5th March 2009 Archive

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Diebold e-voting software includes delete audit logs button

No confirmation necessary

Vote tabulation software currently in use throughout the United States contains a button to permanently delete audit logs that are required under federal voting-system guidelines, according to a report submitted to California's top elections official. The button is included in version 1.18.19 of the GEMS, or Global Election …

Enterprise Security 5 Mar 2009, 00:09
Google Earth faces terrorist target airbrush bill

Dick Cheney Treatment meets little red schoolhouse

Concerned that international terrorists are prepping their attacks with help from services like Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Google Street View, a California lawmaker hopes to airbrush certain structural details from countless public buildings pictured on these web-based virtual landscapes. San Diego-based …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2009, 00:15
Forrester: Fake servers like recessions

Even if you don't

Ah, there's nothing like a recession to kick IT industry trends into a higher gear - and get those IT analysts out there preaching change and cost cutting. Today, it was Forrester Research's turn to talk up virtualization on servers and PCs as well as cloud computing as part of its sales pitch for two new reports it has put …

Virtualization 5 Mar 2009, 00:18
Nude Apple iMac pics leaked to web

Photos Suction cup fantasy

Yes, you can open an iMac. Yesterday, Apple announced a new iMac family, and by this morning the good folks at iFixit had already got their hands on a 20-incher, gutted it, and learned some interesting facts about the all-in-one desktop. For one, although the processor "appears to be socketed," there's a warning printed on …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 00:35
Nvidia trapped in x86 pipe dream

Intel foe wants Intel license

Nvidia is contemplating its very own x86-compatible processor core. in theory, this core could combine with Nvidia graphics technology to create system-on-chip (SoC) silicon that competes in the rapidly expanding low-power handheld-device market. According to a report from the The Wall Street Journal, Mike Hara, Nvidia's …

PCs & Chips 5 Mar 2009, 00:45
Sun loses Apache and Spring vote on latest Enterprise Java

Updated Licensing and 'design by committee' red flags

Sun Microsystems' rocky relationship with open source over Java is again in the spotlight, after it lost support of two influential groups for the latest update to enterprise Java. The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has voted against Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6.0 to register its protest in a long-running dispute over …

Developer 5 Mar 2009, 00:53
Developers more 'satisfied' with PHP than other codes

Ease of use plus no unpleasant aftertaste

You down with PHP? (Yeah, and Ruby) The surveying snoops at Evans Data say developers that use PHP are more satisfied with the scripting language overall than those who program with Ruby, Perl, Javascript, Flex, and VB script. Evans Data said it polled over 500 developers and IT professionals world-wide, asking them to rank …

Developer 5 Mar 2009, 01:01
Datatec scoops up Intact

Beefing up channel love

Logicalis Group has spun out Intact Integrated Services, which will now run as a self-sufficient subsidiary of Datatec Ltd. The company, which provides project, support and managed services to the ICT industry, confirmed yesterday that Datatec will assume a majority share of the new Intact Holdings Ltd. It specialises in …

Channel Register 5 Mar 2009, 07:02
NHS study produces ejector-seat ambulance design

Projectile paramedics to the rescue

There are a lot of medical and healthcare tech programmes underway at the moment, but not many of them feature an ambulance equipped with an ejector seat. Here at the Pioneers 09 save-the-economy-through-techbiz expo in London, though, just such a concept model is on display. Madam, I can see right through you. You adore …

Physics 5 Mar 2009, 08:02
Humax Foxsat-HDR Freesat HD digital video recorder

Review Record and replay HD

We’ve been looking forward to getting our hands on the Foxsat-HDR for quite a while now. In fact, we’d been hoping to review it early in the new year – until some uncouth louts decided to hijack an entire shipment of the devices as they came into the country, including, needless to say, one unit that had been earmarked for El …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 09:02
Industry’s behavioural ad guidelines criticised

