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29th July 2009 Archive

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  • Google open sources Wave gravy

    Operational transformation

    As it strives to replace email, Google has open sourced two chunks of its new-age communications platform, Google Wave. Unveiled to a standing coder ovation at the Google I/O developer conference in late May, Google Wave is a (still-gestating) web platform that crossbreeds email with IM and document sharing, exhibiting a …

    Developer 29 Jul 00:24

  • Unisys pulls profit from 16% sales drop

    Cost cuts thanked

    Thanks to cost cutting, server and services provider Unisys has pulled out some profits in the second quarter even as its sales continue to fall. In the second quarter ended June 30, Unisys watched (probably with something akin to horror) as its technology sales fell by 31 per cent to $98.7m, undoubtedly impacted by a …

    Financial News 29 Jul 00:28

  • Sun tripling RAID protection

    Comment Another salvo in the fight against disk failure

    The RAID industry standard for storage is RAID-6, with recovery from a double drive failure. But it's not going to be good enough as disk capacities increase, prolonging failed disk rebuild times and so lengthening the window of unrecoverable failure if a third disk fails before the recovery from a double drive failure is …

    Storage 29 Jul 07:02

  • Zend squeezes PHP into business suit

    Time to get serious, kids

    Zend Technologies has announced the latest version of its open-source framework for PHP, offering improved support for Microsoft and Novell environments. The changes are part of what Zend called more of a business focus, which encompasses updates to help those building and plumbing web services and enterprise applications into …

    Developer 29 Jul 07:02

  • Cowon D2+ DAB

    Review The audiophiles' player of choice?

    The portable media player market ranges from the cheapest, smallest screen players, aimed primarily for playing music, to palm-sized, PDA-style pads, more than suitable for watching films and time-shifted TV. The Cowon D2+ DAB is definitely at the smaller end of the scale, but still offers a good range of programme sources …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 08:02

  • Cisco and IBM come together over SAN WAN links

    I'll be your Global Mirror

    Cisco and IBM have partnered to improve wide area communications for mainframe SAN users with a specialised Cisco WAN acceleration offering. It accelerates data traffic across long-distance, wide-area networks (WANs) for IBM z/OS mainframe users of Global Mirror, a business continuity and disaster recovery replication product …

    Data Networking 29 Jul 08:55

  • AST raises Plasmon technology from the grave

    UDOn't know what you've got 'til it's gone

    Alliance Storage Technologies, which bought the UDO (Ultra Density Optical) technology from defunct optical storage company Plasmon, is now making, distributing and supporting UDO and related Plasmon products. Plasmon was a British firm that tried to develop its own proprietary optical disk archiving technology and products. …

    Storage 29 Jul 09:01

  • HMRC can't corral non-EU counterfeits

    High Court regretfully rules

    Customs authorities do not have the power to seize goods that enter the UK in transit from a non-European Union country to another non-EU country even if they know they are counterfeit, the High Court has said. The Court backed the view of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that it cannot hold the goods because they will never go …

    Law 29 Jul 09:28

  • IT's recession could be bottoming out

    Software offers long-awaited green shoots

    The information and communication industry could have hit the bottom and it is software which will lead us out of the trough. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's report on ICT and its role in the recovery saw the first signs of an upturn in May/June. The group saw decline across all sectors of the …

    Financial News 29 Jul 09:35

  • Kodak intros 1080p pocket camcorder

    HD, in your pocket

    Kodak already has two 720p-capable pocket camcorders under its belt, but now the firm’s upped its game with the unveiling of a full HD model. Kodak's Zi8 camcorder records 1080p video The Zi8 – which follows on the from January’s Zx1 and 2008’s Zi6 – can capture video at up to 1080p and features an integrated electronic …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 09:55

  • UK space programme suffers serious setback

    High-altitude cheese missing over southern England

    The UK's space programme suffered a serious setback yesterday when its most ambitious project since Beagle 2 ended in the loss of a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar somewhere over the south of England. According to news reports, the West Country Cheesemakers space cheese was hitched to a weather balloon and launched …

    Space 29 Jul 09:58

  • Ingres challenges Microsoft's DataAllegro warehouse steal

    Stealth project tethered down

    Memo to Microsoft: A year after you blocked its foray into fast and affordable data warehousing on mass-market Intel hardware, Ingres is back. Today, Ingres announced the Ingres VectorWise Project to put a high-performance storage engine into its open-source database for computing-intensive data warehouses running on Intel …

