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22nd November 2007 Archive

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  • First metal cut on BAE's 'Taranis' robot stealth bomber

    RAF outsourcing outrage likely

    The UK MoD has announced the cutting of the first metal for its new stealth robot bomber, Taranis. Project Taranis, according to the MoD, will build an unmanned demonstrator the size of a small fighter jet. It will be stealthy, speedy, and able to "deploy a range of munitions over a number of targets." The robot jet will also …

    Science 22 Nov 2007, 06:02

  • Trade licks via USB

    USB to PC strumming

    Rocking out with your guitar has always been a pretty simple affair. Either strum along acoustically, or plug it into an amp for more bass. But, the USB guitar link now lets musicians plug guitars into their PCs to record or manipulate their future number ones. The USB guitar cable: plug one end into your PC and the other …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 07:02

  • Orange unpeels HTC Touch Dual

    Another HTC smartphone

    HTC’s Touch Dual smartphone has finally landed in the UK, slightly later than anticipated. However, it has appeared though - as expected - on Orange. HTC's Touch Dual The handset has cropped up on Orange’s UK website, with a lovely free price tag – provided you sign a £35-a-month contract with the network operator. It was …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 09:02

  • Police arrest Welsh counterfeit music threesome

    That's not a ring, it's a triangle

    Three people have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in one of the UK's largest web-based music and film piracy rings. In the latest in a flurry of anti-piracy crackdowns, police and officials from the Intellectual Property Office and the BPI raided several addresses in Cardiff where they seized computer equipment. …

    Law 22 Nov 2007, 09:02

  • Apple pays $10m to end iTunes patent clash

    Burst.com suite settled

    Apple has agreed to pay Burst.com $10m to settle the patent infringement challenge the smaller US company launched against it in April 2006. Back then, Burst.com claimed Apple's iTunes Music Store, QuickTime streaming software and the iPod all incorporate without permission technology detailed in four patents held by Burst.com …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 09:03

  • Need a new set of b*llocks? Try Argos

    The UK's leading 'nad retailer

    Those among you looking for a new set of bollocks this Xmas are directed forthwith to Argos, which seems to be the UK's leading 'nad retailer: Crikey, that's a right load of bollocks and no messing. Argos also does a nice line in crap kids' furniture, or why not try its extensive range of utter shite? Happy shopping. ® …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 09:38

  • Korean cyber junkies march off to bootcamp

    War games not so fun anymore

    Tired of its citizens dropping dead forehead to keyboard after marathon online sessions, the South Korean government has decided to follow China's lead with a tough-love approach, the New York Times noted this week. It recently opened a government-funded, Chinese-style juvenile boot camp, tailored to the special needs of the …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 09:54

  • Cisco hack suspect convicted of breaking into universities

    Double jeopardy

    A Swedish teenager suspected of hacking into the network of Cisco systems has been convicted of cracking into the systems of three local universities. The unnamed 19-year-old from Uppsala, Sweden, was ordered to pay $25,000 damages to his victims on Monday after a Swedish appeal court overturned a previous acquittal by a …

    Enterprise Security 22 Nov 2007, 09:54

  • Sarin to Jobs: your sneakers stink and your GUI sucks

    Playground taunts

    Vodafone chief Arun Sarin is relishing a fight with Apple's Steve Jobs - and he aims to wound. But it's a throwaway remark the Financial Times published on Monday that caught the attention. It was surely designed to create maximum personal offence. The iPhone offers the user a "a pretty poor experience", said the boss of the …

    Mobile 22 Nov 2007, 10:07

  • Google opens Maps for editing

    Street wise

    Google has brought the idea of user-generated content a step further with its plans to allow users to edit Google Maps to make it more accurate. The new functionality will allow those with a Google account to make changes to markers, which indicate business or residential listings on Google's local maps service, dragging them …

    Applications 22 Nov 2007, 10:24

  • Senior officials now in frame for HMRC data fiasco

    UK Identity Crisis Union says security crisis should mean job cut halt

    Senior officials were involved in the decision to post the UK's child benefit database on unencrypted CDs, it emerged overnight. Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said decisions were made at a higher level and that the NAO asked for the data be "desensitised" but this was rejected on grounds of expense. Her …

