30th November 2009 Archive

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Border agency to start fingerprint checks

Put your hands up for ~~Detroit~~ Dover

Fingerprint checks on foreigners at border controls will begin at the end of November, says the UK Border Agency. In addition to usual checks at UK border controls, from 30 November 2009 overseas nationals arriving in the country will have their fingerprints scanned. All passengers with biometric UK visas, entry clearances …

Government 30 Nov 2009, 06:02
Dell sows 'experimental' Chrome OS for Mini netbooks

Google that sours after 36 hours

A team of Dell engineers has released a very unofficial version of Google's Chrome OS for use on the PC manufacturer's Mini 10v netbooks. Dell isn't on the official list of Chrome OS hardware partners. And the company's founder and CEO believes his netbooks go sour after 36 hours. But you now have ready access to an early open …

Operating Systems 30 Nov 2009, 06:22
Samsung H1 Vodafone 360

Review The Twitbook lover's delight?

Apparently, you are nobody today if you aren't connected to hundreds of other people through a web of social networks. If you aren’t poking, tweeting, linking, posting, chatting, emailing and texting, you're living in the past. Samsung's H1: built for Vodafone 360's social network centric UI No wonder, then, that everyone …

reghardware 30 Nov 2009, 08:02
HP readies plan for EVA revolution

Comment SAS and SATA support with ProLiant controller

It appears that HP is getting ready to announce two revolutionary EVA arrays, abandoning its proprietary EVA controller design and using SAS drives for the first time. HP's Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) is its mid-range departmental storage array, placed between the workgroup and branch office MSA product and the enterprise …

Storage 30 Nov 2009, 09:02
Royal Society offers all-time top boffinry selection online

Need to keep a dog alive with punctured lungs?

The Royal Society, Blighty's premier boffinry club, has celebrated its 350th year by putting online a selection of its most eye-catching research papers. Among the highlights of the offerings are An Account of an Experiment Made by Mr Hook, of Preserving Animals Alive by Blowing through Their Lungs with Bellows. This is a …

Science 30 Nov 2009, 10:16
Expanding the footprint of enterprise apps

Workshop Who’s being left out in your organisation?

Many organisations originally invested in ERP and CRM suites to deal with specific problems they were focused on at the time. Whether it was automating or fixing certain processes, or simply replacing existing obsolete systems, the job at hand was clear, and bad things happened if the immediate objectives weren’t met. Sure, the …

Evolving Apps 30 Nov 2009, 10:22
LHC smashes Tevatron record: Humanity enters the unknown

Dimensional portal to open by Xmas?

In the early hours this morning, boffins at the controls of the Large Hadron Collider brought the colossal particle-punisher up to beam energies of 1.18 tera-electron-volts (TeV), breaking the world atomsmasher record of 0.98 TeV held by the US Tevatron. The LHC is now officially the most powerful matter-rending machine in …

Physics 30 Nov 2009, 10:59
Should you lose your religion on your CV?

Comment An equal opps dilemma for employers and employees

Your CV should tell prospective employers who you are - but should that include details of your religious faith? I headhunt science grads for banks, and recently received a CV with the applicant's religion right at the top. We’ve always told people not to do this for purely pragmatic reasons. Whatever your religion, there are …

Jobs 30 Nov 2009, 11:08
BMW to provide 'low emission' cars for London Olympics

Leccy Tech Would Nissan have been a better choice?

Nissan has allegedly denounced BMW's contact to supply 4000 "low emission" vehicles for the 2012 London Olympics as a “backwards step” for the capital’s chances of becoming an e-car world leader. Locog's Lord Coe (left) and Ian Robertson of BMW shake hands The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) …

reghardware 30 Nov 2009, 11:09
IBM poised to acquire database security start-up for $225m

Guardium makes Big Blue sweat before signing

IBM is set to buy database security firm Guardium for $225m. The deal to acquire the 60 person firm is expected to close on Monday. Guardium was founded in Israel in 2002 before moving its headquarters to Boston, USA, a year later. Big Blue has reportedly been courting Guardium since January, eventually offering a sweet- …

Enterprise Security 30 Nov 2009, 11:22
Should we care about SLA Monitoring and Management?

