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8th April 2008 Archive

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  • Scientology threatens Wikileaks with injunction

    You say 'Bible.' We say 'Advanced Technology'

    The Church of Scientology has acknowledged that Wikileaks is offering the world quick and easy access to the church's top-secret "bibles". Or should that be formerly top-secret? On March 24, the swashbuckling truth-seekers at Wikileaks.org published what they referred to as "the collected secret 'bibles' of Scientology," and …

    Media 8 Apr 2008, 00:59

  • Seagate ships first 1TB HDD of the SAS persuasion

    Server quality auto encryption disks coming too

    Seagate has begun shipping what it says is the world's first 1TB SAS hard drives, as well as the first self-encrypting enterprise-oriented hard drives. The 3.5-inch Barracuda ES.2 HDD series now comes in a serial-attached SCSI interface and 1TB capacity. Seagate estimates the speedier SAS data transfer rate offers an average …

    Storage 8 Apr 2008, 01:01

  • Content management titles at Register Books

    Site offer Get cosy with Joomla

    Managing content is a key issue in any business today, and is becoming more relevant as commerce moves inexorably online. With information, services and assets worth many millions dependent on the management of information, it would be foolhardy to ignore the many content management systems available today. We’ve picked out a …

    Developer 8 Apr 2008, 05:02

  • HP sells cloud vision amidst economic downpour

    Will customers get soaked on transformation journeys?

    Hewlett-Packard has claimed the current financial storm blowing out of the financial sector and into the wider economy doesn't make it a really bad time to launch its cloud computing strategy into Europe. The Palo Alto, California-based firm, traditionally known for its heavy weight hardware and imaging businesses is punting …

    Management 8 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Loudspeaker T-shirt joke turns true

    April Fool no more

    Following the success of the Wi-Fi Detector T-shirt, one online retailer recently tempted next-generation clothing fans with a speaker-equipped shirt, only for it to turn out to be an April Fool gag. But the same retailer now claims it’s putting the T-shirt-cum-ghetto blaster into production following "overwhelming" demand. …

    Hardware 8 Apr 2008, 07:02

  • Oracle scans BEA code for GPL and LGPL

    'Business-friendly' OK

    Oracle is sifting through millions of lines of code in BEA Systems WebLogic and AquaLogic, to check that products are, as claimed free of unwanted open source licenses. The database giant is making sure here's no code licensed under GPL and LGPL that can be downloaded with BEA's middleware. GPL and LGPL are viewed by the …

    Applications 8 Apr 2008, 07:02

  • BT hands top job to Retail chief

    Chairman praises journey from troubled to troubling

    BT has promoted its Retail unit boss Ian Livingston to CEO of the entire group. He'll succeed Ben Verwaayen at the end of May. Livingston has long been seen as CEO-in-waiting at BT. He inherits a company described by BT chairman Sir Michael Rake today as "thriving", but described by a major consumer survey as the worst phone …

    Broadband 8 Apr 2008, 08:38

  • Liverpudlians decapitate Ringo Starr

    Pays the price for dissing home town

    Liverpudlian vigilantes have taken the pruning shears to a topiary representation of Beatles skin-worrier Ringo Starr - apparently in retaliation to his comment that he didn't much miss his native town. According to the Liverpool Daily Post, a green sculpture of the Fab Four outside Liverpool South Parkway station was …

    Bootnotes 8 Apr 2008, 08:42

  • Surrey Satellite to be bought by EADS Astrium

    UK space spinoff joins Eurofighter/Airbus combine

    Britain's flagship space company, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), has announced that it will be acquired by a foreign buyer. The University of Surrey spinout sat maker announced today that it will henceforth be part of EADS Astrium, the space arm of European arms'n'aerospace titan European Aeronautics Defence and …

    Financial News 8 Apr 2008, 08:59

  • Biologists flush out bad breath bug

    Solobacterium moorei - a real stinker

    Biologists say they've identified the bacteria responsible for most cases of bad breath - Solobacterium moorei, which uses the tongue as a base on which to brew its halitosis-provoking fatty acids and malodorous compounds. Two studies helped researchers confirm the findings, Reuters reports. One by the Buffalo School of Dental …

