28th March 2008 Archive

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OpenOffice update released

Targets Microsoft Office

OpenOffice.org has released the latest edition of its open source productivity suite, with refinements to further close the gap on Microsoft and enable migration from MS Office. The OpenOffice.org 2.4 database, Base, now supports MS-Access 2007, while capabilities for MySQL, Oracle JDBC and native HSQL databases have been …

Applications 28 Mar 00:06
Mac is the first to fall in Pwn2Own hack contest

CanSecWest Safari's bad-hair week

A brand-new MacBook Air running a fully patched version of Leopard was the first to fall in a contest that pitted the security of machines running OS X, Vista and Linux. The exploit took less than two minutes to pull off. Charlie Miller, who was the first security researcher to remotely exploit the iPhone, felled the Mac by …

Channel Register 28 Mar 02:20
Comcast admits it can do the impossible

'We will stop busting BitTorrents'

Faced with continued scrutiny from the US Federal Communications Commission, Comcast has agreed to release its choke hold on BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer traffic. It says it will soon adopt an alternative method of controlling upload traffic on its cable-based internet service. This also means that Comcast has …

Telecoms 28 Mar 02:26
Ofcom climbs on Byron bandwagon

We blame the parents

Ofcom has declared it is parents who are going to have to take responsibility for how their children consume digital media, but admits they're going to need help. The regulator has backed several recommendations in yesterday's Byron Review review, entitled Safer Children in a Digital World, including the setting up of a new …

Telecoms 28 Mar 06:02
Open AJAX frameworks not fit for 'power users'

AIR and Silverlight better, says analyst

In a sudden about turn, analysts at Forrester Research have decided AJAX technology is not the best solution to rich Internet applications after all. In a report, Forrester has recommended businesses should resort to vendor-specific platforms such as Adobe Systems' AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight because AJAX can't deliver the …

Applications 28 Mar 06:02
Boffinry bigwig puts another boot into biofuels

All UK farmland would barely run Heathrow

One of Blighty's top chemists appears to be engaged in a crusade against biofuels. Dr Richard Pike, chief of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has said that biofuels are a "dead end" and "extremely inefficient", and that the government was wrong to impose a requirement for 5 per cent biofuel content in motor fuel by 2010. In a …

Environment 28 Mar 07:02
Wombat rape ordeal turns NZ man Australian

Traumatised victim spouts Strine

A NZ man who rang emergency services claiming he'd been left speaking Australian as a result of rape by a wombat has been sentenced to 75 hours' community service, stuff.co.nz reports. Nelson District Court heard earlier this week how on the afternoon of 11 February, 48-year-old orchard worker Arthur Ross Cradock initially …

Bootnotes 28 Mar 09:54
Hounslow health trust blasted for FOI failings

'Totally unacceptable...'

The Information Commissioner's Office has strongly criticised Hounslow Primary Care Trust for failing to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI). Richard Thomas, ICO chief executive, said: "Hounslow PCT's records management is clearly inadequate and its performance in handling this case has been totally …

Government 28 Mar 09:58
Blu-ray 0, SDHC card 1, THX Chief Scientist predicts

In-store downloads, not discs, the future

Blu-ray Disc will never win mass appeal - we'll all be buying out HD movies on Flash cards instead. That, at least, is the verdict of THX Chief Scientist Laurie Fincham. Fincham's comments come by way of UK magazine Home Cinema Choice, relayed by website DVD Town. Says Fincham: "I think it's too late for Blu-ray. I think …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 09:59
Phone loss equals social catastrophe, claims carrier

Lock up your datas

Dropping your iPhone down the lav is bad enough, but losing friends’ numbers and downloaded music could be social suicide. A report by network operator O2 has uncovered that many of us are suffering as a result, simply because we don’t back up our phone content. O2 questioned just over 1000 people, aged between 16 and 44, and …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 10:06
US state outlaws RFID data theft

Card crackers shown red

US legislators are clamping down on the use of RFID technologies to steal personal data as cards using the technology become more ubiquitous. Washington state governor Chris Gregoire this week signed a bill which will make data theft by RFID illegal and punishable with up to 10 years in jail. The bill was signed in response …

Enterprise Security 28 Mar 10:06
Send your loved one's ashes to the Moon for $10k

Lunar memorial flights slated for 2009 lift-off

The US company which last year blasted the remains of Star Trek actor James Doohan on a quick rocket-propelled Earth-orbit jaunt has announced it will be offering an "ashes-to-the-Moon" service as soon as 2009. Prices for Celestis Inc's "Luna Service" start at $9,995 to dispatch a symbolic one gramme of ashes, rising to a cool …

