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23rd September 2009 Archive

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  • Intel pledges 'big leap' in integrated graphics performance

    IDF Inside 'Arrandale'

    Intel has given further insight into its attempt to build a better reputation as a provider of integrated graphics products, specifically as its takes the IGP out of the chipset and builds it into the CPU. Hopefully, we may have reached the point when the arrival of a new Intel IGP launch is no longer damned with the faint …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 00:02

  • Facebook turns out light on Beacon

    Goodbye, creep adware. Hello, pollware

    The light has finally gone out on Facebook Beacon, the user-data-sharing ad system that creeped out so many netizens after its launch in the fall of 2007. But Mark Zuckerberg's social networking empire has other schemes for squeezing dollars from user data. In agreeing to settle a year-old lawsuit over Beacon - which raised …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 00:18

  • Mellanox kicks off race to 40 Gigabit Ethernet

    And why not?

    The ramp of 10 Gigabit Ethernet for servers is just getting underway, and the use of 10GE networks for linking storage to servers is barely in its infancy. Fibre Channel over Ethernet being more a topic of conversation than a deployed technology. But why not reach for a future that's even further out? This week at the Intel …

    Data Networking 23 Sep 00:26

  • Intel squeezes one million IOPS from desktop

    IDF Seven SSDs = 5,000 hard drives

    Intel has managed to squeeze one million IOPs out of a two-socket desktop tower. Intel Fellow Rick Coulson showed off the eye-opening setup during a keynote Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The secret ingredients are SSDs tightly coupled to a host in a highly tuned setup that Coulson called "co- …

    Storage 23 Sep 00:38

  • How Muppets learned to stop licensing and love the comm

    LinuxCon 2009 When can open source save?

    There's no such thing as a free launch. Not even with open source. Adopting communal code has attracted a fair share of companies with promises of cutting costs. On the other hand, others (viz: Microsoft) will tell you there's higher "hidden" expenses involved with open source in the long-run due to limited support, consulting …

    Software 23 Sep 01:51

  • Texas Instruments aims lawyers at calculator hackers

    Is device modding a punishable offense?

    Lawyers for Texas Instruments are taking aim at a group of calculator enthusiasts who posted the cryptographic keys used to modify the devices so they run custom-designed software. Over the past few weeks, TI has sent webmasters letters invoking the DMCA, or US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF), and demanding they remove …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 03:00

  • Everything's coming up Mozy in Shanghai cloud

    eYun to be built in a part Decho style

    EMC's Decho unit has scored a design win with China Telecom. Its Shanghai Telecom branch will use Mozy to power its online cloud backup service. Shanghai Telecom has 4m broadband users and 2m mobile users. It will offer an eYun service - eYun translating to e-Cloud - to its users with the first component being on-line backup. …

    Storage 23 Sep 07:02

  • Swedish military bras burst, melt during 'rigorous exercise'

    Young female conscripts forced to strip hastily

    The Swedish armed forces have been hit by a major equipment problem, according to reports. Flimsy military brassieres are unable to stand up to the strains imposed when female Swedish troops perform "rigorous exercises", routinely bursting open or even catching fire - so forcing busty young conscripts to hurriedly strip off in …

    Bootnotes 23 Sep 08:46

  • Reldata becomes subject to Murphy's law

    Comment Ex-Plasmon boss becomes CEO

    Murphy is back, and sleepy storage supplier Reldata had better get used to a new management regime. Steven FX Murphy was the CEO of archival optical storage vendor Plasmon when it crashed and burned. It was assumed by several folks that Murphy was burned by the experience himself, and would go off and play golf for a good long …

    Channel Register 23 Sep 08:58

  • First 'videogame census' conducted

    White, adult males most chosen character

    A “virtual census” of videogame characters has concluded that the industry is unfairly biased towards white, adult males. In what’s thought to be the first analysis of its kind, researcher Dmitri Williams from the University of Southern California – with help from Indiana University and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute – …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 09:02

