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13th February 2009 Archive

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  • Apple update plugs security vulns

    Beefs OS X, Java, Safari for Windows

    Apple has released a set of security updates that plug over two dozen holes in Mac OS X - including the Safari RSS vuln discovered last month - plus a vuln apiece in Java for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4, and Safari for Windows. According to an Apple support document, Security Update 2009-001 addresses vulns that include "multiple …

    Security 13 Feb 2009, 00:57

  • Google euthanizes radio ad biz

    One trick Mountain View pony

    There's no denying Google has a talent for building a monopoly in the search-ad biz. The question whether it has a talent for anything else. Less than a month after murdering its print ad programs, Google has given up on radio ads as well. This morning, with an Official Google blog post, the company said it will soon "phase …

    Business 13 Feb 2009, 01:04

  • VIA spins mini-mobo disk array

    Big disks, small package

    Taiwanese x86 chip and mini-motherboard maker VIA Technologies has launched a rack-mounted disk array based on its own Mini-ITX motherboards. Disk arrays are getting more and more brains to do thin provisioning, data replication, flash copy, and all kinds of other high-end functions that companies want - and are willing to pay …

    Servers 13 Feb 2009, 01:13

  • Microsoft goes retail with own shops

    Line for Zunes starts here

    Microsoft is following Apple's lead by opening its own retail stores. The software giant has named David Porter as corporate vice president of retail stores, whose first order of business will be to define locations, time frames, and specifics for a series of Microsoft-branded retail stores. Porter was head of worldwide …

    Channel Register 13 Feb 2009, 02:05

  • FTC gives behavioral ad punters one last chance

    Voluntary self-regulation's final shot

    The US Federal Trade Commission told online advertisers to do a better job of self-regulating how they track people's activities - or the government will step in and do it for them. The regulatory agency issued a report Thursday with minor tweaks about how online targeted ads systems should collect, save, store, and share user …

    Music and Media 13 Feb 2009, 02:11

  • Rackable stomached $31.3m loss in 2008

    Mystery customers cut cord

    Server maker Rackable Systems has finished up a rough 2008 and is positioning itself to take on a challenging 2009 IT spending environment. After the markets closed today, Rackable reported its fourth quarter and full year 2008 financial results, and sales for the peddler of energy-efficient, rack-based machines fell by 65.1 …

    Financial News 13 Feb 2009, 06:12

  • Cisco Linksys Media Hub 500GB home NAS

    Review The wireless router company does NAS

    Linksys has always been one of those dull, boring companies that makes dull, boring networking products for business users. But since its takeover by networking titan Cisco in 2003, Linksys has slowly tried to turn itself into a more consumer-friendly firm - all the better to grab a slice of the burgeoning home networking market …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 09:02

  • The dark horse in data centre I/O simplification

    Comment Three candidates, not two

    Data centre I/O needs simplifying, everyone is agreed. There are reckoned to be two candidates; datacentre Ethernet (DCE) which Cisco and Brocade support, and InfiniBand, pushed by Voltaire and Mellanox. Both DCE and InfiniBand virtualize I/O by having other network protocols run inside their fat pipes. But there is a third fat …

    Virtualization 13 Feb 2009, 09:54

  • Credit crunch hits school rebuilding programme

    The new abacuses are here kids...

    The National Audit Office says councils are struggling to borrow money under the Private Finance Initiative to build schools fitted with new ICT In a report on Building Schools for the Future (BSF), the programme to rebuild secondary schools and equip them with the latest technology, the NAO says that during 2008 problems in …

    Government 13 Feb 2009, 10:06

  • GM Volt to get regular software-style updates

    'Leccy Tech 'Blast, I've bricked the gearbox'

    General Motors has given some insights into how it plans to squeeze every last mile from the Chevrolet Volt's battery back - and how it hopes to develop the model. According to Frank Weber, “vehicle line executive” for the Volt's Voltec propulsion system, it's all about “maximizing its mechanical, electrical and thermal …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 10:18

  • Hospital boss slams patient records system

    Euthanasia kindest option for failed NHS project

    Andrew Way, the chief executive of the Royal Free Hospital, said the move to electronic records had cost the hospital £10m, increased waiting times for patients and required an extra 40 admin staff. Way told the BBC he had personally apologised to staff for taking the decision to go ahead with the project. Way said it cost £ …

