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15th April 2008 Archive

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  • Is SOA getting boring?

    Politics takes over from technology

    At IBM’s annual Impact SOA bash last week, software group head Steve Mills stated that the next frontier for SOA is really not a frontier at all: it’s the basic blocking and tackling of getting Enterprise Service Bus backbones to deliver the high levels of ACID reliability and fault recovery now taken for granted with OLTP …

    Applications 15 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Brown fingerprints wanted as Phorm bungles again

    Comments Read on, dear techie nerds...

    In an effort to calm the European Union's anti-trust concerns, Microsoft has released 14,000 pages of coding secrets. The documentation for the first time publicly shows the underlying protocols for Office 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. It's going to get really fun when the US Supreme Court looks …

    Letters 15 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Canon punts portable printer portfolio

    Take a hike, PIXMA iP90v

    Canon has updated the PIXMA iP90v portable printer with a next-generation model that’s claimed to be equally handy, while producing virtually grain-free prints. Canon's iP100: improved print speed and quality The PIXMA iP100 improves on the iP90v’s 4800 x 1200dpi print resolution to 9600 x 2400dpi. Whereas the earlier model …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 07:49

  • Hitachi updates Wooo TV line with removable storage tech

    HDD and iVDR

    Hitachi has updated its existing Wooo HD TV range with a selection of super-slim models suitable for all your programme recording requirements. The 1080p resolution Wooo UT series comprises 32in, 37in and 42in LCDs, with each set measuring just 35mm from front to back. All of the TVs have a slot for recording shows onto …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 07:57

  • Regulatory compliance 'irrelevant' to security

    PCI DSS credit card 12 commandments standard flawed

    Companies who get hung up on regulatory compliance are developing a false sense of security which leaves them just as open to malware attacks the chief exec of tools vendor Protegrity has warned. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was developed by the major credit card companies as a means to bolster …

    Enterprise Security 15 Apr 2008, 07:59

  • Information watchdog raps Government over access to data

    Health dept under staffed and under performing

    The Department of Health is not dealing with freedom of information (FOI) requests properly because of a lack of staff, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said. The ICO has rebuked the Government department over its FOI behaviour. The Department of Health (DoH) has failed to offer people seeking information the …

    Government 15 Apr 2008, 08:49

  • London borough lost children's data three times

    Twice in pubs

    The London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has revealed that staff have had data on children stolen on three occasions, including twice in pubs. In response to a freedom of information (FoI) application from BBC Radio 5 Live's Donal MacIntyre programme, the borough said a social worker had taken papers including court …

    Government 15 Apr 2008, 08:51

  • Regulator warns of increasing data demands

    Delete those emails

    Competition Commissioner Peter Freeman is warning UK companies to expect more demands for data and a more formal and combative approach to regulation. The regulator made 25 disclosure orders in the year to March compared to just three in the year before. Freeman said the change was to bring them more into line with European …

    Law 15 Apr 2008, 08:53

  • Seagate lawsuit targets solid-state drive maker

    CEO says, 'I told you so.'

    Seagate has fired off its first lawsuit at a maker of solid-state drives since CEO Bill Watkins hinted last month that the company might be forced into taking such action. The target is US-based STEC, a manufacturer of SSDs for big business, the military and aerospace applications. Seagate accuses STEC of infringing four of …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 08:55

  • Germany to get Eee PC 900-like laptop

    Datacask launches sub-notebok

    Little-known German supplier Datacask has begin touting what appears to be a custom Asus Eee PC 900 - this one with a 60GB hard drive on board. Asus' President, Jerry Shen, has said in the past that the company would offer Eees with hard drives in place of solid-state storage, but we should point out that it's not yet clear …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 08:56

  • Penguin goes electronic

    But without the orange covers?

    Pearson, the publishing company that owns Penguin books, will be releasing e-book versions of all Penguin, Dorling Kindersley, and Travel titles from September this year. The launch range of e-books will include Penguin's back catalogue of 5,000 titles, which is already being digitised. The e-book versions will cost the same …

    Music and Media 15 Apr 2008, 09:27

  • CPW broadband targets feel the crunch

    It's the economy, silly

    Carphone Warehouse has disappointed investors by reporting lower than expected broadband connections in the last three months. Its shares tumbled more than eight per cent this morning. The firm attracted 109,000 new punters, well short of the 128,000 that City analysts had decided it ought to be aiming for. Group chairman and …

    Telecoms 15 Apr 2008, 09:29

  • Japanese geeks offered smaller-than-Eee little laptop

    Twee tablet, anyone?