Webcast Be a SLAve to the rhythm

If you ask readers of The Register, they’ll tell you that they have an ever-increasing range of systems to look after and a vast range of tools and services to manage them. That’s a big enough headache for most. However, many will also explain that business expectations for the quality of IT service continue to rise by the …

Tech Panel 30 Nov 2009, 11:35
Villagers revolt over BT chairman's broadband

Gets preferential treatment from own company shock

BT chairman Sir Mike Rake has reportedly upset some of his neighbours in the Oxfordshire village of Hambleden, because he's got broadband and they haven't. The locals have been waiting for service for five years, The Telegraph reports. Meanwhile, Sir Mike moved in about a year ago, and is already enjoying broadband thanks to …

Telecoms 30 Nov 2009, 11:44
Gizmo5 Linux client vanishes in wake of Google takeover

Penguin incarnation joins the choir invisible

Gizmo5 users are complaining that since the VoIP outfit was acquired by Google earlier this month, the Linux client of the firm’s tech has been ditched. Only the Windows, Mac and iPhone clients are available for download from Gizmo5’s website, according to some users who have grumbled on the start up’s forum. Gizmo5 offers …

VoIP 30 Nov 2009, 11:52
Sony ships chips for 560Mb/s Bluetooth beater

TransferJet inbound

Sony has unwrapped the first of its chips able to provide Bluetooth-style short range communications at speeds of up to 560Mb/s. Two of the TransferJet chips are on offer - one designed to be small enought to fit inside an SD memory card. The other is designed to sit on a PCI or MiniPCI add-in card. Sony's TransferJet chips …

reghardware 30 Nov 2009, 11:55
Notts County Council sprays £82k on PC smut trawl

Funding gap plugging boob

As Nottinghamshire County Council gets ready to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff in an effort to plug a £30m gap in its finances, it is also spending six-figure sums on an anti-porn crusade. The Council has so far owned up to spending £82,000 with external suppliers in their hunt for "inappropriate" material. It …

Enterprise Security 30 Nov 2009, 12:36
EU waits for wise men to deliver digi-books plan

Culture ministers go away for a manger

EU culture ministers have moved to block Google's book scanning juggernaut - by appointing some wise men to come up with a policy. Eventually. The policy was thrashed out by Europe's culture ministers at a meeting last Friday. French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand told Journal du Dimanche that the digitisation of books …

Government 30 Nov 2009, 12:38
Gervais pic used in amusingly rubbish failed bank fraud

Berks borrowed Brent's boatrace but blew it

Crooks tried to impersonate Ricky Gervais by using a picture of The Office character David Brent mounted in a counterfeit passport as part of a comically inept attempt to withdraw a large sum from the comedian's bank account. The ingenious retro-fraudsters tried to extract £200,000 from the comic actor's bank account in order …

ID 30 Nov 2009, 12:47
Samsung UE40B7000 40in LCD TV

Review Skinny screen, but ample vision

Flatscreen TVs with LED backlighting offer more vivid colours, darker blacks and greater contrast than regular LCD screens. And there’s a slimness dividend, too, as edge-mounted LED backlights take up less space than conventional LCD bulbs. A case in point is Samsung’s UE40B7000, a 40in 1080p HDTV that’s only 30mm deep. …

reghardware 30 Nov 2009, 13:05
Google Phone: What's it gonna be?

To boldly go where no smartphone, etc

Rumors of a 'Google phone' are almost as frequent as those of an Apple iTablet, but the search giant may indeed release some form of hardware platform in January. Despite blog speculation, and even 'leaked photos', of full-blown Google smartphones, it is unlikely that the company will compete with its own licensees. Instead, we …

Mobile 30 Nov 2009, 13:13
Why is USB 3 so slow?

SuperSpeed it is not - yet

USB 3.0's SuperSpeed rating is a dismal joke if magazine tests are anything to go by, with transfers at a laggardly 127MB/sec at best, only three to four times faster than good USB 2 products. So why is USB 3.0 so slow? In theory, USB 2.0 runs at a maximum of 480Mbit/s, whereas USB 3.0 runs up to 4.8Gbit/s: ten times faster. …

Storage 30 Nov 2009, 13:23
Climategate: Why it matters

Analysis The scandal we see and the scandal we don't

Reading the Climategate archive is a bit like discovering that Professional Wrestling is rigged. You mean, it is? Really? The archive - a carefully curated 160MB collection of source code, emails and other documents from the internal network of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia - provides grim …

Environment 30 Nov 2009, 13:23
Titan has Earth-style 'climate change', says prof

Saturnian ice-moon's 'Sea of Krakens' will vanish

Scientists at Cal Tech say they have cracked the puzzling conundrum of the polar patio-gas lakes of Titan, moon of Saturn. The reason why such bodies of fluid are found at the moon's north pole but not at its antarctic is apparently eccentricity in Saturn's orbit, of the same type as that governing ice ages on Earth. Regular …

Space 30 Nov 2009, 13:38
Prevx blames Microsoft for black ~~hawk~~ screen down

Patches bestow chocolate teapot status on Windows PCs

Microsoft’s most recent release of security patches is causing some computers to freeze and display a, er, black screen of death. The glitch is affecting Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems, according to software security firm Prevx. The UK-based company warned its users on Friday that Microsoft’s latest patches were …

Operating Systems 30 Nov 2009, 13:50
Nokia mole says one more Maemo smartphone next year

Slower shift from Symbian than anticipated?

