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13th July 2009 Archive

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  • Adobe wires ColdFusion into Microsoft Office and SharePoint

    Business-apps sucking sound

    Fourteen years after ColdFusion first appeared, Adobe Systems has updated the platform to facilitate the development of applications that feed on Microsoft's Office and SharePoint productivity products. Today, Adobe is announcing public betas of the latest edition of its platform that will let ColdFusion applications extract, …

    Developer 13 Jul 04:02

  • Olympics loses tech provider

    No medal for Nortel

    The London Olympics and its network infrastructure provider Nortel have agreed to split. The London 2012 organising committee said the contract with Nortel had ended on good terms. The move could cost the Olympics as much as £10m, because as well as providing infrastructure, Nortel was also a "Tier One" sponsor of the event. …

    Data Networking 13 Jul 08:48

  • Brothel funds NZ lad's Olympic dream

    Taekwondo hopeful opens 'gentlemen's club'

    A NZ Olympic taekwondo hopeful has decided to relieve his parents of the burden of funding his international bids for sporting glory and has opened a brothel to raise cash for his trip to London 2012. Logan Campbell, 23, stumped around NZ$150,000 (£58,000) to compete in Beijing,* with mum and dad footing most of the bill. …

    Bootnotes 13 Jul 09:02

  • VMware copes with performance, chargeback anxiety

    Cuts price on converged VM jukebox, too

    VMware has given its vCenter management tool an overhaul, giving admins the ability to monitor application performance and charge back departments for the privilege. VMware has kept its tools for managing server virtualization separate from the ESX Server hypervisor that implements virtualization and the features and functions …

    Virtualization 13 Jul 09:38

  • Intel relaxes rules on netbook screen specs, say moles

    More hi-res mini-laptops on the way?

    Netbooks with a 10in screen and an Intel Atom N-series processor look set to move quickly beyond the so-far-standard 1024 x 600 resolution. Until now, Intel has allegedly told Atom customers that they must not use screens larger than 10in in netbooks, most likely in an attempt to keep a clear boundary between netbook and …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 09:43

  • Digital Britain: The Emperor has no signal

    Broadband has failed because of our slack-jawed elites

    Ofcom's reluctant publication of a national 3G coverage map is a wonderful thing - it raises questions that politicians, business, the regulator and the Twittering media have swept under the carpet for years. If universal coverage is a common goal, as they all insist, then getting there is going to be very expensive and …

    Networks 13 Jul 10:02

  • AMD delivers more six-shooter Istanbul Opterons

    Aiming high and low for Nehalem Xeons

    As planned, chip maker designer and seller Advanced Micro Devices will today trot out some additions to its six-core "Istanbul" Opteron processors for servers, adding faster and hotter versions of the chips as well as cooler and slower ones for the energy conscious. The Istanbul chips were launched on June 1, and AMD said back …

    Servers 13 Jul 10:05

  • Hurt yourself? Try f**king swearing

    Cussing relieves pain, psychologists confirm

    A team from Blighty's Keele University has confirmed what all of us who've ever hit our thumbs with a hammer have known for years - that swearing can relieve pain. To confirm this foul-mouthed finding, psychologist Richard Stephens and his colleagues asked 67 student volunteers to stick their hands in icy water and either gob …

    Biology 13 Jul 10:14

  • First mobile 'Nehalem' CPUs out in October?

    Quick, before the 32nm CPU+GPU parts debut...

    Intel's first 'Nehalem' architecture mobile processors may appear sooner than planned, with three chips arriving late Q3 or early Q4. The CPUs in question are 'Clarksfield' parts, quad-core notebook chips fabbed at 45nm. All three use Intel's HyperThreading technology to increase the number of cores the host OS sees to eight …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 10:24

  • File-sharer numbers dip, says survey

    Bluetooth takes a chomp out of P2P

    A survey has found a fall in use of unlicensed music file-sharing over 18 months in the UK. Researchers found that the overall percentage of sharers had fallen from 22 per cent in December 2007, when the survey was last conducted, to 17 per cent. The biggest drop was in 14-18 year olds: 26 per cent said they shared once a month …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 10:26

  • Microsoft spills some Office 2010 beta beans

    Pulls site - Google loyally caches it

    Microsoft will later today announce a series of significant, Google-aping changes to its business model for the release of Office 2010, but ahead of the shindig it’s already let slip what that will entail via the suite’s official website. Redmond mistakenly hit the button a few hours too soon and, although it has now yanked …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 10:49

  • What happens to Dell's deduplication now?