    Government 22 Nov 2007, 10:33

  • Chilis could struggle in 'Californication' lawsuit

    Band failed to protect its brand

    LA rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing the network behind TV hit Californication, alleging that the title is stolen from their 1999 single and album. But the group may struggle because it failed to protect its brand, according to a legal expert. Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, John Frusciante, and Michael "Flea" Balzary, doing …

    Law 22 Nov 2007, 10:57

  • PlayStation phone 'plausible, attractive' - Sony exec

    Better games for your phone

    A Sony executive has hinted that its PlayStation division and Sony Ericsson divisions may work together in the future, paving the way for the development of a PSP-cum-phone. The shape of things to come? Sony Computer Entertainment’s co-COO, Jim Ryan, speaking to India's Economic Times, said that “convergence with the two …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 11:15

  • Moon makes us extra special, scientists say

    Moon-forming collisions very rare

    Having a moon like ours makes us very special, cosmically speaking. This is according to proper scientists at the Universities of Arizona and Florida (as opposed to Mystic Meg), who've been searching the universe with the Spitzer space telescope for other planetary systems like ours. The Earth-Moon system is a rarity in the …

    Space 22 Nov 2007, 11:43

  • UK Gov confirms new Foot and Mouth leak

    That's AND not IN

    The government has confirmed that it is investigating another "probable" leak of the foot and mouth virus from Pirbright, the site at the centre of the summer's outbreak of the disease. There are two facilities on the Pirbright site: one is the government owned and managed Institute for Animal Health, and the other, Merial, a …

    Biology 22 Nov 2007, 11:44

  • Mourinho will be next England manager

    Wikipedia has spoken

    Bookies can forget running books on who's going to become the next football manager of England, following the FA's decision to axe Steve McClaren this morning after the side failed to reach next year's European Championship. Former Chelsea manager José "Special One" Mourinho will be England manager next week, Wikipedia …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 11:45

  • Skype faces 020 7870 cut-off

    Updated: Really, really, sorry

    Up to 10,000 Skype customers have to change their SkypeIn number by 20 December, an email to customers advised last night. By way of recompense, it also offered affected punters a year's free service with voicemail and a grovelling apology. According to the email, Skype is having to "return some of the 0207 SkypeIn numbers" …

    VoIP 22 Nov 2007, 11:49

  • Robo-mixologist expo opens in Vienna

    Doctorow to keynote at arty cyberdrunk event

    Today is the opening day of Roboexotica - "the first and, inevitably, the leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics world-wide". The droid-bartender expo runs until Sunday in Vienna. <bzzt>Drinky, drinky, make you stinky?<bzzt> Roboexotica, sadly for cocktail lovers, is not run by thirsty engineers but by Shifz - " …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 12:14

  • HMRC data loss could be tip of iceberg

    UK Identity Crisis Even Daley Thompson couldn't chuck disks this quick

    Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost two further CDs containing private information. Staff at HMRC have told police that another two CDs are missing, according to the Times. They contain information on thousands of people and were sent to offices in London, but have yet to appear. We called the Met, but it …

    Government 22 Nov 2007, 12:26

  • Retailer reveals Wii Laser Sword

    Lightsabre clone war coming?

    For die-hard Star Wars fans, the Lightsabre is probably the film series' coolest asset. So thank your lucky Death Star that a Lightsabre peripheral for the Wii remote has been unveiled. The Wii Light Sword Dubbed the Wii Light Sword, the add-on has just cropped up on online retailer Play.com’s website. The device is …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 12:30

  • Datapocalypse Now

    UK Identity Crisis All our HMRC stories in one secure location

    Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue have demonstrated how important it is to keep track of all your important data. So, inspired by their example, we've put all our stories on this week's data debacle in one secure location. Enjoy... Civil service apologises for HMRC data loss Running queries on the HMRC database fiasco HMRC …

    Government 22 Nov 2007, 12:51

  • Drive for superfast broadband switches up a gear

    Industry, government, regulators to plot route in secret

    A high-powered cadre of broadband industry policy wonks, watchdogs, and politicos has ramped up the Westminster debate over our creaking internet infrastructure ahead of a key government meeting next week. Discussions around high speed next-generation broadband infrastructure assume that laying a new national fibre to the home …

    Telecoms 22 Nov 2007, 13:00

  • 'Errata' to hold up 2.4GHz AMD Phenom 9700 intro?

