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18th April 2008 Archive

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  • Google earnings soar despite paid click dip

    Take that, Doubting Thomases

    Google has stuck it to the naysayers by reporting higher-than-expected earnings - even as the weakening US economy and research showing a slowdown in ad clicks raised doubts about the search king's continued prospects. Shares, which have declined about 35 per cent this year, rose 17 per cent following the report. The Mountain …

    Financial News 18 Apr 2008, 03:42

  • Coupling and the power of accidental relationships

    Book extract, part three Emergent Design: break point

    In the third extract from his book, Emergent Design: The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development published by Addison Wesley, Scott Bain tackles the complex issue of coupling, and looks at how unnecessary complexity can be injected through accidental or bad coupling. Coupling is a general term that describes …

    Software 18 Apr 2008, 06:02

  • Cheapo textable landline numbers for all

    Executive Brainstorm declares thumb war

    I've been at the Telco 2.0 "Executive Brainstorm" this week. It's where British telco strategy executives brainstorm about how they can turn these slow-moving, bovine beasts around to create new markets and revenue opportunities. And so, with perfect timing, up pops a new service that illustrates how the telcos' stupidity allows …

    Mobile 18 Apr 2008, 07:08

  • FCC chief claims power over network management

    Left Coast Comcast Hearing Vows rescue of coders and consumers

    US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin wants everyone to know his agency has all the power it needs to regulate the likes of Comcast. "The commission will be vigilant in monitoring the broadband marketplace and protecting consumers' access to the internet content of their choice," Martin said this afternoon …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 07:15

  • Pissed Russian sleeps off knifing

    Missus finally spots 6-inch hangover

    A Russian electrician who was stabbed by a workmate during a robust after-work booze session was unaware he had a six-inch kitchen knife in his back until his missus alerted him to the fact - by which time he'd crashed out for a bit, got a bus home, had some breakfast and collapsed back into bed. Yuri Lyalin, 53, from the …

    Bootnotes 18 Apr 2008, 08:40

  • Choose and Book mixes up patient appointments

    Neither chosen nor booked

    The NHS hospital booking service has sent up to 340 patients incorrect appointment data, delaying a software upgrade. According to Connecting for Health (CfH), the agency in charge of the NHS National Programme for IT, a system error led to some patients receiving other people's appointment details. It said the error is still …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 09:03

  • eBay ponders Skype bail out

    Implementing buy high, sell low strategy

    eBay is considering flogging off Skype, the VoIP provider it paid $2.6bn for in 2005. The auction house has already written off $1.4bn relating to the purchase. It has failed to integrate the technology into its core auction business, and although Skype continues to pick up users, it is still struggling to find a way to make …

    Financial News 18 Apr 2008, 09:22

  • UK consumers lose £6.6bn a year to unfair treatment

    Telecoms and banking firms - the biggest culprits

    British consumers are being cheated out of £6.6bn a year by unfair treatment from business, with telecommunications and personal banking topping the list of problem areas, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said. OFT research found that more than one in two of the 10,000 consumers surveyed had suffered some kind of consumer …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 09:41

  • AMD's Q1 loss comes in as planned

    Puts faith in quad-core Opterons

    Chipmaker AMD posted its sixth consecutive loss yesterday, for the first quarter of 2008. The firm brought in revenues of $1.51bn, but made a net loss of $358m and an operating loss of $264m. The loss comes as no surprise - AMD said earlier in the month that it would cut one in ten jobs after suffering from falling sales …

    Financial News 18 Apr 2008, 09:49

  • Cow turds fuel Blighty's hydrogen filling station embrace

    Birmingham Uni fills up on brown gas

    Britain is about to get a new wave of hydrogen filling stations, allowing those few organisations and individuals in possession of hydrogen vehicles to top them up. According to the Times, "Britain's first hydrogen fuel station" opened yesterday. But, in fact, Blighty has previously had hydrogen stations - they just didn't …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 10:04

  • Nvidia preps rival for AMD's Radeon HD 3830

    GeForce 9600 GSO, anyone?

