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1st April 2009 Archive

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  • Spam regains pre-McColo reach

    Junk mail strikes back

    If you've noticed a spike in the amount of spam you're receiving, you're not alone. According to an analysis by Google, the volume of junk mail has returned to levels not seen since November, when host provider McColo was disconnected. By the second half of March, spam volumes returned to pre-McColo takedown levels, according …

    Spam 1 Apr 00:06

  • ‘Wikipedia killer’ pilfers blogosphere, taunts bloggers

    How to badmouth your way to free content

    Ulitzer bills itself as a new-age website that will somehow replace the cult of Wikipedia. And judging from the online farce that followed the site’s Friday beta launch, it’s off to a good start. Floated by Sys-Con — a New Jersey-based company that runs several tech publications and conferences, including this week’s Cloud …

    Music and Media 1 Apr 01:17

  • HP ponders Android netbooks

    Smartnetphonebook only a matter of time

    Hewlett-Packard is pondering using Google's Android mobile OS for its small, cheap computers. HP is testing the Linux-based OS on future lines of netbooks,although the company hasn't yet decided if such devices will see the light of day, HP's PC division veep Satjiv Chachil The Wall Street Journal. "We want to assess the …

    PCs & Chips 1 Apr 02:53

  • Soothsayers slash IT spending forecasts

    Worse than the dot.com bust

    None of us want to hear about a decline in IT spending, but that is tough. This is an economic meltdown, and IT spending seems hell bent on declining this year, despite projection after projection showing spending would stay above that negative territory. We had better get used to the word "decline" for a while. The analysts …

    Financial News 1 Apr 03:00

  • Atlantis trundles to Kennedy launch pad

    Hubble mission go for 12 May

    Space shuttle Atlantis yesterday morning arrived at Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Pad 39A (see pic), having taken around five hours to trundle the 3.4 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building. The spacecraft is slated to blast off on 12 May on STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This final 11-day servicing trip, aka …

    Space 1 Apr 06:13

  • Aptare goes upgrade crazy

    SRM for a brave new virtual server world

    Aptare has upgraded its Storage Resource Management (SRM) products to work better in a virtualised server world. It says its StorageConsole 7.0 suite gives users greater control of storage resources within VMware virtualised server and NetApp replication environments. SRM products have struggled to make their mark because …

    Storage 1 Apr 07:02

  • Bondage bonzer for bonding, beam boffins

    New Scientist finds smiling spankers, perky possums

    Couples who spank together stay together - such is the conclusion of two separate pieces of research, reported in the latest edition of New Scientist. According to the report, Brad Sagarin of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb attended an S&M party in Arizona, where he and his colleagues measured levels of the stress …

    Biology 1 Apr 07:02

  • Google to fund 'video Street View' for Central London

    April Fool 'It's not surveillance, it's sharing'

    A joint project by the Metropolitan Police and London's Westminster Council to put CCTV onto the Internet has received substantial financial backing from Google, The Register has learned. On completion of the first phase, practically every square inch of Central London - including narrow alleyways, council debating chambers and …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 08:31

  • Competition Commission scuppers Capita takeover

    Regulator dubious over potential monopoly

    Capita's takeover of IBS Opensystems Software has been stopped by the Competition Commission. The regulator is worried that, should the buyout go ahead, Capita would have an effective monopoly in benefits and revenue software for local authorities. This would allow the company to hike prices unfairly or reduce service levels …

    Channel Register 1 Apr 08:40

  • Motorola Aura

    Review Worth the £1250 asking price?

    It's a moot point whether releasing an unashamedly style-led handset costing over a grand - yes, more than one thousand of your Earth poundingtons - at the present time is recession busting - or recession baiting. The kind of cash that's required to trouser this high-end, low-spec phone could well engender the sort of spending …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 08:59

  • Dept of Work and Pensions isn't working, says report

    Ombudsman tears it a new one - but is it that bad?

