18th February 2009 Archive

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Microsoft team hacks Silverlight for Chrome

Results may vary

The prospect of Silverlight applications running in Google's Chrome browser is in the air. A Sliverlight program manager has blogged about a hack to Microsoft's code that would get their company's media player running inside Google's fledgling browser. The hack to Silverlight lets Microsoft's player detect Chrome, clearing the …

Developer 18 Feb 2009, 00:30
Apple shares MacBook break-in tips

Easy no more

Apple has published instructions for upgrading hard drives and RAM in its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, and user-friendliness took another step backwards. Before the "unibody" MacBook and MacBook Pros were introduced last October, memory replacement in both was a breeze. The MacBook in particular was an upgrader's delight, …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 01:49
Sirius XM gets 11th-hour $530m loan

Bankruptcy avoided. Why so Sirius?

Sirius XM Radio has been saved to broadcast another day by US cable tycoon John Malone. The financially troubled satellite radio provider was tossed a last-minute lifeline Tuesday by Liberty Media, an entertainment conglomerate chaired by Malone that owns a 50 per cent stake in DirecTV. A $530m rescue financing deal will …

Financial News 18 Feb 2009, 01:52
Voltaire preps InfiniBand switch for IBM blades

Cisco on the outs

Network switch maker Voltaire has landed a deal with IBM to create a new 40 Gbit/sec InfiniBand quad-data rate (QDR) switch for Big Blue's BladeCenter blade server chassis. Voltaire, which does a fair amount of clustering in supercomputing and data warehousing with IBM and its blades, is keen on keeping ahead of Ethernet …

Data Networking 18 Feb 2009, 06:37
Mellanox enables server adaptor sharing

At InfiniBand edge

Mellanox has provided a way for servers to share Ethernet and Fibre Channel adapters slotted into a BridgeX product at the edge of an InfiniBand network. The Mellanox view of the world is that, currently, servers in enterprise and high-performance computing (HPC) data centres can have as many as three different adapter cards: …

Servers 18 Feb 2009, 07:02
Google gears Gmail for PC hack attack

'Offline' web apps exposed

Over the past year, dozens of web-based services have adopted new features that allow them to be used even when an internet connection isn't available. The technologies making this possible may offer plenty of convenience, but they also make end users susceptible to powerful new attacks, a security researcher warns. So-called …

Security 18 Feb 2009, 07:03
Intel sees future in Mega Data Center

Hitches self to cloudwagon

Intel says that by 2012, Mega Data Centers run by the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook will account for 20 to 25 per cent of its server chip sales. Unless the economy is still melting. If the economy is still melting, Facebook will be dead, and even Google will be hard-pressed to prop up that Intel bottom line …

Servers 18 Feb 2009, 07:26
NHS patient database goes titsup

CSC disaster brings more woe for NPfIT

The database that stores vital medical information on millions of NHS patients crashed last week. Outsourcing giant CSC, which won a £973m contract to run part of the Care Records system in 2003 and has picked up more contracts since, was forced to invoke disaster recovery when hospitals and local surgeries were unable to …

Government 18 Feb 2009, 08:02
DLNA compliance testing: It ain't working

Comment Iomega NAS not talking to Sony TV - whose fault is that?

Alastair Morrison was stumped; his Iomega NAS sent MP3 files to be played on a Sony Bravia TV, and they stuttered to a halt after a few seconds, yet both devices were DLNA-compliant. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is an industry body concerned to develop standards to enable storage devices and playing devices to …

Broadband 18 Feb 2009, 09:02
Gigabyte passively cooled Radeon 4850 card

Review How quieter does your GPU need to be?

We've been hugely impressed by the Radeon HD 4850 graphics card thanks to the balance it strikes between price and performance, and we firmly believe that, at £125, it's damn good value. Gigabyte's GV-R485MC-1GH: double-slot design... Pretty much our only reservation with the reference HD 4850 centres on the cooling package …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 09:02
AA sniffs out Blighty's best bacon sarnie

West Midlands cafe honoured

The AA has judged that Bob's Big Bite in Stourbridge is where weary travellers can refuel with Blighty's best bacon sarnie - a combination "solid back bacon" between "robust" hand-sliced bread presented on "a real plate with a paper napkin", as the Telegraph puts it. The agreeable task of choosing the winner fell to the AA's …