    Japanese laptop maker Kohjinsha has rolled out a pair of Eee PC challengers, taking on the elfin sub-notebook with a pair of similarly sized tablet-style units incorporating 80GB hard drives. Kohjinsha's SA5KXO8AL: watch out, Eee PC Fortunately, neither the SA5KXO8AL and SA5KXO8FL run Windows' Tablet PC Edition - they come …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 09:32

  • Citrix goes storage light with XenDesktop

    Bundle pumping

    Citrix is throwing its hat into the desktop virtualization ring. Okay, we know what you're thinking. Citrix already has a desktop virtulization play. It's done the whole pumping applications out of the data center to the desktop thing for ages. And it has that whole desktop-like kiosk thing going on with XenApp, which used to …

    Virtualization 15 Apr 2008, 10:00

  • The BBC, the UN, and climate bullying

    Andrew's Mailbag Grab an umbrella: it's global wetting, now...

    It's been a fascinating week for climate reporting and the BBC. On Tuesday, an astonished Jeremy Paxman was heard asking Global Warming advocate Chris Rapley on Newsnight to confirm that the Earth's temperature hasn't risen this century. (No, Rapley agreed, it hasn't. But clearly, from the amazed look on his face, nobody had …

    Environment 15 Apr 2008, 10:15

  • Panasonic touts 'world's most efficient' domestic fuel cell

    Every home should have one?

    Panasonic has begun pitching fuel-cell technology as a new way to provide homes with electricity and cut their consumption of mains-sourced power. The company also known as Matsushita said today it will put a home-use polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) system into production in June. It claimed the power pack can run for 40, …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 10:26

  • Computacenter snubs Dell in SME hunt

    Stays in bed with HP

    Computacenter has rejected the possibility of adding Dell to its vendor lineup as it launched a revamped effort to reel in SME customers yesterday. Computacenter e-business director James Pelham-Burn told The Register that the company will continue working with all the “normal vendors” such as HP with whom the reseller has …

    Channel Register 15 Apr 2008, 11:00

  • HTC S730 Windows Mobile smartphone

    Review Does what it says on the tin

    The successor to the S710, the S730 is a dull but hard-working member of the HTC clan. It's neither quite so ubiquitous as its big brother the TyTn II nor quite as fashionable as its sisters Touch, Dual and Cruise. In appearance, the S730 is a pretty run-of-the-mill smartphone, with its traditional keyboard layout; 2.4in, 320 …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • Tesla Motors in dirty-tricks suit against Valley electrocar rival

    Elon Musk to pit style skills against upstart startup

    Electrocar poster-child company Tesla Motors, fresh from internecine boardroom battles last year, is embroiled in a new dispute. The company has mounted a lawsuit against a bodywork design outfit it hired to work on a new model, alleging that proprietary information was stolen and the planned Tesla car deliberately sabotaged in …

    Science 15 Apr 2008, 11:04

  • American Apparel's tags start tracking your pants

    But not with you in them - yet

    Iconic clothing store American Apparel is to start putting radio tags into every item of clothing, tracking it from factory to stockroom to store shelf and possibly beyond. The company has been trialling RFID tags at its New York story for the last few months, attaching tags as items arrived at the store and removing them for …

    IT Director 15 Apr 2008, 11:07

  • Monroe BJ film goes for $1.5m

    JFK on the receiving end? We may never know...

    An unnamed New York businessman has paid $1.5m for a silent, 15 minute black-and-white film of Marilyn Monroe administering oral pleasure - allegedly to John F Kennedy. According to Reuters, the deal between the Manhattan buyer and the son of a dead FBI informant who owned the original copy was brokered by memorabilia …

    Bootnotes 15 Apr 2008, 11:11

  • Pro-Tibet rootkit Trojan poses as cartoon

    Virus writing becomes a new sport for the Beijing games

    Malware writers have passed the baton in the race to take advantage of the Olympics with the second attempt to load malware onto PCs in a week. A movie file circulating on the net that poses as a cartoon ridiculing the effort of a Chinese gymnast at the games, followed by images supporting a free Tibet, has been booby-trapped …

    Malware 15 Apr 2008, 11:21

  • Fasthosts' dedicated servers go titsup

    Updated 'We are working speedily'

