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20th November 2009 Archive

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  • Google Chrome OS - do we want another monoculture?

    Microsoft ball breakers. Strings attached

    Yes, Google has open-sourced Chrome OS, its much-discussed browser-based operating system. But as usual, the open sourcing only says so much about its openness. After all, this isn't something you can load on any PC. And it's not much of an operating system. You can't load local applications - not even one. As part of its …

    Operating Systems 20 Nov 00:16

  • Dell is beat by The Street

    Awaits Win7 bonanza

    Dell released its financial results for Q3 ended 30 October on Thursday, and for its troubles, it took a beating in after hours trading. The good news is that the company remains profitable. The bad news is that those profits have sunk 54 per cent since last year - and were 5 cents a share worse than analyst estimates. And …

    Financial News 20 Nov 00:37

  • Major IE8 flaw makes 'safe' sites unsafe

    Exclusive Microsoft's XSS buster busted

    The latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser contains a bug that can enable serious security attacks against websites that are otherwise safe. The flaw in IE 8 can be exploited to introduce XSS, or cross-site scripting, errors on webpages that are otherwise safe, according to two Register sources, who discussed …

    Enterprise Security 20 Nov 01:42

  • Google Wave relies on kindness of strangers

    Dreamforce 09 Copy our cloud, please

    Google has been stumping for its Wave real-time collaboration system among the Salesforce.com faithful. Wave lead business development manager Jeff Eddies told Dreamforce the search behemoth needs their support for Wave to succeed. Unveiled in May, Wave is still in an embryonic state. Google's manager told Salesforce.com …

    Applications 20 Nov 06:02

  • Firefox millions - now only 9 per cent Google free

    No banking on Microhoo

    Mozilla revenues climbed to $79m last year - and 91 per cent of that came from Google. According to the Mozilla Foundation's latest financial statements, 2008 revenue leapt 5 per cent from 2007. But they also indicate the open-sourcers are more dependent on the Mountain View Chocolate Factory than previously thought. With its …

    Applications 20 Nov 06:02

  • Google touts real-time RSS transplant

    Web 2.0 NY What's all the PubSubHubbub?

    Google is trumpeting a new messaging protocol it insists on calling PubSubHubbub. Brett Slatkin - a software engineer on Google’s App Engine team - demonstrated the protocol this week at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. It aims to turn RSS and Atom into real-time content delivery mechanisms - and maybe even revamp Google search …

    Music and Media 20 Nov 06:49

  • Atrato replaces sales boss - again

    To lose one is unfortunate, to lose two looks like carelessness

    Atrato has replaced its sales VP, Marty Sos, after just three months, and recruited a marketing VP as well. Marty Sos joined Atrato, which makes disk drive storage arrays with canisters of 2.5-inch drives, in late August this year, having left collapsed optical disk drive and archive vendor Plasmon. He's now VP of sales at …

    Storage 20 Nov 07:02

  • HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphone

    Review Big screen winner?

    HTC has just about the fullest range of Windows Mobile smart phones on the market at the moment with a wide variety of types and prices. The HD2 is at the apex of its range, offering arguably the most bang, but also demanding a considerable amount of bucks. It lines up as HTC's most complete package to date though, with a huge …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 08:02

  • High Court ruled against Skype founders on day of settlement

    US eBay action scooted over Atlantic

    Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis were told their case against Skype-owner eBay had to be conducted in the English courts on the day that they later agreed a compromise with eBay. Zennström and Friis founded the internet telephony company in 2003 and in 2005 sold it to internet auction firm eBay, which announced …

    VoIP 20 Nov 08:02

  • Tesla Roadster used for videogame audio

    Leccy Tech Electric engine fails to dampen screeching tyres

    What are the real benefits of an electric car? Reduced CO2 emissions? Less dependency on oil? Quieter inner cities? Nope. The correct answer is actually cooler sound effects for videogames. Microsoft strapped mics to the Tesla for clearer tyres sounds in videogames That’s according to sound engineering boffins from …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 09:02

  • Server upgrade and disposal plans

    Poll Results Data protection 1, reuse strategy nil?

