Monday, 12 May 2008

• UK.gov solves pensioner crisis by wiring them up to the net — The Register
  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 …
• Hacker posts personal details of 6m Chileans — The Register
  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 …
• El Reg shares the knowledge — The Register
  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 …
• Windows XP SP3 blame game begins — The Register
  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 …
• How ComScore can track your mouse clicks — The Register
  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 …
• Nvidia CEO says 'no' to VIA acquisition — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• Set-top box modders sent to prison — The Register
  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 …
• Weapons, oil prices driving worldwide atom ambitions — The Register
  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 …
• Web cam images undo MacBook thieves — The Register
  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 …
• PC World, Currys staff to be dumped in DSGi rescue plan? — Channel Register
  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, …
• Toshiba to mass-produce mobile-friendly fuel cells in 2009 — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• LG KF700 slider phone — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• Facebook CTO logs out — The Register
  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 …
• RM must try harder in second half — Channel Register
  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 …
• Burma 'Gone with the Wind', suggests Telegraph — The Register
  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 …
• RIM pitches 'power user' tri-band HSDPA BlackBerry — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• Optus named second Oz iPhone carrier — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• Shuttle astronauts: Aliens are definitely out there — The Register
  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 …
• Google-Yahoo! collects some strange enemies — The Register
  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 …
• ITV challenges Beeb for cheap innuendo crown — The Register
  '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 …
• Qimonda puts 4.5GHz graphics memory into mass-production — Reg Hardware
  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 …
• Mounties taser bed-ridden octagenarian — The Register
  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 …
• Hippies reclaim summer of code — Reg Developer
  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 …

Sunday, 11 May 2008

• UK.gov torpedoes personal carbon credit plans — The Register
  'Not a universally desirable outcome' - no, really?
  The British government has come out firmly against plans for personal carbon trading, diplomatically saying the idea is "ahead of its time", would cost too much to implement, probably wouldn't see widespread participation, and anyway wouldn't deliver much in the way of benefits. The decision comes with the release today of a …

Saturday, 10 May 2008

• Extreme porn, hard drives and election strain — The Register
  Comments Phwoar, pass us some lethal skunk
  Windows XP Service Pack 3 dropped this week, later than expected but finally here. This triggered an unending litany of cynicism and doubt from you. Keep up the good work. Very well tested by those redmond jerks then. I just downloaded the iso and the faq.htm linked in by the installer says: More information about installing …
• Web fan-owned football club heads to Wembley final — The Register
  A grand day out for the minnows
  Ebbsfleet United, the English semi-professional team owned by fans who bought their shares on the Net, is off to Wembley today for the FA Trophy Final. The Conference side is taking on Torquay United in the final of a competition organised for teams in the five tiers below the English Football League. Saturday marks Ebbsfleet' …
• Shareholder sees golf as AMD cure all — The Register
  Better than a kick in the tail
  Cash-strapped AMD didn't bother to tell investors how it plans to reorganize manufacturing operations and return to profitability during its annual shareholder meeting yesterday — but apparently nobody was concerned. Far greater queries were afoot. The chip maker faced only a single shareholder question during the Q&A segment …
• Texas realizes Amazon is in Texas — The Register
  Online Tax Squabble Part Deux
  Texas may soon follow in the footsteps of those clever New Yorkers, asking Amazon for some serious sales tax dollars. Or maybe not. Currently, Amazon does not collect sales tax on goods shipped to the Lone Star State. But as reported by The Dallas Morning News, the Texas comptroller is considering whether this situation needs …
• Sick of JavaOne? - You will be — Reg Developer
  Suspected Norovirus stalks halls
  With Sun Microsystems banging on about Web 2.0 and mashups for days, anyone would be excused for feeling ready to hurl by day-three of its annual JavaOne conference. Come Friday, though, 70 people were genuinely ill having contracted what officials believed to he the highly contagious norovirus. Norovirus is contracted simply …

Friday, 09 May 2008

• Gordon Brown claims a Brit invented the iPod — Reg Hardware
  Grosse Pointe, Surrey?
  Bad news for Tony Fadell, a Michiganite and inventor of the iPod. In an interview yesterday, Gordon Brown claimed the ubiquitous device in the name of Mother England. While talking about the economy during daytime television show, This Morning, Brown let it drop that it was a Briton who in fact invented the iPod. "Companies …
• Circuit City runs up the white flag — Channel Register
  Of course you can look at our books, Mr. Corporate Raider, sir
  Circuit City's days as an independent are numbered. The ailing US electronics retailer last month received an unsolicited bid from Blockbuster, the ailing video store operator. It was less than whelmed by the approach. But the company capitulated today when presented with Blockbuster's secret weapon: a letter from corporate …
• Part II: How a pair of American spies created the Soviet Silicon Valley — The Register
  Radio Reg Affairs, social security checks and the mini-fab
  Based on the rather insane number of messages I've received over the last couple of weeks, you guys really, really wanted part two of our interview with Steve Usdin, author of Engineering Communism. Well, here it is. Episode 16 of Semi-Coherent Computing picks up where we last left off with the tale of two Americans who became …
• Apple to issue refunds for sparky, prematurely dying products — Reg Hardware
  Canadian iPods and US power adapters get what's coming
  Apple has agreed to give US and Canadian customers two separate settlement offers to make charges of faulty and misrepresented products go away. Canadian owners of older iPods can get a CDN $45 (credit) rebate over claims the battery life in its devices were much shorter than advertised. Americans who purchased replacement …
• Microsoft appeals record European Commission fine — Channel Register
  Once more unto the bench
  Microsoft is appealing a record European Commission fine for not complying with a milestone European Commission anti-trust ruling. Four months after the Commission ordered Microsoft to pay $1.39bn (899m euro) for not meeting the terms of its original 2004 ruling, Microsoft said Friday it's going to court to seek "clarity". …
• Dell squeezes cloud into a shipping container — The Register
  Exclusive Also: Meet an 8 chip, 2U, 12 drive search darling
  Sun Microsystems endured a lot of ribbing when it first popped out a data center in a shipping container. Now, however, it looks like all the majors are heading in that direction, including Dell, which The Register has learned has a containerized data center in development. "We have (a container system) in the works for a …
• Dell promises replacement keyboards for wonky laptops — Channel Register
  Sorry for shaifting your PC
  Dell has apologised to customers after shipping a batch of its Vostro laptops with the wrong keyboard layout. The firm said it will replace keyboards on its 1310 and 1510 models that went out to customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The embarrassing cock-up forced the Z key, which should sit beneath the A and S …
• Live Mesh: Hailstorm take 2? — Channel Register
  Give it a fair crack
  Keep an open mind, says Spolsky, in a rant about both unwanted mega-architectures, and the way big companies snaffle up all the best coders. Is he right? Well, I attended the Hailstorm PDC in 2001 and I still have the book that we were given: .NET My Services specification. There are definitely parallels, not least in the …
• Regulator gets power to fine for data breaches — The Register
  Who will be first to pony up?
  The Information Commissioner's Office now has the power to fine organisations which deliberately or recklessly commit serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act got Royal Assent today. Sadly the law is not retroactive, so the long list of government departments which have lost or …
• FBI probe discovers counterfeit kit in US military networks — The Register
  Operation Cisco Raider gets arrests
  An FBI probe has uncovered the use of counterfeit networking kit by the US military, but subsequent investigations suggest a counterfeit ring more interested in money making - rather than espionage - was behind the scam. Operation Cisco Raider led to the prosecution of 15 criminal cases involving the use of knock-off …
• WiMAX gets EU harmonisation at 2.6GHz — The Register
  Intel buys up Swedish airwaves
  The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has started the approvals process for WiMAX to be officially recognised as a 2.6GHz technology, though Intel's bid for Swedish airwaves provides more substantial evidence of deployment plans. WiMAX - a technology which cleverly calls itself 4G despite only offering 3G …
• Boffins dismiss claim violent games turn kids into killers — Reg Hardware
  1200 kids can't be wrong
  Violent videogames don’t turn children into real-life murders, but they may prompt the odd harmless scuffle in the playground, two US boffins have claimed. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, recieved $1.5m (£770,000/€970,000) of US Department of Justice …
• DWP still sending out passwords and discs together — The Register
  Government data not secure? Shurely some mistake?
  The Department for Work and Pensions is still sending out discs containing confidential data together with passwords. This most basic of security failings is no better than Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs sending out the entire UK child benefit database on unecrypted discs. The moronic action was uncovered by the blog Dizzy …
• Retailers risk libel nightmare over 'no-work' database — The Register
  A nation of suspicious shopkeepers
  Shop staff who have been sacked or resigned while under suspicion of dodgy behaviour could soon struggle to find work, as some of the UK's top retailers are set to share information online about their employment history. But today a leading libel lawyer warned that the scheme to disseminate unproven allegations could prompt a …
• NGO attacks Apple's lack of action on climate change — Reg Hardware
  Mac maker's green credentials rotting?