    Nvidia will next month roll out the GeForce 9600 GSO, it has been claimed by graphics card maker moles. The 'G92'-based GSO is set to go up against AMD's ATI Radeon HD 3830, an 'RV670'-based part which is believed to be due for launch later this month. So far, no detailed 9600 GSO specs have emerged, but the 3830 is said to …

    Reg Hardware 18 Apr 2008, 10:07

  • Price cut fails to push Xbox 360 past PS3 in UK

    Exclusive And Wii still well ahead of both

    Microsoft this week claimed to have more doubled the Xbox 360’s European sales thanks to its recent price cut, but that still hasn’t been sufficient to put it ahead of the PlayStation 3 or the Wii in the UK. The software giant made the bold sales claim yesterday, a month after the price cut came into effect. On 14 March, up to …

    Reg Hardware 18 Apr 2008, 10:59

  • MySpace profile hack provides early warning to predators

    Unplugged 'system error'

    A security issue on MySpace may put a spanner in the works of law-enforcement efforts to track miscreants using the social networking site. Many MySpace profiles contain code that subscribes visitors to a profile's video channel. Normally this is all well and good, but hackers are able to subvert the feature for filthy …

    Crime 18 Apr 2008, 11:00

  • Sony Ericsson K660i internet phone

    Review Designed for surfing

    It may not be as eye-catching as a Walkman music mobile or a Cyber-shot cameraphone, the K660i's web-focused features may grab another type of user in a similar way, Sony Ericsson hopes. The candybar K660i is SE's first mid-tier handset to be marketed specifically for its online-friendliness, and it features a set of …

    Reg Hardware 18 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • BOFH: Licensing model

    Episode 14 I'd strongly recommend an upgrade to Platinum support

    So the Boss had sensed a touch of animosity between us and one of our main software vendors after a recent bill and decided to grab the bull by the horns and invite them in to press-the-flesh and explain the new charging model they applied to us - without notice. Apparently, their reasoning ends up being that the new …

    BOFH 18 Apr 2008, 11:02

  • El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

    Our snapper captures London bacchanalian excess

    We're delighted to report that El Reg earlier this week celebrated its tenth anniversary as a daily publication with a right royal piss-up in the very Central London hostelry where the world's favourite IT website was born. We cannot, for state security reasons, name the location in question, but our official snapper was on …

    Bootnotes 18 Apr 2008, 11:17

  • IBM continues storage land grab with Diligent acquisition

    Gets EMC's old R&D hands

    Big Blue has made yet another storage buy, this time scooping up privately-held Diligent Technologies for an undisclosed sum, although rumors peg the price at $200m. The company, which has in recent months been on a considerable storage spending spree, said today that the Framingham, Massachusetts and Tel Aviv, Israel-based de- …

    Storage 18 Apr 2008, 11:20

  • Samsung chairman faces tax dodging charges

    Escapes jail to protect economy

    The chairman of Samsung will be prosecuted for allegedly hiding millions of dollars to avoid paying taxes, South Korean authorities have announced. Lee Kun-hee and nine other senior executives were formally accused yesterday of concealing the cash in employee stock accounts, according to The New York Times. Special prosecutor …

    Financial News 18 Apr 2008, 11:52

  • Avnet sees blue skies with Horizon buy

    Irish reseller falls into line

    Irish reseller Horizon Technology has agreed a recommended cash offer from IT distie Avnet, valuing the firm at €101.3m. The proposed merger follows months of buy-out speculation. In March, Horizon admitted it was in talks with a possible buyer. Horizon offers a bit of everything to the channel set from hardware and software …

    Channel Register 18 Apr 2008, 11:58

  • US gov may forbid BAE Eurofighter sale to Saudis

    Brit kit contains significant US tech. Whoops

    A controversial British deal to supply Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia may have hit an obstacle. It appears that the Eurofighter - long touted as proof that the UK and its continental partners can make serious combat kit without American help - actually contains significant amounts of US technology, and that Washington may not …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 12:20

  • Mystery HDD maker orders kit to build monster-capacity drives

    Patterned-media mass-production equipment ordered

    Hard drives could experience a massive increase in capacity next year now that a "major" HDD maker has placed an order for equipment to mass-produce 'patterned media' drives. Earlier this week, Malmö, Sweden-based fabrication-equipment maker Obducat announced it had reached an agreement with "a major player in th HDD industry …

