1st December 2008 Archive

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LG GP08NU10 slimline portable DVD writer

Review Ready for any disc format. Ready for your netbook

Apple's MacBook Air may have put off some potential purchasers by eschewing a built-in optical drive, but it's not the only laptop to do so. The whole new wave of Small, Cheap Computers skimp on opticals for size and price reasons. Which is good news for makers of external optical drives, among them LG. Where once it would …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 09:02
HP cancels Christmas in the UK and Éire

Exclusive ~~Stationery~~ party cupboard is bare for British and Irish workers

Hewlett-Packard has told its UK and Ireland-based staff that the computer giant won’t be funding their Christmas celebrations this year because of the worsening economic climate. The company had originally divvied up £35 (€45) per head for its employees, who for much of the year have watched HP’s workforce dwindle under the …

Financial News 1 Dec 2008, 10:02
Wolves gather around Plasmon

With UDO going, Blu-ray is the only optical choice

The wolves are gathering around the wreck that is Plasmon with companies offering to migrate people off Plasmon's optical products and onto a format with a more dependable future. QStar Technologies of Maryland has products that it wants Plasmon customers to think of as potential Plasmon product replacements. It says that DISC …

Storage 1 Dec 2008, 10:11
Mandy preps list of UK businesses to save

Sorry mate, you're not on the list

Lord Mandelson of Foy is preparing criteria to decide which British businesses the government should save if they go bankrupt. Factors such as the number of employees and the amount of R&D a company carries out would help firms get on Mandelson's list. The minister for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform showed his …

Government 1 Dec 2008, 10:14
Endeavour down safely at Edwards

Operation Golden Barrel deemed successful

The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely at Edwards air force base in California yesterday, completing a 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle had been slated to set down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but weather concerns led to the use of the backup runway. Endeavour will be shipped back …

Space 1 Dec 2008, 10:16
Lord Lamont joins Phorm board

Four directors go

Four directors have left controversial ISP adware firm Phorm, including chairman of three months Stephen Heyer. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont is among their replacements. Heyer, a former Coca-Cola executive, was appointed non-executive chairman only in August. He replaced Ertugrul, who until then had …

Networks 1 Dec 2008, 10:52
Windows 7, June 2009 and the technologies of antitrust

Radio Reg Is Microsoft gettting its ship together?

Bundling’s come a long way since Microsoft was dragged through the US courts in the 1990s for wrapping Internet Explorer into Windows. With the up coming Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Release 2 and Silverlight 3, it looks like Microsoft’s taking a soft sell to get you to consume the trio without landing in hot water. …

Microbite 1 Dec 2008, 10:59
Blockbuster OnDemand coming to a Blu-ray player near you

Not just set-top boxes

Blockbuster will start integrating its OnDemand film download-to-rent service into Blu-ray players from early next year, the firm’s Chairman has revealed. The company unveiled a set-top box for its OnDemand rental service last week, but company Chairman Jim Keyes has since told website E-Commerce Times that “by the first …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 11:06
Auf Wiedersehen to 700 FSC workers

Can't be profitable with you

Fujitsu Siemens Computers is firing 700 employees in Germany to increase its profitability in a move it says is not connected to Fujitsu's buying out of Siemens AG's 50 per cent holding in FSC. FSC is jointly owned by Siemens and Fujitsu, but Siemens is selling out, receiving €450m ($580.5m) for its half share as it wants to …

Channel Register 1 Dec 2008, 11:07
Swiss Mindset reveals E-Motion sports EV

'Leccy Tech Not from the Italian side of Switzerland...

New pictures have emerged of Swiss car company Mindset's electric fast-back coupé type thing-a-me-jig, the E-Motion. Mindset's E-Motion: not good for baldies... An extended-range leccy vehicle like the Chevy Volt, the E-Motion will be driven by a 70kW electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack that will provide a range …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 11:21
Who's kicking whose ass when it comes to information delivery?

