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8th May 2009 Archive

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  • Early Sun middleware fans seek Oracle refuge

    Time to dump this junk

    Settlers on a long-forgotten Sun-Microsystems middleware island are expected to turn to open-source in greater numbers rather than stick with new master Oracle. News of Oracle's potential acquisition has acted as a catalyst for early users of the Sun ONE application server to finally review their increasingly dated web and …

    Developer 8 May 00:01

  • Microsoft buys hot-shot Xbox dev team

    A walk in the Big Park

    Microsoft was so impressed with the "caliber of talent and innovation at BigPark", a Canadian start up games developer, that it bought the company. Big Park's development team are moving to Microsoft Games Studios, where they will continue their work on an "exclusive XBox game". Any clues? In a canned quote, Phil Spencer, …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 06:00

  • Ocarina turns detective with extended online dedupe

    New tune for NAS vendors

    Startup deduplication vendor Ocarina has extended its deduplication technology such that NAS vendors can use it to detect objects within and between files and compress them - something Ocarina says block-level deduplication can't do. Ocarina has content-aware technology which can detect a JPEG or other digital media format and …

    Storage 8 May 06:02

  • UK gov squeezes 'best pricing' pledge from MS

    One licence for all our rulers

    Buying Solutions, the procurement arm of the UK government, yesterday proclaimed a new, better licensing deal with Microsoft. By securing best pricing terms for public sector bodies whatever their size (our italics), The Government could save us £75m over five years. For the first time, Microsoft licenses are fully …

    Channel Register 8 May 06:42

  • EU calls for tougher data laws

    Sieve-like UK.gov surprisingly unenthusiastic

    European Commissioner Viviane Reding said she will push member states to adopt a proper data breach notification law - something the Information Commissioner in the UK has failed to get. Such a law would force businesses to tell people if their private data has been lost or stolen. Data controllers in the UK have no obligation …

    Law 8 May 07:02

  • DVLA issues double tax discs

    Two-for-one tax discs from Swansea? Lovely

    The DVLA has apologised to customers who have received multiple copies of car tax discs in recent weeks. We were contacted by a Reg reader who applied online for two tax discs last week. The DVLA systems do actually work on occasion, and he duly received the discs a couple of days later. But yesterday he received two more tax …

    Government 8 May 07:52

  • Coyote Systems Mini Coyote

    Review Speed camera show and tell

    Whether you want regular reminders to keep your speed down or simply love breaking the speed limit, the Mini Coyote is here to help. And with a built-in GPRS module, you’ll get regular updates without the need for a PC, as well as real-time information on nearby mobile speed traps submitted by fellow users. Coyote Systems' …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 08:02

  • Electronics giants raise ruckus over Project Canvas

    Free? Open? We can't allow that...

    Project Canvas, the joint venture of the BBC, ITV and British Telecom, must be up to something good considering that some makers of consumer electronics (CE) gear are squealing "foul". The UK's Intellect Technology Association, whose members include Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba and Pace, said in a submission to the BBC …

    Music and Media 8 May 08:02

  • Carphone Warehouse buys Tiscali UK

    Hammer down on world's most tedious auction

    Carphone Warehouse has bought Tiscali's UK businesses for £236m after lengthy on-again off-again negotiations. The cash deal, announced this morning, will see Talk Talk and Tiscali's networks integrated within two years. Service will not be interrupted by the deal, and for now Tiscali customer service remains the point of …

    Telecoms 8 May 08:50

  • US Forces 'black' budget = 2nd biggest military on Earth

    Secret space programme bigger than NASA

    There's controversy already in America regarding the first Obama administration detailed Defense budget plans, announced yesterday. Some are painting the plans as a cuts package, others disagree. What's clear is that the US military's top-secret (or "black") budget is now on the same level as the whole of UK defence spending - …

    Government 8 May 09:13

  • Next Grand Theft Auto to reward good behaviour?