Space 28 Mar 10:08
Asus releases application kit for Eee PC coders

SDK to boost Xandros app list

Asus has posted a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Eee PC, the better to help coders write new programs to run on the elfin laptop's Xandros Linux distribution. The SDK centres on a development environment called Eclipse, and includes TrollTech's Qt for interface design. Asus is also supplying VMWare-compatible code to …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 10:35
HD DVD promo body dissolves itself

Format's life-support facility unplugged

High Definition DVD is officially dead. The HD DVD Promotion Group this week formally dissolved itself, marking the termination of the format. Toshiba's decision to end HD DVD hardware production, announced last month, put the format on life-support. The signals began to slow and fade as the likes of Microsoft, Universal …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 10:51
Next time you go to the loo, bring your locked laptop with you

CanSecWest DaisyDukes brings memory sniffing to the masses

This story was updated on Tuesday 1st April 2008 to correct inaccuracies about DaisyDukes. It works on memory dumps or live memory. At the moment, it is not memory dumper. Building off recent research that showed how to extract encryption keys from a computer's memory, a penetration testing company has unveiled a prototype of a …

Enterprise Security 28 Mar 11:02
Comment judiciously, refactor if needed, avoid the 'f' word

Learn from the shame of Windows 2000

Comments can be abused as easily as any other tool or technique. You know comments - and, indeed, the project - have become dysfunctional when you start to see gripes and swearing, or flames concerning either the code or the individual who wrote the code. When the Windows 2000 source was leaked a few years back the code was, …

Software 28 Mar 11:02
Land Warrior 15lb soldier-smartphone kit lives on

'Hello! What? Map mashup? Jeez Larry, I'm in a firefight'

The US Army's wearable-tech rig for foot soldiers, known as Land Warrior, was officially cancelled by the Pentagon last year. Nonetheless, a single US infantry battalion took the kit to war in Iraq, and Land Warrior has some strong backing on Capitol Hill. Now, reports have it that the programme has won some further funding and …

Government 28 Mar 11:22
Levi's rivets up limited edition handset

Only 100 available

Given the numerous styles of Levi’s jeans currently available, Register Hardware half expected the denim designer’s latest phone to either be ‘skinny’ or ‘engineered’ with that funny twist. Instead, Levi's has updated its existing handset with a limited edition look. Levi's ultra-limited edition handset: new design, same …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 11:38
Snubbed shareholders slam Atos Origin

Rebels demand boardroom sitdown

Atos Origin’s main shareholders have reacted angrily to the firm’s decision to block them from joining its supervisory board. UK-based Centaurus Capital IP and US-based Pardus Capital Management IP, which together hold 21.67 per cent of the French IT services company, have written a letter criticising Atos bosses following the …

Channel Register 28 Mar 12:05
BOFH: Fun with automatic doors

Episode 11 If it can recognise the Boss...

"Really, I thought they'd be right up your alley!" the Boss sniffs disappointedly. "They're just sliding doors!" I comment. "Yes, but they're intelligent sliding doors – they've got scanners and a computer interface and everything!" "That's as may be, but they're not secure doors." "Yes they are, they use face recognition …

BOFH 28 Mar 12:13
Hackers mug gamers in Playstation Store

Pockets purportedly picked, info supposedly swiped

PS3 gamers may have had cash stolen from their online wallets, Sony has warned. They may also have had their passwords changed by hackers and personal information taken, the games giant admitted on Thursday. Sony said it found that hackers might have gained access to its PlayStation Store, a part of the PlayStation Network, …

Crime 28 Mar 12:16
Archos 705 Wi-Fi mobile DVR

Review Except it's not a DVR

While Apple, Samsung, Creative and the like squabble over the mass market for MP3 players, Cowon and Archos have become engaged in a fight for the premium end of the market. The latest shot in this battle is from Archos: the fifth-generation 705 Wi-Fi. On introduction to the 705 your first thought will almost certainly be 'wow …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 12:29
Geert Wilders faces legal threats over footage copyright

Violation adds badness

Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, whose controversial film Fitna finally hit the web yesterday, has made himself even more unpopular - it appears he forgot to secure copyright on footage used in the movie. Danish newspaper cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban sparked violent …

Music and Media 28 Mar 12:43
Can 1,000 fans replace the music business?

Analysis Kevin Kelly's recipe for broken dreams

Californian technology utopian Kevin Kelly says we don't need a music business. Artists can cut record labels, collection societies and distributors out of the loop, he reckons - they only need "One Thousand True Fans”. Economist Will Page picks through Kevin’s rule-of-thumb argument - and finds the math doesn't add up. …

Music and Media 28 Mar 12:50
El Reg reconstructs Heathrow T5 chaos

Fearful scenes of UK's latest titsup

For those of you who are having difficulty fully comprehending the fearful chaos inside Heathrow's new Terminal 5, inaugurated this week amid the kind of anarchy which only BAA can really pull off, we're delighted to offer this afternoon our representation of the scenes inside the building as enraged passengers storm the …

Bootnotes 28 Mar 12:54
Xerox stumps up $670m to settle lawsuit

Cry me a muddy, grey river

Xerox is to pay $670m to settle a securities lawsuit which dates back to 2000, without admitting any wrongdoing. The world’s biggest provider of grey copier boxes said yesterday that it had been granted preliminary court approval to settle the Carlson v. Xerox Corp lawsuit. The case had been brought on behalf of investors who …

Channel Register 28 Mar 13:00
US students, alumni to get legal P2P

Exclusive The beginning of the end of the file-sharing wars?

