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18th November 2008 Archive

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  • PETA cooks up gory game in Cooking Mama protest

    Shut the pluck up

    Animal Rights group PETA has designed a gory cooking videogame that’s definitely not for vegetarians, because it’s intended to shame the Cooking Mama videogame series which the group’s claimed is too meat focused. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com To play the fullsize version click here Cooking Mama …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 00:02

  • Happy Birthday, Turing's universal machine

    Solving the unsolvable

    It's just 71 years ago this month that a seminal paper from Alan Turing was published, which helped pave the way to today's multi-billion dollar IT industry and confer on Turing the title of father of modern computer science. As is often the case in scientific endeavour, Turing was actually working on an entirely different …

    Science 18 Nov 2008, 00:21

  • French record labels sue, um, SourceForge

    Open source haven thumped for harboring P2P app

    The French music industry is suing four US-based companies for distributing P2P applications that can potentially be used to illegally share music. Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF), a group representing French record labels, is targeting Limewire, Morpheus, and Vuze (formerly Azureus) in the …

    Law 18 Nov 2008, 00:29

  • 25 years of Macintosh - the Apple Computer report card

    Part One What Steve hath wrought (from A to F)

    In two short months, Apple's Macintosh will turn 25 years old. My, how tempus doth fugit. To mark the awesome inevitability of January 24, 2009 following January 24, 1984 after exactly one quarter-century, tech pundits will bloviate, Apple-bashers will execrate, and Jobsian fanboyz will venerate the munificence that flows …

    Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 00:43

  • Jerry! Yang! to! quit! as! Yahoo! CEO!

    Board seeks new boss

    Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang is quitting the company's CEO post, five months after rejecting a $47.5bn takeover bid from Steve Ballmer and Microsoft. The company announced late today that its board is searching for a new CEO, and once it finds one, Yang will return to his former post: "Chief Yahoo!" Chairman Roy Bostock - who …

    Financial News 18 Nov 2008, 02:58

  • Adobe CTO calls for JavaScript coordination

    Adobe MAX Standards that suit

    Adobe Systems' chief technology officer has placed his faith standards bodies to help overcome Balkanization in an important web technology, despite losing a recent round of vendor combat. Kevin Lynch said at MAX that Adobe would continue participation in bodies like ECMA, even though they aren't moving as fast as his company …

    Developer 18 Nov 2008, 04:01

  • Feds prep gov domains for net address server swap

    DNSSec rising

    The US federal government is showing tangible progress as it works to meet a January deadline to implement a sweeping overhaul of its internet address servers, a move designed to harden them against attacks that could send millions of users to impostor sites run by scammers. Paving the way for a technology known as DNSSec, …

    Security 18 Nov 2008, 04:29

  • Gartner: open source software 'pervasive'

    Here, there, not everywhere

    It is a wise manager that does not make decisions based on the survey data put together by the major IT market researchers. But sometimes a skinny bit of survey data is all you have to start with, and that data is better than no data at all - particularly if you're trying to make a case to upper management either for or against …

    Applications 18 Nov 2008, 04:45

  • Privacy watchdog issues guidance on FOI exemptions

    Tips on keeping secrets

    Public authorities who want to keep information secret to protect the commercial interests of companies they work with must explain exactly what damage will be done by disclosure, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said. The privacy regulator has issued three sets of guidelines on when public authorities can keep …

    Law 18 Nov 2008, 07:02

  • agámi sales VP casualty finds home

    Nexsan gains from wreckage

    Michael McGuire, described as an ex Sun VP for Americas storage sales, has joined Nexsan, where he becomes the grandly titled Chief Commercial Officer. In fact he joins from the data highway road kill that was once known as agámi. His title translates into being responsible for worldwide sales, marketing and business …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 2008, 08:02

