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1st December 2009 Archive

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  • Fanbois spy future iPhone in log file

    Predicting the inevitable

    The first oblique references to the next generation of Apple iPhones have been found in the wild. According to a report by MacRumors, usage logs that provide developers with information on which devices are using their software have begun to include references to "iPhone3,1." There is - as of today - no iPhone3,1. The current …

    Phones 1 Dec 2009, 00:49

  • FreeBSD bug gives untrusted root access

    'Unbelievably simple' exploit

    A security bug in the latest version of FreeBSD can be exploited to grant unprivileged users complete control over the operating system, a German researcher said Monday. The flaw is present in FreeBSD 8.0 and is known to affect versions 7.1 and 7.2 of the open-source OS, Nikolaos Rangos told The Register. He said it was " …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 03:34

  • Windows 7 - Microsoft minus the martyrdom

    The Vista mob abates

    Such has been Microsoft's focus on consumers when launching and advertising Windows 7, you'd be forgiven for thinking business users didn't even exist. Yet, in early 2010, the wave of Windows 7 rollout will begin inside Microsoft-centric IT shops. A study of 184 customers considered mid- and large-sized customers by desktop …

    Operating Systems 1 Dec 2009, 03:59

  • rPath heaves Javelin at Red Hat

    The Linux automation dream

    rPath is a little bit closer to its Proect Javelin dreams. Founded by a bunch of ex-Red Hatters that created a homegrown Linux operating system and a version control system for appliances based on that Linux, rPath has been expanding out to other Linuxes and trying to position itself as a kind of version control system for …

    Software 1 Dec 2009, 06:02

  • ISS crew drops from 12 to 2

    In space, nobody can hear you scream (but the other guy)

    After being jam-packed with a dozen astronauts last week, the International Space Station will look mighty empty with only a two-man skeleton crew holding down the orbiting outpost for most of December. Expedition 21 crew aboard the ISS are spending Monday preparing to bid adieu to three of its members. The trio's ticket to …

    Science 1 Dec 2009, 06:02

  • Government outlines five year IT strategy

    Try sticking to the next five months, lads

    A draft strategy paper from the Cabinet Office has pointed to web 2.0, cloud computing and service oriented architecture as areas for exploitation over the next five years. A leaked version of Government ICT Strategy: New World, New Challenges, New Opportunities outlines how the government is thinking about harnessing IT up to …

    Government 1 Dec 2009, 07:02

  • Porn app targets your Android

    Stiff iPhone competition

    Users of Android-based smartphones now have access to an app that provides a service unattainable from any of the 100,000-plus offerings in the iPhone App Store. Porn. MiKandi, a Seattle, Washington start-up, is offering its eponymous app not through Google's own Android Market, but from its own website, downloadable free …

    Phones 1 Dec 2009, 07:02

  • Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD

    Review The Apple TV for the rest of us?

    Iomega’s original ScreenPlay Pro network media player was a bit of a mixed bag. It had very good connectivity features, including a video input option that allowed it to capture video as well as simply playing audio and video files that were already stored on it. However, it was let down by its inability to play H.264 video – …

    Hardware 1 Dec 2009, 08:02

  • MS casts Project Natal as uber-remote

    Control games - and your telly and internet experience

    Microsoft's turn-Xbox-into-Wii scheme, Project Natal, won't stop at the games console, the company has revealed. Xbox Live chief Marc Whitten has said the motion-detection tech will be used to steer consumers through their telly's menus too. Bye-bye, Media Center Remote - hello, Project Natal. It's a convergence play, of …

    Games 1 Dec 2009, 10:19

  • Privacy fears prompt Fry to quit Plaxo

    A bit of Fry and worry

    Stephen Fry has quit Plaxo after he became annoyed that the social networking site was revealing what he sees as too many personal details with anyone visiting the site - as opposed to designated contacts. Plaxo, which was co-founded by Napster co-creator Sean Parker, maintains an online address book and social networking …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 10:19

  • x86 Server struggles: Watch the webcast

    On Demand Rewind selector

    For those of you too busy to watch our 'State of the x86 server estate' webcast last week, fret no more - we recorded it for your convenience. You can watch it right here. During the webcast we consider the state of play in the server room, using recent reader research to understand the forces acting on the x86 server …

    Servers 1 Dec 2009, 10:43

  • MPs slap ICO for bad language

    Sort your sh*t out, you obtuse f*cks

    A select committee report on poor official language has picked on a letter from the Information Commissioner's Office. The Public Administration Select Committee provided the ICO letter as an example of an official letter which "illustrates how formulaic letter construction can alienate and confuse the reader". The letter, …

