9th February 2009 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Kaspersky hacker: Database exposed for days

Security Co. mum on Jedi mind trick

Some 24 hours after a hacker claimed to hack a Kaspersky website and access a database containing proprietary customer information, the security provider issued a terse statement confirming it had experienced a security issue. "On Saturday, February 7, 2009, a vulnerability was detected on a subsection of the usa.kaspersky.com …

Security 9 Feb 07:10
Brother MFC-5890CN inkjet all-in-one A3 printer

Review A big printer for big paper

If you need to print on paper bigger than A4, your choices of printer are severely reduced. If you need colour and can only afford an inkjet, they’re smaller still, and if you’d like an all-in-one, you’re down to half a dozen possibilities. Make that seven - Brother now has its MFC-5890CN, coming in at a touch over £150. …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 09:02
Parcelforce website cold-shoulders Linux lovers

Fanboys advised to pick up phone

Blighty's national parcel service has no online facility for Linux fans because its website only supports some Microsoft Windows operating systems and Apple's Mac OS X. Many have complained that Royal Mail's Parcelforce.com site freezes out anyone using a Linux distro. One reader told us: "When you try and ship a parcel [on …

IT Director 9 Feb 09:02
Samsung flies flagship phone

Tocco Ultra ~~Super Mega~~ Edition

Samsung has lifted the curtain on its flagship handset for this year: the Tocco Ultra Edition. Samsung's Tocco Ultra Edition is its 2009 flasghip phone Designed as the successor to the existing Tocco – which Samsung’s claimed was the UK’s best-selling contract phone in the second half of 2008 – the latest model differs from …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 09:02
Woz goes Strictly dancing

US TV greets the iDancer

The US version of Strictly Come Dancing has secured Apple founder Steve Wozniak as a contestant. Dancing With The Stars is an ABC reality show which is part of a BBC Worldwide franchise, Dancing with the Stars, based on Strictly Come Dancing. For the benefit of anyone who can actually still afford to go out on a Saturday night …

Entertainment 9 Feb 09:52
Why EMC should really rev InVista

Comment Put up, or put down?

InVista is a stunning flop that EMC is refusing to shut down. Why? Is EMC in a state of denial, or does it have a plan? EMC announced InVista as a storage array management and virtualization platform, a storage router based in a SAN fabric, in May 2005. It ran as an out-of-band appliance connected to a fabric switch and became …

Storage 9 Feb 10:31
Reg Hardware launches Twitter stream

Site News Tweeting throughout the day

Register Hardware is now Tweeting. Yes, in a desperate bid to get hip to the Web 2.0 vibe - the sound you hear in the background is The Register's Andrew Orlowski slapping his forehead in bewilderment - we've launched an (experimental) Twitter feed. Pop along to twitter.com/reghardware and, if you've a Twitter account of your …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 10:56
Outgoing Seagate CEO: Bill's big bill

Failure has its own rewards

Seagate terminated ex-CEO Bill Watkin's employment on 4 February and will pay him $5m according to SEC filings. Watkins resigned as a director on that date. A separation agreement is now in force between him and Seagate and, as a consideration for agreeing to it, the bill for Bill is cash payments totalling $5,000,008. This …

Storage 9 Feb 11:01
AMD cores up with Phenom II

Three and four core desktop chips

AMD has officially released a set of Phenom II processors with three or four cores priced to undercut Intel's Core 2 Duo and Quad line on a bangs per buck basis. The Phenom II X3 runs at either 2.6 or 2.8GHz and the 2.8Gig variant is said to be 20 per cent faster at a 3D rendering task than a Core 2 Duo E8400 and also priced …

Channel Register 9 Feb 11:13
RM walks the line

Expectations remain unchanged

RM saw no indications of a fall in spending in its markets for the first half of its fiscal year, and said expectations for the full year remain unchanged. The education IT supplier said trading was in line with management’s plans covering the period from 1 October 2008 to 6 February 2009. However, it also pointed out that “ …

Channel Register 9 Feb 11:18
LG officially unveils Arena flagship

With 3D cube interface

LG hasn’t done a very good job of keeping its latest flagship handset under lock and key. Just seven days before Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona, the firm’s officially unveiled its Arena smartphone to the world. LG's Arena: sports a 3D cube interface Also known as the LG-KM900, the phone’s described as a fully- …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 11:20
Ford partners with British e-van maker to kickstart US EV drive

'Leccy Tech Any colour so long as it's white

When Ford announced its electric vehicle roadmap at the Detroit Motor Show, we speculated that one part the plan would be the introduction into the US market of a 'leccy version of the humble Transit Connect. What we didn't know was that the plan would be a partnership – actually, Ford prefers the word 'collaboration' – with …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 11:20
We need cheap, abundant energy. Here's how

Energise! More R&D, fewer red herrings

[ This week, El Reg brings you extracts this week from Energise! - a fresh look at energy policy and innovation - eds] Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus (1818) suggested that human power over nature could lead to tragedy. Then, a century after Shelley’s lone doctor foolishly experimented with human …

Science 9 Feb 11:21
Vodafone and 3 merge Oz operations

It really was no miracle. What happened was...

