26th March 2008 Archive

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Spyware 'scammer' sued over PC pop-up invasion

Washington state cracks down

The alleged supplier of some of the net's most hated malware titles has been sued by Washington state's attorney general. Ron Cooke, the owner of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Messenger Solutions, stands accused of violating Washington's Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection Act for marketing programs that went under names …

Channel Register 26 Mar 00:56
Wikipedia scores $3m donation

Which is nice

Wikipedia, the people's encylopedia, has trousered a $3m donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to be paid in equal chunks over three years. Which is nice. Even nicer, the money hails from a charity, and not from philanthropic venture capitalists, who may or may not have commercial designs upon Wikipedia's ads-unsullied …

Financial News 26 Mar 01:48
Intel slims low-power Xeon chips to 45nm

New 50W chips bump clock speed and cache

Intel today introduced two 45-nanometer, low voltage server processors to outpace its previous generation of 65nm energy-efficient wares. The quad-core Xeon L5400 series is up to 25 per cent faster than the preceding chips while keeping power consumption at a 50-watt thermal envelope, Chipzilla says. L5400 chips come in two …

Channel Register 26 Mar 01:53
Yahoo! cuddles Google's bastard grid-child

Stuffed Elephant Summit Gets 'butt kicking' from Microsoft

Sometime after the New Year, Yahoo! flipped the switch on what it calls the world’s largest Hadoop application, using the much-hyped open-source grid computing platform to tackle a task no smaller than the web itself. Known as Yahoo! Search Webmap, this Hadoopified mega-app provides the world’s second most popular search …

Servers 26 Mar 02:02
Big cheeses rolled into Vista-Incapable lawsuit

Intel, Dell, IBM, HP, Wal-Mart etcetera etcetera

You can leave the job, but willl the job leave you? Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Windows mastermind emeritus, is the sole human being to be subpoenaed by plaintiffs in the Microsoft Vista Capable Marketing program class action. Microsoft PC partners, such as Dell, HP and IBM, big resellers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Costco and Fry' …

Channel Register 26 Mar 05:29
Mobile snap murderer jailed for life

'Gross levels of depravity', says sentencing judge

A Paisley man who murdered a 24-year-old by stabbing him 80 times with a knife and then "went on to pose for a mobile phone picture alongside the victim's body" has been jailed for at least 15 years, the BBC reports. Stephen Price, 20, previously admitted murdering 24-year-old Scott Burgess "with a knife in his home in Glen …

Mobile 26 Mar 07:02
Ahoy! What's the best in-boat TV streaming system?

Q&A

I'm looking to equip my boat with the ability to stream video, music and music videos to multiple TVs around the vessel. Please could you help me with the best options to achieve this. I have read a little about AV extenders but can only really find a single sender to receiver which would work with a single display, but I want …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 07:02
Microsoft tries to talk its way into VoIP

What's that? Speak up

Microsoft is shouting its way into the VoIP market by extending its small business phone systems to support voice recognition. The ability to run VoIP is being introduced to its Response Point systems through a service pack, which was announced this week but won't be brought in until the summer. Response Point is a …

Channel Register 26 Mar 08:16
The Guardian ditches Phorm

Updated Newspaper dumps its data pimping Valentine

The Guardian has pulled out of its targeted advertising talks with Phorm, following a public outcry over plans for the UK's three largest ISPs to report the browsing habits of their customers in exchange for a cut of revenues. The national newspaper had confirmed its involvement with Phorm in a story on 14 February. The U- …

Telecoms 26 Mar 08:59
Reg readers want to work for Google

Reg Technology Panel Salary survey results are in

Ever wondered how much your fellow Reg readers earn or who they would really like to work for? Well, we now have the answers for you, as the results of our first ever salary survey are available for your viewing pleasure. More than 6,000 of you took part towards the back end of last year, giving us a take on your careers, your …

