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ARSes crush Novell profits

Could be worse

Software maker Novell has reported financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2008 ending October 31, and the meager profits that the reorganized company was able to eek out were mostly wiped out by an impairment charge related to its investment in auction rate securities. ARSes, for short.…

American 'football' goes 3D

Multidimensional Rugby-like game

Three select - and well-connected - audiences in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston were scheduled Thursday night to watch the first 3D broadcast of an American "football" game, according to Dvice.…

Free Download - The Reg Guide to Storage and Storage Platforms

Microsoft preps IE 8 for the web-challenged

Hipsters not allowed

Internet Explorer 8 will feature a user-generated list of "compatible" web sites, after trials found many ordinary surfers and major web sites can't work with Microsoft's next browser.…

Apple prepping $99 Wal-Mart iPhone?

Boy Genius cranks rumor mill

Every December the rumor mills begin to churn with speculation about what Apple will reveal at January's Macworld Expo. The first scintillating scuttlebutt of this year's rumor season, however, focuses not on Steve's traditional "And one more thing...," but instead on Wal-Mart's possible revival of the 4GB iPhone.…

Python 3.0 appears, strangles 2.x compatibility

No more snake jokes. We promise

Python 3.0 is out now. The latest version makes some major changes to the popular programming language, and it's incompatible with version 2.x releases.…

How to customise the Acer Aspire One GUI

Get the look you want

We like the Acer Aspire One netbook's out-of-the-box UI. It's like Mac OS X's Dock writ large: a way of giving you easy access to key apps, but right in front of you, not tucked down at the bottom of the screen. However, you really should be presented with the apps you want, not what Acer believes you should have.…

Blu-ray backers highlight rising demand

Player shortages, consumer fears exaggerated, it's claimed

The Blu-ray Disc Alliance (BDA) has pooh-pooh'd claims that demand for the format is slowing under the recessionary pressures. It even forecast "Blu-ray will enter the mainstream" in Q1 2009.…

Third ex-NASA Ames worker jailed for child porn

Yes, third

A third former worker at the NASA Ames Research Center in California was sentenced Wednesday to federal prison for using a government computer to download child pornography.…

Angel spots CherryPal cloud chimera

It's small and it's real

Though some claimed it didn't exist, the CherryPal cloud PC chimera has been spotted in the wild.…

Apple eyes (yet another) multi-touch patent

Give your UI the finger

Ever since Jeff Han's deservedly famous demo of a multi-touch interface at the TED conference in February of 2006, gestural-display developments have continued to appear, from Apple's mega-successful iPhone to Microsoft's micro-market Surface computer.…

Microsoft to embed RSA data cop in Windows

Rights management deal

Microsoft is adopting technology from EMC's RSA security division for Windows to police data and prevent loss and theft of information.…

Leaked Met letter questions Speaker's version of police raid

When powerful interests attack

The senior policeman in charge of the Whitehall leak investigation has given an account of how consent was obtained that calls the Speaker of the House's version of events into question.…

Microsoft warns customers against bogus 'Blue Edition' Office

Which you can buy on MSN?

Microsoft has today filed 63 lawsuits against online auctioneers in 12 countries who allegedly sold pirated copies of MS software on sites including its own MSN shopping network.…

AMD chip sales crashed in Q4

Shanghai'd by the meltdown

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices will be disappointing Wall Street once again. But, then again, Wall Street has been particularly disappointing for the past several months itself.…

Free Download - The Reg Guide to Storage and Storage Platforms

Booby-trapped emails fly back into fashion

Trojan assault wave takes many guises

Malicious email attachments disguised as airline ticket receipts are being spammed across the internet as part of a new attack. The assault is the latest in a series of booby-trapped email attachments, which have seemingly become fashionable among VXers again, after many months of playing second-fiddle to website attacks.…

Interflora sues M&S over Google keywords

Could be trade mark test case

The world's largest flower delivery firm has sued Marks and Spencer at the High Court in London for sponsoring the word 'Interflora' as a search engine keyword. The case could be an important test of how UK trade mark laws apply to keyword advertising.…

VoIP is coming to the iPod Touch

Is there nothing an Apple can't do?

VoIP provider Truphone has ported its VoIP client to the iPod Touch, enabling the music player to make free phone calls over Wi-Fi networks, but only to other Truphone users for the moment.…

Lapland New Forest website suffers 'unusual technical problems'

'Scam' Xmas attraction hit by 'bizarre machine fault'

The website of Lapland New Forest - the winter wonderland described in less than flattering terms by enraged punters who'd stumped £25-£30 for an unforgettable Yule experience - went off air earlier today amid reports that the attraction has been shut down.…

Networked multipack cruise missiles in successful test

Could make tanks & artillery obsolete

Development continues on the US Forces' network-controlled, crewless homing missile system. The Non Line of Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS), aka "Netfires", has had a successful test firing, and is now being fitted aboard the US Navy's new inshore warships.…

AT&T will slash 12,000 from workforce

Telco cuts off 4% of workers

AT&T is laying off 12,000 staff and putting the blame on the economy and "a changing business mix".…

Nokia trims expectations again

Palm to cut costs by 20%

Nokia has cut expectations of the mobile-phone market for the third time in as many months, while Palm is planning to cut costs by 20 per cent following a halving of sales.…

UK ramps up health über-database

We take part (voluntarily) in Biobank UK

Napoleon called the British a nation of shopkeepers, but we'll be nation of statistics if UK Biobank has its way.…

Apple more closed than Microsoft

Choice cut from Reg Barometer Survey

Reg Tech Panel Bashing Microsoft for being closed and proprietary has been a popular pastime in the media and the IT industry for many years, and there is no doubt that much of this has been well deserved.…

US WMD report: Dirty bombs, chem weapons are bunk

But the bioterrorists will strike by 2013! Aiee!

A US congressional investigation into terrorists and WMDs has concluded that there will be a WMD attack within five years unless prompt international action is taken. The report also effectively says that the only kinds of WMD worth worrying about are atomic bombs and biological weapons.…

Plod punishes PC-reliant businesses

Innocent or not, you deserve to suffer

As police begin the tedious task of sifting through Tory frontbench spokesman Damien Green’s computer effects, politicians and professionals have expressed concern that computer investigations are becoming a source of serious injustice, in need of reform and regulation.…