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30th October 2008 Archive

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  • European SMBs to spend $7.6bn on servers, networking

    UK gorges on blades

    In our ongoing effort to try to case out the small and medium business arena as it relates to IT, we bring you a report from Access Markets International Partners about the expected spending on server and networking gear in Western Europe in 2008. According to estimates made by AMI-Partners, which is based on surveys it …

    Servers 30 Oct 2008, 05:02

  • Royal Society of Chemistry requests 'Italian Job' ending

    ***40-year-old movie spoiler alert***

    Science just has a way of trampling over the unexplained, whether this is welcomed or not. That even goes for the classic cliffhanger ending of the 1969 Michael Caine flick The Italian Job. The gang's six-wheeled coach teeters halfway over an Alpine cliff. The stolen gold slides towards the rear door and oblivion. Charlie …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2008, 05:02

  • Centrino 2 launch provides no big lift for Intel Q3 market share

    Steady as she goes

    Intel and AMD continued their tit-for-tat exchange of market share during Q3, with the chip giant making a small gain at the expense of its arch-rival. According to market watcher iSuppli, Intel took 80.4 per cent of world "general-purpose" processor sales, up a third of a percentage point on the previous quarter and 1.7 …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 09:28

  • David Tennant quits Who

    New Doctor for Series 5, Beeb confirms

    David Tennant will step down as Doctor Who when he's completed filming on the four special episodes slated to hit the small screen in 2009-2010, the BBC has confirmed. Tennant will also appear in this year's Who Xmas special - entitled The Next Doctor - before handing over the keys to the Tardis to a new resident for Series 5 …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2008, 09:33

  • Is Ion's Tape2PC Mac compatible?

    Q&A

    I'm interested in the Ion Tape2PC. But from the way it's described, I'm unsure if it will fully function on a Mac. Despite the unit's name, I'd like to be able to save my old cassettes onto my Mac's hard drive.

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 10:02

  • Samsung's slimline Windows smartphone spied in Italy

    Italy looks set to get first shout of Samsung's 12mm-thick Nokia E71-alike smartphone, the C6620, courtesy of local carrier TIM. Samsung's C9920: Windows Mobile 6.1 on board The skinny, Qwerty-keyboard equipped handset can make calls across three GSM bands and suck down data across HSDPA 3G links. It's got 20MB of on-board …

    Phones 30 Oct 2008, 10:09

  • Touchscreen robo-pharmacist calls for more CCTV snooping

    Panopticon vs smash'n'grab smellies blagburst

    A Streatham pharmacist has called for help from the surveillance state, after robberies compelled him to shutter his showcase touchscreen window and automated prescription-filling robot display. Nizam Ali, owner of the Streatham Pharmacy, was proud of his nifty shop-window touchscreen service, which passers by could use to …

    Law 30 Oct 2008, 10:14

  • Samsung shows off state-of-the-art 40in OLED TV

    Can't (yet) go any larger

    Samsung has demo'd a 40in OLED full HD TV, but the company admitted that the screen is at the very limit of what it can manufacture today. "This 40in TFT panel is the largest size that can be made on our pilot line, and it cannot be mass-produced right away," a company spokesman admitted, Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports. " …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 10:40

  • Brocade cuts Foundry price

    Credit crunched

    Now we know why the Foundry shareholder vote on the Brocade bid takeover was stopped three days ago - Brocade wanted to cut its bid price. Foundry shareholder resistance, as we thought, wasn't the stumbling block at all. On July 21 the bid was worth $3bn with Foundry shareholders receiving $18.50 cash and 0.907 of a Brocade …

    Storage 30 Oct 2008, 10:42

  • Sarkozy fails to stop sale in voodoo hoohah

    French judge sticks it to pincushion prez

    Semi-barmy kneehigh French premier Nicolas Sarkozy has failed in his attempt to whip from French shelves a voodoo doll bearing his handsome likeness. As the Reg helpfully informed you, Sarko was stomping courtwards to demand the withdrawal of the dolls which were sold along with a user guide and a satirical biography. But …

    Bootnotes 30 Oct 2008, 10:43

  • Ford to drive green motoring with 'leaves and vines' dashboard

    'Leccy Tech SmartGauge to 'enlighten' drivers into better fuel economy

    Ford appears to have come to the conclusion that the way to save the planet is to patronise its customers into compliance. That at least is the only conclusion we can draw from its new SmartGauge dashboard. "SmartGauge with EcoGuide" instrument clusters will appear in the 2009 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids. …

    Science 30 Oct 2008, 11:01

  • Messenger images 80% of Mercury

    Majority of surface now revealed

    NASA's Messenger spacecraft has now imaged 80 per cent of the surface of Mercury following its second fly-past of the planet on 6 October, meaning that around 95 per cent has been revealed by various missions, the agency reports. During the latest close encounter, Messenger snapped 1,200 images laying bare 30 per cent of …

