14th November 2007 Archive

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Multics source code released into the wild

Unix's 43-year-old daddy joins open community

M.I.T.'s Information Services and Technology organization has released the source code of MULTICS, a decades-old OS and important forebear of modern day operating systems. Although there are no systems in operation today that could run MULTICS, the code release may serve as a fascinating research tool for computer scientists …

Operating Systems 14 Nov 2007, 01:19
Illegal immigrant finds work as spook for the FBI and CIA

Background checks not all that

A former agent for the CIA and FBI admitted she illegally accessed government computers to obtain classified information about the radical Islamic group Hezbollah. Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, also confessed that she fraudulently obtained US citizenship years before receiving a security clearance, according to a Justice Department …

Government 14 Nov 2007, 02:57
Tutankhamun: the boy king comes to London

No IT angle Oddly underwhelming collection of fascinating artefacts

There has been much fanfare in the press about the unveiling of King Tutankhamun's mummified face. The boy king has recently been installed in a clear, climate controlled chamber, confronting visitors to the Valley of the Kings with his mortality, and his humanity. The casual reader could be forgiven for thinking that this …

Science 14 Nov 2007, 08:02
Animal rights activist hit with RIPA key decrypt demand

UK terror law change kicks in

An animal rights activist has been ordered to hand over her encryption keys to the authorities. Section Three of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) came into force at the start in October 2007, seven years after the original legislation passed through parliament. Intended primarily to deal with terror suspects, …

Government 14 Nov 2007, 08:02
Windows update offers defence against shell bug

Watch out, incoming

Microsoft released a critical patch involving IE7 and an important patch to guard against DNS (Domain Name System) spoofing on Tuesday. An expected update involving a flaw in the SafeDisc copy protection software from Macrovision that comes bundled with Windows XP and 2003 is missing in action. Users are advised to apply …

Security 14 Nov 2007, 09:32
Oracle has commitment issues over Fusion

OpenWorld Redefining 'Holidays'

A week, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson is famed for having said, is a long time in politics. If that's true of politics where destinies turn on a sixpence (or dime), then what does that make a year in application development, where deadlines determine success or failure, and where - so marketing drones keep telling …

Developer 14 Nov 2007, 09:55
Tesco slaps cutlery ban on under-18s

'Age restrictions apply to this product'

We're delighted to report this morning that supermarket monolith Tesco - famous for its cut-price Xbox 360 offer - is doing its bit to combat the degeneration of Blighty into a lawless land a la Democratic Republic of Congo in which rival bands of jenkem-crazed hoodies battle each other in the smouldering ruins of UK society. …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 10:02
Saudi prince blows fortune on A380 'flying palace'

£300m + fixtures and fittings

A Saudi prince earlier this week ordered the first A380 "Flying Palace" - a customised airborne kingdom which will set him back up to £400m, Airbus reports. HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, who's the chairman of Kingdom Holding company, will enjoy "more space, more comfort and a more modern design that flies …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 10:08
Ofcom offers email alerts on military GPS meddling

MoD spam deluge feared

UK comms regulator Ofcom are offering a new service sure to interest the electronic warfare buff and/or tinfoil-titfer'd conspiracy connoisseur. One can now sign up with the pipes'n'airwaves patrolmen for email alerts giving details of military GPS sat nav jamming trials. According to Ofcom: The Ministry of Defence conduct …

Mobile 14 Nov 2007, 10:10
Oracle bets business data on OpenSocial

OpenWorld Beyond the browser

They risk exposing personal and corporate data to attack, but that isn't stopping Oracle from wanting to employ Google's Gears and OpenSocial in the next version of its business software. Oracle has outlined plans for CRM OnDemand version 15 that appear to rely on Google Gears to run data inside desktop gadgets without firing …

