31st March 2009 Archive

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Intel clears ~~Core i7~~ Xeon 5500 for landing

Nehalem Day Code tweaks ahead

After Monday's roll-out of Intel's long-awaited Xeon 5500 family, The Reg sat down with a pair of Intel honchos at the company's Santa Clara, California, headquarters and asked, "What took you so long?" After all, Intel's Core i7 high-end desktop processors, based on the same new Nehalem microarchitecture, went on sale over …

Servers 31 Mar 04:10
PC firms slammed in latest Greenpeace eco report

Nokia triumphs, Nintendo stuck in the mire

Dell, HP and Lenovo have all seen their eco-friendliness scores slashed in the latest edition of Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics, which conversely saw Apple and Philips gain notable mentions from the environmental organisation. Greenpeace's latest eco assessment of top tech firms The guide – now on its eleventh …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 07:37
EU launches pirate talking shop

'Arrr, me hearties!' or somesuch

This week sees the second European Union conference on piracy and counterfeit goods. Internal market and services commissioner Charlie McCreevy, members of the European Parliament, and industry representatives are attending the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy with the aim of improving cross-border cooperation …

Music and Media 31 Mar 08:00
The reference guide to data centre automation

Our weekly white paper trawl

This week's trawl through the Reg Library results in three of our most popular whitepapers about data centre-y things. Let's kick off: The reference guide to data centre automation This monster of a book is sponsored by HP - the table of contents alone runs to 10 pages. Co-author Don Jones, of Realtime.com says in his …

Tech Panel 31 Mar 08:44
Cost of a cuppa set to rocket

Droughts mean bad news for Brit builders

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned the price of tea will "jump to a record high" following droughts in India, Kenya and Sri Lanka, which have hit production hard. According to the Financial Times, the loss of yield will exacerbate a 2008 deficit which saw demand at 3.85m tonnes, while production …

Environment 31 Mar 08:57
Seagate sneaks content round your home network

Physically carried FreeAgents

Seagate's new FreeAgent Theater media player product relies on sneakernet to cart digital files between a PC and the TV. In the home, the network is not the computer and networked storage is not the norm, although many, if not most, PC-using homes now have a broadband link with a broadband router acting as the Internet gateway …

Storage 31 Mar 09:14
Greenbird sail-car wafts in as future of zero-emission motoring?

~~Leccy~~ Aero Tech Breaks land-speed record too

So how's this for emissions-free motoring? Greenbird: record breaker Called Greenbird, the hi-tech land yacht is the brainchild of British engineer Richard Jenkins and last week it snapped up the word land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle at Ivanpah dry lake in Nevada with a top speed of 126.1mph (202.9kph), beating …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 09:21
Pirate Bay linking could implicate Facebook, says lawyer

I link your milkshake

The Pirate Bay has unveiled a feature that makes it easy for web users to post links to pirated material on their Facebook page. The activity risks passing liability for copyright infringement onto Facebook, a technology lawyer warned. The Pirate Bay is one of the world's most prominent link-distributing sites, and many of the …

Music and Media 31 Mar 09:56
NYC granny shoots mugger with .357 Magnum

Wheelchair-bound Dirty Harriet sued for $5m

A wheelchair-bound but hardly defenceless Harlem granny is being sued for $5m after popping a .357 Magnum cap into an alleged mugger, the New York Post reports. Margaret Johnson, 59, described as "a retired city bus driver who has a dislocated hip and a ruptured disc", was sitting in her motorised mobility scooter in September …

Bootnotes 31 Mar 09:58
Scareware scammers latch onto Conficker hype

Sysadmins served poisoned searches

Scammers are taking advantage of the huge interest in the impending "activation" of the Conficker superworm by poisoning search engine results. News emerged on Monday that sysadmins could use network scanning tools such as Nmap to search for PCs infected by Downad/Conficker. Within hours searches for Nmap and Conficker were …

Malware 31 Mar 10:11
Canon i-Sensys LBP3100

Review Cheap and better than cheerful

Laser printers have been nudged out of the personal, one-per-desk market by the continued growth of inkjets. For straight black print, though, there’s nothing to touch laser copy, and Canon has fortified its entry-level mono laser range with the i-Sensys LBP3100, a small machine with a couple of interesting design tweaks. …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 10:16
Slimline iPhone pictures unearthed

The 'iPhone 4G'?

