The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

5th May 2009 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Microsoft challenges IBM to Websphere duel

    Big Blue amused

    Microsoft is trying to get under IBM's skin with some benchmarks run in its Redmond labs using Big Blue's own Java-based test, Trade, and a variant of it ported to C#, which Microsoft calls .NET StockTrader. But as Microsoft throws down the benchmarking gauntlet, IBM is ignoring the calls for a WebSphere duel at the Middleware …

    Developer 5 May 2009, 00:03

  • LexisNexis says credit card fraudsters used its data

    Belated notice to 32,000

    LexisNexis is in the process of warning at least 32,000 people that their social security numbers and other personal information may have been stolen by identity thieves who used the company's information retrieval service. The identity thieves operated as business customers of LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, which LexisNexis's …

    Security 5 May 2009, 00:09

  • Permabit archives your bulk data

    Very scalable. Very, very protected

    Where do put your archive data, those masses of unstructured and semi-structured files that you can't throw away but must keep online just in case? Should it go on bulk SATA disk tiers in primary drive arrays or on dedicated archive arrays? Permabit says put it on dedicated and highly intelligent arrays, a Permabit Enterprise …

    Storage 5 May 2009, 00:29

  • EU urges US to drop ICANN

    G12-like oversight, please

    Obama should hand over control of ICANN so it can be overseen by an independent international tribunal, EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said today. In her weekly address, Reding said the change of administration in Washington, DC offered renewed hope of a privatized ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned …

    Government 5 May 2009, 00:31

  • IBM fires WebSphere CloudBurst at McKinsey heretics

    Iron rainmaker machine

    When consultant McKinsey & Co recently warned that cloud computing would cost you money rather help you than save it, IBM took the unusual step of responding. IBM wasn't the company singled out in the report - it was Amazon's fluffy Web Services. But IBM is working with Amazon to make its software available through the Elastic …

    Servers 5 May 2009, 00:50

  • Sir Alan Sugar hails £30m 'equitable' Viglen win

    Public sector bonanza

    Viglen, the UK PC maker, has won a Office of Government Commerce contract worth up to £30m to supply public sector organisations with 70,000 PCs. Its chairman, Sir Alan Sugar, is very pleased indeed. “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract on an equitable basis”, he says. Does this suggest to you that he thinks …

    Government 5 May 2009, 07:39

  • Lexmark T650DN mono workgroup laser printer

    Review Low cost, good; low paper capacity, bad

    The more people using a printer, the bigger it has to be, if only to hold extra paper. In fact, workgroup printers seem to have to be big simply to impress more people. Lexmark’s T650DN starts large and is eminently expandable, so will only get larger. Lexmark's T650DN: a big printer, but quick and cheap to run Lexmark may …

    Hardware 5 May 2009, 08:02

  • VIP, JDI pick up Acer franchises

    Server push

    Acer has awarded VIP Computer Centre and JDI Technology UK distribution rights. From the look of it, VIP has the easier job as it gets to flog Acer notebooks, desktops and monitors to the channel. This is where Acer is strong. JDI gets to make market with rights to distribute Acer's servers and storage products intended for …

    The Channel 5 May 2009, 08:05

  • Apple and Google fingered in monopoly probe

    In the Schmidt

    The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the board of directors of Apple and Google over concerns that close links between the two firms could break US antitrust laws. US law forbids directors from sitting on the boards of competing firms, but Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt also sits on Apple's board of directors. …

    Financial News 5 May 2009, 08:30

  • Disk drive manufacturers re-hiring in Thailand

    Anyone predicting recovery? Yes, Siam...

