25th July 2008 Archive

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World's biggest ISPs drag feet on critical DNS patch

Updated AT&T among those putting subscribers at risk

More than two weeks after security researchers warned of a critical defect in the net's address lookup system, some of the world's biggest internet service providers - including AT&T, Time Warner and Bell Canada - have yet to install a patch inoculating their subscribers against attacks, according to an informal survey of …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 00:24
How government will save you from P2P deviance

It's stealing, you know...

Thousands - or to be more precise, six thousands - of lucky alleged infringers a week are to be informed of the error of their ways, according to the terms of the deal struck this week between the British government and six major ISPs. They will in the first instance be "informed when their accounts are being used unlawfully to …

Media 25 Jul 2008, 04:43
MS products just too cool to comprehend, say MS geeks

Windows Vista by any other name

When the product sucks but you can't bring yourself to admit the horrible truth, what's the next logical step? Blame the message, the messenger or the recipient of the message. Simple. Microsoft's normally bombastic marketing has begun blaming Windows Vista's poor uptake on the modesty of its own message, while exaggerating …

Software 25 Jul 2008, 04:56
Proof of age system moves net ID a step closer

But gov ID may be set back

The UK moved one step closer to online ID for all last week as the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) decided to give accreditation to NetIDme’s age verification software. But for once this may be not cause for complete doom and gloom. Also added to the list are GB Group (with their URU product) and 192.com. In one …

Broadband 25 Jul 2008, 07:02
Happy Sysadmin Day!

Give yourselves a big hug

Today is Sysadmin Day - the annual celebration of all things sys. Just as the website says "If you can read this, thank your sysadmin". It is the day when we should all show a bit of appreciation for that oft-ignored or even maligned creature, the system administrator. So why not show yours some loving? You could have a whip- …

Data Networking 25 Jul 2008, 07:02
Dead author's estate snatches child's domain

Nar-nar-nar-nar-nar(nia)

A British couple has lost the battle to keep the narnia.mobi domain name which they claimed was only registered so that their son could have a Narnia-related email address. The address will transfer to a company representing CS Lewis's estate. Richard and Fiona Saville-Smith failed to convince an arbitration panel of the World …

Media 25 Jul 2008, 07:02
Free for all on London Underground

Updated Oyster falls down again

Commuters are travelling for free on the London Underground this morning after technical problems again brought down the Oyster ticket system. Gates have been left open since early this morning. But at least this failure is not knackering people's cards - the downtime last time meant 35,000 people had to get their cards …

Data Networking 25 Jul 2008, 08:47
Greenpeace: UK gov trying to strangle wind power

Won't hand over nuke plants' grid connections

The British government has been accused by Greenpeace of trying to strangle development of renewable power in Europe, and in particular in the UK. Greenpeace say they have obtained draft documents from negotiations in Brussels, which amount to a 'smoking gun' exposing the UK's anti-renewables agenda. The eco-hardliner pressure …

Science 25 Jul 2008, 09:02
Fugitive spammer in murder-suicide

Three dead as teenage girl escapes carnage

Fugitive spammer Eddie Davidson shot his wife and infant daughter dead on Thursday before turning the gun on himself - four days after going AWOL from a minimum security prison. Police responding to reports of gunfire in the small town of Bennett, Colorado found Davidson along with his wife Amy Lee Ann Hill, 29, and three-year …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 09:16
The ultimate mouse?

Concept mouse aims to eliminate RSI and maximise operational comfort

Stick the word concept before a product name and you’ve got yourself an instant excuse for craziness. Well, the concept Alien Mouse is no exception. The four-part Alien Mouse: comfy This four-section mouse is designed with ergonomics in mind and designer Mizanur Rehman claims that his Alien Mouse “is the solution to desktop …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 09:29
Edinburgh Fringe ticketing chaos continues

Standing on the shoulders of clowns

The Edinburgh Fringe festival gets underway a week on Saturday (3-25 August) but ever since tickets went on sale the box office system has suffered several major technical cock-ups. As we previously reported, tickets were supposed to be generally available to punters on 9 June, but festival organisers admitted that they had …

Management 25 Jul 2008, 09:47
Lovefilm 1, BitTorrent/iTunes/retail 0

Why rent-by-mail DVD services are now my video collection

I've given up buying DVDs, though I haven't stopped watching them. Quite the reverse - I'm watching more movies and TV series than ever before. Before you suggest it, I'm not downloading anything either. Last year, I took out a £13-a-month subscription with DVD rental service Lovefilm.com. I can rent as many movies as I care …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 10:02
Microsoft crowbars Live Search into Facebook

