The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

27th February 2009 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Novell spills sales after pipe breakage

    'Just fell apart. Could happen again'

    Novell's plan to shift more of its sales through channel partners has coincided with the economic meltdown, and the combination caused the company's revenues to slip a gear in its fiscal first quarter ended in January. For the quarter, Novell's sales fell by 7 per cent to $214.9m and were hurt by a dramatic drop off in …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 00:00

  • HP iron still haunted by ghost of Compaq

    Comment Solaris does ProLiant. Not HP-UX

    Hewlett-Packard might have been the acquirer when it merged with Compaq back in May 2002, but when it comes to server operating systems, the Compaq inclusionary philosophy usually prevails even if it does take some time to be turned into action. Like something akin to a decade in the case of Solaris. Yesterday's announcement …

    Servers 27 Feb 00:17

  • IE8 for Windows 7 beta in 'reliability update'

    Sessions a crashin'

    Microsoft on Thursday rolled out a stop crashing so goddamn much "reliability" update for Internet Explorer 8 users running the Windows 7 Beta. The patch plugs a variety of ills on the browser, including crashes, hangs, and memory leaks according to Microsoft. Windows 7 Beta users can snag the software via Windows update. …

    Applications 27 Feb 00:21

  • Softbank gives Japan free iPhones

    Far East immune to Jobsian hypnosis

    Softbank Mobile, the iPhone's Japanese carrier, will begin a program tomorrow that will provide a free 8GB iPhone to customers who sign up for a two-year contract. The "iPhone for Everybody Campaign" will last until May 31. Softbank will also reduce the price of the 16GB iPhone from ¥34,560 ($350, £245) to ¥11,520 ($117, £82 …

    Mobile 27 Feb 00:36

  • Microsoft temps get shorter hours

    Cost cuts hit contractors

    Details are emerging of how Microsoft plans to trim its costs while axing as few full-time staff as possible during the ongoing worldwide recession. On current projects, Microsoft is cutting payments to staffing agencies by ten per cent, and it won't raise the rate for temps who return following a mandatory, 100-day break, the …

    Financial News 27 Feb 00:47

  • IT admin stole students' nude Facebook pics, cops say

    'Upskirt' camerawork alleged

    As if we need more proof that people will post anything to social networking sites, we now have this: A former computer administrator at the University of Massachusetts is facing charges he illegally obtained nude pictures of some 16 students by breaking in to their Facebook accounts. Robert T. DeCampos Jr., 30, of Dartmouth, …

    Crime 27 Feb 01:34

  • Microsoft talks open-source love amid TomTom Linux 'war'

    Linux lovers brace for action

    Microsoft has imagined a future where Windows relies on open source, just as community leaders tried to contain the fall out from what some believe could be the start of Microsoft's "war against Linux". The company's server and tools president Bob Muglia has apparently told a technology conference he believes most of the …

    Applications 27 Feb 04:01

  • Google bars Android app makers from their own apps

    Copy protection unprotected

    If you join the Android developer program, Google will sell you an unlocked Android phone that works on any mobile network. But it can't download paid applications from Google's very own app market. The Android Market began offering price-tagged applications late last week - at least in the US - but developers wielding …

    Developer 27 Feb 07:13

  • Arms biz glovepuppets Parliamentary kit probe

    Comment Profiteers' voices the only ones heard

    A long-awaited Parliamentary investigation into British defence equipment purchasing has just been published. Both the report itself and the media response to it reveal the astonishing degree to which the onshore UK arms industry has managed to dominate this area of debate. The report, from the MPs of the parliamentary Defence …

    Government 27 Feb 08:02

  • World+dog has online app store

    But what's in it for me?

