15th October 2008 Archive

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McCain begs for YouTube DMCA takedown immunity

DMCA velvet glove treatment

After having several campaign videos removed from YouTube for alleged copyright violations, Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants the video-sharing web site to consider special takedown privileges for politicians and their ilk. McCain '08 general counsel Trevor Potter yesterday sent a letter to YouTube execs …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2008, 00:14
IBM servers and storage to use Fusion-io currency

The two sides of Big Blue's SSD coin

IBM is likely to introduce flash-enabled servers and a productised QuickSilver within the next six months or so. Flash-enabled servers will use direct-attached flash solid state drives (SSD) to accelerate their operations. IBM's Project QuickSilver had 4TB of flash SSD connected to 14 clustered SAN Volume Controllers (SVC) and …

Servers 15 Oct 2008, 00:25
Google demanding Intel's hottest chips?

Inside Project Will Power

When purchasing server processors directly from Intel, Google has insisted on a guarantee that the chips can operate at temperatures five degrees centigrade higher than their standard qualification, according to a former Google employee. This allowed the search giant to maintain higher temperatures within its data centers, the …

Servers 15 Oct 2008, 00:27
Microsoft's Patch Tuesday plugs critical holes in IE, Office

'Exploitability Index' debuts

Microsoft on Tuesday issued updates plugging at least 20 security holes in Windows, Office, and other products. They came as miscreants sent out phony emails urging people to download malware that masqueraded as critical Windows alerts. Among the critical bugs squashed were several hiding in Version 6 of the Internet Explorer …

Security 15 Oct 2008, 01:47
IBM to punt entry-level SVC

Cheaper (and slower) SAN volume control

IBM is going to introduce a cheaper and less powerful SAN Volume Controller (SVC) for small/medium business (SMB) customers. The SVC sits in a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) fabric and combines all the drive arrays attached to that fabric into a single virtual pool of storage. It can also thin provision that storage …

Storage 15 Oct 2008, 02:17
Adobe breaks sound barrier with Flash Player 10

Not quite 11...

Sound is the new frontier for Flash as Adobe Systems released its first major update in three years today, packing in features missing from May's first beta. Flash Player 10 will deliver sound file features that go someway towards giving developers working on audio the same powers of content creation and customization as video …

Developer 15 Oct 2008, 04:02
Western Digital sees future written on disks, not clouds

Interview SVP gets real

Western Digital (WD) listens more than it speaks. The company's roadmap is rarely revealed and it sails serenely on saying nothing, while flash solid state drives (SSD) challenge hard disk drives and cloud backup squares up to WD's external backup drive business. We don't know whether it's in a state of denial or knows things we …

Storage 15 Oct 2008, 07:02
Blu-ray Disc a 'bag of hurt', says Jobs

Licensing a pain, consumers don't want it

Want a Mac with a built-in Blu-ray Disc drive? You're in for a long wait - Apple's waiting until the technology becomes more firmly established with consumers. Speaking at the launch of Apple's new notebooks yesterday, CEO Steve Jobs described Blu-ray as "just a bag of hurt" - this despite the company's membership of the Blu- …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 08:03
HP loses top PC spot in Europe

Cheap netbooks keep market afloat

The worldwide PC market grew in the last quarter but only because of sales of netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC. PC shipments grew 15 per cent compared to the same quarter a year ago and manufacturers shipped 80.6m units in total. HP retained number one slot worldwide but paid the price for its slow entry into the sub-notebook …

Channel Register 15 Oct 2008, 08:36
Taser's French distributor cuffed in commie spying case

Liberté, fraternité, électricité

The French distributor of Taser-brand cattleprod stunguns has been arrested along with nine other suspects - including policemen and private detectives - for allegedly spying on a communist politician. Various French and worldwide media reported on the arrests, which follow an investigation by L'Express magazine. The magazine …

