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10th March 2008 Archive

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  • A Shaolin monk, Warren Buffett and a Russian mobster walk into a bar…

    Radio Reg A day in the life of Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne

    Death threats from the Russian mob, a war on Wall Street, Wikipedia puke, Warren Buffett. Where to begin? For years, I've tracked the movements of Patrick Byrne, CEO at online retailer Overstock.com. Byrne has a tendency to elevate technology business stories from the mundane to the fantastic. Take, for example, his claims …

    Semi-Coherent 10 Mar 2008, 01:51

  • McCain taps Fiorina

    'Bloated executive salaries can fix the economy'

    Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina may be warming up that vice president seat. The Republican National Committee has tapped Fiorina as its Victory Chairman. In this role, Fiorina will travel about the country, celebrating the glories of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Fiorina has worked for other Republican big-whigs …

    Government 10 Mar 2008, 03:15

  • 10 ways to improve your code

    SD West 2008 Think outside the curly brackets

    Neil Ford's Software Development West presentation, 10 Ways to Improve Your Code, was aimed at Java programmers, but Ford's "advanced code hygiene" discussion had wisdom for coders of many stripes. Ford is a senior application architect and "meme wrangler" at ThoughtWorks, an IT consultant that specializes in development and …

    Software 10 Mar 2008, 06:02

  • What's the best way to digitise VHS tapes?

    Q&A

    There is an interesting product to allow PC users to listen to/rip audio cassettes - the Ion Tape2PC USB cassette deck - so our dodgy 1980s collections can be saved to MP3 or similar before being consigned to the bin. Does anyone know of a similar product that can be used for VHS? I realise that size might be a problem here. …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 08:02

  • Windows better off closed, says Microsoft

    Open source code is for dummies

    Open sourcing Windows is more hassle than it's worth and Microsoft sees little gain in releasing code, according to the man leading Microsoft's server marketing and platform strategy. Microsoft general manager Bill Hilf has said the Windows source code is "irrelevant for what people want". Hilf said "most of the knowledgeable …

    Developer 10 Mar 2008, 08:55

  • HSBC forgets to renew its digital certificate

    Can I forget about my overdraft then?

    Online banking customers logging onto the HSBC website last week were confronted by potentially confusing warnings about a security certificate. Business banking customers logging onto ukbusiness.hsbc.com were greeted with a notice that the site couldn't be verified because its certificate had expired. HSBC said the problem …

    Small Biz 10 Mar 2008, 09:07

  • ESA's space truck heads for ISS

    Automated Transfer Vehicle is go

    The European Space Agency's "Jules Verne" Automated Transfer Vehicle yesterday hitched a lift on a specially-adapted Ariane 5ES rocket from the Guiana Space Centre en route to "re-supply and re-boost" the International Space Station (ISS). The lift was, at almost 20-tonnes, twice the payload previously carried aloft by an …

    Space 10 Mar 2008, 09:37

  • Man webcams butt in Burnout Paradise prang rage

    12-year-old mooned

    So what do you do if you get beaten at Burnout Paradise by a youngster? If 12-year-old Najee Kennedy's experience is anything to go by, you plug your webcam into your PS3 and give the victor a look at your butt. Kennedy told New York newschannel CBS 2 HD what some guy did to him after he thrashed the man in said online PS3 …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 09:51

  • South Korea grounds astronaut for security gaffe

    No Soyuz gig following 'innocent mistakes'

    South Korea has effectively grounded the astronaut intended to be the country's first man in space for "violating security protocol" at a Russian training centre, the science ministry said today. Ko San, 31, has been replaced by 29-year-old female biotechnology engineer Yi So-Yeon for the slated April Soyuz gig after he " …

    Space 10 Mar 2008, 09:54

  • Asus CEO: Eee PC to get HDD options, Intel Atom CPU

    Company still backing Linux

    Asus boss Jerry Shen has revealed that the upcoming 8.9in Eee PC 900 will use Intel's Atom processor and may eventually come with a hard drive. Asus' 8.9in Eee PC 900: coming April/May In an interview with US title Laptop Magazine, Shen confirmed that the decision to offer an Eee 900 with Windows XP will not end Asus' …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 10:17

