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16th November 2009 Archive

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  • Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores

    SC09 Jaguar munches Roadrunner

    Looking at the semi-annual Top 500 list of supercomputers, you would never know the world was battling recession. Supercomputer centers keep chucking out old tech and rolling in new tech at the same feverish pace. The fall edition of the list was announced this morning at the SC09 supercomputing trade show in Portland, Oregon …

    HPC 16 Nov 05:02

  • Appro: HPC's all about the GPUs

    SC09 Magny-Cours as AMD 'comeback kid'

    In the supercomputer racket, you can be a niche player, a volume server maker with some HPC smarts, or a carcass that one of the other two feasts on. As a boutique supplier of high performance parallel clusters, Appro International has to use every weapon it can get its hands on to distinguish itself from IBM, Cray, and …

    HPC 16 Nov 05:02

  • Cisco and the war for, um, hosted email

    Anything GooIBMsoft can do...

    Cisco Systems tossed itself into an increasingly contentious market last week with the debut of its very own hosted email service. Yes, contentious. Business email, so it seems, hasn't been interesting in an extremely long time. Like breathing — you rarely notice it unless it stops. But now its become a veritable clash of the …

    Applications 16 Nov 06:02

  • Channel 4 to become Channel 3D tonight

    Broadcaster's 3D TV week begins

    Popping into Sainsbury’s tonight for up some milk and bread? Then don’t forget to grab your free 3D glasses, so you can enjoy Channel 4 in new depths – well, three – from tonight. At 9pm, the channel kicks of its “3D Week” with a three-dimensional look back at the life and times of... er... the Queen during her coronation in …

    reghardware 16 Nov 08:02

  • High Court: Online article with only four visits not libel

    Claimants told where to go in no uncertain terms

    A libel action over an article that appeared on the website of a South African magazine has been dismissed by a court in England. Evidence suggested that the article had received only four visits from the UK in a two month period. Describing the claim as being "totally without merit," Mr Justice Tugendhat said the claimants …

    Law 16 Nov 08:02

  • Apple wins attack of the clones

    Sees off Psystar

    Apple has won its long legal battle against clone Mac maker Psystar. Psystar came to the attention of Apple's many lawyers in July 2008 a few months after it started selling a $400 box capable of running Apple's OSX. Apple claimed infringement of copyright, trademarks and of its licensing agreements while Psystar claimed fair …

    PCs & Chips 16 Nov 09:17

  • Religious discrimination law may open door for decent deviants

    Pagans, vampires and libertines protected?

    How far can your personal beliefs shield you against a growing culture of enforced respectability? Does paganism count as a "protected" philosophy? Will the law on religious discrimination herald the possibility of a new tolerance in sexual matters? Sacked police trainer Alan Power certainly hopes that is the case. At a …

    Law 16 Nov 10:02

  • Droboman expects a 3TB drive from somewhere soon

    Western Digital the likeliest suspect

    Dr Geoff Barrall, founder and CEO of Drobo gave out his opinion in London last week that there should be a 3TB drive for Drobos by April next year. He didn't name the supplier, but Drobo does use Western Digital drives, so this 3TB drive could be a black one. Currently Western Digital offers a 2TB Caviar Black 3.5-inch SATA …

    Storage 16 Nov 10:10

  • Are packaged applications becoming less relevant?

    Or are they the only way of keeping up with demand?

    The imminent death of traditional packaged applications for dealing with ERP, CRM and other core business requirements has been proclaimed in many quarters recently. Whether it’s SOA purists telling us that we’ll all be self-assembling solutions from components, enthusiasts of modern development environments wanting to build …

    Evolving Apps 16 Nov 10:35

  • Taiwanese online hunk lures 20 women into bed

    With his dad, who turns out to be him

    A Taiwanese man has been cuffed for allegedly posing online as a "youthful male model" and persuading up to 20 females to have sex with his father, the China Daily reports. Hsu Shian-ming's internet pitch got a lively response from women "interested in romantic liaisons". The 55-year-old scammer convinced his victims that his …

    Bootnotes 16 Nov 10:41

  • US boffins build, test working 2-qubit quantum processor

    Beryllium ions used in place of undead cats

    Federal boffins in America say they have built the first computer processing device able to handle quantum-mechanical numbers expressed as "qubits". Whereas a regular bit is either 1 or 0, a qubit can be 1, 0 or some of both just as a metaphorical cat in a box may be dead, alive or in a mysterious semi-undead waveform zombie …

    Servers 16 Nov 10:46

  • Software apps and the server room

    Workshop Does virtualization just deal with ‘everything’?

