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5th December 2008 Archive

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  • NASA delays Mars tank launch until 2011

    Budget grows another $400m

    NASA will delay the launch of its nuclear-powered robotic tank to the surface of Mars by two years because of unresolved technical issues. The space agency is now aiming for a 2011 lift-off date for the Mars Science Laboratory. The delay will add $400m to the already over-budgeted Mars rover and likely force NASA to delay …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 05:54

  • Green Hills spins out military Integrity for masses

    An OS that secures OSes

    The military has always had better security than we can get on our computers, and Green Hills Software, a provider of a real-time, secure operating system called Integrity, wants to change that. To that end, the company has spun its Integrity operating system into a wholly owned subsidiary called Integrity Global Security and …

    Operating Systems 5 Dec 2008, 06:04

  • STEC director 'creative' with CV

    Non-existent qualifications result in Broadcom boot

    Vahid Manian, a board director of SSD supplier STEC, has been sacked by employer Broadcom after it was found that he may have conjured academic qualifications out of thin air. STEC's website lists him as a senior VP of Broadcom. That corporation has him listed as a senior VP of global manufacturing operations. The site's …

    Storage 5 Dec 2008, 06:09

  • What the heck is an IT Architect anyway?

    We really want to know...

    According to the dictionary on my computer, the origin of the word ‘architect’ is from the Greek: specifically, from arkhi, which means ‘chief’ and tektōn, which means ‘builder’. That sounds like a pretty good start for understanding the role of the architect in IT; the trouble is, in practice things appear to unravel pretty …

    Systems 5 Dec 2008, 06:10

  • IDC sees virtual desktops in corporate future

    Cost reduction cosh

    Corporates under the cost-reduction cosh and facing ever-rising PC costs will increasing turn to desktop virtualization says IDC, which has a report on the subject to sell. By shipping virtual desktops to PCs, notebooks, thin clients, and other possible end-point devices corporates can drastically reduce the costs of …

    Virtualization 5 Dec 2008, 06:16

  • HP claims market-topping 2.5-inch storage

    Update Our 300GB is bigger than your 300GB

    HP is shortly to launch a 300GB 2.5-inch hard drive claiming it will have "more storage capacity than any other SFF drive in the market." Both Fujitsu and Seagate's have 300GB 2.5-inch drives already. What's going on? El Reg was pointed to HP's Reality Check: Server Insights blog and found this: "Have you been waiting for …

    Storage 5 Dec 2008, 06:25

  • Government grants itself even more data sharing power

    But ever so quietly

    The government's proposals to increase data sharing between departments will be buried in the Coroners and Justice Bill - which is expected to be presented to the House of Commons today. The bill is expected to include measures covering the government's response to the Data Handling Review, which we covered here. In essence …

    Government 5 Dec 2008, 08:02

  • Sony Ericsson Walkman W902 mobile phone

    Review Image-conscious Walkman phone gets a snappier snapper

    Is there any real reason why a Walkman phone shouldn’t have a top spec camera like a Cyber-shot phone? With the W902, its first 5-megapixel camera-packing Walkman mobile, Sony Ericsson is attempting to address this often-asked question. While Sony Ericsson’s Walkman line-up have been consistently high quality music performers …

    Phones 5 Dec 2008, 09:02

  • Customs warns of killer consoles

    Dodgy Nintendo DSs

    Customs is warning shoppers looking for bargains this Christmas not to be fooled into buying fake Nintendo DS and DS Lite machines. HMRC has seized hundreds of dodgy machines at freight depots around the country. Nintendo has confirmed the machines are counterfeit and that the power supplies had not been tested and were …

    Law 5 Dec 2008, 09:11

  • Powerline Ethernet and ring mains

    Q&A

    I don't like wireless in my house with kids around. Powerline Ethernet sounds like a very good alternative, but I have a couple of questions I hope Register Hardware readers can answer... Do the units communicate with each other even when they'reon separate ring mains, ie. a ring main for upstairs and ring main for downstairs …

    Hardware 5 Dec 2008, 10:02

  • Atlantis Hubble mission set for 12 May

    Final servicing gig

    NASA has announced that the space shuttle Atlantis's STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope will finally blast off on 12 May next year. This final servicing jaunt to the venerable eye in the sky was delayed by the failure back in September of Hubble's operational data handling unit. NASA booted up a redundant back-up, …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 10:04

  • HP boxes Mother Earth into submission

    Aboxalypse now Further packaging outrages menace planet

    Forget global warming - HP is well on its way to thoroughly trashing the planet by dispatching kit in the biggest box it can lay its hands on, as witnessed by our previous shock coverage of packaging outrages here, here and here. Well, there's more. The chaps down at EduGeek last week took delivery of a fuser kit for an HP …

    Bootnotes 5 Dec 2008, 10:40

  • Logitech launches real wood guitar at virtual-axe Heroes

    Guitar Hero here we come...