  • North Wales Police says the law is what they say it is

    When you're in a hole, you need to stop digging

    North Wales Police are quite happy to assert that the law is what a police constable says it is – as opposed to what is written in statute. This is backed up by a polite note from their Press Department, and what appears to be a slightly less polite piece of online blogging from the Police Constable whose public behaviour raised …

    Policing 23 Sep 09:21

  • Oz bottle shop falls for 'double your money' scam

    Expensive hangover from cash-duplicating chemical

    Three Oz businesses have been taken for a total of AU$160,000 after handing over cash to scammers in the belief a wonder chemical could double their money. According to the Stonnington Leader, the twin owners of a bottle shop in Malvern, Victoria, were approached by two men who expressed an interest in buying the business. The …

    Bootnotes 23 Sep 09:23

  • Don't trust Tories on surveillance, say LibDems

    Cleggs & co promise to give the database state a kicking

    The Conservatives do not go far enough in opposing government surveillance and databases, Liberal Democrat shadow ministers have argued at their annual conference. The party's home affairs spokesperson Chris Huhne said the Tories were inconsistent. "If the Conservatives are really against the surveillance state, why don't they …

    Policing 23 Sep 09:37

  • iPhone and Windows Mobile get the (Gmail) Push

    Nokia too, with a bit of a bodge

    Google has added e-mail support to its Google Sync service, providing vital connectivity to iPhone and Windows Mobile Users who don't have the time to press "check mail". The new functionality was launched last night, but rapidly became overloaded as initial synchronisations took their toll. The service is working better now, …

    Mobile 23 Sep 09:47

  • What’s important in service management?

    Workshop The do's and dont's

    In its broadest sense, service management goes beyond IT service management and looks to influence many of the processes which underpin the activities a business engages in. Previously, we asked how you thought service management had changed in your organisation in recent years. Let’s dig around a bit further. One of the major …

    Service Management 23 Sep 10:02

  • More Novell disties to go in autumn cull

    'Asleep at the wheel for a few years'

    Novell will axe another 10 per cent of UK distributors currently partnering with the software vendor by the start of November this year. The company has told disties targeted with the chop that their contracts would come to an end with the software vendor over the course of the next month or so. However, Novell has declined …

    Channel Register 23 Sep 10:12

  • IP telephony: Still happy?

    Reg Reader Studies Roll up for our reader poll

    The benefits of IP telephony (IPT) are now increasingly understood, and as offerings proliferate, we are starting to see wider scale adoption become reality across all types of business. But has the move to IPT been all it’s cracked up to be? Are problems around service and call quality still causing major headaches? What model …

    VoIP 23 Sep 10:18

  • Dual-screen Microsoft 'booklet' uncovered

    Not a tablet PC or an e-book viewer, apparently

    Microsoft is developing a dual-screen tablet, sorry, booklet that could seriously shake the foundations of Apple’s rumoured tablet PC and Asus' dual-screen laptop. Microsoft Courier's dual screens both look about 7in and are touch and stylus-sensitive Credit: Gizmodo Called Courier, the device is currently at the “late …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 10:25

  • Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email

    Passwords too

    Demon Internet sent thousands of business and government subscribers an email this morning telling them all about a new e-billing system, and tacked on details, including passwords, for 3,600 customers. The email - supposedly from Simon Blackburn Demon's director of customer service - has been sent to customers opting for e- …

    Enterprise Security 23 Sep 10:30

  • Hospital loses vital cancer research to thieves

    New HP box hadn't been backed up

    Police in Leeds are appealing for help tracking down a man suspected of stealing a computer containing developmental cancer research software that hadn't been backed up. The HP desktop unit - described as containing "vital" original software - and a laptop were taken from the Bexley Wing of St James' Hospital at about 7.30pm …

    IT Director 23 Sep 10:45

  • Average Brit shags 2.8m people

    'Sex Degrees of Separation'

    The average Brit shags 2.8m people during his or her lifetime, albeit indirectly, according to a handy "Sex Degrees of Separation" calculator from Lloyds Pharmacy. According to the Telegraph, the calculator uses data gleaned from 6,000 British adults, with blokes on average boasting nine sexual partners, and women 6.3 lovers …