Bootnotes 18 Feb 2009, 09:03
McDonalds to cook up EV charging station network

'Leccy Tech Swedes get first McCharger

McDonald's of Sweden is going to start serving electricity as well as the usual Big Mac and fries, according to Elforsk, an electricity R&D operation co-owned by Svensk Energi (Swedenergy) and Svenska Kraftnät - the Swedish national grid. McCharger: want to be fried with that? Elforsk will develop and manage the power …

Science 18 Feb 2009, 09:19
LG unveils everlasting solar phone

MWC Limitless power... on standby

LG looks set to follow in Samsung’s solar-powered footsteps, because it’s unveiled a prototype sun-soaker handset. LG's Secret phone: with added solar cells The firm’s modified one of its existing Secret phones so that almost the entire back panel’s covered by solar cells. Samsung recently launched a talker called Blue …

Phones 18 Feb 2009, 09:24
Econav spied on Nokia phone

MWC Eco-friendly satnav makes smartphone jump

The recently launched Econav satnav has turned up as an application on a Nokia handset. Econav software shown on a Nokia phone Econav – which tells its user in real time about the most economical and ecologically friendly way to drive – is being tested on Nokia phones, pending a possible rollout of the software as a …

Phones 18 Feb 2009, 09:33
NTT DoCoMo shows off futuristic modular phone

Like Modu, only better

Japanese network provider NTT DoCoMo has shown off a handful of wacky, yet technologically advanced, prototype phone designs that may find their way onto its futuristic network. NTT DoCoMo's "Separable Mobile Phone" Lurking behind a velvet rope and protected by a glass case at Mobile World Congress were four designs of what …

Phones 18 Feb 2009, 09:43
RIM execs settle with SEC over backdated options

'Undisclosed compensation'

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging four executives at Research In Motion - the firm behind the BlackBerry - with offences related to the backdating of share options. The SEC alleges RIM's CFO Dennis Kavelman, former VP of Finance Angelo Loberto, and Co-Chief Executive Officers James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis …

Financial News 18 Feb 2009, 09:52
Attack of the Windows ~~replicants~~ replication vendors

AutoVirt joins Double-Take and Neverfail

Windows file migration startup AutoVirt has debuted its AutoClone Windows file replication software, joining Double-Take and Neverfail in protecting Windows by copying changed data to a remote server. AutoVirt is a Nashua, New Hampshire, start-up, founded in 2007, to provide file migration software for Windows servers. It uses …

The Channel 18 Feb 2009, 10:00
Emulex pins adapter future to Ethernet and encryption

Adapter maker goes for FCoE

Emulex has announced a second generation Ethernet Fibre Channel adapter and added encryption to its Fibre Channel adapter range using RSA technology. Emulex supplies Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) with virtualisation capabilities so that physical servers can access Fibre Channel SANs, and virtual machines share their …

Data Networking 18 Feb 2009, 10:18
Watchdog mauls billboard sex ads

Nasal spray punt 'unsuitable for public display', ASA rules

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that billboard ads punting an Advanced Medical Institute (AMI) nasal spray and featuring the words "Want longer lasting sex?" are "unsuitable for public display". The ASA earlier this month ordered the adverts to be removed from 200 sites following numerous complaints, citing the …

Bootnotes 18 Feb 2009, 10:22
Fake Canon exec blogger rebuffs legal beef

Jobs a good 'un for faux exec

Camera maker Canon has attempted to have a spoof executive blog removed from the internet but the blog operator has continued to publish after making some minor changes to the site. Fakechuckwestfall.wordpress.com is an obviously made up blog supposedly written by Chuck Westfall, Canon's director of media and customer …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 10:52
20 per cent of laptop buyers opted for netbooks in Q4 08

Consumer uptake even higher

Almost a third of consumer-oriented portable PCs shipped in Europe in Q4 2008 were netbooks, market watcher IDC has said. Netbook shipments accounted for 20 per cent of all mobile computers shipped in the quarter. IDC's numbers cover the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), but it's Western Europe where the …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 10:58
US Navy orders new electric hyper-kill railgun

They will not let me off*

Globe-straddling weapons megacorp BAE Systems is pleased to announce that it has inked a deal with the US Navy to build a new electromagnetic hypercannon. "This EM Railgun contract is a continuation of BAE Systems’ dedication to delivering advanced technology for tomorrow's Sailors,” said Jim Schoppenhorst, BAE veep in charge …

