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3rd July 2009 Archive

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  • Conviction overturned in MySpace suicide case

    Good news for net users

    A federal judge on Thursday tentatively overturned convictions against a mother accused of using MySpace to bully a 13-year-old girl who went on to hang herself to death. US District Judge George Wu tentatively acquitted Lori Drew, 50, of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. To the dismay of …

    Law 3 Jul 00:11

  • Debian rejects open-source .NET threat claim

    Minority install

    Debian, the foundation of Ubuntu, has rejected claims that it is potentially holding Linux's future hostage to Microsoft by including an open-source implementation of .NET in its code. A project spokesman has said GPL daddy Richard Stallman was wrong to say Mono will be featured in Debian's default installation, adding Mono …

    Operating Systems 3 Jul 00:13

  • Gamer embezzles virtual cash to settle real debts

    Eve Online banker does a runner

    As if high-profile investment scandals and the economic downturn weren't bad enough here on Earth, now folks have to deal with it outside our galaxy. Virtually, at least. Impoverished from real-world debts, the CEO of the largest player-run financial institution in the sci-fi MMO Eve Online stole thousands of dollars worth of …

    Crime 3 Jul 00:17

  • DoJ confirms Googlebooks antitrust probe

    Orphan monopoly

    The US Justice Department has confirmed its antitrust probe into Google's $125m book-scanning settlement with American authors and publishers, indicating that the ongoing investigation is an important one. On Thursday, deputy attorney general William F. Cavanaugh sent a letter to the federal judge overseeing the proposed …

    Music and Media 3 Jul 00:35

  • Hackintosh maker rises from the dead

    'When life gives you apples, make applesauce'

    Psystar, the Florida-based Hackintosher that's been giving Apple fits for over a year, refuses to die. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (better known amongst fanbois as TUAW), published a copy of the upstart clonemaker's latest newsletter, which announces to its customers that not only is the company preparing to emerge from …

    PCs & Chips 3 Jul 00:37

  • Microsoft weighs next-phase in open-source support

    Spring, PHP, and Apache sized up

    Microsoft's, shall we say, cautious engagement with open-source could mean frameworks like Spring and Hibernate are the next projects tuned to Windows. Sam Ramji, director of the open-source development lab, in a recent interview pointed to the rise in what he called "micro frameworks" and their importance. "It's something we …

    Developer 3 Jul 04:27

  • Month Of Twitter Bugs exposes microblogging flaws

    Making a hashtag of Web 2.0 security

    The Month Of Twitter Bugs has begun with the publication of a flaw in a URL shortening service often used in conjunction with the microblogging service. Four cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in the bit.ly URL-shrinking service were published on Wednesday. TweetDeck, one of the most popular Twitter clients, integrates …

    Security 3 Jul 04:36

  • Archos names date for UMPC, netbook launch

    Classmate PC included

    August looks set to be Archos’ month, because the firm’s chosen next month as the launch date for its handheld PC and trio of new netbooks. The Archos 9 UMPC will cost upwards of £450 The Archos 9 UMPC has a 1024 x 600 touchscreen display, 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor and an integrated US15W chipset. If you opt for the …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 07:07

  • Panasonic TX-L37V10 LCD HD TV

    Review The clutter-free viewing experience?

    The first manufacturer to launch TV sets with integrated Freesat, Panasonic moves things on again with its 2009 Viera range. On paper, the TX-L37V10 is appears to be everything you’ll need for living room viewing – a satellite and terrestrial TV with a network media player, and access to Internet services such as YouTube. For …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 08:02

  • Police told to use Wikipedia for court preparation

    Not in your notebook? Get online then

    The Crown Prosecution Service is telling police officers to use Wikipedia to prepare for court cases. Mike Finn, an expert witness on martial arts and weapons, told the Police Review he was involved in a case in the Midlands and asked to prepare a report on a weapon. According to the Telegraph, Finn said: "The material they …

    Policing 3 Jul 09:22

  • Hitachi GST buys Malaysian platter plant

    Farewell Western Digital

    A Western Digital plant in Sarawak, Malaysia, has been sold to Hitachi GST. The plant makes aluminium platters, the substrate for hard disk drives, (HDD) and WD has moved the plant's responsibilities to another facility in Johor, Malaysia, to consolidate operations and save costs. With the completion of the sale, the Sarawak …

    Storage 3 Jul 09:25

  • X2 supercopter in first tail-drive flight

    Sikorsky preps Osprey bitchslap

    US-based whirlybird megacorp Sikorsky announced yesterday that its "X2" high speed helicopter prototype has now made test flights using its tail propulsor. The aircraft had already flown, but only using its main rotors. Third prop's the charm, apparently. The idea of the X2 is to achieve a helicopter which can cruise twice …