  • UK government data protection is a shambles

    Freedom of information? We've heard of it

    The UK Government has failed to put in place basic data protection and integrity policies despite recent major information breaches, according to an online ID firm. Responses to Freedom of Information requests by online identity firm Garlik reveal that all 14 of the government departments that responded lack basic systems for …

    Government 10 Mar 2008, 10:20

  • Brit apiarists demand £8m to save honeybees

    Gone within 10 years, without urgent research funding

    British apiarists are demanding the government stump £8m for a research project aimed at saving the nation's honeybees from extinction - something they say will happen within 10 years if cash is not found to investigate "new treatments and drugs" for ailing populations. Tim Lovett, president of the British Beekeeping …

    Biology 10 Mar 2008, 10:52

  • Microsoft's Yahoo! takeover faces technical challenges

    Different platforms, different cultures

    Microsoft is in no hurry to integrate the technology and culture of Yahoo! should the aggressive takeover go ahead. The comments might seem a little premature, but differences in culture and technology have already arisen as possible barriers to the deal. Of course, there are other more pertinent barriers too - like Yahoo!'s …

    Software 10 Mar 2008, 11:00

  • Wii gamers draw bead on laser-sight crossbow add-on

    Stick 'em up

    Wii peripherals are ten-a-penny these days, but until today none of them have had us living in fear. However, a new crossbow designed for one of the console’s shoot-‘em-ups could be taking things too far. The Laser Sight Crossbow: twaaaaang The Laser Sight Crossbow does exactly what it says on the tin: it's a crossbow and …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 11:24

  • MIT plans to roll out 'folding' car

    'We have reinvented urban mobility'

    Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are planning to knock up a full-scale model of their "City Car" - an experimental vehicle which "folds" itself in half and snuggles up to other City Cars in the manner of supermarket trollies. The MIT team, led by architecture professor Bill Mitchell, reckons its …

    Environment 10 Mar 2008, 11:26

  • US gives thumbs up to OOXML for ISO standard

    Sticks to approval

    The US delegation to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) has voted to maintain its “Approve” recommendation for Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) to be adopted by the body. Microsoft tech evangelist Doug Mahugh said in a blog post on Friday that, having mulled over the feasibility of the OOXML file format, the US …

    Software 10 Mar 2008, 11:41

  • Dear ISP, I am not a target market

    Comment Phorm ain't the pimp here, people

    Chapter four of Generation X, Douglas Coupland's seminal 1990 eulogy to post-war optimism, bears the winning title "I am not a target market". We've been constantly reminded of that romantic, seemingly futile protest against corporate society in the last two weeks. Coupland's trio of Arizona drop-outs would surely be amused by …

    Telecoms 10 Mar 2008, 11:58

  • HP Compaq 2710p tablet PC

    Review Could be a contender

    The tablet PC may never have come close to achieving the success Microsoft hoped for when it launched the concept a few years back, but these transforming laptops have won a solid audience. Unfortunately, with many tablet PCs the inclusion of a screen that can be operated with a stylus but not a finger hasn’t done anything for …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 12:02

  • Hacking for public health

    Etech Open sourcing brain scans and mapping the flu

    Forget the grand project to electronify the NHS. The real technology-induced medical changes will come from elsewhere. For example, something you've probably never thought about when you went in for a flu shot: how does the World Health Organisation decide which of the many strains to vaccinate against? The answer turns out …

    Biology 10 Mar 2008, 12:08

  • Ten years old: the world's first MP3 player

    Forgotten Tech Who remembers the MPMan F10 now?

    The MP3 player is ten years old this month. The first commercially released personal music player capable of handling MP3 files was the MPMan F10, manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems and launched in March 1998. The F10 contained 32MB of Flash storage, enough for a handful of songs encoded at 128Kb/s. It measured …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 12:33

  • CBI calls for major overhaul to UK tax

    Pre-Budget lobbying all round

    The CBI today launched a scathing attack on the government’s corporation tax plans, claiming the economy will suffer if Chancellor Alistair Darling doesn’t radically overhaul the current system. In a new report, UK business tax: A compelling case for change, the CBI argued that corporation tax should be cut to 18 per cent over …

