14th November 2008 Archive

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Sun pimps out OpenOffice as Microsoft 'clarifies' Office for web

Under the influence

OpenOffice is being pimped out by Sun Microsystems, just as Microsoft takes Office online, if Sun's chief executive latest blog entry is anything to go by. Jonathan Schwartz has posted that an "auction's afoot...to see who we'll be partnering with us to integrate their business and brands into our binary product distribution" …

Applications 14 Nov 2008, 00:29
Time to reject traditional database techniques?

'Big' data and the BI challenge

Mainstream database management system (DBMS) technology faces a challenge from new approaches that reject the relational model. The battleground is set to be the market for business intelligence based on very large databases. Some main players in DBMS software are already jockeying for position with revamped database products …

Developer 14 Nov 2008, 00:39
Google crowbars search money machine into YouTube

Buy your way to the top

In its ongoing struggle to actually make money from YouTube, Google has shoehorned its ridiculously-successful search advertising setup into the popular post-your-own-video site. Google's new YouTube Sponsored Videos program allows any video poster to pay their way into the site's search results. "Anyone can use Sponsored …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2008, 00:39
eBay bans sale of Obama inauguration tickets

The revolution will not be auctioned

eBay has agreed to ban ticket sales for US President-elect Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration ceremony on its websites. The online auction house arrived at the decision at the insistence of representatives from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (which, as you may suspect by their name, takes inaugural …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2008, 00:46
Watchdogs decry Kentucky's 141-site net casino land grab

Today, gambling sites. Tomorrow...

Three civil liberties groups urged a Kentucky appeals court to overturn the seizure of domain names for some of the world's most popular gambling sites, arguing the move is based on "incorrect factual assumptions" and violates Free Speech guarantees and other provisions of the US Constitution. In a friend-of-the-court brief …

Law 14 Nov 2008, 01:12
Nuke plant reborn as 'green' data center

Server-plutonium swap

1&1 Internet - one of the world's largest web hosts - will build its next European data center inside an abandoned nuclear fuel facility. Built in the late 1980s, Hanau, Germany's 'New MOX' plant was supposed to process fuel for nuclear reactors, making mixed oxide rods from enriched Uranium and Plutonium. But thanks to local …

Servers 14 Nov 2008, 05:47
3 pledges 14.4Mb/s HSDPA in 2010

Upload speeds to be upped to 5.7Mb/s

Faster HSDPA and HSUPA 3G speeds will be rolled out in the UK’s big cities in 2010, network operator 3 has promised. Areas already covered by 3.6Mb/s HSDPA The company will initially give customers in London and other major metropolitan areas access to HSDPA speeds of up to 14.4Mb/s by Q3 2010. It’s also promised that big …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 07:02
Ofcom's pilot starts seeing signs

First spectrum map of the UK

We're one month into a four-month trial attempting to map radio spectrum usage in the UK and the companies involved are already turning up some interesting and occasionally downright odd results. The idea of the trial is to establish if mapping spectrum usage is a sensible thing to do - whether useful information can be …

Mobile 14 Nov 2008, 08:02
Samsung ML-1630W wireless network mono laser printer

Review A great-looking printer that's quick and quiet

Laser printers aren’t the most photogenic of kit and you’d usually want to relegate one to an office or workroom. Samsung has given its latest offering a makeover, though. Mono laser printers may have been eclipsed in the home by inkjets, but they’re faster and produce better black print. They’re also pug-ugly, built for …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 09:02
Capita gets £60m deal to merge NHS websites

Stand by for nasal congestion charges

Capita has launched the bundled-together NHS websites - NHS Direct and NHS Choices. It was named as preferred supplier in July. The DoH is paying £60m for three years, with an option to extend that for another two years. The site offers information on symptoms, courtesy of NHS Direct, as well as a directory of NHS services. …

Public Sector 14 Nov 2008, 10:01
DoS and distributed hacking tools finally criminalised

Computer Misuse Act updated

A law criminalising denial of service attacks and the supply of hacking tools has been brought into force in England and Wales after a number of delays. The law was already in force in Scotland. Denial of service (DoS) attacks involve the simultaneous sending of millions of messages or page requests to an organisation's …