    Logitech has shat all over those plastic Guitar Hero frets with the launch of a gaming axe that looks and handles like the real thing - because most of it actually is. Logitech's Wireless Guitar Controller The Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller’s body is solid, thanks to its real wood neck and rosewood fingerboard. The …

    Games 5 Dec 2008, 10:42

  • WIN a BlackBerry Storm!

    Competition The season's hottest handset could be yours

    Samsung Omina? 'Orrible! Apple iPhone? I don't think so! No, RIM's BlackBerry Storm is the touchscreen mobile to go for this season, says Vodafone, and it's going to give three lucky Register Hardware readers one of the in-demand handsets. The Storm - aka the 9500 - sports a 3.25in, 480 x 360 touchscreen. It's got quad-band …

    Phones 5 Dec 2008, 10:58

  • MIT boffins crack fusion plasma snag

    Chance of success at French megaproject enhanced

    Boffins at MIT say they have cracked some tricky problems in the design of power stations running on nuclear fusion, though they hasten to add that many more hurdles remain before fusion energy becomes a reality. "There's been a lot of progress," says Earl Marmar, head of the Alcator Project at the MIT Plasma Science and …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 11:13

  • Microsoft hires Yahoo! search boss

    Buying the company person by person

    Microsoft has hired a senior ex-Yahooer to run its loss-making internet search and advertising business. Dr Qi Lu joins Microsoft in January as president of its Online Services Group. Lu used to be executive vice president of engineering at Yahoo's search and advertising technology group - he left the firm in August after ten …

    Applications 5 Dec 2008, 11:19

  • Second Firefox 3.1 beta under starters order

    As Firefox 2.x disrobes anti-phishing and heads for retirement

    A second beta release of Firefox 3.1 is on the starting blocks, with the publication of an almost ready version of the latest edition of the open source browser due in days. A third beta is expected before Mozilla ships a final version of the software next year. Beta 2 of Firefox 3.1 includes a "web workers" feature that …

    Applications 5 Dec 2008, 11:25

  • Electric car seller hits brakes as UK EV sales plunge

    'Leccy Tech Shock for fans

    Electric cars sales have tanked in the UK. A mere 156 EVs were sold between January and October 2008, compared to 347 in the same period in 2007 - a drop of 58 per cent. To deepen the gloom, the Nice Car Company has gone into administration. Nobody was answering the phones at Nice this morning when Reg Hardware tried to seek …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 11:33

  • EU asks Google for privacy advice

    Hey, gorilla, what shall I do with this banana?

    Brussels has invited a senior Google lawyer and lobbyist to join a new quango to help it decide the future of European data protection legislation. "The aim of the group is to identify issues and challenges raised by new technologies. We are not reviewing the main data protection laws at present, but this could be a first step …

    Law 5 Dec 2008, 11:57

  • Craiglist rant man on criminal libel rap

    Falls foul of 'rarely used' Colorado statute

    A Colorado man who allegedly made anonymous postings on a Craigslist forum attacking his former girlfriend faces two criminal libel raps with a maximum tariff of 18 months' jail, the Los Angeles Times reports. J.P. Weichel, 40, was locked in a custody dispute with his ex-partner over their daughter when he "vented" on the " …

    Law 5 Dec 2008, 12:13

  • Acer unveils smartphone launch date

    Smart talkers coming soon

    The first Acer-branded smartphone will be launched in the first quarter of 2009, it has emerged. The company has officially confirmed the launch date, according to a report by DigiTimes. Unfortunately, Acer hasn’t been kind enough to state which phone(s) will be shown off upon launch, or in which regions its handsets will …

    Phones 5 Dec 2008, 12:17

  • South Korea spends big to become games powerhouse

    Millions to be pumped into sector

    The South Korean government wants its games industry to become a force to be reckoned with. So it’s promised to pump hundreds of millions of Won into the sector over the coming years. In a meeting held earlier this week, Yu In-chon, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister, said that KRW350bn ($237m/£161m/€186m) would be invested …