  Apple’s MacBook Air may have received the thumbs-up from Greenpeace, but the iPhone maker should be avoided by the "climate-conscious consumer", a new eco survey claims. According to non-profit organisation Climate Counts, Apple scored a measly 11 points out of a possible 100 in its latest annual rating of computer companies' …
• Windows XP SP3 sends PCs into endless reboot — The Register
  That Groundhog Day feeling, again
  Microsoft's service pack three (SP3) for Windows XP has caused havoc on hundreds of PCs, just hours after it was released as an automatic update. Angry customers have vented their spleen on the firm's Windows XP message board, posting complaints that include spontaneous PC reboots and system crashes after the service pack …
• US: BAE 'could have' pirated our secret Stealth 3.0 tech sauce — The Register
  Arms globocorp enters grey zone?
  Global arms and aerospace colossus BAE Systems this week released a high-profile audit into its internal ethics and served it up with a big slice of humble pie as it promised to be a better corporate citizen in future. But even as BAE sought to draw a veil over previous alleged indiscretions, it emerged that US officials have …
• MSI's 10in Eee PC rival priced up in UK — Reg Hardware
  Let battle commence
  How much will MSI's would-be Eee PC beater set you back? £320 for the Linux version or £350 for the Windows XP Home release, according to UK importer Expansys. MSI's Wind: blowing into the UK in June Both models incorporate a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics courtesy …
• Vista security credentials tarnished in malware survey — The Register
  Better off with a Win 2000 box
  Windows Vista is better at protecting against malware than XP but more easily infected than Windows 2000, according to a study by Australian anti-virus firm PC Tools. The survey calls into question Microsoft's oft-cited claims that Vista is its most secure operating system. Recent research based on malware scans of more than …
• Nvidia exec admits GPU line-up is numerically 'challenged' — Reg Hardware
  Too many cards, too many choices
  Nvidia has admitted that its vast array of graphics chips is bewildering consumers, who find increasingly difficult to work out what does what. The confession comes from erstwhile Register columnist Roy Taylor who admitted to website GamesIndustry.biz that "there is a need to simplify [the range] for consumers, there's no …
• Office 2007 SP1 goes automatic for the people — The Register
  'Huddled masses yearning to breathe free'
  Microsoft will start automatically pumping out its first service packs for the Office 2007 suite next month. The software giant said in a statement late yesterday that it plans to stagger automatic updates and has earmarked 16 June* as the big day when distribution will begin. Office 2007 service pack one (SP1) was released …
• Compulsory lobby register moves closer — The Register
  EU Parliament calls for Book of Fat Lunch
  A compulsory register of lobby companies revealing which companies or organisations are paying their bills comes a step nearer today. The European Parliament adopted a resolution yesterday in favour of such a register, which would list groups seeking to influence either Parliament or the Commission. The Parliament proposes a …
• Iubi Blue personal media player — Reg Hardware
  Review Not a bad box of tricks
  Anyone after a portable 30GB media player is quite possibly going to end up with either a Cowon A3 or the Archos 605, both of which we liked. Many might argue, however, that list should also include the Iubi Blue. The Blue and the A3 share some pretty similar dimensions - 131 x 79 x 22mm and 133 x 79 x 22mm, respectively - …
• Fujitsu develops world's first hi-def train simulator — Reg Hardware
  Going loco - virtually
  Writing down the number of the 10.47 to Chichester standing in the freezing cold is fine, but now you can pretend to be the actual train driver, thanks to Fujitsu, which has developed the world’s first HD virtual railway. Well, sort of. The system, developed by Fujitsu and simulation specialist Ongakukan, coaches future train …
• BOFH: Shiny new computer room — The Register
  Episode 17 What's the catch?
  "I think I have some good news..." the Boss chirps happily as he skips into Mission Control. "Good news?" the PFY says. "Very good news!" he gushes. "On a scale of one to ten?" "Ten - at least!" "Really," I say. "And what could possibly register as a ten?" "You're going to get a new computer room!" he blurts. "A new …
• Toshiba to ship laptops with Cell-based GPUs this year — Reg Hardware
  And putting PS3 processor into TVs in 2009
  Toshiba has pledged to begin selling notebooks equipped with its oddly named SpursEngine graphics chip this year. SpursEngine is based on the technology that powers the PlayStation 3's Cell processor. Outlining its post HD DVD growth strategy this week, Toshiba management said it will put its SpursEngine SE1000 chip into …
• Irish data protection chief in leaked report 'hack' — The Register
  Updated Man bites watchdog
  There's red faces at the office of the Data Protection Commissioner this morning after a blogger lifted an upcoming official report off its website and published it early. As a result, data from the Data Protection Commissioner's Annual Report was published on a local blog on Wednesday a day before its official release on …
• MPs say shared service sums 'don't add up' — The Register
  Cabinet Office's claim 'flimsy'
  MPs say that the Cabinet Office's claim that government could save £1.4bn a year through sharing corporate services is a "flimsy estimate at best". A key problem is the lack of centrally agreed benchmarks against which to measure the performance of shared functions, including the impact of two of the established shared service …
• Swiss ponder the 'dignity of plants' — The Register
  Biotech guidelines tackle thorny issue
  A Swiss government ethics committee has issued guidelines on the thorny issue of the "dignity of plants" in relation to biotech research after the country's 2004 Gene Technology Law declared that "the dignity of creatures" should be considered in any grant-funded research. According to Nature, while this phrase attracted …
• Rowling ruling bolsters privacy chief's view of data protection — The Register
  Auto-breach
  The Court of Appeal's ruling in JK Rowling's privacy case confirms that a breach of other laws can result in an automatic breach of the Data Protection Act, an expert has said. That view has been held by the Information Commissioner but was previously untested in court. In a case brought on behalf of their son, David Murray, …
• EDF circles British nuclear powerplant sites — The Register
  Buys farmland to secure juice futures
  French nuclear energy colossus EDF, which also operates various types of non-nuclear generation in the UK, has been buying up farmland close to existing British nuke plants. The purchases are seen as a move to strengthen EDF's position in negotiations to buy British Energy, the sites' owner. Today is the final deadline for …
• Phone-theft hotspots named and shamed — Reg Hardware
  Cambridge boozers top of the list
  If you’ve lost your mobile phone recently, have you tried trawling Cambridge's pubs? Because the city’s boozers are the most likely spot for handsets to ‘go missing’, according to new research. Security firm CPP has compiled a list of ten English cities where mobile phone theft is at its highest, and doubled the stats up with …
• Local mag claims Aussie Eee PC buyers will pay extra for Linux — Reg Hardware
  'Generous' Microsoft charging less for Windows XP?
  In a move that's going leave local Linux buffs alleging Asus has been handsomely rewarded by Microsoft, the computer maker is to charge less for the Windows version of the Eee PC 900 in Australia than the version using the open source OS. The Linux-loaded 900 already matches the Windows XP version on price in many countries by …
• Barclays Capital slashes contractor rates by 10% — The Register
  IT workers get credit crunched
  Barclays Capital is forcing its IT contractors to choose between a 10 per cent pay cut or a quick exit from the company. The decision, presumably an alternative to cutting jobs as the bank negotiates the current financial crisis, has sparked outrage amongst contract staff, who have to signal their "acceptance" of the wage cut …
• NZ bank robber stashes loot where the sun don't shine — The Register
  'Bottom area' rustling gives game away
  A NZ bank robber who stashed the NZ$2,000 proceeds of a heist up his tradesman's entrance was fingered by "rustling sounds" from his "bottom area", the Southland Times reports. Michael Geoffrey Linn, 36, unemployed, yesterday admitted in the Alexandra District Court to robbing the Cromwell branch of the Bank of New Zealand on …
• Sun Java chief to developers: 'We're genetic freaks' — Reg Developer
  JavaOne Time to change your definition of 'application'
  Todd Fast, chief architect in Sun Microsystems' Java Enterprise tools group, took a big gulp of Web 2.0 Kool-Aid at JavaOne while telling professional developers they must embrace a broader definition of "application" if they are to take advantage of the current sea change in the way software is built and delivered. Fast told …
• Texas graverobbers 'used skull to smoke dope' — The Register
  Three cuffed over morbid tale
  Houston Police Department is investigating a teenager's claim that he and two accomplices desecrated the grave of an 11-year-old boy, severed his skull, and subsequently used it as a bong to smoke marijuana, the Houston Chronicle reports. Kevin Wade Jones Jr, 17, of Kingwood, made the shock confession when being quizzed by …
• Microsoft orders 65nm Xbox 360 graphics chip — Reg Hardware
  'Jasper' to break Red Ring of Death?
