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28th April 2009 Archive

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  • eBay scammer gets four years in slammer

    Busted

    A man convicted of swindling more than $259,000 using fraudulent eBay listings and other venues was ordered to serve 52 months in federal prison and pay $252,000 in restitution. Derrick Lee Swantz, 57, of Lakewood, Colorado, was convicted in January of implementing two separate fraud schemes. In one, he offered luxury …

    Security 28 Apr 2009, 00:13

  • Konami nixes Six Days in Fallujah

    Iraq War 'game-amentary' dishonorably discharged

    Konami is backing away from its plans to release a video game that was to authentically depict the Second Battle of Fallujah after receiving numerous protests from retired US troops, their families and citizens' groups. The game publisher told the Asahi Shimbun today it's canceling plans to publish Six Days in Fallujah, a " …

    Media 28 Apr 2009, 00:23

  • Big Blue shipped Power6+ last fall

    Been there. Done that. Didn't admit it

    Server buyers who have been waiting for IBM to ship the Power6+ chip will be surprised to discover that it already has. It just didn't tell anyone. Crazy, right? Remember the Power Systems revamp Big Blue did back in October 2008? Well, guess what? Several of those machines were based on the Power6+ processor, the kicker to …

    Servers 28 Apr 2009, 03:49

  • Carphone Preston branch joins union blackout

    Updated Spelling errors clearly not fixed yet

    Carphone Warehouse is continuing its blocking of union web sites, this time deciding that employees working at Tulketh Mill, Preston, don't need access to information hosted at the Carphoneworker website. On Friday, those working at Preston found their web filter was preventing access to the Communication Workers Union-run …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 06:02

  • SiliconDust HDHomeRun

    Review Nice hardware – shame about the software

    Fancy a TV tuner for your Mac or PC? Chances are you’ll be looking at a USB device, but there are limitations – the most obvious being it can only be used on one computer at a time. Offering an Ethernet alternative, SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun twin-tuner Freeview box can serve two computers with independent digital telly channels, …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 08:02

  • IP minister rules out 'three strikes' disconnection law

    Pirates breathe 'Arrr!' of relief

    The Government minister responsible for intellectual property has ruled out a 'three strikes' law denying internet access to illegal file sharers. David Lammy said cutting off users was not "the right road" for UK law makers. The French Government has attempted to create a 'three strikes and you're out' law but has been …

    Law 28 Apr 2009, 08:46

  • Seagate intros Replica slimline backup box

    Time Capsule, with wires

    Data backups can be a painful process, so Seagate’s designed a storage gadget that’ll backup everything from your photos and emails to your browser’s bookmarks in, it claims, just three easy steps. Seagate's Replica: just three steps to backup heaven Replica only requires you to hook its USB 2.0 cable into your PC and …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 08:56

  • Small biz slams Harman's equal ops law

    'Get off our backs'

    David Frost, boss of the British Chamber of Commerce, has attacked the government for heaping employment law red tape onto a business community already suffering from the credit crunch. Frost called for a three year moratorium on new regulation, and said British small businesses didn't need handouts but did need to be left …

    Small Biz 28 Apr 2009, 08:58

  • Microsoft ropes in EDS to punt online services

    Roll up, roll up

    Microsoft has signed an agreement with Hewlett-Packard's EDS outfit and several other partners to help sell its range of online services. The company inked deals with EDS, Accenture and others to punt Microsoft's so-called Business Productivity Suite, which contains a bunch of Redmond products that are pumped out of its data …

    The Channel 28 Apr 2009, 08:59

  • PAC slams government's 'cosy' relationship with IT suppliers

    Officials 'not interested in managing contracts'

    Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has said that Whitehall departments are not routinely checking value for money and applying financial penalties for poor performance. In a report on central government's management of service contracts, the committee says that although most departments monitor the performance of IT …

    Government 28 Apr 2009, 09:08

  • IBM gives Cisco some Brocade chatback

    Switches sally forth

    Confirming dozens of speculative reports, IBM is taking Brocade switches and routers into its product line to build its answer to Cisco's entry into the server market. In an OEM agreement, IBM will rebrand and resell the 1U Netiron CEX products as its C-Series Ethernet switch, the Fastiron stackable GS Series as its G-Series …