    This week we asked you a number of questions around whether you have any immediate plans to change your server estates, who influences any such changes and how you dispose of your old kit. Your answers reveal a wide range of options are under consideration. Most popular response to the question “what are you planning to do …

    Server Management 20 Nov 09:15

  • Auction's over for Skype

    eBay rid of troublesome VoIP biz

    The saga of eBay's sale of Skype is over - Silver Lake, Joltid Limited and other partners are now the proud owners of the VoIP provider. eBay got about $1.9bn, and a note worth $125m for 70 per cent of the firm - it is holding onto the remaining 30 per cent. The online tat bazaar paid over $3bn for Skype back in 2005 and …

    VoIP 20 Nov 09:36

  • Datacentre black box recorder gets take-off cash

    $9m series B funding round

    Axxana - the startup manufacturing the Phoenix RP black box data centre data recorder which can withstand a jumbo jet crash - has just received $9m in a funding round to help it take off. The Phoenix RP hardened box receives real-time data in the data centre and asynchronously replicates it to a remote site for complete data …

    Servers 20 Nov 10:01

  • 2pm GMT today: El Reg Unified Comms webcast

    Feeding back the Reg readers survey

    Tune in from 2pm GMT today as El Reg's expert panel unveiled the findings of our Unified Comms study and responds live Reg to reader questions. The level of comms in many businesses is old-fashioned and fragmented. The ICT industry hasn’t helped much either – vendors may have developed the latest, greatest generation of …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 10:02

  • US forces developing 'miniature weapons' for killer robots

    Phantom Works pocket missile ideal for 'suburban combat'

    US Air Force boffinry chiefs have decided to spend as much as $7m developing "miniature weapons" for use by killer robots in the Wars On Stuff. Weaponry'n'aerospace globocorp Boeing was chuffed yesterday to announce that it had bagged an initial $0.5m deal to look into ideas, which will lead on into another $6.5m of work if …

    Science 20 Nov 10:04

  • Database anonymity at risk, warns researcher

    Prof Ohm resists data safety claims

    People might be more identifiable than previously thought from supposedly anonymised information contained in large databases, according to a technology law expert. New research recommends that privacy practices and even privacy laws need to change. Increasing amounts of personal information are collected by organisations and …

    Applications 20 Nov 10:35

  • Filesharing laws to hit websites and newsgroups too

    Mandelson to 'future-proof' P2P restrictions

    The government is planning to award itself powers to change copyright law almost at will, in expectation that new anti-peer-to-peer laws will drive infringement to other services such as Rapidshare and newsgroups. The measure, which is the most severe contained in the Digital Economy Bill published today, will be interpreted …

    Law 20 Nov 10:38

  • Asus serves up Windows 7 Home Server box

    Updated 2TB of on-board storage - add more using eSata

    Asus has taken the wraps off a home server build out of an Atom processor and up to 2TB of internal storage. The Home Server TS Mini uses the 1.66GHz Atom N280 allied with 1-2GB of 800MHz DDR 2 memory to run Windows 7 Home Server. Asus' Home Server TS Mini: bionic nettop, basically On-board storage slots into a pair of 3. …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 10:57

  • ACPO proposes new domestic violence database

    Fears over unsubstantiated and malicious allegations

    The latest wheeze to emerge from ACPO and the Home Office is yet another new law and order database – this one including individuals who are unconvicted, but against whom there exist unsubstantiated allegations of domestic violence. Critics are also not impressed by the fact that this and other recommendations put forward this …

    Policing 20 Nov 11:02

  • PS3 to go 3D in 2010, says Sony

    Specs at the ready

    Sony has formally announced plans to bring true 3D gaming to the PlayStation 3. Five advantages of the PS3 over, presumably, the Xbox 360 Source: Kotaku In a presentation designed to outline the “five key advantages of PlayStation 3”, Sony stated: “All PS3 units will be firmware upgradeable to 3D.” The company also …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 11:04

  • MS discovers flaw in Google plug-in for IE

    Google whacked

    Microsoft has helped discover a flaw in the Google Chome Frame plug-in for Internet Explorer users. The plug-in allows suitably coded web pages to be displayed in Internet Explorer using the Google Chrome rendering engine. Redmond warned that the plug-in made IE less secure as soon as it became available back in September, an …

    Enterprise Security 20 Nov 11:10

  • Humax Freeview HD set-top box to debut 'early 2010'

    Ahead of the rest?

