The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

18th December 2009 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • BlackBerry outage blankets North America

    (Another) RIM glitch silences citizen email

    Consumer BlackBerry users across North America endured extended delays in email service earlier today due to some sort of technical glitch in the messaging network run by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. According to Bloomberg, the outage hit all consumer BlackBerry users in the US, regardless of carrier, and consumer …

    Mobile 18 Dec 00:18

  • Space 2010 - the future is fantastic!

    Solar sailing, Venus weather, dark matter, and more

    Highlights of space exploration missions in the year 2010. The year 2010 is shaping up to be a watershed in space exploration. The biggest change will doubtlessly come after America's planned retirement of its venerable space shuttle fleet next September in favor of the Constellation program (a program that's far behind …

    Space 18 Dec 07:02

  • Film review site hacked to spew malicious PDFs

    Aintitcool.com attack isn't

    Hackers on Thursday exploited a vulnerability on Ain't It Cool News that redirected anyone visiting the movie review site to a server containing a malicious Adobe Reader file. The attack targeted a vulnerable PHP script on one of AICN's servers that automatically appended the malicious link to banner ads served on the site, its …

    Malware 18 Dec 08:02

  • Sony Vaio X ultra lightweight notebook

    Review Spectacularly slim – fat wallets only

    Sony discovered it had a major problem when the first round of netbooks hit the market in late 2007. Having spent years educating well-heeled consumers that small notebooks were expensive, shoppers were hit by a deluge of small, light laptops that did everything they wanted for a fraction of Sony's traditionally high prices. …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 08:02

  • Ingres goes after disgruntled MySQL customers, partners

    'Google is the Tiger Woods of technology', says software veep

    Open source database maker Ingres is hoping to benefit from concerns about the future of MySQL, by luring customers over to its VectorWise product. In an interview with The Register, Ingres senior engineering veep Emma McGrattan admitted that the company had had a tougher year than it had hoped for, despite hitting most …

    Channel Register 18 Dec 09:01

  • Apple seeks patent on reality

    3D revolution in the head

    Apple has filed a US patent for an immersive 3D display technology that allows you to vary your perspective on objects simply by moving your head. It's a difficult concept to put into words when attempting to describe its use on a computer display, but immersive 3D is simply the way we view the world around us all the time. …

    PCs & Chips 18 Dec 09:02

  • Ten grand - the cost of iPhone-induced sobriety

    There's an app for that

    The NHS spent ten thousand pounds developing the mobile version of its sobriety-inducing application, Drinks Tracker for iTunes. The application is part of the government's seasonal campaign to get us to drink less - on which they have already spent £9 million of our cash - but it took a Freedom of Information request to break …

    Mobile 18 Dec 09:13

  • Emulex licences TOE technology

    Alacritech shakes its moneymaker

    Emulex is licensing Alacritech TCP/IP speed up technology for its OneConnect converged network adapter (CNA). Alacritech owns intellectual property which includes support for Microsoft’s Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Chimney architecture. This offloads TCP/IP processing to an Ethernet network interface card (TOE) and so …

    Storage 18 Dec 09:56

  • Department for Transport pours millions into eTicketing

    Electronic tickets are coming, like it or not

    The UK's Department for Transport is to pour £20m into eTicketing outside London, and £60m into eTicketing within the smoke. The numbers come from the Department's Smart and Integrated Ticketing Strategy, which lays out who is to get the money and what for. It asserts the Department's belief that if only people didn't have to …

    Government 18 Dec 10:17

  • File-sharing Bill could give Government control of the internet

    Law inadvertently gives keys to Mandy

    The Digital Economy Bill would give the Government the power to control the internet access of UK citizens by ministerial order, bypassing Parliament and without an adequate right of appeal, according to one legal expert. Barrister Francis Davey has examined clause 11 of the Bill and believes that it puts extraordinary powers …

    Law 18 Dec 10:28

  • Asus at work on Android-based 'Eee Bot'

    You know, for kids

    Asus' next Eee product will ban a 'droid running 'Droid, it has been claimed. Called the Eee Bot, it'll be an education-centric automaton designed to interact with kids. It will be controlled by software derived from Google's open source Android OS, PCWorld reports. Don't expect the device to appear any time soon, though. …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 10:54