Vodafone Australia and Hutchison's 3 network are giving up competing and will merge their operations into a 50:50 joint venture. Jobs are likely to be lost as a result of the deal, but customers were told nothing would be changing fast. VHA Pty Ltd will market mobile services under the Vodafone brand but will keep rights to …

Mobile 9 Feb 11:31
Footy star sues Facebook over fake fascist profile

Del Piero: That's not my moustache

Juventus star Alessandro del Piero is reportedly suing Facebook over a fake profile bearing his name that links to Nazi propaganda sites. The 34-year-old World Cup-winning Italian footballer is aggrieved that the bogus account, which carries his picture, implies neo-Nazi sympathies. Del Piero states he's never had a Facebook …

ID 9 Feb 11:54
Official Amazon Kindle 2 images leak out

Announcement to follow within hours

Just hours before Amazon is expected to officially unveil its second-generation Kindle in New York, a pair of very official-looking images of the so-called Kindle 2 have appeared online. Amazon's 'Kindle 2': rounder and sexier Pictures of the device have been seen before, but they were quite blurred and poorly framed. These …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 11:58
Man arrested in Indymedia animal extremism probe

Police act on web comment including judge's details

A man has been arrested in connection with comments posted to the activist news site Indymedia. The postings on January 21 included the personal details of a prominent High Court judge who had earlier that day handed down prison sentences in a landmark animal testing extremism trial. A spokeswoman for Kent Police said the …

Law 9 Feb 12:20
HTC working on 1GHz smartphone?

Rumours of TG01 rival

HTC may follow in the footsteps of Toshiba’s recently unveiled TG01 smartphone - by launching its own device based on Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chip. According to a report by DigiTimes, HTC’s expected to unveil the mystery device in Q2. Toshiba’s TG01 is expected to be available this summer. Toshiba and HTC aren’t the only …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 12:46
Link-spamming spreads to NHS, police

Home Office harbouring hentai - how humiliating!

Hot on the heels of spam-linked local government and pwned parish Council sites, El Reg has discovered that central government is not immune to infiltration by spammers. To schools we must now add NHS, Police and Fire Brigade. If Altavista is to be believed, not only have the Home Office crime reduction pages been encouraging …

Crime 9 Feb 12:58
AMD Phenom II Socket AM3 processor

Review The chip maker's back in the game

The first two models of AMD’s Phenom II processor showed that the move from 65nm to 45nm was thoroughly good news. It reduced power draw and waste heat while allowing AMD to increase clock speeds, which is very jubbly indeed. Now it’s time for the other half of the story, as AMD unveils Socket AM3 with its support for 1333MHz …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 13:01
Google faces post-Fleetwood Mac comedown

Fail and You Mountain View in rehab

America loves its ballin'. Walk into the shop, ice around your neck, and twist off a hand full of cabbage to buy things - not out of necessity, but out of the joy of buying things. You would think that a publicly-traded company that's rolling in cheddar would be able to exercise some self-restraint, especially a company …

Applications 9 Feb 13:02
Brits and Yanks struck with ~~embarasment~~ embarrassment

New millenium spelling woes

It's official: English is going directly to hell in a handcart because more than half of native speakers of the lingo can't spell "embarrassed" - and even more have entered the new millennium without the foggiest idea of how 1,000 years pan out in our beloved mother tongue. To be precise, 54 per cent of us are embarrassed by " …

Bootnotes 9 Feb 13:02
Data Domain sticks neck out on deduping

Comment Dopey notions from speed freaks?

Can block-level access storage area network data be deduplicated? Data Domain thinks so, but nobody else does. The company also reckons deduping data on solid state drives will solve the SSD price problem. Deduplication is the removal of repeated data patterns in files to drastically shrink the space they occupy; it is used …

Storage 9 Feb 13:08
Users: The weakest link in laptop security

Reg Tech Panel Is end user training still an optional luxury?

