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12th May 2008 Archive

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  • Hippies reclaim summer of code

    Overthrow the soft-o-crats!

    Google, the internet's number-one search and advertising engine, is a 19,000-person multinational that coins in $18bn in annual revenue. The giant is this summer hosting its codefest Google Summer of Code. At the other end of the scale is the little-known Riseup Labs. It, too, is offering a summer of code - Freedom Summer of …

    Software 12 May 2008, 05:02

  • Mounties taser bed-ridden octagenarian

    Knife-wielding old-timer in hospital shocker

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have once again demonstrated their enthusiasm for the Taser by zapping an 82-year-old hospital patient, CBC News reports. Frank Lasser, of Kamloops, British Columbia, was in his local Royal Inland Hospital on 3 May suffering from pneumonia following heart bypass surgery which obliges him to …

    Bootnotes 12 May 2008, 09:01

  • Qimonda puts 4.5GHz graphics memory into mass-production

    Calling all GPU vendors...

    Qimonda began sampling 512Mb GDDR 5 memory silicon in November 2007 and now, six months on, it's ready to ship the chip in volume - if anyone wants it, that is. Like past GDDR revisions, GDDR 5 ups the maximum available data transfer rate between video memory and GPU, in this case to 20GB/s. Error compensation, adaptive …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 09:36

  • ITV challenges Beeb for cheap innuendo crown

    'Butt seized by terror police'

    It appears ITV is not prepared to take the BBC's challenge for the schoolboy innuendo headline crown lying down, and on Saturday offered up its pitch for the title: Not bad, but aficionados of the genre will, of course, see that ITV has missed a trick here in not rendering this as "Terror police grab Butt". We direct its …

    Entertainment 12 May 2008, 09:39

  • Google-Yahoo! collects some strange enemies

    Advocacy groups and rural voters

    A weird assortment of lobby groups has come out against Google and Yahoo! working together. Although there is no formal deal in place, lobbyists including the Black Leadership Forum (which represents 35 black activist organisations), the League of Rural Voters and the Corn Growers Association have written to the Justice …

    Financial News 12 May 2008, 09:41

  • Shuttle astronauts: Aliens are definitely out there

    Haven't personally seen any - it's more of a feeling

    Space shuttle astronauts, recently returned from a visit to the International Space Station, have told reporters in Japan they believe that extraterrestrial life exists. However, the space explorers added that none of them had actually seen any. "I'm sure eventually we'll find something out there," said mission specialist Mike …

    Space 12 May 2008, 09:42

  • Optus named second Oz iPhone carrier

    Multi-network sales approach confirmed

    It's official: Apple is taking a multi-carrier approach to selling the iPhone Down Under. Australian cellco Optus today said it will be selling the handset. The Optus deal is a result of a tie-in between Apple and Singaporean carrier SingTel, which owns Optus. SingTel and its other subsidiaries will release the iPhone in …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 09:55

  • RIM pitches 'power user' tri-band HSDPA BlackBerry

    Bold sneaks in ahead of 3G iPhone

    Blackberry has launched its first tri-band - 850/1900/2100MHz - HSDPA 3G handset, dubbed Bold. The phone was first uncovered by the rumour mill back in 2007. Manufacturer RIM states that the quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge Bold- aka the BlackBerry 9000 - is crafted from "premium materials", both inside and out. On the inside, this …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 10:11

  • Burma 'Gone with the Wind', suggests Telegraph

    Cyclone orphans - the musical

    Those among you who like a light bit of "unfortunate juxtaposition of content and advertisements" will certainly enjoy this offering from Friday's Telegraph, demonstrating that once you've booked those ads in, there's really no going back: Nicely done, although not quite up to the standard of Motorcycle News' Harley-Davidson …

    Bootnotes 12 May 2008, 10:19

  • RM must try harder in second half

    Full year expectations unchanged

    RM has pinned its hopes on the second half of the year after turning in sluggish revenue growth and a slide in profits for the first six months. The education supplier pulled in revenues of £117.6m for the first half, up just 1.8 per cent on the year. Pre-tax profits were £184,000, compared to last year’s £5.6m. This year’s …

    Channel Register 12 May 2008, 10:34

  • Facebook CTO logs out

    Co-founder off to the beach

    Facebook's chief technology officer Adam D'Angelo, a school friend of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is leaving the company. The 23-year-old helped Facebook cope with its rapid expansion - the company has just borrowed another $100m to buy new servers. The money comes from TriplePoint Capital and will all go on servers. The …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 10:40