    But more seductive, the Dark Side is

    A videogame survey’s hinted that Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar could be considering a “karma system” for the videogame’s next instalment. More bad deeds than good could see the storyline change accordingly Blogger Da Ill One recently took part in an online survey about videogame features and stumbled across a question …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 09:36

  • Palm Pré to launch right ahead of iPhone 3.0?

    Sprint aiming for 5 June launch

    A leaked Sprint document shows that the carrier could be gearing up to launch the Palm Pré in four weeks' time. An anonymous tipster’s handed an alleged “internal Palm memo” to Boy Genius Report. It carries the simple but clear message of “Launch” at 12pm on Friday, 5 June. That's three days before Apple's Worldwide …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 09:44

  • NASA sticks to 2010 shuttle retirement

    Fleet will shuttle off this mortal coil on schedule

    NASA is apparently sticking to its plans to retire the venerable space shuttle fleet in 2010 - despite political pressure to keep it flying, pending development of homegrown replacements to supply the International Space Station. The US House of Representatives and Senate recently agreed a further $2.5bn to keep the space …

    Space 8 May 10:25

  • Google's email goes titsup (again)

    Updated Gfail

    Google's popular free email service failed this morning at about 11am. At time of writing, access to webmail version of Gmail was patchy, and POP3 and IMAP access was unavailable. A Google spokesman told The Register the firm was aware of the problems and was investigating. He apologised to users for the inconvenience. The …

    Applications 8 May 10:26

  • Eight Scots convicted of child abuse charges

    Broken computer revealed conspiracy

    Eight Scottish men have been convicted of various charges relating to child sexual abuse and conspiracy. The initial investigation began after one of the men took his computer in for repair in April 2007. Staff found images of a naked 11-year-old boy and informed police. Investigations found 7,000 more images on the machine as …

    Law 8 May 10:30

  • Too much sunshine makes you commit suicide

    Hello darkness, my old friend

    It is not gloom and darkness but sunlight which drives people to kill themselves, according to new research. A study of suicides in Greenland has found that suicide rates increase sharply in summer, worsening with increased northerly latitude and round-the-clock daylight. The counter-intuitive findings are reported in a paper …

    Biology 8 May 10:43

  • Researchers release Win 7 rootkit exploit code

    Should we? Shouldn't we? Oh, go on then...

    Security researchers have released a proof-of-concept rootkit for Windows 7, in the hopes that its availability will assist in the prompt development of an antidote. Indian security researchers Vipin Kumar and Nitin Kumar demonstrated the toolkit, dubbed Vbootkit 2.0, at the Hack In The Box security conference in Dubai last …

    Enterprise Security 8 May 10:47

  • Panasonic knocks $20,000 off enormo plasma telly's price

    Now only £325 an inch

    Got 33 grand going spare? Then this Panasonic 103in plasma telly could be yours, assuming you can get it into your living room, of course. The TH-103PF10UK - despite the last two letters, it's a US model - has a full HD 1080p resolution and while it would have cost you $70,000 (£46,566/€52,243) when it was launched at the end …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 10:49

  • Sikh coppers request bulletproof turbans

    'Ballistic material' would allow firearms unit role

    Sikh police officers are asking for "special bulletproof turbans" which would allow them to serve in firearms units, the Guardian reports. There are around 2,000 Sikhs in the police force, but they're unable to pack a piece since existing safety helmets don't fit over their traditional headgear. Accordingly, the recently- …

    Bootnotes 8 May 10:51

  • Oompa-Loompa v Tinky Winky: Shock scrap pic

    Exclusive snap of mindless fancy dress violence

    The shock news earlier this week that an Oompa-Loompa, Tinky Winky and Spiderman had been cuffed after a nasty bout of fisticuffs at a Devon holiday camp prompted readers to demand an answer to that most pressing of questions: When the Tellytubbies and the Chocolate Factory employees go head-to-head, who's the last man standing …