    While Seagate is expected to fire up to 1,000 employees in the USA, Western Digital and Hitachi GST are hiring thousands of workers in Thailand. It is reported that Western Digital has recruited 3,000 additional employees for its hard disk drive plants in Thailand. This gets WD back to the staffing levels it enjoyed there in …

    Storage 5 May 2009, 08:47

  • Atomsmasher boffins probe duff whisky deluge

    Mm, yes, that one's fake too. Put it in my desk

    Whisky aficionados are using radiocarbon dating to verify the age of expensive vintages, according to reports. Boffins at the National Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, tasked with checking out various top-end tipples, say that fakes are more common than not. Dr Tom Higham, talking to the Telegraph, said that he and his team can …

    Science 5 May 2009, 08:50

  • SSL encryption and the Ghost of Windows Past

    Three papers about security

    We thought we could escape from writing the words "Windows 2000" again. But it's a topsy turvy world, and that's a fact - as these three IT security whitepapers, fresh from the Reg Library, show. How to offer the strongest SSL encryption This paper from VeriSign, urges web security pros to get their act together regarding …

    Security 5 May 2009, 09:03

  • Seagate to 'shut US plants'

    1000 jobs at risk

    A US financial analyst expects Seagate to announce the closure of one or two US plants by the end of May, predicting 800 to 1000 redundancies. The target at Seagate is to drive its quarterly operating expenses below $300m, according to Stifel Nikolaus analyst Aaron Rakers. This will be achieved, he thinks, by shutting down one …

    Financial News 5 May 2009, 09:09

  • Oompa-Loompa and Tinky Winky cuffed for drunken brawl

    Spiderman also weighs into holiday camp scrap

    Devon cops yesterday cuffed an Oompa-Loompa, Tinky Winky and Spiderman following a drunken fancy dress punch-up at a Devon holiday camp. According to the Sun, officers were called to the Welcome Family Holiday Park in Dawlish at around 1am yesterday after 20 pissed holidaymakers laid into each other, in the process allegedly …

    Bootnotes 5 May 2009, 09:23

  • UK's national grid 'ready' for e-car expansion

    'Leccy Tech Lights won't go out when 3m EVs charge up

    A new study claims to show that if three million of us went out tomorrow and bought plug-in electric cars, the UK's national grid could support our charging needs without missing a beat. The report was carried out by a consortium called the Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV) project, led by Jaguar-Land Rover and …

    Science 5 May 2009, 09:43

  • RIM confirms Storm 2

    Fingers crossed for Wi-Fi

    Research in Motion (RIM) plans to release an updated version of its first touchscreen BlackBerry, the Storm, the firm’s CEO has confirmed. Jim Balsillie told Reuters that a next-generation Storm is in the works. The new handset will be part of RIM's continuing push into the retail marke, he added. Over 50 per cent of RIM’s …

    Phones 5 May 2009, 09:48

  • EMC scuppers Donatelli's HP switch

    Massachusetts court says 'Hang on a minute'

    A temporary injunction issued in a Massachusetts courts stops EMC leaver David Donatelli starting work at HP today. Donatelli was running EMC's Information Systems business and had overseen its Symmetrix V-Max launch last month, when he abruptly resigned to join HP and run its server, storage and networking businesses, which …

    The Channel 5 May 2009, 09:48

  • Crimestoppers benefits from recession-hit grasses

    Hard times mean no honour among thieves

    Snitching hotline Crimestoppers has reported it's on a bit of a roll purging the UK's streets of crims - thanks to boracic citizens increasingly willing to grass for cash. According to the Times, reward payments for crimebusting tip-offs in 2008-09 hit £35,000 - "the highest recorded payout in 11 years and is topped only by …

    Security 5 May 2009, 10:01

  • GCHQ: Mastering the Media

    Spy agency in public equivocation shocker

    GCHQ has been hard at work in the last two days spinning against our revelations on Sunday that it is spending more than £1bn on monitoring and analysis equipment under a secret project called Mastering the Internet. Mastering the Internet has been underway for over a year and contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds …

    Government 5 May 2009, 10:30

  • No 'next gen' consoles until 2013, analyst claims

    But HD Wii may land next year

    Anyone unimpressed by the capabilities of the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 may have to wait another four years before a superior generation of consoles hits the market, an analyst has forecast. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, recently said in an industry newsletter how “the ‘next’ generation [of games consoles …

