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19th June 2009 Archive

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  • Microsoft bribes Oz to ditch Firefox

    'Get rid of it or get lost'

    Microsoft isn't just bribing people to use its search engine. It's bribing people to ditch Firefox for Internet Explorer. "We're buried $10,000 somewhere on the internet and if you're the first one to find it, you get to keep it," Microsoft's Australian arm has told the Land of Oz. "But you'll never find it using old Firefox …

    Odds and Sods 19 Jun 00:54

  • Intel clones your phone in the cloud

    Research@Intel Data center in your pocket

    Your smartphone will have access to massive computing power if Intel's Clone Cloud finds a place in the sky. Intel demoed this fledgling tech this morning at its seventh annual Research@Intel event in Mountain View, California. As Intel researcher Byung-Gon Chun told The Reg, the Clone Cloud is designed - as its name suggests …

    Mobile 19 Jun 01:00

  • Microsoft: 18-month Windows 7 downgrade rights

    Not for all!

    If you get a PC running Windows 7 but can't divorce yourself from Windows XP, Microsoft will give you 18 months to downgrade - not six. That's the line from Microsoft, which said that downgrade rights will be available from the date Windows 7 ships - October 22, 2009 - to April 1, 2011. Downgrades cover just two editions of …

    Channel Register 19 Jun 01:22

  • Viviane Reding sees talking yoghurt pots

    Internet of Things strikes again

    The EU yesterday published an action plan to promote the Internet of Things, listing fifteen action points that the EU thinks could promote the use of internet connections in everything from yoghurt pots to trees. Increased connectivity is a forgone conclusion: RFID tags are getting everywhere these days and while it might be …

    Wireless 19 Jun 07:07

  • Sony Ericsson Walkman W995

    Review Sonic sophistication with a photo finish

    If you're a music mad, photo enthusiast, then Sony Ericsson has you in its sights with the W995 – its most advanced convergence of camera and music phone features to date. Featuring a Walkman media player and an 8.1Mp camera, the W995 also has HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and a new media sync system for Macs and Windows PCs. Sony …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 08:02

  • Russian woman poorly after half dozen 'revirginations'

    Like a virgin, touched for the very sixth time...

    A Russian woman is in a bad way in intensive care following her sixth "revirgination" - hymenoplasty ops which gave her husband the honour of popping her cherry once a year until her immune system could stand no more. According to MosNews, Natalia K got married at 24 but had already surrendered her hymen to a previous beau. …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 08:02

  • US record industry wins $1.92m from file sharer

    Even RIAA 'embarrassed' by $80,000 per song verdict

    The Recording Industry Ass.of America has won $1.92m in damages against a woman accused of file sharing. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a mum of four from Minnesota, was found guilty of copyright infringement in respect of 24 songs downloaded from, and made available to, the Kazaa file sharing network. There was no evidence that anyone …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 08:53

  • What's the best open source Windows back-up app?

    FOSS to the rescue

    I have a 250GB external hard drive which I use to back-up my Windows XP machine. Sorry, Linux fans, but there are apps I need to run that are Windows only, otherwise I'd switch. Point is, I'm fed up of copying files manually. So, what do you guys recommend as a solid, open source back-up utility that will copy my Documents …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 09:02

  • Church of England schism fear over mobile phone masts

    Not an ecumenical matter

    Mobile masts have joined gay priests and female ordination on the list of issues the Church of England would prefer not to have to deal with. The potential schism was revealed on Tuesday in Parliament, when Sir Stuart Bell was asked if the Church Commissioners had any policy on the fitting of radio masts, and admitted that it …

    Mobile 19 Jun 09:04

  • TTxGP: world's first e-bike grand prix race report

    Leccy Tech Went the day well?

