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29th January 2008 Archive

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  • VMware sales slowdown triggers stock meltdown

    Fun while it lasted

    The VMware orgasm officially ended Monday, as the virtualization software maker revealed that it could no longer match "the market's" lofty expectations. VMware officials, during an conference call to cover their fourth quarter earnings, forecast revenue growth of just 50 per cent in 2008. We say "just" because the company has …

    Financial News 29 Jan 2008, 00:09

  • Isilon soups up chips in clustered storage boxes

    Makes a really big deal over it

    Isilon Systems is upgrading the chips in its IQ line of clustered storage systems, and is rebranding the systems as the "IQ X-Series" in honor of the hardware refresh. The new systems will use the Intel dual-core Xeon 5100 series of processors, swapping out the single-core chip used in earlier IQ systems. The company claims …

    Storage 29 Jan 2008, 00:30

  • Experience overcomes Microsoft's broken promises

    Project Watch: Microsoft 2008 People-unready database ready

    Before we go on, let's just talk briefly, in a quiet voice, about the delay to SQL Server 2008. The major issue here is that whilst Microsoft conveniently forgets the past, most of us can still remember SQL Server 2003, er...2004, oh, actually, that was eventually 2005. So Microsoft is turning into a serial offender when it …

    Software 29 Jan 2008, 00:31

  • Apple on the lookout for one million unlocked iPhones

    Steve Jobs' strategic headache

    About 27 per cent of the iPhones sold in 2007 are being operated on unauthorized wireless networks, according to research released today. That works out at about one million handsets. The unlocked phones are used largely in regions where the must-have device isn't officially sold, according to a report issued by Bernstein …

    Mobile 29 Jan 2008, 00:53

  • Judge bars unauthorized sales of phone records

    Pretexting rebuffed

    In a victory for privacy advocates, a federal judge has ordered a US company to pay almost $200,000 and barred it from selling the phone records of individuals' phone records without their permission. US District Judge William F. Downes of Wyoming entered a permanent injunction against a company called AccuSearch and its …

    Security 29 Jan 2008, 02:00

  • SanDisk remembers how to make a Q4 profit

    Passes bump in the road, sees another ahead

    SanDisk reported a huge swing in fourth quarter income today, but issued a "cautious" outlook for the upcoming quarter due to competitive pricing and an unstable economy. The memory chip maker's net income for Q4 was $105.8m, compared with a loss of $35m from the same period last year. Operating income was $173m, compared to $ …

    Storage 29 Jan 2008, 03:33

  • Malaysia flirts with Google over world's biggest data center

    Hopes to taunt India and Vietnam with boxes

    Always enjoyable and ambiguous "media reports" coming out of Malaysia have Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi bragging that Google plans to build the world's largest data center in his country. That's great news, right? Uh, well sort of. Malaysia can expect to see upwards of $600m in hardware, software and construction …

    Servers 29 Jan 2008, 04:40

  • Penguin-powered UML modeling

    Vista relief is here

    With speculation building that Microsoft will bring Windows 7 forward by a year, ostensibly to staunch the loss of the Vista weary and Vistaphobes to alternative operating systems, now is a good time to look at the state of development tools for Linux. Software developers have got it surprisingly good - unlike, say, creative …

    Software 29 Jan 2008, 07:02

  • Logica boss says adios

    But sets up new division first

    Jim McKenna, chief operating officer at LogicaCMG, is to leave the company in the second half of this year after fourteen years with the firm. McKenna is not retiring - he will become chairman of Azurri Communications and chairman of Rainer - a charity which supports young people. But McKenna will stay in his post long enough …

    The Channel 29 Jan 2008, 09:13

  • MPs slam costly war-tech projects at MoD

    All the gear, no idea

    The UK arms industry came in for a shoeing from the parliamentary defence committee yesterday, as MPs criticised continuing cost escalations in several major kit projects for the British forces. The soaring bills were seen as especially worrying in light of the fact that the services are struggling to recruit and retain …

    Government 29 Jan 2008, 09:40

  • Maxdata Belinea s.book 1 sub-notebook

    First Review Hard drive-equipped Eee killer?

