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30th January 2009 Archive

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  • Citrix ejects 10 per cent of staff

    Looks to the clouds

    Application and server virtualization software maker Citrix Systems says that business began slow last July, but after putting the brakes on costs, it has reported respectable numbers for its fourth quarter. For the final thirteen weeks of the year, Citrix reported sales of $416m, up 4 per cent, and net income came to $60m, …

    Financial News 30 Jan 00:29

  • Novell GroupWise bug threatens mass email theft

    A mole's dream

    Security researchers have identified two critical holes in Novell's GroupWise WebAccess, the web front end for the company's email and employee collaboration package, that allow malicious hackers to steal user messages with ease. All supported versions of the program are vulnerable. One vulnerability allows an attacker to …

    Security 30 Jan 01:23

  • Memo to Microsoft: Enough with the SKUed Windows

    Windows 7 netbook plus for all

    When it comes to Windows 7, Microsoft should resist the usual inner demons. A new client operating system from Microsoft is the gift that keeps giving. You don't get just one version. You get lots of different versions. There currently exist five editions - or SKUs - of Windows Vista, while its predecessor Windows XP came in …

    Operating Systems 30 Jan 03:42

  • Yahoo! lobs! Briefcase! into! rubbish! bin!

    Google generation abandons YDrive

    You might say that Google and Yahoo! are moving in completely different directions. As the world breathlessly awaits the arrival of Google's mystery GDrive, Yahoo! has quietly discontinued its ten-year-old YDrive due to extreme lack of interest. A visit to Yahoo!'s venerable online file storage service, Briefcase, reveals the …

    Applications 30 Jan 05:48

  • Intel's Moblin 2 scurries into the wild

    'Fastbooting' netbook Linux

    The first alpha of Intel's Linux-based Moblin 2 platform has been released for testing. The Moblin Project pushed out the initial version Monday, hoping to lure a community of developers to its open-source stack for netbooks and other low-power devices running on Intel's Atom processors. Alpha 1 includes the Linux 2.6.29-rc2 …

    Developer 30 Jan 05:53

  • 3G forever, cries Carter

    Digital Britain Spectrum licences don't wear out like they used to

    Lord Carter has proposed that UK mobile phone operators be allowed to hang on to 3G licences forever, and make better use of their 2G assets too. The current 3G licences are due to run out in 2021, after which there should be another auction, but Lord Carter, in his Digital Britain report, wants to see the incumbents offered …

    Mobile 30 Jan 07:02

  • Asus N50 15in laptop

    Review Have integrated ionizer, will purify air

    If you just want something small and cheap to do a bit of surfing and email on, a netbook is fine. If you need to actually get some proper work done, though, the cut-down spec often isn't really up to the task - which is where something like the Asus N50Vc comes in. Asus' N50: cool looks Sibling of the smaller N10, the N50 …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 09:02

  • Aperi dies on its arse

    Time-wasting diversion keels over

    Like Monty Python's famous dead parrot, the futile Aperi open source storage system management project has fluttered to earth because IBM has removed the funding nail that was keeping it upright. Aperi is now openly dead for all the world to see. The whole idea has been a waste of time and effort from start to finish. IBM led …

    Storage 30 Jan 10:02

  • PwC auditors fingered for Satyam fraud

    Beancounters been fiddling

    Indian police have accused two PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants of colluding and conspiring with company founder Ramalinga Raju to create false accounts for Satyam. The two auditors are in police custody but have not yet been charged. "During interrogation [the auditors, Subramani Gopala Krishnan and Talluri Srinivas] …

    Channel Register 30 Jan 10:09

  • Outsourcing suddenly less popular

    Potential savings don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy downturn

    Demand for outsourcing has fallen as global economic troubles hit the outsourcing industry, according to research produced by an outsourcing consultancy. Its advisors expect demand to increase early this year, the company said. Outsourcing consultancy EquaTerra asked its advisors whether demand was increasing for outsourcing …

    Channel Register 30 Jan 10:30

  • Lucky Mancs could get ID cards first, Jacqui declares

    Praises the fall of gangs, hails New Order

    Wacky Jacqui Smith continues to believe her own increasingly insane press releases on ID cards. Yesterday she told the people of Manchester that they might be lucky enough to get their hands on ID cards earlier than the rest of the country. The Home Office is looking for "beacon areas" to further trial the cards from autumn …

