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20th January 2009 Archive

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  • Cisco virtualization-server challenge to HP and IBM?

    VMware-investment leverage

    Cisco Systems, the reigning monarch of networking equipment, is preparing to challenge long-time compatriots Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM in a market that those two companies dominate: servers. According to a report in Monday's The New York Times by Reg alumnus Ashlee Vance, Cisco's purported server line's selling point will be …

    Virtualization 20 Jan 01:16

  • Cowon iAudio O2 personal media player

    Review Cowon A3 with SSD instead of HDD

    It's no secret that Cowon's A3 PMP is favoured by Vulture Central. The comprehensive codec and file support, superb 800 x 480 screen and twitproof controls make it a hard device to not like. Cowon's O2: plugs the gaps in the A3? Of course, that's not to say it's perfect. It could do with being both smaller and lighter, and …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 09:02

  • Budding artist Paris demands more respect

    I am not a spoilt airhead

    El Reg's fave jetsetting blonde has confirmed what some of us have suspected all along - that's she's not actually an international ambassador for celebutard vacuity, but rather an ordinary gal with serious artistic ambitions. Speaking to Heat magazine, "One Night in" Paris Hilton explained: "I think a lot of people have seen …

    Entertainment 20 Jan 10:00

  • Will magnetic switching by light keep storage vendors spinning?

    Circularly polarised lasers - the new magnetism

    Hard drive storage is based on switching magnetic states by magnetism. Switching by laser light could be much faster and could be used on non-spinning media. Laser light switching of a magnetic medium is described in a PhD thesis, Laser-Induced Femtosecond Magnetic Recording, written by Dr Daniel Stanciu, currently a …

    Storage 20 Jan 10:02

  • IBM faces EU monopoly probe

    Accused of mainframe monopoly

    IBM is likely to face a full European Union investigation into its mainframe business as a rival firm formally complains to the Competition Commission. t3 Technologies alleges IBM abused its dominant market position by tying sales of its operating system to sales of its hardware. The company, which dubs itself "the other …

    Channel Register 20 Jan 10:12

  • Belkin boss 'extremely sorry' for cash-for-good-reviews plan

    Unauthorised actions of just one employee

    Accessory maker Belkin has formally apologised for paying punters to plug its products in Amazon.com's buyer reviews system. According to an open letter from Belkin big cheese Mark Reynoso, the "unethical practice" was conducted by "one of our employees", who offered cash in exchange for good reviews. It's not clear whether …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 10:19

  • Dimension Data revs up despite US sales slump

    'Demand remains constrained'

    Computer services firm Dimension Data Holdings Plc expects to see a 13 per cent rise in revenue for the three months ended 31 December 2008, compared to the same period a year earlier. The South Africa-based company said US sales, that accounts for 15 per cent of DiData’s total hardware and services revenues, fell in the …

    Channel Register 20 Jan 10:36

  • Fake plane death businessman left SOS bullet-point list

    'Cracked windshield, window imploded, bleeding profusely'

    The US financial advisor who attempted to fake his own death in a light aircraft crash will certainly not be elevated to the pantheon of criminal masterminds, after police yesterday revealed he'd left a bullet-point list of his fake distress call in the plane before bailing out. Marcus Schrenker, 38, took off from Anderson, …

    Bootnotes 20 Jan 10:38

  • Empire Direct goes titsup

    Electrical retailer's decline and fall

    Another UK retailer has gone titsup - electrical retailer Empire Direct has gone into administration. The Leeds-based chain's 14 warehouse shops and online store are shut as it was unable to trade in administration because of low stock levels. The firm's collapse means 150 jobs have been lost. Customers awaiting orders should …

    Channel Register 20 Jan 10:51

  • Chip giant whips out low-power quad-core CPUs

    Intel cuts prices too

    Intel has rolled out some new CPUs and cut the prices of old ones. The chip giant's desktop product list now includes the Core 2 Quad Q9550s, Q9400s and Q8200s. The suffix indicates they're all low-power version of existing quad-core chips, each sporting a reduced TDP of 65W, down from 95W. Clocked at, respectively, 2.83GHz, …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 10:52

  • Chinese EV maker pitches 'safer than li-ion' batteries

    'Leccy Tech Much-reduced fire risk?