Developer 14 Nov 2007, 10:11
Revenues and profits up at Norkom

Strong US and Asia sales

Dublin-based Norkom has posted a 53 per cent jump in revenue thanks to strong sales in the US and Asian markets. The financial software developer saw its revenues jump to €17.6m for the six months ended 30 September, with EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increasing 50 per cent to €3.1m for …

Financial News 14 Nov 2007, 10:17
Asylum seeker fingerprint database has security flaws, says watchdog

Some searches 'carried out improperly'

The European database of asylum seekers' fingerprints has security weaknesses, according to (pdf) Europe's privacy watchdog the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Eurodac is a Europe-wide fingerprint database of applicants for asylum and illegal immigrants. The EDPS conducted a detailed security audit of the system to …

Security 14 Nov 2007, 10:33
Spanish cartoonists fined for royal sex mag cover

€3,000 a head for insulting Crown Prince Felipe

The two cartoonists responsible for a July cover of Spanish satirical mag El Jueves, which showed Crown Prince Felipe rogering wife Princess Letizia, have been fined €3,000 each for their trouble, El País reports. The offending sketch had the prince uttering "Do you realise that if you get pregnant... It will be the closest …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 10:52
SanDisk pitches Flash cache tech at PC makers

Vaulter to leap past Intel's 'Robson'?

SanDisk is to take on Intel's 'Robson' technology - aka Turbo Memory - by launching next year a PCI Express add-in Flash cache. Dubbed SanDisk Vaulter Disk, the module will be offered to manufacturers of desktop and notebook PCs in capacities of 8-16GB. That's rather more than Intel's comparable Turbo Memory modules provide: …

Hardware 14 Nov 2007, 10:53
How I wrote an iPhone application

An introduction to the world of mobile Web 2.0

If an El Reg hack can write an iPhone application then anyone can, so we thought we'd have a go and pass on our experience in the hope that others can build something more useful. In proper Web 2.0 fashion we decided to create an application which would achieve nothing and have no commercial potential. Therefore, our …

Mobile 14 Nov 2007, 10:56
Crack a puzzle, win a WWII Enigma machine

Come and have a go if you think you're ingenious enough

A code breaking riddle that offers the chance to win a genuine World War II Enigma machine remains unsolved more than a year after the challenge was first posed. The chance to own a piece of crypto history is on offer through a code-breaking competition associated with the book Can you crack the Enigma code? by author Richard …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 11:18
Indian man marries dog to lift mutt-murder curse

Paralysed after stoning canines to death

An Indian man has married a dog in the hope that the nuptials will lift a curse which has hung over him for 15 years since he stoned a couple of mutts to death, the BBC reports. P Selvakumar, 33, claimed he'd suffered paralysis and hearing loss since the incident. A relative told the Beeb: "Fifteen years back Selvakumar was …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 11:20
Euro HD DVD camp clams up on format sales figures

What's it got to hide?

The European HD DVD Promotional Group has refused to back up claims that the next-generation optical disc format it's backing is the movie buff's favourite by revealing how many HD DVD players have been bought over here. Register Hardware asked it this question because earlier this week the organisation announced that numbers …

Hardware 14 Nov 2007, 11:22
Tiscali loses IPTV punters

Telly-over-broadband stuttering

Tiscali's IPTV service has been losing customers, it has emerged. The Italy-based ISP reported quarterly results yesterday that said the TV over broadband service, formerly known as HomeChoice, has 36,000 subscribers. When Tiscali bought the outfit for about £100m in August last year it had 45,000 customers. Having previously …

Broadband 14 Nov 2007, 11:46
Crime-busting gator kills Florida fugitive

Police chase ends in fatal lunch

A man who attempted to escape pursuing police by jumping into a Florida hotel's alligator pool was killed by a vigilante reptile, Local 10 reports. The unnamed perp, along with an accomplice, had apparently been breaking into cars on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation in Miami-Dade County. Miccosukee police, assisted by canine …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 11:51
Dimension Data profits and rev climb