    Government 30 Jan 10:57

  • Council fields world's first rubbish-fuelled rubbish truck

    'Leccy Tech Electric revolution in... er... Huddersfield

    For a brief moment this week, the focus of electric vehicle development in Britain was Huddersfield town centre and while the location may lack the glamour of Geneva, Monaco or Los Angeles what was on show was not without interest. Kirklees Council's 'leccy truck: local van for local people In what may well be a world first …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 11:04

  • Patent app reveals Microsoft's smart smartphone cradle

    Halfway house between phone and PC

    Microsoft has asked for a patent to protect its idea for a smartphone docking cradle that would turn your handheld into a mini-laptop. Microsoft's smartphone cradle The “Smart Interface System for Mobile Communication Devices” is a docking station that would harness your smartphone’s processing capabilities to let you do …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 11:06

  • First 'fully accurate' totally voice-controlled phone unveiled

    'Look, ma, no hands'

    You’d probably expect a groundbreaking mobile phone to be developed deep inside Nokia’s HQ or in a military bunker. However, a supposedly super-secure handset described as the world’s first truly hands-free mobile has, in fact, been designed on an industrial estate in Hereford, UK. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 11:11

  • Bosses swear data protection oath

    No, really this time, honest

    The heads of several public sector organisations, but none from central government, have signed a promise to protect personal information. Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, launched the 10 point Personal Information Promise on 28 January 2009. Those signing have pledged to "go further than just the letter of the …

    Government 30 Jan 11:15

  • Street View vehicle kills Bambi

    Cervine slaughter outrage rocks cyberspace

    Those of you who are old enough to remember when it was all fields round here and have spent years searching for an answer to the Sex Pistols' perennial poser Who Killed Bambi? will be delighted to learn that the question has finally been answered. Yes, folks, it was Google who killed Bambi, and here's the proof (click on the …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 11:16

  • Boffins: Blue light kills MRSA 'superbugs'

    Just ask to ride on the ambulance roof

    American medi-boffins say they have developed a way to kill so-called "superbugs" - deadly infections which can't be cured using antibiotics - by simply shining a certain wavelength of blue light on them. They believe the technique could be used safely on patients infected with MRSA*. "It is inspiring that an inexpensive …

    Biology 30 Jan 11:17

  • Techwatch weathers DDoS extortion attack

    Botnet blackmail

    Techwatch is back online following a sustained denial of service attack that left the digital TV news site unavailable for two days earlier this week. The botnet-powered assault was accompanied by blackmail demands posted on the site's forum through compromised zombie machines. These threatening messages claimed the site was …

    Small Biz 30 Jan 11:19

  • Online data shows netbook demand rocketing

    Ten per cent of online buyers have one

    Ten per cent of online computer buyers now owns a netbook and almost 20 per cent of mobile PCs sought out by buyers in December 2008 was one of these mini-laptops. So reveals survey data from price-comparison site PriceGrabber, based on an online questionnaire fielded earlier this year and filled in by some 1545 respondents. …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 11:54

  • Dell smartphones coming next month?

    Mole claims dual handset launch within weeks

    Rumours that Dell has designed a mobile phone have been doing the rounds for months. But it’s now been reported that the PC assembler could unveil two smartphones within weeks. According to the Wall Street Journal, a Dell mole’s claimed that one of the smartphones will be akin to the iPhone — think full touchscreen device – …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 11:59

  • Texas lawyer sues Citibank over fake cheque scam

    'I'm a capital 'D' Dumbass', admits fleeced victim of Lads from Lagos

    A Houston lawyer is suing Citibank after being taken for $182,500 by email scammers claiming to be a debt-chasing Japanese company, Texas Lawyer reports. Richard T Howell Jr, of Buckley, White, Castaneda & Howell, fell for a classic cheque fraud scam. His "Japanese" contacts claimed they were pursuing four outstanding debts in …

    Crime 30 Jan 12:16

  • The Register Guide to securing your network

    Showing our vulnerability side

    From time to time we ask our analyst friends at Freeform Dynamics to compose a primer on a tech topic du jour. Today, we focus on vulnerability management, a crucial component in every IT security strategy. Vulnerability management is largely about ‘divide and conquer’ - identifying the critical systems that should be treated …

    Security 30 Jan 12:24

  • KCOM chops 150 as integration business slides

    Hullo, goodbye

    KCOM is ditching 150 staff from its Integration and Managed Services business after revenues at the unit slipped by ten per cent. The telecoms company - formerly Kingston Communications - said in an interim statement that the nine months ending December 31 had seen continued improving performance at its Telecoms and Internet …

    Channel Register 30 Jan 12:35

  • 1m French out of work thanks to dodgy data - UK next?

