24th November 2005 Archive

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NY Times suspended ethics for Web 2.0 plug

Very cosy

Back to the nebulous tech hype that Register readers love to hate. The New York Times appears to have breached two of its own ethics guidelines when it gave op-ed space to John Battelle last week to promote the Web 2.0 buzzword. Battelle, who produced the Web 2.0 conference with MediaLive, used the space to assure us that …

Music and Media 24 Nov 2005, 01:12
Idaho town becomes Secretsanta.com

Ho ho ho

The northern Idaho town of Santa will on 9 December become Secretsanta.com after officials voted to take sponsorship from an "online gift exchange management service", Reuters reports. The deal was approved by the town's only official body - the water board - amid legal wrangling as to whether it had the authority to greenlight …

Bootnotes 24 Nov 2005, 09:43
DHL in internet packet storm SNAFU

Return to sender

People responding to a promo run by delivery firm DHL were bombarded with a deluge of hundreds of emails this week. Firms responding to an offer of a free Blackberry in return for opening up an account with the packet delivery outfit were subjected to a packet storm because of flaws with some of the recipients' email systems, …

Spam 24 Nov 2005, 09:48
Xbox 360: a Thanksgiving Turkey?

A better BSOD

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is a technical triumph that has been lauded by the hard-to-please, with John C Dvorak saying, "I have not seen a hardware/software system this well thought out for a decade or more." Whereas the original was an underpowered PC, its successor boasts three PowerPC cores running at 3.2GHz, the competition is …

Consoles 24 Nov 2005, 09:53
ATI founder quits after 20 years at firm

Wants to 'spend more time with family'

ATI chairman and founder K Y Ho has decided to call it a day, and is quitting the company to "spend more time with family and pursue my personal interests". Ho created ATI in 1985 and served as its CEO until 1 June 2004. On that date he handed the mantle of power over to Dave Orton, who joined the company in April 2000 as its …

Financial News 24 Nov 2005, 10:58
Nvidia G70GL gains PCI Express thumbs-up

ATi's 80nm chips near release, too

Nvidia's upcoming G70GL graphics chip has achieved official PCI Express certification, paving the way for the part's introduction in the not-too-distant future. Separately, sources from within Taiwan's graphics-card maker community have claimed ATI's R580 chip will launch early next year. The G70GL first appeared in July, …

Reg Hardware 24 Nov 2005, 11:10
Swisscom eyes TDC - report

Consolidation-tastic

Danish outfit TDC could become the latest telco at the centre of a bidding war following reports that Swisscom is considering making a bid. Last week it emerged that a consortium comprising Apax, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira and Providence stumped up almost $11.5bn (£6.7bn) to make a bid for TDC, although at the …

Financial News 24 Nov 2005, 11:19
ATI 'approves' Radeon X1800 XT overclocking

Board makers must take responsibilty for 'fallout'

ATI has told graphics card makers it will sanction attempts to overclock its Radeon X1800 XT chip - provided they take full responsibility for the "potential fallout". So suggests a leaked confidential advisory obtained by Anandtech. If accurate, the memo reveals a major change on ATI's part - to date, the company has not …

Reg Hardware 24 Nov 2005, 11:25
Macedonia (former Yugoslav Republic thereof) to host world's largest WLAN

That'll be great, Alexander

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is to host the world's largest WLAN. The wireless mesh network will cover the entire country. Within a year more than 90 per cent of the population will be able to go online and make telephone calls via the WLAN from their home. The mesh network, supplied by US company Strix Systems, is …

Wireless 24 Nov 2005, 11:40
Xbox 360 costs third more to make than it sells for

And that's just the price of the parts

It's widely believed that games console makers sell their hardware at a loss in order to get the retail price down to a level they believe consumers will be willing to pay, but any doubters must surely be convinced by market watcher iSuppli's attempt to strip down the Xbox 360 to find out how much its components cost. According …

Consoles 24 Nov 2005, 11:43
Spare our blushes, put more cash into space

MPs call for greater government investment

Britain's space effort is embarrassingly under funded, according to MPs, and unless the funding is increased substantially, the country will lose skills, and will be left behind by the international community. Britain spends £200m annually on its involvement in space exploration, the BBC reports, compared to £1.9bn spent by …