    Chinese car maker BYD is planning to license its low-cost ferrous-iron electric-auto batteries to other car firms. It has already had interest from manufacturers in the US, Europe and Japan, according to Reuters. BYD – believe it or not, it stands for Build Your Dreams – has already announced that it will release a plug-in …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 10:53

  • MoD networks still malware-plagued after two weeks

    Officials: But all our base email are belong to us

    Ongoing malware problems at the Ministry of Defence have left some officials and service personnel still without desktop computing, a fortnight after infections began. However, the MoD insists that media reports of its email being sent to Russia are untrue. MoD officials confirmed to the Register this morning that some …

    Malware 20 Jan 10:59

  • Asus intro Northern Lights notebooks

    Aurora Borealis-inspired design, apparently

    Asus obviously searched the stars for inspiration when considering the aesthetics of its latest notebook trio, because the machines supposedly feature a fusion of styles all borrowed from the Northern Lights. Asus' F50 and F70 machines feature designs inspired by Aurora Borealis The Aurora Borealis design etched onto the …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 11:00

  • Dot Hill shrinks its RAID offering

    Smaller is better

    Dot Hill has introduced what may be the shape of things to come, with a small form factor RAID array using 2.5-inch hard drives and solid state drives. The 2722 Fibre Channel and 2252 SAS have 4Gbit/s and 3Gbit/s interfaces respectively and hold 24 drives in their 2U high rack shelf enclosures, which can be 10K or 15K SAS, …

    Storage 20 Jan 11:17

  • New Italian Job ending revealed Friday

    'Hang on a minute, lads - I've got a great idea'

    The Royal Society of Chemistry will on Friday announce the winner of its challenge to resolve The Italian Job's cliffhanger ending, the Telegraph reports. Michael Caine's Charlie Croker and his team are left in a rather tight spot at the film's finale, as their bus teeters over a ravine and they have have to decide whether to …

    Physics 20 Jan 11:18

  • Acer's 10in Aspire One spied on web

    Big improvement on the original?

    Acer's eagerly anticipated 10in version of the popular Aspire One netbook has popped up in pictures on the web. Acer's 10in AA1: clear improvements over original Images courtesy AspireOneUser.com The shots will come as some relief to owners of 8.9in AA1s who've struggled to upgrade the mini-laptop's internals: one picture …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 11:25

  • World's first biometric, waterproof mobile surfaces

    A secure phone fit for the pool?

    Pin numbers are generally about as secure as most mobile phones get. But Fujitsu has launched what it claims is the world’s first waterproof handset with an embedded biometric sensor. Fujitsu's F-01A: waterproof and secure Although not the world’s first phone with a biometric reader – Fujitsu already has 16 others, …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 11:29

  • Breakthrough paint blocks top-end spectrum

    Blocking frequencies not even being used yet

    Japanese researchers have created a cheap paint that will block RF transmissions up to 182GHz - ready for the day someone starts transmitting confidential data at such a high frequency. The research was conducted at University of Tokyo and appears in a paper published by the American Chemical Society. The paper argues that …

    Wireless 20 Jan 11:34

  • Boffin seeks $300,000 to build eight-wheel 230mph EV

    'Leccy Tech Have Gerry Anderson's lawyers been informed?

    Plug-in hybrids, extended-range electric vehicles, pure electric roadsters - all well and good, but what we really want is an electric eight-wheel hyper-car that's good for 230mph on the open road. So that would be the Eliica - or the Electric LIthium-Ion Car - Satanic brainchild of Japanese boffin Dr Hiroshi Shimizu, a man …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 12:02

  • Sniper-aiding app arrives for iPhone

    iShot the sheriff

    The iTunes App Store has brought iPhone owners many useful and useless applications. But now one’s available that’ll let any idiot with a sniper rifle take out enemies with ease. BulletFlight brings rifle support to the iPhone Runaway Technology's BulletFlight is described as a “ballistic computer” that provides you with …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 12:03

  • Conficker seizes city's hospital network

    Exclusive Network-wide update ban invites worm infection

    Staff at hospitals across Sheffield are battling a major computer worm outbreak after managers turned off Windows security updates for all 8,000 PCs on the vital network, The Register has learned. It's been confirmed that more than 800 computers have been infected with self-replicating Conficker code. Insiders at Sheffield …

    Malware 20 Jan 12:18

  • Whose notebook is it anyway?