Rumours of a redesigned iPhone have been around since, pretty much, the day after Apple launched its 3G model. But now a drool-worthy picture has emerged of what’s been dubbed the iPhone 4G. Does this image reveal the next iPhone's design? It’s unlikely the image was snuck out from Apple’s HQ, meaning that the picture – …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 10:19
IDC says disk market spinning down this year

Rebound from 2010 though

Research house IDC reckons the disk storage market will experience a 6.7 per cent slowdown in spending this year compared to 2008, but growth will resume at a pedestrian 1.5 per cent next year. A lot of this year's decline is due to lower server sales, with a consequent fall in direct-attached storage sales. However, total …

Channel Register 31 Mar 10:35
EU demands 20% energy cut from tech industry

Reding calls for IT to act on emissions

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is calling on the IT industry to cut energy use by 20 per cent by 2020. She said existing measures would only deliver 13 per cent by the deadline, but better use of ICT could help Europe hit the 20 per cent target. Smart metering could save European …

Hardware 31 Mar 10:45
Grey squirrels invade Nutt house

NI woman in sciurine plague ordeal

A Northern Ireland woman is on the front line of the ongoing battle against grey squirrel hordes after her house was invaded by massed sciurine forces, the BBC reports. Oonagh Nutt, of Moira in County Down, explained that the incursion began when advanced squirrel patrols entered her garden from a nearby park. She said: "I …

Biology 31 Mar 10:47
Olympus welcomes in the E-450 DSLR

Waves goodbye to the E-420

Olympus has replaced its E-420 digital SLR camera with a shooter that’s supposedly a fusion of DSLR and compact, and able to bring out the artist in anyone. Olympus' E-450: arty images at the touch of a button, apparently Despite still offering the same number of megapixels as its predecessor – 10Mp, to be exact - the E-450 …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 10:47
DNA database grows faster than forecast

5.14m profiles, despite removal of under-10s

Over 5m profiles are now on the national DNA database, significantly above the level forecast two years ago. Home Office minister Alan Campbell has released the figures in response to a parliamentary question from Sarah Teather MP. They show that on 9 January there were 5.14m profiles on the database, although the estimated …

Government 31 Mar 10:53
EU issues ultimatum on internet privacy

Behavioural targeting investigated

The European Commission today delivered an ultimatum to internet firms - improve your approach to privacy online, or face a regulatory clampdown from Brussels. Meglena Kuneva, the consumer affairs Commissioner, told a gathering of ISPs, major websites and advertising firms they are violating "basic consumer rights in terms of …

Telecoms 31 Mar 10:55
Dell gives birth to octuplet Inspiron colours

All the colours of the rainbow?

Dell has brought a splash of colour to the desktop with its launch of eight brightly hued Inspiron PCs. Dell's Inspiron range: 'Red and orange and pink and green...' Pretty much every colour of the rainbow is available, including “Piano Black”, “Pure White”, “True Blue”, “Formula Red”, “Tangerine Orange”, “Spring Green”, “ …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 10:56
Vulture Central on total G20 terror lockdown

Fearmail announces anti-crusty security Defcon Red

Readers concerned for the safety of El Reg operatives, who will this week selflessly risk life and limb by entering Central London during the G20 summit, should rest assured that measures have been taken to mitigate the threat posed to national security and world order by malodorous, dreadlocked crusties deploying packs of dogs …

Bootnotes 31 Mar 11:10
EU endorses telecoms ~~talking shop~~ super regulator

More Aquaman than Superman

The EU parliament has reached an agreement on the details of the new regulatory body envisioned - and considerably diluted - by Viviane Reding, which should now come into existence in the next couple of months. The details differ little from what was expected, despite weeks of negotiation with the various regulatory bodies. …

Telecoms 31 Mar 11:26
Emulex and QLogic bring FCoE closer

Integrated converged network adapters arrive

Fibre Channel's replacement by Ethernet came a step closer with QLogic's introduction of the single chip 8100 Series integrated converged network adapter (CNA), joining Emulex' OneConnect product. QLogic's 8100 has a single ASIC containing the processor, its memory and the SerDes. It supports Ethernet connectivity, TCOP/IP, …

Storage 31 Mar 11:30
Ex-Google design man trundles into Twitter

'Learn from your mistakes, but never dwell on them'

Twitter has poached Google’s former visual design boss to take on the role of creative director at the micro-blogging site. Douglas Bowman confirmed earlier this month he had quit Mountain View because he was peeved with Google’s obsession with performance data. He said in a blog post on 20 March that he had grown tired of …

Applications 31 Mar 11:52
EU tells members to get ready for disaster

Which disaster were you thinking of?