    Biology 23 Sep 10:54

  • MS Dynamics in ERP tech land grab

    Splashes out on four companies to beef up platform

    Microsoft plans to fold four new technologies into its Dynamics AX resource planning software platform, after acquiring a quartet of small companies. The vendor announced yesterday it had bought a handful of "industry solutions" that it said would bulk out its MS Dynamics AX product that's aimed at the enterprise market. …

    Applications 23 Sep 10:56

  • Intel crams four displays into one PC

    Main LCD, plus three touchscreen OLEDs

    Intel has upped the ante concerning the number of displays fitted into a laptop, by powering a machine with four separate screens. Intel's Tangent Bay concept laptop has three OLED screens Credit: Crave Laptops with small secondary screens integrated into the keyboard half aren’t uncommon. But the Intel-powered laptop has …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 11:09

  • EMC offers cascading replication

    Hopes to make lugging boxes of tapes a thing of the past

    Aiming to knock another nail in tape's coffin, EMC has improved its Data Domain replication capability to chip away at another tape advantage. Many data centres ship tapes between sites for disaster recovery (DR), with important data centres protected by two other sites and with remote data centres protected by a central one. …

    Storage 23 Sep 11:24

  • Bridge made of recycled plastic supports 70-ton tank

    Vid 'Concrete, steel, timber - last-generation stuff'

    The US Army, seeking to embiggen its green image, has proudly announced the building of the world's first bridge made from recycled plastic and able to support heavy loads. To test the recycloplast bridge, troops drove a monster 70-ton Abrams Main Battle Tank across it. “This represents a ‘first of its kind’ event in …

    Science 23 Sep 11:31

  • Seagate sweeps in self-encryption

    All its enterprise drives clam up

    Seagate has extended its range of encrypting drives to cover all its enterprise products. The Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) option is now available across the Savvio 15K.2, Savvio 10K.3, Constellation and Cheetah 15K.7 product ranges. These drives should work with users' encryption infrastructures. Seagate says Intel and LSI are …

    Storage 23 Sep 11:39

  • HP 3015d mono laser

    Review Fast, reliable but expensive

    In a printing market awash with colour products, here comes HP with an A4 black-and-white business laser. But far from seeming dull, the LaserJet P3015d serves to remind us of how good HP lasers are – and how much better they can be than much of the flashier competition. Quality performance: HP’s 3015d mono laser printer …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 12:02

  • Samsung overtakes Numonyx in PRAM race

    Exceedingly slow contest warms up slightly

    Samsung is starting production of 512Mbit Phase-Change Memory (PRAM) giving it a lead on rival Numonyx's 128Mbit chip. Like Numonyx, the other PRAM developer, Samsung is optimistic that PRAM will replace NOR and NAND flash in mobile phones and similar battery-powered devices when those technologies run out of steam. It reckons …

    PCs & Chips 23 Sep 12:09

  • Brocade bulks up DCX switch

    Continues remorseless push to Ethernet convergence

    Brocade has extended its DCX fabric backbone switch technology to inter-connect data centres and enable a bunch of servers to send FCoE traffic to it. The DCX backbone switch is Brocade's play in the converged Ethernet and storage networking data centre that everyone appears to be adopting. Together with Cisco, Brocade is …

    Data Networking 23 Sep 12:19

  • Talking DAB and the future of radio

    Interview Tony Moretta on the switchover 'scare'

    DAB radio usually gets a flailing from Reg readers, and that was before this summer's "switch-off" controversy. Former FreeView chief Tony Moretta has the job of steering the DAB ship through such controversies as head of the Digital Radio Development Bureau, and here's an extended Q&A with him conducted recently. The …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 12:21

  • Avanti looks to government funding for second satellite

    While the first languishes on the launch pad

    Satellite broadband provider Avanti is expecting a chunk of government cash to pay for a second satellite, despite not having managed to launch the first one yet. Avanti's CEO has been telling the Financial Times that the company expects to get a significant share of the £200m that the government has promised to spend on …