    Science 30 Oct 2008, 11:15

  • Mobile blocking tech for trains

    You will be silent in the quiet zone

    Train operator C2C, master of the Shoeburyness line and spawn of National Express coaches, is to fit mobe-blocking film to train windows in an attempt to force passengers into respecting quiet zones. The first carriage sporting the film is about to enter service as a trial run, and bold signs will inform passengers that their …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 11:25

  • BT coughs up compo to MoD

    Genius way to cut answering times

    BT has paid over a million pounds to the Ministry of Defence for faking performance figures in one of its call centres. The telco had several targets to hit, one of which was how long it took to answer, and successfully complete calls. If it failed to answer calls within a certain time they lost out on payments. In order to …

    Government 30 Oct 2008, 11:28

  • Orange ditches Phorm

    Updated Another blow for data pimping

    Orange, the UK's sixth largest broadband provider, is not going to use Phorm's data-snooping technology. Paul-Francois Fournier told the FT: “Privacy is in our DNA, so we need to be honest and clear about what we are doing. We have decided not to be in Phorm because of that... The way it was proposed, the privacy issue was too …

    Broadband 30 Oct 2008, 11:30

  • Iomega, LaCie revamp telly-friendly external hard drives

    Iomega and LaCie have both rolled out revamped external hard drives designed to feed your TV with music, movies and photos. Iomega's ScreenPlay Pro HD packs in 1TB of media storage that'll hook up to your telly over HDMI, component- and composite-video connections. It supports resolutions of up to 1080i. Favoured formats …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 11:39

  • Group Test: Universal Remote Controls

    Round-up Why take ten remotes into the living room?

    The idea of a single ‘universal’ remote control that will control your TV, cable or satellite box, music system, DVD player and any other device you happen to have cluttering up your front room has obvious attractions. Instead of scouring the living room to locate three of four different remotes, you can just press one button to …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 12:02

  • New Scientist goes innumerate in 'save the planet' special

    Economics failing lunge for Dark Ages

    If you’re going to start demanding a new economics, as the New Scientist just has, then it would be useful if you understood what the old economics you’re trying to replace has to say... as the New Scientist clearly doesn’t. Take this seemingly uncontroversial statement: "We live on a planet with finite resources - that's no …

    Science 30 Oct 2008, 12:03

  • Police collar kid for Wi-Fi pinching

    Exclusive Teen arrested for camping on next door's net

    Lincolnshire police have arrested a 16-year-old suspected of hacking into next door's Wi-Fi after his neighbour complained the connection was running a bit slow. Police arrived at the lad's house after nine o'clock on Sunday October 5, and arrested him under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The youngster was then questioned until …

    Law 30 Oct 2008, 12:32

  • AT&T throws iPhone users free Wi-Fi

    Like anyone pays for it these days

    iPhone-touting Americans are now able to connect to AT&T's network of 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for free - though since they'll have to manually connect and authenticate each time, they might prefer 3G. UK iPhone users already have free access to The Cloud and BT Openzone spots, 9,500 of them, but in the US punters have been asked …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 12:34

  • Beatles to bless Rock Band

    Drum along with Ringo

    Apple Corps, the Beatles' licensing company, is expected to announce a deal that brings the catalogue to the popular play-along game Rock Band today. Press received notification of a new "Global Music Project" partnership with Apple Corps from MTV yesterday. Viacom subsidiary MTV in turn owns the developer of Rock Band, Harmonix …

    Media 30 Oct 2008, 12:37

  • US air force inks 'tactical' space-war deal

    Space war: More like rugby than chess

    American weaponrytech behemoth Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $30m contract by the US Air Force Space Superiority Systems Wing. Under the deal, Lockheed will develop a prototype "tactical" space scanner for use in the covert orbital warfare of tomorrow. The tech demonstrator programme is referred to as Self-Awareness Space …

    Science 30 Oct 2008, 12:48

  • Super Talent pimps solid-gold USB stick bling thing

    Daft

    Yes, Flash is expensive but this Super Talent Pico-C solid gold Flash bling thing is just ridiculous. For $599 you get 8GB of solid gold thumb drive. Super Talent's Pico-C 8GB USB thumb drive: solid gold Oh, and an 18-carat gold key chain, encryption software and a black velvet-lined case. The kicker, for the prize bling …

    Storage 30 Oct 2008, 13:02

  • Vodafone goes east to make 87m friends

    I can txt Russia from here

    Vodafone has signed a deal with the largest Russian operator, MTS, to offer Vodafone-branded services to MTS's 87 million customers, as well as providing 3G expertise to MTS as the company rolls out the next-generation network. The deal doesn't involve any equity, but is more accurately a partnership that extends the Vodafone …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 13:29

