5th May 2008 Archive

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Sun looks beyond MARS for NetBeans scripting

Pry vi from my cold, dead hands

PHP is the latest language getting the NetBeans treatment, with a PHP version of Sun Microsystems' open-source environment hitting early access today. Built on the same generic scripting framework that Sun used for Ruby, the NetBeans PHP bundle includes project management tools with refactoring and code completion to ease …

Applications 5 May 2008, 04:02
Sun's 'Project Copy Linux' goes commercial

Elasticated Amazon support, squared

The first supported first version of Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris, AKA Project Indiana, makes its debut today with additional backing from Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud. Sun is introducing three levels of paid support for the OpenSolaris 2008.5 code drop for developers and end users. Support starts at $49 per incident for …

Servers 5 May 2008, 04:02
Lords linger over extreme porn definition

What's the meaning of 'obscene'?

The camel that is the UK Government’s answer to what it terms "extreme porn" lumbers onward. Although, by the time it escaped the Lords last week it really was beginning to look like a particularly moth-eaten dromedary. What started in the Commons as a relatively straightforward piece of legislation from the government has now …

Law 5 May 2008, 07:02
Alienware ships 'most powerful' 15in laptop to Brits

Extreme 'Penryn', GeForce 8800 GTX on board

Alienware's first gaming laptop designed from the ground up by the company itself, the Area 51 m15x, is now on sale to British gamers. The 15.4in machine ticks all the right technology boxes: 45nm 'Penryn' Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics, up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory and the ability to …

Reg Hardware 5 May 2008, 08:02
Police go slow with encryption key terror powers

Is the threat enough?

New powers to force terror suspects to hand over encryption keys have been used in only eight criminal investigations, prompting fears that police could be bypassing courts by spooking suspects with the mere threat of extra jail time. Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2001 (RIPA) has been used eight …

Policing 5 May 2008, 08:02
Read, test, don't repeat - how to avoid code complexity

Book extract, part four Emergent Design: Lessons from Y2K

Redundancy, testability and readability are key to building simple and maintainable code. In the fourth extract from his book, Emergent Design: The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development, published by Addison Wesley, Scott Bain tackles the problems and principles involved. We all saw an example of redundancy …

Software 5 May 2008, 12:02
US court orders online advertiser to use 'negative keywords'

No Orion, Orion No

A US court has ordered a company to use 'negative keywords' to avoid being associated with another firm's trade mark. The innovative order was one of a series of measures ordered by the judge. Orion Bancorp took Orion Residential Finance (ORF) to court in Florida over ORF's use of the word 'Orion' in relation to financial …

Small Biz 5 May 2008, 12:02
FCC reveals biometric HTC handset

Documents uncover testing phase

An upcoming HTC handset equipped with a fingerprint reader has made its first public appearance thanks to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website. HTC's 'Census': industrial The handset is shown in a black and white body and emblazoned with the logo of wireless technology firm Harris. Pictures also suggest …

Reg Hardware 5 May 2008, 13:02
Server theft knocks Peter Gabriel off the web

Raid on ISP's data centre

Peter Gabriel's online music empire is reduced to a holding page, following the theft of servers from his web host over the weekend. According to the web monitoring firm Netcraft, Gabriel's servers are hosted by Rednet Ltd, although that appears to be a defunct brand of a UK company called Opal Telecom, which in turn is a …

Servers 5 May 2008, 16:35
AT&T giveth free Jesus Phone WiFi

And AT&T taketh away

For several days, AT&T was offering free WiFi to anyone with a Safari browser and a little common sense. But it seems the company has put a stop to such generosity. On Wednesday, Macrumors.com reported that AT&T's WiFi hotspot service - which just hit 7,000 Starbucks coffee shops across the US - was coughing up free access to …

Wireless 5 May 2008, 18:11
IBM's Zeitler retires

For real. No euphemism

IBM is reshuffling its senior management team, following the retirement of two company warhorses. And for once, retirement is not a euphemism for firing. Bill Zeitler, who runs IBM's hardware and chip business, and Nick Donofrio, vice president innovation and technology, have been with the company for decades and are both in …

Channel Register 5 May 2008, 18:41
How to destroy 60 hard drives an hour

Driller killer

Disk drives are extraordinarily resilient. I've seen one that had been run over, dropped in a toilet and then thrown out of the window of a seven-storey office block. It looked unusable. Kroll Ontrack managed to recover virtually all the data on it by drying it and taking it apart. Hard disk crusher Clam shell casings are …

Storage 5 May 2008, 19:14
Deutsche Telekom mulls Sprint takeover

Transatlantic alphabet soup

Deutsche Telekom is interested in buying Sprint Nextel, a move that would give it the top spot in the U.S. wireless market. According to this morning's Wall Street Journal, the German-based telekom has entered "a preliminary stage" of discussions that may or may not lead to a bid for Sprint, America's Number Three cellco. DT …

Mobile 5 May 2008, 19:47
AMD now has 'more than allegations' against Intel

They totally [blank]ed our [blank]

As Intel and AMD near the end of the discovery process in their US antitrust battle, the two companies have begun fighting over whose testimony will make it to the big dance. In a legal filing, AMD has pointed to the employees at some of the technology world's biggest names - HP, Dell, IBM and others - who it thinks will help …

Financial News 5 May 2008, 21:14