9th November 2009 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

VMware virtually crashes Windows 7 desktop party

Tempts Windows XP laggards

VMware has unveiled the latest version of its ESX-based virtualization software to capitalize on Microsoft's rollout of Windows 7. The company has launched VMware View 4.0, featuring a new communications protocol called PC-over-IP to provide real-time screen rendering, plus the ability to deploy and manage tens of thousands of …

Channel Register 9 Nov 05:02
How new is Juniper's 'New Network'?

The devil's in the wireless details

Juniper Networks had a lot to show last week during its "New Network" launch, billed as its most significant event since its founding in 1996. Covering new data center kit, software, and partnerships, the rollout even occasioned a fresh Juniper logo and promises of a new vision of networking going forward to next decade. But …

Data Networking 9 Nov 06:02
Nokia N86 8Mp cameraphone

Review The serious snapper's smartphone?

While many mobile makers in the smartphone game have been concentrating their designer firepower on touchscreen devices, the Nokia N86 8MP rolls in as a successor to Nokia’s previous generation of Symbian S60 3E-packing heavyweights rather than as another touchphone contender. Nokia's N86 8MP: the N-series ancestry is …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 08:02
Morgan Computers shuts its doors, sells website

Has cheap-as-chips dealer had its chips?

Morgan Computers - one of Britain's longest surviving independent retail PC dealers - has sold its online business to a Jersey-based businessman, but questions remain over its retail arm. Morgan's owner Robert Nicklin was unwilling to comment to The Register on Friday, but the firm's flagship store on Oxford Street remained …

Channel Register 9 Nov 08:02
Legal vultures circle STEC after overstock admission

Who knew what, when?

At least four law firms are flying class action kites alleging STEC misled investors by a late announcement of EMC's overstocking of SSD inventory. They are looking for disgruntled investors to join in and give STEC a good kicking. STEC is the solid state disk supplier (SSD) that dominates the enterprise flash disk market and …

Channel Register 9 Nov 09:50
Is the server layer just a commodity?

Workshop Or can it ever be?

It’s been a while since Nicholas Carr wrote his polemic ‘Does IT matter? which documented how IT was commoditising, turning into a utility with little to differentiate itself – a theme which he continued in the book The Big Switch. He was clearly demonstrating an economist’s grasp of technology – falling onto the trap of …

Server Management 9 Nov 09:57
Blind gamer sues Sony

Suit gets mixed reception

A sight-impaired gamer is taking various branches of Sony to court for failing to make their games accessible enough to disabled gamers. Alexander Stern filed his suit in California at the end of last month. He claims that Sony Entertainment and Sony Corporation of America is failing to do enough to follow the US Disability …

Law 9 Nov 10:01
Isle of Man plays catch-up on extreme porn law

Spare the birch, spoil the sexual deviant

Just when you thought everything had gone quiet on the extreme porn front, up it pops once more. This time, it’s the Isle of Man doing its best to save us all from unnatural vice, and demonstrating in the process the oddly fractured nature of law-making in the British Isles. The Isle of Man, along with the Channel Islands is …

Law 9 Nov 10:02
Adaptec cancels AGM

Steel Partners soap opera lurches on

Beleaguered Adaptec has cancelled its November 10 annual general meeting and legacy board chairman Joe Kennedy has apparently resigned. It appears Steel Partners has won the proxy war and has sufficient shareholder consents to carry out its plans of removing Adaptec CEO Sundi Sundaresh and Robert Loarie from the board, …

Storage 9 Nov 10:16
Swedish cyborg gets haptic hand

'Perfectly good nerve endings' plugged in once again

Boffins in Israel and the EU have fitted a Swedish man with a robotic hand which has a two-way hookup to the nerves in his arm: not only can he operate the hand as if it were his own, he can feel with it too. Touchy-feely technology. "I grab something hard, and then I can feel it in the fingertips, which is strange, as I …

