23rd September 2008 Archive

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(Former) gambling site worker cops to ID theft

Did you BetOnSports.com?

The former employee of an internet-based gambling website has admitted he used his position in the company's credit department to steal the identities of some of its clients. Patrick Kalonji, 27, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, pleaded guilty in US District Court in the Southern District of New York late last week. While living …

Crime 23 Sep 2008, 00:00
Study: Vast number of cyber attacks 'Made in the USA'

China a distant second

When it comes to cybercrime, Eastern Europe, China, and Brazil may get the lion's share of press attention, but a new study shows a vast proportion of attacks come from computers in the United States. Security firm SecureWorks has counted 20.6 million attacks against its customers that originated inside US borders so far this …

Security 23 Sep 2008, 03:48
NEC and Softbank sing from same IMS sheet

Bundled with femtocell infrastructure

NEC has been asked by Japanese network operator Softbank Mobile to provide an IMS-based network to support its femtocell service, for full commercial deployment in January 2009. The deployment will mark the first time femtocells have been deployed using the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) from end to end, despite the two …

Mobile 23 Sep 2008, 05:02
ELSPA chief lays into UK censor over games ratings

Leave classification to the games industry

The British Board of Film Classification isn’t fit for purpose when it comes to videogame classification, the bigwig of a rival game classification body has told the government. Again. Speaking at the Labour Party conference today, the notoriously hard-talking Director General of the European Leisure Software Publishers …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 06:02
LG intros webcam TV

Still nothing on

If there’s nothing on TV tonight, then how about having a conversation with your telly instead? Because, LG has created a stylish LCD display with an integrated webcam. LG's W2271TC TV, with webcam The 22in 1680 x 1050 resolution W2271TC screen is LG’s attempt at merging a modern day telly with “innovate features,” the …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 07:02
Teksys bulks up with Tech MS acquisition

Gains virtualization specialist

Teksys has snaffled the assets of a smaller rival reseller called Technology Made Simple, usually better known as Tech MS. Terms are undisclosed. Tech MS has a drawer full of badges: it is a Microsoft Gold Partner, an HP Platinum partner and a partner of VMWare and Citrix. The West-London based firm has been growing fast. It …

Channel Register 23 Sep 2008, 07:02
Nokia's N96 available tomorrow

DVB-H delight

If you’re itching to get your hands on Nokia’s N96 flagship handset then scoot down to one of the Finnish phone giant’s flagship stores, where the talker will go on sale tomorrow. The N96: available from Nokia's flagship stores tomorrow Nokia’s announced online that the phone will be available from 24 September in its two …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 08:02
Marketing body condemns 'draconian' Olympic law

'Will squeeze small biz'

The law that restricts use of words associated with the 2012 Olympic Games in London is heavy-handed, too restrictive and will damage the interests of businesses across the UK, the Chartered Institute of Marketers (CIM) has said. The Olympics Act of 2006 bans the use of terms such as 2012, games, gold, silver and bronze in …

Small Biz 23 Sep 2008, 08:57
Sony Ericsson hit the road

Lonely Planet guides come to Sony Ericsson phones

Sony Ericsson has followed in rival Nokia’s footsteps by announcing a deal to bring Lonely Planet’s travel guides to its mobile phone handsets. Under the terms of the deal, around 20 Lonely Planet city guides and roughly 10 audio phrasebooks will initially be made available for compatible Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Each …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 09:02
Privacy chief OKs sharing criminal records if privacy tightened

Data protection measures needed

Europe's privacy regulator has said that he will back a pan-European criminal records system only if specific data protection measures are put in place. Because the system deals with crime and security, EU data protection law does not currently apply to it. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx has said …

Government 23 Sep 2008, 09:10
Scarborough Building Society pulls insecure 'print' form

Ticked all the wrong boxes

Scarborough Building Society has pulled an insecure form from its site after it emerged that sensitive information was sent over an unencrypted connection. An online application form for various types of savings accounts invited prospective investors to fill in various categories of sensitive personal information before …

Enterprise Security 23 Sep 2008, 09:18
Dell bundles free fresh air with PC

No anti-virus protection included in price - unless you're Spanish

Hot on the heels of Dell's tempting Windows XP offer, giving customers the chance to avoid Vista for a mere £44k, we're delighted to announce that not having anti-virus protection will cost you absolutely nothing. Yup, Dell has rather generously decided to include a complete lack of protection in the price - unless you want …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 09:56
PM Brown dusts off one interweb per child plan (again)

