21st February 2008 Archive

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Wikileaks judge gets Pirate Bay treatment

Analysis We're bulletproof, Your Honor

Every now and again, an event comes along and takes our breath away by reminding us just how far out of step the legal system can be with today's changing world. The latest example is last week's attempt by a federal judge in California to shutter Wikileaks, a website devoted to disclosing confidential information that exposes …

Law 21 Feb 2008, 00:52
Bungee Labs betas IDE to grid flowgasm

PaaS the BRWN SaaS

If you're just thinking about software-as-a-service, then you're a slack-jawed rube. You can have an entire platform-as-a-service with a little effort. Bungee Labs this week opened up access to its PaaS, which the company calls Bungee Connect. Customers can turn to Bungee Connect for software development and then host their …

Servers 21 Feb 2008, 01:11
Sun unfurls four-core Xeon-fueled blade memory hole

32 freaking DIMMs

When not patting itself on the back for selling servers, Sun Microsystems found time today to announce a new blade system. In a statement, Sun boasted, "Since re-entering the blades market in mid-2006, Sun tied for #4 in blade server market share for factory revenue (Q3CY07), released 29 new blade and supporting products, and …

Servers 21 Feb 2008, 06:01
Samsung i70 memory mishap

Q&A

I have just purchased a new Samsung i70 camera. I have fully charged the battery before use, but when the camera's switched on all I get displayed on the screen is "memory full". I have yet to take any photos so don’t understand why I'm getting this. I have read the owner's manual and can't find any clues there. Before I take …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 07:02
Scareware package planted in ITV.com ads

Updated again Pop-up programme peril

Users visiting the website of UK broadcaster ITV earlier this week risked exposure to a scareware package. Malware-laced banner ads that lead to download sites for the Cleanator scare package have also been served up on the Radio Times website. Radio Times confirmed that it removed the offending ad late Wednesday morning, …

Enterprise Security 21 Feb 2008, 07:02
Dial-a-phone 4u?

Phones 4u swallows competitor

Phones 4u is buying Dial-a-phone, marking a significant expansion of the high-street retailer into direct sales via phone and on-line. Dial-a-phone runs a couple of websites and a phone-line ordering service out of Kentish Town and Northampton. Its 300 staff sold over 120,000 contracts in 2007. But that's small potatoes to …

Mobile 21 Feb 2008, 07:02
Sky Broadband puts the fault into default Wi-Fi security

Users in guess-able random keys quandary

Sky Broadband advises customers to consider changing their default Wi-Fi passwords - because the apparently random network keys are guess-able. The ISP issues customers with a wireless router that is pre-configured with wireless security switched on, and an apparently random network key. This sounds like a good plan. However, …

Telecoms 21 Feb 2008, 07:02
Alienware confirms existence of Area-51 m15x laptop

Landing date unknown

Alienware has given birth to its latest hardcore laptop, which it claims packs enough capability to ensure it meets the requirements of just about every possible user. Alienware's Area-51 m15x laptop The Area-51 m15x has a 15.4in display, with 1920 x 1200 resolution, and incorporates an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 CPU, with …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 08:02
Flick-knife-style Wii remote USB stick

Demand data at stick-point

When Register Hardware first caught sight of the Wedisk, we thought some dastardly being had shrunken the Remote for our office’s Wii. However, the device is actually a miniature USB flash drive shaped like the console’s controller, but with a difference. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The Wedisk …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 09:02
Car net auction trio use GPS to steal back wheels

Audacious vehicle tracking heist

Three Japanese master crims were cuffed after using the GPS system of a car they flogged in a net auction to steal back the vehicle, Mainichi reports. An unnamed 26-year-old man bought the car on 21 December last year, and on 24 December company executive Hiroaki Yasumatsu, 30, and employees Takashi Shimizu and Takashi Murata …

Bootnotes 21 Feb 2008, 09:12
Warner Bros revs up live action Akira

Manga classic set for two-movie adaptation

Warner Bros has announced a two-movie live action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's six-volume Akira, the first of which will be fast-tracked for a 2009 release, Variety reports. Each installment will encompass three volumes of the original work, which has already graced the silver screen in a 1988 Otomo-helmed animation. Short …

