12th November 2009 Archive

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Wikipedia sued for publishing convicted murderer's name

Hey Wolfgang Werlé: Ever heard of the Streisand Effect?

A man who served 15 years for the gruesome murder of a famous German actor is taking legal action against Wikipedia for reporting the conviction. Attorneys took the action on behalf of Wolfgang Werlé, one of two men to receive a life sentence for the 1990 murder of Walter Sedlmayr. In a letter sent late last month to Wikipedia …

Media 12 Nov 2009, 00:02
AMD lays out 2011 PC roadmap

Bobcat riding a Bulldozer

AMD outlined its product roadmaps through 2011 for servers, desktops, and notebooks on Wednesday during the company's financial analysts' day at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters. The Reg has already provided a load of detail about the server announcements, but there's plenty more to say about the other elements in AMD's …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 01:24
Attackers conceal exploit sites with Twitter API

Trends technique suffers hacktile dysfunction

Drive-by exploit writers have been spotted using a popular Twitter command to send web surfers to malicious sites, a technique that helps conceal the devious deed. The microblogging site makes application programming interfaces (APIs) such as this one available so legitimate websites can easily plug into the top topics being …

Security 12 Nov 2009, 01:43
ASUS, MSI reveal quad InfiniBand boards

Mellanox chalks up wins

You could argue that a networking technology never really goes mainstream until it is integrated into a system motherboard, making its use seamless and its cost invisible. This is why Mellanox is keen on getting quad data rate InfiniBand ports onto mobos and is happy that two motherboard makers popular with the whitebox server …

Servers 12 Nov 2009, 06:02
Android's delicate guts ripped apart

Photos Screws, and then some

Sure, plenty of people have cracked the iPhone's software, but the Droid's hardware? That's a different matter. Motorola's engineers have worked hard to make their debut Android-powered phone as delicate - and difficult - to deconstruct as possible. The tear-down crew at PhoneWreck got to grips with this Google-powered midget …

Phones 12 Nov 2009, 06:02
Boffins develop virtual reality anti-bullying game

One in the eye for the Muntzes

Boffins at Warwick University* have claimed their virtual reality bullying simulator will help victims cope with the stress of being taunted. FearNot! creates a virtual school with 3D pupils that can be set to bully, look like an easy target or sit meekly in fear of attracting unwanted attention. Intelligent agents These …

Science 12 Nov 2009, 07:02
Commentard to lose mask for teasing politico's son

Free speech cum libel suit

A suburban Illinois politician will be told the name of a man who allegedly made disparaging remarks about her teenaged son on a newspaper website's comment section, a local judge has ruled. During a bitterly contested election in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, an online flamewar erupted on the website of the local rag, the Daily …

Law 12 Nov 2009, 07:02
Toshiba Satellite L450

Review Cheap and cheerful

Pick up the Satellite L450, or even just glance at it, and you’re left in no doubt that it’s very much a budget laptop. Chunky, plasticy and devoid of any bells and whistles, it’s not going to appeal to those who like their laptops to stand out from the crowd. Toshiba's Satellite L450: it's not stylish, but it is dirt cheap …

Laptops 12 Nov 2009, 08:02
SandForce gets OCZ SSD design win

This is not just Flash, this is consumer Flash

El Reg wondered why SandForce was talking about consumer flash in a job advert: now we know. OCZ will be making consumer and enterprise flash product using SandForce controllers. OCZ is going to make the products using SandForce's SF-1500 (enterprise) and SF-1200 (client device) flash storage processors. It will use both 3GBit …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 08:02
Robot negotiator ends tense Colorado siege

Unarmed tin cop talks down two-gun desperado, 61

Everyone knows about the current rise of the killer robots, metal assassins able to crush puny meatsacks as easily as one might despatch a troublesome fly. But now there is a new development - robots which seek to negotiate with troublesome fleshies rather than mowing them down like so much grass. The news comes courtesy of …

Law 12 Nov 2009, 09:02
Redundancy costs dent BT profits

But the cutbacks are working

BT's results for its second quarter - ended 30 September 2009 - are not as bad as expected. The company's aggressive cutting of jobs and costs is working and it was hoping to hit £1bn for the year, having already cut £900m from annual spending. It expects to make free cash flow of £1.6bn compared to previous expectations of £ …

Broadband 12 Nov 2009, 09:22
Luvvies make last ditch appeal for radio mics

Save Our (wireless) Sounds

A new campaign backed by everyone from professional footballers to Shakespearian actors is trying to get Ofcom to rethink its Digital Dividend auction. Campaign group Save Our Sound represents 21 organisations opposing Ofcom's plan to shift radio users in the entertainment industry to smaller accommodation, at a different …