Reg Technology Panel 26 Mar 09:43
Virgin taps Boeing for 787 compensation

Rattles tin over Dreamliner delays

Virgin Atlantic is in talks with Boeing over compensation for the late delivery of the 787 Dreamliners it ordered in April last year, the Telegraph reports. The airline was expecting delivery of its first 787-9, one of 15 it requested at a cost of about $2.8bn, in early 2011, but the manufacturer last week admitted to further …

Science 26 Mar 09:44
Seagate CEO flips patent finger at SSD makers

But now's not the time for lawsuits, apparently

Seagate's CEO said he believes manufacturers of solid-state drives are treading on his company's technological toes. But in an interview, Bill Watkins hinted that Seagate won't sue unless SSDs become more popular. Speaking to Fortune magazine, Watkins said that right now laptops with SSDs are just too expensive and deliver too …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 10:02
Teachers crucified by coughing pupils

I'm Spartacus. No, I'm Spartacus

Teachers are cracking under the relentless strain of dealing with pupils who have become adept at combining the latest methods of cyber bullying with some distinctly old school methods of disrupting lessons. Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, told the union's …

Mobile 26 Mar 10:52
Laser designated step'n'fetch wrinkle-robutler shown

In-home pachyderm tech enters grey lifestyle sector

When speaking of cutting-edge robotic systems directed to their target using a dot from a laser designator, one is usually talking about a smart bomb or some other frightful modern day engine of death. But, as so often, this deadly tech sword has now been beaten into a ploughshare - or as we have here, an elderly person's butler …

Science 26 Mar 10:55
Four 1TB hard drives on test

Round-up A quartet of desktop drives compared

Hitachi was the first hard drive company to offer a 1TB model. We got our hands on the 7K1000 and were thoroughly impressed. Since then the other drive companies have piled into the Terabyte market, so it's time to see how they compare. In the last 12 months or so, the price of the Hitachi has fallen to £159 which pitches it …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 11:02
Citigroup jacks up Yahoo! rating

And social networking gets open API

The likelihood of Microsoft raising its bid for Yahoo! sent its shares up yesterday after a Citigroup analyst upped his rating for Yahoo! shares from "hold" to "buy". The bank believes Microsoft will raise its $31 a share offer for Yahoo! to $34 a share. They are currently changing hands for $28.73, but went up 3.5 per cent …

Financial News 26 Mar 11:24
Samsung shifts 22-vibrate-mode handset

Throbbing technology with lots of useful applications

Samsung has taken touchscreen vibration feedback technology, dubbed Haptic Touch, one step further, by unveiling a phone with no less than 22 different types of vibration. Samsung's AnyCall Haptic SCH-W420 has 22 vibration styles The AnyCall Haptic SCH-W420 gives off different kinds of vibration according to the user’s …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 11:40
Pork and politics energise the biofuel delusion

Comment Costly, counter-productive, eats all your food. What's not to like?

So, hands up everyone who thinks that determined political action is necessary to save us from the perils of climate change. Yes, hold them up for a moment... Whooo, boy, didn't realise there were quite so many deluded people out there. The truth is that politics just doesn't work that way, it's not an efficient system for …

Government 26 Mar 12:12
Ofcom hits green on in-flight calling

EU price caps won't apply 3km up

Ofcom will allow airlines to install GSM base stations on their planes, operating at 1800MHz, as long as they are only used more than 3km from the ground. The regulator has no say over the safety of using a mobile on a plane, but is responsible for deciding what frequencies in-flight calling can use and how much to charge …

Mobile 26 Mar 12:17
Laptop vendors burned in battery plant blaze

HP, Dell and Asus struggle to plug supply hole

Some of the world’s leading computer vendors have admitted that a worldwide shortage of laptop batteries will impact prices, shipments and sales. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Asustek have all grumbled about the dent in the supply chain caused, in part, by a fire at a Korean factory earlier this month where some laptop batteries …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 12:19
UK's biggest meteorite impact rocked Scotland