    Company admits performance problems

    AMD's anticipated 2.4GHz Phenom 9700 quad-core desktop processor may take a little longer to appear than planned, it has emerged. Roadmapped to debut mid-December, the 9700 was nonetheless absent from a Phenom demo event hosted by AMD last week ahead of this Monday's product launch. Today, DigiTimes reports that motherboard- …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 13:01

  • iRSI: Something else to add to your health woes

    Along with iPod finger, Wiinjuries...

    When it's not solving unemployment, or melting your brain, your iPhone could be responsible for causing repetitive strain injury (RSI), the British Chiropractic Association told the Sun. The problem is particularly evident in winter, the association says, and could spread to your elbow if you're not careful. The association …

    Mobile 22 Nov 2007, 13:06

  • Britain's waterways turning 'healthy' brown

    Rivers of mud

    A new study has revealed that Britain's rivers and streams are much healthier, if less aesthetically pleasing, than they were two decades ago. The change has been linked with the decline of acid rain since the 1970s, clearing up a riddle that has puzzled researchers for some time. But researchers warn that similar work in the …

    Biology 22 Nov 2007, 13:08

  • Huge jellyfish pack slaughters 100,000 salmon

    Mauve stinger apocalypse

    An overwhelming attack by billions of jellyfish has wiped out the entire stock of Northern Ireland's only salmon farm - some 100,000 fish worth £2m, AP reports. The "dense pack" of mauve stingers, covering ten square miles to a depth of 35 feet*, last week swamped the two net pens holding the salmon about a mile off the coast …

    Biology 22 Nov 2007, 13:13

  • FAST legal adviser steps up to bar

    No drinks for pirates though

    In its ongoing crusade against IP and software piracy, FAST today said that it now has one newly-qualified barrister on the team. FAST public and legal affairs wonk James Craig has been called to the bar, which means he is qualified to give specialist legal advice and can argue a case in both higher and lower law courts. …

    Channel Register 22 Nov 2007, 13:19

  • Kindle, Eee PC top Amazon.com 'most wanted' list

    Oy, Santa, bring us a gadget...

    Asus' Eee PC miniature laptop is the Amazon.com's most-wanted notebook, the company chirped today. When we checked this morning, the 4GB Eee PC was there at the top of the list of "most wished for" notebooks, above Apple's MacBook (second place) and MacBook Pro (third place), and Nokia's N800 Internet Tablet (fourth) and N810 …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 13:41

  • Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide

    Backdoors penetrated without violence

    More rumours are starting to leak out regarding the mysterious Israeli air raid against Syria in September. It is now suggested that "computer to computer" techniques and "air-to-ground network penetration" took place. The latest revelations are made by well-connected Aviation Week journalists. Electronic-warfare correspondent …

    Telecoms 22 Nov 2007, 13:57

  • Nicole Richie warms to lamppost dog urinals

    Someone is taking the piss

    Nicole Richie is backing an invention which may protect America's lampposts from premature destruction by corrosive mutt piss - a "dog urinal" which channels the deadly liquid safely into the gutter. According to highly dubious reports in the US press, Richie is well impressed with Swedish inventor Lennart Jarlerbro's cunning …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 13:58

  • ID profiles worth far more than credit card details to crooks

    Follow the money

    Identity profiles are worth far more on the digital underground than credit card details. Gunter Ollmann, a security researcher in the ISS security division of IBM, discovered that a list of 2,000 credit card details (including CVV2 codes and magstripe data) is worth about the same as 40 standard identities (ie name, address, …

    ID 22 Nov 2007, 14:16

  • Windows Live Spaces racks up most downtime

    Social networking site keeps unsociable hours

    Microsoft was found floundering at the bottom of the list in a study of which social networking websites experienced the most downtime in the space of a month. Internet monitoring firm Pingdom tested the availability of the 12 largest social networking sites on the internet including Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo! 360, LiveJournal …

    Applications 22 Nov 2007, 14:18

  • Sony 'not working on a PlayStation phone', staffer states

    Other Sony staffer's commments 'misquoted'

    Sony has bitten back at claims that it may be developing a PlayStation mobile phone with Sony Ericsson, stating that a senior staffer who was reported to be hinting as much was "misquoted". Sony Computer Entertainment’s co-COO, Jim Ryan, was this week quoted by India's Economic Times, as saying that convergence between Sony …

    Reg Hardware 22 Nov 2007, 14:50

  • Why is the iPlayer a multi million pound disaster?

