23rd October 2008 Archive

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Bill Gates launches stealth bgC3 LLC project

Plenty of time for thinking

So much for quitting Microsoft to spend more time with his medicines. Billionaire Bill Gates has reportedly started a new venture, bgC3 LLC. TechFlash has described Gates' new baby as a think-tank that was founded after he quit his full-time duties with Microsoft this summer after 33 years. Gates is on his own at bgC3 LLC, …

Software 23 Oct 2008, 00:24
IBM, Intel open blade switch specs

Standards? Don't hold your breath

Server maker IBM and sometime-server maker Intel partnered in 2002 to jointly create and endorse blade servers based on Big Blue's chassis: the BladeCenter. In 2004, the companies opened up the specifications to the chassis so they could help foster a community of blade, switch, and peripheral manufacturers. And today, they're …

Servers 23 Oct 2008, 04:02
Without typo-squatters, how far would Google fall?

The riches of cartooonnetwork.com

How much money is Google making from the world's typo-squatters? God only knows. Or rather: God, Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and a few Oompah Loompahs inside their Mountain View Chocolate Factory. According to a recent study from McAfee and Harvard prof/cyber watchdog Ben Edelman - which relies on web data from May …

Music and Media 23 Oct 2008, 05:21
Grim news at Dixons

Sales, margins and investment down

Dixons Store Group International (DSGi) updated the markets today on a miserable six months of trading. Like-for-like sales fell 7 per cent for the 24 weeks ended 18 October 2008 and gross margins were down 0.7 per cent. The company said: "Consumer confidence has significantly deteriorated across Europe, particularly in more …

Channel Register 23 Oct 2008, 08:13
TfL considers life without Oyster

Looks at mobes and bank cards as replacements

Transport for London may replace its Oyster card with with new ticketing systems operated through mobile phones or bankcards. Will Judge, head of future ticketing at TfL, told the London Assembly's Budget and Performance Committee on 21 October that the body is looking at various technologies and providers to take over from …

Government 23 Oct 2008, 08:50
NASA kids' compo: Name the inflatable moon habitat

'It's like a bouncy castle, but more sophisticated'

US space agency NASA has announced a competition for schoolchildren to name a prototype inflatable habitat module intended for use on the Moon. An early test model is currently being tried out for resistance to cold at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Fly me to the moon - what spring will be like on Mars, if not Jupiter. …

Space 23 Oct 2008, 08:55
Speed cams ditched in Wiltshire

Council declares them rubbish

Swindon local council has voted in favour of ending funding for maintenance of speed cameras in the town. At a vote last night the Tory council voted unanimously to stop providing £320,000 in funding for the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership. The council will redirect funding to other road safety projects to …

Law 23 Oct 2008, 09:02
Bespoke top level domains 'to cost $200,000'

.pricey

Internet overseer ICANN plans to reform the top level domain (TLD) naming system so anyone can set up a new registry, but it seems web plebs will have to make do with boring old .com and friends. According to a report, the price for a bespoke TLD will be announced this Friday at about $200,000. The price tag will help ICANN …

Networks 23 Oct 2008, 09:04
Seagate earnings slump 83%

Blood on the tracks

The economic crisis has slammed into Seagate's quarterly earnings, with the storage company suffering an 83.1 percent drop in net income. Several recent earnings reports from storage companies signal a downturn - EMC, Imation, QLogic and Sun for example. Seagate is now following suit. For its first fiscal 2009 quarter to the …

Channel Register 23 Oct 2008, 09:15
Compellent delivers storming quarter

Slowing sequential growth forecast

SAN storage supplier Compellent has announced a storming quarter, with revenues up 84 per cent. It's also made its first profit, and is seeing continued but slowing growth. Compellent revenues for the third quarter were $24.6m, compared to Q3 2007's $13.4m. Net income was $464,000 or $0.1 per share with the same period in 2007 …

Channel Register 23 Oct 2008, 09:43
Skiving Aussie fingered on Facebook

Epic fail for sickie-throwing call centre employee

An Oz call centre employee has become an overnight net celeb down under after an email exchange between him and his firm's workforce manager regarding a "sickie" escaped into the wild yesterday. The correspondence, currently doing the rounds of Aussie inboxes, concerns a day's leave of absence claimed by Kyle Doyle on 21 …

Bootnotes 23 Oct 2008, 09:44
Next Nokia E-series smartphone leaked

E63 to join E61 and E71?

