

    Q&A

    Can I purchase any Intel box and install Apple's Mac OS X Leopard operating system on it?

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 13:37

  • Wii broke my ribs, Zelda finished me off

    Reader Comment Wii Tennis elbowed?

    We've all heard about Wii related damage to property and people, but I think my case is perhaps a little different. If it wasn't for the fact that the inevitable outcome would be for every Wiimote sold from this date to be encased in an inertia-dampening field and under no circumstances be actually used by a person then I would …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 14:07

  • Reaper aerial killbot harvests its first fleshies

    Hapless meatsacks slaughtered by flying mechanoid

    The new MQ-9 Reaper airborne wardroid has mown down its first fleshies, according to the US Air Force. The MQ-9, aka Predator-B, is a derivative of the original MQ-1 Predator drone aircraft, one of the first mechanoids to kill human beings. Famously, a CIA Predator blew away al-Qaeda bigwig Qa'ed Sunyan al-Harethi in 2002 …

    Science 30 Oct 2007, 14:10

  • Google jumps ahead of ITV1 on Q3 ad revenue

    Web blows raspberry at the telly

    Internet behemoth Google has seen its advertising revenues overtake the UK's most popular commercial television channel in the third quarter of this year. According to analysis carried out by The Times, Google pulled in total revenues of £327m compared with an estimated £317m for all of ITV1's output during the same period …

    Financial News 30 Oct 2007, 14:25

  • Bank and mortgage scam nets ID crooks thousands

    Why settle for just emptying an online bank account?

    Scammers conned both a mortgage firm and a bank to hit an IT director for £60,000. UK police are hunting the gang responsible for the scam, and at least nine others like it, that are estimated to have netted ID fraudsters hundreds of thousands of pounds, The Times reports. Phishing fraudsters are typically satisfied with …

    Crime 30 Oct 2007, 14:39

  • Whois database targeted for destruction

    Sunset strip

    The long-running attempt by privacy advocates to bin the Whois database will be up for vote at the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles tomorrow. Cheerleaders for the six-year-old "sunset proposal" say people shouldn't be required to give up personal information to the web to register a domain name. It is frequently abused by spammers …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2007, 14:41

  • Cops coax half-naked Czech wolfman from Cardiff tree

    Top that headline and win a Mini Metro

    Cardiff cops launched a "major operation" yesterday after a half-naked Czech man climbed a tree, began "crying and howling like a wolf" and then refused to come down from his perch. Police moved swiftly to seal off the tree on the corner of Cathays Terrace and Maindy Road after local resident Martin Townley, 43, alerted them …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2007, 15:01

  • BT banks on windmills to throw greens off its scent

    SNW UK's biggest leccy guzzler's crusty nightmare

    BT is going green in part to avoid being targeted by environmental activists after it emerged that that it now uses 0.75 per cent of the UK's electricity. Steve O'Donnell, the telco's global data centre boss revealed during a panel session at SNW Europe that the telco was afraid of being besieged by hordes of dreadlocked …

    Servers 30 Oct 2007, 15:14

  • How ASP.NET began in Java

    And the truth about Project Cool

    A bit of nostalgia for you. Cast your minds back to 1999 or thereabouts. Microsoft is finishing off IIS 4.0 and there is no such thing as C# or ASP.NET. However, there are rumours that Microsoft is creating a Java-like platform codenamed "Cool", in the aftermath of a dispute with Sun that was making it impossible to use Java …

    Developer 30 Oct 2007, 15:44

  • Lords debate airline liquids ban

    Exploding Marmite threat revealed

    Who remembers the deadly liquid bomb airliner plot? Most of you, we're guessing, as there are still a lot of fairly mindless restrictions on taking liquids aboard planes - no matter that the plot was actually rather far-fetched. But fear not, UK readers, as your unelected representatives are alert to your interests. Yesterday …

    Government 30 Oct 2007, 16:05

  • Male pattern boldness

    New software design patterns to play with

    Long time readers of my blog will know that I'm a huge fan of design patterns. Patterns wrap complex architectures with simplistic descriptions. They create wonderful buzzwords that we can use instead of resorting to actual human language descriptions. And they help enforce that feeling that we're all a part of an elite clique …

