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15th February 2008 Archive

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  • SGI tears up couch to buy Linux Networx assets

    Cluster fluster

    With a bankruptcy behind it, SGI has decided to go ahead and start expanding again by purchasing Linux Networx's "core assets." What's that Scott McNealy joke about two garbage trucks colliding? We jest, we jest. Linux Networx actually makes some of the cooler high performance computing systems. You get well-packaged hardware …

    Servers 15 Feb 2008, 00:27

  • Free-spending Brocade dinged in Q1

    McData a McRevenue helper

    Brocade's profits took a beating during its first fiscal quarter of 2008, as the company's legal fees and lossy investments gave revenues a once-over. The storage switch maker's GAAP net income dropped 40 per cent to $19.8m from $33.3m in the same period last year. Brocade attributed the slump to one-time operating expenses, …

    Storage 15 Feb 2008, 00:42

  • Euro Blu-ray movie sales reach 2.37m discs

    Not good news for the HD DVD camp

    Blu-ray Disc pre-recorded media sales have sailed past the two-and-a-quarter million mark in Europe, the format's promotional body said this week. And, according to market watcher GfK, 79 per cent of hi-def discs bought by European consumers thus far this year have been BDs. The remaining 21 per cent were HD DVDs. The Blu-ray …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 01:02

  • Sadville insecurity invites pickpockets

    'All your Lindens are belong to us'

    This story was updated to correct information about how QuickTime vulnerabilities are exploited in Second Life. An option for viewing media must first be selected. More than two months after security researchers released exploit code that steals money from Second Life users, residents of the virtual world remain vulnerable to …

    Security 15 Feb 2008, 01:41

  • Pr0n baron challenges Google and Yahoo! to build better child locks

    'This is not about First Amendment rights, it is about protecting children'

    The world's largest porn studio says that Google and Yahoo! should "erect stronger barriers" to keep porn away from the world's children. Steven Hirsch, the co-chairman and co-founder of Vivid Entertainment, is to deliver this message on Saturday in New Haven, Connecticut as he addresses an army of Yale University MBA …

    Music and Media 15 Feb 2008, 02:16

  • 5,000 NHS records vanish with latest lost laptop

    Wonder why they ever called them NHS Trusts...

    A laptop containing medical records for more than 5,000 people has been lost by a hospital near Dudley. The latest data giveway occurred on 8 January. The laptop was taken from an outpatients department at Russells Hall Hospital. West Midlands Police is investigating the theft and several thousand people have received warning …

    Public Sector 15 Feb 2008, 07:02

  • The death of the mobile phone tower?

    Mobile World Congress Eaten by pregnant lamppost

    While they sneer at people who flock to weeping statues, the British middle class may be the most superstitious people on the planet. But at least one object of their irrational fears, the mobile phone mast, may be on its way out. That's due to the falling cost of a femtocell, a micro base station about the size of a cable …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2008, 08:02

  • Eugene Kaspersky and the KGB man that never was

    AV boss has bone to pick with The Guardian

    The Guardian has apologised to Eugene Kaspersky after mistakingly naming the anti-virus guru as a former KGB officer. Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and chief exec of the internet security company Kaspersky Lab, was described as a "KGB man" and a lieutenant in the KGB in an otherwise accurate article (The ex-KGB man stalking the …

    Security 15 Feb 2008, 08:02

  • OnlineTV recorder TVCatchup.com shut down

    Targeted by broadcasters

    The plug has been pulled on TVCatchup.com, a legally questionable web-based personal video recorder service, that allowed users to hoard UK TV shows online for free. TVCatchup.com - tagline: "never miss a show again" - enabled members to set programmes to record up to seven days in advance. It stored up to 10GB of TV per user …

    Music and Media 15 Feb 2008, 08:02

  • NASA issues revised 2008 shuttle launch schedule

    A few dates for your diary

    NASA yesterday issued a revised set of dates for 2008 shuttle launches after a meeting to "evaluate options following the STS-122 [Atlantis] mission delay", the agency reports. STS-123 on Endeavour and STS-124 on Discovery are slated for lift-off on 11 March and 24 April, respectively, although "any decision on those launch …

    Space 15 Feb 2008, 09:00

  • Jane Fonda c-word slip shocks US

    NBC apologises for Today outrage

    Middle America is none to pleased with veteran thespiatrix Jane Fonda who yesterday entertained viewers of NBC's Today show with "a four-letter word for female genitalia". Host Meredith Vieira had asked Fonda about her appearence in stage play The Vagina Monologues, which contains a section entitled "Cunt". In her answer, the …

