12th October 2009 Archive

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Telecoms reform tabled as EU plots spam clampdown

Italy praised and UK shamed over enforcement

The European Commission is calling on tougher action to fight spammers and protect online privacy. A Commission-funded study found that enforcement action against junk mailers across the EU is inconsistent. It wants to see spam laws tightened up, alongside "clearer and more consistent enforcement rules", funds to support …

Spam 12 Oct 06:02
Privacy policy tool failed because of browser rejection

W3C lawyer goes public

Browser company rejection is what turned an innovative plan to have websites and users' computers automatically negotiate privacy into a failure, according to the organisation that invented it. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), a system in which web sites' privacy …

Applications 12 Oct 07:23
Home Office signs £430m contract extensions

'Extends and blends' another pile of cash

The Home Office is spending £330m with Fujitsu and £100m with Atos Origin to extend existing deals with the two companies. The agreements, signed on 8 October 2009, will extend the Home Office's £550m Sirius contract with Fujitsu and the UK Borders Agency's £250m contract with Atos Origin. Some 24,000 users across the Home …

Channel Register 12 Oct 07:29
Oracle to 'out-Sun' Sun on hardware and software

OpenWorld 09 Lovin' MySQL to pieces

Oracle will out-invest Sun Microsystems on Sparc and Solaris and provide more open source contributions, Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy told OpenWorld Sunday night. Oracle's chief executive and Sun's chairman, joined by executive vice president of systems John Fowler, also made the pitch that Oracle customers should run more …

Operating Systems 12 Oct 07:35
MSI Wind Top AE1900

Review Touchscreen all-in-one PC

All-in-one PCs have been around for ages and it’s not hard to understand their appeal. They feature the wire-free tidiness of a laptop, combined with the big screen of a desktop PC. The concept sustains many admirers, with Apple’s iMac range doing very well indeed with just such a form factor. MSI's Wind Top AE1900: …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 08:02
To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Webcast That is the desktop

With Windows 7 ready to bite, the recession drawing to a close - maybe - and a certain optimism crossing the land, we’ll soon enter the season for desktop upgrades. But seriously, what’s the rationale for keeping an up-to-date desktop environment? In our latest live webcast, on the 3rd November, 2009 at 11am, we tackle this …

PC Management 12 Oct 08:16
Google: Servers are DIMM witted

Servers in the wild have a touch of Alzheimer's

The heat and stress testing of computer components in the lab does not necessarily bear out how components will behave in the field, according to a study done by Google. When you are Google, and you have millions of server nodes in production using a mix of different technology, you can actually study component failures with a …

Servers 12 Oct 09:24
The great productivity myth: Are we slaves to the machine?

Workshop Your success stories wanted

Desktop computers crash - that’s life. We know from numerous research studies that, while there are indeed ‘bad guys out there’, in most instances the causes of downtime are far more mundane – application failure, connectivity problems and the infamous ‘blue screen of death’. We can’t blame Microsoft for everything (as I …

PC Management 12 Oct 09:25
Sun kicks out 10/09 Solaris update

Many little nips and tucks

Oracle minion Sun Microsystems has rolled out its 10/09 update to the commercial Solaris 10 operating system. If you were expecting a lot of neat and new features, forget it - but the operating system has been tweaked to support new processors and to add useful capabilities, such as support for various flash-based solid state …

Operating Systems 12 Oct 09:30
Microsoft sees no silver lining in Sidekick server snafu

Danger, danger! High voltage!

A major server outage at Microsoft's subsidiary firm Danger, which provides Sidekick data services to T-Mobile customers, has forced the company to admit that many of its users have lost personal information that was stored on the system. T-Mobile published a miserable apology on Saturday, in which it said that Microsoft/ …

Mobile 12 Oct 09:31
ATM pays out credit for unwanted gadgets

Recycle and spend

Recycling your old mobile phone, compact camera, MP3 player or even external storage device could soon become much easier - and more rewarding - following the installation of a gadget-recycling ATM in North America. Eco ATM: makes recycling gadgets rewarding Eco ATM spits out usable credit for local shops in return for your …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 09:37
Eternus extended with SAS, iSCSI and SSD

Fujitsu completes tidying up exercise

Fujitsu has added iSCSI and SAS interfaces plus solid state drive support to its Eternus DX hard drive brand, completing a range tidy-up begun when it took over full control of Fujitsu Siemens Computers in March. FSC's FibreCAT SX60 and SX80 were small/medium business, twin-controller arrays, with Fibre Channel connectivity. …

