25th August 2009 Archive

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Microsoft gets smart with dumb phones

Offloads processing and storage

Microsoft wants folks in emerging markets using inexpensive mobile phones to social-network away their free time just like fancy smartphone users do. The company on Monday announced plans for a light-weight mobile application platform called OneApp, aimed at developing countries where cheaper phones and pre-paid services are …

Mobile 25 Aug 00:39
Yahoo! promises to abduct 'people' search from Google

Interface, not Bing, is king

Yahoo! may have agreed to substitute its search for Microsoft's Bing, but the company's not throwing in the towel - just snapping it at another end of search-beast Google. "The back-end of search is a megawatt war, and that is what we are getting out of," senior vice president of Yahoo!'s labs and search strategy Prabhakar …

Music and Media 25 Aug 01:14
Doctor investigated for posting inkblots to Wikipedia

Psychs fear ~~intimacy~~ test cheat sheet

A doctor is under investigation for misconduct after publishing 10 inkblots used by psychologists to get insights about a subject's frame of mind. James Heilman told told The New York Times he posted the Rorschach test images in an attempt to demystify the psychological profession. At least two psychologists didn't appreciate …

Odds and Sods 25 Aug 01:23
Wanova promises virtual desktop you can use

Gold cache

Wanova, which has just come out of stealth mode having landed its first batch of venture capital dough, has claimed a new - and more importantly, a usable - twist on virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI. There are a lot of different approaches to VDI, but the basic idea is that you host virtualized instances of PC operating …

PCs & Chips 25 Aug 01:48
Pillar offers storage clunkers cash too

What's good for Xiotech is good for Pillar

Pillar is running a Cash for Storage Clunkers promotion, following in Xiotech's footsteps. The company is offering to replace a customer's whole storage array and is working with a technology financing company, Key Equipment Finance, so the customers can turn in old products from any vendor, get a value for the old product and …

Storage 25 Aug 07:37
Emulex gets feeble IBM backslap

Not certification, not OEM deal

Emulex has announced a cross-licensing deal with IBM that it says should accelerate joint IBM-Emulex customers' integration of its converged network adapters with IBM servers. This somewhat half-hearted endorsement is neither IBM certification nor an OEM or reseller deal. In contrast IBM is using QLogic 8100 CNAs in some of …

Storage 25 Aug 07:47
Parallels woos Apple cult converts

Virtualization and indoctrination

Parallels has released a new version of its Mac desktop virtualization package specifically for all those longtime PC users switching to Jobsian hardware for the very first time. Well, it's really an old version of the company's Mac desktop virtualization package - Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac - but it's been joined by a few …

Operating Systems 25 Aug 08:02
Government unbans dirty vids but bans 'legal highs'

Thatcher's legacy - dirty DVDs for all

Legislation introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, which banned the sale of unclassified videos and computer games, is not actually enforceable because the government of the day never told the European Commission. Accordingly the Crown Prosecution Service has been told to drop pending prosecutions against retailers accused …

Law 25 Aug 08:53
NASA scrubs Discovery launch

Rain stops play

NASA this morning scrubbed the planned launch of space shuttle Discovery due to bad weather at Kennedy Space Center. Discovery's mission STS-128 to the International Space Station will deliver a Leonardo supply module packed with supplies, including science and storage racks, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT …

Space 25 Aug 08:55
Amazon pre-empts PS3 Slim launch date

Gunning for 27 August deliveries

Register Hardware has discovered that Amazon’s North American arm plans to deliver the PlayStation 3 Slim to US gamers ahead of the console’s official launch date. When Sony unveiled the PS3 Slim last week, it said that the machine “will become available in stores from September 1, 2009, in North America, Europe/PAL …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 09:03
EMC doubles up mainframe VTL capacity, throughput

Still lags behind IBM though

EMC has doubled the capacity and throughput of its mainframe virtual tape library (VTL) but it still lags behind IBM. It does exceed Sun's VTL capacity, though. The EMC DLm (Disk Library for mainframes) now supports up to 1.2PB of raw and usable capacity. EMC says that's almost 3PB compressed capacity, and 1.2GB/sec throughput …

Storage 25 Aug 09:10
Breathe Networks administrator to hold creditors' meeting

Exclusive Playing leapfrog with a Unicorn

Administrators will hold a creditors’ meeting for defunct ISP outfit Breathe Networks Ltd (BNL) on 3 September, The Register has learned. A document filed with Companies House on 18 August reveal that the firm’s administrator - Neil Chesterton at The MacDonald Partnership (TMP) - has proposed that BNL be shifted into voluntary …

Financial News 25 Aug 09:30
EMC makes Clariion VMware-aware

Whilst Dell CX4 arrays plan more time doing nothing

EMC has added faster I/O modules to its Clariion storage and made Clariion software more VMware-aware. It is adding a 10Gbit/E UltraFlex I/O module to support iSCSI access. An 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel I/O module was added last quarter. The company will add a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) module providing a native FCoE …

Storage 25 Aug 09:32
Nokia smartphone-cum-web tablet re-emerges

Maemo-based smartphone or N810 successor?