    Reg Hardware 18 Apr 2008, 12:27

  • Japan: Wii Mario Kart more popular than PSP erotica

    Only My Fruit comes second

    A claim that Wii game Mario Kart has been outsold by a breast-baring erotic videogame in Japan have been overinflated, recent sales figures. Bokudake no Kajitsu: not for the kids Several websites this week claimed that the PSP smutware Bokudake no Kajitsu - which translates as Only My Fruit - has been selling in greater …

    Reg Hardware 18 Apr 2008, 12:49

  • F1 chief seeks French ban on orgy video

    Bonne chance mon brave

    Formula One boss Max Mosley is seeking a French ban on the video footage showing him engaging in unsavoury activities with five prostitutes. The footage was published on so many websites that a UK judge ruled such a ban would have no practical difference because it had already been widely distributed. The film was briefly …

    Music and Media 18 Apr 2008, 13:06

  • Blockbuster gets legal poke for Facebook Tupperware campaign

    Beacon Borking

    A woman in Texas is sueing Blockbuster for using Facebook's controversial "Beacon" advertising system to reveal to her friends which movies she rented. Cathryn Elaine Harris' suit, filed 9 April, claims the video rental outfit breached the federal Video Privacy Protection Act when it participated in Beacon. She is seeking …

    Music and Media 18 Apr 2008, 13:14

  • Malodorous Europe gasses UK

    Met Office probes offensive 'Euro-whiff'

    The Met Office has firmly pinned the blame for the foul stench hanging over the south of England - dubbed "Euro-whiff" - on our continental cousins, the BBC reports. Blighty is usually favoured by fragrant westerly breezes from the Atlantic, but an offending smell has over the past few days been carried by easterly winds …

    Bootnotes 18 Apr 2008, 13:45

  • Ofcom lifts the lid on L-band bidders

    Who wants a piece of spectrum pie?

    UK regulator Ofcom has published the list of approved bidders for the forthcoming L-Band spectrum. L-Band fits between 1452 and 1492MHz, and Ofcom has decided to split the band into 16 small lots, 1.7MHz wide each, and one big chunk (at the top of the range) of 12.5MHz across. We can't tell who's planning to bid for what, but …

    Mobile 18 Apr 2008, 14:15

  • eBay software faker jailed for ten months

    A++ sentence! Would use judge again!

    A UK eBay scammer has been jailed for flogging £46,000 of counterfeit software on the world's favourite online tat bazaar. John Mark Humphries, 41, of West Ewell, Surrey, operated a home CD burning factory to produce counterfeit Microsoft, Symantec, and Sage software over two and a half years. He was sentenced to 10 months …

    Channel Register 18 Apr 2008, 14:21

  • Motorola remodels mobile division

    Blame pulled from operational flowchart

    Motorola is sprucing up its neglected devices division to make it more attractive to investors. An internal memo sent out this week outlined the changes to employees - including the appointment of Rob Shaddock as head of consumer products and Bruce Brda as head of worldwide sales and operations. The reorganisation involves …

    Mobile 18 Apr 2008, 14:41

  • Microsoft buys travel search site

    Pays real money

    Microsoft has bought Farecast - a travel search site which finds flights for you and, if you're flying from some US cities, can also tell you if the price is likely to go up or down in future. Farecast has worked with MSN since 2007, but a three line blogpost from president and CEO Hugh Crean yesterday revealed it had gone to …

    Financial News 18 Apr 2008, 15:05

  • DARPA in search for five-year-mission solar wingship

    'Vulture' Enterprise-style stratocruiser compo is go

    The Pentagon's blue-sky technology office has finally announced the three contenders who will take forward its Vulture project. Counter intuitively, the plan involves no thirsty technology scribblers, nor even shy paparazzi. Rather, the idea is to build a remarkable machine which could do away with the need for certain …

    Government 18 Apr 2008, 15:14

  • Ballmer bitch slaps Vista

    Confesses to Vista's bloat and imperfections

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted that Windows Vista is an incomplete product, even though the operating system has been on the market for more than a year. Speaking at the firm's annual Most Valuable Professionals event in Seattle yesterday, Big Steve told the gathered crowd that the unloved OS was "a work in progress …

    Operating Systems 18 Apr 2008, 15:14

  • You'll learn to love mobile TV

    Comment Or the kitten dies

    Prophets predict the mobile phone will kill the fixed line and the internet will kill newspapers. What usually happens is the old systems shuffle up to make space. Nothing dies. Television didn't kill cinema, cinema didn't kill theatres. The internet means newspapers carry less advertising and some things, like stock prices, …