Law 15 Oct 2008, 09:04
SanDisk reinvents 1980s personal stereo for the noughties

Sansa SlotPlayer to take SlotMusic cards only

SanDisk has continued with plans to replace the CD with the SD, by launching a portable music player based around its pre-loaded Micro SD card notion. The Sansa SlotMusic Player is designed to take the storage firm’s SlotMusic cards, unveiled last month. Fortunately, it also accepts so-called “self-loaded” Micro SD cards …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 09:12
Alien crustaceans clash claws in UK waterways

Signal crayfish battle Chinese mitten crabs for freshwater supremacy

Scientists believe the UK ranges of two aggressive alien crustaceans - the North American signal crayfish and the Chinese mitten crab - are beginning to overlap, offering the prospect of an epic battle for supremacy over Britain's waterways. The North American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) is one of several …

Biology 15 Oct 2008, 09:20
Touchscreen desktop Eee due November

UK debut revealed

Asus' iMac-alike all-in-one touchscreen-equipped desktop Eee PC is due to arrive in the UK toward the end of November, local retail sites reckon. The new desktop, which comes under the ungainly model number ETP1602-WT-X0010, is Asus' biggest screen Eee PC yet: it's got a 16:10-ratio, 15.6in touch-sensitive panel, though at …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 09:52
‘You can Google Checkout any time you like, but you can never leave...’

Book extract Bringing Nothing To The Party: Revenge of the Nerds, with roasting

In our second extract of Bringing Nothing To The Party, entrepreneurial chancer Paul Carr finds himself enviably ensconced in a swanky Hertfordshire hotel at the pleasure of Google. But will he make it out alive? The trouble started with one of those emails that you assume must be the result of an administrative error. Dear …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2008, 10:06
Russian conmen punt iPhoneys

Rotten Apples

Russian confidence tricksters have started manufacturing their very own iPhone clone, but it only runs long enough to convince the mark to part with his money. Russian news site Cifrovik, which has a pic of the device, reports that conmen are equipping an iPhone shell with a backlit panel and some electronics that light up …

Mobile 15 Oct 2008, 10:19
Newcastle men dodge post-bog handwash

Researchers sniff out UK's dirtiest mitts

Researchers probing the delicate matter of just how many of us do the right thing and wash our hands after a trip to the bog have described themselves as "flabbergasted" at just how many Brits have "faecal bugs" on their post-lav mitts. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine took samples from 409 …

Biology 15 Oct 2008, 10:20
Toshiba unveils HSDPA-ready Portégé trio

Slim'n'light laptops and tablets

Toshiba has strengthened its standing in the thin and light laptop market by crafting three additional machines for its flagship Portégé family. Toshiba's Portégé R600: Air blower? Alan Thompson, CEO and Executive VP at Toshiba Europe, told Register Hardware today that the trio will smash Apple's MacBook Air. Top of the …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 10:25
Firefox 3.1 beta arrives with JavaScript booster turned off

Rocket charger nowhere near launchpad

Mozilla pushed out the first beta of Firefox 3.1 on Tuesday night but the release omits some much anticipated improved JavaScript functionality. The preview edition of the open source web browser is intended to allow developers to run a slide rule over the software as well as giving the public at large a chance to take the …

Applications 15 Oct 2008, 10:33
Capita coughs up £13.6m for ABS Networks

Cisco reseller gets borged

Capita is beefing up its networking expertise by buying Crawley-based ABS Network Solutions Limited for £13.6m. ABSNet is a specialist in IP-based networking, service management and storage with strong Cisco links. The company turned over £17.1m in the year ended 31 December 2007 and made a profit, excluding "owner's …

Channel Register 15 Oct 2008, 10:36
IP addresses in server logs not personal data: Ruling

German court OKs keeping them

A German court has ruled that website operators are allowed to store the internet protocol (IP) addresses of their visitors without violating data protection legislation. Without additional information, IP addresses do not count as personal data, it said. The issue has never been tested in a UK court but the view of the German …

Law 15 Oct 2008, 10:58
NASA goes for Hubble back-up boot-up

'Wakey wakey, Side B Control Unit'

NASA will this morning attempt to boot up the Hubble space telescope's redundant Side B Control Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) following the failure last month of its operational Side A counterpart which blinded the 'scope. The microprocessor-based CU/SDF is critical to Hubble's operation because it receives data from …

Space 15 Oct 2008, 11:00
Peruvian football team has really bad day

Bus, 600ft ravine...