    Data Center 28 Apr 2009, 09:13

  • Verizon may gobble up Diet iPhone

    New iStuff would be useless outside US, though

    Apple is close to an agreement with Verizon Wireless to launch two new Apple products this year: a cut-down iPhone and a larger device dubbed a "media pad" - although they may not be much use to anyone outside the US. According to Business Week, the story emanates from two sources identified as "familiar with the matter", and …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 09:19

  • Chinese e-car makers show wares

    'Leccy Tech Highlights from the Shanghai Motor Show

    The Shanghai Motor Show last week saw the release of a dizzying number of Chinese e-car models and concepts. Pride of place went to Brilliance Automotive's EV Concept, a coupé-cum-MPV that looked a little like a four-door Renault Avantime. Powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, the Brilliance EV is apparently capable of …

    Science 28 Apr 2009, 09:38

  • A Geeks Guide2 ...Design - Build - Run

    40% off at Reg Books

    Coming off the back of last week’s GG2 offer on writing Solid Code, this week we’re going technical with software development. Design - Build - Run by Dave Ingram serves as a guide to designing and building production-ready software; demonstrating how and where to set the build quality bar and how to achieve it through the …

    Developer 28 Apr 2009, 10:02

  • DARPA at Phase 3 on solar powered surveillance strato-ship

    $400m robot radar dirigible to stay up for 1 year+

    The famed Pentagon Q-branch boffinry hothouse, DARPA, has unveiled another ambitious plan to further US military-technical dominance. It has given $400m to American weapons globocorp Lockheed to develop a solar-powered robot radar airship, able to lurk in the stratosphere for a year at a time, potentially tracking individual …

    Science 28 Apr 2009, 10:15

  • Yorkshire man wakes up Irish after brain surgery

    From top of the head to top of the morning

    A Yorkshire man woke up from brain surgery to find he'd turned from a flat vowelled, thrifty dalesman into a blarney kissing, 'Danny Boy' singing, happy-go-lucky Dubliner. The Daily Mail reports that 30 year old Chris Gregory spent three days on life support, after a blood vessel in his brain ruptured. While the staff were …

    Bootnotes 28 Apr 2009, 10:25

  • AMD intros $109 Radeon 4-series graphics card

    Money-back offer

    AMD has introduced its latest not-quite-budget GPU, the ATI Radeon HD 4770. The 40nm, 750MHz core is connected to 512MB of GDDR 5 graphic memory running at an effective frequency of 3.2GHz, but 800MHz in reality. Those speeds yield a texture fill rate of 24 billion texels per second and a memory bandwidth of 51.2GB/s. …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 10:32

  • Videos of SkyTone's Android netbook appear online

    Learn more about the Google-based mini laptop

    When the Android-based SkyTone Alpha 680 tablet netbook appeared last week, we were disappointed to see that the pictures didn’t reveal anything about how Google’s OS looks and feels away from a mobile phone. But now we have two demo videos. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The Alpha 680 videos, …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 10:38

  • Pig plague 2.0: Can't spell 'pandemic' without 'panic'

    If you can read this you're not dead, yet

    The internet has responded to the absolutely positively inevitable pandemic of swine flu with typical restraint and a decent sense of proportion, providing everything from context-sensitive maps to an iPhone application for those preparing to flee for the hills. The irksome fact that the majority of people who contract the new …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 10:59

  • Boffins pump out pop-up touchscreen

    The latest tactile touchscreen tech

    Researchers have already tried to overcome the lack of physical feedback on touchscreens by adding on vibration and sounds. But boffins at one university have developed a touchscreen display that literally sports pop-up buttons. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson at …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 11:10

  • Firefox devs ask navels when to curtail Mac OS support

    'I don't want to be worrying about 10.4 until 2012'

    Firefox developers are considering ditching support for Mac OS X 10.4 sometime after the organisation ships its successor to Firefox 3.5 next year, despite accepting that users will be "pissed off" about the move. The debate, first flagged by ComputerWorld, is playing out in the Mozilla planning forum here. Mozilla's Josh Aas …

    Developer 28 Apr 2009, 11:19

  • Phorm boss blogs from a dark, dark place

    Ertugrul shouts at the bins

    Phorm boss Kent Ertugrul has launched an extraordinary attack on critics of the snooping technology used by his company to target internet advertising. His website, the pithily-named Stop Phoul Play, describes criticism of Phorm as a "smear campaign" and people who make such complaints as "privacy pirates". The Register even …

