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15th November 2007 Archive

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  • eBay Trojan morphs to snare motor victims

    As eBay security czar discusses new measures

    A sophisticated Trojan menacing eBay Motors users continues to circulate, according to researchers from Symantec, who say the malware has morphed three times in the last week in an attempt to evade detection. Trojan.Bayrob is in constant contact with a fleet of control servers so it can be updated in real time - all the better …

    Channel Register 15 Nov 2007, 00:03

  • AMD rolls out DirectX 10.1 Radeon HD 3800 GPUs

    Top-of-the-range peformance at mid-range price

    AMD has launched 'RV670', the - world's first - 55nm GPU it hopes will reverse the growing gap between its sales and those of Nvidia. RV670 will go on sale today as the ATI Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 - effectively what would once have been called 'Pro' and 'XT' variants, respectively. Both 192 square mm dies contain 666 - oh err …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 05:02

  • VeriSign slims, cuts jobs to focus on security

    Digital certificate firm looks to offload communications biz

    VeriSign is to shed its communication services operation in order to focus on its core businesses of running the .com and .net registries and securing online transactions. The firm also plans to expand its reach into identity protection. The plan, announced Wednesday, which could cut the internet infrastructure giant's …

    Channel Register 15 Nov 2007, 09:18

  • Experts cast runes on Google phone security

    Paranoid Android

    Google's plans in new mobile phone platforms may not be much further advanced than slideware, but security experts are already picking apart the initiative to look for potential holes. Interest is focused on whether or not Android will be totally open or adopt an (arguably more secure) system of signing approved applications. …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2007, 09:38

  • Sun sends Netra blades through 10GE wringer

    For the protocol-pinching telecom

    Sun is dishing out new ACTA blade server gear for telcos sporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet — with all the copious prices usually found for equipment holding the AdvancedTCA telecom industry standards. The new portfolio, now standardized on Sun's Solaris operating system, will let telcos connect multi-core and multithreaded ATCA …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 09:40

  • Californian sues Comcast over BitTorrent throttling

    I demand to have my mind blown

    With US internet service megaladon Comcast facing intense scrutiny over limiting speeds of customers using peer-to-peer technology such as BitTorrent, it was a question of when - not if - someone from the state of California would sue. Showing unprecedented litigious restraint, it took until last Tuesday for such a lawsuit to …

    Telecoms 15 Nov 2007, 09:52

  • Fusion confusion, and anger, for Ellison

    OpenWorld Audience smack down

    Larry Ellison got testy with customers during his OpenWorld keynote open mic session Wednesday, as he fielded question after question from those confused by Oracle Fusion and angry at paying too much for his software. Oracle's chief executive verbally took down one delegate for haplessly suggesting money spent on Microsoft …

    Developer 15 Nov 2007, 09:53

  • Yahoo! Ratchets! Open! Source! Grid! Platform!

    Stuffed elephant rising

    Hoping to further the Google-battling ways of an open source cluster computing platform named for a stuffed elephant, Yahoo! has decided to share a 4,000-CPU, 1.5 petabyte grid with some boffins at Carnegie Mellon University. The open source platform is called Hadoop. Yahoo! is the primary contributor to this Apache Software …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 09:56

  • UK tightens borders with single agency and screening system

    But union concerned at 'flawed' pilots

    A single agency and a multi-billion pound passenger screening system will strengthen the UK's entry points, according to the Home Office. The Home Office has announced that a new UK Border Agency will unite immigration, customs and visa checks, backed by a £1.2bn passenger screening programme. The screening system programme …

    Government 15 Nov 2007, 10:25

  • Hynix touts 'world's first' 1Gb GDDR 5 chip

    Thanks for the memory

    First Qimonda, now Hynix. Yes, the Korean chip-maker has become the second manufacturer to begin sampling GDDR 5 graphics memory chippage. But while its German rival is pitching a 512Mb part, Hynix has a 1Gb chip - the first of its kind in the world, the company claimed - on its books. GDDR 5 ups the maximum data throughput …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 10:30

  • Public shows new data protection nous

    We know our rights, man

    Individuals' awareness of their rights under the Data Protection Act (DPA) has reached an all time high, according to new research published from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It said 90 per cent of individuals know they have a right to see information that an organisation holds about them compared to 74 per …

    ID 15 Nov 2007, 10:47

  • Retailer pitches £1000 £10,000 Nintendo Wii

    Updated Grand gesture

    Retail chain PC World is clearly out to cash in on the current shortage of Nintendo Wii in the UK. How else can we explain why it's offering one of the consoles for £1000 - more than three times' the recommend price? Here's the proof: How much? Click for full-size image It's a glitch, of course. Or a staffer's joke. And …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 10:54

