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20th October 2008 Archive

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  • UK.gov says: Regulate the internet

    Eradicate smut and unemployment

    As unemployment looks set to soar in the months ahead, quangocrat and soon to be outgoing head of Ofcom Lord David Currie appears to have discovered a cunning plan to find jobs for tens of thousands. The time for regulating the internet is nigh – and Ofcom could be the body to do it. In fairness, Lord Currie seems merely to be …

    Government 20 Oct 2008, 08:57

  • BMW unwraps electric Mini

    'Leccy Tech This is the Earth Preservation Society

    BMW yesterday announced the arrival of the electric Mini - or Mini E. Powered by a 150kW – 204hp – electric motor fed by a 260kg lithium-ion battery pack, the car goes from 0 to 62mph in 8.5s and sports a top speed limited to 95mph. BMW claimed the range you'll get out of a full charge will be 150 miles. BMW's Mini E: nippy …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 09:01

  • Symantec gives 3PAR helping hand

    Giant pushes fat-to-thin process

    It turns out 3PAR needed a bit of help to get its fat-to-thin process working properly. The latest T-class InServ storage array has clever hardware that turns an incoming fat volume into a thin one. This means that if you migrate a storage volume from some other array that does not have thin provisioning - a fat volume - then …

    Storage 20 Oct 2008, 09:10

  • Yahoo! prepares to slash jobs this week

    Warms up by bumping off user profiles

    Yahoo! is axing jobs as part of a major cost-cutting exercise - it is expected to get rid of at least 1,000 people, the same number that went in January. There is no official announcement yet, but Yahoo! posts quarterly results this Tuesday. The company is looking to cut 15 per cent from budgets, the Wall Street Journal …

    Financial News 20 Oct 2008, 09:11

  • Touchscreen-equipped BlackBerry Bold en route?

    Pluto phone rumours

    Research in Motion (RIM) is secretly developing a BlackBerry handset that’s set to be out of this world, leaked info about the phone suggests. The firmis thought to be working on a talker that’s already been dubbed the 'Bold with a touchscreen'. Aaccording to an account by website BGR, the unconfirmed phone has been codenamed …

    Mobile 20 Oct 2008, 09:31

  • French police probe Sarkozy bank fraud

    Zut alors!

    French police are on the hunt for fraudsters who siphoned off money from the personal bank account of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The French head of state has filed a criminal complaint about unauthorised withdrawls from his account. News of the theft, which reportedly took place last month and involved modest amounts of …

    Security 20 Oct 2008, 09:44

  • The IBM DS5000: Best in a field of one

    IBM array comes top in IBM commissioned tests

    IBM's DS5300 storage array is in a class of one when serving virtual machines in a pair of VMware servers. Terrific results look great, especially when no one else has run the test, so you are absolutely guaranteed to be the winner. That's what IBM has done by commissioning ESG to run a new test for its DS5300 array serving a …

    Storage 20 Oct 2008, 09:46

  • Toshiba eyes co-owned SanDisk Japanese Flash factories

    Get your mitts off, Samsung

    Toshiba wants to buy SanDisk's share of the two firms' jointly owned Japanese manufacturing facilities, it has been claimed. The finger has been pointed at Samsung's attempt to acquire SanDisk, Japanese-language newspaper Nikkei reports, with Toshiba apparently unwilling to let its rival acquire a stake in the Flash memory …

    Storage 20 Oct 2008, 09:48

  • Making sense of BPM

    Reg Tech Panel Hello Wood. Shift it, Trees

    With our friends at Freeform Dynamics, we set out to explore the topic of ‘business process management’ to find out what works, what doesn’t and what tools you’re using to do it with. If there’s one topic which needs the straight treatment, it’s this one. With your help, we’ve been able to sidestep the messy definitions and …

    Tech Panel 20 Oct 2008, 10:07

  • Hubble in double trouble

    In safe mode as NASA probes two systems 'anomalies'

    The reactivation of the Hubble space telescope has been suspended while NASA probes a couple of systems 'anomalies' following the boot-up of its back-up computer system. The venerable eye in the sky was last month blinded by the failure of the Control Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) in its operational Side A Science …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 10:10

  • Gamers cash in on LittleBigPlanet delay

    Updated Title pulled over Koran reference

    The value of the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet has rocketed on eBay as sellers attempt to capitalise upon Sony's decision to temporarily withdraw the title, found to contain lines from the Koran. Sony's LittleBigPlanet: delayed Sony announced late last week that it had chosen to delay the game’s worldwide launch – …

    Games 20 Oct 2008, 10:31

  • Goodbye to physical Fibre Channel

    Analysis FC is being killed by SAS and FCoE

    Here's a thought: Fibre Channel has begun its death march, with physical fabrics under notice from FCoE, and FC-interface hard drives under notice from SAS. You might not agree, but here's the argument in favour: Internal array Fibre Channel Currently Fibre Channel (FC) has four main incarnations, hardware and software inside …

