7th January 2009 Archive
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Azure new future for Microsoft's Muglia
First among equals
Bob Muglia's New-Year ascension from "vice" to full "president" of Microsoft's server and tools business is an important milestone in the company's online transition. Muglia will continue doing what he's been doing for the last few years: driving growth in Microsoft's seemingly ever expanding server and tools business. Server …
Developer 7 Jan 01:39
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Patent troll sues Oprah, Sony over online book viewing
'We own the touchy, feely internet'
An IP-squatting firm is suing Oprah Winfrey's production company and Sony Electronics over patent infringement for using and promoting software that displays books on the internet. Illinois Computer Research claims Oprah's Bookclub violates its US Patent 7,11,252 - a method of "Enhancing touch and feel on the internet." The …
Law 7 Jan 01:43
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Intel accused of stealing chip virtualization, violating God's law
Prison inmate sues Chipzilla for $5bn
An American prison inmate has sued Intel for $5 billion, insisting the chip maker's Core 2 Duo chip and its virtualization technology are based on trade secrets pilfered from him by way of Apple supremo Steve Jobs. In court papers recently filed with an Oregon-based US District Court, 43-year-old Matthew Robert Young claims …
Virtualization 7 Jan 01:59
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Firm touts bendy, wearable OLED screen
Like having a TV on your wrist
A US firm has developed a OLED display that’s flexible enough to be worn like a watch, yet large enough to display good quality images on. UDC's OLED is very flexible The Universal Display Corporation (UDC) worked with the US Department of Defence to develop what’s been dubbed a “wrist-worn flexible OLED communications …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 08:02
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Barclays cuts more IT jobs
Contractors and permies to go
Barclays is laying off another 400 IT staff whose "roles and responsibilities are unclear". This follows the loss of more than 1, 800 jobs in July when Barclays off-shored parts of its IT department. Later that month it also forced contractors to take a ten per cent salary cut. This time the 150 permanent jobs and 250 …
IT Director 7 Jan 08:45
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NASA warns of 'space Katrina' radiation storm
Ill solar winds blow nobody any good
A study funded by NASA has flagged up yet another terrible hazard for those no longer able to get excited about nuclear war, global pandemics, terrorism, climate change, economic meltdown and asteroid strike. Top space brainboxes say that even if the human race survives all those, there is a serious risk of civilisation being …
Space 7 Jan 09:14
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EDS pays for tax failure
Final divorce settlement
EDS has paid off Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs for its failure to provide a working tax credit system. EDS worked on the system from 1994 to 2004. The launch in 2003 was a disaster and led to over-payments totalling £2bn to almost two million people. Attempts by the Revenue to claw this money back led to even worse …
Government 7 Jan 09:56
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Asus Eee keyboard opens CES
CES Keyboard, display, PC, kitchen sink
Asus has kicked off this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with a sneak preview of the upcoming Eee keyboard-cum-PC, which features an integrated display. Asus' Eee keyboard was spied at CES Images courtesy of Gizmodo Described as a fully functional PC with inset Qwerty key arrangement, the keyboard has a 5in touch …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 10:29
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Norway's national broadcaster breaks Beatles download deadlock
Updated Till Beatles say Let it Be
A Norwegian broadcaster is claiming to be responsible for making The Beatles' entire back catalogue available for download for the first time. The downloads are free because they form part of Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) podcasts. The Beatles is one of the few bands that has held out from licensing its music for digital …
Music and Media 7 Jan 10:39
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SanDisk tunes into SlotRadio
CES Like an iPod, only with pre-loaded music memory cards
SanDisk has updated its Sansa Slot range of Portable Media Players (PMP) with the creation of SlotRadio: a PMP with integrated OLED display. SanDisk's SlotRadio has a 1.5in OLED screen The SlotRadio player is made from die-cast aluminium and has a 1.5in OLED screen at its centre, allowing you to see artist and song …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 11:11
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New Year rings in better VoIP for all
More VoIP options come to Windows Mobile and iPhone
It seems that January is when VoIP clients get spruced up with new features and capabilities, with both Truphone and Fring launching new versions ready for punters wanting to do more than save a few quid on phone calls. Truphone's latest client for the iPhone and iPod Touch includes Skype integration - both VoIP and messaging …
VoIP 7 Jan 11:27
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Speeding Oz teen may face 'gorillas in the mist'
You won't enjoy the prison showers, magistrate warns
An Oz magistrate has informed a habitual speeding teenager that if he doesn't mend his high-speed ways he'll be sent directly to jail where showering sexual predators will make short work of his sorry arse. According to Reuters, Brian Maloney of Sydney's Downing Center Court on Monday issued the blunt warning to an unnamed 19- …
Bootnotes 7 Jan 11:29
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Researchers poke holes in Intel's anti-tampering tech
Unlocked and loaded
A practical attack on Intel's trusted execution technology (TXT) is due to be demonstrated at a hacking conference next month. Security researchers from Invisible Things Lab have created a technique for compromising the integrity of software loaded via TXT, a key component in Intel's Safer Computing Initiative and part of the …
Enterprise Security 7 Jan 11:39
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2008 sees good year for gaming
Sales rocket by 23 per cent
Videogame sales in Blighty jumped a record 23 per cent to £1.9bn ($2.8bn/€2bn)in 2008. That is more than double the UK’s total videogames sales over the previous five years, according to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), which compiles the sales charts. Videogames for the all-mighty Wii …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 11:55
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Lexmark C543DN colour laser
Review Fast replacement for your inkjet printer?
