21st April 2009 Archive

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Police detain Craigslist masseuse murder suspect

Two more women attacked

Police investigating the murder and attacks of three women who offered lap dance, massage and other services on Craigslist have taken a man into custody. The 23-year-old man is suspected of murdering Julissa Brisman at an upscale Marriott Hotel in Boston's Copley district. He is also believed to have robbed two other woman …

Crime 21 Apr 00:07
Sun and Oracle: End of a beautiful dream

Open source goes to work

Sun Microsystems' soon-to-be ex-chief executive has been painting his company's acquisition by database giant Oracle in positive tones. Jonathan Schwartz called the proposed $5.6bn deal a "fantastic day for Sun's customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe". It will also "redefine" important boundaries in IT …

Business 21 Apr 00:20
VMware unmasks next-gen hypervisor

Cloud eats ESX 4.0

As expected, server virtualization kingpin VMware will today take the wraps off its next generation hypervisor, ESX Server 4.0, and the related tools for managing it. They're now called vSphere rather than Virtual Infrastructure. The vSphere stack embodies a strategy and product set that VMware used to call the Virtual Data …

Virtualization 21 Apr 05:07
Under-caution spam faxer fined over £6,000

Debt firm fax up

A man who sent hundreds of spam faxes while under caution from privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) faces more than £6,000 in fines for his actions. Robert Logan's debt recovery agency Clear Debt Solutions (CDS) sent over 800 unwanted faxes after being served with an Enforcement Notice by the ICO in …

Law 21 Apr 06:02
Tech Mahindra seeks approval for Satyam takeover

US, EU authorities think it over

Tech Mahindra, the successful buyer of Satyam, has asked European and US competition authorities to approve the takeover. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Tech Mahindra filed for regulator approval in Europe on Monday and would do the same for US regulators on Tuesday. Four Tech Mahindra executives, including MD …

Channel Register 21 Apr 08:49
Circling storage in the vSphere

Comment Encroaching on array controller function

VMware is encroaching on storage array controller functions with vSphere 4. Who knows where it will stop? VMware has updated its Virtual Infrastructure 3 to vSphere 4 and added new storage functionality to it so that the ESX hypervisor can thinly provision storage to virtual machines (VMs). This means that when an application …

Channel Register 21 Apr 09:01
Freecom ToughDrive Sport

Review Triumph of form over function?

Ever thought of climbing the Eiger with a USB hard drive dangling from your belt? Just in case you were, you might find the Freecom ToughDrive Sport is the missing link as you boulderly go. It even comes supplied with a carabiner hook and there’s a picture of some formidable peak on the packaging to tempt you. Freecom's …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 09:42
The WAN Optimisation Regcast: 2pm BST today

Regcast: Expert advice and educated debate

Clear some space in your diary this afternoon and join our expert panel as they tackle WAN optimisation from 2pm onwards in a live and fully interactive Regcast. As more and more business processes become dependent on network connectivity, companies are finding that simply adding more bandwidth won't resolve many service …

Tech Panel 21 Apr 09:53
Half of 10 year olds now mobile connected

HELLO? I'M IN THE WENDY HOUSE!

Half of 10 year old kids in the EU have mobile phones, a figure that rises to 95 per cent once they get to 16, but parents still reckon their kids aren't being protected from inappropriate content. The figures come from the European Commission, which is leaning on mobile operators and member countries to implement controls …

Mobile 21 Apr 10:02
Oracle stares into Sun for storage future

Comment Just what is Oracle's business now?

Oracle becoming a storage supplier through buying Sun - who would have thought it and what does it mean for Sun's storage products? There's long been a contradiction in Sun's storage array strategy. How can it push the open storage idea and simultaneously sell storage arrays with what amounts to proprietary controller hardware …

Storage 21 Apr 10:03
Sharp intros 'world's first optical sensor LCD pad' netbook

The trackpad's that a display too

Sharp has unveiled a netbook that, it claims, features the world’s first LCD touchpad, allowing for both pen and multi-touch finger operation - and providing visual feedback. Video courtesy of Akihabaranews Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Named Mebius, the PC has a 4in, 854 × 480 input device …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 10:20
New non-volatile memory promises 'instant-on' computing

Super SrTiO₃ FeRAM tech to replace RAM and disks?