    As mentioned in last week's Reg reader server management poll results, one of the curses of the IT industry is the ease with which we can remove the working context between things and talk about them, as though they exist in isolation. Pundits, analysts and anyone with a point product to sell do this with ease. But it doesn’t …

    Server Management 16 Nov 11:02

  • NZ interloper to commercialise UK internet blocking

    Watch this space for IWF 2.0

    Arguments over just how successful government attempts have been in keeping child porn off the internet may be little more than a storm in a teacup – but such discussions highlight a shift in the way indecent material may be blocked in future. The story begins with a shocking claim from internet filtering company, Watchdog …

    Telecoms 16 Nov 11:14

  • Moribund Mexican litters Street View

    Spymobile captures sobering slice of real life

    It's a sobering fact, but the further Google's Street View tentacles extend from Mountain View, the greater the chance they will eventually touch someone who doesn't enjoy the benefits of free macrobiotic lunch buffets and Segways. Street View went live in Mexico last week, and Google Sightseeing wasted no time in tracking …

    Bootnotes 16 Nov 11:17

  • Nokia transmits digital telly phone

    UK appearance unlikely?

    Nokia has developed a “Mobile TV Edition” of its 5330 handset, allowing users to watch telly on the phone while on the go. The 5330 Mobile TV Edition isn’t Nokia’s first DVB-H device – that award goes to 2005’s N92 – yet still apparently displays “broadcast picture quality” on its 2.4in display. DVB-H is a handset-specific …

    reghardware 16 Nov 11:29

  • ICO chastises NHS over data losses

    A very leaky vessel indeed

    NHS organisations were responsible for 30 per cent of the security breaches reported to the Information Commissioner's Office over the last two years. The ICO said that, of the 711 reports of security breaches it has received since HM Revenue and Customs reported its loss of 25m child benefit records in November 2007, 209 came …

    Government 16 Nov 11:41

  • HP Envy 15 'Lynnfield' Core i7 laptop

    Review Inside, Intel's most powerful mobile CPU yet

    It might be more accurate to refer to HP’s latest laptop as the ‘Apple Envy’, as the design of the machine so closely mimics that of Apple’s MacBook Pro range. But, to be fair to HP, it hasn’t simply copied Apple. It has added some nice touches of its own, and its use of the Intel Core i7 processor ensures that the Envy 15 …

    reghardware 16 Nov 12:02

  • Intel Israel rolls out the barbed wire

    Fending off protests

    Intel Israel faced angry orthodox Jews on Saturday as they protested at the chip giant's refusal to follow the religious rules for the Sabbath. The chip maker's offices in Har Hotzim, north of Jerusalem, were surrounded by about 2,000 protestors shouting "Shabbes, shabbes!". After a peaceful start there was some violence …

    PCs & Chips 16 Nov 12:10

  • French woman marries dead fiancé

    Becomes wife and widow, simultaneously

    A French woman earned the rare distinction over the weekend of becoming a wife and widow at the same moment, when she married her dead fiancé. Magali Jaskiewicz , 26, got hitched on Saturday to a portrait of Jonathan Goerge in the town of Dommary-Baroncourt. The pair had originally planned to tie the knot in January this year …

    Bootnotes 16 Nov 12:31

  • Canon loads up on Oce in €730m deal

    Printer vendors ink takeover

    Canon is buying Dutch printer vendor Oce for €730m, in a move that could herald further consolidation in the imaging market. The Japanese giant will launch a tender offer for the Dutch firm's shares, in a deal which is being seen as broadening Canon's footprint in the higher end production printing market, and targeting fellow …

    Channel Register 16 Nov 12:45

  • Cheerleaders in danger from cheerleading

    Stunts increase the risk of flashing injury

    In a startling set of new findings, researchers have concluded that cheerleaders who perform stunts are at greater risk of injury from cheerleading stunts. Using an "Internet-based reporting system for cheerleading-related injuries" (Cheerleading RIO™), boffins from Columbus Ohio gathered data from battle-torn American …

    Bootnotes 16 Nov 12:48

  • Pre-order page reveals Sony Ericsson Android arrival date

    SIM-free model confirmed?