Old rumours that Nokia is looking to replace Symbian with the Linux-derived Maemo OS on it smartphones have been re-stoked following publication of what’s thought to be the phone firm’s latest smartphone-cum-internet tablet. Nokia's N900 (above) could replace the N810 The latest device is branded the N900 and, according to …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 09:33
Sony inks Motion Control launch date

Giving developers time to support it

Sony has finally indicated when it plans to launch its Motion Control peripheral for the PlayStation 3. Kazuo Hirai, Head of Sony Computer Entertainment, said: “We are slating it [Motion Control] for spring of next year” - according to a report by The Times. He kept mum about the unit’s potential price. But Hirai stressed …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 09:39
MimeCast soups up email SAAS

It's all floating cloudwards

MimeCast has upgraded its email archiving service to MimeCast Advanced, linking it more closely to exchange and adding better security, compliance and legal hold facilities. MimeCast offers users the ability to archive emails, and will add unstructured files and SharePoint data in the future, to MimeCast data centres in the …

Storage 25 Aug 09:49
UK.gov revives net cut-off threat for illegal downloaders

Mandelson to get new powers, suggests Mandelson

The government has today unexpectedly revived plans for laws to disconnect persistent illegal filesharers, in a move to delight the entertainment industry and anger ISPs. The unscheduled changes to the Digital Britain consultation also envisage a more powerful, direct role for Lord Mandelson. Despite denials last week, the …

Law 25 Aug 09:55
Application management – how many apps do you have?

Thine own self thou must know

A curious fact of IT management is that, quite often, those looking after the administration of the infrastructure lose sight of why all those bits of tin have to be managed at all. In essence it boils down to delivering service to consumers; and for most users ’service‘ really amounts to ’applications’. As everyone knows, the …

Applications 25 Aug 10:02
NetApp heading cloudwards

New generation software provides cloud storage ONTAP

Looking to provide storage cloud facilities, NetApp has upgraded its array software to Data ONTAP 8, added a much enhanced memory caching card, and is enabling multiple heads for its arrays. Low-end FAS 2000 arrays will be enhanced to support multiple heads, joining the existing FAS 3000 and 6000 arrays, which are already …

Storage 25 Aug 10:04
Asus adds Nvidia Ion to all-in-one Eee PC

Drops the touch-sensitive screen

Asus' Eee Top all-in-one desktop PCs may have been originally conceived as touch-operated devices, but the company has now launched a model without a touch-sensitive display. The good news: it uses Nvidia's Ion platform to give it some graphics oomph. Asus' Eee Top 2002: not touch-sensitive for a change The Eee Top 2002 is …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 10:05
PNY punts 'lifetime warranty' graphics cards

If it breaks in 2029, they'll replace it

PNY Technologies has come over all generous and announced a plan to provide lifetime warranties with some of its graphics cards. From 1 September, the firm’s XLR8 GeForce GTX series of graphics cards will have a standard one-year out-of-box warranty. Once you register your purchase on the firm’s website, PNY will then reward …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 10:15
US likely to downgrade Euro missile-interceptor plans

Rogue-state ICBMs 'haven't arrived on schedule'

The Pentagon has signalled that US plans for missile defences in eastern Europe are likely to be scaled back, according to reports. Smaller, cheaper interceptors - able to stop a possible shorter-range attack on Europe, but not a full-blown intercontinental strike against the USA - may now be proposed. They don't like it up ' …

Physics 25 Aug 10:23
Mobile snooping for everyone in weeks

German hackers crack GSM encryption

The Chaos Computer Club has told the FT that in the couple of months it will be releasing code capable of cracking GSM with just a laptop and an antenna. In comments made to the German edition of the Financial Times, the hacking group claims that governments, and criminals, are already using the technique which can break the …

