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17th September 2009 Archive

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  • Microsoft offers online tools for Swine Flu infected kids

    Perfect captive (quarantined) audience

    Microsoft is leveraging this year's most fashionable pandemic to pitch its online storage and document sharing service for Office. Swine Flu is a major hit with kids these days, and alas, infected tots must be kept away from the classroom. That's why the software giant today launched the website microsoft.com/education/h1n1 …

    Applications 17 Sep 00:13

  • Mozilla catches half of Firefox users running insecure Flash

    Adobe's upgrade blues

    More than half of all Firefox users ran an unsafe version of Adobe's Flash Player, according to statistics collected last week as users installed the latest release of the popular open-source browser. Of the 6 million or so people who upgraded to either 3.5.3 or 3.0.14 of Firefox on its debut last Thursday, slightly more than …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 00:32

  • Google talks book deal edits with DoJ

    Cutting 'cartel' concerns

    Google is in talks with the US Department of Justice over possible changes to its controversial Book Search settlement. As the $125m library-scanning settlement awaits court approval, the DoJ is known to be investigating the deal. And according to anonymous sources speaking with Bloomberg, Google has teamed up with the US …

    Music and Media 17 Sep 06:10

  • Tape users wait for news of LTO 7 and 8

    Comment Virtual roadmap ends with blank, featureless desert

    According to published plans, the all-conquering LTO tape format has no future after LTO 6, which is expected in 2012. This is ridiculous and there must be a secret roadmap for LTOs 7 and 8. The LTO tape format dominates the open systems tape business, is used increasingly by supercomputer customers and is making some inroads …

    Storage 17 Sep 07:02

  • Audi's R8 goes all-electric

    Leccy Tech The e-tron

    Back in May Register Hardware reported that Audi was rumoured to be working on a leccy version of its R8 supercar. Now Audi's confirmed that the rumours were true. Audi's e-tron: an electric version of the R8 At the ongoing Frankfurt Motor Show, Audi recently unveiled e-tron - which is powered by four electric motors that …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 08:02

  • Microsoft, Yahoo! attempt to head off legal action

    BingHoo! parents pay prenatal visit to regulators

    Microsoft has confirmed that it is engaged in informal talks with European regulators to deal with competition concerns over its search deal with Yahoo! The 10-year agreement is also being investigated by the US Department of Justice, which recently made a second request for information to the two firms. "As we said when the …

    Applications 17 Sep 08:15

  • Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine

    Yorkshire precipice escapade ends in court

    The Doncaster man who slavishly followed his sat nav to the edge of a West Yorkshire cliff has been punished with a £370 fine, £500 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and six points on his licence for driving without due care and attention. Robert Jones, 43, was driving his £30,000 BMW 5 Series though the village of Gauxholme back …

    Bootnotes 17 Sep 08:40

  • Oracle/Sun may resell Pillar arrays

    STEC replaces Intel SSD

    Pillar Data storage could be resold by Oracle's Sun hardware unit in an Oracle-Sun-Pillar combination, threatening Sun's existing HDS OEM deal. The rumours, floated in ComputerWorld, Pillar has replaced Intel solid state drives with ones from STEC Pillar's Axiom array scales to 1.6PB of tiered storage which can be tuned to …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 08:57

  • Doctor Who fans name best episode ever

    And it's not Blink or Genesis of the Daleks...

    Over 6,700 Time Lord fans responded to a Doctor Who Magazine call to rate all 200 episodes of the classic sci-fi TV series, and selected 1984's The Caves of Androzani - in which fifth Doctor Peter Davison hung up his sonic screwdriver - as the best of the bunch. Davison's finale beat 2007's excellent Blink, with David Tennant …

    Entertainment 17 Sep 09:10

  • Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 1GB

    Review Very fast, very quiet

    When Sapphire had added its Vapor-X cooler to AMD's Radeon HD 4850 it turned a standard single-slot board into a very, very quiet dual-slot card. Now it has performed the same trick on the Radeon HD 4890. Sapphire's Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X: very, very quiet... The two Vapor-X designs look very similar, but there has been a …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 09:10

  • Premium rate regulator stops providers charging for free info

    And warns that this is a business, not a charity

    The premium rate phone regulator has moved to stamp out charges levied by operators for information provided elsewhere for free. It also objected to operators promoting premium-rate services on websites with the .org suffix. PhonepayPlus (PPP) said that it had faced growing numbers of complaints, many upheld, about operators …

