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17th March 2009 Archive

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  • Mathematica man brews 'AI' Google Killer™

    A New Kind of Pseudo-Science

    Stephen Wolfram - the lovable George Costanza of the mathematics community who developed the invaluable Mathematica suite and wrote the much talked about but quickly forgotten "A New Kind of Science” - is trying his hand at artificial intelligence. His new project, Wolfram Alpha, set to go live in May, combines natural …

    Developer 17 Mar 2009, 00:39

  • Opera chief: Microsoft's IE 8 ‘undermines’ web standards

    Silverlight a lesson in openness

    If Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 this week — as expected — then the company will likely be congratulated by many for doing the right thing and finally adding support for web standards to its browser. For years, Microsoft has gone its own way online with its own IE rendering engine. That's forced web developers to …

    Applications 17 Mar 2009, 02:41

  • Nvidia pitches OpenCL as 'market builder'

    Multicore Expo Selling standards not our game

    Yes, OpenCL is an open standard. But from where Nvidia's sitting, it's also a way for making money. OpenCL - the open, royalty-free standard for parallel processing across collections of CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and other silicon - was further detailed, discussed, and demoed during the run-up to the Multicore Expo, which opens Tuesday …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 02:54

  • Sun lands Sparc-Xeon super on Cape Town

    South Africa's 27 teraflops

    With Cisco Systems launching its first server/system product today, the other server makers of the world were looking around to see what kind of news they could scrape up. Over at Sun Microsystems, the news today is that the South African Department of Science and Technology has funded a hybrid Sparc-Xeon supercomputing cluster …

    Servers 17 Mar 2009, 04:02

  • Pratt changes name to Bruce Willis

    Die Hard supermarket shelf-stacker

    A supermarket shelf-stacker whose bosses ordered him to remove a name badge declaring he was "Bruce Willis" defied the ban by legally changing his name to that of the Die Hard star. Chris Pratt, 20, is nicknamed Bruce by his chums because of his penchant for the action franchise. He explained to the Shropshire Star: “After …

    Bootnotes 17 Mar 2009, 08:02

  • Great Aussie firewall claims first victim

    Forum threatened with fine for link to banned site

    The great Australian Firewall might be struggling to make political progress, but regulators are already using its blacklist to threaten local websites with fines. Broadband discussion forum Whirlpool was threatened with an A$11,000 (£5,148) a day fine by the Australian Communications and Media Authority because a commenter …

    Government 17 Mar 2009, 09:30

  • Come on, Sir Tim!

    Stob Celebrating Web 2(no point)0

    It is twenty years since Tim Berners-Lee, then a humble techie at CERN, sent a memorandum to his manager entitled Information Management: a Proposal. The Register is proud, on this important anniversary, to be republishing that historic document for the first time, so that we can all reflect properly on Sir Tim's achievement, …

    Developer 17 Mar 2009, 09:35

  • Worm burrows into Church of England email system

    Infected bishop loses e-pistles

    The Bishop of Manchester has been unable to send or receive email messages for ten days following a computer virus infection. The Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch's PC was hit by malware on March 3. Wider malware-linked problems with the diocese's email systems mean that a sizeable chunk of the 6,000 messages the bishop dispatched over …

    Security 17 Mar 2009, 09:53

  • Sony Ericsson Walkman W705 music phone

    Review Add GPS and it becomes the W715

    No mobile maker has been as prolific as Sony Ericsson at churning out music mobiles, largely because it commandeered the Walkman brand. Sony Ericsson's Walkman W705: smart and stylish looks That’s meant plenty of Walkman models that remix familiar music phone functionality, adding extra features here and there, and …

    Phones 17 Mar 2009, 10:02

  • Commission repeats call for single EU patent

    You're holding up the whole line

    The European Commission has reiterated its demand for the creation of a single European patent. It said the absence of such a protection is hindering the growth of technology companies in the European Union. The Commission has published a strategy aimed at increasing the benefit to be gained in the EU from technology research …

    Small Biz 17 Mar 2009, 10:03

  • VIA pushes netbook reference design

    Yes, another one

    VIA continues to pitch its C7-M processor at netbook makers, despite evidence they favour its Nano chip, and has launched a new reference design in the hope they'll opt for the older chip. Dubbed the Surfboard C855, the design comprises a small motherboard fitted with a 1.66GHz C7-M on an 800MHz bus and connected to VIA's …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 10:07

