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8th December 2009 Archive

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  • Say hello to Seagate's Pulsar SSD

    'It's enterprise class and we know enterprise'

    Seagate has announced its Pulsar solid state drive (SSD) for blade and other format servers, saying it is only the first of several enterprise SSD products. Pulsar is a 2.5-inch form factor product using single level cell (SLC) flash and fitting in a standard 2.5-inch drive bay with its 7mm z-height. The drive has a 3Gbit/s …

    Storage 8 Dec 05:02

  • IBM beams in Tivoli monitoring from the cloud

    Web watches over on-premise infrastructure

    IBM has been a busy bee floating chunks of its big, complicated, on-premise IT management software into the cloud in order to woo small- and mid-sized businesses. The latest to receive a web-based treatment is IBM Tivoli Live, a web-based service that takes several bits of the company's on-premise Tivoli monitoring products …

    Software 8 Dec 05:02

  • Facebook forms board to lick molesters

    Seeks group wisdom on protecting kids

    Facebook has called on a fellowship of web safety organizations to prove that it really doesn't want your dumb kid molested online. The social network hub - which recently purged 2,782 registered New York sex offenders in a single sweep - says it plans to organize a special (and properly capitalized) Facebook Safety Advisory …

    Music and Media 8 Dec 06:02

  • Symantec's bumper bonus bells and whistles

    Veritas Storage Foundation adds lightness

    Symantec has boosted its Storage Foundation product to store less duplicate data, integrate with Hyper-V and use solid state storage better. It has also added failover to its Cluster File System Veritas Storage Foundation (VSF) runs on servers and manages storage arrays, provisioning storage capacity and volumes, for …

    Virtualization 8 Dec 07:02

  • Google fits Android for visual search Goggles

    New frontiers in targeted ads

    Google has introduced a new visual-search technology for Android phones, giving it the inevitably cutesy name of Google Goggles. Part of a trio of Monday announcements concerning voice, location, and visual search technologies, Google Goggles matches a photo you take with your Android phone with images in - where else? - …

    Mobile 8 Dec 07:02

  • Samsung P2370HD TV-monitor

    Review A PC-TV display worth looking at?

    Combo TV-monitors are not a new idea, but all too often what you get is a standard PC monitor with a TV tuner bolted on. Yet with the P2370HD, Samsung has created a fully functional 23in widescreen TV, that’s designed to work just as well as a PC monitor. Dual purpose: Samsung's P2370HD The monitor is comprised of a …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 08:02

  • 2009's Top Set-top Media Players

    Kit of the Year Get content off your PC and onto your TV

    Apple's Apple TV was launched in 2007, but it has taken until 2009 for rivals to really get to grips with the notion of a device you can use to play local and network-connected content on your TV. Too many storage vendors have tried their hand, offering good content capacity but usually accessed through a slow, poor UI. Western …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 10:02

  • EU rolls out out astroturf guide for consumer laws

    Grocers' stalls, 5-a-side pitches only please

    Social networking sites and blogs can be governed by the European Union's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, according to new guidance published by the European Commission. The guidance has been published to help countries and companies comply with a piece of legislation that poses "a number of challenges", according to …

    Law 8 Dec 10:06

  • Thinking about production scale virtualisation projects?

    Webcast Beginners need NOT apply

    From what we can tell, most of you that want to have tried virtualisation of some kind or another – whether it’s dabbling on the desktop, super-charging your servers or apportioning activity to application delivery. But just how many of you have got virtualisation systems running on a production-scale? Our research suggests not …

    Virtualisation Lab 8 Dec 10:10

  • Patches provided for troublesome Aino, Satio

    Updated About time

    Sony Ericsson has officially released software updates for its technically troubled Satio 12Mp cameraphone and Aino 'PlayStation' handset. The company hasn't said much about what changes either update makes to the two handsets, except to promise that Satio's update provides "better performance and core stability improvements …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 10:16