  • Virgin Mobile Lobster 621 budget phone

    Review Low-end price meets mid-range feature set

    Virgin’s bizarrely named Lobster brand of youth-oriented mobiles tends towards the cheap and cheerful an the emphasis on value for money rather than specs with big numbers. And so it is with the 621, which wouldn’t raise any tech-head eyebrows with its spec sheet, but still manages to impress by packing in a few functions that …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 09:02

  • SuperSpeed USB 3.0 spec finalised

    Ten times the speed of USB 2.0

    USB 3.0 is complete, the group of companies behind the project announced last night. The specification is now officially at version 1.0. Also known as SuperSpeed USB, the device-connection technology has a peak throughput ten times greater than USB 2.0's 480Mb/s. SuperSpeed uses new ports to deliver the greater bandwidth. But …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 09:04

  • Chips are down for Transmeta

    Silicon Valley darling sold

    The low power chip company Transmeta has been sold to Novafora - the VC-backed "video processor" firm. Novafora is paying $255.6m(£169.8m), or between $18.70 and $19.00 a share, for the company. The deal has been approved by Transmeta and Novafora's directors but still needs shareholder, and regulator, approval. The deal …

    PCs & Chips 18 Nov 2008, 09:23

  • Adobe, profs working on web time-machine app

    'Zoetrope' travels into distant past 1990s

    A collaborative effort between Adobe and the University of Washington intends to offer a new web archiving and search app called Zoetrope, which would allow users to search past versions of the web as well as what is out there at the moment. "Your browser is really just a window into the Web as it exists today," says Eytan …

    Applications 18 Nov 2008, 09:55

  • Roachzilla menaces Florida

    Lizard owners fingered for monster cockroach threat

    University of Florida scientists have warned that several species of imported giant cockroach, favoured by reptile owners as an alternative to putting crickets on the menu, could escape and thrive in the state's roach-friendly climate. The potential threats include the Madagascar hissing cockroach - which grows up to five …

    Biology 18 Nov 2008, 10:01

  • NASA images LA wildfires

    Aqua satellite in smoke detector mode

    NASA has released an image captured on 16 November by its Aqua satellite, showing the extent of the California wildfires which, the BBC estimates, had by yesterday destroyed a total of 800 homes and razed roughly 22,000 acres (8,900 hectares): NASA explains: "This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( …

    Space 18 Nov 2008, 10:12

  • Intel Core i7 'Nehalem' CPUs go on sale

    Old-gen 'energy efficient' quad-cores coming

    Intel's first 'Nehalem' processors, the desktop Core i7 series, is now on sale, but that hasn't stopped it adding new Core 2 Quad chips to its roadmap. The 45nm four-core Core i7 line-up comprises the 2.66GHz 920, the 2.93GHz 940 and the 3.2GHz 965 Extreme. All three contain 8MB of L2 and L3 cache, and an on-board memory …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 10:47

  • Apple releases MacBook trackpad fix

    No more unrecognised glass-trackpad taps?

    Apple has finally pulled its finger out and released a firmware update to fix issues with the multi-touch glass-covered trackpad on its new MacBooks. Apple's firmware fixes the glass trackpad's problems According to the Mac maker, the update addresses an issue that can prevent trackpad clicks from being recognised on some …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 10:54

  • Carphone Warehouse plans for split after pre-tax loss

    Sprawling company still in 'good shape'

    Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone has launched a "formal review of the group's corporate structure" which could lead to the breakup of the telecoms group. Dunstone confirmed a split was possible as the firm unveiled interim results which showed a pre-tax loss and "headline" profits falling across the company's businesses …

    Mobile 18 Nov 2008, 11:02

  • Kim Kardashian in Miami beachslapping

    Shift your arse, love, we're trying to work here

    Since Kim Kardashian is now officially El Reg's stand-in celebutard - assuming vital no-IT-angle-whatsoever duties whenever Paris Hilton drops off radar - we think it only right and proper to bring you news that the amateur grumble flick star had her not insubstantial derrière shifted off a Miami beach over the weekend after …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 2008, 11:04