    The inaugural zero-emission motorcycles grand prix – the TTxGP - finished last week with more than its fair share the drama, excitement and breakdowns. As with any new form of motor sport, the rate of attrition was high with only nine of the 20 bikes due to start race making it to the chequered flag. Pre-prang: eRockit's …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 09:17

  • BlackBerry subscriber growth dips

    A bit

    A extra 3.8 million BlackBerry addicts swelled RIM's coffers in the three months to May 30, the firm's financial report revealed on Thursday. The total BlackBerry subscriber base is now about 28.5 million. The rate of growth actually dipped slightly however, from 3.9 million net new subscribers in the three months prior. …

    Mobile 19 Jun 09:18

  • Israeli robo-kamikaze selling like hot exploding cakes

    Paris Airshow Blighty reinventing prowlerbomb wheel as usual

    The Israeli arms industry appears to have stolen a march on that of Britain in the field of "loitering munitions" - aerial surveillance drones equipped with warheads and designed for one-way strike missions. While Blighty pays large sums to develop a partly homegrown example, Israel is already making substantial export sales of …

    Science 19 Jun 09:21

  • SGI plays numbers game with 6120 storage box

    Inexplicably named, self-contained storage appliance

    SGI - the company that is the result of Rackable's mercy acquisition of Silicon Graphics International - is announcing a new storage product at next week's International Supercomputing Conference in Heidelberg. The box is the InfiniteStorage 6120, described as being "high-performance with best-in-class density and maximum …

    Storage 19 Jun 09:44

  • NASA unleashes Moon-attack probe

    Successful launch of lunar suicide mission

    NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) were successfully projected Moonwards yesterday atop an Atlas V rocket. The launch from Cape Canaveral was at 21:32 GMT. The LRO separated from the upper stage at 22:16 GMT and will arrive at the Moon on Tuesday. Its mission …

    Space 19 Jun 10:05

  • UK gov admits gamble on massive net snoop plan

    Exclusive IMP bets £2bn on non-existent horse

    The Home Office has privately conceded that its plan to store details of every internet communication may not be possible - and that it has pinned the multibillion pound project's hopes on snooping technology not yet developed. Officials working on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) made the admission last week in …

    Government 19 Jun 10:14

  • Emulex cloud storage gateway revealed

    Updated Through an unlikely EMC conduit

    An EMC technical consultant blogger - Dave Graham - has revealed details of an Emulex SAN fabric cloud gateway concept. The ES3 conceptual device is a SAN fabric-resident entity that represents itself as virtual SAS or Fibre Channel disks to accessing host servers, and is just another volume I/O target in the SAN. However, …

    Storage 19 Jun 10:23

  • Spanish bar invites customer abuse

    Oi, Pedro, gimme a f**king beer you t**t

    A Spanish bar has introduced a novel way of relieving customer stress during the current global economic apocalypse - free drinks for "original or hilarious abuse" directed at staff. Bernard Mariusz, owner of Casa Pocho in Cullera near Valencia, reckoned that punters needed an outlet for their frustrations during these dark …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 10:46

  • Microsoft pooh-poohs CEO's 'new Xbox 360 next year' claim

    And his Project Natal talk

    Confusion reigns supreme in the gaming industry today following Microsoft’s retraction of comments by big cheese Steve Ballmer that a new Xbox 360 console featuring Project Natal will emerge next year. While speaking at a conference in Chicago earlier this week, Ballmer announced that next year’s revamped Xbox 360 will be …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 11:12

  • The great FM radio switch-off: Don't Panic!

    Digital Britain The media's media dept got Carter completely wrong

    Media sections of newspapers are usually the weakest, and you can guess the reasons why. It's an institutional thing. Because of a gentleperson's agreement that they'll never dish the dirt on each other, the real stories are buried - you'll be lucky if the occasional one washes up in Private Eye. Nor is it a hindrance if a …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 11:13

  • Google and Facebook jump on bloodstained Iran wagon

    Publicity-seeking gesture halts crisis, heals wounds, ends tyranny

    Google has begun offering Persian translations and Facebook has rebadged some of its features into Farsi. Both firms claim the action is in direct response to events in Iran, not the publicity achieved by micro-blog firm Twitter. Google Translate now includes a Persian ALPHA service. Facebook's blog post on the move notes …

    Applications 19 Jun 11:16

  • MS names ship date for free security suite

    Free as in lunch

    Microsoft is launching its free security suite next week - the 23rd of June to be precise. It was going by the funky codename Morro, but is launching under the duller name of Microsoft Security Essentials. It replaces Windows OneCare - and yes we do know what that sounds like. Microsoft Security Essentials will be available …

    Malware 19 Jun 11:22

  • Che Guevara's granddaughter poses for PETA

    ¡Viva la revolución vegetariana! etc etc

    The granddaughter of noted Argentinian Ernie "Che" Guevara has got her kit off for PETA, to promote the revolutionary benefits of baby carrots and other non-animal-based foodstuffs. Lydia Guevara, 24, was caught during the photoshoot (see pic) in no way exploiting her granddad's legend, or indeed the famous snap of him issuing …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 11:22

  • So what we do when ID Cards 1.0 finally dies?