    Storage 20 Oct 2008, 10:37

  • NASA projects IBEX heavenwards

    Spacecraft prepares to sniff interstellar boundary

    NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, known to its chums as IBEX, was yesterday successfully projected heavenwards on its mission to "image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system". The spacecraft was carried aloft by a Pegasus rocket released from a L-1011 aircraft (see pic) operating from …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 10:45

  • Sky and BBC in iPlayer deal

    Agree to use HTML

    The BBC and Sky are today trumpeting a new arrangement that will see the latter stuff links to iPlayer shows into its own web TV service. And... er... that's pretty much it. Given the Sky Player's weedy traffic*, the move is likely to have negligible impact on usage of iPlayer. Meanwhile, Sky offering categorised links to …

    Media 20 Oct 2008, 10:52

  • NEC intros retro-look netbook

    NEC has made its entry into the Small, Cheap Computer arena with a machine we hope is fashioned in a spirit of retro. The LaVie Light certainly has the look of one of those 'brick' notebooks from yesteryear. Had NEC dropped the trackpad and brought the keyboard forward over the wrist-rest area, the machine would have been a …

    Hardware 20 Oct 2008, 10:55

  • Advent 4213 HSDPA 3G-enabled netbook

    Review Integrated cellular connectivity... at last

    Having dipped its toe into the netbook waters with the Advent 4211, a rebadged version of the MSI Wind, DSGi - the retailer formerly known as Dixons - has quickly jumped in with a pair of new Small, Cheap Computers: the 4212 and 4213, both based on ECS' G10IL1. Both machines are almost identical. There's one key difference: …

    Hardware 20 Oct 2008, 11:02

  • Holy f**k, Microsoft covers up ‘undesired’ words

    Patents new audio censoring software

    Microsoft has gained patent rights to a technology for censoring speech. An automatic censoring filter, available in real-time mode or a batch mode, processes an input audio data stream containing speech and then alters “undesired words or phrases” to make them “unintelligible or inaudible”. The software giant was awarded …

    Applications 20 Oct 2008, 11:08

  • Ann Summers yanks chocolate willy spread

    Melamine-laced todger garnish off the menu

    Visitors to Ann Summers hoping to get their laughing gear round some chocolate willy spread will have to make do with a Chocolate Dick on a Stick (link NSFW) following the sex shop chain's withdrawal of a range of melamine-laced choc products. The retailer has pulled said spread, plus "a related nipple spread and a novelty pen …

    Bootnotes 20 Oct 2008, 11:27

  • Govt ponders proof-of-ID law for future phone purchases

    Here is your new BlackBerry, Winston Smith

    The bother of choosing between an 18-month contract or a high up-front price may soon be the least of your worries when buying a new mobile phone, because you may soon be required to prove your identity before you're allowed a new handset. The government is said to be drawing up plans to force all UK mobile phone buyers to …

    Government 20 Oct 2008, 11:30

  • Run Mac OS X on a PC

    Special Report We show you how

    Want to run Mac OS X on a PC? Perhaps you don't want to pay the premium for Apple's hardware - or Apple doesn't make the kind of computer you need, such as a netbook. Because of its native roots in Motorola and PowerPC code, this has traditionally required instruction level emulation. Two things have changed. Apple based Mac OS …

    Operating Systems 20 Oct 2008, 11:33

  • Panasonic to demo 20-hour laptop-friendly fuel cell

    Laptop battery and stand-alone charger developed

    Panasonic will show off its latest developments in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) this week. The highlight is a power pack capable of delivering a charge continuously for 20 hours. Panasonic's DMFC: can power laptops for up to 20 hours The fuel cell achieves this on just 200cc of methanol, Panasonic said. The battery has …

    Hardware 20 Oct 2008, 11:53

  • Pr0n-surfing pastor downs church network

    Nasty case of the clap

    A church minister from Strängnäs, Sweden, has walked the plank after his local church's computer network contracted a nasty case of the clap as a result of his porn surfing, The Local reports. The Church of Sweden clergyman admitted to "spending a lot of time at work viewing pornographic websites", but his lust for smut would …

    Bootnotes 20 Oct 2008, 12:06

  • Times: US about to deploy Space Marines

    Dead-tree network as bad as internet

    The Sunday Times sold off another little bit of its credibility at the weekend, as it told the world about the imminent launch of the US Marine Corps into space. According to the Thunderer: The American military is planning a “spaceplane” designed to fly a crack squad of heavily armed marines to trouble spots anywhere in the …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 12:06

