16th December 2008 Archive

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Web more popular than sex, says Intel

Firefoxy

Large percentages of American men and woman would rather give up sex than be disconnected from the internet, chip giant Intel has claimed. The chip maker's internet usage behaviour study, which examined the behaviour of 2119 US adults, found that 46 per cent of women and 30 per cent of men would opt to go without a bonk for …

Networks 16 Dec 2008, 00:02
Apple update purges 21 security vulns from OS X

Joins patch-batch club

Apple has issued updates that patch 21 security holes in a wide range of software and services contained in the latest Mac operating system. The worst of the flaws allow miscreants to remotely install malware on a machine with little or no action required by the user. Among them are vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash, which were …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 00:02
Adobe learns lessons of open-source Flex

No pain, no gain

Adobe Systems is learning the challenges and complexities of taking its software open source. Just a year and a half after Adobe released its Flex Software Development Kit (SDK) under the Mozilla Public License (MPL) to encourage developer buy in, it's the company - not the community - that continues to shoulder the burden of …

Developer 16 Dec 2008, 00:15
Palm going Nova next month

Make-or-break OS

Palm will demonstrate their new operating system at the Consumer Electronics Show on the eighth of January, betting the future of the company on a new platform that's going to have to change the world if the company is going to have a significant future. Nova - the new Linux-based OS developed by Palm and offering backwards …

Mobile 16 Dec 2008, 00:20
Google sponsored links caught punting malware

Click here to get pwned

Researchers from Websense have caught Google carrying ads punting rogue software that secretly installs malware on the PCs of its users. Recent Google searches for Winrar turned up sponsored links that offer a "spyware free" copy of the widely used data-compression application. Google users unfortunate enough to download and …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 01:47
Chip boffins hone silicon-brain interface

IEDM First slugs. Then humans

The International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) opened today in San Francisco, the annual IEEE-sponsored gathering of the world's top 1,500 semiconductor engineers. From the opening session, it was clear there's a lot going on in their fertile minds - including plans to get devices inside your mind. Literally. The first talk …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 07:03
Flash cells near shrinkage limit

IEDM Volatility threatens non-volatile memory

You call it flash memory. The engineers at this week's International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco call it non-volatile memory. According to Stefan Lai of BeingAMC, there's plenty of money to be made in non-volatile memory, whether it's based on the common flash technology or on emerging replacements. A cool …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 07:31
2008's top three PMPs

Kit of the Year Our favourite cinema-in-your-hand gadgets

First the music players - now we go to the movies. Which big(ish)-screen cinema-in-your-hand gadgets did we most applaud in 2008? Archos 5 It's taken a long time for anyone to successfully combine a good video player and a good internet tablet, but Archos has cracked it. Solid as a rock, and with superb video playback and a …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 09:02
DfT spends £81m to save £57m

Shared services move showed 'stupendous incompetence'

A Department of Transport plan to save £57m by moving to shared services - using centralised facilities for some business functions like HR - has ended up costing £87m. The system was examined by the National Audit Office in May which famously found the system barking orders at staff in German, failing to account for weekends …

Government 16 Dec 2008, 10:17
British Standard explains how to store data for use as evidence

Legally admissible BS

A new British Standard has been published that aims to maximise the evidential weight of electronic information held by companies. BS 10008 sets out requirements for data management in companies to ensure the integrity of information. By complying with BS 10008, "it is anticipated that the evidential weight of electronic …

Servers 16 Dec 2008, 10:23
Tiny iPhone en route?

China says so

Rumours that Apple will soon launch a scaled-down version of the iPhone 3G have resurfaced. Thought to be called the iPhone Nano - not that that's a hard name to guess - the information comes from report by website iDeal China, which has claimed it was sent images of a silicone case for the unannounced talker by a third party …

Phones 16 Dec 2008, 10:25
Nvidia next-gen GeForce due Q1

Two more GTX 200s first, though

Nvidia may be gearing up to launch a pair of GeForce GTX 200-series graphics cards next month - a prelude the GTX 300 series' debut later in Q1. So claim graphics card manufacturer moles cited by DigiTimes, who say January's introductions will be the GTX 285 and GTX 295 - the latter combining two GPUs on the one board. …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 10:43
Profs: Eating Belgian truffles will make you buy a Mac

