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10th June 2008 Archive

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  • Apple's carpet-bomb Safari flaw can wreak havoc on Windows

    A tale of two security teams

    A researcher has created a proof-of-concept site that graphically demonstrates the risk Windows users face when using Apple's Safari browser. Microsoft's security team already warned that a "blended threat" was so serious that Windows users should curtail their use of Safari until a security patch is available. This blog post …

    Enterprise Security 10 Jun 2008, 00:18

  • VMware turns Thinstall into ThinApp

    Probably didn't get the name from Thinair

    VMware is done digesting the application virtualization startup, Thinstall, and will be rebranding the product under a suspiciously analogous name: ThinApp. The company said its debut in app encapsulation will be ready within the next 30 days. VMware's ThinApp follows on the tails of Citrix and its own rival suite, XenApp. …

    Virtualization 10 Jun 2008, 04:02

  • Ingres alumnus joins DBMS scrum

    Cloudy conjecture

    Ingres originator Jerry Held has become the latest database big gun to take aim at traditional database management systems (DBMS), saying they are unsuited to cloud computing. A former senior Oracle vice president, now chairman of Vertica promoting a database it claims is - guess what - suited to cloud computing, Held has …

    Applications 10 Jun 2008, 05:02

  • Making the mobile web ubiquitous

    New wizards to take idiots onto phones

    Now anyone can have a mobile web site, thanks to Ubik: an idiot-proof toolkit released by Volantis that talks users through creating their own mobile web presence. Though it won't tell you why you would want to do so. Guildford-based Volantis' primary business is making servers to deliver content to mobile devices, but it …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2008, 08:40

  • RM boss says school's out forever

    Quits 'demanding' role after six years

    RM yesterday announced that its head teacher honcho has resigned after more than 25 years with the computer supplier. The firm, which specialises in software, services and systems for the UK education market, said that chief executive Tim Pearson will step down from his role to be replaced by current group managing director …

    Channel Register 10 Jun 2008, 09:02

  • Whaling fraudsters harpoon 15,000 victims

    Two gangs blamed for attacks on credulous high-rollers

    Targeted phishing attacks against high-rollers reached new heights over the last two months, according to a study by iDefense. The VeriSign security division recorded 66 instances of so-called whaling attacks between February 2007, around the time fraudsters adopted the tactic, and June 2008. More than one in four of these …

    ID 10 Jun 2008, 09:15

  • NASA preps GLAST for blast-off

    Gamma-ray 'scope good to go

    NASA is making final preparations for tomorrow's lift-off of the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) atop a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Launch of the "powerful space observatory" (seen here inside one half of its payload fairing) is slated for between 15:45 and 17:40 GMT. It will "open a …

    Space 10 Jun 2008, 09:17

  • Apple's Snow Leopard to cut the bloat from Mac OS X

    Separating out PowerPC and Intel code at last?

    Apple's next major Mac OS X released, yesterday confirmed as Snow Leopard, will focus solely on under-the-bonnet changes, the Mac maker has revealed. But will owners of PowerPC-based machines be left in the cold? Apple is promising a version of Mac OS X that "dramatically" reduces the amount of storage space the operating …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 09:43

  • NZ hydropower drought could see leccy rationing

    Frosty towel-rails as Kiwi juice dries up

    Kiwis are being urged to use less 'leccy by their government. New Zealand normally draws three quarters of its electricity from righteous hydropower stations, the most dependable form of renewable energy, but dry weather in the Antipodean hills has seen low water levels and power cuts are feared. "It's not an emergency," said …

    Government 10 Jun 2008, 10:09

  • Asus floors it with Lamborghini laptop revamp

    Pedal, as they say, meets metal

    Asus has formally announced the anticipated successor to its Lamborghini laptop line, the compact, 12.1in VX3 - intended to bring a little... luxury to the sub-notebook arena. And integrated HSDPA 3G connectivity. Asus' VX3: vroom, vroom The VX3's basic spec includes a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo T9300 processor - one of Intel's 45nm …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 10:23

  • Afghan cellco accuses rivals of funding Taliban

    Why else are we being attacked?