  • Vista SP2 beta could land within next four weeks

    Updated Strictly private viewing

    Microsoft is readying Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and will hand it over to beta testers within the next month. According to Neowin.net, which quotes an MS tipster, betas will be available to a closed group of guinea pigs – though not to the general public – in about four weeks. Windows Search 4 will reportedly be included in …

    Operating Systems 20 Oct 2008, 12:11

  • Home Office mulls fighting hacking with corporate ASBOs

    Consultation on serious crime prevention orders planned

    The Home Office is consulting on the possibility of applying serious crime prevention orders (AKA corporate ASBOs) to computer hacking laws. Serious crime prevention orders allow the courts to apply "injunctions" against criminal behaviour granted on the basis of the balance of probabilities rather than the much tougher …

    Security 20 Oct 2008, 12:24

  • Intel signs up Ericsson for internet tablet HSDPA kit

    Hopes pact will last longer than its Nokia partnership

    Intel and Nokia may have drifted apart before the Finnish phone giant could create HSDPA 3G modules for Centrino laptops, but the chip giant is hoping to have better luck with its 'Moorestown' Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform. Intel mobility chief Anand Chandrasekher today said Ericsson had agreed to make HSDPA/HSUPA …

    Broadband 20 Oct 2008, 12:47

  • The Jesus Phone NDA - No one cares but you

    Fail and You 'Get back to work, c**kbite'

    Earlier this month, Apple lifted the heavy-handed nondisclosure agreement it imposes on developers. This NDA regulated what tips and tricks developers may share with each other (hint: none), which made it a real pain in the ass to publish a book about iPhone programming. Developers got really buttsore over this and did what …

    Developer 20 Oct 2008, 13:02

  • UK.gov plans 'consensus' on PAYG phone registry

    Voda leads opposition to mobe registry plan

    The Home Office insisted today it had taken no decision on whether to force Britons to present photo ID when they buy a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile phone. However, it confirmed it does plan to "consult" on the issue in the hope of forcing building a "consensus", despite immediate opposition to the plan from the world's biggest …

    Government 20 Oct 2008, 13:06

  • UK puts £55m into disabled parking reform

    Another day, another expensive data sharing scheme

    The government is spending £55m on reforming the system of blue badges which allow disabled people to park for free on the street and for up to three hours on double yellow lines. It is putting up the application fee for badges and creating a nationwide database to reduce fraudulent use of them. There were 2.3m badges in …

    Government 20 Oct 2008, 13:31

  • NZ chaps' sperm not quite up to scratch

    'Worrying' decline in protokids per millilitre

    The "quality" of New Zealand chaps' ejaculate has halved since 1987, with testicular output crashing from 110m sperm per millilitre to 50m, The Australian reports. The worrying news was presented today to a fecund* of international fertility researchers in Brisbane. The figures come from a shufti at the "sperm quality data" of …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 13:55

  • Samsung handset borrows U800 looks, adds extra features

    Features upped, looks kept the same

    Samsung has spruced up its mobile collection with the launch of a phone that’s more feature packed than the U800, but which looks almost identical to it. Samsung's I7110: small, but fully featured Going by the name of I7110, the phone’s based around quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge network capabilities and will hook you onto HSDPA …

    Phones 20 Oct 2008, 14:17

  • Putin’s dog collared by satnav

    Canine connectivity

    It seems that World+Dog’s got a satnav these days. Even Vladimir Putin’s dog has been fitted with GPS. Putin's dog, Koni, is well connected Image courtesy of the BBC The Russian president’s black Labrador, Koni, has been fitted with a 170g GPS collar that’s designed to work over Russia’s GLONASS system. GLONASS is Russia’ …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 14:32

  • Crazy Frog won't croak again

    New future for Jamba

    News Corp is killing Crazy Frog, along with the brands Jamba and Jamster. News Corp's mobile unit today announced a reorganisation of its business to "extend its global leadership in the mobile content industry". And yes, the hideously annoying frog - the first real star of mobile content, according to Jamba CEO Maura …

    Mobile 20 Oct 2008, 14:40

  • Interpol proposes world face-recognition database

    Old skool mugshot files too slow, say globocops

    Interpol chiefs will propose the use of automated facial-recognition technology at borders to flag up internationally wanted suspects, according to reports. The UK already has airport gates equipped with such technology, intended to remove the need for a human border guard to check that a passenger's face matches the one …

    Law 20 Oct 2008, 14:43

  • SanDisk's NAND flash white knight

    Toshiba deal could help keep Samsung at bay

    SanDisk is gaining $1bn from a Toshiba manufacturing capacity purchase deal to help prod unwanted bidder Samsung into raising its bid price. At least, that's one interpretation of a pretty darn opaque deal. The NAND flash market is over-supplied and prices have fallen, suppliers have made lots of losses, and Samsung has seized …

