24th February 2009 Archive

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Digging into Apple's hot-key mechanism

Mac Secrets Go global

Before Christmas, I explained how to use an undocumented class within PreferencePanes.framework to easily convert key codes and modifiers into human readable string representations. This time, I make good on my promise to describe the global hot-key mechanism used by Apple software such as Universal Access, Expose, and …

Developer 24 Feb 01:16
Jobs to skip Apple shareholders meeting

Steve Watch continues

Apple's Steve Jobs, on medical leave until June, won't attend attend the company's annual shareholders meeting this Wednesday, fueling rumors that Apple's savior is phasing himself out. Also, the privacy-loving convalescent is no longer instant-messaging with his chat buddies. Apparently. That first announcement is news, …

Financial News 24 Feb 01:24
Crypto hash boffins trip on buffer overflow

Corvair of computer languages strikes again

Two of the programs submitted in the first round of a competition to find the next cryptographic hash standard contain buffer overflow errors that could make them prone to crashes and security problems. The discovery, by researchers at Fortify Software, just goes to show that even the world's most foremost security geeks can …

Security 24 Feb 01:49
Microsoft courts customers for search help

Don't say the "G" word

Microsoft is turning to customers for advice on how to build an online advertising platform - four years after it started. The company has announced its Publisher Leadership Council, whose members will consult with Microsoft on the construction of a "next-generation" advertising platform called PubCenter. Microsoft announced …

Applications 24 Feb 01:50
The Meta Cloud - Flying data centers enter fourth dimension

Or do they?

Just when you thought the cloud metaphor couldn't stretch any further, it has. The tech world is still coming to terms with the rather abstract idea of a data center that floats on air, and now more than a few free-thinking web startups are hoping to abstract the abstraction. Beware of The Meta Cloud. Today, several high- …

Developer 24 Feb 01:51
Flash mem giant Spansion slashes 35 per cent of staff

AMD baby jettisons 3,000 jobs

Flash memory maker Spansion is cutting approximately 3,000 jobs, or 35 per cent of its workforce. Most of the cuts will come at the company's manufacturing sites, as it works to restructure itself amidst a sinking economy. "The global recession is forcing us to make this very difficult decision in order to bring our costs in …

Financial News 24 Feb 06:15
VirtenSys PCIe cloud switch arrives

Are PCIe SANs in prospect?

Virtensys has delivered pre-production units of its server I/O virtualising VMX5000 switch to potential server and storage OEM partners. Its use enables the sharing of I/O adapters and storage among connected servers using PCIe connections. The idea is to use PCIe cabling and extend a server's PCIe bus outside the server to a …

Data Networking 24 Feb 08:02
NASA's CO₂-scan sat set to launch

Orbiting Carbon Observatory to hug planet

NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is set to lift off this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base on its projected two-year mission to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide. Update: The launch has failed - more here. The OCO will be raised aloft atop a solid-fuelled Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket (see pic). Its task is …

Environment 24 Feb 08:22
CRM, The Credit Crunch, and you

Steering SMEs through the downturn

So the first white paper to tackle The Recession tips up in the Reg Library. As with all vendor-produced papers – this one is from Sage - there is an underlying pitch. To whit: small and medium-sized companies should invest in CRM systems (and hopefully Sage's CRM technology), even as they cut costs. Cost reductions are not …

Small Biz 24 Feb 09:01
HIS HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo graphics card

Review A fancy cooler alone does not a great graphics card make

HIS describes its HD 4870 IceQ 4+ Turbo 1GB as its "Fastest Single GPU Graphic Card Ever", complete with all of those capital letters. HIS is an AMD partner, so that’s another way of saying that this particular IceQ 4+ is an overclocked Radeon HD 4870 - the 4870 X2 is excluded by virtue of being based on two GPUs. HIS' HD …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 09:02
North Korea announces ~~missile test~~ sat launch

Champagne on ice at US raygun-jumbo HQ

North Korea is preparing for a further test of its long-range ballistic missile the Taepodong-2, according to reports. The missile design is thought capable of reaching parts of the United States, though it has not yet achieved a successful trial. The Guardian reports that Pyongyang has issued a statement claiming that …

