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29th April 2009 Archive

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  • Swedish factory fined $3,000 for robot attack

    ROTM Sigurd! Klaatu barada nikto!

    Evil geniuses take note: a near-fatal robot attack only costs an organization about $3,000 in Sweden these days. Swede online rag The Local has reported that a factory north of Stockholm has been fined 25,000 kronor (£2,100) after a malfunctioning bot nearly killed one of its workers. The robo-assault reportedly took place in …

    Music and Media 29 Apr 00:28

  • String theory and the OS X AppKit

    Mac Secrets Colorful language

    Much of the time, we're off exploring some framework such as GraphKit or the media browser. This time it's the turn of AppKit itself, the framework that's guaranteed to be used by every self-respecting Cocoa app. Strange as it may seem, there are plenty of undocumented goodies here, too. Let's start with localization, This is …

    Developer 29 Apr 04:04

  • Mitsubishi to release e-car in UK this year

    'Leccy Tech Ambitious plans for iMiEV

    While the global car market may be in the toilet, Mitsubishi has high hopes for its iMiEV e-car. Mitsubishi had been planning to produce 10,000 units of the 'leccy runabout by the end of 2011, but, according to the company's latest figures, it's now targeting 15,000 cars for that year and 30,000 as early as 2013. That 30,000 …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 07:02

  • Wacom Intuos4 L

    Review Magic OLEDs and 2K sensitivity

    After four and a half years, Wacom has finally updated its professional-class Intuos graphics tablets. About bloody time! The company has clearly been enjoying itself far too much during this period producing inexpensive but cool and clever tablets for the home-user market, such as the frankly fabulous Bamboo range. Now, the …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 08:02

  • UK graduates face bleak future as teachers

    Gis' a job

    Final year students in the UK are steering well clear of jobs in banking, finance and property this year, and only one in three have got themselves a job offer. The traditional "milkround" of pre-exam recruitment has seen job offers fall by a third. Half of students are worried that even if they were offered a graduate job, …

    Government 29 Apr 08:16

  • Top EMC exec jumps ship for HP

    Donatelli fills servers, storage and networking berth

    EMC storage division president David Donatelli is leaving EMC, in an abrupt and surprising move, to become HP's Executive Vice President for Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking. Effective from 5 May, Donatelli will report to Ann Livermore, EVP of the Technology Solutions Group at HP, to lead the development of HP’s …

    Storage 29 Apr 08:21

  • Swine flu spam clogs inboxes

    Processed porker porkies proliferate

    Spammers are trying to flog dodgy pharmaceuticals on the back of the swine flu epidemic. Security firm McAfee reports that the junk mail campaign accounts for one in 50 spam emails currently doing the rounds globally. The spam message deluge, sent through compromised machines, features junk mail messages containing links to …

    InfoSec 29 Apr 08:57

  • Computacenter claims Q1 bounce back

    Easter timing resurrects figures

    Computacenter results for the first quarter of 2009 showed a real improvement on the same period last year, although revenues did fall slightly. The company admitted that figures were skewed by the timing of Easter and a particularly poor quarter in 2008. Revenues fell one per cent to £602.4m or eight per cent down on a …

    Channel Register 29 Apr 09:09

  • No-go woe for doughnut co after Vo-Vo blow

    So no-show for Iced Dough-Vo

    An Australian biscuit maker has launched a legal challenge to a new doughnut by US manufacturer Krispy Kreme, claiming that the confectionery infringes its trade mark rights. Australia's Arnott's has been making the Vo-Vo biscuit for over a hundred years and registered the name as a trade mark in 1906. One variant is the Iced …

    Small Biz 29 Apr 09:22

  • IWF: Child abuse domains down, reports up

    Bigs up a year of achievement, glosses over iffiness

    The Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) Annual Report reveals an apparent fall of nearly 10 per cent in the number of international websites hosting child sexual abuse content. The report is slightly less forthcoming about the IWF’s own little local difficulties with Wikipedia back in December, and the recipe it puts forward for …

    Policing 29 Apr 09:47

  • Privacy notices work best in tables, says US gov research

    Boxing up the small print works

    Bank customers best understand privacy and information sharing policies when they are structured as a table rather than as solid text, a study for the US government has found. Researchers created fake notices and one notice typical of those currently used by US banks and found that the table notice was the best at helping …

    Law 29 Apr 09:49

  • Storage systems: Reg readers speak

    Tech Panel How come Microsoft is so popular?