Enterprise Security 14 Nov 2008, 10:27
Logica jacks ups full year estimates

Still cautious and still cutting costs

Anglo-Dutch services firm Logica is upping estimates for the full year on the back of unaudited results for the third quarter ended 30 September. Revenue for the three months is up 7 per cent and the firm reckons growth for the year will top 4 per cent. Chief exec Andy Green said: "Although we are anticipating a tough …

Channel Register 14 Nov 2008, 10:29
AMD readies 'Yukon' for netbook gold rush

Roadmap for mini-laptops revealed

AMD has, as expected, announced its plan to tackle arch-rival Intel's dominance of the netbook arena. But its efforts will centre on a new CPU: a 45nm dual-core part dubbed 'Conesus'. Due sometime next year, Conesus contains 1MB of L2 cache - 512KB per core, presumably - and a DDR 2 memory controller. That broadly matches the …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 10:34
Guns N' Roses blogger to walk

Noises in head punishment enough?

The US blogger arrested for uploading tracks from Chinese Democracy, the long-awaited Guns N'Roses/Axl Rose album, is not likely to serve prison time. Kevin Coghill, 27, from Culver City, California, was originally charged with a felony carrying a possible five-year jail term but this has been reduced to a misdemeanour for …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2008, 10:54
Google to launch iPhone voice search app

'How can I unlock this phone?'

Google is set to launch an iPhone application that’ll let you search the web using the power of speech. Simply boot up the app, tell it what you’d like to know, and it’ll display its findings in the iPhone’s web browser window. According to a report by the New York Times, the app converts your audio search request into a …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 11:05
MoD seeks 'budding Qs' in SME engagement push

Pops open ~~porkbarrel~~ small tin of spam

The UK Ministry of Defence says it is keen to hear from "budding Qs who think they could supply the armed forces of the future with high-tech gadgets and gizmos". To that end, the MoD has organised an "innovation day" at Glasgow University. "The Support for Operations seminar is our way of taking the Centre for Defence …

Small Biz 14 Nov 2008, 11:13
AMD 'Fusion' CPUs slip to 2011, roadmap reveals

More GPU-less CPUs coming in the meantime

AMD's first quad-core processor for notebooks will arrive in 2010 before being superseded a year later by a four-core part aimed at both laptops and desktops - and AMD's first, late 'Fusion' chip. The chip maker's latest roadmap lines up 'Caspian' as the successor to 'Griffin', its current top-of-the-line dual-core mobile CPU …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 11:14
Tens of thousands of kids need to be protected from ContactPoint users

So says UK.gov

Data on about 55,000 children will need to be protected from estranged and abusive family members, or because they are under police protection, according to figures from local authorities. The protected information - part of the forthcoming ContactPoint child protection database - will include their address and details of the …

Government 14 Nov 2008, 11:25
Judge says tech-addled jurors undermine justice

Comment 12 googled men and true

After years of complaints that judges may not always be in touch with the modern world, one judge hit back last week by suggesting that younger jury members may be too conditioned by technology to give defendants a fair trial. Worse, they are so used to doing their own research online that they have wrecked several major trials …

Law 14 Nov 2008, 11:47
Shoden takes lego approach to de-duped mainframe VTL

SI builds acronym edifice

Better mousetraps selling for less money seem a good idea in straightened times. That's what a South African system integrator has built and is using to expand into the UK. The product is QuickRecover, a de-duplicating mainframe virtual tape library (VTL). Shoden Data Systems partners with Hitachi Data Systems, Luminex, Data …

Channel Register 14 Nov 2008, 11:52
Piaggio MP3 to beat Chevy Volt to plug-on mass production

'Leccy Tech Bella

Looks like the Chevy Volt may be pipped to the post as the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid by, well, a motor scooter. Piaggio's MP3 Hybrid and friend It's the plug-in hybrid version of Piaggio's MP3 recently unveiled at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan. The regular MP3 currently comes with a choice of 125, 250 or …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 11:53
BOFH: The paperless cafeteria