    A report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman roasts the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for its poor information provision, poor record keeping and poor complaint handling. While noting that the DWP is a big department with wide-ranging responsibilities, it also reveals that just over one third of the …

    Government 1 Apr 09:02

  • EC publishes Q&A on overseas data transfer

    Where your personal bumf can go on its hols

    The European Commission has prepared a set of questions and answers as well as a flowchart to help companies understand when they can and when they cannot send personal data abroad. The European Union's Data Protection Directive protects the personal data of EU citizens from abuse and misuse. Organisations have a duty to …

    IT Director 1 Apr 09:20

  • Florida cops taser satnav lake plunge woman

    April Fool 'Premenstrual issues' blamed for loss of $100k Mercedes

    Police were last week obliged to taser a 37-year-old mother of two who followed the satnav of her husband's $100k Mercedes into a Florida lake, the Ocala 'Gator reports. Destry Wymbough, of Lynne, had been travelling eastbound on Highway 40 close to Ocala when she took an unscheduled right, followed a dirt road for two miles …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 09:30

  • VMare floats April date for cloud launch

    Shower of forecasts

    On April 21 VMware will announce its "next generation of virtualisation technology" with an event featuring VMware president and CEO Paul Maritz. It is being billed as another giant leap, one that will help make cloud computing a reality for the data centre. Cisco and Intel will also be taking part in the launch of what looks …

    Virtualization 1 Apr 09:33

  • LametopsLaptops Direct offers free funerals

    April Fool 'Unique sponsorship package' for cash-strapped bereaved

    Desperate times call for desperate measures, and UK computer outfit Laptops Direct today launched an initiative offering cashed-strapped punters the chance to give their loved ones the send-off they deserve: Well, we suppose it's better than dumping granny's body in the street. Those of you with relatives about to pop …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 09:51

  • iPhone apps punt iPhone apps

    Dross-filtering in-app advertising feedback loop

    A new service from mobile developer Mobui promises to sort through the morass of mediocrity that is the iTunes application store, by providing recommendations from the authors of apps you've already bought. The premise is simple: Mobui provides an Objective C object, with source code, that you insert into your iPhone …

    Mobile 1 Apr 09:54

  • eBay put Skype on iPhone 'to boost price of NSA backdoor'

    April Fool 'Judas Phone' reaps $bns for 'man-at-both-ends' attack

    Skype was pushed onto Apple's iPhone at the instigation of the VoIP app's corporate owner eBay, the Reg can exclusively reveal - in order to reap huge sums from government listening agencies interested in spying on Jesus-mobe-toting terrorists. The revelations come from a disgruntled eBay insider familiar with the matter, …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 10:02

  • Which desktop Linux distribution?

    Reader Poll Hobbyist versus serious deployment

    One of the most common objections to desktop Linux is fragmentation. With so many distributions, which one do you choose for serious deployment in a business environment? Given the amount of work involved in any desktop OS switch in terms requirements analysis, application selection, compatibility testing, integration with …

    Operating Systems 1 Apr 10:09

  • ‘Unifying standard’ vital for mass-market 3D TV

    Gamers, not movie fans, to lead the way

    The percentage of TVs sold worldwide with 3D capability will exceed ten per cent by 2011, market watcher Screen Digest has stated. But the firm stressed that this will only happen if a “unifying standard” emerges to ensure that 3D works across all display technologies. If such a standard emerges, Screen Digest said it is …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 10:28

  • Spd improves mobile TV experience

    Still spd all to watch, though

    Spd, publishers of the shell UI that makes Windows Mobile an easier pill to swallow, have launched a stand-alone streaming TV player, offering great usability and features but not a lot in the way of content. Spd TV is a genuinely impressive TV viewing experience, with picture in picture, transparent, finger-friendly controls …

    Mobile 1 Apr 10:34

  • Detroit does mass-market e-car deal with Proton

    'Leccy Tech Made in Malaysia, sold in Europe

    The Detroit Electric Car Company has announced that it is to develop a range of electric vehicles by grafting its own 'leccy car drive trains onto existing models from Malaysian manufacturer Proton. The Detroit Electric Car Company's e63: Proton made The plan is to develop two models, one called the e46 that will have a …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 10:44

  • Conficker botnet remains dormant - for now

    All quiet on the malware front

    Conficker changed the way parts of the botnet communicated overnight, but little else of note has happened so far. The malware is far from an April Fool's joke, but it's obviously a long way from the Skynet botnet, as depicted in Terminator 3, that some of the more fevered imaginings of the media hinted at. The main activity …

    Malware 1 Apr 10:46

  • US Patent Office exposes Apple secret plan

    April Fool Cupertino's 'silence' landgrab

    The US Patent and Trademark office published an Apple patent filing on Wednesday that analysts are calling a bold attempt by the Cupertino Fruit Company to protect its core corporate values and business practices. Since the return of Steve Jobs to the consumer electronics giant and sometimes computer maker in 1997, Apple has …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 10:54

  • Miss Universe pops into Guantánamo Bay

    'It was a loooot of fun!'