    Jerry Fishenden argues the case for making next time non-evil

    UK Identity Card 1.0 is in deep trouble. It's running late, and if the Conservative Party wins next year's election it'll be scrapped. Its original architect has changed his mind, and even some Cabinet members are starting to see it as a needless expense. But if we pull the plug, what then? The cards may go away, but the issue …

    Government 19 Jun 11:39

  • British boffins ditch spinning media for ultra-fast storage tech

    Not SSD, not HDD. Say hello to 'Hard Rectangular Drive'

    Could this be the storage tech that replaces hard disks and supersedes solid-state drives? UK-based developer DataSlide believes so, claiming to have the others licked with magnetic but non-rotating system it's calling Hard Rectangular Drive. DataSlide's technology centres on a sheet of magnetic material mounted beneath a …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 11:48

  • Laptop stand intros pin-pointed cooling

    Moveable fan means moveable breeze

    Laptop stands with integrated cooling fans are ten-a-penny nowadays, but the Minifit is the first one we’ve seen with a moveable cooler. cRaia's Minifit: cools your laptop at specific points Designed by firm cRaia, the metal stand allows an 80 x 80 x 10mm, 1500rpm, USB-powered fan to be clipped underneath your laptop. The …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 11:53

  • SuperTalent adds Ram to SSD to boost write speeds

    Eight-channel Flash architecture helps too

    SuperTalent has begun shipping SSDs with 128MB of on-board DRam in a bid to beat the poor random write performance of so many solid-state drives. The 2.5in MasterDrive SX line includes capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The latter have the same read and write speeds of 220MB/s and 200MB/s, respectively, SuperTalent said. For …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 12:17

  • F-22 may live on: Cheap secondhand Eurofighters on offer

    Paris Airshow Classic jet for sale, one careful owner, hardly flown

    Washington politicians are trying to frustrate the Obama administration's attempt to cease manufacture of the controversial, extremely expensive US ultrafighter, the F-22 Raptor. Meanwhile the Eurofighter - perhaps the second best air-dominance plane in the world - is now to be available second-hand at knockdown prices. Go on …

    Government 19 Jun 12:21

  • Kingston achieves 128GB Flash drive feat

    Small form-factor, big capacity

    Kingston Technology has launched a Flash drive with a whopping 128GB storage capacity - thought to be the most capacious drive of its type currently available. Kingston's DT200: 128GB in your pocket The DataTraveler 200 – also known as the DT200 – measures roughly 70 x 12 x 22mm and features a retractable USB connector. It’ …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 12:22

  • iPod saves lightning-strike teen

    All-powerful device takes 300kV hit

    An Essex teenager struck by lightning escaped the worst effects of the 300kV shock thanks to her iPod, the Daily Mail reports. Sophie Frost and boyfriend Mason Billington, both 14, were unwisely sheltering under a tree on playing fields in Rayleigh when the bolt struck. Critically, the earphones of Frost's iPod were "hanging …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 12:23

  • Regulators and law don't protect UK net neutrality

    ISPs can do as they want, as long as they tell you first

    There is no legal barrier in the UK to internet service providers (ISPs) blocking content from website operators who do not pay them. Neither consumer law nor telecoms regulation protects ISP subscribers, technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio has revealed. BT last week said that it wanted the operators of web video services to …

    Telecoms 19 Jun 12:36

  • NPfIT failed nine Gateway Reviews

    You mean it actually passed some?