    Just days after Register Hardware was told by telly chiefs that no Freeview HD kit will be available in the UK ahead of the service’s switch-on next month, manufacturer Humax has announced the impending launch of its first Freeview HD-compatible set-top box. Humax's Fox-HD-T2 is set up for Freeview HD As its name suggests, …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 11:14

  • Mandelson to get Nominet reform powers

    Just in case

    Ministers have revealed new legislation that will allow the government to take over and reform Nominet, following a boardroom battle over the .uk registry's future. The reserve powers are included in the Digital Economy Bill, published today by Lord Mandelson's Department for Business. Officials said they believed it is …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 11:22

  • Where is server virtualisation taking us?

    Lab Crossing the virtual chasm

    No, no, not the v word...! There are few topics that have garnered as much interest recently as virtualisation. And that’s not just coming from us – the level of feedback we get on this is head and shoulders above many other areas. But let’s be realistic. As the Reg Tech Panel has informed us, the majority of workloads that …

    Virtualisation Lab 20 Nov 11:25

  • Taiwanese sex scammer's net double is NYC model

    'Shocked' Richie Kul expresses dismay to El Reg

    The news this week that a 55-year-old bald and "physically unattractive" Taiwanese man had posed online as a "youthful male model" to convince up to 20 women to have sex with his ailing father - who was actually himself - provoked a certain amount of incredulity among Reg readers. To recap, Hsu Shian-ming got plenty of …

    Bootnotes 20 Nov 12:02

  • Ubuntu in truffle shuffle with Chrome OS

    'Sloth love Chunk'

    Ubuntu’s commercial sponsor Canonical revealed late yesterday that it has been working with Google on its Chrome OS platform since before Mountain View announced its game-changing plans in July this year. The firm’s OEM veep Chris Kenyon said in a blog post on Thursday that “Canonical is contributing engineering to Google …

    Operating Systems 20 Nov 12:13

  • Amazon punters go mad for 'Laptop Steering Wheel Desk'

    'A total lifesaver', enthuses satisfied customer

    Amazon customers have gone absolutely mad for the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray, which "attaches to your steering wheel for easy access to a writing and drink storage surface". How, you may wonder, have we survived until now without a product which is "flat for writing and perfect for lunch or a snack"? …

    Bootnotes 20 Nov 12:31

  • US immigration dodge is permanent

    Global Entry forever

    Janet Napolitano, boss of US Homeland Security, is making the Global Entry system - a quicker way through customs and border control - permanent. The voluntary scheme, for US residents, is currently being piloted at 20 airports. It allows pre-registered passengers to swerve long security lines and enter a booth, stick their …

    Government 20 Nov 12:43

  • LHC dimensional apocalypse from midnight: Your thoughts

    Aliens, gov planetbuster boffins, many others write in

    Well, this is it. In the early hours of tomorrow morning, scientists at the controls of titanic machines situated in mighty hollowed-out caverns and tunnels deep beneath Switzerland will begin to unleash forces so vast and complex as to tax the very limits of human comprehension. The mighty Large Hadron Collider, most powerful …

    Physics 20 Nov 12:58

  • Riverbed going virtually into public cloud

    Virtual Steelhead speeds iSCSI WAN traffic

    WAN optimiser Riverbed has announced virtual Steelhead for the cloud and a way to speed up iSCSI data traffic. Riverbed's Steelhead is a physical appliance that sites inline at the entry/exit port to a data centre and speeds wide area network (WAN) traffic to and from the data centre. It co-operates with another Steelhead at …

    Storage 20 Nov 12:58

  • Ricoh CX2

    Review Clever capture modes

    It doesn’t seem five minutes since we looked at the CX1 – well, back in April actually – so it’s quite surprise to find that Ricoh has already launched its successor, the CX2. Again, this is a super-zoom compact seemingly aimed at the enthusiast or the DSLR user who occasionally wants to pack something simpler and smaller. That …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 12:59

  • Vampires not good role models for Catholics, declares Vatican

    Deplores use of 'extremes' to make a point

    The Vatican has come out against vampirical toothy teen book'n'movie series Twilight, dismissing the epic girl loves vampire, girl loses vampire, girl becomes vampire cycle as a "deviant moral vacuum". The Holy See's attempt to drive a stake through the heart of the burgeoning film franchise came as it took £1.8m on its …

    Bootnotes 20 Nov 13:18

  • MS denies Win 7 backdoor rumours

    Oooh, spooky!