    Science 8 Apr 2008, 09:14

  • HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival

    Updated VIA powered

    HP has launched its attempt to grab a little or a lot of the Asus Eee PC's success, two months after the sub-notebook slipped out onto the web. Pitched primarily at schools, the 2133 Mini-Note PC sports a 'choice' of 7in or 9in display, and is available with SuSE Linux pre-installed. HP's 2133 Mini-Note: 7in or 9in screen? …

    Hardware 8 Apr 2008, 09:33

  • Plans to jail data thieves shelved

    But threat remains

    Plans to jail personal data thieves have been shelved due to a surprise amendment to a proposed new law. The new law will contain a clause threatening jail, but that clause will not be implemented. The two-year jail sentence for people who steal or sell personal information was in the draft of the Criminal Justice and …

    Law 8 Apr 2008, 09:55

  • Fresh blood - the new fight for open source

    Send in the committers

    Meet "Zorro, master of the night". Zorro is a Java developer for a major US bank that makes widespread use of open source software. Zorro is keen to participate in open source projects, too, except for one thing - his employer won't let him. "For me, to contribute back to open source, I'd have to become 'Zorro, master of the …

    Developer 8 Apr 2008, 10:02

  • The trinity of RIA security explained

    Of servers, data and policies

    The phrase "Rich Internet Applications" has become a popular term for applications that run inside your browser or on your desktop and that interact with web applications or web services. RIA platforms include JavaScript (part of the AJAX umbrella), Adobe System's AIR, Microsoft's Silverlight, Java applets, and Java JFX from Sun …

    Applications 8 Apr 2008, 10:02

  • London Olympics drives dash for terrestrial HDTV

    Digital telly group sounds warning against rush job

    The boss of an influential television industry group has cautioned Ofcom and the BBC against rushing the rollout of high definition terrestrial TV, fearing technical blunders. Dermot Nolan, director general of the Digital TV Group (DTG), cautiously welcomed an announcement by the pair last week that they will proceed with …

    Media 8 Apr 2008, 10:03

  • EU demands Google slashes cookie retention times

    Six months is more than enough

    An influential EC policy group, the Article 29 Working Party, is calling on search engines to delete users' cookies within six months - a much shorter period than that typically used by Google, MSN, and Yahoo! Google volunteered to anonymise information held after 18 to 24 months following earlier EC concerns. After further …

    Law 8 Apr 2008, 10:09

  • DAB: The View From the Bubbling Mudbath

    In defence of British digital radio

    These are troubled times for DAB, with the UK's go-it-alone strategy getting a mauling from analysts, the press and from Reg readers. But it's only fair to get the view from inside the industry. Nick Piggott is chief techie at GCap, with a decade's experience in developing and implementing the technology. GCap is the UK's …

    Media 8 Apr 2008, 10:11

  • Phorm admits 'over zealous' editing of Wikipedia article

    Updated Send in the clowns

    Phorm has admitted that it deleted key factual parts of the Wikipedia article about the huge controversy fired by its advertising profiling deals with BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse. The tracking and ad targeting firm said in an email: "We wanted to clarify a number of inaccuracies in the Wikipedia entry on Phorm." …

    Broadband 8 Apr 2008, 10:31

  • Asus avoids Atom to get next Eee PC out early?

    HP has same scheme

    Asus may be working to bring forward the launch of its next Eee PC in a bid to beat rival sub-notebook makers to market, it has been claimed. If so, the Eee PC 900 could appear this month. When the Eee PC 900 was announced in early March, it was said to be scheduled to ship in April. Later, Asus appeared to revise that …

    Hardware 8 Apr 2008, 10:43

  • Xbox 360 'Wii Remote' in development?

    Microsoft keeping mum

    Microsoft is secretly designing a Wii Remote-style motion controller for the Xbox 360, it has been claimed. If it's real, the add-on could appear in stores in time for Christmas. An unnamed developer source has apparently told MTV News that Microsoft’s motion-sensitive controller is designed to replicate all of the Wii Remote’ …

    Games 8 Apr 2008, 10:57

  • Compromised legit sites power hack attacks

    Trust no one

    Surfers are increasingly infected simply by visiting everyday websites with vulnerable PCs due to a change of hacker tactics. Drive by downloads and targeted attacks, rather than internet worms, have become the favourite attack mechanism, according to the latest edition of Symantec's Internet Threat Report, which gives a …