    Nearly one third of the National Programme for IT's Gateway Reviews until 2007 produced a red status demand for immediate remedial action. Of 31 reviews produced by the Treasury's Office of Government Commerce and released under the Freedom of Information Act on 18 June 2009, nine had a red status, meaning "To achieve success …

    Government 19 Jun 12:51

  • Kodak EasyShare Z915

    Review 10x zoom without the price magnification

    Kodak is the latest company to enter the super-zoom market, with the EasyShare Z915. Equipped with a 10x optical zoom, plus a good sprinkling of features, it is aimed at the person who wants to get closer to the action with their compact camera. What’s more, it sells for less than £200. So do you really get more for less with …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 12:58

  • The Moon? We're going nowhere, says NASA official

    More cash or new technologies essential

    While this week saw NASA successfully launch its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite missions to the Moon - designed as an exploratory prelude to a human return to our satellite - a senior NASA official claimed on Wednesday that existing plans to venture beyond low-Earth orbit were …

    Space 19 Jun 12:59

  • Baffled-by-tech MPs expense IT support

    Your tax money at work

    The MP expenses saga has reached a new level of farce - with Parliament publishing a heavily censored version of the expenses file obtained by the Telegraph newspaper, and leaked over the past month. It's so heavily censored, there's nothing there that will incriminate anybody. The paper will respond with a full, uncensored …

    Government 19 Jun 13:04

  • Man queues overnight to buy iPhone 3GS... and take it to bits

    London teardown

    Crazy iFixit.com CEO Kyle Wiens arrived in London from California yesterday with the intention of queueing overnight to ensure he was first in line this morning to buy an iPhone 3G S. No mere fanboy, this guy wanted the handset to being among the first geeks around the globe to disassemble Apple's faster, more capacious …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 13:08

  • Controversial mobile directory fails on launch

    'Hello, can I have the number for Mr Cockup?'

    A new directory of mobile phone numbers - already hit by privacy controversy - was further troubled by a system failure yesterday that meant it was unable to connect callers. The 118800 service was scheduled to go live yesterday with a press event in London backing its multimillion-pound launch. Today, however, a message on …

    Mobile 19 Jun 13:19

  • FCC to investigate iPhone-like deals

    No more network exclusives?

    Interim Federal Communications Commission chair Michael Copps is calling for an examination of exclusive handset deals to establish if they are restricting innovation. In an informal presentation on broadband policy at the Pike & Fischer Broadband Policy Summit(pdf) Mr. Copps brought up the subject of exclusive deals and how …

    Mobile 19 Jun 14:40

  • Boffins: Gigantic crustacean sperm is 'viable strategy'

    Ostracods' jumbo jism is 10x longer than own bodies

    A crack team of international boffins has uncovered startling facts about certain species of crustaceans which produce sperm ten times as long as their own bodies. If human males produced such "giant sperm", according to the scientists, the result would be tadpole-esque horrors 17 metres long. Renate Matzke-Karasz, of the …

    Biology 19 Jun 14:42

  • Vodafone hosts 'wish you were' service for smug tourists

    See where everyone else is spending the summer

    Just in case anyone missed Vodafone's 3-month promotional removal of roaming charges, the company is hosting a web site to which anyone can tweet their holiday destinations to share with the world. The site integrates with Google Maps to provide a display of the most popular holiday destinations amongst Twitter users, who are …

    Mobile 19 Jun 15:06

  • Underwear obligatory for Florida city workers

    Days of braless Spandex halter tops well and truly over

    The council of Brooksville, Florida, has clamped down on malodorous city employees sporting Spandex halter tops and exotic piercings while further prejudicing the town's "public image" by turning up for work without underwear. The new dress code specifically mandates the use of deodorant, while banning "distracting, offensive …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 15:08

  • UK.gov CIO speaks out on sheep and clouds

    He wanders lonely as a cloud

    The government chief information officer is eating his own dog food by getting involved in a discussion of cloud computing on Google groups. The cloud computing interoperability forum was discussing the implications of plans for government-created nationwide cloud computing - that government departments would use cloud …

    Government 19 Jun 15:32

  • Inside Adam Curtis' funhouse

    Exclusive A sneak preview

    Over seven floors of an office block in Manchester, Adam Curtis latest project is taking shape. The publicity for It Felt Like A Kiss, the centerpiece of the Manchester International Festival, has been mysterious so far: the Festival website tells us that the BBC's documentary auteur who made The Power of Nightmares and The Trap …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 15:38

  • Street View solves Dutch mugging

    Google in good deed shocker

    In news which proves inconvenient for those of us who believe Google's Street View is nothing more than one tentacle of the Great Satan of Mountain View's humanity-supressing internet beast, Dutch press reports that snoopmobile images from the all-seeing web eye have been used to collar two muggers. A 14-year-old lad from …

    Bootnotes 19 Jun 15:47

  • Wii bowling ball rolls in

    Gutter ball idea or a sure strike?

