6th December 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Facebook CEO capitulates (again) on Beacon

Mea culpa

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a mea culpa to his 56 million users, saying he failed to give them the ability to control the personal information that is shared with others. He also announced a new switch that with one flip allows people to completely turn off the feature, which is dubbed Beacon. "We simply did a bad …

Music and Media 6 Dec 00:23
Leap bounds into 700MHz auction

Cricket pounces

Leap Wireless will bid for the coveted 700MHz band - a juicy slice of the US airwaves - joining Google, Frontline Wireless, Cox Communications, and most likely Verizon and AT&T. The Federal Trade Commission plans to auction off the band at the end of January, and Monday was the deadline for joining the fun. That day, in a …

Wireless 6 Dec 01:04
Live webcast: Helping desktop support to help their users

Regcast Mark your diary for Dec 11, 10AM PST

Live Webcast - The Register Desktop Support Seminar: The Hub of IT WHEN: Tues, December 11: 10AM PST/ 1PM EST/ 6PM GMT WHO SHOULD GO? Anyone involved in desktop support - the managers, the sysadmins, the helpdeskers, even...the customers. [All fields are required] First Name Last Name Company Name …

Applications 6 Dec 01:47
AMD denies 'stop ship' with Barcelona because chip is not shipping

Even though it is - with a bug

Since its launch, AMD's four-core version of Opteron known as Barcelona has lived in what you might call a processor protection program. The chip is apparently available in quantity, according to AMD, but customers struggle to find it. Now AMD has confirmed that an erratum or bug in Barcelona needs to be dealt with before the …

Servers 6 Dec 02:09
Codemasters sets legal dogs on file-sharers

Colin McRae videogames firm barks cash demands

Codemasters has fired off legal threats and cash demands to net users who it accuses of illegally distributing its videogames over P2P networks. People have been hit with multiple demands for hundreds of pounds in settlement, or face a lengthy legal battle. The development means a payday for Davenport Lyons. The London-based …

Law 6 Dec 09:02
Salesforce nears one million milestone

SaaS subscriptions sweet

On-demand software provider Salesforce.com is set to reach its one million subscription milestone later in December. The firm, which has become somewhat of a poster child for software-as-a-service advocates, said it will sign up its one millionth paying subscriber to its service - including the Force.com Platform and …

Channel Register 6 Dec 10:29
Rock managers propose tout tax

Cashing in on the 'aftermarket'

The businessmen behind some of the rock world's biggest names have called for a levy on the concert ticket aftermarket, where people sell on tickets they have bought for profit or because they cannot go to a concert. The live music industry in Britain is booming and several businesses have been set up specifically to serve the …

Law 6 Dec 10:40
ComputerLand turns green into greenbacks

Grows revs by cutting carbon

Services and hardware company ComputerLand grew revenues by ten per cent for the six months ended 31 October 2007. The interim results show revenues were £33.9m, up from £30.8m last year. Profit before tax was up two per cent to £1.45m and earnings per share grew three per cent to 9.9p. Profit after tax was £819,000 down from …

Channel Register 6 Dec 10:44
Transformers director blames MS for HD DVD/Blu-ray format war

Conspiracy theory

Movie director Michael Bay has claimed that Microsoft is responsible for the HD DVD vs Blu-ray Disc format war, which he alleges is the Beast of Redmond's attempt to kill off physical formats and get everyone downloading instead. Here's Bay's comment, posted in a forum on his official website: "What you don't understand is …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 11:03
Microsoft accuses kids of bullying Santa into sex chat

When you're in a hole, stop digging

Gigantic global software beast Microsoft has blamed two young girls for killing Santa. Now that it has pulled the plug on its oral-sex-obsessive MSN bot, the firm's spinners have tried to deflect scrutiny of its sloppiness by claiming that the outrage was caused by users. Our story of how Santa turned nasty has been picked up …

Bootnotes 6 Dec 11:42
EVE Online update kills Windows PCs

Don't touch the Trinity update

Subscribers to EVE Online are being warned not to touch the latest update to the massive online game because it can damage Windows XP machines. EVE Online is a massive multiplayer online game with over 200,000 subscribers. The Trinity update is an improved graphics engine for the game. The Register received several emails …