    Broadband 28 Apr 2009, 11:50

  • Solwise Piggy 6 multi-device powerline network adaptor

    Review Help gadgets get their snouts in the mains broadband trough

    As more diverse powerline Ethernet products come to market, the practicalities of using mains wiring for networking become ever more apparent. The Solwise VeseNET 200AV HomePlug AV adaptor is good example of how this system can serve locations that are too costly to be hardwired with Ethernet ports or where wireless networking …

    Broadband 28 Apr 2009, 12:02

  • Infosec opens in new venue

    Infosec: Dolly birds and cybercrime

    Infosec, the annual IT security trade show, kicked off in a new venue on Tuesday with 310 firms competing for attention and security spending. The conference has moved from Olympia, its location for over a decade, to Earls Court. The new venue should at least allow easier access than Olympia, although problems on the …

    InfoSec 28 Apr 2009, 12:05

  • Blunkett to press for cyberwar probe of BT's Chinese kit

    Exclusive Kill button fear

    David Blunkett is to press national security officials to impose a programme of ongoing testing on equipment BT bought from Huawei, the networking manufacturer with allegedly close links to the Chinese military. The former Home Secretary plans to raise concerns at meetings "in the next two weeks" that the equipment could be …

    Government 28 Apr 2009, 12:12

  • Hire your very own Fred the Shred

    Infosec: Old school, industrial-grade data destruction

    DiskShred Ltd and Secure IT Disposals have both introduced services guaranteeing storage device destruction involving lorry-borne industrial grade shredders turning up at your site, chewing up disk and tape drives and grinding them to bits. Both were at InfoSecurity 2009 with bits of hard drives in boxes to show what they can …

    InfoSec 28 Apr 2009, 12:13

  • Is DAS the storage comeback kid?

    LSI scents resurgence

    Striking a note contrary to convergence and shared storage conventional wisdom, LSI is seeing signs of a resurgence in direct-attached storage. The prevailing idea is that server proliferation and virtualisation in data centres is strengthening the need for consolidated and shared data storage, either network-attched storage ( …

    Storage 28 Apr 2009, 12:53

  • Connecting for Health suppliers told to get busy

    Connelly delivers November ultimatum

    The Department of Health's director general for informatics has told CfH suppliers to deliver 'significant progress' by November, and is opening the market for southern hospitals. "We will be working closely with the NHS and our current suppliers to improve the pace of delivery," said Christine Connelly, who has just completed …

    Government 28 Apr 2009, 13:38

  • ASBO woman cuffed over raucous rumpy-pumpy

    Flouted 'excessive noise' ban, and then some

    A Tyne and Wear woman was yesterday remanded in custody for allegedly breaking an ASBO which required her not to annoy the neighbours by indulging in vociferous romps with her husband, the Telegraph reports. Caroline Cartwright, 48, of Washington, was hauled before magistrates on 17 April for five breaches of an previous noise …

    Bootnotes 28 Apr 2009, 13:51

  • MEPs get the fear over nanotechnology

    But can't wait for car tracking and e-cash

    MEPs are veering between tech utopianism and fear of the planet being buried under grey goo if their latest crop of votes is anything to go by. Strasbourg's denizens voted overwhelmingly in favour of "more prudence" over the use of nanomaterials in consumer products yesterday, demanding that the Commission evaluate whether …

    Government 28 Apr 2009, 13:58

  • Carphone Warehouse resolves union site ambiguity

    By banning site completely

    Carphone Warehouse has resolved the confusion surrounding the blocking of a union website, by explaining that the company provides for all employees' needs, thus making the union redundant. CarphoneWorker is run by the Communication Workers Union and provides information for the several-hundred union members employed by CPW, …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 14:12

  • London gym floors hoodies with Chav Fighting classes

    'Don't give them an ASBO, give them a kicking...'

    A London gym is offering decent, hard-working citizens the chance to fight back against the hooded hordes of chavdom by administering alcopop-crazed yoof a righteous thrashing - courtesy of its "Chav Fighting" classes. According to Gymbox's blurb, you'll learn "how to take a Bacardi off a hoodie and turn a grunt into a whine" …

    Bootnotes 28 Apr 2009, 14:23

  • Yes! It's the iPhone USB Missile Launcher app!

    Position and fire sponge rockets, using your iPhone

    Firing small sponge rockets at passing colleagues is all well and good, but if they spot you reaching for the firing button before you’ve deployed a projectile then the jig’s up. But not anymore, because an iPhone-based firing controller’s been designed. iLauncher's green icons help move the USB Missile Launcher into position …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 14:24

  • Vaio P-like Android netbook in works?