Storage 12 Oct 09:49
A Geeks Guide₂ ...Sustainable Energy

A green issue at Reg Books

Geeks Guide2 When it comes to climate change, techies get their fair share of the abuse. Whether it's being told to unplug your mobile phone or laptop at night, or to cut down on your Google searches (why not go make a cuppa instead?), we're constantly reminded that our energy guzzling lifestyles cannot last forever. David JC …

Environment 12 Oct 10:02
Royal Marines' semi-hovership prototype launched

Commandos of the future to ride in aircushion catamaran

A prototype high-speed landing craft - using a novel British design halfway between a catamaran and a hovercraft - has been launched. The "PACSCAT" (Partial Air Cushion Supported CATamaran) design is intended for service with the Royal Marines. Per Mare Per Terram - riding on air. PACSCAT has twin hulls like a catamaran, …

Science 12 Oct 10:31
Google fixes SMS crashing bug in mobile OS

Paranoid Android

Google last week updated its Android mobile phone software, following the discovery of a potentially nasty pair of denial of service bugs. The first of the two bugs creates a means for hackers to kick an Android phone off a mobile network and force a restart via a malformed SMS message. Dodgy text would contain a badly …

Mobile 12 Oct 10:32
'Amateur' IBM brings down Air New Zealand

Mainframe power failure strands thousands

The boss of Air New Zealand has launched an astonishing attack on IBM after a catastrophic system crash crippled the airline and left passengers stranded. The massive IBM letdown could see the vendor turfed out of its contract with the New Zealand flag carrier. The chaos was down to a crash at the airline's mainframe, which …

Channel Register 12 Oct 10:35
West Midlands cops to roll out Mitsubishi EVs

Leccy Tech From Z Cars to e-cars

Britain's police forces are proceeding in an orderly fashion to test Mitsubishi's iMiEV after the company showed off the e-car - reviewed here - at the UK's National Police Show last month. West Midlands Police has already signed up and will take delivery of its first iMiEV cop cars early in 2010, the manufacturer has revealed …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 10:50
LG shows solar-powered e-book reader

Holiday reading away from the mains?

LG's LCD division has demo'd a novel e-book reader equipped with a solar panel. There's no guarantee that it will ever come to market - the solar panel, that is; the e-book viewer appears to be an early Sony Reader - it does show how such devices may one day be freed from the grid. If you're reading in reasonably sunny climes …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 11:04
Sky Songs plops out

Er... is that it?

ISP Sky's on-off music service will finally launch on Monday 19 October, offering free streaming… and that's about it. A handful of MP3s will be bundled, but strictly at CD prices, dashing hopes of Sky bringing its marketing muscle and innovation to the digital music business. The Register first brought you details back in May …

Music and Media 12 Oct 11:23
Hypnotist expands breasts, cures irritable bowels

BBC pushes 'The Mind Persuader' into nation's consciousness

A stage hypnotist from Yorkshire burst into the Sunday papers this weekend after it emerged that Britain's ladies are using his self-hypnosis CDs to increase their breast size by as much as two cups. David Knight came onto the papers' radar when the BBC issued a press release ahead of a documentary it claims "shows how easy it …

Bootnotes 12 Oct 11:34
Boffins demo 'through-walls' people tracker

Ring of Zigbee nodes peers inside building

Boffins in Utah have developed a method of detecting and tracking human bodies through building walls. The method is called radio tomographic imaging (RTI) and doesn't involve any need for the people being tracked to wear any tag or chip. It works by surrounding the area to be monitored with a perimeter of wireless-network …

Wireless 12 Oct 11:35
Scotland Yard criticised over raid on Parliament

Cabinet Office 'national security' claims damned again

Scotland Yard and the Cabinet Office both came in for further criticism today over their roles in the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green for passing embarrassing documents to the press. Ian Johnston, the chief constable of British Transport Police, said in a report on the affair - censored in parts - that there was a "strong …

Government 12 Oct 11:45
Vendors promised G.hn chips as ITU agrees PHY spec

Unified home networking standard takes major step forward

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has given its blessing to a key component of G.hn, the prospective standard for data networking over mains wiring, home phone lines and coax cabling. As is the case with all standards organisations, the wheels move sure but slow. There are many more steps to take before G.hn …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 11:50
ID fraud prevention week fights UK's fastest growing crime

Oo are yer?