Homemade meringues = Linux, presumably*

In a development whose majorness would be hard to overemphasise, research by topflight eggheads has revealed that eating just one Belgian truffle could turn you into a Mac fanboy, or indeed girl. The news comes to us from the periodical read by all corporate spammers who are serious about their profession, The Journal of …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 10:49
Russian's emoticon trade mark won't wash with EU

You winker

A Russian businessman says that he has trade marked the emoticon and that commercial uses of punctuation marks to convey a wink will require a licence costing over $10,000. But a trade mark attorney said that his demands will be irrelevant to uses in the EU. The BBC reports that entrepreneur Oleg Teterin claims that his …

Small Biz 16 Dec 2008, 11:00
Oz couple served legal docs via Facebook

Tracked to social networking site

An Australian couple who allegedly defaulted on a AU$100,000 loan and face having their house repossessed have been tracked down on Facebook, the BBC reports. Canberra lawyer Mark McCormack asked a judge to allow legal papers to be served to an email address he found on the woman's Facebook account. She and her partner - …

Law 16 Dec 2008, 11:09
GTA: ChinaTown Wars launch dated announced

Stylus-based slasher

Nintendo DS gamers will be treated to their first taste of Grand Theft Auto in the early half of next year, developer Rockstar has confirmed. GTA: ChinaTown Wars will land in Europe in March The DS title will be launched in Europe on 20 March 2009, but those pesky North American gamers will get their mitts on the game …

Games 16 Dec 2008, 11:14
Electric car maker in 'urgent financial distress'

'Leccy Tech Th!nk goes cap in hand to govt

Anyone who fancied getting hold of a Th!nk Ox may need to think again. The Norwegian 'leccy car maker is suffering from what it calls "urgent financial distress" and is holding out the begging bowl to the Norwegian government. Th!nk CEO Richard Canny wants between NKr100m and NKr200m ($14.5–29m / £9.5-19m / €10.6-21.2m) to …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 11:16
Virgin Media to dump neutrality and target BitTorrent users

Exclusive It's deep packet inspection, but it's not for Phorm...

The UK's second largest ISP, Virgin Media, will next year introduce network monitoring technology to specifically target and restrict BitTorrent traffic, its boss has told The Register. The move will represent a major policy shift for the cable monopoly and is likely to anger advocates of "net neutrality", who say all internet …

Broadband 16 Dec 2008, 11:32
Vodafone knocks English cricket for six

Ends sponsorship deal

Vodafone is ending its sponsorship of the English cricket team - currently on tour in India. The four year deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will end after the winter tour of South Africa in January 2010. Though given the team's lamentable performance of late, it would be entirely understandable if Vodafone …

Mobile 16 Dec 2008, 11:37
G N' R blogger pleads guilty to copyright violation

Sitting in a Chinese stew

An American blogger faces up to a year in prison after pleading guilty to illegally uploading nine Guns N’ Roses songs onto his music site. Kevin Cogill, 28, from Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to a copyright violation, according to assistant US attorney Craig Missakian, reports Reuters. He had been accused by the Feds of …

Media 16 Dec 2008, 11:40
Microsoft knew about Xbox 360 disc-scratch problem, employee claims

Fresh court documents uncover the 'truth'

Microsoft knew prior to the Xbox 360’s launch that the console can damage discs if gamers tilt the unit while a disc’s spinning inside, documents from a lawsuit focused on the problem reveal. The revelation was made by Hiroo Umeno, a Microsoft programmer, in an ongoing case that was filed with the Seattle District Court in …

Games 16 Dec 2008, 11:42
Nine in ten emails now spam

River of junk stems from malware plague

Nine in ten emails are now spam with an estimated 200bn junk mail messages a day clogging up the internet, according to a new report by networking and security giant Cisco. Drive-by download attacks - planting redirection scripts on legitimate sites that lead onto hacker controlled websites full of exploits - have become a …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 12:01
Revamped Mac Mini en route, claims Apple insider

