25th April 2008 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Microsoft profits fall in Q1

No more money for Yahoo! bid

Xbox fans helped propelled Microsoft's business during its latest quarter as the repercussions of last year's Windows Vista launch continued to be felt. For the three months to March 31, Microsoft reported a 10.9 per cent drop in net income to $4.3bn, factoring in the EU's anti-trust fine of $1.42bn, on revenue that grew less …

Financial News 25 Apr 2008, 02:43
Backlash starts against 'sexy' databases

Blame your code, not the RDBMS

The relational database - a mainstay of enterprise computing for 25 years - has been under siege. New approaches to data storage are threatening the RDBMS and precipitating what database guru Mike Stonebraker and others described recently as a "group grope" to find a new database engine. This week, though, could mark the …

Software 25 Apr 2008, 06:02
MS patch system poses 'significant risk', say researchers

The fix could automate production of the attack

A group of four computer scientists urged Microsoft to redesign the way it distributes patches, after they created a technique that automatically produces attack code by comparing the vulnerable and repaired versions of a program. The technique, which the researchers refer to as automatic patch-based exploit generation (APEG), …

Enterprise Security 25 Apr 2008, 07:02
'Safe' mobile phone battery firm goes titsup

UK punters don't want protecting

Exradia Limited, the company selling batteries that protect users from potentially harmful radiation, has gone into liquidation owing thousands of pounds to suppliers. London-based Exradia Limited, the UK operation of US parent Exradia Inc, was set up in September 2006 to market "Angel" batteries, that apparently contain a …

Mobile 25 Apr 2008, 08:02
Hellboy helmsman to direct The Hobbit

Guillermo del Toro travels to Middle Earth

Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Oscar-winning Pan's Labyrinth, will direct two Lord of the Rings prequels slated for release in 2010 and 2011, the BBC reports. The first will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, the second an "original story" bridging the 60-year gap between Tolkien's first Middle Earth outing and the …

Entertainment 25 Apr 2008, 08:48
Q1 post-Xmas lull reverses iPhone growth curve

Big names hit by seasonal dip too

Apple's iPhone shipments plunged during Q1, figures from market watcher Strategy Analytics reveal. But then the handset business as a whole was less successful in the first quarter of 2008 than it was in the previous one. No great surprise that, given the importance of the Christmas sales period for consumer handset sales. …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 08:49
Welsh student exposed to nude webcam operators

'Disgusted' by kit-off job ads

A Welsh student has described herself as "amazed and disgusted" at a couple of Jobcentre Plus ads punting for nude webcam operators at £10 an hour plus 50 per cent commission, the BBC reports. Anna Ellis-Jones, who's studying for a Masters degree in heritage management, spied the "sad, pitiful and depressing" opportunties in …

Bootnotes 25 Apr 2008, 08:52
Spike Milligan goes mobile

Goon show ringtones

Spike Milligan's work has found a new home, with content including mobile wallpaper, ring tones and audio books, all available though Rok Global Media. Milligan is, arguably, best known as one of the Goons and quotes from The Goons are available as ring tones, along with Spike's sketches of the major characters from the series …

Mobile 25 Apr 2008, 08:55
Developer leads buff the Ruby slippers

Java lessons learned?

Ruby implementors, including Ruby creator Yukihiro Matusomoto, held their first design meeting this week to hash out niggles with the scripting language. Representatives from JRuby, Rubinius and MacRuby joined Matz - as Matusomotoc is known - and the Ruby core team.Their discussions focused on a common API for MultiVM and the …

Developer 25 Apr 2008, 09:02
Starbucks exits music biz

Offloads Hear Music

Starbucks has offloaded its music tentacle Hear Music just a year after pulling off a major coup in signing Paul McCartney to the label, Variety reports. The coffee monolith has turned over the operation to Concord Music Group, its partner in the venture, in what it described as "a restructuring of its entertainment business …

Music and Media 25 Apr 2008, 09:13
Sony, Samsung LCD JV to double 8G panel production

Big demand for big tellies

Samsung and Sony will fund an extra eighth-generation LCD production line to be run by the two consumer electronics giant's S-LCD joint-venture company. The new line won't go into operation until Q2 2009, the pair admitted, but when it does it's expected to punch out 60,000 2.5 x 2.2m panels each month. These 'motherglass' …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 09:35
UK airports to trial face scan passport checks

If your face fits, you're in

The UK Border Agency hopes to conduct trials of automated passport-check gates at UK airports this summer. The gates would use computer software to compare a traveller's face with the information stored in new biometric passports, removing the need for human staff. "Britain's border security is now amongst the toughest in the …