National Identity Fraud Prevention week kicked off in the UK on Monday. The scheme marks an attempt to raise public awareness of the threat of identity fraud, reckoned to be one of the UK's fastest growing financial crimes. One in ten Brits have already been a victim of identity fraud scams, which involve crooks impersonating …

ID 12 Oct 11:54
AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 DirectX 11 GPUs

Review Next-generation gaming

Before we dive into our review of the HIS Digital HD 5850 and Sapphire HD 5870 graphics cards, let’s take a quick look at the technology behind the AMD’s new family of graphics chips. Sapphire's Radeon HD 5870: a 50 per cent gaming performance boost... These DirectX 11 graphics cores use the same 40nm fabrication process …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 12:02
Former Nortel boss demands $12m in unpaid wedge

'Get in line' screams Canada

Former Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski has gotten right up his fellow ex-Nortel staffers' collective nose by slapping in a claim for over $12m in unpaid salary and bonuses. Zafirowski, who heroically failed in his effort to turn around the struggling networks vendor after joining in 2005, left the firm in August "with his head held …

Data Networking 12 Oct 12:41
Oracle unveils new hoops for partners to jump through

Silver, Gold, Platinum? Yes, Larry will take all of them

Oracle is overhauling its partner programs, forcing resellers to fit into one of four new levels from the beginning of December. The vendor unveiled the revamped program at its OpenWorld conference in San Francisco yesterday. While the vendor - shortly to enswell itself by swallowing Sun Microsystems - described the revamped …

Channel Register 12 Oct 13:40
Merkel rips into Google Books

Angela's issues

The German chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced concerns over Google's book-scanning effort, adding political weight to the complaints of rights holders. In her weekly podcast, the recently re-elected Merkel said the search giant's digital library project presented "considerable dangers" to intellectual property. The project's …

Music and Media 12 Oct 14:05
Zeppelin-borne boffins in Bay Area alien 'extremophile' hunt

NASA dirigible deploys hyperspectral psychic probe

NASA says it is searching for aliens in the neighbourhood of San Francisco, using a Zeppelin. A target-rich environment for extremophile psychic aliens. The space agency announced the scheme last week, saying it has an agreement with Californian firm Airship Ventures Inc. Airship Ventures operates the Zeppelin Eureka, a " …

Science 12 Oct 14:26
'Hack Idol' to find top UK cyberwarriors

Wouldn't trust the phone voting

The UK government has launched plans to find the best young hackers through a talent competition. Would-be cyberdefenders will be rated on their abilities to thwart attacks and hack into websites. Winners will be offered courses by the respected SANS Institute and assigned mentors. University course and work placements also …

Crime 12 Oct 14:28
Remind me what we're doing again?

Workshop Service management round up

Over the past few weeks that we’ve been writing about service management, it’s become very clear just how hard it is to hold the fort. Indeed, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if some of you don’t wonder – at least to yourselves – why bother? This is actually a very good question, and one which deserves just a little scrutiny. …

Service Management 12 Oct 14:35
Orange says now everyone can be their own MVNO

Welcome to the world of the MVNA

Orange has signed a deal with Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator (MVNA) Transatel to handle technical details for as yet unborn MVNOs that could now launch within weeks rather than months. MVNA is such a new concept that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry yet, but that's not stopped Orange signing a deal with one to provide …

Mobile 12 Oct 14:58
Sun debuts FlashFire, calls record books

2TB array boasts record-beating bandwidth, apparently

Sun has announced its solid state FlashFire products - an apparently record-breaking 2TB array and a 96GB card. The F5100 array, some details of which were revealed in September, has up to 1.92TB of single-level cell NAND flash, originally thought to be supplied by STEC but now from Marvell, and comes as a 1U rackmount shelf. …

Storage 12 Oct 15:30
Google director quits to break Apple link

El Jobso battles the Oompa-Loompas

Under the regulatory spotlight, another link between the historically close top brass at Google an Apple was broken today, further preparing the ground for a more intense rivalry between the two. Arthur Levinson, former chief executive of biotech giant Genentech, resigned his non-executive seat on the Google board, which he …

Financial News 12 Oct 15:33
HP, EMC cozy up to Oracle

It's an OpenWorld, after all

It's Oracle OpenWorld, and everybody wants to be Larry Ellison's frienemy. That's only fitting considering that Oracle's chief executive officer and co-founder is certainly the IT industry's poster boy for frienemism. Hewlett-Packard and EMC have professed their loyalty to various Oracle products at the event, as many others …