Mini Poll The challenge of exploiting information

When it comes to systems and processes for handling data and information, we've all heard about 'BI', data warehousing, content management, work flow and so on. However, if the challenge of 'exploiting information' were so easily dealt with, we'd presumably not be talking about such things so much. Except we are, and all the …

Systems 1 Dec 2008, 11:24
London hospitals back online after PC virus infection

Two week clean-up job nears completion

Computer systems at three London hospitals are almost back to normal two weeks after a computer virus forced staff to shut down its network. Computers at St Bartholomew's (Barts), the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and the London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green were taken offline on Tuesday 18 November following …

Malware 1 Dec 2008, 11:55
Apple eats video editing jobs

Farewell tape

Workers in the media industry face either an intoxicating future or one filled with doom because of Apple's Final Cut software and unifying digitisation removing layers of complexity from their work. That's the theme coming out of a tapeless media summit in held last week in London's Soho, a centre for media production and post- …

Storage 1 Dec 2008, 12:06
Nikon unveils flagship DSLR

Kevlar body

Nikon has unveiled its latest flagship digital SLR camera: the D3X, which boasts an enviable 24.5-megapixel CMOS sensor. Nikon's D3X: features a Kevlar/carbon-fibre shutter unit The high-spec shooter features an "Advanced Scene Recognition System" that Nikon claimed will produce “precise exposures and sharply defined images …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 12:13
Bittorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers

The next internet meltdown

Gamers, VoIP and video conference users beware. The leading BitTorrent software authors have declared war on you - and any users wanting to wring high performance out of their networks. A key design change in the P2P application promises to make the headaches faced by ISPs so far look like a party game. So what's happened, and …

Networks 1 Dec 2008, 12:29
Vista SP2 to land in April 2009-ish?

RTM date leaked on interwebs

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) looks set to hit manufacturers in April next year. According to Malaysian website TechARP.com, which has been rather good at playing the Microsoft release guessing game with both XP SP3 and Vista SP1, the operating system’s next service pack will land in April 2009. Microsoft spat out a beta …

Software 1 Dec 2008, 12:31
Sony Walkman S-series MP3 player

Review One of the finest sounding MP3 players available

Releasing two MP3 players onto the market at the same time doesn't strike us as a wholly smart thing to do. Releasing two that look pretty much identical and have equally silly names could well be the acme of foolishness. If you put them side by side, the Walkman S series and E series are not actually identical. At 89.5 x 43 x …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 13:02
Down the Digital River, into the heart of download darkness

Fail and You You may own the bits. But you can't have 'em

Before the internet, software distribution was cumbersome. While it was relatively cheap to reproduce computer code once it was written, sending floppy disks and CD-ROMs about created friction. Now, with heavy adoption of high speed connections, you can easily buy software and download it over the tubes. Bytes are bytes, no …

Applications 1 Dec 2008, 13:02
MSI readies netbooks with HDDs and SSDs

Hybrid Storage

MSI has turned to Intel's other Atom processor, the Z series, for its next netbooks. Announced in France last week, the U110 and U115 are both based on the 1.6GHz Atom Z530 - the same CPU Dell's using in its 12in netbook the Inspiron Mini 12. The Z530 was designed for handheld internet tablets. The U110 has 1GB of 533MHz DDR …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 13:03
NYT scribe: No bailout for Tesla-buying 'centimillionaires*'

'Moore's Law doesn't govern batteries' - well, duh

A New York Times columnist has launched an attack on the idea of electrocar poster-child firm Tesla Motors receiving "bailout" federal loans, saying that the company's products are toys for the super-rich. Tesla says that the only reason it wants the government money is to finance the production of more affordable cars; the …

Environment 1 Dec 2008, 13:15
McDonalds survey scam is super-size fraud

Fillet O'Phish

Phishing fraudsters are attempting to scam the credulous into handing over their credit card details on the basis of a supposed offer from McDonalds. The scam relies on spam emails to trick burger scoffers into answering a fictitious satisfaction survey that offer a non-existent reward of $75. After completing the quiz …

Crime 1 Dec 2008, 14:36
Tux makes home on the iPhone

Linux means never having to ask why

The iPhone DevTeam has managed to get a Linux image to boot up on an iPhone, at least to console level, though they've resolutely failed to explain why one would want to do such a thing. It's hard to imagine there are many iPhone users out there who love the hardware but are unhappy with the OS and interface, but that's never …