Broadband 12 Nov 2009, 10:14
Brace of Intel SSDs imminent

Low- or high-end as you prefer

Intel is spreading its solid state drive (SSD) wings with new models at the top and bottom of its range. The current lineup has three models: X18-M and X25M mainstream 2-bit multi-level cell (MLC) SSDs using a 34nm process, with 80 or 160GB capacities and 1.8in or 2.5in form factors. Then there is the slightly older technology …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 10:31
Government consults on possible £500,000 data breach fines

Hanging, drawing and quartering not an option

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) would have the power to fine organisations up to £500,000 for serious breaches of data protection principles under plans announced this week by the Ministry of Justice. The consultation, Civil monetary penalties - setting the maximum penalty, asks just one question: whether the …

Law 12 Nov 2009, 10:34
Brazilian Playboy eyes miniskirted uni student

Geisy Arruda mulls indecent proposal

The Brazilian edition of Playboy has set its sights on Geisy Arruda - the 20-year-old São Paulo university student who caused a bit of a rumpus by turning up for lectures in a miniskirt, provoking a near riot, and getting herself expelled from the seat of learning. Happily, the national outrage caused by her ejection from …

Bootnotes 12 Nov 2009, 10:36
Samsung's first Bada smartphone pictured

Early 2010 launch?

Samsung only announced its open mobile platform alternative to Android two days ago, but the first image of what may be the first Bada-based smartphone has already appeared online. Could this be Samsung's first Bada smartphone? Source: GSM Helpdesk Nothing has been revealed about the mystery device’s technical …

Phones 12 Nov 2009, 10:47
UK2.net still sorting email service

Accounts all done, old mails still proving difficult

UK2.net has moved all email boxes across to a new system, and should have restored emails and other data within 24 hours. The firm has been facing a barrage of angry users for almost two weeks after a RAID array failed, cutting off subscribers from their email. Managing director Martin Baker said: "We're at the tail end of …

Broadband 12 Nov 2009, 11:05
Azerbaijani donkey bloggers jailed

US rattles small sabre over 'further erosion' of free speech

The US has said it "regrets" the jailing of Azerbaijani bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, on what human rights organisations consider a trumped-up charge of "hooliganism". The pair are described by Amnesty International as "well-known youth activists who have used online networking tools, including YouTube, Facebook and …

Government 12 Nov 2009, 11:09
Google expands navel gazing

See where you've been, work out where you're going

Google has ramped up its Latitude service, adding the ability to see where you've been and alert you when your friends are nearby. Latitude already offers the ability to share your location with others, so friends and family can keep tabs on your wanderings, but now you can also see how you ended up in that South London flat …

Mobile 12 Nov 2009, 11:20
Intel's initial mobile CPU+GPU chips named

'Arrandale' nearing release

Intel's first 'Arrandale' 32/45nm Core i CPU+GPUs for laptops will debut during H1 2010, but the chip giant may be easing back on its introduction schedule. Back in July 2009, roadmaps suggested seven of the processors would arrive during the first half of 2010, but the latest information from notebook makers, by way of a …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 11:28
Wolfram Alpha given keys to the Bingdom

Microsoft gets mathematical on Google's ass

Microsoft has inked a deal with Wolfram Alpha, making its Bing search engine a high-profile customer of the egghead web product’s API. Financial details of the agreement were kept secret. Wolfram Alpha, which went live in May this year, recently confirmed that code junkies could now slot the computational knowledge engine into …

Applications 12 Nov 2009, 11:47
Terrorism chiefs don't know what they've censored online

You jolly well wanted records? Oh

Police are shutting websites without keeping any records, hampering government efforts to address online extremism, it's been revealed. The Terrorism Act 2006 granted powers for police to compel web hosts to shut down websites promoting terrorism. But the powers have never been used, and forces have instead persuaded providers …

Law 12 Nov 2009, 11:49
Brain-delving boffins in key monkey-butler breakthrough

Inability of apes to understand drinks orders probed

In a development with potentially immense consequences in the important area of monkey* butlers, boffins have identified the crucial genetic differences which permit humans to employ speech and deny this ability to chimpanzees, our closest genetic cousins. According to Dr Daniel Geschwind of the David Geffen School of Medicine …

Science 12 Nov 2009, 11:54
Win 7 remote kernel crasher code released

File and print freeze menace revealed

Microsoft has reportedly begun investigating a potentially nasty denial of service vulnerability affecting Windows 7. A security bug in windows 7 and Windows 2008R2 makes it possible to lock up affected systems. The crash would happen without a Blue Screen of Death or other visible indication that anything was amiss. The …

Security 12 Nov 2009, 12:05
Motorola muses marketing meatier cuts

Everything but the mobile division might go

Motorola, having failed to sell off its mobile division, is reportedly considering flogging everything else instead, demonstrating that there's more than one way to skin a dead horse. Reuters reports that the company has hired JP Morgan to advise it on selling off its television set-top box and network divisions, for somewhere …

Broadband 12 Nov 2009, 12:19
Wistron to release roll-out screen e-book reader in 2010

Readius reborn?