  • LG KF700 slider phone

    Review Triple-action, touch-screen handset

    LG has come up with another touchscreen option to get your fingers working: the LG KF700 sliderphone, which combines a tap-to-control UI and dial-spin control with HSDPA 3G high-speed connectivity. How many different ways can you package touch technology for mobiles? LG seems determined to find the answer, with a flurry of …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 11:02

  • Toshiba to mass-produce mobile-friendly fuel cells in 2009

    Assault on batteries

    Toshiba is gearing up for a greener 2009 by announcing plans to mass-produce Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) by March next year. The company last week said it will set aside cash to build a DMFC production line from which the first products are expected to appear by the end of March 2009. Toshiba said it views the …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 11:14

  • PC World, Currys staff to be dumped in DSGi rescue plan?

    Best Buy could bid for electrical retail giant

    Hundreds of PC World and Currys staff could see the job axe swing on Thursday (15 May) when the stores’ owner DSG International (DSGi) announces its latest trading statement and strategy review. DSGi is understood to be closing 200 of its 700 stores as well as considering switching its outlets to a new superstore format, …

    Channel Register 12 May 2008, 11:26

  • Web cam images undo MacBook thieves

    You've been iFramed

    A pair of clueless US crooks were brought to justice when they went online using an Apple employee's stolen laptop. Edmon Shahikian, 23, of Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of the Bronx district of New York, were arrested and charged with burglary and possession of stolen property after their victim tracked them down. Kait Duplaga …

    Policing 12 May 2008, 11:27

  • Weapons, oil prices driving worldwide atom ambitions

    Join the Nuclear Club, get a nuclear club

    A crush of developing nations trying to gatecrash the nuclear power club has prompted fears of a subsequent race to develop nuclear weapons. The UN nuke regulator, the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), says that it has recently been approached by 40 countries, all expressing an interest in nuclear power. According …

    Science 12 May 2008, 11:37

  • Set-top box modders sent to prison

    Teach telly hackery, go directly to jail

    Two men have been sentenced for a total of 15 months for advising people how to bypass security settings on their set-top boxes. Carl Morgan Davison of Llanfechell in Amlwch and Mark Taylor from Leeds got ten and five months respectively. The two were moderators of a site called modshack.co.uk. Davison used the aliases "Hairy …

    Crime 12 May 2008, 11:45

  • Nvidia CEO says 'no' to VIA acquisition

    Graphics company doesn't need in-house CPU tech - for now...

    Nvidia doesn't want to buy VIA, the graphics chip maker's CEO has claimed. Nvidia is completely focused on being a "visual computing technology company", he said. Well, for the moment, at any rate... Speaking to CNet, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang suggested neither Nvidia nor VIA are interested in acquiring each other's business …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 12:01

  • How ComScore can track your mouse clicks

    Explores stream of unconsciousness

    There's one question no one thought to ask: How did comScore know that all those paid clicks had disappeared from the world's largest search engine? In late February, the well-known web research outfit unveiled a particularly juicy report claiming that Google's paid-click rate was on the wane - at least in the States. Judging …

    Telecoms 12 May 2008, 12:02

  • Windows XP SP3 blame game begins

    AMD feels the heat as Microsoft goes AWOL on fix

    Microsoft has so far failed to provide any plausible solution to Windows XP customers who have seen their PCs crippled by the install of service pack three (SP3). In the meantime, forums throughout the internet are abuzz with possible workarounds and fixes, while rumours fly that suggest the sizeable blunder only affects some …

    Operating Systems 12 May 2008, 12:45

  • El Reg shares the knowledge

    Reg Research Primed for business

    The Register’s Technology Primer series of white papers provide a basic grounding in some of the hottest topics in tech today. They’re all freely available, and some of the latest and greatest are listed below for your downloading pleasure. Storage Virtualization An introduction to the implications for enterprise IT Becoming …

    IT Director 12 May 2008, 12:53

  • Hacker posts personal details of 6m Chileans

    I told you it was insecure

    A hacker with a point to prove posted personal details on 6m Chileans on the internet after lifting the information from government websites. The unidentified hacker posted data including names, telephone numbers, addresses and educational details on two websites (IT site FayerWayer and community site ElAntro) after stealing …

    Crime 12 May 2008, 13:04

  • UK.gov solves pensioner crisis by wiring them up to the net

    Poking oldsters to check they're still alive

    The UK is spending £31m on a pilot to see whether computers and high tech devices can help it dodge the demographic time bomb being primed by an increasing number of old people cluttering up the country. It comes as the government tries to kick-start another round of debate on how it will deal with a spike in the number of …

    Government 12 May 2008, 13:04

  • Apple to announce handheld games console at WWDC?