    Games 5 Dec 2008, 12:18

  • Missile Defence multikill space interceptor in hover test

    Vid Smartswarm module gets (23 feet) off ground

    The US Missile Defence Agency and American aerospace behemoth Lockheed is chuffed to announce that they have carried out successful hover tests of a Multiple Kill Vehicle space interceptor system this week. Here's a vid of the test, courtesy of the missile-defence people and YouTube (remember you need Flash and a multimedia- …

    Policy 5 Dec 2008, 12:32

  • BOFH: The Christmas party

    Episode 39 Treasure hunting, BOFH-style

    "...Which leads to the next item - the office Christmas function," the Boss says to the assembled masses of the IT department. "The office function or the building function?" one of the helldesk geeks asks. "Just the office," the Boss says. "The director and I have been talking and he's keen that we all do something …

    BOFH 5 Dec 2008, 12:43

  • RIM Vodafone BlackBerry Storm

    Review Attempts to take on iPhone, fails...

    RIM’s first BlackBerry to feature a touchscreen has been eagerly awaited for some time now, and after all the hype, you’d have thought it would have made a much better job of it. Now don’t get us wrong, the Storm’s not a terrible phone by any means, and there are parts of it that are very impressive, but RIM and Vodafone have …

    Phones 5 Dec 2008, 12:56

  • Armed robbers take Paris jewellers for £70m

    Cato! You imbecile! Not now!

    Armed robbers yesterday made off with "at least" £70m (€80m, $102m) in jewels after storming the prestigious Harry Winston store near Paris's Champs-Elysee and relieving the shop of pretty well all its stock. According to the BBC, roughly 10 customers and 15 staff were in the premises late yesterday afternoon when the four …

    Bootnotes 5 Dec 2008, 12:57

  • Medion marches out heavyweight entertainment laptop

    Home cinema notebook

    Supermarket-PC vendor Medion has blasted the wraps off the Akoya P8610 desktop replacement notebook, which features a Blu-ray drive and surround sound technology. The laptop's primarily aimed at punters looking for advanced multimedia features but still want the performance of a fully equipped PC. The P8610 features a whopping …

    Hardware 5 Dec 2008, 13:05

  • Facebook phone goes on sale

    INQ1 ships

    Social networking fanatics can now get their online fix when they're out and about, because 3 today began selling the INQ1 Facebook phone. 3's INQ1: for Facebook Although the INQ1 was announced quite a while back, 3 – the phone’s exclusive UK carrier – has kept mum until now about exactly when punters will be able to get …

    Mobile 5 Dec 2008, 13:10

  • HDS points customers at dashboard to dodge sales slowdown

    Making the expensive look affordable

    Hitachi Data Systems has a new Storage Economics software tool to make its expensive kit become more affordable. It's a dashboard backed by a spreadsheet showing CAPEX, OPEX and other savings from using HDS kit - good enough to have gained HDS a four-year storage migration deal with Norwich Union. The pitch is that when a …

    The Channel 5 Dec 2008, 13:21

  • 007 Warhead screenplay sold for £46K

    The Bond film that never was

    The 1976 screenplay for Warhead, a planned 007 outing penned by Sir Sean Connery, author Len Deighton and producer Kevin McClory, has sold at auction for £46,850, the BBC reports. The ill-fated project, eventually scuppered by legal issues, would have wowed the crowds with a classic roster of characters including Blofeld, …

    Bootnotes 5 Dec 2008, 13:22

  • Amazon MP3 fuels indie gloom

    Not exactly retail therapy

    Do you remember when the internet was supposed to "empower" new businesses, sweep away cartels and monopolies, and give a voice to the little guy? Well, unless you view increasing concentrations of power as a good thing, this week has been a bad one for the music economy. Amazon finally launched its MP3 download service in the …

    Media 5 Dec 2008, 13:28

  • Gaming add-on forces players to excercise

    'Now drop and give me twenty!'

    Wii Sports helps burn fat - until you put the controller down. But a new gaming gadget will force you to keep fit by keeping itself in control. Jog won't let you play unless you're jogging Jog is a sort of hi-tech pedometer that attaches to your trousers – or wherever else you’d care to keep it – and links up to the console …

    Games 5 Dec 2008, 13:36

  • How successful are business productivity initiatives?

    Are your pips squeaking yet?

    Businesses love the idea of cranking up productivity levels. It means they earn more per unit of expenditure. At least, that's the theory. The trouble is that people get in the way. The company will install equipment that works harder. And you can be sure that they will either exhort you to work harder or provide you with …

    Productivity 5 Dec 2008, 13:47

  • BitTorrent net meltdown delayed

    But is UTP the best approach?

