20th March 2008 Archive

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Colonel EMC...in the data center...with a Quantum software?

The Cluedos appear to follow

EMC will soon reveal a new OEM partner for data de-duplication in its boxes, according to several industry reports. It's believed that the storage firm tapped Quantum to help get a data redundancy-busting edge over market leader, Data Domain. Quantum's kit uses de-dupe software picked up from the acquisition of ADIC in 2006. …

Storage 20 Mar 2008, 00:19
Next Eclipse platform in two years

EclipseCon Abandonment issues for 3.x

A web-friendly and easy to maintain version of Eclipse has been penciled in for delivery two years from now. E4, as it's being called, has been pegged for 2010, with a working concept prototype ready for next year's EclipseCon. Early e4 committers, though, pledged the current Eclipse platform, version 3.x that's moving …

Applications 20 Mar 2008, 00:25
HP CEO asks investors to do more

Be rich like me

Okay, okay. The stock market is as stable as Steve Jobs at an Egos Anonymous beef-only barbecue. The irresponsibility and greed of the very firms controlling Wall Street have resulted in plummeting stock prices and a crippled housing market. But, you know, CEO Mark Hurd would like everyone to pause for a moment and consider how …

Financial News 20 Mar 2008, 00:25
Woman accuses RIAA of killing dolphins

'You treated me like a dead person'

Oregon's most famous disabled single mother has launched a new attack on the Recording Ass. of America, accusing the organization of "killing dolphins." On Friday, Tanya Andersen filed an amended complaint (PDF) in her much-discussed class action lawsuit against the RIAA, and the 109-page document begins by pointing out that …

Music and Media 20 Mar 2008, 00:50
Mega-mortuary creaks open its doors in Westminster

Not ominous in the least

The Home Secretary has cut the tape on a futuristic forensic mortuary, costing £783,800 and accommodating over 100 deceased citizens in Westminster. The first of its kind in London, the Beeb reports, it will deal solely with the suspiciously-dead. The Iain West Forensic Suite is named in honour of the flamboyant forensic …

Policing 20 Mar 2008, 06:02
Robo spy-zeppelin prototype in test flight

Vid Loitering-peeper Pinky-Ponk droid gets high

An American firm has carried out flight tests of a prototype robotic spy dirigible, intended ultimately to lurk high in the skies for days carrying surveillance gear. Needless to say, a vid was posted to YouTube in short order: (Please check that you have Flash and your firewall is YouTube-friendly before commenting to …

Science 20 Mar 2008, 07:02
FSA acts as rumours send bank shares crashing

Dealers dealing, traders trading

The Financial Services Authority is combing through share transactions today as it investigates whether anyone was manipulating the market on Wednesday when rumours about Halifax Bank of Scotland sent its shares crashing down. HBOS shares fell more than 17 per cent in early trading yesterday and took other bank shares down …

Financial News 20 Mar 2008, 09:56
Ericsson CMO says Wi-Fi hotspots' days are numbered

'The telephone boxes of the broadband era'

Ericsson's chief marketing officer, Johan Bergendahl, caused a huge commotion last week when he predicted that Wi-Fi hotspots would become as "irrelevant as telephone boxes". Even allowing for Ericsson's self-interest in a world where cellular networks will be the main route for users to reach the internet while on the move, the …

Data Networking 20 Mar 2008, 10:10
Panasonic punts Wi-Fi snapper

Snap, store, send

Compact cameras come in all shapes and sizes, but very few feature Wi-Fi connectivity. However, Panasonic has bucked the trend and launched a snapper with integrated 802.11b/g support. Panasonic's Lumix TZ50: Wi-Fi on board The TZ50 enables you to transfer images from the camera’s 50MB internal memory or SDHC card directly …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 10:13
Philips sees green with backlight-balancing Eco TV

Watch programmes about melting ice caps

Philips has launched an LCD TV that it claims helps viewers reduce their electricity bills no matter how long they spend lazing about in front of the telly. Philips' Eco FlatTV: reduces its own electricity use The Eco FlatTV’s backlight can be dimmed to help reduce the set’s overall power draw - all, according to Philips, …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 10:25
Police tech agency rewinds on smartphone CCTV

BlackBerrys for boys in blue?