  • The Long Fail: Web 2.0's faith meets the facts

    Guest opinion Hope is all you need

    The Long Tail has just had another run-in with large amounts of real-world data, and again come out the worse for wear. Tens of millions of music transactions were analyzed by economists and the shape of the sales distribution shows no resemblance to the Pareto (or Power) Curve, 1/x^n of the Long Tail, but a near perfect fit …

    Music and Media 18 Nov 2008, 11:13

  • Capita goes hunting in economic gloom

    Plans to gobble up those less fortunate than itself

    Capita Group Plc has issued a bright and breezy outlook for 2009 and said it expects the full-year results will be in line with predictions. The IT services company, whose contracts include payment collections from the UK’s TV licence holders and supplying newly launched websites for the NHS, issued an interim trading …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 2008, 11:28

  • SSH sniffer attack poses minor risk

    Shadow of a doubt

    UK security researchers have discovered hard-to-exploit cryptographic weaknesses in the Secure Shell (SSH) remote administration protocol. The shortcoming creates a potential means to recover the plain text of encrypted sessions, depending on remote access configurations. Potential attacks - which would take ninja-like hacking …

    Security 18 Nov 2008, 11:31

  • Smut email hubby claims iPhone glitch

    Lewd snap 'accidentally' attached

    A cheating hubby who apparently emailed the extramarital object of his affections a candid snap of himself via his iPhone claimed the whole thing was a glitch after his missus rumbled his dirty dealings. The whole sorry tale is outlined on this discussion, which begins: Please help! I took my husband's i-phone and found a …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 2008, 11:56

  • British pilots ramp up opposition to ID cards

    'Unfair' plan could prompt strike action

    The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) is meeting this weekend to decide what action to take over the government's decision to force airside staff at two airports to carry ID cards. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced the downsized trial at City of London and Manchester airports earlier this year. The UK's major …

    Government 18 Nov 2008, 12:15

  • MPs grill BBC heads over Manuelgate

    'A very serious editorial lapse', admits director general

    MPs at a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee have been giving BBC bosses a bit of a hard time over the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross Manuelgate scandal, the corporation reports. Auntie chairman Sir Michael Lyons and director general Mark Thompson appeared before an "ongoing inquiry into the commercial …

    Music and Media 18 Nov 2008, 12:23

  • Mobile phones will 'cut off' Al Qaeda

    US puts faith in mobe-issued boarding passes

    Michael Chertoff, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, reckons that putting boarding passes onto mobile phones will stop terrorists boarding planes with forged documents, and make the skies a safer place for all. Boarding passes are easily forged, as demonstrated by The Atlantic magazine last month, But the electronic …

    Government 18 Nov 2008, 12:34

  • First self-inflicted identity donor cards to ship in late 2009

    Criminal Records chief takes charge of rollout

    A "small number of citizens" will be issued ID cards in late 2009, says the Home Office. These will be the throngs of people who can't wait for ID cards discovered by Jacqui Smith earlier this month, when she said she wanted to "find a way to allow those people who want a card sooner to be able to pre-register their interest as …

    Government 18 Nov 2008, 12:56

  • Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 dual-GPU graphics card

    Review One card, two very fast graphics chips

    The thinking behind the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 seems quite clear. One 4870 and a bunch of GDDR 5 is the basis for a decent graphics card that costs £200-240 but lacks the grunt to take on the GeForce GTX 280. Join two 4870s together on a single card and you have the "fastest gaming graphics card in the world", allegedly. As an …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 13:02

  • Microsoft rolls out online Exchange and Sharepoint for the US

    Just dollars a user a month

    Microsoft added another rung to its online rope ladder yesterday with the general release of its web-based Sharepoint and Exchange products aimed at business customers in the US. Sharepoint Online and Exchange Online had been available in beta since early March as part of Microsoft’s long-winded hosted collaboration effort. …

    Applications 18 Nov 2008, 13:04

  • Palin webmail 'hack' trial delayed

    Time-out for computer forensics

    The trial of the student accused of breaking into the email account of Sarah Palin in the run-up to the US presidential election has been pushed back to next May. David Kernell, 20, was originally due to face trial on December 16, but the case is now scheduled for 19 May. Kernell, the son of Tennessee Democrat legislator Mike …

    Crime 18 Nov 2008, 13:16

  • EC slams national cybercrime responses as inadequate

    Super regulator back on the agenda?