'Hands off my ad space... bitch'

Microsoft has traded its exclusive deal to plaster Facebook with banner advertising for the right to pump Google-style contextual search ads on the profit-lite website. The switcheroo was tossed into yesterday's attempt by Steve Ballmer to convince analysts that he's still the world's top chair-flinging sweaty software kingpin …

Applications 25 Jul 2008, 10:12
SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 player

Review Molecule-sized micro MP3 player

Come September, a version of the Sansa Clip with revised firmware will hit the streets in the UK, giving us an excuse to rustle one up and have a retrospective shoofty. Much of the revised firmware is actually already available from SanDisk, including support for Ogg files, but come September all new Clips will also support …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 10:18
Cancer doc issues mobile phone warning

But only to his staff and based on unpublished results

Reports have told us that mobile phones don’t increase the risk of brain cancer, others have stated the opposite. However, one doctor has issued a warning that mobile phone use should be limited, based on the findings of an unpublished medical study. According to a report by the International Herald Tribune, Dr Ronald …

Phones 25 Jul 2008, 10:23
Ingram's second quarter cheers

But predicts tough third quarter

Super distie Ingram Micro increased sales to $8.82bn for the quarter ended 28 June 2008 compared to $8.19bn for the same period last year. Sales were helped by a six per cent improvement in currency exchange rates. Net income in the second quarter was $58.9m, compared to $52.4m last year. Ingram spend $5.5m on reducing costs …

The Channel 25 Jul 2008, 10:44
Microsoft to fold DATAllegro into server platforms

Appliance of datawarehouse science

Microsoft is buying data warehouse appliance maker DATAllegro in its latest push in the enterprise business intelligence market. The software giant made the announcement yesterday. Financial details are undisclosed. Microsoft will retain most of DATAllegro’s team as well as its headquarters in Viejo, California. It will …

Storage 25 Jul 2008, 10:56
HP prepping 2133 Mini-Note rival

Less durable, but cheaper, claims HP

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has confirmed that it’ll soon give birth to the 2133 Mini-Note’s baby brother, a cheaper alternative to recently unveiled machine. HP's original 2133 Mini-Note At an HP launch eairlier this week, Jerel Chong, HP Australia’s Market Development Manager for Notebook PCs, said that: “From a retail …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 10:59
The FDRs of Green explain the gentle art of planet saving

Flunking economics the Green New Deal Group way

A "triple crunch" of financial crisis, climate change and soaring oil prices threatens the world with a new Great Depression so, 'drawing inspiration from FDR' the Green New Deal Group proposes "a modernised version" of the solution. FDR himself being unhappily unavailable, we have the newly-formed group and its eponymous report …

Science 25 Jul 2008, 11:02
Thunderbird patches are go

Hot to trot

Mozilla has fixed multiple vulnerabilities in the Thunderbird email client. Version 2.0.0.16 fixes eight vulnerabilities, six of which are rated as moderate. The moderate flaws cover code execution risks (in a CSS reference counter and ScriptLoader component of Thunderbird) and memory corruption flaws. The CSS reference …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 11:08
Buffalo burns 8x Blu-ray

The fastest burners in the ~~west~~ east?

If burning Blu-ray disks is taking you too long, then a trip to Japan could save you some time. That’s because Buffalo has unveiled two super-speedy 8x Blu-ray drives in the country. Buffalo's external 8x Blu-ray drive The 8x drive is available as either an external USB 2.0/eSATA model or an internal SATA drive. Both …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 11:39
Capgemini goes Dutch

Buys app firm

Capgemini is paying €255m for a public sector applications division, Business Application Services BV, from Getronics PinkRoccade. BAS BV employs 2,200 people and turned over €300m in 2007. It makes 40 per cent of its revenues from the Dutch public sector. The deal is subject to the usual regulatory issues and needs to be …

The Channel 25 Jul 2008, 11:49
US Air Force may allow killbots to be flown by non-pilots

Flyboys sick of couch-potato warfare

The new head of the US Air Force - replacing an officer who was fired at least in part for dragging his feet on unmanned air operations - has hinted that the service may relax its rule that drone aircraft must be flown by fully qualified military pilots. Answering written questions from Senators prior to his confirmation …

Science 25 Jul 2008, 11:59
Who killed Three Strikes for filesharing?