    Asus' Eee PC has been hogging the limelight thanks to its small size and small price tag. It's also been drawing the attention of competitors, and now there's a stack of would-be Eee beaters coming to market. Maxdata's Belinea s.book 1 is one of the first. For starters, the s.book comes with Windows XP Pro pre-installed, so …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 10:02

  • Smile! Nikon's smile-spotting camera is watching you

    Smile-recognition is the new face-recognition

    Nikon hopes the latest seven additions to its Coolpix digicam range will make you smile, especially since one model's able to detect the curvature of your subjects' mouths in preparation for their pearly-white smiles. Nikon's S550: see for smiles The ten-megapixel S550's Smile Mode displays a gauge on the camera's 2.5in LCD …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 10:13

  • Nikon's D60 digital SLR blows in - literally

    Internal airflow removes dust

    Nikon’s blown the dust off its digital SLR (DSLR) camera range and introduced the D60, a snapper with an internal airflow mechanism to keep your shots crystal clear. Nikon's D60: blowing out the cobwebs Dubbed the Airflow Control System, it pulls air from within the mirror box towards a series of small ducts that, Nikon …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 10:26

  • IPS sticks to fingerprint plan

    Denies print register drop report

    The Identity and Passport Service has denied that fingerprints could be dropped from the National Identity Register. It has dismissed a report in The Observer, based on a leaked document, that claimed plans to assess the costs for different groups of people point to the plan for a fingerprint register being dropped. "It's a …

    Government 29 Jan 2008, 10:57

  • CCTV must not record conversations, warns new guidance

    'Intrusive and unnecessary'

    Closed-circuit television (CCTV) system operators would need exceptional justification for recording sound as well as video, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has warned. In a newly revised CCTV code of practice (pdf) the ICO said that sound recording is intrusive and unnecessary in most circumstances, and that the …

    Law 29 Jan 2008, 11:08

  • Sony intros Intel 'Penryn'-based Vaios

    Desktops and notebooks

    Sony has added Intel's latest 45nm 'Penryn' Core 2 Duo processors, packing the mobile-oriented chips into a range of Vaio desktops and notebooks. Take the Vaio TP2, Sony's circle-shaped home entertainment system, now incorporating a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T8100. It's also got a Blu-ray Disc drive, an HDMI port and 500GB of storage …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 11:10

  • Maxima shares slide on below-par expectations

    Blames loss of big client and economic blues

    Maxima Holdings yesterday saw its shares tumble by nearly 40 per cent after the managed IT services firm issued a profits warning about its forthcoming first half-year results. The Scottish company said in a trading update that results for H1 ended 30 November 2007 would be below expectations. It said that the termination of …

    The Channel 29 Jan 2008, 11:22

  • Spain bows before la blogosfera

    English-derived neologism bids for world domination

    God alone knows what Cervantes would have made of it, but the English term "blogosphere" has slithered onto the growing list of neologisms shoehorned into the noble Castillian language, joining chatear, chip, formatear, Internet and módem in a burgeoning list of tech and net-based foreign vocab. Official recocognition came …

    Bootnotes 29 Jan 2008, 11:26

  • Hitachi follows Moto with e-ink handset

    Blotting paper not required

    E-ink seems to have left its mark on Hitachi, because the manufacturer has used the technology in its latest handset - the W61H. Hitachi's W61H: fitted with a 2.7in e-ink display The clamshell phone’s lid-mounted e-ink display, or “Silhouette Screen” as it’s dubbed by Hitachi, measures 2.7in.The W61H also has a more …

    Phones 29 Jan 2008, 11:27

  • IPFI chief says it's time to hose down the networks

    Midem Sketching out a big label future

    In an interview from the music business annual Midem, we speak to John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the IPFI, the international trade group representing record labels. (Later in the week we'll hear the view from the independent sector – presenting a very different picture.) Here he talks about the new ISP strategy, and the …

    Media 29 Jan 2008, 11:46

  • Amateur code breaker honoured for defeating Colossus

    Bestride this

    An amateur cryptographer from Germany who beat the world’s first programmable digital computer Colossus in a code-breaking challenge has been honoured for his achievement. Joachim Schueth cracked a message sent using the World War II cypher in just 46 seconds using a modern laptop and a program he wrote in ADA to snag the …

    Bootnotes 29 Jan 2008, 11:48

  • Sky must sell off ITV stake

    Expensive mistake

    BSkyB has been told to sell off most of its stake in rival broadcaster ITV. John Hutton, secretary of state for business and enterprise, has told BSkyB to reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9 per cent to below 7.5 per cent. Hutton is following the advice of the Competition Commission which said in December that the cross- …