Nokia will roll out one more Linux-based smartphone in 2010, a company mole has claimed, suggesting it's more keen on Symbian than recent executive statements have implied. Nokia's first Linux-based smartphone, the N900, has just begun shipping to folk who ordered it ahead of release. It runs Maemo, a Linux derivative Nokia …

reghardware 30 Nov 2009, 14:08
Lost mobiles to pile up in taxis in run up to Xmas

I 'ad six BlackBerries in my cab the other day

London residents leave an average 10,000 mobile phones in the back of taxis every month. Passengers also forget an estimated 1,000 other tech gizmos - including iPods, laptops and memory sticks - in London cabs every month, according to a survey of London's licensed cabbies. The amount of gear left in cabs peaks during the run …

Mobile 30 Nov 2009, 14:29
Gov targets boozers as Manc ID card scheme launches

Gis yer face to get off your face innit

A handful of lucky Mancunians should be getting their hands on ID cards within ten days, after the government officially kicked off the much-anticipated scheme in the Northern city today. The government has thrown open the appointments book at Identity and Passport Offices in the city and at Manchester Airport. So far, there …

Government 30 Nov 2009, 14:29
EU to approve more banking data for US spooks

Win for Washington on private info

European home affairs ministers are today set to approve a transatlantic deal that will see them turn reams of private banking data over to US intelligence. The expected approval signals a remarkable diplomatic victory for Washington. The European Commission and the US had previously clashed over the Terrorist Finance Tracking …

Government 30 Nov 2009, 15:02
Why do people keep buying CDs?

Meet the SuBo Wrestlers

Who on earth still buys CDs? If you only went to digital music conferences, you'd think the last CD had been bought some time ago, probably back in 2005. Audio connoisseurs' favourite Linn Products last week confirmed that it will stop designing and selling CD players from next year to focus on streamers, although its legendary …

Music and Media 30 Nov 2009, 15:12
French WiMAX is stepping stone to LTE

But will go national in 2010

French wannabe operator Bolloré Telecom will deploy a national WiMAX network in 2010, but admits that it's really waiting for LTE to arrive. Bolloré owns 30MHz of spectrum around 3.5GHz; which is part of the problem, as existing WiMAX deployments and kit operate in the 2.5GHz band. That's already delayed deployment by a year …

Mobile 30 Nov 2009, 15:33
BNP leader unlikely iPlayer poster child

Nick Griffin helps boost Beeb's figures for take-up of service

BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time last month helped boost take-up of the Corporation’s popular online iPlayer service. The Beeb said that the “widespread press attention” garnered by Griffin’s nails-down-a-blackboard turn on QT “had a clear ‘halo effect’ with user requests going up for other TV …

Music and Media 30 Nov 2009, 16:02
Bumbling NJ firemen, cops blown up in 'huge fireball'

Gunpowder plot ruled out: bunker-buster blunder blamed

Firemen and police officers in New Jersey blew themselves up last week in an "orange mushroom cloud of fire and debris" which created a "deafening boom felt miles away". The unfortunate public-safety operatives had been attempting to light a bonfire at a high-school rally. According to the South Jersey Courier-Post, kids at …

Bootnotes 30 Nov 2009, 16:05
No Nook e-reader til 7 December or later

Kindle selling merrily in meantime

Amazon has sold more of its Kindle e-reader than any other products, it claims, boding badly for Barnes & Noble whose Nook won't even be seen in stores until 7 December. Amazon doesn't share Kindle figures, but today announced that the eBook reader with built-in keyboard is its bestselling product across all product categories …

PCs & Chips 30 Nov 2009, 16:30
Consumer group preps legal challenge to Facebook terms

Getting poked all the way from Norway

A Norwegian consumer protection agency is preparing a legal challenge to Facebook and other social networking companies, accusing them of operating "in a legal vacuum and irrespective of norms and standards". Forbrukerrådet, the Norwegian Consumer Council, has studied the privacy policies and terms and conditions of social …

Law 30 Nov 2009, 16:41
Web service automates WordPress password cracking

Malefactors debut Hacking as a Service

Hackers have developed a distributed Wordpress admin account cracking scheme that poses a severe risk for the security of blogs whose owners select insecure passwords. PHP scripts located on a virtual server run bruteforce (password guessing) attacks on targeted sites. Many sites can be attacked at the same time by the system …