National Freetard Register cancelled - but freetards don't notice

Rejoice! "Three strikes and you're out" is dead in the UK. Music file sharers will no longer face the threat of seeing the household broadband connection severed. The plague that is currently endemic in France won't be jumping the English Channel. For confirmation, you only need to turn to page 30 of the Government's …

Broadband 25 Jul 2008, 12:02
Intel knits SoCs roadmap for x86

TV, storage array and robot pandering

Intel is ready to charge once more unto the breach of system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices, this time with a new line of embedded processors based on the same instruction set used in all its desktop and mobile products. The chipmaker will release eight new x86-based SoC processors targeted at security, storage, and communication …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 12:02
Journey's latest hit: an MP3 player

No. 1 calling?

If you’re a fan of power ballads, then you can finally have an MP3 player Any Way You Want It. That’s provided you welcome Journey’s decked-out portable player with Open Arms. The Journey MP3 player Yes, the 1970’s US rockers are back with their latest hit – a Journey themed MP3 player that owes its design to the band’s …

Hardware 25 Jul 2008, 12:13
Inquirer celebrates spammer murder-suicide

Comment 'Yay. No, YAY!'

There's an air of celebration down at The Inquirer at the news that fugitive spammer Eddie Davidson decided to do the decent thing and kill himself. Here's our take on the story, but check out the opposition's view on the whole sorry affair. Well, as an opener, this takes some beating: "Not all stories have a happy ending, …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 12:27
Cops slap ticket on Street View spycar

Exclusive snap of Orwellian Opel bust

You'll enjoy this: Here's evidence that not even the might of Google permits it to park vehicles from its Orwellian Opel spycar fleet in reserved doctor spots: Good work there by a vigilant Adam Ranshaw, and indeed the Boys in Blue, who apparently slapped the search monolith with a fine and a ticking-off for the violation in …

Bootnotes 25 Jul 2008, 12:42
Morse detects cost savings - takes £4.5m charge

UK reseller Morse will take a one-off charge of up to £4.5m to slash costs this year, it told the stock market today. Executive chairman Kevin Loosemore said further details of the cuts, which will begin immediately, will be revealed with the firm's preliminary results on 9 September. The cuts follow the departure of CEO Kevin …

The Channel 25 Jul 2008, 13:03
Apple sees red over iPhone 3G

(Product) RED that is

It’ll come as no surprise that Apple’s got yet more iPhone surprises up its sleeves. But, the latest rumour is that a charity themed red-backed iPhone 3G is on its way. Could a (Product) RED iPhone 3G be coming? According to sources unknown and reported on website iphonesavior, Apple has lined up a (Product) RED 3G model …

Mobile 25 Jul 2008, 13:09
SAP user group foments revolt over massive price hike

'Slap SAP ASAP'

The UK SAP user group today called on the German software giant's customers to scrutinise plans to force them to cough up almost a third more for their contract. The group wants companies affected to examine the changes in detail in the hope they'll be unhappy enough about a real-terms 30 per cent costs increase to kick up a …

Applications 25 Jul 2008, 13:10
Apple seeks iPhone reverse engineering expert

iPoacher turned gamekeeper role

Apple wants an iPhone security engineer - to beat hackers at their own game. Applicants should develop "proof of concept" attacks and undertake risk analysis on potential security threats affecting Apple's embedded operating system products. The role, one of 35 security-related posts open at Apple, was first advertised in …

Mobile 25 Jul 2008, 13:32
Lawsuit spells trouble for Facebook's Scrabulous

And predictable puns for journalists

Toy omnicorp Hasbro is setting the legal dogs on Scrabulous, the Facebook-based Scrabble knock-off popular with timewasting desk jockeys worldwide. As well as suing Indian developer brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla for copyright infringement, Hasbro has fired off a DMCA to Facebook demanding it remove the game from its …

Law 25 Jul 2008, 13:59
Gov pulls plug on prison PlayStations

'No videogames unless you earn it, 655321'

Blighty’s cons soon really will be doing hard time. Because the Prison Service has issued a directive banning 18 certificate videogames from prisons, and has also pledged to reform console use inside jails. By 30 September this year, prisons in England and Wales must remove all videogames with an 18 certificate. This’ll be bad …

Policy 25 Jul 2008, 14:11
Sutton Police bribe kids to behave

Haven't they heard of databases and CCTV?