    Get vetted and go... on the dole

    As the UK prepares to put in place its shiny new vetting database later this year, analysis of a similar project in France reveals a devastating degree of inaccuracy, leading to real hardship for a very large number of people. A report (pdf) issued last week by CNIL, the French Data Protection Agency, reveals that as many as a …

    Government 30 Jan 12:39

  • American Stereotype™ walks Google's mean Street View

    Gun? Check. Liquor? Check

    We're fully aware that some of our UK readers have pretty well decided that the average American wears a baseball cap, Harley-Davidson sweatshirt, jeans and cowboy boots and walks the mean streets of the Land of the Free with a hunting rifle while swigging from a bottle of hard liquor. Nothing, of course, could be further from …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 12:54

  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 12Mp µ4/3s camera

    Review The future of the bridge camera?

    You know the saying: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. Well, Panasonic’s DMC-G1 looks like a digital SLR, has interchangeable lenses like a DSLR – but it isn’t a DLSR. No sir, the G1 ushers in a new generation of cameras designed to blast a hole right through the middle of …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 13:02

  • The HTML that says no - Joi Ito's pitch for a theft-free web

    DLD09 But it's Creative Commons, not DRM

    Joi Ito has a recipe for a world without DRM - cunningly, it's software that stops you doing stuff you're not allowed to. Simple, yes? In the future world according to Ito, every object on the Internet will have licensing and copyright information attached to it, machine will talk to machine, and machine will overrule you if you …

    Music and Media 30 Jan 13:08

  • Firefox 3.1 release date hampered by cheeky monkey

    Show-stopping bugs could see browser slip into Q2

    Mozilla is struggling to get the third, and probably final, beta of Firefox 3.1 out the door, which means its first quarter release target is looking increasingly doubtful. "At this time, we don't have a good estimate for when we'll be done," said Mozilla. “Many of the bugs are proving to be tricky and complicated to fully …

    Applications 30 Jan 13:17

  • Apache gunbird used as robo kill-chopper fleet command ship

    Gov-conspiracy pilots' reps vow to fight layoffs

    US weaponry'n'aerospace companies have announced the first flight testing of an Apache attack helicopter equipped to act as flagship to an accompanying fleet of robotic unmanned kill-choppers. Brit Apaches are never seen without their radars in public. The add-on in question is the Longbow Unmanned Aerial Systems Tactical …

    Government 30 Jan 13:26

  • Birmingham drops the possessive apostrophe

    'Pedants’ revolt' brewing, Times suggests

    Defenders of correct punctuation should look away now, because Birmingham City Council has voted to drop possessive apostrophes from its street signs, in the process risking a "pedants' revolt' as Middle England rises to combat this latest menace to our beloved mother tongue. According to the Times, the decision came following …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 13:27

  • Acer test drives latest Ferrari notebook

    'Vrooooom!'

    Acer’s gunning for pole position with the launch of it's latest Ferrari-brand notebook - the 1200. Acer's Ferrari 1200: a sporty little number? Design is the Ferrari 1200’s main appeal, as the sexy 12.1in machine has a carbon fibre-clad body and a “unique ventilation” system that supposedly echoes the exhaust pipes of F1 …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 13:38

  • Gordo's mobe interrupts economic summit

    I'll name that ringtone in one, Prime Minister

    If you want evidence that UK big cheese Gordon Brown is not hip with the kids, try this BBC clip of his mobe interrupting a press conference at the World Economic Forum shindig in Davos... Hey, Gordo, that is like sooo last century - time to download a kick-ass polyphonic. Word has it that Sarko's phone has a thrash-garage …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 13:45

  • Nintendo inks 'Spring-Summer' DSi launch for Europe

    Eairlier than expected

    First shipments of Nintendo’s DSi handheld console could arrive in Blighty slightly earlier than expected, a company document has revealed. An extract from a Nintendo document reveals the updated European DSi launch The DSi – the latest model in the DS range – will now reach Europe and North America in “Spring-Summer 2009 …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 13:50

  • Swiss cops sniff out dope plantation on Google Earth

    'An interesting chance discovery'

    Swiss police reported yesterday they "stumbled across" a sizeable dope plantation which had helpfully been captured on Google Earth, AP reports. The happy find came last year during an investigation into an alleged drug ring. Officers were using Google Earth to find the addresses of a couple of farmers suspected of involvement …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 14:04

  • DEC 'hacker' questions McKinnon political bandwagon

    Boris didn't big me up - what gives?