    Microsoft has once again denied rumours that it built a backdoor into Windows 7. Long standing conspiracy theories that Redmond outfits Windows with a covert entry point for law enforcement resurfaced after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official told Congress it had worked with Redmond on the operating system. …

    Operating Systems 20 Nov 13:18

  • Ballmer waxes lyrical about Windows 7 double bubble sales

    Shy about numbers, mind

    Microsoft’s shouty boss Steve Ballmer made a few big noises about Windows 7 sales yesterday, by declaring it was jumping off retail shelves at twice the level of its unloved Vista operating system. However, he didn’t reveal any sales figures during the firm’s annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington on Thursday. “ …

    Channel Register 20 Nov 13:34

  • The pros and cons of business application packages

    Poll Results It's all about horses for courses

    Whether to build or buy, that is the question? Well, it is for many when it comes to business applications. It's a topic on which we asked for your feedback as part of our latest workshop, and over 100 of you came back with your views on it. So what did we learn? Firstly, the drivers for going down the ’buy’ rather than ‘build …

    Evolving Apps 20 Nov 14:13

  • Yank objects to Reg cherry-popping headline

    'Find another line of work, like as a Hooters waitress'

    Vulture Central's Kelly Fiveash has until now kept a pretty low profile, avoiding the kind of flak which regularly peppers our inboxes as indignant readers vent their spleen and propel steam from their ears. That changed this week, though, when she rather ill-advisedly decided to trumpet a story with the headline "Google to …

    Bootnotes 20 Nov 14:14

  • Asus intros netbook with desktop CPU

    Category killer?

    Asus has once again extended it Eee PC netbook range, this time with a machine that not only includes Nvidia's Ion graphics but also a dual-core Atom processor - a desktop chip, to be precise. Asus' Eee 1201N: 'desktop replacement' netbook? Including Ion means the Eee PC 1201N can drive a 1366 x 768 resolution display, in …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 14:36

  • ISPA slams Mandy's copyright land grab

    Someone tell Lord Sith about encryption

    Claims from minister Stephen Timms this morning that the Digital Economy Bill has widespread support have been thrown into question, after the Internet Service Providers Association insisted it is strongly opposed to aspects of the legislation. Mandelson's bill gives him power to change copyright laws as he sees fit, using a …

    Telecoms 20 Nov 14:48

  • Nokia swings axe again

    Suffers from arrested development

    Nokia is streamlining again, this time to the tune of 230 employees in Finland and another 100 in Copenhagen. The staff are being cut from the Research & Development division, representing around two per cent of that division, which is all part of the Nokia plan to focus its tech on fewer platforms and thus do less research. …

    Mobile 20 Nov 15:19

  • Lawyers pursue banned Xbox Live gamers

    Anti-Microsoft class action in the offing?

    Are you an Xbox 360 owner recently banned from Xbox Live? Has the ban left you feeling short changed? Perhaps you’ve experienced other console problems as a result of the ban? If you can answer 'yes' to any of these questions, then US law firm Abington IP wants to hear from you. The “intellectual property law and consumer …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 15:52

  • QinetiQ mail virus patent attracts barbs

    Looks a bit familiar

    An anti-virus expert has poured cold water on a patent from British technology firm QinetiQ that supposedly offers a new technique for tackling malicious email attachments. New Scientist reports that the researchers at the defence technology firm have patented a technique for blocking malware in email attachments without …

    Malware 20 Nov 15:57

  • Oracle begs EC for more time

    Commission extends deadline

    The European Competition Commission is extending the deadline set for Oracle to provide evidence that its proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems will not damage competition for European consumers. Oracle now has until 27 January to present its defence of the takeover and its reaction to the Commission's statement of objections …

    Applications 20 Nov 16:03

  • VTOL gyro-copter flying car mates with killer robot

    Droid jump-choppers to be offered to military

    A flying-car company which has struggled for 15 years to win acceptance for its radical gyrocopter/aeroplane technology may have finally broken through into the mainstream. It was announced this week that Carter Aviation technologies - aspiring designer of the CarterCopter Personal Air Vehicle - has partnered with successful …

    Science 20 Nov 16:03

  • Skinny Acer notebook delivers six-day battery life

    Just ask Windows 7

    Acer appears to have found a solution to notebook users' battery life woes. Its Aspire Timeline 1810TZ apparently delivers a 10x improvement in runtime when compared to other thin'n'light laptops equipped with six-cell lithium-ion batteries. After five hours' usage at a day-long conference the other day, we thought we'd check …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 16:18