Physics 24 Feb 10:14
Samsung shows off 12Mp, HD-recording camera duo

First with 3in VGA OLED screens

Samsung has unveiled two compact cameras that introduce a couple of world firsts for display quality and shooting capability, the company claimed. Samsung's WB100: first camera with a 3in, 640 x 480 AMOLED display? The WB550 and WB100 are, according to Samsung, the world’s first compact shooters to be equipped with 3in, 640 …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 10:20
VMware makes world takeover bid

VMWorld All your clouds are belong to us

VMware is introducing a new vSphere architecture and management product to manage a data centre as an internal or external cloud of services. The idea, introduced by VMware CEO Paul Maritz at VMworld in Cannes, is to have a set of interfaces looking downwards at the IT plumbing and another set looking at the applications.There …

Storage 24 Feb 10:28
Anti-mafia cops want Skype tapping

Euro search for tech solution

A European Union agency is investigating how to snoop on crooks using Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol services to avoid traditional police wiretaps. Eurojust, the EU agency dealing with judicial co-operation, is to coordinate the investigation into Voip services, such as Skype, after requests from the Direzione …

Security 24 Feb 10:54
Microsoft U-turns on overpaid redundo packages

Bad hair day for HR team

Microsoft has reversed its decision to ask some of the 1,400 people it sacked last month to return part of their redundancy packages. The move comes just 48 hours after a letter the firm had sent out to some of its former workers was published on the interwebs. The vendor had asked some ex-Microsoft staff on 18 February to …

Business 24 Feb 11:00
Virgin Media boosts bottom tier broadband

'M' subscribers go to up to 10Mbit/s

Virgin Media will begin upgrading its "up to" 2Mbit/s broadband subscribers to "up to" 10Mbit/s from May, it said today. The firm stopped selling the up to 2Mbit/s "M" package to new customers early in February, and an upgrade for the lowest broadband tier has long been expected as part of network capacity improvements. …

Networks 24 Feb 11:07
Google's email service goes down

Updated Gmail tumbles out of cloud - again

Google's Gmail has once again plummeted out of the cloud and the company is scurrying to fix the problem nearly an hour after it went titsup. The email service hit the buffers at around 10:15am GMT, and, at time of writing, it hasn't flickered back to life yet. All of which spells bad news for all those firms out there that …

IT Director 24 Feb 11:20
MS spills blood red Resident Evil Xbox beans

Gore blimey

Recent rumours of a red Xbox 360 were more than pure speculation, it seems, because Microsoft has now released official pictures of its resprayed console. The red Xbox 360 doesn't feature blood splatters, sadly The red Xbox 360 is a limited edition model that’ll be shipped as part of a bundle pack to promote the upcoming …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 11:28
Blu-ray Disc sales to hit 100m by Xmas

Analyst forecasts global splurge

Punters across North America, Western Europe and Japan will buy in excess of 100m Blu-ray Discs by the end of 2009 - almost three times as many as were sold in 2008, a market watcher has predicted. The Futuresource Consulting group also forecast that, by 2012, around 50 per cent of US and 35 per cent of Western European pre- …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 11:35
Pininfarina woes hinder EV rollout?

'Leccy Tech B0 release delayed again, claims mole

Back in November 2008, we reported that production of the the Pininfarina B0 – that's B 'zero', not B 'oh' – electric car had slipped from this year to a rather vague “late 2009/early 2010”. Sad to say, it's starting look as though the status of the B0 has moved from 'Coming Soon' to 'Don't Hold Your Breath'. Pininfarina's …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 12:01
Nokia, Nintendo and Sony struck in wireless patent spat

IP holder alleges PSP, DS, N85 infringement

Friday the 13th is always a dodgy day - for the paranoid at least. And for Sony, Nintendo and Nokia, it seems - it was the day that a US firm chose to file a patent violation lawsuit claiming all three of them have trampled over wireless data transfer technology it owns. Wall Wireless LLC, a Texas-based firm, is attempting to …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 12:12
Nokia cash for Symbian

As Android openness spat continues

Nokia has borrowed €500 million from the European Investment Bank to fund development of Symbian handsets and technology, as the competition heats up to see whom is most open. The money is a five-year loan, and intended to fund research and development at Nokia. The company reckons that's going to trickle down to the Symbian …