    Government 13 Feb 2009, 10:56

  • Wakefield does a Brum with possessive apostrophes

    Second council drops 'confusing' punctuation

    Wakefield Council has done a Brum and dropped possessive apostrophes from street names, prompting a further wave of linguistic indignation from the good burghers of Middle England. According to the Telegraph, the move is intended to "avoid confusion". The council's director for planning and property, Ian Thompson, defended: " …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2009, 11:03

  • Non-shiny black iPhone images unearthed

    Unseen model number spied too

    Images have been leaked online of what could be a shell for the next generation iPhone, including one picture highlighting a previously unseen model number. This matte black iPhone has model number A1303 Three images have appeared in all, but apparently from several different sources. The first image – which was initially …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 11:05

  • Networked radar barrage balloons pass milestone

    Poor man's defence against poor man's missile

    US-based weapons globocorp Raytheon was pleased yesterday to announce a successful Critical Design Review for its planned flotilla of cruise-missile-busting network spyeye barrage balloons. Raytheon prefer to call the digital blimp barrier system JLENS, for Joint Land attack cruise missile defense Elevated Netted Sensor system …

    Science 13 Feb 2009, 11:17

  • Huawei shows tiny HSDPA Wi-Fi hotspot gadget

    One mo' for i-Mo

    Modem maker Huawei has introduced what it claims is the world's smallest and lightest HSDPA connection-sharing gadget yet. Huawei's i-Mo: not just a 3G dongle, it's a Wi-Fi hotspot too Dubbed the i-Mo and the size of "a small key chain", the unit looks rather like Huawei's old E220 HSDPA modem, but it has an 802.11g Wi-Fi …

    Wireless 13 Feb 2009, 11:26

  • Facial-recognition tech now used to greet hotel guests

    'Welcome back to the Grand, your Highness (82±13%)'

    Facial recognition technology has long been a holy grail for security agencies, and a bogeyman for privacy lovers and libertarians. One company, however, says that reasonably priced face-recognition tech has uses outside the security field: in particular, in the service sector. At the Counter Terror Expo this week in London, …

    Policing 13 Feb 2009, 11:27

  • Samsung crafts solar-powered phone

    With recycled plastic body

    Samsung has unveiled an eco handset that can be charged using sunlight. Samsung's Blue Earth phone: has a solar panel on its rear Called Blue Earth, the touchscreen phone’s has a rear-mounted solar panel that's able to generate enough juice to allow the phone to make calls. Designed to symbolise a flat and well-rounded …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 11:35

  • Cocaine now cheaper than lager

    Line 'em up, please barman

    The price of cocaine has dropped so dramatically in the last ten years that a line of Bolivian marching powder is now cheaper than a pint of lager or a glass of wine, the Telegraph reports. The Home Office - using data collected by police forces and the Serious Organised Crime Agency - reckons that while in 1998 a gram of …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2009, 11:47

  • McAfee sales strong despite recession

    Security firm rides out economic storm

    McAfee bucked the trend of poor financial news from the IT industry by posting strong results that exceeded analyst expectations on Thursday. The security software firm's Q4 revenues came in at $424m, an increase of 19 per cent compared to the $356m recorded in Q42007. Q42008 profits hit $45.4m, up from $12.2m in the same …

    Enterprise Security 13 Feb 2009, 11:56

  • Jacqui's jihad on web extremism flops

    Counter terror ambitions countered by reality

    More than a year after Jacqui Smith gave a major speech on counter terrorism, in which she said she wanted jihadi literature removed from the web, the internet industry has seen scant sign of action from the government. ISPA, the trade association that represents internet providers, told The Register it had received one "very …

    Law 13 Feb 2009, 12:02

  • Taliban man loves his iPhone

    Fundy fanboi

    The Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan has been outed as a fanboy for the iPhone. Despite banning most forms of new technology when in power it seems even the Taliban have bowed to the force of Apple's marketing. Mullah Zaif told al-Jazeera's man in Kabul Hamish Macdonald he was addicted to the handset and internet …

    Mobile 13 Feb 2009, 12:26

  • Paul Allen's cable firm files for Chapter 11

    Indebted to debtors

    Charter Communications Inc, which is controlled by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by 1 April after striking a deal with senior debt holders yesterday. The US cable firm said in a statement that it had reached an agreement with some of its creditors to help it reduce its debt by $ …

    Telecoms 13 Feb 2009, 12:49

  • Rogue fishing skipper faked own death

    Jail for author of premature obituary

    A fishing skipper who attempted to avoid questioning by the Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA) by pretending he was dead and submitting his own obituary to a trade newspaper was yesterday sentenced to six-and-a-half years' jail. Derek Atkins, 56, of Portsmouth, was under investigation by the MFA for various offences, including …