  • The Register Security Webcast is available on-demand

    Regcast Arguments and facts

    The Register's most recent live broadcast, an expert look at the IT security issues affecting medium sized businesses, is now available on demand. Our panel considers the business drivers and constraints, examines the effect of the latest techniques on the evolving threat landscape, and answer a multitude of questions …

    Security 17 Mar 2009, 10:34

  • UK supplier intros 8.9in, SSD netbook as world goes 10in, HDD

    Good

    UK system builder CMS Computers has unwrapped its latest netbook, the Zoostorm Freedom, and an entirely unexceptional item it is too. Well, almost. We're pleased to see CMS equipping the Freedom with an 8.9in display, which we reckon is the sweet spot for small, cheap computers - despite most vendors telling everyone that no, …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 10:36

  • ISS spared space junk avoidance manoeuvre

    All well pending Discovery's arrival

    Crew aboard the International Space Station were yesterday told they would not have to perform a "debris avoidance maneuver"* after NASA deemed a 10-centimetre piece of the destroyed Russian Cosmos 1275 satellite posed no threat to the orbiting outpost. Mike Fincke, Yury Lonchakov and Sandy Magnus last week took refuge for 11 …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 10:51

  • WIN! 20 copies of Iolo System Mechanic up for grabs

    Competition Top-selling utility to keep Windows in peak operating condition

    Iolo Technologies has teamed up with Register Hardware to bring 20 lucky readers the latest version of Iolo's System Mechanic 8.5 - software designed to ensure your PC hardware always runs at maximum efficiency. System Mechanic sits in the background running regular checks on your computer and handling any maintenance that's …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 10:56

  • Ericsson quickens up cable broadband

    Five times faster, but will we benefit?

    Ericsson has taken the 100Mbit/s VDSL2 telephone cable broadband standard and made it go five times faster. VDSL is very high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line technology, and is a follow-on technology to ADSL (Asymmetric DSL) which first established a data transmission channel parallel to the voice transmission channel on the …

    Data Networking 17 Mar 2009, 10:58

  • Dell MacBook Air Adamo officially launched

    Slim and sexy, dahling, but mediocre inside?

    Following months of teaser specifications, pictures and videos, Dell has finally decided to launch its slim'n'sexy Adamo laptop. Dell's Adamo: sexy, but is it powerful enough? The machine is the very “pinnacle of craftsmanship” – at least according to Dell - and many media outlets have already dubbed the Adamo as the latest …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 11:08

  • Ex-Star Wars boffins build mosquito-blasting raygun

    Fiery photon vengeance wrought upon pestilential bloodsuckers

    Here on the Reg raygun desk, we like a deadly laser cannon designed to rid the skies of airborne assailants as much as the next man - indeed, perhaps rather more so. On some days our simple pleasure is spoiled, however, by the thought that humanity is merely wasting its resources on engines of destruction, and doing little to …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 11:09

  • Dragons' Den winner infringed own patent, IPO rules

    He's out

    A man whose invention caught the attention of millions of television viewers may have infringed a patent he applied for himself ten years ago. A contestant on the Dragons' Den TV programme may have to defend his invention from legal action. Andrew Harsley appeared on the programme and convinced two of its panellists, Duncan …

    Small Biz 17 Mar 2009, 11:15

  • T-Mobile pushes consumer mail

    All you need is shove, apparently

    T-Mobile is inviting UK consumers to join the pushy set by offering genuinely-pushed email to a custom client, for a small consideration of £3.50 a month. The service connects to up to five existing email accounts and alerts the client to connect and download new messages using a silent SMS notification, in much the same way …

    Mobile 17 Mar 2009, 11:31

  • Kraft puts foot in big pot of yoghurt?

    LogoWatch exclusive New logo maybe treads on Yoplait's toes

    On 17 February, international nosh monolith Kraft revealed a new logo for Kraft Foods - a "global identity... that it hopes will drive the company forward in its second year of a three-year turnaround plan". The result of a seven-month design process, the image boasts a "stylised red smile" encompassed by seven "flavour burst …

    Bootnotes 17 Mar 2009, 11:53

  • Lights out, Britons told - we're running out of power

    Exclusive Do your bit because Labour didn't

    Carbon quango The Energy Saving Trust has come up with a new reason for Britons to save energy in the home. Our power stations will soon close, and you'll need to do your bit. That's what one Reg reader discovered, after enquiring about the Trust's calculations on the effectiveness of new low-energy bulbs. "A reduction in …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 12:02