    Sony Ericsson has created an advance order page for its first Android smartphone and it reveals that the phone will launch in the UK on 10 February 2010. Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 will land in February 2010 SE had until now only been willing to say that the X10 – codenamed ‘Rachael’ – would be available during “the first …

    reghardware 16 Nov 12:54

  • HP double stuffs Nehalem blades

    SC09 Skinless Opteron iron for HPC

    Hewlett-Packard may not dominate the HPC headlines, but it does serve up a lot of iron that runs HPC applications. And today, at the SC09 supercomputing show in Portland, Oregon, HP is adding two new servers to its ProLiant portfolio aimed specifically at the cluster crowd. The company is also touting its StorageWorks X9000 …

    HPC 16 Nov 13:02

  • Mancunians finally get to open bank accounts, go to Europe

    ...if they have an ID card

    Lucky Mancunians will finally be able to get their hands on the gov's shiny ID cards as of two weeks today. They can even make appointments before that date to register for the card, the government has announced. And what will they do when they've gotten one of the most eagerly awaited government sponsored bits of plastic …

    Government 16 Nov 13:03

  • MPs' Pretty Good Privacy 'ban' finally explained

    Parliament misunderstands privacy, not for the first time

    MPs have been told once again that they can't use PGP to encrypt their email because of supposed compatibility problems between the encryption software and VPN remote access software installed on parliamentary computers. PGP explains that this prohibition by parliamentary technicians stemmed from a snag in using the PGP email …

    ID 16 Nov 13:08

  • Console modders attempt to bypass Xbox Live ban

    'Unbanning hack' guide posted

    Xbox 360 owners banned from Xbox Live for allegedly modifying their consoles have begun fighting back against Microsoft, releasing a step-by-step guide to side-stepping the software giant’s ban. The unblocking process is a mixture of software and hardware trickery, and also requires you to have a spare “unbanned” Xbox 360 …

    reghardware 16 Nov 13:09

  • IGF censors for China

    Nice work lads, nice work

    The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has made a right mess of the opening day of its meeting in Egypt. Already under fire for holding the forum in Egypt, which banged up a blogger for four years, the group also made a truly ham-fisted attempt to censor debate at the meeting. A security guard was told to remove a poster created …

    Government 16 Nov 13:14

  • The biggest flash drive in the world

    An almighty tower of SSD power

    ViON have produced a 100TB DRAM solid state drive, which they claim to be the largest flash memory-based storage box in the world. The HyperStor-6200 uses both Hitachi Data Systems and Texas Memory Systems technology - think RamSan 6200 - and provides five million I/Os per second (IOPS) with 60GB/sec bandwidth. It is a monster …

    Storage 16 Nov 13:18

  • Edward Woodward dies at 79

    RIP, The Equalizer

    Brit thesp Edward Woodward has died at the age of 79, the BBC reports. The actor, who'll be fondly remembered for making an ill-advised 1973 visit to Summerisle, passed away at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro as the result of "various illnesses including pneumonia". Confirming his death, Woodward's agent Janet Glass said …

    Entertainment 16 Nov 13:20

  • QLogic gets vendor quartet for quad data rate gear

    Dell, HP and others hop the InfiniBand train

    QLogic has revealed that Dell, HP, IBM and SGI have all signed up to take its quad data rate gear. QLogic has quad data rate (QDR - 40Gbit/s) host channel adapters (HCAs) and switches, the 12000 series, in its InfiniBand (IB) line up and is now using its own TrueScale ASIC design rather than OEM'ing a Mellanox chip. InfiniBand …

    Data Networking 16 Nov 13:25

  • Home Office accused of sexing-up mobile phone rescue

    Comms data 'essential'? Not really

    The Home Office is once again under attack for the standard of the evidence it uses to support its policies, this time over plans to harvest much more communications data. When the government published a summary of responses to its consultation on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) a week ago, it included a series …

    Mobile 16 Nov 13:28

  • First ever supersonic stealth jumpjet starts hover tests at last

    Will Harrier heir survive Byzantine aero politics?

    The world's first supersonic stealth jumpjet, intended to replace the famous Harrier in British, US and other forces worldwide, has arrived at the American airbase where it will finally begin to flight-test its vertical-lift and hover capabilities. Doors open - but nothing coming out until now. The F-35 "Lightning II" B …

    Science 16 Nov 13:43

  • Let me through - I'm a Sustainability Officer!

    Andrew's Mailbag And here's my employment lawyer

    Two weeks ago a former 'Sustainability Officer', Tim Nicholson won the right to sue his former employer on the grounds of his eco-beliefs. But he could be the first of many. One Reg reader tells us he's "in the very early stages of suing my former employer (a big multinational) for exactly the same thing". So we'll withhold …

    Environment 16 Nov 14:09

  • CERN's cosmic cloudmaker cranks up

    May solve climate mystery, Thermageddon scare

    While CERN's vast Large Hadron Collider accelerator gathers all the headlines - allowing humble hacks to become Hollywood blockbuster scriptwriters - an ancient piece of atom hardware is beginning experiments that may prove to be of significance. CERN's much-anticipated CLOUD experiment has begun, the atom lab says. Using the …

    Environment 16 Nov 14:13

  • Asus to make grab for Toshiba's notebook biz?