    Workshop Essential or luxury

    For some, the freedom and flexibility of a laptop PC is essential to getting the job done. For others, having the latest piece of mobile kit is perhaps more of a luxury, or even, dare we suggest, just a status symbol. Either way, there is no disputing the shift in emphasis from desktop to portable machines in a business context …

    Notebooks 20 Jan 12:37

  • Desktop integrated graphics shoot-out

    Review The best IGPs from Intel, AMD and Nvidia slug it out

    There was a time, not so long ago, when integrated graphics were so feeble they couldn’t pull the metaphorical skin off a rice pudding. Broadly speaking, the integrated graphics processor (IGP) was fit for little more than the two-dimensional Windows desktop, and a graphics card was necessary if you wanted to play games. This …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 13:02

  • MoD ponders super spectrum sale

    Jacking in crown immunity

    The UK's Ministry of Defense has detailed the process by which it's planning to switch radio-spectrum usage from Crown Immunity to Recognised Spectrum Access, a precursor for sharing or trading radio spectrum. The MoD is a huge user of radio spectrum; about 35 percent of the spectrum below 15GHz is allocated to it as the …

    Networks 20 Jan 13:14

  • Conficker Autoplay ruse gets teeth into Windows 7

    VXers still ahead of the game

    Social engineering autoplay tricks work on early versions of Windows 7 as well as Vista, according to tests by security researchers. As well as spreading by exploiting a weeks-old Microsoft vulnerability, the Conficker (Downadup) worm attempts to spread across network shares and to infect removable drives, using a special …

    Security 20 Jan 13:38

  • McKinnon wins extradition delay

    All hold pending UK prosecution decision

    Gary McKinnon has been granted a delay in his long-running fight against extradition to the US on hacking charges. A judicial review of the Home Secretary's decision to ignore McKinnon's recent diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome in deciding to push ahead with his extradition was adjourned for a month, following a hearing on …

    Crime 20 Jan 14:39

  • SA copper thieves bid for Darwin glory

    Lesson in how electricity works learned a little too late

    Two South African men with an evidently scant knowledge of how electricity works were this morning killed while attempting to make off with copper power lines by pulling the cables with wires while standing on the ground. According to the BBC, the pair aged between 25 and 30 made their pitch for Darwin Award immortality at …

    Bootnotes 20 Jan 14:59

  • Microsoft halts construction plans, won't renew leases

    Huffs, puffs, blows house down

    Microsoft is reportedly boarding up a number of its Seattle-based properties by not renewing the leases, and is postponing construction plans on a number of buildings to help cut costs. According to SeattlePI.com, when Microsoft reports its second quarter earnings on Thursday, the software giant will bring in a series of belt- …

    Channel Register 20 Jan 15:19

  • The Manx Music Blanket Mystery

    Hey, nobody told us

    Sources on the Isle of Man have expressed surprise at the proposal to issue a blanket licence legalising the exchanges of digital music over P2P networks. The proposal was made at MidemNet this weekend by a Manx civil servant, Ron Berry. Berry is a broadcaster, joint owner of the Manx radio station 3FM founder, and founded an …

    Law 20 Jan 15:20

  • Cisco 'California' blade server launch imminent?

