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15th December 2009 Archive

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  • Microsoft China accused of pilfering webcode

    Microblogging skulduggery alleged

    A popular Asian microblogging site has accused Microsoft of ripping off its code and interface design to build a new MSN social-networking site in China. Microsoft tells The Reg it's investigating the matter. According to reports, the software giant is suspending access to the MSN site, but it appears it is still online. " …

    Music and Media 15 Dec 2009, 04:38

  • Vodafone: No HD2 for you!

    Just for business use now, alright?

    Vodafone will continue selling the HD2, just not to ordinary people like you and I - apparently it's a business phone now. Having told us on Friday that it wouldn't be ordering any more HD2s from HTC, the operator has now clarified its meaning by explaining that the HD2 will continue to be available to business customers, but …

    Telecoms 15 Dec 2009, 07:02

  • Novell rejigs self, waves bye to CTO

    Four units squeezed into two

    NetWare and Linux operating system seller Novell has been trying to expand into other markets since the late 1980s, and it has reorganized so many times it is hard to keep track. Today, the company did it again, saying that effective January 1, it would be consolidating from four different business units down to two. With …

    Applications 15 Dec 2009, 07:02

  • LG 42SL9000 42in LED-backlit TV

    Review Ultra thin and frameless too, apparently

    LG’s 42SL9000 is billed as a ‘frameless’ set, and indeed the pictures on the website seem to give the impression of the picture spilling out of the frame, in an immersive manner that’s somewhat reminiscent of Philips' Ambilight. LG's 42SL9000: when is a frame not a frame? So it’s a bit of a disappointment on taking it out …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 08:02

  • Sun ditches 'try and buy' program

    60-day trial fails to shine

    Sun Microsystems is ending its "try and buy" programme that allowed customers to sample a range of hardware kit for 60-day trials with tech support thrown in for free. The company - which is currently facing a multi-billion dollar takeover from rival database giant, Oracle - didn't explain why it was dropping the radical offer …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 2009, 09:02

  • Geeks Guide2 Christmas 2009 - Part III

    Even More Savings at Reg Books

    Welcome to the third part of our Christmas trilogy! With digital photography and gaming out the way, we spend this week looking at LEGO, a centre piece under the Christmas tree for over 50 years. All featured books are 40% off and are dispatched same working day – free delivery on orders over £25. LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0: The …

    Site News 15 Dec 2009, 09:52

  • Chinese domain crackdown targets smut sites

    Individual website ownership swept away by clean up

    Chinese regulators have started to request business licences and paperwork before allowing future .cn domain registrations. The move by registrars at the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has been welcomed by security researchers, such as Mikko Hypponen at F-Secure (here), because it is likely to make life more …

    Crime 15 Dec 2009, 09:53

  • 2009's Top High-End Touchscreen Phones

    Kit of the Year Nokia vs Apple - fight, fight, fight

    Our choices will be controversial, but for every Register Hardware reader irritated by Apple's command-and-control approach, dozens of phone users don't care so long as their handset delivers a high-quality smartphone experience. And the iPhone 3GS does deliver exactly that. It's not a phone for everyone - but then neither is …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 10:02

  • Ladies put off tech careers by sci-fi posters, Coke cans

    Coffee, books, pics of 'nature' or 'art' recommended

    There's more research out this week on the vexed question of why there aren't more women in the field of computing and IT. According to the latest study, such seemingly harmless habits as putting up sci-fi posters or leaving cans of Coke about can be much more offputting than one might think. "When people think of computer …

    CIO 15 Dec 2009, 10:14

  • Intel schedules six-core Extreme Edition CPU debut

    'Gulftown' roadmapped

    Intel's 32nm six-core 'Gulftown' desktop processor, once considered the first of a Core i9 series, will ship as a Core i7 Extreme Edition part, leaked presentation slides show. Gulftown's formal moniker will be the Core i7-980X and it will debut during Q1 2010, probably mid-late February. From then, it will be Intel's sole …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 10:28

  • EU finally ratifies copyright treaty

    It only took 13 years

    The European Union has ratified an international agreement on copyright law which was first negotiated in 1996 and which has formed the basis of EU copyright law since 2001. The European Union and its member states have finally ratified two agreements created by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the …

    Law 15 Dec 2009, 10:32

  • Nokia N900 to hit Vodafone next month

    Linux gadget gets operator output

    Vodafone looks set to become UK first operator to release Nokia’s N900 smartphone-cum-tablet. Nokia announced late last month that only those who pre-ordered the Maemo-based device through its website would receive the phone in December. The firm claimed that the sheer volume of advance orders forced it to put back the handset …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 10:43

  • OGC claims £196.7m ICT savings

    It's a start...