  Claims the next incarnation of the Xbox 360's internal workings is due to begin being built into the console in August appear to be on track. Microsoft was this week said to have placed orders with chip and motherboard makers. According to a Taiwanese Economic News (TEN) report, MS has TSMC producing a 65nm version of the Xbox …
• MWg specs up 2008 handset roadmap — Reg Hardware
  Windows Mobile 7 device en-route
  The Mobile and Wireless Group (MWg) has given Register Hardware a sneak peek at four upcoming handsets, including its first Windows Mobile 7 device, during the official launch of the firm's two latest handsets: the Atom V and Zinc II. MWg, formerly O2's Asian handset business, told us that during Q3 the GPS-enabled Rici will …
• 'Great tits cope well with warming' — The Register
  BBC secures Headline of the Week
  It's beers all round for the BBC this morning who've outregged El Reg leader writers with this deliciously suggestive offering: Of course, ornithology is a fertile area for schoolboy innuendo. Readers may recall the flap down at the RSPB's website where moderators clamped down on use of the word "cock" after sniggering …
• Rock Group goes titsup — Channel Register
  Updated Staff theft leads to cashflow problems
  Rock Group PLC is in the hands of administrators who are trying to sell the UK notebook maker as a going concern. The Warwick-based firm said yesterday that it had effectively ceased trading prior to the appointment of administrators, Dominic Wong and David Langton, of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Rock Group, which has been in …
• Should I buy a USB HSDPA modem? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A Q&A
  I'm thinking of buying a USB HSDPA modem because I travel to a fair few places that don't have Wi-Fi. But... since I have a 56Kbps modem in my laptop is a 3G modem really worthwhile? Yes, I know it should be much faster, but are they really? Reviews on Register Hardware suggest they're a long way off promised 7.2Mb/s speeds. …
• When flash mobs go bad — The Register
  Facebook water fight soaks up thousands of pounds of damage
  An open invitation on Facebook to hold a massive water fight in Leeds has resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damage to its prize winning public garden. Leeds City Council claims about 350 people with water pistols, buckets and water balloons trashed the Millennium Square garden on Bank Holiday Monday. The destructive …
• Wanted: Americans to join Al Qaeda — The Register
  Net is recruiting sergeant, senators warn
  Al-Qaeda is getting better at using the Internet to tempt Americans into joining their cause. And that increases the threat of homegrown terrorism in the US, a Senate committee warned today. In a report, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, urged the Government to return fire with a co-ordinated …

Thursday, 08 May 2008

• AMD boss keeps schtum on manufacturing restructure — The Register
  Meeting doglegs to pointlessness
  AMD's annual shareholder meeting today could have been an excellent time to elaborate on the company's plan to reverse course from an extremely rough 2007. The chipmaker suffers from six consecutive quarters of operating at a loss, deflated stock, and has a massive workforce lay-off scheme in play. For a year now, AMD has …
• Oracle sharpens axe for BEA layoffs — Reg Developer
  Four portals, two application servers, no future
  Oracle is Friday expected to start laying off at least 500 staff, eliminating duplication across product engineering and management, following its $8.5bn acquisition of BEA Systems. Separate sources close to Oracle, who declined to be identified, said the company will send out notifications of layoffs tomorrow, and make a …
• India and Belgium decry Chinese cyber attacks — The Register
  Join the ranks
  Belgium and India have joined the growing ranks of countries voicing concerns about cyber attacks originating from China. Earlier this week, officials from both countries said computer networks inside their borders are routinely targeted by hackers trying to ferret information that could benefit the Chinese government. Belgian …
• Hitachi slips past Fujitsu with speedy 320GB laptop drive — Reg Hardware
  7,200rpm, 2.5-inch drive out-firsts 'world's first'
  Hitachi is updating its TravelStar laptop hard drive range with a more capacious 320GB disk that spins at 7,200rpm. The refresh follows Fujitsu's announcement of its own 320GB, 7,200rpm notebook disk drive, for which the company staked a "world's first" claim back in March. As we pointed out then - the timing left an opening …
• I Was A Teenage Bot Master — The Register
  Exclusive The Confessions of SoBe Owns
  One day in May 2005, a 16-year-old hacker named SoBe opened his front door to find a swarm of FBI agents descending on his family's three-story house in Boca Raton, Florida. With an arm and leg in casts from a recent motorcycle accident, one agent grabbed his good arm while others seized thousands of dollars worth of computers, …
• MySpace revs profile transfer engine — The Register
  Down with the walled garden
  MySpace has launched an initiative that will one day allow its social-networking-obsessed users to automatically shuttle their profile data to third-party web sites. This includes biographical information, lists of friends, lists of interests, lists of favorite songs, and lists of favorite movies as well as photos and videos …
• Surprise, surprise: F5 is doing something — The Register
  A storage de-dupe and network acceleration box
  According to an IT man from Arizona, F5 is up to something, something good. We've been wondering what it has been doing now that it has acquired Acopia and its file virtualising ARX switch. Well, according to this Arizonan who is familiar with the situation, F5 is developing a single box to replace two that people would need now …
• Facebook agrees to child-safety measures — The Register
  Reining in Web 2.0 predators
  Facebook has reached an agreement with 50 attorneys general to permanently deploy measures designed to rein in pedophiles and other predators on the social networking site. Under the agreement, Facebook will allow people to change their ages from over 18 to under 18 only after the move has been reviewed and is developing age- …
• Why Microhoo! is like, so, totally dead — The Register
  Blog 0.2 !!!!! and then, like, !!!!!!
  Those of you au fait with my traditional morning ritual will know that I normally rise at 5.43am, dip an Indonesian virgin-thigh-rolled organic sesame seed crunch power bar into a cup of sea urchin and gauva infusion, do fifteen minutes Pilates, ensure my beachside condo is feng shui compliant before parsing the latest …
• Interpol appeal unmasks US actor as child abuse suspect — The Register
  Operation IDent-ification
  A man matching the description of a suspected child abuser who became the target of an international manhunt earlier this week has been arrested in the US. Wayne Nelson Corliss, 58, was arrested in Union City, New Jersey on Thursday - two days after Interpol published photos resembling him. The actor, whose stage name is Casey …
• MEPs deny sports 'intellectual property' landgrab — The Register
  Updated Own(ing) goals
  MEPs today voted against* a bigger role for intellectual property in sports, stoking a copyright head-to-head between the powerful governing bodies of world sport and the media organisations that seek to report it. As sport has become big business, the corporations that run it are seeking greater control over how events are …
• Renault F1 comp site spills entrants' details — The Register
  You will never break the chain
  A Grand Prix competition from Renault hit the barriers on Thursday after it emerged that the motoring firm was inadvertently leaking entrants' personal details onto the web. Renault UK are offering more than 600 pairs of tickets to attend either the practice, qualification or the actual race day of the British Grand Prix on 4 …
• iPlayer to tart up Freesat — The Register
  Beeb and ITV square up to Sky
  iPlayer, the BBC's promiscuous media delivery software, will be available on Freesat within a year, the operator hopes. Incorporating iPlayer and Kangaroo - the commercial version of iPlayer that's backed by ITV and Channel 4 - doesn't pose a huge technical challenge, Freesat's commercial development manager Rhys Jones told us …
• Britannica opens kimono, reveals widgets — The Register
  Free access for bloggers
  Britannica is opening up its content for use by publishers - including amateurs - but insists it isn't threatened by the world's biggest compendium of unusually-shaped vegetables.* "We don't think there's any threat right now," Britannica Inc's president Jorge Cauz told us recently. But he acknowledged that Britannica's …
• Fayrewood ends takeover talks — Channel Register
  Time for a plan B
  Fayrewood has ended takeover talks with North Atlantic Value LLP which could have led to the company being bought. Distributor Fayrewood, which trades as Interface Solutions, had been in talks since November 2007. It is not the first time the company has been rebuffed by a suitor - previous takeover talks in 2005 were also …
• Ofcom lays out wireless roadmap — The Register
  Planes, trains and automobiles
  Ofcom's annual research report, this year entitled The Wireless World of Tomorrow, focuses on how wireless technologies might change the transport and healthcare landscapes over the next 20 years. Public transport, in particular, is expected to benefit from wireless technologies - though much of the innovation Ofcom expects to …