  • Mobile internet to eat world, apparently

    Attack of the 50-foot MID

    Morgan Stanley has issued a set of reports asserting that the mobile internet will be much bigger than the desktop internet: "Regarding pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years." There are five converging trends: 3G, social networking, video, …

    Storage 18 Dec 10:56

  • Fujitsu staff begin walkouts over pay, job cuts

    Disgruntled workers picket IT services firm's HQ

    Fujitsu Services' staff are picketing at the company's London headquarters today, in protest against pension cuts and compulsory redundancies set for the New Year. Earlier this week, Unite union members at the firm voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, after many Fujitsu workers expressed disgust at the services …

    Servers 18 Dec 10:59

  • DNS attack hijacks Twitter

    #wtf

    A DNS hijacking attack left Twitter temporarily affected for about an hour early on Friday. The initial attack has left many users scratching their heads while spreading the belief that Twitter's servers themselves were commandeered by hackers in the name of the "Iranian Cyber Army". Not so. It now seems that Twitter's DNS …

    Enterprise Security 18 Dec 11:11

  • Thai firm flies in early-80s style keyboard PC

    Ready to connect to your telly

    Fed up waiting for Asus' Eee Keyboard to show? Asian mini PC specialist NorhTec may be able to sort you out with a keyboard-encased computer real soon. The Thai company this week said it will show off its Gecko Surfboard at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas early next year. The product will go on sale shortly …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 11:15

  • LaCie pumps more data down USB 3 link

    Dual drive uses USB 3 better

    LaCie is prepping dual drive RAIDed storage box delivering up to 275MB/sec across its USB 3.0 link. The product is the 2Big USB 3.0, with two hard drives, a maximum capacity of 4TB - ergo 2 X 2TB 3.5-inch hard SATA drives - and either RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations. It uses a dual USB 3.0 SATA and RAID bridge controller from …

    Storage 18 Dec 11:18

  • Better Place talks up DONG-powered e-car scheme

    Leccy Tech Shows sensible-looking Renault Fluence at Copenhagen

    Denmark is one of the first countries to fully embrace the e-car vision of Shai Agassi's Better Place, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see the leccy car infrastructure company show up at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this week. Pride of place on the Better Place stand went to a group of advanced …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 11:32

  • Swedish bankers punt webcam smut to kiddies

    'Very unfortunate' magazine link to hard-core strumpetry

    A Swedish bank has apologised for punting porn to wide-eyed schoolkids in a magazine sent out to over half a million 9 to 12-year-olds. Swedbank's Lyckoslanten ("Lucky Penny") is described as a “fun magazine about money", but an article in the latest issue listing the top ten most expensive domain names offered extra fun when …

    Bootnotes 18 Dec 12:03

  • Oracle expects EC to approve Sun takeover bid

    Sunny side up as Q2 results outshine forcecast

    Database giant Oracle expects European Commission antitrust watchdogs to give the thumbs up to the company's multi-billion takeover bid for Sun Microsystems after Christmas. "We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," said Oracle president Safra Catz yesterday, as the firm …

    Applications 18 Dec 12:07

  • UK Border Agency delights with festive e-card

    Merry Xmas, swan-roasting Albanian illegals

    The UK's Border Agency has brightened the pre-Xmas season with a delightful e-card which nicely sums up the values of goodwill to all men: Lovely. We're obliged to the readers who forwarded us this piece of festive cheer, and bah humbug to the blogger who described it as an "obnoxious piece of nonsense". For shame. ®

    Bootnotes 18 Dec 12:07

  • Parrot to cast iPhone as games console controller

    Accelerometers + Wi-Fi = Wii 'Mote killer?

    Parrot, best known for its headsets and other wireless audio products, will turn the iPhone into a Wii Remote-style gaming controller at the upcoming Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The system appears to centre on an application that takes feedback from the iPhone's accelerometers and sends it to a gaming rig …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 12:12

  • Google going local for next buy

    Gets by with a little Yelp

    Google has renewed takeover talks with local business review site Yelp. The two have talked before without nailing down a deal. Yelp offers user-generated reviews of companies by local area - so you can see reviews of restaurants in Islington for instance. But sources have told The New York Times that the discussions got …

    Applications 18 Dec 12:21

  • Blighty to get own 'cyber range'

    Keep out of Fareham - gov malware testing in progress

    The UK, following in America's footsteps, is to get a "cyber range" - a simulated network world where weapons-grade government malware and countermeasures can be tried out, much as bombs or missiles are on normal firing ranges. The cyber range is to be constructed under the auspices of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), the …