  • Mozilla hangs fire on Firefox 3.5 till June

    Schtop! This browser is not ready

    Mozilla has further delayed the release date for the next version of its Firefox web browser. The next version of the open source browser was initially due in early 2009, but the addition of extra fixtures and additional testing rounds means that the middle of the year has become a more realistic target date. Firefox 3.1 beta …

    Applications 17 Mar 2009, 12:11

  • Ofcom makes network operators carry mis-selling can

    Grown-up responsibilities

    UK regulator Ofcom has made good on its promise to punish network operators who allow their services to be mis-sold, insisting that operators take responsibility from September this year. Resellers will have to keep better records of the sales process, including recordings of all telephone calls relating to the sale, and …

    Mobile 17 Mar 2009, 12:35

  • US woman attacks missus with sperm-filled syringe

    Home insemination attempt ends in court

    A Massachusetts woman has appeared in court on a domestic assault and battery rap after allegedly attempting to impregnate her wife with a plastic syringe containing her brother's sperm. Stephanie K Lighten, 26, of Pittsfield, was reportedly “all liquored up” when she made unwelcome advances towards her other half, 33-year-old …

    Bootnotes 17 Mar 2009, 12:36

  • Nokia to fire 1,700 staff

    UK offices hit hard

    Nokia's UK offices will be among the hardest hit in a global round of 1,700 redundancies, announced today. The Finnish mobile phone giant's home operations will see the deepest cuts, with 700 staff targeted. UK operations will be next in line, but a spokeswoman couldn't immediately say how many staff at offices in Bristol, …

    Mobile 17 Mar 2009, 12:37

  • Sony Ericsson crafts miniature boombox

    Rad, man!

    Boombox days are long gone – thankfully – but one mobile phone firm wants to bring them back and has launched a miniature version of the 1980s classic. Sony Ericsson's MS500: Bluetooth speaker The Sony Ericsson MS500 outdoor wireless speaker should offer “superior sound quality” and a “cool design” that’ll… ahem… impress …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 12:42

  • Terry Waite backs McKinnon

    Beirut hostage joins 'pretty harmless' camp

    Former Beirut hostage Terry Waite has spoken out against attempts to extradite self-confessed Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon to face a US trial. Waite, who since his release in 1991 has become a human rights and police campaigner, argues that the US military should thank McKinnon for exposing security holes in its systems. …

    Security 17 Mar 2009, 12:45

  • Nintendo wins Wii patent case

    Judge chucks out plaintiff's IP infringement claim

    Many a patent infringement lawsuit has been brought against Nintendo and its Wii console, but the Japanese gaming giant has now prevailed in one without the need for a jury trial. The case was brought against Nintendo by Fenner Investment Ltd, a Texas-based company that claimed both the Wii and its controllers and the GameCube …

    Games 17 Mar 2009, 12:50

  • British Korea ambassador in 'diplomatic' blog shock

    Children salute Kim Jong Il's courage, indefatigability

    Her Majesty's Ambassador to North Korea, Peter Hughes, is under fire for a blog posting he made which appeared to some as a whitewash job for the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il. The post, made on the blog of South Korea ambassador Martin Uden, painted a bucolic Darling Buds of May description of Pyongyang on election day. Hughes …

    Bootnotes 17 Mar 2009, 13:02

  • Samsung PB22-J 256GB SSD

    Review Our new favourite solid-state drive

    The catchily named Samsung PB22-J MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB weighs in at 256GB and is the biggest SSD we've seen to date. Biggest, that is, in terms of capacity. Physically, it follows the usual 2.5in hard drive form-factor and measures 100 x 70 x 9.5mm. Cosmetically, it’s an attractive drive that has a brushed metal finish but, let’s …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 13:02

  • Put down your pens: Cartoons next on censor block

    Comment Transatlantic campaign mounts against scribbled smut

    Proposals to make it a criminal offence to possess cartoons depicting certain forms of child abuse are heading back to the House of Commons, and elsewhere in the UK and across the atlantic, it's becoming clear there is an appetite in certain quarters for a much wider clampdown on freedom of expression. In the UK, debate on the …

