1st February 2010 Archive

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~~Sun~~ Oracle revs LDom VMs for Sparc Ts

Pre-deal whisper release

Former server and systems software maker Sun Microsystems, now part of the Oracle collective, quietly announced a new release of the Logical Domain virtual machine hypervisor for the Sparc T line of processors several days ahead of the closing of the $7.4bn deal. As El Reg already explained in its in-depth coverage of the …

Virtualization 1 Feb 06:02
Smartphone sales skyrocket

Good news for big names

Smartphones shipments leapt 30 per cent year on year during Q4 2009 to 53m units, well ahead of the 12 per cent growth seen by handsets as a whole. According to market watcher Strategy Analytics, the top three vendors all shipped considerably more smartphones during the quarter - and the year as a whole - while their other …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 06:02
Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

'We didn't do search. They did phones'

Steve Jobs has dubbed Google's "don't be evil" mantra "bullshit." Or at least "a load of crap." According to multiple reports, Jobs unloaded on Google last week during an Apple "town hall" meeting at the company's One Infinite Loop headquarters. As originally reported by Wired, the Apple cult leader attacked his former …

Odds and Sods 1 Feb 06:19
Microsoft and IBM cloud collab claims deflated

They're shrinking faster!

You have to leave it to IBM and Microsoft. The two won't let a small thing like a shrinking market douse the fire of a heated rivalry over business collaboration wares. The business collaboration market is hot right now. Red hot! Well, hypothetically red hot. But that's reason enough for these software giants to make some very …

Applications 1 Feb 07:02
Microsoft accuses Google of 'software plus services'

Mountain View's self-contradiction

Microsoft has accused Google of behaving like Microsoft. Back in 2007, Redmond bet its web future on what it likes to call "software plus services" - the notion that web applications are best used in tandem with clientware installed on your local PC. And for the past two and a half years, this has remained the Redmond mantra …

Applications 1 Feb 07:35
IBM chases SMBs with custom data closets

Grow up, get secure. And fire resistant

While a number of companies are peddling and about as few companies are buying containerized data centers, even a 20 foot shipping container is overkill for a compact data center at most small and medium businesses. And a 40 footer would end up just being a place where the IT staff hung out to play video games. What most SMBs …

Servers 1 Feb 08:02
DoH tells NHS to dump IE6

Get with the times, grandad

The Department of Health has told trusts using Windows 2000 or XP to move to version 7 of Microsoft's browser. In a technology bulletin published by the department's informatics directorate on 29 January 2010, it advised NHS trusts using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 on either Windows 2000 or Windows XP to move to version 7 of …

Applications 1 Feb 08:02
Google boss worries about the future of reading

Kids today

Google boss Eric Schmidt is worried that kids will lose the skill of reading for comprehension and deep understanding as they increasingly use devices rather than actual books. Schmidt, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: "The one that I do worry about is the question of 'deep reading'. As the world looks to …

IT Director 1 Feb 09:14
Glasshouse tries for IPO - again

Looking for $75m

Trading conditions must be improving, as storage services company Glasshouse Technologies has refiled IPO papers and is looking to raise $75m. It previously filed IPO papers in December 2007, looking for $100m, but walked away when the arrival of recession clouds in the spring of 2008 screwed up the IPO climate. A year ago …

Channel Register 1 Feb 10:04
Another murderer pops up on Facebook

Status: Not going out tonight

A second convicted murderer has been caught using Facebook to keep the world up to date with his life inside. Colin Gunn, 42, is serving 35 years for conspiracy to murder Joan and John Stirland. But despite this, he has had a Facebook profile for the last two months. The page was regularly updated leading to suspicion that he …

Law 1 Feb 10:08
Intel and Micron get flash process lead

Shrinks to 25nm

Intel and Micron have jumped to a 25nm NAND flash process, shrinking cell size and raising wafer yields. They'll use their lead to raise profit margins instead of lowering prices. The two companies manufacture flash chips through a joint-venture, Intel Micron Flash Technologies, 49 per cent owned by Intel and 51 per cent by …

Storage 1 Feb 10:19
Geeks Guide₂... iPhone Development

Geeks Guide₂ Save 40% on iPhone dev titles

Development for App Store applications has never been more enticing. Since our last visit to iPhone development, more than 120,000 additional applications have been added to the App Store and over 2 billion have been downloaded. Furthermore, the public’s love for everything Apple will undoubtedly continue with the App Store …