    Those of you stuck for a holiday destination this summer might consider Guantánamo Bay - described last week by Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza as a "loooot of fun!" Venezuelan minx Mendoza, 22, popped into the US's illegal Caribbean detention centre accompanied by pal Crystle Stewart, who boasts the title Miss USA. On her blog, …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 11:02

  • Nokia releases mobile info app

    Scan movie posters to get trailers, film times

    Getting the best price for in-store purchases or finding out what time a film starts is now as simple as Point and Find – Nokia’s latest application for on-the-move info. Nokia's Point and Find: recognises barcodes, film posters The beta app has two uses. Firstly, it’ll let you scan a product barcode to get more product …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 11:18

  • Firefox 3.0 ekes ahead of Internet Explorer 7 in Europe

    IE 8 unfavourably skews stats

    Mozilla’s web browser Firefox 3.0 crawled past Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 in European market share for the first time last week. According to StatCounter’s latest report on browser popularity, Firefox 3 eked ahead of IE 7 in Europe by just one per cent when version numbers were broken down in the market share study. It …

    Applications 1 Apr 11:20

  • Intel 'Nehalem' Xeon 5500 series

    Review Breathtaking performance

    Intel’s new Xeon 5500 series uses the chip giant's 'Nehalem' architecture to effectively put a pair of Core i7 CPUs on a workstation motherboard. Intel's Xeon 5500: scorcher That news should come as a pleasant surprise, but of course Apple ruined our fun when it launched its new Mac Pro a couple of weeks ago, which appears …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 11:21

  • Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

    Narrowcasting for the email classes

    Today, The Register launches a weekly IT security email newsletter. This contains the headlines and links of all the security articles we produce – up to 30 a week. Sign up here. If there is enough take-up, we might produce copy special to this newsletter, as they sometimes say in the US. But don’t hold your breath. Our main …

    Security 1 Apr 11:36

  • Nokia apps points and shoots finds and sells

    Wish lists become pic lists

    In the continuing battle to find a use for all that processing power in a modern mobile phone, Nokia has launched Point & Find, an application that uses image recognition to supply punters with goods on the basis of a photograph. The new version, available in beta form for Nokia S60 devices, is available in the UK and US only …

    Mobile 1 Apr 11:38

  • Logica snaffles police database deal

    Dibble's delayed data sharing plan

    Public sector specialist Logica has won a seven-year £75.6m contract to build and maintain the Police National Database. The database is being created as a result of the Bichard Report into the Soham murders. Ian Huntley was convicted of the murders in 2003 and Bichard found he had previously "come to the attention of the …

    Policing 1 Apr 12:00

  • US atom boffins: Our cloud makes sky easier to see

    Vast astro pic-stash data portal unwrapped

    US federal boffins, in charge of archiving colossal streams of data from automated sky-scanning telescopes around the world, are pleased to announce their new "Project Deep Sky" astro data cloud portal thing. Ah - that's what it was! Some stars The database in question is the astronomical one run by the National Energy …

    Servers 1 Apr 12:04

  • HP pitches Cloud Assure at corporate world

    SaaSy offering

    Hewlett-Packard announced a cloud computing service aimed at large businesses yesterday. HP Cloud Assure will provide support and security tools to companies who are considering a shift to hosted services, said the vendor. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering consists of three separate components. HP Application Security …

    Applications 1 Apr 12:19

  • Bloggers could squeak out of court reporting restrictions

    Ignorance could be valid get-out. Unless you read this

    Bloggers might be able to escape reporting restrictions on sensitive court cases because they have not been informed of the restrictions. An ongoing case about a boy said to have fathered a child at 12 years of age has highlighted the issue. Reporting on that case has been restricted but foreign news outlets have carried …

    Law 1 Apr 12:49

  • Silicon Graphics goes titsup (again)

    Instant buy up by Rackable

    Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), the perma-struggling workstation-turned-server-maker, filed for bankruptcy protection today, and was immediately bought by Rackable Systems for $25m cash. Rackable has signed to take on of SGI liabilities. The deal is expected to complete in 60 days. The combined company will target the hyper- …

    Servers 1 Apr 12:57

  • Moderatrix quits El Reg: Latest

    April Fool Tense negotiations at Vulture Central

    Well, you've really outdone yourselves this time, haven't you? Earlier today, your comments to this sensitively-handled piece on the sad case of the Florida satnav lake incident prompted our Moderatrix, Sarah Bee, to quit her job at Vulture Central. We're obliged to those of you who immediately rang the office to seek …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 13:02