    Averatec unveils 10in 'mystery OS' netbook

    Speculation’s building that a netbook that looks like a cross between Sony’s Vaio P and Lenovo’s Pocket Yoga will soon be launched running Google’s Android OS. Averatec's 10in netbook: Android-based... possibly The rumours stem from Tae-Hyun Cho, CEO of Averatec – a firm that’s previously launched laptops, UMPCs and satnavs …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 14:56

  • Losses at Unisys run into Q1

    Japan stalls mainframe deals

    Unisys have reported the latest in a very long line of losses after a number of big ClearPath mainframe deals were delayed to some undetermined time in the future. The top brass at server and services company hosted a conference call before Wall Street woke up this morning, and said that its sales fell by 15.5 per cent in the …

    Servers 28 Apr 2009, 15:05

  • Honda executes 180° turn on plug-in e-cars

    'Leccy Tech Future's not all hydrogen, after all

    If you listen very carefully, you can hear the screech of tyres at Honda as the company performs a U-turn. Ever since Honda President Takeo Fukui said that he saw no value in developing plug-in hybrid vehicles because the technology was immature, we've been anticipating this. And so it has come to pass. Honda R&D Chief …

    Science 28 Apr 2009, 15:15

  • Mozilla releases final Firefox 3.5 beta

    Minor bit of spit, polish applied

    Mozilla pushed a fourth beta of Firefox 3.5, formerly known as Firefox 3.1, out the door yesterday. The oft-delayed next version of the open source browser is expected to arrive at some point in the first half of this year, it had originally been pencilled in to rock up in December 2008. However, a series of problems brought …

    Applications 28 Apr 2009, 15:43

  • Pork industry in 'swine flu' tag beef

    Pig plague threatens producers' bacon

    The pork industry is a little bit upset that the "swine flu" tag attached to the terrifying mutated H1N1 death virus, currently making short work of journalistic common sense worldwide, might hit sales hard. Despite there being no scientific proof whatsoever that pig plague can be caught from pork products, some countries have …

    Science 28 Apr 2009, 15:45

  • Homer Simpson 'nuclear waste spill' panic at nuke sub base!

    Almost as bad as dropping a luminous watch in the sea!

    National news outlets, citing "secret" Ministry of Defence (MoD) documents, are reporting that "serious safety breaches" and "leaks of liquid radioactive waste" have occurred at the Faslane nuclear submarine base. It's sort of true, but one would release many times more radioactive material into the Clyde by dropping a luminous …

    Science 28 Apr 2009, 15:47

  • Loudmouth workers leaking data through social networking sites

    Twitter ye not

    Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of sys administrators fear that workers share too much personal information through social networking websites, according to a poll by IT security firm Sophos. Blabby workers are putting corporate infrastructure and data at risk, according to the survey, which also found that a quarter of …

    InfoSec 28 Apr 2009, 16:01

  • Bye bye BlackBerry mail

    Euro addicts get unexpected day off

    European BlackBerry users got an unexpected afternoon off today as the service stopped delivering mail from soon after lunch, forcing them to pay attention in meetings and, in some cases, speak to people. We tried to contact RIM, but the company prefers to communicate via email, which is a shame given the circumstances. UK …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 16:21

  • HTC's second Android phone coming 1 May

    Vodafone unveils Magic and 'save a fiver' price plan

    HTC’s second Android-based handset, Magic, will be available from exclusive UK carrier Vodafone on 1 May. Several Magic launch dates have already been mentioned online, but Vodafone today told Register Hardware that the phone will “definitely” go on sale in UK stores this Friday. You’ll get the handset for free if you sign up …

    Phones 28 Apr 2009, 16:35

  • Geek makes mobile fire-fighting robot

    End of the line for the Fire Brigade?