    Games 5 May 2009, 10:30

  • Pilots plot air raid on Jacqui over ID cards

    Compulsory cards not fair

    Pilots organisation Balpa is considering legal action against the Home Office for forcing its members to carry ID cards. As part of Wacky Jacqui's ID card trial airside workers and pilots at Manchester and City of London airports will have to carry the cards in order to get airside. A spokesman for Balpa (the British Airline …

    Government 5 May 2009, 10:32

  • Apple drives iPhone app developers to the brink

    Could pay, will pay. Just not right now

    A backlog in Apple's payment processing system has left some iPhone developers still waiting for February's payments, leaving some at risk of bankruptcy and considering legal action against the lads in Cupertino. Desperate developers have been told to stop e-mailing the iTunes finance system and to wait patiently for their …

    Mobile 5 May 2009, 10:36

  • HTC's third Android spied online

    First came the G1, third could be the G3

    HTC’s recently leaked 2009 handset line-up has, once again, come up trumps. Pictures have emerged online of what appears to be one of the leaked phones running Google’s Android OS. Could this be HTC's third Android phone? To refresh your memories, the leaked line-up contained reference to a handset codenamed both ‘Hero’ and …

    Phones 5 May 2009, 11:15

  • Kebabs pose 'no danger whatsoever', Russians claim

    NSFW Another Pravda body-blow to 'insane' veggies

    We're not quite sure what Pravda has got against vegetarians, but having last year slammed meat-dodgers as a "perversion of nature", it's now declared them limitlessly insane. Fair enough, but in debunking six veggie myths - including that salad-fanciers are slimmer, healthier and live longer than those for whom the bacon …

    Bootnotes 5 May 2009, 11:17

  • Asus intros Air-style U series

    12, 13, 14 and 15in screen options

    Even though the release of the super-slim 10in Eee PC 1008HA is imminent, Asus today announced three more of the MacBook Air-like laptops, this time with larger displays and 'grown up' processors. Dubbed the U series, the line-up comprises a 12.1in design, a second with a 14in screen and a third with a 15.6in panel. All three …

    Hardware 5 May 2009, 11:26

  • Obama declares war on Ireland over tech tax avoidance

    India not mentioned this time round

    President Obama has declared war on Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda, and is giving Silicon Valley a long hard stare as he overhauls America's tax system to bankroll his campaign pledges. The White House has unveiled proposals to clamp down on US firms it reckons are hiding profits overseas to benefit from lower tax rates …

    Financial News 5 May 2009, 11:28

  • Investigation into Mafia control of Italian windfarm biz

    In Sicily, even the wind turbines are silent

    Mafia-busting Italian magistrates have launched a major investigation into crooked windfarm projects in Sicily, according to reports. It is suggested that large sums in government support have been collected for wind power stations which in many cases produce no electricity. The Financial Times reported on the green energy …

    Science 5 May 2009, 11:32

  • Chinese officials obliged to smoke 4.6m snouts

    Updated Obvious market niche for Mao's little red matchbook

    The Chinese county of Gong'an has launched a novel way of injecting funds into local coffers: it is ordering officials and teachers to smoke only the homegrown Hubei brand of cigarettes. Those who fail to inhale and help work their way through the 230,000 packets of Hubei gaspers produced annually - and instead light up brands …

    Bootnotes 5 May 2009, 11:42

  • Further funding flung at Fring

    Only another $10m or so

    VoIP upstart Fring has raised another block of cash from its backers, despite lacking a business model or even a business as such. The company won't say how much, but told us it was comparable with the last round which saw around $10m flow into the company's coffers in August 2007. The company spent that money improving its …

    Mobile 5 May 2009, 11:50

  • Pioneer BDR-203BK

    Review The essential desktop upgrade?