Six months given to sort out privacy protection

The trade body for the online advertising industry has produced guidelines for companies to follow to ensure that behavioural advertising does not breach users' rights to privacy. Privacy activists have said the rules do not protect users enough. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published the guidelines and Google, …

Telecoms 5 Mar 2009, 09:48
Stargazers spy elusive binary black hole system

Two monsters circling in distant quasar

Astronomers at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) believe they've spotted a binary black hole system - two monsters orbiting each other at the centre of a quasar* 5bn light-years from Earth. NOAO explains that galaxies commonly form with a black hole at their heart, and if they're part of a cluster of galaxies …

Space 5 Mar 2009, 10:33
UK to get Vauxhall Ampera a year after the rest of Europe

'Leccy Tech Euro Volt unveiled at Geneva Motor Show

General Motors Europe boss Carl-Peter Forster this week finally took the wraps off the final design of the Opel Ampera - aka the Chevrolet Volt - range-extended electric vehicle. GM's Ampera: Opel favoured over Vauxhall? Everything looks much as we expected from the various teaser shots that have been circulating for the …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 10:38
Data Protection Act 'is not enforced'

Private sector losing more data than gov?

A subject-matter expert has said that "there is effectively no enforcement" of the Data Protection Act, and suggested that corporate data losses or breaches are even more prevalent than in the public sector. Andrew Sharpe, partner at London law firm Charles Russell, practices in the field of technology and telecoms law. He …

CIO 5 Mar 2009, 10:41
Adobe expects disappointing Q1 sales

Business weakened by economic downturn

Adobe Systems warned late yesterday that its first quarter revenue would undershoot analyst expectations but added earnings would meet the company’s forecasts. The software maker said in a prelim statement that it now expects to see revenue of $783m to $786m for Q1. It had originally targeted $800m to $850m in sales for the …

Financial News 5 Mar 2009, 10:45
'Gv up txt 4 Lent,' urges bishop

Log off Facebook, leave your iPhone at home

Some of you may decide to give up an Earthly pleasure for Lent, but one Italian bishop has asked followers specifically to forgo almost all forms of electronic communication and entertainment during the religious season. Monsignor Benito Cocchi, the Bishop of Modena, reportedly said that renouncing text messaging would help …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 10:46
Firefox update tackles critical memory bugs

We can remember it for you wholesale

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox in response to the discovery of several security flaws in the browser software. Version 3.0.7 of Firefox plugs five security vulnerabilities, three of which earn the dreaded "critical" label. Of these critical flaws a bug that means that Firefox crashes with evidence of memory …

Malware 5 Mar 2009, 11:00
O2 unveils electronic organiser for families

Replace your fridge magnets

Steve Martin could have done with O2’s new gadget in flick Cheaper by the Dozen, because the network provider’s claimed the touchscreen device ensures that “family life runs more smoothly”. O2's Joggler: an electronic family diary Essentially an electronic replacement for sticky notes on the fridge, the 7in Joggler - who …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 11:01
NetApp dumps Filerview for new model

System Manager lined up

NetApp's FilerView management product is going to be replaced by NetApp System Manager, a Windows application built as a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 snap-in, and available in a few months. The concept behind it is to provide management of one or many NetApp arrays through a simple and easy to use GUI. FilerView is …

Storage 5 Mar 2009, 11:36
Intel mobile roadmap promises Air for the masses

Cebit 09 Recession-busting plan is thin stuff?

Intel promised Mac Airs for the masses today as it urged customers and companies to get over the economic crisis, ditch their old kit and stock up on new PCs. Given that there seems to be more fear than attendees stalking the halls at Cebit this year, it's hardly surprising that the vendor is spending as much energy hurling …

Channel Register 5 Mar 2009, 11:49
Multi-sense VR helmet in development

The sights and sounds and - yes - the smells...

Forget 3D TV - a conglomerate of universities is developing a virtual reality headset that’ll simultaneously stimulate all five senses to bring you the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and even feel of ancient Egypt, the Serengeti or Victorian Britain. Virtual Cocoon: smell-o-vision and more Called Virtual Cocoon, the headset …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 11:50
One year on, what became of Ofcom's spectrum sale?