US colleges and their alumni may be offered the right to P2P file-sharing under one of the most radical copyright reforms in a hundred years, The Register has learned. The amnesty would be part of a "covenant not to sue", covered by a collective licence that offers the right to exchange major label repertory over a …

Music and Media 28 Mar 13:28
MPs pile pressure on ISPs over Phorm

BT's integrity questioned

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, has written to the chairman of BT asking him to explain his firm's secret trial of Phorm's advertising technology last summer. Meanwhile William Hague, the Conservative's shadow foreign secretary, has written to the Department for Business …

Telecoms 28 Mar 13:39
Botanist sues to stop CERN hurling Earth into parallel universe

Hawaiian in lawsuit against particle billiards rig

A lawsuit has been filed in Hawaii in an attempt to hold up the start of operations by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) atom-smasher on the French-Swiss border. A colourful American botanist, teacher, former biologist and sometime physicist says (in outline) that the LHC may rip a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum …

Physics 28 Mar 14:11
Shocking phone patent features heart-start smarts

Stand clear

We’ve all had some shocking news delivered through a mobile phone. But if you’ve got a dodgy ticker, thank your lucky stars that someone’s applied to patent a handset with an integrated defibrillator. A patent application for a mobile phone-cum-defibrillator The application for a “wireless communication device with …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 14:25
Microsoft looks to fix bugs with desktop search

Yet another Vista update

Microsoft has slipped out a new version of its Windows desktop search engine for its Vista operating system to fix bugs with the previous version. The release appeared more than a week after service pack one (SP1) hit the firm’s Windows Update site as a manual download for some Vista peeps. Microsoft said on its Vista team …

Applications 28 Mar 14:27
Internet Archive bestows golden pipes on public housing

Rich in bandwidth

The inventor of the Internet Wayback Machine is delivering free broadband net connections to San Francisco public housing projects, giving residents significantly faster access speeds than anyone else in the city. The Internet Archive - a San Francisco-based not-for-profit famous for recording internets past - has already …

Public Sector 28 Mar 15:13
Sharpcast syncs PCs, Macs and mobiles

Online backup with a syncing feeling

Startup Sharpcast has entered the remote storage battlefield with a new service that backs up data over the internet, and then syncs it across PCs, Macs, and mobiles. SugarSync is an appealing chimera, with pieces of automated backup, folder synching, remote access, cross-platform sharing and mobile phone backup fused into a …

Storage 28 Mar 15:27
Ofcom wins pirate radio components case

Broadcast Warehouse pleads guilty

Two directors of Broadcast Warehouse, the Croydon-based radio supplier, have pleaded guilty to supplying illegal radio equipment at Croydon Magistrates Court. The firm pleaded guilty to the charges after Broadcast Warehouse components were found within transmitters seized by Ofcom from pirate stations. The components failed …

Law 28 Mar 15:30
Want to get into 10 Downing Street? Get a Lithuanian ID card

Fortress Britain foiled again

A serial burglar from Stratford, East London used nothing more complicated than his girlfriend's Lithuanian identity card to get into 10 Downing Street. Obadiah Marius, 44, was freed on a suspended sentence from Southwark Crown Court yesterday, after pleading guilty to burglary over the incident. In June last year he and his …

Government 28 Mar 15:41
Dot Mobile goes titsup

Student-targeted MVNO discovers students have no money

Dot Mobile, an MVNO aimed at students, has been put into administration and its subscribers will be migrated to Vodafone, the company's carrying network since its launch in 2005. A message posted to Dot Mobile's website confirms its slide into financial ignominy. "Your contract of service remains unaffected. [We] will continue …

Mobile 28 Mar 15:58
Nvidia drivers named as lead Vista crash cause in 2007

Lawsuit documents spill beans

Nvidia, not Microsoft, is apparently responsible for the drivers that caused the most Windows Vista crashes last year. That's if documents posted as part of a lawsuit probing PCs' ability to run the new OS are anything to go by. The files in question are a batch of Microsoft emails, available to read in a single PDF here. …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 16:11
3 claims to have squared the circle