American boffins say they have made a significant step towards new chip technologies which could lead to faster, more durable non-volatile memory in place of RAM - and so to "instant-on" computing without boot-ups or hard disks. The new research comes in the area of ferroelectrics, materials used today in so-called FeRAM or …

PCs & Chips 21 Apr 10:23
Sony talks up next PSP firmware update

Memory Stick sub-folders and icon-based searches

Sony has designed another PlayStation Portable (PSP) firmware update which, it said, will give gamers greater storage flexibility and introduce icon-based game searches. The firm’s director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, said firmware version 5.50 will let gamers create and access sub-folders on their Memory …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 10:37
Start-up Bee pledges 'affordable' British e-car

Exclusive Four-seater 'leccy hatch for under £7000, anyone?

Reg Hardware can bring you exclusive details and images of what could become the UK's most affordable e-car. Bee's Bee.One: four-seater EV for seven grand, anyone? The four-seat, five-door Bee.One from British e-car start up Bee is scheduled to go into production in 2011 with a target price of £12,000 ($17,700/€13,600). And …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 10:40
The hole in HP Matrix' storage heart

Comment Where's FCoE?

HP's Matrix has a great plus over Cisco's California and a big fat minus as well. It has a hole in its storage heart. Matrix goes very much farther than Cisco in unifying storage, iSCSI storage and the servers and networking, but not so far as Cisco in unifying networking, particularly storage networking. In fact there is a …

Channel Register 21 Apr 11:11
Zango goes titsup

Updated End of desktop adware market

Controversial adware firm Zango has Zangone. The adware maker was forced to pull down the shutters on its business after it was left unable to service its debts. Initially we, along with othe news outlets, incorrectly reported that video search engine firm Blinkx had acquired Zango. In fact Blinkx has only bought a proportion …

Malware 21 Apr 11:20
Russian hairdresser turns stickup merchant into sex slave

Robber taken to the floor, then just taken

A workaday armed robbery at a Russian hairdressers turned into a three day sex ordeal for the would-be stickup merchant, leaving him with torn genitals and a viagra hangover. The man, only known as Viktor, attempted to turn over a hairdresser in the small town of Meshchovsk on March 14 Russia Today reports. The owner, a 28 …

Bootnotes 21 Apr 11:22
Asus premiers film-friendly laptop

With HD screen and spill-proof keyboard

A 10in netbook’s handy for mobile workers, but if you spend as much time watching films on your laptop as your do working then Asus’ latest 17.3in machine could be right up your alley. Asus's F70: has movies at its heart Described as a personal entertainment notebook, the F70’s larger-than-average screen sports a 16:9 …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 11:27
Google serves up brace of slightly skewed search tools

George Bush and Elvis Presley together at last

Google announced two more new tools – Similar Images and Google News Timeline – for its growing online Labs project yesterday. Similar Images narrows down a search via Google Images to pictures that look similar to the chosen result, while Google News Timeline takes a search topic and arranges the results chronologically on a …

Applications 21 Apr 11:38
Nominet governance review questions not-for-profit status

Reform needed to avoid regulation, Prof finds

A major review of Nominet's governance has asked members to consider whether it should give up its not-for-profit status. The suggestion will be taken by some Nominet members as confirmation of their long-held suspicions that the firm was being steered towards a share offering. The review also suggests members of the domain …

Telecoms 21 Apr 12:15
Motorola paranoid over Android box

Set-top speculation spiked

Motorola has denied putting Google's Android onto a set-top box, pointing out that their "au" box is still running their own proprietary OS, despite reports to the contrary. EE Times reported that Motorola was working on an Android box, which Android Guys then identified as the "au Box", which can synchronise content with …

Mobile 21 Apr 12:20
Spy chiefs size up net snoop gear

Deep packet inspection bonanza

The security minister has confirmed officials are considering installing technology that could enable on-demand wiretapping of all communications passing over the internet by the intelligence services and law enforcement. Lord West told Parliament on Monday that civil servants working on the Interception Modernisation …

Government 21 Apr 12:28
Hefty IT prof develops robot to check that robots are safe

Metal fink rats out air-traffic machine in trials

A Turing-awardwinner* boffin in the States says he has developed new software which can test the safety of computer-controlled railways, air-traffic systems, hospital intensive-care monitors, enormous 600-tonne godzilla lorries and such like - all the many kinds of smart machinery which can kill people. Computer says "prang …

Science 21 Apr 12:43
ACT backs Microsoft in Brussels' IE legal spat

'Something surreal about the entire concept of this complaint'

A trade group representing tech firms including Oracle, eBay and Microsoft has unsurprisingly thrown its support behind the Redmond firm in its current antitrust spat with the European Commission. The Association for Competitive Technology has been accepted as an interested third party in the case. Mozilla, Google, the …

Operating Systems 21 Apr 13:03
WD gives 2TB drive a green spin

How many to offset a Chinese power station

WD has greened up its freshly minted 2TB SATA drive by focussing on reducing power consumption. With a 64MB cache and dual processors, WD says its WD RE4-GP hard drives have as much as a 25 per cent performance improvement over the previous generation. It says the drives reduce power consumption by up to 50 per cent over …

Storage 21 Apr 13:18
€25k for an old Nokia handset?