Absentee landlords and unwanted property

It's been a year since Ofcom flogged off chunks of 28GHz spectrum at bargain-basement prices, but 12 months on there's not a lot happening at the top of the dial. One chunk of spectrum in that area has changed hands: last week Urban WiMAX bought 110MHz of Greater London spectrum off Red-M (who acquired the licence as an asset …

Networks 5 Mar 2009, 12:03
Seagate swings hefty axe at execs

Brian Dexheimer, 22 others jettisoned

Seagate has given several execs the boot, including consumer products divisional president Brian Dexheimer, whose division's products didn't exactly set the world on fire. According to an SEC filing Dexheimer will leave his post at the end of the financial year, June 30, to effect a smooth transition, following which there …

Storage 5 Mar 2009, 12:05
One in 20 corporate PCs infested by bots

Zombies, faasands of 'em

Between three to five per cent of corporate systems are infected by bots, according to a study by security firm Damballa. The finding comes from Damballa itself and is being used to promote the need for its line of security appliances, designed to block communications between infected hosts and zombie-control servers, as an …

Malware 5 Mar 2009, 12:15
YouTube, Universal near new video deal

Veni, vidi, Vevo

Universal Music Group and Google’s YouTube are close to sealing a deal to build a new home for music videos on the interwebs. Under the proposed agreement, YouTube - propped up by Google’s technology and advertising sales support - would distribute Universal’s video content to other websites, according to anonymous sources …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2009, 12:20
Israelis develop 'safe' plutonium: good for power, bad for weapons

Nuke waste could be used as fuel - even by Arabs

Israeli boffins have developed a promising technique for "declawing" plutonium, which would let it be used as fuel but not for building bombs. They believe the technique could greatly expand peaceful use of nuclear power worldwide, while preventing weapons proliferation. Almost all plutonium is produced in nuclear reactors, …

Physics 5 Mar 2009, 12:30
Vista SP2 release candidate gets public airing

World+dog invited to play with near-ready service pack

Microsoft’s release candidate of Windows Vista SP2 is now available to anyone keen to dabble with the near final version of the service pack. The software giant initially opened up testing of Vista SP2’s release candidate only to TechNet and MSDN subscribers last week. Now world+dog can get their paws on the download ahead of …

Operating Systems 5 Mar 2009, 12:58
The Sun shines out of certified Java programmers

Papers chasing papers

The recession gathers apace, jobs are falling like nine pins, we're all doomed. Or maybe we dig in, work hard, brush up on old skills, read up on new stuff, do a bit of studying, sit an exam or two. Here's a couple of papers about IT exams from the Reg library for your perusal. The Sun certification and team performance: The …

Developer 5 Mar 2009, 13:20
Emtec Movie Cube S800 DVR

Review TiVo meets AppleTV?

There are now many digital video recorders (DVRs) out there and there's also a host of digital media streaming units, but if you're trying to find a device that can do both, you're going to struggle. Until now. Enter the Emtec Movie Cube S800, a gadget that promises to deliver a delicious combination of the two. Emtec's Movie …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 14:25
Samsung launches latest ~~netbook~~ UMPC

Kyboshes keyboard

Samsung has added a “next-generation” UMPC to its Q1 range - in the process removing the micro keyboard it added to the previous model in response to write-ups of the first Q1. Samsung's Q1 EX: why have this rather than a netbook? Samsung may be slightly over-confident on its next generation claim, however. The Q1 EX does …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 14:39
Games good for kids and families, finds Microsoft

It would say that, wouldn't it?