  • Tor embassy 'hacker' raided by Swedish Feds

    Don't want no more of the spyin' game

    A security researcher who revealed how the email accounts of embassies were exposed through the misuse of the Tor anonymiser network has been taken in for questioning by Swedish intelligence agencies. Dan Egerstad used Tor to obtain the login credentials of about 1,000 email addresses, including at least 100 accounts belonging …

    Enterprise Security 15 Nov 2007, 11:00

  • Xbox girl-on-girl game upsets Singapore

    Mass Effect banned

    Singapore has banned the Xbox 360 video game Mass Effect because it apparently contains a raunchy lesbian love scene. No video? You'll need to download Flash Player from www.adobe.com Local newspaper the Straits Times reported today that the science fiction role-playing game - which is due to be released in the UK later …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 11:01

  • Ariane 5 is go: Skynet 5B military chat-sat on the way

    Launch 'reflects Arianespace strategic role'

    The British military communications satellite Skynet 5B launched successfully from Kourou in French Guiana at 2206 GMT last night. The spacecraft will complete the UK armed forces' planned new generation of orbital communications coverage. Arianespace's strategic role. Skynet 5B was supposed to launch on Friday, but …

    Telecoms 15 Nov 2007, 11:01

  • Nvidia to launch 'G98' GPU next month

    Die-shrink speed boost

    Nvidia will roll out a PCI Express 2.0 and DisplayPort-enabled successor to its budget GeForce 8400 GS graphics chip early next month, if the latest claim from Taiwanese industry moles is to be believed. The new chip is based on a 65nm core codenamed 'G98', Chinese-language site HKEPC reports. There are eight pixel processors …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 11:45

  • Will bird flu stuff our Happy Christmas?

    Oh no, the turkeys are on fire...

    Will the latest outbreak of bird flu (the nasty, H5N1 strain) in the UK do for Christmas this year what Farepak did last year? Are we all due to sit down to a table of trimmings, without the turkey*? On Sunday, the highly pathogenic strain of the virus was discovered on Redgrave Park farm in Suffolk. The authorities swung into …

    Biology 15 Nov 2007, 11:48

  • Punters call for laptops with built-in mobiles

    GSM/Microsoft ask 'how can we improve your notebooks'?

    The most sought-after notebook computer improvement is the addition of a built-in mobile phone, a survey has found. Microsoft teamed up with the GSM Association (GSMA), a trade body which promotes mobile phone adoption and standardisation, to ask punters what they would really like in their notebook computers. Pyramid …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2007, 11:56

  • MPs reject Ofcom's Nathan Barley quango

    The New Media Gravy Train stops here?

    In a victory for Reg readers, MPs have rejected Ofcom's proposal for a publicly-funded new media quango. The Commons' select committee for Culture, Media and Sport rejects the idea that the creation of a "Public Service Publisher" gatekeeper would help the market. The report is here, while Ofcomwatch blog broke the news here …

    Music and Media 15 Nov 2007, 11:57

  • Vietnamese cops jailed for death row pregnancy ruse

    Allowed drug smuggler to get up the duff

    Two Vietnamese police officers who helped a female drug smuggler avoid an appointment with the firing squad by allowing her to get pregnant while on death row have been jailed, AP reports. Nguyen Thi Oanh, now 40, was convicted of possessing more than one billion dong ($63,000) of heroin and sentenced to death. However, she …

    Bootnotes 15 Nov 2007, 11:58

  • Nokia 7500 Prism mobile phone

    Review If it's good enough for the Sugababes

    Any followers of the Bauhaus movement working in the Nokia design studio where presumably off sick on the day this baby was cooked up. Even the most cursory glance will tell you that form following function was not top of their agenda. That the phone appears frequently in the video for the recent Sugababes chart topper should …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 12:02

  • MoD announces new defence tech wishlist

    X marks the spot on pork treasure map

    The new UK defence purchasing minister has announced the production of a Defence Technology Plan, intended to lay out the kind of new military tech the UK armed forces would like to see developed. Baroness Taylor, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support has just replaced the outgoing Lord Drayson, who quit in the run-up to …

    Government 15 Nov 2007, 12:11

  • Vodafone responds to iPhone rip-off

    Can we charge more than that? Oh, yes we can

    Vodafone customers disappointed at not being able to pay £899 for an iPhone can rest assured that O2 is not alone in overcharging customers for flashy hardware - as this screen grab from its web site shows: Nice to see the firm's happy to hand over a Nokia N81 for free, but £350 a month seems a bit steep in today's climate. …