Biology 9 Nov 10:22
Nokia coughs to shock-risk phone chargers

Recalls potentially faulty kit

Nokia has admitted that some of its mobile phone chargers could have a shocking surprise in store for their owners. During a routine quality control process, the Finnish phone giant discovered that the plastic covers of some chargers may work loose and separate from the adaptor's innards. The result could be a nasty shock if …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 10:41
No jobs recovery for years

Public sector cuts jobs but services sector on the up

The UK jobs market won't show any signs of improvement for "several years" even if the economy returns to robust growth, a personnel body has warned. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development warned today that the UK job market was "flat on its back". While this might be construed as saying a decimated workforce …

Financial News 9 Nov 11:25
French cheer on €11.6m heist security guard

Tony Musulin: Tu es mon icône!!

A French security van driver who last week disappeared with €11.6m has earned himself an internet round of applause from his impressed fellow countrymen. Tony Musulin, 39, made off with 49 sacks of notes he and two colleagues from Loomis security had just picked up from the Bank of France in Lyon on Thursday morning. His co- …

Bootnotes 9 Nov 11:25
Play.com emails customer details to other customers

No explanation yet from data-spraying vendor

Online DVD and CD seller Play.com has sent out dozens of emails containing customer account details to the wrong customers. We were contacted by Reg reader Ben, who had received an order confirmation email for a customer called Kate. This included the title of the CD she had ordered - The Killers' "Live at the Royal Albert …

Enterprise Security 9 Nov 11:43
How malware frames the innocent for child abuse

Traces of guilt

Innocent people have been branded as child abusers after malware infected their PCs, an AP investigation has discovered. Technically sophisticated abusers sometimes store images of child abuse on PCs infected by Trojans that grant them illicit access to compromised machines. The plight of those framed in this way is all the …

Malware 9 Nov 11:46
Intel to fast track Atom 2.0 introduction

New, more power-efficient netbooks after Xmas

Expect a raft of new netbooks early next year - you may want to hold off buying one until after Christmas - as Intel plans to make a "fast transition" from the current generation of Atom processor to the next. The chip giant will formally launch the successor to the N270 and N280 on 21 December, website Xbit Labs says after …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 12:04
Xbox 360 802.11n add-on priced for UK

Adaptor spotted in Asda

The Xbox 360’s elusive 802.11n wireless adaptor has finally landed in Blighty. Microsoft confirmed the adaptor’s existence back in September, yet didn’t say when the gadget would be launched locally. The Xbox 360's 802.11n adaptor in Asda Source: Engadget However, a photo of the boxed device has just been snapped …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 12:16
Nintendo nixes Wii HD speculation

Not happening, says US chief

Strike a line through that Wii HD request on your Christmas list, because Nintendo has categorically denied that a next generation version of the console is in development. Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo America, said during a recent interview that “there is no Wii HD”. Many in the gaming world have previously …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 12:24
Spanish Army builds ant-colony AI conquistador algorithm

Iberian insect intelligence to plan 'actual strategy'

Spanish computer researchers and army officers say they have developed an algorithm based on the behaviour of ant colonies which can plot "the best path" through battlefields for manoeuvring troops. The general-ware has apparently been tested in a "mini-simulator" developed by modifying the computer game Panzer General. The AI …

Applications 9 Nov 12:28
Spain cuts off 3m pre-pay mobiles

Mass failure to register phones

Spanish mobile operators last night cut off an estimated three to four million pre-pay mobile phones whose owners had not followed government instructions to register their devices. The mandatory scheme - in which all pre-pay mobiles have to be assigned to an ID document - was a reaction to the terrorist attacks of 11 March …

Mobile 9 Nov 12:29
Government rejects call to secure snoop data

Mandatory crypto 'impractical'

Councils and police will continue to pass around sensitive data obtained using spying powers in the clear, after the government rejected calls to impose encryption. The proposal was made in response to a Home Office consultation on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which allows hundreds of public bodies to …