Despite the web being littered with reports of videogame-inspired murders, the vast majority of UK parents believe games can actually be beneficial for kids and families, it has been claimed. Despite the survey being conducted on behalf of games console maker Microsoft, the latest Play Smart, Play Safe assessment discovered …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 14:43
Facebook client seemingly snaffled from Windows 6.5

Socially network this

Hackers over at XDA Developers have posted a Facebook application, apparently ripped from a Windows 6.5 ROM but installable on earlier versions of Windows (mobile). The application isn't completely stable, though it will run on a wide variety of Window Mobile devices - we tried it on an Omnia with few problems. It's branded " …

Applications 5 Mar 2009, 14:49
Mitsubishi shows revamped 'innovative' EV

'Leccy Tech Sporty

Mitsubishi has whipped the dust covers of the latest iterations of its iMiEV – the MiEV bit stands for 'Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle' – at the Geneva Motor Show. The iMiEV and it's more sporty sibling, the iMiEV Sport Air – the former is officially a "show model", the latter a "prototype" – are both rear wheel drive …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 15:00
Vatican vetos 'dot god' domain

More ICANN namespace squabbling

The Pope has called on ICANN to keep religion out of the domain name system. The Vatican warned the internet address-making body of the “perils” of allowing new internet domains such as “.catholic, .anglican, .orthodox, .hindu, .islam, .muslim, [and] .buddhist”. ICANN, frequently accused of mission creep, could find itself …

CIO 5 Mar 2009, 15:11
Martian volcano could harbour hot underground pondlife

Olympus Mons home to sun-dodging slime creatures?

American astrogeologists believe that there may be pockets of liquid water trapped in sediment layers beneath the slopes of Olympus Mons - the titanic 15-mile-high Martian volcano, three times as high as Mount Everest. Such underground ponds or puddles might be home, they speculate, to strange alien lifeforms. Lair of the …

Space 5 Mar 2009, 15:21
Sony, BT to axe 'popular' PSP VoIP package

Skype to blame?

Sony and BT have announced the termination of Go!Messenger, their "popular" PSP-oriented VoIP and Instant Messaging service. Go!Messenger will be canned later this month A message on the service’s website said that Go!Messenger had failed to gain “the number of regular users that BT and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe …

reghardware 5 Mar 2009, 16:14
Windows 7 test build 'turns off' Internet Explorer 8

Not killed off completely though...

Microsoft’s latest test build of Windows 7 comes loaded with an option to delete Internet Explorer 8's executable file - making it unusable on the OS. The company has added its IE8 web browser as a component that can be toggled on and off via the operating system’s “Windows Features” dialog box. According to testers, who are …

Applications 5 Mar 2009, 16:37
Obama taps Google cloud lover as America's first CIO

Kundra's stateless government

US President Barack Obama has named the federal government's first chief information officer. Vivek Kundra - formerly chief technology officer for the local Washington D.C. government - was unveiled as federal CIO this morning at the White House. "Vivek Kundra will bring a depth of experience in the technology arena and a …

Government 5 Mar 2009, 18:04
Lenovo erects Atom tower

Taking the fun out of DIY

Chinese PC maker and server wannabee Lenovo has announced a new line of systems based on Intel's Atom embedded x64 processor. Even a "real" PC maker believes there are customer workloads where modestly powered x86 and x64 processors are perfectly fine - and perhaps even preferable to full-blown multi-core x64 chips. The Lenovo …

PCs & Chips 5 Mar 2009, 18:36
Firefox went ton up in bugs in 2008

Secunia stats inflame browser beef

Firefox had more vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer last year, but zero-day threats to the Mozilla browser were fixed more quickly than those affecting IE. An annual scorecard report from security notification firm Secunia found that Firefox was hit by 115 security flaws in 2008, more than the combined number of its three …

Applications 5 Mar 2009, 18:39
Zero-day Adobe PDF peril goes click free

Thumbnail preview threat

An unpatched flaw in Adobe Acrobat and Reader might be exploited without even needing to trick a surfer into opening a maliciously constructed file. Proof of concept demonstrations of this by security blogger Didier Stevens will increase pressure on Adobe to release a fix ahead of schedule. The exploit techniques demoed by …