• HSBC in further data loss — The Register
  Stolen Hong Kong server contained data on 159K
  Security-incident prone bank HSBC has admitted losing a server containing transaction data on 159,000 Hong Kong-based account holders. The bank said on Wednesday that the kit went missing during renovation work at a Kwun Tong district branch on 26 April, Reuters reports. Data held on the server included customer names, account …
• Best Buy eyes up Europe, buys into Carphone Warehouse — Channel Register
  Paint it yellow
  Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse have entered into a joint project to launch the US brand in Europe. But getting Best Buy into the UK isn't just about sticking a big yellow tag on everything. For £1.1bn Best Buy gets a 50 per cent share of CPW's high-street stores, along with its MVNO operations everywhere except France. CPW …
• Salesforce boss Benioff pushes cloud — The Register
  Pours scorn on Microsoft, bear hugs Sir Stelios
  Salesforce.com boss Marc Benioff yesterday robustly elaborated on the firm's plans to push yet more services on to the cloud with the official launch of Visualforce. Speaking at the company's Dreamforce event at the Barbican centre in London, Benioff took the opportunity in front of a crowd of some 2,000 European partners and …
• What do you think of Apple's Time Capsule? — Reg Hardware
  Q&A
  Calling Register Hardware readers. What do you think of Apple's Time Capsule? I'm after for a network-connected HD, and this seems the best option - good router, integrated drive, only one power cable. I don't want a NAS box because I don't need to do FTP, serving etc. I just want a drive that can be shared by a handful of …
• Lancashire plodcopters in laser dazzle outrage outbreak — The Register
  Blind justice meted out to presentational-aid yob trio
  It now appears that laser-pointer pilot dazzle attacks have joined the hilarious satnav-inspired motoring blunder as a staple of news kibble, with the global presentational-aid-related airborne blinding epidemic now devastating the skies above Lancashire. The BBC reports that the latest ocular outrage occurred last night above …
• MSI releases £235 desktop Eee PC rival ahead of Asus — Reg Hardware
  Ready for Linux
  Fed up of waiting for Asus' desktop Eee PC? Rival Taiwanese manufacturer MSI has stepped in with a mini machine of its own, which it's punting at just £235. MSI's Titan: desktop Eee rival before there's a desktop Eee The PC's called the Titan - something of a misnomer given the unit's small size. It measures 240 x 185 x …
• Creative to free Audigy Windows Vista compatibility app — Reg Hardware
  And buyers to be refunded
  Creative has told buyers of its ALchemy for Audigy sound software that they'll get their money back following its decision to release the next version of the app free of charge. In an email sent out to customers yesterday, Creative said the new version of the software will be released on or shortly after 19 May. Unlike …
• Carphone Warehouse, O2 to continue to offer 16GB iPhone — Reg Hardware
  Still demand for it
  Claims that O2 and Carphone Warehouse have completely sold out of the 16GB iPhone have proved greatly exaggerated. Both today said they would continue to offer the handset. Gone this morning but back soon O2 told Register Hardware that it’s currently in the process of replenishing stocks of the 16GB iPhone to be sold online …
• Orb opens iPhone for TV, video — Reg Hardware
  Uncrippling the iPod
  You don't need Steve Jobs' permission to watch TV on your iPhone any more. A native Orb client for the iPhone and iPod Touch popped up on the installer networks overnight, and Orb confirms that it's official. The client software allows you to watch live TV on an iPhone or Touch wherever you are, in addition to your music. You' …
• ITV fined millions for phone fraud — The Register
  Unprecedented Ofcom smackdown
  ITV must pay £5.67m in fines for misleading viewers using its premium rate phonelines - the largest fine regulator Ofcom has ever imposed. The broadcaster will also pay out £7.8m in viewer compensation and to charity. The bulk of the fine was earned by Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which must pay £3m for misleading …
• Id Dooms gamers to new shoot-'em-up sequel — Reg Hardware
  Dive into the melee. Deploy superior firepower. Endure
  Grand Theft Auto IV may have soaked up 90 per cent of gaming headlines for the past few weeks, but classic first-person shoot-‘em-up Doom is set to make a comeback. Version 4 is now in development. The original Doom: ahh, the good old days Doom 4 is being produced by the game’s original creator, id Software, and the company …
• Oracle ignores BEA out of existence — Reg Developer
  JavaOne Tales of empire
  US vice president Dick Cheney's 2003 Christmas card was a curious thing. The message? "If a sparrow can fall to the ground without His notice, it is likely that an empire can rise without His help?" This prompted the question: did Cheney and other neocons now view the US as an empire? With the scalps of 40 companies since 2005 …
• Firefox language pack provides adware back-door — The Register
  Ho Chi Hack trail
  Mozilla has warned that the Vietnamese language pack of Firefox 2 was compromised as a result of a viral infection. The language pack did not contain a virus itself, but code that resulted in users seeing unwanted ads. More malicious action might have been possible as a result of the security flaw, the probable result of a …
• OpenOffice.org 3 beta lands — The Register
  Flex your fingers
  Sun Microsystems yesterday released the first beta of OpenOffice.org 3 for Windows and Mac. The open source rival to Microsoft Office now natively supports Mac OS X without the need to install the X11 module to run the suite first. The beta also includes full Vista and partial VBA support. Sun will be hoping to lure customers …
• Apple out to recruit 3G-savvy iPhone field testers — Reg Hardware
  Engineering posts offered in Oz, UK, Germany
  There's now no doubt that Apple's bringing the iPhone to Australia: it's looking for an iPhone Field Validation Engineer there with "technical understanding and experience with GSM/GPRS, Edge, CDMA and UMTS". So reveals a job ad posted on the company's website, though it's unclear how long the job description has been up. The …
• Washington cops may be compelled to use gun-cams — The Register
  GunTube shoot uploads to 'improve community relations'
  Cops in Washington DC could soon be compelled to fit their pistols with cameras that would record gunsight video in every situation in which the weapons were drawn, according to reports. According to US network NBC, District of Columbia council member Harry "Tommy" Thomas has introduced a draft local bill which would compel …
• Extreme porn bill gets final reading — The Register
  Brace for dirty book burnings, smut amnesties
  It must be ever so vexing to pass a law that you think will make you the most popular boy in class – only to be greeted by a mass chorus of “you still stink!”. That seems to have been the case with the abolition of the 10p rate of tax, and it may yet come to pass with government legislation on extreme porn. Of course, it isn’ …
• Sage sees flat US market — Channel Register
  But Europe helps boost first half
  Sage Group today reported a nine per cent rise in its first half pre-tax profit, boosted by a solid performance in Europe and the UK. The business management software firm posted pre-tax profit for the six months ended 31 March of £122.6m – up from £108.6m in H1 2007 – on revenues of £640.4m, compared with £574.7m for the same …
• Murdoch sees MySpace miss targets — The Register
  Something about chickens and roosting
  MySpace has missed its financial targets, showing that social networking is struggling to earn its keep - even as part of Rupert Murdoch's globe-spanning media empire. News Corp said yesterday that the site will fall short of its annual revenue target of $1bn by 10 per cent. Third quarter revenues actually fell to $210m from $ …
• Home Secretary goes crazy on drugs... policy — The Register
  Comment Cannabis abuse prompts irrational legislating
  As an example of the brain-gobbling stupidity that affects those who dabble with drugs, you really cannot beat Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's announcement that cannabis is going to be upgraded again, from a Class C drug to a Class B one. This is the sort of drivelling idiocy more normally associated with decades on peyote rather …
• I want a baby, coos broody Paris Hilton — The Register
  Bless
  El Reg's fave hotel heiress "One night in" Paris Hilton has touchingly expressed her desire to get up the duff asap and drop a sprog within the next year, according to the Sun. The prospective father is at present rocker Benji Madden, who the highly-talented celeb has been dating since February. Hilton said: "I have a lot of …
• Philips hops on 'iPhone killer' bandwagon — Reg Hardware
  A sexy little number
  Pictures have been leaked out of the latest handset hoping to steal some of the iPhone’s limelight, and this time the talker’s from Philips. Philips' Xenium X800: thought to support Wi-Fi and Edge Image courtesy CCID Reportedly called the Xenium X800, the sexy handset sports a large touchscreen, possibly measuring 3in or …
• Nvidia paid the right amount for 3dfx, court affirms — Reg Hardware
  Long-dead GPU brand exhumed, swiftly re-interred