He knows when, but not what

An upgraded Mac Mini will be unveiled by Apple next month, a company employee has revealed. The unnamed informant spoke to gadget magazine Wired and claimed that, although he couldn’t leak any of the upcoming Mini’s features, the refreshed machine will be launched at the Macworld Expo show in San Francisco next month. It’s …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 12:03
US firm vies for Opteron packaging excess crown

Aboxalypse now Boxing unclever

The Register excessive packaging monitoring sub-committee is obliged to Jay Coleman who earlier this week sent photographic evidence of how US firm CDW has made its pitch for the "Opteron overkill" crown in the "chip-in-big-box" category of cardboard outrages against Mother Earth: Aboxalypse Now regulars will, of course, …

Bootnotes 16 Dec 2008, 12:16
Royal Navy completes Windows for Submarines™ rollout

Trident sub's new Windows LAN fitted in 18 days

The Royal Navy and BAE Systems plc were pleased as punch yesterday to announce that their implementation of Windows for Submarines™ is complete ahead of schedule. Windows boxes on Ethernet LANs are now in control of the UK's nuclear-propelled and nuclear-armed warship fleet. The programme is called Submarine Command System …

Data Networking 16 Dec 2008, 12:25
Anti-radiation phone chip withdrawn from sale

Protection called into question

Do you remember our E-Waves anti-radiation chip story from last week? Well, the retailer behind the device has since withdrawn it from sale because of doubts over its capabilities. Belgian pharmacy chain Omega Pharma has since said that, following launch of the E-Waves chip, a “storm of protest broke out during which …

Mobile 16 Dec 2008, 12:28
Online storage start-up pitches 'USB stick on the internet'

Lets small biz try out its big idea for free

Livedrive.com is offering small businesses a simpler way to create online back-ups of their files and data. Although there are several similar services from companies like BT, Microsoft and HP, Livedrive reckons it offers an easier way for users to create secure copies of files which they can access from anywhere. Andrew …

Small Biz 16 Dec 2008, 12:34
A Geeks Guide₂... Christmas - Part IV

Further festive goodness from Reg Books

Now it's time to say "So long and thanks for all the Fish" with the fourth part of our trilogy of Crimbo ideas. Every order placed will be despatched same day, even the ones that qualify for free P&P. Our last shipping date for guaranteed Christmas delivery (using our Economy service) is Thursday 18 December, so better get your …

Site News 16 Dec 2008, 12:57
Epson Stylus Photo PX800FW all-in-one wireless printer

Review Epson tries to keep up with the competition

Epson is well regarded as a maker of the semi-pro and professional inkjet photo printers and some of its large-format printers are mainstays of High Street photography shops. But at the consumer end of the market, it's offerings have often looked a bit basic and sounded rather loud and clunky. The company is clearly trying to …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 13:02
China 'bans' BBC's Chinese website

No Auntie for you, comrade

The Chinese authorities appear to have reverted to their pre-Olympic position of denying access to "sensitive" websites - including the BBC's Chinese language tentacle. The Corporation reports that this and other sites - including the Voice of America in Chinese plus "some Hong Kong and Taiwan sites" - are now "banned". A …

Government 16 Dec 2008, 13:09
Novell dishes up OpenSUSE 11.1 details

Tweaks licence, dumps EULA

The next big release of Novell’s community-driven SUSE Linux distro is set to land on Thursday. Ahead of that, the firm has released details about what customers can expect from version 11.1, including a new licence in which the EULA has been ditched. New features include an improved KDE desktop experience and better …

The Channel 16 Dec 2008, 13:17
Gamer recovers Xbox 360 using controller

Wireless proves wonderful

Xbox 360 theft is a terrible thing for gaming addicts. So, imagine one gamer’s jubilation after he managed to track down his stolen console using only its wireless controller. After the robbery, victim Ryan Ketsenburg, a student from Missouri State University in North America, turned on his former Xbox 360’s controller – why …

Games 16 Dec 2008, 13:59
DARPA aim to make killer robots invulnerable to damage

'It absolutely will not stop'

Another icy chill of fear for the spine of those who understand the imminence of humanity's extinction at the hands of its erstwhile machine slaves arrived today. News has broken that sinister human quislings operating within the US military industrial complex intend to equip America's fast-building killer robot legions with …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 14:09
GTA: The Lost and Damned video released

Birds, booze and bikes. Oh, and guns...