Entertainment 21 Feb 2008, 09:36
Aliens seize control of Daily Telegraph

'Iiix wiii siiirtxd piiic' declare new editorial overlords

Who could have predicted that the long-anticipated alien invasion of our beloved Mother Planet would begin not with the reduction to rubble of the White House by some fiendish atomic death ray weapon, but rather the subjugation of the Daily Telegraph to the extraterrestrials' dark will. The proof? Try this extract from today's …

Space 21 Feb 2008, 09:37
US cruiser nails crippled spy-sat on first shot

Updated Secret tech probably in the sea by now - dammit

Pentagon officials say that a malfunctioning US spy satellite targeted for destruction has been hit by a missile-defence interceptor. The dead spacecraft smashed into a kinetic kill vehicle, lobbed into the satellite's path 250km above the Pacific by a Standard missile from US cruiser Lake Erie. According to a Pentagon release …

Space 21 Feb 2008, 09:56
Gears of War 2 scheduled for November release

Get set for a great year of shoot 'em ups

Microsoft has officially announced that the Xbox 360 sequel to the popular shooter Gears of War will launch in November of this year. Much of the Xbox 360's first year success was dependent on Epic's Gears of War. It proved much more than just substitute until Halo 3 arrived and really showed the gaming quality that the …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 09:58
Lords look again at internet security

'Disappointed' that gov ignored recommendations

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has announced a follow-up inquiry to its 'Personal Internet Security' report. It said it has taken the measure because of its disappointment in the government's response to the report, which was released in August 2007. The government rejected many of the committee's …

Security 21 Feb 2008, 10:00
ICANN finds no evidence of front running

120 cases investigated

A committee of the body responsible for the internet's addressing system has found no evidence of front running, a form of deceptive domain name acquisition. Front running has long been rumoured to be in operation by unscrupulous domain name registration companies. They are alleged to monitor what addresses users search for …

Small Biz 21 Feb 2008, 10:20
MS + Yahoo! = Microhoo! - Official!

Poll result The! people! have! spoken!

It's official: the unholy spawn of the Microsoft-Yahoo! coupling shall forthwith be known as Microhoo!, following a resounding victory for the neologism in our recent reader poll. In the end, Microhoo! secured no less than 30! per! cent! of the 4,249 votes cast, soundly thrashing YaMicrohoosoft! into second spot. The results …

Bootnotes 21 Feb 2008, 10:23
Missing: 80GB PS3. Last seen: Sony's website

A 120GB or 160GB PS3 en-route?

The absence of the 80GB PlayStation 3 from Sony's US website is re-igniting rumours that the electronics giant could be about to replace the model with a larger capacity offering. Both Sony US and UK websites offer just the 40GB PS3 Eagle-eyed customers have noticed that Sony’s US website, along with its UK alternative, …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 10:52
Philips AAA battery handset

Always have enough juice to talk

Philips has created a handset that stops dead your excuse of “I couldn’t call because my phone’s battery died,” because its latest mobile phone accepts AAA batteries. Philips' 9@9j has two power sources. Image from BlogoWogo Dubbed with the curious name of 9@9j, the candybar handset has a standard lithium-ion battery inside …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 11:08
Shuttle XPC Glamour SN68PTG6

Review Stylish AMD-powered media centre, anyone?

If you’ve previously seen a Shuttle XPC barebones PC, the SN68PTG6 will be instantly familiar. It follows the firm's standard small form-factor system design that resembles two cubes attached one to the other, but this time with some design highlights and the firm's Glamour label. The main cover is retained by three …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 12:02
Geordie cops arrest two for Wi-Fi squatting

Drive-by Wi-Fi hoo-haa

Two men have been arrested for "dishonestly obtaining a communications service" after they used a householder's wireless network to check their emails. The offence happened on Sunday in Tweedmouth, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed. A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police told the Reg: "I can confirm that two local men were using a …

Wireless 21 Feb 2008, 12:04
Wi-Fi downloads coming to the PSP

Time to cut the cord

Sony has confirmed that it’s developing a wireless hotspot download access service for the PlayStation Store, enabling PSP owners to download games directly via the handheld console. Sony's presentation slide talks up wireless downloads for the PSP In a presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 12:11
Report into MP bugging: MP was bugged, no laws broken

Plods really do have wider powers than MI6 - for now

Details of the government investigation into police bugging of an MP's conversations with a prison inmate have leaked, ahead of an expected announcement to Parliament this afternoon. The report by Sir Christopher Rose reportedly says that MP Sadiq Khan was indeed taped by police twice, while visiting his constituent and friend …

Law 21 Feb 2008, 12:18
French telecoms chief says 'non' to EU-wide regulation

Super regulator will be 'costly and pointless'

EU commissioner Viviane Reding's plan to create an EU-wide telecoms "super regulator" has been attacked as being costly and pointless. Paul Champsaur, head of French telecoms regulator ARCEP, spoke out against a European Telecom Market Authority (ETMA) in the French press yesterday, saying the plan also sends a message to the …

Networks 21 Feb 2008, 12:58
Why is Microsoft dancing with Danger?