    The Channel 8 Apr 2008, 10:59

  • Apprentice contestant to offer Zeppelin trips above London

    Insert 'you're fired' joke here

    Those seeking to relive the experience of World War I zeppelin crews mounting early bombing raids against London will soon be able to do so, according to reports. Tourist airship flights over the capital are scheduled to begin in June, using vessels manufactured by the company which built the original zeppelins. The Times …

    Science 8 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • Nokia confirms 'iPhone killer' handset in pipeline

    Codename 'Tube'

    Nokia has confirmed that it’s developing a touchscreen-equipped handset to take on the Apple iPhone, and has shown off pictures of the upcoming phone to drooling onlookers. The Finnish giant’s handset is codenamed 'Tube', and Tom Libretto, VP of Forum Nokia, said the device will be the company’s “first touch device”. Libretto …

    Phones 8 Apr 2008, 11:09

  • Toshiba samples Cell-based HD GPU

    PS3-sourced video-oriented chipage

    Toshiba has begun sampling the graphics chip it hopes will beat Nvidia and AMD at the GPU game: the Cell-derived SpursEngine SE1000. Toshiba's SpursEngine SE1000: Oddly named it may be, but the SpursEngine packs in four of Cell's Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores. Cell has up to eight SPEs to handle vector data, …

    Hardware 8 Apr 2008, 11:45

  • Defra moves to protect UK honeybees

    Consultation first step to concrete strategy

    The combined forces of the Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly today announced the first step in formulating a strategy to protect the UK's honeybees - a consultation (pdf) which "sets out a plan for the future direction of work aimed at sustaining the health of honeybees and …

    Science 8 Apr 2008, 11:52

  • Loopy Vista pre-SP1 update fixed with pre-pre-SP1 update

    Known unknowns squared

    Microsoft has today finally begun pumping out a Windows Vista service pack one (SP1) prerequisite update that had been put on ice, following complaints that it threw some computers into endless reboot cycles. In February the company was forced to suspend automatic distribution of its servicing stack update (SSU) KB937287 ahead …

    Software 8 Apr 2008, 12:01

  • US cops taser groom, cuff drunken bride

    A wedding night to remember

    In what appears to have been a dress rehearsal for the forthcoming Croxteth wedding reception of Manchester United leather-botherer Wayne Rooney and squeeze Coleen McLoughlin*, Californian cops last Saturday arrested a pair of newlyweds after their post-hitching party "got out of hand". According to AP, the Vallejo festivities …

    Bootnotes 8 Apr 2008, 12:05

  • Blog bully crows over BBC climate victory

    Emergent Truthiness

    Bullying bloggers are no strangers to online media - especially when they're Single Issue Fanatics (SIF). "They're deeply emotional, they're bullies, and they often don't get out enough," the BBC's Adam Curtis noted here last year. This week, campaigner Jo Abbess is boasting about how she browbeat the BBC into modifying a story …

    Science 8 Apr 2008, 12:07

  • HSBC e-payments system goes titsup (again)

    Calls for compensation from bungling bank

    Merchants are furious at HSBC UK after the bank's e-payments system fell over for an extended period for the second time in less than a fortnight. Retailers using the system have not been able to process transactions since around 5pm (BST) on Monday. Problems with processing credit card payments continued into Tuesday …

    Security 8 Apr 2008, 12:09

  • Icahn wins seat on Motorola board

    Motorola gives it up

    The Motorola board of directors has agreed to give two seats to nominees of activist investor Carl Icahn in exchange for an end to all legal battles between the two. Icahn missed out on winning a board seat in May 2007 but has continued his critical campaign against the company's management. Motorola has already accepted Icahn …

    Mobile 8 Apr 2008, 12:15

  • Is Europe's war on Islamist terror running out of terrorists?

    UK can still find plenty, but the rest seem to be losing interest

    The terror threat to Europe - Islamist or otherwise - may not be all it's cracked up to be, statistics published by Europol this week indicate. Europol, a criminal intelligence support service for European law enforcement agencies, maintains that the Islamist terror threat remains high despite a 22 per cent drop in arrest …

    Law 8 Apr 2008, 12:43

  • Korea's first astronaut heads for ISS

    Historic 10-day gig

    South Korea's first astronaut is en route to the ISS following the successful launch of a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 vehicle from Kazakhstan's Baikonur centre at 17:16 local (11:16 GMT) this morning. Biotechnology engineer Yi So-Yeon, 29 - who's accompanied on "Expedition 17" by Oleg Kononenko, 43, and Sergei Volkov, 34 - will spend …

    Science 8 Apr 2008, 12:44

  • Alienware Area 51 ALX CrossFireX gaming PC

    Review How much does it cost..?!