The organisation responsible for guiding the police on their use of technology has downplayed reports that its chief executive reckons cops would be using smartphones to check fingerprints and CCTV footage by 2012. The chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) reportedly told journalists in the House …

Policing 20 Mar 2008, 10:31
Sony pledges Blu-ray Profile 2.0 PS3 update this month

Updated BD Live online content links coming to console

Sony has announced a PlayStation 3 firmware update that will bring support for the Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0's BD Live online interaction technology to the games console. The update, due later this month, will take the PS3's firmware to version 2.20, Sony said. BD Live mandates an internet connection and 1GB of local storage …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 11:04
Ofcom says yes on more TV ads

Cillit Bang! Bang! Bang!

More TV viewers could be driven to the internet under new Ofcom proposals that would allow longer and more frequent commercial breaks. The communications watchdog has released a consultation in response to last year's EU Audiovisual Directive, which aims to harmonise television regulation across the bloc. At present rules …

Government 20 Mar 2008, 11:15
V-22 Osprey combo-copter hits fresh tech snags

Speedy chopper now has TOSS option, too

The famous V-22 "Osprey" tiltrotor plane-chopper combo is back in the news again for unhappy reasons, mere months after it had seemed to be finally putting its troubles behind it. A US project official has revealed to the press that the Osprey's engines are currently wearing out much too fast, to the point where it may need to …

Government 20 Mar 2008, 11:20
Endeavour accompanied by Rocket Man

NASA gets Nano'd up

NASA may not be emblazoning its shuttles with Formula One-style advertising slogans, but like Hollywood it seems to be sidling towards the odd sneaky bit of product placement. The new iPod Shuttle®. Picture copyright © Nasa The Reg reported last year on optimistic mutterings about the idea of NASA slapping exhortations and …

Space 20 Mar 2008, 11:24
AMD readies third Radeon HD 3800-series GPU line

3830 to take on Nvidia's 8600 GTS and 9600 GT

AMD will next month launch the ATI Radeon HD 3830, an 'RV670'-based graphics card said to have been designed to pull the rug from under Nvidia's low-end-of-the-top-range offerings. So claim industry moles cited by Chinese-language site HKEPC. They say the 3830 will contain the same 320 unified shader processors as the 3850 and …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 11:25
Critical bugs bite Kerberos

Hell's fire

Multiple critical vulnerabilities have been discovered in version five of the widely-used Kerberos authentication protocol. The most serious of the bugs create a means to either compromise or crash vulnerable systems. Exploits are yet to surface and patches are available. All releases of MIT Kerberos 5 up to and including krb5 …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 11:44
BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Forgotten Tech IF .. THEN .. ELSE

The brains behind the must-have home computer of the early 1980s, the BBC Micro, will gather today to catch up and reminisce about a time when Britain led the way in the domestic computing revolution. Acorn Computers co-founder Hermann Hauser and Acorn hardware designer Steve Furber - now ICL Professor of Computer Engineering …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 12:28
HP and Microsoft plan Taiwanese R&D centre

Going where the partners are

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have announced plans to set up a new product research and development centre in Taiwan, reports say. Tech boffins at the R&D hub will work on advanced software and hardware. They’ll also brainstorm ways of improving technical support for Taiwan partners such as contract laptop manufacturer Quanta, …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 12:28
Virgin Media in premium rate U-turn

25p per minute tech support to be dropped

Virgin Media will drop premium rate charges to its technical support line in June, less than a year after they were introduced, the firm has confirmed. An email doing the rounds inside VM says the move last summer to discourage irrelevant calls to the broadband support line has not gone down well. It confirms that the 25p per …

Telecoms 20 Mar 2008, 12:35
DroboShare network storage 'robot'

Review Can network storage really be this easy to use?

Network-attached storage (NAS) boxes are all very well, but they're not what you'd call user friendly. Arch-geeks love 'em for storing and streaming content, but a fair few folk would prefer a simpler yet equally robust way of making storage available on a network. Enter Data Robotics' oddly named Drobo, an external storage …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 12:53
Famous Five film lined up

Now with 30% less bigotry

In further proof that there is not a single original concept left in the universe, another dusty retro classic is to be reheated in various media for today's ungrateful slack-jawed youth. The Times is jolly thrilled to report that Enid Blyton's venerable Famous Five, now 66 years old, are to return in a Disney Channel film. …