The boundary between colour inkjet and colour laser printers continues to blur, as the colour quality of lasers improves and the speed and paper-handling of inkjets is ratcheted up too. There’s a price-band in the middle, around the £200-250 mark, where colour lasers, like Lexmark’s C543DN, can make a lot of sense. Lexmark's …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 12:02
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Lenovo shares suspended
Jittery market reacts to expected rejig
Shares of Lenovo have been suspended ahead of an expected restructuring announcement from the computer maker tomorrow (8 January). The Beijing-based vendor said yesterday that the shares had been suspended pending the release of “price-sensitive information”, according to Reuters. Last week influential Chinese magazine …
Channel Register 7 Jan 12:04
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Perv Oz burglar pumps and dumps Jungle Jane
Cairns cops hunt inflatable doll shagger
Cairns police are hunting a light-fingered pervert who has twice broken into a sex shop and taken inflatable dolls for a quick shag out the back before abandoning his conquests in a nearby lane, the Cairns Post reports. The owner of Laneway Adult Shop, who identified himself only as "Vogue", explained that in the first recent …
Bootnotes 7 Jan 12:15
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Satyam chairman quits, admits faking accounts
Coughs to years of profit puffing at Indian outsourcer
The founder and chairman of Indian outsourcer Satyam Mr B Ramalinga Raju has resigned and admitted fiddling the company's accounts for years in order to inflate profits. The company has had a torrid few weeks - the board admitted the company founders had hocked their shares to guarantee loans and that those shares may have …
Channel Register 7 Jan 12:36
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Samsung swaggers in with 100GB SSD
Gain speed, save power
Samsung Semiconductor has launched a 100GB solid state drive for enterprises that can carry out ten times more I/Os per second than a fast hard disk drive and offer a 30X power saving. The SS805 single level cell (SLC) SSD offers a 230MB/sec sequential read speed and a 180MB/sec sequential write speed. It uses 1.9 watts of …
Storage 7 Jan 12:39
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M&S to sell Elonex netbooks
'I'll have a pack of spuds, three set of knickers and a PC'
Next time you shop for duck a l’orange in Marks & Spencer or buy briefs in Next, you might also take away an Elonex netbook. Handbag-sized netbooks with 7in displays from the British PC maker will “soon go on sale” for £99 ($149/€109) in both retail chains, The Telegraph reports. Nick Smith, chief executive of Elonex, said …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 12:42
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IPWireless goes it alone
NextWave says ciao, customer coughs up
NextWave has succeeded at last in offloading mobile TV developer IPWireless, which it picked up 18 months ago for $100m. Having announced it was getting out of the network infrastructure business last year, NextWave has managed to get $1m out of the IPWireless management for 75 per cent of the company. Dr William Jones …
Mobile 7 Jan 12:43
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US forces order fuel-cell units for medevac stretchers
I see you have the machine that goes ping, soldier
The US military will use fuel-cell power units attached to stretchers to power critical medical machinery used in casualty evacuation, according to reports. Fuel Cell Today reports that Jadoo Power has received a new Defense Department contract to produce its Portable Electric Power Supply for Aeromedical Evacuation (PEPSAE) …
Science 7 Jan 12:45
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High Zune: MS loads up for the CES shootout
Radio Reg But it won't exactly be what you were expecting...
