22nd September 2008 Archive

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OpenSocial, OpenID, and Google Gears: Three technologies for history's dustbin

Fail and You A poke is not a revolution

Hey, does anybody remember Google's OpenSocial? Come on, it hasn't even been a year since it was announced. OpenSocial was supposed to unify social network application developers behind one common API. Revolutionary, innovative, all that shit. Still nothing? Ah, okay. What about OpenID, the best damned federated authentication …

Developer 22 Sep 01:02
Miracle airship tech sustained by DARPA pork trickle

Designer claims to have cracked century-old snag

A Ukrainian airship visionary based in California has won further US military funding to develop his miraculous "Aeroscraft" sky-leviathan design. However, some question marks remain over the craft's unique - almost miraculous - buoyancy-control technology. Aeros Aeronautical Systems Corp announced last week that it had been …

Science 22 Sep 06:02
Comcast reveals it is protocol agnostic

Throttling the user, not the application

As part of its response to an August order from the FCC, Comcast has unveiled a new "protocol-agnostic" method for managing heavy traffic on its cable-based network. Currently, the big-name ISP blocks uploads from BitTorrent and other P2P apps when they exceed certain thresholds. But with the new method - to be rolled out by …

Networks 22 Sep 06:14
Intel ships dual-core Atom

Intel formally begun shipping its first dual-core Atom chip, the 1.6GHz desktop-oriented 330, yesterday. The part sits on a 533MHz frontside bus and contains 1MB of L2 cache. It consumes up to 8W of power. The new chip's pin-compatible with the single-core Atom 230, though motherboards will need a Bios update of course. …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 08:29
Nokia's next-gen Linux-based net tablet to incorporate HSDPA

'Maemo 5' to support accelerated 3D too

Nokia has let slip some of the key features of its next internet tablet, the successor to the N810, reviewed here. Top of the list: integrated HSDPA 3G support. To date, none of the Nokia's Linux-based tablets - the 770, N800 and N810 - have incorporated cellularl connectivity. Like Apple's iPod Touch, they've been intended to …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 08:56
Palm OS II-based smartphones now due H2 2009

Linux-based system software slips again?

Palm's next-gen operating system will be finished by the end of the year, the company promised late last week. The company said the Linux-based system software known as Palm OS II and 'Nova' is "on track" for completion by the end of calendar 2008. Handsets based on the OS will following the first half of 2009, it said. Palm …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 09:14
Gov seeks UK nuclear competition for EDF

Glowing future foretold

French energy giant EDF will have some competition in the new British nuclear sector, according to reports. It appears that certain UK sites belonging to British Energy and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will see new plants built by EDF's rivals. The Times reports that BE's operations at Bradwell in Essex and Dungeness …

Environment 22 Sep 09:22
Carphone goes bargain hunting in Tiscali sell-off

Gazunder bid in marathon auction

Carphone Warehouse has made a renewed, lowball offer for Tiscali's UK operations of "less than £450m". The latest twist in Tiscali's lengthy attempt to offload its broadband customers pegs the value of its UK business much lower than the £600m its Italian owners targeted earlier in the auction, The Sunday Times reports. …

Telecoms 22 Sep 09:24
Feds search Palin hack suspect's flat

Investigators interrupt student party

Federal investigators served a search warrant on a suspect in the Sarah Palin webmail hack case in the early hours of Sunday morning. They reportedly interrupted a student party to search the apartment of David Kernell, 20, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Reports of the raid itself remain confused amid reports that Kernell and his …

Security 22 Sep 09:55
Sony Ericsson Walkman slider spied online

Rika revealed

A picture has popped up online of an upcoming Sony Ericsson handset that looks as though it’ll sit somewhere between the recently announced G705 slider and the latest Walkman, the W890i. Sony Ericsson's 'Rika' Image courtesy USEB According to a report by the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog (USEB), the unannounced SE handset …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 10:03
UK.gov IDs identity vendors

CSC, Fujitsu and IBM on passport shortlist

The Identity and Passport Service has announced shortlists for two stages of the National Identity Scheme procurement programme. It has said that CSC, Fujitsu and IBM will be considered as suppliers for the Application and Enrolment Programme for the replace of passport application contracts and development of new capabilities …

Government 22 Sep 10:06
SanDisk seeks to replace the CD with the SD

Buy music on preloaded Micro SD

SanDisk has launched a new flavour of storage across Europe and the US: Micro SD cards with DRM-free music already loaded. SanDisk's slotMusic cards: loaded with tunes The slotMusic cards will be sold with the music compressed at 320Kb/s in MP3 format. The 1GB cards will also come with a USB sleeve to allow them to be read …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 10:06
Is flash a cache or pretend disk drive?