    Developer 29 Jul 10:02

  • Xiotech gearing up for big announcement

    Comment No personality crisis here

    Xiotech made a big splash last year with its self-healing ISEs: Integrated Storage Elements that repaired failed disk drives in place and cut maintenance budgets. The firm looks like it getting ready to make another splash with generation 2 ISEs. Xiotech Emprise 5000 and 7000 storage arrays use ISEs as their basic component, …

    Storage 29 Jul 10:03

  • Cameron condemns Tweeters as tw*ts

    Blows election hopes with microblogging tirade

    David Cameron risked alienating the UK's Twitterocracy and the Civil Service alike this morning when he suggested the microblogging service was for "twats". The Tory leader also shocked listeners to slightly rock-ish radio station Absolute Radio by using the phrase "pissed off", demonstrating the sort of plain speaking with …

    Government 29 Jul 10:17

  • IBM piles on security pounds with Ounce Labs buy

    Big cheque confirms code checking firm checks out

    IBM has announced a deal to buy privately-held code security review firm Ounce Labs. The terms of the deal, announced on Tuesday, were undisclosed. Big Blue said Ounce Labs' technology would improve its application security and compliance portfolio, as part of its Rational software business division. Ounce Labs has developed …

    Enterprise Security 29 Jul 10:26

  • Wireless gaming wings way onto BlackBerry

    Nunchunck-esque controller for RIM smartphones launched

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, apparently. So BlackBerry owners will be pleased to hear that their smartphones are now compatible with the Zeemote JS1 wireless gaming controller. Zeemote's JS1 controller: now available for BlackBerry owners The miniature joystick – first seen back in February last year - looks …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 10:31

  • HP excessive packaging world record put to the test

    Aboxalypse now Boxing unclever

    It is with heavy hearts that we today report that HP has shattered its own excessive packaging world record - set last year when it managed to expend 17 cardboard boxes in dispatching 32 sheets of A4 paper to a shaken customer. Of course, the competition wasn't going to take this lying down, and Dell subsequently weighed in …

    Bootnotes 29 Jul 10:43

  • Recession ending for Western Digital

    And they're breathing down Seagate's neck

    Western Digital results for its fourth fiscal 2009 quarter are signalling the possible end of the recession in the hard disk drive market, and it is poised to overtake Seagate in unit drive shipments. World number 2 hard disk drive manufacturer WD saw fourth quarter revenues of $1.928bn, down 3 per cent from the previous year' …

    Storage 29 Jul 10:55

  • Want Gmail? Best have your mobile handy

    Gmail starts taking numbers

    Users signing up for a Gmail account are now being asked to provide a mobile-phone number in the continuing war against spam, though Google will keep it handy just in case anything else turns up. The new requirement pops up as part of the Gmail sign-up procedure, and requires the user to provide an SMS-capable number to which …

    Mobile 29 Jul 11:10

  • SAP spins out optimistic outlook as Q2 sales fall 10%

    Eyeballs tasty operating margin, glosses over revs fall

    German business management software maker SAP saw its second quarter total revenues drop 10 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier. SAP reported total sales for the Q2 period ended 30 June of €2.58bn, compared to €2.86bn for the same quarter a year earlier. Despite that decline, the company raised the outlook for …

    Financial News 29 Jul 11:11

  • Dongle surfers unaware of limits

    Costly excess download fees uncovered

    Blighty’s mobile web users are unaware of the low download limits normally applied to dongle-based tariffs, and risk incurring surprise costs if they exceed them - new research has concluded. Opium Research quizzed just over 2000 UK-based adults recently – on behalf of website Moneysupermarket, and discovered that 24 per cent …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 11:13

  • Live Now: Making IT work in the real world

    Regcast Open source, proprietary or a little bit of both?

    Join experts from The Register, Microsoft, Novell & Freeform Dynamics from 2pm BST today as they look at the benefits, costs and risks of proprietary, open source and hybrid environments - all in glorious interactive video. Whether organisations benefit more from using open source-based solutions or those supplied from …

    Tech Panel 29 Jul 11:16

  • Elgato EyeTV Sat

    Review Good reception for updated desktop satellite DVR?