Mobile 25 Aug 10:37
A Geeks Guide₂ ...Dan Bricklin

40% discount at Reg Books

Geeks Guide2 This week we're serving up the thoughts of inventor, entrepreneur, and long-time blogger Dan Bricklin. Reg Books have 40% off Bricklin on Technology, a compilation of more than a decade's worth of blogs, podcasts, and essays - reorganised and embellished with new observations from the VisiCalc creator himself. For …

Site News 25 Aug 10:52
Shock jock blames Britain for hack attack

Savage site ravaged - entire population to blame

Controversial shock jock Michael Savage was hit by a hacking attack last weekend that forced his site offline for around an hour on Saturday. Savage, who has threatened to sue former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for defamation over an order banning him from entering the UK, suggests Britain might be to blame for orchestrating …

Enterprise Security 25 Aug 10:56
Pirate Bay site down as anchor set adrift

Dead as a stuffed parrot

The Pirate Bay is out of action again 24 hours after Swedish authorities blocked the infamous BitTorrent tracker site. As we reported yesterday, TPB was taken offline after Stockholm’s district court ordered its bandwidth supplier - Black Internet - to stop serving the website’s traffic or face a penalty of 500,000 kronor (£43 …

Data Networking 25 Aug 11:00
US 'grooming robot' to reduce navy bottom-fouling

'Ensuring dominance and reducing dirty emissions'

In a bid to tackle the degrading effects of widespread "bottom fouling" in the US fleet, the US Navy has announced that it is engaged in efforts to develop an "autonomous grooming robot". 'Scrub your bottom, sir?' The robot is known as the Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming (BUG) Tool. According to the Office of Naval …

Biology 25 Aug 11:02
There’s no escaping the cloud

You can run, but you can’t hide

So you think the cloud is not for you? If that's the case, you are not alone. Feedback from The Register's readership has been consistently mixed on the subject of cloud computing. In spite of all the hype, many working at the sharp end in mainstream IT departments remain sceptical. While some dispute the economics and dismiss …

Servers 25 Aug 11:38
Pink Floyd worm spreads on 'Chinese Facebook'

Wish You Weren't Here

Malware authors have developed a cross-site scripting worm that's spreading across a Chinese social networking website. The Pinkren-A worm poses as a video clip of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here contained in messages sent to users of Renren, the Chinese social networking website with around 40 million members. Selecting these …

Malware 25 Aug 11:39
Nokia brandishes superfluous Booklet

Comment A laptop by any other name is just as meh

Nokia has come late to the game with its Booklet, but the move is probably less about selling computers and more about ousting the cuckoos infesting Slough and Newbury. Nokia has been trying to spin its Booklet as something end users want, when in reality it’s a piece of hardware designed to appeal to network operators who …

Notebooks 25 Aug 11:59
Met hires Twitter consultancy

Outsourced hive-mind ego surfing

Police worried about the force's reputation are scouring Facebook and Twitter for criticism and rumours, ahead of the imminent Climate Camp protest. The force has hired 6 Consulting*, a firm of "social media monitoring and engagement specialists" for a one-month pilot to monitor the web for relevant chatter. It follows a …

Policing 25 Aug 12:01
Asus UX50V

Review Easy on the eye, but not on the wallet

Think stylish laptops, and brands such as Apple, Sony and, if you've a particularly bizarre sense of style, Toshiba’s Qosmio range spring to mind. Having pioneered the netbook revolution, Asus is more likely to conjure up images of small, portable and good value laptops. However, the Taiwanese giant has always had a penchant for …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 12:02
Smoking iMac caught on camera

Filmed on iPhone 3GS...

If you’re reading this story on an iMac - watch out, because you’re about to witness one office worker’s smoking Apple desktop. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com A blogger recently posted a video online that he claims documents his iMac machine in the beginnings of a very dangerous situation, as …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 12:21
Mac OS X Snow Leopard First Look

Our initial impressions of Apple's new baby

At my age, I look forward to upgrading my OS about as much I look forward to a trip to the dentist. Why break something that works? Why risk wasting hours hunting down drivers that potentially don't exist, with the possibility that well-loved hardware becomes obsolete? Last time I upgraded the OS, I had to put my scanner on …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 12:48
Nokia announces 'N97 junior'

Nokia targets touchscreen buyers

If the mobile phone’s your primary instrument for music, photos, video and social networking then you probably own an iPhone. But if you haven’t upgraded yet, Nokia hopes to sway you with its latest touchscreen talker, the 5230. Nokia's N5230 connects into Ovi and supports app downloads The handset looks much like the N97 …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 12:55
New trial means Unix ownership still up for debate