Trumpets 'favourable macro IT industry trends'

IT services firm Dimension Data said today that total revenue rose to $3.8bn for the year, up by nearly a quarter on its 2006 results. Pre-tax profit also jumped significantly year-on-year to $150m from $65m previously, while earnings per share are up to 5.6 cents - an increase of 180 per cent on 2006. Dimension Data said in …

The Channel 14 Nov 2007, 11:56
Everest cell tower hibernates for the winter

But will wake for the 2008 Olympics

The mobile-phone base station constructed 6,500 metres up Mount Everest has been dismantled until next summer, as not a lot of people want to make calls from the mountain during the winter months. Carried up the mountain by teams of yaks, and constructed in an environment with only 38 per cent of the oxygen at sea level, the …

Mobile 14 Nov 2007, 11:57
Dutch teen swipes furniture from virtual hotel

Cuffed over €4,000 Habbo Hotel heist

Dutch police have arrested an unnamed 17-year-old on suspicion of having swiped €4,000 worth of furniture from the virtual Habbo Hotel - the first such local arrest for "virtual burglary". According to Expatica, police say the suspect "allegedly hacked the accounts of other Habbo community members", then "took their furniture …

Law 14 Nov 2007, 11:58
Intel pegs Q4 '08 for 4-series chipset debut

Eaglelake set to fly late next year

Intel's upcoming 'Eaglelake' chipset family may not make it to market until Q4 2008, it has been claimed. But the wait does mean the products will all get PCI Express 2.0 support and the ability to host DisplayPort-connected monitors. Taiwanese motherboard maker moles cited by Chinese-language site HKEPC made the claim. The …

Hardware 14 Nov 2007, 11:59
Russians offer Terry Pratchett-style droid luggage

Remorseless motorised robo-bag impossible to shake off

Reports out of Russia indicate that a battery-powered motorised suitcase which automatically follows its owner will be on the market in 2009*. No escape from dirty laundry. Russia-Infocentre says the Terry Pratchett-style mobile, smart luggage will track a "sensor-card" carried by its user. The manufacturers seem to …

Science 14 Nov 2007, 11:59
Creative Zen media player

Review Spiritual enlightenment by way of sound

Creative's latest MP3 player offers a 2.5in screen, video playback capabilities, photo viewer, voice recorder and an FM radio. It claims to provide 25 hours of battery life and is the size of a credit card. Sounds good on paper, but does it all come together in practice? Despite beating Apple to market with the Nomad MP3 …

Hardware 14 Nov 2007, 12:02
Girls' school head condemns bubblewrapping of kids

How packaging materials are ruining British youth

A former British Army Lancer turned girls' school headmaster is the latest to come out against the practice of bubblewrapping children. Robert McKenzie Johnston, head of the private Queen Mary’s School in Yorkshire, told the Girls Schools Association conference that the safety-conscious culture was being used as an excuse for …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 12:07
Official: PS3 to get DivX through firmware upate

Xbox 360 too?

PlayStation 3 gamers will soon have access to DivX digital video content through their consoles after Sony yesterday agreed to a tie-up between the two companies. Although a release date hasn’t yet been announced, DivX claimed it will certify the PS3 in the “near future”. Once completed, PS3 owners old and new will be able to …

Games 14 Nov 2007, 12:16
Integralis reports blissful nine months

'More realistic outlook' to follow

IT security vendor Integralis said today that revenue had grown by more than 15 per cent to €111m for the first nine months of this year. It said profit also rose to €2.8m for that period, the same level achieved in the full year 2006, while recurring revenues from managed security and support services were said to be up 20 per …

The Channel 14 Nov 2007, 12:17
Testers give iPhone virtual keyboard the thumbs down

Apple vs BlackBerry vs numeric pad

The virtual Qwerty keyboard on Apple's iPhone allows users to enter text as quickly as they would on another handset's physical keyboard, but they'll make rather more mistakes in the process. That's the conclusion drawn by a Chicago usability consultancy after watching 60 punters tap away on a variety of handsets. Twenty of …

Phones 14 Nov 2007, 12:46
Access Palm OS now available... for Nokia!