  Here's a blast from the past: graphics card maker 3dfx. The long defunct brandname - once the acme of computer graphics - briefly rose from the dead this month when erstwhile shareholders' failed to get $100m out of Nvidia. Nvidia, long-term Register readers may recall, acquired its one-time arch-rival seven years ago after a …
• Samsung slips out skinny phone — Reg Hardware
  Pocket friendly
  If being thin is all that’s important to you, you’ll love the positively anorexic Samsung i200 - claimed by the Korean giant to be the world’s skinniest mobile phone yet. Samsung's i20: just 11.8mm front to back The talker measures just 11.8mm from front to back, meaning it probably won’t even make a bulge in the pocket of …
• TomTom plots UK flagship satnav range — Reg Hardware
  Mirror, signal, satnav
  TomTom has launched a flagship satnav range in the UK, helping British drivers switch lanes without carving up the motorway. The Go x30 range holds five models, ranging from the cheapest, the Go 530, to the all-singing, all-dancing Go 930. They all replace the existing Go x20 range. TomTom’s five devices all feature a lane- …
• Blighty to become old-time Inundation Nation — The Register
  Floods are the new terrorism, says expert
  A top boffin has warned that Blighty may be headed into a "monsoon" period, possibly a decade or more in duration, in which we can expect much more flooding than has been the norm for the past generation or so. Interestingly, Professor Stuart Lane doesn't ascribe his predicted watery onslaught to climate change. He says the UK …
• Lithuanians whip out their WILI-S — The Register
  Cheap innuendo heads for Wireless '08
  Aficionados of cheap schoolboy innuendo are directed to Wireless '08 (London's Olympia, 21-22 May), where a group of keen Lithuanians will be whipping out their WILI-S. Yes indeed, there should be plenty of action down at the Wilibox stand, as the Baltic company flashes its WILIGEAR product line and demonstrates for the …
• Rare SCADA bug poses power plant risk — The Register
  Wonderware scare
  Security watchers warn of a rare vulnerability involving software used to control industrial systems. A denial of service vulnerability in monitoring software from Invensys poses a severe risk to the factories and utilities running its Wonderware subsidiary's InTouch SuiteLink application. Windows versions of the package use a …
• Isabella Rossellini romps with praying mantis — The Register
  NSFW Bizarre 'Green Porno' trailers hit YouTube
  We're not quite sure what to make of this one, but Isabella Rossellini is currently wowing the crowds down at YouTube with a couple of trailers for a series of "Green Porno" shorts - no-holds-barred insights into the wonderful world of invertebrate rumpy-pumpy: As the Evening Standard notes, the full-fat films are …
• BestBuy blasts into UK with Carphone Warehouse buy — Channel Register
  Phone chain sells 50 per cent of retail business
  Carphone Warehouse is selling a 50 per cent stake in its mobile phone retail business to US electronics retailer BestBuy, setting the stage for a heavyweight fight in the UK's retail electronics market. The deal will bring CPW £1.1bn in cash, enough to sort out its debt problems and could leave enough in the till to buy …
• Bournemouth floats UK's first 100Mbps sewer broadband network — The Register
  Insert fibre/ Wii/ pipe/ download / backdoor/ flush/ log pun here
  Bournemouth will be the UK's first town to benefit from a town-wide fibre network, with 100Mbit/s access available to businesses and consumers, via the sewer system. H2O Networks, a start-up we wrote about earlier this year, will lay cable to more than 88,000 homes at a cost of about £30m. The firm is funded by venture …
• Peekaboo pledges pole-dance kit for Wii — Reg Hardware
  Will do for pole-dancing what Guitar Hero did for rock'n'roll
  The Wii’s all-white, but it’s hardly a raunchy unit. So, if you’ve been looking for ways to sex-up your console, then how about a private pole dance? US manufacturer Peekaboo, which already sells a pole-dancing kit endorsed by Carmen Electra, is currently inking plans to teach millions of gamers how to pole dance in their …
• Inventor of first practical transistor dead at 91 — Reg Hardware
  Bell Labs tolls for thee
  Morgan Sparks, inventor of the first "practical" transistor and one of the reasons your cell phone doesn't use vacuum tubes, died this week at the age of 91. He received clearance to that great national laboratory in the sky this Sunday at his daughter's home in California. Sparks worked for 30 years at Bell Laboratories, …

Wednesday, 07 May 2008

• Comcast mulls overage fees for bandwidth lovers — The Register
  250GB monthly cap
  Comcast is considering monthly download caps for all those people on its cable-based internet service. According to a report from Broadband Reports, America's second largest ISP is mulling a plan that would cap user downloads at 250GB a month. Under the plan, users would not be penalized if they crossed that 250GB threshold …
• Hollywood awarded $110m against TorrentSpy — The Register
  Once beaten, twice fined
  Operators of the once-popular TorrentSpy tracker have been ordered to pay more than $110m to Hollywood for facilitating illegal downloads of movies and television shows. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper awarded the Motion Picture Association of America maximum damages of $30,000 per movie, for each of the 3,699 …
• Yahoo! banks on the power of ! — The Register
  Must! Love! The! Reg!
  Sue Decker wants you to know that Yahoo! is the only Fortune 500 company with an exclamation point in its name. "It's an incredible, exciting opportunity to work at Yahoo!, in the things that we're doing, the way we're changing lives - living life with an exclamation point," the Yahoo! president tells Yahoo!'s very own …
• FBI withdraws secret Internet Archive probe — The Register
  Abuse of power alleged
  The FBI has withdrawn a secret order that used new anti-terrorism powers to demand information about a user of the Internet Archive without a court order after attorneys challenged it as an unconstitutional abuse of power. The victory for the San Francisco-based digital library meant that its founder was able to speak publicly …
• AMD plans 12-core server chip for 2010 — Reg Hardware
  First 6-core offering due next year
  AMD today shed light on its upcoming server workstation roadmap, revealing details on its first six-core processor, expected to be released next year, and a 12-core offering, due by 2010. The upcoming dodeca-core chip will use AMD's next generation socket platform, dubbed "Maranello." In the second half of '09, AMD plans to …
• Chipzilla funds Sprint-Clearwire snog — The Register
  One WiMAX to rule who knows how many
  Sprint's on-again, off-again relationship with Clearwire is on again. This morning, the two beleaguered operations announced the creation of a new company that combines their respective WiMAX networks. You know, WiMAX - the new-fangled wireless broadband standard that may or may not qualify as 4G. Backed by $3.2bn from Intel, …
• NASA confirms manned mission to 10 Petaflops — The Register
  'Our Xeon binge is named Pleiades'
  Well, well, well. It would seem that the 20,000-core supercomputer announced yesterday by NASA will just be the first course in an ongoing relationship between the space folk, SGI and Intel. The three organizations have revealed a project dubbed Pleiades that will see them build Petaflop-class machines in the coming years. …
• Embarcadero snaps up Borland's CodeGear for $23m — Reg Developer
  Resources for courses
  Database tools vendor Embarcadero Technologies has snapped up Borland Software's unwanted tools subsidiary CodeGear for $23m - $127m less than initially sought. Embarcadero said the deal provides a "significantly larger footprint" to serve millions of software developers. The deal appears timed to capitalize on the growing …
• DARPA wants Matrix style virtual world for cybergeddon — The Register
  To feature human 'replicants', time-machine mode
  The US military's famed scientific wingnut farm, DARPA*, has released full details of its planned "National Cyber Range" - a mighty network which could be configured to simulate the cyberspace battlefields of the future. This would allow America's fighting nerds to train for the net conflicts of tomorrow, mounting attacks on …
• AT&T halts holidays during 3G iPhone launch window — Reg Hardware
  'Exciting summer promotional launch', promises leaked memo
  AT&T staffers have once again been told they can't take any time off work next month because of an anticipated "heavy selling period" resulting from "an exciting Summer Promotional Launch", a leaked memo reveals. No prizes for guessing that the carrier is referring to the 3G iPhone and to its plan to offer the handset with a $ …
• Mobile roaming in Europe: Have your say — The Register
  Don't tell us, tell the EU
  The European Union is launching a public consultation on European roaming regulations. The British government infamously tried to stop the EU putting a cap on roaming prices which came into force in June last year. These introduced caps of €0.49 per minute for making calls and €0.24 cents per minute for receiving calls within …
• Boris Johnson bans boozing on London transport — The Register
  Sobriety to reign from 1 June
  Newly-elected London mayor Boris Johnson has gone straight into attack mode and carried out his election pledge to ban boozing from London's public transport system, the BBC reports. The blonde Tory bombshell declared: "I firmly believe that if we drive out so-called minor crime then we will be able to get a firm grip on more …