    Telecoms 17 Sep 09:45

  • Twitter slaps itself with $1bn price tag

    Seeks more money for bonfire of inanities

    Twitter is trying to raise another $50m, pushing the (self) valuation of the company above a billion dollars, despite lacking an income of any kind. News of the new round of funding and valuation comes from "multiple sources" according to TechCrunch: we've not managed to get confirmation as yet but if it's true then it gets …

    Networks 17 Sep 10:00

  • Asus reaffirms Eee Reader launch

    Put one on your Christmas list

    Asus has reiterated the planned launch date for its first e-book viewer. Company CEO Jerry Shen said recently that Asus has entered the final development stages for its Eee Reader. He once again promised that the gadget will be available by the end of 2009, according to a report by DigiTimes. It's a statement he's made …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 10:12

  • LG widens notebook range

    Enter the... er... Widebook

    LG has launched a new notebook range called Widebook which the South Korean electronics giant claimed offers something for everyone. LG's Widebook: an odd name for a notebook? And its claim should hold because the Widebook series consists of five models – the 15.6in R580 and R560, the 14in R480 and R460, and the baby 13.3in …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 10:19

  • Canadian judges OK Nortel sale

    Avaya drink to celebrate

    Canadian and US bankruptcy courts have approved the sale of Nortel Networks to Avaya for about $900m. Nortel's UK business and it's European Enterprise Solutions division is being sold separately to the same firm. Alongside the $900m price, Avaya is paying $15m to keep staff on. The deal covers Nortel's business division, …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 10:31

  • News anchor tells weatherman to 'keep f**king that chicken'

    NSFW Ernie Anastos delights Fox 5 viewers

    News anchor Ernie Anastos last night delighted viewers of New York's Fox 5 network by suggesting that weatherman Nick Gregory "keep fucking that chicken": Quite what Anastos meant by his cheery encouragement is anybody's guess, but the blogosphere suggests he meant "plucking", although quite what he would have meant had he …

    Bootnotes 17 Sep 10:39

  • Peugeot looks to 1940s for quirky e-car design

    Leccy Tech Launches EV based on VLV

    Following Renault's recent launch of the odd looking Twizy at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Peugeot has stepped in with its own take on ‘eye catching’ electric city cars. Peugeot's BB1 is, well, odd looking Apparently inspired by Peugeot’s electric VLV from the 1940s, the new all-electric BB1 represents the car firm’s view for …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 10:41

  • New SOCA chief battles Yes, Minister jibes from MPs

    Pen-pusher turns pusher-basher

    The new boss of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, which has responsibility for policing international e-crime, has been forced to battle suggestions from MPs that his background in senior government bureaucracy is unsuitable experience to run a front-line crimefighting agency. Sir Ian Andrews, a 34-year veteran of the …

    Government 17 Sep 10:48

  • Fraudsters add IM to phishing attacks

    Hi! What's your mother's maiden name?

    Fraudsters have begun experimenting with introducing IM chats to phishing attacks. Conmen are trialling the inclusion of IM features into fraudulent e-banking websites. The tactic is designed to trick prospective marks into handing over the answers to secret security questions, thereby giving cybercrims an increased ability to …

    ID 17 Sep 11:03

  • Microsoft wraps Project 2010 parcel in Ribbon

    Opens up registration, beta coming later this year

    Microsoft has unveiled a few more details about its upcoming Project 2010 application, which the firm described as the “most significant” upgrade of the software in a decade. The next iteration of the project management app includes a snugger fit with MS Outlook email. There are also new collaboration features for customers …

    Applications 17 Sep 11:13

  • New gizmo means working electropulse rayguns at last

    And an end to microwave-oven gratification delay

    American boffins say they have developed a new and more powerful magnetron - a device used to produce microwaves - and that the day of the long-awaited, circuitry-frying electropulse raygun may as a result finally be at hand. The magnetron has actually been around since before World War II. It's a vital component in radars and …

    Science 17 Sep 11:23

  • MS launches 250GB Xbox 360

    Two special editions

    Microsoft has launched its most capacious Xbox 360 yet – a 250GB console. Microsoft's 250GB Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 Following Microsoft’s recent rearrangement of the Xbox 360 line-up, which saw it kill off the mid-range 60GB Pro, the software giant has launched two special-edition models with clip-on 250GB HDDs. The …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 11:27