Ever wanted to run Palm OS on your Nokia Tablet?

Access, owners of the Palm OS now known as Garnet, have released a version of that platform for the Nokia Internet tablets N810, N800 and N770, providing access to the thousands of Palm applications still out there. The release is a free download, and prominently labelled "beta", but can be installed alongside the pre- …

Mobile 14 Nov 2007, 12:46
Brown announces new counter-terror plans

Let's bubblewrap the entire UK!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown today announced new security plans aimed at protecting the UK from the threat of terrorism. New funding, personnel and initiatives were laid out, and Mr Brown also said he thought a "consensus" could be achieved on the need to hold terror suspects without charge for longer than the current 28 day …

Law 14 Nov 2007, 13:51
Nokia unleashes N82 ~~smartphone~~ multimedia computer

Also suitable for voice calls, apparently

Nokia has rolled out the rumoured extension to the N series line-up, a candybar alternative to the N95 sliderphone, dubbed the N82. N82: multimedia computer Rumoured to be in production since August, the N82’s appearance confirms the majority of features originally leaked. It boasts a five-megapixel camera with a xenon flash …

Phones 14 Nov 2007, 14:00
Murdoch Diggs WSJ's online future

Free for all

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has once again been banging the free-online-news-for-everyone drum, as his firm closes in on its takeover of the Wall Street Journal. During a shareholders meeting in Adelaide today, the News Corporation chairman said he would scrap subscription fees on the WSJ website in favour of a free model that …

Media 14 Nov 2007, 14:16
Nintendo sounds Wii-free Xmas warning

'Buy early,' it suggests. 'Where from?' readers demand

If you’re hoping for a Wii from Santa’s sack this Christmas, don’t get your hopes up, Nintendo has said. The console company today warned that there could be a worldwide shortage of its console this holiday season. Despite the company already disappointing Wii fans by confirming that DVD support won’t be ready for the console …

Games 14 Nov 2007, 14:26
Monkey butlers a step nearer as boffins clone macaques

Related body harvesting, vat grown super-soldier benefits

American-based scientists report they have successfully produced cloned embryos from an adult male monkey. The breakthrough will have important implications for the fields of invincible clone armies, organ harvesting, and - most importantly - monkey butlers. The research was published in prestigious boffinry publication …

Science 14 Nov 2007, 14:56
Red Hat turns to Platform for Linux cluster charge

SC07 Getting its Rocks on

Red Hat and Platform Computing have opted to attack the high performance computing realm together. The software makers this week touted a partnership will see Platform marry its Open Cluster Stack with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The end result? The Red Hat HPC Solution, of course. Linux remains the dominant force in the …

Servers 14 Nov 2007, 15:26
CompuServe France headed for the knacker's yard

Horsemeat time for the grandpère of ISPs

It might come as a surprise to some, but CompuServe, the name synonymous with the early days of the net, is still plodding on. But not for much longer in France: owner Neuf Cegetel will hand the venerable ISP a one-way ticket to Switzerland* at the end of this month. Neuf Cegetel acquired CompuServe when it bought AOL France' …

Broadband 14 Nov 2007, 15:40
Nokia gets thrown out of Dutch court

Nokia, Qualcomm, handbags at ten paces

Nokia today saw its Netherlands case thrown out of court on the grounds they hadn't explained it properly, three weeks after the same thing happened in Germany - but the war of patents between the two companies continues. This case was brought on the grounds that Nokia shouldn't pay patent fees to Qualcomm because such fees …