An e-book reader with foldable screen - similar to the Readius - will be launched next year, Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron has claimed. Brian Chong, Product Planning Chief at Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron, said that his firm is currently developing a handheld device with flexible e-paper display measuring between 5in and 6in …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 12:28
Boffins find new way to spot stars which have planets

Lithium trick ideal for hunting alien civilisations

Astro boffins have developed a simple method for telling which stars have planets and which don't, potentially a great help in hunting for alien civilisations or uninhabited Earthlike worlds ripe for colonisation by humanity*. Pah - another useless gas giant. Re-engage the hyperdrive, Number One It seems that - for some …

Science 12 Nov 2009, 12:29
Mozilla hits FF button with second Firefox 3.6 beta

With a bit of a mind flip, you're there in the time slip

Mozilla has hastily released a second beta of Firefox 3.6 just over a week after pushing out the first test preview of its popular browser. The update contains over 190 bug fixes, many of which the open source outfit said would improve the browser for web developers, add-on coders and users. Of course the decision to bombard …

Applications 12 Nov 2009, 12:41
UK's cyber warriors go into battle in March

Onward online soldiers

The UK's new cyberwarfare unit will be ready for action on 10 March, according to the government. The Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), located at GCHQ in Cheltenham, will have an initial staff of 19, said Baroness Crawley. CSOC will monitor the internet for threats to UK infrastrucutre and counter-attack when …

Government 12 Nov 2009, 12:54
Intel P55-based motherboards

Group Test The best boards for 'Lynnfield' Core i5s and i7s

If you’re planning to build a new PC around an Intel 'Lynnfield' Core i5 or Core i7-800 processor then you are guaranteed to get stacks of performance at a reasonable price. In addition to a new CPU, you'll also need a motherboard that's based on Intel's P55 chipset and supports the LGA1156 interconnect spec. To help you …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 13:02
Cross-platform Safari update shoots down multiple bugs

Apple rounds off busy patching week

A new version of Safari tackling numerous security bugs was published on Wednesday, just two days after a major operating system update from Apple. Both the Mac OS X and Windows versions of Safari need updating to version 4.0.4 1. The latest version of Apple's browser software tackles various remote code execution, system …

Software 12 Nov 2009, 13:12
SAP rejects blackmail charges over Oracle letter

We never done nothing

SAP has rejected suggestions made in The Wall Street Journal that it was effectively trying to blackmail Oracle by claiming it could influence the investigation by the European Commission. The editorial cited a previously-secret letter from SAP's chief executive Leo Apotheker sent to Larry Ellison at Oracle which said: "As …

Software 12 Nov 2009, 13:14
Ringback tones outselling ring tones

'Ring ring' not good enough for you?

German operators are making more money from ringback tones than they are from ring tones, despite only having 2.3 per cent signed up. Real Networks, who are busy flogging ringback tone servers, reckon that Vodafone and T-Mobile made €26m selling ring tones in Germany last year, compared to €34m from ringback tones, and that …

Mobile 12 Nov 2009, 13:17
MS exec gets shot down after 'inaccurate' Windows 7 spiel

Get your Mac, you've pulled

Apple might agree that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but Microsoft has slammed suggestions that its Windows 7 operating system was inspired by Mac OS X. Microsoft's UK partner group manager Simon Aldous reportedly said that the software giant had effectively created “a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics” in …

Operating Systems 12 Nov 2009, 13:20
3 to start shaping traffic on Monday

We know what you'll be doing all weekend then

3UK is to start limiting mobile broadband traffic from Monday, throttling P2P application and restricting video streaming on overloaded cells. From Monday morning a congested cell will automatically limit peer-to-peer traffic and reduce video streaming to 400Kb/sec per customer, in an attempt to share out the available …

Mobile 12 Nov 2009, 14:16
Britain needs meat trimmers and boners, not techies

Ballet dancers, fiddlers still in short supply says gov

British IT workers can rest easy that they are not about to be displaced by a tide of non-EC workers after the government published its latest list of shortage occupations. However, choreographers and ballet dancers, orchestral musicians and assorted medical types are still in short supply, it would appear. Likewise chefs, …