Policing 25 Apr 2008, 10:31
Carphone Warehouse cleared out of 8GB iPhones

O2 sold-out online too

The move made by O2 and Carphone Warehouse to offer Apple's 8GB iPhone for £100 less than the standard price has proved successful - in a week. CW has no more left to sell, and O2's apparently down to the last few. Both suppliers' websites are current flagging the handset as "out of stock" (CW) and - more ominously - "no …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 10:33
Sagem proffers classy caller

Ice, ice, baby

Sagem has smartened itself up and designed a classy silver handset for more discerning purchasers of cheap mobile phones. The my721x is described as “sleek, classy and stylish” and sports a respectable 3.2-megapixel camera. The snapper’s housed within a body that’s constructed from brushed aluminium on the front and a soft- …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 10:42
Senate outlaws genetic discrimination

Gattaca UK

The US Senate has unanimously voted in favour of a bill to ban genetic discrimination by insurance companies and employers in a bid to speed up research on inherited diseases. Senators backed the bill 95 to none in a ballot yesterday. It's not the first time Congress has tried to ban DNA discrimination, and the bill still …

Law 25 Apr 2008, 10:46
Do biofuels cause famine? EU President opens probe

Culprit sought for higher food prices

The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has asked for an investigation into whether the push for biofuels is to blame for rising food prices. The Commission seems in the process of shifting away from its previous unbridled support for the technology. It emerged last weekend that the Commission may cancel …

Environment 25 Apr 2008, 10:58
Asus Eee PC 900 Linux Edition

Review Bigger screen, bigger disk... but bigger price

It's not even a year since Asus first demo'd the machine that would become the Eee PC 701 - aka the Eee PC 4G - and here we are reviewing the second version, the 900. The 701 was first shown in June 2007 and was launched the following October. It quickly won plaudits for its compact, highly portable size and its low cost. We …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 11:02
BOFH: PFY's mum pays a visit

Episode 15 You can choose your friends...

"And this is... uh... where I work >click<" the PFY says, opening the door briefly before closing it again and walking off. Curious... Moments later, the PFY is back and the door opens again briefly with a quick, "Ahh, my desk is the one over there. >click<" Curiouser... A short time later the door reopens once more and …

BOFH 25 Apr 2008, 11:02
Prank callers crash Dublin Zoo phone system

Stressed operators need Amanda Huggenkiss

Dublin Zoo was forced to shut down its switchboard yesterday after thousands of Irish mobile users fell for a new take on one of the oldest phone tricks in the book. Text messages have been doing the rounds in Ireland telling unwitting recipients to call a number and ask for one of a number of named contacts. The Irish …

Bootnotes 25 Apr 2008, 11:18
Scotland Yard pokes crooks on Facebook

Policing 2.0: From Flying squad to surfing squad

Scotland Yard has set up a team to monitor social networking websites such as Facebook and YouTube for snippets of intelligence from clueless crooks who brag about their exploits online. Officers from the Met's newly established Open Source Team surf websites and infiltrate chatrooms, without disclosing their identities, to …

Policing 25 Apr 2008, 11:36
BAE to build DARPA's 'intrinsically secure' mobile net

British ~~industry~~ money still on the cutting edge

Global military-ware behemoth BAE Systems announced yesterday that it had won a Pentagon contract to develop a new and "intrinsically secure" mobile networking system. The $8.5m deal was awarded by DARPA as part of its Intrinsically Assurable Mobile Ad hoc Network (IAMANET) programme. "Cyber security presents a major …

Government 25 Apr 2008, 11:40
Boris backs weed for pain relief

Smoke away for chronic pain

Senior Tory and candidate for London Mayor Boris Johnson has backed the legalisation of cannabis for chronic pain relief. Asked for his view on medicinal cannabis, Johnson said: "I've thought about this a little bit but I haven't looked at all the evidence or talked to the police about it in the way I would in order to give …

Law 25 Apr 2008, 11:42
Harman hack horror has blog backing Boris

Official website hacked! Spoof posts blogged!