Entertainment 20 Mar 2008, 13:12
Anglophone cybercops team up to fight fraud

Anglo-saxon attitudes

Cybercops across the English-speaking world have formed a cross border alliance to fight online crime. The organisation, dubbed the Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group, builds on existing close relationship between electronic crime specialists from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The group aims to share …

Policing 20 Mar 2008, 13:27
BBC races away with five-year F1 rights deal

Ad-free Grand Prix motor racing from 2009

The Beeb has bagged the rights to broadcast Formula One (F1), having signed an exclusive five-year deal. F1 will return to the Corporation’s screens in 2009 after more than a decade’s absence. Auntie, which snatched the rights from commercial rival ITV, remained quiet on the financial terms of the deal which includes …

Entertainment 20 Mar 2008, 13:28
Pentagon says sat-smash smithereen cloud almost gone

Orbital turkey blitz 'added value', seemingly

An American admiral says that all significant orbital debris from the recent missiling of a duff spy satellite by US warships has now burnt up. Reuters reports that Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, head of the ship-mounted element of the US ballistic-missile defence programme, made the remarks at a conference in Washington. "There's …

Space 20 Mar 2008, 13:38
Nokia passes buck over Greenpeace eco rating reduction

Third-parties to blame

Nokia has blamed third-parties behind its handset recycling scheme after Greenpeace docked points from the Finnish phone giant's environmental rating for failings the organisation found in its take-back efforts. Greenpeace's manufacturer ranking: bad news for Nintendo Greenpeace’s quarterly report, Guide to Greener …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 13:49
EU wants data sharing network for driving offences

Just shut up and drive

The EC has kicked off a drive for data sharing amongst member countries' police forces in an effort to track down drivers who commit motoring offences in foreign countries. The EC wants to punish drivers who speed, drink-drive, don't wear a seatbelt, or fail to stop at a red light whether they are in their home country or …

Policing 20 Mar 2008, 14:51
ECS spills more beans about 'super 3G' Eee PC rival

Remember the G10IL HSDPA and HSUPA sub-notebook Taiwanese manufacturer ECS cautiously showed at Mobile World Congress last month? Register Hardware snapped the "pre-commercial" machine, seeing it as a sexy alternative to Asus' elfin Eee PC. ECS' G10IL: 'super 3G' sub-notebook Now ECS has come out with details of the machine …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 15:26
Asterisk mauled by buffer overflow bug

Are IP PBXs the next hacking battleground?

Buffer overflows - the perennial cause of security vulnerabilities in desktop applications - may become a worry for sys admins managing computerised telephone switchboards in the wake of the recent discovery of bugs in a popular IP PBX package. A trio of vulnerabilties in the Asterisk range of open source IP-PBX software …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 15:42
Philips shows gadgets galore

Docking stations ago-go

Philips this week launched a slew of products at its Consumer Lifestyle Event in Sintra near Lisbon, including a digital photo frame that doubles as an alarm clock radio and more iPod docking stations than you can shake a stick at. At the rain-battered Penha Longa Spa and Golf Resort, Philips demonstrated the DC910 Docking …

Reg Hardware 20 Mar 2008, 15:43
Vista SP1 launched as Phorm declared illegal

To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

IT greenery Personal computers have come in for a lot of flak lately over their impact on the environment, but just how environmentally unfriendly are they? We spoke to Fujitsu-Siemens Computers CTO Dr Joseph Reger to get a better idea of the answer. Whatever the answer, Nintendo probably aren't aware of it. The video games …

Business 20 Mar 2008, 16:21
E-Plus kills i-mode service

German mobile operator bangs in penultimate nail

E-Plus, the KPN-owned mobile operator from Dusseldorf, is ending its i-mode service from April 1. Subscribers will be offered a Surf & Mail Flatrate service instead. E-Plus adopted i-mode in 2002, but as in many other European counties the Japanese-inspired service never took off. E-Plus never revealed the number of i-mode …

Mobile 20 Mar 2008, 16:36
Vista SP1 downloaders bite back

'I've gained an update and lost my drivers'

Windows Vista customers have been complaining about problems with installing Microsoft’s first service pack for the unloved operating system. SP1 was made available as a manual download on the Windows Update site earlier this week, although the company also admitted that there were a staggering number of reasons why many users …

Operating Systems 20 Mar 2008, 16:50
Caribbean firm circumvents BD+ copy protection