Mobile 24 Feb 12:23
Rogue Facebook app creates malign buzz

Sting in the tail

A Facebook application using misleading messages spread quickly over the weekend. The application itself did no harm beyond making a mess but may be part of an indirect attempt to attract surfers towards sites promoting scareware packages. The application, Error Check System, posed as notification of errors in a Facebook user' …

Malware 24 Feb 12:25
Vodafone confirms layoffs

500 staff to go

UK network operator Vodafone has confirmed it is laying off 500 staff in its continuing effort to cut costs in the face of falling profits. The 500 people were given the bad news this morning. The cuts are coming from across the group, though retail operations won't be affected; 170 are being laid off from the Newbury …

Mobile 24 Feb 12:28
NASA CO₂ scan satellite launch fails

Plan to settle carbon debate derailed

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite has failed to reach orbit after "problems separating" from its launcher rocket. The space agency describes the launch as "not successful". NASA has issued a brief statement, saying: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory failed to reach orbit this morning after a 4:55 a.m. EST …

Space 24 Feb 12:45
Microsoft on the shrink's couch: time to get touchy feely

Radio Reg Tell me about your feelings for Apple

You really have to question the strategic judgment of Microsoft's management team. Surprisingly, the people who put a target on Palm’s back and beat it have treated the mobile phone as something of an afterthought. And at the height of the worst recession since the 1930s, with retailers going out of business one after the …

Microbite 24 Feb 12:47
Lexmark E260DN networked mono laser printer

Review Not as fast as claimed

Unless the vast majority of your documents need colour, you'd do well to look at a mono laser as your main printer. Lexmark has a wide range and maintains its reputation - a hangover from its days as IBM's printer division - for producing good, reliable office-oriented printers. The E260DN is a mid-range machine handy for the …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 13:02
HP refuses to make suicidal leaps on pricing

What are you, a salesman or a lemming?

Hewlett Packard has walked away from some hardware deals in the UK as the recession encourages other vendors to adopt "suicidal" pricing policies to chase corporates' shrinking IT spend. The firm's UK boss said at a meeting in London today that it was banking on a "flight to quality" in the market, as customers reel from the …

Channel Register 24 Feb 13:09
Spaceborne-forces planners meet with orbital joyride firms

Virgin SpaceShip2 podule jetwing paratroops on cards?

Pentagon space warfare planners want to work with the nascent private space-joyride industry, according to reports. Ambitious US Marine plans to fire a few good men round the world on the same timescale as nuclear warheads have been scaled back, and might instead involve shorter one-way trips using variant Virgin Galactic …

Space 24 Feb 13:15
Pay cut consultations could trigger redundancy payments

Small print, big costs

Companies which follow computer maker Hewlett-Packard's lead and attempt to cut staff wages risk triggering redundancy law payouts if they do not consult staff properly, an employment lawyer has warned. Hewlett-Packard is seeking to cut the pay of its 300,000 staff by between 2.5% and 15%, depending on the level of job they …

Small Biz 24 Feb 13:36
Lads from Lagos crack cabinet minister's webmail account

Person in peril scam follows mystery Hotmail hack

Advanced fee fraudsters have broken into the webmail account of UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw to mount an audacious, and potentially politically embarrassing, scam. Hundreds of Straw's contacts received a bogus (and frankly implausible) message on Thursday claiming the cabinet minister was stranded in Nigeria and in …

Spam 24 Feb 13:41
'Like pedos in a playground' - the media and Web 2.0

Cyburbia James Harkin on cybernetic silliness

Don't judge a book by the title. Especially if the title is something like Cyburbia. James Harkin, who worked with Adam Curtis on The Trap, has produced the first proper full-length critique of Web 2.0 - tracing the daftness back to the cybernetics pioneers of the 1940s. It's odd that something with so much hype as Web 2.0 has …

Music and Media 24 Feb 14:10
Olympus brings tiny DSLR into focus

More portable design?

Olympus has launched what it’s claimed is the world’s smallest digital SLR camera with image stabilisation built into the camera body rather than the lens. Olympus' E-620: measures merely 130 x 94 x 60mm The 12.3Mp E-620 measures 130 x 94 x 60mm and is equipped with a 2.7in tilting/swivelling LCD display. A selection of “ …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 14:26
VMware's ESX Server 4.0 lost in the clouds?

