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14th April 2008 Archive

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  • Pro-smoking website redirected to 'baccy free zone

    DNS attack provokes cacophony of hacking coughs

    Hackers attacked the websites of two organisations campaigning against the smoking ban last week, redirecting UK users to the NHS Smokefree site. The attack, which targeted British organisation Freedom2Choose and Forces International, lasted 11 hours. Freedom2Choose webmaster Steven Cross said the redirect appeared to have …

    Security 14 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Dilemma meets opportunity: iPhone beta SDKs in review

    Will you tread the Cupertino path?

    iPhone SDKs are like buses these days, the appear so frequently. Since my introductory piece on iPhone development, Apple has rolled out an initial SDK preview, a second iteration of the SDK (Beta 2) while a third beta followed not long behind. The second beta included the much-anticipated Interface Builder application but Beta …

    Mobile 14 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • BT's 'illegal' 2007 Phorm trial profiled tens of thousands

    Hush-hush advertising experiment redefines 'small scale'

    BT's covert trial of Phorm's ISP adware technology in summer 2007 involved tracking many thousands more customers without their knowledge than previously reported, it's emerged. Erroneous reports earlier this month suggested that a total of 36,000 broadband lines had been eavesdropped upon during the two trials. The Register …

    Broadband 14 Apr 2008, 08:02

  • Sage update fails to convince the markets

    Punished by rumour

    UK accountancy software firm Sage has failed to convince the stock markets that all is well despite issuing a statement saying that it expects results for the half year ended 31 March 2008 to be in line with expectations. Sage shares are down three per cent at the time of writing in a market which is down one per cent. It is …

    The Channel 14 Apr 2008, 08:50

  • The missing five-minute Linux manual for morons

    Stob Resista the Vista

    It is time to wake up and smell the elephant in the room. Vista is struggling to achieve escape velocity. Microsoft finds itself the butt of an international joke, but does not seem able to get a grip. The issue of choice of platform is once more up for grabs. Of course there is an alternative; a popular computing platform …

    Software 14 Apr 2008, 09:02

  • Dubai impounds cable slicing ships

    Satellite images used to ID Gulf cable miscreants

    Two ships whose anchors damaged an undersea cable in the Gulf have been traced by the cable operating company using satellite imagery. The owners of one vessel have paid compensation for the damage caused, and the second remains impounded by Dubai port authorities. The Hindu of India (where cable company Reliance is …

    Broadband 14 Apr 2008, 10:02

  • BBC technology chief bounces on to Project Kangaroo

    ISPs: 'Don't forget to write'

    Ashley Highfield, the BBC's chief technology executive, is to quit the corporation to take the helm at Project Kangaroo, the cross-broadcaster internet TV venture. It turns out that his "get stuffed" to ISPs is a parting shot of his reign as director of future media and technology. Project Kangaroo, which will offer TV catch- …

    Broadband 14 Apr 2008, 10:04

  • IT culture and biz performance - click here for enlightenment

    RegCast Free insights from our expert panel

    Our new RegCast - the snappily-named Strategic Role of IT Culture in Business Performance - is fit and ready for human consumption, right here, right now. Despite the unprepossessing title, this Flash video presentation is packed with expert insights, kicking off with our man Tim Phillips in the chair introducing Freeform …

    Tech Panel 14 Apr 2008, 10:46

  • Sharp unwraps 'world first' Intel Atom phone

    Runs Windows Vista

    Chip giant Intel doesn't reckon its Atom chip family will be ready for mobile phones until 2009-2010, but that hasn't stopped Japanese carrier Willcom punting an Atom-based handset - the first if its kind, the company claimed. The D4: made by Sharp, sold by Willcom, powered by Intel The Sharp-made D4 uses Intel's Centrino …

    Phones 14 Apr 2008, 10:53

  • Google App Engine: how much will you pay for freedom?

    Beware geeks bearing gifts

    Google is offering to host your web apps for free: You can create an account and publish an application that people can use right away at no charge, and with no obligation. An application on a free account can use up to 500MB of storage and up to five million page views a month. What's an application? It's a runtime for …

    Software 14 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 mobile 'Penryn' processor

    Review Rock updates its X770 laptop with the latest mainstream mobile CPU

    We started the year with a review of a Rock X770 gaming laptop. We used the machine to look at the Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chip, but it's time to look at the processor, now upgraded to Intel's 45nm mobile Core 2 Duo T9500. Rock's Xtreme X770: now with Penryn The X770 we looked at before came with a 2.6GHz, 65nm …

    Hardware 14 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • Database Trojan infests pro-Tibet websites

    Chinese whispers

    Security researchers have unearthed more details about a Trojan that targets backend databases as well as desktop clients. The Fribet Trojan has been planted on pro-Tibet websites, possibly using a Vector Markup Language flaw (MS07-004) patched by Microsoft early last year. When visitors to the pro-Tibet websites are infected …

    Security 14 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • LG punts Viewty-like PMP

    A Touch Me in disguise?