    Comment Data Domain deal knocks Dell's ducks out of line

    Dell has a three-way deduplication strategy that uses CommVault, EMC/Quantum and Symantec technologies. EMC has bought Data Domain, putting the Quantum technology at risk of replacement. What will Dell do? Back in November Dell said it would develop a single Quantum (DXi)-based de-duplication architecture across its PowerVault …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 10:59

  • Phones4u takes orders for 12Mp Samsung cameraphone

    Pixon 12 out next month

    Samsung's 12Mp Pixon cameraphone will be delivered on 1 August - if you order it in advance from Phones4u, that is. The retailer claims it's the only company taking advance orders for the touchschreen handset, which it's offering for free provided you agree to an 18-month or two-year £40-a-month Orange airtime package. …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 11:15

  • ImageShack hacked in oddball security protest

    Anti-Sec in erratic war declaration on full disclosure

    A hacking group has broken into one of the biggest image hosting websites on the net before uploading its manifesto. "Anti-Sec" broke into ImageShack to post a protest over sites that publish full disclosure material on security vulnerabilities, though how the attack furthers this agenda is unclear. The group, which also …

    Enterprise Security 13 Jul 11:16

  • Mobile directory blames press for latest failure

    Absolutely, definitely not due to a privacy backlash

    The operator of a new directory of private mobile phone numbers has blamed the press for its rushed launch and subsequent technical problems, which have seen the service shut down indefinitely. Connectivity, which runs the 118800 telephone service and website, today denied reports it had been forced to suspend it by a deluge …

    Mobile 13 Jul 11:28

  • Honda promises hybrid Jazz, CR-Z next year

    Leccy Tech Worthwhile competition for the Prius at last?

    Honda has announced it is to put two new hybrids into production alongside its Insight and Civic models. Towards the end of 2010, a hybrid version of the Honda Fit will be launched. That's just a Jazz by another name, and nothing to get too excited about. Honda's CR-Z: Far more interesting is the news that, come February …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 11:32

  • Business throws cold water on gov hot air proposals

    Tilting at windmills

    Business lobby group the CBI is calling on the government to reduce its reliance on wind power to hit greenhouse gas targets. The group is worried that government policy does not offer enough juicy subsidies to nuclear power and so-called "clean coal" technology. John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said: "The …

    Small Biz 13 Jul 11:35

  • F-Secure grabs online storage firm in cloud security push

    Steek and you shall find

    Net security firm F-Secure has bought privately-held online storage and data management firm Steek in a deal designed to improve its sales to telcos. The agreement, announced Friday, is valued at € 27.5m ($38.4m), with the possibility of a further performance-based payment of up to €2.5m next year. Steek's technology is …

    Enterprise Security 13 Jul 11:39

  • HTC Snap

    Review Paint it BlackBerry

    Another week, another handset from HTC, or so it seems. The Taiwanese manufacturer has been churning out new Windows Mobile smart phones with indecent haste of late, and seems to be showing no signs of flagging. HTC's Snap: keep up with your inner retinue The latest is a break from the firm's Touch series and instead more …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 12:02

  • Sun setting dedupe up for ZFS

    Australian conference giveaway

    Oracle/Sun's ZFS file system seems set to get deduplication added to it later this year. ZFS or the Zettabyte File System is a 128-bit file system that Sun says radically simplifies file system administration. Amongst its features are 256-bit checksums that detect and correct silent data corruption. In other words, it is …

