28th May 2008 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Too much code, too few application security specialists

Time to loosen up

Agile dominates software development. According to Scott Ambler, a prolific author of books on the subject in addition to being IBM's agile development practice lead, 69 per cent of organizations already use agile in one or more projects. Twenty four per cent of the rest are planning to start in the next year. Unlike …

Software 28 May 05:02
Yet another hole found in BT Wi-Fi router

BT Home Hub's loose lips

Users of Britain's most popular Wi-Fi router have yet another reason to change the default settings toute de suite, and once again they have the folks in BT's security department to thank. In recent weeks, they changed the default password in the BT Home Hub, from "admin" to the device's unique serial number. In theory, this …

Channel Register 28 May 07:02
Irregular heart rhythm? Try a Taser

Belligerent hospital patient faces the perp-busting defibrillator

Connecticut doctors have provided circumstantial evidence that Tasers do affect the heart - backing critics' claims that the use of the "less-than-deadly" incapacitator may in fact prove resolutely deadly. In the case of the belligerent 28-year-old patient admitted to Hartford Hospital, however, the end result of a light …

Biology 28 May 09:04
UK to outlaw cartoons of child sexual abuse

Best get rid of those manga comics

First they came for the child pornographers... It may not have quite the same resonance as Pastor Niemuller’s oft-quoted aphorism. But the reality behind this particular slippery slope is just as sinister. The British government today announced proposals to make possession of drawings and computer-generated images of child …

Law 28 May 09:13
European manned spaceship design unveiled in Berlin

Bound to be used - as bargaining tool in Moscow, at least

Proposals for a European-built manned spacecraft have been formally unveiled in Berlin, with some backing from the German government. Backers of the plan hope to see the European Space Agency (ESA) using Euro technology to carry astronauts into orbit, rather than Russian Soyuz rockets. As reported previously, the mock-up now …

Security 28 May 09:52
Phoenix prepares to flex its muscles

Cyber limb extends today

NASA is preparing to flex the robotic arm on its Phoenix lander following a technical glitch which provoked a temporary comms breakdown between the spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which relays commands to Phoenix and dispatches information from the Martian surface back to Earth. NASA explains: "The UHF radio …

Space 28 May 09:59
Is Voda's Colao the new Gordon Brown?

Sarin jumped ship just in time?

Come July Vodafone will have a new boss, one who has had his eyes on the top job for half a decade and has strong ideas on how the company should be run. But he takes over a company that has been expanding abroad while cutting costs at home - two strategies he's unlikely to be able to sustain in the long run. Tony Blair will …

Mobile 28 May 10:37
Controllers to define consoles in future?

Are graphics still important?

Consoles and videogames will be defined by controllers in future, rather than graphics, according to the head of a videogame development firm. Alex St John, CEO of PC gaming firm Wild Tangent, made the claim at a recent gaming conference in New York. He also stated that, out of the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, only the Wii …

Reg Hardware 28 May 10:49
SanDisk jacks into USB 2.0 storage

Slot-in storage

Fans of mobile-based snapping and music know how quickly storage capacity can be eaten up. So, SanDisk has launched a range of Flash memory cards designed to expand the capacity of your non-expandable storage. SanDisk's Ultra Mobile range: fast and easy storage The manufacturer’s Ultra Mobile range consists of Micro SD, …

Reg Hardware 28 May 10:50
EU agency declares war on botnets

Root cause analysis

ENISA, a pan-European agency designed to promote closer coordination on information security, is calling for a revamp of cyber-security laws and best practices in a bid to combat the growing economic impact of cyber attacks and botnet spam. The adoption in Europe of US-style information security breach disclosure laws is a key …

Channel Register 28 May 10:50
IBM pushes out Opteron-based servers

Rack 'em and stack 'em

Big Blue will release three rack servers next month that will come loaded with AMD’s long-awaited quad-core processor. IBM’s x3455, a two-socket system with up to 48GB of memory, will retail at $1,809 in the US. It's intended for customers who use scientific, technical and financial apps. The next model in the series – x3655 …

Servers 28 May 11:09
Yes! It's the dancing suit!