  • Surgery fools Japan's fingerprint checks

    Dab madam nabbed

    A Chinese woman arrested in Japan had surgery on her fingers to fool biometric border checks when entering the country. The 27-year old woman, Lin Ring, who was deported from Japan in 2007, paid for surgery to remove and switch the fingerprints from her left to right hands, and presumably vice versa. Japan uses fingerprint …

    Biology 8 Dec 10:38

  • PGP disk encrypt approved by MoD for military use

    Good enough for personal data, not for missile codes

    The UK MoD has certified PGP Corporation's whole disk encryption technology as suitable for use on British military computers. However, like most software-only solutions, it has been approved only for machines holding fairly low-level information. PGP Whole Disk Encryption had previously passed the UK government's baseline …

    Enterprise Security 8 Dec 10:51

  • Apple kicks prolific developer out of iTunes shop

    Too much plastic grass for this fruit vendor

    Developer Molinker has been kicked out of the iTunes store for posting too many positive reviews, reducing the size of the store by almost one per cent. Molinker is a Chinese developer who, before the weekend, had more than a thousand applications listed on the iTunes store. Now they have none at all, after an e-mail to Apple' …

    Mobile 8 Dec 10:53

  • Microsoft and NetApp find love in adversity

    Comment Eyes meet across a crowded market

    It wouldn't be surprising if NetApp and Microsoft started collaborating more closely, especially over cloud computing, now that VMware, EMC and Cisco are in a 3-way marriage, and Microsoft is hustling Hyper-V out onto the data centre streets, with Azure following behind. The dynamics of server virtualisation, data centre …

    Virtualization 8 Dec 11:00

  • Virgin Galactic trumpets SpaceShipTwo

    'VSS Enterprise' unveiled at Spaceport America

    Virgin Galactic yesterday unveiled its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) passenger-carrying rocketplane in a lavish* ceremony at New Mexico's "Spaceport America". SS2 rolled out slung under the WhiteKnightTwo mothership, which will eventually carry it aloft to 50,000ft before the pair part company and a hybrid rocket engine blasts six SS2 …

    Space 8 Dec 11:24

  • First Android 2.0 smartphone arrives in UK

    Motorola's Milestone breaks cover

    Motorola's first smartphone running Android 2.0 is now available in the UK. Motorola's Milestone: an Expansys exclusive, for now Online retailer Expansys has secured the exclusive rights to sell Moto's highly anticipated Milestone handset - it's called Droid in the States - before the likes of O2 or Orange. Admittedly, …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 11:26

  • Apple to appeal after OPTi's $21.7m patent infringement win

    Pre-snooping dogfight

    Apple has been told to pay OPTi $21.7m in damages after an Eastern Texas Court issued a final judgment in the firm's long-running patent infringement case. But reports this morning suggest the Mac maker's next move will be sending an appeal to the ruling, rather than a cheque. The final judgment, issued last week, determines …

    PCs & Chips 8 Dec 11:30

  • Stanford prof pops lid on paint-on battery tech

    Decorators to charge more

    Boffins in America have developed a "one-dimensional" nanomaterial liquid which can be painted onto walls or pieces of paper to create working batteries. "If I want to paint my wall with a conducting energy storage device, I can use a brush," says Yi Cui, materials engineering prof at Stanford. "These nanomaterials are …

    Physics 8 Dec 11:36

  • Adware touts $1 bribe to prospective zombies

    An offer you can refuse

    An adware distributor is offering to pay punters $1 to install their crud. The bribe comes attached to malware, specifically an application bundle that includes adware and agents that change browser home pages, detected by Sunbelt Software as C4DLMedia and classified as a medium risk threat. The offer of payment is buried in …

    Malware 8 Dec 11:55

  • Brown launches 'Zip it, Block it, Flag it' net code for children

    Get kids to use web by stopping them seeing it

    Prime Minister Gordon Brown will today be launching a new internet safety strategy for children and young people, drawn up by an unprecedented coalition of Government, industry and charities at the first the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) Summit in London today. As Children’s Secretary Ed Balls commented today, …

    Government 8 Dec 12:01

  • The Economics of Virtualisation

    Lab What’s the business case?