What better venue than Las Vegas, America's playground, for the annual multi-billion dollar gadgets and entertainment jamboree that is the Consumer Electronics Show? Among this year's players Microsoft, entering the arena surrounded by a cloud of rumor over the potential for an iPhone-killing, Zune-based, Redmond mobile phone …
Microbite 7 Jan 13:02
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Vogue model sues Google over 'defamatory' blog
Lawsuit demands identity of 'old hag' libeller
Canadian model Liskula Cohen is demanding Google reveal the identity of the Blogger.com user whose Skanks in NYC blog is entirely dedicated to calling her a "skank", an "old hag" and other flattering descriptions. According to the New York Daily News, 36-year-old Cohen has filed a defamation suit in Manhattan Supreme Court in …
Bootnotes 7 Jan 13:04
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Oracle tripped up by 'leap second'
Save the Clock Tower
Database giant Oracle has issued fixes after its Cluster Ready Services (CRS) software failed to cope with the so-called “leap second” added by scientists at the end of 2008. The Earth Orientation Centre is responsible for calculating when a leap second should be added or subtracted because the Earth doesn’t always orbit …
Applications 7 Jan 13:15
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TomTom debuts satnav DVD player
'At the next left
turnwatch Goodfellas'Satnavs built into the car dashboard may look the business, but are a security risk. And suction cup satnavs often get in the way. So, TomTom’s latest in-car navigator combines the best of both worlds - and throws in entertainment feature for good measure. The Eclipse AVN4430's detachable screen is a satnav and entertainment …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 13:37
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Weak sigs found on one in seven SSL sites
Survey highlights serious spoofability
One in seven digital certificates that stamp the authenticity of secure web sites use a vulnerable signature algorithm, according to a new survey. The shortcoming underlines the need to drop the insecure signing mechanism before its shortcomings are exploited in more convincing phishing attacks. Netcraft reports that 14 per …
Enterprise Security 7 Jan 14:34
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Send old Shuttles to Mars, says Scotty ashes prang man
Admits they would land with 'a pretty good thump'
A former advertising copywriter and web-biz maven turned inventor and rocket entrepreneur has proposed a novel plan for disposing of NASA's soon-to-be-retired space shuttles. Eric Knight, perhaps most famous for temporarily mislaying the ashes of James "Scotty from Star Trek" Doohan, believes that a pair of shuttles should be …
Space 7 Jan 14:47
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Nokia reveals Tube's UK launch date
Watch out, iPhone...
After denying British punters a touch screen Tube in their Christmas stockings, Nokia has announced that the much-hyped phone will launch in Blighty this month. Also known as the 5800, Tube goes on sale on 23 January from 10am at Nokia stores in Regent Street in London and Heathrow’s Terminal 5. It costs £249 ($371/€272) when …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 15:35
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Nokia calls foul over patent spat
Complains to EC over IPCom
Nokia has lodged a complaint with the European Commission, claiming that IPCom is abusing mobile patents originally owned by Bosch that are already the subject of legal action in the UK and Germany. The patents concerned relate to GSM and were developed by Bosch back when that company had aspirations on the telecommunications …
Mobile 7 Jan 15:38
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Navy SEALs look to grapple with Brazilian
Front mount and finishing expertise a must
The US Navy has faced up to the fact that enormous guns, nuclear missiles and an array of Top Gun navy fliers aren't the be all and end all when it comes to facing down the world's bad guys. The Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the U.S. Special Operations Command - formerly known as SEAL Team 6 - has issued a request …
Bootnotes 7 Jan 15:58
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I've only shagged two blokes, insists Paris Hilton
'Mostly I just kiss', claims amateur grumble flick star
It was a bit lonely over Xmas without a single snippet of seasonal Paris Hilton news, so we're delighted to offer today some hot celebutard goss guaranteed to warm the cockles of your chilly parts - our fave jetsetter insists she's made the beast with two backs with just two people. According to the Standard, the talented and …
Bootnotes 7 Jan 15:59
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Intel figures take kicking in Q4
PCs to blame
Chip maker Intel said before Wall Street opened this morning that its sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 were going to be even worse than the company had already warned they would be. The company also said that it was writing off a chunk of its investment in WiMax service provider Clearwire, which will also whack its books for …
PCs & Chips 7 Jan 16:10
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Ubuntu Eee undergoes
cheesyEasy Peasy rebrandNew distro eyes up netbook market
An Ubuntu Linux-based distro landed this week for netbook users with the annoying sounding name of Easy Peasy 1.0. Easy Peasy, previously known as Ubuntu Eee, has dropped the Eee tag to signal that they’re gunning for more than just the Asus netbook market. The new moniker, logo and website should also help the outfit …
PCs & Chips 7 Jan 16:19
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SDXC memory card spec launched for 2TB capacity
CES Write speed to rocket
32GB SDHC cards too small for you? How about 2TB? That's what the SDXC memory card format is designed to deliver. Announced today at CES, the XC - for 'eXtended Capacity', but what's wrong with EC? - the format also ups read and write speeds to 104MB/s. The SD Association - the organisation that oversees the SD card standard …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 16:23
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Password guessing attack exposed in Twitter pwn
The pursuit of 'happiness'
Miscreants broke into Twitter's admin system on Sunday night using a simple password guessing hack, it has emerged. A teenage hacker, known in the digital underground as GMZ, claims he obtained access to the micro-blogging site’s admin controls using a brute force dictionary attack. After guessing the login identity of an …
ID 7 Jan 16:26
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SanDisk intros push-button backup... USB Flash stick
CES Is 64GB enough?