    During October- November 2008, Freeform Dynamics ran a survey in association with The Register. Some 1,125 people, from organisations large and small based in the UK, United States and a wide range of other countries took the time to let us know how IT systems are being used in their businesses. This article gives a brief …

    Storage 29 Apr 10:00

  • T-Mobile flips bird to alternative voicemail

    Stubbornly stands alone in billing for forwarded calls

    T-Mobile is still charging punters using alternative voicemail systems, despite the fact that every other UK operator now includes such forwarding in bundled minutes. Anyone is at liberty to change their voicemail service, through a simple code on the handset, but operators then deduct the forwarded minutes from the customer's …

    Mobile 29 Apr 10:06

  • Pig plague and Twitter: The terrifying truth

    Comment Disinformation + internet = fear?

    As the world's media buries its snout into the swine flu trough with an enthusiasm not seen since its avian cousin threatened to kill all life on Earth and reduce our planet to a barren wasteland inhabited only by cockroaches and Daily Mail journalists, some news outlets have turned their attention to that most pressing of …

    Biology 29 Apr 10:09

  • Pudsey Bear refused UK passport

    Charity fundraiser confined to Blighty

    A woman who changed her name to Pudsey Bear in order to raise cash for the Beeb's Children in Need has been refused a passport on the grounds of her "frivolous" new moniker. Receptionist Eileen De Bont, 37, raised £4,000 for needy kiddies with her Deed Poll act of charity, and is now known as "Mrs P Bear" to her bank, "Ms …

    Bootnotes 29 Apr 10:29

  • Microsoft releases Vista SP2 to manufacturing

    Hyper-V included for Server 2008

    Microsoft has blog-announced the release to manufacturing of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SP2 includes all the delivered updates since SP1 and support for new types of hardware and hardware standards. The essential features are faster and more relevant Search 4.0, support for the latest …

    Operating Systems 29 Apr 10:30

  • Patent granted for OLED biometric Flash drive

    The mafia's drive of choice?

    The development of a self-nuking Flash drive is already underway. But if you don’t fancy blowing up misplaced data in order to keep it secure, then you’ll soon be able to keep files safe with just one finger, or thumb. This biometric Flash drive sports an OLED screen The Ennova Direct Corporation has been awarded a patent …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 10:42

  • Orange hears his master's voice

    Handsets find shelf space in HMV

    Orange has signed a deal with HMV to put franchise operations into the high-street retailer's stores, emphasising how much mobile telephony has encroached on the media industry. The deal puts what Orange calls "show and sell" spaces into HMV shops, where Orange staff can demonstrate to punters why they don't need a dedicated …

    Mobile 29 Apr 10:44

  • USAF slammed for pranging Predators on manual

    'Xbox flyer' sergeants + autopilots do better

    A senior Pentagon official has delivered a stinging attack on the US Air Force, saying that its philosophy of using fully qualified human pilots to handle unmanned aircraft at all times has resulted in unnecessary, expensive crashes. By contrast, US Army drones with auto-landing equipment and cheaply-trained operators have an …

    Science 29 Apr 10:53

  • HP launches stylish ProBook laptop line

    With 'innovative' keyboard

    HP has unveiled its latest series of all-singing and all-dancing laptops with a snazzy selection of words certain to attract the attentions of potential buyers, including “merlot”, “minimalism” and, of course, "multimedia". HP's new ProBook range: features 14in, 15.6in and 17.3in models The ProBook series consists of five …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 10:55