    Small Biz 10 Mar 2008, 13:05

  • Plastic bag campaign falls apart at the seams

    Marine life killed by nets not bags shock

    The bottom could be about to fall out of the government’s crusade against plastic bags, with claims that one of the key underpinnings of the campaign against them is based on nothing more than a typo. The Times says Australian researchers, commissioned to produce a report on the effect of plastic bags, misquoted a 1980s report …

    Environment 10 Mar 2008, 14:13

  • Sony readies multi-room music streaming stereo

    Giga Juke range extended

    Sony has updated its Giga Juke range of hard disk-based home stereos, adding two slimline models. One, the company claimed, can become the basis for a multi-room music streaming set up. Sony's NAS-SC55PKE: stream music to five different rooms The entry-level NAS-E35HD and higher spec NAS-SC55PKE both have an 80GB hard drive …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 14:37

  • IPCC's 'evil twin' launches climate change sceptic's creed

    Manhattan Declaration demands abandonment of emissions reduction efforts

    A group of dissident scientists and climate researchers has affirmed that there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity cause climate change, and has called on world leaders to abandon all efforts to reduce emissions "forthwith." Issued last week at the close of the International Conference …

    Government 10 Mar 2008, 14:38

  • UK presses car ferry to ship powdered plutonium

    What could possibly go wrong?

    The UK is shipping plutonium dioxide from Sellafield, Cumbria, to France this week using a converted roll-on, roll-off ferry . The powder will be driven in French lorries from Sellafield to a local dock and then aboard the ship. The vessel will carry security staff from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The cruise is being …

    Government 10 Mar 2008, 14:43

  • Amazon spills beans on upcoming SanDisk MP3 player

    Whooops

    Amazon’s US website has let slip the specs and availability of the latest member of SanDisk’s Sansa family of MP3 players - before the manufacturer has even announced the gadget. SanDisk's 4GB Sansa Fuze: specs blown Called the Sansa Fuze, the 4GB player looks much like the existing Sansa View, but is much wider. It also …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 14:46

  • Software engineer builds straw house for £4k

    Cheap and cheerful Scottish ecogaff

    A 52-year-old software engineer has built a habitable house for just £4,000 - albeit with a lot of hard graft and a certain amount of scavenging. Steve James slogged for "10 months of actual building time" over four years to put together his Galloway straw domicile, dubbed "The Gatehouse" and constructed with a timber frame, …

    Environment 10 Mar 2008, 14:48

  • Make vendors liable for exploits

    EU agency calls for feedback on economics of security

    Academics are calling for comprehensive security-breach notification in Europe and sanctions against ISPs that fail to clean up botnets as part of a series of measures designed to make insecure systems unprofitable. A paper commissioned by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) attempts to apply …

    Security 10 Mar 2008, 14:53

  • ThruVision camera shows weapons, not bodies

    Home Office gets first demo

    A spy-beam camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people’s clothes from up to 25 metres away will be unveiled at a Home Office hardware expo this week. ThruVision's T5000 camera uses “passive imaging technology” to pick up objects by the natural electromagnetic or Terahertz frequencies – commonly known …

    Policing 10 Mar 2008, 15:48

  • Look out Al Qaeda bitches, Facebook's comin' atcha

    Fundamentalists, drug lords quiver before mighty Zuck

    Facebook can save the world from the power of nightmares and the threat from Osama bin Laden's minions, or so reckons its founder and CEO (...bitch) Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has a history of making outlandish claims for the world-changing powers of his website (see the "next 100 years" of media). His latest fantastical …

    Music and Media 10 Mar 2008, 16:05

  • MS to cut Xbox 360 prices this week

    Save yourself some cash

    If news of the recent Blu-ray talks between Sony and Microsoft has got you thinking about buying an Xbox 360, just hold off for a few days and you’ll save yourself a few quid. Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite: £40 cheaper by the weekend Microsoft today confirmed that, from 14 March, a new European pricing plan will come into …

    reghardware 10 Mar 2008, 16:14

  • Motorola mobile loses its (ex) head

    Execs pack bags as ship flounders

    Ousted head of mobile at Motorola Stu Reed has left the company, which is continuing to haemorrhage executive talent at an alarming rate. Reed was bypassed when Greg Brown, president and chief executive officer, took direct control of the mobile division five weeks ago, and it seems that he's been arranging his departure since …