Security 5 Mar 2009, 18:42
Intel aims open source at your car

Atom auto-infotainment push

Intel and a group of leading automotive-industry manufacturers have formed a non-profit group to develop and promote an open-source reference platform for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems. When Intel announced earlier this week that it was developing a set of Atom processors specifically for the automotive market, it did …

PCs & Chips 5 Mar 2009, 19:15
Taiwan bails out memory makers

Melds six DRAMers

The Taiwanese government says it will bail out six indigenous DRAM memory makers and mere them into a new entity called Taiwan Memory Company, confirming months of speculation. Government officials are pursuing partnerships with either an American or Japanese chip maker, or perhaps both. The announcement of the formation of …

PCs & Chips 5 Mar 2009, 19:46
Sun's Schwartz worries over 'economy, not future'

Comment Ponytail shakes pom-poms

Times might be tough. The server and operating system racket might be taking hits. But Sun Microsystems ain't scared. As one of the few titans of the tech industry who writes a blog and keeps it current, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and chief executive officer, basically does his own public relations as well as being …

Servers 5 Mar 2009, 20:00
Google admits Scandinavian data center landing

Budgets (only) $250m for newspaper destruction metaphor

Google has confirmed it will build a data center on the defunct Finnish paper mill it purchased last month for roughly $50 million. In mid-February, global paper-maker Stora Enso announced that Google would shell out €40 million ($50 million) for its Summa Mill in Kymenlaakso, Finland. And Google told The Reg it was " …

Servers 5 Mar 2009, 20:10
Feds demand Obama scam ads crackdown

Facebook and Google get pat on head

US federal regulators are telling online advertisers like Google and Facebook to crack down on scam artists that are promising users a personal slice of Obama's $787bn economic stimulus package. Fraudster ads and emails have mushroomed in recent weeks tempting debt-laden patsies with the quick fix of "free" stimulus grant …

Government 5 Mar 2009, 20:30
iPhone inches closer to China

Beware the clone horde

It's official: China Unicom chairman Chang Xiaobing has disclosed that his company has indeed been negotiating with Apple to bring the iPhone to China. We had reported rumors of such talks late last months - but now that chairman Chang has spoken, the talks have been elevated in newsworthiness. However, according to a Reuters …

Mobile 5 Mar 2009, 20:33
Oracle facing 'worst' quarter in 15 years?

Flaw in buying-IT-customers strategy uncovered

One of the driving forces behind Oracle's three-year corporate buying frenzy has been to add customers to its roster by owning the 44 tech companies supplying them. Problem is, you you can have all the customers under the sun but if they ain't spending on IT they ain't buying your products. Now, it seems Oracle's $13bn plus M …

Applications 5 Mar 2009, 20:41
Web maven gives convicted botmaster keys to new kingdom

Mahalo.com embraces Acidstorm

For the past four or five months, Mahalo.com has entrusted its site to a security consultant who stole hundreds of thousands of bank passwords with a massive botnet, which he sometimes administered from his former employer's premisis. For most of that time, serial entrepreneur and Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis was in the dark …

Enterprise Security 5 Mar 2009, 21:58
Amazon does video game trade-ins

Targets GameStop, publishers

Amazon.com has wandered into the long-standing cold war between video game publishers and retailers dealing in used video-game trade-ins. The online vendor on Thursday launched a new pilot program where customers can receive store credit in exchange for wide selection of popular hand-me-down games. It's presently accepting …

Applications 5 Mar 2009, 23:30
Facebook mimics Google's 'poor man's email'

We can do Web2.0rhea... bitch

Facebook has launched a shameless attempt to make itself more like Twitter, the web-darling-of-the-moment among Silicon Valley's digital elite (Eric Schmidt excepted). Yesterday, Facebook tweaked its social networking extravaganza with the addition of so-called public profiles, a way for the world's "most popular influencers" …

Music and Media 5 Mar 2009, 23:38