Images and specifications have been unearthed of yet another addition to Nokia’s E-series smartphone line-up. One picture of the mystery device, which was leaked in various forum posts, shows that the device is labelled the E63. A second snap shows that the unannounced E-series phone is also roughly the same height and width …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 10:04
Android Marketplace sparks into life

Chased by RIM, Samsung and more

The Android Marketplace for free apps will go live Monday and will find itself facing competition from other pay sites before too long. Everyone wanting to be taken seriously as a handset manufacturer is getting into the retail game these days. RIM announced an application store last week, to go live come March next year, and …

Mobile 23 Oct 2008, 10:21
Toshiba charges ahead with EV-friendly battery building plan

'Leccy Tech Upping production twentyfold

Toshiba has announced plans to up its production of lithium-ion battery cells from the current 150,000 a month to three million by 2010, its eye on the new hybrid and plug-in electric cars silently heading our way in the next few years. How many cars that monthly cell count equates to is a grey area. BMW's new Mini E is said …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 10:32
Amazon braces for the Grinch at Christmas - or not

There may be trouble ahead

Amazon.com had a decent third quarter but has scared investors by giving an almost absurdly broad estimate of fourth quarter revenues and profits. Amazon made sales of $4.26bn - up 31 per cent - in the three months ended 30 September 2008, just missing Wall Street targets. Operating income was up 26 per cent to $154m, while …

Financial News 23 Oct 2008, 10:41
VbyV password reset is childishly simple

Hit keyboard with fists, gain access

Much was made of how easy it was for a hacker to reset Sarah Palin's webmail account password and gain illicit access to emails, but resetting passwords for Verified by Visa - which supposedly makes online transactions more secure - is arguably even easier. To reset Palin's email account a hacker needed to know the Republican …

ID 23 Oct 2008, 10:56
Edifier MP300 Plus 2.1 laptop speaker system

Review Awesome audio

Portable laptop speakers aren't easy to get excited about. Most tend to look cheap, sound cheap and often aren't all that portable. Edifier's new MP300 2.1 speaker systems kicks the first two preconceptions into the long grass with some ease and while not exactly light or small, the set makes remarkably good use of the space …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 11:02
All Android apps are not made equal

Google's are more equal than others

With Android developers finally let loose with real hardware, some of the limitations of the Android SDK are coming to light - though it seems that applications coming out of the Googleplex aren't limited in quite the same way. The first evidence of a hierachical strata of developers comes with access to APIs for installing …

Mobile 23 Oct 2008, 11:18
Microsoft springs Office 2007 SP2 release date - kinda

Somewhere between Valentine's and April Fool's

Microsoft has confirmed it will dish up Office 2007 Service Pack 2 in the first half of next year. The software giant said yesterday that customers would get their mitts on SP2 for its current office suite of apps sometime between February and April 2009. It didn’t give a specific release date, presumably to avoid shooting …

Applications 23 Oct 2008, 11:33
Home Office coughs to stolen lappies

Managed not to lose any desktops though...

The Home Office said 12 of its laptops were stolen in 2007 - by government standards a pretty low figure. No desktop computers went missing during the period. The estimated value of the stolen machines was £8,200 - or £683 each. This total apparently included the cost of "ensuring that the laptops meet the security standard …

Government 23 Oct 2008, 11:38
Sony Ericsson to reduce handset range by 20 per cent

Too many mobiles

Sony Ericsson plans to slash the number of handsets in its mobile phone line-up following its first quarterly loss in more than five years. Dick Komiyama, Sony Ericsson's President, said the company will cull 20 per cent of its current handset range, according to a Financial Times report. Sony Ericsson's website currently …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 12:13
Thrust SSC team to build 1000 mph 'Bloodhound' car

Comment Drayson fixes comeback gig to boost UK Sci/Tech

A new bid to break the land speed record using British technology was launched today by the Science Minister, Lord Drayson. The idea is that breaking the previous record (held by the same British team mounting this attempt) will inspire schoolchildren to embark on careers in science and engineering. Bloodhound. Exciting new …

