5th November 2009 Archive

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Men allegedly broke into computers of former employer

Poor password hygiene indictment

Federal authorities on Wednesday filed intrusion charges against two men accused of accessing the computer systems of their former employer. Scott R. Burgess, 45, of Jasper, Indiana, and Walter D. Puckett, 39, of Williamstown, Kentucky, both worked as managers for Indiana-based Stens Corporation until taking jobs with a …

Crime 5 Nov 2009, 00:12
Judge spanks lawyer for leaking personal details in brief

'Negligent, inattentive electronic filing'

A judge has chastised a lawyer for including the social security numbers and birthdays of 179 individuals in an electronic court brief, ordering him to pay a $5,000 sanction and provide credit monitoring. US District Judge Michael J. Davis said he was meting out the penalty under his "inherent power," meaning no one in the …

ID 5 Nov 2009, 00:51
Google: Android fragmentation not 'bad thing'

OpenMobileSummit It's what devs want

Google has defended its decision to allow unfettered Android tweaking, saying that although this may fragment the Googlephone market, it's what's best for developers. "Everybody talks about fragmentation as a bad thing, but I think you need to look at it from the perspective of the developer," Eric Chu, Google's group manager …

Mobile 5 Nov 2009, 01:04
Linden Lab unveils Sadville: Enterprise Edition

A private Second Life in a $55,000 box

Some companies like IBM have an uncanny attraction to Linden Lab's virtual world, Second Life. They claim the software provides a 3-D collaboration space that's viscerally superior to what traditional mediums such as teleconferencing, instant messaging, or video conferencing can provide. Trouble is, hapless employees ushered …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 01:14
Sun and Apache: the Java scars that endure

ApacheCon 09 Neutrality gets you so far

Apache Software Foundation (ASF) pioneers have toasted 10 years of independence and successful code development at their annual conference in California. Speakers who spun-up the project in its early days celebrated building a community that has stayed (mostly) friendly and dedicated to the ideal of building open-source code. …

Developer 5 Nov 2009, 04:40
Second-gen TTxGP e-bike unveiled

Leccy Tech 'Laptop on wheels' available to buy

The organisers of the TTxGP e-bike Grand Prix series have revealed their off-the-shelf electric superbike at the annual Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. Called the Mavizen TTx02, the bike is based on the Agni X01 machine that won the inaugural TTxGP at the Isle of Man TT races in June 2009 and …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 06:02
Open-sourcers promise cloud elephant won't trample your code

ApacheCon 09 Hadoop buffed for 2010 'completion'

Popular grid computing platform Hadoop could grow up next year, with network authentication and features to stop brand-new code breaking users' existing applications. Also on the roadmap for the open-source architecture - used by Yahoo!, eHarmony, LinkedIn, and Fox Interactive Media among others - is support for dynamic …

HPC 5 Nov 2009, 06:02
115,000 nabbed for in-car calling

Drivers get the message, but only after pulling over

More than 115,000 people in England and Wales got fixed penalties for being on the blower whilst driving in 2007, dropping off from the 2006 peak of almost 160,000. Figures are only available up until 2007, but according to a parliamentary answer the number of drivers caught talking on the phone peaked in 2006, and is dropping …

Mobile 5 Nov 2009, 07:02
Tech titans meet in secret to plug SSL hole

Web authentication busted on Apache, IIS

Researchers say they've uncovered a flaw in the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to inject text into encrypted traffic passing between two endpoints. The vulnerability in the transport layer security protocol allows man-in-the-middle attackers to surreptitiously introduce text at the beginning of an SSL …

Security 5 Nov 2009, 07:51
Hisense 1080p Media Player

Review Link HDDs, Nas boxes to your TV, cheaply

The world isn't exactly short of devices designed to get audio-visual content from your Nas box, USB stick or external hard drive and onto your telly. The trouble is, many of them are three-legged nags let down either by grim UIs, lacklustre codec support, cheap and nasty remote controls, a simple lack of expected functionality …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 08:02
Asus ups ante on Acer with two 3D laptops

Gamers targeted

Watch out, Acer. Rival PC manufacturer Asus has crafted not one, but two laptops with 3D displays, both designed to tempt gamers and film fans into parting with their cash. Asus' G51J3D: one of two 3D laptops the firm will launch over coming months Both models sit within Asus’ G series of gaming-focused laptops and come in …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 09:02
At what point do servers become HPC beasts?