Turn dancing into audio

People used to put on their dancing shoes, but they’ll soon have to dig out their dancing suit too. Because a designer has stitched together plans for an outfit that turns your shape shifting into real music. Designer Nikola Knezevic's Pacer Suit: you dance, it makes the music The Pacer Suit may look like something from …

Reg Hardware 28 May 11:40
JPG hole cuts RAZR open

Motorola handset vulnerable

A bug in Motorola's RAZR firmware could allow a malformed JPG file sent over MMS to overflow the stack, theoretically making it able to execute arbitrary code. The exploit is hypothetical, and would be very hard to abuse, but it's still a serious enough prospect for Motorola to issue a fixed firmware download – even if it's …

Mobile 28 May 11:54
HP launches siamese-twin server blade

Because two CPUs are denser than one

Hewlett-Packard has devised a siamese-twin CPU server blade for those monstrous data centers with nowhere to spread out. HP pitches its new ProLiant BL2x220c G5 as the first blade with two independent servers combined into a single blade enclosure. The twofer is intended for large "scale-out" operations that require massive …

Servers 28 May 11:56
Belgian newspapers demand Google cash

Flemish legal blemish refuses to disappear

Google is being dragged to court again by fresh demands from Belgian newspapers to cough up for using copyright material in its news and web indexing services. Copiepresse, the publisher behind the lawsuit, has summoned Google to answer its up to €49m claim in a Brussels court in September, AP reports. Last year Google was …

Music and Media 28 May 11:58
ISS toilet fails to suck

Cross-legged astronauts request spares

The Russian ASU (Ассенизационно-Санитарная Установка, or "Waste Management System") aboard the ISS has pretty well clapped out following the failure on 21 May of the unit's air/water separator heralded by a "loud noise", according to NASA. The agency explained last week: "The crew then replaced the separator with a spare unit …

Space 28 May 12:09
Samsung SGH-F490 cameraphone

Review An altogether more run of the mill device

The first two devices to run the "Croix" touchscreen UI didn't float our boat. The Armani was high on style, low on ability, the F700 tried to be some sort of smartphone all-things-to-all-men. The new home of the Croix, the F490, is pitched as an altogether more run of the mill device; no silly designer labels, no pretensions …

Reg Hardware 28 May 12:38
EC denies 'provisional decision' on Intel anti-trust probe

Slams 'irresponsible' reporting

The anti-trust arm of the European Commission today denied that it had reached any provisional decision in its ongoing probe of Intel’s marketing and sales practices. EC competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said: "There is no provisional or internal decision on this case. The investigation is very much active and ongoing," …

Channel Register 28 May 12:45
Control your PC, with a lemon wedge

Or a sock, or a pen, or an armchair...

Gaming execs may think the future of consoles lies in unique controller designs, but one firm is trying to get PC gamers to control games with everything from plastic bottles to Windows user guide booklets. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Cam-Trax Technologies claims to have developed a “unique …

Reg Hardware 28 May 13:14
ID fraudsters soak the rich

Soaraway losses

Identity fraud grew alarmingly in the UK last year, with affluent Londoners particularly at risk, according to figures from credit reference agency Experian. More than 6,000 victims of identity fraud contacted Experian last year, compared with 3,500 in 2006. These directly reported incidents are just a tiny fraction of the 10, …

ID 28 May 13:32
Intel faces long not very hot summer

Centrino 2 starts looking like a mirage

Intel will leave its OEMs facing a summer drought of new mobile chips after admitting its Centrino update, Montevina, would not appear till August at the earliest. The update to the vendor’s mobile laptop chip range, also know as Centrino 2, was originally due this month, but was pushed back to late June a week or two ago. …

Hardware 28 May 13:33
Want a 1TB optical drive? Call/Recall me

Backwards compatible with Blu-ray

Call/Recall has announced it is developing a 1TB optical drive and disk, backwards compatible with Blu-ray, in partnership with with the Nichia Corporation of Japan. Call/Recall began synthesizing 1TB materials for Nichia’s blue-violet laser diodes in December 2007, with first initial testing successfully completed in March …

Storage 28 May 13:58
Wii's Balance Board turned into virtual flying carpet

Man virtually flys over Alps

Boffins at a German research centre have adapted the Wii’s Balance Board to let travel-hungry gamers navigate the world, without ever leaving the living room. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Matthieu Deru and Simon Bergweiler are from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, which is …

Reg Hardware 28 May 14:12
What's wrong with LINX?