    The European Commission has launched a consultation on how it can strengthen the European Union's response to computer attacks. The Commission is canvassing views ahead of a debate early next year about an EU-wide coordination of computer security. A statement from the Commission said that responses to cyber-attacks from …

    Crime 18 Nov 2008, 13:30

  • Christmas NXE comes early

    Preview program punters given update first

    Microsoft has released its New Xbox Experience (NXE) earlier than expected, but only to gamers signed up to the preview scheme. The software giant’s spokesman, Major Nelson, said on his official blog that everyone who applied to the preview - and submitted a valid console ID – will receive the download “within the next few …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 13:48

  • Kodak sues LG, Samsung over camera patents

    Let the fight begin

    Kodak has filed a lawsuit against LG and Samsung in which it claims the duo have trampled over some of its digital camera patents. Image capture, video preview, and compression and data storage patents were granted to Kodak between 1993 and 2001. The camera giant – which is thought to own about 1000 camera patents in all – has …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 13:53

  • HP beats street on Q4 but reins in Q1 outlook

    Uncommon currency hurts revs

    HP made some rivals realise just how badly they're doing when it today announced preliminary fourth quarter results that showed it edging ahead of analysts' forecasts. At the same time it showed it was not entirely immune to the economic environment, as turbulence on the foreign exchange markets forced it to trim its outlook …

    Financial News 18 Nov 2008, 14:24

  • BNP membership list leaks online

    Rightwingers left exposed

    The British National Party has lost its membership list - the whole thing has been published online. The list includes names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all members up to September 2008. It also includes some people's ages, especially those under 18 - the BNP offers family membership for £40. Many entries …

    ID 18 Nov 2008, 14:31

  • Mobe firm gives birth to pair of kid tracking phones

    I can't sleep without Teddy Phone

    Not in the least discouraged by the abject failure of the last two attempts, Mobile Please has announced two new handsets aimed at paranoid parents while styled for their kiddies. The Teddyphone is aimed at the very young, while the G-Phone targets a slightly older demographic. Both handsets offer remote tracking and pre- …

    Mobile 18 Nov 2008, 14:50

  • InfiniBand and 10GbE break data centre gridlock

    Analysis Bandwidth bonanza in the data centre

    Data centre network pipes are getting choked up. Imagine Germany minus the autobahns or the US without interstate highways and you get the picture - cities trying to send goods and people by road to other cities and the single carriageway roads jamming up, consigning everybody to gridlock. What were quaint little cottage …

    Servers 18 Nov 2008, 15:06

  • DARPA seeks 'Machine Reading' AI auto-analysis bot

    Human analysts' unanimous view - it'll never work

    The US military is seeking revolutionary new AI software which would be able to read text - and so effectively do research - in the same way that humans do. The so-called "Machine Reading" ware would initially be used for such tasks as automated military-intelligence analysis, but it would have wide consequences in civilian life …

    Government 18 Nov 2008, 15:14

  • Endeavour pair prep for ISS spacewalk

    First mission STS-126 EVA this afternoon

    Endeavour mission STS-126 specialists Steve Bowen and Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper will this afternoon venture outside the International Space Station for the first of four planned spacewalks on this shuttle jaunt to the orbiting outpost. Endeavour and resident ISS Expedition 18 crew members yesterday used a robotic arm to attach …

    Space 18 Nov 2008, 15:37

  • Wacky Jacqui's £12bn gIMP could be unleashed by 2012

    But 'nothing decided' on comms überdatabase, says Home Office

    The government Interception Modernisation Programme (gIMP), a plan by spy chiefs to centrally collect details of every phone call, text, email and web browsing session of every UK resident, could be in place by 2012, according to a Home Office minister. Lord West told the House of Lords yesterday the government is aiming to …