    Mighty vendor sure is up to something

    While vendors come and go in the cutthroat server racket every day, it is an exceptional day when a company with the economic and technical might of Cisco Systems decides to jump in. Many tongues are wagging as to what Cisco is up to as part of its "Big Bang" product launch for automating and virtualizing the data center and …

    Channel Register 20 Jan 16:09

  • Rockstar denies GTA V rumours

    But says 'yes' to another add-on download

    Rockstar has denied recent rumours that it’ll unveil a successor to the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto IV videogame this year. However, some good news is on the horizon. The firm broke the disappointing news to website Kotaku, with a spokesperson stating that there’s “no truth” in the reports. But, on a positive note, …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 16:28

  • Euro PC maker readies zero-Watt PC

    When it's in standby mode, that is

    Fujitsu Siemens (FSC) will shortly show off what it claims will be the world's first PC that consumes not a jot of power when it's placed in standby mode, the computer said today. Fujitsu Siemens' Zero-Watt PC: no power consumed when sleeping Dubbed the Zero-Watt PC, the machine can still be managed in a standby state by an …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 16:29

  • Sony confirms upcoming PSP update

    But doesn't talk details

    Sony is keeping mysteriously quiet about the benefits of its latest PlayStation Portable firmware update. As usual, Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations, broke news of the impending update – to be called version 5.03 - on the official PlayStation blog. He said simply that the firmware is “a small update …

    Reg Hardware 20 Jan 16:41

  • Call centre manager in the frame over ID scam

    Alleged two-year dodginess using British identities

    An Indian call centre manager is under investigation over allegations he used the identities of Brits to run an insurance fraud scam. Edward Burn, 30, has reportedly confessed to using the details of 12 people to make fictitious insurance claims valued at £56,900 through insurance firm Aviva, whose brands include Norwich Union …

    ID 20 Jan 16:56

  • US credit card payment house breached by sniffing malware

    Suspicious activity in the Heartland

    Heartland Payment Systems - a payments processor that serves more than 250,000 US businesses - warned consumers Tuesday that their card data may have been compromised following a security breach of the company's payment system. The Princeton, New Jersey firm said forensic investigators discovered malicious software on its …

    Security 20 Jan 18:57

  • Qualcomm eats AMD handheld biz

    $65 million munch

    Qualcomm today purchased $65m worth of intellectual property and other assets from AMD, as AMD finished divesting itself of its handheld and DTV businesses. Last October, AMD completed the sale of its DTV business to Broadcom. And today, the other shoe dropped when it announced the sale of handheld assets to Qualcomm. In a …

    Financial News 20 Jan 19:18

  • Microsoft mobile services and Windows Mobile due next month?

    Apple rivalry up, device coverage down

    Microsoft will update its mobile software and services strategy at next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, according to reports. A flurry of reports have said that Microsoft will unveil three mobile services at the annual telco fest. The planned services are SkyBox to synchronize a phone's information with the …

    Software 20 Jan 19:21

  • Red Hat revs Enterprise Linux distro

    Nehalem-Java-hypervisor love

    Red Hat today announced the fourth release of its Enterprise Linux commercial distribution, RHEL 5.3, adding support for new hardware, some virtualization tweaks meant to keep pace with recent innovations to hypervisor technology, and all sorts of other goodies. RHEL 5.3 offers over 150 enhancements. A number of these features …

    Operating Systems 20 Jan 19:52

  • Intel eyes sun-powered data centers

    Keeping the solar dream alive

    Despite taking some major financial knocks in recent months, Intel is pushing ahead with its investments in solar technology. Intel: 'Carry on my wayward Sun' Chipzilla is now testing the potential of using solar energy to help power data centers, unveiling a new experimental photovoltaic installation this weekend in New …

    Servers 20 Jan 20:15

  • Intel Atom heir in rumor mill upgrade

    Faster, smaller, cooler, cheaper

    More snippets of news emerged today about Intel's upcoming replacement to its low-power Atom processor, set to launch in the second half of this year. As we reported last September and updated last week, the Atom heir, code-named Pineview, will be available in both single-core and dual-core versions, each with an on-chip …

    PCs & Chips 20 Jan 20:50

  • Eclipse goal to become 'management-aware' in 2009

    Understanding, love, and contributions

    Developers might get the picture, but Eclipse reckons it had better ramp up awareness its products among senior management as it moves beyond tools in 2009. Eclipse Foundation marketing director Ian Skerrett has blogged it's important to help senior business and technology executives to understand the Foundation as it moves …

    Developer 20 Jan 21:42