    WowWee’s Rovio Mobile webcam’s fine if you only want to know that a fire’s started at home while you’re away. But one modder’s gone the extra mile by updating the home security droid with a fire extinguisher. The modified Rovio recognises and extinguishes flames The modder, known as Colt 45, has essentially strapped a Halon …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 17:02

  • Amazon eats open ebook reader

    Doubles up on iPhone

    Amazon has acquired Lexcycle, maker of the popular Stanza (iTunes link) ebook software for the iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, Windows PCs - and Amazon's own Kindle 2. The acquisition was announced Monday in a posting on Lexcycle's blog, which stated that "we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead for ebooks and we could not …

    Media 28 Apr 2009, 17:03

  • IBM juices dividend (yet again)

    Stacks $6.7bn for share buybacks

    With rival and former fiancée Sun Microsystems reporting its what are sure to be embarrassing financial results later today, today is a perfect day for IBM to rub it in extra hard. So Big Blue has announced it is boosting its dividend, while allocating another $3bn to buying back its own shares. Today is also quarterly …

    Financial News 28 Apr 2009, 17:08

  • Adobe users imperiled by critical Reader flaw

    Updated Move over, Microsoft

    Once again, Adobe is scouring its Reader application for bugs following reports that it's susceptible to two vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on end-users' machines. According to SecurityFocus advisories here and here, both flaws use javascript to exploit boundary condition errors …

    Security 28 Apr 2009, 17:52

  • Microsoft's TomTom patents under scrutiny

    Trimming the FAT

    Open-source and Linux activists are not allowing the FAT patent dispute between Microsoft and TomTom to fade. Three patents held by Microsoft and the subject of the FAT litigation have been submitted for review to legal experts, to find prior art that might potentially disqualify them. The patents - 579517, 5758352 and …

    Software 28 Apr 2009, 17:54

  • Google apes Digg with iGoogle gadget

    'What's popular' popcorn

    Google has tried aping Digg in a variety of ways over the past few years, but today, it's grabbing for the whole banana. The Mountain View ad-broker just launched its own "crowd-sourced" aggregator gadget for the iGoogle homepage, fashioned after legions of similar services like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit. As usual, …

    Media 28 Apr 2009, 19:02

  • Sun silent on sorry server sales

    Revenues plunge 20 per cent

    Sometimes, you call the tune, and sometimes, you have to face the music. Or you can do what the top brass at Sun Microsystems did today and simply not host a conference call to explain financial performance in its third quarter of fiscal 2009 ended in March. Sun just posted a press release and some slides - sans quotes from …

    Financial News 28 Apr 2009, 21:29

  • Microsoft in the Pink with Verizon on iPhone?

    Search buddies double up

    Verizon, AT&T's number-one competitor on mobile, is being touted as the company Microsoft will partner with to deliver a touch-screen phone running Windows. Microsoft is reportedly talking to Verizon about delivering a touch-screen device early next year. If true, then the phone is likely to be running Windows Mobile 6.5 that' …

    Mobile 28 Apr 2009, 22:03

  • Microsoft retires AutoRun (kinda, sorta)

    Security as second fiddle

    Microsoft's security team plans to retire a much-abused feature in its Windows operating system that uses flash drives and other removable media to spread malware. Beginning with Release Candidate 1 of Windows 7, the operating system will no longer display AutoRun when most removable media is connected. Up to now, the feature …

    Security 28 Apr 2009, 22:53

  • Web 0.2 archivists save Geocities from deletion

    Preserving history one hideous webpage at a time

    A group of web preservationists called the Archive Team is trying to save most of Geocities for the ages before Yahoo! erases the beloved old-school web-hosting service from the face of the internet. In honor of the dearly departing web host, we'll continue in a more suitable format: Welcome to my Geocities story!!! …

    Media 28 Apr 2009, 23:08

  • Intel says new PCs will cost you nothing

    If you buy now. And wait 10 months

    Intel says that upgrading your company's four-year-old PCs today will pay for itself in 10 to 17 months. But you might say that the world's largest microprocessor manufacturer has a vested interest in such an upgrade. Those figures come from an Intel-commissioned study conducted by R&D services provider Wipro and revealed …

    Hardware 28 Apr 2009, 23:20

  • IBM slips Power6+ into racks, blades

    The chip that dare not speak its name

    As part of a Dynamic Infrastructure hardware, software, and services announcement blitz today, IBM announced that it has put its Power6+ processor into entry and midrange Power Systems rack servers while delivering a more scalable Power6+ blade server that resembles the clever design Big Blue has used for several years on …

    Servers 28 Apr 2009, 23:46

  • Windows XP Mode: Certify like you mean it

    No Windows 7 soft option

    Windows 7's XP Mode does not mean you can completely avoid upgrading your Windows XP applications or entirely dodge Windows 7 certification, Microsoft has warned. ISVs and end users will only get a Windows XP experience when running their Windows XP applications in the new operating system's Windows XP Mode. To experience the …

    Operating Systems 28 Apr 2009, 23:50