Interview Or is this the wrong question for Fusion-io?

Should you use flash solid state drive (SSD) storage as a pretend hard disk drive or as a cache attached to a server’s main bus? These are two approaches that have emerged about using flash in large scale storage applications. EMC, with the help of STEC, says to use drop-in Fibre-Channel-attached SSDs, which function like very …

Channel Register 22 Sep 10:10
MI6 agent's moustache falls off during TV interview

Wicket sticky, stiff upper lip less so

The first ever British spy to purposely appear as such on TV had his false moustache fall off during filming, it has been revealed. The Telegraph reports today on the embarrassing disguise failure, which took place during the recording of an interview for BBC TV's The One Show. Beeb journo Justin Rowlatt was questioning the …

Bootnotes 22 Sep 10:21
Sun faces up to the 64 thread question with T2+

Analysis Nehalem x64 boxes expected next year

You wouldn't know it by the revenue and profit figures, but Sun Microsystems is managing a fair amount of churn in its Sparc and X64 server product lines. It is something of an accomplishment for Sun that it has been able to embrace x64 chips in its "Galaxy" boxes, shift its entry and mid-range customers to its "Niagara" class …

Servers 22 Sep 10:40
Are today's developers more creative?

Reg Reader Workshop Have your say

Back last year, I stumbled into a conversation at a conference just as a twenty-something programmer was uttering the words "Of course, developers nowadays are a lot more creative than they were 20 years ago". As someone who was a programmer in the mid-to late 80s, I felt like saying "You cheeky little sod. I'd like to see how …

Workshop 22 Sep 10:55
College launches iPhone videogame course

Eyes front, sit up straight

Don’t like the games on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Well, you’ll soon be able to make your own, if you pass the world’s first iPhone videogame course. The iPhone Game Development curriculum has been created by London-based Qantm College as a way of teaching anyone with some experience of videogame design how to expand their …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 11:00
Apple 2G iPod Touch

Review The world's best music player, net tablet, handheld games console?

We like the iPod Touch. It's not the only portable device with a touchscreen control system, but the way that Apple has employed the technology is clever. We can spend hours idly flicking our finger across the screen, watching the pretty album artwork slide back and forth. And that business of ‘pinching’ your fingers to zoom …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 11:02
Fujitsu to take on FSC commercial biz?

German paper says Lenovo lined up for consumer unit

Siemens is expected to unload its stake in Fujitsu Siemens Computers to its Japanese partner, which will then slice and dice the business before flogging the consumer aspects. Troubled engineering giant Siemens has been eyeball to eyeball with Fujitsu over the summer over the future of their PC joint venture. The JV that …

Channel Register 22 Sep 11:52
Scrap PCs smuggled, dumped in Africa, China

Charity calls on UK.gov to WEEEd out rogue traders

The British government needs to tighten up the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive to prevent e-waste being illegally exported to and dumped in the developing world, according to a charity group. Computer Aid International has launched a petition today calling on the UK gov to provide the Environment …

Hardware 22 Sep 11:57
SanDisk pre-launches slotMusic

To push up Samsung bid price?

DRM-free music for your mobile phone and MP3 players sounds a good idea but not when an announcement is rushed out by SanDisk eager to to push up Samsung's bid price. The SanDisk slotMusic announcement is a 1GB, fingernail-size, microSD-format card preloaded with DRM-free music from one of four music companies. It should be …

Mobile 22 Sep 12:17
Million dollar burnout features as malware lure

Fake robbery footage punts rogue security app

First it appeared as an art project. Now, over a decade later, it's back from the dead as a malware lure. In August 1994 musicians Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty of the K Foundation burnt a million quid on the Scottish island of Jura as part of an art project, the significance of which has never been properly explained. …

Spam 22 Sep 12:19
London battles fire-breathing black cabs

RoTM TX4 uprising contained - for now

Transport for London last week announced the temporary withdrawal of 500 black cabs following eight spontaneous combustion events in three months - the first incendiary transportation incidents in the capital since Red Ken Livingstone's removal from office apparently contained the fire-breathing vehicle menace. Sadly not. TfL …

Rise of the Machines 22 Sep 12:22
Superfluid leak downs LHC for months

Bored boffin mischief disasters now inevitable

Bad news broke at the weekend for fans of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the titanic underground magno-doughnut proton punisher located outside Geneva. Technical mishaps will mean at least a two-month delay before the inaugural hadron headbang. It appears that problems arose after a faulty electrical connection between two …

Physics 22 Sep 12:28
What's the cost of global warming?

