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18th August 2008 Archive

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  • Dollar surge helps software vendors soak customers

    Analysis Citrix, VMware jack up non-US price lists

    US software vendors are jacking up their price lists in Europe, and are blaming the weak dollar for the hike. Citrix earlier this month quietly told its customers that its suggested retail price on all products would rise more than ten per cent in its Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific markets from 1 September 2008 …

    Servers 18 Aug 2008, 06:02

  • Steady as she goes at DiData

    Dimension Data today issued an upbeat interim management statement for the period 1 April to 18 August. 18. The reseller giant experienced “good demand”, achieved gross margin stability, kept a lid on costs and maintained a sold net cash position. It is confident that it will deliver on management expectations of a strong …

    The Channel 18 Aug 2008, 06:42

  • U2 tracks disappear from YouTube

    Windows leak blamed

    A Dutch U2 fan on holiday in France overheard, and recorded, four tracks from the new U2 album and stuck them on YouTube. The fan was walking on the beach when he heard the music blasting from a window of Bono's villa. He recorded them on a mobile phone and later put them online. The tracks were available on YouTube, but seem …

    Media 18 Aug 2008, 08:47

  • HP offers gov half-price printers

    Get 'em quick

    HP and OGCbuying.solutions, the government's procurement body, have done a deal for half-price printers. The list of approved printers are low energy and Defra certified - 'Quick Wins' - meeting minimum environmental standards. The deal is available through HP resellers including Centerprise, Computacenter, DSGi and Fujitsu …

    The Channel 18 Aug 2008, 08:52

  • MoJ admits data breaches affecting 45,000

    Long arm of the law has butter fingers

    The Ministry of Justice has reported eight data breach incidents affecting around 45,000 people. The incident affecting the most people, reported in the ministry's 2007-08 resource accounts (pdf), took place in June 2007. Discs containing 27,000 supplier records, including supplier names, addresses and in some cases bank …

    Government 18 Aug 2008, 09:05

  • AMD's 'Fusion' not a native CPU+GPU design

    First 'Acceleration Processing Unit' named after Simpsons character?

    AMD's first 'Fusion' processor isn't due until mid-2009, but specs are leaking out. Given how AMD has touted its 'native' multi-core designs, AMD's next-gen part isn't as integrated as you'd expect The chip, codenamed 'Swift', brings together CPU and GPU. However, according to Taiwanese mobo-maker moles, cited by Chinese- …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 09:36

  • Does Microsoft already own the BPM space?

    Reg Tech Panel Incumbency creep

    Business Process Management is not a particularly new term, but it has received a pretty big boost in visibility recently as some vendors seem to be positioning it as the next big thing in IT. The problem is that the term means different things to different people – vendors and users alike. Apart from the fact that the …

    Tech Panel 18 Aug 2008, 09:40

  • Road Pricing 2.0 is two years away

    Spy in the cab comes out of the lab

    The government's "Managed Motorway" re-badged road-pricing scheme seems to be taking on more shape, with reports indicating that technical elements of it will commence testing from 2010. The Telegraph says this morning that contracts are close to being signed for trials of "Spy in the Sky" car-tracking equipment and associated …

    Government 18 Aug 2008, 09:47

  • National DNA database grows on the genes of the innocent

    Kids swell numbers

    Almost 600,000 genetic profiles taken from innocent people have helped swell the National DNA Database to cover about seven per cent of the UK population. Home Office figures also reveal that DNA profiles from 39,095 children who have never been charged, cautioned or formally reprimanded are now on the database indefinitely. …

    Law 18 Aug 2008, 09:52

  • Intel roadmaps hi-speed SSDs

    170MB/s write speed, anyone?