  • Wrecking CRU: hackers cause massive climate data breach

    Secretive scientists' source code goes walkabout

    The University of East Anglia has confirmed that a data breach has put a large quantity of emails and other documents from staff at its Climate Research Unit online. CRU is one of the three leading climate research centres in the UK, and a globally acknowledged authority on temperature reconstructions. CRU declined to say …

    Environment 20 Nov 16:51

  • Sony demos monster 3D TV

    280in 'wall' made from 70 28in sets

    What better way to prove your commitment to the 3D TV market than showing off a big, massive whopping 280in 3D-capable TV? That seems to Sony’s opinion, anyway. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The electronics giant this week displayed the monster screen at Japan’s annual International Broadcast …

    Reg Hardware 20 Nov 18:02

  • Apple cult leader emails outside world

    11 words from the Messiah's Jesus phone

    Apple cult leader Steve Jobs has communicated with the outside world. As revealed by Crunchgear, Jobs recently sent an 11-word email to a longtime Mac developer who had come groveling to the cult leader after being threatened by a band of Apple lawyers. John Devor is the CEO of The Little App Factory, a tiny shareware outfit …

    Mobile 20 Nov 18:16

  • Microsoft Silverlight - now with hidden Windows bias

    PDC So much for cross-platform

    Silverlight 4.0 was the big hit at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (PDC) this week. "I can see that Silverlight is the future of Windows client development" one attendee told me. The basis for this enthusiasm is an array of new features that resolve many of the frustrations discovered by developers working with …

    Developer 20 Nov 18:18

  • Potty-mouths charged for Comcast hijack

    Destination '69 dick tard lane'

    The potty-mouthed hackers who hijacked Comcast's domain name for several hours last year were charged with intentionally damaging a protected computer system. Christopher Allen Lewis, 19, of Delaware, James Robert Black Jr., 20, of Washington, and Michael Paul Nebel, 27, of Michigan were indicted Thursday on a single felony …

    Crime 20 Nov 19:18

  • Nvidia previews next-gen Fermi GPUs

    SC09 The supermodels of HPC: hot, and worth it

    Graphics chip maker and soon-to-be big-time HPC player Nvidia raised the curtain a little higher on its next-generation of graphics co-processors at the SC09 supercomputing trade show in Portland, Oregon, this week, and it is arguable that the GPU co-processors aimed at personal supers and massive clusters alike were the star of …

    HPC 20 Nov 19:38

  • MySpace makes peace with Indies

    Merlin deal at last

    MySpace Music has settled with one of its fiercest critics, Merlin, settling a 14-month standoff. MySpace - the social networking sensation of 2005 - launched a music portal in September last year, but only with the four major labels. Since MySpace had built its reputation on new independent bands, you can see why the snub hurt …

    Music and Media 20 Nov 19:46

  • Hackers free Snow Leopard from Jobsian cage

    Apple Atomness restored

    Snow Leopard users are once again free to run the Apple operating system on hardware with Atom processors, courtesy of hackers in Russia. A custom version of OS 10.6.2 distributed here works around changes introduced earlier this month that prevented the latest OS X version from running on the Intel netbook processor. A …

    Operating Systems 20 Nov 22:28

  • IBM chases HP (and Sun) with tiny mem prices

    AIX pipeline lubrication

    In an effort to boost the amount of money that IBM is getting from competitive takeouts of Unix systems from Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, Big Blue has taken a sharp machete to the memory prices on its Power Systems, reducing prices by between 28 and 70 per cent. The Power Systems line of servers is based on IBM's …

    Servers 20 Nov 22:35

  • Oman cuffs 212 for selling VoIP calls

    Net phones verboten

    This year, police in the Arab nation of Oman have raided 121 internet cafes throughout the country and arrested 212 people for providing VoIP services, according to a local report. "Around 212 accused of various Asian nationalities have been arrested since the beginning of the year [until October 26]," a senior police officer …

    VoIP 20 Nov 23:28

  • FDA takes aim at illegal net pharmacies

    Please don't feed the spammers

    The US Food and Drug Administration said it has completed a sweep of illegal online pharmacies that targeted 136 websites that appeared to be illegally selling drugs to American consumers. In a campaign dubbed the International Internet Week of Action, the FDA issued 22 warning letters to operators of the websites. It also …

    Crime 20 Nov 23:30