    How much would you spend on a gaming PC? Alienware hopes the answer is ‘about four grand’. It has delivered a colossal gaming PC with two AMD ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphic cards, but does the machine's performance match its price? We’ll get on to the CrossFireX graphics in just a moment, but let’s start with the cosmetic …

    Hardware 8 Apr 2008, 12:45

  • Doctors confirm 'Wii-itus' is a real condition

    Warning: prolonged gaming may damage your health

    Wii gamers with aching wrists, arms, backs and shoulders could be suffering from acute Wiiitus now that a US man has become the first person to be formally diagnosed with the console-centric condition. According to a report in the medical journal Skeletal Radiology, the 22-year-old began suffering from acute shoulder ache …

    Games 8 Apr 2008, 13:13

  • Tag Heuer handset pictures leaked on web

    About time

    Pictures have emerged of the first mobile handset phone designed for high-end timepiece manufacturer Tag Heuer. Tag Heuer's Meridiist has a 1.9in screen and two-megapixel camera The company announced back in November 2007 that it would be designing its own handset, following in the footsteps of rival fashion houses Prada, …

    Phones 8 Apr 2008, 13:19

  • Naomi Campbell banned from BA flights

    WSA Grounded following T5 rumpus

    Naomi Campbell has been spared future traumatic encounters with Heathrow's Terminal 5 since British Airways has banned her from its flights, the BBC reports. The grounding comes after last week's solid cuffing of the battling Streatham clotheshorse "on suspicion of assaulting a police officer". She was apparently forcibly …

    Bootnotes 8 Apr 2008, 13:28

  • Dongles power 3's data surge

    Mobile broadband's magic stick masterplan

    Maverick mobile operator 3 UK says it's seen a 700 per cent increase in data traffic since it launched its price-busting dongle last October. Average data throughput on the network rose to 1,400 mbit/s by February, a steep ramp from 200mbit/s when the offer was introduced. The dongle is available to pay-as-you-go customers for …

    Mobile 8 Apr 2008, 13:56

  • Adobe stitches units together, circulates fresh blood

    Shake the bottle, wake the drink

    Adobe Systems has consolidated its business units to allow the firm to punt its software for computers, phones and consumer electronics on a single tech platform. The shake-up comes as part of a succession of management changes which include the expected retirement of two of its veteran execs on 1 May this year. Adobe, which …

    The Channel 8 Apr 2008, 14:33

  • Boffin builds sex-selecting email analysis software

    Is it really from Glenda? Or Glen?

    If you've met Glenda in a chat room, but want to make sure she’s not a Glen before a physical meeting, then help is at hand. A Malaysian boffin has developed text analysis software that, she claims, can distinguish between men and women. The software analyses the text within an email, and Professor Dianne Cheong Lee Mei claims …

    Software 8 Apr 2008, 15:14

  • Japanese carrier to test smell-o-vision phone kit

    The handset that gets up your nose

    Would you like to come home to the rich smell of a beef dinner roasting? Or be woken up with the whiff of freshly cut grass? Both could soon be possible, provided the upcoming trial of a odour-outputting mobile phone rig doesn’t get up Japanese consumers' noses. NTT's Mobile Fragrance Communication kit: fragrances from your …

    Phones 8 Apr 2008, 15:24

  • Online spousal spying widespread in the UK

    Who did you text last night?