Episode 37 A movement builds

"How's that paperless office coming along then?" the Boss asks enthusiastically as he enters Mission Control on his daily constitutional. "Paperless office?" the PFY asks. "Yes, you were saying the other day that we should go to paperless." "No I was saying how our printing and copying contract was extortionate," the PFY …

BOFH 14 Nov 2008, 11:59
Tory MP smacks Labour about the balls

Thinking of England at every stroke

A Tory MP from Surrey has exposed Labour's efforts to curry favour with international businessmen by showering them with branded premium golf balls. Humfrey Malins, MP for Woking, the quotidian neighbour to Surrey county town Guildford, uncovered the balls for businessmen scandal after venturing into the rough on a recent …

Government 14 Nov 2008, 12:35
India draws up own Google Earth plan

Space programme spin-off

India is planning to create its own version of Google Earth on the back of its successful moon mission. The Indian Space Research Organisation launched Chandrayaan-1 last month - it will orbit the Moon for two years at a height of about 100km and carry out mineral and chemical surveys of the surface. The mapping project, …

Bootnotes 14 Nov 2008, 12:37
Half Life hacker refused FBI sting bait

German cracker now faces US DDoS-for-hire charges

Games developer Valve worked with the FBI to set up a sting operation to capture a suspected hacker soon after source code for Half Life 2 leaked onto P2P networks in 2003. The source code of the then-unreleased shoot-em-up game began circulating in September 2003. The breach that lead to the leak was traced back to an attack …

Crime 14 Nov 2008, 12:41
Sweden judges back Pirate Hunter Act

But government sailing against the tide

Resistance to a new anti-file sharing law dubbed by some as the Pirate Hunter Act is mounting in Sweden. More than 22,000 members have joined a group called Stoppa IPRED ('Stop IPRED') on Facebook, which has bombarded Swedish parliament members with protest mails. Youth organisations and all of the centre-right political parties …

Law 14 Nov 2008, 12:44
HTC Touch HD Windows Mobile smartphone

Review Beautiful big screen

Has the discussion about what might be the ‘iPhone killer’ become irrelevant yet? Yes, the iPhone is a great multimedia device, but it's easily beaten in other, now traditional, phone feature categories. It’s horses for courses. So where is the device that can beat it at its own game - in other words, it's great screen and …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 13:02
NASA's CO₂-scan sat arrives at launch site

Two year atmo-mapping mission to get facts on carbon cycle

NASA's first satellite dedicated to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide has arrived at its launch site. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will take off from Vandenberg airforce base in January. According to the space agency, the spacecraft will help to "solve some of the lingering mysteries in our understanding of Earth's …

Space 14 Nov 2008, 13:07
Warrington first to get Virgin Media 50Mb/s

Free two-month trial for 200 punters

Virgin Media has invited 200 customers in Warrington in Cheshire to be the first to try its forthcoming 50Mb/s broadband package at no extra cost for two months. The cable firm has upgraded its network to support the DOCSIS3 standard. The rollout has recently been cited by regulators and politicos as evidence of the UK's …

Telecoms 14 Nov 2008, 13:08
IQstor claims highest-density drive array

Is there room for another drive array manufacturer?

Here's a new storage array for channel players looking for an edge, a more-for-less product. It's a 52TB, 4U box with SAN software that can scale up past a petabyte and comes from a supplier - IQstor - most of us have never heard of, as it supplies smaller OEMs. Now it's looking to supply system integrators and VARs. …

Storage 14 Nov 2008, 13:16
Reg Reader 'bitch of a survey' transformed into beautiful webcast

Reg Tech Panel Building applications for the 21st century

Earlier this month we polled you, our beloved readers, for your thoughts about application development and software platforms. We freely admitted that this was a "bitch of a survey". But more than 500 of you replied. We're very, very grateful to you. Armed with your responses, we are making a couple of webcasts aimed at IT pros …

Tech Panel 14 Nov 2008, 13:52
FTC sues internet 'loan sharks' for deceptive lending

Accused of'abusive and deceptive' collection tactics

Alleged internet payday loan sharks are being sued for failing to disclose loan terms and strong-arm collection tactics by US consumers watchdogs. The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Nevada have charged 10 related internet payday lenders, many based in the UK but trading in the US, with supplying unethical loans that …

Law 14 Nov 2008, 13:57
Auntie Beeb's amazing, evolving, ID card stories

Rewriting history as it happens...