    Government 18 Dec 12:23

  • Asus 'Atom 2' netbooks appear

    Pine Trail product prepared

    We've seen details of Acer's upcoming netbooks based on the next-gen Atom platform, 'Pine Trail', slip out, and now it's Asus' turn. Italian-language site EeePC.it has posted basic information about a pair of Pine Trail Eee PCs: the 1005P and the 1005PE, both available in a choice of black or white cases. The difference …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 12:31

  • Samsung Bada: UI shots spied on web

    iPhone, Android inspiration revealed

    Images showing the user interface Samsung has grafted onto its upcoming Bada smartphone OS have appeared on the web. We can't, alas, confirm the images' provenance - we usually follow sites' references back to the source, but in this case they end up looping between GSM Arena and Samsung Flash Wiki. If genuine, the shots …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 12:48

  • Billie Piper hooks up with Belle de Jour

    Actress and call girl to 'bare all'

    Secret Diary of a Call Girl thesp Billie Piper and Dr Brooke Magnanti - aka blogging prostitute Belle de Jour - will feature in a forthcoming ITV2 programme which promises "a fresh insight into Brooke's life and Billie's portrayal of her". ITV's factual commissioning editor, Diana Howie, enthused: "We're delighted that Billie …

    Entertainment 18 Dec 12:55

  • Reg Hardware Christmas 2009 Prezzy Trail

    Kit of the Year The stuff we liked best

    Stuck for inspiration when it comes to last-minute Chrimbo shopping? Fancy Product X but want to see if there's a cheaper alternative? Then look no further as we round up our group tests. Kit of the Year: Android Smartphones Read the full selection here Blu-ray Disc Players Editor's Choice Samsung BD-P4600 Recommended …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 13:57

  • Nokia sets date for netbook UK debut

    Starts taking Booklet 3G orders from Blighty

    Want to be assured of getting your mitts on Nokia's Windows 7 netbook, the Booklet 3G? The Finnish phone giant is now taking advance orders for the pricey product, which, it says, will ship in January. Designed to be sold by network operators and retailers, all of whom will subsidise the hardware on the back of monthly 3G data …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 14:30

  • UK e-Borders scheme thrown into confusion by EU rules

    Non to mandatory screening, Brussels tells UK.gov

    Conflicts with EU free movement rules have thrown the UK's £1.2 billion electronic borders program into disarray. The e-borders scheme is designed to collect the personal data of every passenger travelling into and out of Britain. This means, for example, that someone flying from the UK to Spain needs to submit their name, …

    Government 18 Dec 14:36

  • Neat two-motor soft-top first victim of GM Saab sale?

    Leccy Tech 9-3 Convertible gets battery treatment

    GM's decision to wind down Saab puts the subsidiary's e-car development plans in doubt. Which is a bugger, because Saab's effort looked rather good. Rather than than cook up some dull-as-dishwater leccy city car, those crazy Swedes opted for a twin-motor 250kW (335bhp), 115mph two-door convertible that could hit 60mph in …

    Reg Hardware 18 Dec 15:02

  • Red Hat pulls plug on Itanium with RHEL 6

    Exclusive More biz for Novell?

    If you run Itanium-based servers in your data center, 2010 has a surprise for you. The dominant supplier of commercial Linux, Red Hat, is not going to be supporting its future Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on any Itanium platforms, old or new. An intrepid reader of El Reg sent us an email saying that some of the Bugzilla reports …

    Servers 18 Dec 15:37

  • TfL deploys privacy-busting voyeurcam

    Lively morning on Richmond's roads

    Forget Google's Street View - Transport for London is the new black when it comes to privacy-busting surveillance black ops, if this live traffic camera image captured yesterday is anything to go by: We're not quite sure what's going on here and how it affects the flow of traffic to and from Twickenham Bridge, but we reckon …

    Bootnotes 18 Dec 15:42

  • Google fined for book copyright

    Mountain View finds French court unimpressed

    A French court has found Google guilty of infringing copyright by digitising books without the approval of the publisher. The search giant must pay €300,000 in damages to Herve de La Martiniere. Google will also have to pay a daily fine of €10,000 until it clears the books from its database, the BBC reports. The three year …