  • Ubuntu's Koala food hits open-source supermarket

    Eucalyptus in a can

    After hitching a ride on the new Ubuntu, Eucalyptus has followed the Koala-fixated Linux distro into the world of commercialized open source. Today, the creators of the open-source cloud compute platform announced the formation of Eucalyptus Systems Inc., a Santa Barbara, California-based company that will float private clouds …

    Developer 29 Apr 11:02

  • SAP won't give outlook but continues jobs cuts

    Software sales down by a third in Q1

    SAP balked at providing a financial outlook today and confirmed ongoing job losses, as it unveiled first quarter financials that showed a massive slide in software revenue for the ERP giant. The figures coincided with an agreement between the firm and user groups that will put a cap on price rises for maintaining its …

    Financial News 29 Apr 11:23

  • Police want new remote hard drive search powers

    New laws aim to tackle backlogs

    Cyber cops want new laws to allow remote searches of seized hard drives in the hope they will help reduce long digital forensics backlogs - of up to two years for some forces. It would mean specialised officers in London could access data held on hard drives in police evidence rooms nationally. How such information sharing …

    Policing 29 Apr 11:26

  • Nvidia, Intel up, AMD down as Q1 GPU shipments jump

    Machine manufacturers start buying graphics chips again

    The figures for graphics chip sales during Q1 are in, and it seems both Intel and Nvidia gained a little at AMD's expense during the quarter. According to market watcher Jon Peddie Research (JPR), Intel's market share hit 49.7 per cent, up from 47.7 in Q4 2008. Nvidia's share also rose sequentially, from 30.6 per cent to 31.1 …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 11:32

  • UMD-less PSP to get E3 games show launch?

    Mole mentions handheld with slide-out controls

    Sony will launch a redesigned PlayStation Portable (PSP) at this year’s E3 videogames show in Los Angeles next month, industry moles have revealed. A mockup of what the new PSP may look like Image courtesy 1UP Sources “directly involved” with the upcoming PSP have told gaming website 1UP that the updated handheld console …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 11:36

  • Justice Dept to take long hard look at Google Book deal

    Monopoly and orphan fears

    Google is facing an investigation by the US Justice Department, after signing a controversial deal with the Author's Guild, which will see it censoring books included in its digital archive in the same way it censors videos on YouTube. The details of the agreement reached with publishers gives Google monoploy rights on …

    Music and Media 29 Apr 11:59

  • Acer DX900 dual-SIM Windows smartphone

    Review One SIM for business, one for pleasure

    Over the past few years, Taiwanese smartphone maker E-Ten managed to carve out a small but decent business making reasonably cheap Windows devices under its Glofiish brand. Last year, it was gobbled up by Acer to, in effect, become the giant's mobile phone division. Now we have the first fruit of the union: the dual-SIM Acer …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 12:02

  • Microsoft opens up for Office SP2

    Faster Outlook, better PDF/ODF support

    Microsoft has announced a second service pack for Office 2007, providing performance boosts for Outlook and SharePoint Server, plus support for PDF and ODF file formats. Office SP2 also includes more reliable calendaring, improved Outlook stability, better charting facilities in Excel and more control over graphics' appearance …

    Channel Register 29 Apr 12:14

  • Man quits job using videogame

    The Resignation Game, not coming to the PS3

    There are various ways to resign: calling your boss into a meeting room, sending them an email, or playing their head like a bongo drum while you shout 'I quit!' But one Australia-based games developer decided to quit his job using a videogame. Woods' game annouces his resignation Jarrad Woods works for firm 2K Australia – …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 12:21

  • Security salaries hold up during economic gloom

    Kit spending culled but work still plentiful

    Information security salaries are holding up well during the economic downturn but capital spending projects are feeling the axe, according to a pair of surveys from training organisation (ISC)2 and specialist recruitment consultant ISS. The survey of more than 600 respondents, contractors and permanent employees based in the …