Analysis Behind Redmond's other big bet

The world may have missed it in the fuss over the Yahoo! bid, but last week Microsoft announced it had agreed to acquire Danger Inc, for a reported $500m. The purchase is indicative of Microsoft's aspirations as a provider of back-end services to the mobile industry, and could point to a new model for the future of Windows …

Mobile 21 Feb 2008, 13:02
Microsoft launches student Java and LAMP challenge

Give us the graduate...

University computer science departments are rapidly becoming Microsoft-free zones, as Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) combine with Java to become the de-facto standard environment for students of programming. Microsoft knows from history that this will be fatal in the long term, hence its decision to extend free …

Applications 21 Feb 2008, 13:02
Facebook loses a few bitches

Sooooo 2007

Facebook has suffered its first drop in monthly users, according to numbers from web analytics outfit Nielsen Online. Five per cent fewer people in the UK visited the site in January compared to the previous month. A total of 400,000 seem to have become bored with the social network and didn't bother to return. A year earlier …

Applications 21 Feb 2008, 13:03
Evesham brand up for sale as Austin walks

Geemore Technology looking for bidders

TimeUK founder Tahir Mohsan said today he has put the Evesham Technology Ltd brand up for sale, following the departure of the defunct British computer maker’s co-founder and chairman Richard Austin last month. Mohsan issued a press release today in which he claims that his Dubai-based outfit, PCC Technology, has “successfully …

Channel Register 21 Feb 2008, 13:06
IT security controls partly blamed for SocGen debacle

Traders face biometrics tabs

Weak security controls have been partly blamed for the rogue trader scandal at Société Générale that cost the bank €4.9bn ($7.2bn). Preliminary findings (pdf) from an internal investigation found that stronger security systems, including biometric authentication of trading personnel, were needed to prevent a reoccurrence of …

Enterprise Security 21 Feb 2008, 13:50
Robocopter gunship abandons sinking warship project

US Navy shifts droid kill-chopper to safer berth

American arms'n'aerospace tech titan Northrop Grumman has announced that its "Fire Scout" unmanned helicopter will now be trialled by the US Navy on a different class of warship than that planned. This is good news for the robochopper, as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) it was originally intended to fly from is in severe trouble …

Science 21 Feb 2008, 14:44
Microsoft splits Server 2008 for SMB

One for S and one for M

Redmond yesterday revealed plans for the next version of its Windows server operating system, with different flavours for small biz and mid-sized organisations. Small Business Server 2008 (SBS), formally code-named "Cougar", will be available in Standard and Premium editions and will cater for companies of 50 or fewer staff. …

Channel Register 21 Feb 2008, 14:53
Sky will fight to keep ITV stake

Legal challenge to competition claims

Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB will take legal action to challenge the recent ruling that it should sell off its stake in rival broadcaster ITV. The Competition Commission, backed by secretary of state for business and enterprise John Hutton, ruled in January that Sky should sell its 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. The regulator took the …

Financial News 21 Feb 2008, 15:22
SugarCRM goes folksy with Mickos philosophy

Simple by necessity

MySQL chief executive Marten Mickos is surely regarded as a rainmaker among the entrepreneurial wing of the open source movement. Not only did his company pick wisely when it came to endorsing an open source technology, it also convinced a major, publicly traded entity to part with $1bn for no discernable return - despite its …

Applications 21 Feb 2008, 15:46
Microsoft goes open source - almost

Gentle Ballmer

Microsoft later today will present itself as a kinder, gentler software maker. The company is expected to announce a broad change in its development policies. The Register has obtained information out of Europe that Microsoft will open up all of its APIs and protocols around the companies' major products such as the Windows …