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman's blog defected to the Conservative Party for several hours yesterday, after it fell victim to a hacker. A fake blog post on the site read: "To friends, foes and fans, below is a copy of the resignation letter that landed on Gordon's desk this morning." The entry linked to a spoof Harriet …

Bootnotes 25 Apr 2008, 11:44
Securing cyberspace against war, terror and red tape

Interview DHS's Greg Garcia in the hot seat

In September 2006, the US Secretary of Homeland Security appointed Greg Garcia assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications. With oversight for the National Cyber Security Division, the Office of Emergency Communications and the National Communications System, he is the federal government's point man for securing …

Policing 25 Apr 2008, 12:02
P2P site cries traffic shaping foul at Canuck ISP

A question of resets

Vuze wants to know if other ISPs are calling the same plays as Comcast. Earlier this week, the Silicon-Valley P2P entertainment content distributor released a new study (PDF) that tracks the number of "reset packets" on the world's ISPs. Comcast - America's second largest internet provider - is facing an FCC investigation …

Telecoms 25 Apr 2008, 12:02
Apple blocks cheaper UK iPod sales

Grey skies loom over 'grey' iPods

Apple is threatening legal action against 11 UK e-tailers unless they stop selling iPods imported from outside the UK. The computer giant has complained to a number of well-known online retailers which were buying iPods in the US – where they sell for £15 less than the UK– and then selling them at a knocked-down price to …

Channel Register 25 Apr 2008, 13:03
LG to mass-produce 32in OLED TVs by 2011

Sony, Samsung and Toshiba close behind

Sony may have already produced some dinky OLED panels, but LG Display has become the latest manufacturer to details its timeline for the mass-production of larger OLED displays. According to a report by DigiTimes, LG is aimed to punch out 32in OLED TVs in volume in 2011. LG’s investment will have to be pretty hefty though, …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 13:14
MP3 player looks like a cassette, is a cassette

Reel-to-real

During the 1980s something called the cassette was a popular recording format. Apparently. In the MP3 era, the analogue format's long forgotten, but it's coming back, thanks to this novel MP3 player. The MP3 cassette is half MP3 player and half real cassette The gadget may look like one of those mix tapes you gave to Sarah …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 13:28
DARPA wants microscopic atom clocks on chips

To put inside brainchip zombie cyborg moths, of course

Pentagon boffinry chiefs have announced that they'd like a very small, super-accurate atomic clock, so small that one day you might build it on a chip. Apparently, they would like to mount these nano superclocks inside the heads of their planned spy legion of brainchipped cyborg zombie insects. The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock ( …

Physics 25 Apr 2008, 13:32
BBC defends iPlayer against Murdoch Jr's 'anti-competitive' claims

Kitchenware blackness symposium to follow

The BBC Trust, Auntie's independent oversight body, has today defended the iPlayer against claims by James Murdoch that it squashes competition and innovation in online TV. Murdoch, who's currently chief executive of News Corp in Europe and Asia, and is now reckoned as the Digger-sprog to most likely to inherit control of …

Music and Media 25 Apr 2008, 13:35
EMC's love/hate relationship with thin provisioning

'Mandatory' and 'Overplayed'

No man can serve two masters. Or at least things get tricky while trying to please both. Take EMC boss Joe Tucci who in the same earnings call called thin provisioning "mandatory in the storage landscape," and also "way overplayed." EMC's quarterly results conference call Wednesday posed an interesting dilemma for Tucci. While …

Storage 25 Apr 2008, 13:42
'Extreme porn' law could criminalise millions

Analysis Here come illegal pictures of legal activity

If you use the internet for any purpose that might be construed as other than respectable – be afraid. Be very afraid. Almost unreported, the UK Criminal Justice Bill is slowly wending its way toward becoming law. It includes a section (Clause 63) on "extreme pornographic images" that may, or may not, affect a very large …

Law 25 Apr 2008, 14:19
Boffins ponder 100-year archive made of TOMES

A MAID to preserve culture and decency

University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) researchers have designed Pergamum, a hundred year archive system using Ethernet-linked redundant and powered down intelligent disk drive building blocks. The Pergamum researchers are UCSC graduate students Mark Storer and Kevin Greenan, and researcher Kaladhar Voruganti of NetApp …

Storage 25 Apr 2008, 14:22
El Reg obtains snap of OGC logo reveal

LogoWatch NSFW Shock image of stunned staff

Hot on the heels of our exclusive and shock exposé earlier this week into the new Office of Government Commerce logo, we're delighted to present this afternoon a quite remarkable image of the moment at which London design outfit FHD revealed the revised brand frontage to the HM Treasury tentacle's staff: Concerned readers …

Bootnotes 25 Apr 2008, 14:41
RIM reportedly delays 3G BlackBerry to avoid next-gen iPhone

8900 en-route to AT&T in August?