Mobile 14 Nov 2007, 16:27
NASA to trial Moon balloon pneumo-podule in Antarctic

Airbag lebensraum plan for Mars, too

NASA has today showcased plans to test its inflatable habitat technology - intended for deployment on the inhospitable surfaces of the Moon and Mars - by conducting a dummy run in Antarctica. Inflated housing predictions from NASA. Space agency bigwigs announced today that a prototype blow-up moon airbag base facility would …

Science 14 Nov 2007, 16:42
Xbox Live gamers to get game, gratis

Free download to celebrate service's fifth birthday

Microsoft plans to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live by giving away free games and MS points to the service’s gamers. Gamers can buy Xbox Live MS points from shops The company said that Xbox Live’s 8m worldwide members will be able to download a free Xbox Live Arcade game. The giveaway starts at 8.01am UK time …

Games 14 Nov 2007, 16:47
EU launches bid to bin telco regulations

By overseeing the overseers

Lisa Simpson: "I mean, if you're the police, who will police the police?" Homer Simpson: "I dunno. Coast Guard?" The EU's communications commissioner today vowed to press through sweeping reforms of the European telecoms market that she hopes will tear up the current red tape regime. She charged that governments and regulators …

Networks 14 Nov 2007, 17:11
Open source and Dell join Sun server party

OpenWorld Schwartz makes like Al Gore

Like Al Gore claiming to have created the internet, Sun Microsystems claims it was a virtualization pioneer. While announcing open-source-based virtualization and a Solaris server partnership with Dell on Wednesday, Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz told Oracle's OpenWorld that Sun was "one of the first" in the industry to …

Software 14 Nov 2007, 18:43
Microsoft vows cluster OS upgrade will include Linux nod

SC07 Faster and more friendly

Microsoft's charge into the high performance computing game continues at pace. The software maker this week announced that its new cluster operating system - HPC Server 2008 - based on Windows Server 2008 will ship next Summer. In addition, the code dandy has fired up a Parallel Computing Initiative to develop more parallelized …

Servers 14 Nov 2007, 20:46
SGI's new NAS box caters for storage sharing

Nexis 9000 combines InfiniBand and RDMA storage

SGI is launching an InfiniBand-based RDMA storage device to its freshly announced Nexis family of NAS storage systems. The Nexis 9000 is a 5U system built with high-performance computing in mind. It holds 48 drives in four enclosures, for a maximum of 144TB of raw capacity. The hardware is powered by up to eight Intel Dual …

Storage 14 Nov 2007, 20:58
Four years and 1000 promises land Solaris at Dell

SC07 Waiting for HP

By our count, it has taken Sun about four years and 1,000s of promises to bring Dell over to the Solaris camp in a proper fashion. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz assured us of a Dell win so many times in the past that the discussion started to lose all meaning. "When will you line Dell up?" we'd ask. "Stay tuned. It's on the way," …

Servers 14 Nov 2007, 21:08
B3ta served DMCA notice for Photoshop Prince challenge

Satire to you, multiple copyright infringements to us

Lawyers acting on behalf of Prince have sent out a flurry of US copyright infringement notifications to individual members of a popular UK website which encourages its community to create satirical images of well-known stars. A number of users of b3ta.com have been slapped with DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) …

Law 14 Nov 2007, 22:51
Apple TV goes to the movies

May be useful after all

Sure, Apple TV is pretty close to useless if you wanna watch stuff on your television. But it's a godsend to at least one independent filmmaker. This weekend, at a neighborhood movie theater in Brooklyn, New York, an Apple TV made its way into the projection booth, streaming a high-def digital flick onto the big screen. And …

Hardware 14 Nov 2007, 23:13
Holy pancake appears on eBay

Joins divine aubergine

An American eBayer has auctioned off a week-old pancake for $338, claiming it contains images of Jesus and Mary. Or maybe Moses and Elijah. As her mother cooked up a few flapjacks last Monday morning, Dana O'Kane looked down at one of them and saw a pair of "religious figures dressed in the early desert garb that would have …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2007, 23:15