Blu-ray bitchslap poses problems for Hollywood

Software developers based in the Caribbean have thrown down the gauntlet to the movie industry with a product that can copy Blu-ray discs protected by the latest high definition disc copy protection technology. Version 6.4.0.0 of AnyDVD HD allows users to make backup copies of Blu-ray discs protected with BD+ ahead of the …

Applications 20 Mar 2008, 17:16
SIIA slaps lawsuits on eight eBay Adobe sellers

'Aggressive new campaign'

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) today filed suit (pdf) in California against eight people for "knowingly selling illegal copies" of Adobe software on eBay. eBay has a woeful record in keeping dodgy dealers at bay, so ambushing suspect merchants is a sensible tactic for the software industry. The SIIA …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 17:52
Cisco-baiting security co goes titsup

Lockdown shutdown

An Intel-backed security company which tried to compete against networking behemoth Cisco in one of its strongest markets has shut down. US-headquartered Lockdown Networks ceased operations on Tuesday, blaming economic conditions and a lack of demand for its network access control technology. Network access control (NAC) has …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 18:03
Esther Dyson clones self

'Genetics just got personal'

Esther Dyson has been evangelising the start-up 23AndMe recently. She is an investor in the DIY DNA-sequencing company, founded by Mrs Sergey Brin, and she sits on the board of directors. "Esther Dyson even brought a few kits with her to the fancy final-night dinner party and had moguls salivating," gushed Jeff Jarvis, the …

Music and Media 20 Mar 2008, 18:09
Apple's Time Machine now works as advertised

USB drive backup from Airport base station

Apple has finally opened OS X Leopard's Time Machine wireless backup capability to disk drives lacking the glossy plastic anointment of Cupertino. With a Wednesday release of software updates, Time Machine can now recognize a USB hard drive connected to a wireless network as valid backup disk. That is — assuming the drive is …

Storage 20 Mar 2008, 18:33
HP stuffs XenServer into ProLiants

iThe iVirtualization iIdentity

Er, before we get to HP's rather unfortunate "iVirtualization" roll out, we'll note that HP plans to offer Citrix's XenServer software as a pre-installed option across the ProLiant server line. Starting March 31, customers can purchase servers with XenServer burned into memory - or rather burned into a USB stick that plugs …

Servers 20 Mar 2008, 19:02
Sequoia attack dogs kill review into e-voting discrepancies

Updated 'Your investigation into fair democracy infringes our rights'

New Jersey elections officials have scrapped plans to inspect electronic voting machines suspected of malfunctioning during the recent presidential primary election, following legal threats by their manufacturer, Sequoia Voting Systems. Officials from New Jersey's Union County had requested the audit by Princeton University …

Government 20 Mar 2008, 20:07
Eclipse learns how to let go

EclipseCon Swapping IBM for Sun and Microsoft

The Eclipse Foundation looks destined to remain a mistress to Microsoft and Sun Microsystems - while the platform is married to IBM. The fifth annual EclipseCon this week saw a blockbuster project announcement and an almost shocking partnership. News that Sun selected the EclipseLink project as the reference implementation …

Software 20 Mar 2008, 21:01
Dell flees sinking US economy on quick boat to China

PCs tailored for migrant workers

Dell will significantly raise its stakes in the booming economies of China and India as the company braces for lackluster growth in the US. The world's number two PC vendor said it's developing new product models made specifically with Asian buyers in mind, and will increase its presence in the region. "This year, we plan to …

Channel Register 20 Mar 2008, 21:14
Ex-FCC chair vows government control over the Google Brain

Wrapping the cloud in red tape

The Cloud Computing Revolution will be regulated, according to former Federal Communications Chairman (FCC) Reed Hundt. Hundt - who has mounted many a soapbox - is using a review of pundit Nick Carr's new book The Big Switch as an excuse for laying out some cloud computing concerns. Should large, centralized computing utilities …

Servers 20 Mar 2008, 22:09
AT&T and Verizon thrash rivals with $16bn spectrum swipe

FCC Chair pleased with ~~lack of~~ diversity

AT&T and Verizon Wireless barreled through the auction of some prized US airways, shelling out $16bn to keep data humming across their cross-country networks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the big winners on Thursday and re-confirmed that a total of $19.6bn went toward the 700MHz spectrum auction. The …

Telecoms 20 Mar 2008, 23:53