Prehistoric Ullapool enjoyed 'quite a show'

It's lucky for the good burghers of Ullapool in Scotland that they weren't around 1.2 billion years ago, because it was around then that the biggest meteorite ever to hit the British Isles would have made a bit of a dent in local house prices. That's according to the combined forces of the University of Oxford and the …

Space 26 Mar 13:00
BAA boots Vulture from T5 frequent flyer club

You are not suitable - step this way please

The UK’s Spanish-owned airports monopoly, BAA, has declared The Register an “unsuitable site”, meaning that later on today we can tell you what Terminal 5 looks like, but can’t actually show you. The shock decision was revealed to the Reg this morning, when we asked BAA for some photographs of its shiny new passenger barn …

Public Sector 26 Mar 13:24
Canadians go out clubbing

Annual seal cull provokes annual protests

Canada has declared its annual seal cull - which this year will see off more than 280,000 seals - as "humane, sustainable and responsible", despite protestors' claims to the contrary. Canadians are expected to go out clubbing in force* in the next few days in the Gulf of St Lawrence and around Newfoundland to reduce the 5.5 …

Biology 26 Mar 13:26
UK.gov urged to adopt web-friendly legislation format

'We can't let you parse XML, Dave Cameron'

Digital democracy crusaders at Mysociety.org have won Tory backing for their campaign for legislation to be released in a web-friendly XML-based format. Mysociety MP accountability project TheyWorkForYou.com has launched the public drive after failing to convince parliamentary IT chiefs in private that publishing bills as …

Government 26 Mar 13:32
Army says farewell to UK's 'bugger-off' airbag drone

Droid suicide flotilla wiped itself out in 7 years

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced the formal retirement of its infamous "Phoenix" reconnaissance drone, leaving at least a two-year wait before its partly-British replacement is planned to come into service. Until then, the British forces will use hastily-imported overseas equipment bought under emergency procedures …

Government 26 Mar 13:33
Bladerunner and biometrics: Heathrow T5 unveiled

No bag or being knowingly under-scanned

I felt like Charlie must have done when he glimpsed gold in the Wonka Bar, as I opened my email to see that The Register wanted me to go on an exclusive guided tour of Heathrow's Terminal 5. I'd read a lot about it in the press. It is a "building for a new age" and the public has been clamouring to get into it for years. A …

Policing 26 Mar 13:35
Keyboard PC design recalls Amiga era

All-in-one

Fashion often repeats itself, with dated products reborn into popular products. Just think of VolksWagen’s Beetle or BMW's Mini. And now we can add the Commodore Amiga to the list, sort of, thanks to a new all-in-one PC with a look rather reminiscent of the home computer. Cybernet's Zero-footprint PC (ZPC), as it's curiously …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 13:42
Asus admits big global Eee supply-demand imbalance

Only 30 per cent of customers able to buy one

Asus has claimed that it's only able to sell one Eee PC for around every three people that want one. That's the worldwide supply-demand deficit - in Taiwan, it's able to satisfy 50 per cent of potential Eee customers. The statistic comes from Asus VP Kevin Lin by way of DigiTimes, which focused on Lin's statement that the 8. …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 14:07
Motorola cuts off gangrenous right arm

Mobile division left to fend for itself

Motorola is to split into two companies - one selling infrastructure and networking equipment, the other left to try and sell handsets against increasing competition. The split comes as no great surprise. Motorola has been seeking a buyer for its handset unit for months, and the company's news has long been split between …

Mobile 26 Mar 14:27
Kids brought up by technology not parents, quango claims

Robaux pairs, anyone?