    Developer 30 Oct 2007, 16:06

  • FTC demands bigger spyware penalties

    Raising the fine line

    US consumer watchdog the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is calling for a bigger stick with which to punish spyware purveyors. As things stand the FTC is only able to collect profits illegally gained by infecting victims' PCs with malware along with obtaining financial redress for consumers. A brace of bills that would give the …

    Malware 30 Oct 2007, 16:36

  • McAfee pays $51m for Hacker Safe

    Goes mad for certifying

    Security firm McAfee has bought ScanAlert - the company behind the "HACKER SAFE" kitemark used to certify ecommerce websites. ScanAlert is, or was, privately owned and claims that over 75,000 websites show its mark. It is based in Napa, California, and employs 130 people. McAfee will pay $51m in cash with a possible bonus of …

    Channel Register 30 Oct 2007, 16:40

  • Sony paints PS2 white... for a while

    Old console, new colour, karaoke bundle

    Despite investing many millions of dollars into the PS3, Sony thinks the best way of boosting its consoles sales is recolouring the new model's seven-year-old predecessor. So, enter a "limited edition" ceramic white PS2. Sony's white PS2 pack: a game and two microphones included The colour – which is already available in …

    Reg Hardware 30 Oct 2007, 16:42

  • US tech industry backs Buffalo in Wi-Fi patent spat

    I raise you my eBay loophole and call your injunction

    America's computing industry are lining up behind Buffalo Technology to support its appeal against a US import ban of its 802.11a and 802.11g kit. In June, a US court stepped in to stop the sale of Wi-Fi equipment from Buffalo Technology based on technology that infringes patents held by the Australia-based Commonwealth …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2007, 17:54

  • Obama pledges Net Neutrality, Ewok safety

    Comment Your virtual candidate calling

    Politicians long ago gave up on politics. Instead of articulating great ideas, the choice that faces voters today is between identikit managerial bureaucrats who've never had a job outside politics. Most of their adult lives have been spent in the hermetic world of wonkdom. So it's little wonder, then, that they have trouble …

    Telecoms 30 Oct 2007, 18:02

  • EMC satisfies management fetish with Voyence

    Beware IBM, HP, Dell and Sun

    EMC's grand stretch across the data center continued this week with the purchase of Voyence - a maker of network configuration software. We can't confess to knowing a whole lot about Voyence, although the Texas-based firm seems popular enough. HP, for example, started reselling Voyence software last year as its OpenView …

    Data Networking 30 Oct 2007, 18:31

  • Buzzword bingo for Microsoft's Oslo

    Pick a date, any date

    Packing as many buzzwords as possible into a single news announcement might prove you're "on message" but won't disguise the fact your strategy lags every major player in town. And so to Microsoft's Oslo, a project spanning planned server and tools products announced Tuesday using at lest eight well-worn industry acronyms and …

    Applications 30 Oct 2007, 19:34

  • DMTF accepts new format for portable VMs

    Hopes to simplify interoperability

    The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) recently announced the acceptance of a draft specification submitted by leading virtualization companies that seeks to establish an industry-standard format for portable virtual machines. The specification envisions that virtual machines packaged in this format will be capable of …

    Virtualization 30 Oct 2007, 19:51

  • Woman admits fleecing shopping network of more than $412,000

    Website glitch allowed her to receive items gratis

    A woman has pleaded guilty to fleecing the QVC home-shopping networking of more than $412,000 by exploiting a gaping hole in its website that allowed her to receive merchandise without paying for them. Quantina Moore-Perry ordered handbags, jewelry and electronics and then immediately canceled the transactions. The flaw …

    Crime 30 Oct 2007, 21:49

  • Apple's Leopard leaps into action

    Two million copies and counting

    Apple has sold two million copies of Leopard, the latest version of its Mac OS X operating system, since its release on Friday. The company said the Leopard sales rush outpaced that of its predecessor Tiger, until now the most successful Apple operating system. The two million sales figure includes copies of Leopard sold at …

    Channel Register 30 Oct 2007, 21:55

  • Vyatta does open source networking with a mean streak

    Tell Cisco what you really think

    So much of the Web 2.0/Participation Age garbage arrives with false pretenses of goodwill. Give everyone a MySpace page and our collective spirit will fill the world with creativity and freshness. Gwana-gwana. Thanks heavens then that we have companies such as Vyatta willing to use the web and its bloginess for proper, fist in …

    Data Networking 30 Oct 2007, 22:24