    Mobile 15 Nov 2007, 12:12

  • Atos Origin reports mellow and fruitful Q3

    UK not singled out this time

    Atos Origin confirmed its revenue and operating margin targets for the full year, as it unveiled third quarter revenues today. In a revenue statement this morning, Atos Origin said third quarter revenues were €1.4bn, up 11.1 per cent on the year. Organic revenues were €1.348bn, up 6.6 per cent. The strongest growth came in …

    Channel Register 15 Nov 2007, 12:14

  • Silicon Fen fails to soak up web 2.0 cash

    Cambridge loses out to London

    Cambridge's status as a top European incubator for technology ventures is under threat because it has failed to get under the recent hail of cash chucked at web companies, warn figures out today. The share of European technology venture capital dished out in Silicon Fen has plummeted from 9.3 per cent in 2005 to 5.6 per cent …

    Small Biz 15 Nov 2007, 12:17

  • AMD announces next-gen CrossFire... sort of

    Two-, three- and four-GPU tech debuts on firm's website

    AMD has let slip the existence of the next generation of its CrossFire multi-GPU technology, dubbed CrossFire X. Technically, CrossFire X is under wraps until 19 November, but when it launched the ATI Radeon HD 3800 line of graphics chips this morning, AMD not only posted the new technology's logo on its website, but also …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 12:26

  • Bike bonk bloke cops three years' probation

    Pedalphile warned not to remount

    The man caught having sex with a bicycle in an Ayr hostel has been put on three years' probation, the Telegraph reports. Robert Stewart, 51, had already earned himself an entry in the sex offenders' register for the incident last October in which two cleaners discovered him "wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist …

    Bootnotes 15 Nov 2007, 12:30

  • Veterans form VC fund for small biz

    Seeding, funding and mentoring

    A group of Silicon Valley veterans is launching an early stage venture capital and mentoring company aimed at small technology start-ups. It aims to fill the perceived gap between small-scale bank funding and the big investments of the traditional venture funds. Firms often complain it is very difficult to get funding which is …

    Small Biz 15 Nov 2007, 12:33

  • OFT hammers auction sites on consumer info

    DSReputable practices

    Auction websites are being forced to change the way they show users what their consumer rights are. After discussions with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), eBay, along with QXL, eBid and Tazbar, will include advice and links to external sites to explain to bidders what their rights are under the Distance Selling Regulations ( …

    Small Biz 15 Nov 2007, 13:12

  • Mayor Ken buys hydrogen buses for London

    Possible break with Chavez?

    London Mayor Ken Livingstone has placed a £10m order for 10 hydrogen-fuelled red buses to run on the capital's streets. The buses will use the hydrogen to generate electricity, and storage batteries and electric motors will replace a mechanical transmission to achieve maximum fuel efficiency. Five of the vehicles will burn …

    Science 15 Nov 2007, 13:14

  • Sierra Leone launches 'Operation Wash Lunatics'

    Freetown scoured for grubby nutters

    Volunteer youths in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown last week launched "Operation Wash Lunatics" - an attempt to prettify the city's wandering, grubby male nutter population. According to the local Awareness Times, the initiative kicked off on Saturday on Sani Abacha Street, with a three-phase operation. First up, one group …

    Bootnotes 15 Nov 2007, 13:15

  • Global warming not to blame for warmer North Pole?

    Boffins blame ocean currents instead

    Recent dramatic changes in the Arctic climate - melting sea ice, warmer ocean, green fields in place of icy wilderness, etc - might not all be directly related to global warming. The more clement Arctic climate of recent years could have been triggered by shorter term circulation changes in the oceans and atmosphere. …

    Space 15 Nov 2007, 13:27

  • MySpace makes kids fat, claims minister

    Sure it's not the bubblewrap?

    The UK’s children’s minister has slapped MySpace and other social networking sites for their role in the fattening up of the nation's youth. Beverly Hughes, at the launch of a report by think tank Demos on how children are being squeezed out of public space in the real world, said children were being pulled into virtual worlds …

    Government 15 Nov 2007, 13:42

  • Ofcom stings ISP £30k for silent treatment

    Broadband switching investigation stonewalled

    Telecoms watchdogs at Ofcom have hit Sheffield-based ISP Prodigy Internet Ltd with a £30,000 fine after it failed to provide information to an investigation into its broadband migration practices. The probe was launched in April after complaints that Prodigy was not complying with Ofcom's new rules on ISP switching. A new …

    Telecoms 15 Nov 2007, 13:44

  • No2ID calls in pledge cash to 'probe' ID Act's enabling laws

    Legal fund prepares for actions...