    Physics 3 Jul 09:46

  • Hollywood prepares to battle Asteroids

    Plotless classic Atari game heads for the big screen

    Universal Studios is preparing to bring Atari video game Asteroids to the big screen, despite the fact that the classic offers "no story line or fancy world-building mythology", as the Hollywood Reporter puts it. The studio, lacking the kind of supplied narrative which made Lara Croft: Tomb Raider a major cinematic triumph, …

    Entertainment 3 Jul 10:01

  • Apple admits to iPhone 3GS heliophobia

    Good Day Sunshine. Not

    Apple has finally admitted that the iPhone 3GS can suffer from heatstroke, kind of. In a support document on the its website, Apple has urged customers to use the iPhone 3GS “in a place where the temperature is between 0°C and 35°C”. It can be stored anywhere the temperature doesn't stray out of the -20°C and 45°C range. …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 10:06

  • Lawyers claim ringtones are public performance

    EFF hits out at 'outlandish copyright claims'

    Internet watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation has hit out at a US music royalties collector, accusing it of making “outlandish copyright claims” about mobile phone ringtones. The American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) filed a lawsuit against telecoms giant AT&T, in which it told a federal court that …

    Mobile 3 Jul 10:21

  • Royal Society of Chemistry hunts Janet Leigh

    Psycho shower lookalike wanted for water-conservation vid

    The Royal Society of Chemistry is rather improbably looking for a Janet Leigh lookalike to star in a homage to the celebrated shower scene from Psycho. The planned reenactment of Leigh's demise - entitled Shower Murder - is planned for the 50th anniversary of the original. It's designed to show us Brits just how much water we' …

    Bootnotes 3 Jul 10:33

  • Ford talks up the e-car's future

    Leccy Tech And it's rosy, apparently

    Ford has laid down some ambitious plans to grow the market penetration of its electric vehicles over the coming years. Ford's Escape plug-in hybrid: just one of the many e-cars it hopes to shift in coming years Nancy Gioia, Director of Ford's hybrid vehicle program, said the company expects leccy vehicles to account for …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 10:36

  • iPhone Dev Team player breaks ranks to release 3GS hack tool

    Jailbreak app lets you install unlock utility

    The iPhone 3GS has been jailbroken, a process that opens the handset up to being loaded with apps that haven't been blessed by Apple. One of those applications can free the phone from ties to carriers. The hack comes from George Hotz - aka GeoHot - one the guys in the iPhone Dev Team, which has been playing mouse to Apple's …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 10:40

  • LaCie gets comfy on the rack

    12big product triple

    External storage supplier LaCie has entered the rack world with a trio of products. Xyratex' OEM deal with LaCie has resulted in these 6 to 60TB 2U enclosures for direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN) applications. The three models are the 12big - the 12 stands for the …

    Storage 3 Jul 10:53

  • Hackers crack ColdFusion

    Drive-by download attack hits multiple hosts

    Hackers are running a mass compromise against sites running vulnerable ColdFusion application server installations. Security watchers at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre are warning that a "high number" of sites have been hit over the last 36 hours or so. Miscreants are exploiting sites running older installations of …

    Enterprise Security 3 Jul 10:55

  • Russians demand flying cars and telepathy

    Reader poll What’s on your 21st century wishlist?

    Pravda is offering an entertaining insight into just what Russians consider must-haves for the forthcoming century – a list which naturally includes flying cars, cheap space travel and the elixir of eternal youth. A poll by the Russian National Centre for Public Opinion Studies asked the unwashed masses what they considered …

    Bootnotes 3 Jul 10:59

  • BOFH: A spot of bother

    Episode 9 The doggone call is yours

    It's a bloody Friday afternoon. People should know not to bother us when all we're wanting is a slow glide to the weekend... >ring< "Our system isn't working." "Really," the PFY says, putting his newspaper down with a sigh. "What system is that then?" "The one which does the ticker tape thing at the bottom of my web." " …

    BOFH 3 Jul 11:02

  • A practical guide to disaster recovery planning

    Two papers for smaller businesses

    Typically, vendor white papers are written with the ITDM or senior ITDM at a large company, in mind. [ITDM is industry jargon for "IT decision maker", since you ask.] People working at smaller companies are rather less well served, in quantity and quality. So today we focus our Reg Library selection on a couple of good papers …

    Small Biz 3 Jul 11:03

  • 'Non-compulsory' ID cards poised for a makeover?