    Financial News 29 Jan 2008, 11:49

  • DARPA seeks $750m for hypersonic roboplane testbed

    Bad news for tinfoil-sporting 'Aurora' diehards

    DARPA*, the Pentagon research hothouse where only the most exotic notions bloom on a rich mulch of taxpayer greenbacks, is bidding for a cool three-quarter-billion in funds to build a hypersonic plane. Reports of the "Blackswift" project - a refinement of the HTV-3X demonstrator plan mooted under DARPA's Falcon scheme - …

    Science 29 Jan 2008, 12:06

  • SpringSource pounces on Covalent

    Open source 'supergroup'

    Two California-based open source software companies are to join forces to launch an assault on the emerging market for open source in enterprise computing. Development tools specialist SpringSource (formerly Interface21) today announced it has taken over Covalent Technologies, a leading contributor to Apache Software Foundation …

    Developer 29 Jan 2008, 12:18

  • Germans launch flights for nudists

    Careful with that coffee, Klaus

    A German company will later this year launch flights for nudists, aimed specifically at former East Germans who pine for the good old days under Communism when just about the only thing that wasn't illegal was getting your kit off. The service will run from 5 July from Erfurt in southeast Germany to the Baltic Sea island of …

    Bootnotes 29 Jan 2008, 12:20

  • Monster-capacity PS3 in the pipeline?

    Rumours claims 120GB or 160GB version coming

    Sony may soon phase out sales of its 80GB PlayStation 3, in favour of either a 120GB or 160GB capacity package, also featuring the long-awaited DualShock 3 controller. An alleged mole close to Sony has confirmed to Arstechnica that the 80GB model is to be phased out to make way for a higher-capacity replacement. The source …

    Games 29 Jan 2008, 12:40

  • Firm builds iPod speakers from packaging

    Recycling never sounded so good

    If you bought an iPod Nano or Shuffle recently, don’t chuck out the box - one intrepid manufacturer can help you turn it into a micro speaker system. Bird Electron's speaker: fits snugly into the iPod's packaging The Recycling Speaker from Japanese gadget manufacturer Bird Electron is simply a speaker panel that clips …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 12:47

  • Sharp's 'slimmest' LCD TV to hit Europe this Autumn

    Start saving up now

    Sharp has announced that its Aquos X series of super-slim LCD TVs will be available in Europe this coming September, chalking the delay up to the different technical standards between Europe and Japan. Sharp's Aquos X TVs: just 34.4mm thick The X series was unveiled in Japan last week and consists of three TVs measuring …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 13:01

  • Miserable? It must be U

    44 - the most depressing age of the lot

    Humans are pre-programmed to hit the depths of misery at the age of 44, researchers have found. That is the age at which the probability of depression peaks for both men and women, researchers from the University of Warwick have found. That particular institution’s closest town is Coventry, suggesting they do indeed know what …

    Science 29 Jan 2008, 13:24

  • Forget passports - teachers and kids are the new ID card targets

    Trust and inclusion foregrounded in desperate rescue plan

    Teachers and 16 year olds are the favoured 'soft targets' for the redesigned ID card scheme rollout, according to an Identity & Passport Service planning document seen by The Register. As suggested in leaks last weekend, IPS now plans to soft-pedal fingerprints and - astoundingly - it seems on the point of abandoning the notion …

    Government 29 Jan 2008, 13:26

  • iRobot inks deal for laser-radar droidvision sensors

    Now the machines can follow you into the building

    iRobot, provider of ground warbots to the US forces and purveyor of domestic droids to the comfortably off consumer, has struck a deal allowing it to use laser-scanning technology in its future designs. Reports have it that the kit could be in use in 2009; though this would be with the military, not on the company's famous line …

    Science 29 Jan 2008, 13:27

  • Device routes audio across powerline LANs

    Link PC to hi-fi over the mains

    Devolo has launched its latest powerline Ethernet product: an 85Mb/s adaptor designed to connect a hi-fi to a mains-hosted network so it can play streamed music. Devolo's dLAN Audio Extender: ready for remote playback The dLAN Audio Extender looks like a typical powerline adaptor, but in place of the usual Ethernet port on …

    Broadband 29 Jan 2008, 13:30

  • MySpace wins UK domain name that pre-dated its service

    Myspace.co.uk was registered 'abusively'

    Social networking company MySpace has won the right to have the domain name myspace.co.uk transferred to it despite the fact that it was registered six years before MySpace was founded. The fact that the myspace.co.uk address led to a 'parked' page with adverts for social networking sites including MySpace was taken to be …