    One in five married UK couples admit to electronic snooping on their spouses, says a report from Oxford University. The report found that many married partners spy on their partner's emails and text messages. One in eight (13 per cent) confessed to checking on internet history files to monitor sites visited by their better …

    Security 8 Apr 2008, 15:44

  • Jimmy Wales to chair World Economic Forum on the Middle East

    Alongside the Duke of York

    Jimmy Wales is set to co-chair the annual World Economic Forum on the Middle East, an event billed as "the foremost global gathering of political, business and cultural leaders." The Wikipedia co-founder will chair the event alongside Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, chairman of Bahrain's Ithmaar Bank; Mohammed Alshaya, executive …

    Business 8 Apr 2008, 16:20

  • Montalvo's x86 chip struggling to be an x86 chip

    Running out of things to go wrong

    The only thing worse than competing with Intel in the x86 market is competing with a chip that doesn't work quite right. And so the saga of Montalvo Systems continues, according to our information. The internet is littered with Montalvo job postings, seeking help with the bring-up, validation and verification of complex …

    Servers 8 Apr 2008, 17:17

  • Google opens private cloud to coders

    Revs App Engine

    Google has opened its cloud to outside developers. Last night, while eating S'mores at an intimate developer gathering dubbed Campfire One, the world's largest ad broker unveiled App Engine, a free service that lets anyone build and run web apps on Google's very own distributed infrastructure. The cool kids call this cloud …

    Storage 8 Apr 2008, 17:55

  • E-passport security flaw allows remote ID of nationality

    Hi-tech Fagin flaw

    Security researchers have discovered a technique for reliably detecting the presence and nationality of a nearby e-passport. Most newly issued passports carry an embedded RFID containing digitally signed biometric information. Access to this chip is wireless, which introduces a security risk, the possibility that an attacker …

    Government 8 Apr 2008, 18:29

  • Microsoft discloses 14,000 pages of coding secrets

    Tech documentation for all

    Microsoft today lifted the lid on 14,000 pages of sketchy versions of tech documentation for core software code. On show for the first time in public are underlying protocols for Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. This is Microsoft's latest effort to satisfy anti-trust concerns of the European …

    Software 8 Apr 2008, 18:49

  • Verari spins ultra-dense networked storage blade

    Unified NAS/iSCSI appliance with 24TB

    Blade system vendor Verari Systems will soon release a massively dense unified NAS/iSCSI storage blade. Verari's new SB5165XL StorageServer appliance consists of a SB1165 controller blade and up to two 12TB disk blades, for a maximum capacity of 24TB with RAID 6 protection. The 1U vertical blades are built for Verari's …

    Storage 8 Apr 2008, 19:00

  • Microsoft preaches togetherness for online security

    RSA Let's touch people together

    Six years after scrambling to lock down Windows and having challenged security vendors on home turf with Windows Vista, Microsoft is calling for a "dialogue" over online security and privacy. Chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie told RSA Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Initiative has, since 2002, laid the …

    Security 8 Apr 2008, 21:12

  • Cisco to buy Nuova and sell its FCoE switch

    Get rich quick spin-in comes home

    Cisco has revealed what its $70m "spin-in" investment in Nuova Systems has been all about. Nuova and Cisco have co-developed a new series of Fibre Channel over Ethernet switches for the data center. The companies announced the gear today at Cisco's annual Partner Summit in Honolulu. Cisco also said it intends to purchase the …

    Data Networking 8 Apr 2008, 21:27

  • EMC whisks Iomega away from Chinese suitor

    Sprouts consumer brand

    Iomega has dumped its Chinese fiancé and is running away with the richest man in the room. Yes, it's EMC, which last month interrupted Iomega's plans to marry a subsidiary of Great Wall Technology, with an unasked for and spurned offer of $178m. EMC returned a few days later with more dough, about $213m cash, or $3.85 a share …

    Storage 8 Apr 2008, 21:49

  • IBM smacks rivals with 5.0GHz Power6 beast

    Then pours water on them

    The rest of the server world can play with their piddling 2-3GHz chips. IBM, meanwhile, is prepared to deal in the 5GHz realm. The hardware maker has unveiled a Power6-based version of its highest-end Unix server - the Power 595. The box runs on 32 dual-core 5GHz Power6 processors, making it a true performance beast. This big …

    Servers 8 Apr 2008, 22:10

  • IBM offers 4,000 frequent flyer miles per core to abandon HP

    Dump a Superdome. Go to the Bahamas

    Oh, baby. IBM is hitting its "move off HP and Sun" program harder than Amy Winehouse hits a crack pipe. During a launch event today for new Power servers, IBM reminded customers and press again and again and again about its pay-to-port effort. IBM will hand customers up to $4,000 per core if they shift from a rival box to one …

    Servers 8 Apr 2008, 23:05