Scammers pay through the nose for old tech

Scammers are reportedly prepared to pay €25,000 for German Nokia 1100 handsets, on the basis that they can be reprogrammed to intercept SMS messages and thus crack banking security. The claim comes from Ultrascan, a security association that generally follows up 419 scams and ID theft. Ultrascan tells us it was approached by …

Mobile 21 Apr 13:42
Police charge suspected Craigslist murderer

Boston man to be arraigned today

Boston Police have charged a 22 year old man over the murder of Julissa Brisman, a Craigslist masseuse found dead at the Copley Marriott Hotel on April 14. Philip Markoff of Quincy, Boston, was charged yesterday with the murder and with the armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim four days before Brisman's death. He is …

Crime 21 Apr 13:53
Teenage hacking menace jailed for 11 months

Fraudster spoofed calls to set SWAT teams on adversaries

A teenage hacker who ran a botnet of compromised machines and made fake 911 emergency calls has been jailed for 11 months, The Boston Herald reports. The 17 year-old, from Worcester, Massachusetts, referred to in court papers only by his initials DH or online nickname DShocker, confessed to using a botnet to run denial of …

Crime 21 Apr 13:54
Waterproof OLED spied online

Dunkable display

OLEDs are fast becoming the display of choice for gadget manufacturers, but an advanced form of the screen could soon see the technology integrated into more rugged devices. Ito's waterproof OLED was recently displayed in Japan Image courtesy of DigiTimes Japanese firm Ito Electronics has showcased a waterproof OLED at a …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 13:57
Concept phone punted as ultimate music handset

Handset records and edits, but doesn’t guarantee recording contract

Getting a friend to hold your handset near the guitar as you jam isn’t the best way to record your musical prowess for posterity. So a design firm’s drawn up plans for a mobile with music at its heart. Ondo: capture, edit and send music with one phone Ondo’s been described by firm Pilotfish as a “music editing phone concept …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 14:12
OCZ Vertex solid-state drive

Review Vroom

OCZ has been rattling out new SSD drives with gay abandon. The 120GB Apex scored 70 per cent in our recent review and now it’s time for the 120GB Vertex to take its place on the test bench. OCZ's Vertex: standard 2.5in form-factor Cast your eye down the specifications of the Apex and the Vertex and you’ll struggle to find …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 14:14
Broadcom mounts hostile bid for Emulex

Chewing up poison pill

Chip designer Broadcom has launched a $764m unsolicited bid for network adapter and array switch vendor Emulex. Broadcom first approached Emulex late last year, it has emerged, but Emulex broke these off and adopted a poison pill defense to thwart any unwanted bid. Broadcom has now gone public with its desire for the firm, …

Storage 21 Apr 14:56
IWF denies wielding Pirate Bay banhammer

Mobile broadband users blockaded

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has denied involvement in blocking the Pirate Bay BitTorrent tracker site, after BT mobile broadband users were told they had fallen foul of a filter against "over 18 sites". The users were told to visit the IWF website for more information on the block. The ISP industry body curates a …

Mobile 21 Apr 15:17
Beeb pushes major new iPlayer release

Big on HD, if your computer is beefy enough

The BBC has made a host of major changes to the iPlayer today, by making some of its programmes available in High Definition (HD) and ending use of its clunky peer-to-peer technology. The Corporation’s future media and technology controller Anthony Rose said the release was the most significant of its kind since iPlayer …

Music and Media 21 Apr 15:33
Flying-rifle robocopter: Hovering sniper backup for US troops

Xbox-controller killdroid has ARSS name, though

Flying killer robots are numerous these days. The machine flyboys are mostly armed with relatively light and precise weapons, but still in the tank- or anyway vehicle-busting league. Now, however, there's a droid whirlybird in development which is armed only with a sniper rifle intended to fire single aimed shots. The new …