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before

As he fights for his political life in a speech at the Labour Party conference in Manchester today, Gordon Brown will hope a sprinkle of magical internet pixie dust can help save him. According to newspapers briefed on the speech, Brown will announce yet again that the government will put cash towards ensuring all school …

Government 23 Sep 2008, 10:09
UK faces long wait for faster number porting

Comment How Ofcom fluffed the paperwork

Vodafone has blocked Ofcom's proposal to reform the UK number portability system, citing errors in the regulator's paperwork and methodology rather than any failing in the proposal itself. With the proposal now lost somewhere between court and quango, UK consumers continue to be stuck with a number porting system that seems to …

Mobile 23 Sep 2008, 10:13
NASA: Soyuz 'ballistic' re-entries are fixed

Let us use Russians instead of Shuttle, pleads Griffin

Russian engineers believe they have rectified snags which have seen Soyuz spacecraft returning from orbit take up dangerous "ballistic" trajectories recently. The Soyuz is likely to be the only craft capable of carrying humans into space for the first half of the next decade. Aviation Week reports that NASA associate …

Space 23 Sep 2008, 10:15
Xbox 360 gamers flex their political wings

Pick your president online

Casting a vote for the next US president is usually quite a formal affair. But a mock poll has seen almost 100,000 US gamers pick their future president using the Xbox 360. The Rock the Vote scheme allowed US Xbox 360 owners to perform a variety of political tasks using Xbox Live. This included registering for the right to …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 10:30
EU confirms SMS and data roaming price caps

Reding vs The Networks, round two

The EU will cap charges for roaming texts at a maximum of £0.09 and force operators to bill cross-border voice calls by the second, telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has said. Texts from other EU countries currently typically cost about £0.23. The battling Luxembourger has also confirmed plans to slap a £0.79 per megabyte …

Mobile 23 Sep 2008, 10:54
Second TJX hack suspect cops a plea

Nine still pleading not guilty

A second suspected hacker in the TJX breach case has pleaded guilty. Christopher Scott, 25 and of Miami, Florida, has admitted his role in hacking into weakly secured wireless networks at retail outlets, a key component in a much more ambitious attack that harvested an estimated 45.7 million card records at TJX alone last year …

Crime 23 Sep 2008, 10:55
G1 Android launch pictures leaked?

Phone pics emerge hours before launch

There may only be several hours to go before T-Mobile officially unveils the G1 Android-based handset. But that hasn’t stopped what’s believed to be the world’s first official photos of the phone being leaked online. The G1: available on T-Mobile, runs on Google's Android and made by HTC According to a report by TmoNews, …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 11:01
Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM recorder

Review Can dictation devices do music?

Olympus has quite a pedigree in the compact, tapeless voice recorder market, yet the introduction of the LS-10 Linear PCM is a distinct departure from all this. While both types of recorder share the ability to easily transfer audio files to computer over USB, the LS-10 takes itself very seriously, proffering uncompressed …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 11:02
Becta green lights open source software in schools, at last

Updated 'We almost fell off our chairs', say openistas

Open source providers have scored a significant and timely victory to get their software into UK schools with an official government blessing. The Sirius Corporation revealed yesterday that it was among 12 software suppliers to have been awarded places on the £80m Software for Educational Institutions Framework (SEIF) …

Software 23 Sep 2008, 11:11
Microsoft, HP shower shareholders with buyback cash

Yes, we think we're a real bargain right now

Microsoft is trying to put a floor under its share price in a tumbling stock market by launching the biggest share buyback program in history. The software vendor announced the $40bn (sort of) jamboree for shareholders yesterday, as HP declared it too would open up the coffers and buy back shares to the tune of $8bn. …

Financial News 23 Sep 2008, 11:13
Mars rover sets sights on distant crater

Opportunity off for 7-mile, possibly final, jaunt

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is about to set off on what may be its final odyssey - a seven-mile (11.3 km) jaunt to a crater around 20 times larger than the Victoria Crater from which it extricated itself earlier this month. The distant feature, dubbed Endeavour, is 13.7 miles (22 km) across and 1,000 ft (300m) deep. It's …

Space 23 Sep 2008, 11:16
Fines all round! EU blames everybody for illegal employment

Takes aim at contractor chain, hits entire market instead

As Bismark didn't quite point out, both sausages and laws are desirable and necessary things (mmm, sausages!), but you don't particularly want to be there when they're made. Recent experience inside the Brussels saucisson factory rather brought this home to me. To set the scene: they're trying to get EU-wide laws covering …