  • Academic avoids extradition over Holocaust denial

    German warrant lacking website details chucked out of court

    An Australian academic accused of holocaust denial has escaped extradition from the UK to Germany. Dr Gerald Toben, 64, was accused of publishing anti-Semitic content on his website. But a judge threw an extradition request out of court after deciding it was invalid because it lacked any details of the website where the …

    Law 30 Oct 2008, 13:35

  • Manuelgate's goth vampire stripper fades from MySpace

    'Wronged youth' gets high speed airbrushing

    Government advice about being careful what you post on the web may have come just a little too late for Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter, Georgina Baillie – aka Voluptua, the goth vampire stripper. The same advice might also have been helpful to the pictures desk over at the Daily Mail, which along with Ms Baillie has been indulging …

    Media 30 Oct 2008, 13:50

  • Rocketing iPhone sales drive Apple into phone vendor top ten

    But the pole's slippery - just ask Motorola...

    Apple joined Samsung and Sony Ericsson as the only major mobile phone makers to increase their market share during Q3, researcher Strategy Analytics said today. Apple's shipment of 6.9m iPhones during the quarter, up from 1.1m in Q3 2007, propelled the Mac maker into the top ten list of phone suppliers, SA said, displacing RIM …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 14:36

  • Bono bikini babe party pictures loose on Facebook

    U2 singer takes a break from solving world hunger

    Pictures featuring U2 singer Bono partying with bikini-clad babes have been exposed on Facebook. The snaps of the crooner together with a friend and two 19-year-old lovelies were available to everyone in the social networking site's New York geographical network after one of the girls involved, Andrea Feick, posted the …

    Security 30 Oct 2008, 14:45

  • Apple's 'next move' is an HSDPA MacBook, forecasts analyst

    MacBook... or netbook?

    Apple should pull out the stops and release a 3G-enabled laptop for network operators panting to get their mitts on a MacBook with built in mobile broadband connectivity. That's what Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston advised the Mac maker today. Why? Because "many operators in the US and Western Europe would jump at the …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 15:23

  • Open-source Silverlight slips into second gear

    PDC Closing gap on Microsoft?

    The open-source edition of Silverlight could soon have feature parity with the latest, official release of Microsoft's browser-based media player. Organizers of the Moonlight project have said they are planning to deliver preview code for Moonlight version two next March that'll map to the latest release of Microsoft's …

    Developer 30 Oct 2008, 15:57

  • Intel to present 32nm chip while AMD shows off 22nm part

    Duel of the memory cells

    Intel will release details of its 32nm chip fabrication technology in just over a month's time. But AMD will be on hand to talk up its 22nm process. Representatives from the chip giant will be presenting a paper at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), which kicks off in San Francisco on 15 December. They …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 15:58

  • Cash'n'Carrion free shipping ends tomorrow

    Cash'n'Carrion Beat the Halloween deadline

    Just a quick reminder for those of you who might have been mulling getting a t-shirt or two from El Reg merchandising tentacle Cash'n'Carrion - our free shipping offer ends tomorrow. To take advantage of the promotion, just enter the code "Reg" in the voucher field in your basket and click to redeem. Thanks again to all of …

    Site News 30 Oct 2008, 15:58

  • London anthrax case man 'seriously ill'

    Imported drum skins likely source of infection

    A London-based drum-maker who apparently contracted anthrax from imported animal skins is in a "serious but stable" condition in Hackney's Homerton Hospital, the Hackney Gazette reports. The unnamed victim, said to be Spanish by the Gazette, was diagnosed with the disease on Saturday, and samples were sent to the Porton Down …

    Science 30 Oct 2008, 16:00

  • Beatles game is go

    Will you still need me when I'm 64-bit?

    MTV and Apple Corps, the Beatles' licensing company, have put together a deal to bring the music of the Fab Four into a play-along video game. The as-yet unnamed game will be custom-built from the ground up, rather than simply a song extension to the popular Rock Band. A worldwide release will come before Christmas next year …

    Media 30 Oct 2008, 16:23

  • Motorola still losing money

    Still carrying mobile division

    Developments in the handset business dominated the third-quarter results call from Motorola - ironic considering that the division continues to be such a drain on the rest of the firm, which will be much better off without it. Motorola had revenue of $7.4bn in the last three months, with $3.1bn of that coming from handset …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 17:01

  • Deleted cloud in second fall from sky

    More off-demand computing from FlexiScale

    XCalibre's FlexiScale cloud has disappeared from the heavens. Again. In late August, an engineer with the UK-based hosting outfit accidentally deleted the company's high-profile compute cloud - which offers on-demand storage, processing, and network bandwidth a la Amazon Web Services - and now XCalibre is working to resolve a …