    Government 1 Dec 2009, 10:45

  • BlackBerrys get stuck on NFC

    RIM payments prove fruitful for MasterCard

    MasterCard Canada is trialling NFC payment stickers glued to the back of BlackBerrys, providing payment history through the wonder of push email. Canada already uses MasterCard's PayPass system, contactless payments completed with a wave of a card, and the technology is easily embedded into a sticker allowing the BlackBerry to …

    Mobile 1 Dec 2009, 10:47

  • The Options for Virtual Desktops

    Lab It's all too much to take in

    Fashions come and go, in IT as well as ‘real life’, and those charged with managing desktops and laptops have been bombarded over much of the last year with information concerning ‘virtual desktop solutions’. As we know, an apparently ever-growing range of options are now becoming available to service desktop delivery, with a …

    Virtualisation Lab 1 Dec 2009, 10:56

  • Extra spam and malware security for bit.ly

    Sophos, VeriSign and Websense to provide belt and braces

    Bit.ly has partnered with security firms to bolt improved anti-spam and malware protection onto the URL shortening service. VeriSign’s iDefense IP reputation service will be used to screen against links that point to blacklisted sites hosting exploits, malicious code, botnet command and control servers or other nefarious …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 11:24

  • Snoop Dogg pimps self out on TomTom

    Chrizzle on a bizzle

    He's not allowed in the UK, but he could be allowed in your car. The rapper and hardcore pornographer Snoop Dogg has brought his hilarious "-izzle" speak to TomTom. Snoop - banned from the UK following a caution for affray at Heathrow in 2006, when he and his entourage smashed up duty free because they weren't all allowed in …

    Media 1 Dec 2009, 11:25

  • France Telecom stuck with €1bn aid bill by Euro court

    A fine mess EU've gotten me into

    France Telecom has been hit for €1bn, after the European Court of First Instance rejected its appeal against a ruling that it enjoyed eight years of unfair tax breaks from the French government. The European Commission ruled five years ago the the French incumbent enjoyed illicit state aid - in the form of business tax breaks …

    Broadband 1 Dec 2009, 11:51

  • Boffins: Stress of family Xmas can cause fatal diseases

    'Fight/flight' reaction misplaced vs average relatives

    New research by biologists indicates that the stress of festive seasons spent with the family can lead to serious health problems. In essence, according to the latest study, stress response in the nervous system is actually designed for very serious situations such as battling Neanderthals or fleeing sabre-toothed tigers. For …

    Science 1 Dec 2009, 11:53

  • NHS hurls iPhone into booze abuse fray

    Even less fun than that stupid beer-drinking app

    The NHS has released an iPhone app that counts your units and lets you know when you're drunk, if the blurred vision and falling over isn't enough of a hint. iPhone users can get the NHS Drinks Tracker from iTunes for free, and the National Health Service also provides Windows and Mac versions for those drinking heavily at …

    Mobile 1 Dec 2009, 12:01

  • British boffins talk up squeeze-to-control 3D mouse tech

    Cogito ergo Suma - I think therefore I squeeze

    Think Apple's Magic Mouse - reviewed here - is the acme of input devices? You may have to think again. UK tech company Cambridge Consultants has announced what it claims is "a whole new way of interacting with computers" - a squeezable controller. Dubbed Suma, the rugby ball-shaped gadget responds to a whole-hand grip and the …

    Hardware 1 Dec 2009, 12:03

  • Vetting database is mighty maths mess

    The sum of all incompetence?

    Home Office estimates for the eventual size of the vetting database look like becoming one of the most inelastic – and therefore least accurate – forecasts in the history of this government’s planning process. Not even a recent announcement that government is considering legislative changes that would eventually force almost …

    Government 1 Dec 2009, 12:44

  • Cisco unveils small biz spy phone

    And other tiny company love

    Cisco is still extremely keen on the small business market one year after dropping $100 million into a new unit specializing in pitching product to companies with fewer than 100 employees. To go along with the one-year milestone, the network giant is trotting out a fresh stable of small business-oriented products and upgrades …

    Small Biz 1 Dec 2009, 13:02

  • Acer Aspire 5738PG Touch

    Review Notebook gets touchscreen treatment

    Plenty of notebooks supporting Windows 7 multi-touch features have already been announced, but the Aspire 5738PG Touch is one of the earliest to actually hit the shelves. Acer has entered into the spirit of the touch revolution by implementing the technology on-screen as well as on the trackpad, but more on that later. Acer’s …

    Laptops 1 Dec 2009, 13:03

  • BT could jack up line charges to fill pensions hole

    Ofcom consults - unbundlers set to scream

    Ofcom is pondering allowing BT to jack up its line charges to allow it to lighten the £9bn pension deficit hanging round the neck of the former state-owned telco. The possible move by the regulator could see OpenReach, BT's wholesale arm, up its charges by as much as 4 per cent. This would in turn land on those companies …