    These days every company has its own mobile application store - Nokia, Microsoft and Samsung have announced new stores in the last week or two - but what are punters actually looking for in an online store, and what's in it for the mobile developers? Desktop software made the transition to electronic delivery pretty quickly, …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 09:02

  • Toshiba Portégé R600

    Review Netbook-beating portability

    People like netbooks for two key reasons: price and portability. Even the not-so-cheap models deliver a decent daily use performance in a form that's the peak of pick-up-and-go computing. Toshiba's Portégé R600: lighter than a netbook Well, they're not at the peak any longer. Toshiba unveiled the Portégé R600 last autumn as …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 09:05

  • Europe ditches Skype probe

    Calling for clarity

    Eurojust - the EU body for judicial cooperation - is not investigating ways to intercept Skype calls, contrary to reports earlier this week. Eurojust originally said it aimed: "to overcome the technical and judicial obstacles to the interception of internet telephony systems". The group said it had been approached by Italian …

    VoIP 27 Feb 09:23

  • BlackBerry advert sticks it to Apple

    Fruit versus fruit

    All’s fair in love and marketing, it seems. So BlackBerry maker RIM has released a promotional video that literally takes a shot at rival phone manufacturer Apple. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The short video – which we assume was commissioned by RIM, given the quality - shows a red Braeburn- …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 10:13

  • Google gets a touch of the ODFOs

    Direct Factory Outlets? Oh do f...

    It's g'day and ta very much this crisp winter morn to Oz reader Damien Aiken who earlier this week got a bit of a shock while Googling for Direct Factory Outlets - a down-under chain of discount clothing warehouses. It appears that someone has been spending too much time mixing it up with the El Reg commentards: Sadly, this …

    Bootnotes 27 Feb 10:29

  • BT reprograms biz customers as hotspots

    Bandwidth so good they're charging for it twice

    BT has begun transforming its commercial customers' Business Hubs into OpenZone hotspots for any passing Tom, Dick or Harry to share, and leaving businesses to figure out how to opt out of the scheme after the fact. Under the scheme, 20,000 BT Business Broadband customers have already had their hubs upgraded, with another 200, …

    Telecoms 27 Feb 10:30

  • Samsung notebook-not-netbook gets VIA Nano CPU

    NC20 eschews Atom, C7-M

    Samsung has become the first netbook maker to unveil a machine based on VIA's Nano processor - as predicted. Samsung's NC20: VIA Nano on board VIA has often said the Nano is aimed at full-size laptops, leaving the new chip's predecessor, the C7-M, for netbooks, and to be fair, the Samsung NC20 - follow-up to the popular …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 10:47

  • North East to get £30m e-vehicle re-charge network

    'Leccy Tech Infrastructure to encourage local EV manufacturing?

    Last year, Register Hardware reported on the UK Government's £100m plan to put the UK up with the best in terms of electric car development and infrastructure. At the time, we thought the announcement was too big on headline numbers that didn't quite add up and too low on specifics. Now, however, an announcement has been made …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 11:05

  • Hollywood to totally recall Total Recall

    'Contemporary' rehash of 1990 sci-fi romp

    Columbia Pictures is in "final negotiations" with producer Neal H Moritz to develop a "contemporary version" of 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi romp Total Recall, the Hollywood Reporter, er, reports. Moritz - whose production credits include I Am Legend and Prison Break - expressed the hope that "advancements in technology …

    Entertainment 27 Feb 11:40

  • Second rogue Facebook app bewilders users

    Poisoned mushrooms and spam

    Scoundrels have created another rogue Facebook application, the second to hit the social networking site in less than a week. In the second attack, Facebook users receive notices that they have supposedly being reported for violation of the social networking site's terms of service by someone in their friends list. A link on …

    Spam 27 Feb 11:54

  • HP takes backup service Upline offline

    A swift shambolic cloud dive

    HP is withdrawing from cloud backup in haste, closing down its HP Upline online backup service for small and medium enterprises. HP Upline was created by HP after it bought Opelin in November 2007. It was a small company headquartered in San Jose with development labs in India and its CEO was Dave Kleinberg. The company had …

    Small Biz 27 Feb 12:12

  • Lockheed offers ready-to-go supersoldier exoskeleton

    Jetfuel powerpack, armour... shoulder turret?