Management 12 Nov 2009, 14:16
Vodafone prices up the HD2

HTC's flagship WM 6.5 smartphone

If you don’t minding signing an airtime agreement, then you can now bypass Expansys’ £500 ($828/€554) asking price for an unlocked HTC HD2 and bag yourself the phone for free on Vodafone. HTC's HD2: Now available through Vodafone While Vodafone won’t supply the device unlocked, the company will give you 900 minutes, and …

Phones 12 Nov 2009, 14:32
Sky downplays Spook behavioural link

Don't fear the RIPA

BSkyB has been downplaying concerns about its AdSmart behavioural advertising technology, which will launch next year. It's a touchy subject, since the furore over Phorm's WebWise made behavioural ad tech - used by most web publishers - synonymous with spoofing and borderline-illegal traffic interception. Sky's use of …

Media 12 Nov 2009, 14:39
Britney's Twitter feed hacked again

Satan hot on heels of toothy ladybits

Britney Spears' Twitter profile was again seized by hackers on Thursday. Pop-savvy malefactors broke into her account to post a message apparently suggesting the troubled pop star had sold her body and soul to Satan in the hopes of speeding up the apocalypse. Oops, they did it again The tactics employed by the hack are …

Security 12 Nov 2009, 14:40
Designers detail the cars of 2030

Leccy Tech DNA access, morphing bodywork and movement-based controls

Ever wondered what the progeny of today's gadget obsessed ‘yoof’ will be driving come the year 2030? Honda's Helix would access your DNA's double helix That was the question recently posed to designers from some of the world’s top car makers – those with studios in California, anyway - as part of the Los Angeles Auto Show …

Science 12 Nov 2009, 14:51
Intel settles with AMD for $1.25bn

Lawsuits wrapped up with cash, promises of good behavior

If you were looking forward to a long and protracted antitrust battle between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, you're out of luck. The two companies have buried the hatchet and settled all outstanding intellectual property and antitrust lawsuits. Under the settlement between the rival chip companies, Intel and AMD have signed …

Hardware 12 Nov 2009, 14:58
Hotmail imposes tracking cookies for logout

And where do you think you're going?

Hotmail users are now unable to log out of their account if the browser they are using does not accept third party cookies. The move by Microsoft raises security concerns, particularly as PCs on corporate networks and in cybercafes and libraries are often set to reject cookies. The error screen* that greets users who try to …

Applications 12 Nov 2009, 15:19
Palestinian network launches without spectrum

If Tony says it's alright, what could possibly go wrong?

Palestine network Wataniya has gone ahead with a commercial launch, relying on Tony Blair's assurances that Israel will release the needed radio spectrum very soon. The launch of the network was in doubt, as Israel hadn't handed over 1MHz of radio spectrum - split in to two lumps - which is critical to the expansion of …

Mobile 12 Nov 2009, 15:19
Nintendo posts DSi XL promo

How's your Japanese?

A short promotional video for Nintendo’s upcoming DSi XL has popped up online. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Despite its voiceover being in Japanese, the video shows off the console – which has two 1in larger screens than the previous model – in all its glory. Nintendo's DSi XL will hit …

Games 12 Nov 2009, 15:32
Brocade's file virtualisation efforts come to nought

StorageX development roadmap leads into oblivion

Brocade's StorageX file virtualisation push is to end with a whimper, with the formal last ship date passing with a roadmap to nowhere, meaning support withdrawl in 2012. StorageX enables users to access files from a variety of physical file stores all virtualised into a single file pool with a global namespace. However, …

The Channel 12 Nov 2009, 15:37
US Navy 'PANDA' tech to sniff out 'deviant' sailors

Keeping the oceans true blue

US Navy Intelligence is soon to deploy radical new computer monitoring software able to sniff out "deviations" among hundreds of thousands of sailors at sea on the world's oceans. Rather than some kind of Orwellian porn-enforcement system for use on the USN's own matelots, however, the so-called Predictive Analysis for Naval …

Government 12 Nov 2009, 15:45
Data Domain-besotted EMC dumps Quantum

Not the girl for me, even after lending her $100m

EMC, flushed and happy with Data Domain, has dumped its Quantum-based Disk Library products, just like that. It has axed its Disk Library 3D 1500 and DL3000 products and no new sales will be made. The products were removed from EMC's Direct Express and Channel Express facilities on Monday. EMC first licensed Quantum's DXi- …