The EU is pushing the development of a strategy to protect Europe from cyber-attacks and disruptions. The guidelines - which amount to a disaster recovery procedures for nations instead of individual corporate entities - are designed to cover incidences such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, hackers, rupture of …

Enterprise Security 31 Mar 12:07
Workers take Caterpillar Inc managers hostage

Brief Grenoble four held in latest French incident

Four managers at a Caterpillar Inc plant in Grenoble are being held hostage by workers, AFP reports. The agency cites an "unidentified union official" as the source of the latest French managment imprisonment news. Earlier this month, workers at a Sony plant in Pontonx-sur-l'Adour, south-west France, held the company's local …

Bootnotes 31 Mar 12:18
Playboy TV offers 'Jacq off' special package

Comment Home Office says adult movies were 'vanilla' flavoured

The ultimate demotion of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, from grim-faced scourge of individual liberty to national joke, came one step closer last night with the launch of Playboy TV’s Jacqui Smith VIP package. Responding to the press furore over the nocturnal viewing habits of Jacqui Smith’s little helper, Richard Timney, they …

Government 31 Mar 12:46
Westminster forced to switch off digital CCTV cameras

Just in time for bikers' demo

Westminster City Council has written to Geoff Hoon to object to his department's decision to force it to switch off its 100 digital CCTV cameras, mostly used for parking enforcement. The news is likely to be welcomed by motorcyclists who are this evening demonstrating against the Council's imposition of parking charges for …

Policing 31 Mar 13:09
'Big Brother' - the price of self-driving cars

Privacy concerns forbid in-car beer, movies, snoozing

Privacy campaigners have called in the national press for a debate over possible future car technologies being considered by the European Union. The Guardian "can reveal" today that the UK government "are the main backers" of the EU's Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS), details of which "will be unveiled this …

Policing 31 Mar 13:12
G20 police demand ID as train staff ordered to spy on passengers

Hysteria mounts over crusty onslaught

Hysteria over protests connected to the G20 conference continues to grow, with ID checks for East-end residents and train staff told to tip off police about suspicious passengers. The Metropolitan Police is telling residents and workers near the ExCeL conference centre, where G20 leaders will meet, that they will need two …

Policing 31 Mar 13:24
Honda creates thought-controlled android

Asimo gets smarter

Remember Asimo, Honda’s stair-climbing android? It's back and this time the robot can be controlled by human thoughts. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Collaboration between Honda’s Research Institute of Japan, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International and the Shimadzu …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 13:38
What's wrong with a Twitter degree?

I can haz Master of Arts!

"It's not another Mickey Mouse course," insists tutor Jon Hickman, of Birmingham City University, talking about his new MA degree course in "social media". The £4,400 course starts in September. "People are going to think we're doing an MA in blogging or Lolcats." So what's it about, then? "It's about the culture of things," …

Music and Media 31 Mar 13:39
Sun confirms second round of layoffs

Another 1,500 get pink slips

Server and operating system maker Sun Microsystems has confirmed that it had indeed enacted another round of layoffs, as we reported it would. "Sun continues to make important choices to streamline operations and align resources to best address market opportunity and position the company for improved financial performance and …

Channel Register 31 Mar 14:42
Israelis' invulnerable, 60-tonne robot bulldozer force to double

Cat D9 also starred as satanic Killdozer. Coincidence?