Government 18 Feb 2009, 11:13
Too busy to make a jam sandwich? M&S can help

'Quick fix, credit crunch lunch'

Those readers who are a) too busy to remove bread from a packet, b) physically incapable of opening a jar or c) untrained in the use of a knife, will be relieved to learn that as of next Thursday Marks & Spencer will be punting a 75p jam sandwich featuring, er, bread, butter and strawberry jam. According to the Telegraph, the …

Bootnotes 18 Feb 2009, 11:17
Cisco to bundle Trend security suite with wireless routers

Another route into the home security market

Cisco has signed a deal with Trend Micro to embed internet security software into Linksys wireless routers. The deal represents a different way to market security software to families rather than a recognition that routers need anti-virus, which they don't. The Home Network Defender software will include parental control ( …

The Channel 18 Feb 2009, 11:28
Sony shows off stacks more compact cameras

And a rather nice 'superzoom'

Sony has introduced a bevvy of Cyber-shot compact cameras, some skinny, others chunkier, but all with double-digit megapixel counts. The slimline line-up comprises the T900 and the lesser T90. The extra '0' means the T900 has a 3.5in LCD rather than a 3in one, but both cameras have a 12.1Mp sensor, 4x optical zoom, 720p HD …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 11:35
Abba star slates 'lazy, stingy' Pirate Bay fans

As Sunde gloats with 'EPIC WINNING LOL'

Former Abba guitar player Björn Ulvaeus has hit out at supporters of The Pirate Bay and accused them of fighting for “the ‘freedom’ to be lazy and stingy”. His harsh remarks came yesterday after the shock decision by the prosecution in the The Pirate Bay case to drop all charges of copyright infringement against the infamous …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 11:40
Dell hires new UK channel boss

Gives Paul Harrison the nod

Dell has found a replacement boss to head up its UK channel team after Andy Dow abruptly left the computer vendor last month. Dell announced it had given Paul Harrison, who has worked at Dell since 2001, the keys to the UK channel boss’s door today. Earlier this month Dell refused to comment on why Dow, who only joined the …

The Channel 18 Feb 2009, 11:42
Facebook does U-turn on eternal data grab

All your photo are not belong to us... bitch

Facebook has dumped heavily criticised new service terms that lay claim to photos and messages posted to the site forever - even after accounts are deleted - following an outcry from members. CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote late on Tuesday that after discussions with "respected organizations", Facebook had decided to revert to the …

Media 18 Feb 2009, 11:47
UK 'bad' pics ban to stretch?

Is that a loophole? How disgusting

The government could be planning to up the ante when it comes to material it doesn't approve of - it may become illegal to even look at images, not merely possess them. Some odd, ambiguous remarks by Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions, raise this gruesome possibility. Evidence for it emerged from an elliptical …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 11:59
Oberthur paints go-faster stripes on SIMs

MWC Shaking things up, Wii-mote stylee

In what much surely be the last push to get more functionality into a SIM card, Oberthur has managed to squeeze an accelerometer into SIM, with the claim of turning any phone into a Wii-like controller. SIM chips are marvellous cryptographic authentication devices, but not much else despite repeated attempts to fit more …

Mobile 18 Feb 2009, 12:24
Rail workers get shirty with see-through blouses

Little left to passengers' imagination

Female staff on National Express's East Coast line connecting London and Edinburgh have refused to sport new uniforms because the blouses leave "little to the imagination" of passengers, the Daily Mail reports. The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said that staff had returned the offending clothing to the company …

Bootnotes 18 Feb 2009, 12:27
LG updates netbook with on-board HSDPA

Updated X120 joins X110

LG has tweaked its X110 netbook - MSI's Wind in another guise - to add on-board HSDPA 3G. The X120 runs Windows XP and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and packs in 1GB of DDR 2 memory. It has a 160GB hard drive. LG's X120: looks cute So we assume: LG didn't say, so we're guessing the X120 is the X110 with the addition of a …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 12:27
Samsung showcases wristphone

MWC A rival to LG's video watch?