Science 21 Apr 15:38
Stereoscopic 3D downloads come to PS3, Macs

Free app promises 3D film library access

A software download’s been released that its maker has promised will extend pay-per-view 3D film access to Macs and PlayStation 3 consoles. Next3D is compatible with the PS3, Xbox 360 (above), PCs and Macs Next3D’s application enables consumers to download and play 1080p stereoscopic 3D movies and other 3D content, …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 16:06
Unisys scratches labels off Dell Nehalems

Reins in x64 hypervisor

Struggling mainframe and x64 server maker Unisys today is revamping its ES line of x64 servers to include machines based on Intel's recently announced "Nehalem EP" Xeon 5500 series processors for two-socket machines. The two rack machine, one blade server, and one tower box that Unisys is putting into the field appear to be re …

Servers 21 Apr 16:16
Angelina Jolie spied with Palm Pré

Runs through her WebOS likes and dislikes

Many people already hate celebrities because of their fabulous wealth and good looks, but now you can add another peeve to the list – at least if you’re a Palm buff. Angelina Jolie been spotted with a pre-release Palm Pré. A production assistant reportedly saw the luscious lipped Jolia carrying and using the phone while on the …

Reg Hardware 21 Apr 17:01
MS opens kimono on Windows 7 security features

Less invasive control

Microsoft has unveiled the security improvement is expects to deliver with Windows 7, the next version of its flagship operating system. To coincide with the opening of the RSA Conference on Monday, Redmond unveiled a much more detailed list of security enhancements and tweaks. It is, of course, routine for Microsoft to …

Security 21 Apr 17:08
Bluetooth 3.0+HS arrives without the HS

High Speed in name only

The next version of Bluetooth is being launched today, though anyone hoping to see ultrawideband (UWB) capabilities will be disappointed to see that for the moment "HS" means Wi-Fi speeds over a Wi-Fi carrier. Bluetooth version 3.0+HS will have some other new features, but it's High Speed that's going to attract the attention …

Wireless 21 Apr 17:12
Microsoft gears up for Windows 8

Mass file focus

Windows 7 might still not be officially complete. And Microsoft is laying people off. But the company's already gearing up to launch its next operating system: Windows 8. Early job postings indicate at least one focus for Windows 8 will be systems and data management. The company has advertised for developers and testers to …

Operating Systems 21 Apr 18:13
Judge sends Blockbuster to court over Facebook Beacon Borking

Ever-changing online contracts 'illusory'

A federal judge has given the green light to a lawsuit brought against video giant Blockbuster over its use of Facebook's privacy-destroying "Beacon" ad system. A year ago, a Texas woman named Cathryn Elaine Harris sued Blockbuster after it used Beacon to share her movie rentals with her so-called Facebook friends. The suit …

Music and Media 21 Apr 19:10
Microsoft security chief trapped in endless identity sales pitch

RSA No end to 'End to End Trust'

Microsoft on Tuesday gave the world a sneak peak at technology it said would streamline the process of validating people's identity without compromising their privacy. Code-named Geneva, the software provides a framework for schools, businesses, and other large organizations to more safely manage sensitive data about their …

Security 21 Apr 20:35
Tree huggers will confuse shoppers, says Amazon

Amazee organizes

Amazon.com is an immensely popular online storefront that sells everything from books and groceries to virtual timeshares of its extensive data center infrastructure. Amazee is a Switzerland-based, social "collaboration website" made for social activists and protestors to organize, promote, and fund their public uprisings and …

Music and Media 21 Apr 22:30
Ex-Red-Hat brains decide to ride cloud

ISV-to-enterprise switch

Cloud computing - or at least all the talk about it - is causing IT vendors to change their pitches on the off chance that cloud could actually end up generating some money. And to that end, rPath - founded several years back on the promise of open-source appliances and an application packaging environment - is shifting gears …

Software 21 Apr 22:56
Yahoo! lops off (another) five per cent of self

But this time, it's 'organic'

After watching profits plummet nearly 80 per cent during the first three months of the year, Yahoo! will jettison five per cent of its worldwide workforce. But new chief executive Carol Bartz insists these staff cuts are nothing like the staff cuts made by the beleaguered web giant at the end of last year. "To allow us to …

Financial News 21 Apr 23:26
VMware anchors hypervisor future on 'nebulous phrase'

Clouds and thundersticks

Virtualization heavyweight VMware has embraced what even its own CEO calls a "nebulous phrase": the cloud. On Tuesday morning, VMware rolled out its giant-computer enabler, the vSphere virtualization hypervisor and management tools collection, at a raucous event at its Palo Alto, California headquarters. How raucous? Picture …

Virtualization 21 Apr 23:50