    Bootnotes 8 May 11:02

  • Three short papers about SQL Server

    I'll name that instance in one

    Virtualisation, data networking, enterprise storage, security - and Microsoft SQL Server. The same topics crop up time and again as reader faves in The Reg Library. So here are three of the most popular papers concerned with one aspect of SQL Server or another from the Reg Library. SQL Server many-to-one protection This paper …

    Applications 8 May 11:13

  • Atlantis set for Monday lift-off

    Hubble servicing mission good to go

    Space Shuttle Atlantis is good to go for its launch next week to the Hubble Space Telescope - the final servicing trip to the orbiting 'scope. According to NASA, preparations for the STS-125 mission, aka "Servicing Mission 4", continue at the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A ahead of the scheduled blast-off on Monday at …

    Space 8 May 11:22

  • PSP phone could happen, says Sony Ericsson chief

    But not that it will happen

    Rumours of a PlayStation Portable (PSP) phone have been notably absent of late, but recent comments by Sony Ericsson’s President has suddenly brought them back to life. 'Hello Mr Komiyama. You want me to come in for an interview?' In an interview with the Financial Times, Hideki Komiyama said confidently that a PSP phone “ …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 11:34

  • Open Office 3.1 hits Malta, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea

    The rest of us can download it too

    The latest version of the open source alternative to Microsoft's Office suite has been released. Open Office 3.1 includes several improvements, including changes to the way files can be locked and unlocked, use of master reset passwords as well as other general bug fixes. The software claims better screen appearance, easier …

    Applications 8 May 11:42

  • Ireland bucks trend with anti-blasphemy law

    Protection for the pious cometh, and that right soon?

    Take the Lord’s name in vain and if the lightning bolt doesn’t get you, the Irish Government soon will. That’s the fond hope of Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, who last week proposed the insertion of a blasphemy clause into the Defamation Bill, currently before the Irish Parliament. The clear intention behind this move is …

    Law 8 May 11:43

  • Clickfree creates credit card-sized external SSD

    Not accepted in shops or restaurants

    Back-up specialist Clickfree has launched a solid-state drive that's the size of a credit card. Clickfree's Traveler: provides on-the-go storage and backup The Traveler’s available in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB capacities and is supposedly the perfect addition to a netbook. Compatible with Vista, XP and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 11:56

  • Acer Aspire One 751

    Review Netbook with an 11.6in, HD screen

    The new Acer Aspire One 751 has a screen that measures 11.6in on the diagonal with a resolution of 1366 x 768 and that’s mighty big for a netbook. As it happens, we were told a few months back that Intel has strict rules about the sale of Atom N-series processors to avoid cannibalising the sales of Core 2 and Centrino products …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 11:56

  • Black hole swallows Barbarella rehash

    Blame Thank the Germans

    The planned rehash of 1968 sci-fi romp Barbarella is no more - thanks to German intervention. Sin City helmsman Robert Rodriguez revealed in 2007 that he intended to breathe new life into the heroine and introduce her to "a new generation of moviegoers". This caused a certain amount of dismay, especially among those who …

    Entertainment 8 May 12:20

  • Larry Ellison: SPARC buy means we're just like Apple

    Pledges heart to Sun hardware in canned Q&A

    Larry Ellison promised to hang onto Sun's hardware business yesterday, saying he wanted Oracle to be like Apple and Cisco. The firm filed a canned interview with Ellison with the SEC yesterday, in which he said "we're definitely not going to exit the hardware business." Ellison told Reuters via email that while most hardware …

    Channel Register 8 May 12:34

  • Call for heads to roll over failed spook IT system

    'Appalling' intelligence project roasted

    Jacqui Smith has been urged to sack intelligence officials responsible for the failure of a secret major IT project after tens of millions of pounds had already been spent. The call for heads to roll over the scrapping of SCOPE Phase II came yesterday from Labour backbencher Andrew MacKinlay. SCOPE Phase II was the second …