    Last year we reviewed Elgato’s EyeTV 310 satellite TV tuner for Macs. It wasn’t a brand new product, but the launch of the Freesat service here in the UK meant that we were curious to see how the device would handle the new service – especially the HD broadcasts on the free-to-air BBC HD channel. Elgato's EyeTV Sat The …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 11:25

  • British Council faces legal action for offshoring

    Promoting Britain by employing the rest of the world

    The British Council is facing legal action by unions, who are angry at its failure to consult with staff before announcing an offshoring project. The Public and Commercial Services Union is threatening to start a protective award case - a form of employment tribunal - to stop jobs moving to India on the basis that staff and …

    Government 29 Jul 11:31

  • From tracking sex performance to tracking sex offenders...

    There really is an iPhone app for everything

    iPhone users can now track sexual offenders, and rate their own sexual performance having become aroused playing iWet T-Shirts, but if they want to use Google Voice they'll have to jailbreak their handset. Another day, another series of surreal Apple decisions as to what is acceptable to the average iPhone user: iWet T-Shirts …

    Mobile 29 Jul 12:02

  • Irish charity gets millions from Gates Foundation

    Five year project

    Irish charity Concern Worldwide has received a $41m (£25m) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will be spent over five years in six countries on child and maternal health projects. India, Malawi and Sierra Leone are the first three, the others will be chosen shortly. The money will try and find what …

    Biology 29 Jul 12:10

  • BIND crash bug prompts urgent update call

    Master server flaw could break the interwebs

    A vulnerability in BIND creates a means for miscreants to crash vulnerable Domain Name System servers, posing a threat to overall internet stability as a result. Exploits targeted at BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain Server) version 9 are already in circulation, warns the Internet Software Consortium, the group which …

    Enterprise Security 29 Jul 12:20

  • Microsoft! and! Yahoo! finally! sign! search! deal!

    Thank! god! for! that!

    It's all over - Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally signed a search deal which means the end of Yahoo!'s long-developed independent search engine. The 10-year agreement means Yahoo! will use Microsoft's search technology and in exchange will sell both its own and Microsoft's search ads. Both companies will keep display ads sales …

    Music and Media 29 Jul 12:42

  • Privacy watchdog bashes UK.gov net snoop plan

    'Case yet to be made'

    Whitehall plans to order ISPs and mobile operators to gather massive quantities of data on every customer's internet use are vague, misleading, risky and possibly unnecessary, according to the Information Commissioner. In forthright comments on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), Christopher Graham said the Home …

    Government 29 Jul 13:29

  • Ads watchdog bows to iPhone's might

    Need to reject G1 fan pleas? There's an app for that

    The UK's ad standards quango has rejected Google phone fans' claims that Apple ads had overstated just how messianically wonderful the iPhone is. The Advertising Standards Authority said it had received ten complaints about a TV ad which demo'd a range of applications for the iPhone and included a voiceover which said: If you …

    Mobile 29 Jul 13:29

  • SpinVox: The Inside Story

    Santa's Little Helpers

    In a statement issued on Sunday, SpinVox admits it needs call centres staffed by human agents to transcribe voice messages and has begun to back away from its earlier claims that most of the translation is performed by AI-based machine translation software, without human intervention. But thanks to company insiders and company …

    Mobile 29 Jul 14:24

  • AOL's pulse slows as Q2 revs slip 24%

    Ad biz just ain't wot it used to be

    Internet old guard AOL might be grateful the world is looking in the other direction today, after its parent company Time Warner reported less than rosy second quarter results for the tech firm. AOL saw revenue sharply decline 24 per cent to $804m for the three months ended 30 June this year, compared with $1.06bn in its 2008 …

    Financial News 29 Jul 14:51

  • Translation services used to pump out polyglot spam

    Sie haben multi sprachliche Trödelpost

    Spammers are making greater use of automated translation services and templates to create multiple language junk mail runs. The tactic has resulted in even greater volumes of spam in email traffic to countries in continental Europe, in particular, according to the latest monthly security report by net services firm Messagelabs …

    Crime 29 Jul 14:54

  • Last chance to vote to cut phone termination rates

    Updated 70,000 punters can't be wrong

    The Terminate The Rate campaign launched by BT and 3 is approaching 70,000 signatures, on the last day for those who want to put their name to the campaign to reduce the amount their operator charges for incoming mobile calls. The 70,000 members of the public that have signed the petition have been joined by various charities …

    Mobile 29 Jul 15:18

  • Virtualization payback, now and in the future

    Reader Workshop Do you really want to join this pool party?