    Boris Johnson's outspoken defence of Gary McKinnon in his extradition fight has been criticised by a former security consultant, who complains he was denied such support when he himself was charged with hacking offences. Daniel Cuthbert was convicted in October 2005 of breaking the Computer Misuse Act by "hacking" into a …

    Security 30 Jan 14:19

  • Orange adds PAYG BlackBerry

    The choice for cheapskates?

    Mobile email fans bereft of cash can now get their BlackBerry kicks without a monthly service contract, thanks to Orange. The service provider has announced plans to launch the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 on Pay-As-You-Go. Although the phone will initially cost you £145 ($206/€161), you’ll then have control over how much surfing, …

    Reg Hardware 30 Jan 14:36

  • Nigerian car thief turns into sheep

    Swiftly cuffed in vigilante ovine suppression op

    We're not quite sure what to make of this report in Nigeria's Vanguard, but it appears that police in Ilorin, Kwara State, are holding in custody a chap who tried to steal a Mazda, transformed himself into a sheep and was seized by vigilantes in a swift ovine suppression operation. The paper sort of explains that the head of …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 15:04

  • Encryption standards are here - but not for flash or tape

    Code this. Or don't

    Multi-vendor standards for self-encrypting storage devices are emerging through the Trusted Computing Group. But flash and tape drives are not included in them. The new TCG specifications mean that drives which encode their contents can be interoperable with key managers and trusted platform modules and be interchangeable in …

    Storage 30 Jan 15:11

  • Experian sends 'cheap' Lord a-leaping

    Don't let the door hit your bulging back pocket

    Credit rating agency Experian has split from Lord Taylor of Blackburn, one of its political advisers, after the ermine-clad idiot said he could get legislation changed for cash. Police are investigating allegations against four peers - Lord Moonie, Lord Truscott, Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Snape - that they offered …

    Government 30 Jan 15:17

  • Fring snuggles with Last.fm

    But how long before the music stops?

    Fring, developer of the free cross-network messaging and VoIP client, has added Last.FM to its supported-services list. It'll provide access to streaming music for S60 users who can share their musical tastes with the world via various forms of IM including Twitter. Fring started out as a Skype client for Symbian S60 devices, …

    VoIP 30 Jan 15:23

  • Dell quietly jacks up EMEA prices

    Currency just ain't wot it used to be

    Dell quietly jacked up its prices at the start of this year, but its account managers are only now filtering that information through to the computer maker’s partners and customers, The Register has learned. The firm, which plays second fiddle only to Hewlett-Packard on worldwide computer shipments, didn't go public with its …

    Channel Register 30 Jan 15:29

  • First piss-drinking astronauts to go on live TV

    Golden new dawn for spacefaring

    NASA has announced that the first astronauts to survive in orbit by drinking their own recycled urine will meet their public on live TV next Wednesday. Four of the six members of the planned Expedition 20 crew for the International Space Station (ISS) will give a media briefing, according to the space agency. Expedition 20 …

    Space 30 Jan 15:56

  • HP gives SMBs zero per cent financing

    IT follows auto makers down that road

    Server, PC and ink maker Hewlett-Packard gets a lot of business from small and medium businesses, and these companies are struggling a bit in the Western economies right now. So HP's Financial Services arm has rolled out a tried and true - but dangerously addictive - tactic to move gear: zero per cent financing. HP Financing …

    Hardware 30 Jan 15:57

  • US school in toothless Obama worm infection

    Round up the dweebiest suspects

    Security experts reckon a new low-threat worm that displays the image of President Obama on infected desktops is the work of technically-knowledgeable pranksters. Infections of the worm appear to be confined to scores of desktops at the same (unnamed) Illinois high school, which contacted its anti-virus supplier. The outbreak …

    Malware 30 Jan 15:58

  • ISPs relieved not to be Carter's Cops

    Digital Britain There will be no disconnection today, gentlemen

    ISPs greeted Carter with a sigh of relief, LINX head of public affairs told us today. In response to copyright infringement, ISPs will not now need to deploy expensive packet inspection - and won't disconnect users. "The threats are off the table," says Malcolm Hutty. "The government has recognised that the principle …

    Telecoms 30 Jan 16:08

  • FoTW 'I HOPE YOUR HOUSE IS NEAR THE SEA HAHAHAHA!!!!'