Government 9 Nov 12:31
WarMouse pushes gamers' buttons with OOMouse

Retains 'burning hatred' for Microsoft, not Apple

WarMouse plans to ship a multi-button office application mouse by February next year. The outfit said it would start taking orders for the pointing device, which comes loaded with 18 chunky programmable buttons and is intended for use by OpenOffice.org fans and gamers, next month. OOMouse features a shedload of inputs. The 18 …

PCs & Chips 9 Nov 12:35
Delays, password problems hit UK2 email restore

Sunday night = Monday night

UK2.net, the web host which last week lost its customers' emails, is still working on the completion of the email migration - originally promised to be completed by last night. An update to its service blog reveals engineers are still moving emails across and hope to finish this process by tonight. UK2.net suffered a storage …

Storage 9 Nov 12:49
Kingston SSD Now V 40GB boot drive

Review Game changer?

We are deeply impressed by solid-state drive technology and would love to recommend that you ditch your hard drive immediately. However, there are a few obstacles. You can buy a 2TB hard drive for £135 but have to fork out £195 for an 80GB Intel SSD, up to £300 for a 128GB SSD and £500 for a 256GB SSD. Kingston's 40GB SSD Now …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 13:02
'L33T' web defacer blames Durham police for Pakistani conflict

UR SECURITY IS ZERO%

Police in Durham have been forced to take their website offline after it was defaced in apparent protest against the conflict in Pakistan. The attacker, calling himself "L33T HACKER Ali.Mani" left a message on the site, saying: UR SECURITY SUCKS UK POLICE THIS IS MY REVENGE AGAINST U U ARE THE ONE WHO ARE BLASTING BOMB IN …

Policing 9 Nov 13:03
Reg readers take on Unified Comms

Webcast Tech Panel results unleashed in hi-res

El Reg is broadcasting the results of last month's Tech Panel Unified Communications Study in an interactive webcast on 20th November at 2pm GMT (9am EST). Reg readers have shared your experiences and advice, into the state of, and best practice around, business communications today. Join our panel of seasoned analysts and …

Telecoms 9 Nov 13:25
Watchdog clears NotW over renewed phone hack allegations

The Guardian takes pop at PCC 'whitewash'

The UK press self-regulation body has dismissed allegations that phone tapping of celebrities was endemic and ongoing at British tabloid the News of the World. The PCC investigation began in July after the Guardian reported how the NotW paid out more than £1m to settle privacy lawsuits from public figures, including football …

Crime 9 Nov 13:25
WTO could be used to abolish censorship say researchers

Free ~~speech~~ trade now

The World Trade Organisation has raised the delicious possibility of using its regulations to smite companies that censor their citizens' access to the internet - before admitting that this approach is unlikely to get very far. A paper produced by the European Centre for International Political Economy observes that the …

Government 9 Nov 13:35
Jetpack 0.6 dishes up two major APIs for Firefox add-on coders

Can we take a look at the specials menu, please?

Mozilla Labs has released a new version of Jetpack, just two months after the last iteration of its Firefox web extensions package landed. Jetpack 0.6 comes loaded with two major APIs, said Mozilla. One is a secure preferences system and the other allows coders to add and modify menus. The experimental project began life in …

Developer 9 Nov 13:39
Wallace and Gromit make iPhone comic book debut

Novel graphics?

Crikey, lad, Wallace and Gromit have returned to the iPhone and iPod Touch, this time in comic form. The Aardman Animations moneyspinners' televisual adventures have been available from the iTunes store for a while now, but UK publisher Titan has just posted four new stories in the App Store. Three of the stories - Where …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 13:54
More delays for UK.gov's net snooping programme

Queen to keep schtum on IMP

Protests from ISPs and phone providers have further delayed government plans to massively increase monitoring of phone calls, web browsing and emails, it's revealed today. As a result of concerns over costs and technical feasibility, it is now expected that the legislation necessary to implement the £2bn surveillance programme …

Government 9 Nov 14:50
Microsoft buys Teamprise tool for Java bridge

Cosmetic dentistry or real engineering?