Software 1 Feb 10:46
1 in 3 users reviewed Facebook privacy roll-back

Social network heralds 'success'

One in three Facebook users changed their privacy settings in Facebook after the social networking site applied a controversial privacy roll-back and encouraged users to review how much they shared online back in December. Facebook Director of Public Policy Tim Sparapani said that 35 per cent of Facebook users actually …

ID 1 Feb 10:50
Obama to boost US nuclear power industry

Possible shift to re-use spent fuel rather than dumping

President Obama has moved to boost the US nuclear power industry, proposing massive government loan guarantees for construction of new stations and setting up a panel to sort out nuclear waste policy. The New York Times reports that the White House will include $54bn of loan guarantees in the 2011 budget request to Congress, …

Physics 1 Feb 10:53
The Loch Ness Stig gets pixellated

Sinister Street View censorship shenanigans

Those readers who live close to Loch Ness are invited to keep an eye out for circling black Google helicopters, since the Great Satan of Mountain View has inexplicably decided that this recent loch-side sighting of Top Gear's The Stig... ...would benefit from the application of Street View's "Swiss pixellation" filter: …

Bootnotes 1 Feb 10:55
Acer says no to iPad-alike tablet

Focusing on netbooks, notebooks

An Acer executive has contradicted one of his colleagues and claimed the company will not follow Apple into the multimedia web tablet arena. Acer Taiwan chief Scott Lin said the company has no plans to launch a gadget along the lines of Apple's iPad. But last week, Jim Wong, head of Acer’s IT products division, said the …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 10:55
Stranded Hartlepool pair refuse coastguard rescue

Decline to ditch driftwood booty despite rising tide

Two people who were yesterday cut off by the rising tide at the mouth of the River Tees at Hartlepool refused a lifeboat rescue unless the emergency services also agreed to save their shopping trolley full of driftwood. The Maritime And Coastguard Agency (MCA) explains that at 4:14 pm, Humber Coastguard received a report of a …

Bootnotes 1 Feb 11:10
Vote, vote, vote for Barbie the computer engineer

Life in Plastic. It's fantastic

Our friends at insideHPC pushed this story recently, but there hasn’t been an accompanying groundswell of buzz, so I’m bringing it to The Register’s audience in an attempt to get the ball rolling. Mattel, purveyor of the iconic Barbie doll, is running a contest to decide Barbie’s next career. She has quite a wide range of …

HPC Blog 1 Feb 11:34
Flash chip makers promise bigger, cheaper SSDs

Intel and Micron go 25nm

Chip giant Intel and its Flash-making friend Micron have begun producing solid-state storage chippery at the 25nm 'node', a move that will boost storage capacities and cut costs to consumers. During 2009, Intel released its first solid-state drives (SSDs) based on 34nm Flash chips produced by the subsidiary it jointly owns …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 11:43
UK.gov unmoved by Internet Explorer 6 security concerns

Google, NHS cast off exploited browser

Google and the NHS may soon be ditching support for Internet Explorer 6, but that hasn’t stopped UK government officials from declaring the browser doesn’t give them cause for concern, unlike their French and German counterparts. On Friday Google - which was recently the victim of a high-profile attack from hackers understood …

Applications 1 Feb 11:46
Austrian army cans Benny Hill recruitment ad

Women chase throbbing, well-endowed tank

The Austrian army has canned a recruitment ad in which a group of young ladies is persuaded that a "joy ride" in a well-endowed tank is a far more exciting prospect than a spin in some bestubbled geezer's sports motor: Yup, all that's missing to really piss off feminist groups is Benny Hill and Yakety Sax, but that …

Bootnotes 1 Feb 11:48
Oracle and Sun: First takes

Like IBM in 1960

The roadblocks to Oracle’s purchase of Sun Microsystems have fallen away, and the deal is – for all intents and purposes – done. So what did we learn during last week's five-hour marathon webcast? A lot. Oracle laid out its entire strategy, at least in a broad sense. True to its word, it intends to stay in the hardware market …

HPC Blog 1 Feb 12:00
Nokia X6 Comes With Music

Review Sound investment?