    Roshan, the largest mobile provider in Afghanistan, has accused competitors of paying off criminals to protect their infrastructure, pointing out that it owned eight out of the ten masts destroyed this year. The claim has been denied by competitors Afghan Wireless, Etisalat and Afghan Telecom, who say the lack of damage to …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2008, 10:33

  • Angry? Try the Tw*t-O-Tron

    Automated vitriol for true patriots

    Aficionados of our cut-and-paste comments service, which allows Reg readers to vent their spleen without actually having to use their brains, might like this nifty bit of programming which generates informed anaysis of the state of modern Britain. Yes indeed, welcome to the Twat-O-Tron, described as an "unholy turdspurt" based …

    Bootnotes 10 Jun 2008, 11:02

  • iRobot Roomba 560 robot vacuum cleaner

    Review Clean quietly... or there will be... trouble

    Robots. Everybody loves them, but not many of us - unless we're members of the armed forces, cybernetics profs, supervillains etc - actually get to own one. Unless you invest in a domestic droid from iRobot. Which brings us to the Roomba 560. We've been trying this out for about a week now, having sorted out an initial …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 11:09

  • EU orders horsemeat and chips in equine passport scheme

    Four legs now, two legs next?

    The European Union will kick off a single passport and chip system next year - but only for horses and donkeys. Well, for now anyway. The scheme is, depending how you look at it, either a cutting edge effort to ensure the security and health of Europe’s horses, donkeys and other equines or a dry run for a chipped and compliant …

    Government 10 Jun 2008, 11:11

  • Canon pitches 'lightest' digital SLR at beginners

    Canon has slimmed down the latest member of its EOS digital SLR camera range not only to make the new machine lighter but also to make it easier for beginners to buy. Canon's EOS 1000D: beginner-friendly The EOS 1000D sports the customary array of DLSR features topped off by a 10.1-megapixel sensor connected to a cleaning …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 11:41

  • British workaholics win EU opt out deal

    Agency staff granted more equal rights

    The British government today secured landmark European Union agreements that will allow UK citizens to work more than 48 hours a week, and bring temp workers into line with permanent staff. The compromise deal allows Blighty to opt out from the 1993 EU law on the Working Time directive, which sets the maximum length of the …

    IT Director 10 Jun 2008, 11:46

  • LG looks to Swarovski to bling up LCD TV line

    LG has taken the wraps off what could be the blingiest telly yet - a 47in LCD TV with a base clad in Swarokvski sparklies. LG's Canvas Crystal X: sparkly stand The Canvas Crystal X - or, more mundanely, the 47LB90FD - has a 1080p full HD resolution and a contrast ratio of 50,000:1, LG claimed. The base of the unit is …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 11:59

  • EU mulls intervention over BT's secret Phorm trials

    Your views sought

    The European Commission is considering intervening over the failure of UK data watchdogs to punish BT for the way it secretly co-opted tens of thousands of customers into trials of Phorm's profiling system to serve them targeted advertising. At the end of May, the Information Commissioner's Office told Stephen Mainwaring, …

    Telecoms 10 Jun 2008, 12:56

  • EC's 'Steelie' Neelie snubs Microsoft Office

    Choose life, choose open standards

    European anti-trust commissioner Neelie Kroes today strongly rebuffed Microsoft by urging businesses and governments to use software based on open standards. “I know a smart business decision when I see one – choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed,” said Kroes. “No citizen or company should be forced …

    Government 10 Jun 2008, 13:11

  • MPs urge action as spooky caller ID-faking services hit UK

    Exclusive 'Be anyone you want to be'

    Communications watchdogs have today been pressed by MPs to investigate a new service that allows people to fool caller ID systems into displaying a fake number, amid fears it will be abused by ID fraudsters and other conmen. It's thought such trickery is currently legal in the UK. The Liberal Democrats have called on …

    Telecoms 10 Jun 2008, 13:31

  • O2 prices up the latest iPhone

    You might need the calculator

    O2 has confirmed its pricing on the new iPhone, and will give away the 3G version of Apple's baby for £45 a month from the 11th of July. Punters who only want to spend £30 a month will have to shell out £99 on the 8GB model, and £159 for 16GB of storage. Even those prepared to spend £45 a month will have to find £59 for 16GB, …

    Mobile 10 Jun 2008, 13:47

  • Another police website hacked

    First the Home Office, now local plods

    This is starting to get a little tedious. The Bedfordshire Police website has just been taken down after it was discovered that every page had been replaced by an animated man carrying a Tunisian flag. Underneath, according to the BBC, was a green symbol and a Muslim prayer written in Arabic. Don’t bother clicking on the link: …

    Policing 10 Jun 2008, 14:40

  • Microsoft struggles to rid US shores of pesky pirates

    Walking the plank - again

    Microsoft yesterday confirmed that it has filed 21 civil lawsuits for software piracy in US federal courts against resellers in 14 states. The tech multinational has slung its latest round of sue balls at resellers, claiming they have used a crafty technique that it likes to refer to as “hard-disk loading”. It said that the …