    Virtualisation is clearly one of IT’s great fashions, and as such continues to attract huge amounts of interest. Unlike many technology-based fashions - and we can all remember quite a few - virtualisation solutions are being deployed in anger in many areas, especially in the world of x86 servers. As is well appreciated, getting …

    Virtualisation Lab 8 Dec 12:02

  • CrunchPad gets JooJoo eyeballed

    More real than the RegPad, but only just

    The manufacturer of the late CrunchPad has revealed the device as it stands. It now goes under the name JooJoo and is ready for pre-ordering, despite the lack of details or launch date. The device's designer, Fusion Garage, revealed the JooJoo in a video launch. They claim that Michael Arrington, and TechCrunch, have no …

    Mobile 8 Dec 12:10

  • Swindon twins with Walt Disney World

    Florida theme park to host 'Wonders of Wiltshire' exhibition

    The picturesque Wiltshire town of Swindon has beaten 24 less magical UK locations to become the first real-world twin of Florida's Walt Disney World. According to the BBC, the home of Honda motors and Billie Piper secured the honour after 20-year-old building society worker Rebecca Warren "made a video of her home town and …

    Bootnotes 8 Dec 12:14

  • 3D BD spec due H2 2010, says AMD

    Blu-ray Disc add-on timed for Avatar, World Cup

    The Blu-ray Disc Association's specification for incorporating stereoscopic 3D content on Blu-ray media, won't appear until the second half of 2010, AMD has said. The chip maker yesterday said it would partner with software maker CyberLink to demo stereoscopic 3D content coming off Blu-ray at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 12:15

  • Nokia sinks flagship store

    Regent Street loses sense of childlike wonder™

    Nokia is to close its 'flagship' Regent Street showcase, a few yards along from Apple's premier London Store, after two years. According to The Times, Nokia spent £4m in the attempt to spark a sense of child-like wonder™ in the two-floor glass homage to its Californian rival, spread over 8,290 square feet. The design of the …

    Mobile 8 Dec 12:16

  • Bonuses all round for failing Border Agency

    More holes than your Nan's knickers

    The UK Border Agency is paying out £295,000 in bonuses to senior staff despite its ongoing struggle with a backlog of thousands of mystery cases. The Home Affairs Committee's latest report into the UKBA found that although it has worked through about half of its 450,000 backlog, it still does not expect to finish until summer …

    Government 8 Dec 12:33

  • Tory peers to protect kids from anuses

    Mandy's Bill gets buttocks amendment

    Lord Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill, we're told, is about "equipping the UK to compete and lead in the global digital economy". If two Conservative peers get their way though, its also about censoring breasts, buttocks and anuses. One section of the Bill sets up a compulsory age classification system for video games, in part …

    Government 8 Dec 12:43

  • Walking With Dinosaurs star goes walkabout

    One of our dinosaurs really is missing

    Oz's Walking With Dinosaurs touring show is one star short today after someone made off with a 1.5m-tall remote-controlled beast as the show opened in Guadalajara, Mexico. Spokeswoman Karla Arroyo admitted that organisers hadn't got the foggiest as to how the AU$110k (£61k) creature went walkabout, but insisted that the theft …

    Bootnotes 8 Dec 12:44

  • Acer Aspire 5738DZG 3D 15.6in notebook

    Review World's first 3D laptop – are the specs up to it?

    Despite its obvious appeal, 3D hasn’t really taken off as far as computers are concerned. However, things seem to be picking up pace of late, and Acer is the latest to get in on the game with what it claims is the world’s first 3D-capable laptop. Acer’s Aspire 5738DZG: 3D comes to the laptop Before delving into Acer’s …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 13:05

  • Wind River takes Android commercial

    You can pay if you want to

    Embedded specialist Wind River has launched a validated version of Google's Android platform, bringing revenue generation to the open-source model. Android gets a lot of attention for being free, but most manufacturers would prefer to pay for their handset OS in exchange for support and improved capabilities, as well as …