On the 6th of November the BBC announced to an astonished world that "People 'can't wait for ID cards'. Breathlessly repeating the words of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's speech that morning, Auntie reported: "I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2008, 14:11
'Ruggedised, weaponised' raygun modules now on sale

FIRESTRIKE™: still too heavy for the average shark

US killtech behemoth Northrop Grumman has has said that it is ready to take orders for the "world's first ruggedised, weaponised high energy solid state laser designed for battlefield applications". The raygun module is dubbed FIRESTRIKE™. Overkill, you might say, just for lighting campfires. "This is a rugged electric …

Science 14 Nov 2008, 14:19
Sony unveils 12Mp cameraphone sensor

Portable photography, pimped

Sony has developed a 12.2-megapixel CMOS sensor for use in mobile phones, which will become available to mobile makers early next year. An image snapped with Sony's 12.2Mp sensor The electronics giant’s claimed that its IMX060PQ sensor boasts the industry’s smallest cell size – 1.4µm – and that the 12.25-megapixel effective …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 14:22
Sun slashes up to 6,000 jobs

Something's got to give - and it did

Before the markets opened on Wall Street this morning, Sun Microsystems did what most of us expected it would soon do after years of flatline revenues and a lack of profits or losses in many quarters: slash the employee headcount again, and this time a little deeper to appease investors and to get back to profitability. Sun …

Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 14:49
Nominet top brass reject resignation call

And deny calling in Mandelson

The executives in charge of Nominet, the not-for-profit company responsible for the .uk web address registry, have rejected calls from elected directors to resign and face a vote of confidence from members. CEO Lesley Cowley told The Register that she and chairman Bob Gilbert would not call a company meeting in response to …

Telecoms 14 Nov 2008, 15:04
Hubble snaps planet orbiting distant star

First visible-light image of gravitationally-bound world

The Hubble space telescope has captured the first visible-light image of an exoplanet orbiting a star - a body no greater than three Jupiter masses, gravitationally-bound to Fomalhaut in the constellation Piscis Australis. Dubbed Fomalhaut b, the planet lies at 10.7 billion miles from Fomalhaut and 1.8 billion miles inside the …

Space 14 Nov 2008, 15:07
US Dept of Agriculture rubbishes Amish anti-RFID push

'Buttons are proud and vain, not plain'

Amish farmers attempts to prevent RFID tags being used in cattle have been attacked by the US Department of Agriculture on the grounds that it's not mandatory, and therefore can't be considered a breach of religious rights. The USDA has recommended the dismissal of the case, Wired reports, and points out that the plan for …

Wireless 14 Nov 2008, 15:40
Obama names techies to transition squad

Not all bankers and lawyers

President-elect Barack Obama has named his agency review team, which checks on the work of individual government departments and offers strategic advice before Obama is sworn in at the end of January. Among the usual academics, policy wonks and lawyers there are some representatives from the IT industry. Don Gips is one of …

Government 14 Nov 2008, 15:50
Yes! It's the GPS game!

GPS gives loners new lease of life

GPS-enabled phones are great if you’ve got places to go and things to do. But what if you’ve no friends and nowhere to go? Well, simply download the game that turns GPS navigation into a solo pastime. GPS Mission: use GPS to find checkpoints, answer questions and get to the checkpoint before the time runs out In GPS Mission …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 15:56
Northamber confirms channel of misery

Who'd be a distie?