    Top-three vendor ranking to follow

    Asus may seek to acquire Toshiba’s notebook business in order to become the world’s third-largest laptop manufacturer, the Taiwanese firm has said. Outspoken company chief Johnny Shih said Toshiba’s notebook business has been identified as one of Asus’ possible targets, according to a report by Chinese-language website …

    reghardware 16 Nov 14:14

  • Reg hack beats 'Belle de Jour' sex rap

    Orlowski free of blogging stigma

    A Reg hack breathed a huge sigh of relief this weekend, as the self-unmasking of Belle de Jour finally refuted allegations by newspapers that he was a blogger. In 2004 The Independent repeated claims in the Evening Standard diary that following his career as an expensive prostitute, Andrew Orlowski had abandoned his morals to …

    Bootnotes 16 Nov 14:45

  • Cisco adds half a billion to offer for video firm

    Money meet mouth

    Cisco has increased its offer for Tandberg - despite protesting that its original offer was more than fair. The networking behemoth seemed shocked when its offer of $3bn for the Norwegian video conferencing firm was not accepted. This valued each share at 153.5 Norwegian Kroner - a 25 per cent premium on the three month …

    Data Networking 16 Nov 15:16

  • Femtocells know you're home again - but so what?

    Hi honey, I'm... curiously disenchanted

    Intrinsyc has been demonstrating a handset app that changes the user's interface when they get home, though no one is mentioning the most obvious application. Intrinsyc demonstrated its application, UX-Zone, along with Airvane, ip.access and Ubiquisys to prove cross-manufacturer compatibility. The app runs on Windows Phone or …

    Mobile 16 Nov 15:57

  • Quick Guide to GPU Computing

    Parallel thinking

    A big topic in HPC computing for the last couple of years has been hybrid computing, where the general purpose processors (like Intel/AMD x86 CPUs or IBM/Sun/HP RISC CPUs) are combined with specialized processing units that are optimized for numerical work. The vast majority of real work in this area revolves around using …

    HPC Blog 16 Nov 15:59

  • Dell re-badges Cray for low-end cruncher

    Windows only. Why?

    Our pal Timothy Prickett Morgan recently revealed details behind Dell’s agreement to resell Cray’s CX1 entry-level supercomputer. It’s a blade-based box that utilizes Intel Nehalem processors and high-end NVIDIA graphics cards. This agreement is good news for Cray, as it could definitely benefit from more feet on the street …

    HPC Blog 16 Nov 16:00

  • Cell phone supercomputing, anyone?

    Plugcomputing.org dreams big, thinks small

    Plugcomputing.org is displaying a 16-node HPC cluster based on the ultra low power Marvell Sheeva processor at SC09 in Portland, Oregon this week. This ARM compliant CPU has seen action in cell phones and digital picture frames. (Press release here:) The processor draws as little as 5 watts at 1.2 GHz, a small fraction of the …

    HPC Blog 16 Nov 16:00

  • Rockstar confirms Grand Theft Auto V

    Location and plot under development

    Rockstar Games’ Vice President has apparently confirmed that a fifth edition of Grand Theft Auto is on the cards. In an interview with The Times, Dan Houser said: “We'll think of a city first, then the characters,” in response to questions about plans for a successor to GTA IV. The news is hardly unexpected as it’s well known …

    reghardware 16 Nov 16:02

  • BBC publishes Freeview HD timetable

    London and Manchester top tune-in list

    London and Manchester will pip Liverpool to the post by becoming Blighty’s first cities able to receive Freeview HD, according to the BBC’s regional rollout timetable for the next-generation digital TV service. Graham Plumb, Head of Distribution Technology at BBC Operations, told Register Hardware back in June that Liverpool …

    reghardware 16 Nov 16:02

  • Earth set for annual Leonid shower

    Meteor outlook not bright in Europe or US, though

    This week sees the annual lightshow that is the Leonid meteors, as debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle comes to a fiery end in Earth's atmosphere. According to New Scientist, the entertainment is due to kick off around 09:00 GMT tomorrow (17 November), with the peak occurring between 21:00 and 22:00 GMT as we pass through "two …

    Space 16 Nov 16:06

  • T-shirt firm hijacks good ship Pirate Bay

    The ironing is delicious

    A Swedish firm has hijacked the Pirate Bay logo after discovering the torrent tracker had not registered its three-masted graphic with the appropriate authorities. Sandryds Handels AB has been all over Swedish Radio today, Torrentfreak reports, saying it plans to use a tweaked version of the Pirate Bay logo on a range of USB …