    Servers 30 Oct 2008, 17:34

  • Feds indict international cyber crook accused of $1.7m ATM spree

    Hack resume lists Pentagon, NASA, Hamas

    An international cyber criminal with a resume that includes breaking into computers maintained by NASA, the Pentagon, the Israeli parliament, and Hamas has been indicted in New York for conspiracy and fraud involving access devices. Between February and May of this year, Ehud Tenenbaum - who once went under the moniker The …

    Security 30 Oct 2008, 18:01

  • Microsoft wants open-source recruits for new model army

    PDC Blinded by the Silverlight

    Microsoft is reaching out to open-source and adding a dash of RIA bling to its latest model-driven development crusade. The company has released M, its new programming language for building textual domain-specific languages (DSLs) and software models using Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) under its Open …

    Mobile 30 Oct 2008, 18:11

  • French police cuff six over Sarkozy bank fraud

    50 victims stung by mobile phone scam

    French police have arrested six people on suspicion of fraud involving the bank account of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy filed a criminal complaint last month following fraudulent payments from his personal bank account in Paris. Stolen payment card details were reportedly used to mobile phone subscriptions. A …

    Security 30 Oct 2008, 18:15

  • A new economics of P2P file sharing

    Exclusive Lining up the ducks

    What happens when you put three economists from the internet, telecomms, and the music businesses in a room and don't let them out until they've agreed on something useful? A paper published by the research unit of the British composers' collection society today gives us a clue. The first results of a "knocking heads together …

    Media 30 Oct 2008, 18:21

  • Intel to build Atomized Linux fortress in Taiwan

    Throws money at local WiMax

    Intel has recruited the Taiwanese government for its project to put a Linux stack on the Atom processor. The chip maker announced today that it's partnering with Taiwan's Ministery of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to establish a "Moblin Enabling Center" to drum up developer support and interest. Its investment arm is also sinking …

    Financial News 30 Oct 2008, 18:37

  • Microsoft's Geneva Server: Hailstorm done right

    PDC Hard lessons for Google, Facebook and Microsoft

    Microsoft's notorious Hailstorm project, announced in 2001 but scrapped before it was launched, sought to make Passport the core of the whole world's web identity. In 2008, major web properties like Google and Facebook are still fighting identity wars. "Microsoft just gave that up," Microsoft's chief architect of identity Kim …

    Servers 30 Oct 2008, 20:31

  • Rackable does cookie sheet servers

    A Google homage

    Boutique data center server and storage maker Rackable Systems has unveiled an homage to Google's original home grown servers - which were essentially bare motherboards thrown on cookie sheets with rubber mats and stacked in bakery racks. You can't charge a lot money for Google's server design, so Rackable's CloudRack racks …

    Servers 30 Oct 2008, 20:32

  • Life ain't a bowl of funding at CherryPal

    Exclusive Tiny $249 cloud PC seeks financial aid

    CherryPal's $249 cloud PC seems suspiciously close to vapor nowadays. But despite months of delay, CherryPal maintains its odd, 2-watt, ultra-cheap desktop will be ready to ship next week. The question is how long it will stick around. According to an email from CEO Max Seybold, the startup is facing some major funding issues …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 21:09

  • 150 pink slips for Pillar

    Cuts headcount 30 per cent

    The phony recession war is over and the first real storm cloud has hit the storage industry. Pillar Data has laid off 150 employees - that's 30 per cent of its workforce - to help it survive the recession. Pillar Data is a tier 2 storage array company along with 3PAR and Compellent, both of whom have just reported their first …

    Financial News 30 Oct 2008, 21:49

  • Sun doused with red ink in Q1

    Blames The Meltdown, write-offs

    Server and software maker Sun Microsystems reported its first quarter of fiscal 2009 today, and the red ink was flowing as high-end Sparc server sales dried up at the same time that the company had to book a $1.45bn acquisitions write-off - presumably related to its $4.1bn acquisition of StorageTek a few years back and more …

    Servers 30 Oct 2008, 23:01

  • PC vendors recall more blazin' Sony batteries

    Just when you thought your crotch was safe again...

    Computer vendors are recalling about 35,000 Sony laptop battery packs in the US based on reports of the batteries overheating and catching fire. A US Consumer Product Safety Commission notice today announced the voluntary recall, warning that owners should stop using the product immediately. The recall concerns certain Sony …

    Hardware 30 Oct 2008, 23:08

  • Rigged e-voting machine snacks on Homer Simpson

    USA '08 Cartoon doughnut eater smitten by touch screen

    If the US voters reporting flipped votes in early balloting for the US Presidential race think they have it bad, they haven't heard of Homer Simpson's plight. In this Sunday's episode of The Simpsons, the lovable loser enters a voting booth for this year's presidential election and is surprised to find a touch-screen machine …

    Security 30 Oct 2008, 23:22