Science 24 Nov 2005, 12:07
LaCie unpacks stacking 'Lego' HDDs

Homage to the famous toy, apparently

HDD maker LaCie this week launched a set of desktop and mobile drives that can only be described as Lego-like. The drives come in red, blue and white, and sport six or four circular nodules on the top, each stamped with the maker's name. They're designed to fit together in a stack, just like the famous Danish plastic bricks …

Storage 24 Nov 2005, 12:15
Ecommerce boom for Xmas

Spare a thought for posties

Postal workers look set to be kept busier in the run-up to Christmas this year by delivering a staggering 70m packages ordered online. So says the Royal Mail which reckons that the rise in internet shopping will mean that an extra 15m packages will be delivered this year as more people use the net to buy their pressies. " …

Financial News 24 Nov 2005, 12:24
SCC wins HMRC contract

Revenue & Customs doles out £560m

The Pan-European technology integrator and service provider, SCC has been awarded a contract by HM Customs and Revenue (HMRC) it was announced today. The four-year contract potentially worth up to £560m will be used to support the central government department's eGovernment and efficiency targets. The contract will cover the …

Public Sector 24 Nov 2005, 12:48
BSG blames hardware for sales jump

Margin call

So at least one UK computer dealer out there can still turn a profit from flogging hardware. Step forward London-based Business Systems Group (BSG), which noted a fall in gross margins from 22 per cent to 18 per cent in its interims, thanks to “especially strong hardware sales in the first quarter”. At the same time, its value- …

Channel Register 24 Nov 2005, 12:58
Nintendo H1 profits halved as GameCube demand declines

Market transitioning to next-generation consoles

Nintendo saw its profits plunge 51 per cent during the first half of its current fiscal year as sales slid on falling demand for its ageing GameCube console. "The market for the current generation of console hardware is becoming saturated and is approaching a transitional phase to next-generation consoles," the company warned. …

Financial News 24 Nov 2005, 13:04
Push email for the Moto RAZR

Instant email goes Java

Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay and Propellerhead answers your PC queries. Push email for Motorola V3 users It’s a tough decision. Should business types opt for the functional, but rather unsexy …

Mobile 24 Nov 2005, 13:22
Google Base awash with smut

XSS security glitch hits beta service too

Google Base was flooded with porn marketing days after its launch despite claims spam postings would not be a problem for the search engine giant's online classified service. Glitches in Google's SafeSearch feature meant the filter temporarily failed to block xxx listings earlier this week. Google said it has now resolved the …

Financial News 24 Nov 2005, 13:26
Tech Data beats the Street

Share jump

Restructuring costs for Tech Data's European operations meant a profits fall for the distie giant in Q3. Net income fell 40 per cent to $23m or 40c a share thanks to $4.8m in restructuring charges and $3.2 million of consulting costs related to the restructuring. Strip out the one-off charges and profit climbs to 53 cents a …

Channel Register 24 Nov 2005, 14:12
Stem cell pioneer steps down over egg ethics

'Shameful and horrible'

Pioneering stem cell researcher Professor Hwang Woo-Suk has stepped down from his position as Chairman of the World Stem Cell Hub, after it emerged that he used eggs from his own researchers in his work. The story was first picked up by the journal Nature, after an interview with one of Hwang's PhD students in which she claimed …

Science 24 Nov 2005, 14:33
RIM reduces Q3, Q4 new-user totals

Blames Blackberry 8700, 7130 delays

Research in Motion (RIM) will not be able to encourage as many people to buy into its push email service during the coming months as it previously forecast, the company has admitted. In September, RIM said it was expecting to sign 680,000-710,000 new subscribers during the its third fiscal quarter, which ends on 26 November …

Mobile 24 Nov 2005, 14:37
Ireland gagging for affordable broadband

What do they want? Broadband! When do they want it? Now!