    Comment 3G iPhone launch a decoy

    It's Monday lunchtime, and Apple's online store is still out of iPhones. Left-of-field speculation says this means the 3G iPhone's release is coming sooner than thought. If so, what might Apple have in mind for its Worldwide Developer Conference instead? In recent weeks, UK iPhone suppliers O2 and Carphone Warehouse have both …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 13:19

  • Business suit tailored to reflect phone radiation

    Something more stylish to go with your tinfoil hat

    If you’re worried that mobile phone and Bluetooth signals could be doing you harm, then you can now block them out and still remain a dedicated follower of fashion. Clothing company Remus has cut a gents' suit with an interwoven metal frame that’s claimed to reflect Bluetooth and mobile phone radiation, despite the jury still …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 13:30

  • Cruciform MP3 player wins hearts of goths, god-rockers

    Audio enlightenment

    If you like music to have some religious significance, then the cross-shaped Keo player hits the nail on the head, so to speak. Keo MP-301: wear it around your neck to give religious beliefs an audio backing The MP-301 has track selection buttons on either side of the cross, whilst the top section offers a menu button. The …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 13:42

  • Man makes table-sized NES controller, complains about mug-marks

    Don't spill your tea here

    A Nintendo nerd has built a giant coffee table that doubles up as a working controller for the retro NES console. The working NES controller coffee table: pointless? Australian Nintendo/woodwork enthusiast Kyle Downes has described the whole process of making his giant NES coffee table in his blog. From a top-down view, …

    Reg Hardware 12 May 2008, 13:45

  • Taser gun usage soaring among UK cops

    Proportion of actual shockings down, though

    The Home Office has announced an increase in police use of Taser electroshock stun weapons in the UK, releasing figures up to the end of February today. "The number of Taser uses and discharges has increased as more trained police officers have the authority to use them," according to an official statement accompanying the new …

    Policing 12 May 2008, 14:18

  • British Gas sues Accenture

    Ahh... they deserve each other

    British Gas is suing Accenture for £182m in costs connected to the failure of a new billing system put in place by the consultants in 2006. Problems with the system led to a massive increase in complaints against the gas supplier. Centrica, British Gas's parent company, has already written off £200m due to problems with the …

    Law 12 May 2008, 14:22

  • Perot Systems buys into Ireland

    Writes Limerick developer a big cheque

    Perot Systems Corporation is buying an Irish application developer, Original Solutions Limited. The Limerick-based company offers general business consultancy as well as specialised application work, keeping legacy systems working and "near-shore" services. The firm has 90 staff and turned over €9m last year. Perot Systems …

    Financial News 12 May 2008, 15:08

  • AMD grabs for the data centre with low-power server chip

    Pushes thermal envelope

    AMD today launched low power quad-core Opteron processors for the x86 server market, once again playing catch-up with Intel. The chip maker said that the high efficiency (HE) processors have a thermal envelope of 55 watts. That compares to the company’s other quad-core server chips that clock higher thermal envelopes of 105 …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 15:56

  • Back to the future: the Java client’s second go-round

    Following the fads

    JavaOne provides a good barometer of the current fads hitting IT. Three years ago, Java discovered open source, two years ago it was AJAX, while last year was a non-event. But this year, the rich client’s back, baby. In fact, this being our tenth JavaOne (which we covered remotely this year - too much darn travel), the …

    Applications 12 May 2008, 16:45

  • HP tipped to take over BT's datacentres in £1.5bn deal

    CEOs plan back-scratching calls this week?