    The internet's TCP/IP protocol doesn't work very well. As the internet's traffic cop, it's supposed to prevent applications from overloading the network, but it's at a loss when it comes to managing P2P applications. This deficiency, generally known to network engineers but denied by net neutrality advocates, has been a central …

    Broadband 5 Dec 2008, 13:48

  • Jacqui promotes police handhelds

    Wants more IT collaboration

    Home secretary Jacqui Smith has told Parliament that she wants police forces to introduce handheld devices quickly and to increase collaboration on IT. In a debate on the Queen's Speech on 4 December 2008, Smith said that police forces have already introduced 10,000 handheld devices and will bring in a further 20,000 over the …

    Law 5 Dec 2008, 14:54

  • Mobile social network brings adwords to SMS

    Wadja know it?

    Google's model of pimping out words used in searches comes to SMS messaging with a new service from Wadja, one that allows advertisers to sponsor specific words in text messages sent by members. Billing itself as the most visited, dedicated mobile social network site in Europe, Wadja has built up a significant number of …

    Mobile 5 Dec 2008, 15:25

  • EDS carpeted for struggling prison project

    Escape committee

    The Ministry of Justice has hauled in EDS for what promises to be a lively discussion about the future of the prisoner record programme. The National Offender Management Information Service (NOMIS) was meant to provide a central database for offender records to link prisons and the probation service. Offenders would have one …

    Government 5 Dec 2008, 15:27

  • Supplier sounds fake netbook warning

    HIS not making mini-laptops

    Graphics card maker HIS has warned punters off of netbooks bearing its brand - it didn't make them. The alert follows the appearance of an HIS-labelled mini-laptop in India. Pictures of the product look rather like the MSI Wind, but countless bloggers rushed to report HIS' entry into the netbook market. Not an HSI netbook …

    Hardware 5 Dec 2008, 15:40

  • Openreach reaching for more cash

    Ofcom consults on increased loop pricing

    Ofcom has opened a second consultation on increasing the amount that BT Openreach, the company that manages the UK's telephony infrastructure, can charge for access to phone lines. Back in 2006, when BT Openreach was set up, Ofcom agreed caps on the amount that the company could charge for access to the network. But those …

    Broadband 5 Dec 2008, 16:09

  • DARPA orders 'fridge-sized' laser energy cannon

    Giant GM sharks with strengthened necks expected

    American weaponry researchers have awarded a $21m contract for the design and development of a 150-kilowatt energy weapon, high-powered enough to blast missiles out of the sky yet light enough to be carried by a jet fighter. The cash-in the newly-inked deal goes to Textron Defence Systems, who will in return "fabricate and …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 16:22

  • Armed anti-paedophile cops swoop on video site uploader

    Baby swing vid prompts 'child abuse material' charge

    A video sharing website user who posted a clip of a man apparently swinging a baby around has had his house raided by an armed Australian police anti-paedophile squad. The user "Biggles9" has been charged with "accessing child abuse material, downloading child abuse material and uploading child abuse material with the intent …

    Law 5 Dec 2008, 16:40

  • Brits not turned on by mobile internet

    Think it's too expensive

    Less than one quarter of people with web-capable handsets actually make use of mobile internet services, it has been claimed. A survey, carried out on behalf of website Moneysupermarket, found that cost and functionality are the main barriers to usage. Around 70 per cent of the 2179 people questioned admitted they have no idea …

    Mobile 5 Dec 2008, 16:48

  • Cryptic formula hints at Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360

    Mysterious website hint

    Konami has offered a glimmer of hope to Xbox 360 gamers who’ve cried into their pillows because Metal Gear Solid 4 is a PlayStation 3 exclusive. What are we talking about? The game’s publisher has created an MGS website which suggests that the title will be launched on the Microsoft console. Crack the code to find the Xbox …

    Games 5 Dec 2008, 16:53

  • America loses 1.9 million jobs in 11 months

    IT is holding up, more or less

    Not only has the economy in the United States shed 533,000 jobs in November, but the US Department of Labor, whose Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report just before Wall Street opened this morning, now says many more jobs were cut in September and October than originally thought. The good news is that thus …

    Financial News 5 Dec 2008, 17:02

  • Amazon parks human genome on cloud

    Taps Exploits world of boffins

    In 1993, meat space bookseller Barnes & Noble started offering Starbucks coffee to augment customers' shopping experience. Not to be outdone, the Internet's largest bookseller has finally answered. Amazon announced yesterday that it will allow free, easy access to hard-to-find datasets like the human genome - and a few other …

    Science 5 Dec 2008, 17:53

  • EMC preps (limited) layoffs

    Company-wide efficiency drive

    EMC is responding to the deepening recession by laying off a small number of employees from around the company. Up until now, EMC has been focussed on controlling indirect spend - travel costs, for example - but the global recession is having its effect. In early November, CEO Joe Tucci sent around an e-mail saying that …

    Financial News 5 Dec 2008, 18:21

  • Apple spreads 300 million iPhone apps

    Paid or free?