    The Office of Government Commerce has reported record savings from the collaborative procurement of ICT. A spokesperson told GC News that government departments saved £196.7m in ICT procurement, accounting for a significant proportion of £1.4bn in "value for money" savings across the public sector. The OGC's annual statement …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 2009, 10:47

  • What to do about virtual server security?

    Lab Process, not technology, holds the key

    Security’s important, right? Well, so it may be – but when it comes to virtualisation, it’s not hard to get the impression that it isn’t being treated as seriously as it should be. I don’t know about you, but when I read about the take-up of virtualisation, the feeling of foreboding is not unlike seeing a five-year-old play with …

    Virtualisation Lab 15 Dec 2009, 10:54

  • WIN! LG 42in Seamless Full HD TV worth £1400

    Christmas Competition LG's very stylish LED-backlit 42SL9000 up for grabs

    The LG 42SL9000 has it all: LED backlight, 100Hz TruMotion picture frame rate, Divx HD playback support, no fewer than four HDMI ports, built-in Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a full HD 1080p resolution. And there's more. The 42SL9000 is one of LG's "Seamless" tellies, designed to give the viewer the feeling of a …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 11:02

  • Top cop's 'stop stopping snappers' memo: Too little too late?

    Middle England's onto you now you know

    As yet another senior copper reads the riot act to his fellow officers over the policing of photographers, concerns are growing amongst senior ranks that this is all too little too late – and that serious damage has now been done to relations with the public over this issue. John Yates, Assistant Commissioner Specialist …

    Law 15 Dec 2009, 11:11

  • Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes

    'Sick and distasteful' novelties provoke tabloid angst

    The UK press has mobilised to express its dismay at a ice cube-making kit which produces miniature Titanics and accompanying icebergs. Fred and Friends, the US maker of the The Gin & Titonic, describes the product as an "unsinkable addition to your next party" and invites revellers to "Go ahead...sink another round!" The …

    Bootnotes 15 Dec 2009, 11:13

  • LG predicts bountiful 3D TV sales

    3.4m 3D sets for 2011 alone

    LG has followed in Sony’s footsteps by publishing aggressive 3D TV sales figures for the coming years, predicting that the Korean company will sell 3.4m 3D sets globally in 2011. LG demoed a 23in 3D LCD earlier this month Shifting over 3m 3D sets in 2011 alone is a tall order, especially since LG said it only expects to …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 11:32

  • Unpatched PDF flaw harnessed to launch targeted attacks

    Adobe software pwned by crackers, again

    Adobe is investigating reports of unpatched flaws in its Reader and Acrobat software packages. Zero-day bugs in Adobe Reader and Acrobat have reportedly been exploited by hackers to attack vulnerable systems, in a series of limited (presumably) targeted attacks since 11 December. Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 or below are …

    Applications 15 Dec 2009, 11:51

  • Free software lawyers hit Best Buy et al with GPL 'violation' claim

    In Boxing ring with BusyBox

    US retail giant Best Buy and 13 other consumer electronics firms have been named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed yesterday in New York by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). The pro-free and open source software law firm said it had brought the complaint on behalf of the Software Freedom Conservancy, which is the …

    Mobile 15 Dec 2009, 11:57

  • Google to flog unlocked phones in January

    And will tie-up with T-Mobile

    T-Mobile has been fingered as the preferred US operator for the Google phone when it launches in January, while the search giant will also punt an unlocked version to run on any network. The phone could be available through the operator as early as January 5, Reuters reports. Google clearly thinks it is now powerful enough to …

    Mobile 15 Dec 2009, 12:11

  • Home Office battles to make CCTV useful

    No impact on crime, not as pretty as hanging baskets

    The Home Office will today impose new police standards to encourage better use of surveillance footage, after its own research revealed that most of the millions of CCTV cameras watching the UK have no impact on crime. Ministers will also appoint a "CCTV regulator", according to The Daily Telegraph. The job will fall to Andy …

    Policing 15 Dec 2009, 12:12

  • Soot warming 'maybe bigger than greenhouse gases' - NASA

    Forget Copenhagen CO2 cuts, tune your diesel properly

    Researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, also the home of famous carbopocalypse doom-prophet James Hansen, have repeated earlier assertions that atmospheric soot may be as important as greenhouse gases in driving global warming. This could be good news for humanity, as atmospheric soot levels would be much easier …

    Energy 15 Dec 2009, 12:16

  • Microsoft volume licensing website takes festive holiday

    Customers asked to activate using phone, people

    Microsoft's volume licensing websites have been offline for over a week while the software giant has been tweaking its service. Redmond's eOpen licence and volume licensing service sites have been "down for maintenance" since 7 December. Microsoft apologised to customers affected by the scheduled outage and said it hoped to …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 2009, 12:43

  • Quarter of France Telecom staff 'psychologically vulnerable'

    Study shows morale collapse

    A quarter of staff at troubled telco France Telecom are on the verge of a nervous breakdown or worse according to a workforce study unveiled this week. France Telecom began an investigation into its staff morale after a recent spate of worker suicides at the constantly resizing telco. Unions at the firm said yesterday that …

    Telecoms 15 Dec 2009, 12:44

  • Does Quality of Service matter?