    Gaffe-prone web hosting outfit Fasthosts has suffered another major outage today, this time taking down many of its customers' dedicated servers. Multiple Reg readers report that websites and services hosted by the Gloucester outfit went titsup in the early hours of this morning. A status message posted by Fasthosts at 2.59am …

    Telecoms 15 Apr 2008, 11:22

  • Guitar Hero III goes mobile

    Rockin' all over the world

    Rock music has several different forms, such as punk rock, hard rock or god rock. But now mobile rock has been added to that list, now that one developer has ported Guitar Hero III to a range of phones. The mobile version of the hugely popular virtual guitar game, which turns talentless rockstar hopefuls into instant Alice …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 11:31

  • O2 to slash 8GB iPhone pricing tomorrow?

    £100 off

    O2 will cut £100 off the price of the Apple iPhone tomorrow, it has been claimed. Carphone Warehouse is said to be planning to match the move. There's no official confirmation yet, of course. The claim was made today by website Mobile Today. If O2 and CW do knock £100 off the price of the iPhone, taking the handset's price to …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 11:55

  • Nokia waves in near-field phone

    Touch'n'transfer

    The latest 3G handset from Nokia could make device-to-device data transfers even easier, because the phone incorporates near-field communications (NFC) technology. Nokia’s 6212 contains an NFC chip that allows it to share data, such as pictures or business cards, with other NFC-enabled devices simply by touching the two …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 12:01

  • Google offers tools to find victims of child abuse

    Organising the unspeakable

    The US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is adopting custom-made Google technology to combat the sexual abuse of children. Analysts from NCMEC's Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP) have reviewed more than 13m child abuse images and videos as part of their mission to identify and rescue …

    Crime 15 Apr 2008, 12:15

  • O2: We didn't know we were capping 3G data speeds

    It was just a PRovisioning error

    O2 admitted today it has been capping speeds for its 3G customers, but claims that this is all down to a "provisioning error" rather than a deliberate policy of profiling its subscriber base. This would all make more sense if it wasn't a clear reversal of the position it explained to us last week, when it rationalised its …

    Mobile 15 Apr 2008, 12:33

  • Pano Logic gives VMware case of VDS 2.0

    Please hit the virtual desktop button now

    Fledgling desktop virtualization player Pano Logic has found time to dish out a fresh version of its flagship software. The start-up this week disgorged Virtual Desktop Solution (VDS) 2.0, which has a couple of bits and bobs that could make the technology attractive to more customers. In particular, Pano Logic has popped wide …

    Virtualization 15 Apr 2008, 12:34

  • Downing Street removes Labour Party link

    Link removed, no explanation offered

    Downing Street gave its website a quick makeover yesterday after coming under fire for including a link straight to the front page of the Labour Party website calling for support in the local elections. Following a tip from a reader, the Reg rang Downing Street and was told the link was not in breach of political impartiality …

    Government 15 Apr 2008, 12:37

  • Schmidt and Benioff try to rain on Microsoft parade

    Clouds close in on Redmond

    Google’s Eric Schmidt and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff took to the stage at the Four Seasons in San Francisco yesterday to dismiss Microsoft old software biz models at the official launch of Salesforce for Google Apps. As we reported yesterday, Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform has been integrated with …

    Channel Register 15 Apr 2008, 12:40

  • How a pair of American spies created the Soviet Silicon Valley

    Radio Reg Espionage, affairs and PCs: Ahh, Zelenograd

    Few stories in computing history come close to matching the tale of Zelenograd – the Soviet Union's attempt at creating something along the lines of Silicon Valley. Episode 15 of Semi-Coherent Computing recounts the tale of Zelenograd's founding along with the stories of the two US-born Russian spies behind the city. No one …

    Semi-Coherent 15 Apr 2008, 12:54

  • IT depts under threat as City braces for 20,000 job cuts

    Worse than dotcom losses

    The City of London could lose 20,000 jobs in the next two years as the credit crunch starts to bite. As many as 11,000 jobs could be lost this year followed by another 8,200 redundancies in 2009. The number of deals is also expected to fall - mergers and acquistions will drop 26 per cent this year and trading volumes on the …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2008, 13:02

  • Virgin Media mops up CEO's 'boll*cks' outburst

    The BBC knows net neutrality is a bust already, it seems

    Virgin Media (VM) today moved to calm fears that it will start throttling web video from providers who refuse to hand over a levy to deliver their content. A spokesman for the firm said it does not intend to hinder access to content providers who do not pay. Rather, VM could offer content providers deals to upgrade their …

    Telecoms 15 Apr 2008, 14:03

  • Patent holders take 4G pledge of allegiance

    Long Term Evolution love-in

    The owners of the patents underpinning LTE, the fourth generation mobile technology, have agreed to only charge each other "reasonable" licence fees. The companies involved - Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Sony Ericsson - have all agreed to a framework based around fair, …

    Mobile 15 Apr 2008, 14:21

  • Monroe BJ film - world exclusive still

    NSFW Happy birthday, Mr President?