Software 21 Feb 2008, 15:47
Bezos flogs slice of Amazon shares

Frees up cash for space colony

While Amazon is spending $1bn buying back its own shares, company founder Jeff Bezos is selling some of his own. Bezos sold $135m of shares recently, his first divestiture for four years, reports Barrons' Eric Savitz. Bezos still retains a stake worth $7.3bn, however. The disclosure was made in a recent SEC filing. The …

Financial News 21 Feb 2008, 15:59
Microsoft opens APIs and protocols to all

Bows to regulators with openness festival

In an apparent bid to calm still feisty regulators, Microsoft has agreed to publish application programming interfaces (APIs) for its major software products and provide free access to those interfaces. In addition, Microsoft will free up protocols around its client and server software and has vowed not to sue open source …

Software 21 Feb 2008, 16:27
Microsoft bares all - play by play

Bloggy Thing So open it hurts

8:32 - So, here we are early in the morning in California, waiting for Microsoft's top brass to divulge all the meat on their Openness Festival. The Great Beast of the Pacific Northwest has finally capitulated and agreed to free its APIs for developers. In addition, Microsoft will publish most of its major protocol data and …

Applications 21 Feb 2008, 16:43
Colorware offers MacBook Air custom paintjobs

Pimp my Mac

US electronics respray firm Colorware has picked up where Apple left off and begun offering MacBook Air owners custom paintjobs for the laptop. Apple currently only offers the machine, which starts at £1200 in the UK, in silver. However, Colorware has stepped into the void by offering a service that allows you to own the Air …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 17:04
The Wii Fit parody video

Not everyone's a fan

Wii Fit may have already sold over 1m copies in Japan, but it seems not everyone's looking forward to standing on that little white board when the game finally gets released over here. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The Balance Board, which is the central peripheral to Wii Fit, is given a …

Reg Hardware 21 Feb 2008, 17:08
EC to Microsoft: We're still looking

Anti-trust investigations remain live

Microsoft today flung open its software APIs and protocols to all comers. Is it enough to persuade the European Commission to drop anti-trust investigations of the company? In a word, no. The Commission today noted that Microsoft has issued four statements in the past promoting interoperability, and it wants to see if a) the new …

Channel Register 21 Feb 2008, 17:56
Microsoft turns to Zune for mobile game edge

Xbox Live goes Web 2.0

In the battle for gaming supremacy, Microsoft has finally deployed the big guns against the Playstation and Wii: Web 2.0 and the Zune. Microsoft game developer group chief Chris Satchell told the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, his company is "democratising distribution" of Xbox Live games by …

Music and Media 21 Feb 2008, 18:15
Québec cops bust massive botnet ring

17-strong hacking network clubbed

Canadian police have arrested 17 people suspected of running a huge botnet of compromised PCs. Up to one million computers in various countries were allegedly under the control of the suspects, who range in ages from 17 to 26. All but one are male, UPI reports. Seven were arrested in dawn raids by the Sûreté du Québec and …

Spam 21 Feb 2008, 18:22
Google to build 80,000 foot radio tower?

The truth hertz

Google's quest to deploy wireless networks without all that mucking about with steel towers has led its roving eye to settle on Space Data Corp. The company, which provides wireless connectivity via hydrogen-filled balloons floating around the southern US, has caught Google's interest according to reports in the Wall Street …

Wireless 21 Feb 2008, 18:56
Start-up Pliant claims to have secret for speedier SSDs

Flash-based storage with RAM-based IOPS

Fledgling storage firm Pliant Technologies has thrown off its startup invisibility cloak, and claims it can greatly improve the performance of Flash-based solid state drives. Pliant said this week it received $8m in first round funding funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, to develop a "new class" of SSDs for big …

Storage 21 Feb 2008, 19:24
Fraud guardian LifeLock accused of fraud

Analysis Experian called. It wants its alerts back

One of the top three credit reporting services, Experian, has sued a small company that sells identity theft protection services, alleging that it engages in fraud by skirting consumer protection laws. LifeLock charges about $10 per month to make a customer's credit data more secure by placing what is known as an "initial …

Security 21 Feb 2008, 22:17
Google eyes Cleveland medical records

World Privacy Forum howls

Google's efforts to engulf the world's medical records will begin in Cleveland. Today, the search engine cum world power announced a joint project with the Cleveland Clinic, an 87-year-old not-for-profit medical center, that will see between 1,500 and 10,000 of the center's patients entrust their personal records to Larry Page …

Public Sector 21 Feb 2008, 22:30