    Anti-ID card campaign No2ID has called in the donations offered as part of its 2005 'refuse' pledge. The money, according to general secretary Guy Herbert, will in part be used to "probe" Government statutory instruments brought in to enable the ID scheme. Calling in the money now also allows No2ID to clear the decks for …

    Government 15 Nov 2007, 14:03

  • Microsoft stuffs Sage with free accounts software

    Trying to get into SMBs' good books

    Microsoft today blew a raspberry in the face of rival Sage with the launch of its own UK accounting software punted at SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses). Redmond has also adopted a biz model not typically associated with the software King Kong, with a basic version of its Office Accounting 2008 product being made …

    Small Biz 15 Nov 2007, 14:08

  • Watching the Earthrise over the moon

    Video: And set again

    From the department of very cool videos come two real corkers. Japan's space agency (JAXA) has released two high definition videos of Earthrise and Earthset, as witnessed by its lunar explorer SELENE, which is now orbiting our largest natural satellite. The mission arrived at the Moon on 18 October, when it was inserted into …

    Space 15 Nov 2007, 14:14

  • US PS3 sales rocket after 40GB console debut

    80GB model's price cut a cause too?

    Sony's PS3 sales jumped up by almost 300 per cent last week, the company has claimed, attributing the sudden increase in demand to the introduction of the 40GB console. According to an Associated Press report, Sony sold 100,000 PS3s in the US in the week ending 11 November, up from around 30,000 to 40,000 consoles a week in …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 14:14

  • Half of computer users are Wi-Fi thieves

    Wardriving criminals

    More than half of computer users have illegally stolen Wi-Fi connections, according to The Times - but only 11 alleged offenders have been arrested in the UK, as the police seem to think those deploying Wi-Fi should be more careful about securing their connections. The data was collected from a "Have Your Say" survey on the …

    Enterprise Security 15 Nov 2007, 14:23

  • Red Hat and Hyperic have meeting of the mimes

    Sorry, minds

    Red Hat and systems management specialist Hyperic have formalized their ties. The companies now plan to create an open source systems management package that will run across Red Hat's portfolio. Up until now, Red Hat's JBoss unit showed Hyperic the most love. It developed code on top of Hyperic's base software as part of the …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 14:32

  • Honda hits reverse on £50k fuel cell cars for '08

    SoCal beta-testers to lease FCX Clarity

    Japanese motor colossus Honda has walked back somewhat on its recent announcement that it would sell hydrogen fuel cell cars in America and Japan for just £50,000. Hydrogen cars for all - in parts of California The revelations last month caused a stir in the global motor industry, which had not been expecting Honda's FCX …

    Science 15 Nov 2007, 14:46

  • Asus: 'no plans' for 10in Eee PC

    Upcoming 8GB model will have 7in screen

    Asus has claimed it has "no plans at the moment" to produce a version of its Eee PC ultra-small laptop with a 10in display. The upcoming 8GB model will sport the same 7in screen as the currently available 4GB unit, it added. Rumours that the manufacturer has a 10in Eee PC in the works have been doing the rounds since the …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 16:03

  • Canadian Taser death caught on camera

    Vancouver Airport amateur footage shocker

    An amateur cameraman has released footage of the death of a man tasered by Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Vancouver International Airport. Cameraman Paul Pritchard filmed Pole Robert Dziekanski,40, in a "clearly agitated" state on 14 October in a "secure area outside the Canada Customs exit". At the start of the 10 minute …

    Bootnotes 15 Nov 2007, 16:13

  • Raytheon to deliver 'paging system' for submarines

    Seagoing lone wolves finally get BlackBerry treatment

    US arms behemoth Raytheon has won a $5.2m contract to deliver its Deep Siren "tactical paging system" for submarines to the US navy. Submarines, being underwater, are often hard to get in touch with. The only kind of radio which works at all is very-long-wavelength, which can be used to contact subs trailing special antennae …

    Science 15 Nov 2007, 16:27

  • IBM offers cloudy blue datacentre vision

    Look, that one's shaped just like a rack server

    IBM is offering its customers the tools to operate their own data centres as if they were hosted distributed computing services. The vendor has dubbed the strategy Blue Cloud, and at first glance the plan is as diffuse as the name suggests. IBM describes it as “as series of cloud computing offerings” which will allow data …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 16:28

  • Neuroboffins develop mind-reading computers

    Please think clearly after the tone

    A man who has been paralysed for the last eight years might be able to "speak" again, by having his thoughts read by a computer. Eric Ramsey was in a car accident that left him aware of his surroundings, but unable to move or speak. The only way he can communicate is through eye movements. No surprise, then, that he …