The Israeli armed forces have announced plans to double their existing force of robot bulldozers, after unmanned "Black Thunder" droid diggers apparently covered themselves with glory during the recent Gaza incursion. An IDF killdozer in a quiet moment. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Black Thunder unmanned version of …

Science 31 Mar 14:46
BT Wholesale cuts off Prodigy Internet

MACs all round for Mary Celeste ISP

Sheffield-based ISP Prodigy Internet has effectively been shut down, after BT Wholesale began redirecting its customers to a "walled garden" page to obtain Migration Authorisation Codes (MACs). A spokeswoman for the communications regulator Ofcom said it had worked with BT Wholesale to "maintain service" on Monday lunchtime …

Telecoms 31 Mar 14:47
iPhone slip serves up free 3G Skype calls

Woo hoo!

Daredevil iPhone users who've installed the latest development build of their firmware, version 3, have discovered an interesting side effect - free Skype calls over the 3G network. Apple has never made any secret of the fact it won't allow iPhone applications to make VoIP calls over 3G connections - that would upset the …

Mobile 31 Mar 15:01
Satyam races to find buyer ahead of Indian election

Firm on the block as pols on the stump

Satyam hopes the sale of its majority stake will be completed before the Indian general election which starts in mid-April. The company has a shortlist of bidders for its business but they are likely to have to bid blind for the firm - they will be given access to Satyam's books, or rather a "data room", but the full …

Channel Register 31 Mar 15:06
Cosmonaut bemoans ISS toilet row

Can't use apparently non-existent deluxe US space dunny

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has bemoaned an increasingly petty US-Russian spat in which politics apparently threaten the brotherly co-operation which has hitherto marked life aboard the International Space Station. Padalka (pictured centre with NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, left, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency …

Space 31 Mar 15:07
'Fit and healthy' Brit dies playing Wii

25-year-old collapses during Wii Sports session

A young man has died after collapsing while playing Wii Fit. Tim Eves, 25, from Hopton-on-Sea, was said by his girlfriend to have been jogging on the spot when he suddenly slumped to the floor. Although an ambulance was called, and Eves was rushed to hospital, he was declared dead on arrival. Eves' mother said she had spoken …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 15:24
Sony ignores UK as US, Europe get PS2 price cut

Sterling plunge to blame?

Sony has treated PlayStation 2 buyers in North America and Europe to a console cost cut. But the electronics giant has confirmed that UK consumers won’t see any reduction. A spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment told website MCV that “neither [the European or North American price cuts] affect the UK – the price will …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 15:29
Nortel staff sacked without redundancy payout

Staff go from England and Northern Ireland

Networking equipment maker Nortel sacked 228 UK staff on Monday without a redundancy pay out. Nortel Networks UK does not have to make redundancy payouts because it is in administration while its Canadian parent company is under bankruptcy protection. Those sacked will be eligible for a small statutory redundancy payment from …

Data Networking 31 Mar 15:48
Convicted Trojan author in new hacking charge

Back before the beak

A former hacker who went to prison as a teenager over a stock-trading scam is back in trouble with the law. Van T. Dinh, 25, was charged with two counts of computer hacking last Friday over accusations he hacked into an online currency exchange service before allegedly attempted to transfer $110,000 to an account under his …

Crime 31 Mar 15:59
Ultra-quiet MSI all-in-one PC blows in

As quiet as a librarian

MSI has unveiled its latest all-in-one PC, a touch-sensitive 19in machine with a “fashionable and glassy” frame. MSI's Wind Top AE1900: has a touch-sensitive screen Underneath the Wind Top - a name decidedly reminiscent of MSI rival Asus' Eee Top - has a “glassy” frame you’ll find Intel’s ultra-low power 1.6GHz Atom 230 …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 16:18
GM in-car kit team says no to drive'n'Twitter tech

Exclusive Mirror, signal, Tweet?