SanDisk has taken a leaf from external hard drive makers like Western Digital and Seagate, and added an auto-backup button to its USB Flash drives. SanDisk's Ultra Backup: is 64GB enough? Since the SanDisk Ultra Backup USB product line only runs to 64GB for now, we're not sure how useful they'll be for the average user's …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 16:40
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Verizon predicts Kindle copycatting
If only people will make more phone calls
Verizon's head of device certification expects to see rivals to Amazon's Kindle launching on Verizon's network during 2009, once he has time to certify them. Verizon started certifying devices for connection to its network last year following complaints of monopolistic control. Twenty-nine rather boring single-function devices …
Mobile 7 Jan 16:42
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Sun snuggles with cloud virtual data centre company
Gets into Q-layer
Sun has bought Q-layer, a Belgium-originated data centre-as-a-service company, to bolster its cloud computing offering. The purchase price was not revealed. Q-layer was founded in 2005 by Niko Nelissen, now business development VP, and Kristof De Spiegeleer, now CTO. The CEO is Matthew Powell, appointed in July, 2008, and the …
Virtualization 7 Jan 16:50
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US rubberstamps AMD manufacturing spin-off
CFIUS OKs AMD-ATIC TFC
AMD's Abu Dhabi-funded manufacturing spin-off has been rubberstamped by the US Treasury Department. On Tuesday, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) gave the go-ahead to The Foundry Company, a semiconductor manufacturing joint venture cooked up by AMD and an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi …
PCs & Chips 7 Jan 18:16
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Microsoft disables automatic IE 8 downloads
It's for your own good
Microsoft will cushion you from the Internet Explorer 8 standards mess with software to prevent automatic download of its next browser to your machine. The company has released an IE8 Blocker Toolkit that will stop users installing IE8 via its Automatic Update service before compatibility testing has been finished. Microsoft' …
Applications 7 Jan 18:18
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Wi-Fi video uploads coming to SD
CES Lights, cameras, upload!
Eye-Fi has developed an SD memory card able to upload videos directly onto YouTube from your compact camera. The firm’s keeping mum for now about the Wi-Fi card’s exact specifications, but it has promised that the video upload process is possible without “the fuss of special software”. Eye-Fi made headlines at last year’s CES …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 19:02
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HP readies Intel-based 10in netbook
CES VIA-running Mini 2133's successor?
Has HP's netbook product line finally put VIA's C7-M processor behind it? Certainly, the company's latest model, the business-oriented Mini 2140 uses an Intel Atom CPU. The 2140 also builds on the existing C7-M-based 2133 by upping the screen size to 10.1in from 8.9in. HP's offering a choice of two resolutions: 1024 x 576 - a …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 19:05
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Netgear to take on Apple TV next summer
CES YouTube, IPTV viewer tuned
Netgear has unwrapped its take on Apple's Apple TV, dubbed the Internet TV Player - an HDMI-enabled box that puts YouTube videos and online movie rentals on your telly. Details remain uncertain - the device Netgear unveiled at CES didn't look like the photos of the product the company provided, and since the unit's not due to …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 19:18
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Netgear hooks into HSDPA for on-the-go hotspot gadget
CES Wi-Fi wherever
Got a 3G USB modem? Want to share the link? Netgear today launched a wireless router designed to tie an on-the-go Wi-Fi hotspot to the internet over an HSDPA back link. Netgear's Mobile Broadband Router: turn your HSDPA dongle into a hotspot The 3G Mobile Broadband Router has a USB port on the back for the modem. In …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 19:26
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EFF wins request for reexamination of ringtone patent
Synthesized controversy
The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to reexamine a controversial patent that covers the distribution of certain types of music files over the internet. The patent, issued in 1997 to Seer Systems, restricts audio streaming, cell phone ringtones and other electronic …
Music and Media 7 Jan 19:44
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Toshiba lets out Cell TV titbits
CES Set to be shouted about in H2
Toshiba today re-iterated its plan to introduce tellies based on the Cell processor later this year, pronouncing the PlayStation 3 technology "the future of television". It didn't provide all the details, alas, but Toshiba did reveal rather more than it has before about the top-of-the-range TVs that will use Cell and ship …
Reg Hardware 7 Jan 19:48
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FTC to host town hall meeting on DRM abuse
Seeking public comments, research
Here's a glimmer of hope that 2009 will be the year of DRM reform. Questionable DRM regimes have caught the eye of the US Federal Trade Commission, which has announced it will host a town hall meeting on March 25 to address the consumer protection, anti-competition, and disclosure issues surrounding DRM restrictions in the …
Government 7 Jan 20:14
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Who says COBOL doesn't get tweaks?