Most children are raised by their parents. Some have even been brought up by animals, she-wolves in particular. However, a report has found that increasingly large numbers of today’s kids are being raised by the web. Research and debate quango the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), today claimed that any young person …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 14:52
Domain hijackers forced to return numeric names

007.nl is taken

Two Dutch companies must return thousands of numeric domain names they got on a first-come-first-served basis from SIDN, the Dutch .nl registry. Numeric domain names are names made up entirely of numbers (eg 1234.nl), or numbers separated by hyphens (eg 12-34.nl). SIDN expected a landrush when it made these domains available …

Telecoms 26 Mar 15:00
iPhone to get haptic feedback, sort of

Haptics - the ability to give users feedback through the sense of touch - aren't officially available for the iPhone yet, but one add-on manufacturer claims a plastic touchscreen overlay is just as good. My Touch Keys: claimed to improve keypad accuracy My Touch Keys (MTK) look like most existing protective plastic …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 15:13
Attackers hose down Microsoft's Jet DB Engine

Cabbages decided no patch needed

Microsoft has admitted that it was first aware of bugs in its Jet Database Engine way back in 2005, but decided not to patch the problems because the software giant thought it had blocked the attack vectors. Mike Reavey, a member of the firm’s security team, said on a blog post late Monday that Microsoft had been told by …

Channel Register 26 Mar 15:13
Boeing faces jumbo problem over US aerial raygun fleet

Airbus A380s with frikkin' lasers on them?

Boeing executives have revealed to reporters that they have worries about their plans to mount America's second nuke-nobbling laser cannon in a pricey new jumbo-jet variant. It seems that the 747 cargo model which will carry the first as-yet-unproven raygun is going out of production, and Boeing wants more cash so as to tackle …

Government 26 Mar 16:17
Premium rate watchdog primes 'Miss Bimbo' probe

PhonepayPlus thinks of the children

The premium rate regulator, PhonepayPlus, will investigate Miss Bimbo, the controversial website for young girls that has been accused of promoting crash dieting and plastic surgery. The virtual fashion game encourages players to become the "hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world". The site falls under …

Mobile 26 Mar 16:21
EU marks Visa's cards for anti-trust probe

Formal proceedings launched

The European Commission is opening formal antitrust proceedings against Visa Europe Limited in connection to how much it charges for cross-border transactions. Visa International was investigated by the Commission over multilateral interchange fees(MIF) in 2002 and exempted when Visa offered to reduce fees from 1.1 per cent to …

Financial News 26 Mar 16:24
World's slimmest 256GB SSD unveiled

Lose pounds, not gigabytes

US manufacturer Super Talent Technology has begun sampling what it claims is the world’s slimmest 256GB offering yet. Super Talent's 256GB SSD: ready for standard laptops The notebook-friendly 2.5in form-factor drive is encased in an aluminium housing measuring 100 x 70 x 12.5mm. 2.5in HDDs that are 12.5mm thick are ten a …

Reg Hardware 26 Mar 16:39
UK to fly the flag for OOXML

Exclusive Source: BSI gives file format thumbs up

The British Standards Institute (BSI) looks set to reverse its position on Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format by approving it as an international standard. A source close to the matter told The Register today that the technical group chaired by Francis Cave and assigned to make recommendations to the policy making …

Channel Register 26 Mar 16:47
BAA grounds Heathrow T5 fingerprinting system

Data protection forces 11th hour climbdown

BAA has been forced to suspend plans to fingerprint domestic travellers at the new Heathrow Terminal 5 after confusion over the legality of the scheme. The suspension of the plan - based around a multi-million biometric system - comes just hours before the building opens to the public tomorrow. The British Airport Authority ( …

Policing 26 Mar 17:04
Sony confirms Son of Connect

Antitrustware, or third time lucky?