    InfoSec 29 Apr 12:21

  • Microsoft answers EU antitrust charges

    We never done nuffink

    Microsoft has formally responded to European Commission concerns about bundling of its web browser Internet Explorer with Windows operating systems. The original complaint was made by Norwegian browser maker Opera. It accused Microsoft of leveraging its desktop monopoly to distribute the browser and of ignoring web standards. …

    Operating Systems 29 Apr 12:23

  • ElcomSoft poster provokes PGP apoplexy

    Infosec Also: Pants, fire

    A row broke out at the Infosec conference on Tuesday after PGP objected to the content of a poster on password recovery firm ElcomSoft's stand, and lodged an objection with conference organisers Reed Exhibitions. The offending poster, which said "the only way to break into PGP" (a reference to ElcomSoft's graphic card assisted …

    InfoSec 29 Apr 12:55

  • Windows 7 might rock up in 2009, says MS veep

    'Holiday release accomplishable'

    A senior Microsoft wonk has hinted that Windows 7 could hit the shelves in time for Christmas. MS veep Bill Veghte said in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week that “a holiday release is accomplishable.” However, he declined to comment on whether Vista’s successor could in fact go on sale any earlier. Some analysts …

    Operating Systems 29 Apr 13:22

  • RIAA settles for $7,000 after 4 years pursuing NY mum

    Because I'm worth it

    The recording industry has accepted a paltry $7,000 to settle a long-running federal music piracy lawsuit it brought against a family in New York four years ago. The settlement to end the legal spat between the family of 46-year-old divorced mother of five, Patricia Santangelo, who lives in Wappingers Falls, NY, and the …

    Music and Media 29 Apr 13:23

  • Prince of Wales extends Thermageddon deadline

    Chances of him becoming king increase fractionally

    The heir to the British throne, HRH Prince Charles has told the Italian Parliament there are 99 months left to save the world from environmental disasters - including runaway global warming. That would put our last date for avoiding Thermageddon at July 2017. But it's a considerable improvement on Charles' predictions last year …

    Environment 29 Apr 13:24

  • Jobs bloodbath at Brit, Danish wind turbine factories

    Offshore wind offshored

    International wind-turbine maker Vestas has announced that it will lay off 1900 employees including 600 in the UK. The news was well received by markets, with Vestas raising £700m in a Danish share issue the next day and announcing investments in Chinese plants. Writing in the company magazine, Vestas president and CEO Ditlev …

    Environment 29 Apr 13:32

  • I7500 pictures and video released online

    A visual treat of Samsung's first Android phone

    Eager to get your hands on Samsung’s recently announced first Android-based handset? Well someone already has, and they’ve been kind enough to release pictures and a video of their experience. Video and pictures courtesy of Tinhte.com Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The video was uploaded onto …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 13:58

  • Americans will need credit cards for Nokia's door

    No operator billing for Ovi

    Reuters is reporting that Nokia has failed to arrange operator billing for the Ovi store in the USA, leaving Americans having to pay by credit card while the rest of the world gets purchases added to their phone bill, though Nokia insists that negotiations continue. Actually, for the rest of the world read Australia, Britain, …

    Mobile 29 Apr 14:02

  • Edison Chen sex snap thief found guilty

    Sentencing imminent for computer repair shop worker

    The computer repair shop worker accused of copying and distributing 1,300 compromising images of Hong Kong film star Edison Chen has been found guilty on three charges of "obtaining access to a computer with a view to making dishonest gain". Sze Ho-chun, 24, copied the snaps - featuring Chen indulging in sexual activities with …

    Bootnotes 29 Apr 14:07

  • Plan to publish court sentences launches in farce

    MoJ site sentenced to 404

    A high profile effort to publish criminal sentences was launched by Jack Straw today, but at time of writing the URL was serving up only server errors. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said IT staff were scrambling to fix the glitch. It hopes the site "could reassure [communities] that offenders are being punished …