Rockstar has released the debut video trailer for its upcoming Grand Theft Auto add-on: The Lost and Damned. "You talkin' to me?" The video shows you everything you need to know about the game’s contents within the first few seconds, thanks primarily to shots of pole-dancing girls, burly motorbikes and roving biker gang The …

Games 16 Dec 2008, 14:39
Be Broadband doubles down on ADSL to catch cable

'Up to' 48Mbit/s trials

In the wake of Virgin Media's 50Mbit/s launch yesterday, O2-owned Be Broadband is pushing copper wires to their limits by trialling technology that will double bandwidth available via ADSL2+. The ISP has been trialling the service with customers connected to the BT Paddington exchange in London since September. Triallists' …

Broadband 16 Dec 2008, 14:55
Toaster used to recharge gadgets

Butter and jam optional

Most kids are taught not to stick things - aside from bread - into the toaster. But the Toasty Charger’s designer obviously wasn’t, because he’s crafted one with a slot for inserting reachable batteries. The Toasty Charger: recharge your batteries The concept toaster is designed for lithium-ion batteries of various sizes. …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 15:18
Scottish firm pays £120,000 over unlicensed software

Updated See what happens when you take the low road...

A company in Renfrewshire, Scotland has paid almost £120,000 to settle claims that it had too few licences for the software installed on approximately 100 computers. The company would have been sued for copyright infringement if it had not settled. The deal with Total Repair Solutions was announced by the Business Software …

Small Biz 16 Dec 2008, 15:22
Distie tightens ups security deals

Bell tolls for cross selling

Bell Micro's security division is starting a new programme to encourage resellers to put security kit and services at the centre of deals that they do. Bell's general manager of the security division, Steve Browell, said resellers too often consider security as a final add-on when selling servers or networks. Browell said: " …

The Channel 16 Dec 2008, 15:28
German card leak delivered by microfilm

Old school security breach

Editors of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper were stunned to receive a box containing the microfilmed details of tens of thousands of credit card holders last week. The anonymously-dispatched microfilm included customer details including names, address, credit card numbers and payment records. A few PIN notification letters …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 15:31
Hasbro drops lawsuit against Scrabulous creators

Do we need to spell it out to you?

Toy maker Hasbro Inc has dropped a lawsuit it filed against Scrabulous creator RJ Softwares. The company said it has withdrawn the suit after the Indian IT firm made changes to its Lexulous and Wordscraper online games. Hasbro told Reuters that the deal "provides people in the US and Canada with a choice of different games …

Law 16 Dec 2008, 15:31
Microsoft spits out ODF plans for Office 2007 SP2

Foaming at the interoperability mouth

Microsoft wants the world to believe that in these enlightened days it operates an open Office policy to all comers... sort of. And that’s why it’s decided to publish documentation that details its implementation of OASIS Open Document Format (ODF) version 1.1 support in MS Office 2007 Service Pack 2. Microsoft’s Office …

Applications 16 Dec 2008, 16:32
The benefits of co-ordinating dev and ops efforts

Yes, there are some. Really

Over the past few days here we’ve been considering the Chinese wall that can exist between development and operations teams. From a practical perspective, we know from research we ran a month or so ago that the picture ain’t quite so bad as some of the comments might suggest (Figure 1) – though it's interesting to note from the …

Infrastructure 16 Dec 2008, 16:56
Any aaSes in your organisation?

The appetite for cloud services

Cloud. It's more than renaming the old stuff isn't it? It's a way of working in which you don't really want to know anything about the nuts and bolts. You just want it to work and deliver the service you've signed up for. In other words, it's a black box with a service agreement stuck on it and, with a bit of luck, a bunch of …

Productivity 16 Dec 2008, 18:02
NAND flash follow-on technology

Allotropes you can eat

German memory-maker Qimonda wants us to know it has a promising new non-volatile memory [NV-RAM] technology to join the NAND flash replacement candidates: carbon-resistive memory. Different forms of carbon are known as allotropes, and the element's atoms are bonded in different ways in each allotrope. In graphite the atoms are …