Analysis Doing the maths

Let us assume global warming is happening. Let us assume too that it is doing so at a rapid pace. What should we do about it? There are two very basic approaches. Either we can attempt to mitigate the problem by direct or indirect means, or we can go with the flow, and adapt to a warmer world. Let's examine the costs and …

Environment 22 Sep 12:29
Pentax goes back to DSLR basics

"Press here to take an image..."

Pentax has unveiled an entry-level digital SLR that it hopes will persuade avid snappers to ditch their simplistic compact cameras in favour of more complex photography. Pentax's K2000: basic DSLR snapping To help photographers new to the world of DSLR snapping, Pentax has included several “easy-to-use” Auto Picture modes …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 12:50
Electric Mini spied in Munich

'Leccy tech Punters to get a go?

BMW's electric Mini has been spotted pootling around Munich, its zero-emission power source revealed by the lack of an exhaust pipe. That, and the words "Hybrid Test Vehicle" - "Hybrid Erprobungsfahrzeug" - seen written on the sides and the back... Here's a pic snapped by Car magazine - there are more on its website, but, hey …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 12:51
Hammer Films has risen from the grave

First horror production in 30 years

Classic film fans lock up your daughters, take up your wooden stakes and prepare to battle the forces of darkness: Hammer Films has announced it's called action on its first horror production for over 30 years. Principal photography began today in County Donegal on The Wake Wood, featuring Eva Birthistle, Aidan Gillen and …

Entertainment 22 Sep 14:19
Police drop BT-Phorm probe

Exclusive 'Move along please, nothing to see'

City of London Police have decided not to formally investigate BT and Phorm for their allegedly illegal secret ISP-level adware trials, arguing that there was implied consent from customers and it would be a waste of public money. Officers in London's financial district were handed a dossier of evidence against the two firms …

Law 22 Sep 14:30
Android-based T-Mobile G1 pics leaked

One day before the official Googlephone launch

With just 24 hours or so to go before T-Mobile officially unveils the G1 Android-based handset, pictures of the phone have emerged online to whet consumers’ appetites. The T-Mobile G1 is made by HTC Touch screen talker with slider keyboard Blogger “Rizzn” posted the pictures online and claimed he got them from one of his …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 14:47
Free from Philips, iRex launches A4 e-book reader

Electronic paper gives up bookish profile

Philips spin-off iRex has gone up a size to produce an A4 version of its e-book reader, this one aimed at the document-reading business type, rather than the classic-consuming bookworm. The Iliad is already one of the most expensive e-book readers, packing Wi-Fi, support for various removable memory cards and an open OS onto …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 15:12
Armani stiches together latest talker

Something of the night about it

Fashion favourite Armani has expanded its range of branded gadgets with the creation of a second Samsung mobile phone. The Samsung/Armani Night Effect Sporting a black hue and 'Night Effect' codename, details of the M7500 handset have cropped up on the websites of several online retailers, including Expansys and The Link – …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 15:13
Has the war on terror scored a virtual victory?

Comment Amateur spooks put willies up Al-Qaeda

Score one for the good guys – if, that is, you believe that some websites are just so wrong that they are fair game for a takedown. Alternatively, bemoan the demise of a voice that you may not agree with, but which at least gave you the opportunity to understand better what the other side in the “war on terror” are thinking. …

Government 22 Sep 15:17
McAfee snaps up Secure Computing

Playing with risk

McAfee is buying smaller IT security rival Secure Computing for $465m in cash. Secure Computing is best known for its firewall and security appliances product lines but more recently it has been busy on the acquisition front, most recently with a deal to buy user control firm Securify for $20m earlier this month. Prior to …

Channel Register 22 Sep 15:20
Turkish court bans Dawkins' website

Comment Squawking over Dawkins

Once upon a time, it took a Pope or a Stalinist dictator like, um, Stalin to have scientific discourse banned by decree. Nowadays, however, it merely takes a large and influential publishing house, and the agreement of Turkey’s criminal court of peace. So it is that the website of leading UK biologist and thinker Richard …

Law 22 Sep 16:09
Oracle website 'not found' as Ellison et al schmooze customers

Database giant suffers second outage

It's just as well Oracle customers are today holed up at the firm's OpenWorld event in San Francisco seeing as, for the second time inside a month, the Oracle website is having a little lie-down. Oracle.com is in urgent need of resuscitation, and, at time of writing, the database giant could not be reached for comment. El Reg …

Applications 22 Sep 16:10
US pilots will go to VR drone ops straight from training

The years to come seemed waste of breath

The new head of the US Air Force, General Norton "Norty"* Schwartz, has said that in future some rookie pilots will go straight from training school to remotely flying robot planes. Flight International, reporting on a speech made by the general at a recent convention, said that the move to send pilots straight from training …

Government 22 Sep 16:15
Toshiba, Sony to ship 45nm Cell in 2009?