    On Demand And where do you start if it does?

    Well, yes it does matter, that’s pretty obvious. The challenge is being able to demonstrate that you are delivering a quality service, that you are tackling the problems with service delivery and that you can show the business that there is movement from A to B. On the 3rd of December we ran a live event on precisely this …

    Tech Panel 15 Dec 2009, 13:29

  • Modders turn nook reader into Android tablet

    Ripping yarns

    Hardware modders have prised open Barnes and Noble’s nook ebook reader, turning the device into an Android-based tablet PC complete with a free mobile connection. Nook hardware hackers turn the device into a Android tablet The multi-stage hack is documented on nookDevs. Part one involves a process called teardown, and this …

    Mobile 15 Dec 2009, 13:33

  • The Great Aussie Firewall is dead: Long live the firewall

    Details of Australian ISP blocking now public

    The Australian government announced new laws today – or yesterday in local time – that will force all Australia-based ISP’s to block dodgy material entering the country from overseas, or face swingeing penalties if they fail to do so. The announcement came in an official statement from the Department of Communications which …

    Government 15 Dec 2009, 13:38

  • Boeing 787 Dreamliner set for first flight

    Today's the day - finally

    Boeing's 787 Dreamliner will later today take to the skies for the first time, almost two-and-a-half years after it was originally supposed to get airborne. The carbon composite and titanium aircraft is slated to leave the Seattle tarmac at 18:00 GMT at the end of a troubled development programme which has seen mutiple …

    Science 15 Dec 2009, 13:46

  • Police moot pop-up social network warnings

    Exclusive Approved by ACPO™

    Police chiefs have privately proposed that social networking sites hosted overseas should carry pop-up government health warnings, as part of measures to increase surveillance of the internet. In a submission to the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said senior judges or Ministers could decide which …

    Policing 15 Dec 2009, 14:15

  • Xperia X2 delayed until 2010

    Sony Ericsson admits phone's faults

    The Xperia X2 smartphone won’t now launch this year, Sony Ericsson has admitted. The X2 was supposed to go live during Q4 2009, or so SE told Register Hardware back in September when the high-end handset was first demoed in public. However, a post onto the official Xperia blog has since confirmed that “the X2 is going to be …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 14:36

  • PS3 hardware still losing Sony money, claims analyst

    Does my BoM look big in this?

    Sony still makes a loss on every PlayStation 3 it sells, but the console’s latest, slimline redesign has brought the electronics giant closer to that crucial breakeven point, an analysis by market watcher iSuppli has concluded. The first-generation PS3 was sold at $49.72 (£30.56/€34.17) less than its manufacturing and …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 14:43

  • Loud sex woman coughs to ASBO breach

    Guilty of 'unnatural' vocalisation

    The Tyne and Wear woman whose raucous lovemaking was described as "murder" and "unnatural" by neighbours has admitted breaching an ASBO ordering her to turn down the volume. Caroline Cartwright, 48, was hauled before magistrates back in April for five breaches of a noise abatement order which required her to cut the decibels …

    Bootnotes 15 Dec 2009, 14:57

  • Major helicopter reorganisation for RAF and Navy

    New Chinooks, Merlins handed over to 'Junglies'

    The Labour government has announced significant changes at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), whose effect will be to put more resources into the Afghan war while nonetheless cutting spending overall - largely by reductions to parts of the RAF not engaged in the fighting. However, there is also a major reshuffle of helicopters among …

    Science 15 Dec 2009, 15:09

  • Plug-in Prius production plan posted

    Leccy Tech Test models next year, launch in late 2011

    Toyota has finally announced that a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid will go on general sale during late 2011. Toyota's plug-in Prius offers greater range and speed than the original The announcement was made during the plug-in Prius’ recent official launch in Japan, where Toyota plans to ship 230 test models of the …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 15:12

  • SF's rogue admin finally gets day in court

    Just a flip-out over protocols, says defense

    Terry Childs finally went to court yesterday, as prosecutors accused him of being a rogue employee who locked the San Francisco city government out of its own computer network. Childs' lawyers disputed this picture, saying he was a man who'd zealously guarded the network's security, and only flipped out because city officials …

    CIO 15 Dec 2009, 15:18

  • IBM's XIV roadmap includes multiple frames and InfiniBand

    2TB drive support also on the cards

    IBM is planning multiple frames followed by InfiniBand links for its XIV cloud storage products, while asserting that petabytes of multiple XIV box storage are very much easier to manage than petabytes in a single storage array. The XIV storage product is a cluster or grid of up to 15 storage and interface nodes linked by …

    Storage 15 Dec 2009, 16:50

  • Googlephone specs uncovered?