  • Getting a handle on the virtual help desk

    Webcast Calling all BOFH’s

    For those of you managing desktop real-estate, we’ve got a treat – a live webcast that will show you how to reduce your costs, simplify your processes and save you time. Hosted by Reg superstar Tim Phillips, this live seminar will demonstrate how to win the hearts and minds of your customer-base through well chosen management …

    IT Director 17 Sep 11:40

  • AMD punts sub-$100 quad-core desktop CPU

    Cheap as... er... chips

    You can now buy a quad-core x85 processor for less than $100 (£61/€68). It's the AMD Athon II X4 620. The 45nm part is being pitched at system builders planning to put together PCs for Windows 7, AMD said. It will offer the chip with its 785G integrated chipset, which, AMD claimed, has all the graphical oomph punters need for …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 11:48

  • Street View stalks Swiss data protection bureau

    Privacy? We've heard of it

    It's still not clear what will be the final outcome of the spat between Google's Street View and the Swiss head of federal data protection, but evidence suggests the Great Satan of Mountain View's all-seeing eye is not going to go down without a fight. For those of you not up to speed on the entertaining fisticuffs between …

    Bootnotes 17 Sep 12:02

  • Apple iPod Touch 3G

    Review Disses the DS, passes water on the PSP

    It’s official – the iPod Touch is a games machine. When the second-generation model was launched this time last year, we noted – in one of our occasional moments of penetrating insight – that Apple seemed to have been taken unawares by the flood of games that had appeared on the iPhone and the first Touch. Apple's iPod Touch …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 12:02

  • T-Mobile's G2 denied the update Touch

    Fixes are holding out for a Hero

    Earlier this week HTC released an update to the software on its Hero handset, but T-Mobile customers who thought their handsets were equally Heroic are being left behind. Users of HTC's Hero handset have already got their hands on the latest update, which improve the interface speed while fixing various bugs on the device. But …

    Mobile 17 Sep 12:30

  • Rich people cannot feel pain, don't care if they're liked

    And being skint makes you a crybaby, say profs

    Being rich makes people invulnerable to pain and steels them against rejection by other people, according to trick-cyclists and whalesong specialists in China and America. In order to discover this, a group of student recruits at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou were split up into two groups. One was given a sheaf of crisp …

    Biology 17 Sep 12:48

  • IETF forges botnet clean-up standard

    Shooting zombie PCs in the head

    The IETF is developing a standard for how ISPs should go about cleaning up subscriber botnet infections. A draft standard from the net standards body covers techniques for identifying compromised machines, how to notify affected customers and what advice to give them on the best way to clean-up infections - a sometimes tricky …

    Enterprise Security 17 Sep 13:00

  • Student loans company says 'we're not overloaded'

    Starving students too weak to argue

    The Student Loans Company has insisted its systems are coping with a surge of applications despite complaints of a rising backlog of applications ahead of the new academic year. Up to 50,000 students face starting term without full loans. Late applicants have been promised provisional payments. Student forums are still full of …

    Government 17 Sep 14:39

  • Lenovo launches Atom-based all-on-one

    Desktop web machine the way they should be?

    Nettops are primarily for web surfing, right? So they should ideally sport a nice, big built-in display, yes? Lenovo thinks so - its new Atom-based IdeaCentre C100 is essentially an 18.5in, 16:9 ratio screen. Lenovo's IdeaCentre C100: web-centric all-in-one The machine's just 50mm thick and between the front and back …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 14:40

  • Nokia brings Braille to SMS

    Reach out and touch someone

    Nokia Labs has been busy again, this time bringing SMS reception to the blind with a Braille-based text message reader compatible with the company's latest touch-screen phones. Blind people usually have little difficulty using mobile phones, but reading text messages can be more of a challenge. Nokia has created an application …

    Mobile 17 Sep 14:42

  • Proposed change in libel law may shield websites

    'Single publication' idea could limit claims

    The Government could scrap a part of defamation law that makes newspapers liable many times for material in a single article. The Government may prevent people suing every time a web page 'publishes' an article. Defamation law currently states that someone has the right to sue every time defamatory material is published. This …

    Law 17 Sep 15:51

  • SGI's Itanium super smokes Java test

    Don't bogart that Altix box

    Even before Rackable Systems bought the carcass of supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics in April and took its name a month later, the future of the Itanium-based Altix shared memory supercomputers was in question. Since the takeover, the new SGI has been trying to stir up some interest in the existing machines while not exactly …