  • MS punts stripped down Windows Server 2008 at tiny SMBs

    Back to basics with Foundation

    Microsoft has today released a new server product from its Windows 2008 family, aimed at small, cash-strapped businesses that have so far shunned the software giant's current Small Business Server (SBS) offering. Windows 2008 Foundation is essentially a stripped down version of the standard edition of Windows Server '08. …

    Operating Systems 1 Apr 13:22

  • Space launches could be capped to save ozone layer

    Fun? Interesting? Useful? Bad for you

    American researchers have warned that space rockets could do more damage to the ozone layer than old-school spray-cans and fridges. "As the rocket launch market grows, so will ozone-destroying rocket emissions," said Professor Darin Toohey, atmosphere and ocean scientist at Colorado Uni. "If left unregulated, rocket launches …

    Space 1 Apr 13:56

  • UltraDNS back online after DDoS assault

    Back off the canvas

    A distributed denial of service attack knocked NeuStar's UltraDNS managed DNS service offline for several hours on Tuesday. NeuStar runs high-availability DNS services for customers such as online retailers and IT giants, including Oracle and Juniper. In a statement, NeuStar told Networkworld that the attack affected only a …

    Enterprise Security 1 Apr 14:04

  • Boffins sound super-thin speaker revolution

    0.25mm thick speakers promise great sound

    A super-thin OLED display looks pretty daft if you pair it with a set of bulky speakers, so British boffins have designed a thin and flexible speaker. The Flat, Flexible Loudspeaker is less than 0.25mm thick The Flat, Flexible Loudspeaker (FFL) is less than 0.25mm thick and produces sound by passing an electrical signal …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 14:33

  • Verizon clocks on at the widget factory

    One billion customers to share application store

    Verizon has signed up to the Joint Innovation Lab set up by Vodafone and China Mobile last year, pushing the (potential) customer base for the as-yet unpublished mobile-widget standard to over one billion. Verizon joins Softbank, as well as Vodafone and China Mobile, in the operation that was set up just shy of a year ago to …

    Mobile 1 Apr 14:43

  • BBC Trust moots new licence laws to cope with net

    Telly ownership on the wane

    The government is likely to change TV licensing laws to address the increasing number of viewers who choose to watch only via the internet, according to the BBC Trust. In its review of TV licence collection (pdf) this week, the Trust said it was watching closely whether the availability of iPlayer and live streams of BBC …

    Music and Media 1 Apr 14:58

  • EMC VP breaks company's own embargo

    New email management product revealed

    EMC VP Andrew Cohen seems to have broken an EMC embargo about a forthcoming eDiscovery product. An astute Register reader pointed out this blog entry: "Andrew's Blog: Interview of Andrew Cohen regarding SourceOne and ..." If you click on the link you get a "link broken" message. Lucky Chrome users can go straight to a Google- …

    Storage 1 Apr 15:00

  • HTC unveils BlackBerry-style smartphone

    Snap formerly known as 'Maple'

    HTC has officially launched its latest Blackberry-esque handset – Snap, which features a design strikingly similar to that of an HTC phone details of which leaked last month. HTC's Snap: the phone formerly known as 'Maple' It was rumoured during March that HTC would launch a phone, codenamed 'Maple', at the Cellular …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 15:02

  • Yahoo! engineer in murder-suicide riddle

    Six dead and one critical after Santa Clara massacre

    A father suspected of murdering five members of his family before killing himself has been identified as a Yahoo! engineer. Devan Kalathat, 42, an analytics engineer at Yahoo! since 2004, shot dead his 11-year-old son, his four-year-old daughter, his brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and their 11-month-old niece during a massacre …

    Bootnotes 1 Apr 15:50

  • Who is going to run IBM?

    Chuckle or curse - you decide

    There is a tradition, but certainly not a rule, that the person running IBM retires at 60. In years gone by, as one chairman and chief executive was getting ready to retire, an up-and-coming executive from the direct reports to the CEO has been tapped to be president, and thereby anointed next CEO. Sam Palmisano, currently …

    Hardware 1 Apr 16:02

  • Acer Nvidia Ion-based nettop revealed on web

    Hornet picture and specs emerge online

    Acer is prepping a nettop system based on Nvidia’s Ion platform, according to Taiwanese reports. Acer's Hornet: Ion driven Unnamed industry sources told the website Digitimes that Acer will officially unveil the machine – known as Hornet – on 8 April in Beijing. Its price is rumoured to start at below $300 (£208/€227). …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 16:19

  • Reg Hardware's April Fool's Day round-up

    Nine fakes and one real. Can you see what it is yet?