    Biology 15 Nov 2007, 16:32

  • PowerColor punts overclocked ATI 3850 cards

    PowerColor has launched its line up of graphics cards based on AMD's new ATI Radeon HD 3800-series GPUs but unlike many of its rivals, it's overclocked its 'RV670's. In addition to 3850- and 3870-based cards clocked at the standard 670MHz and 775MHz frequencies, PowerColor said it will also offer a trio of core-overclocked …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 16:45

  • Databases still open to basic attack

    Firewall free

    With the constant wailing about security breaches on the Web it's hard to believe there are still folk who do not take it seriously. But database security specialist NGS Software reckons there could be close to half a million databases out there with no firewall protection at all. An NGS survey this week estimates 368,000 …

    Security 15 Nov 2007, 18:00

  • Best Buy sells 'last Wii' twice

    Nintendo Economics 101

    How hard is it to find a Nintendo Wii? Not as hard as some might think. The official line from Nintendo is that demand for the time-wasting gaming console far exceeds supply, but some recent shenanigans at a Best Buy electronics mega-store in Princeton, New Jersey would seem to indicate otherwise. Last Saturday morning, a …

    Reg Hardware 15 Nov 2007, 18:37

  • US unleashes six bloggers in assault on Islamist propaganda

    And if that doesn't work, Second Life may also be enlisted

    The US government is turning to blogs and possibly to the virtual wasteland known as Second Life to step up its faltering information war against Islamist extremists. But critics remain unimpressed, saying the measures aren't enough to counter a massive internet campaign that spreads pro-terrorist messages to people in Islamic …

    Government 15 Nov 2007, 19:29

  • Start-up aims nanotube memory at iPods, phones and servers

    SC07 NRAM to rise in '08

    The thought of introducing filthy carbon nanotubes into an ultra-sensitive fab has blocked the rise of so-called NRAM or Nano Random Access Memory. Thanks, however, to a refined cleansing process and relentless browbeating start-up Nantero thinks it has mainstream semiconductor players close to giving NRAM a try. In fact, the …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 19:31

  • Colossus faces off against PCs in code-breaking challenge

    Valves vs transistors grudge match

    Colossus, the world’s first programmable digital computer, is back at work cracking codes at Bletchley Park for the first time in more than 60 years. Colossus was developed by Britain in World War II to crack encrypted German messages. After years of painstaking restoration work a recreation of the machine returned to action …

    Security 15 Nov 2007, 19:41

  • Canada wins the great co-ed cluster challenge

    SC07 Nice box, ey? Give me a beer

    Canuck pride carried Team Canada to victory in the first ever Cluster Challenge event here at Supercomputing. Six university teams gathered at the Supercomputing conference to take part in the Cluster Challenge. The rules of the contest stated that only undergraduates could build the clusters. In addition, the teams only had …

    Servers 15 Nov 2007, 22:18

  • World of Warcraft spykit gets encrypted

    Increases effective stealth level by 5

    Tuesday's patch to World of Warcraft introduced new content and tweaks to the land of Azeroth, but with it came an important change to The Warden, Blizzard's ill-famed tool against cheaters. According to Warden-watching modders, the latest version is now encrypted, adding a major barrier for tinfoil hats who track what …

    Malware 15 Nov 2007, 22:49

  • Red Hat haunts Ellison's Linux dream

    OpenWorld Must try harder

    This time last year, Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network launched at OpenWorld to much fanfare. It was supposed to be a Red Hat killer. It has had as much impact upon Red Hat has a dead sheep. Larry Ellison says this is going to change. During his OpenWorld keynote this year, the Oracle CEO said the company means business next …

    Operating Systems 15 Nov 2007, 23:19

  • With one bound, Apple is free of 54 security bugs

    Mighty patches

    Apple has rolled out software updates that patch just about everything but the kitchen sink. In all, there are fixes for at least 54 security bugs, many of which could allow attackers to remotely execute code on vulnerable Macs and Windows machines. A whopping 41 vulnerabilities reside in OS X 10.4, which is better known as …

    Security 15 Nov 2007, 23:29

  • Russian piracy crackdown targets the opposition

    'Selective enforcement'

    A software piracy crackdown in Russia has prompted accusations of of skulduggery after elements of the political opposition became the subject of enforcement actions. Independent news media and political parties have been targeted for attacks according to government critics, the Washington Post reports. For example, the …

    Channel Register 15 Nov 2007, 23:36