Science 23 Oct 2008, 12:29
Designer touts 'super sight' sunglasses

Fresnel lenses boost field of view by 25 per cent

Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing. So a designer’s crafted a pair of sunglasses that he's claimed will extend your field of vision. May's Fresnel lens glasses: widen your horizons Although the specs would have base-curve nine lenses at the front, designer Billy May said the specs would also incorporated Fresnel …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 12:38
Blundering workmen cut major Docklands fibre

O2, Be Broadband network slowed

Workmen in London's Docklands sliced through a major fibre optic trunk yesterday, forcing businesses and ISPs nationwide to reroute internet traffic. Contractors in Yeo Street broke the link, owned by tier one provider Global Crossing, early on Wednesday afternoon. The O2 and Be Broadband network was the highest profile …

Telecoms 23 Oct 2008, 12:42
Microsoft rushes out emergency Windows update

Critical flaw clocked

Microsoft is about to issue an emergency security update to plug a vulnerability which could allow an internet worm to be spread via a computer without the user doing anything. The update is rated as critical for users of Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 and the less severe rating of "important" for users of Windows Server …

Enterprise Security 23 Oct 2008, 12:53
English speakers hit hardest by ID theft

But punters worldwide lax with password security

Victims of identity theft are twice as likely to hail from English-speaking countries than from France, Germany or Spain. Some punters worldwide are putting themselves at risk by putting personal details - such as pet names - used as passwords for sensitive online accounts into social networking profiles. A survey commissioned …

ID 23 Oct 2008, 13:03
Merchants and punters cry foul over Verified by Visa

Resistance is futile

The Verified by Visa system is becoming harder to avoid, even for those with real doubts about its effectiveness in combating fraud. The experiences of Verified by Visa refusenik and Reg reader Steve reported in our earlier article on the system are being experienced by more and more Register readers. Both Verified by Visa ( …

ID 23 Oct 2008, 13:06
Bechtolsheim 'leaves' Sun for switches start-up

Flashes 10 gigabit kit in Cisco's face

Sun Microsystems cofounder Andreas von Bechtolsheim is reining back his role as chief architect at the firm to concentrate on what has up to now been his pet project – Arista Networks. Bechtolsheim is reportedly looking to focus more on the Silicon Valley start-up that hopes to rival network giant Cisco Systems with its …

Data Networking 23 Oct 2008, 13:08
AMD intros low cost, high end GPU

Radeon HD 4830 debuts

AMD has rolled out its ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card, pitching the part as a low-cost entry into its top-of-the-line GPU range. One of the first 4830-based boards out of the gate is Sapphire's HD 4830, which clocks the GPU to 575MHz and links the core to 512MB of GDDR 3 memory running at 900MHz and sitting on a 256-bit bus …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 13:17
Powerline Ethernet standardisation effort still stuck

Lead proposal rejected, made lead proposal again

An attempt to define a standard for in-home powerline Ethernet networking remains deadlocked after the lead proposal failed to win sufficient support from IEEE members this month. A joint specification touted by the HomePlug Alliance (HPA), Panasonic and Hisilicon only won the approval of 69 per cent of the IEEE P1901 Working …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 13:18
Civil servants' pro-Labour memo reignites child data controversy

Exclusive Tories ask questions on civil service impartiality

The Conservatives have called on the government to explain why supposedly impartial civil servants have intervened in a political argument over how sensitive data on children should be stored and shared. Earlier this week the Department for Children, Schools and Families wrote to local authorities to argue that Labour's plans …

Government 23 Oct 2008, 13:23
57,000 Wii-oriented guitar accessories recalled

Gamer given axe to grind

If you’re an up-and-coming Slash or Dave Murray, practising your riffs on the Wii with a Rage Wireless Guitar may not longer be the best option, because it could leave you with a nasty burn. 57,000 Rage Wireless Guitar's have been recalled The guitar’s manufacturer, Performance Designed Products (PDP), has voluntarily …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 15:02
Sony preps PSP storage fix

Memory card capacity loss correction

Sony only recently launched firmware version 5.00 for the PlayStation Portable, but the electronics giant’s already inked in an update because it discovered a storage problem on the portable player. Firmware 5.00 enabled direct access to the PlayStation Store from the PSP, enabling you to perform all sorts of tasks, such as …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 15:10
Gov approval given for Saudi Eurofighter sale