Operating Systems 6 Dec 11:58
Via Michelin X970T sat nav

Review Budget pricing still doesn't put this brand on the map

Navigate with your Michelin sat nav as you wear out your Michelin tyres visiting destinations that you've read about in the Michelin restaurant guides. Will the new budget X970T put this brand on the sat nav map? Most sat navs provide a list of points of interest (POIs) that will find you a petrol station easily enough, but …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 12:02
Europe too cynical for iPhone

Just as the uberphone gets some applications

iPhone sales around Europe have been disappointing, with the French only pocketing 30,000 in the first five days - though that's three times the number T-Mobile managed to shift in Germany. But that's not stopped Google releasing an optimised version of its mobile application suite specially designed for the finger-driven …

Mobile 6 Dec 12:07
Microsoft releases battling OS release candidates

Sets date for server OS launch

Microsoft has started printing up the invites for the launch of Windows Server 2008 as it finally sets loose release candidate 1 of the long-awaited server operating system. Microsoft's decision to put a red ring around 27 February came as it released another test version of Vista Service Pack 1, the update it is banking on to …

Channel Register 6 Dec 12:13
'Heavy' handset challenges all comers to prove its mettle

Antennas at dawn

Handset manufacturer Sonim is so confident of its "indestructible" XP1 handset’s anti-smash capabilities that it’s inviting people to come and have a go if they think they’re hard enough. Sonim's XP1: the Captain Scarlet of mobile phones? The phone has apparently been engendered to meet the needs of extreme sports …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 12:28
Judge brands Kirsty Wark's husband a snoop

'Neither fair play nor honourable'

A High Court judge described Kirsty Wark's husband Alan Clements as a dishonourable snoop yesterday and ruled against his case for constructive dismissal. Clements wanted to move from TV production company RDF to Scottish Media Group, which RDF claimed was in breach of his non-compete agreement. He asked Newsnight presenter …

Law 6 Dec 12:40
Dell to dealers - you win

Foundering PC giant launches channel programme

Dell has finally admitted how much it needs the channel and has launched a worldwide programme to help dealers and systems integrators to push its kit. The vendor, which pioneered the direct PC model, appears to have stopped short of publicly offering channel players discounts, but will offer its top partners "incentive-based …

Channel Register 6 Dec 13:01
Acer inks Olympic partner deal

Will supply kit, logistics and staff

Acer has announced it's signed an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which will from 2009 see the computer manufacturer "partner with the Olympic Movement in the official computing equipment product category" for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver and 2012 games in London. The hook-up grants Acer a …

Hardware 6 Dec 13:58
Larry Page to wed on Branson's luuurv island

Google penetrates Virgin's enclave

Larry Page, the multi-gazillionaire co-founder of evil search empire Google will this weekend tie the knot on Richard Branson's sun-kissed Caribbean enclave of Necker Island, Reuters reports. Six hundred guests will be whisked in private jets to see Page, 34, say "I do" to Lucy Southworth, according to the New York Post, while …

Bootnotes 6 Dec 14:00
Ofcom grabs reins on premium rate scams

Hand-holding for PhonepayPlus

Ofcom has launched a shakeup of how premium rate numbers are governed in the wake of a series of TV phone-in scams. The communications watchdog will apply closer scrutiny to PhonepayPlus, the premium rate regulator. Ofcom has always been ultimately responsible for premium rate regulation under the Communications Act, but …

Telecoms 6 Dec 14:10
Apple-Volkswagen 'iCar' talks over

Unfruitful

Discussions between Apple and Volkswagen have failed to result in a joint product-development deal, a German magazine has claimed. According to a brief report in this week's Capital magazine, the talks - which began with a meeting between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and VW chief Martin Winterkorn in August this year - are now over. …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 14:20
Wii tops online search poll

UK's most wanted

Nintendo’s Wii was the most searched for product on the internet last month, according to a poll of British online shoppers. The record breaking Wii topped the poll, which was commissioned by market watcher Hitwise. It topped a whole range of products, including rival console Xbox 360, Apple's iPhone, various iPods, Lego and …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 14:31
HMRC coughs to more data losses

It fell off the back of a lorry. No really...

David Hartnett, director general of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), admitted yesterday that the loss of the child benefit database was just the latest, and largest, giveaway of supposedly private data by the department. Hartnett told the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee that HMRC was aware of seven other …

Government 6 Dec 14:47
World's smallest Bluetooth headset

It's not big, but is it clever?