Rumours that in-car communications firm OnStar had designed a gadget for updating Twitter feeds from your car, using voice recognition technology, are false, the company has confirmed. Over the past few days online reports, blogs and even Twitter streams began overflowing with rumours that the firm – owned by General Motors – …

Reg Hardware 31 Mar 16:25
Security in 2009, the expert view

Episode 4 Audio with slides attached

In the fourth in our series of Regcasts assessing the state of the IT security market, our expert panel consider what lies ahead for 2009. Raimund Genes, CTO of Trend Micro, and Jon Collins Managing Director at IT analyst firm Freeform Dynamics provide their expert views throughout. Together they discuss the problems Trend …

State of Security 31 Mar 16:32
Clarification

Simon Davies and Privacy International

In our story headlined Big Brother - the price of self-driving cars, we incorrectly reported that Simon Davies of Privacy International gave documents on the Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Scheme to The Guardian. We would like to make it clear that Simon Davies did not provide any documents to the paper. The Guardian managed …

Site News 31 Mar 17:09
What's an open cloud? The Manifesto's not telling

Comment Nebular thinking

"What exactly is an open cloud?" you ask. You won't find an answer in the Open Cloud Manifesto. IBM's much-discussed Microsoft-baiting Manifesto urges "the members of the emerging cloud computing community to come together around the notion of an open cloud." But in the end, the notion amounts to little more than a few …

Servers 31 Mar 17:29
Google animates venture capital arm

Looking for 'next big thing'

Google is an old hand at investing in startups, but today, the search company is launching a formal venture capital unit focused on turning the practice into a profit maker. The Mountain View mega-firm has created Google Ventures, which aims to invest in a broad array of tech-related industries. "We think we can find young …

Financial News 31 Mar 18:04
US Supremes flatline Virginia's hardline anti-spam law

AOL junk mailer ignored

A tough anti-spam law passed by the state of Virginia has officially been declared dead following the refusal by the US Supreme Court to reinstate a felony conviction prosecuted under the statute. The high court on Monday declined to review an appeal challenging a lower-court ruling that declared the anti-spam law …

Law 31 Mar 18:16
Android tethering app tossed

T-Mobile the tossers?

Providers of one of the more popular tethering apps for Google's Android-based G1 handset have had their application summarily dumped from the application store, at the apparent behest of mobile operator T-Mobile. Tethering applications have been available through the Android Marketplace for a while, but developers of Wifi …

Mobile 31 Mar 18:18
Acer rides little netbooks to big profit

38 per cent growth

The ongoing global Meldown isn't melting everyone, as Taiwan's Acer demonstrated in its 2008 financial results, released Tuesday. In fact, 2008 was a growth year for the world's third-largest PC maker, with operating income up a hefty 38 per cent from 2007: income was $428.8m (£299.8m) in 2008, up from $310.3m (£217m) in 2007 …

Financial News 31 Mar 19:35
YouTube signs on scraps of Disney

Ad-backed clips imminent

YouTube has signed up the Mouse House's media division to upload some Disney conglom content on the ubiquitous video site. Under the pact, Disney will launch several ad-supported channels consisting of clips from ESPN and the Disney/ABC Television Group. Although Google conceded to let the Mouse sell its own advertising, the …

Music and Media 31 Mar 20:32
Microsoft draws fire for taxpayer handout

Stimulus spending stimulates squabble

Microsoft is running into a buzzsaw of bad PR over $11m (£7.7m) in US economic-stimulus funds that Washington state officials have earmarked for a bridge over a highway that would connect two branches of its Redmond intergalactic nerve center. Supporters of the payout contend that the $36.5m (£25.4m) project - for which …

Public Sector 31 Mar 20:39
Sun talks up Solaris 10 for Nehalem

Nehalem Day Two weeks away

For reasons that Sun Microsystems has yet to explain, late last week the company decided to pull its briefings on Galaxy servers based on Intel's new Xeon 5500 (née Nehalem EP), and focus instead on how Solaris 10 is being tuned for the new chip. Sun did put out a statement about its server launch slated for April 14, and …

Servers 31 Mar 21:31
Jimbo Wales kills 'Google killing' Wikia Search

Jet-setting dream in doubt

Little more than a year after its debut, Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales has announced the death of Wikia Search, the for-profit operation he once billed as an antidote to the "unhealthy" search practices of Microsoft, Yahoo!, and, yes, Google. "While I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into …

Music and Media 31 Mar 22:29
US judge bars teen 'sexting' charges

Provocative is as provocative does

A federal judge has temporarily barred a Pennsylvania prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three teenage girls who took nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves. The decision is the latest wrinkle in a nationwide phenomenon known as "sexting," in which teenagers armed with cell phones photograph themselves …

Law 31 Mar 22:31