SCO vs Novell spat still alive and kicking

A US federal appeals court overturned a judge’s ruling that granted Novell the copyright of the Unix computer OS yesterday. A panel of three judges of the 10th US circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a judge in the August 2007 case wrongfully handed the copyright to Novell. As a result the panel has ordered a “remand for trial …

Operating Systems 25 Aug 13:10
Walfamstow Cockney cash machine daffy ducked

No sausage and mash, me old china

The wheels appear to have slightly come off the roll-out of Blighty's first Cockney cash machines - five dispensers of sausage and mash deployed from Spitalfields to Barnet via Walthamstow by ATM operator Bank Machine. According to the Waltham Forest Guardian, E17 boasts one of the brand spanking new Dick Van Dyke emulator …

Bootnotes 25 Aug 13:24
Cisco Wireless LANs at risk from 'skyjacking' flaw

Catchily named vuln is all talk so far

Security researchers have discovered a potential denial of service or information stealing flaw affecting Cisco's wireless networking kit. The snappily-monikered skyjacking flaw affects lightweight Cisco wireless access points or networks running Over-the-Air-Provisioning (OTAP). With OTAP enabled, newly connected Cisco …

Enterprise Security 25 Aug 13:52
Sony redesigns the Walkman, again

S and E series models unleashed

Sony’s Walkman range has been refreshed numerous times since those humble cassette-playing days of the late 1970s. Now the Japanese electronics giant is back with its latest digital Walkman: the S series. Sony's Walkman S: supports video, audio, images and FM radio The S series Walkman is 1.3cm thick and includes a 2.4in …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 14:04
LSI releases bigger, better Engenio array

4900 offers more drives, features, speed

LSI has enhanced its dual controller array offering with the 4900, which has 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel support and a better RAID processor than the previous 3994 model. The 4900 is positioned as a departmental array, with the large 7900 array targeted at data centre and high-performance computing applications. The 7900 had an …

Storage 25 Aug 14:04
Sony posts 'Daily Edition' e-book reader teaser

Updated Wireless Kindle-killer near release?

Sony has begun teasing e-book reader buffs with a backside glance at a new version of its Reader - the 'Daily Edition'. Sony's e-book reader range: wireless Daily Edition on its way? Update The word over the interweb from Sony's launch even is that the Daily Reader has a 7in screen, 3G connectivity and a $399 (£244/€279) …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 14:41
Yahoo! to! buy! Arab! world's! biggest! online! portal!

Dress you up in my love, Maktoob

Yahoo! announced today that it plans to buy the biggest online community in the Arab world - Maktoob.com - for an undisclosed sum. The Dubai-based online portal claims to have 16.5m users throughout the region. "This acquisition will accelerate Yahoo!'s strategy of expanding in high-growth emerging markets where we believe …

Applications 25 Aug 14:50
DARPA seeks 'Precision Electronic Warfare'

'Surgical jamming' bubble follows you to the corner

US military researchers are looking to build networks of small, low-power transmitter boxes which together can perform "surgical jamming" of digital signals - shutting down cellphones and sat nav receivers within an area "on the order of a city block corner". Watch out for the green bubbles The new initiative is called …

Physics 25 Aug 14:59
Freetards bully Burning Man

You're oppressing Burners with your wicked copyright

Here's one to savour, for which any sarcastic comment (from us) is unnecessary. The Burning Man Organization, which looks after the Californian apotheosis of "gift culture", has come under attack from freetard extremists. They've been stirred up by a call to arms from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has berated the …

Music and Media 25 Aug 15:58
Opera 10 hits release candidate status

Full fat version coming next month

Opera Software has spun out a near-ready version of its upcoming web browser - Opera 10. The Release Candidate comes loaded with "a surprising array of new features, a fresh look and feel, a new application icon, and enhanced speed and performance," said the Oslo, Norway-based firm. The completed version of the browser will …

Applications 25 Aug 15:59
Windows 7: Microsoft's three missed opportunities

At least it's not Vista

The verdict is in: Windows 7 is a job well done. Yes, there will be a few Windows XP diehards and those who've fled to OS X and have no intention of returning, but overall Windows 7 is more responsive, prettier, and more usable than Windows Vista. That said, it is not perfect, and Windows 7 comes with its own set of annoyances …

Operating Systems 25 Aug 16:00
Cutting your teeth on desktop virtualization?