    US weaponry globocorp Lockheed is pleased to announce the unveiling of its newly-acquired powered exoskeleton intended to confer superhuman strength and endurance upon US soldiers. Needless to say, corporate promo vid of the Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC™) is available: The exoskeleton is based on a design from …

    Science 27 Feb 12:18

  • Kelway buys HP partner

    Virtual cure-all

    London-based reseller Kelway is buying Panacea Services creating a combined business with a £140m turnover. Panacea, formed in 1992, employs 110 people and specialises in HP and VMWare sales. It has a London HQ as well as offices in the Midlands, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and the United Arab Emirates. Panacea's MD Peter Stroud …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 12:19

  • G.hn-ing for gigabit

    How the next-gen home LAN standard war was won

    It's surely no coincidence that shortly after one technology for high-speed home networking achieved a key step toward becoming a world standard, the minds behind an alternative approach said they too had finally got the ball rolling. It won't do it much good - the second would-be standard, IEEE P1901, is arguably doomed, a …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 12:20

  • Ryanair may charge cattle to use the bog

    'Raising discretionary revenue' or taking the piss?

    Budget aerial cattle transporter Ryanair may ask the self-loading cargo to pay for a visit to the loo, chief exec Michael O'Leary suggested today. He told the BBC: "One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually …

    Bootnotes 27 Feb 12:25

  • IBM bricking Seagate SATA disks

    Update BladeCenter and xSeries servers affected

    IBM SATA drives in xSeries and BladeCenter servers can become bricks due to a firmware fault. A fix is expected later this quarter. The IBM SATA drive hang or drive note states: "After a power cycle, the SATA drive is no longer available and becomes unresponsive. Data may become inaccessible due to the drive not responding." …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 12:34

  • El Reg suffers identity crisis

    Reader Poll Respected, unethical aggro loner lesbians?

    These are tough times for news media, on and offline. Small newspapers are going titsup all over the shop, hundreds of blogs are discovering there's no money in "link journalism", and many at the UK nationals spend their time copying out each other's work and trawling the web for pictures of cutesy animals. All the while, El …

    Bootnotes 27 Feb 12:53

  • Chinese internet surveillance boss arrested for bungs

    Anti-virus intrigue

    A top Chinese censor has been arrested over suspicions he took millions in bribes to help a local anti-virus firm to crush a competitor. Yu Bing, head of the internet monitoring department of Beijing's Municipal Public Security Bureau, allegedly took RMB 40m ($5.8m) in backhanders from Rising to frame criminal charges against …

    Security 27 Feb 13:17

  • DARPA orders 'Katana' monoblade nano-copter

    Whirly spybird runs on lighter fuel, flown by PSP

    Famed Pentagon crazytech bureau DARPA has handed out half a million greenbacks to buy a tiny one-bladed robot helicopter slightly bigger than a coin, dubbed "Katana" and apparently intended for "indoor military missions". DARPA - renowned for being of the dungeon laboratory school of science rather than the ivory tower one - …

    Government 27 Feb 13:31

  • Phorm unleashes legal attack on critics

    Beware the wounded beast

    News articles based on a survey indicating public opposition to Phorm's web snooping and advertising system have been withdrawn after the firm made legal threats to their publishers. The independent consumer watchdog Which? sent a press release to newspapers earlier this week entitled "Internet users say: Don't sell my surfing …

    Telecoms 27 Feb 14:02

  • Judge issues radioactive 'pr0n downloader' alert

    'This is not a joke'

    A judge has warned that a man who jumped bail while facing child pornography charges and fled to Ireland could pose a radiation risk to those he comes into contact with. College principal Thomas Leopold, 42, was slated for an appearance before the beak accused of "five counts of making indecent images of children, and one of …

    Law 27 Feb 14:15

  • Microsoft: Vista desktop key to life fulfillment

    Icons, wallpaper reveal your inner being. Apparently

    Forget rummaging through colleagues' drawers - if you really want to know what kind of person the man or woman you're working with is, just look at their desktop. So claims psychologist Donna Dawson, who was this week called in by Microsoft to help promote Windows Vista. Her method: highlighting users' “desktop personality …

    Operating Systems 27 Feb 14:21

  • Shake-up shenanigans at Sony

    Stringer cements his rule

    A Sony Corporation reshuffle has left Sir Howard Stringer the even bigger boss of a company that aims to increase efficiency and speed decision-making. Stringer was chairman and CEO - surely enough for most people - but not president. That job was held by Dr Ryoji Chubachi who was also the CEO of the Sony Electronics business …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 14:32