Hardware distie Northamber confirmed tough times in an interim statement to the Stock Exchange today. Back in June the firm's chairman David Phillips said: "Within an area of largely discretionary expenditure and a lack lustre start to the year, it is simply not possible to provide any guidance, beyond our determination to …

Channel Register 14 Nov 2008, 16:28
India plants flag on Moon

'Impact probe' crash lands to glory

India has become the fourth nation to join the stuff-on-the-Moon club, after the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit successfully launched an impact probe at the lunar surface this afternoon. The 35-kg impactor was blazoned with the Indian flag. "It will signify the entry of India on Moon," an Indian Space Research …

Space 14 Nov 2008, 16:55
Lenovo pitches passcode-protected external hard drive

No number, no data

Lenovo has launched a portable hard drive with an integrated numerical security pad, designed to divert would-be data thieves. Lenovo's HDD is passcode protected Image courtesy of Wired Once you’ve set a six- to twelve-digit combination on the ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Hard Drive, you’ll be required to enter the number …

Reg Hardware 14 Nov 2008, 17:29
Adobe proposes open access to app stores

Operators scramble for a piece of the pie

Despite its co-dependent relationship with the iPhone, O2 UK plans to launch its own developer community and app store next year, which could put non-Apple handsets in a better position to compete with the iPhone and its App Store. O2's Litmus project The project, called Litmus, will offer developers virtual access to 40+ …

Mobile 14 Nov 2008, 18:07
AVG slaps Trojan label on Adobe Flash

Third false alarm follows upgrade offer

AVG, the popular anti-virus package, has falsely identified Adobe Flash as potentially malicious. The snafu comes just days after AVG slapped a bogus Trojan warning on a core Windows component. Users on AVG forums complained on Friday that Adobe Flash was detected by AVG's scanner as malicious, following a recent update. The …

Malware 14 Nov 2008, 18:13
Clearwire looks to white space for savings

New network approved, needs paying for

While the white space vote might have got all the attention last week - along with that other vote - the FCC also approved the creation of "New Clearwire" and it turns out that the two votes could well prove complementary. The vote was passed 5-0 and will allow Google and friends - including Time Warner, Comcast, and Intel - …

Wireless 14 Nov 2008, 18:26
Spare Backup signs Carphone Warehouse

Laptop cloud backup

You will soon be able to backup content on your Carphone Warehouse laptop to a data centre in the cloud, as Carphone W has signed a deal with Spare Backup. Spare Backup backs up a computer's content to its data centres in the cloud. It's a Nirvanix, Carbonite, and Mozy competitor, and it's been signing up consumer-facing …

Storage 14 Nov 2008, 18:31
Still sending naked email? Get your protection here

Security How-to Buckle your seatbelt, encrypt your bits

In this age of brazen, warrantless wiretaps and never-ending data breaches, you'd think email encryption would be considered de rigueur. Alas, even among the digerati it's rarely given the time of day because encryption is seen as an exotic undertaking that brings more hassle than benefit. To be sure, incorporating a robust …

Security 14 Nov 2008, 20:22
Microsoft nobbled ‘Vista-Capable’ for Intel

Unlocked court papers show email trail

High-ranking Microsoft and Intel executives were involved in a plan to re-write the Windows Vista Capable program to save both companies - and OEMs - millions of dollars, according to unsealed court documents. Microsoft removed a key requirement from the Vista Capable program so PCs running old Intel chips suited to Windows XP …

Operating Systems 14 Nov 2008, 21:25
Obama inaugurates YouTube-side chats

'Good evening, friends, Tron guy, Star Wars kid, sneezing panda...'

US President-elect Barack Obama plans to use YouTube to modernize the traditional White House weekly radio address. In addition to audio, Obama will for the first time release a video recording of the Democratic address this Saturday, his office said today. The video will be posted to Obama's transition site, Change.gov. " …

Music and Media 14 Nov 2008, 21:38
Papermaster countersues IBM over Apple gig

'Your chip secrets are safe with me'

Apple executive-in-waiting Mark Papermaster is countersuing his former employer IBM for attempting to bar his employment in Cupertino. IBM recently sued the former chip guru and longtime staffer in New York federal court, accusing him of breaking his non-compete agreement. Big Blue says his intimate knowledge of IBM's Power …

PCs & Chips 14 Nov 2008, 23:15