Nokia's X6 smartphone is more than just another touch screen smartphone in an overcrowded market. In its 32GB form, this well-spec'd music phone will only be available with Nokia's Comes With Music package. It'll be hard to avoid, and is likely to benefit from aggressive subsidies. Nokia's X6: one of the few models currently …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 12:02
Nas box maker pitches non-network, still attached storage

Plug 8TB straight into your PC

Nas specialist Promise has introduced an 8TB storage box designed to connected not to a network but directly to a Mac, Windows PC or Linux box. Promise's SmartStor DS4600: Looks like a Nas box, but isn't The SmartStor DS4600 contains four 2TB hard drives which can be configured in Raid 1 or 5. The former keeps a copy of the …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 12:09
Fujitsu on brink of Quantum fusion breakthrough

Restore speed issues fail to impact DXi deduper OEM deal

Fujitsu is understood to be OEM'ing Quantum's DXi deduplication technology across its recently enhanced product line. Conversely, EMC and Dell may have dropped DXi deduplication because of slow restore speed. Quantum reported third fiscal 2010 quarter revenues of $182m, down 11 per cent from the year-ago quarter but up 4 per …

Storage 1 Feb 12:15
Amazon deletes a 6th of its catalogue in book price barney

Accuses Macmillan of 'a monopoly over own titles'

Amazon.com removed all Macmillan books and ebooks from its US site over the weekend when it didn't get its own way over price negotiations. The titles have now been restored but were unavailable for most of the weekend after Macmillan pushed for an increase in e-book titles from $9.99 to $14.99, and Amazon objected to the move …

Mobile 1 Feb 12:19
UK moob jobs rocket 80 per cent

Male plastic surgery on the up-and-up

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (or BAAPS, phnar, phnar) has reported a massive rise in gynaecomastia ops last year, as lardy chaps moved to reduce their swelling moobs. The total number of men going under BAAPS members' knives for a breast reduction in 2009 was 581, meaning the procedure is now the third …

Biology 1 Feb 12:21
Free mobe map app 'shut down by' Nokia

You want our maps, you buy our phones

Popular freebie cross-platform mobe navigation app Nav4All has been "shut down by" Nokia's mapping subsidiary, according to the company. The move is bound to be seen as linked to Nokia's decision to offer free mapping to owners of its smartphones last week. "It is with the deepest regret that we hereby notify you that the …

Mobile 1 Feb 12:25
Airport scanners go live today, kids included

The peeping Tom you can't refuse

Body scanners went into operation at Heathrow and Manchester airports this morning. People chosen by security staff will not be allowed onto flights without going through the machine from now on. Lord Adonis said he expected more machines to go live later this month, with further examples to be introduced at Birmingham airport …

Government 1 Feb 12:54
Brits to get 3G iPad early - and at a reduced price?

UK website hints at network subsidies

Will Brits be able to get their mitts on the iPad sooner than they thought? Apple UK's website seems to suggest they will. The gadget may also be cheaper than expected too. The site, updated late last week to incorporated pricing - stated, bizarrely, in US dollars - says: "Wi-Fi models shipping in late March. 3G models …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 12:58
Nokia updates N97 firmware

Patch makes for 'improved call reliability'

Nokia has taken steps to improve the N97’s call stability and touchscreen by releasing a firmware update for the handset. Nokia's N97 update improves call stability and touchscreen operation The firm’s online forum contains several user rants about the N97’s alleged inability to keep hold of calls. Others complain that the …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 13:03
Extreme Pr0n - One Year On

Analysis Little protection from extreme images - but pets are safe

One year on from the passage of the extreme porn laws, and it would appear that the worst fears of those who campaigned against them have, in the main, not been realised. At the same time, the case for driving a coach and horses through some basic principles of English Law feels equally unmade. A year ago this week, ss63-68 of …

Policing 1 Feb 13:08
Sky 3D soccer fails to score

~~Hands~~ Eyes On But first televised 3D footie match has its moments

As Manchester United scored its first goal against Arsenal yesterday at the Emirates Stadium, a lucky few secretly soaked up another football triumph: the world’s first football match broadcast in 3D. The game was the first live sporting event broadcast over Sky’s soon-to-launch 3D TV channel, and I was invited down to one of …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 13:17
Tories moot breaking up BT Openreach monopoly

Local loop droop

A Conservative government would allow rivals to connect their own fibre to BT exchanges as part of a plan to spread the rollout of faster broadband to rural areas. The shadow chancellor George Osborne said the Tories would end BT Openreach's local loop monopoly in an interview on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. It would mean …