    Government 29 Apr 14:13

  • Star Trek halted by pig plague

    Will not boldly go into Mexico on 8 May

    Paramount has postponed the scheduled 8 May Mexican launch of JJ Abrams' Star Trek, although the rest of the cinematic "major territories" will get to enjoy the film on that date, whether potential customers are still alive or not. The move follows Twentieth Century Fox's decision to knock back the Mexican release of X-Men …

    Entertainment 29 Apr 14:47

  • Brown finally wins something

    E-petition success at last

    Prime Minister Gordon Brown has achieved a great victory. It is not his miracle plan for MPs' expenses, issued via YouTube last week, nor is it increased confidence that his bailout plans will work. But he is top of the Number 10 e-petition list. The petition, posted by Reg reader Kalvis after a long battle, calls for Brown' …

    Government 29 Apr 14:47

  • Trend taps Third Brigade for security and compliance tech

    Purchase pushes security firm into intrusion defence

    Internet security firm Trend Micro has acquired security and compliance firm Third Brigade. Terms of the deal, announced Wednesday and expected to close in the second quarter of 2009, were undisclosed. Trend said the agreement to buy the privately-held firm would accelerate its dynamic datacenter security strategy. Third …

    InfoSec 29 Apr 14:49

  • Samsung takes the strain out of filming

    Slanty lens camcorders

    Two ergonomic and stylish camcorders have been designed by Samsung that, it's claimed, help take the strain out of, well, you know, filming stuff. Samsung's SMX-C14 and C10: fatigue fighting lenses The lenses on the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 camcorders both slant upwards slightly, a design feature that Samsung’s called Active …

    Reg Hardware 29 Apr 14:55

  • Emulex' earnings fall as it fights off Broadcom

    Q3fy09 results and Broadcom blues

    Emulex has announced figures showing a fall in third quarter earnings and a loss, emphasising its weak position facing the Broadcom bid. In its third fiscal 2009 quarter (Q3 fy09) Emulex revenues were $78.6m, 39 per cent less than the equivalent a year ago of $127.8m, and 28 per cent down sequentially. It announced a net loss …

    Storage 29 Apr 14:55

  • Nokia focuses strategy, again

    To the tune of 450 employees

    Nokia is once again focusing its strategies and streamlining internal IT operations - this time to the tune of 450 employees around the world. The streamlining comes in the Compatibility & Industry Collaboration activities in the Corporate Development Office unit, as well as internal IT, and will involve letting third parties …

    Mobile 29 Apr 15:03

  • IBM's dynamic infrastructure taking shape

    Storage part comes in collection of point releases

    Big Blue's is in the process of revealing its Dynamic Infrastructure, an IT infrastructure package presented as being lean, mean and green. Customers can lower costs, improve services and reduce risks, so CIOs and CFOs better get their corporate chequebooks out and start buying now, although some of these things are futures. …

    Storage 29 Apr 16:08

  • Verizon calls for public access to D Block

    Public safety should get free spectrum

    Steve Zipperstein, Verizon's vice president for legal and external affairs, has called on the FCC to hand over the D Block of spectrum to public safety bodies instead of trying to auction it off again. The plan, which emerged from a speech given to the National Press Club in Washington, as reported by PolicyTracker, calls for …

    Mobile 29 Apr 16:16

  • IBM doubles Power Rewards to chase Sun gear

    Big Blue can't discount like in the old days

    After having snubbed Sun Microsystems last month, leaving it to be acquired by database and application software powerhouse Oracle for $5.6bn, IBM wants to do its best to make sure that the Sun that Oracle gets perhaps by summer is as weak as possible. And hence, it is ratcheting up the marketing pressure. Today, IBM announced …

    Servers 29 Apr 16:17

  • Hacker behind P2P botnet gets no jail time

    Turns to good after spawning Nugache

    A hacker who confessed he created one of the world's first botnets to use peer-to-peer technology won't spend any time in prison because of the assistance he's provided to prosecutors. Jason Michael Milmont, 20, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years of supervised probation and a year of home confinement …