    Entertainment 15 Feb 2008, 09:08

  • Web browsers on the front line of exploitation

    It's war out there and the good guys ain't winning

    Cybercriminals are stepping up their efforts to exploit vulnerabilities in web browsers to spread malware using drive-by download techniques. Research by Google's anti-malware team on three million unique URLs on more than 180,000 websites automatically installed malware onto vulnerable PCs. Hackers are increasingly trying to …

    Security 15 Feb 2008, 09:10

  • Enraged vegan spitroasts Reg hack

    FoTW Nasty case of irony deficiency

    It was sort of inevitable really, but our recent revelation that vegetarians are in fact nothing more than fanatical, self-deceiving, protein-starved perversions of nature provoked a rather angry response from one Rachel Astill-Dunseith: There is absolutely no scientific evidence in this mans dellusional and fatuous claims. …

    Letters 15 Feb 2008, 09:19

  • Tiscali and BPI go to war over 'three strikes' payments

    Exclusive Filesharing shambles revealed as 'deal' collapses

    Tiscali, the UK's fourth largest broadband provider, implemented a "three strikes" arrangement with the record industry to disconnect illegal filesharers last summer, The Register can reveal. But over a matter of hours yesterday any deal that Tiscali thought it had made with the BPI evaporated in a row over money. Relations …

    Music and Media 15 Feb 2008, 10:06

  • Copyright levy under EU spotlight

    You're still all thieving bastards though

    The European Commission is to consult on whether to change the current controversial surcharge on devices or storage media which can hold music or video. Called the copyright levy, the charge is applied in many EU countries and paid into a fund which pays out to artists thought to be the victim of music and film piracy. It is …

    Law 15 Feb 2008, 10:39

  • Bank scammers scammed, says security researcher

    Hacking tools nick nicked data

    Many of the people behind identity theft scams are themselves having data stolen from them in the process, a security researcher has revealed. Phishers, who trick online banking users into typing in their details to fake sites, use tools in the process which have built-in security holes for others to access the data that many …

    Crime 15 Feb 2008, 10:44

  • Mole claims Toshiba to terminate HD DVD

    Demise could be 'a matter of weeks' away

    Is Toshiba about to fall on its sword and announce the demise of HD DVD? That's certainly what one report citing an unnamed mole within the HD DVD camp is claiming, even though Toshiba itself is having none of it. The source mentioned by US Home Media Magazine claims that Toshiba could declare HD DVD dead in "a matter of weeks …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 10:55

  • Wheels come off Paris Hilton movie vehicle

    The Hottie and the Nottie crashes and burns

    Highly-talented she may be, but movie fans have managed to completely resist the temptation to enjoy Paris Hilton's charms in The Hottie and the Nottie, released last week to virtually empty theatres and less-than-flattering reviews. In fact, those who braved a screening of the romantic comedy may now require lengthy …

    Entertainment 15 Feb 2008, 11:00

  • Buffalo launches 'most capacious' pocket hard drive

    Is that a terrabyte in your pocket? No, it's half!

    If you sometimes tell ladies that you’ve got the world’s biggest one in your trousers, you’ll now be able to say it without lying. Storage manufacturer Buffalo has launched a 500GB pocket hard drive, which it claims is the world’s most capacious unit of its kind. Buffalo's 2.5in drive has a 500GB capacity The 5400rpm …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 11:04

  • BT gets EU backing to raise (and cut) wholesale broadband prices

    Ofcom deregulation plan a goer thanks to unbundling

    European regulators have backed a move by Ofcom to drop regulations that force BT to offer competitors fixed-price wholesale broadband nationwide. Ofcom wants to relax rules serving more than 10,000 premises in exchanges where there are four or more unbundled communications providers who offer wholesale broadband. BT's …

    Telecoms 15 Feb 2008, 11:48

  • Nokia 7900 Prism

    Review Style over substance

    Big brother to the Prism 7500, the somewhat sinister and Darth Vader-esque Prism 7900 is the next step in Nokia's campaign to convince us that visual style should be the primary driving force when it comes to buying a mobile phone. But baroque and cyberpunk looks aside, it's the sparkling and still not-yet-commonplace OLED …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 12:02

  • BOFH: The Silence of the Servers

    Episode 5 The servers are quiet for now, Clarice

    "Ah the long, dark reaches of intrigue!" I say faux-casually in the dark, scaring the Boss half to death. "What the hell are you doing here?" he cries when he's collected himself, no doubt readjusting his underpants in response to the recent extra loading. "It's a computer room, I belong here," I say, getting up from the …