Client hypervisor pokes its head through the fog

Virtualization juggernaut VMware kicks off the VMworld Europe trade show in Cannes today, and the opening salvo of the company's own announcements are rather muted because ESX Server 4.0 (or whatever the future hypervisor will ultimately be called) is not being launched. At least not on the first day of the event, as far as we …

Virtualization 24 Feb 15:00
Visto makes Good

Buying customers for undisclosed sum

Visto has taken rival pushed email vendor Good Technology off Motorola's hands, doubling the size of the company and expanding the offering into the enterprise. Visto broke even last year, following extensive cost cutting and staff layoffs, and now has aspirations towards the enterprise market into which Good has managed to …

Mobile 24 Feb 15:42
MIT boffins fashion working plasma rocket from Coke can

Vid 'Even simpler [yogurt-pot?] ones could be built'

MIT astro brainboxes say they're on the track of tech which could greatly prolong the life of satellites, as well as helping them avoid banging into each other. They have illustrated this by fashioning a crude plasma thruster out of a Coke can and a glass bottle. Needless to say, the MIT vid of the Coke bottle-rocket is …

Space 24 Feb 15:44
Bean pouch rivals Nike+ trainers

Running, on the cheap

A universal adaptor’s bean been launched to rival the Nike+ exercise kit, providing cheapskate runners with a more cost-effective option. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Bean Pod allows runners, walkers and speed steppers to use their Nike+ sensor on any other footwear, from mud-encrusted Hi-Tech …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 15:45
Unofficial patch plugs 0-day Adobe security vuln.

Updated Mind the gap

Security researchers have developed an unofficial patch for a zero-day Adobe Acrobat and Reader vulnerability that's become the subject of hacker attacks. Adobe acknowledged the vulnerability last week but said an official patch wouldn't be available until 11 March. This three week window of vulnerability before an update …

Malware 24 Feb 15:55
Skateboard, gesture-based gaming add-ons inbound, claim moles

Tony Hawk board and controller-less Xbox 360 titles

This year and next will see several exciting videogame peripherals launched into the console market, according to independent sources. The future of Xbox 360 gaming? A mole from within the gesture-controlled game space told Register Hardware that Microsoft has inked plans to launch a second gesture-sensing peripheral for …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 15:57
'No Office 14 this year,' says Ballmer

Productivity software is so next decade

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has confirmed that the company’s upcoming Office package, codenamed 14, won’t land in 2009. He told Wall Street analysts at Redmond’s annual “Strategic Update” briefing today that the Office suite “will not be [shipped] this year.” Just last month Microsoft spun out an Alpha version of the server …

Channel Register 24 Feb 15:58
Girl develops 'PlayStation palmar hidradenitis'

And just after surviving a nasty bout of Wii Tennis elbow, too

Do you have red, sore lumps on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet? If the answer’s yes, then you could be suffering from… ahem … PlayStation palmar hidradenitis. Doctors in Switzerland recently diagnosed a 12-year-old girl to be suffering from the deadly-sounding disorder after her parents admitted that she often …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 16:02
Nokia calls for Voluntary Resignations

As opposed to being pushed

Nokia is to introduce a global "Voluntary Resignation Package" to encourage staff to walk the plank, as well as trying to get them to take holidays and sabbaticals, in order to cut costs. The moves are part of the Finnish giant's ongoing plans to "increase cost-efficiency and adapt to the challenging market environment", the …

Mobile 24 Feb 16:03
World's 'smallest, lightest' laptop launches

A 4.8in display, anyone?