    Law 13 Feb 2009, 12:58

  • Hacking the Apple TV

    Part 2 Adding new file formats

    Apple’s Apple TV set-top box supports all the audio and video file formats that iTunes, iPods and iPhones can handle. That’s plenty for many folk, but for those who favour less mainstream formats or widespread ones that Apple’s not keen on — DivX, for one — it severely limits the value of the machine. Fortunately, once the …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 13:02

  • Prof: Save up fossil fuel reserves to fight the next ice age

    'It's too valuable to burn for energy'

    A Danish climate scientist has suggested that the peoples of the Earth should hold off from burning all the planet's available fossil fuel supplies over the next couple of centuries, so as to be able to burn them thousands of years from now in order to stave off the next ice age. Big freeze? We don't know we're born. …

    Environment 13 Feb 2009, 13:11

  • Serial security hackers hit F-secure

    Sequel SQL assault

    F-Secure admitted on Thursday that it had been hit by the same Romanian group that previously hit Kaspersky Lab and Bitdefender's reseller-run Portugese website over recent days. All three of the attacks used SQL Injection techniques. F-secure said the impact of the attack against its systems was minimal, and only affected …

    Enterprise Security 13 Feb 2009, 13:30

  • Semiconductor industry tries to re-architect itself

    Comment Consolidation to boost Elpida

    In the face of a foundry chip glut and recession-induced demand slump the world's semi-conductor industry is experiencing shock and disruption with moves afoot for government aid, mergers and a bankruptcy. The Japanese Nikkei newspaper reports that Japan-based Elpida is going to combine with three Taiwan-based semi-conductor …

    Channel Register 13 Feb 2009, 13:41

  • Mozilla asks developers to take Bespin for a spin

    You truly belong here with us among the clouds

    Mozilla has spun out Bespin for developers to run naked and free in an extensible web-based code editing paradise that promotes open relationships standards. The not-for-profit outfit said yesterday that the project, which has been under development for several months, would act as a collaborative working space for coders who …

    Developer 13 Feb 2009, 13:48

  • Cowon unveils sexy satnav-capable PMP

    Watch films and find your way home

    Cowon has officially unveiled its latest portable media player: the super-sexy L3. Cowon's L3: part PMP, part satnav The svelte beauty has a 7in, 800 x 480 touchscreen and is based around a "dual-core" CPU running Windows CE 5.0. There’s 4GB of on-board memory and an SD memory card slot for more. A whole range of video …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 13:49

  • World's nuttiest MP3 player aimed at Acorn fans?

    BBC Model Beech

    If you see this acorn lying in the road then don’t assume there’s a hungry Squirrel nearby, because this nut’s actually an MP3 player. The Acorn MP3 Player: nuts The Acorn MP3 Player is described as being “fashionable and cute”, with users able to control the volume and track order using a single button. It also switches on …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 14:01

  • No Android launch at MWC, says Samsung

    You'll have to wait until H2

    Many folk were expecting Samsung to unveil its first phone based on Google’s Android OS at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week, but the firm has now confirmed that it won't. Younghee Lee, Head of Marketing for Samsung's Mobile Device Division, told The Guardian that plans are instead being drawn up to launch the company's …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 15:06

  • 50m PSPs sold shipped globally, says Sony

    There's life in the old gal yet

    Sony has announced that 50m PlayStation Portables (PSP) have now been shipped worldwide. The figure’s the combined shipment total, correct as of January 2009, for all three generations of PSP: the 1000, 2000 and the troublesome 3000. It’s worth noting that Sony’s quoted figure is a “sell-in” number. So although the Japanese …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 15:13

  • Tesla opens skirt, flashes bit of S

    'Leccy Tech Blink and you'll miss it

    Clearly unable to contain itself until 26 March, Tesla has issued a sneak peak of its Model S 'leccy saloon. OK, the image is mostly dust sheet and bearded staffer, but the smooth nose, Aston Martin-like front wing chrome adornment and BMW 1/Audi A6-esque sculpture line along the lower door panels are not unpleasant on the …

    reghardware 13 Feb 2009, 15:21

  • Danish sex museum loses wood

    Financial crisis proves hard on Copenhagen

    The latest victim of the global financial apocalypse is, sadly for aficionados of rumpy-pumpy-related artefacts, Copenhagen's Museum Erotica which will close within a week if it doesn't find enough cash to maintain wood. According to a report in the Copenhagen Post, the city's council has withdrawn funding for the 15-year-old …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2009, 15:45

  • Twitter breaks Jam Festival record

    You raised How Much?