    Government 8 May 12:37

  • Solar gadget keeps you cool

    ...and your conscience clear

    With summer just around the corner, what’s the geekiest way to keep cool? It could just be the Solar Hat Fan. The Solar Hat Fan: parents can be so cruel The eco-friendly gadget does exactly what it says on the tin: keeps you cool, by sourcing the juice to run its fan blades directly from the sun’s warming glow. Simply …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 13:47

  • US prof says 'bioelectric' cars much better than biofuel

    Analysis Still trying to run modern society by burning crops

    A prof in California has made the unsurprising observation that you can produce more transport miles from an acre of cropland by growing biomass for generators and using electric vehicles than by burning crop biofuels in ordinary engines. Assistant professor Elliott Campbell and his colleagues compared two different ways of …

    Environment 8 May 14:38

  • US job cuts slow in April

    Light at end of tunnel may not be a train, for once

    In what is probably the first good news on the jobs front that the US economy has seen since last spring, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported its unemployment figures for April. Although the number out of work rose, the job cuts were lower than expected, perhaps indicating that the rate of the …

    Financial News 8 May 14:47

  • Arnie pops up in Terminator Salvation

    'Brought a smile to my face', says early reviewer

    Fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator will be pleased to learn the Governator puts in a brief appearance in Terminator Salvation - albeit electronically, since the 61-year-old thesp was too busy running California to shoot new footage. According to the BBC, a press screening in LA prior to the McG-helmed film's 21 May US …

    Entertainment 8 May 15:04

  • Sun sale: Pillar checks itself

    Interview Knocking for opportunities as Oracle opens wallet

    Is Pillar Data threatened by Oracle's purchase of Sun? El Reg talked with Bob Maness, Pillar Data's worldwide marketing VP, about business, flash memory and Oracle's Sun acquisition. Pillar Data is the Larry Ellison-funded storage start-up delivering its Axiom storage arrays with application-aware templates and storage quality …

    Channel Register 8 May 15:42

  • XSS flaws poke ridicule at entertainment industry

    MPAA spanked by Pirate Bay backlash

    Cheeky crackers used a cross-site scripting flaw on the web sites of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to inject listings from controversial torrent links site The Pirate Bay. Vektor, a member of the Team Elite group of hackers, smuggled links culled from the The Pirate Bay into content served up when surfers …

    Enterprise Security 8 May 15:48

  • Plod called in on MPs' expenses leak

    Westminster Whack-a-mole

    Police have been called in to investigate the apparent presence of a mole in the Parliamentary fees office. The Daily Telegraph today ran a series of stories exposing ministers' expenses claims, after it obtained the data from a confidential source. A middle man has reportedly been shopping a CD containing fees office records …

    Government 8 May 16:00

  • Sphinx - text search The Pirate Bay way

    Like MySQL. But it can scale

    In 2001, Andrew Aksyonoff had an itch. He ran a website that indexed song lyrics and allowed users to search them. At the time, none of the open source options for text search worked. Lucene, the standard response at an engineering team meeting when the problem of search comes up, was still a baby. Indexing took too long, and it …

    Developer 8 May 16:02

  • Microsoft’s Silverlight 3 delivers decent alternative to Adobe

    Review A difficult act to swallow

    Silverlight's future looks bright, which is just as well. The initial release of Microsoft media player for the browser lacked many of the features Flash had offered for years. Version 1.0 was really little more than a dressed up beta and, while the current release is an improvement, it still lacks many advanced capabilities …

    Developer 8 May 16:13

  • Renault-Nissan signs Singapore e-car deal

    Leccy Tech And tells UK govt to get serious about EVs - or else...