Mobile 1 Dec 2008, 15:11
Phorm, Norman Lamont, and the Broadband Stakeholder Group

Analysis Fibre investment forum denies conflict of interest

Norman Lamont is no stranger to unpopularity, so he should feel right at home on Phorm's board. He has presided over an economic disaster and defended the "honour" of a mass murdering dictator (General Augusto Pinochet, despot fans). Both episodes cast the controversy surrounding the Brave New World of ISP adware as relative …

Networks 1 Dec 2008, 15:14
New terror guidelines on photography

No change - but police continue to bend the law

New guidelines on the use of police stop and search powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in respect of individuals taking photos in public are to be published this afternoon, according to a spokesman for the National Police Improvements Agency (NPIA). Meanwhile, the police continue to demonstrate an uncanny knack …

Policing 1 Dec 2008, 15:26
MySQL creator kicks MySQL 5.1 team in the teeth

Monty chides Sun for premature, bug-riddled release

MySQL creator Michael “Monty” Widenius has gone on a noisy rant about last week’s release of MySQL 5.1 because Sun Microsystems has unleashed the database even though it still contains “fatal bugs”. Sun made the popular open source db generally available (GA) last Thursday following months of development. By Saturday Monty was …

Applications 1 Dec 2008, 15:58
Amazon and Nintendo cash in on e-reading

A paperback? What's that?

E-book readers are in high demand this year, so Amazon’s taken to selling “refurbished” Kindles. And Nintendo’s launched a mini library of novels for its DS handheld console. In the last week numerous sources have reported that Amazon’s own e-reader – Kindle – is in such high demand that the online retailer may not have enough …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 16:08
Championship cyclist injured playing Wii

Hopes to be back in the saddle soon

A British world champion cyclist has injured himself, but not during a steep up-hill ride or while navigating a winding French road. No, the injury occurred during... ahem... a Wii gaming session. Mark Cavendish, who won four stages of this year’s Tour de France, was playing a snowboarding game on his Wii when he slipped off …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 16:15
BMW intros MS Surface car customiser

Touch here for new car

Buying a new BMW looks set to become a much more hands-on process, because the car manufacturer’s begun using Microsoft’s Surface touchscreen ‘table’ to tempt drivers into buying its motors. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com In a promotional video, the German manufacturer describes how Product …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 16:17
How are you managed?

Mini Poll Taking tasking to task

Last week we asked whether IT systems could actually help to drive better business practice. However, as one comment mentioned, if the wrong things are measured then the behaviour of employees can end up skewed towards the metrics, hiding the desired results. "If I be a good obedient worker and do what's on the list, I do things …

Productivity 1 Dec 2008, 16:32
EU cybercrime strategy backs law enforcement Trojan

Remote searches? Nein danke

Remote searches of suspects' computers could become a mainstay of cybercrime investigations under a new EU strategy announced last week. The EU Council of Ministers also agreed closer cooperation between law enforcement agencies across Europe, including joint investigation teams. The five-year plan devised by the ministers …

Policing 1 Dec 2008, 16:50
Asus' G71 gaming quad-core notebook touches down

UK delivery of world's first quad-core gaming laptop

Asus has finally launched its quad-core gaming notebook into the UK, but it’ll set you back more than a pretty penny. Asus' G71: powered by Intel's four-core Core 2 Extreme QX9300 The G71 was first unveiled in October, when Asus claimed it was the world’s first quad-core gaming laptop. Although Alienware has since released …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 16:52
Nuke-nobbler raygun 747 in first full-power blast

Soon to fry the unfriendly skies

US aerospace globocorp Boeing is chuffed as ninepence today to announce the first full-power firing of its jumbo-jet-mounted, ICBM-toasting ray cannon - the Airborne Laser (ABL). The system saw "first light" in September, but this is the first time the big laser's knob has been turned up to full. ABL - if it flies, it fries …

Public Sector 1 Dec 2008, 17:12
Designer sets sights on visual impairment iPhone case