• Yahoo? We don't need no stinkin' Yahoo! — The Register
  Gates says Microsoft can go it alone
  Bill Gates says Microsoft is quite capable of sorting out its internet strategy all on its own if Yahoo! refuses to play ball. Gates, who stops full-time work for the company in June, ceded it was no longer really his decision. He said, according to reports: "The key decisions on that will be made by Microsoft CEO Steve …
• BT Fusion rises again — The Register
  This time it's about data
  Son of Fusion is here - BT has launched what it's calling "Total Broadband Anywhere", with Windows Mobile handsets from HTC and membership of BT's FON network. Last time we discussed Fusion with BT they told us it was far from dead, and while this new offering might lack the Fusion branding, it's clearly offering much the same …
• Dell issues virtualization wonder box despite AMD — The Register
  Veso happy to see the light of day
  As long promised, Dell has gone hog wild with virtualization. The company today dished out a couple of new boxes geared toward running VMware and Citrix's virtualization wares, tuned its iSCSI storage gear for virtual servers and produced a couple new services bobs as well. The real show-stopper here is probably the R805 …
• Rogue MP3 Trojan streaks across P2P networks — The Register
  Worst viral outbreak in three years
  Hundreds of thousands of examples of a new Trojan that poses as a media file have flooded onto P2P networks. Since Friday 2 May more than half a million instances of the Trojan have been detected on consumer PCs, according to net security firm McAfee. The anti-virus firm reports the spread of the Downloader-UA.h Trojan as the …
• T-Mobile takes a shine to HTC's Diamond — Reg Hardware
  MDA Compact IV launched
  HTC may have only officially announced its new Diamond handset yesterday, but T-Mobile hasn’t wasted any time in rebranding the phone and preparing it for UK sale. The network operator has renamed the would-be iPhone killer the MDA Compact IV. Despite HTC telling Register Hardware yesterday that the 7.2Mb/s HSDPA 3G handset …
• Japan to tax MP3 players — Reg Hardware
  Price hike to compensate copyright holders
  MP3 players and DVRs could soon become more expensive in Japan, if the country’s government successfully introduces a levy on sales of these devices. According to a report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs wants to force MP3 player manufacturers to pay a royalty charge to copyright holders …
• Jacqui Smith un-downgrades cannabis — The Register
  And wants to ban pipes, bongs... Hendrix albums
  Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, standing in front of a tired-looking Gordon Brown, told the House of Commons today she would ignore advice from the government's scientific advisors and upgrade the classification of cannabis from C to B. Smith decided to ignore advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs which has …
• Unicaresoft loses MSNLock case against Microsoft — The Register
  David and Goliath
  Microsoft has won its case against Dutch 46-year-old mother of three Carola Eppink, who wanted to restrict her children's use of the internet by using a self-made program she'd dubbed MSNLock. Microsoft sued her company Unicaresoft to prevent the letters MSN being used in the name of the product. Although the product name had …
• Sky plays the victim over Ofcom pay TV rights probe — The Register
  Clinging on to Premiership and movies
  Sky has complained to Ofcom that a probe of its dominance of UK pay TV is too one-sided, ahead of a decision that could see the market for football and movie rights opened up to more competition. The communications watchdog is due to publish all submissions to its pay TV market consultation next week, but the Financial Times …
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS20 compact camera — Reg Hardware
  Review Dark horse delivers decent digital camera
  Think of digital cameras and names like Canon, Sony and Pentax come to mind. But Panasonic is proving to be a dark horse, releasing models with impressive looks and good performance. A case in point: the DMC-FS20. It has an all-metal body available in silver or black. It looks neat, compact and stylish and feels good to hold, …
• Wikipedia goes to court to defend defamation immunity — The Register
  It needs a win
  Wikipedia, the free, user-generated online encyclopedia, faces a court battle to protect itself from liability for everything that users post on the site. The company behind the site will argue that it should be granted immunity under US law. A literary agent is suing Wikipedia owner the Wikimedia Foundation over a comment …
• Sony details PS3 DVR pricing, launch date — Reg Hardware
  PlayTV incoming
  Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3’s PlayTV digital video recorder (DVR) add-on will be available in four months' time. Last month, a sales page for the product appeared on Amazon UK. It stated PlayTV would be available from the end of July for £70. Sony swiftly dismissed Amazon’s details as “erroneous and speculative …
• Canon gets a handle on portable printing - literally — Reg Hardware
  Print on the run
  Canon's Selphy CP770 may look like a portable cooler box for keeping beer chilled, but the unit’s actually a portable photo printer. Canon's Selphy CP770: not a cooler... The CP770 is the best-specced machine out of two new printer models, the other being the smaller CP760. Both printers expand Canon’s existing photo-output …
• Peter Gabriel's website is back — The Register
  Womad is safe...
  Peter Gabriel's website and the website and ticket buying site for Womad, the world music festival he founded, are back online today after their servers and routers were stolen at the weekend. Opal Telecom, which hosts the servers in High Wycombe, was unwilling to comment, but a spokesman for Gabriel's music company Real World …
• Ruckus kicks off over directional Wi-Fi — The Register
  Netgear slapped with patent suit
  Wi-fi co Ruckus reckons Netgear has been fitting its directional Wi-Fi technology to more routers than it ought, and has slapped the company with a patent-infringement suit. Netgear did have a licence for Ruckus's BeamFlex technology, but only for use in some of its RangeMax routers. Ruckus considers that the RangeMax WPN …
• Opera Dragonfly emerges from pupa — The Register
  Debug tool aims to metamorphise web development
  Browser maker Opera has released an early version of a tool to help developers debug web pages. It hopes Opera Dragonfly will assist developers in making the experience of surfing the net consistent across web-enabled mobiles, desktops, and consoles while prompting the adoption of open standards. Opera Dragonfly is designed to …
• US boffins puff off 'living nose on a chip' tech — The Register
  Stink feared over Smelltard digi-nostril bootlegs
  American boffins have revealed that they are working to perfect a new technology in which "living olfactory cells" would be placed on electronic chips, offering an accurate sense of smell as an option for portable devices. The catchily named "cell-based sensors on a chip" technology is funded by the US National Science …
• SAP don't want to get SaaSy afterall — The Register
  We never said we would...
  SAP has signaled a retreat from full, on-demand versions of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, just as Google and Microsoft up their game in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market. The firm’s co chief exec Henning Kagermann said at a press conference in Florida yesterday that there was "no reason" to dish up …
• Scientists create Chewbotca robot muncher — The Register
  Om nom nom nom 2.0
  During private and quieter moments, it does a person good to assess the present threat of robots. Robots may betray you, shoot you, or even seduce and break your fragile human heart. But at least there's only a small fraction of a chance that a robot will eat you. But hold that comfort close while you can. Some French …
• Dope-crazed Canadians sledgehammer iPhone — The Register
  Reefer madness
  The fanboys among you of delicate sensibilities are advised to look away now, because it's just come to our attention that dope-crazed Canadians last Saturday used the Toronto Freedom Festival as a platform to lay into an iPhone with a sledgehammer: We're not quite sure what provoked this act of mindless violence, but those …
• Get your Windows Server Online training guides here — Reg Developer
  Cost-effective training for your systems analysts
  As Microsoft encourages the shift towards Windows Server 2008, you might think that the previous versions immediately become obsolete. But demand has shown this to be false, and this is why we at Reg Books have decided to package together the key Windows Server 2003 MCSE and MCSA Online Learning products into cost-effective …
• Palm's 'Skywriter' smartphone spied on web? — Reg Hardware
  Slab-like
  Palm's anticipated Treo 800w is thought to be what the company's calling 'Zeppelin' - a very unfortunate codename, given the originals' tendency to crash and burn. But what about its 'Skywriter' product? An email allegedly sent by Palm to software developers - and from one of them to blog TamsPPC - confirms both the Zeppelin …
• Private sector saviours wanted for desperate ID scheme — The Register
  Home Office chucks in the cards?