A Peruvian second-division football team has suffered what must rate as one of the worst days in the history of the sport, MSN reports. Members of the San Cayetano football club from the northern city of Celendin were on their way home from a fixture when highway robbers "forced the bus driver out of his seat at gunpoint". The …

Bootnotes 15 Oct 2008, 11:14
Mazda takes RX-8 for a spin on 'hydrogen highway'

~~'Leccy~~ Hydrogen Tech H-powered rotary engine debuts outside Japan

Mazda - a company once more famous for its lightbulbs than its cars - has taken its hydrogen-powered RX-8 for a zip around Norway's roads, the revolutionary - literally - vehicle's first trip outside Japan. Mazda's RX-8 Hydrogen RE: gas-powered The RX-8 uses a rotary engine that runs not only on hydrogen but also petrol - …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 11:27
Toshiba revamps executive notebook

Tecra for the top table

Toshiba has taken aim at executives with the launch of a new Tecra laptop, which the firm claimed is the perfect blend between quality, durability and portability. Toshiba's Tecra R10: only for senior and middle management types The Tecra R10 has a 14.1in, 1680 x 1050 (WXGA+) display with the option of either a 320GB HDD or …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 11:33
Qualcomm import ban lifted

But not for er, Qualcomm

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that the International Trade Commission can't actually ban third parties from importing kit containing Qualcomm chips, even if they breach a Broadcom patent. In June last year the ITC issued a ban which prevented third parties from importing devices containing specific Qualcomm chips, on the …

Mobile 15 Oct 2008, 11:40
iSCSI: Game over

The FCoE killing fields

NetApp, Cisco, QLogic, Emulex and VMware have all proclaimed FCoE (fibre channel over Ethernet) heaven is just around the corner. So is this the end for the iSCSI internet storage standard? Has Dell's EqualLogic purchase suddenly been devalued? The thinking goes like this: iSCSI sends SCSI commands wrapped in TCP/IP to a …

Storage 15 Oct 2008, 11:44
Gov consults on biofuels-quota postponement

Rainforest'n'hunger juice no longer fancied

The Brown government has turned unenthusiastic on biofuels, with new Transport minister Andrew Adonis proposing that quotas for biosourced ingredients in ordinary motor fuel be moved back by some years. "Everyone agrees that to tackle climate change we must develop new and cleaner fuels. But we are clear that biofuels will …

Environment 15 Oct 2008, 11:47
Batman theme composer dies at 85

'Hardest piece I ever wrote'

Neal Hefti, the man responsible for the "energetic" theme tune for the TV series Batman, has died aged 85, the LA Times reports The former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer passed away on Saturday at the end of a long career, encompassing multiple film scores and collaboration with some musical greats including Count …

Entertainment 15 Oct 2008, 11:48
Eclipse spruces Mobile Tools for Java

Courts Android, iPhone

The Eclipse Foundation - the open source integrated development environment (IDE) project - wants more mobile platform developers to get involved in expanding Eclipse into mobile application development. With the launch today of a revamped version of the Mobile Tools for Java (MTJ), Eclipse said it wanted to establish a new …

Developer 15 Oct 2008, 12:02
Google's coup: The internet's first rule book

With love from Brussels

The regulator's rule book for deciding what is permissible on today's roads is very thick indeed. The content, behaviour and performance of "stuff on roads" is massive, and grows by the day. Try hot-rodding your lawnmower – or deciding that on Thursdays, you will only make left turns, and see how far you get. By contrast, the …

Telecoms 15 Oct 2008, 12:07
Archos 5 internet-enabled PMP

Review Our new favourite mobile video device?