    Intel is preparing solid-state drives with sustained read and write speeds of 240MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively. The gen comes from what's claimed to be a leaked roadmap slide that was subsequently posted by website Expreview. Intel's SSD scheme calls for the release of the laptop-friendly 2.5in X25-M in Q3 alongside a 1.8in …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 10:05

  • AMD hits Intel with Shanghai surprise

    Game, chipset and match

    AMD plans to dish up a server platform based on a new chipset in the first half of 2009 - meanwhile, its 45 nanometre Shanghai processor will be released in the fourth quarter of this year. The chip maker made the announcements on Friday, just before the Intel Developer Forum kicked off in San Francisco. The new chipset is …

    Servers 18 Aug 2008, 10:50

  • Acer Aspire One A110

    Review The Eee-beater to beat

    It was all so simple at the start of the year. You wanted a Small, Cheap Computer™, you bought an Asus EeePC 701. Now we have a plethora of SCCs to choose from - and Dell has still to get in on the act. Thankfully, Acer has taken a slightly more restrained view of what constitutes an SCC. Its Aspire One is available in just …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 11:02

  • Cisco plugs online meeting bug

    Buffer buffed

    Cisco has plugged a buffer overflow flaw involving its popular WebEx online meeting client. The vulnerability, which involves a bug in an ActiveX control, was revealed in a posting by security researcher Elazar Broad on 6 August, more than a week before Cisco issued an advisory on Friday (15 August). Cisco told Broad it was …

    Security 18 Aug 2008, 11:40

  • Sony Walkman revamp details leaked online

    Another iPod rival?

    Sony looks set to launch a fresh assault on the iPod, because pictures and specifications of the electronics giant’s latest Walkman MP3 players have appeared on the web. Could these be Sony's latest Walkmans? According to a report by website Sony Insider, Sony’s upcoming NW-E series consists of three players: the 2GB NWZ- …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 11:57

  • Ten of the Best... Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

    Round-up A2DP ahoy!

    The first Bluetooth headsets were simple mono devices, however as handsets developed into advanced accessories that can play music and video, so headsets have started to develop too. The first step was to add stereo capabilities using a technology known as A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). And, of course, the …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 11:58

  • Qualcomm: Interview with a cellular vampire

    Analysis A trace of humanity now?

    The 1976 Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire which showed the a sympathetic and softer side of the vampire and which uncovered both the mind-numbing ennui of being immortal and the complete lack of a sense of belonging, and other disadvantages to being uniquely powerful and yet disliked, was the first image that struck us …

    Broadband 18 Aug 2008, 12:02

  • Rude Tintin pulls out

    Saucy Spanish comic besmirches Snowy image

    A salacious Spanish reinterpretation of a Tintin story has been yanked from bookshops as a yucky stain on the comic book character. Antonio Altarriba published The Pink Lotus last year, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tintin creator Hergé, the Guardian tells us. But the story - a new version of classic …

    Bootnotes 18 Aug 2008, 12:16

  • Yes! It's the iPhone 3G telescope!

    Zoom into better pictures

    The iPhone 3G’s camera zoom is, well, non-existent. So online retailer Brando has unveiled a telescope for star-gazing Apple fanatics. Brando's iPhone 3G telescope kit Brando’s kit comprises of a 6x magnification telescope that screws onto a specially designed hard case, which protects the front and back of your precious …

    Hardware 18 Aug 2008, 13:15

  • Dell cloud computing™ denied

    Why does it always rain on me

    Dell has lost its bid to trademark the widely-used term “cloud computing”. The computer giant had filed an application to trademark the phrase with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March 2007. However, according to blogger Sam Johnston, Dell’s application was officially rejected by the USPTO late last week. In …

    Servers 18 Aug 2008, 13:21

  • MoD judges clone-drone deathmatch

    Comment It's Robowars with guns

    The UK Ministry of Defence expects to announce the winner of its "Grand Challenge" urban-warfare robotics competition tomorrow. The last three days have seen the contending droids - those which came up to the start line in a serviceable condition, anyway - battling it out for the title in a purpose-built small town used by the …

    Government 18 Aug 2008, 13:32

  • Pandora prepares to join titsup.com club

    Web radio outfit struggling to cover royalties

    This weekend saw a cry for help from personalised web radio outfit Pandora. It blubbed that music industry royalties are too high for it to survive on meagre web 2.0 advertising revenues. In a Washington Post confessional, the firm's founder and CEO Tim Westergren said: "We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This …

    Media 18 Aug 2008, 13:40

  • Psychologists give gaming the thumbs up

    Makes kids smarter and surgeons faster

    A trio of psychology reports examining the benefits of videogames have unanimously concluded that some titles can have positive effects on their players. The research, which was released yesterday at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston, Massachusetts, found that people of all ages and from …