    Law 29 Jan 2008, 13:46

  • California deploys dope-vending machines

    Prescription only, sadly

    California residents with a genuine need to skin up can now avail themselves of marijuana vending machines, the BBC reports. While whacky baccy is illegal under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act and the US federal government "does not currently recognise any legitimate medical use", 11 states do allow it to be used medically …

    Bootnotes 29 Jan 2008, 13:50

  • Windows 7 fake spotted on BitTorrent

    Nothing to see here, please move along

    Pranksters have taken advantage of interest in the next version of Windows to post fake - but reportedly harmless - builds of Windows 7 on BitTorrent. A supposedly leaked "internal milestone 1" Alpha version of Windows 7 (previously codenamed Blackcomb) is easily found using Torrent search engines. But the weighty 2.17GB …

    Operating Systems 29 Jan 2008, 13:50

  • Intel calls time on some 'Merom' Core 2 Duos

    Mobile chips for the chop

    Intel has scheduled a series of old-style Core 2 Duo and Celeron M mobile processors for termination, the chip giant's latest message to customers has revealed. The chips for the chop include the 65nm T5500, T5600, T7200 and T7600. The first two are 2MB L2 parts with 667MHz frontside bus (FSB) support. The T5550 will stick …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 14:11

  • US boffins tune into carbon nanotube radio

    Really small challenge to silicon semiconductors

    A team of scientists from the University of Illinois and Northrop Grumman Corp Electronics Systems has succeeded in creating a microscopic functioning radio constructed from carbon nanotubes, Reuters reports. The nanoradio consists of two radio frequency amplifiers, a radio frequency mixer and an audio amplifier, crafted from …

    Science 29 Jan 2008, 15:32

  • Relieving the systems management burden

    Reg Tech Panel Where's that X?$$ing report? Oh, here it is

    We owe you a report on day-to-day aspects of operational IT management. It's finally here for the downloading. Sincere thanks to all who contributed to the research. Do some downloading and tell us what you think. It's all based on what you told us, and it seems that some of you are having more joy than others when it comes to …

    Tech Panel 29 Jan 2008, 15:35

  • UK gov issued 250k snoop licences in nine months

    Regulator says system working beautifully

    The regulator for Britain's snoopers has released a report covering the last nine months of 2006, painting a panglossian picture of a period which saw a quarter of a million intercepts. From 11 April to 31 December 2006 there were 253,557 requests for communication data. In the same period there were only 1,088 errors - mostly …

    Law 29 Jan 2008, 15:35

  • Nokia plays strong Linux hand withTrolltech buy

    Analysis Shifts towards open source for handsets and tablets

    Nokia may be strengthening its ties with major internet brands to boost its Ovi web services portal, but for a company of this scale, there must also be an agenda to set its own standards in the evolving mobile internet market on which it has staked its future. The Finnish giant's latest software acquisition, of Norwegian Linux …

    Mobile 29 Jan 2008, 15:40

  • HD snapping comes to Panasonic

    The Lumix range expands

    High-definition photographs are the order of the day for Panasonic’s latest Lumix digicam, the 8.1-megapixel DMC-FS3. The FS3 snapper can capture images at a resolution of up to 1920 x 1080, but it’s a shame Panasonic makes no mention of an HDMI port on the camera, becuase the lack of one means it’ll be more difficult to get …

    Hardware 29 Jan 2008, 16:02

  • Ryanair incurs wrath of Sarko the Terrible

    Cut-price ticket ad alludes to Bruni nuptials

    The Elysée palace is apparently none too pleased with Ryanair, after the airline yesterday ran an ad in the French press featuring a lovely snap of Sarko and squeeze Carla Bruni. The offending advert, designed to promote 100,000 cut-price tickets, showed the beaming couple staring up towards the line "Ryanair. For Every …

    Bootnotes 29 Jan 2008, 16:13

  • O2 sweetens its iPhone deals

    iPhone changes

    UK mobile operator O2 is rejigging its mobile tariffs to make them simpler and offering a flat rate data charge of £1 a day. Pay monthly tariffs will be aligned with six price points to which you can add seven "Bolt Ons" of extra calls, texts or data. The new price points will include a £1 a day for mobile browsing for …

    Mobile 29 Jan 2008, 16:34

  • Pink shades wash over Palm and BlackBerry

    Valentine's Day phones

    Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and that sickly, slushy, gooey lovin’ feelin’ has already started to seep into the manly consumer technology market. Palm and Blackberry have launched pink editions of existing handsets. Palm's pink Centro handset... With Palm’s pink Centro, your love will get a dual-band CDMA 2000 EvDO …