Sony BMG has confirmed that it will launch a new music service - just as it's latest tilt at at the market, Sony Connect, closes its doors. CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz confirmed the new initiative on Monday, saying it will give access to the label's catalog for €6-€8 a month. Subscribers may keep some music after terminating the …

Music and Media 26 Mar 18:17
Parallels pads hosting play with ModernGigabyte buy

AntiqueGigabyte already taken

Parallels - the software artist formerly known as SWsoft - has snatched up billing dandy ModernGigabyte in a bid to strengthen the company's products that cater to hosting providers. Parallels gains ModernGigabyte's equally modern ModernBill software that automates a number of the billing jobs associated with the hosting …

Virtualization 26 Mar 19:20
Apple forbids Windows users from installing Safari for Windows

First they mock web security. Then EULAs

After the following story was posted, Apple changed its license to allow Safari for Windows on Windows PCs. At least in part In using Apple Software Update to slip his Safari browser onto millions of Windows PCs, Steve Jobs didn't just undermine "the security of the whole Web". He's made a mockery of end user licensing …

Channel Register 26 Mar 19:31
Atrato unveils super fast SAID storage unit

Cleans up after itself

Storage start-up Atrato is stepping out of the shadows today with its first product; a disk array that does over 11,500 IOPs in random read/writes — and won't need maintenance for up to five years, the company claims. Atrato calls its technology a Self-maintaining Array of Identical Disks (SAID). With write speeds nearing …

Storage 26 Mar 19:43
WiMAX has 'failed miserably'

Aussie pokes WiMAX bubble

Australian wireless carrier Buzz Broadband has shuttered its WiMAX network, describing the technology as a "disaster" that has "failed miserably". Speaking at an international WiMAX conference in Bangkok, Garth Freeman, CEO of Buzz, claimed the technology didn't work indoors more than 2Km from the base station and had latency …

Telecoms 26 Mar 20:09
US Navy sails the open seas

To empower the fleet, our networks must empower Sailors

The US Navy is bored with manufacturer lock-in and wants to buy IT systems based on open standards.only. Speaking this month at the Navy IT conference in Vienna, VA , Vice Admiral Mark Edwards, the 'CIO' of the Navy, declared: “The days of proprietary technology must come to an end,” he said. “We will no longer accept systems …

Public Sector 26 Mar 21:45
Dump IE 6 campaign runs afoul of dump IE 6 campaign

Accusations, denials, tee-shirts

The anger and frustration normally associated with Internet Explorer tends to focus on specific areas: security, stability, and standards. But those feelings have now spilled over into efforts dedicated to "saving" developers from the aging IE version 6. Veteran developer Michael Hudin has accused a group calling itself …

Applications 26 Mar 22:12
Sun's chip boss fertilizes budding Juniper branch

David Yen enters the bush

Juniper Networks is ready to dish details on the hiring of Sun Microsystem's now-former chip chief, David Yen. Earlier this week, El Reg reported that Yen was leaving his spot as head of Sun's microprocessor efforts for an undisclosed position at Juniper. Both companies had brokered a deal not to reveal Yen's transfer until it …

Data Networking 26 Mar 23:22
Bell Canada chokes BitTorrent traffic on someone else's ISP

Rocky VII: The Throttling

On March 14, Bell Canada began throttling peer-to-peer traffic on pipes it rents to third-party ISPs. And it neglected to tell the third-party ISPs. The mega-Canadian telco has been throttling P2P traffic on its own network since October, but this is different matter. One of those third-party ISPs is TekSavvy, a small family- …

Telecoms 26 Mar 23:46
IBM's cloud computer drifts over Georgia and Ohio

Future of admin sanity at stake

According to BusinessWeek's public relations department, IBM and Google have already won the virtualized cloud computing war, discovered a cure for HIV and brought about world peace. Curious then that IBM continues to invest in both virtualization and cloud computing. During "a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Atlanta today," IBM …

Servers 26 Mar 23:47
Rambus wins big in monopoly ding-dong

But must still overturn FTC ruling

Rambus won big in the courtroom today, with a jury deciding the company had properly obtained patents for technology later incorporated into fast memory chip standards. So it's not a cheating monopoly after all, as memory chip makers Hynix, Micron and Nanya had sought to establish in US District Court in San Jose, California. …

Channel Register 26 Mar 23:56