28th July 2005 Archive

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Vista - searching for something fresh

New OS, same old promises

Thousands of developers have at last received a good - if limited - look inside the guts of the delayed Microsoft desktop operating system formerly known as Longhorn. Microsoft yesterday released Windows Vista Beta 1, featuring changes in security, deployment, management and performance, seven days ahead of schedule - making …

Software 28 Jul 2005, 07:25
Tag me stupid, baby!

Letters This postbag contains small pieces of irony or humor which may choke small children or law professors

Perhaps we should call them The New Literalists. Or is Nitpickers a better word? Or how about Pixel Pedants? The Road to Hell looks like it's going to be Tagged With Good Intentions, if you pardon the twisted idiom. There are indeed some painfully earnest people who want to avoid any misunderstanding in our online …

Letters 28 Jul 2005, 07:44
Cisco, ISS file suit against rogue researcher

'The right thing to do here is to make sure that everyone knows that it's vulnerable'

LAS VEGAS--Networking giant Cisco and security company Internet Security Systems filed on Wednesday a restraining order against the management of the Black Hat Conference and a security expert who told conference attendees that attackers can broadly compromise Cisco routers. The legal action followed a presentation by …

Data Networking 28 Jul 2005, 08:25
CA axes 800 jobs

On the long road to recovery

Computer Associates is to shed 800 workers this year - or five per cent of its staff - as part of a restructuring plan designed to help it to save a further $75m a year. CA said its latest round of job cuts are focused on "improving productivity and simplifying the product portfolio in research and development, improving …

Applications 28 Jul 2005, 10:03
Shuttle grounded again - indefinitely

Troubled by foam issues

NASA has put future Shuttle missions on indefinite hold, after two chunks of foam fell from Discovery's external fuel tank during its launch this week. The falling debris is not thought to have damaged the space-plane, but the fact that NASA has not managed to rectify the problem that led to the loss of Columbia is more …

Science 28 Jul 2005, 10:45
New wave buoys spirits at BT

Trad business continues to ebb

BT claimed a “great” first quarter today, as its new wave business more than made up for the retreat of its stuffy old traditional telecoms operations. The veteran operator turned in revenues of £4.8bn for the quarter ending 30 June, up 5 per cent. Pretax profits, before specific items, were up 20 per cent to £511m. The …

Financial News 28 Jul 2005, 10:50
Outraged granny sues over Grand Theft Auto

14-year-old grandson at risk of perversion

A litigious 81-year-old New York granny has zimmered her way gently onto the "bash Grand Theft Auto" bandwagon by filing suit against the game's manufacturer for engaging in "false, misleading and deceptive practices", AP reports. Florence Cohen says she bought GTA: San Andreas for her 14-year-old grandson "without knowing it …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 2005, 10:54
Nvidia lost market share in Q2

Integrated products dominate desktop, mobile shipments

Intel, ATI and VIA increased their share of the graphics chip market during Q2, largely at the expense of Nvidia, figures from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reveal. Some 61.4m PC graphics chips shipped during the year's second quarter, up two per cent sequentially and 12.9 per cent year on year, JPR said. Shipments of integrated …

Peripherals 28 Jul 2005, 11:01
Sony launches Portable TV for PSP

Download videos - but not directly to your console

Sony has begun offering video downloads to Japanese owners of its PlayStation Portable handheld console. The service - called Portable TV or P-TV, for short - currently offers free content, such as movie trailers, promotional videos, and TV episodes from China and Korea, but will expand to include premium material for a fee. …

Consoles 28 Jul 2005, 11:34
Internet fuels trade in counterfeit goods

Faking IT

Microsoft and Adobe have secured the dubious honour of becoming the only IT companies to figure in a list of the world's 10 most counterfeited brands. The software giant is in there at number two - behind only Nike - as the top target for dodgy merchants in a run-down compiled by Canada's Gieschen Consultancy. Adobe makes it to …

Music and Media 28 Jul 2005, 11:46
Email? That's for old farts!

US Teens embrace IM

A survey of teenagers in the US has uncovered an astonishing fact: email, it seems, is for old fogeys, and best left for communicating with the near-dead, such as parents, and "institutions". So what are the hip young kids using to communicate? Instant messenger, of course. We at El Reg are well ahead of the game on this one, …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 2005, 12:16
BT customers sign up for Pest Control

Yet Jeremy Clarkson still on our screens

BT said today that 350,000 people have signed up for its Pest Control service to block nuisance marketing calls. The telco began pushing the service earlier this month, although the launch had to contend with the firm's ongoing corporate TV ad campaign fronted by Top Gear petrol-head and all round British braggart Jeremy …

Telecoms 28 Jul 2005, 13:08
Reg salutes swearing parrot

'The vicar's a w**ker' says VoIP macaw

We're going to get straight down to business with this one - it's a quiet news day and the following contains no IT angle whatsoever except one terrible acronym-driven pun the perpetrator of which has been put on UK IT reseller financial results duty for a week. IT angle or not, we feel obliged to salute Barney, the "VoIP" …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 2005, 13:10
Low-end phone demand drives Q2 handset sales leap

Motorola and Sony Ericsson see the highest growth

Motorola has extended its lead over Samsung, its rival for the number two slot in the list of the world's top mobile phone makers, market watcher IDC said today as it reported shipment figures for the year's second quarter. Nokia retained its healthy market lead during Q2, shipping 60.8m units to take 32.2 per cent of the …