    Crime 29 Apr 17:40

  • OpenOfficers pitch Oracle on life after Sun

    Microsoft-Office gambit played

    OpenOfficers have begun lobbying for their future in the event that Oracle succeeds in purchasing Sun Microsystems. Advocates have been pressing the case for ramping up commitment to OpenOffice and for spinning it out as an independent, legal entity with ownership of trademarks and copyright free of Oracle's control. …

    Applications 29 Apr 19:27

  • NASA micro-satellite eyes space bacteria

    Orbiting yeast inspection

    NASA is preparing to launch a tiny satellite loaded with yeast and anti-fungal drugs early next month in order to better understand how bacteria becomes nastier in space. The nanosatellite, known as PharmaSat, is only about the size of a loaf of bread and will hitch a ride as a secondary payload aboard a US Air Force Minotaur …

    Space 29 Apr 19:36

  • US military's cyberwar rules 'ill-formed,' says panel

    And 'undeveloped.' And 'highly uncertain'

    The United States government has yet to form a coherent policy for engaging in warfare that involves attacks on a country's electrical power grids and other critical infrastructure, according to a non-profit group of scientists and policy advisors. They called on policy makers to actively forge rules for how and when the …

    Security 29 Apr 20:16

  • 'iPhone lite' and the business of world domination

    Comment Wait 'til next year

    Recent iPhone rumors and tablet-Mac musings are best met with a sober analysis of money-making opportunities and technology roadmaps. The chatter of iPhone speculation is again rising to deafening levels. AT&T is supposedly in secret talks with Apple about extending its exclusive distribution deal. Verizon is rumored to be in …

    Mobile 29 Apr 20:54

  • Cell phones trace family tree to rocket beams

    Happy Birthday, IC A man, a blank pad, and some high-vacuum heat

    "Inventing new things," says Alfred Cho, "is all about combining one technology with another to create a third." In the mid-1960s, as a doctorate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Alfred Cho explored the world of surface physics. In short, he eyed the physical behaviour of materials at the intersection of …

    Science 29 Apr 20:58

  • Growth in developer population set back

    Pandemic not blamed

    The population growth of working developers will take a major hit during 2009 in most industrialized economies, according to analyst Evans Data. The researcher said it's dropped growth projections based on estimations made 12 months ago by a whopping 78 per cent for North America, Japan and Western Europe. The impact on "the …

    Developer 29 Apr 22:06

  • SAP extends unpopular support window, caps prices

    Concern at Oracle-like transformation

    SAP's given customers more time to swallow its unpopular enterprise support price increases, while promising to cap what you pay for a five-year period. The world's largest provider of business software has given users until 2015 to sign up to its new Enterprise Support program, going beyond the originally planned 2012 cut off …

    Applications 29 Apr 23:22

  • Minnesota calls for 200-site net gambling blockage

    Here we go again

    Minnesota officials have ordered 11 internet service providers to block all computers in the state from accessing nearly 200 online gambling sites. The state Department of Public Safety invoked a federal law passed in 1961 that requires "common carriers" to block telecommunications services used for gambling. As the Associated …

    Government 29 Apr 23:31

  • Google beefs health record lobby

    What ye worry?

    Why is Google lobbying the US Congress over the webification of the nation's health records? It won't say. But lobbying it is. In its first quarter Congressional lobbying report (PDF), Google has said it lobbied both the House and Senate on "online health-related issues [and] issues related to online personal health records," …

    Government 29 Apr 23:35

  • EMC sues Donatelli over HP move

    To compete or not to compete

    EMC and its ex-executive VP David Donatelli are entangled in legal disputes over him joining HP and competing with EMC. Donatelli suddenly resigned from his position as president of EMC's storage business and is set to join HP on May 5th as an executive vice president in charge of its servers, storage, and networking. He has …

    Storage 29 Apr 23:43