    Government 17 Mar 2009, 13:30

  • 'Louis Vuitton'-edition 'Moto Aura' launched

    It's, like, well posh, innit

    Motorola’s wacky flip-around mobile phone, the Aura, is supposedly the pinnacle of handset style. But a third-party’s designed a knock-off model that's crucially much, much cheaper. The Imobile Phone V453: 'inspired' by Motorola's Aura and Louis Vuitton Motorola launched Aura back in October and it later emerged that the …

    Phones 17 Mar 2009, 13:33

  • HM Treasury website traffic goes into recession

    No inflation in these figures

    The government demonstrated just how much its brave efforts to battle the economic downturn have captured the nation's imagination yesterday, coughing to a yearlong slide in traffic to HM Treasury's websites. The figures came in a commons answer from Angela Eagle, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, to Mark Hoban MP. Hoban …

    Government 17 Mar 2009, 13:49

  • Google phone OS to transform Linux netbooks, says researcher

    Windows for mini-laptops, Android for appliances

    Google's Android will be the saviour of the Linux netbook, and we'll start to see small, cheap computers based on the phone-oriented operating system later this year. So suggested market watcher Ovum today after claiming that, despite the early sales successes of Linux-based netbooks, they're now being outsold by Windows- …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 13:50

  • BMW, Fiat partner to dominate small e-car biz?

    'Leccy Tech Mini, Isetta, Topolino could be remodelled for eco motoroing

    Will 2011 see the release of new electric Minis, Isettas and Topolinos? It's just possible if news from Auto Express is to be believed. The paper claims BMW – which owns Mini – and Fiat are working together on the development of a range of cars that will available with both electric and ultra-frugal petrol power, and will meet …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 14:10

  • Obesity witchhunt is a 'moral panic' - sense out of Texas

    Comment We need a total ban on Body Mass Index statistics

    A lone researcher has dared to speak up against the obesity health insanity outbreak, one of several sweeping the western world as medical professionals attempt to shift blame for rocketing healthcare costs onto their customers. Samantha Kwan of Houston Uni says that the current obesity brouhaha - with its talk of chocolate …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 14:16

  • Euro ion-rocket sat launch success

    Open-door policy at Plesetsk this time

    The European space agency's dart-shaped GOCE satellite, designed to skim through the extreme upper atmosphere using ion drives to compensate for air drag, has launched successfully from Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia. GOCE had been scheduled for launch yesterday, but a problem with the doors of the Plesetsk launch …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 14:33

  • Hong Kong supplier punts Mac-alike netbook

    VIA Nano inside

    If Apple won't make a Mac-style netbook, someone else will. And if you can't face waiting for the Asus Eee PC 1008HA, how about this fine piece of trademark infringement from Hong Kong? Yu Guan's 'Apple' netbook: chip off the old unibody? Excitingly dubbed the WF188 - we'd suggest renaming it WTF188 - it's a 10in MacBook …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 14:58

  • Boffins finger reason for non-aligned cows

    Power lines disrupt bovines' north-south grazing tendency

    The scientists who brought the world proof that, in keeping with ancient lore, cows really do graze along a north-south axis, have found the reason they sometimes fail to display their natural animal magnetism. To recap, as we reported back in August last year, Sabine Begall and colleagues at the University of Duisburg-Essen …

    Science 17 Mar 2009, 15:32

  • Cisco's uncharted territory: Here be storage dragons

    Comment Blades are one thing, disks are quite another

    Cisco's California may be a Unified Computing System, but it sure isn't unified storage. On old maps uncharted areas were labelled 'Here be dragons'. Cisco has redrawn the data centre map and left two uncharted areas outside the Cisco occupied territories of blade server chassis, switches and Cisco's UCS Manager software. It's …

    The Channel 17 Mar 2009, 15:49

  • Samsung's first Android phone spied online?

    Blurry picture, equally blurry specs

    The image of a phone said to be Samsung’s first foray into the Android OS market has appeared online. Is this Samsung's first Android phone? First published by website GSMhelpdesk.nl, the blurry image is thought to have been captured at an event held recently in Amsterdam where, the report hints, Samsung gave attendees a …

    Phones 17 Mar 2009, 15:57

  • California: Cisco gives out some details, finally

    Just don't call it a blade server

    Yesterday's launch of the California blade system by Cisco Systems was a little short on the feeds, speeds, and pricing information. But if you want someone to buy a funky new data center gadget, you have to be a little more specific, and luckily Cisco has some server people who understand this. Dante Malagrino, director of …

    Servers 17 Mar 2009, 16:01

  • Dell bringing SSDs to the EqualLogic party?