Law 23 Sep 2008, 11:33
NASA, USAF in $30m hypersonic boffinry push

Hot new technology

The US air force and NASA have launched a joint research push to advance hypersonic flight technology. The air force research lab and space agency are seeking university and industry partners, and are offering $30m in funding. Hypersonic for this purpose is defined as five times the speed of sound or faster. Thus far, very few …

Space 23 Sep 2008, 11:37
Why blade servers still don't cut it, and how they might

The blade manifesto

Sometimes, a good idea just doesn't take off. OK, this is information technology, not philosophy, so let me rephrase that more accurately. Sometimes, ideas and habits that were once laudable have an immense inertia that prevents a new and perhaps better idea from building momentum in the market. Such is the case with the …

Servers 23 Sep 2008, 12:02
Dell: We went green too early

CIOs don't pay energy bills, so they don't care

Dell has admitted it won't earn much return on the energetic greening of its operations and products, until CIOs get paid to have greener data centres. Michael Dell, Dell's founder, chairman and CEO, said in a briefing with journalists in London today, that the underlying interest in green matters is growing at a fast pace. …

PCs & Chips 23 Sep 2008, 12:08
Malaysian blogger 'detained' for two years

Dubious charge of insulting Islam

A Malaysian blogger has been detained without trial for two years on charges of "insulting Islam and inciting racial tensions", the BBC reports. Raja Petra Kamarudin was cuffed on 12 September after he unwisely used a piece in the Malaysia Today website.to accuse Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Najib Razak, of involvement in …

Law 23 Sep 2008, 12:11
Timberland pays $7m to settle SMS spam lawsuit

Rap on the knuckles

Outdoor gear firm Timberland has agreed to pay $7m to settle a text message spam class-action lawsuit in the US. Recipients of unsolicited SMS messages punting the rappers' favourite stand to collect up to $150 in compensation from the fund, under the terms of a preliminary agreement. Timberland and e-commerce provider GSI …

Spam 23 Sep 2008, 12:16
Sacked Indian workers beat chief exec to death

Industrial relations, Uttar Pradesh style

The chief executive of Graziano Transmissioni India was yesterday beaten to death by a group of former workers when a meeting called to settle the dispute which led to their dismissal "turned sour", as the Guardian puts it. Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, was attempting to resolve an extended industrial dispute at the car parts …

Bootnotes 23 Sep 2008, 12:18
California Academy of Sciences: A new lease on life

Natural history without the formaldehyde

The grand dame of natural history museums in the American west gave a sneak peak to the press last week, after a multi-year green reconstruction and all-around face lift. The results are impressive: One of the ten largest natural science museums in the world, San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences has - for the second …

Science 23 Sep 2008, 13:02
Maxell launches leather DVD

Not for vegetarian storage fans

All sorts of things are already bound in leather, including sofas and chairs, books and, even, the Blackberry Bold. But Maxell has taken things one-step further by unveiling a range of leather DVDs. Maxell's DVD's have a leather-like top coating It's claimed the discs are the world's first DVDs to feature a leather top …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 13:02
David Blaine does a Benito Mussolini

Hanging upside-down, albeit alive

Shameless publicity strumpet David Blaine has kicked off his latest death-defying stunt in New York - hanging upside-down above Wollmann ice rink, where he intends to remain for 60 hours surviving through "sheer willpower" and the occasional drink sucked through a straw. Blaine is currently suspended from a four-storey high …

Entertainment 23 Sep 2008, 13:10
Met Office: Global warming sceptics 'have heads in sand'

Recent chill just a blip, insist weather prophets

The UK Met Office climate change bureau has issued a stinging attack on the idea that recent falls in global temperature might mean that global warming is over or has been exaggerated. "Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand," said an unnamed Met Office spokesman in a statement released online …

Environment 23 Sep 2008, 13:13
Nokia creates Indoor Positioning

GPS' alter ego?