    Storage 20 Oct 2008, 17:26

  • Northrop scoops DARPA laser RIFLe cash

    Elasmobranch head mount attachment imminent

    US weaponry goliath Northrop Grumman has landed a contract to develop new, lightweight, efficient rayguns for the American armed forces. The technology push is called "Revolution In Fibre Lasers" (RIFL) and is intended to scale up the amount of power delivered by fibre laser systems. Fibre lasers might offer more efficient …

    Science 20 Oct 2008, 17:29

  • Dutch court orders Google to reveal Gmail user

    Secret mails auto-forwarded

    Google Netherlands has agreed to hand over the IP addresses of a Gmail user in an alleged spy case. The CEO of Dutch internet incubator company iMerge suspected that a former disgruntled employee, who also acted as a system administrator, had secretly created an auto-forward rule in one of the company's mail servers. Several …

    Law 20 Oct 2008, 17:34

  • AMD co-founder Ed Turney dies

    Obituary Death of a chip salesman

    Ed Turney, a co-founder of AMD responsible for building the company's first sales team, died Wednesday in Cupertino California. He was 79. The cause was brain cancer, his brother George said in a statement. Born March 26, 1929, Turney joined the US Navy at the age of 18 after graduating high school. He was trained as an …

    Hardware 20 Oct 2008, 18:27

  • SEC taps Scalent for disaster recovery

    Economic recovery another matter

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - in charge of regulating the stock and options exchanges and enforcing the securities laws of the land - is worried about recovering from more than one kind of disaster. While the economic disaster looms large in our minds these days, the SEC's techies have also been worried about …

    Servers 20 Oct 2008, 18:38

  • Intel slices (few) chip prices

    Waiting for Nehalem

    Intel cut prices on desktop and server chips over the weekend. The desktop price cuts come as Intel gets ready to ship the first of its next-generation 'Nehalem' processors, which will sport a new microarchitecture and offer significant performance enhancements thanks to a new chip interconnection scheme that replaces the now- …

    The Channel 20 Oct 2008, 19:14

  • Silverlight has serious side, says Microsoft

    AJAXWorld More than Michael Phelps

    Scott Guthrie has been making a serious business pitch for Microsoft's browser-based media player rival to Adobe Systems' Flash. The corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division has lobbied a Silicon Valley AJAX crowd to adopt yet another media player, when they are already comfortable with Adobe's Flash or have …

    Developer 20 Oct 2008, 19:23

  • Swiss boffins sniff passwords from (wired) keyboards 65 feet away

    Electromagnetic eavesdropping, 007

    Swiss researchers have demonstrated a variety of ways to eavesdrop on the sensitive messages computer users type by monitoring their wired keyboards. At least 11 models using a wide range of connection types are vulnerable. The researchers from the Security and Cryptography Laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne …

    Security 20 Oct 2008, 19:39

  • Apple and Psystar enter out-of-court counseling

    Judge lowers cone of silence on Mac clone scrap

    Before Apple and Psystar take their fight over Mac clones to court, the two must first attempt to work out their legal scrape with private mediation. The companies have agreed to participate in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) under court orders, according to filings turned up by The Mac Observer. The two have been …

    Hardware 20 Oct 2008, 21:13

  • Linux Foundation unwraps distro normalizer 4.0

    Can't we all just get along?

    The Linux Foundation - the non-profit consortium that gives Linus Torvalds his paycheck and facilitates the growth of Linux and Linux standards - has announced the first beta of the Linux Standard Base 4.0. There are many Linux variants, and they use different kernel releases and software libraries, depending on the technical …

    Operating Systems 20 Oct 2008, 21:33

  • Kentucky judge OKs 141-site net casino land grab

    'The internet is not above the law'

    A Kentucky judge has upheld that state's seizure of some of the world's most popular online casino domain names, ruling they constitute a "gambling device" that is subject to Kentucky's anti-gambling laws. Last week's ruling by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate applies to absolutepoker.com, ultimatebet.com, and 139 …

    Law 20 Oct 2008, 21:48

  • Circuit City mulls mass layoffs, store closures

    Call it urban decay

    Circuit City may lay off thousands of workers and shut down at least 150 stores to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources as saying the second-largest US consumer electronics retailer is considering the culling as a way to get through the holiday season. …

    The Channel 20 Oct 2008, 22:43

  • New York sends AOL 'how-to-wiretap' slides

    Cuomo's anti-porn crusade rolls on

    With his heavy-handed crusade against online child pornography, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has already crushed more than a little free speech, all but destroying America's connection to Usenet newsgroups. And now he's eying ISP-level porn-blocking hardware that would run roughshod over the country's wiretapping laws …

    Media 20 Oct 2008, 23:37