Storage 12 Nov 2009, 16:06
Google's Chrome beta for Mac expected early December

In the lane, Snow Leopard is glistening

A beta version of Google’s Chrome browser for the Mac is set to land in December. Mountain View had already gone on record to say that the test preview would arrive before the end of 2009. In a Chromium developer mailing list yesterday, the company’s Chrome product manager Nick Baum revealed that Google plans to release the …

Applications 12 Nov 2009, 16:10
Facebook status bolsters alibi in armed robbery case

Nom nom nom... not guilty

A banal Facebook status update has provided an alibi for a 19 year-old New Yorker facing armed robbery charges. Rodney Bradford posted "Where’s my pancakes" from a computer in his father's home in Harlem on the morning of 17 October, at the same time he was suspected of taking part in the robbery at gunpoint of two men at the …

Bootnotes 12 Nov 2009, 16:36
AMD squeezes promises from Intel

And it is 'still obliged to follow the law'

AMD and Intel's agreement to settle legal disputes around the world includes a provision which would stop Intel fighting action from any regulator which tries to change its discount and pricing regime. The $1.25bn settlement sees AMD cease all legal action and withdraw all complaints to national regulators - although of course …

The Channel 12 Nov 2009, 16:41
LG: watchphones for all in 2010

New styles, new versions coming

If you haven’t been impressed by LG’s all-hype and little-substance GD910 watchphone so far, then fear not. The firm has hinted at plans to improve on the design next year. LG's GD910 didn't quite live up to the hype At an LG press event in London last night, the company told Register Hardware that new additions will be …

Phones 12 Nov 2009, 17:00
Dell resells customized Cray baby super

It's a workcluster, it's a superstation

Supercomputer maker Cray today announced a reseller agreement with number two PC and server maker (in terms of shipments) Dell, which will see the latter company resell its own custom version of the entry-level Cray CX1 baby supercomputer. The difference between the CX1-LC that Cray itself announced in July revolve mainly …

HPC 12 Nov 2009, 17:09
Intel takes out $1.25bn insurance policy

'We did nothing wrong and we won't do it again'

Intel's take on today's settlement of its multiple legal entanglements with rival AMD is simple: we didn't do anything wrong, we're not going to change, and we think $1.25bn is a reasonable amount to spend to avoid trial - and, possibly, to guard against even more-serious legal challenges. Or, as Intel executive vice president …

HPC 12 Nov 2009, 18:51
MS patent looks just like Unix command, critics howl

'Sudo for dummies'

Microsoft has won a patent that covers functionality closely resembling security features that have been at the heart of Unix for more than two decades and more recently been folded into the Linux and Mac operating systems. Patent 7,617,530 describes system software that "presents a user interface in response to a task being …

Security 12 Nov 2009, 19:00
Windows XP on netbooks to lose life support?

Post-Christmas reality check

You might not be able to buy a brand-new netbook running Windows XP much past the New Year, even though Microsoft has committed to offering that operating system for another year. That's because Microsoft hopes - and expects - that shoppers will buy Windows 7 Home Premium instead. Shoppers' buying choices will naturally be …

Operating Systems 12 Nov 2009, 19:09
Parking spot flies to International Space Station

Spacecraft docking day or night

A new Russian module has arrived at the International Space Station today, providing the orbiting outpost with an much-needed extra parking spot for its expanded crew of six. The unmanned Russian Mini-Research Module 2, also known as Poisk, docked to the space-faring port of the Zvezda service module on Thursday 15:41 GMT (10: …

Science 12 Nov 2009, 19:20
Amazon cloud heads for Asian sky

Steals MS thunder with Redmondian SDK

Amazon will soon launch a new cloud over Asia. Wednesday night, the etailer cum sky-high compute maven announced that its Amazon Web Services (AWS) will reach the Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 2010. Currently, Amazon serves up on-demand compute power, storage, and other online services from data centers in the US …

Servers 12 Nov 2009, 21:01
Google ~~Chrome~~ web protocol seeks 2x download speeds

Updated HTTP gets SPDY

Google is developing a new application layer protocol designed to speed the movement of stuff across the web. It's called SPDY, pronounced, yes, speedy. Unveiled Thursday with a post to the Google Research blog, this "early-stage" research project is specifically designed to reduce latency via things like multiplexed streams, …

Applications 12 Nov 2009, 22:38
Block McKinnon extradition, MPs tell UK Home Secretary

Treaty's 'serious lack of equality'

Accused NASA hacker Gary McKinnon has won the support of a key Parliamentary committee, which has called on the British government to block a request to extradite him to the US. In a letter to Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the Home Affairs Committee said there was a "serious lack of equality" in the extradition treaty invoked …

Government 12 Nov 2009, 22:51