Updated Outages here, outages there

Last night there was another outage at the London Internet Exchange (LINX) - the second, and longest, time it has gone down in the last month. The problem began at 18.35 last night and lasted for about an hour. The normally reliable exchange point blamed the last outage on problems with a line card. The exchange also had …

Telecoms 28 May 14:27
Thus Group gives amorous Cable and Wireless the brush off

Potential telecoms merger emerges

Cable and Wireless has shuffled alongside smaller business telecoms outfit Thus Group, mumbling that it possibly might want to make an offer to buy it, to be greeted today with a polite "we're alright, cheers". A C&W statement alongside news of its romantic whispers said: "This announcement does not amount to a firm intention …

Telecoms 28 May 14:54
Japanese customs reunited with lost dope

Passenger hands over surprise stash

Japanese customs have been reunited with the 142g of cannabis they mislaid at Tokyo's Narita airport during a drugs-busting test operation, Japan Today reports. The stash had been placed by an officer in the side pocket of a randomly-selected suitcase belonging to an innocent incoming passenger on Sunday's Flight 520 from Hong …

Bootnotes 28 May 14:54
Handset sales drop for first time in mobe history

Economic woes beget mid-range lane-hoggers

It had to happen sooner or later - handset sales in Europe and Japan have dropped for the first time, and growth in the US is looking a bit sleepy too. Sales have dropped by 16.4 per cent in Europe, with Japan likewise losing interest to the tune of ten per cent. US sales are up, but only by a measly 2.4 per cent compared to …

Mobile 28 May 15:06
Ballmer and Gates defend Vista, drop Windows 7 hints

'Not a failure, not a mistake'

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday insisted that the firm was not guilty of making huge blunders with its unloved operating system Windows Vista. Speaking at the All Things Digital D6 conference alongside lame duck chairman Bill Gates, Ballmer contended: "Vista's not a failure and it's not a mistake.” He also took the …

Operating Systems 28 May 15:22
UK gov waves white flag on secret lobbying ruling

Will 'fess up on secret meetings/menus

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has decided not to appeal a legal ruling that it must release information on secret meetings between ministers, civil servants and lobbyists at the Confederation of British Industry. The Department had until this Friday to take the Information Tribunal ruling to the …

Government 28 May 15:24
Russian crackers spread nuclear panic

False meltdown syndrome

Russian crackers attacked the websites of a local nuclear power plant last week shortly after planting false rumours of an accident at the facility. Internet forums were buzzing with bogus reports of "radioactive emissions" emanating from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant near St Petersburg and an evacuation of locals at the …

Channel Register 28 May 15:29
Split on support for 'old' Java in next Eclipse

Embedded developers like it old skool

A summit on the next version of Eclipse platform - E4 - has exposed fundamental disagreements between those who want to update the platform and those wanting to continue support for "old" Java. The dispute is over whether to focus on Java 5 or to continue supporting its aging predecessor Java 1.4. Eclipse projects currently …

Software 28 May 17:21
VMware dollars swarm into B-hive Networks

Buys application apiarists

VMware intends to sweeten how applications run on its virtual machines with the purchase of B-hive Networks, a firm that specializes in performance management tools. B-hive is based in San Mateo, California with its research and development center in Israel. Its flagship appliance, B-hive Conductor, monitors application …

Virtualization 28 May 18:40
Mozilla guns for Guinness world record with Firefox 3.0

Slips out RC2 ahead of the download madness

Mozilla aims to make Firefox 3 a record breaker. It wants the release of the next version of its flagship open source browser to be accompanied by a record for the most software downloads in a single 24-hour period 1. Download Day - as Mozilla dubs it - will begin the minute Firefox 3 is generally available and continue for 24 …

Applications 28 May 19:07
Man accused of siphoning $50,000 in micro-payments from Schwab, E-trade

King of the Hill dethroned

A California man has been charged with multiple counts of fraud after allegedly siphoning $50,000 from online brokerage houses E-trade and Schwab.com in micro-payments over a six-month period. Kevin Poulsen of Wired News reports here that Michael Largent of Plumas Lake, California, is accused of using an automated script to …

Crime 28 May 19:56
US protests to WTO over EU 'IT' tariffs

EU stands ground

The US and Japan today filed complaints with the World Trade Organization over European Union tariffs on imported flat-screen monitors, some TV set-top boxes, and printers able to scan, fax and copy. The Office of US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the United States has requested the World Trade Organization help …

Financial News 28 May 23:03
Google opens cloud to (all) earthbound developers

Google I/O 'Here's how much we'll charge (kinda, sorta)'

Google has offered a spot on its cloud to every developer down on earth. And it can almost tell you how much it plans to charge for this sky-high real estate. Early last month, Google unveiled App Engine, a service that lets outside developers build and run web apps on the company's very own distributed infrastructure, and …

Servers 28 May 23:07