If you ask the average business person who is responsible for the security of data held in computer systems, the chances are they will point to the IT department. After all, it's all about passwords, keys, firewalls, locks on computer room doors and other systems-related perceptions they have picked up without ever really having …

Notebooks 9 Feb 13:11
HP printer hack risk prompts update

Firmware update guards against file snaffling

Users of HP LaserJet printers need to apply a firmware update following the discovery of a potentially troublesome vulnerability. The security bug creates a means for hackers to gain access to files sent to printers via the web administration console on vulnerable machines. A security advisory from HP explains various versions …

Enterprise Security 9 Feb 13:35
US spooks want 'stand off' biometrics-harvesting iPhones

Jesus mobe turns to service of darkness

Sinister government agencies will soon be able to harvest our biometrics from afar without us even realising it has happened, according to reports. Even worse, one of the main tools of the coming surveillocracy is expected to be the beloved Jesus Phone, evilly twisted from its intended purpose of bringing peace and wellbeing to …

Mobile 9 Feb 13:39
Dow leaves Dell amid UK channel shake-up

Who to woo channel now?

Dell is rejigging its UK indirect business after its channel director made a shock exit from the firm a few weeks ago. Andy Dow left the company just as the computer vendor begun embarking on “Phase Two” of its EMEA channel strategy. However, it’s not clear at this stage what prompted Dow's departure, barely a year after he …

Channel Register 9 Feb 13:59
Top Qinetiq raider to retire with vast treasure chest

His parrot will not lack for treats

Sir John Chisholm, the famous biz kingpin who led a decade-long corporate raid on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and amassed a huge personal fortune while doing so, is reportedly about to retire. The Times reports that Qinetiq, the firm assembled by Chisholm and his associates from privatised government laboratories and US …

Financial News 9 Feb 14:33
Valentine Trojan onslaught blights inboxes

Have these people no heart?

Virus authors are attempting to hoodwink unwary and lovestruck internet users with malware that poses as Valentine's Day-related games and email greetings. The hacker tactic is a familiar companion to annual holidays, such as Christmas, New Year's Day and Valentine's Day. McAfee reports that the Valentine’s Day spam links to …

Malware 9 Feb 14:43
Mozilla comes out in support of Brussels IE on Windows findings

No surprise there then

Mozilla Corporation has joined the growing number of open source browser makers to come out in support of European antitrust watchdogs’ grumbles against Microsoft tying Internet Explorer to its Windows operating system. The outfit’s chairwoman and former CEO Mitchell Baker posted a blog late on Friday in which she backed last …

Channel Register 9 Feb 14:46
UK.gov to send your holidays to sunny Manchester

e-Borders programme gears up

The government is building a new data storage and processing centre near Manchester, as the £1.2bn e-Borders programme gears up to monitor every movement in and out of the UK. According to the Sunday Times, an industrial estate in the Wythenshawe suburb will host the e-Borders Operations Centre (e-BOC) and its reams of data on …

Government 9 Feb 14:57
TotalMusic goes totally titsup

Second attempt fails too

Music vapourware venture TotalMusic is closing down, leaving only a sprinkling of buzzwords behind it. Universal and Sony BMG backed the venture, which foolishly resurrected the brand TotalMusic, the name of an earlier doomed digital music failure. Antitrust concerns put paid to the idea of bundling music with gadgets, but the …

Music and Media 9 Feb 15:32
Isle of Man gov gets social

Tempting graduates back home

The Isle of Man is trying to tempt back departing graduates with a bit of Web 2.0 social networking magic. The tax haven's government has set up a social networking site called manxgraduates.im for employers looking for staff, or to promote their firm, as well as attracting back new graduates. The idea is that Manx grads will …

Government 9 Feb 15:36
Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars goes multiplayer

Drive-by shootings, with a friend

A flyer for the upcoming GTA: ChinaTown Wars Nintendo DS game has revealed that it will support multiplayer action. A flyer's revealed GTA: ChinaTown Wars' multiplayer goodness The flyer was, according to a report by website GoNintendo, grabbed by a fan at the Comic Con event in New York last weekend. One line describing …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 15:53
BONDI gives mobile widgets a day in the sun

Alliance counts Opera and LiMO as friends

The Open Mobile Terminal Alliance has launched version one of its Web-2.0-widget platform BONDI with a reference implementation, software developer's kit and endorsements from Opera and the other Linux consortium. BONDI is a selection of extensions to ECMAScript (the scripting language formally, and informally, known as …

Mobile 9 Feb 16:01
Sony pumps up the bass

Firm's cans promise all-mighty bass

Music with a bangin’ bass is important, or so Register Hardware’s intern said. Sony obviously knows this too, because it’s launched a series of eXtra Bass (XB) headphones. Sony's eXtra Bass cans boast bangin' bass beats The cans are designed to accurately reproduce ultra-low frequencies without compromising crystal-clear …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 16:02
Next-gen Atom set back to Q4

Timed to fuel Xmas netbook binge?