    Beeb Week Betting big, and betting wrong

    The story of the BBC's iPlayer is of a multi-million pound failure that took years to complete, and was designed for a world that never arrived. More was spent on the project than many Silicon Valley startups ever burn through, but only now can we begin to piece together how this disaster unfolded. When the iPlayer was …

    Music and Media 22 Nov 2007, 14:59

  • eBayer punts Wii for £1m

    Plus ten quid P&P

    They say hope springs eternal, and nowhere is this better currently demonstrated than down at eBay, where you can snap up a near-new Nintendo Wii for a mere one million quid Mind you, it is in "excellant [sic] condition" and you get three games thrown in for the "excellant [sic] price". The reason for the sale is, apparently …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 15:09

  • UK gov bans 'terror' suspect from science class

    High Court will hear appeal

    The UK government is facing a High Court challenge over its decision to ban a suspected terrorist from studying sixth-form science courses, lest he use the knowledge he might gain for terrorist purposes. The government already suspects the man, an Iraqi national referred to in the case as 'A.E.', of terrorist affiliations, and …

    Science 22 Nov 2007, 15:37

  • Panto star sacked for foul-mouthed outburst

    Preston Xmas lights ceremony shocker

    Former Hollyoaks actor Paul Danan has been given his marching orders from Preston's Jack and the Beanstalk panto after indulging in a "foul-mouthed tirade" at the traditional switching-on of the Xmas lights. According to the Lancashire Evening Post, 29-year-old Danan repeatedly swore in front of the 3,000-strong crowd "which …

    Entertainment 22 Nov 2007, 16:19

  • Kindle ain't no e-book reader

    All your Wiki are belong to us

    Amazon's Kindle has been widely derided as a below-par e-book reader which compares badly with the competition and ignores a history of failed attempts to produce an electronic book. But Kindle isn't really an e-book reader at all, rather the physical embodiment of the Web 2.0 ethic. The giveaway is the use of a 3G telephony …

    Mobile 22 Nov 2007, 16:46

  • Ten tips on agile software development

    Of roadblocks and antibodies

    Think you're organization is ready to transition to an agile software development process? Wondering how to make the move without breaking anything? Not sure how to make the transition stick? Joshua Kerievsky is the man to see. Kerievsky has spent the past decade helping development organizations to "become" agile. He's the …

    Software 22 Nov 2007, 17:13

  • We know security and usability are orthogonal - do you?

    Heated debate

    Our recent article about the fine line between security and usability started some very interesting discussions and active criticism, most of which was targeted at us - suggesting that security and usability do not form a one-or-the-other type relationship (or are at least far more independent than dependent on each other). We …

    Security 22 Nov 2007, 17:18

  • Free our data - open mapping comes of age

    Google meets its match

    The UK's Ordnance Survey (OS) creates some of the world's best maps. Going far beyond mapping just the roads, OS provides some of the most detailed mapping, good for walkers, cyclists, and runners. The problem is, the OS has some onerous licensing restrictions that make it impossible for a lot of services to use its maps. The " …

    Applications 22 Nov 2007, 17:37

  • Charlie Sheen in upside-down iPhone outrage

    Thesp succumbs to 'Jesus mobe inversion syndrome'

    Handsome thesp Charlie Sheen has a certain amount of explaining to do after he was caught on camera suffering from a nasty case of "Jesus mobe inversion syndrome": Sheen is the first major celeb to succumb to the condition - initially spotted in an episode of The Bionic Woman - the symptoms of which are a clear inability to …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2007, 18:41

  • Inside Google Android paranoia

    Game changer?

    While the mobile Linux community has reacted positively to Google's Android, the new platform has also given it some cause for concern. The arrival of a giant player area with very clear ideas of role it wants mobile Linux to fill was bound to ruffle a few feathers and, despite public proclamations of "welcome" and "support", …

    Mobile 22 Nov 2007, 21:02