Science 16 Dec 2008, 18:26
The Year in Operating Systems: No battle of big ideas

Small change for 2009

In a mature IT market, it becomes hard to make any significant changes in hardware architecture or software design without upsetting the installed base of legacy users. This, of course, makes the evolution of a product somewhat troublesome. Change must fit within the strict confines of compatibility, ensuring both hardware and …

Operating Systems 16 Dec 2008, 18:47
Opera releases update for 'extremely severe' vulns

Cross-platform performance

Opera pushed out an update to its popular web browser on Tuesday that fixes vulnerabilities it described as "extremely severe". The update fixes seven security bugs, some of which were previously known. Version 9.63 of the browser addresses separate code injection risks stemming from flaws in HTML parsing and text inputing, …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 18:52
Apple's holiday Mac sales flatline

Windows PC comeback

There's a good chance little Suzie won't get the Mac desktop she wanted for Christmas, according to industry bean-counter NPD. The firm's US sales statistics for November show Windows PCs retook ground against Macs in the lead-up to the holidays. Mac sales were down 1 per cent November compared to 2007, while Windows PCs were …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 19:25
Larry Wall on the Zen of Perl 6

What kind of programmer are you?

Laziness, impatience, and hubris: the three qualities that make a programmer, according to Larry Wall, the creator of Perl. Perl earned its fame years ago by being the major language driving web programming, and distinguished itself from the rest of the pack by allowing developers to write full-featured programs using nothing …

Developer 16 Dec 2008, 20:50
American Express web bug exposes card holders

Updated XSS: Entrenched since November 2008

A glaring vulnerability on the American Express website has unnecessarily put visitors at risk for more than two weeks and violates industry regulations governing credit card companies, a security researcher says. Among other things, the cross-site scripting (XSS) error on americanexpress.com allows attackers to steal users' …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 21:27
Applers howl over Mac OS fix

Update can downgrade

Yesterday, Apple released the 10.5.6 update for Mac OS X, Leopard - and, as usual, problems are surfacing. Of course, some people have problems that most others don't. As Chief Dan George said to Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, "Sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." Most problems seem to arise when installing the …

Operating Systems 16 Dec 2008, 21:45
Enterprise VoIP soars despite Meltdown

IP phone shipments up 25 per cent

Despite The Meltdown, enterprise VoIP is on the rise. According to research firm Infonetics, IP phone shipments were up 25 per cent in Q3, while IP softphone shipments more than doubled from Q2. The telephony market as a whole increased by 8 per cent over the quarter, reaching $2.6bn, with pure IP PBX and hybrid PBX equipment …

VoIP 16 Dec 2008, 22:16
German-spouting HR system costs UK gov £80m

'Stupendous incompetence'

A Department for Transport computer system that was supposed to save British taxpayers £57m will instead leave them £80m in the hole. And to add linguistic insult to fiscal injury, Conservative MP Edward Leigh says that Department for Transport staff don't trust the system because it has a habit of issuing messages in German …

Government 16 Dec 2008, 23:11
Jobs, Apple out of Macworld Expo

End of an era - or two

Let the speculation begin! Apple today announced that not only will this January's Macworld Expo be the company's last appearance at the annual gathering of Mac faithful, but also that the keynote address - traditionally Steve Jobs's star turn - will be given by Apple's senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller …

Hardware 16 Dec 2008, 23:14
To beat Google, Microsoft will become Google

Data-center armlock

Hidden in Microsoft's announcement of a fourth-generation data-center architecture is a hint of where the company is - and where it wants to go - in the battle against Google. Also revealed was how far Microsoft is willing to become like Google in that fight. The Generation 4 Modular Data Center is important to Microsoft - it …

Servers 16 Dec 2008, 23:37
Microsoft issues emergency patch warning for IE

Zero-day exploit fix arrives Wednesday

Microsoft will push out an emergency security patch for Internet Explorer on Wednesday, addressing a critical security hole currently being exploited in the wild. Redmond issued advanced notice for tomorrow's fix, describing the out-of-cycle patch as protection from "remote code execution." Unscheduled updates are pretty rare …

Security 16 Dec 2008, 23:40