We didn't see that one coming

Visual impairment shouldn’t stop you from making the most of Apple’s iPhone, at least according to the inventor of a concept iPhone case with the blind in mind. This case supposedly helps the blind use an iPhone Designer Bruno Fosi said that his tactile silicon iPhone case is suitable for the visually impaired because of …

reghardware 1 Dec 2008, 17:24
Malware spread explains Pentagon USB ban

Agent infection hardly much of a battle

Pentagon systems and computers in warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan reportedly came under a malware-based attack last month. The infection promoted a recent ban of the use of USB stick and other forms of removable storage by the US military and also talk of cyberwar, which fails to stack up under close examination. An intrusive …

Security 1 Dec 2008, 18:33
IBM, HP annoy server buyers less than Dell, Sun

x64 FAIL meter

The annual x64 server customer survey, put together by Gabriel Consulting Group, is out this week, and the top four server makers in this subset of the server space - Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, and Sun Microsystems - have been given their report cards concerning how well they put together machines, deliver performance and …

Servers 1 Dec 2008, 19:23
FCC eyes free puritanical wireless vote

No-smut opt-out?

The Federal Communications Commission is set to consider chairman Kevin Martin's plan for free US-wide puritanical wireless broadband at its next meeting on December 18. Last week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Martin circulated a new version of the proposal among his four fellow commissioners, and according to an FCC …

Wireless 1 Dec 2008, 19:31
Grand Theft Auto IV PC debut gets SecuROM sideshow

Steal in this game. Don't steal this game

The upcoming PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV will install SecuROM 7 on customers' systems, although the game maker claims its properly de-fanged the detested DRM technology. Rockstar told the gaming site IGN that GTA IV's flavor of SecuROM won't limit the number of installs of the game, nor will it restrict the number of …

Applications 1 Dec 2008, 20:14
Biz travelers howl over US gov RFIDs

Border (in)security

A travel industry group has called on the US government to halt its use of new machinery that remotely reads government issued identification cards at border crossings until the safety of the new system can be better understood. Monday's call by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) follows similar requests by …

Security 1 Dec 2008, 20:32
HP squeezes 85 data centers into 'six-pack'

Hurd mentality

While bonuses are probably a little thin these days in the IT sector, it is a fair bet that Randy Mott, Hewlett-Packard's chief information officer, is going to be getting a pretty big one this year. That's because HP has finished up its three-year revamping of its IT operations more or less on schedule, removing $1bn in costs …

Servers 1 Dec 2008, 20:47
Microsoft Live Search goes Kumo?

The old Venezuelan switcheroo

Microsoft's confused internet search service could be in for another re-branding, although it faces a potential trademark hurdle. MicrosoftWatch blogger and MicroBite co-host Mary-Jo Foley has reported Microsoft's doubling down on the Kumo name that's been floated as a potential alternative to the current "Live Search" name. …

Applications 1 Dec 2008, 20:51
Amazon beckons world+dog onto database cloud

Free fluffiness

Amazon has invited world+dog onto its database in the sky. Today, the e-tailer/cloud builder slapped an unlimited beta tag on its SimpleDB cloud, offering online database processing to any developer unafraid of heights. SimpleDB is meant to play nicely with other Amazon Web Services (AWS) clouds, including Amazon S3 (for …

Developer 1 Dec 2008, 22:38
Online Black Friday sales better than flat

Can Cyber Monday® save etail?

Economic gloom hasn't plundered the stockings of US online retailers nearly as much as some had been expecting. In fact, online sales were up on Black Friday, the traditional start of the US holiday shopping season — but just barely. E-beancounting firm ComScore reports online retail sales on Black Friday were $534m, an …

Channel Register 1 Dec 2008, 22:47
Big iron sellers grow shipments, shrink revenues

Server price-lash

The box counters at Gartner have released their statistics for the worldwide server market in the third quarter of 2008, and the numbers are not good. But if there is an upside as we deal with the economic meltdown, the numbers could have been worse. And maybe they will be in 2009. But let's deal with 2008. In the third …

Servers 1 Dec 2008, 23:24