    HPC 17 Sep 15:51

  • CSI boffins: You can't ID crims from bitemarks on victims

    Corpse-chomp research discredits gnasherprinting

    Topflight CSI boffins have cast doubt on the apparently "commonly held belief" in forensics that criminals can be positively identified from the bite marks they leave on their victims. "Bitemark identification is not as reliable as DNA identification," explains the study's lead author, Prof Raymond G Miller of the University …

    Biology 17 Sep 15:56

  • Google urges developers to get in loop with Noop

    Java-like language addresses software's 'evil sins'

    Web developers are being encouraged by the world’s largest ad broker to get in a lather about Google’s Noop language. Mountain View said that Java Virtual Machine-based Noop, which is pronounced ‘noh-awp’, “attempts to blend the best lessons of languages old and new, while syntactically encouraging industry best-practice and …

    Developer 17 Sep 16:22

  • LG unfolds tiny sub-A4 nettop

    Ion inside

    LG has launched a super-small nettop PC with Nvidia’s Ion chipset inside. LG's Xpion X30: small, yet packs in Nvidia's Ion and a 250GB HDD The Xpion X30 measures about the size of a folded sheet of A4, LG said, so we’re guessing dimensions somewhere in the region of a sheet of A6 - 148 x 105mm. LG’s X30 would sit well …

    Reg Hardware 17 Sep 16:24

  • US healthcare data plan slammed for encryption get-out clause

    We decide who needs to know

    New data breach rules for US healthcare providers have come under criticism from a security firm that specialises in encryption. As part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which comes into effect from 23 September, health organisations in the US that use encryption will no …

    Enterprise Security 17 Sep 16:26

  • Microsoft's Web Office trial gets limited release

    Partially suite

    Microsoft has released the online version of its Office applications for limited technical evaluation. And limited is the word. The version of Office Web apps will see at least one major feature implemented in Excel missing from Word and PowerPoint, while another familiar element of the Office family line up will be missing …

    Applications 17 Sep 17:02

  • Apple sends iPhones into 'Coma Mode'

    iPhone 3.1: The 'buggiest' update yet

    Complaints about Apple's new iPhone OS 3.1 are flooding the web, with one poster calling it "the buggiest update that Apple has yet released for the iPhone." The problems being reported are legion. They include iPhones becoming totally unresponsive, dropped calls, poor battery life, difficulties with Wi-Fi connections, failed …

    Mobile 17 Sep 18:51

  • Google Maps glitch tags shops with rival phone numbers

    Click here to contact someone else

    Five months on, Google Maps is still tagging local businesses with the phone numbers of their competitors. And local businesses are none too happy about it. When compiling contact information for businesses listed by its Yellow Pages-killing local search engine, Google Maps has a nasty habit of merging the URLs, phone numbers …

    Small Biz 17 Sep 19:08

  • eBay fights for right to sell luxury stuff in EU

    (Real) Louis Vuitton, please

    eBay has told European lawmakers that more than three quarters of a million people have signed an online petition demanding changes to regulations that let luxury brand makers limit who can sell their products online. The internet tat house is embroiled in a longstanding feud with luxury good firms like Tiffany & Co., Louis …

    Music and Media 17 Sep 19:46

  • Google bear hugs Microsoft in web standards team tag

    You like HTML 5! You really like HTML 5!

    Google has given Microsoft a virtual bear hug, lauding the Redmond software giant for finally joining the push for a new-age HTML. In early August, Internet Explorer product manager Adrian Bateman suddenly appeared on a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) mailing list dedicated to the still-gestating HTML 5 standard, and this …

    Developer 17 Sep 23:03

  • Microsoft's online Office story interrupted

    Comment First installment and beyond

    Sure, Microsoft has kicked off its challenge to Google Docs with a limited - and now closed - test trial edition of Office Web apps And yes, Microsoft has promised to fix gaps in the tools by mid-2010, when Office Web apps are officially released. With the trial edition, you can't actually create a Word or a PowerPoint …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 23:19

  • Mainframe shops gush over big iron

    Analysis But investment is not resurgence

    Mainframe maker IBM and its few remaining peers that sell their own mainframes are probably cheered by two recent surveys of mainframe shops, one that came out of market researcher IDC and the other out of mainframe software maker CA. But maybe not. IDC polled some 300 IBM mainframe shops and kicked out a study with the …

    Servers 17 Sep 23:27