    Yes, it's a welcome return for Flame of the Week. Presumably ignited by this story - although the subject line suggests an accumulation of tinder. From: ozgur yigit Subject: re register storys Date: 28 January 2009 16:58:09 GMT To: Andrew Orlowski YOU BUSH LOVING CRICHTON READING MUDERING EVIL YANK SCUM!!! IM AMAZED A UK …

    Bootnotes 30 Jan 16:13

  • Toshiba plays sugar daddy to SanDisk

    Fab financial footwork for flash

    SanDisk is getting almost $300m cash and freeing itself from over half a bilion dollars of equipment lease obligations courtesy of sugar daddy Toshiba. The two have signed a definitive agreement concerning their flash fabrication joint-venture, following on from a non-binding memorandum of understanding signed in October last …

    Financial News 30 Jan 16:23

  • White Space lobby leaps to Europe

    What's good for the sceptics...

    Having secured FCC approval for the use of cognitive radios in White Space on the American side of the pond, a lobbying consortium has jumped the Atlantic to try their luck with European regulators. White spaces are frequencies that are allocated to TV transmissions, but that aren't being utilised fully thanks to the way that …

    Mobile 30 Jan 17:51

  • Humyo cloud disappears from afternoon sky

    Hi ho! Hi ho! It's off to no work we go

    Europe's largest online storage provider, Humyo, has been offline all afternoon due to a multi-terabyte database rebuild. Humyo is an online, "store-your-data-in-the-cloud" service that was started up by Dan Conlon in January 2007. It has more than 300,000 customers using its facilities. Conlon funded it himself using money …

    Servers 30 Jan 17:56

  • T3 girds loins for IBM legal fight

    Microsoft money steels clone mainframer

    Clone mainframe maker T3 Technologies - one of the last few non-IBM alternatives for running Big Blue's mainframe software - says that it doesn't anticipate settling its IBM lawsuits in Europe and in the United States. In other words, it won't pull a Platform Solutions. Platform settled its IBM litigation after being acquired …

    Servers 30 Jan 18:12

  • Microsemi CEO slapped for fabricating degrees

    Chip maker will fine (but keep) its chief

    Chip maker Microsemi has decided to keep its CEO and president James Peterson after a board investigation concluded he lied about receiving degrees from Brigham Young University. The California-based firm specializes in high-reliability parts the US government uses in military applications, satellites, and spacecraft. The …

    Financial News 30 Jan 19:10

  • Silverlight 3 and 4 to 'open up new areas' - Microsoft

    Dig it, man

    The next two releases of Silverlight will take Microsoft's media player in completely new directions, the technical executive in charge has promised. The corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division Scott Guthrie told the company's Channel 9 "whole new areas you can't do today will start to open up" with …

    Applications 30 Jan 20:28

  • Windows 7 UAC shutoff 'bug' leaves Microsoft unmoved

    Insecure by design?

    Security researchers have unearthed a potentially serious flaw in User Account Control (UAC) features in Windows 7. Microsoft is aware of the issue but is currently unconvinced it needs to make changes to the pre-release code. UAC is a security feature introduced in Windows Vista that's designed to prompt users for permission …

    Security 30 Jan 20:34

  • Google Chocolate Factory leaks (more) GDrive talk

    Oompa Loompa 'monitors' your clicks

    More evidence has surfaced that Oompa Loompas inside the Google Chocolate Factory are hard at work on something called the GDrive. When perusing a file used by Mountain View's free software suite - Google Pack - blogger Brian Ussery spied a brief description of the long-rumored online storage service. "GDrive provides …

    Applications 30 Jan 20:52

  • NEC to axe 20,000

    The meltdown is turning Japanese

    NEC joined the parade of tech firms announcing sinking profits, downsized forecasts, and shrinking workforces when the company today released financial results for its most recent quarter. Today's financial results detailed the nine-month period of April through December 2008. Compared with the same period in 2007, revenue …

    Financial News 30 Jan 20:57