A Korean firm’s unveiled what it claimed is the world’s smallest and lightest notebook to date. UMID's mbook: has a 4.8in screen The mbook measures just 158 x 94.1 x 18.6mm and weighs only 315g, yet its diminutive 4.8in display has a 1024 x 600 resolution and appears to be stylus operated. A speaker sits on one side of the …

Reg Hardware 24 Feb 16:14
Apple squeezes JavaScript juice from Safari 4 beta release

Nitro-flavoured

Apple has released a public beta of its Safari 4 web browser today, which comes loaded with a new JavaScript engine and support for the latest web standards. The Cupertino, California-based firm said that the engine, dubbed “Nitro”, runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. It also claimed that Nitro executes JavaScript …

Applications 24 Feb 16:49
Auction tools firm roots out malware infection

Trojan goes under the hammer at Auctiva.com

Auction tools site Auctiva.com has cleaned up its systems after it became the unwitting participant in a malware attack late last week. The issue became public after Google's malware warning system warned that Auctiva.com was infected by malware. eBay users complained of security problems involving Auctiva.com on eBay's forums …

Security 24 Feb 17:43
Obama balks at recovery of lost Dubya emails

Another executive privilege

The Obama administration promises transparency and accountability in Washington, but it's siding with George W. Bush's view of executive privilege in an attempt quash recovery of what could be millions of missing White House emails. Two open-government watchdog groups suing the Executive Office say White House emails …

Government 24 Feb 19:30
Google's DoubleClick spreads malicious ads (again)

Lingering threat still not contained

Google's DoubleClick ad network has once again been caught distributing malicious banner displays, this time on the home page of eWeek. Unsuspecting end users who browse the Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings-owned site were presented with malvertisements with invisible iframes that redirect them to attack websites, according to …

Security 24 Feb 19:43
Yahoo! mines search logs for banner ad targeting

Ballmer at arm's length

When brand new CEO Carol Bartz told the world that search is a "very valuable part" of Yahoo!'s business, she meant it. Today, the struggling web portal introduced new money-making tools that allow advertisers to target web display ads according to user search activity. So, in addition to serving you ads in direct response to …

Music and Media 24 Feb 20:45
Adobe Flash vulnerable to remote-execution exploit

Updated Attack of the killer Shockwaves

Already under the gun for a critical hole in its ubiquitous Acrobat Reader, Adobe's security team has pushed out a fix for another serious vulnerability, this one in the company's Flash animation software. The remote code execution vulnerability has been confirmed in Flash for Windows and is believed to also affect versions …

Security 24 Feb 21:01
Microsoft boffins devise 'secure' Gazelle browser

Better than IE and Chrome

Microsoft has developed a browser whose security it says beats many of today's generation of browsers, including Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome. But there's catch or two: It's slower and uses more resources than IE 7, and you can't get your hands on it. Microsoft Research has devised a prototype of IE running on …

Applications 24 Feb 21:06
Gartner: Global IT spending will rise in 2009 (slightly)

Uneven meltdown

While IT spending is projected decline in some industries in 2009, the prognosticators at Gartner are thus far saying that despite the economic meltdown, IT spending across all industries and geographies will rise a tiny bit. Some industries and geographies are going to do better than others, of course. And there are some areas …

Financial News 24 Feb 21:22
Asian IT in good news shock

Optimism rears its unfamiliar head

There's a smattering of good news coming out of Asia. It seems that the death grip of the global financial crises may be easing its hold on the gasping throat of the technology industry. According to a series of reports from Taiwanese industry-watcher DigiTimes, orders are piling up at some tech companies, and forecasts of …

Financial News 24 Feb 21:48
Super Micro squeezes four servers into one chassis

You are my density

Super Micro Computer will soon push the envelope on server density. In early mach, at the CeBIT 2009 trade show in Hannover, Germany. In early March, the whitebox server and motherboard maker will delivers a new four-in-one server dubbed the Twin2. The Twin2 servers will pack four half-width motherboards inside a 2U server …

Servers 24 Feb 22:18
Ballmer bets on R&D amidst Meltdown

Talks Windows server lite and Yahoo! wooing

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer wants to spend research and development dollars like it was the 1930s-era Great Depression. The volume control-impaired CEO told investors at its annual mid-year chat that Microsoft intends to stuff the company's R&D larders in anticipation for when economic conditions aren't quite so dire. But he …

Financial News 24 Feb 22:44
Google backs EU's Microsoft antitrust battle

Mountain View parrots Mozilla

Google has backed European regulators in their effort to prevent Microsoft from bundling the Internet Explorer browser with its ubiquitous Windows operating system. On Tuesday afternoon, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory told the world it has applied to become a third party in the European Commission's antitrust proceeding …

Channel Register 24 Feb 23:40