Servers 12 Oct 16:46
Oracle finds future in McNealy's antique jalopy

OpenWorld 09 Integrate like it's 2003

Oracle's power presidential duo of Charles Phillips and Safra Catz have channeled the spirit of Sun man Scott McNealy to explain their company's four-year, multi-billion dollar acquisition spree. Catz, speaking with Phillips at OpenWorld, said software vendors like Oracle had let customers down for years by shipping "little …

Software 12 Oct 17:09
China bans foreign investment in online video games

Culture block

China has banned foreigners from investing in the country's online games industry "in any form," as a way to restrict content that censors have deemed unhealthy to the public. A mandate released over the weekend by the General Administration of Press and Publication and the National Copyright Administration said oversees …

Music and Media 12 Oct 17:28
Hacker springs latest iPhone OS from Jobsian jail

Mac users need not apply

One of the world's foremost iPhone hackers has just released software for jailbreaking the latest firmware released for the Apple smartphone. Geohot's Blackra1n lets Windows users jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.2 on all iPhone and iPod Touch models regardless of their hardware generation. The tool, which in 30 seconds allows handset …

Mobile 12 Oct 18:39
Hitachi Data Systems fingered in Sidekick disaster

Storage management work

It appears that the direct cause of the Sidekick data loss may have been storage area network remedial work outsourced to Hitachi Data Systems. A significant outage at Microsoft's Danger subsidiary, which stores data from T-Mobile mobile phone users, caused a huge amount of users' data to be lost, probably irretrievably. If so …

Channel Register 12 Oct 18:46
Microsoft yawns at Google's chillerless data center antidote

Instant failover? We do that too

Microsoft wouldn't be surprised if Google is using some sort of custom-built mystery software that automatically shifts workloads between its mega data centers. After all, Microsoft is doing much the same thing. "We are at such an enormous scale. Think about this world where many data centers and hundreds of thousands of …

Servers 12 Oct 19:03
Linux Foundation woos with lifetime linux.com handle

Hardware discounts too

The cult of Linux is sweetening its membership perks this week to drum up more dollars for the open source kernel. Linux Foundation is now offering its individual members an option to secure their a lifetime @linux.com email address with a one-time fee. Plus, it's providing discounts on hardware from Dell, HP, and Lenovo. "We …

Software 12 Oct 19:04
Microsoft and Armani fashion a phone

Suits you, sir

It's a marriage made in heaven: Microsoft and Giorgio Armani, with a little help from Samsung, have launched a mobile phone. The Armani phone runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5, and if you're wearing a baggy Armani suit, you might even have room in your pocket for it. The latest, and least bad, version of Windows Mobile …

Reg Hardware 12 Oct 19:08
Ellison whips out his Sparc TPC-C test

Mine's bigger, Big Blue

Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive officer, has ants in his pants. Or something. Instead of waiting until October 14 to roll out the official benchmark tests on Sparc-based servers that show a Sparc cluster can scale farther and cost less than a big Power 595 SMP server from IBM - as the company had been promising in ads …

Channel Register 12 Oct 19:31
Firefox 3.5.4 beta ready for bug testing, abuse

SeaMonkey 2.0 RC1 swims onto web

While Firefox testers can expect getting their mitts around the first public beta of Firefox 3.6 tomorrow, Mozilla still has the less-glamorous task of putting the browser's next security and stability update through some serious abuse. On Monday, Mozilla trotted out Firefox 3.5.4 release candidate for testing on the non- …

Applications 12 Oct 22:21
Fanbois howl over data-munching Snow Leopard bug

Guests not welcome

More than month after reports of a home-directory-eating Snow Leopard bug first surfaced, Apple fanbois continue to howl that the new Mac operating system is munching their personal data. CNet's MacFixIt site first reported the alleged bug on September 8, after noticing a few posts on Apple's support forums, and now, as ITWire …

Operating Systems 12 Oct 22:35
Large Hadron boffin hit with terrorism charges

Universe saved from donut of death

A 32-year old man working at the Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) is facing terrorism charges in France following his arrest last week. The man was arrested along with his brother last week in Viene, south-east France. His brother has been released. The physicist is facing charges of "criminal association with a terrorist …

Government 12 Oct 22:37