    HP is expected to take BT’s UK datacentres off its hands in a £1.5bn deal. The arrangement will see BT offloading 400 staff and 24 data centres to the Silicon Valley giant in return for £1.5bn in cash, according to the Sunday Times. BT will continue to access the centres under a ten year deal. At the same time, the telcos …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 16:57

  • DVD smut malware blights US forces in Iraq

    A different kind of insurgency

    Malware infected bootleg DVDs bought from Iraqi souks are causing US troops all sorts of problems. "Porno-Viruses" spread on these DVDs are triggering issues with so-called computer "RAM-rot". The popularity of smutty videos among Iraqi troops, in particular, is a concern, according to US Army Reserve Capt. Michael Noonan. " …

    Malware 12 May 2008, 17:38

  • Researchers dig into x86 chips for stealthier rootkits

    Hiding under the radar

    Security researchers have discovered a new technique for developing rootkits, malicious packages used to hide the presence of malware on compromised systems. Instead of hiding a rootkit in the virtualisation layer, Shawn Embleton and Sherri Sparks of Clear Hat Consulting have discovered an approach for smuggling rootkit …

    Malware 12 May 2008, 18:17

  • VMware ships disaster recovery and testing software

    Plopped into two new management bundles

    VMware this week continues to campaign against human-on-virtual machine interaction with the shipment of two new products in its data center management and automation portfolio. The vendor is also offering the fledgling code with two management bundles being introduced along with this week's release. Site Recovery Manager …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 19:38

  • Microsoft Office chief to manage Bill Gates

    Well, his foundation

    Jeff Raikes is to captain Bill and Melinda Gates' massive global philanthropic operation, just months after announcing his phased resignation from Microsoft. Raikes, a Microsoft veteran of 27 years, has been named chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization, managing …

    Financial News 12 May 2008, 19:42

  • Fedora 9 - an OS that even the Linux challenged can love

    Plenty of muscle for hardcore nerds too

    Fedora 9, the latest release from the Fedora Project, goes up for download on Tuesday. The ninth release of Fedora ushers in a number of changes aimed at making the venerable distribution a more newbie-friendly desktop, but longtime users needn't fear a great dumbing down; version 9 packs plenty of power user punch as well. …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 20:34

  • HP in talks to buy EDS

    Hurd's big bite

    Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd may be remounting his company's services charge, according to The Wall Street Journal, which says he is close to signing a deal to acquire Electronic Data Systems for $12bn to $13bn. That would represent as much as a 38 per cent premium over EDS's current market capitalization, at least based on …

    Financial News 12 May 2008, 20:44

  • Data Domain guns de-duping gear

    Quad-core injection

    By moving from dual to quad-core Xeons Data Domain has a new high-end DD690 product that dedupes data twice as fast. It is the industry's fastest inline deduplication system. The DD690 comes as a full array or as a storage-less gateway (DD690g) to which users add SAN storage. The deduplication engine now runs on two quad-core …

    Storage 12 May 2008, 21:22

  • Babbage's Difference Engine hits Silicon Valley

    Wafers? Nah. How about bronze and wood?

    Silicon Valley got its first look at the true roots of the digital age this week, with the arrival of a five-ton calculator made from the designs of the Victorian-age mathematician and Londoner, Charles Babbage. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California is hosting the second replica of Babbage's Difference …

    PCs & Chips 12 May 2008, 22:35

  • USAF Colonel goes on the offensive with botnet destroyer plan

    Enemies reduced to 'hunks of metal and plastic'

    After watching the US military infrastructure get kicked around like a playground weakling, an Air Force colonel wants to strike back by building a massive botnet that would mount massive denial-of-service counterattacks on adversaries that attack US networks first. In a recently published article, Col. Charles W. Williamson …

    Government 12 May 2008, 23:02

  • Microsoft denies Zune copyright cop

    Innovation '08 We play both sides of the IP fence

    Microsoft’s senior policy counsel for copyright and trademark has firmly denied that Redmond will slip its very own copyright cop into the Zune music player. But he acknowledges the company is particularly sympathetic to the copyright battles of music labels and other publishers. Last week, a New York Times blog reported that …

    Law 12 May 2008, 23:35

  • AMD excises two senior execs, while promoting server chief

    Central Engineering roadmap task force formed

    AMD is undergoing a major shakeup, forming a new product roadmap task force, promoting one senior executive, and dropping two others in the fallout. The chipmaker said today's shuffle is a part of its ongoing efforts to push the company books back into profitability. Randy Allen, formerly chief of AMD's server business, will …

    Servers 12 May 2008, 23:57