Crime 30 Nov 2009, 16:55
Making big ones out of small ones: 3Leaf

Single system image

The wheel is turning full circle. In the 1980s and 1990s, the HPC crowd pioneered scale-out processing and advanced parallelism in response to cost and scalability limitations imposed by the shared-everything systems of the day, ushering in an era where huge numbers of small computers were harnessed to solve large-scale problems …

HPC Blog 30 Nov 2009, 17:02
Making big ones out of small ones: ScaleMP

Big Picture

As we talked about in our last post, a handful of vendors are pushing technology that lets users tie bunches of smaller systems into large, shared-everything SMP servers. ScaleMP was founded in 2003 and has been shipping products since 2006. It is pitching a software-based solution that allows customers to combine up to 16 x86 …

HPC Blog 30 Nov 2009, 17:02
eBay fined 1.7m euros in perfume kerfuffle

Christian Dior ban slap

A Parisian court has fined eBay 1.7 million euros (roughly $2.6 million) for violating an injunction that bars users from buying and selling perfumes and cosmetics from French luxury goods maker LVMH. After a June 2008 court ruling, eBay users in France are banned from selling certain LVHM goods, including perfumes from …

Music and Media 30 Nov 2009, 18:07
Server sales stabilizing, says study

Falling less fast

The server market was down but not out in the third quarter. According to the box counters at Gartner, who released their revenue and shipment statistics for servers today, worldwide server revenues fell by 15.5 per cent in Q3, to $10.7bn. And shipments fell even faster, down 17.1 per cent, to 1.92 million units. While there …

Channel Register 30 Nov 2009, 18:24
Prolific penis pill pushers fined almost $19m

At last

Federal authorities have imposed almost $19m in fines on an enterprise accused of spamming the world with billions of emails advertising male-enhancement pills and other pharmaceuticals. Lance Thomas Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen who resides in Australia, was fined more than $15.15m for his role as the mastermind of the vast …

Crime 30 Nov 2009, 18:26
Apple 'games' NAND flash market

Order a lot, buy a few?

Korean flash-memory manufacturers are grumbling that Apple is gaming the NAND market. An article in Sunday's The Korea Times reports that the kvetching centers around allegations that Apple is depressing flash prices by ordering large amounts of NAND chips from Korean manufacturers, but purchasing only smaller amounts - and …

Channel Register 30 Nov 2009, 18:37
IBM hoists Tivoli Monitoring onto Amazon cloud

More Big Blue sky

After lobbing a large chunk of its database and middleware software on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service early this year, IBM has now hoisted its Tivoli Monitoring onto the Amazon cloud. IBM's Tivoli Monitoring is available on EC2 as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) running as a virtual computer, Amazon announced today …

Applications 30 Nov 2009, 19:29
Microsoft files cloud data portability patent

Updated Component method

Microsoft has filed a patent to lock-down a method for moving data between different "clouds." The technology in Microsoft's filing covers the need for users to move data to a new cloud where the existing service has failed or the provider has gone out of business, or where the user simply finds a better deal or offering …

Applications 30 Nov 2009, 20:00
Apple job listing hints of iPhone-Google divorce

Wanted: map-meister extraordinaire

Apple is advertising for a software engineer to help take its iPhone Maps app to "the next level" - and perhaps to help Cupertino gain independence from its latest smartphone competitor, Google. Two identical job postings - one filed in mid-October and another last week (and spotted by MacRumors) - seek an engineer for the " …

Mobile 30 Nov 2009, 20:16
Sun VirtualBox gets live migration

EU grudge list candidate

The clever techies behind Sun Microsystems' VirtualBox hypervisor just keep plugging away on improving the product, as if the $7.4bn Oracle acquisition had not happened and as if Oracle will have anything useful to do with VirtualBox other than sit on it and keep it out of a rival's hands when the deal gets approved by the …

Servers 30 Nov 2009, 21:49
Cisco and Juniper 'clientless' VPNs expose netizens

No cure for authentication bypass

Virtual private networking software from Cisco Systems, Juniper, and other manufacturers can make users susceptible to a variety of web-based attacks, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned on Monday. So-called clientless SSL VPN products, which provide browser-based access to intranets, email and other internal …

Security 30 Nov 2009, 21:53
TechCrunch knocks off Vulture Central RegPad™

The nonexistent future of couch computing

The long-rumored TechCrunch CrunchPad does not exist, according to more rumor. As recently as this summer, the TechCrunch CrunchPad was heralded by TechCrunch as a turning point in the history of couch computing. But according to a new report from TechCrunch, TechCrunch has now been told it's no longer involved in the project …

Odds and Sods 30 Nov 2009, 23:47