    So April Fool’s Day is upon us once more and the web’s full of stories about talking fish, invisible cars and a fruit that sits somewhere between a banana and a pineapple (thanks, Waitrose). But, instead of trying to fool you with news that Apple today gave away 1000 free iPhone 4G phones to passing punters, Register Hardware …

    Reg Hardware 1 Apr 16:32

  • Yahoo! stacks big, purple mobile pack

    Feel the width

    Yahoo! launched a new version of its mobile page today, stacking nearly every Yahoo! service along with other popular web utilities into a tall drink of web portal. The new Yahoo! Mobile has also been rolled into a new application for the iPhone - which is quite similar to the website but divides the action into separate …

    Mobile 1 Apr 19:21

  • Shuttleworth: standards and open source against 'gross' cloud lock-in

    Jaunty Jackalope "fits" with Amazon

    Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has advocated open-source and industry standards as a way to prevent vendor lock-in in the nebulous cloud computing market. Shuttleworth said portability is "key" to helping avoid what he called "really gross lock-in issues". Shuttleworth also deflated some of the cloud hype, saying the phrase …

    Software 1 Apr 19:35

  • Architect of Google's YouTube deal exits Facebook

    We need a new CFO... bitch!

    Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu has left the fast-rising social-networking phenomenon after just 20 months and as it prepares to go public. Before joining Facebook in August 2007, the Harvard Business School grad was the CFO of YouTube beginning in September 2006, where he helped engineer its acquisition by Google …

    Financial News 1 Apr 19:55

  • Twitter jilts Ruby for Scala

    Web 2.0 Expo A new love on the back-end

    Famously, when Twitter's Web2.0rhea app was suddenly embraced by digerati+dog in late 2007, its original Ruby on Rails architecture had more than a little trouble keeping up the endless stream of digital solipsism. But in mid-2008, the web's startup-of-the-moment quietly ported some of its core code to Scala, and according to …

    Developer 1 Apr 20:55

  • Microsoft Office opening for iPhone

    Time to touch Word and Excel

    iPhone users will soon be able to view, edit, and share Microsoft Word and Excel files on their Jesus Phones. Announced at this week's CTIA Wireless 2009 tradeshow and conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Quickoffice for iPhone promises a broad range of editing and file-management features. Since at least last October, Dataviz …

    Applications 1 Apr 21:07

  • SEC sticks up Grand Theft Auto maker for $3m

    Settles backdating lawsuit

    Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto video game series, has agreed to pay US regulators $3m to settle a lawsuit over illegally backdating employee stock options. The maker of the popular series was among more than 200 companies involved in a tech industry wide backdating probe by the US Securities and …

    Financial News 1 Apr 21:30

  • Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control

    For your own good

    US senators have drafted legislation that would give the federal government unprecedented authority over the nation's critical infrastructure, including the power to shut down or limit traffic on private networks during emergencies. The bill would also establish a broad set of cybersecurity standards that would be imposed on …

    Security 1 Apr 21:45

  • SGI's Rackable's future supercomputers

    Comment Goodbye Itanium, hello Nehalem

    The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by beleaguered supercomputer-maker Silicon Graphics and the acquisition of most of SGI's assets by Rackable Systems for $25m in cash may lay to rest any questions about the future of shared-memory, Itanium-based supercomputers. As Dell and IBM have encroached on Rackable's business among …

    HPC 1 Apr 22:06

  • Texas senator wants to ban Vista purchases

    State agencies need written permission for Aero

    Windows Vista gets a lot of grief both in tech circles and the general public — but one Texas lawmaker wants to make it a matter of public policy. Democrat Texas state Senator Juan Hinojosa recently added a rider to Texas' $182bn budget plan that would ban the state's agencies from purchasing Vista (and all Vista-related …

    Operating Systems 1 Apr 22:32

  • Fedora 11 beta bares chest to all-comers

    Kick the tires, if you dare

    The Fedora Project has announced Fedora 11, code-named Leonidas, has been moved to beta and is ready for a tire kicking before it tries to take on the massed ranks of freebie Linuxes, commercial Linuxes, Unix, Windows, and other proprietary operating systems out there. The choice of Leonidas as a code name is somewhat …

    Operating Systems 1 Apr 22:38