If you’re into minimalism then Nextlink’s latest headset should appeal to you. It claims the Invisio G5 is the world’s smallest Bluetooth earpiece. Nextlink's Invisio G5: less is more? The G5 weighs in at just 6g and measures only 3.3cm long and 1.6cm wide. It fits over the ear with what Nextlink calls a Soft Spring design, …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 16:12
Giant athletic todger defends Pennsylvania

Google Earth wedding tackle shocker

It's taken 'em a while, but our American cousins appear to have finally realised that enormous profanities are an excellent way to welcome extraterrestrial visitors to our planet: Magnificent. The outrage in question can be found in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and is a welcome contribution to the "ET go home" genre which …

Bootnotes 6 Dec 16:21
Tiscali in shock customer satisfaction win

Hot snow falls up

Tiscali, the tightwad's ISP of choice, has come from left field to win the annual JD Power broadband customer satisfaction survey. According to the consumer analysts, Tiscali scores particularly highly for its billing and is well above average across the board. Second place is taken by Virgin Media and third by new boy Sky. …

Telecoms 6 Dec 16:22
Newly-homeless kids get free iPod

Then go and live in the box - typical

Apple handed out 100 iPod Nanos to kids who lost their homes in the recent Californian fires, though without homes or computers it's not clear how they'll manage to get any music onto them. Local resident Steve Boyack emailed Steve Jobs and asked if he could send over a few iPods for the teenagers, having seen how various …

Bootnotes 6 Dec 16:24
Mother launches attack on epilepsy inducing video games

Wants safety checks

Videogame developers may be forced to cut scenes from their offerings if tests show they could cause epileptic seizures, if a British mother's campaign for a change in the law is successful. Somerset dentist Gaye Herford launched the campaign after her ten-year-old son suffered a seizure while playing Rayman Raving Rabbids on …

Reg Hardware 6 Dec 16:58
Second ex-Brocade exec hit with guilty verdict

The weed of backdating bears bitter fruit

A second former executive at Brocade was convicted Wednesday for participating in the company's stock option backdating skulduggery. After one day of deliberation, a San Francisco federal jury found Stephanie Jensen guilty of both charges she faced: conspiracy and falsifying corporate records. Jensen, the former vice …

Financial News 6 Dec 19:20
Software maker releases the hounds on security vuln reporter

Too late

Legal attack dogs for enterprise search provider Autonomy have threatened action against Secunia after the vulnerability publisher asked for information relating to a serious bug in an Autonomy product. A series of nasty grams sent over the past week came in response to requests by Secunia researchers for information relating …

Channel Register 6 Dec 20:19
Serena promises dev teams shorter hours

Office managers gone wild

Those awfully nice folks at Serena Software have promised to cut your workload with tools that'll let non-IT staff take care of tedious, line-of-business Office applications. The application lifecycle management (ALM) specialist has launched its Mashup Composer and Mashup Server for the visual development and connection of …

Applications 6 Dec 20:26
The world's most fantastic, imaginary server start-up

Comment Getting rich off Google

Some hacks have immense amounts of ambition. I don't. And it's that lack of ambition that's keeping me from making millions of dollars in the server market. Those of you with stronger wills and bigger dreams will want to pay attention to this story, as I'll lay out a map that could lead to untold riches. (Then again, this …

Servers 6 Dec 20:37
Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain

Exclusive SlimVirgin, naked short selling, and the end of Web 2.0

"We aren't democratic." That's how Wikipedia founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales described his famously-collaborative online encyclopedia in a recent puff piece from The New York Times Magazine. "The core community appreciates when someone is knowledgeable," he said, "and thinks some people are idiots and shouldn't be writing." This is …

Music and Media 6 Dec 21:35
AMD's Barcelona benchmarks are a'comin down

While virtualization code whimpers

AMD's four-core Opteron saga continues with a trio of nasties concerning the chip reaching The Register. First off, all of the SPEC benchmarks performed to date with Opteron-systems (Barcelona) will be pulled over the next week, El Reg can confirm. This is a result of AMD failing to meeting the "general availability" …

Servers 6 Dec 22:10
Microsoft readies seven patches for Tuesday

Three are critical

Microsoft plans to issue seven security patches next Tuesday, three of which are rated "critical" because they could allow an attacker to remotely execute malicious code on an end user's machine. Two of the critical updates plug holes in the entire line of supported Windows operating system versions. The patches address …

Security 6 Dec 23:55