It has been claimed that Research in Motion (RIM) has delayed the launch of the BlackBerry 8900 so it doesn’t run slap bang into the launch of the 3G iPhone. According to a report Fortune magazine, sources close to RIM claim that the company has internally blamed technical glitches with the handset, codenamed 'Meteor', as the …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 15:02
Grand Theft Auto IV leaked online

Surprise, surprise

Grand Theft Auto IV has been leaked online, just days before next Tuesday’s official launch. A number of Torrent search sites are now listing what appears to be the full Xbox 360 version of the game, which isn’t due for release until 29 April. Some fans claim to have already downloaded and played the title. One, no doubt …

Reg Hardware 25 Apr 2008, 15:13
Ad-funded mobile co gets advertisers...

And punters too

The UK's only ad-funded mobile phone network has managed to sign up 100,000 punters. It's done so six months earlier than expected, and even has some decent brands signed up to advertise. Blyk is supposed to be invitation-only, with reps from the company touring universities and schools in the hope of snagging the 16 to 24- …

Mobile 25 Apr 2008, 15:16
France's €4.9bn rogue trader gets IT job

Must be good with numbers...

French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, who cost Société Générale €4.9bn (£3.8bn), has got himself a new job as a computer consultant. Kerviel was released on bail in mid-March and joined the consultancy in April. Kerviel originally worked in the bank's back office before becoming a trader. His spokesman told AP: "Jerome is a …

Bootnotes 25 Apr 2008, 15:40
Server makers snub whalesong for serious windmill abuse

Crimes against clip art

Car companies have the decency to prop sexy models on top of their gas-guzzling hardware to make it more appealing. The server set does not afford us the same courtesy. As you all know, it's become the rage to talk about how green your data center gear is. Companies like to hype up how their servers reduce carbon emissions and …

Servers 25 Apr 2008, 16:09
Motorised meat-smoker droid vigilante patrols Atlanta

Vagrants live in fear of the 'Bum Bot'

A former US Marine bar owner has built a home-made robot which patrols the streets of Atlanta rousting winos and vagrants. The so-called "Bum Bot" is equipped with a panoply of glaring lights, an infrared camera, and a water cannon in a "spinning turret". AP reports that the 300lb motorised vigilante droid is the brainchild of …

Rise of the Machines 25 Apr 2008, 18:52
Department of Homeland Security website hacked!

Infected by massive attack sweeping the net

The sophisticated mass infection that's injecting attack code into hundreds of thousands of reputable web pages is growing and even infiltrated the website of the Department of Homeland Security. While so-called SQL injections are nothing new, this latest attack, which we we reported earlier, is notable for its ability to …

Government 25 Apr 2008, 18:57
Nexan hopes to get rich off Beast and Boy wonders

$81m SATA IPO to SEC

Storage system maker Nexsan Technologies is taking the public leap, today proposing an $80.5m initial public offering to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Thousand Oaks, California-based Nexsan specializes in archive-class and power-saving SATA storage with its SEC filing. That figure, however, was mainly conjured to …

Storage 25 Apr 2008, 19:21
Apple gets into mine-sweeping, missiles and storage

General Jobs

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may need to order up a camouflage version of that infamous mock turtleneck. His company bought chip start-up PA Semi this week - a move which results in Apple inheriting a business that stretches from storage systems to missiles. PA Semi's version of the PowerPC processor became popular for such an …

Storage 25 Apr 2008, 19:29
Anti-Spyware Coalition probes data pimping

Phorm and the Phormettes

The Anti-Spyware Coalition has launched a review of Phorm, NebuAd, and other behavioral targeting firms that track user data from inside the world's ISPs. Today, the ASC - a collection of anti-spyware companies, academics, and various consumer advocates - announced a new internal working group to decide how Phorm and the …

Telecoms 25 Apr 2008, 21:36
Solaris update woos elderly apps

Intel's SpeedStep inside too

Sun Microsystems has released a fresh update for Solaris, but the 10 5/08 injection may appeal most to users running older generations of the operating system. The update features support for virtualized instances of Solaris 8 and 9 to run inside Solaris Containers. So, you can package up those Solaris 8 and 9 apps and pop …

Servers 25 Apr 2008, 21:47
Governator outs Dubya's global-warming 'time bomb'

'I preempt your preemption'

The Governator thinks W is useless when it comes to regulating stuff spewed into the atmosphere by American cars and trucks. Yesterday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and 11 other US state head honchos fired a letter at President George W. Bush, complaining that his Department of Transportation is trying to …

Environment 25 Apr 2008, 22:46