    Most people arguably get the point of virtualisation in terms of server consolidation, and the potential reduction in costs and overheads associated with that. Even though there are some important practicalities to be considered, as highlighted by readers in the first discussion, the game is reasonably well understood, and many …

    Software 29 Jul 15:43

  • Late 2010 launch for Project Natal, states gaming exec

    THQ's CEO spills the beans?

    Microsoft’s motion-controlled gaming peripheral - Project Natal - will arrive “late next year”, the CEO of a major videogames publisher has stated. THQ’s Brian Farrell reportedly revealed the launch timeframe in a recent company earnings call, when questioned about hardware price cuts and upcoming changes within the gaming …

    Reg Hardware 29 Jul 15:59

  • Windows 7 Ultimate product activation hacked?

    Updated I want my free PC

    You could get a free (and illegal) copy of Windows 7 Ultimate if reports of a leaked OEM product activation key are accurate. According to MyDigitalLife, a leaked OEM copy of Windows 7 was posted to a Chinese forum, with the OEM's key then identified and snatched. An OEM activation key will unlock multiple copies, and it's …

    Operating Systems 29 Jul 18:34

  • Opera chief: history will silence Unite doubters

    Browser code 'too complex' for open source

    Undeterred by the media backlash against Opera Unite - the web-browser-meets-web-server contraption unveiled last month - Opera chief executive Jon von Tetzchner says that ten years on, the world will look back on its debut as a seminal moment in the history of the web. "Some people see Unite, and they understand. With others …

    Applications 29 Jul 18:47

  • IBM outs BAO box speeds and feeds

    Inside the 'smart' system

    Yesterday, IBM launched the first of a number of integrated and optimized Smart Systems, this one aimed at data warehousing and predictive analytics. But the company said precious little about the feeds and speeds of what is inside this system, aimed at the business analytics and optimization (BAO) market. IBM admitted …

    Servers 29 Jul 19:17

  • Apple says jailbroken iPhones endanger cell towers

    Mess with our OS and chaos will rule

    Apple has told the US Copyright Office that jailbroken iPhones could lead to crashed cell phone towers and drug dealers freely making anonymous phone calls. Cupertino loosed the hyperbole firehose on the Copyright Office in response to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's proposal to legalize the modification of the iPhone’s …

    Mobile 29 Jul 19:46

  • Security elite pwned on Black Hat eve

    Kaminsky, Mitnick, et al

    On the eve of the Black Hat security conference, malicious hackers posted a 29,000-line file detailing embarrassing attacks that took complete control of servers and websites run by several high-profile security researchers, including Dan Kaminsky and Kevin Mitnick. The file posted on security mailing lists claimed to have …

    Security 29 Jul 20:15

  • Microsoft-Yahoo! pact hit with anti-trust question

    Three-into-two doesn't wash

    Microsoft's chief executive has championed his company's search and advertising marriage with Yahoo! as healthy for individuals and advertisers because it delivers "more credible" competition to Google. In an interview with TechFlash, Steve Ballmer denied the deal worsens the competitive landscape, with "three competitors …

    Music and Media 29 Jul 22:57

  • Space freighter flipped to manual for ISS dock

    Human hands on the package

    Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka took control of an unmanned supply capsule docking at the International Space Station this morning after the spacecraft's automated docking system botched its final approach. From aboard the ISS, Padalka remotely steered Russia's Progress 34 (P34) cargo craft to a smooth coupling with the aft …

    Space 29 Jul 23:06

  • Windows 7 finds home at Intel

    Microsoft's new OS 'one big positive'

    Good news for Microsoft: Intel is looking forward to installing Windows 7 on the computers of its own employees. Intel was arguably the most visible corporation that decided to skip Vista. And it was by no means lonely in its decision. But Windows 7, it appears, will receive a friendlier welcome. At a Technology Summit with …

    Operating Systems 29 Jul 23:56