    The news earlier today that a New York businessman stumped $1.5m for a 15 minute film apparently showing Marilyn Monroe administering oral pleasure to JFK provoked a veritable speculationfest as to what exactly the footage contained. It is, therefore, with very great satisfaction that we can now reveal the shocking truth, …

    Bootnotes 15 Apr 2008, 14:51

  • Tesco piles into MP3

    But are there enough 'Paytards'?

    Does Tesco know something the rest of us don't? The supermarket has announced that it's opening an online store of MP3 music, with all 3.3 million tracks DRM-free by the end of the year. Movies and TV shows will follow, says Tesco. It seems odd for two reasons. Firstly, buying digital music isn't a habit that has caught on. …

    Music and Media 15 Apr 2008, 15:10

  • IBM and chums offer wafer-thin 32nm detail

    'Prototyping shuttle' to land in Q3 2008?

    A semiconductor coalition led by IBM said yesterday that OEM customers can now start designing future products around the group’s jointly developed 32 nanometer (nm) microprocessor production technology, but it remained vague on the finer technology details. IBM eagerly claimed that the alliance’s latest chip pumping technology …

    Servers 15 Apr 2008, 15:32

  • Google's cookie crumbles under scripting attack

    Taking the biscuit

    Security researchers have unpicked a flaw in Google spreadsheets that allows cookie stealing. The cross-site scripting vulnerability enables attackers to use stolen cookies to access any Google service a user has registered, including accessing a victim's Google mail account. Google has now plugged the vulnerability, …

    Enterprise Security 15 Apr 2008, 15:42

  • Sun abuses IPTV with Xeons, Opterons, switch and small dog

    Nothing left to flog

    Sun Microsystems continues to go after streaming media types with a shedload of hardware. The company this week refreshed its IPTV package that fits into its Streaming System product line with the latest and greatest silicon from Intel and AMD and an upgraded management package. The updated hardware/software combo can handle …

    Servers 15 Apr 2008, 16:01

  • Official: O2 and Carphone Warehouse to slash 8GB iPhone price

    £100 off

    Carphone Warehouse and O2 have announced that they will each knock £100 off the price of Apple's 8GB iPhone tomorrow, as predicted earlier today. Already own an iPhone? If you bought it from CW in the last 30 days, the company will give you £100 worth of gift vouchers, it said. There's no comparable offer from O2, which also …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 16:26

  • Acer's E-Ten shows latest smartphones

    Taiwanese smartphone company E-Ten has unveiled some of its first handsets since the company was bought by Acer last month. E-Ten’s Glofiish M810 and M750 both look like a cross between earlier Glofiish models, such as the X800, and HTC’s Dual Touch handset – reviewed here. E-Ten's Glofiish M810 looks almost identical to the …

    Reg Hardware 15 Apr 2008, 16:33

  • DNS lords expose netizens to 'poisoning'

    'A dumbfounding mystery'

    More than a decade after serious holes were discovered in the internet's address lookup system, end users remain vulnerable to so-called domain name system cache poisoning, a security researcher has warned. Developers of the software that handles DNS lookups have scrambled to patch buggy code that could allow the attacks, but …

    Security 15 Apr 2008, 19:50

  • Chipzilla counters Wall Street doomsayers

    Updated Holding steady

    Intel reassured jittery market watchers by posting better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and forecasting sales for the current period that could exceed analyst expectations. The report, which contrasted sharply with preliminary results posted last week by AMD, sent shares up 8 percent in after-hours trading. Intel sales …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2008, 21:25

  • Sun promises agenda-free MySQL development agenda

    MySQL User Conference Version 5.1 yearns to be bigger

    MySQL owners past and present opened the annual user's conference to re-assure them Sun Microsystems has no hidden agenda for the open source database. Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz and software executive vice president Rich Green pledged it's not just business as usual for MySQL - they'll also commit Sun's engineering …

    Software 15 Apr 2008, 21:52