    Music and Media 16 Nov 16:41

  • Spammers aim to profit from swine flu pandemic

    Caution advised over modern day Harry Limes

    Russian cybercrooks have laid the groundwork needed to build a business cashing in on swine flu panic-buying. Tamiflu sales from dodgy unlicensed pharmaceutical websites are being promoted through spam email, search engine manipulation and a variety of other underhand techniques. Web affiliates, commonly based in Russia where …

    Spam 16 Nov 16:50

  • Judge Dredd 'Black Box' recorder/spy kit for guns unveiled

    An accident you say, sergeant? But you reloaded. Twice

    A major weapons manufacturer has exhibited a so-called "Black Box" which could be fitted to small arms - for instance rifles or submachine guns - and record details of every shot fired, potentially including location, target and even user identity. Government spy kit invades the last bastion of freedom. The Black Box has …

    Science 16 Nov 16:51

  • Gang sentenced for UK bank trojan

    Almost £600,000 siphoned

    A British court has sentenced four men to prison after they admitted they used sophisticated trojan software to steal almost £600,000 from bank accounts and send it to Eastern Europe. London's Southwark Crown Court on Friday imposed sentences of as much as 4 and a half years on the men. According to IDG News, they used a …

    Crime 16 Nov 18:45

  • DNSSec update deadline penciled in for 2011

    Long awaited security upgrade heading for .com and .net

    VeriSign announced plans on Monday to roll out the DNSSec security standard for the web's .com and .net Top Level Domain Names (TLDs) by the first quarter of 2011. Short for Domain Name System Security Extensions Protocol, DNSSec is designed to guard against "man in the middle" and cache poisoning attacks that create a means …

    Enterprise Security 16 Nov 18:49

  • Twitter preps paid plans for 'business' Web2.0rhea

    Money for 'marketing prowess'

    Twitter is close to hatching a paid-for business version of the micro-blogging service, while adding support for more languages. Website co-founder Biz Stone said onstage during a recent financial conference that those who sign up for future commercial accounts will gain access to "a view into everything about Twitter to …

    Music and Media 16 Nov 18:55

  • Microsoft donates .NET Micro Framework to open source

    Apache mercy killing

    Microsoft has released part of its .NET Framework - the part for internet-connected smart devices - into the open-source community. The company said on Monday that it's releasing source code for the .NET Micro Framework under an Apache 2.0 license. Microsoft is also creating a community of "interested and involved members to …

    Developer 16 Nov 19:33

  • Microsoft's Startup Whisperer enters Google Chocolate Factory

    Redmondian evangelism meets iPhone envy

    Google has snapped up Microsoft's former Startup Whisperer, just two weeks after Redmond dumped him on the street. Until the first week in November, when he was among the roughly 800 employees jettisoned in Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, Don Dodge was the director of business development for Redmond's emerging business …

    Software 16 Nov 19:33

  • Atlantis heads for ISS with spare parts

    Last shuttle blast of year

    The last shuttle leaving Earth this year has come and gone, with Atlantis and its crew of six astronauts blasting off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:28 pm EST (7:28 pm GMT) on Monday. Loaded with spare parts and supplies, space shuttle Atlantis is expected to dock with the International Space Station this Wednesday, beginning …

    Space 16 Nov 20:03

  • Apple seeks OS-jacking advert patent

    It's an ad ad ad ad world

    Apple has filed a patent application for an intrusive ad-presentation system that requires users to acknowledge adverts before getting on with their work. The recent patent filing carries the unusually straightforward title "Advertisement in Operating System." The described system would be buried deep in a device's OS - so …

    Operating Systems 16 Nov 20:27

  • Spam net snared a quarter million bots, says conqueror

    Putting the mega in Mega-D

    Herders behind the Mega-D botnet may have corralled nearly a quarter million infected machines into their spam-churning enterprise before it was recently crippled by white hat hackers. The botnet, which was once responsible for an estimated third of the world's spam output, was knocked out of commission last week by employees …

    Security 16 Nov 22:04

  • SGI previews UltraViolet Nehalem EX blade clusters

    SC09 Taking orders now for next summer ships

    Sometimes a server announcement is as defensive as it is offensive. So it is with the UltraViolet Altix UV big bad blades that Silicon Graphics showed off at SC09 in Portland, Oregon, Monday afternoon. Even before it went into bankruptcy for the final time and was eaten by Rackable Systems, which subsequently took the SGI name …

    HPC 16 Nov 23:03