    Storage 13 Jul 12:05

  • Philips refutes EU LCD cartel charges

    Probe unveiled as firm announces results

    The European Commission is investigating whether a cartel has been operating in the LCD panel industry. The Commission said today that it had sent a "statement of objections" to a number of companies in the market, "concerning their alleged participation in a cartel in violation of EC Treaty rules on restrictive business …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 13:13

  • US thesp to attempt audacious tw*tdangle

    David Arquette, airborne plastic box, NYC, etc etc

    US thesp David Arquette has had an attack of the gitwizards and will this week spend two eight-hour stints in a plastic box suspended above NYC's Madison Square Garden. Although comparisons with David Blaine's legendary twatdangle are inevitable, our use of the term to describe 37-year-old Arquette's stunt is a little unfair, …

    Entertainment 13 Jul 13:41

  • Office 2010 hits testers minus Google punch

    WPC Summer fun with online Office apps promised

    The next version of Microsoft's Office is due to be released for testing today, but you won't be able to get your hands on the web-based edition of Office 2010 just yet. Office Web applications won't be released for testing even though they have reached the same technical preview engineering milestone as Office 2010 and …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 13:42

  • Office 2010 tech preview: Expect the expected

    Review And some web apps (eventually)

    Microsoft has released a technical preview of Office 2010. This is a pre-beta release intended for feedback, as well as promotion, so it's not feature-complete and may change before the final release planned for the first half of 2010. Nevertheless, it offers a fair guide to what Microsoft is planning for its ubiquitous office …

    Applications 13 Jul 14:02

  • Europe should put privacy at centre of new laws

    Locks into the Stockholm programme

    The European Data Protection Supervisor has adopted an opinion on the Stockholm programme - the European Commission's creepy-sounding "agenda for the future". The Stockholm programme is a outline of legislation planned for the next five years. It is due to be adopted by the European Council in December. EDPS said it was glad …

    Government 13 Jul 14:20

  • French workers threaten to blow up factory

    Explosive redundancy cash demand

    Workers at a bankrupt French car parts factory have decided that the best way to get some redundancy cash is to threaten to blow up the factory. According to Autocar, the 366 belligerent ex-employees of New Fabris in Chatellerault have seized the premises and are ready and willing to detonate stockpiled gas bottles unless …

    Bootnotes 13 Jul 14:21

  • iPhone makes eyes at T-Mobile and Orange

    Darling, I think we should see other telcos

    The days of O2's exclusive hold on the iPhone are probably numbered - T-Mobile has told us it's in talks with Apple about ranging the iPhone 3G in the next few months. The deals being discussed only include the iPhone 3G, and O2's exclusive on the 3GS seems to be secure. But even this represents a major shift in how Apple …

    Mobile 13 Jul 14:25

  • National Portrait Gallery bitchslaps Wikipedia

    Hands off our photos!

    Wikipedia has been dinged for violating 3,000 copyrights belonging to the National Portrait Gallery. User DCoetzee uploaded the images here to the Wikimedia Commons site. The Gallery says it contacted the Wikimedia Foundation back in April, without success, so is now suing the uploader personally. He received the notification …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 14:39

  • Most IT pros not planning on Windows 7 rollout

    Never mind performance, we're in a recession

    The recessionary squeeze on IT departments' manpower and finances will hinder the rollout of Windows 7, according to a major poll of IT professionals. Nearly 60 per cent of those in small, medium and large organizations currently have no plans whatsoever to deploy Microsoft's next client, says Windows management specialist …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 15:02

  • World+Dog will buy 33m netbooks in '09, says analyst

    Little-laptop shipment rise as demand for larger ones slows

    Whether you think a netbook is simply a small notebook or a compact machine kitted out solely for web access, rather a lot of buyers around the world are using them in place of their larger siblings. In the Western economies and Japan, notebook shipments are declining while netbook sales are on the rise, market watcher …

    Reg Hardware 13 Jul 15:13

  • FastScale deploys skinnied stacks to EC2

    Fatter logical servers optional now

    Fastscale, with Composer Suite 3.0 Enterprise Edition, is jumping on the Amazon EC2 bandwagon and wrapping all its goodies into a single package. There are lots of different ways for virtualisation server applications to boost efficiency, and for more than two years FastScale Technology has been trying to sell the idea of …