    Telecoms 23 Sep 12:37

  • Mozilla cracks on with fourth Thunderbird 3 beta

    Search and ye will find

    Mozilla has pushed out a big update to its Thunderbird 3 beta build, which now comes with a new search feature and improved Gmail integration. The fourth beta of Thunderbird 3, which is the Firefox browser maker’s desktop email client, is now available for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Mozilla’s mail client now comes with a “ …

    Applications 23 Sep 12:43

  • USB 3.0 webcam streams 1080p video

    World's first for SuperSpeed USB

    Canadian advanced imaging firm Point Grey (PG) has demoed what it has claimed is the world’s first USB 3.0-connected webcam able to stream full HD video. Point Grey's prototype webcam streamed 1080p video over a USB 3.0 connection Displayed at the ongoing IDF event in San Francisco, PG’s webcam streamed uncompressed 1920 x …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 12:49

  • Firms still struggling with data security standard

    PCI DSS dissed

    Organisations are still struggling with data security, putting consumers at continued risk of identity theft as a result. A survey by the Ponemon Institute on the Payment Card Industry’s (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) found that more than half of those surveyed (55 per cent) work for businesses that only secure credit card …

    ID 23 Sep 13:23

  • Euro project to arrest us for what they think we will do

    'Positively chilling' says Liberty

    Radical Think Tank Open Europe has this week exposed a study by the EU that could lead to the creation of a massive cross-Europe database, amassing vast amounts of personal data on every single citizen in the EU. The scope of this project also reveals a growing governmental preference for systems capable of locking people up …

    Government 23 Sep 14:10

  • Lily Allen lobs blog at Wrinkly Rockers

    F*** you very very much, freetards

    The well-off popstars' club The Featured Artists Coalition - featuring such national institutions as Pink Floyd's Nick Mason - could hardly have imagined what it started when it issued a rallying cry three weeks ago. The Coalition issued a statement calling record companies a "legacy business" and saying that artists should …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 14:12

  • HP tosses EDS brand

    Outsourcing giant outsources name

    Ross Perot's original IT services firm EDS has ceased to be. The brand name disappeared today after the company was bought by HP in May 2008 for $13.9bn. Visitors to EDS.com will find themselves redirected to HP Enterprise Services. HP said the move was "the next major step in a year-long integration of EDS into HP." The …

    Channel Register 23 Sep 14:22

  • Alienware announces almighty gaming laptop

    'Universe’s most powerful'

    Dell has unwrapped its latest Alienware gaming laptop, which it’s punting as the world’s universe’s most powerful 15in gaming laptop. The Alienware M15x is super powerful, when you add all the extras The M15x is apparently the first Alienware laptop to provide mobile enthusiasts and “hardcore gamers on the go” with Intel’s …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 14:42

  • iRex waggles ebook at US

    Best Buy bunk-up for Verizon-backed Kindle-botherer

    Digital reader manufacturer iRex is about to launch into the USA with a Verizon-connected ebook, putting more pressure on the Kindle in what could be a winning move for Adobe. The device is part of the iRex's Digital Reader range and branded the DR800SG. The company announced a deal with Barnes & Noble back in August, but the …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 14:49

  • Fisker wins big US govt e-car loan

    Leccy Tech $528m for range-extended hybrid development

    Fisker Automotive has won a $528m (£324m/€358m) US government loan, designed to help the firm launch an affordable range-extended hybrid car by 2012. Fisker's Karma (above) will launch next year, but Nina won't be out until 2012 Called Nina, the new small-size Fisker will use the same Q-Drive range extended hybrid drive …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 15:02

  • Citrix ships virtual NetScaler accelerator

    Lines up partners to embed it virtually everywhere

    The NetScaler VPX virtual appliance for network application acceleration and load balancing, which Citrix Systems previewed to customers back in May is now shipping. It comes with shiny new list prices that are lower than physical NetScaler MPX appliances running the same software. According to Sunil Potti - vice president of …