    Mobile 18 Apr 2008, 15:21

  • Nimbus-led alliance hopes to big up 10Gb Ethernet

    Switch and adapt

    A number of big name IP networking vendors teamed up earlier this week to create a new Nimbus-led partnership to raise awareness of 10Gbit/sec Ethernet. The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance is made up of switch manufacturers Arastra Inc, Force10 Networks Inc, Fulcrum Microsystems Inc, Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc …

    Storage 18 Apr 2008, 16:21

  • Warning sounded on Microsoft and Google's health records landgrab

    Dr Ballmer will market you now

    Two leading proponents of electronic health records have urged regulators and governments to wake up to Microsoft and Google's growing interest in storing medical information. Dr Kenneth Mandl and Dr Isaac Kohane write in the New England Journal of Medicine that the entry of tech behemoths to the healthcare market will bring " …

    Law 18 Apr 2008, 16:25

  • Apple gets (slightly) less sneaky with Windows Safari play

    Mozilla still peeved

    Apple has updated Apple Software Update, giving iTunes and Quicktime users (a bit) more notice before slipping Safari onto their Windows machines. But Mozilla is still peeved. In mid-March, Steve Jobs unveiled Safari 3.1, and to celebrate, he started offering the new browser to Windows users via the software updater that …

    Applications 18 Apr 2008, 17:47

  • Windows Server 2008 is better than Vista, but why?

    Juice your desktop with Server

    IT infrastructure veteran Mark Wilson asks: It seems that, wherever you look, Windows Server 2008 is almost universally acclaimed. And rightly so - I believe that it is a fantastic operating system release (let's face it, Windows Server 2003 and R2 were very good, too) and is packed full of features that have the potential to …

    Servers 18 Apr 2008, 18:17

  • AT&T waves goodbye to 4,600 staffers

    Home phone? Go home

    AT&T is sacking 4,650 staffers, about 1.5 per cent of its 310,000-strong workforce. Wearing the pink slips, mostly, are managers in the home landline business who don't talk to customers. The born again telecoms monopoly thinks it has too many Morlocks on the payroll, following the reunification of three baby Bells: SBC, AT&T …

    Telecoms 18 Apr 2008, 19:18

  • 'Rowdy' rectal extraction op vid hits YouTube

    Filipino docs may regret 'Baby out!' spray canister merriment

    Hospital authorities in the Philippines are none too pleased with three doctors and a nurse who extracted a 15cm spray canister from a male patient's rectum in a "rowdy" operation, footage of which subsequently popped up in three-minute video on YouTube Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has ordered an investigation into the …

    Bootnotes 18 Apr 2008, 19:19

  • Notorious eBay hacker arrested in Romania

    Vladuz impaled

    Vladuz, the notorious hacker who repeatedly accessed off-limits parts of eBay's network and then publicly bragged about it, has been arrested, the online auctioneer says. The hacker was arrested by Romanian law enforcement officials with the help of the US Secret Service, the FBI and eBay's global fraud investigation team, …

    Crime 18 Apr 2008, 19:26

  • Commodore goes titsup (again)

    Creditors bankrupt the company

    Commodore International is close to folding. The Dutch company that owns the brand was declared bankrupt this week, but a spokesman said it will appeal the court order. The original Commodore International, an American company best known for the legendary Commodore 64 computer in the 1980s, declared bankruptcy in 1994. However …

    Channel Register 18 Apr 2008, 19:44

  • Pirate Bay-probing cop on Warner Brothers payroll

    'Talk about a conflict of interests'

    A Swedish policeman who helped investigate The Pirate Bay is now working for Warners Brothers, one of the big-name film companies that helped drive the investigation and is now a plaintiff in the pending court case against the swashbuckling P2P file sharing site. As reported in Swedish by the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan and …

    Music and Media 18 Apr 2008, 21:55

  • Freetards fill their boots - music survey

    P2P for free, for me

    Punters only paid for 42 per cent of music acquired in the US last year, according to market research outfit NPD, down from 48 per cent in 2006. Interestingly, NPD reckons the number of US internet downloaders has remained static - but more unlicensed music is being downloaded as people switch from the flakey post-Napster P2P …

    Music and Media 18 Apr 2008, 23:05