    Law 18 Dec 15:43

  • Bluetooth SIG takes it down a notch

    Low power for high health

    The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has approved a low-power variant of the wireless standard, taking on Zigbee and Z-Wave and targeting heath care applications. Bluetooth Low Energy, as the new standard is unimaginatively named, is what became of WiBree - Nokia's short-lived attempt to create its own low-power standard, …

    Mobile 18 Dec 15:47

  • Fujitsu workers picket London HQ

    'Paid a pittance' staff come out in force against services firm

    Disgruntled Fujitsu Services' employees protested at the firm's London headquarters today to mark the start of strike action by Unite union members - many of whom are disgusted at the management's stance on pay, pension and jobs. The walkout signals the beginning of what could be a series of stoppages stretching into the New …

    Servers 18 Dec 15:53

  • Special Ops robots now do psychological warfare

    Attention rebel meatsacks: Resistance is futile!

    US arms globocorp Boeing has announced yet another military robot demonstration - but this time, one with a difference. Rather than spying on meatsacks or mowing them down with the traditional array of automated weaponry, the war-bots in this trial sought to win over their fleshy opponents using psychological warfare. The demo …

    Physics 18 Dec 16:05

  • Return of MP3 spam punts penis pill sites

    When Harry Met Spammy

    MP3 spam has made an unwelcome return, two years after the tactic was first used to spamvertise products and services. The audio track file type briefly appeared in junk mail messages in October 2007 to tout pump and dump stock scams, before quickly dying out. Now junk MP3s have begun reappearing in messages touting Canadian …

    Spam 18 Dec 16:08

  • Mozilla shoots out fifth Firefox 3.6 beta

    Release date set for Christmas Day? You never know...

    Mozilla has released a fifth - and surely final - beta of Firefox 3.6, a complete version of which it plans to spin out before the end of 2009. The Firefox 3.6 beta 5 update comes with a few tweaks to how Mozilla allows third party software to slot into the browser. The change should help prevent crashes, said the open source …

    Applications 18 Dec 16:39

  • Adaptec - the eternal wannabe

    Comment Serial acquisition FAIL

    Adaptec always wanted to grow beyond its core adapter business - to be greater than the sum of its parts - but it only managed to serially underachieve, never fully breaking out of the adapter market in which it felt confined. The company was founded by Larry Boucher in 1981 to speed I/O between computers and external devices …

    Storage 18 Dec 17:19

  • Crypto snafu grounds 3D Avatar screenings in Germany

    Kaput

    Several 3D screenings of Avatar were called off in Germany earlier this week following a DRM-related mix-up. Copies of the new SF blockbuster from James Cameron are digitally sealed so that one key per copy of the film, per film projector, and for each movie server in a cinema is needed. The key supplier, Deluxe, reportedly …

    Music and Media 18 Dec 18:27

  • Heartland to pay Amex $3.6m for massive payment breach

    Thanks, 'Segvec'

    Heartland Payment Systems will pay American Express $3.6m to settle claims related to the criminal breach of its payment processing network last year. It's the first settlement Heartland has reached relating to the hacking of its network, which the processor disclosed in January. There's no indication disputes with other card …

    Security 18 Dec 20:28

  • Design firm sues Microsoft over Bing trademark

    Redmond's 'evil motive'

    A small graphic design firm that uses "Bing!" for its branding is suing Microsoft for using the same word for the name of its search engine. Missouri-based Bing! Information Design filed a case in St. Louis circuit court on Tuesday, arguing the software giant's aggressive advertising of Bing search has "gutted" its efforts to …

    Music and Media 18 Dec 21:54

  • Obama banks on NASA's big launcher

    Ares I set for scrap heap, says report

    US President Barack Obama will ask Congress to jettison NASA's plans to develop its next-generation Ares I crew launch vehicle and increase funds for the "simpler" Ares V heavy lift rocket to replace the space shuttle fleet. The revised direction for US human space flight was decided Wednesday at a White House meeting with …

    Space 18 Dec 22:11

  • The year in tech lunacy - an El Reg guide

    Eight moments to remember

    Yes, readers, it's that time of year again. Time to remember our favorite moments of the year in tech. No, we don't mean the debut of Windows 7. Or the arrival of the iPhone 3GS. We mean that moment when Vladimir Putin bitchslapped Michael Dell. Or when Eric Schmidt officially turned Google into public enemy number one. Here's …

    Odds and Sods 18 Dec 22:29