LG may have stitched together plans to become the world’s leader in wearable mobile devices, but Samsung is closing in with its latest wristphone. Samsung's GT-S1100 wristphone: does it support video calls? The GT-S1100 device is described as having a “full touch screen”, in addition to Bluetooth and speakerphone …

Phones 18 Feb 2009, 12:30
Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB NAS box

Review Great value network storage

Western Digital maintains that the stylised hardback design of its My Book external hard drives has proved really popular with the punters. But while it's extended the range to take in not just local storage but also network-connected drives, the latter haven't grabbed consumer attention as much as the others have. WD's My …

Hardware 18 Feb 2009, 12:32
Google sued by biz directory

Antitrust claim

A business directory site is suing Google for allegedly unfairly raising prices and favouring a rival firm. SourceTool.com claims to the internet's only business to business search engine. It makes money by bidding for Google keywords. When surfers click through to SourceTool the site makes money by displaying Google AdWords …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 13:23
Minister trashes ex-spook chief's liberty warning

Man tipped to replace Jacqui calls 'abject nonsense' on Stella

Tony McNulty, the combative employment minister tipped to replace Jacqui Smith as Home Secretary, has branded a high profile warning by a former MI5 chief that the government risks creating a police state as "abject nonsense". McNulty was responding to criticisms of anti-terror laws by Dame Stella Rimington, head of the …

Government 18 Feb 2009, 13:24
DARPA seeks self-aware AI robot mega-tanks

We care not who welcomes us, meatsacks - all shall die

Pentagon boffinry chiefs have announced that they would like some self-aware computer systems capable of "meta-reasoning" and "introspection". The plan is to place these machine intelligences in command of heavily armed, well-nigh invulnerable robotic tanks. This latest plan for humanity's subjugation comes, of course, from …

Government 18 Feb 2009, 13:27
Sky network downed in London

Saarf of the river

Thousands of Sky and Easynet customers in south London and Surrey were knocked offline this morning by a major network fault. Connectivity via 14 exchanges was hit by the two hour failure, which was fixed at about 11am, according to a Sky spokesman. "The problem has now been fully resolved and we'd like to apologise to any …

Data Networking 18 Feb 2009, 14:28
BP snips IT contractor rates

Take the cut, or take a hike

BP is telling its 900 IT contractors to take a ten per cent pay cut or find themselves new jobs outside the company. The oil company, which racked up £6bn in profits for the last quarter, said that it was writing to all its IT contractors asking them to accept the cut. A spokesman for BP said: "We're extremely keen to see the …

Management 18 Feb 2009, 15:03
Wanted: £160k-a-year Twittercrat

Your taxes at work!

Can a magic sprinkling of Web 2.0 buzzwords revive the fortunes of a deeply unpopular government? That's what the Cabinet Office hopes with the appointment of a civil service post with the title of "Director of Digital Engagement". The lucky bureaucrat will play the part of cybernetic overlord - "to embed digital engagement in …

Government 18 Feb 2009, 15:46
Microsoft confirms Equipt kill date

Dead man walking

Microsoft has told Equipt customers that the subscription software package will be killed off on 30 April 2009. The date comes three months after the company confirmed plans to ditch the Office and security subscription service in November. Microsoft only began selling Equipt to consumers late last summer in the US via the …

The Channel 18 Feb 2009, 16:18
Robert Llewellyn drops Red Dwarf clanger

Unplugged special cancelled?

Digital channel Dave appears to have canned a planned part of its Easter Red Dwarf celebration, if a message posted on Twitter by cast member Robert Llewellyn is anything to go by. To recap, Dave recently announced that it would on Friday 10 April broadcast the first installment of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, followed by the …

Bootnotes 18 Feb 2009, 16:20
Judges plead guilty to jailing kids for kickbacks

PA youngsters jailed for MySpace pranks

Two corrupt judges have admitted getting paid for sending young offenders to private jails, often against the advice of probation officers and other court officials. Bent judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, both of Pennsylvania, admitted receiving $2.6m in kickbacks as part of a plea-bargaining agreement that will see …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 17:06
Barcelona pickpocket swipes Microsoft secrets?