Telecoms 1 Feb 13:56
Google Chrome dev-only build hopes to be famous 5

Unstable Windows, Mac version washes ashore

Google released Chrome version 5 developer builds for Windows and Mac on Friday. "The devchannel has been updated to 5.0.307.1 for Windows and Mac," said the firm. On the Windows side of the fence, the default downloads directory on Vista and Windows 7 can now be used. Google has added a content settings window to the latest …

Developer 1 Feb 14:03
Virgin hails 'free' landline-to-mobe calls

Keeping it in the family

Virgin Media is to offer customers free calls from their Virgin landlines to their Virgin mobile phones. As always, strings are attached. Strictly free calls are reserved for the upcoming weekend-only 'Size M' plan. Add weekday evenings into the mix for 'Size L' and you pay £3.45 a month. For the 24/7 'Size XL' tariff you pay …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 14:45
Voice crypto fails spark astroturf claims

SecurStar denies running dirty tricks marketing campaign

Doubts have arisen about the integrity of supposedly anonymous tests on the security of voice encryption products. As previously reported, an "anonymous hacker" called Notrax claims to have defeated 11 out of 15 phone scrambling technologies using the commercially available FlexiSpy wiretapping utility and a 'homemade' Trojan …

Enterprise Security 1 Feb 15:07
Microsoft details new distie accreditation

Targets new tech and virtualisation

Microsoft has appointed Bell Micro and Computer 2000 as the first two disties to qualify as Value Add Distributors(VAD). The two were appointed 1 January. The scheme offers "additional rewards" for disties focussed on new and less mature technologies. The VAD scheme focusses on security, unified communications and …

Channel Register 1 Feb 15:17
Dunstone talks up TalkTalk TV

Tiscali legacy gives aspiring quad-player a blank Canvas

Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, hasn't given up on the dream of being a quad-player, after revealing plans to launch TV and mobile TalkTalk services. The details came during a call following up on announced plans to split Carphone Warehouse into two companies - TalkTalk and New Carphone Warehouse, as reported by …

Telecoms 1 Feb 15:25
Man sets mice on musophobic ex-missus

Swedish woman scared witless by 'cruel revenge'

A Swedish man was arrested yesterday on "suspicion of unlawful threats and animal welfare offences", after shoving 19 mice through the letterbox of his musophobic ex-missus's Stockholm flat. The unnamed 59-year-old decided to "wreak cruel revenge" on his 37-year-old former other half, who woke up yesterday to find the flat …

Bootnotes 1 Feb 15:36
Missile missed in criticism-busting interceptor test failure

Giant seagoing golfball fingered as culprit

The US Missile Defence Agency (MDA) has announced a failed test of its controversial Groundbased Midcourse Defence interceptor. The agency blamed the test failure on problems with the Sea Based X-Band radar, well known for its resemblance to an enormous golfball mounted on an oil rig. Reassuringly expensive. In a brief …

Science 1 Feb 15:50
Survey: Only 1% of Torrents non-infringing

Study reveals uphill struggle for rights holders

99 per cent of files accessed through a Torrent network are unlicensed copyright material, according to a survey by an American undergraduate. Only 10 of the 1021 files in the survey could be distributed over the Mainline network without infringing copyright. The ten works licensed for distribution included two Linux distros, …

Music and Media 1 Feb 15:59
Sony heralds 'Greenest Company of 2009' award

But do you trust a blog more than Greenpeace?

Sony today claimed its eco credentials have been given a boost after an environmental blog named the electronics giant “the greenest company of 2009”. Sony has “proven over the last year that being environmentally friendly and profitable can go hand in hand”, said Chris Ingham-Brooke, Editor of website Environmental Graffiti …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 16:39
UK mum lost 50kg with 'Wii Fit diet'

Game saved my life, cries former 114kg woman

A British woman who used to tip the scales at 114kg (18 stone) has proclaimed that Wii Fit saved her life, after she lost a whopping 50kg playing the Nintendo videogame. In just one year, Laura Roberts of Farnborough, Hampshire went from size 22 to size 10 by exercising with Wii Fit for one hour each day, the News of The World …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 16:47
Nexus One poised for iPhone's American 3G

Googlephone and Jesus Phone collide

Google is on the verge of releasing a version of its Nexus One handset that will run on AT&T's 3G network. Unveiled in early January, the Googlephone is a GSM-based device, and it's sold unlocked from Mountain View's very own online store. But the inaugural version does not work with the 3G network run by AT&T, the largest GSM …

Wireless 1 Feb 17:50
What do you call the iPad in Arabic?