    Analysis Kinder, gentler, don't mention the database

    It's straight out of the New Labour Labs spin book. The Home Office executes a U-turn on compulsory ID cards, while the Home Secretary does the rounds of the media insisting that they were never compulsory in the first place, and that he is affirming his commitment to them by accelerating their rollout. But there's a …

    Government 3 Jul 11:22

  • Amiga Forever updated for Windows 7

    Geriatric User Interface?

    Cloanto has released the latest version of Amiga Forever, its bundle combining the one-time Commodore operating system, "classic" hardware emulators, games and other assorted "items of historical interest". Amiga Forever 2009 essentially provides full Windows 7 compatibility. The emulators are open source and readily …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 11:45

  • Firefox 3.5 patch coming soon as Mozilla cranks up downloads

    Pesky monkey still creating (some) havoc

    Mozilla Foundation notched up five million downloads in the first 24 hours after it released Firefox 3.5 earlier this week. The open source browser maker also confirmed it would be bringing out version 3.5.1 soon to squash bugs its development team hadn’t managed to eradicate ahead of the launch. Mozilla’s security patch is …

    Applications 3 Jul 11:46

  • US starts emergency radio tests

    Why have one network when one radio can use them all?

    The Department of Homeland Security has announced preliminary tests of a radio designed to use all the frequencies where first responders hang out, which might prove easier than getting them all to use one network. In an attempt to unify the radio systems used by American emergency teams, the Department of Homeland Security …

    Networks 3 Jul 11:49

  • Analyst confidently lays out GTA timeline

    Two updates in 2010, followed by GTA V

    While gamers debate the existence of Grand Theft Auto IV on the iPhone, a gaming analyst has forecast that two more downloadable episodes of the game will be launched before GTA V is unveiled. Rockstar has already confirmed that GTA IV’s second downloadable episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony, will be launched this autumn. But …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 11:57

  • Nikon Coolpix S630

    Review Powerful zooms do not a camera make

    Some products remind you of certain things, and in the case of the Nikon Coolpix S630, it’s a banana. You can’t help but notice the curvature of the camera body, which sweeps gently towards the right. But although the Coolpix S630 comes in a variety of colours, yellow isn’t one of them. Nikon's Coolpix S630 This is a camera …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 12:02

  • Oracle waves axe in faces of 1,000 European workers - report

    Arm holding Sword of Damocles getting tired

    Software giant Oracle is reportedly set to lay off up to 1,000 Europe-based employees. According to French news agency AFP, the world's second biggest software vendor revealed its plans to Oracle's European workforce earlier this week when it met trade unions. The Register asked Oracle to confirm that job cuts were underway …

    Applications 3 Jul 12:55

  • Latin Best Buy surfers sprayed by drive-by download malware

    ¡Ay, Caramba!

    Hackers have invaded the Best Buy website to plant exploit code targeted at South and central American surfers. The villanos have manipulated the page that allows surfers, visiting the site from Latin America, to select language preferences between either Spanish or English. Beneath layers of concealment, surfers are …

    Enterprise Security 3 Jul 13:02

  • US sinks $0.5bn into electromagnetic aircraft-throwers

    Great idea for new Brit carriers - if we get any

    The Pentagon has awarded a half-billion-dollar contract for the building of a radical new electromagnetic catapult, intended to hurl US Navy jets off future aircraft carriers and into the sky. The new tech could also be used to hugely enhance Britain's planned new carriers - but it's becoming more and more likely that these will …

    Physics 3 Jul 13:16

  • Kicking songwriters for fun and profit

    Comment The EFF's ringtone jihad is cynical and synthetic

    Why are the EFF and Public Knowledge ganging up with their traditional adversaries - big telecomms companies and major record labels - to screw songwriters? The globally successful ringtone business is now on the wane, but it has made lots of people happy in recent years. Customers cheerfully handed over real money for a few …

    Music and Media 3 Jul 13:20

  • 'Get cameraphones out of nurseries' plea

    Summer of Banning Stuff continues apace

    A Plymouth-based group is campaigning for an end to mobile phone cameras in nurseries - or their "better control and management". It all depends on your point of view. The campaign was started by Devon mother Cheryl Higgs, whose children attended Little Ted’s, the nursery which is now the focus of a police investigation into …

    Mobile 3 Jul 13:35

  • Australia's 'answer to the velociraptor' unveiled

    Our dinos are hardest in world, claim Aussies

    Australian media report that three "new dinosaurs" have been discovered at a "prehistoric billabong dating back 95 million years". Aussie paleontologists have stated uncompromisingly that their down-under dinos would easily win in a fight with soft poofter aeons-dead antediluvian lizards from other, less fortunate nations. In …