IBM Power/AIX machines get 64-bit support - finally
Some software development projects take a long time to complete, and others seem to take an eternity. So it is, it seems, for 64-bit support for IBM's COBOL compiler for its own AIX Unix variant running on Power-based servers. IBM has been shipping 64-bit Power-based servers since 1995 (starting with its proprietary AS/400 …
Servers 7 Jan 20:23
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VMware names second ex-Microsoft exec to leadership role
Remember him as he was
VMware's landed its second ex-Microsoft executive at the top, this time the individual who drove Redmond's developer outreach in the glory days of the 1990s. Tod Nielsen has quit his current post as chief executive of Borland Software to take up the newly created mantle of chief operations officer for virtualization market …
Virtualization 7 Jan 21:25
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Sacked IT admin sentenced for hacking ex-employer
The telltale cursor
A British IT admin was ordered to pay more than £3,000 and given a three-months jail sentence after being accused of hacking into his former employer's computer system so he could install spyware and delete emails. Julius Oladiran, 46, of South Norwood, admitted making a false statement and gaining unauthorized access to …
Crime 7 Jan 22:28
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IBM and ITIF pitch for $30bn to save America
Giant job-producing IT stimulus package ahoy
As expected, a report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank has called on Barack Obama and Congress to pump billions of dollars into IT infrastructure to help create jobs in America. As El Reg reported yesterday, top advisors for energy and technology were briefed by IBM's chairman and chief …
Channel Register 7 Jan 23:11
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EMC celebrates record revenue, axes 2,400 heads
2008 is not 2009
After Intel told the world it wasn't going to make its Q4 numbers, storage juggernaut EMC decided it was a good time to give everyone some good news. Today, following the market close on Wall Street, EMC released preliminary financials for Q4, saying that it had approximately $4bn in sales and earnings. That's 13 cents to 14 …
Financial News 7 Jan 23:14
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Google Chocolate Factory now building routers?
Why not? They're building everything else
As part of an ongoing effort to cover the Earth with its very own built-from-scratch internet, Google is now redesigning the router. Or so it seems. Citing "multiple sources, including one inside Cisco," the SDTimes blog says that the ad broker is "fed up" with Juniper, its current router provider, and "has taken it upon …
Data Networking 7 Jan 23:15
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EU raids smart card chipmakers
(More) suspicions of price fixing
At least four makers of microchips have confirmed they were raided by European Commission investigators seeking information of collusion in the market for chips used in smart cards. STMicroelectronics, Infineon Technologies, NXP, and Renesas Technology each said they received surprise visits from investigators in late October …
PCs & Chips 7 Jan 23:23
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Macworld: The Works
All our coverage in one place
Apple unveils 17in MacBook, iLife tweaks, Tony Bennett 06/01/09 In one of the least eventful keynote speeches in recent memory, Apple's SVP Phil Schiller, filling in for the ailing Steve Jobs, announced upgrades to iLife and iWork, an upgraded 17-inch MacBook, and iTunes Store pricing-structure changes and DRM-removal plans …
PCs & Chips 7 Jan 23:54
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Google China and Baidu apologize for porn links
Shamed by government crackdown
Three of China's most popular search engines have apologized for being slow to remove links to pornographic material, following the government's pledge on Monday to crack down on "vulgar" content on the web. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security is heading a nationwide campaign to purge the internet of websites accused of " …
Government 7 Jan 23:57