    Virtualization 13 Jul 15:50

  • Dubya surveillance exceeded warrantless wiretaps

    Secret snooping still secret

    As yet unrevealed domestic intelligence activities by the Bush administration sent shock waves through Washington on Friday, as a report critical of post-9/11 US surveillance programs capped a week of increasingly acrimonious debate in the American capital about Bush-era policies. Disconcerting reports of abuses by the …

    Security 13 Jul 17:05

  • Congressman calls for 'cyber-reprisals' against North Korea

    Modern day General Ripper frets over phantom threat

    A Republican congressman has urged the US to unleash a retaliatory cyber-attack against North Korea over DDoS attacks supposedly launched against US and South Korean websites. Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michagan, the lead Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, urged President Obama to mount a "show of force" …

    Security 13 Jul 17:26

  • France takes third swing at 'three-strikes' law

    The human right to the interwebs

    France's controversial "three-strikes" internet law is getting another do-over. Originally rejected by the country's National Assembly, revised then declared unconstitutional, the anti-file sharer bill has yet again been revamped and passed for consideration by the French constitutional court. The new version of the bill, like …

    Music and Media 13 Jul 18:10

  • Microsoft rubs Web 2.0 noses in SharePoint cash pile

    WPC Redmond partner army must adapt to cloud

    Customers want them. Microsoft is delivering them. And partners should sell and support them. That would be the online versions of Microsoft's existing applications - according to Microsoft. Microsoft's business applications chief Stephen Elop on Monday told Microsoft's overwhelmingly desktop-and-server-oriented partner army …

    Applications 13 Jul 18:37

  • US State Dept. workers beg Clinton for Firefox

    No IE if you buy less peanut butter

    US State Department workers have begged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to let them use Firefox. "Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox?" worker bee Jim Finkle asked Clinton during Friday's State Department town hall meeting. "I just moved to the State Department from the National …

    Government 13 Jul 20:11

  • Microsoft and Citrix mix 'n' match fake desktops

    But no Xen for PCs

    Citrix Systems and Microsoft are co-mingling some of their virtual desktop technologies. But Redmond stopped short of endorsing the XenClient bare-metal PC hypervisor that chip maker Intel and Citrix are working on for delivery later this year. Announced today at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, the …

    Virtualization 13 Jul 20:46

  • Apollo 11 moon mission reincarnated as website

    Retrace lunar steps in 'real-time'

    Forty years after Neil Armstrong made his historic first steps on the moon, Apollo 11 is beginning the same trip to the lunar surface this week via the internet. The website WeChooseTheMoon.org was launched today, sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to recreate the lunar mission minute-by-minute as …

    Space 13 Jul 20:53

  • Nehalems make like elephants on HPC memory test

    Istanbul's touch of Alzheimer's

    Intel's Nehalem EP chip has significantly out-peformed AMD's Istanbul on a set a memory-intensive benchmark tests. The techies at supercomputer cluster maker Advanced Clustering Technologies are at it again, running their own benchmarks on single server nodes using popular high-performance computing tests normally used on …

    HPC 13 Jul 21:34

  • Fifth time not a charm for Endeavour liftoff

    Shuttle launch scrubbed again

    Space shuttle Endeavour's blastoff was scrubbed once again on Monday, following a month of delays and four previous failed launch attempts. The shuttle's latest terra firma detainment was called just ten minutes before blastoff due to poor weather. Although a lighting storm several miles south of Kennedy Space Center cleared …

    Space 13 Jul 23:16

  • Microsoft offers Windows 7 early and cheap to volume customers

    WPC Famine, not feast, for PC OEMs?

    Customers on Microsoft's volume licenses will get access to Windows 7 almost two months early and receive limited discounts to switch from Windows XP. Windows 7 will be made available to customers on volume licenses from September 1. The next iteration of Microsoft's client operating system will launch on October 22. Those on …

    Channel Register 13 Jul 23:51