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27th October 2006 Archive

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  • Sun turns in another Q1 loss

    But what goes up must go up

    Sun Microsystems left its Bedazzler® back at the asylum during the first quarter with financial results less spectacular than the company's recent market share gains. That said, the server vendor managed to hand in a solid enough quarter to keep investors calm - a rare feat for the Solaris crowd. Buoyed by StorageTek and …

    Enterprise 27 Oct 2006, 00:17

  • Acer: Vista Home Basic is a lemon

    Disguised price rise for PC builders

    Microsoft is effectively smuggling through a price hike for Windows Vista - by making the entry-level version so poor that no-one will want to use it. So says Jim Wong, senior veep at Acer, the world's number four PC maker, who told UK hack Jon Honeyball: "The new [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won't feel …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 00:27

  • Apple cures MacBook shutdown... maybe

    Firmware update

    The Mac press has been full of tales lately of Macbooks inexplicably shutting down. Today, Apple announced a cure for this annoying habit, known oddly enough as MacBook Shutdown. In an advisory, the Intel OEM issued instructions to owners to install SMC Firmware update 1.1. Recommended for all MacBook owners, the update improves …

    PC Builder 27 Oct 2006, 00:39

  • Foundry punches out 65nm GPUs for Nvidia

    Gearing up for 2007 introduction?

    Nvidia is already producing 65nm chips, the graphics specialist has revealed. We suspect it actually means it's sampling chip designs fabricated at that size. Certainly, AMD isn't expected to ship 65nm GPUs until H2 2007, and like Nvidia, it chips are made by TSMC. Yesterday, Nvidia buttered up the foundry by lauding the two …

    PC Builder 27 Oct 2006, 08:35

  • Bug causes another delay to Vista

    RTM slips back a week

    Vista has been delayed by a week because of a bug, according to reports. The oft-delayed operating system was due for release to manufacturers yesterday, 25 October, but this has been pushed back to 8 November because of a bug serious enough to require a complete re-install of the software. Cunning Microsoft, fed up with …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 09:53

  • BitTorrent embeds download manager

    P2P that bypasses the PC

    There are a lot of assumptions that have to be made about the news that BitTorrent has cut deals with three consumer electronic companies that will embed the BitTorrent download manager client directly into their devices. The devices include home routers and networked attached storage farms. We assume that the old BitTorrent …

    Enterprise 27 Oct 2006, 10:58

  • Hacker hijinks impinge on US mid-term elections

    Kissing babies, spreading worms, and linking to dodgy MySpace profiles

    Forthcoming US mid-term elections have been disrupted by hackers. The website of Ted and Fran Gianoutsos, a husband and wife team running for governor and lieutenant governor in Alaska, was infected by a computer worm last week. The website of the write-in candidates, tedandfran.com, was infected by the Gedza-A worm in an …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 13:10

  • Altiris makes security location-aware

    Lock up your ports and limit your apps

    Location-awareness will be the next big thing in device security, claimed Altiris as it became the latest vendor to jump into the increasingly crowded market for endpoint security software this week. As well as all the usual capabilities to control USB and wireless usage, block keyloggers and spyware, and so on, the Altiris …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 13:52

  • Anti-scam website hit by DDOS attacks

    Help needed...

    A website set up to help spread information about alleged scammers is suffering so many denial of service attacks that its current host has asked the site to find a new home. We wrote about stopecg.org when it was hit by a flurry of legal threats. Luckily, MEP Richard Corbett stepped in to help. But now the site has been hit by …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 14:10

  • Australian spammer fined A$5.5m

    Fair dinkum

    An Australian firm and its director have been fined a total of A$5.5m (£2.2m) after it was held responsible for sending out more than 230 million spam emails, 75 million of which were successfully delivered, during a two year spamming blitz. Wayne Mansfield, and his company Clarity1, of Perth in Western Australia, fell foul of …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 14:26

  • Vista vouchers, a Reg round-up

    We make the calls so you don't have to

    Any Reg reader considering their Christmas purchases and worried about what operating system they'll be cursed with can relax. We've rung round some of the major vendors and retailers. First up for vacuous marketing puff is Dell who gave us this statement: "Dell is very excited about Windows Vista. The new operating system is …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 14:51

  • Dozy drivers fail to notice rudery

    Do visitors to Crawley expect to be insulted?

    Drivers into the West Sussex town of Crawley were told to F*** off by council car park signs yesterday morning - and hardly anyone noticed. The signs normally say how many spaces are free in each car park, but were defaced by a hacker who broke into their control system at around 6.45am, substituting the rude message and a tag …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 15:05

  • Appeal court ruling sets marker on UK software patents

    Kicked into touch

    The three judges of the UK Court of Appeal have ruled decisively that patents on pure computer programs may not be granted in the UK. The ruling came in the case of Macrossan vs the UK Patent Office (UKPO). Mr Macrossan, an Australian, was appealing against the UKPO's rejection of his patent application. He wanted patent …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 15:44

  • Security firm punctures Vista's Patchguard

    Analysis Bun fight over kernel protection lumbers on

    Security vendor Authentium has discovered a mechanism to get around Microsoft's controversial Patchguard kernel protection technology, which is due to ship in the 64-bit version of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system. Microsoft has criticised the move, claiming it puts Windows customers at risk, and vows to modify …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 17:12

  • Is Google legal?

    Analysis Big in Belgium

    A Belgian court ruled against Google’s use of newspaper stories in early September. If you believe Google, it did nothing wrong and failed to defend itself because it was unaware of the publishers’ lawsuit. If you believe the publishers, Google is lying and infringes copyright on a colossal scale. The parties return to court on …

    Enterprise 27 Oct 2006, 17:57

  • Red Hat promises to keep charging customers double

    Take your fork and shove it, Oracle

    Red Hat has struck out against Oracle's Linux support move by reassuring customers that it won't lower its prices. "Our actions and our strategy remain intact," Red Hat CEO Matt Szulik, told reporters. Oracle this week vowed to create its own version of Linux by peeling the Red Hat label off the company's server operating …

    Software & Security 27 Oct 2006, 19:19

  • Takeover gossip boosts Marvell shares

    Spreading rumors for fun and profit

    The rumor mill helped Marvell buck a down day on the US market. Shares of the the chip maker jumped close to 5 per cent on speculation that it could be a takeover target via either TI or a leveraged buyout. "I've heard lots of things," BWS Financial analyst Hamed Khorsand told the AP. "I've heard there may be a leveraged buy- …

    IT Channel 27 Oct 2006, 23:34

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