Microsoft prepped the ground for its European TechEd conference this week by snaffling up SourceGear's bag of Teamprise tools. The "assets" allow developers using Eclipse or working on multiple operating systems - Mac, Linux and Unix - to build apps with Microsoft's Visual Team Foundation Server. Inevitably, the Teamprise …

Developer 9 Nov 14:54
Regulator warns on school CCTV schemes

Filming kids changing is er, not cool, guys

The Information Commissioner's Office has reiterated common sense advice for schools wishing to use CCTV to monitor kids. This follows a major row at a Salford school last week. Two new security cameras were installed over the holidays which were filming children getting changed for PE lessons. Unsurprisingly the parents were …

Government 9 Nov 14:55
Ofcom balks at Beeb's HD DRM dream

More consideration needed, but there ain't long

Ofcom has told the BBC it will not allow the broadcaster to mandate DRM on HD, at least not yet, following overwhelming response to its two-week consultation. The regulator has written to the BBC (pdf) explaining that before it will permit the Beeb's encoding of programme information, it wants to know more about the " …

Music and Media 9 Nov 15:24
Windows 7 kills two thirds of active Vista initiatives

Tech Panel results Fresh insights into desktop modernisation

We recently ran a Reg Reader survey asking respondents (over 1,100 IT pros) about their thoughts and plans on the topic of desktop modernisation. Along the way, we took the opportunity to figure out where organisations are out there today with their desktop estates. You can download our full report here (no reg req'd). …

PC Management 9 Nov 15:37
Firefox keeps Microsoft 'honest' on 5th birthday

Mozilla waxes lyrical about cutesy tot browser

Mozilla is celebrating Firefox’s fifth birthday today by proclaiming 330 million users worldwide since the browser was launched on 9 November 2004. The open source outfit, which last week released the first beta of Firefox 3.6, is popping open the Asti Spumanti today. “We’ve come so far in the past five years and we’re …

Applications 9 Nov 15:48
How I rebuilt Europe after the Berlin Wall collapsed

Comment Morgan Computers, Moscow and Me

Morgan Computers has shuttered its stores as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The coincidence might not mean much to you, but Morgan and the Wall go together for me in a strange way: it was Morgan that indirectly funded my wanderings over the rubble that the Wall's collapse revealed. I - like everyone else of age - …

PCs & Chips 9 Nov 16:05
Xbox 360 Twitter, Facebook clients rated X

No ID? No tweets!

Microsoft has confirmed that children won’t initially be able to access Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm through the Xbox 360, when the social networking duo and online music catalogue launch on the console later this month. The company announced through its Major Nelson blog that Twitter et al would only be available to gold- …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 16:05
BT call centre staff snaffle £45m lottery win

Talking telephone numbers here

A syndicate of seven or eight BT call centre staff are celebrating a massive Euromillions lottery win today. The workers, from BT's Royal House call centre in Liverpool, did not realise they'd won until they got into work this morning. They share a £45m win - giving each person a win of about £5.5m. Two different tickets won …

Telecoms 9 Nov 16:06
B&W commits to cans

Unveils first headphone design

Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) has made the jump from stationary audio gadgets to mobile music, launching its first ever pair of headphones. Bowers & Wilkins' P5 Mobile Hi-Fi headphones The P5 Mobile Hi-Fi headphones supposedly combine “natural, unfatiguing performance” with a design able to isolate enough noise to ensure that the …

Reg Hardware 9 Nov 16:08
Baying mob turns on miniskirted Brazilian uni student

Abused by fellow students, then expelled

A Brazilian university student has become a national cause célèbre after footage demonstrating just why it's a bad idea to wear a miniskirt to lectures surfaced online. Geisy Arruda, 20, was subjected to a torrent of abuse from a baying mob of fellow students last month at Sao Paulo's Bandeirante University, aka Uniban. So bad …

Bootnotes 9 Nov 16:45
zPrime cost-cutting mainframeware gets traction

Neon chuffed, talking to DOJ and Brussels

Neon Enterprise Software, which in late June launched a tool which allows customers to run IBM mainframe apps for a fraction of the cost, is getting traction and not as much push-back from IBM as you might expect. Neon' tool, zPrime, allows chunks of applications written for IBM's z/OS operating system to run on the relatively …