Tech Panel El Reg barometer survey. Your input needed

From time to time, The Register commissions its own "barometer surveys", to gauge the impact of technologies on our readers' working lives Today, we launch a new barometer survey, to track high-end servers and HPC, or high performance computers, the name by which low- and mid-range supercomputers go by these days. We will run …

Servers 5 Nov 2009, 09:44
Toshiba attacks 2.5-inch drives from below

320 gigs on 1.8-inch HDD

By putting 320GB of capacity on a 1.8-inch drive, Toshiba has signalled its confidence in this micro-drive form factor. The new 2-platter MK3233GSG stores 160GB per platter and spins at 5,400rpm, optimising capacity over performance. The platters have an areal density of 516Gbit/sq in - impressive, given that most high- …

Storage 5 Nov 2009, 10:15
Pirates get extra seat in Euro Parliament

22-year old Swedish woman goes to Brussels

Now that the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the European Parliament gets an extra 18 members, and one of those will be from Sweden's Pirate Party. Currently there are 736 Members of the European Parliament, this will temporarily go up to 754, because Germany, which is losing three seats, keeps …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2009, 10:16
All-in-one PCs to replace desktops, claims Asus

Three years and counting?

Asus has forecast that sales of all-in-one PCs will soon overtake those of traditional desktop PCs. Eric Lee, Manager of Asus’ Eee Top all-in-one PC range, told Register Hardware today that the “all-in-one PC will replace the traditional desktop within the coming years”. Asus' Eee Top 2002: pushing aside mini-towers …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 10:28
'Searched' web info hits harder than 'surfed' - shock

Stuff you're interested in is more interesting

Journalism academics have published a study asserting that people are more likely to "understand, remember and emotionally respond" to web news and information which they have searched for than stuff they have "surfed". In this case, "surfing" means looking at content selected for the user by others, as when going to a news …

Science 5 Nov 2009, 10:38
Cybercriminals down five British police forces in a year

For more than three days each

In the last year five British police forces have suffered major computer failures lasting three days or more as a result of malicious internet attacks. The spate of intrusions by cybercriminals and the resulting outages was revealed recently by a senior authoritative source, who can't be identified because the disclosure was …

Policing 5 Nov 2009, 10:39
Wikipedia's founder gets €10K coolness credit

Nokia Foundation rewards ~~cult~~ Foundation leader

Jimmy Wales can add "Nokia Foundation scholarship" winner to his list of achievements, having received €10,000 for his sterling work as Maximum Leader of the Wiki. The award was made to Jimmy on the basis of his "unique contribution to accelerating online collaboration... effectively democratizing information sharing" …

Mobile 5 Nov 2009, 11:00
The state of the x86 server estate

Proper webcast Your peers are telling you

If you’re running a data centre, or just a moderate server room, chances are you’ve got an awful lot on your plate. Day to day; new demands, new apps, new kit, new pressures and more than likely, you only have partial visibility on these matters. No more. The mighty readers of The Register are here to help. On 26 November at …

Server Management 5 Nov 2009, 11:02
Mozilla plots Firefox interface overhaul

'Dated' UI gets cross-platform makeover

Mozilla has detailed plans to revamp and simplify the user interface of Firefox. The visual update for the Windows version of the open source browser will occur in two phases, coinciding with the release of Firefox 3.7 and 4.0, with early changes set to include hiding the menu bar and merging the "stop" and "reload" buttons. …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 11:12
BBC website now unbroked

Auntie fell asleep during the night

BBC Online is mostly back online now, after serious problems overnight and early this morning. Reg readers emailed to report problems from 3am UK time until just before 9am this morning. For most the site was either unavailable, or loading extremely slowly. A BBC spokeswoman said: "Some people have been experiencing problems …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2009, 11:34
EU block to Mandelson's filesharing laws removed

Consumer campaign defeated

A plan by the European Parliament to restrict the power of national governments to disconnect illegal filesharers has been dumped to win agreement on new telecoms competition laws. Long-running negotiations over the EU Telecoms Package were completed last night when MEPs agreed to drop amendments that would have made internet …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2009, 11:38
Mandriva flashes its small aggressive penguin