  Plans for the widespread introduction of fingerprint passports and ID cards, already delayed until 2012, have receded further into the distance with the publication of the latest Identity & Passport Service cost report for the ID scheme. This effectively pulls the plugs on the network of IPS-run interview centres, and lobs …
• Capgemini Q1 sinks on weak dollar, pound — Channel Register
  Mid-atlantic low
  IT services firm Capgemini today blamed the weak US dollar and British pound for a 1.4 per cent drop in its first quarter revenues. The company, which pulls in nearly half (41 per cent) of its group revenues from North America and Blighty, saw sales for the quarter sink to €2.185bn compared to €2.214bn a year ago. Excluding …
• Two arrested over piracy at computer fair — Channel Register
  Goods valued at £1m seized
  Police and trading standards officers in Yorkshire have seized counterfeit goods and equipment at a Bradford computer fair. The full retail value of the goods would have been £1m, they said. The raid was carried out at a weekend computer fair in Bradford and involved the seizure of counterfeit software and machinery to 'chip' …
• Grand Theft Auto IV misses week one million sales mark — Reg Hardware
  But still shatters records for Xbox 360 and PS3 sales
  Grand Theft Auto IV sold almost 1m copies during its first five days on sale in the UK, according to local market watcher Chart-Track and the European Leisure Software Publishers Assocation. A total of 926,000 copies of the game were sold between 28 April and 3 May – despite the game only going on sale on 29 April. Nonetheless …
• MS UK kills mystery 'Live to Code' site — The Register
  Misconfigured marketing offshoot pulled
  Microsoft has pulled an apparently rogue internal marketing project that sat quietly, but not unnoticed, on the same servers as its main UK website for at least a fortnight. For at least two weeks leading up to Tuesday (6 May) surfers visiting http://microsoft.co.uk got a somewhat minimalist "Live to Code" page, rather than …
• Ofcom plays precog on tomorrow's wireless world — The Register
  Nuke war, meteorite hit could disrupt your signal
  Ofcom put healthcare and transport at the top of the agenda in its annual research and development report, released today. Most of the report, entitled The Wireless World of Tomorrow, is concerned with the technical details of frequencies and allocations, but Ofcom can't resist a gaze into the crystal ball with predictions of …
• Sony launches 'Freeview HD'-ready LCD TV line — Reg Hardware
  Future proof
  With the UK launch of terrestrial HD pencilled in for 2009, Sony has jumped onto the bandwagon and unveiled a Bravia LCD TV series featuring an integrated MPEG 4 AVC HD-capable tuner. The 26in, 32in and 37in models in the V4500 series each have one of the tuners that let you watch HD TV programmes over Freeview – a service …
• Intel delays next-gen integrated chipsets to fix video bug — Reg Hardware
  Eaglelake to get Computex launch
  When does an Intel chipset launch? When it's first mentioned by the company in public? The next time? The time after that? The 'Eaglelake' chipset family has been discussed by Intel on several occasions, but it'll apparently be truly launched next month. The Eaglelake line - aka the 4 series - comprises the P45, P43, G45, G43 …
• What did happen to all those London mayoral votes? — The Register
  We observe the election count
  Last week, the nation turned out in record numbers (45 per cent) to decide who would run their local councils. In London, that meant voting Boris Johnson into what Ken Livingstone probably thought was his office for life. Some time earlier, the Open Rights Group had called for volunteers to be part of an election observation …
• Air France pilot in white-knuckle near miss — The Register
  Showing off to boy, shaken passengers claim
  Air France is investigating a pilot who provoked a near miss at 33,000ft after allegedly "showing off" his control of the aircraft to a boy in the cockpit, the Times reports. Shaun Robinson, 40, an IT manager from Lancashire and one of 143 passengers aboard the Manchester-Paris flight on Saturday, recounted: “The pilot made a …
• Cisco hits lowered targets — The Register
  Pessimism pays off
  Cisco hit its lowered targets for the third quarter of 2008, increasing sales by 10.4 per cent ahead of targeted growth of 10 per cent. Sales in the three months ended 26 April were $9.8bn, up from $8.9bn in the same period of 2007. Net income was $1.8bn, down 5.4 per cent on the third quarter of 2007. Earnings per share came …
• QXL.co.uk shuts up shop — The Register
  All bids are off
  QXL.co.uk - the online auction site that isn't eBay - is closing. It is accepting bids for two more days, until 9 May, before closing completely at midday on 30 May. The site was started by ex-journalist Tim Jackson in 1997. It bought rival German site Ricardo in 2000. It survived the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2001, …
• Ofcom confirms Freeview will get HD next year — Reg Hardware
  Depending on where you live
  Free-to-air satellite broadcasting system Freesat may have only just launched in the UK as an outlet for BBC and - soon - ITV HD programming, but regulator Ofcom has confirmed that some Brits will get HD over Freeview next year. The service will allow UK users to receive up to four HD channels through a regular television …
• Citrix's XenDesktop can fly you to the moon — The Register
  If you have a space shuttle
  There are a few software makers out there who are excited about desktop virtualization - damned excited. And sometimes that excitement takes us into rather confusing territory where jubilation overpowers technical reality. Confused? Yeah, e were too when Citrix announced XenDesktop last month. The company told us flat out that …
• White House admits non-existent email backups — The Register
  'We can restore without backup'
  The Dubya White House has admitted that it has no backup tapes for administration emails sent and received between March 1, 2003 and May 22, 2003. But it says that's not a problem. Last October, two separate government watchdogs sued the George W. Bush administration in an effort to recover millions of messages that seem to …

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

• NASA ditches Itanic for new Xeon-based SGI giant — The Register
  20,480 cores on the Moon
  NASA has once again turned to SGI for a massive supercomputer. The two organizations announced today that SGI will build a whopping 20,480-core system for NASA Ames in Mountain View, California. The giant will run on four-core versions of Intel's Xeon chip and should reach peak performance of 245 Teraflops, which would make it …
• Yahoo! shareholders thump Yang in the fiduciaries — The Register
  Detroit gets nasty
  In late February, after Yahoo! famously rejected Microsoft's initial $44.6bn bid for the company, two share-holding Detroit pension funds filed a class action lawsuit against Jerry Yang and the Yahoo! board, claiming a "breach of fiduciary duties". And now they're really peeved. Late last week, Microsoft upped its offer to $ …
• Windows XP SP3 leaps into the tubes — The Register
  Second verse, same as the first
  Microsoft is giving the automatic web release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 another go today, after an eleventh hour muck-up ruined its scheduled availability last week. The truant XP service pack is ready for download via Microsoft's Download Center or alternatively, Windows Update if using Internet Explorer. Here's the ISO CD …
• DHS grilled over uber secret cybersecurity plans — The Register
  Too much confusion, senators say
  The US Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity initiative may be unnecessarily shrouded in secrecy and too reliant on contractors, according to a Senate panel. The concerns are so basic that the panel also included questions asking what, exactly, is the role of program and why a determination was even made to start it. …
• Intel wants to own the weather prediction business — The Register
  Interview EVP Maloney in charge of 'Operation Kill Groundhog'
  The conventional wisdom - whatever that is worth - pegs Intel EVP Sean Maloney as the company's successor to CEO Paul Otellini. That's great news for technology hacks because, man, this Maloney guy is quite a bit more open about his personal life and feelings than Otellini. One need only look at this piece in the Times to see …
• Sun's JavaFX to hoover-up user data — Reg Developer
  JavaOne Spirit of McNealy lives
  Sun today announced the yet-to-launch JavaFX programming language will gather data on end-users activities to help developers monetize software, by selling ads for instance. The company's Project Insight will see "instrumentation" added to PCs, mobiles and Blu-ray devices that run JavaFX, which feed data back through a special …
• Google launches security group for open source — The Register
  oCERT to make the world safe for GPL
  Google is spearheading a volunteer workforce it hopes will become the centralized authority for responding to security issues in open source software. oCERT, short for the open source computer emergency response team, will aim to remediate security vulnerabilities and exploits in a wide range of open source programs by …
• Canadian toddler dies after VOIP 911 call — The Register
  Ambulance dispatched to wrong city
  A Canadian toddler has died after a VOIP-based 911 call sent an ambulance to the wrong address. Last week, as reported by the CBC, a Calgary family dialed 911 via their internet phone service when 18-month-old Elijah Luck went into medical distress. Their VOIP provider, Comwave, then dispatched an ambulance to the family's …
• HP strokes web 2.0 with immense NAS — The Register
  'Extreme' appliance for multi-petabytes
  Hewlett-Packard has issued a massive NAS system for the most seriously storage starved — web 2.0 shops, huge ass data centers, national labs, and other businesses with more petabytes of data than can be considered healthy. Web-based services firms are being eyeballed by big name storage vendors. Managing user content, video, …
• Yahoo! greenlights search security warnings — The Register
  Beta tests McAfee SiteAdvisor
  So Yahoo! is getting off its butt at last to warn users when its search engine results include potentially malicious sites. Yahoo! SearchScan, which launches today in beta, is a rebadged version of McAfee SiteAdvisor. This website and browser plug-in pumps out text warnings in red or orange, or gives the all-clear in green, …
• Rackspace flies storage on CloudFS — The Register
  Tap into our data ether
  Rackspace is developing a storage-in-the-cloud service called CloudFS for web 2.0, SaaS (software-as-a-service) and social networking media customers needing highly scalable storage. Software developers will be able to store, backup and access their files and content in the cloud as will their applications built using Java, . …
• Sun juggles love of code with need for cash — Reg Developer
  CommunityOne Don't attack us... attack them!
  The relationship between business, vendors and coders has been tested at a Sun Microsystems conference in San Francisco intended to express oneness with open source. Ian Murdock, Sun vice president of developer and community marketing, and Marten Mickos, head of Sun's database group, used CommunityOne to outline Sun's ideals …
• Microsoft slings multiple sue balls at resellers — Channel Register
  Claims customers were 'deceived'
  Microsoft has filed piracy lawsuits in a US federal court against eight firms it accuses of selling illegal versions of its software. The tech multinational alleges that the resellers gained from illegal sales involving the unlawful importation of unlicensed software into North America from multiple dealers overseas. …
• Americans offered smart footwear — Reg Hardware
  Do they have souls?
  If a woman wants to blow £1000 on a pair of shoes then Manolo Blahnik is the obvious answer, but rich males had never been afforded the same option until the launch of the Verb For Shoe hi-tech sneakers. VectraSense Technologies' Verb For Shoe is the ultimate in high-tech walking At $700 (£350) a pair, these cutting-edge …
• ISP reporting network to pierce bandwidth smokescreens — The Register
  Your broadband needs you
  ISP watchers have launched a bid to get to the bottom of what's going on with UK broadband by recruiting people to install specially-adapted network gear on their line, to collect reams of independent performance data. The initiative to improve the transparency of ISP packages is being led by Samknows.com. The site is aiming …
• Hyundai and Kia's latest pitch to US drivers - Windows — The Register
  Microsoft's exclusive with Ford finishes soon
  Microsoft has signed deals with Hyundai and Kia to supply voice recognition kit for cars sold in the USA, just as soon as its exclusive deal with Ford runs out in November. The system is called Sync, and uses an ARM-based system running Windows Mobile for Automotive with voice recognition provided by Nuance. It allows drivers …
• Microsoft rebuts Blu-ray Xbox 360 rumours - again — Reg Hardware
  Blu-ray? US? Never!