Intel's next-gen netbook-centric mobile Atom, codenamed 'Pineview', won't appear until mid-way through Q4, the chip giant's latest roadmap reveals. So far, it was believed that the part would debut mid-2009, probably early in Q3, but Pineview appears to have slipped a quarter and a half, if a roadmap posted by Japanese- …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 16:31
HD TV beats depression, claims HD TV company

It must be true, then

If you’re feeling a tad depressed then we’d admit that a comedy could help boost your spirits. But a questionable piece of Sky research claims to have concluded that watching HD TV programmes can help improve the viewer’s psychological well being. According to the broadcaster, it’s apparently proven that “watching television …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 16:37
Intel to tweak desktop 'Nehalem' line-up in Q2

New top end CPUs to join revised Core i7 920

Prepare for faster Core i7 'Nehalem' desktop processors next quarter, including a 3.33GHz successor to the current Core i7 Extreme 965. The top-of-the-line part, the 975, will replace the 965. Like the letter, the new chip will have 6.4GT/s - billion transfers per second - of QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) bandwidth and 8MB of …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 16:57
Amazon unveils Kindle 2.0

It's official

The worst kept secret in literary history has finally been officially confirmed by Amazon: the existence of its Kindle 2. Amazon's Kindle 2: thinner, smoother, sexier than before Amazon’s second-generation e-book reader has just been unveiled in New York as a device that measures 8 x 5.3 x 0.36in and which has a 6in, 600 x …

Reg Hardware 9 Feb 17:00
Dalai Lama's Twitter account is a fake

Always check your karmic sources

Social networking fans on the wrong side of the six-fold path to enlightenment may be heartbroken to learn the Dalai Lama's account on Twitter is a fake. News of his holiness joining the micro-blogging website yesterday prompted plenty of buzz from even reputable sources, like the Associated French Press. The account itself …

Odds and Sods 9 Feb 19:26
Microsoft to launch Windows mobile apps 'bazaar'

MyPhone beta site unveiled

Those hoping for a Microsoft mobile phone may need to settle, instead, for a planned online application store for handsets running Windows. It seems Microsoft won't launch either a Windows handset akin to the Apple-owned iPhone or Google's Android, or a break-through new version of Windows Mobile at this month's Mobile World …

Mobile 9 Feb 19:31
NetApp lays off staff

Six per cent to go

NetApp is laying off up to six per cent of staff as it copes with a recession that's affecting enterprise storage purchases. According to Jodie Bauman, director of corporate PR: "Today NetApp took a number of steps to better align our resources with the business outlook. This restructuring includes a reduction of about 6 per …

Storage 9 Feb 19:52
Intel kills off IDF Taipei

Gives IDF Beijing a haircut

If you have booked you travel and hotel accommodations for the upcoming Intel Developer Forum shindigs in Taipei, Taiwan, and Beijing, China, you are going to have to make some changes to your itinerary. These events have been crushed by the economic downturn. Intel has put up a small notice on the IDF site explaining that IDF …

PCs & Chips 9 Feb 20:26
Green semiconductor advice goes beyond the chip

ISSCC Cradle-to-cradle thinking

The semiconductor industry is poised to make major contributions to global energy efficiency, according to NXP Semiconductors chief technology officer René Penning de Vries speaking at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The need for energy efficiency is twofold, according to Penning de Vries speaking at …

PCs & Chips 9 Feb 21:01
Tough times mean channel love for Novell

Investments and profits promised

A lot of IT vendors make their numbers or don't because of the efforts of their indirect sales channels. And when times are tough, the vendor has to take some of the economic heat off their channel partners so they don't lose the people who actually interface with customers. To that end, Novell has announced that it is …

Channel Register 9 Feb 21:16
Kaiser Permanente breach leads to ID theft

Workers notified after police cuff suspect

Kaiser Permanente has admitted a breach of its employee records systems has resulted in incidents of identity theft. The breach came to light after police arrested an unnamed suspect, found in possession of a computer file containing personal details of the US health care provider. The file contained information such as …

Security 9 Feb 22:05
Houston justice system laid low by Conficker worm

They have a problem

The justice system in Houston was thrown into disarray late last week after the infamous Conficker (Downadup) worm infected key systems. The infection forced municipal courts in the Texan city to shut down on Friday, and police had to temporarily stop making arrests for minor offences, such as those for outstanding traffic …

Security 9 Feb 22:13