MWC Phone with unreleased software gone bye-bye

An unnamed Telstra executive is one Windows Mobile phone lighter this afternoon, thanks to a Barcelona pickpocket. Which would hardly be news were it not for the fact that this particular phone featured an as-yet-unreleased version of Microsoft's mobile offering. The phone was given to Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo to show off to …

Mobile 18 Feb 2009, 17:12
BearingPoint buckles under debt

Shareholders wiped out as firm goes Chapter 11

BearingPoint has filed for Chapter 11 as part of a financial restructuring agreed with its senior creditors which will see existing shareholders wiped out. The tipping point for the technology and consulting services came eight years after it was formed through a spinout from accounting giant KPMG. It seems the move was …

The Channel 18 Feb 2009, 17:13
Mr. and Mrs. Boring lose Google Street View tilt

Streisand Effect undoes privacy crusade

Mr. and Mrs. Boring have lost their quixotic legal battle against Google's Orwellian attempt to spy on the entire planet. Last April, Aaron and Christine Boring sued the ad broker for invasion of privacy after a Google spycar drove down their private driveway, snapped 360-degree, pan-and-zoomable photos of their home and …

Law 18 Feb 2009, 19:11
DreamWorks to bake 3D flicks on desert cloud

Shrek studio rents super cycles

In a sign of the economic times, DreamWorks Animation has inked a deal with the New Mexico Computing Applications Center to use spare capacity to help render its 3D films. Nicknamed Encanto, the supercomputer that DreamWorks will be renting time on was funded by the state of New Mexico with an $11m grant in its 2007 budget to …

Servers 18 Feb 2009, 19:36
Wireless wonks face shrinking economy, vanishing porn

MWC Mobilising World Congress

We're into the third day of Mobile World Congress, the annual shindig of the mobile industry, and now that the urgent meetings are over and the big news has been released, talk turns to the state of the industry - and the state of the congress itself. Attendance is down around 25 per cent, which is being heralded as a good …

Mobile 18 Feb 2009, 19:56
Mozilla, Skype join iPhone jailbreak fight

Open up, please

Skype and Mozilla have thrown their weight behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in that digital-freedom organization's fight to loosen the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's (DMCA) restrictions on iPhone jailbreaking. In separate filings with the US Copyright Office, VoIP-master Skype and Firefox publisher Mozilla …

Mobile 18 Feb 2009, 20:32
Hulu yanks vids from TV.com

OldTube networks collide

American web TV portal Hulu.com has yanked its content off CBS-owned TV.com following the site's recent relaunch as a potential rival for ad-driven streaming television. Hulu is a joint venture between media giants NBC and News Corp. Both are CBS competitors, but Hulu signed on to TV.com early as a distribution partner. The …

Media 18 Feb 2009, 20:49
Behind IE 8's big incompatibility list

Growing, growing, gone

To realize the scale of the challenge facing Microsoft as it pulls the web around to Internet Explorer 8, you need look no further than the list of sites that fail to render properly on the browser. All-about-Microsoft blogger Mary-Jo Foley has reported that - out of the box - the current IE 8 release candidate will not work …

Applications 18 Feb 2009, 21:11
IBM lobs airplane miles at x64 shops

Fly the Big Blue skies

Server maker IBM has quietly expanded its so-called Power Rewards marketing program, which offers a serving-purchase point system akin to airline frequent flier mile deals. In the past, customers got points if they swapped out RISC server iron in favor of Big Blue's own Power Systems, and now, companies using non-IBM x64 iron …

Servers 18 Feb 2009, 21:32
Apple iPhone police censor South Park

Schizophrenic puritans

Apple has blocked the creators of South Park from selling an iPhone app based on the long-running cartoon series. According to a BoingBoing post, the blog site's "friends at South Park" said that "We first announced our iPhone App back in October, after we submitted the Application to Apple for approval. After a couple of …

Mobile 18 Feb 2009, 22:44
Intel reneges on Irish job cut promise

200 to 300 posts 'consolidated'

Chipzilla plans to slash between 200 and 300 jobs in Ireland, despite chairman Craig Barrett assuring Intel workers last month that its Leixlip plant was in no immediate danger of job cuts. Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told us the cuts are part of the company's overall scheme of consolidating its manufacturing operations in …

Financial News 18 Feb 2009, 23:10
HP printer, server, and PC sales in double digit dip

EDS saves bacon

Wall Street has been waiting on the edge of its window ledge seat to see how IT giant Hewlett-Packard performed during its first fiscal quarter of the year. And they can finally relax. HP reported sales of $28.8bn, up 1.2 per cent, and net earnings came in at $1.85bn, down 13.1 per cent compared to the year-ago quarter. Just …

Financial News 18 Feb 2009, 23:30