  It's a good job gamers aren’t holding their collective breath in hope for an Xbox 360 with a built-in Blu-ray Disc drive. Microsoft has once again stepped in to quash the latest rumours that it’s developing one. On Friday morning, it was alleged that Microsoft is working with Taiwan's Pegatron Technology, a subsidiary of PC …
• HTC’s Diamond iPhone rival unwrapped — Reg Hardware
  But does it shine?
  A glitzy London hotel was this morning's setting for the launch of HTC’s new handset, Diamond, the latest phone in a long line of would-be iPhone killers. The Diamond is roughly the same size as Apple’s iPhone, although the HTC device has a smaller, 2.8in touchscreen - the display's resolution is a much larger 480 x 640, …
• Cybercrims dump swag on open botnet server — The Register
  Health data found on hacker data dump
  Everyone knows Trojans steal personal data, but the discovery of a server containing more than 1.4 gigabytes of stolen business and personal info brings home the real extent of the problem. Data on the so-called crimeware server compromised 5,388 unique log files containing both email communications and web-related data. Net …
• Freesat launches in UK — Reg Hardware
  Many channels, more coming, but not much HD yet
  Freesat, the UK's latest package of free-to-air TV channels, this time transmitted from a satellite, has now gone live, allowing comsumers access to standard-definition and HD broadcasting for a single, one-off payment. What the company couldn't say today is precisely what that payment will be. SD-only kit will be priced from …
• Battery shortage leaves Compal forecast flat — Channel Register
  Q2 power down
  Contract laptop PC maker Compal Electronics Inc has been forced to scale back its Q2 shipment growth forecast, blaming a shortage of batteries. The Taiwan-based firm, which had expected a climb of 13-15 per cent for the second quarter, said today that it now expects shipments to grow about ten per cent from Q1. Compal …
• Independent dubs El Reg lesbian — The Register
  Biting the jub that feeds IT
  We at El Reg have been called a fair few things in our time, but never before has it been suggested that we are dedicated practitioners of the Sapphic arts. Well, it was only a matter of time, and readers are invited to have a shufti at this piece from the Independent, which earlier today examined in some depth the Lesbian …
• Motorola board faces down a hostile crowd — The Register
  Pledges to be flexible and focused - at the same time
  Angry Motorola shareholders confronted the ailing firm's board over the company's poor performance yesterday, but left with little more than vague promises and estimated dates. The annual meeting in Chicago saw 350 shareholders turn up to ask why Motorola seemed incapable of producing a decent mobile phone, specifically one to …
• Cops demand more time in marathon OiNK investigation — The Register
  BitTorrent admin probe continues
  Cleveland police have again extended the bail granted to Alan Ellis, the administrator of Oink.cd, an invitation-only BitTorrent tracker shut down in a high profile dawn raid last October. The deadline for charges to be brought has been moved from today, 6 May, to 1 July. It will bring the total length of the probe to more …
• Google questions Verizon 'open network' — The Register
  A closed door is not open
  Google wants to make darn sure that when Verizon opens up its wireless network, it actually opens up its wireless network. In a new petition (PDF) to the US Federal Communications Commission, the world's largest search engine questions whether Verizon is planning to sidestep the commission's new open access rules, urging Kevin …
• Defra steps up probe into honeybee wipeout — The Register
  UK hives hit hard
  The Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced it is giving "higher priority" to the investigation of bee fatalities following "early signs of significant colony losses across the country". Defra has mobilised inspectors from the National Bee Unit (NBU) to probe this year's losses, which it admits …
• Top cop brands CCTV a 'fiasco' — The Register
  No deterrent, no good as evidence
  A senior Metropolitan police officer has described the UK's CCTV strategy as a "fiasco", saying billions had been spent with very little impact on either stopping crime or providing evidence. But don't count on the UK's flocks of cameras being taken down any time soon - the comments appear to be a thinly veiled plea for more …
• Winehouse cans Bond theme project — The Register
  'Not ready to record any music'
  Amy Winehouse's planned theme for Quantum of Solace has been canned because the troubled chanteuse is "not ready to record any music", her producer has announced. Speaking to Sky News, Mark Ronson said he been "forced to stop work" with Winehouse on the project, and explained: "We did work on it but we never finished it so …
• SplashPower splashes down in Fulton Innovation — The Register
  Consolidating the drips for induction charging
  SplashPower, the UK inductive charging company that has been struggling to create a product since 2001, has been bought up by Alticor-subsidiary Fulton Innovation. SplashPower went into administration last month, having failed to secure more funding, and Fulton purchased the assets from the administrators. Fulton is also in …
• Intel and chums target 450mm wafer fabs — Channel Register
  'It's only a tiny little thin one'
  Three of the world’s biggest chip players will cooperate with one another to develop silicon wafers to improve efficiency in semiconductor manufacturing. Intel said yesterday that a migration from 300mm (12-inch) silicon wafers to 450mm (18-inch) would yield more than double the number of chips per wafer. The trio hopes to …
• Sony Ericsson Z770i mobile phone — Reg Hardware
  Review Waving the flag for flip-phones
  Fans of clamshell phones may feel a touch hard done by when it comes to Sony Ericsson. Despite some desirably stylish Walkman and Cyber-shot designs, the real style icons to date have tended to be candybars. The Z770i is its attempt to redress the balance. It's constructed with a smart, elegant look rather than brash style- …
• Interpol publishes pic of another suspected child abuser — The Register
  Operation IDent
  Interpol has taken the unusual step of posting an image of a suspected paedophile on its website. The international police agency is asking for help from the public in identifying a man it said was pictured sexually abusing young boys in a series of images found on the internet. Interpol said the images were retrieved from the …
• NASA invites you to travel to the Moon — The Register
  Well, your name at least
  NASA is inviting citizens of Earth to add their name to an electronic roll-call destined to travel to the Moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) later this year. All you have to do is enter your details here, and they'll be put into a database for later storage on a chip aboard the LRO. Cathy Peddie, deputy …
• Sony demos 'commercial design' fuel cell for mobiles — Reg Hardware
  Ready for prime time?
  Sony has shown off a tiny fuel-cell prototype it claims will pave the way for a practical renewable power system for handheld devices. The palm-sized cell is an active system, pumping water produced by the reaction at the negative electrode round to the positive electrode, where it mixes with the methanol fuel and reacts to …
• Apple tops tech support success poll — Reg Hardware
  But HP support 'inferior', says Consumers Union
  Apple's consumer-oriented tech support is rather better than other vendors' equivalents, US non-profit organisation the Consumers Union has claimed. CU asked subscribers of its Consumer Reports magazine to detail their computer tech support experiences. Some 10,000 incidents relating to laptops and desktops were logged by the …
• 'Mad Scientist' developing powered suits for US military — The Register
  Will dominate everywhere within reach of a power socket
  Powered exoskeletal suits are big right now, with the movie Iron Man all over the place. US defence tech giant Raytheon has decided to ride the ink surf, issuing some opportunistic statements and and photos of its ongoing military powered suit programme. The rogue exoskeleton, intent on wreaking vengeance upon its fleshy …
• Grand Theft Auto 4 maker sues Chicago transport chiefs — Reg Hardware
  Game ads pulled, free speech rights violated. Apparently
  Take-Two Interactive is suing the Chicago Transit Authority after the metropolitan transportation organisation removed a series of Grand Theft Auto 4 ads from the city's bus shelters. The posters went up across the city on 22 April, the result of a $300,000 deal struck between Take-Two, and the CTA and its ad agency, Titan …
• Franco robbed Sir Cliff of Eurovision win — The Register
  Spanish dictator's 1968 vote-rigging outrage
  Of all the crimes perpetrated by the late and largely unlamented Franco - dictator of Spain during more years than most locals care to remember - perhaps the most heinous is the fascist regime's fixing of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest which saw the sainted Cliff Richard's Congratulations pipped at the post by Hispanic musical …
• Vodafone sews up iPhone distribution — Reg Hardware
  Ten-country deal feeds Apple's world-domination plan
  Vodafone has signed a deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone in ten of its operating countries - several of which are still 2G-only, which should help clear stocks once the 3G version is launched. Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will all be able to …
• Ex-Navy SEAL and nanny 'Otter' does bird over Broadcom — The Register
  Kindergarten cop, shmindergarten shmop
  A federal judge in California sentenced an ex-Navy SEAL to prison today after he refused to testify against his employer, former Broadcom CEO, Henry Nicholas. Stephen "Otter" Otten has refused to utter a word against Nicholas before a federal grand jury investigating illegal backdated stock options at Broadcom. The mulish 30- …