    BOFH 15 Feb 2008, 12:02

  • PS3 won't beat Wii until 2011, forecasts analyst

    Xbox to peak the year before

    This year will see another gruelling sales showdown between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as they battle it for hardcore gamers' cash. However, the PS3 is eventually expected to become the dominant console. Market watcher iSuppli this week predicted that the PS3 will sell 10m units globally during 2008, helping to put it far …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 12:09

  • Atos goes back to black

    And forecasts bright 2008

    Atos Origin dragged its bottom line back into the black in 2007, although the consulting arm of its business saw revenue fall by more than 11 per cent. The French IT services group's revenue was up 8.5 per cent to €5.86bn for the year ending December 31. Organic sales growth was 4.3 per cent. Managed operations revenues were …

    Channel Register 15 Feb 2008, 12:29

  • Bush orders US Navy to shoot down rogue spy sat

    Anything to stop it hitting eBay

    The US Navy will attempt to shoot down a malfunctioning American spy satellite before it falls to Earth, the Pentagon has confirmed. The plan has been approved by President George Bush, citing concern over toxic hydrazine fuel aboard the spacecraft. However, a top analyst has suggested the US is actually worried about secret …

    Space 15 Feb 2008, 12:37

  • Map paints gloomy picture of world's oceans

    40 per cent 'heavily affected' by human activities

    A new global map compiled by analysing 17 different factors including fishing, global warming and pollution has revealed that 40 per cent of the world's oceans are heavily affected by human activities, while just a small percentage of seawater has completely escaped the effects of man's heavy hand. The map, which debuts in …

    Biology 15 Feb 2008, 13:00

  • Cisco plugs VoIP malware loophole

    Quick switch

    Cisco rushed out a brace of security updates on Thursday to defend against potentially dangerous exploits via its VoIP kit, including the possibility of malicious code being injected into vulnerable networks. The twin advisories from the network giant cover a range of vulnerabilities in Cisco IP Phones and its Unified …

    Enterprise Security 15 Feb 2008, 13:10

  • Man takes old iPhone box, builds film camera

    Boxing clever

    Most iPhone owners probably just chucked the handset's box in the bin seconds after leaving the shop. Not designer Scot Hampton - instead, he turned Apple's packaging into a film camera. Scot Hampton's iHole camera Hampton’s dubbed his design the iHole and describes it as “a revolutionary analogue photographic device …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 13:15

  • LiMo Foundation touts real mobile Linux

    Mobile World Congress Declares war on mechanical humanoids

    The LiMo foundation delivered a clear snub to Google's Android this week as it announced 18 handsets running its version of Linux at Mobile World Congress this week. The foundation declared itself to be "real technology for real phones that go to real customers" - the search giant's technology still being limited to prototypes …

    Mobile 15 Feb 2008, 14:28

  • EU commissioner backs record biz on copyright extensions

    The picture of Dorian Gray Sir Cliff

    European internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy has thrown his weight behind the long-running record industry campaign to extend copyright protection for sound recordings. Under proposals the Irish politician announced yesterday, performance rights holders such as Cliff Richard would receive royalties for 95 years …

    Music and Media 15 Feb 2008, 14:37

  • US woman orders $150k cloned pitbull terrier

    'Particularly attached' to dead original

    Korean cloning outfit RNL Bio has taken its first order for a cloned dog - a copy of a deceased pitbull terrier called Booger whose Californian owner was so attached to her mutt she's willing to stump $150,000 for the privilege. The canine doppelganger will be produced by a team from Seoul National University using tissue …

    Biology 15 Feb 2008, 14:39

  • Microsoft closes in on Yahoo! amidst BlackBerry black out

    To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

    Microsoft scents Danger, circles Yahoo! Microsoft picked up Sidekick designer Danger Inc this week for an undisclosed sum, in a play for a stronger position in the mobile market. But the main event of the week is Microsoft's attempts to woo Yahoo!. The exclamation-bedecked firm remained coy by rejecting Redmond's initial …

    Business 15 Feb 2008, 14:58

  • Bray recalls team XML

    10th birthday interview Shoulda happened sooner

    In an industry characterized by cold logic and technology, the contributions of real people often get lost. Publicly, great things are seen to be achieved by impersonal corporations and institutions - rarely individuals. In an effort to put this right as far as XML is concerned, Tim Bray, Sun Microsystems' director of web …