    Financial News 1 Dec 2009, 13:14

  • UK.gov may abolish edited electoral roll

    Six options for register reform published

    The Government could abolish the edited electoral roll which organisations can buy from local authorities and use for any purpose. It is consulting on the issue after a review of Government data handling recommended that it be scrapped. The review, carried out last year by then Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Dr …

    Law 1 Dec 2009, 13:16

  • Space firm to send Christmas Day tweets to dead people

    Is there anybody out there? Let's hope not

    Bereaved Brits desperate to send a message to their departed loved ones this Christmas could instead simply alert hostile aliens to our tenuous Earthly existence. The Bereavement Register - a useful service to help bereaved families avoid being deluged with junk mail and cold calls targeted at their dead relatives - is …

    Bootnotes 1 Dec 2009, 13:36

  • EA exec punts 96,000rpm e-car engine

    Leccy Tech Miniature jet drives generator

    One of the highlights of the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens on 4 December, will be a jet-powered electric car. Called the CMT-380, the vehicle has been developed by microturbine specialist Capstone with help from Electronic Arts' Chief Creative Director, Richard Hilleman, who presumably is tired of only driving far- …

    Science 1 Dec 2009, 14:07

  • Tories flash leaked UK.gov IT strategy

    They want to know what you think. Yes, specialmost you

    The Conservatives have uploaded a leaked government IT strategy report onto a new website, as part of a nifty wheeze to get the IT community involved in coming up with a better plan. The Make IT Better site seeks comments from the public, amid claims that "crowdsourcing" and Web 2.0-style collaboration will result in the …

    Government 1 Dec 2009, 14:12

  • DARPA balloon-hunt compo: Stand by for skulduggery

    We may never be told the winners' methods

    The DARPA Network Challenge - a race to find ten large red balloons to be flown at undisclosed locations in the USA this Saturday - is beginning to take shape, with competing teams trying to marshal the legions of crowdsourced operatives necessary for a win. Meanwhile rules and details have been modified in an attempt to prevent …

    Science 1 Dec 2009, 14:18

  • Embedded systems and telemetry checkpoint

    Mini Poll Do you have any opinions or experiences to declare?

    Technology marketing people are notorious for confusing the hell out of us by trying to dress up relatively simple concepts and developments to make them appear more significant than they are. If they’re not doing this, they’re going to the other extreme and trying to sell us magic bullets that will make complex problems go away …

    Tech Panel 1 Dec 2009, 15:07

  • FCC invites white space bids

    Asks Microsoft, Google if they want a monopoly

    The FCC has invited those interested in running a white space database to explain how they would manage it, and if they're expecting to be handed a monopoly. The FCC's invitation (pdf) asks potential band managers how they think the work should be divided up, and which part they would like to take on themselves. Then it's a …

    Broadband 1 Dec 2009, 15:47

  • Anti-spammers urged to gang up

    Test suggests collaboration is the way to fight the wrong'uns

    The combined efforts of anti-spam products outperform any individual products alone, according to an experiment by Virus Bulletin, the independent security certification organisation. In a comparative test, almost 200,000 sample emails were sent to 14 different anti-spam products that were required to filter out spam messages …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 15:56

  • Acer embiggens server and storage range

    It's gonna play in the mainstream SMB and HPC markets

    Acer has shown off its SMB and HPC entry tickets at a Milan show today. The company has been perceived as a PC and mobile-centric vendor because its offerings haven't included beefy servers or storage suited to mainstream small and medium business (SMB) or, in any way at all, the high-performance computing (HPC) market. It …

    Servers 1 Dec 2009, 16:06

  • Google pockets half of 'unlicensed' news dollars, says study

    Murdoch fodder

    Google pockets more than half of the online revenues generated from "unlicensed" newspaper content, according to a new study. With a report (PDF) released today, the Fair Syndication Consortium says that over a 30-day period in October and November, more than 75,000 websites "reused" at least one newspaper article without …

    Media 1 Dec 2009, 19:02

  • GooTube mulls fee-TV streams

    $1.99 non-downloads

    Google is in talks with TV execs to stream commercial-free TV shows on YouTube for a buck ninety-nine each on the day after they're originally broadcast. So says a Tuesday report on The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog, citing "multiple sources." The post makes no mention of whether the service would be US-only, …

    Media 1 Dec 2009, 19:24

  • Cloud hopeful rejects Microsoft's interop patent

    Open has its limits

    A cloud interoperability hopeful has dismissed mighty Microsoft's attempt to patent technology for customers to transfer data between different services. Vordel has said Microsoft's proposed patent targets a single vendors' cloud and fails to tackle lock-in as identified by the European Network and Information Security Agency …

    Servers 1 Dec 2009, 20:00

  • Russian ransomware blocks net access

    New social engineering wheeze appears in east

    Miscreants have developed a ransomware package that blocks internet access in a bid to force infected users into paying up by sending a text message to a premium rate SMS number, lining the pocket of cybercrooks in the process. The malware comes bundled in a package called uFast Download Manager and targets potential marks in …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 20:27