    Mobile 8 Dec 13:13

  • FAST takes its sweet time

    Key to EMC's future, but in no big hurry

    EMC has announced the first deliveries of its FAST (fully-automated storage tiering) technology to move lumps of storage between solid state drives (SSD) and spinning disk in its high-end, mid-range and iSCSI/filer arrays. FAST moves volumes or LUNs (Logical UNits) of storage between SSD, Fibre Channel and SATA hard disk …

    Storage 8 Dec 13:19

  • NASA aims for Friday WISE up

    Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer set for launch

    NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, aka WISE, is scheduled to blast off on Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on its mission to "scan the entire sky in infrared light with a sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before". All being well, WISE will be carried aloft atop a Delta II rocket during …

    Space 8 Dec 13:23

  • Android 2.0: what to expect

    What's new in Google's latest smartphone OS update

    You don't want to find stale donuts in your local patisserie, you want the freshest treats available. Likewise, you want the latest, most up-to-date smartphone operating system which, in the case of Android, means choosing Éclair.   Google Android 2.0: coming soon to a handset near you Éclair – also known as Android 2.0 - …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 14:02

  • China executes securities trader over $9.52m fraud

    Could have just given him a smaller bonus

    Chinese authorities have executed a securities trader found guilty of embezzlement to the tune of $9.52m. However, the whereabouts of the siphoned-off cash is still unknown, Reuters reports - and presumably it will never now be recovered. Yang Yanming received the death sentence back in 2005 for embezzlement while he was …

    Financial News 8 Dec 14:07

  • Ruggedised botnets pushing out even more spam

    Future rogue ISP takedowns unlikely to bring relief

    Cybercrooks have adapted to the takedown of rogue ISPs by building more resilient botnets. An annual security survey by MessageLabs found that the already high level of spam reached 87.7 per cent of email traffic during 2009, with highs and lows of 90.4 percent in May and 73.3 percent in February respectively. Junk volumes …

    Spam 8 Dec 14:11

  • SecureWorks snaps up dns

    UK-based security consultancy acquired by US firm

    Security firm SecureWorks has acquired UK-based managed security services and consulting outfit dns. Terms of the deal, announced Tuesday, were undisclosed. dns has been providing managing security devices in the UK and throughout EMEA for the last ten years. The firm also runs an identity and access management service. In a …

    Channel Register 8 Dec 15:11

  • E-Commerce defence thwarts online libel case

    Struck-off solicitor clearly in the wrong game

    A newspaper publisher was not liable for user comments posted after an online article and will not have to pay out libel damages, the High Court has ruled. The Court upheld the publisher's right under the E-Commerce Regulations not to be responsible for user comments until informed of them. Newsquest also defeated a libel …

    Law 8 Dec 15:12

  • 'We must all stop washing to save the planet'

    Analysis Peel your socks off the wall for Gaia, chaps

    A "world-renowned expert on carbon emissions" has stated that Western consumers must avoid five "eco crimes" committed every day in order to save the world. Dr Dave Reay's main assertion, in fact, is that we should stop washing so much - but the national press has chosen rather to highlight his assertion that drinking instant …

    Environment 8 Dec 15:17

  • Bada smartphone to debut H1 2010

    Samsung outlines OS' features

    The first smartphone based on Samsung’s Bada OS will arrive during the first half of 2010, the company has confirmed. Could this be Samsung's first Bada smartphone? During a formal launch of the OS in London this morning, Samsung said the mystery device will be available in 50 countries at launch. Images of what's rumoured …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 15:22

  • M'Lordships to save FM radio?

    Don't touch that dial

    Two members of the House of Lords have tabled amendments to the Digital Britain bill, urging Ofcom to consider the effects of the proposed digital radio switchover on analogue listeners and community stations. Lords Howard and de Mauley would oblige Ofcom to consider "the needs of local and community radio stations" and "the …

    Music and Media 8 Dec 15:36

  • Microsoft and NetApp pledge true love, for 3 years

    The bells are ringing, but not for Azure

    Microsoft and NetApp have struck a 3-year strategic alliance centred on virtualised server environments and technology integration. The tie-up was not unexpected. Azure, Microsoft's cloud service, does not figure in this. Redmond and Sunnyvale are going to collaborate for three years to integrate their technologies for …