It's Linux for 2010

The end of year race to update product names has begun in earnest, with Mandriva becoming one of the first to launch a product with 2010 in its moniker. The Paris-based Linux outfit flagged up Mandriva Linux 2010 last night. If that's too much of a mouthful for you, you can just stick with the codename, Adelie. The big push …

Operating Systems 5 Nov 2009, 11:39
Orb goes Mac - at last

Photos, music via little fluffy cloud

Orb, the Slingbox-in-software app that allows you to access your music, TV and photos on any device, has finally unleashed its long-awaited Mac version. Once installed, the software will scan your iPhoto or iTunes library, and selected folders, allowing Playlists and Photo Albums to be enjoyed on another PC, a Xbox 360 or Wii …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 11:50
Fat Reg slims down for spanking new mobile phone version

Bookmarks at the ready!

We’ve had a few goes with various technology partners at pumping out a mobile version of The Register over the years. But for reasons too dull to dwell on, each attempt foundered on the shores of irrelevance and indifference. Undaunted, we are back, this time with our own try-out at Register Mobile. [We won’t call it the …

Site News 5 Nov 2009, 12:02
Ex-HP boss confirms political move

California gets tech Senate bid

The former boss of HP, Carly Fiorina, is to stand as a Republican candidate for Senate for California. Writing in the Orange County Register (no relation), Fiorina said: "Our most pressing problems today are too few jobs for Americans and too much spending in Washington. As California's senator, economic recovery and fiscal …

Financial News 5 Nov 2009, 12:05
Fifth of iPhone users watching porn

Quarter have left physical partner over mobile use

Shopping site Retrevo has been talking to iPhone users and has discovered that they prefer cool gadgets to degrees, but still consider themselves intellectual. The "study" involved polling 445 iPhone and Blackberry users about their relationships with other people and their kit, and discovered that iPhone users consider …

Mobile 5 Nov 2009, 12:06
Spotify: The Sutton Coldfield challenge

Exclusive Fifty Quid Bloke replaced by small cluster of Spotifans?

New Spotify figures obtained by El Reg shed some new light on the progress of the music phenomenon. Back in June, we revealed the subscriber and revenue numbers for the startup, which showed that Spotify had exceeded half a million UK users, but was gaining just 14p of advertising revenue per user - not enough to keep the …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2009, 12:06
Asus delays 'smartbook' release

Android implementation slows down release?

Asus has push back scheduled plans to launch its first "smartbook" early next year. Asus confirmed in October 2009 that it would launch such a machine during Q1 2010. However, Judy Wu, a market specialist at Asus, today told Register Hardware that the company will now not unveil the netbook until Q2 2010. She didn't give any …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 12:26
Google launches privacy Dashboard service

What does Google know about me?

Google has launched a Dashboard service that's designed to show how much the search engine giant knows about its users online activities. The service provides a summary of data associated with a specified Google account. Users gain the ability to view and manage data, which ranges from search engine queries and emails sent …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 12:30
Samsung Galaxy i7500

Review Stellar Android performance?

HTC may have done it first, but now the Androids are starting to come thick and fast. Motorola got in early with the Dext, and all the major manufacturers are planning their own entry into Android land. Samsung's Galaxy: Android for the mainstream? The Samsung Galaxy is the Korean giant's first attempt and turns out to be a …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 13:02
Brown declines to resign

Democracy 2.0 inaction

Shocking news from the home of 10 Downing Street's e-petitions site, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not going to resign. Reg reader Kalvis posted a petition calling for Gordy to go back in April, when to be fair it was looking quite likely. Well over 72,000 people agreed with this sentiment and added their support to the …

Government 5 Nov 2009, 13:07
Could a hard drive dedupe data?