Traditionally, we've not had a lot of time for combined personal media players and internet tablets. This is because most of them are just not very good. Cowon's Q5W was hampered by having Windows CE lurking in the background, the Archos' 605 Wi-Fi made rather heavy weather of web navigation, the Archos 705 was just very, very …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 12:17
Jacqui Smith trails überdatabase plans

Let's have a consensus

The Home Secretary has today warned that the government will legislate to collect more data on internet communications because it believes it will help fight serious crime and terrorism. Jacqui Smith trailed the forthcoming Commmunications Data Bill in a speech this morning to the Institute for Public Policy Research. MI6 and …

Policing 15 Oct 2008, 12:40
Revealed: The golden rules of managing software projects

Reader Poll Buff up your halos

We asked what looks to have been a pretty contentious question – what’s the role of managers in software development? - and we got some pretty contentious answers, which are well worth a look in their entirety. The conclusion: a lot of managers are crap. But – and it’s a big but – they don’t have to be, if they get certain …

Workshop 15 Oct 2008, 12:44
OpenOffice 3 goes native on the Mac

Servers still struggling to service demand

The latest version of OpenOffice - providing you can get at it - supports Macs natively for the first time. Version 3 of the open source office suite, released on Monday, contains a native port for Mac OS X. That means Mac users can run the alternative to Microsoft Office without having to go through the chore of installing …

Applications 15 Oct 2008, 12:59
Official: gadgets not responsible for Qantas jet plunge

Aussie Transport Safety Bureau lets laptops off the hook

Initial investigations into the Qantas Airbus A330 mishap have concluded that it was due to incorrect information fed into the flight control system and not interference from passengers' gagdets. A report by ABC news states that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said incorrect information from a faulty air data …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 13:00
Three joins Nokia's music club

Comes with clauses

Mobile operator 3 will become the first UK network to endorse Nokia's troubled music program "Comes With Music", industry sources confirmed today. Reports surfaced yesterday that 3 will offer the bundle with a N95-8GB model phone. Nokia launched the innovative program this month without the endorsement of the five major mobile …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2008, 13:25
'U-turn' West: MI5 watching 'great' terror plot right now

Severe severe = safer, but not actually safe

Everyone's favourite knockabout security minister, Lord Alan West of Spithead, has said that the UK security services are aware of "complex plots" - in particular "another great plot" by jihadi terrorists - "building" in the UK. Lord West was speaking in the House of Lords on Tuesday following peers' rejection on Monday of …

Government 15 Oct 2008, 14:13
MoJ plots spending cuts to plug £1.3bn funding gap

IT projects could be sent down

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed it is considering spending cuts that could possibly affect IT systems. This follows a report in the Times of discussions on emergency action to fill a £1.3bn funding gap. It said that officials have identified a series of "quick wins" to recoup big savings that include the axing of …

Government 15 Oct 2008, 14:31
Wireless power delivery gets blended

Still needs access point, though. And lid

Bored of being associated with delivering milliamps for trickle-charging gadgets, wireless-power company Fulton has decided to show its muscle by equipping a kitchen blender with its wireless technology. Wireless power has been possible for a long time: most electric toothbrushes are recharged that way, but delivering a decent …

Bootnotes 15 Oct 2008, 15:03
Lehman Excel snafu could cost Barclays dear

Hey, whoa, we never meant to buy that bit

A formatting fubar involving an Excel spreadsheet has left Barclays Capital with contracts involving collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers than it never meant to acquire. Working to a tight deadline, a junior law associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP converted an Excel file into a PDF format document. The doc …

Applications 15 Oct 2008, 15:11
Laser raygun plane gets $30m 'extended evaluation'

Extended from what?

US arms goliath Boeing is pleased to announce it has been awarded an extra $30m by the US Air Force to keep its Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) raygun aeroplane in operation, following the original "technology demonstration" deal under which it was built. However, the technology appears yet to be demonstrated, as no inflight …

Science 15 Oct 2008, 15:16
T-Mobile Googlephone to hit UK in two weeks

G-Day announced

Brits will be able to get their hands on T-Mobile's G1 Googlephone at the end of the month, the carrier said today. The G1 will be available from Thursday, 30 October, T-Mobile said. Sign up for a Combi or Flext £40-a-month package, and you have have the G1 for nowt. T-Mobile's G1: arriving in the UK at the end of the month …