Reader survey Complete our poll and share the experience

It could be argued that desktop virtualization was where it all starte' in terms of the current hoo-ha around virtualization as a whole. Most attention might now be focused on the server, but there's still plenty of potential for virtualization on the desktop. While desktop virtualization may be simple in principle, in …

Software 25 Aug 16:02
Electric motorcycle world championships planned

Leccy Tech TTxGP fuels e-bike enthusiasm

The single lap TTxGP race for leccy bikes that took place as part of the Isle of Man TT battle back in June has proven to be the snowball before the avalanche. TTxGP's promoter is planning 12 e-bike races for 2010 According to TTxGP promoter Azhar Hussain, plans are underway to create a five-race International World …

Reg Hardware 25 Aug 16:02
Silicon Valley wedding list targets hungry programmers

I now pronounce you, a startup

A Silicon Valley couple with Web 2.0 aspirations have chucked out the traditional wedding registry and are instead seeking help from friends and family to fund their startup. The couple, Drue Kataoka and Svetlozar Kazanjiev, are slated to tie the knot on August 29, so you still have time to help out with getting their marriage …

Developer 25 Aug 17:59
IBM cuts memory tags on big Power boxes

Tweaks competitive replacement deal

IBM is a-wheeling and a-dealing in the Power Systems market again. The company has offered rebates on memory activations on Power 595 machines using its Power6 processors and tweaked a rebate deal for customers consolidating IBM and non-IBM servers onto Power 595 iron. The Power 595 uses IBM's 5 GHz dual-core Power6 processors …

Servers 25 Aug 18:08
SSD flag bearer to quickly hit $2bn valuation

Apex of STEC's bubble?

The solid-state drive streets are paved with gold for STEC, which is about to vault to a $2bn market capitalization. The company's share price is hovering at a whisker below $40, and its present market capitalisation is $1.98bn. The stock appreciation has been fantastic: at the start of this year shares were a mere $4.67. The …

Storage 25 Aug 18:21
Incompetence a bigger IT security threat than malign insiders

You'd do better to worry about Mr Bean in accounts

Accidental security incidents involving workers happen more frequently and have the greater potential for negative impact than malicious insider attacks, according to new research from RSA. The poll of 400 top level execs in the UK, France, Germany and the US casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that malicious insiders are …

Enterprise Security 25 Aug 19:22
Apple sneaks malware protection into Snow Leopard

Coverage goes only so far

Apple is dipping yet another toe into the anti-malware pond with a feature in the latest beta version of its forthcoming Snow Leopard operating system. The protection was quietly added earlier this month to Snow Leopard 10A432, the most recent build of the new version of Mac OS X that is due for release this Friday, according …

Malware 25 Aug 19:32
Embarcadero gets touchy with Windows 7 RAD

Big niche or mass market?

Embarcadero Technologies hopes to exploit touch- and gesture-based input in Windows 7 with the latest release of its Delphi and C++ Builder RAD tools. The company has released its Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010, which it said offers rapid development of interfaces for applications using a touch-enabled component framework. …

Developer 25 Aug 19:33
Wikipedia to crack down on celebrity Wikideaths

Laissez-faire editors reined in

Wikipedia is preparing a program to combat the leading cause of premature celebrity Wikideath by requiring "experienced volunteer editors" to sign off on changes to certain articles. The Wikimedia Foundation has said that in coming weeks it will introduce a two-month trial of "flagged revisions," intended to lessen the impact …

Music and Media 25 Aug 19:51
Stratus, NEC see double with fault-tolerant iron

Xeon 5500 engineering push

Server partners Stratus Technologies and NEC have revamped their fault tolerant server lineups to take advantage of Intel's quad-core Nehalem EP Xeon 5500 servers. The two companies typically like to get their fault tolerant machines out the door within a quarter of a new chip launch from Intel. This time, though, the big …

Servers 25 Aug 21:45
The multicore future, and how to survive it

Avoiding the proprietary extensions trap

Multicore processors may offer a wealth of powers, but writing efficient code for them is notoriously difficult. Thankfully, help is close at hand. The Multicore Association created the Multicore Programming Practices (MPP) working group just over a year ago to produce a guide on best practices for writing multicore-ready …

Developer 25 Aug 23:07
Japan fine with cheap old mobile phones, ta very much

Keep your smartphones and your netbooks

While the rest of the world goes weak at the knees for smartphones and netbooks, Japan appears content with the functionality of regular mobile phones to be getting on with. A recent online survey by Japan's goo search engine* concludes that 49 per cent of respondents say "mobile phones are enough" when asked what kind of …

Mobile 25 Aug 23:27