  • AMD aims CPUs at 10in SCCs

    CEO's 'death of netbook' claim exaggerated

    AMD CEO Dirk Meyer has been reported to have forecast the death of the netbook, but looking back at the original story in which he's quoted reveals he doesn't have quite such a negative view. The confusion centres on Meyer's statement, made in a brief interview with Cnet, that: "I hate to say netbooks because a year from now …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 15:58

  • Obama wants to wring fat dollar from mobile operators

    Drove my Chevy to the ($4.8bn) levy

    President Obama has proposed squeezing $4.8bn out of the mobile network operators with a levy on the spectrum for which they have already paid, or thought they had. The levy starts at $50m in 2009, rising to $200m in 2010 and eventually hitting $550m a year per company - raising $4.8bn over the next decade, which could go some …

    Mobile 27 Feb 16:03

  • Novell's OpenSuSE commitment is tested

    What now after Microsoft?

    More than ever, these are testing times for Novell's Linux culture, and its relations with the community. The recession hit sales of Novell's SuSE Linux during its first quarter, according to chief executive Ron Hovsepian. Novell's CEO blamed over reliance on direct sales. As some have written, the benefits of the 2006 …

    Operating Systems 27 Feb 18:18

  • World of Warcraft: 'The crack cocaine of the computer world'

    Swedes finger WoW as dangerous addiction

    Is World of Warcraft as addictive as crack cocaine? Some say yes. Others are too busy playing World of Warcraft to answer. The former opinion is given by a Swedish youth organization that works with addictions. The org says it's releasing a new report labeling the online swords n' sorcery excursion as "the most dangerous game …

    Reg Hardware 27 Feb 19:06

  • Camelot dismisses lottery website hack claims

    Unu strikes again

    Camelot maintains the National Lottery website it runs is secure, following the publication of a supposed breach on an underground hacking forum. The same Romanian group that discovered SQL injection problems on the website of Kaspersky, BitDefender, and other anti-virus vendors in recent weeks has posted screen shots of …

    Malware 27 Feb 19:19

  • Sun powers Niagara hypervisor update with IBM speed boast

    Truth-stretching savings claim

    Sun Microsystems has updated the Logical Domain (LDom) server virtualization hypervisor for its Niagara family of servers, and used the occasion to brag about some benchmark results it has posted on a popular Java application test. The LDom hypervisor is only available for Sun and Fujitsu servers based on Sun's Sparc T1, T2, …

    Servers 27 Feb 19:31

  • Intel invests in Ireland

    Total sum small potatoes

    Intel is to invest over €50m ($63.5m, £44.3m) to expand Irish operations, a move that will boost employment at its R&D facilities in Shannon by 134 jobs over the next four years. According to IDA Ireland, the investment will raise total staffing at the facility to 300. Two projects will be supported by the funding, one in …

    Financial News 27 Feb 20:36

  • Anatomy of a chipmaker meltdown

    AMD's Spansion sued after juicing exec pay amid mass layoffs

    AMD flash-mem spin-off Spansion has been hit with two separate employment lawsuits after unexpectedly laying off 35 per cent of its workforce earlier this week. Both suits - Refuerzo v. Spansion and Rubaker v. Spansion - were filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Both …

    Financial News 27 Feb 20:56

  • IDC chops 2009 IT spending forecasts (again)

    Hardware goes negative

    The economic meltdown continues to slowly suck the growth out of the IT market, and the economists and market researchers at IDC have once again taken a sharp knife to their projections for IT spending in 2009. IDC's Black Book report now says that global IT spending will only increase by 0.5 per cent, to $1.44 trillion. This …

    Channel Register 27 Feb 22:05

  • Microsoft cloud to get 'full' SQL Server soon?

    Azure details materializing

    Next month, after a long silence, Microsoft will reveal what relational features from SQL Server have gone into its Azure cloud. Or so it seems. Microsoft's SQL Data Services (SDS) development manager Nigel Ellis has promised attendees at next month's Mix 09 will see "a great session about SQL Data Services, including how the …

    Developer 27 Feb 23:59