    Hard on the heels of Renault's unveiling of its latest EV prototype, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has announced yet another leccy car infrastructure development project, this time in Singapore. The latest partnership is between Renault-Nissan and the Energy Market Authority, the Land Transport Authority and the Economic …

    Reg Hardware 8 May 16:43

  • Sun shareholders act to block Oracle deal

    Things turn litigious

    Larry Ellison might be expressing his love for Sun Microsystems' Sparc, but there's no guarantee the architecture will actually finish up in his arms. A group of Sun shareholders have gone to court in an attempt to block the Oracle chief executive's proposed $5.6bn acquisition of the company. Shareholders have filed three …

    Financial News 8 May 17:49

  • No sacred cows in NASA spaceflight review, chairman says

    Next-gen rockets included

    The chairman of a panel appointed by the Obama administration to take a new look a NASA's human spaceflight program said he plans to lead an independent review that will keep an open mind on the agency's long-term plans, including whether its next-generation rocket plans should be modified or scrapped. "We're to take a fresh …

    Space 8 May 18:04

  • Voltaire's sales plummet in Q1

    HPC takes a hit, thanks to Nehalem

    InfiniBand switch maker Voltaire had a pretty terrible thirteen weeks in the first quarter, with sales down 53.6 per cent to $7.7m, and even after driving up gross margins the company reported an operating loss of $5.9m, more than double the operating loss from the year-ago quarter. Net losses increased to $6.1m, up from a $5.5m …

    Financial News 8 May 18:07

  • Hulu recognizes Blighty existence

    Warning: This story for Americans only

    Hulu - that online video extravaganza juiced by three of the four American TV/movie giants - has suddenly recognized the existence of Blighty. Today, the old/new media hybrid told the world it has partnered with UK content distributor Digital Rights Group to offer up several Brit television titles, including Green Wing, Peep …

    Music and Media 8 May 19:59

  • Apple bars 2.0 code from App Store

    iPhone 3.0 or nothing

    Apple will no longer approve any iPhone application that isn't compatible with its upcoming iPhone 3.0 operating system. This tidbit comes to us thanks to a post on The Loop Blog, which quotes the following meat of an email sent to all members of Apple's iPhone Developer Program: All apps must be compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 …

    Mobile 8 May 20:02

  • Sun: 'We may have violated bribery laws'

    The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

    Sun Microsystems, which is in the middle of a $5.6bn acquisition by software giant Oracle, said in its 10-Q quarterly financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may have broken bribery laws overseas. The 10-Q filing also put some numbers on what Sun will have to pay if the Oracle acquisition does not go …

    Business 8 May 20:24

  • Oracle 'faster, cheaper' with VMware

    Avoid the RAC Tax

    Oracle's database performs better under VMware than in a more expensive Real Application Cluster (RAC). This point has been noted in several web locations, and EMC's blogger-in-chief, Chuck Hollis, has discussed the topic. Oracle's RAC is a cluster of Intel X86 servers operating as a single processing resource pool with a …

    Applications 8 May 20:36

  • Site schools world+dog in browsing history pilfering

    A defect as old as the web

    A new website aims to draw increased attention to one of the web's longest-running privacy defects: The ability for any site owner to effortlessly steal a compete copy of your recent browsing history. As we've pointed out before, the problem is as old as the world wide web itself, and unless people take precautions, it …

    Security 8 May 21:42

  • US states mulling Google book-scan pact

    Trailing the DoJ?

    A group of US state attorneys general recently held a conference call to discuss Google's $125m digital book settlement with the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. The settlement - made after authors and publishers sued over Google's library-scanning Book Search project - is already facing an …

    Music and Media 8 May 21:43

  • iPhone compass evidence surfaces

    Go west, young man

    It appears that at least one upcoming iPhone will include a digital compass in support of Apple's ongoing fascination with location-based services. The evidence for this new bit of internal iPhone hardware comes from a screenshot of an iPhone 3.0 debugging menu obtained by The Boy Genius Report that lists in its location …

    Mobile 8 May 21:52