Mobile 28 Jul 2005, 13:27
Lighten up: spam should be a game

Play nice, now

Treating spam as if it was a game could be the key to the undoing of bulk-mailers everywhere, according to a Greek scientist. A team of researchers at Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece, led by Ion Androutsopoulos, says that by taking this approach, ISPs and businesses can improve their spam filters - finding …

Spam 28 Jul 2005, 13:31
Going Underground? Forget the mobile

You really are alone down there

A widely circulated and wide off the mark email has prompted London Underground to warn travellers that “No, mobiles phones really don't work underground”. An email has been doing the rounds since the recent bomb attacks in London claiming that people trapped in the tube’s underground tunnels can contact emergency services by …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 2005, 13:56
Infineon shuffles management team

Memory division gets new boss

Infineon today said it had appointed a new chief of the company's memory business following the resignation last week of the unit's previous head, Andreas von Zitzewitz. His replacement is Kin Wah Loh who, until today, was in charge of Infineon's communications product division. Loh's old post will be filled by Hermann Eul, the …

Financial News 28 Jul 2005, 14:07
Discovery docks with ISS

In brief Smooth mating

The space shuttle Discovery has successfully docked with the International Space Station in a trauma-free mating during which ISS cameras captured images of the vehicle's underside for inspection for possible damage to the heat shielding. Initial reports suggest that there is no major cause for concern following the detachment …

Science 28 Jul 2005, 14:23
iPod users in musical hallucination threat

More music, more madness, says brain boffin

The increasing use of iPods and greater exposure to music generally may lead to an increase in "musical hallucinations", a psychiatrist has claimed. These are not, explains Victor Aziz of Cardiff's Whitchurch Hospital in today's Guardian, simply a case of getting Crazy Frog stuck in your unwilling brain, but the full-blown …

Science 28 Jul 2005, 14:24
Epson Stylus Photo R320 printer

Review What doesn't it do?

Epson's latest entry into the photo printer market helps fill the gap between its R800 and R200 models with an update of the R300. The Epson Stylus Photo R320 comes complete with a new, colour screen and memory card slots for 13 of the most popular card formats, including xD, SmartMedia, Memory Stick - Pro, Duo, Pro Duo and …

Reviews 28 Jul 2005, 14:34
Hackers look outside Windows for flaws

SANS Top 20 highlights backup risks

Security vulnerabilities are on the rise with a 10.8 percent increase in vulnerabilities over last quarter, according to a study from the SANS Institute. There were 422 new vulnerabilities in the second quarter of 2005, compared to the 381 reported in Q1 2005. SANS highlights a growing number of vulnerabilities in popular back- …

Enterprise Security 28 Jul 2005, 15:08
eShoppers get the hots for backless thong

VPL and VTL eliminated. Praise be to the net

In what must be the only story ever to appear on El Reg which can challenge IT-driven material for the sheer weight of TLAs (three-letter acronyms) available to the abbreviation-hungry hack (AHH), UK online lingerie and sex accessory outfit Lovehoney (adult products, natch) has at a stroke eliminated the nightmare of VPL and …

Bootnotes 28 Jul 2005, 15:13
Tahir Mohsan in talks to save Time jobs

Police were present for redundancy meeting

Tahir Mohsan, one of the original founders of Granville Technology Group, is reportedly in talks with the company's administrators and bankers, trying to broker a deal that could save hundreds of jobs. The UK's biggest PC maker and retailer, which made and sold PCs under the Time and Tiny brands, went into administration …

Channel Register 28 Jul 2005, 16:42
Hollywood sock-puppet senator faces tech insurgency

To your blogs

US senator Orrin Hatch, scourge of file sharers could be out of a job in 2006 if fellow Republican Steve Urquhart gets his way. Urquhart, House of Representative member and party whip form the land of Utah, has announced he is running against Hatch as GOP candidate in 2006, and wants internet users to boost a bi-partisan …

Music and Media 28 Jul 2005, 18:00
Bring me your dollars, yearning to be free

And get bought by Oracle?

The earnings season has an added twist of drama this quarter. US multinationals are paying more tax than usual, adversely affecting their bottom lines, as they repatriate billions of dollars to the US. Computer Associates, Lexmark International and Citrix International are just three tech-sector players who - like their cousins …

Financial News 28 Jul 2005, 18:20
Microsoft uses former exec as lawsuit springboard 'to stop' Google

Nothing personal

Microsoft is using its court case against Google to fire a warning shot across the corporate bows and staunch further staff defections to the search giant. Microsoft's top two executives apparently told Dr Kai-Fu Lee, hired last week by Google and promptly prosecuted by Microsoft, the case was nothing personal "just" business …

Hardware 28 Jul 2005, 18:47
IE7 nukes Google, Yahoo! search

Update Where's my toolbar?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 went on a limited beta release today and contains a nasty surprise for some users. Users with search toolbars from Yahoo! and arch-rival Google have discovered that these vanish. Other third-party toolbars designed to block pop-ups or aid with form filling appear to be working normally, according …

Music and Media 28 Jul 2005, 21:46
Microsoft charging more, giving more?

Introducing Office server... and more expensive CALs

Microsoft is planning more expensive versions of Office and Windows during the next few years, to sustain growth and mitigate customer opposition to upgrades. Chief executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday that Microsoft wants to increase Office revenues fourfold by the end of the decade, with a new "Office Server" product and more …

Hardware 28 Jul 2005, 21:50