    Data Networking 23 Sep 15:02

  • Samsung i5700 launch 'pushed back'

    'Breathing space' for i7500, hints retailer

    UK mobile phone retailer Dial-a-Phone has announced that a smaller version of Samsung’s first Android handset – the Galaxy i7500 – has been delayed until 2010. Samsung's pushed pack the i5700's launch until 2010 Many of you will remember that the i7500 suffered several launch setbacks prior to its eventual appearance in O2 …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 15:22

  • VTOL hovership in semi-successful X-Prize attempt

    Alcoholic rocket retires with internal burns

    A Californian firm has carried out the first untethered flights of its alcohol-fuelled hover rocket, able to take off and land vertically and potentially offer ballistic flights beyond the Earth's atmosphere. The rocket in question is the XA-0.1B (aka "Xombie") rocket from Masten Space Systems, fuelled on alcohol and liquid …

    Space 23 Sep 15:29

  • Facebook enables apps to peek at mail

    Updated I'm in ur inbox, mocking ur privacy settings

    Facebook plans to open up members' inboxes and notifications to developers have drawn fire from security experts as an unacceptable privacy risk. The social network site published plans to release a notification and Mailbox API in a post on a developers' forum last month. The development has received little attention since, …

    ID 23 Sep 15:37

  • France OKs Three Strikes… again

    Controversial law passed by Senate, slated by critics

    The French Senate passed the revised Hadopi legislation yesterday by 251 votes to 131. The legislation creates a typically French bureaucratic infrastructure, which oversees a range of sanctions against internet copyright infringers, including €3,000 fines and ultimately disconnection. Hadopi fell foul of the French Supreme …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 15:39

  • Intel will sell more SoCs than mainstream CPUs, says CEO

    IDF Atom more important than Core, Xeon?

    In five years' time, Intel will be selling more system-on-a-chip products than mainstream microprocessors. So said CEO Paul Otellini yesterday. It's a bold claim and one that warrants closer consideration. Much depends on what Otellini consider an SoC. Most folk will think of them as small-scale chips for handhelds and …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 15:49

  • Mozilla plans to tie Firefox 3.7 pigtails in pretty Ribbon

    Less is more, more or less...

    Mozilla is planning to radically overhaul the “dated and behind” Windows version of its browser’s user interface by considering the introduction of a Microsoft Office-like Ribbon in its Firefox 3.7 release. The outfit said in planning documents that it might drop the current menu bar in the Firefox UI for version 3.7. The …

    Applications 23 Sep 15:51

  • Microsoft Live Messenger in worldwide hiccup

    Instant error codes

    Users across the globe are reporting that they're unable to log-in to Microsoft's Live Messenger instant messaging service. According to Reg readers in the UK and users worldwide posting to Twitter and Microsoft's help forums, attempts to log-in have been repeatedly met with the error code 85AE001D. According to some, the …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 17:18

  • First USB 3.0 ExpressCard adaptor spotted

    IDF One SuperSpeed port for your old laptop

    We're not expecting to see SuperSpeed USB devices shown off in significant numbers until next year, but a few have turned up at Intel Developer Forum. At the top of the list is Point Grey's 1080p HD webcam that uses the 5Gb/s USB 3.0 bus to stream the 60f/s picture data uncompressed. Point Grey's camera uses USB 3.0 PCI …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 17:39

  • Intel pays crafty homage to netbook pioneer Psion

    IDF Updated Lawsuit-launching mini-laptop appears among cool kit

    Never say Intel executives aren't cheeky so-and-sos. On a slide all-too-briefly shown during his 'What is Cool' presentation, Intel Executive VP Dadi Perlmutter showed a selection of netbooks including the... er.... Psion Teklogix Netbook. This machine was launched in the late 1990s. Production of the machine ended in 2003, …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 18:17

  • Intel unfurls copper-killing optical cables

    IDF Light Peaks next year

    Intel plans to replace your LAN, storage, and HD video cables with a single high-speed optical cable based on a technology it calls Light Peak. Announced Wednesday morning at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the 10Gbps interconnect uses a optical cable that can span up to 100 meters, according to Dadi Perlmutter, …