    LG has taken a break from designing phones to launch a handset-lookalike portable media player, the T80. LG's T80 PMP: a Touch Me successor? The PMP looks very similar to LG’s Viewty handset - reviewed here - although the T80 is no phone. LG may also have designed the T80 as a replacement to the Touch Me PMP, which was …

    Hardware 14 Apr 2008, 11:08

  • Google and Salesforce snuggle up with biz apps

    Hopes to deliver Microsoft smackdown

    Google and Salesforce.com are exchanging Web 2.0 friendship bands today, forging a closer relationship in the hope of directly threatening their nemesis in customer management and office software: Microsoft. Following weeks of speculation, the firms will make an announcement outlining details of the deal later today. According …

    Applications 14 Apr 2008, 11:18

  • IBM wants to get youngsters hooked on Power

    'We're hip'

    IBM's Power server evolution will continue through hipness and experimentation. Many customers out there think of IBM as a stodgy venerable computing powerhouse. The notion that "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" plays well in the corporate data centers that most Power processor-based servers call home. It plays less well …

    Servers 14 Apr 2008, 11:24

  • Australia giving snoop powers to employers

    No consent needed for reading staff emails

    The Australian government is considering extending email snooping powers currently restricted to security services to all employers. Using the usual canard of terrorism, Australia's deputy prime minister Julia Gillard said today the government was considering giving employers the right to snoop on staff emails without consent …

    Government 14 Apr 2008, 11:28

  • Nintendo preparing DS Lite update, pundit claims

    Rumours hot up

    Nintendo's DS Lite handheld console is ready for replacement by a third-generation model, a Japanese games industry exec has claimed. Hirokazu Hamamura, president of games-magazine publisher Enterbrain, last week forecast that Nintendo will announce an updated DS at this year’s E3 gaming conference, which takes place in July …

    Games 14 Apr 2008, 11:32

  • Toshiba reveals R500 sub-notebook with 128GB SSD

    Keeps mum on the price, though...

    Toshiba has extended its Portégé R500 sub-notebook family with a pair of new models that both pack in 128GB of solid-state storage. The R500-12P and R500-12Q are both based on Intel's 1.33GHz ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo U7700 processor, 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory and said 128GB SSD. Both squeeze a multi-format DVD writer into …

    Hardware 14 Apr 2008, 12:11

  • Terror on an Olympian scale

    Book extract Headspace: Looking for Western values in Kensington

    Headspace is Reg contributor Amber Marks's exploration of how the state and private sectors are trying to exploit the science of smell to watch and control citizens. The book is published by Virgin Books and is available here. This week, in Chapter 20, Eden Olympia, Amber attends a conference dubbed Building a Secure World, …

    Government 14 Apr 2008, 12:28

  • Adobe zooms in on film industry with CinemaDNG

    Wants open format adopted as standard

    Adobe Systems today revealed plans for an open video format which it plans to hand over to a standards body. The California-based firm said it wants to lead the pack on defining an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files by leveraging its Digital Negative Specification (DNG), first used for still images. It …

    Applications 14 Apr 2008, 13:02

  • Asus spills Nvidia's nForce 780a beans

    Unannounced AMD-oriented chipset slips out

    A little bird tells us Nvidia is going to tell the world about its AMD-oriented nForce 780a chipset at the end of this month, but if you can't wait, Asus has posted details of its 780a-based mobo on its website. The M3N-HT Deluxe Mempipe - so called because the cooling system runs heatpipes over the board's Ram - is based on …

    Hardware 14 Apr 2008, 13:09

  • Canada.gov blocks sale of space company to US

    Wants to keep timeshare rights on Arctic spy-sat

    The Canadian government has stepped in to block the sale to America of a company which owns and operates a key surveillance satellite. The move will also safeguard Canada's space robotics technology, for which US space agency NASA says the nation is "world renowned". CBC reports that the proposed $1.3bn deal under which the …

    Government 14 Apr 2008, 13:15

  • Blockbuster bids for Circuit City

    Struggler + struggler = ?