    Biology 3 Jul 13:51

  • Scientists print out super-slim battery

    Power cells produced T-shirt fashion

    Power boffins have developed a prototype battery that’s not only lighter and thinner than existing power cells, but is produced using a printing process. Weighing in at less than 1g and measuring less than a millimetre thick, the 1.5V battery is printed using a silk-screen technique, similar to that used for T-shirts. A “ …

    Reg Hardware 3 Jul 14:02

  • Daily Mail launches McKinnon campaign

    Wheelie-bin warriors mobilised in support of Pentagon hacker

    The Daily Mail has launched a high-profile campaign supporting Gary McKinnon's fight against extradition to the USA. The red-baiting, Romany-hating paper criticises US authorities for treating a "naive hacker" interested in uncovering evidence of extraterrestrial life on poorly-secured Pentagon systems as a dangerous cyber- …

    Music and Media 3 Jul 14:17

  • UK taxpayers pay for Silicon Valley bloggers' holiday

    Brits pay for Web 2.0 lotus eaters

    A group of wealthy Californian bloggers are taking a holiday in the UK this month - and the taxpayer will help foot the bill. Calling themselves The Traveling Geeks, the bloggers will spend a week here meeting other bloggers. In addition to corporate sponsorship, they're getting a helping hand from NESTA, the lottery-funded …

    Government 3 Jul 15:36

  • Who wants T-Mobile UK?

    Forget the customers, grab the spectrum and run

    T-Mobile UK will be sold in the next few months, and the markets are salivating at the synergies possible - but it could easily be T-Mobile's network that remains in place when the dust settles. Any doubts that Deutsche Telecom wants shot of its UK arm, T-Mobile, were firmly put to rest with Vodafone and then Telefonica in the …

    Mobile 3 Jul 15:50

  • Swiss public sector allowed to buy Microsoft software

    Putting the Swiss army knife in

    A Swiss federal court has handed Microsoft a temporary reprieve that allows the firm to sell its products and services to public sector customers, even though it could face an annulment in the final judgment. The move follows software rival Red Hat launching a legal appeal in May this year against a Swiss government agency’s …

    Law 3 Jul 15:53

  • Lamson - email app coding without the palm sweat

    Doing what Java never did

    "Can you integrate this with my e-mail?" It's one of the more dreaded questions in software development. For any programmer who has been around the block a few times, it evokes a long repressed fear of Sendmail m4 macros or Outlook COM objects. When a non-technical managerial type asks this question in a group meeting, and your …

    Developer 3 Jul 17:02

  • NSA plans massive, 65MW, $2bn data center in Utah

    Yes, Utah

    The ultra-secretive National Security Agency plans to build a 1-million-square-foot data center in Utah as it seeks to decentralize its computing resources and tap regions with ample supplies of lower-cost electricity. When completed, the facility will require at least 65 megawatts of power and cost $1.93bn, according to news …

    Servers 3 Jul 17:53

  • Kentucky payroll phishing scam nets small fortune

    Blue grass county hit by Trojan-fueled cybercrime

    A gang of cybercrooks has made off with $415,000 from the coffers of Bullitt County, Kentucky following the conclusion of an elaborate phishing scam, The Washington Post reports. Crackers in Ukraine are reckoned to have stolen a county treasurer's login credentials using a Trojan keylogger before using them to transfer funds …

    Malware 3 Jul 18:01

  • iTunes minus the player: hack your Apple beats

    Mac Secrets Dodge the shareware sledgehammer

    QTMovie, the principal class inside the QTKit framework, isn't just for playing movies. A while back, I provided source code for a program that browsed your iTunes library, showing all available albums and songs. You may remember that this worked by using classes inside Apple's undocumented iLifeMediaBrowser framework. One …

    Developer 3 Jul 18:02

  • Firefox Gods summon New Ice Age

    Strategy Boutique Fur enough

    You might notice that there's something subtly different about the new look of Firefox - the popular virtual memory stress test tool that's cunningly disguised as a web browser. With an icy blast from the Arctic, the British Isles - or something that used to look quite like them - have disappeared beneath sheets of glaciers. …

    Software 3 Jul 18:23

  • McAfee false-positive glitch fells PCs worldwide

    When AV attacks

    IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attacked their core system files. In some cases, this caused the machines to display the dreaded blue screen of death. Details are still coming in, but forums here and here …

    Security 3 Jul 22:48