    Data Networking 23 Sep 18:24

  • Email-stealing worm slithers across LiveJournal

    Son of Samy stopped

    LiveJournal's security team has disabled some media features on the blogging site after a quick-spreading worm stole user email addresses and caused entries designated as private to be available to everyone. The self-propagating exploit spread to users who were logged in and did nothing more than view a LiveJournal posting …

    Security 23 Sep 19:08

  • Bank sues Google for identity of Gmail user

    Um, we sent him 1,325 tax IDs

    A US bank is suing Google for the identity of a Gmail user after a bank employee accidentally sent the user a file that included the names, addresses, tax IDs, and loan info for more than 1,300 of the bank's customers. In mid-August, according to court documents filed in a California federal court, the Wyoming-based Rocky …

    ID 23 Sep 19:21

  • Intel powers down Xeons for microservers

    IDF Saving the world, one blade at a time

    Intel is introducing a reference design for what it calls "a new category" of microservers, along with low-wattage Xeon processors to power them. The term "microserver" has been bandied about for some time now, with various and sundry vendors dipping their toes into the market for small, low-power, densely packed systems. Now …

    Servers 23 Sep 19:57

  • Dell to punt Moblin for Mini 10v netbooks

    Ubuntu gets new front end

    Dell will tomorrow begin offering its Inspiron Mini 10v netbook with Moblin, the Intel-favoured version of Linux that was developed for mobile devices. Well, sort of. What Dell will actually be offering is Ubuntu Moblin Remix, a version of Ubuntu 9.04 with the Moblin 2.0 user interface sitting on top. Ubuntu developer …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 20:18

  • Super Micro gets dense with blades

    IDF Twins are hot - servers, that is

    Motherboard and server maker Super Micro Computer is showing off a new double-density blade server that's based on its Twin family of half-width (not half-wit) motherboards, and is bragging that it has industry-leading density - and that's meant to be a good thing, not the kind your boss succumbs to. The new box is member of …

    Servers 23 Sep 20:35

  • IBM and Canonical push onto African netbooks

    LinuxCon 2009 UbuntuLotus v Microsoft

    IBM and Canonical are buddying-up to sell a new business application bundle combining Ubuntu and Lotus for small, cheap computers in Africa. Under the pact, IBM is tying together various Lotus client applications running on top of the open-source operating system for the country's lower-end devices like netbooks, thin-clients …

    Channel Register 23 Sep 21:13

  • Next-gen Atom to clock above 1GHz

    IDF 'Moorestown' CPU gets auto-overclock tech

    Intel's 'Lincroft' Atom system-on-a-chip for handheld internet devices - including high-end smartphones - will clock to more than 1GHz, it has emerged. The chip giant isn't saying what the part's 'standard' clock speed will be. The gigahertz frequency is what the chip - the main processing component of the upcoming 'Moorestown …

    Reg Hardware 23 Sep 22:48

  • Red Hat mocks Meltdown in Q2

    You sure this is 2009?

    Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat continues to buck the economic meltdown, reporting sales up 11.7 per cent to $183.6m in the second quarter of its fiscal 2010 and net income up 36.9 per cent to $28.9m. The sales were above the high end of Red Hat's guidance. Business is so good that the juggernaut of the Linux business …

    Financial News 23 Sep 22:50

  • Google fits web with meta comments engine

    The wiki that goes everywhere

    Google has added a new contraption to its browser toolbar that lets you annotate any web page - and read annotations left by others. Yes, it's what you might call a meta comments engine. And this being Google, the company is intent on using Google algorithms to sort these comments according to Google-defined relevance. …

    Music and Media 23 Sep 23:00

  • Microsoft protests $290m Word judgment

    Denies bait and switch

    A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday. "I don't think there's been a fair reading of this patent and this trial history," Microsoft attorney Matthew …

    Applications 23 Sep 23:58