    Struggling retail chain Blockbuster has offered more than $1bn for struggling retail chain Circuit City. The video rental outfit made the bid public today in an attempt to hurry a deal along. Blockbuster said it wrote to the Circuit City board on 17 February, but has not received the information it requested: "Unfortunately, …

    The Channel 14 Apr 2008, 13:16

  • Preatoni breaks silence over Telecom Italia spying probe

    'Nobody will ever be able to picture it completely right'

    High profile security industry personality Roberto Preatoni has spoken for the first time about his arrest by Italian police investigating an ongoing spying scandal involving Telecom Italia. Preatoni, founder of controversial security start-up WabiSabiLabi and defacement archive Zone-H, was arrested last November on suspicion …

    Government 14 Apr 2008, 13:31

  • All because the lady loves... er... memory cards

    Mirror shine, USB interface

    Storage has finally been given a feminine touch, with the introduction of an MMC/SDHC card reader and integrated compact mirror. The USB Mirror Card Reader: makes storage look good? As bizarre as it sounds, the USB Mirror Card Reader actually allows you to check that your hair and make-up are still sitting perfectly as you …

    Hardware 14 Apr 2008, 14:20

  • Home Office won't appeal immigration ruling

    Accepts defeat over skilled migrants switcheroo

    The Home Office will not appeal last week's High Court decision which found its attempt to backdate changes to immigration rules for highly-skilled individuals was illegal. In November 2006 the UK began moving to a points based immigration system but the Home Office wanted to effectively backdate this - so anyone living and …

    Government 14 Apr 2008, 14:37

  • Nokia admits DVB-H still not taking off

    Is TV still mobile if no one sees it fail?

    Nokia's head of internet services has admitted DVB-H isn't taking off in the way the firm had hoped, and that customers seem more interested in downloading content than watching broadcasts. Niklas Savander told a conference in Helsinki: "We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, …

    Mobile 14 Apr 2008, 14:53

  • High Court quashes decision to release secret ID card reports

    Decision must now be re-assessed

    The High Court has quashed an Information Tribunal ruling ordering the release of independent reviews of the Government's controversial identity card scheme. The freedom of information case must now be re-assessed by a new Tribunal, the Court said. The massive project is subject to periodic independent reviews of progress, …

    Law 14 Apr 2008, 15:03

  • Scientist who named the black hole dies aged 96

    Famous boffin was 'last of the physics superheroes'

    Legendary American physicist John Wheeler, who coined the term "black hole", helped build the first generations of US atomic bombs, and worked with some of the most fabled names in 20th century physics, has died. The famous professor passed away from pneumonia at his home in New Jersey, aged 96. Wheeler was described by Max …

    Science 14 Apr 2008, 15:31

  • Wii can conduct an orchestra too

    Like Guitar Hero only more arty

    If rocking out with Guitar Hero isn’t your forte, then how would you like to conduct your own classical orchestra? It’s now possible thanks to the creation of a 'virtual maestro' game. The Wii title was created by banking giant UBS as a promotional tool, according to the Associated Press. The game allows the company's would-be …

    Games 14 Apr 2008, 16:51

  • Google crawls The Invisible Web

    Bots infiltrate forms

    As part of an ongoing effort to index the so-called Invisible Web, Google's automated crawlers are now toying with HTML forms. But only on certain "high-quality sites." "In the past few months we have been exploring some HTML forms to try to discover new web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn't find and index for users …

    Applications 14 Apr 2008, 19:08

  • (New) dirt-cheap bots attack Hotmail Captchas

    Captcha catching grows up

    UK researchers have devised a novel and inexpensive way of cracking Microsoft's Windows Live Captchas with a success rate of more than 60 percent, a finding that further exposes weaknesses in a key measure designed to keep miscreants from infiltrating free online services. In a paper (PDF) published Monday, Jeff Yan and Ahmad …

    Security 14 Apr 2008, 19:34

  • Security experts warn against Web 2.0 charlatans and 'premature AJAXulation'

    RSA Old-school threats to rushed migration

    Forget a wave of Web 2.0 threats taking down your software, stealing your data or exposing users - the real danger is posed by some existing attack techniques. And it's IT charlatans peddling over-night AJAX solutions that'll leave you vulnerable. Two security experts from Microsoft and Hewlett Packard have warned against " …

    Security 14 Apr 2008, 20:55

  • CodeGear's Delphi PHP suite gets nip and tuck job

    What's in a name?

    Borland Software's CodeGear subsidiary has refined its PHP development environment, Delphi for PHP. The tool continues to be associated with the older Delphi suite that helped make Borland's name. Delphi for PHP 2.0 features a number of changes designed to build on the Delphi reputation for rapid-application development. These …

    Applications 14 Apr 2008, 21:16

  • New York lawmakers approve 'Amazon Tax'

    'A radical departure'

    The New York legislature has approved an ingenious new law that would force Amazon and other big-name online retailers to collect sales tax on all goods shipped to the Empire State. Last week, the State Legislature approved a $122bn budget, and $50m of that would come from e-tailers who don't maintain New York warehouses or …

    Small Biz 14 Apr 2008, 21:52

  • UK's most popular Wi-Fi router defaults to insecurity

    Come and get it

    From the folks at security think tank GNUCitizen comes yet another demonstration of the insecurity that's present by default in the UK's most popular home broadband router. By default, the BT Home Hub, which is manufactured by Thomson/Alcatel, uses a weak algorithm to generate keys used for locking down a Wi-Fi network. So …

    Security 14 Apr 2008, 23:41