    Mobile 10 Mar 2008, 16:27

  • Iomega says no to EMC

    Drives unsolicited bid outta town

    Portable hard drive maker Iomega has rejected a hostile $178m takeover bid from storage giant EMC. The San Diego-based firm said in a statement that EMC’s indication that it was preparing to offer to acquire Iomega’s outstanding common stock for $3.25 per share “would not reasonably constitute a superior proposal”. The Iomega …

    Storage 10 Mar 2008, 16:41

  • Microsoft Office Online falls into Halloween time vortex

    Redmond really is spooked by the web

    Either Steve "Uncle Fester" Ballmer is preparing everyone for his star turn at Halloween very early this year, or there's something wrong over at Microsoft's Office Online site. The UK landing page for Microsoft's productivity apps is currently dishing out tips on how to "create scary crafts for Halloween", while cautioning: " …

    Applications 10 Mar 2008, 16:42

  • Zuckerberg's Total Venom Spew is the new BillG

    Comment Facebook CEO faces the friendship void

    Where do the thanks go? To God? To the venture capitalists? To Microsoft? To Charles Babbage? Someone please tell me. Bill Gates' decision to pull away from day-to-day activities at Microsoft made me wonder just who in the technology game would inherit Grand Demon status. Every energetic enterprise needs both light and dark to …

    Odds and Sods 10 Mar 2008, 18:40

  • US, UK and friends have cyber-war party

    I'll hose your network, if you hose mine

    Business and government leaders from the US, UK and three other countries will spend much of this week simulating and defending against a large-scale cyber attack in an exercise designed to strengthen coordinated responses to what many perceive as a growing threat. Participants of Cyber Storm II, which also include about 40 …

    Crime 10 Mar 2008, 19:11

  • NetApp changes name to NetApp

    Now 37% easier to say than Network Appliance

    Network Appliance today will start saving you a precious half-second from your day by officially shortening its name to NetApp. Along with formalizing its long-held nickname, the data storage firm has snagged a new logo, a new slogan ("Go further, faster,") and a website redesign. Check out the website: Here, here! — it is …

    Storage 10 Mar 2008, 19:14

  • Microsoft reveals its database for the cloud

    SQL Server, not as you know it

    The announcement of Microsoft's SQL Server Data Services was almost buried near the end of chief software architect Ray Ozzie's Mix 08 keynote last week. It was a curious move for an offering that, as Microsoft's database service for the internet, marks the company's foray into database-based utility computing and promises an …

    Applications 10 Mar 2008, 19:41

  • Sun and Microsoft confirm data center lovechild

    Mankind now writing emails to Redmond

    Er, will someone please get Scott McNealy on the horn? This Sun Microsystems and Microsoft love-in is getting ridiculous. Sun Chairman McNealy used to hit us with the "It's Mankind versus Microsoft" shots as the two companies squabbled over anti-trust issues, run-times and, well, the nature of innovation. These barbs against …

    Servers 10 Mar 2008, 21:43

  • Vatican updates list of mortal sins

    Hell now accepting polluters, genetic scientists, and obscenely rich

    Today is Monday, which means an addendum to the list of things Catholics should feel guilty about. Fresh off the red telephone with Providence, a senior member of the Vatican is upgrading a handful of lesser celestial bugaboos into what now will effectively destroy the grace of God within the heart of the sinner. The Vatican' …

    Environment 10 Mar 2008, 22:43

  • IBM's charming smile attracts Hitachi to 32nm research pact

    Let's get small together

    When it comes to semiconductors, IBM is the friendliest vendor in town. The hardware maker has announced a deal with Hitachi to share costs and expertise around researching techniques for manufacturing very small chips. The agreement marks the first time IBM and Hitachi have teamed up on semiconductors work. IBM, however, has …

    PCs & Chips 10 Mar 2008, 23:14

  • Sun dreams the impossible Java on Jesus Phone dream

    24 hours not enough to read a EULA

    Yes, Sun has committed itself to putting Java on the iPhone. But this is a bit like Miss Havisham committing herself to a life of marital bliss. As several astute Reg readers have pointed out, Apple's end user licensing agreement for the new iPhone SDK includes its very own anti-Java clause. Sun can put a free Java Virtual …

    Applications 10 Mar 2008, 23:26