Servers 9 Nov 16:47
Cisco leaps into hosted email, social networking

Lands on partners' toes

Cisco has thrown down the gauntlet at new rivals and old partners alike on Monday, in a barrage of collaboration product debuts and updates, including a hosted email service and foray into enterprise social networking. Pitting itself directly against the likes of Microsoft Exchange Online, Google's Gmail, IBM LotusLive iNotes …

Music and Media 9 Nov 17:06
iTunes sync comes to Moto's Droid

Palm still prefers to cheat

Motorola's Droid smartphone, which runs Google's Android mobile operating system, may have only appeared on US shores last Friday, but you can already download a free app that'll sync it with iTunes. The app, doubleTwist, isn't new - but its support for the Droid is. The app's parentage is also noteworthy, coming as it does …

Mobile 9 Nov 18:37
Bot herders hide master control channel in Google cloud

Google AppEngine co-opted

Cyber criminals' love affair with cloud computing just got steamier with the discovery that Google's AppEngine was tapped to act as the master control channel that feeds commands to large networks of infected computers. The custom application was used to relay download commands to PCs that had already been infected and made …

Security 9 Nov 19:42
Microsoft U-turns on Exchange Server 2007 support

Money walking on server death march?

Microsoft's reversed its decision not to support Exchange Server 2007 on its latest Windows Server, potentially forcing users to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 released today. The three-year-old edition of Microsoft's email and collaboration server will now run on Windows Server 2008 R2, released last month. Microsoft cited …

Operating Systems 9 Nov 20:39
HP shoots low with Lynnfield ProLiants

Plus Hyper-V bundles, new switch

Hewlett-Packard rounded out the G6 generation of its ProLiant x64 servers Monday with the introduction of two machines based on the new quad-core Xeon 3400 processors, which are basically glorified Core i7 desktop chips tweaked for single-socket servers. With the Nehalem EP Xeon launch at the end of March, Intel rolled out the …

Servers 9 Nov 21:26
Google swallows AdMob for $750m

In-app mobile ads, anyone?

Google is backing a dump truck of acquisition money on AdMob, a company that specializes on serving display ads on the iPhone and other mobile devices. AdMob will receive a cool $750 million to become a part of the Mountain View Chocolate Factory's massive online advertising empire. Google says while its focus to date has …

Mobile 9 Nov 21:56
Murdoch threatens to yank News Corp. from Google News

Google: Go ahead, make our day

Rupert Murdoch says his company will forbid its content from appearing in Google search results once pay-walls are set up across News Corp websites. Speaking in an interview with Sky News Australia on Friday, the media tycoon reiterated previous threats to begin charging for online content across the company's newspapers, …

Music and Media 9 Nov 22:44
BlackBerries get their (3D) game on

Dev fun from RIM, Adobe

RIM has announced a series of initiatives targeted at helping developers bring 3D games to the BlackBerry, assist content creators using Adobe apps, and - not coincidentally - help developers fatten their revenue streams. A trio of announcements were released Monday at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco. The …

Mobile 9 Nov 22:53
Sprint axes (at least) 2,000 (more) jobs

Extra call centers? Who needs 'em?

Sprint Nextell announced Monday that it will eliminate between 2,000 and 2,500 positions by the end of this year. The third largest US wireless provider - which cut 8,000 workers earlier this year - took a different angle on the layoffs, however. According to their announcement, the more-important metric is that the company " …

Financial News 9 Nov 23:02
Firefox at 5: the Google Cold War

Saving the interwebs from 'cable TV'

As Firefox pops the champagne on its fifth birthday, one of its founding fathers has warned the world against an interwebs ruled by a certain money-minded tech giant. That would be Google. The Mountain View Chocolate Factory was instrumental in the rise of Mozilla's open-source web browser, contributing not only code, but …

Applications 9 Nov 23:16