Comment Manufacturers start looking for the next big thing

Hitachi GST president Steve Milligan says one of the drivers affecting the hard drive industry is the need for efficient storage with technologies like virtualisation and deduplication. What is he on about? He presented at a recent Needham conference for HDD investors and said that the storage market was driven by three things …

Storage 5 Nov 2009, 13:11
Large Hadron Collider scuttled by birdy baguette-bomber

Exclusive Bread on the busbars could have seen 'dump caverns' used

A bird dropping a piece of bread onto outdoor machinery has been blamed for a technical fault at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week which saw significant overheating in sections of the mighty particle-punisher's subterranean 27-km supercooled magnetic doughnut. According to scientists at the project, had the LHC been …

Physics 5 Nov 2009, 13:23
US carrier in shock 'wireless pipes make money' claim

OpenMobileSummit T-Google's open lovefest

A US wireless carrier has admitted that it can make a very good living as a wireless carrier. This week, at a mobile-centric get-together in downtown San Francisco, T-Mobile USA chief technology officer Cole Brodman was asked how the company planned to avoid becoming nothing more than a - gasp! - network service provider in an …

Wireless 5 Nov 2009, 14:02
You too can become a Taoist Mao Shan master

Handy Reg step-by-step guide to achieving enlightenment

The shock news earlier this week that a Chinese truck driver had persuaded an 18-year-old aspiring model that he was a Taoist Mao Shan master with the power to grant her catwalk success - providing she indulged in ritual sex - prompted many readers to enquire how they too might achieve the same kind of spiritual enlightenment …

Bootnotes 5 Nov 2009, 14:37
China says there's no such thing as net addiction

Then warns on 'inappropriate use of internet'

China's health ministry has turned down the country's rhetoric on internet addiction, and has warned against "boot camp" style approaches for habitual web abusers. The ministry has issued guidelines for "inappropriate use of internet" saying there was no precise definition of internet addiction, state news agency Xinhua …

Science 5 Nov 2009, 14:40
Olympus intros E-P1's successor

Second-gen Micro Two-Thirds camera announced

Olympus has launched the follow-up to first Micro Four-Thirds format camera, the E-P1, called, unsurprisingly, the E-P2. The E-P2 is Olympus' second go at Micro Four-Thirds tech Both models share the same 12.3Mp sensor, but E-P2 buyers will be rewarded with a port that'll take an electronic viewfinder or an external …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 15:08
T-Mobile backs into Android Marketplace

One bill to rule them all

T-Mobile USA is to integrate Android application purchases into its billing platform, proving there's still value in the operator-customer relationship. In his speech at the OpenMobile Summit Cole Brodman, CTO of T-Mobile USA, told the assembled crowd that from November 17th they'll be able to browse a T-Mobile-branded section …

Mobile 5 Nov 2009, 15:20
Swedish spooks knocked offline by hack attack

DDoS attack follows intro of new monitoring powers

The website of the Swedish Signals Intelligence agency (Försvarets Radioanstalt, or FRA) was taken offline by a massive DDoS attack this week. Fra.se was intermittently inaccessible from Monday night until Thursday morning, when full service was restored. The agency was in the news recently after Swedish legislators passed a …

Crime 5 Nov 2009, 15:24
Travel agents accused of shilling for ID cards

Fun with glove puppets

Lobby group NO2ID has told the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) to stop acting as a propagandist for the government's doomed ID card project. Sean Tipton, senior spokesman for ABTA, has been quoted in various publications banging the drum for the card that no one wants. Tipton claimed the card would encourage people …

Government 5 Nov 2009, 15:30
IBM gives big discounts on Power engines

Latent capacity a go-go

The U.S. economy may look like it is coming out of the Great Recession, at least according to the economists who work for Uncle Sam, who said recently that gross domestic product in the States rose by a 3.5 per cent annualized rate in the third quarter. That is better than the 2.7, 5.4, 6.4, and 0.70 per cent declines that …

Channel Register 5 Nov 2009, 15:59
Sony upscales PS3's PlayTV to HD

Also adds Aino 'PlayStation phone' support

Sony has released an update for the PlayStation 3 Play TV tuner unit enabling it to better serve the needs of HD buffs and mobile maniacs. Version 1.21 of the unit's software lets you watch, pause and record HD TV over a DVB-T standard broadcast, Sony said, and makes it possible to simultaneously watch and record free digital …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 16:12
Gwen Stefani in Band Hero avatar argument

Ain't No Doubt about it

US ska-pop band No Doubt - best know for its 1996 hit Don't Speak - has become the latest group to throw a hissy fit over the use of its lead singer’s likeness in a videogame. The band agreed to lead singer Gwen Stefani’s likeness being used alongside three No Doubt songs included in Activision's videogame Band Hero, but they …

reghardware 5 Nov 2009, 16:19
Murdoch admits delays on paywall scheme

How's never? Is never good for you?