Reg Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 15:49
Layoffs, boardroom reshuffles at Tesla Motors

Elon Musk to take over directly as CEO

Rumours of layoffs and management reshuffles at Tesla Motors - maker of the famous but as-yet-scarce Roadster electrosupercar - have been confirmed. In the next few hours Elon Musk, Tesla chairman, is expected to announce that he has formally superseded Ze'ev Drori as CEO. Details of "strategic layoffs" will also be revealed. …

Environment 15 Oct 2008, 16:19
Sun and Fujitsu hint at Sparc futures

Better roadmaps needed for safe speeding

As part of the launch of the Sparc T5440 midrange server this week in San Francisco, top brass from both Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu spent some time assuring customers that the companies' chip and systems partnership going strong and that both were working away on Sparc processors that would end up in future systems. The …

PCs & Chips 15 Oct 2008, 16:53
Novell to acquire Managed Objects

The CMDB software of my desire

Novell intends to buy Managed Objects, maker of business service management (BSM) software, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close during Novell's first fiscal quarter 2009, which ends next January. Key to Novell's purchase is getting its mitts on the McLean, Virgina-based firm's Configuration Management Data …

Financial News 15 Oct 2008, 18:28
Security vendors cry foul over exploit tests

'Like testing ABS brakes by pushing a car over a cliff'

Anti-malware vendors have launched a counter-attack on a study questioning the effectiveness of internet security suites, suggesting that the methodology in tests carried out by vulnerability notification firm Secunia was fundamentally flawed. As previously reported, Secunia tested a selection of 12 internet security suites …

Security 15 Oct 2008, 18:35
Intel gobbles NetEffect for Ethernet smarts

The aftertaste of InfiniBand

Chip maker Intel today said that it paid $8m to acquire the assets of NetEffect, a maker of Ethernet networking adapters and ASICs. NetEffect was founded a decade ago to create InfiniBand networking technology and a business based on it, but this didn't work out. The irony is that InfiniBand, a switched fabric protocol, was …

Hardware 15 Oct 2008, 19:57
Luxury hotel sues email-thieving blackmailer

Subpoenas Yahoo! for his name

Underscoring a weak link in the security chains of even the world's biggest companies, a luxury hotel chain is subpoenaing Yahoo in an attempt to learn who breached its computer network and accessed sensitive emails sent to company employees. In a federal lawsuit filed last week, Thompson Hotels said the unknown hacker …

Crime 15 Oct 2008, 20:05
Nokia's Trolltech preps embedded app breakthrough

SquirrelFish in the Greenhouse

Nokia-owned Trolltech has been promoting a planned environment for building embedded applications on Mac, Linux, and Windows machines. wee The company has been demonstrating Greenhouse at a series of events for developers. Greenhouse combines an editor, debugger, compiler, and project window. The goal is to provide …

Developer 15 Oct 2008, 21:13
GooTube snubs McCain's call for DMCA favoritism

'File suit - like everybody else'

YouTube has rejected John McCain's request for special treatment when his campaign videos are hit with DMCA takedown notices. Earlier this week, the McCain campaign fired a letter at the Google-owned video sharing site, urging it to "commit to a full legal review of all takedown notices on videos posted from accounts …

Music and Media 15 Oct 2008, 21:15
iPhone beer maker sues Carling over virtual suds

Demands $12.5m for the pint that isn't

An iPhone app developer is suing the Molson Coors Brewing company for over $12.5m in damages for allegedly copying his $3 novelty beer-pouring application and offering it on iTunes for free. Steve Sheraton, operator of Nevada-based Hottrix, claims the idea for his iBeer app was illegitimately lifted by the brewing conglomerate …

Mobile 15 Oct 2008, 21:36
eBay Q3 income - Now with profit

Full-year guidance lowered

Internet auctioneer eBay has reversed a loss from its third quarter last year, but warned that its full-year revenues would fall short of previous estimates. Net income during eBay's third quarter ending September 30 was $492.2m – a marked improvement over a year-ago loss of $935.6m. The auction site's Q3 2007 finances had …

Financial News 15 Oct 2008, 23:12