Ireland is gagging for affordable broadband, according to a survey of 1,400 net users internet lobby group IrelandOffline. Campaigners say that many dial-up users are eager to switch to an always-on high-speed service but that they are not within reach of a suitable broadband connection. Others maintain that the dial-up …

Telecoms 24 Nov 2005, 14:47
ICANN creates advisory committee for foreign-language net

Tackling key criticism

Internet overseeing organisation ICANN has created a new advisory group to cover the complex and controversial of internationalised domain names (IDNs) - domain names in foreign languages. The new committee comprises three chairs - all ICANN Board members - and 18 experts from the around the world. Its brief will be to "promote …

Music and Media 24 Nov 2005, 15:11
French smoke fags? Wtf?

Rotting Dog Blog Heads will roll, make no mistake

Goddam French November 20, 2005 - 11.41 am Woke up this am to something really shocking through the Blogfelch RSS Hyperfeed. According to Pink Andrew's Wtf? blog, some French chick tried to smoke a fag on a flight from Brisbane (Australia, right?) to Hong Kong. Jesus. Sure, I can accept that there are cultural differences …

Bootnotes 24 Nov 2005, 15:18
UK 'full of fraudsters' - survey

Dishonesty rampant in bogus Britain

Dishonesty and fraud are widespread in the UK, with nearly half of people quizzed in a survey admitting to forgery and one in ten to low level identity fraud. A quarter of 1,000 Britons polled in a survey by document and identity verification firm TSSI confessed to exaggerating their educational qualifications to gain employment …

ID 24 Nov 2005, 15:32
Amended data retention plans OK'd in Europe

But plenty of hoops to jump through yet

The European Union parliamentary committee on civil liberties has approved the latest version of the data retention directive, putting it on track to pass the parliament's plenary vote in December. German MEP Alexander Alvaro says the current version of the bill is far more balanced than the original Commission proposal. The …

Music and Media 24 Nov 2005, 15:39
Review Shure E4c noise-isolating earphones

Up until the time of writing this review I believed that the only real way to block out all general noise while listening to your MP3 player was to invest in pair of noise-cancelling headphones. It seems I was wrong. While the noise-cancelling option is a good one, the main problem is that it involves donning a rather large set …

Reviews 24 Nov 2005, 15:44
Pipex 'encouraged' by WiMAX trials

Early days

UK-based Pipex is "encouraged" by trials of its WiMAX wireless broadband service and is pressing ahead with further tests, it revealed today. The ISP has been running the WiMAX trial in tandem with Airspan Networks at the US-based firm's test facility in Stratford-upon-Avon. "The trial network has achieved stable service …

Telecoms 24 Nov 2005, 16:14
Rock resurrects Quaddra AMD-based notebooks

Now with added Turion™

UK system builder Rock is to revive its Quaddra notebook range, this time equipping the machines with AMD's Turion 64 processor family. Rock is preparing two Quaddras, dubbed the 'Mobility' and 'Performance' models, respectively. The first is driven by a Turion 64 MT-34, clocked at 1.8GHz and consuming up to 25W of power. It's …

Reg Hardware 24 Nov 2005, 16:33
Eclipse sorry for broadband downtime

Software snafu blamed

UK ISP Eclipse has apologised to punters left without broadband earlier this week and is promising to learn from its mistakes. In an email to punters - many of whom are business users - the Exeter-based ISP blamed a "software problem" for the snafu which started on Monday afternoon and affected a large number of the ISP's 60, …

Telecoms 24 Nov 2005, 16:45
Japan's asteroid probe did land, after all

Might have another go, too

Japan's Hayabusa space probe did land on its asteroid target, mission scientists confirmed today, but was not able to activate its sample collection equipment while it was on Itokawa's surface. The spacecraft, which is on a mission to collect a sample of the asteroid Ikotawa and return it to Earth, lost contact with mission …

Science 24 Nov 2005, 16:47
Opera *nixed by security bug

Patch issued, world peace secured

Opera users on *nix platforms are been urged to update their browser software following the discovery of a security flaw that creates a means for hackers to compromise vulnerable systems. The vulnerability stems from a security flaw in a shell script used by Opera to safely parse shell commands. That means Opera on Unix might …

Enterprise Security 24 Nov 2005, 16:56
Maxell to offer 300GB holographic discs 'late 2006'

Future 1.6TB units make Blu-ray look like cassette tape

Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged. The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is …

Storage 24 Nov 2005, 17:16