Rupert Murdoch has confirmed that his company is unlikely to hit its June deadline for putting up paywalls around its newspaper websites. Murdoch also seemed to confirm that the move to charging for online content would not be made by News Corp alone but with several major publishers acting together (not as a cartel, of course …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2009, 16:28
NY insider trading scandal widens, 14 more charged

String of deals since 2006 involved

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said this morning they are bringing charges against 14 people it claims were involved in yet another insider trading network. The US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York is hosting a press conference today outlining the charges, but prior to this, the office supplied El Reg …

Business 5 Nov 2009, 18:05
Vint Cerf mods Android for interplanetary interwebs

OpenMobileSummit 'Hot dead birds' protocol comes to earth

Internet founding father cum Google evangelist Vint Cerf is working to bring his interplanetary interwebs protocol to mobile networks here on earth. In 1998, working in tandem with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the (co-)father of the seminal TCP protocol launched an effort to create an "interplanetary extension to the …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 18:40
Latest Moblin Linux polished for netbooks

3G, Bluetooth, and browser boost

The effort putting Linux on Intel's mobile Atom processor has seen its latest release, with an across-the-board polish for Moblin. The steering committee of the Moblin Project, the Intel-initiated effort that was spun off to the Linux Foundation earlier this year, proudly announced a raft of capabilities new to version 2.1. …

Operating Systems 5 Nov 2009, 20:03
Windows 7 sales leave Microsoft coffers unstuffed

Beats Windows Vista - at a price

Sales of boxed copies of Windows 7 are thrashing Windows Vista's early history, but at a price - the money that Microsoft is making on them isn't keeping up. Windows 7 unit sales were 234 per cent higher than Windows Vista's during the first few days of both operating systems' release, according to analyst NPD Group's weekly …

Operating Systems 5 Nov 2009, 20:03
Spain won't disconnect illegal file sharers

Rejects Mandy and Sarko approaches

Spain doesn't plan on unplugging internet users accused of illegal file-sharing, despite strong government support for "three-strikes" disconnection laws in the UK and France. Culture Minister, Angeles González-Sinde, told the morning television news program, TVE Breakfast, Thursday the Spanish government "is not considering …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2009, 20:09
Facebook, MySpace backdoor exposed user accounts

Bit drafty in here

Facebook and MySpace have closed gaping security holes in their sites that gave attackers full access to accounts that had automatic-login features enabled. The vulnerabilities, documented here by a Facebook application developer, were significant. Because the unauthorized access would be mapped to the victim's IP address and …

Security 5 Nov 2009, 20:11
Google demi-god backs shared mobile airwaves

OpenMobileSummit Raises fist at 'Soviet Ministries'

After plugging Google's open source Android OS into the interplanetary interwebs, net demi-god Vint Cerf has called for a mobile world where the airwaves are shared by multiple wireless outfits. But he's well aware that the mobile industry's "Soviet Ministries" - aka the incumbent carriers - are less than likely to leap at the …

Networks 5 Nov 2009, 21:23
IBM parks beta cloud on development and test servers

Big-Blue software diet

IBM on Thursday kicked off a free public beta of a new cloud computing development and test environment that's hosted on Big Blue's machines. The company also added new tools and services made special for testing cloud-based apps in a private cloud. IBM Smart Business Development and Test on IBM Cloud (yes, they put the …

Software 5 Nov 2009, 21:52
Opera in top secret iPhone talks?

OpenMobileSummit We did not approach Apple...'at that time'

Opera boss Jon von Tetzchner says that one day Apple's iPhone will run third-party browsers. But he won't be drawn on whether the company is poised to offer a Jobsian version of Opera itself. Von Tetzchner and company have already admitted to building an Opera incarnation for Steve Jobs's mobile status symbol in the the Opera …

Applications 5 Nov 2009, 23:39