    A bowling videogame’s one thing, but we were bowled over by the stupidity of the latest Wii peripheral – a bowling ball. The Remote sits inside the bowling ball Bowling balls are big, heavy and cumbersome objects, while the Wii encourages gamers to jump, dance and flap around during gameplay. So, mix the two together and …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 15:53

  • Twitter would have stopped Rwandan genocide, claims PM

    RT @gordon 'I can haz crass opportunism?'

    The PM reckons the web and Twitter would have made the murder of millions of Rwandans in the 1990s impossible, according to The Guardian. The online spread of information about the current unrest in Iran indicated a change "more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution", Gordon Brown said. "This week's …

    Government 19 Jun 15:56

  • Samsung demos OLED security card

    Powered by an RFID reader?

    Samsung has demoed an electronic ID card with integrated low-power OLED. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The credit card-sized ID has a 2in, 240 x 320 OLED screen embedded into it that displays a slowly spinning woman’s head. Presumably the card also has an RFID chip embedded into it, because – …

    Reg Hardware 19 Jun 16:04

  • Microsoft forbids changes to Windows 7 netbook wallpaper

    Redmond-approved art only

    Netbook users running Windows 7 Starter Edition better learn to enjoy Microsoft's default desktop background, because that's all they're getting. Windows 7 Starter Edition not only blocks end-users from swapping the original Windows-provided wallpaper, colors, and sound schemes - OEMs and partners aren't allowed into the …

    Operating Systems 19 Jun 17:59

  • AT&T playing iPhone streaming favorites

    Baseball, yes. Sling Media, no

    AT&T is playing favorites when it comes to whom it allows to stream media over its 3G wireless broadband service and who it bars from doing so. According to a report by the media-reform group Free Press, AT&T is allowing Major League Baseball to stream live games to its MLB.com At Bat 2009 (iTunes link) iPhone app over AT&T's …

    Mobile 19 Jun 18:53

  • Oracle kills Virtual Iron-ware

    Exclusive 'Shafts' partners, customers

    Little more than a month after acquiring Virtual Iron for an undisclosed fee, Oracle is effectively killing the company's virtualization product. In a letter to Virtual Iron's sales partners, Oracle says it "will suspend development of existing Virtual Iron products and will suspend delivery of orders to new customers." And in …

    Virtualization 19 Jun 20:27

  • Intel powers netbook via thin air

    Research@Intel Wireless juice due 2015

    Wireless power transmission has taken another step towards commercial reality. At its eighth annual Research@Intel event on Thursday in Mountain View, California, the chip giant gave a crowd-gathering demo of what it calls a Wireless Resonant Energy Link (WREL). The demo setup included a hefty transmitter and receive-coil …

    PCs & Chips 19 Jun 20:30

  • China recruits volunteer net porn police

    Censors Google (again)

    The Chinese government plans to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers by the end of the year to report "lewd" content and "uncivilized" behavior on the internet. Government-run news agency Xinhua reports volunteers will be registered under the auspices of China's Capital Civic Enhancement Committee Office (CCECO). The …

    Music and Media 19 Jun 20:42

  • Oracle tried to sell Sun hardware biz

    Exclusive 'Unrealistic' price

    Oracle's top brass has tried to convince Sun Microsystems' staff that they love hardware. And Sun has described its impending acquisition as "redefining the industry" by collapsing servers, storage, and networking around its open source softwae. But we've already seen proof that Oracle's conversion to hardware isn't born of …

    Servers 19 Jun 20:52

  • US net nanny ratchets Chinese censorware spat

    Stall the PC makers. Then sue

    US software maker Solid Oak has beefed up efforts to prevent the distribution of China's "Green Dam" app, continuing to claim that the Far East censorshipware includes code lifted from its own net-filtering tool, Cybersitter. The Chinese government has decreed that all new machines in the country must ship with the infamous …

    ID 19 Jun 22:42