    Installing a Blu-ray Disc recorder is the latest must-have upgrade for desktops, but because they remain thin on the ground, they maintain a price premium. Given the high storage capacity of the Blu-ray format, write speed is particularly important and we’re starting to see drives capable of 8x writing on 25GB and 50GB …

    Hardware 5 May 2009, 12:02

  • Sage workers braced for job cuts

    Announcement expected tomorrow

    More job losses are predicted at Sage when the firm announces its financial results tomorrow. Last month the accountancy software provider offered UK staff voluntary redundancy as part of a cost cutting programme. The Newcastle-based firm employs 2,200 people in the UK and 14,000 in total worldwide. The Sunday Times predicted …

    The Channel 5 May 2009, 12:02

  • Virgin Media cool on cable wholesale plans

    As you were

    Virgin Media has denied a report it has secret plans to wholesale access to its cable network to broadband and phone competitors next year. The Guardian today claimed chief executive Neil Berkett wants to open up Virgin Media's infrastructure in 18 months' time. The firm has long considered following BT's Openreach setup by …

    Broadband 5 May 2009, 12:32

  • Ron Howard accuses Pope of scuppering Dan Brown movie

    Vatican condemns director for bad faith publicity grab

    Hollywood film director and former Fonz sidekick Ron Howard has accused the Vatican of a dark plot to knobble his latest blockbuster Dan Brown adaptation, Angels and Demons. Howard reckons the Pope and his helpers used "back channels" to scupper attempts to film around key landmarks in Rome. The production team had already …

    Bootnotes 5 May 2009, 12:54

  • UK fines for IP infringement to rocket

    More to cough up for copyright crimes

    The British government plans a tenfold increase in the penalties for criminal breaches of intellectual property law. Infringement of IP laws will be punishable by fines of up to £50,000 rather than the current £5,000, according to Government plans. The measures, though, do not involve increasing the possible jail sentences for …

    Law 5 May 2009, 13:15

  • Apple buying Twitter!

    Elvis buying groceries!

    The latest suitor for everyone's favourite mobile application is apparently Apple. Quite why Apple wants to buy Twitter is not entirely clear, but that hasn't stopped the story spreading, partly because it's too good a story to kill and partly because it will create page impressions whether it is true or not. Apple is in …

    Financial News 5 May 2009, 13:34

  • IBM Warwick data centre has a lie down

    Zonked by power outage, failed generator, lengthy restart

    IBM's Warwick, UK, data centre was hit by a power outage on Thursday, causing customers' mission-critical systems to be down for several hours, according to a source. Many customers use this IBM data centre to host their applications, including Edwards Ltd., a global manufacturer of vacuum pump technologies for precision …

    Servers 5 May 2009, 13:36

  • eBay driving world's tomb raiders out of business, says prof

    Online fools' lust for forged tat stymies looters

    An American archaeology prof says that a long-feared outbreak of eBay-driven tomb raiding has failed to occur. Rather, it seems that the online dross emporium - by creating a huge and profitable new market for forged antiquities - has drawn criminals and charlatans out of looting and into making crappy imitations for eBay. " …

    Security 5 May 2009, 13:46

  • Apple brands UK tabloid 'obscene'

    More iBoob action? Cor!

    Apple may put News International's nose out of joint with its definition of 'obscene', after rejecting a newspaper-reading iPhone app for reasons of rudeness. Newspaper(s), an application that renders content from the world's newspapers, was rejected by iTunes because it included the UK's Sun newspaper - complete with topless …

    Mobile 5 May 2009, 14:46

  • Apple bans Page 3 from iPhone app

    But firmware 3.0 may see Sun return

    An iPhone newspaper browsing application that saw The Sun banned by Apple because of its Page 3 content could be granted a reprieve - thanks to the impending release of firmware version 3.0. The 59p Newspaper(s) app was approved for sale by Apple last week. It lets iPhone or iPod Touch owners read from a selection of "the 50 …

    Phones 5 May 2009, 14:51

  • French lead world in eating and sleeping

    In bed when not stuffing their faces

    It's official: The bleedin' French spend more of their time crashed out or eating than any other nation in the 30 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. This non-shock revelation - confirming long-held Brit suspicions that our Gallic cousins do little more than stuff their faces with …

    Bootnotes 5 May 2009, 14:54

  • Upcoming 'Gemini' BlackBerry Curve not 3G after all

    Sorry...