    Phones 29 Jan 2008, 17:02

  • American LaFrance blames IBM for bankruptcy

    Big Blue silences sirens

    Emergency vehicle maker American LaFrance (ALF) has claimed that a bungled implementation of IBM software contributed to the demise of its business. The firm voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection in the US district court of Delaware in Wilmington yesterday, in which it said that the installation of a new ERP system had …

    Applications 29 Jan 2008, 17:11

  • EU supremes: ISPs don't always have to finger filesharers

    National beaks can decide for themselves

    The European supreme court has ruled that lower authorities are not compelled to order disclosure of file-sharers' identities by ISPs in civil lawsuits. The decision will hamper the efforts of rights-holder bodies to clamp down on digital copying through the courts. The decision was handed down today in a dispute between …

    Law 29 Jan 2008, 17:19

  • Skype Trojan wiretap plan leaks onto the net

    We have ways of hearing you talk

    German cops are pushing ahead with controversial plans, yet to be legally approved, to develop "remote forensic software" - in other words, a law enforcement Trojan. Leaked documents outline proposals by German firm Digitask to develop software to intercept Skype VoIP communications and SSL transmissions. A second leaked …

    Security 29 Jan 2008, 17:24

  • Juniper jumps into Ethernet switch game

    Wags ports at Cisco

    Juniper Networks has finally decided to go after the Ethernet switch business. The routing specialist today unveiled a new line of Ethernet gear that will compete with Cisco and others. Juniper is so proud of the fresh systems that its entire homepage has been taken over with Ethernet marketing madness. (Rather comically, we're …

    Data Networking 29 Jan 2008, 19:13

  • eBay: 'We will lower listing fees'

    'But we'll bilk you in other ways'

    This morning, eBay's CEO-to-be told a roomful of obsessed internet auctioneers that he will soon charge them between 25 and 50 per cent less to list their items on the site's virtual marketplace. But he's not willing to kiss all those dollars goodbye. While charging less for listings, eBay plans to charge more when items are …

    Applications 29 Jan 2008, 19:16

  • Barracuda plays the hippie card in Trend Micro patent row

    Fight with us, soldiers of open source

    Barracuda Networks has called on open source advocates to help fight its patent dust-up with Trend Micro over the Clam AntiVirus software package. Specifically, the provider of network-based security products for email and websites is asking for help in dredging up old technologies that were developed prior to the filing of the …

    Law 29 Jan 2008, 19:31

  • Stellar EMC fails to impress investors . . . again

    Maybe the Hulk can help?

    EMC did its usual double-digit thing during the fourth quarter. The storage maker knocked revenue higher by 19 per cent to $3.83bn. It also kicked net income 35 per cent higher to $525.7m. Oh, and, EMC generated $712m in cash during the quarter - a 78 per cent year-over-year hike. What else can you ask for? Well, apparently …

    Storage 29 Jan 2008, 21:23

  • Sun nails four buyers in 15 months with White Trash Data Center

    COPS: Silicon Valley

    Sun Microsystems has spent of lot of time insisting that customers actually want to buy some of its white trash, trailerized data centers. And now the company has a press release to back up its insistiation. The lone, public customer for the Sun Modular Datacenter - aka "Project Blackbox," aka "We'll see you in the Silicon …

    Servers 29 Jan 2008, 21:30

  • Secret bidding for US airwaves tops $3.3bn

    Will it be Google? Or Verizon?

    Yes, the 700-MHz auction has finally arrived. But we're still waiting for the big money bets. On Thursday, the US Federal Communications Commission took the first bids for the much ballyhooed 700-MHZ "C Block," a particularly juicy nationwide slice of the US airwaves, and four business days later, as the auction reaches its …

    Broadband 29 Jan 2008, 21:50

  • Streamline your search with Yahoo! Web Services and AJAX

    Hands on Google - not the only fruit

    Despite what you might read and hear about Google's web dominance, this is not Google-owned world. Yahoo! may be playing second fiddle to the internet's favorite search and ads service, but it still plays one hell of a tune in terms of numbers of users and the services it offers. If you use Yahoo! for your web search, then …

    Applications 29 Jan 2008, 22:04

  • Sun open sources doohickeys

    Tiny, sensor-driven devices exposed

    A brainchild of Sun Microsystems' research wing, the Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOT) platform code is now open to Java developers at large. Sun SPOTs are palm-sized battery powered devices that can wirelessly relay data about movement, temperature and sound. They run on a virtual machine written almost entirely …

    Data Networking 29 Jan 2008, 23:35