That's the US government, of course

The US government has given its approval for the sale of sensitive military technology to the Saudis in the form of Eurofighter combat jets developed cooperatively by the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Headed for mothballs in the UK - and to the Saudis. Washington's approval is necessary because the Eurofighter, despite its …

Government 23 Oct 2008, 15:26
MS axes Xbox 360 games in India, Germany

Offense-causing concerns

Fears that a game’s contents could cause offense have spread since the LittleBigPlanet delay, with two upcoming titles banned from sale in some regions. Gamers in India won’t be pleased to learn that the third game in the Fallout series now won’t be released there, because Microsoft, the titles local distributor, is worried …

Reg Hardware 23 Oct 2008, 15:30
Intel badmouths Jesus Phone

Cusses out ARM core

Intel has started calling the iPhone a flawed browsing experience. The chip giant attributes this to Apple's choice of an ARM core to power its moderately successful mobile phone. The news comes from the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, as reported by Cnet, but the company's disdain for all things ARM is nothing new. Intel has …

Mobile 23 Oct 2008, 18:00
Google reports itself for aiding and abetting malware distribution

Search engine self-flagellation

Google has castigated itself for being an intermediary for malware. The search giant's Safe Browsing diagnostic tool reports that google.com avoids spreading malware directly itself but did act as an "intermediary for the infection of three site(s) including xlovelygirls.com, paincult.com, iteenzy.com" over the last 90 days …

Security 23 Oct 2008, 18:02
Sun: ~~Elvis~~ Andy has not left the building

Bechtolsheim still chief architect, says 'boss'

When we woke up this morning, we were confronted with a flurry of stories about Andy Bechtolsheim leaving Sun to become chairman and chief development officer at a startup called Arista Networks. This seemed like bad news for Sun, but the company would like you to know it isn't entirely true. Andy - and like Elvis, we probably …

Servers 23 Oct 2008, 18:48
Microsoft rushes out emergency Windows security fix

Updated 'Critical' bug squashed

Microsoft has released an emergency security update for a broad swath of its users that patches a critical security hole that is already being exploited in the wild. The vulnerability - which has been subjected to "limited, targeted attacks" - could allow miscreants to create wormable exploits that remotely execute malicious …

Security 23 Oct 2008, 19:05
Amazon delivers Windows-powered cloud

No SLA for grownups

Amazon has launched a beta version of its Elastic Compute Cloud running Windows, while taking early steps to make EC2 appealing to business users. The company has begun offering the option of running instances on 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows with data backed up to the 64-bit edition of Microsoft's SQL Server database. …

Applications 23 Oct 2008, 19:17
'Magnetic Death Star' fragments unearthed in New Jersey

Ancient global warming begat crystalline mutants

Some good news and bad news about global warming: The bad news is that Earth's rising temperatures could threaten coastlines, endanger wildlife, and - in some extreme cases - melt your ice cream. But it could also turn some of us into crystalline magnet men of immense size and power. Giant magnet creatures in my warm planet? …

Science 23 Oct 2008, 19:28
Russian regulators quash Google's Microhoo play

End the Begun

Anti-trust regulators have rejected Google's bid to become czar of all the online Russias. In July, Google sealed a Microhoo-esque deal with Russian search engine Rambler Media to acquire its ad unit, ZAO Begun. But as reported by Reuters, Russia's Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) has blocked the $140m handshake. According …

Financial News 23 Oct 2008, 20:45
Goldman Sachs to sack 10 per cent of workforce

Gives LinkedIn $22.7m

Another sign less funding will be flowing through Silicon Valley: Goldman Sachs getting ready for some serious belt-tightening. The financial firm today said it plans to cut 10 per cent of its 32,569 employees worldwide. That should mean layoffs for about 3,260 workers. Goldman Sachs is widely considered to have navigated the …

Financial News 23 Oct 2008, 22:13
Microsoft sales tumble from quarterly high

Prepping for recession

Microsoft's put a brave face on its first-quarter results one year after trumpeting its best performance in eight years. The company Thursday fell back to highlighting its un-sexy multi-year licensing agreements with big customers as proof its business is sound and can endure a recession and netbooks onslaught, as it saw …

Financial News 23 Oct 2008, 22:16