    Games 18 Aug 2008, 13:47

  • Knight Rider satnav delivery wobbles off course

    Launch date push back to next month

    Michael and KITT have suffered a setback that’s prevented the Knight Rider-themed satnav from hitting the shops on time. It was originally thought that the much-hyped GPS gadget would appear – in the US at least – sometime this month. But according to Amazon.com, the Knight Rider satnav now won’t make its first outing until 24 …

    Science 18 Aug 2008, 14:04

  • Ofcom steps up the power for unlicensed broadcasting

    But only for those topping 10GHz

    UK regulator Ofcom has published a consultation on increasing the limits on broadcasting above 10GHz, claiming that at such high frequencies the range is so small it's not going to bother anyone anyway. Currently the caps on licence-exempt usage only go up to 10.6GHz, and generally increase with the frequency. The new proposal …

    Broadband 18 Aug 2008, 14:08

  • Microsoft's Vista push probed by Fair Trade Commission

    Taiwan not impressed

    The Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission is investigating a complaint against Microsoft made by the Taiwanese Consumer Foundation, which claims the company is effectively using its monopoly to force sales of Vista. The Foundation claims its research shows 56 per cent of people buying new machines, with Vista on, would later put XP …

    Operating Systems 18 Aug 2008, 14:20

  • Librarian of child abuse networking site jailed indefinitely

    Cradle of depravity

    A UK man who ran an online child abuse image library that served as a meeting place for paedophiles was jailed indefinitely on Monday. Philip Anthony Thompson, 27, of Stockton-on-Tees, was convicted of holding a library of 241,000 indecent images of kids, ranging in explicitness from the borderline legal to clearly obscene. …

    Law 18 Aug 2008, 14:39

  • HTC Dream sails through FCC tests

    Wi-Fi certificate granted too

    Production of the first mobile to use Google’s Android platform has taken a step forward, following the US Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval of HTC’s Dream handset. The Wi-Fi Alliance has given it the thumbs-up too. HTC's Dream: in the making The results of a series of tests on the Dream, such as SAR …

    Mobile 18 Aug 2008, 14:59

  • Tech sector burnt by biz confidence meltdown

    Recession, recession, recession

    Finance professionals’ confidence in the IT sector is slipping as UK businesses face the toughest trading environment since the early 1990s, according to a new report. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) latest Business Confidence Monitor was published today. It revealed the index had dropped to …

    Financial News 18 Aug 2008, 15:29

  • Three found guilty of web extremism plot

    Jihadi literature spread online

    Three British Muslims face prison after a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court in London today found them guilty of involvement in an online plot to spread jihadism. Dewsbury schoolboy Hammaad Munshi was 16 when he was arrested in 2006. Along with 23-year-old Aabid Khan, from Bradford, and 23-year-old Sultan Muhammed, from …

    Law 18 Aug 2008, 15:33

  • Pirated movie downloads offered as Zango sweetener

    Holy warez, Batman

    Zango affiliates are offering gateway access to pirated films, including the Hollywood blockbuster The Dark Knight, in a bid to induce users into accepting adware. Freetards who accept the offer are likely to to be disappointed with the shaky videocam footage of the eagerly awaited next installment in the rebooted Batman …

    Security 18 Aug 2008, 17:27

  • Microsoft Silverlight: 10 reasons to love it, 10 reasons to hate it

    Four-letter word

    A year or so ago I wrote a post called Adobe AIR: 10 reasons to love it, 10 reasons to hate it. Here’s the same kind of list for Microsoft’s Silverlight, based on the forthcoming Silverlight 2.0 rather than the current version. The items are not in any kind of order - they also reflect my interest in application development …

    Developer 18 Aug 2008, 18:44

  • 'Malvertizement' epidemic visits house of Newsweek.com

    Symptoms felt 'all over the net'

    Newsweek.com is one of several high-profile websites suspected of running rogue banner advertisements that try to trick visitors into installing fraudulent anti-malware programs, security researchers warn. The malicious ads have been appearing on Newsweek's website via feeds that carry the Washingtonpost.com address, according …

    Security 18 Aug 2008, 19:48