    Images of what’s thought to be Research in Motion’s next BlackBerry Curve have, unfortunately, revealed that the phone actually doesn’t actually support 3G as originally thought. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 Images courtesy of Crackberry Suggestions that the upcoming Curve - codenamed 'Gemini' - would be a 3G device were made …

    Phones 5 May 2009, 15:01

  • Ballmer email kicks off second round of Microsoft layoffs

    Waves goodbye to pink slippers

    Steve Ballmer has emailed all Microsoft staff as the second wave of planned redundancies at the software giant begins to bite today. Earlier in the year, Ballmer announced 5,000 job losses as Microsoft works to cut costs in the face of a shrinking world economy. He said the firm would cut jobs by the middle of 2010. Ballmer's …

    The Channel 5 May 2009, 15:07

  • Broadcom aims big guns at Emulex

    Update Resorts to rough wooing

    Broadcom has accused the Emulex board of "intransigence", after announcing an all-cash $9.25/share offer for the network adapter and array switch vendor. Broadcom president and CEO Scott McGregor said: "We are disappointed by Emulex Corporation's rejection of Broadcom's proposal which would deliver substantial, immediate and …

    Storage 5 May 2009, 15:26

  • Itanium: 'A special cause for optimism'

    Stop laughing - there was growth in 2008

    With the quad-core "Tukwila" Itanium processors coming out sometime around the middle of this year, the Itanium Solutions Alliance, the consortium of hardware and software vendors that peddle Itanium-based products, has dusted off the Itanium drum and begun banging on it. If there is one thing that you can probably say about …

    Servers 5 May 2009, 16:00

  • IBM buys Greek word for 'tracker '

    Exeros: The database matchmaker

    IBM on Tuesday said it has purchased the software maker Exeros to help boost its data discovery toolbox. The California-based firm (named after the Greek word for "tracker") makes software called Exeros Discovery, which acts like an internet spider to automatically discover relationships between databases. IBM said it will …

    Applications 5 May 2009, 17:52

  • Google woos BlackBerries with Apps connector

    Exchange your Exchange

    In an effort to woo more BlackBerry-happy businesses onto Google Apps, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory will soon offer new BlackBerry server software meant to provide easy access to its cloud-based web-based app suite. According to Google, more than 3,000 business adopt Google Apps everyday, moving from office apps hosted …

    Mobile 5 May 2009, 17:57

  • Microsoft: Don't rush to download Windows 7 RC

    Take it slow, like Vista

    Microsoft is advising people against rushing to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate, which became broadly available today. The company has also reminded potential testers they won't be getting a gratis operating system, pointing out that while the Windows 7 RC 1 won't expire until next June, it will expire. No-doubt …

    The Channel 5 May 2009, 18:08

  • Citrix plunks NetScaler into virtual machines

    Adds Dazzle

    Citrix Systems is hosting its annual Synergy user conference in Las Vegas this week, and the company will be fleshing out its application, server, and desktop virtualization strategy with a number of new products. That all-encompassing virtualization strategy - called Delivery Center - is comprised of four major components …

    Virtualization 5 May 2009, 18:58

  • Hackers demand $10m ransom for Virginia medical data

    8.3 million records held hostage

    Almost 8.3 million patient records have been stolen from a Virginia government website that tracks prescription drug abuse, according to hackers who are demanding a $10 million ransom for their return. "I have your shit!" the note, which was posted to Wikileaks read. "In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient …

    Security 5 May 2009, 19:02

  • Juniper punts 'next-gen' network hardware

    Unified field theory

    Juniper Networks has announced what it refers to as its "next generation network infrastructure for the distributed enterprise" - meaning four new services gateways in its SRX series and a new line of EX series Ethernet switches. The company makes some bold claims about its new offerings. First, it says that one of the new …

    Data Networking 5 May 2009, 19:09

  • Turkey's YouTube blackout enters year two

    Much ado about Ataturk

    Turkey is getting a dressing-down today from free press organization Reporters Without Borders, as the country's blockage of YouTube enters year two. Google's video-sharing site has been banned a number of times in Turkey since early 2007, in most cases because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founding father, …

    Media 5 May 2009, 19:48

  • Intel animates Data Center Manager

    Power throttling for Nehalem boxen

    Look out, system admins. Intel wants your job. Intel has started shipping its Data Center Manager power management tool, something the techies at the chip maker have cooked up to help system makers and server administrators make better use of the energy conservation features of its new "Nehalem EP" Xeon 5500 processors. The …

    Servers 5 May 2009, 20:47

  • Big Blue bows to Zeus

    STEC SSDs for storage and servers

    IBM is incorporating STEC Zeus solid state drives into its DS8000 storage arrays and its Power Series servers and direct-attach storage (DAS). IBM will be the first to market with STEC's Zeus IOPS SAS interface SSD. IBM Power Series servers will offer faster I/O response rates than servers relying solely on hard disk drives …

    Storage 5 May 2009, 21:54

  • Sun's Amber Road traffic picks up

    800 customers and counting

    Sun looks to have a raging product success on its hand with 800 plus Open Storage 7000 sales in the five months since its launch, making it the fastest ever ramping product in Sun's storage product portfolio. It's updated the product as well. Known as Amber Road, the Open Storage 7000 product combines an open source system and …

    Storage 5 May 2009, 21:55

  • Rackable serves up $13.4m in losses

    Bad news gets better

    If the rising and falling fortunes of niche server maker Rackable Systems are any indication, the economy might be stabilizing. Sales were up sequentially from the fourth quarter and losses shrank a bit. But even with that, the year-on-year numbers look pretty bad for Rackable and show that it has a long way to go to get back to …

    Financial News 5 May 2009, 22:12

  • Apple prepping 3G laptops?

    Updated Job postings = entrails of doves

    Apple may be planning to add 3G wireless broadband capabilities to all or part of its laptop line - including possibly the oft-rumored tablet Mac. The evidence supporting this rumor is tenuous at best - although intriguing. A Computerworld blogger spotted a posting on Apple's Jop Opportunities site for a Communications QA …

    Hardware 5 May 2009, 22:33

  • US prosecutor orders Craigslist 'erotic listings' shutdown

    Plug prostitution postings or be probed

    A US prosecutor has told Craigslist that if it doesn't take down all "erotic listings" within 10 days, it will face a criminal investigation and possible charges. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said today he's sent an open letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster demanding the site immediately shutter all …

    Government 5 May 2009, 22:43

  • Open source closes gap on Microsoft's next Silverlight

    Moonlight beams into future

    Code has been released for the open-source version of Silverlight that closes the gap on the as-yet-unfinished next version of Microsoft's browser-based media player. Moonlight 2.0 has been delivered for preview featuring APIs from Microsoft's Silverlight 3.0 that the project's organizers said it made sense to add. Moonlight …

    Developer 5 May 2009, 23:05

  • McAfee website visited by plague of security locusts

    Eradication proves difficult

    McAfee's website has been has been hit by at least three nasty bugs that left its customers susceptible to phishing and other types of scams. At least one remained unfixed at time of writing, more than 24 hours after it was first disclosed. The most serious vulnerability, ironically enough, affected McAfee Secure, a service …

    Security 5 May 2009, 23:10