    Thanks to Macworld's iPhone Central, we learn today that Apple has purchased full-page ads in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that include the news - in small print at the bottom of the ads - that the iTunes App Store has now distributed "over 300 million" iPhone apps from a total of "over 10,000" titles …

    Mobile 5 Dec 2008, 19:11

  • Pair arrested over leaked BNP list

    Data Protection Act offences alleged

    Welsh police have arrested two Nottinghamshire people over last month's leak of the BNP membership list to the internet. According to The Guardian, the police said the pair were held in connection with alleged offenses under the UK Data Protection Act. "We can confirm that last night Nottinghamshire police arrested two people …

    Security 5 Dec 2008, 19:20

  • IBM discounts Power servers (again)

    Woos new buyers

    A few weeks ago, IBM offered customers using its AIX variants of its Power5, Power5+, and Power6 machines discounts on processor activations for installed iron and offered customers with Power5 and Power5+ machines in the System p 590 and 595 machines discounts. These discounts were as high as 60 per cent on older Power5 and …

    Servers 5 Dec 2008, 19:34

  • New trojan in mass DNS hijack

    Single box pollutes entire LAN

    Researchers have identified a new trojan that can tamper with a wide array of devices on a local network, an exploit that sends them to impostor websites even if they are hardened machines that are fully patched or run non-Windows operating systems. The malware is a new variant of the DNSChanger, a trojan that has long been …

    Security 5 Dec 2008, 20:05

  • Icahn huddled with MS over Yahoo! search sale

    Mixed messages

    Bazillionare investor Carl Icahn has held talks with Microsoft over the purchase of Yahoo!'s search business, according to a regulatory filing. The filing also shows that Icahn - who now sits on Yahoo!'s board - purchased about 6.78 million additional Yahoo! shares last week. A statement with the US Securities and Exchange …

    Financial News 5 Dec 2008, 20:54

  • JBoss app server 5.0 released

    A long and winding road

    Red Hat's long-delayed final release of JBoss Application Server 5.0 for the Java Enterprise Edition 5 codebase has arrived. Version 5.0 is a major redesign of the popular open-source application server to make it more modular and configurable. It features a micro kernel and container, support for OSGi, and REST. A full list …

    Developer 5 Dec 2008, 21:08

  • Google slows data center empire expansion

    'Volatile economic conditions'

    Citing "volatile economic conditions," Google has backed out of a $4.7 million grant that would have greased the expansion of its worldwide data center empire into the sleepy town of Lenoir, North Carolina. In a letter to the North Carolina Commerce Secretary, The Triangle Business Journal reports, a Google lawyer said those …

    Financial News 5 Dec 2008, 23:21

  • Ex-Appler resurrects Mac-friendly RAID

    'Set and forget'

    Apple's XServe RAID may have given up the ghost, but now there's a new option for storage-hungry Mac shops. Today, The Reg spoke with Alex Grossman, formerly the senior director of hardware server and storage at Apple, whose new company has recently shipped the Active Storage XRAID, a user-friendly SMB and enterprise-class RAID …

    Storage 5 Dec 2008, 23:29

  • MS lines up six critical fixes for Tuesday

    Patches stick to the usual suspects

    Microsoft is preparing eight patches - six of which cover critical vulnerabilities - for next Tuesday as part the last edition this year of its monthly Patch Tuesday update cycle. The critical updates cover separate vulnerabilities involving Word and Excel as well a duo of vulnerabilities involving various flavours of Windows …

    Security 5 Dec 2008, 23:39

  • Doctor amputates boy's arm using SMS instructions

    TXT 'ARM OP' to 80008

    A British surgeon has performed an arm amputation on a 16 year-old boy, using instructions sent to him by text message. Nott amputated the boy's arms using SMS instructions David Nott, a volunteer for the French medical charity Medicin Sans Frontierescame across the boy in the Congo, Africa whose arm went gangrenous after …

    Phones 5 Dec 2008, 23:41