    Round Rock stays mum on PS6000

    A revamped Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN storage array product line could be just around the corner, according to documents seen by El Reg. The PS6000 will boast better protection, solid state disk speed and more Ethernet capacity. The PS6000 should increase the gigabit Ethernet port count from three per controller for the …

    The Channel 17 Mar 2009, 16:40

  • Man turns finger into storage

    The bloke with storage at his fingertips - literally

    The line between man and machine is now slightly more blurry, thanks to one Finnish bloke’s decision to replace a missing digit with a USB Flash drive. Jerry Jalava's prosthetic finger hides a USB Flash drive inside Jerry Jalava, a software developer from Helsinki, had the top part of his finger amputated after a motorbike …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 17:03

  • Apple iPhone sales tally tops 17m

    Over 13m iPod Touches too

    Apple has sold more than 17m iPhones since the gadget first went on sale in June 2007, the company has revealed. At least 13.7m of that total were sold during 2008 alone, Apple's head of iPhone and iPod development, Greg Joswiak, claimed today. Speaking in Cupertino ahead of the anticipated demo of the third major version of …

    Phones 17 Mar 2009, 17:23

  • Obama CIO a confessed petty thief

    Blogosphere surfaces 12-year-old guilty plea

    America's first CIO once pleaded guilty to a petty theft charge, according to Maryland state records. Vivek Kundra is currently on leave from his federal CIO post, after one of his former employees was arrested for alleged IT bribery. The 34-year-old Kundra was tapped for the newly-formed CIO position on March 5, after almost …

    Government 17 Mar 2009, 18:04

  • Reverse engineering Apple's OS X

    Mac Secrets A thunking good time

    A number of folks have asked me what tools and techniques I use to reverse engineer Cocoa executables. I thought it would be worth taking some time out from documenting undocumented APIs to show you how easy it is to do the same thing for yourself. My number-one favorite tool is class-dump, a command-line utility written …

    Developer 17 Mar 2009, 18:08

  • iPhone 3.0 adds cut-and-paste, search, new dev toys

    Arriving in 'summer'

    The new iPhone 3.0 software will introduce copy-and-paste options, spotlight search, background notifications, stereo Bluetooth, MMS messages, and third-party access to the device's map application. Apple's third major software release for the iPhone was previewed today for a press gathering at the company's HQ in Cupertino. …

    Phones 17 Mar 2009, 20:26

  • Card-sniffing trojans target Diebold ATM software

    Innovations in cybercrime

    Security researchers from Sophos have discovered sophisticated malware that siphons payment card information out of automatic teller machines made by Diebold and possibly other manufacturers. Sophos researcher Vanja Svajcer found three samples after combing through VirusTotal and a similar online database earlier this month. …

    Security 17 Mar 2009, 20:32

  • Amazon sued by cable TV giant over Kindle ebooks

    Patent infringement, natch

    Life-science-obsessed cable TV giant Discovery Communications has sued Amazon.com over its Kindle ebook devices, claiming patent infringement. Discovery filed suit today in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of a patent filed by the company in September of 1999. Describing an "Electronic …

    Hardware 17 Mar 2009, 21:23

  • Microsoft dumped after India PM's emails go AWOL

    Ushers in open-source era

    The office of the Indian Prime Minister has reportedly ditched Microsoft's Outlook for open-source email following a computer virus that caused a massive breakdown in communications. The PMO has dumped Outlook Express for SquirrelMail, it has emerged, following an outage that saw emails go missing and unanswered during a three …

    Applications 17 Mar 2009, 21:28

  • Irish ISPs rally against record label anti-piracy threat

    Three strikes rule? Pshaw

    A coalition of Irish ISPs has rebuffed the music industry's attempts to force a "three strikes" disconnection policy on all of Ireland's major internet providers. The ISP group sent an open letter to the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) on Friday, calling recent legal threats against them "spurious," stating they won't …

    Media 17 Mar 2009, 22:46

  • Google in Chrome rebetafication

    New non-release '35% faster'

    In December, just three months after a much-ballyhooed release, Google took the beta tag off its open-source Chrome operating system browser. It was an unexpected move by the Mountain View Chocolate Factory, which typically holds onto beta tags for most of eternity. Well, after another three months, the world's largest ad …

    Applications 17 Mar 2009, 23:34