    Virtualization 8 Dec 15:57

  • Israel tests biometric database

    Fingerprint and facial scan pilot

    The Israeli Knesset has voted in favour of a bill for a compulsory biometric database of all citizens. The Biometrics Database Law passed the Knesset 40 votes in favour to 11 against. A big row over privacy forced the bill back to the drawing board. This led to the idea of a two-year trial rather than a full-blown …

    Government 8 Dec 16:27

  • PS3 to support data transfer

    Inside the console's latest firmware update

    Sony has outlined the main features of its latest PlayStation firmware update, which includes a data transfer application. A screenshot of the PS3's Data Transfer Utility, which features in firmware 3.15 Firmware 3.15 will let you transfer all of your saved data from one PS3 to another. We assume the update supports both …

    Reg Hardware 8 Dec 17:47

  • Google sues alleged work-at-home scammers

    Sham Google DVDs contained malware

    Google has sued to stop what it called "a widespread internet advertising scam" being pushed by a Utah company that allegedly used the search engine's trademark when offering work-at-home opportunities. Salt Lake City-based Pacific WebWorks doctored up a variety of websites with regularly changing addresses that promised as …

    Crime 8 Dec 18:29

  • Koobface worm dons tinsel to snag seasonally-affected marks

    SatAnic SantA shenAnigans

    Festive miscreants have begun using Xmas-themed lures to push the Koobface worm. The attack starts off with post from fake or pwned Facebook profiles that point to supposed video clips. Following these links takes users to a fake YouTube site that claims users need to install a Flash Player update to watch these "movie clips …

    Malware 8 Dec 18:40

  • Cisco vows return of big borging

    30 non-networking markets? That's peanuts

    Cisco boss John Chambers is confident the world economy has recovered enough for a renewed push into new markets. Opening an analyst day at Cisco's headquarters in San Jose, California this morning, Chambers said the company plans a return to its long-term goal of 12 per cent to 17 per cent annual growth that it has failed to …

    Data Networking 8 Dec 19:42

  • Google betas Chrome for Mac, Linux

    And 300-plus extensions

    Google (finally) released beta versions of its Chrome browser for Mac and Linux on Tuesday, along with over 300 extensions for Windows and Linux. Sorry, Mac users - extensions "aren't quite beta-quality on Mac yet", according to a Google blog posting announcing the new-release trifecta. Google offers an introductory video for …

    Applications 8 Dec 19:56

  • Intel Larrabee letdown leaves HPC to Nvidia's Fermi

    Comment Not so discrete graphics co-processors

    Intel has never been particularly precise about what its "Larrabee" graphics chips were, so it is difficult to be sure how disappointed we should all be. And considering the company's track record outside of the x86 and x64 chip racket - its failed networking business and Itanium are but two examples of its woes - it's hard to …

    HPC 8 Dec 20:13

  • Jaguar stumbles on stairway to Google cloud

    Vehicle icon in self-inflicted GFail

    In October, Google rolled out UK vehicle maker Jaguar Land Rover as a corporate poster child for the much-debated switch to Google Apps, its Microsoft-battling suite of web-based businessware. But according to employees, Jaguar's initial migration from Microsoft Exchange to the so-called Google cloud didn't quite go as planned …

    Applications 8 Dec 21:14

  • Media monsters float co-op ebook 'storefront'

    Circling the publishing wagons

    A quintet of publishing heavyweights have come together to develop a "digital storefront" for the delivery of media to portable devices. According to a joint statement released on Tuesday, content in that shared storefront would include magazine and newspaper "reading experiences", and eventually "books, comic books, blogs and …

    Music and Media 8 Dec 23:11

  • Cisco: We're not a smartphone maker

    Or a storage biz

    Cisco isn't interested in competing against Apple or Research in Motion by selling a smartphone of its own, the company's CEO John Chambers said on Tuesday. During an analyst day media lunch at Cisco's HQ in San Jose, the company's top boss said it's content just soaking in profits from the added network demand smartphones are …

    Hardware 8 Dec 23:42