    Government 18 Nov 2008, 16:04

  • PC virus forces three London hospitals into computer shutdown

    Too used to the other sort

    Three London Hospitals shut down their computer systems on Tuesday in response to a computer virus infection. Infection by the Mytob worm sparked the emergency response, involving St Bartholomew's (Barts) the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green. The three hospitals are members of …

    Enterprise Security 18 Nov 2008, 16:10

  • Lord Ahmed faces dangerous driving charge

    Investigation centred on text message sent before crash

    A Labour Peer has been charged with dangerous driving after allegedly sending text messages shortly before hitting a car on the M1 on Christmas Day, 2007. Lord Ahmed has been called to appear before Sheffield magistrates in connection with dangerous driving offences. He is accused of crashing his Jaguar X-type into a …

    Law 18 Nov 2008, 16:14

  • iPhone backup battery case launched

    To protect and charge

    Using the iPhone 3G to its full potential can quickly drain the battery. So accessory firm Incase has launched a case-cum-battery to provide the talker with a power reserve. Incase's Power Slider battery case for the iPhone 3G The Power Slider for iPhone 3G looks like any normal iPhone case – albeit, a bulky one – but it …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 16:27

  • World needs mobile phone wallets, cries trade body

    Near-Field Comms standardisation required

    Everyone should be able to use their mobile phone like a wallet as soon as possible, the world’s trade group for the mobile industry has demanded. The GSM Association (GSMA) wants Near-Field Communication (NFC) – the principal technology required to turn phones into digital-cash dispensers - to be built into commercially …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 16:30

  • Big Apple's Times Square gets eco-billboard

    Solar and wind power used

    New York’s Times Square is going eco-friendly, sort of. A giant billboard powered by solar and wind energy is to be installed at the city’s famous landmark. The billboard's powered by wind and solar power Images courtesy of the New York Times The curved billboard is equipped with 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels, the …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 16:59

  • Chrysler: the future's bright, the future's electric

    'Leccy Tech More ZEOs, fewer Peapods, please

    Lou Rhodes, Chrysler's VP of Advanced Engineering, has said electric cars are central to the motor company's future and key to "a long-term viable business for Chrysler." Some observers are questioning whether or not Chrysler actually has a future as an independent car maker, but not Rhodes, who sees the company prospering as …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 17:05

  • NXE fans tempted with refurb Xbox HDD offer

    Old drives, new uses

    The impending New Xbox Experience will require 128MB of storage when you download it. So Microsoft’s launched a storage upgrade offer to ensure gamers without HDD-equipped consoles can still join in. Hurrah! Reg Hardware's dusty Arcade is eligible If you’re an Arcade owner, then 128MB is a fair chunk of your memory card. So …

    Reg Hardware 18 Nov 2008, 17:06

  • EMC launches Data Protection Advisor

    Tape backup not enough

    For EMC users, the tape backup world is not enough. These days, data is backed up to disk, deduplicated, and - horror of horrors - EMC shops might have NetApp and Data Domain boxes in them. So EMC has upgraded its Backup Advisor product to reflect these facts of life. It acquired WysDM in April 2008 so that it owned the code …

    Storage 18 Nov 2008, 17:43

  • Tron sequel already in production

    Arguably the most long overdue sequel ever

    Tron - quite possibly the best example of a movie that could benefit from a legitimate sequel - is finally getting one. And who knew? A few dedicated - and better informed - film buffs maybe. But for the rest of us sci-fi supporters, certainly on this side of the Pond, it remained a secret. It is being directed by Joseph …