  • Hackintosher Psystar to pay Apple $2.7m in settlement

    But it ain't over til it's over

    Apple and Psystar have settled a large chunk of their legal wrangling, with the Hackintosher agreeing to pay Apple $2.7m rather than continue to trial in federal court in Northern California. The legal wrangling on Psystar's home turf in Florida, however, will continue. In a filing by Apple's legal team Tuesday morning, the …

    Hardware 1 Dec 2009, 21:06

  • Concurrent unhoods RedHawk Linux 5.4

    Real-time is real money

    With Red Hat, Novell - and now Intel, thanks to its $884m acquisition of Wind River - all crowding into the real-time Linux space, Concurrent has to keep on its toes and keep its RedHawk Linux, well, current. With RedHawk Linux 5.4, announced Tuesday, Concurrent is slipping into Linux 2.6.31 and offering full compatibility …

    Operating Systems 1 Dec 2009, 21:27

  • Foodies sue providers of hacked payment system

    Breaches R Us

    A group of restaurants is demanding millions of dollars in damages from two companies accused of selling point-of-sale terminals that exposed customer data to criminal hackers. In a complaint filed in Louisiana state court, the restaurants claim the Aloha POS software manufactured by Georgia-based Radiant Systems failed to …

    Security 1 Dec 2009, 21:39

  • Comcast trials bandwidth cap meter

    After 13 months of bandwidth capping

    Comcast has flipped the test switch on a broadband meter that actually tells customers how much bandwidth they're using before they reach the company's 250GB-a-month bandwidth cap. This morning, the US cable giant announced a pilot launch of the web-based meter in Portland, Oregon, saying it would reach the rest of the country …

    Networks 1 Dec 2009, 22:11

  • Nokia sues LCD makers over price-fixing

    Mirrors AT&T suit

    Nokia has filed a lawsuit against eight display manufacturers over claims they colluded to fix prices for LCDs used in mobile phones. The lawsuit, filed November 25 in federal court in San Francisco, California, is grounded in the US Department of Justice's antitrust allegations of the same nature. Companies named in Nokia's …

    Mobile 1 Dec 2009, 22:37

  • SC09: Mineral oil computing - The coming wave?

    Liquid cooling

    OK, sure: liquid can hold and transfer way, way more heat than air – we all know that. But is dropping an entire rack of servers into what looks like an enormous deep fryer the right solution? The answer from the folks at Green Revolution Cooling is a resounding, “Yes!” They claim that using their mineral oil submersion …

    HPC 1 Dec 2009, 22:48

  • Making big ones out of small ones: SGI

    SGI's Geoff Noer talks us through UltraViolet

    Large shared-memory computing seems to be making a bit of a comeback. The two players we have already talked about ScaleMP and 3Leaf, use primarily off-the-shelf servers (with a special ASIC, in 3Leaf’s case) along with Infiniband connections and specialized software to build cache-coherent, shared-everything systems. With this …

    HPC 1 Dec 2009, 22:59

  • SC09: Two Guys and a Cluster

    Tell me about the cluster, Buster

    The annual Supercomputing show is refreshing in that it pulls exhibitors of all stripes, ranging from colleges and research labs to the usual slate of large system, software, and infrastructure vendors. We stumbled upon the “Two Guys and a Cluster” booth as we looked for a place to get something to drink. Their simple booth …

    HPC 1 Dec 2009, 23:06

  • Cell phone supercomputing II: in the flesh

    Demo graphics

    In a recent blog, I wrote how tiny ARM-based compute nodes were assembled into a 16-way cluster and displayed at the recently concluded SC09 supercomputing conference. The nodes were put together by Plugcomputer.org and contain a single 1.2GHz Marvell Sheeva Processor (ARM compatible), 512MB RAM, 512MB flash, and one each …

    HPC 1 Dec 2009, 23:53

  • Dates named for next Microsoft Office and SQL Server

    Updated Online Office opens next summer

    Delivery dates for two eagerly awaited pieces of software and the web version of Office from Microsoft have slipped out. Office 2010 will ship in June next year, a Microsoft spokesperson told The Reg, confirming a story that appeared in BetaNews. The hosted version of Office, Office Web apps, will be available at the same …

    Applications 1 Dec 2009, 23:55

  • Millions of mobiles blocked by Indian authorities

    No ID, no call

    India has blocked service to an estimated 25 million mobile phones lacking valid identity codes over concerns criminal or militant groups could use them to organize attacks. Mobile phones with a blank or all-zero International Mobile Identity (IMEI) code went dead at midnight Tuesday as a result of a government security …

    Broadband 1 Dec 2009, 23:56