    Software 15 Feb 2008, 15:26

  • Red Hat sports BlackTie challenge to BEA's Tuxedo

    Dressed up, nowhere to go

    Like an old lover unable to let go, Red Hat celebrated Valentine's week fixated on past obsession BEA Systems and that company's new beau, Oracle. Red Hat announced three JBoss-centric open source projects targeting the middleware rivals in the areas of distributed Java and mainframe transaction processing, SOA governance, and …

    Software 15 Feb 2008, 15:27

  • Critics chuck MS 'friendly worm' plan on the compost heap

    Updated Out of control

    Microsoft boffins are researching the possible benefits of distributing software patches or other content using the same techniques as computer worms. The mechanism, part of a fundamental research project rather than product development work, aims to reduce the load on servers handling content distribution functions including …

    Enterprise Security 15 Feb 2008, 15:33

  • Court lifts lid on Saudi terror threat claim

    Kickstart for kicked-into-touch BAE kickback probe?

    UK-headquartered BAE Systems faces the risk that a Serious Fraud Office investigation into its dealings - said to have been personally halted in 2006 by Tony Blair citing "national security" concerns - might be reopened. A civil lawsuit brought by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and social justice umbrella organisation …

    Policing 15 Feb 2008, 15:51

  • Sumvision shinks the iPod Touch... sort of

    Ice, ice, baby...

    Portable Media Player (PMP) manufacturer Sumvision has designed an iPod Touch-type player that likewise provides a host of multimedia features, but in a smaller shell and for a more pocketable price. Sumvision's Ice 1000 (left) is almost identical to the Touch, except smaller The Ice 1000, which measures 90 x 55 x 12mm, has …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 16:22

  • Unlocking the iPhone for pleasure and profit... revisited

    ZiPhone makes process painless

    After months with my unlocked iPhone still running firmware 1.0.2, the arrival of Zibri's ZiPhone tool persuaded me to try an upgrade. I'm glad I did - I now have an unlocked 1.1.3 iPhone. Why didn't I do so before? Cowardice, really. Having read how tricky upgrading became with subsequent firmware releases, I was worried …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 16:29

  • BBC to put shows on iTunes 'next week'

    Auntie's commercial arm hugs Apple

    The BBC's commercial arm is expected to announce a deal to distribute shows via the iTunes video store next week. A TV industry source claims BBC Worldwide will on Tuesday detail plans to set up shop at Apple's online media mall. Our source says BBC Worldwide's digital media director Simon Danker has contacted the BBC's third …

    Music and Media 15 Feb 2008, 16:40

  • Wal-Mart blogger claims retailer will ditch HD DVD

    Toshiba increasingly isolated

    Wal-Mart has apparently decided to follow Best Buy and Netflix and only offer its customers Blu-ray Disc products in future. From June, the retail giant will no longer offer HD DVD players. The news comes from the company's Check Out blog, penned by staffers. One of them, Susan Chronister, today wrote: "OK, so are you ready …

    Reg Hardware 15 Feb 2008, 17:00

  • Web startups crumble under Amazon S3 outage

    With what shall I Twitter my daily minutia!?

    Amazon Web Services was struck by a temporary outage today, dragging the thousands of web sites which rely on its hosted storage down with it. Reports of content stored on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) being unavailable or performing poorly began appearing around 5AM PST. Hardest hit by the outage was the crowd of "web …

    Storage 15 Feb 2008, 21:57

  • Secret printer ID codes may breach EU privacy laws

    Commissioner has a mull

    A little-noticed system that allows printed documents to be tracked by government agents has gotten the attention of the EU Commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, who says the technology may violate EU human rights guarantees. The technology is baked in to many popular color laser printers and photocopiers, including …

    Enterprise Security 15 Feb 2008, 22:14

  • Sun turns to Neil Diamond for Amazon utility 'killer'

    Sweet Caroline

    Here's Sun Microsystems. Ahead of the curve with utility computing? Check. Interested in gaining the business of today's internet companies? Big check. Full of server-side software skills? Check. Behind Amazon.com of all companies in actually putting these things together as a product or service companies can buy? Yep. Sun's …

    Servers 15 Feb 2008, 22:25

  • UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban

    Halifax leaves Blizzard out in the cold

    Frequent use of stolen credit cards to pay for World of Warcraft subscription has prompted UK bank Halifax to block payments to the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. In a statement, the bank said its decision to block payments was not a reflection of the integrity of Blizzard or its billing systems. "We have seen a …

    Financial News 15 Feb 2008, 23:53