Operator reports positive earnings at last

Mobile operator 3 has finally hit a key profit milestone, ending a terrible week for the wireless sector on something like a positive note. In its year-end results 3 said it had turned earnings-positive for the first time. It also relayed a host of other upbeat statistics. "Barring any further unfavourable regulatory or …

Financial News 28 Mar 16:16
Apple to revamp iPod as personal fitness trainer

ITunes me body up

Apple may have an existing exercise product partner, Nike, but several Apple patent applications have sprung-up online describing the company’s designs for a physical fitness system of its own. Apple's exercise software: log-in and get fit The exercise software appears to be based around iTunes and works like a personal …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 16:17
Reviewer puts prototype Nokia N96 to test

Conclusion: stick with your N95

Nokia's N96, the follow up to the popular N95, isn't even out until the summer, but someone's got his hands on a prototype and given it a write-up. The conclusion: don't chuck out your N95 just yet. Nokia's N96: really any better than the N95? The pre-release N96 was picked up by Russian site Mobile Review, and it's really …

Reg Hardware 28 Mar 16:44
EU to probe Nokia NavTeq purchase

Proposed deal 'raises serious doubts'

The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Nokia's plans to buy NavTeq, a US company that produces navigable digital maps. The $8.1bn proposed deal "raises serious doubts with regards to vertical competition concerns", the Commission said in a statement. Nokia is the world market leader in mobile phone …

Financial News 28 Mar 16:58
Microsoft makes final heroic grab for OOXML votes

We're open, come inside

Microsoft has made one last crack at getting its Office Open XML (OOXML) approved as an international standard by reiterating that it won’t sue over future versions of its file format. But it wasn't enough to reassure one UK MP, who has tabled a question in the house on the British Standards Institute's stance on OOXML. The …

Software 28 Mar 17:05
Cross industry AJAX group reaches IE 8 'consensus'

Now for those pesky browser rivals

Microsoft's plans for security and cross-domain communications in Internet Explorer 8 have received qualified support from the cross industry OpenAjax Alliance. Members of the 100-plus group holding their regular monthly meeting apparently reached a "consensus (not unanimity)" on Microsoft's planned cross-domain request (XDR) …

Applications 28 Mar 18:27
Cuba unrestricts mobile phone use

Telecoms power to the people

Cuba has announced that its citizens will within the next few days be able to avail themselves of unrestricted use of mobile phones - the latest liberalisation move by Raul Castro who recently lifted a ban on sales of a raft of consumer goodies including PCs and TVs. According to official party newspaper Granma, Cuban …

Financial News 28 Mar 19:04
EMC eyes video snooping biz

Watching the watchers that watch you

Folks may be tightening their wallets under gray economical times, but the need to keep close tabs on our fellow man is in as great of demand as ever. That's why EMC rolling out a handful of new services to assist customers in linking storage systems to the video surveillance units, card readers, alarms, intrusion detection …

Storage 28 Mar 20:06
Adobe to remove Photoshop pic pimping clause

Freetards rejoice

After complaints from freetards everywhere, Adobe has agreed to revise the photo pimping clause that accompanies its new freetard-friendly Photoshop Express service. Following in the footsteps of Flickr and other online photo sharers that prey on people with an underdeveloped sense of privacy, Adobe's Photoshop Express lets …

Small Biz 28 Mar 20:10
Sun's xVM virtualization wares run red with catch-up

Horrible pun part of ~~Chewbacca~~ Wookey defense

What are we to make of Sun Microsystems' virtualization effort? In the positives camp, we have a major vendor trying to build a real competitor to VMware. That's probably a good thing for the virtualization market since the likes of HP, IBM and Dell appear content to more or less do what VMware, Citrix and Microsoft tell them …

Servers 28 Mar 21:17
Small bird wants SGI to fly in private

Henpecks board over low share value

A major investor in SGI wants to move the infamously fallen server vendor to the relative safety of the private sector. According to a regulatory filing yesterday, Whippoorwill Associates will begin discussions with the company's board of directors and leading stockholders about "unlocking the company's true value," including …

Servers 28 Mar 21:19
Hannaford cc data thieves planted malware on 300 servers

Other retailers may be vulnerable

The data breach at Hannaford, the US grocery chain, which enabled the theft of info on more than 4.2 million credit card accounts was caused by a sophisticated piece of malware that attackers installed in all the company's retail outlets. Installed on more than 300 servers in at least six states, the malware was able to …

Servers 28 Mar 22:39
Best Buy calls copper on unsatisfied shopper

Next time just smile and buy your stuff

A Best Buy store in New Jersey foiled one man's treasonous plot to subvert a troubled US economy by discouraging the purchase of an overpriced headset. According to a report from The Consumerist, the prominent electronics merchant summoned police on a shopper identified as "Alex" because he shared an unfavorable impression of …

Channel Register 28 Mar 23:11