PS3 chip finally able to go mainstream

Toshiba will next year begin mass-producing 45nm Cell processors, allowing Sony to put them into a (hopefully) slimmer PS3. The Cell in the current PS3 is a 65nm part. Dropping the chip down to the 45nm 'node' would leave Sony with a processor that delivers the same performance is the current one but consumes less power. That …

Reg Hardware 22 Sep 16:16
Brocade adds encryption to SAN fabric

New switch, new blade

Brocade has added an encryption switch and blade to its SAN fabric products. You can now encrypt the data in your Brocade SAN without having to use Brocade's own-brand HBAs. The company has also added encryption support to a new version of its DCFM management software and announced that both RSA and NetApp key management …

Storage 22 Sep 16:57
MS trains eye on supercomputing with HPC Server 2008

Hopes to sooth Wall Street Apocalypse Now

Microsoft wheeled out the big guns today with its high performance computing (HPC) Server 2008 product finally hitting manufacturers. Windows HPC Server has rocked up a little later than Redmond had planned. It should have landed in the laps of IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and co. at some point this summer. No matter says …

Servers 22 Sep 17:02
Will Microsoft ever get the web?

Remix 08 Looking for converts

The UK Remix conference in Brighton last week was a local echo of Mix in Las Vegas, Microsoft’s web development event. Some 500 developers and designers turned up in a tired Brighton Centre to hear Microsoft’s web story, covering products like Silverlight, ASP.NET, Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live services, and the Expression …

Developer 22 Sep 17:37
'Malware-friendly' Intercage gets PIE in the face

Updated Net provider goes dark after all

California-based network provider Intercage has gone completely offline following weeks of scathing criticism that it hosts an inordinate number of sites engaged in phishing, malware propagation, and other illegal activities. Pacific Internet Exchange, which only began providing upstream service to Intercage in the last week …

Security 22 Sep 19:08
Oracle pledges $3bn R&D spend

OpenWorld 08 Double the collaboration suites

Oracle has promised increased research and development to maintain a growing software stack, while announcing updates to its collaboration, tools, and databases. President Charles Phillips, opening OpenWorld in San Francisco, California, Monday committed Oracle to spend $3bn in pure R&D in fiscal 2009, compared to $2.7bn last …

Applications 22 Sep 19:49
Data centers embrace The Great Outdoors

Why your big iron needs ~~Windows~~ windows

Some years ago, when power and cooling issues first started coming to the fore in data center conversations, some of us were joking that the smart thing to do would be to move big data centers to the polar caps and use the cool air keep the iron from overheating. Of course, the polar caps are melting now, thanks to global …

Servers 22 Sep 21:24
Senate bill sics DoJ on copyright infringers

Comcast nemesis calls for outrage

As legislation allowing the US Department of Justice to sue suspected copyright violators on behalf of the entertainment industry heads to a vote on the Senate floor, an outspoken advocacy group is calling for the public to voice their concern. Public Knowledge, an organization also behind many of the complaints against …

Government 22 Sep 21:45
HP loads PC with nonexistent web browser

Firefox sandboxed

HP is now offering desktop PCs with virtual web browsers. Today, the hardware maker unleashed the HP Compaq dc7900, a business desktop with a version of Firefox that isn't really there. Developed in tandem with Symantec, the Firefox for HP Virtual Solutions browser operates in a runtime netherworld that's separate from the …

Security 22 Sep 23:39
EA in Spore DRM climbdown

Unlimited installs...sorta

Electronic Arts has taken its lumps over the past few weeks for its digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on Spore. Critics claim DRM limiting those who bought the hotly anticipated sim to only three installs amounts to no more than renting the software out, rather than selling it. DRM also prevented players from …

Applications 22 Sep 23:47
Oracle sits big iron on Amazon cloud

OpenWorld 08 Removes license hurdle

Oracle has eased licensing terms and introduced virtualization and back-up tools for using its database and infrastructure stack with Amazon's cloud services. The database giant said existing customers can use Oracle Database 11g, its Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Enterprise Manager with Amazon's Compute Cloud (EC2) without …

Software 22 Sep 23:54