    Writing about Twitter is the journalistic equivalent of eating the fluff from your navel. The posh papers love it. Menopausal middle-aged hacks love it. The BBC is obsessed with it. Instead of telling us something we didn't know before, Twitter makes churnalism so easy, it practically automates the entire job. The rest of the …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2009, 15:56

  • CERN Proton-smashers: We are economically valuable

    Bitchslap for Drayson 'research to benefit economy' call

    International atomsmasher lab CERN has rubbished UK science minister Lord Drayson's suggestion that research funding should focus more on areas which directly benefit the economy. The Minister particularly favoured areas where he made his large personal fortune: med-tech and drugs. Here are a few highlights of Drayson's speech …

    Science 13 Feb 2009, 16:15

  • PacketVideo opens doorway to Android

    Google fans told to down browsers for the duration

    G1 owners have been warned to stop browsing immediately or risk exposing themselves to the worst of the internet, after researchers found a flaw in PacketVideo's runtime for Android. The flaw was presented by security researcher Charlie Miller at the recent Schmoocon conference, as reported by ReadWriteWeb, and details are …

    Mobile 13 Feb 2009, 16:49

  • Wanna see how to use Win 7 UAC to pwn a PC?

    Just press play...

    White hat hackers have created a proof of concept demo illustrating how improved User Account Control (UAC) features in Windows 7 might be completely bypassed. The new Win7 UAC code-injection bypass can be used to elevate the rights of any command so that actions, even extreme steps such as thrashing a system, become an option …

    Enterprise Security 13 Feb 2009, 16:56

  • Kaspersky breach: No user info lifted, auditor confirms

    But data was exposed

    No customer information was accessed during last weekend's breach of a Kaspersky website, an independent auditor has concluded, confirming the results of an internal investigation conducted earlier by members of the anti-virus firm. The report, prepared by security expert David Litchfield, corroborated the findings of hackers …

    Security 13 Feb 2009, 17:28

  • Defacement archive Zone-h gets defaced

    Web graffiti attack harks back to age of innocence

    Defacement archive Zone-h.org has itself been defaced. The hack - claimed in the names of Cyber-Terrorist, HeLL cYbEr, and Jurm - involved posting a link to a YouTube video and dancing babies on the site's altered home page. The Arab language video, featuring an ad promoting nappies, replaced the site's usual content of …

    Security 13 Feb 2009, 18:10

  • Amazon pulls Japanese rape simulator from shelves

    NSFW Vile game not intended for Western audiences

    Amazon has blocked sales of a sick Japanese PC game that puts the player in the role of a criminal who rapes a mother and her two teenage daughters. The online vendor recently advertised two copies of the game RapeLay sold through the Amazon Marketplace section open to third-party vendors. Made by the Japanese production …

    Music and Media 13 Feb 2009, 19:41

  • Apple fights iPhone unlocking (again)

    Wants jailbreakers jailable

    Apple has told the US Copyright Office that jailbreaking an iPhone should be illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Apple's defense of its practice of locking down the iPhone to software and services provided only by itself and its partner AT&T came in response to petitions for DMCA exemptions that were …

    PCs & Chips 13 Feb 2009, 19:50

  • Twitter attack exposes awesome power of clickjacking

    Hard to stop, harder to resist

    A worm that forced a wave of people to unintentionally broadcast messages on microblogging site Twitter shows the potential of a vulnerability known as clickjacking to dupe large numbers of internet users into installing malware or visiting malicious pages without any clue they're being attacked. The outbreak was touched off …

    Security 13 Feb 2009, 19:56

  • Intel's future Xeons to share sockets

    Westmere mobo tock but no tick

    We know what's coming on desktops and notebooks. But what about Intel's 32 nanometer server silicon? Intel's 32 nanometer process will be used to make a family of desktop, laptop, and server processors known as "Westmere," kickers to the Nehalem chips that will roll out throughout the year. Earlier this week, the company …

    Servers 13 Feb 2009, 20:31

  • Unix world braces for geekgasm

    Updated POSIX clock g-spot

    The world's digit-obsessed UNIX lovers are just minutes away from the celebration of a lifetime. At 11:31:30pm UTC time today, the POSIX clock reaches 1234567890 seconds. Widely used by UNIX and UNIX-based OSes - including Linux and Apple's Mac OS X - the POSIX clock measures the time elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC January 1, 1970 …

    Operating Systems 13 Feb 2009, 21:58