GPS is fine if you just need directions from your office to a restaurant, but it’s not much help for finding your way around a building. So Nokia has developed a form of indoor GPS. According to a post of the Finnish firm’s Conversations website, Indoor Positioning could – potentially – help you find places and items indoors, …

Reg Hardware 23 Sep 2008, 14:02
Labour minister says 14 year olds should get ID cards

Deluges fringe meeting with Kool-Aid

A government minister has spoken glowingly of the prospect of kids as young as six handing over their biometrics as she boasted that the Tories and LibDems would find it impossible to unpick the government’s ID card scheme. Meg Hillier, an under secretary at the Home Office, told a fringe meeting of tobacconists and …

Government 23 Sep 2008, 14:11
Amanda Donohoe rides into Emmerdale

Not like Lady Godiva, we sincerely hope

We're not quite sure what the regulars down at the Woolpack will make of this*, but LA Law thespiatrix Amanda Donohoe is set to join the cast of venerable ITV soap Emmerdale as one half of a "sexy new couple" who retire to the country. Donohoe, 46, has declared herself "very excited" to join former Casualty star Maxwell …

Entertainment 23 Sep 2008, 14:27
Grey ~~hat~~ hair hacker suspect charged in Maserati extortion case

Script oldie

A 60-year-old man has been charged with hacking and attempting extortion on Monday over an alleged attack on the customer database of luxury car firm Maserati. Bruce Mengler, of Solana Beach, near San Diego, stands accused of lifting a database of customers who took trial drives of Maserati motors after hacking into the car …

Crime 23 Sep 2008, 14:48
Google: The Satan Phone cometh

T-Mobile G1 is go

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. - Job 1:7 The Jesus Phone's could-be nemesis has arrived. In New York today, T-Mobile unveiled the G1, the first consumer device based on Google's Linux-derived …

Mobile 23 Sep 2008, 15:36
EFF reveals vastly expanded search policy at US borders

Probable cause a thing of the past

In a move that could affect millions of people around the world, the US government has quietly relaxed a two-decade-old policy that limited the reading and copying of papers and electronic data carried by travelers crossing into American borders, according to recently released documents. Under guidelines that were most …

Government 23 Sep 2008, 18:47
Pillar, EMC, and HP bow to the Oracle

App-specific storage

Pillar has added new Oracle software pick-and-click tuning tools to its Axiom storage array management software to simplify an Oracle DBA's day. EMC and HP have also added Oracle-specific versions of their products. This adding of app-specific configurations or tuning templates is starting to become a trend amongst storage …

Channel Register 23 Sep 2008, 18:59
Passport snooping public servant faces year in the can

'Idle curiosity' spurs celeb data breach

A bored former State Department analyst faces up to a year behind bars as a result of his penchant for reading the passport files of celebrities. Lawrence Yontz, 48, of Arlington, Virginia, looked as the passport applications of Barack Obama and John McCain as well as various unnamed celebs, athletes, businessmen, and even …

Crime 23 Sep 2008, 19:07
Secret Windows 7 screens leaked?

Microsoft and the Jackson 5

Despite Microsoft's efforts to keep Windows 7 information secret and safe within a close circle of partners and testers until its good and ready, another round of screenshots has found its way to the web. Over the weekend, the ThinkNext.net blog posted a variety of screenshots purportedly from the latest batch of beta code, …

Operating Systems 23 Sep 2008, 19:18
Oracle support service goes MIA (again)

OpenWorld 08 Downloads. Who needs 'em?

Oracle has launched an ambitious "next-generation" support service amid lingering and painful outages in the database giant's existing online services. Employing its typical pomp and bombast, Oracle used its annual OpenWorld conference to announce My Oracle Support, which integrates its existing MetaLink support service with …

Channel Register 23 Sep 2008, 19:24
Sun: OpenSolaris 'pretty freaking amazing'

On the road from Indiana to Nevada

While the top brass at Sun Microsystems might seem to be clueless about the company sometimes, there are plenty of people who know where the bread gets buttered - or doesn't. They know that Solaris and the servers that run it are what really matter at Sun. And that means Sun's OpenSolaris project and its related Solaris …

Operating Systems 23 Sep 2008, 20:08
Tilera gooses 64-core mesh processor

Wonders what it's good for

A year ago, at the annual Hot Chips conference for chip designers in Silicon Valley, a company called Tilera came out of stealth mode and launched its 64-core Tile64 mesh processor. The Tile64 chip takes multi-core to an extreme, and an on-chip iMesh network allows a grid of cores and memory controllers to compete with X64 or …

PCs & Chips 23 Sep 2008, 21:26
eBay: don't come on our US site without protection

Customers need to pack PayPal, credit/debit cards

Just when you think eBay is done infuriating longtime users across the world, the auction site keeps cranking out the hits. You almost have to admire the steadfast dedication – that ability to bear 'mid now and ice, a banner with the strange device; Excelsior! Or something to that Longfellowian effect. Point is, the bitter …

Applications 23 Sep 2008, 22:16