    Nexus One launch date outed too

    Following Google’s recent confirmation that it will sell a branded Android smartphone, the upcoming device’s possible specifications and launch date have emerged. Google's Nexus One handset? Source: Engadget A source on website These Are The Droids (TATD) has claimed that by rifling through “library files and various other …

    reghardware 15 Dec 2009, 16:51

  • Honeynet research lifts the lid on spam trends

    Busy bees reveal a hive of junk mail activity

    Stats from the one billion spam messages blocked by Project Honey Pot over the last five years provide an insight into junk mail trends and spamming practices. The Honey Pot project was formed by a community of web administrators as an alliance against online fraud and abuse back in 2004. The group now numbers 40,000 members …

    Spam 15 Dec 2009, 17:01

  • Sun claims IP victory over defunct US 'counterfeiter'

    And cracks down on grey marketing

    Sun Micro claimed a brace of IP victories today, with a counterfeiter in the US and a UK-based grey marketeer feeling the wrath of the soon-to-be-borged firm. The Java vendor said that it had secured a federal court judgment against a man it claimed was producing counterfeit versions of its products. The order compels Joe …

    Channel Register 15 Dec 2009, 17:13

  • Neon sues IBM over 'anticompetitive' mainframe tactics

    zPrime finally feeds some lawyers

    This summer, when Neon Enterprise Software launched its zPrime software for moving legacy workloads on IBM's mainframe engines to lower-cost specialty engines, it was only a matter of time before the lawsuits began. As it turns out, Neon, which is seeing its zPrime business thwarted by what it claims are unfair business …

    HPC 15 Dec 2009, 17:48

  • The Ballmer decade and what's next for Microsoft

    Radio Reg Confidence, lost

    It's a different Microsoft leaving the first decade of the 2000s compared to the one that entered it. The year 2000 was a safe and secure world of the client and the server - and closed source code. Ten years later, Microsoft is grappling with open-source and - as ever - a successful internet strategy. Also, it has just …

    Microbite 15 Dec 2009, 18:11

  • Sony PlayStation network moves into reality TV

    Wants original, HBO-like content

    Sony Computer Entertainment, the folks in charge of the PlayStation game console, are getting into the reality show business. As it attempts to transition from a gaming company to a full-blown media company, SCE hopes to expand its PlayStation Network online platform into an "actual" TV network not unlike the American premium …

    Music and Media 15 Dec 2009, 20:24

  • Google demos image rec 'quantum computer'

    In excited state over D-Wave entanglement

    Google says it has developed a kind of quantum computer capable of identifying objects that appear in digital photos and videos. According to the company, the system outperforms the classical algorithms running across its current network of worldwide data centers. Hartmut Neven, Google technical lead manager for image …

    HPC 15 Dec 2009, 20:38

  • Microsoft cops to webcode theft

    Blames 'Chinese vendor'

    Microsoft has admitted that its new Chinese microblogging service used webcode pilfered from a similar service popular elsewhere in Asia. On Monday, as reported by The Reg, Asian microblogging site Plurk accused Microsoft China of pilfering its code for a new social-networking feature known as Juku on the Chinese MSN site. …

    Software 15 Dec 2009, 20:55

  • Verari Systems confirms layoffs

    Founder and CTO departs

    Verari Systems - the boutique blade server maker that has been increasingly focusing on peddling its Forest containerized data centers - has confirmed the rumors that it laid off a large portion of its employees and is in the midst of restructuring itself. In the wake of yesterday's story that discussed the rumors swirling …

    HPC 15 Dec 2009, 21:54

  • Data collector threatens scribe who reported breach

    Shoot the messenger, Texas-style

    A Texas company is threatening to press criminal and civil charges against a Minnesota Public Radio reporter after she uncovered a security lapse that exposed sensitive data for at least 500 people. Bellaire, Texas-based Lookout Services admits that misconfigurations on its website left databases containing names, dates of …

    ID 15 Dec 2009, 23:33