    Entertainment 18 Nov 2008, 17:45

  • Intel celebrates Core i7 launch with Dell and Gateway

    San Francisco shindig

    Intel celebrated the official launch of its Core i7 processor at an event last evening in San Francisco, featuring the first high-end desktops running the next-generation micro architecture. It's spinning the chip family offering as "the fastest processor on the planet." Indeed, by our count, they're certainly monsters. …

    PCs & Chips 18 Nov 2008, 18:42

  • Michael Dell heralds supercomputing fourth wave

    SC08 Just like the third wave - with more marketing

    The annual Supercomputing 2008 trade show kicked off this morning in Austin, Texas with a sales call keynote by local billionaire and sometime HPC player, Michael Dell. As chairman and once again chief executive officer of a company that's trying to make a more substantial run at the HPC area, he can be forgiven (perhaps) for …

    Servers 18 Nov 2008, 19:10

  • Visual Studio 2010 - reading the Redmond runes

    Preview Big release, big Windows tie in

    Visual Studio is locked so closely to Microsoft's platform that it cannot be prised apart and assessed in isolation. The forthcoming Visual Studio 2010, for better or worse, continues this tradition. While full details on Visual Studio 2010 are not yet available, we have been able to piece together a fair amount by attending …

    Developer 18 Nov 2008, 19:44

  • Dead network provider arms Rustock botnet from the hereafter

    McColo dials Russia as world sleeps

    McColo, a network provider that was yanked offline following reports it enabled more than half the world's spam, briefly returned from the dead over the weekend so it could hand-off command and control channels to a new source, security researchers said. The rogue network provider regained connectivity for about 12 hours on …

    Security 18 Nov 2008, 20:13

  • Sun measures HPC backorders in petaflops

    SC08 Layoffs? Let's talk new iron

    Hot on the heels of job cuts that will see some 5,000 to 6,000 company employees given pink slips, John Fowler, the executive vice president in charge of the newly constituted Systems Platforms group at Sun Microsystems, was on hand at the SC08 supercomputing trade show to give a preview of products that Sun will be rolling out …

    Servers 18 Nov 2008, 21:06

  • Adobe's Flex Builder to woo Microsoft C# developers

    Adobe MAX RIA lipstick wars

    The next version of Flex Builder will help Windows developers slap an Adobe-authored front-end on data-centric .NET applications. Adobe Systems today demonstrated Flex Builder client-side code talking to Microsoft's C# language via the Adobe Action Message Format (AMF). "This is AMG with .NET on the back-end," senior technical …

    Developer 18 Nov 2008, 22:06

  • Apple rescinds version change App Store ban

    Jobsian caprice smiles on CastCatcher

    Apple's iPhone caprice continues. Little more than a week after it banned version 1.3 of return7's CastCatcher internet radio service from the iPhone App Store, Apple has now decided the app doesn't warrant banning after all. return7 announced the reprieve on the company blog late last night. Versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 of …

    Mobile 18 Nov 2008, 22:08

  • Feds shutter one-stop stalker shop

    'Spy on anyone from anywhere'

    Federal watchdogs have shut down a website that advertised a comprehensive snooping service that included a stealthy trojan, online support, and a database that sorted and stored the confidential passwords, chat transcripts, and activities of those being stalked. The action by the Federal Trade Commission was taken against …

    Crime 18 Nov 2008, 22:16

  • Amazon's cloud spreads into content delivery

    Pay-as-you-go caching

    Amazon's ever-cumulating cloud is today rolling into the business of speedy Internet content delivery. The online bookseller today flipped the beta switch on Amazon CloudFront, a new service that caches high-traffic content on the company's worldwide network of edge locations so it's always near the end-user for low latency …

    Developer 18 Nov 2008, 22:22

  • Victoria & Albert overwhelms museum SAN

    We are not amused

    London's Victoria & Albert museum has overwhelmed its original SAN with digitised images of its collection and is moving to a new one with room to grow more than 50 times larger. The V&A has found that by becoming a museum without walls on the Internet, it has found there is a huge demand for on-screen access to its collection …

    Storage 18 Nov 2008, 22:34