Sutton Police have started a scheme to get local kids to turn up to talk to community officers by being nice to them. Kids can sign up for a "Positive Citizen Card" which gives them access to DIY courses at B&Q and discount cinema tickets for one night a month which officers also attend. Some local shops and restaurants offer …

Law 25 Jul 2008, 14:18
Microsoft pledges love and money to open source

OSCON Ponies up to Apache, endorses LGPL

After years of hostility towards Free Software Foundation (FSF) licensing (here and here) Microsoft has announced the first in a series of PHP patches - and it's using an FSF license. Microsoft told The Reg it's submitted a patch to the community for the ADOdb database abstraction library for PHP to add support for the PHP SQL …

Developer 25 Jul 2008, 18:02
Orange UK: the iPhone's latest ~~colour~~ carrier?

Could Orange become the UK's second iPhone carrier?

It’s already been rumoured that the iPhone 3G’s turning red, but fresh speculation has it that the must-have talker will also turn Orange within months. According to blogger Ernest Doku, a “very, very [the second very was in bold] credible source on the inside” has told him that the iPhone 3G will arrive on Orange's UK network …

Broadband 25 Jul 2008, 18:07
Austrian official fuels Skype backdoor rumours

'No particular problems' to listening in

Off the cuff remarks by Austrian government officials suggest that Skype conversations might be intercepted. Speaking at a recent meeting on lawful interception between ISPs and Austrian regulators, an unnamed "high-ranking" official at Austria's interior ministry said that listening into a conversation over Skype presented no …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 18:19
Yahoo! shoots DRM servers, swallows keys to tunes

Music Unlimited

Like Micro, like Hoo. Following in the footsteps of Steve Ballmer and company, Yahoo! plans to destroy the DRM servers propping up all those people misguided enough to purchase tunes from its failed music store. It's called Yahoo! Music Unlimited. But there are limits. The online tune store/subscription service will close on …

Media 25 Jul 2008, 18:22
US nuke missile crew falls asleep on the job

While in possession of launch codes

In the latest cockup involving nuclear arms, three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep while in possession of classified launch codes used to launch nuclear attacks, the US Air Force says. Officials say the codes, which allow Air Force personnel to communicate with the missiles, were never compromised and remained …

Bootnotes 25 Jul 2008, 19:00
Virgin Galactic to unveil tool to fling rich people into space

Hawaiian shirt flight suits still in design phase

Space tourism entrepreneurs at Virgin Galactic are poised to unveil the mothership that will launch the fabulously wealthy on ballistic arcs outside the Earth's atmosphere. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson and American aerospace engineer Burt Rutan on Monday will host the public debut of WhiteKnightTwo at the Mojave …

Science 25 Jul 2008, 19:23
Google gives GMail always-on encryption

New feature closes security loophole

Google is adding a much-demanded feature to its email service that offers improved security by ensuring users get an encrypted connection each time they access their account via a web connection. The new option means email sessions are automatically protected from start to finish with the secure sockets layer protocol even if …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 20:29
Google Code blacklists Mozilla Public License

OSCON Less is more

The Mozilla Public License (MPL) is the latest casualty of Google's decision to remove open-source licenses from its popular code hosting service. The search giant has said Google Code is no longer accepting projects licensed under MPL, although existing MPL-licensed code is allowed to stay. The move comes two years after …

Developer 25 Jul 2008, 22:00
Sun tosses most US customers to the resellers

Only largest accounts will get a direct line

Sun Microsystems plans to rapidly move its entire US customer base, short of its largest accounts, to an indirect sales model. In coming months, Sun's "Partner First" initiative will transfer all who aren't amongst its approximately 300 highest spending customers in the country to one of its reseller partners. The plan was …

Servers 25 Jul 2008, 22:22
High-priority patch fixes critical vulns in RealPlayer

Available in Windows, Mac and Linux

RealNetworks has issued an update that patches four security holes in its RealPlayer jukebox program, including a critical flaw that vulnerability tracker Secunia published today. The company says versions for Windows, Mac, Linux operating systems are all vulnerable to at least one of the flaws and that users should update as …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 22:30
Security shocker: 75% of US bank websites have flaws

Insecure by design

The vast majority of US bank websites jeopardize the security of their online customers by including design flaws that expose passwords and are susceptible to tampering by attackers, researchers say. In a paper titled "Analyzing Web sites for user-visible security design flaws," researchers from the University of Michigan …

Security 25 Jul 2008, 23:13
Europe approves HP purchase of EDS

In brief Shareholder lawsuits settled

Hewlett-Packard has received the blessings of the European Commission to swallow the computer service giant Electronic Data Systems (EDS) without regulatory fuss. It's also stuffed enough money into the mouths of naysaying investors to get the planned $13.9bn acquisition ready for a shareholder vote. In addition to an EU green …

Financial News 25 Jul 2008, 23:49