    Channel Register 10 Jun 2008, 14:52

  • HP's VoodooPC challenges MacBook Air on thinness

    Well, Apple can still claim the MacBook Air is the skinniest laptop currently available - for the moment. The machine that beats it, VoodooPC's Envy 133, isn't due to debut until 20 June. The HP subsidiary's laptop is just 1.75cm thick. The Air is 1.90cm thick. Not a lot in it, then, but enough to send Apple's engineers - and …

    Reg Hardware 10 Jun 2008, 15:08

  • Edinburgh Fringe box office system goes titsup

    No laughing matter

    Comedy lovers hoping to get their hands on tickets to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe festival have lost their sense of humour after discovering the company’s box office system went titsup on Monday. Tickets were supposed to be generally available to punters on 9 June, but festival organisers admitted today that they have been …

    IT Director 10 Jun 2008, 15:09

  • Cyber-fraudsters strike gold at South African government

    32 arrested but £12m missing

    The South African government has lost more than £12m (199m Rand) over the last three years thanks to a cybercrime syndicate using spyware. The scam has been running since 2005 and is still going on despite the arrest of 32 people. Thieves have targetted various government departments in four provinces. A number of civil …

    Malware 10 Jun 2008, 16:02

  • AJAX browser wishlist call goes unanswered

    Apathy 2.0

    The OpenAjax Alliance is trying to gee up the AJAX community after a disappointing response to its call for a wish list of features vendors should add to browsers. The Alliance - a cross-industry group whose goal is interoperability between AJAX technologies and to drive uptake of AJAX - issued the call at the start of April …

    Applications 10 Jun 2008, 17:30

  • Symantec tools up with Xen for VMware assault

    Symantec Vision '08 Storage management with a server virtualization twist

    Symantec is teaming up with Citrix to attack the server virtualization market. The storage management firm has stirred Citrix's Xen code into its Veritas suite in a new offering arriving later in 2008. CEO John Thompson introduced Veritas Virtual Infrastructure (VVI) today during his opening keynote at the Symantec Vision …

    Storage 10 Jun 2008, 18:59

  • US bars ID refuseniks from planes - but not ID losers

    Go figure

    The US Transportation Security Administration is to deny passengers who refuse to present identification access to airplanes - but will still permit entry to those who say their ID has been lost or misplaced. The change represents a stark policy reversal and goes into effect on June 21. Until now, US citizens who objected to …

    Government 10 Jun 2008, 19:17

  • New York talks net giants into child pornography crackdown

    Time Warner torches newsgroups

    After discussions with the New York Attorney General's office, three big-name American ISPs - Time Warner Cable, Sprint, and Verizon - have agreed to a sweeping crackdown on child pornography. This morning, New York AG Andrew Cuomo announced that the trio will sever access to child pornography newsgroups, remove child …

    Telecoms 10 Jun 2008, 21:55

  • Symantec fluffs up its backup getup

    Symantec Vision '08 Netbackup integrates de-dupe and CDP

    Symantec's data protection suite received its annual booster shot of new features at Symantec Vision in Las Vegas this year. The NetBackup software is kicked up to version 6.5.2 and version 6.5.3, with expanded support for Windows and VMware, respectively. But the major additions are integrated data de-duplication and …

    Storage 10 Jun 2008, 22:33

  • Get 'em while they're hot: critical security fixes from Microsoft, Apple

    But still no relief from Carpet bombing menace

    Microsoft and Apple released a batch of critical security fixes within 24 hours of each other, patching a variety of components including the Internet Explorer browser, Bluetooth services and the QuickTime media player. Three Microsoft patches were rated critical, the highest threat ranking in Microsoft's four-tier scoring …

    Enterprise Security 10 Jun 2008, 22:34

  • Delayed SQL Server 2008 hits release phase

    Very close

    Microsoft's delayed SQL Server 2008 has inched closer to daylight, with the company's first release candidate (RC) code. SQL Server 2008 RC 0 has been made available in three editions - the full database, Express and Express Advanced. Also released for testing is the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, consisting of installation …

    Applications 10 Jun 2008, 22:43

  • NetApp adds girth to its midrange storage

    Cache-serving modules and appliances for HPC

    NetApp is trading in its current midrange FAS3000 and V3000 storage systems for some boxes with a bit more power capacity under the chassis. The company is introducing four models to its storage range: two for its new FAS3100 line, and two composing the system's virtualizing doppelgängers, the V3100s. NetApp's new FAS3140 …

    Storage 10 Jun 2008, 23:16