Google finds another way to insult Apple

What do you call the iPad in Arabic? Sorry, can't help you there, but then neither can Google Translate, which transliterates whatever the iPad is called in Arabic into the English "Aye Bad". As mistranslations (of this BBC report) go, this is particularly serendipitous, confirming, at a nadir between the two companies, that …

Reg Hardware 1 Feb 17:50
Britain warns businesses of Chinese 'honey trap'

Sex, spies, and memory sticks

Britain's MI5 security service has accused the Chinese government of engaging in an unusually wide-ranging campaign to breach UK business computer networks, in some cases exploiting sexual relationships to pressure individuals to cooperate. The so-called "honey trap" methods were aimed at business executives at trade shows and …

Security 1 Feb 18:20
December chip sales reach 2007 levels

Looking for growth in 2010

The Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group representing the interests of US-based chip and fab equipment makers, said today that worldwide chip sales in 2009 ended on a slight - and expected - down note. However, it said conditions in December were considerably better than a year ago when the bottom was falling out of …

PCs & Chips 1 Feb 18:57
Apple's mega Mac on hold (again)

27-inch iMac production halted?

Apple has stopped production of its multi-troubled 27-inch iMac. Or so say unnamed sources speaking to MacBidouille/HardMac. According to those sources, production of both the Core i5 and Core i7 models has been shut down entirely. The Core 2 Duo versions of Apple's top-of-the-line all-in-one were not mentioned. Seeing as how …

PCs & Chips 1 Feb 19:31
Google yanks IE6 love from web apps

Do as we say, not as we did

Google is pulling IE6 support from Google Apps, its online suite of office applications. On Friday, with a post to the official Google enterprise blog, the search giant cum world power announced that it will yank IE6 support from both Google Apps and its Google Sites wiki service on March 1. "The web has evolved in the last …

Security 1 Feb 20:05
Power7 power lunch and launch next Monday

IBM blocks out the Sun

It looks like IBM's initial Power7-based servers are going to be launched in New York on February 8. Big Blue sent out the invitations today. IBM is being vague about exactly what it wants to talk about at the event, which is being held Mandarin Oriental Hotel Ballroom on Columbus Circle, except to say that customers and …

Servers 1 Feb 20:23
Security bugs reinfect financial giant’s website

Ameriprise and the case of the relapsed XSS

Five months after Ameriprise Financial fixed a bug that could have helped criminals steal user authentication credentials, the financial giant's website is vulnerable again. The flaw looks almost identical to one The Register reported in August. It allows attackers to inject malicious code that steals user cookies into …

Security 1 Feb 21:17
Obama scraps Constellation moon mission

Lunar visit pushed to unspecified future

President Barack Obama is calling on NASA to cancel its plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and instead focus on developing "building blocks" for future deep space exploration as well as partnerships with private industry. The canned lunar program, called Constellation, "was over budget, behind schedule, and lacking …

Space 1 Feb 21:21
US state probes breach that exposed data for 80,000

'Dear valued employee:'

A computer database containing the personal details of more than 80,000 employees was penetrated by unknown hackers, according to multiple news agencies, citing Iowa's Racing and Gaming Commission. The attack occurred on January 26 "when the state firewall functionality was circumvented due to network routing changes and a …

Security 1 Feb 22:31
Facebook plans PHP changes

Hardware saver?

On Tuesday, Facebook is expected to unveil changes to PHP, the language that helped make the social networking site a success - along with millions of other web sites. SD Times has outed the planned change here. Facebook wouldn't provide details when contacted by The Reg but said it would make more details available Tuesday …

Developer 1 Feb 23:24
The Borings get another whack at Street View

Damages estimated at $1

Mr. and Mrs. Boring will get a third chance to fight Google over the snapping photos of their secluded home from a Street View spymobile. Last week, a federal appeals court partially revived the now-famous Pennsylvania couple's privacy lawsuit against Google. But the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling said that Aaron and …

Music and Media 1 Feb 23:32
HP bids to boost sales with 0% financing (again)

Enticing CIOs to spend money they don't have

More than IBM or Oracle, IT supplier Hewlett-Packard is dependent on volume sales to make its top and bottom lines. And with the economy improving but still not in great shape, HP has reanimated some zero per cent financing deals from early last year in the hopes of helping it get a solid start to 2010 in North America. …

IT Director 1 Feb 23:38